lation is over. But the whole judgement has not yet been fully declared, nor its fruits made known. The Christ has yet to vindicate His sovereignty against the blasphemous pretensions of Rome. He is not yet wedded to His Queen. So the heavenly hymn rises yet again; but this time it is to herald the Bridal of the Lamb (6-8), and a prophetic voice declares the blessedness of His invited guests (9, 10). The feast itself is not yet. There is stern work to do first. Heaven opens, and the Lamb appears as a warrior, mounted, armed, and crowned, surrounded by His soldiers, and bearing the names of Word of God,' and 'King of kings and Lord of lords' (11-16). The monster gathers his forces for the battle and is overcome the Church is stronger than the empire--and it is cast, together with the false prophet, into the lake of fire (17-21). Two out of the three arch-foes are now overcome. Only the Dragon remains, the purely spiritual foe, who had used the powers of Rome to gratify his ancient hatred against God. And he, too, meets his match. As the apostate Israel had set him free (ix. 1, 11), so the faithful Church would master, chain, and cast him back into the abyss for 1000 years (xx. 1-3). During his confinement the saints are seen in their true position as reigning over the earth with a sovereignty over which death has no power (4-6). But he must be yet more decisively overthrown. So he would be let loose once more to gather his forces against the city of God in order that his new host might be destroyed and he himself cast with his old allies into the lake of fire (7-10). Meanwhile the great white throne is already set up, and the Lamb sits on it in judgement on the old world, judging the dead so that all, even those who had not known Him after the flesh (cf. Matt. xxv. 34), might, if they were worthy, share the reign of His saints (cf. v. 6), and casting the unworthy, with the two great terrors of the heathen world-death, and the shadow world beyond it,-into the lake of fire (11-15). And now the light breaks in upon a new world, a new heaven, the Father's home, and a new earth from which the power that isolated His children from one another has disappeared, and on which the new Jerusalem can rest,-the outward symbol of God's abiding presence among men, and a pledge from Him of the removal of the primeval curse on death and toil (xxi. 1-4). This vision is confirmed by the words of Him that sitteth on the throne, 'the Beginning and the End,' who offers the V. new life to all who thirst for it, and the new inheritance to all who have the courage to enter in and take possession (5-7). For the fearful and the foul there is nothing but the fire (8). When this voice ceases, one of the same angels that had revealed the foulness of the apostate Jerusalem is appointed to reveal the beauty of the faithful Bride (9; cf. xvii. 1), and St John sees the new Jerusalem glowing with the light of God's presence in the midst of her, protected by a mighty wall and by angel guardians, yet open towards every quarter, and combining apostles and patriarchs in one compact structure (10-14). The form of the city is a perfect cube, like the form of the Holy of Holies (15-17). Every variety of precious stone found a place in the foundations; the gates were pearl and the pavement gold (18-21). God Himself and the Lamb supplied the place of shrine and light and lamp (22, 23). Her influence spread far beyond herself; heathen nations felt the blessing of her light; and earthly monarchs brought her their choicest offerings. None but the unclean found her portals shut (24-27). Through her streets flowed the Water of life; and the Tree of life, now at last open to all, grew on either bank, bearing all the year its various fruit, and even with its leaves healing the nations. And there, through all the ages, shall be the throne of God and the Lamb, and His consecrated servants shall serve Him, illuminated by His presence and sharing in His throne (xxii. 15). Now at last the revelation of Jesus Christ is complete. He has shewn Himself to us as the living Lord and Judge of His Churches, as the Deliverer and Avenger of His Saints, Lord of all the kings of the earth, and Judge of quick and dead; and now we see Him eternally one with the Father on His throne in the New Jerusalem. The book ends with a solemn declaration of the divine source of the revelation, though it come through human channels (6-9), and with a command to make it known (10, 11), in view of the nearness of the advent described and the blessedness of the reward (12-15). Then Jesus Himself adds His authorization, and the Spirit and the Bride pray for the coming (16, 17). Then John adds a solemn declaration of the necessity of faithful dealing with the words of the communication (18, 19). Jesus once more asserts the truth of the proclamation, and John prays for its fulfilment (20). The book closes with the Grace (21). BIBLE HISTORY. 1. OLD TESTAMENT (AND APOCRYPHA). a. EXTERNAL HISTORY OF ISRAEL TO THE CLOSE OF THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. BY THE REV. A. CARR, M.A., LATE (1) GENESIS-ABRAM TO JOSEPH. The beginning of the Hebrew nation must be sought in Ur of the Chaldees, where Terah, the father of Abram, dwelt with his family. Recent discoveries have disclosed many facts about the condition of Ur, its population-its rulers-its trade-its arts and literature. The site of Ur is identified with the modern Mugheir, now 150 miles from the Persian Gulf, but in the days of Abram a busy seaport town, and the capital of one of the petty kingdoms into which Chaldea was divided. The original population (called in the monuments the people of Shumir and Accad, that is of Southern and Northern Babylonia) was Turanian, and so connected with the modern Chinese, Mongols, Turks and Finns. But at a very early period an invasion of Semites brought in a higher civilisation, and a religious system founded on a worship of the heavenly bodies which, though poly FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. theistic on one side, dimly recognised a supreme God. The Semites became the ruling class in Chaldea, and to these the family of Terah belonged. In Gen. xv. 7 the migration of Terah and Abram from Ur to Charran (Haran) is ascribed to a divine call, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur. But it is permissible to associate a call like this with the presence of external events. And in this instance the conquest of Southern Chaldea by Khudur-Nankhundi, king of Elam, the father of Khudurlagamar (Chedorlaomer, Gen. xiv.), who desecrated the ancient temples, and disturbed the religion of the country, is an event which probably synchronized with the call, and would supply a motive for the migration from Ur. It is also to be noted that this movement occurred at a time of general restlessness in these regions of the ancient world. Terah, with Abram and Sarai and his grandson Lot, "went forth from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan, and they came unto Haran and dwelt there." The reason of this interruption in the journey is not given. But at Haran-the Charræ of the Roman and Parthian period-Terah was still in Chaldean territory, which he may have been loth to leave. It was at Haran that, after the death of Terah, Jehovah (more properly Yahveh)-henceforth the Covenant name of the God of Israel-called Abram to resume the interrupted journey to Canaan, which now became the land of promise: "I will make of thee a great nation and will bless thee." Abram was accompanied by Sarai and his nephew Lot, together with "the souls he had gotten in Haran." The passage (from 'Eber to cross') of the Euphrates according to some authorities gave the name to the Hebrew nation. Abram's first restingplace in the land of Canaan was at the oak of Moreh near Shechem, where he built an altar. Here Abram received a second promise from Jehovah, "unto thy seed will I give this land. ." Proceeding south Abram built a second altar between Bethel and Ai. Thence pressed by famine he sought refuge in Egypt. This visit of Abram to Egypt strikes the attention as an instance of contact between the two earliest civilisations of the world. By some authorities this visit is placed in the 12th dynasty, by others with greater probability at the time of the Hyksôs or Shepherd kings, who may have been like Abram Semites. (See however p. 110.) In this former case the favour shewn to Abram was not due to any tie of race or kinship but chiefly for his wife's sake whom, by a craftiness which would commend itself to Orientals, he represented to be his sister. The discovery of the fraud entailed the expulsion of Abram from the land. Returning to Bethel Abram and Lot separated in order to secure wider pastures for their increasing flocks; Abram remaining in the Negeb or South Country, Lot descending to the fertile plain or Valley of the Jordan. Such a separation as that is a frequent occurrence for the same reason among the Bedouin tribes at the present day. The quiet settlement of Abram and Lot in the choice pastures of the land seems to imply a sparse population. Modern research tends to shew that the Canaanite who was then in the land' is to be identified with the non-Semitic Hittite race; of which more is said below. See also the Appendix on The Nations surrounding Israel, p. 110. Indeed the names of Canaanite, Hittite and Amorite seem to be used interchangeably of the same people (comp. Gen. xiv. 13, xxiii. 2, 3, xxiv. 3). The separation from Lot is followed by a third blessing from Jehovah. The land in all its extent is promised to Abram and his seed for ever. Abram now settled by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he again raised an altar to Jehovah. Meanwhile Lot is carried off as a prisoner of war by the victorious armies of Chedorlaomer (Khudur-lagamar) and his allies-confederate Chaldean princes-who had invaded the Jordan Valley to crush a revolt of the cities which for thirteen years had been subject to his rule. Abram was powerful enough with the aid of three Amorite chieftains to smite the armies of Khudur-lagamar, probably by a night attack, and to rescue Lot. Then ensued the meeting with the mysterious priest-king Melchizedec, who blessed Abram and received tithes from him (see Heb. vii.). This description of Melchizedec receives illustration from Chaldea, where royalty seems to have been developed out of the priesthood, and the rulers to have borne like Melchizedec the twofold attributes of priests and kings. Once more the promise is confirmed in a remarkable way. The faith of Abram, who is still without an heir, seems ready to wane; but Jehovah bidding him see in the stars of heaven an emblem of his countless seed, Abram's faith revived, "he believed and it was counted to him for righteousness" (Rom. iv. 3). Then, after a prescribed sacrifice, in which all sacrificial animals were included, the future of the race of Abram is revealed in a vision, and the promise of dominion again renewed. Before the heir of the promise is born the covenant of circum cision-the seal of the elect nation-is enjoined. The promise becomes more explicit, and as a further sign of divine favour the names of Abram and Sarai are changed to Abraham and Sarah. And at length in express terms three angelic visitors predict the birth of Isaac. Abraham's next movement is further south to the court of the Philistine king, Abimelech, whom he deceived, as he had before deceived Pharaoh, in regard to the relationship of Sarah. Isaac the son of the promise is born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. Hagar and her son Ishmael are driven forth. Abraham making a covenant with Abimelech digs the well hence called Beer-Sheba (well of the oath). Three points of interest stand out in the circumstances attending the burial of Sarah in the cave of Machpelah. (1) The contact with the Hittites, whose empire extended, as recent discoveries have shewn, from the Euphrates to the extreme northwest of Asia Minor; whose kings contended on equal terms with the kings of Egypt or Assyria; whose love of literature may be traced in the name of the Hittite Kirjath-Sepher (city of books'); and whose art is evident by the curious sculptures found at Carchemish one of their capitals, and elsewhere. (2) The bargain with Ephron recalls the contract tablets of Ur (Mugheir), which record dealings of a similar character. (3) The purchase of a special place of sepulture finds a parallel in the sepulchral vaults of brick where the wealthier citizens of Ur placed their dead. One city Erech or Warka in Lower Chaldea is literally a city of the dead, being filled with such places of sepulture, where the bodies are placed in jar-shaped earthenware coffins. Isaac now takes to wife Rebekah daughter of Bethuel, whom Abraham's steward Eleazar had brought for him from his kinsfolk still dwelling in Padan-Aram. Abraham dies, and the quiet life of Isaac succeeds. His home is in the south country, beside the well Beer-lahai-roi. Jacob like his father Isaac seeks a wife from the ancestral Haran. During the journey he sees a vision at Bethel, House of God' (comp. the Chaldean Babel or Babilu, Gate of God'), and there receives a renewal of the blessing and promise made to Abraham and Isaac. At Haran Jacob married two wives, daughters of his uncle Laban; one, Leah, through her father's fraud, the other, Rachel, by his own choice. Eleven sons were born to Jacob in Haran. But like Abraham Jacob left Haran by a direct call of Jehovah: "Return to the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred." The home return became of necessity a flight from his father-in-law. Jacob was overtaken by Laban at Mount Gilead. But the dispute was happily ended by a covenant ratified by a heap of witness, Galeed, and by sacrifices. Another obstacle seemed to bar the return of Jacob. His brother Esau, now a formidable chieftain, met him on the way at Mahanaim. At night Jacob wrestled and prevailed with One whom he recognised as divine. From him he received a blessing and a new and significant name Israel ('he that striveth with God'). The scene of the divine conflict was called Peniel. The meeting with Esau proved friendly, and Jacob went on in peace to Shechem (Gen. xxxiii. 18, R. V.). There he purchased a parcel of ground and built an altar, calling for the first time on the God of Israel-His new and sacred name-El-Elohe-Israel. A treacherous act on the part of Simeon and Levi produced a feud with Shechem. And, in obedience to divine command, Jacob went southward to Bethel, and there built an altar to the God who had appeared at Peniel. At Bethel the promise of the elect race was solemnly renewed. At Ephrath or Bethlehem Rachel died in giving birth to Benjamin. The narrative turns aside (Gen. xxxvi.) from the history of the chosen seed to enumerate the descendants of Esau. (2) JOSEPH TO JOSHUA, The interest of the closing chapters of Genesis is centred in the history of Joseph. It is a career which determined and symbolized the future of Israel. tained of One supreme, powerful and living Being, shews an affinity to the truth, which may have grown out of Hebrew influence. In some external observances this worship seems to have affected the Hebrew ritual. Certainly the downfall of the diskworshippers and the persecution of the Hebrews coincided in date, and were probably due to the same cause. The last king of the 18th dynasty overthrew the religious system of his immediate prede At the close of the book of Genesis Joseph appears as the chief of his race, who has dominion over his brethren. The house of Joseph' is the leading family (Gen. 1. 7, 8). The next book opens without any trace of this supremacy either in Joseph or in his descendants. A period of three hundred and fifty years had passed, during which the numbers of Israel had increased with marvellous rapidity: "the land was filled with them." But the Israelites no longer enjoyed the honourable condition of free settlers-cessors. they had become a nation of slaves threatened with the danger of absorption into the mixed population of Egypt. Signs of this had appeared under the Hyksôs. In the mourning for Jacob the Canaanites had seen only the mourning of the Egyptians (Gen. 1. 11). But events occurred to check the process of fusion. "There arose a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph." The interpretation of this expression must be sought in the monuments. By one of the frequent dynastic changes in the land of Egypt the Hyksos, grown degenerate through disuse of war, had given place to a new and powerful line of kings. The process of change however had been gradual. For a hundred years or more powerful princes of Upper Egypt had struggled against the supremacy of the Hyksos. The final stroke was dealt by Ahmes, founder of the 18th dynasty, about 1700 B.C., who drove out the Hyksôs with great slaughter, pursuing them as far as to the borders of Palestine. The Israelites, hateful from their close relations to the shepherd race, were forced into the service of their conquerors. It was not however till the 19th dynasty that the oppression became unbearably harsh. Meantime, although the history of Israel was for the most part summed up in the daily monotonous tasks of slave labour on public works, such slavery was not inconsistent with wealth in flocks and herds, and possibly in stores of other kinds, or with the acquisition of skill in the various arts known to the Egyptians, such as metallurgy, gem-engraving, dyeing and weaving. There was some sort of organization too in the growing nation. We read of elders and officers of the people' (Ex. iii. 16), and when the Hebrews left Egypt, they left it in martial array. The same period was an epoch of great and extended conquests for the Egyptian armies. Thothmes I., grandson of Ahmes, the first to break through the isolation of Egypt, made campaigns in Western Asia and beyond the Euphrates to the north, and in Nubia to the south. His daughter Hatasu controlled the government during the reign of her brother Thothmes II. and during the first 17 years of Thothmes III. The years of her supremacy were astir with commercial enterprise and with the erection of magnificent buildings. And yet her name, ordered by her successor to be erased from the monuments, has survived only by the accident of a workman's negligence. Thothmes III. carried out the aggressive policy of his father and pushed his conquests into Asia. He fought the Syrians (Rutennu of the monuments) at Megiddo on the plain of Esdraelon, destined to be the scene of many a decisive conflict in the history of Israel. In Mesopotamia he reduced the Hittites and the Assyrians to submission. Vast numbers of captives and spoils from the conquered peoples were carried into Egypt. Tribute too poured in to this great conqueror from Arabia and the Upper Nile. Thothmes III. is also distinguished by the number and grandeur of the temples which he enlarged or erected. His name is preserved on monuments now transferred to Rome and Constantinople, to New York and London. The 18th dynasty lasted another century. Temples, colossi and obelisks at Thebes, Luxor, Karnak and elsewhere belonging to this period are among the most famous and enduring works of Egyptian art. One of two colossal statues of Amenhetep III. was celebrated by Greek and Roman writers, by a curious corruption, as the Vocal Memnon and associated with the legend of Memnon, son of Tithonus. Under Amenhetep IV. or Khu-en-aten a monotheistic cult known as disk-worship was introduced into Egypt. Though in fact only one of the many forms of sun-worship, the principle which it con B. C. The 19th dynasty, a momentous epoch for Israel, began with a mighty struggle between Egypt and the Hittites. Seti I. and Ramses II.-the Pharaohs of the oppression-conducted campaigns in those parts of Syria and Palestine which had been devastated by Thothmes III. And though victories were gained and acts of royal daring were recorded on the monuments, no permanent conquest was achieved. The Hittite power remained unbroken. An alliance was concluded on equal terms with Ramses who married a daughter of the Hittite king. As a measure of defence on the north-eastern frontier Ramses II. constructed a wall from Pelusium to Pithom-in itself a sign of weakness and insecurity. The great age of foreign conquest had passed for Egypt; but no monarchs have had grander conceptions of architectural splendour than Seti I. and Ramses II. The pillared hall at Karnak, and the palace-tombs, remarkable both for their beauty and for the thoughts of death and the unseen world which they embody, are the grandest of Seti's monuments. Ramses II. has left magnificent statues of himself. But the works of greatest interest for Hebrew history are the store cities Pithom and PaRamses, in the construction of which the Israelite slaves were employed. Pithom has been discovered and identified. The name signifies the abode of Tum,' the setting-sun-god. The store-chambers without doors or inlets at the side are constructed with three kinds of brick, some made with straw, some with reeds or 'stubble,' some with Nile mud alone: a striking testimony to the accuracy of the Bible narrative. No direct reference to the enslaved Hebrews is found on the splendid monuments of the 18th and 19th dynasties: but the Semitic slave population generally is represented on the monuments as engaged in brickmaking, and Ramses II. boasted that his great buildings were erected by captives and not by native Egyptians. The rule of great builders like Seti and Ramses sufficiently accounts for the acuter phase of slavery into which the Israelites passed. But there was another cause their numbers had become a source of danger. This danger was twofold, loss of slave labour, and insurrection; the land of Goshen being the exposed frontier of Egypt, the side on which invasion might be expected. Accordingly as a means of crushing the spirit of the Israelites, and of diminishing their numbers, tasks of extreme severity were pressed upon them. Such forced labour is carried out at the cost of many lives. But still Israel multiplied. And even the harsher measure of slaying the male children at the moment of their birth was ineffectual to check the growth of the elect nation. The edict intended for the destruction of the race became indirectly the means of its salvation. The child who is taken from the papyrus flags of the river Nile to become the son of Pharaoh's daughter, by that means gains the ascendency, culture and experience which enable him to deliver and guide his people. The life of Moses falls into three periods of forty years; (1) at Pharaoh's court; (2) in Arabia; (3) in the desert of the wanderings. It was during the reign of Ramses II.-Sesostris of the Greeks-that Moses stirred with indignation at the suffering of his brethren "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter"; one of the noblest acts of self-sacrifice known to history. This resolution necessitated the flight into the land of Midian. There, whether on the east or west coast of the Gulf of Akabah is uncertain, Moses dwelt with Reuel, priest of Midian, whose daughter Zipporah he mar ried. Reuel is sometimes identified with Jethro, but D the identification, which depends on the rendering of the word translated father-in-law, is extremely doubtful. At the end of the uneventful sojourn in the land of Midian an incident occurred which gave rise to a fresh crisis-Moses had led the flocks of Jethro to the 'backside' or western part of the desert, where from the acacia bush which burnt but was not consumed came the revelation of the deliverance from Egypt and the promise of the land flowing with milk and honey. tified for certain; the first however was probably near the modern Ismailia, and Baalzephon (the Lord of the North') may have been on the high land to the east across the sea. The passage was probably at a point, now dry land, where on the occurrence of high tides the Red Sea joined the waters of the Bitter Lakes. Certain conditions of wind and tide would produce the effects described in the Bible narrative. The 'Red Sea' is a misnomer-the Hebrew name Yam Suph, sea of weeds or sedge,' is characteristic, the Gulf of Suez being remarkable for the abundance and variety of its marine growth. Here then the Hebrews with the mixed multitude to the number of 600,000 men, bearing with them the bones of Joseph and guided by the pillar of fire and by the cloud, safely accomplished the passage of two or three miles. The Egyptian host however, their chariots driving heavily in the thick mud thus temporarily exposed, perished miserably when tide and wind released the waters kept at bay for a while. This was the divine legation for Moses. It was ratified by a new name, that is, a new revelation of God, 'I am what I am,' denoting absolute eternal being-both in form and meaning nearly the equivalent of Jehovah (Yahveh), a title the full significance of which, unknown to the patriarchs, is now revealed. When Moses approaches Pharaoh we find his brother Aaron associated with him. He had doubtless shared with Moses a training in the wisdom of the Egyptians. The return of Moses to Egypt probably took place soon after the death of Ramses II. In that case the Pharaoh who refused to let the We note here that Pharaoh himself is not named children of Israel go was Menephthah II. The cha- as amongst those who perished. It is almost certain racter of this prince as described on the monuments that he was not engaged in the actual pursuit. As corresponds with the picture drawn of him in the previously in the Libyan invasion Menephthah left Bible. He had been put to the test already. A to his generals the task of meeting the enemy at close formidable invasion had taken place from the north-quarters. Warned by Phthah' he remained behind. west of native Libyan tribes aided probably by This supposition falls in with the Egyptian records troops from Greece and Sicily. Menephthah, warned which imply the continuance of Menephthah's reign. in a dream by Phthah,' refuses to go to the front The monuments pass over the calamity of the himself, but when victory is achieved he claims the Exodus in characteristic silence. But the revolt and glory of it. The same irresolution and lack of per- civil war which fill up the annals of Menephthah's sonal courage appear in the story of the Exodus. reign and the cessation from foreign expeditions indicate a condition of weakness such as must have followed the departure of Israel. The first demand of Moses for the release of his people only increased the severity of the oppression. They were commanded to make bricks without straw. This harsh act would in itself draw Israel more closely together, while the obstinate resistance of Pharaoh and the compliance twice given and withdrawn would in different ways train the people into readiness for their final departure. We may believe that during the few months-probably from June to April-during which the plagues continued the sense of national union, of a common cause and of trust in Jehovah, tended to unite and nerve the race for their supreme effort. The plagues seem at least in part to have been directed against the religious cult of Egypt. The account is full of local colour and even of native words. The last plague alone directly touched Menephthah. The death of his firstborn son who shared his throne is recorded on the monuments. This blow at length broke the resistance, and Israel was delivered: "his hands were freed from the basket" (Ps. lxxxi. 6). The memory of this great deliverance never died out from national thought or national literature. It was the beginning of the national life, the type and pledge of all coming deliverances. Before leaving Egypt the Hebrew women 'borrowed,' i.e. asked or claimed, of their Egyptian neighbours vessels and other articles. The incident marks more kindly relations between Israel and the Egyptian people than are generally supposed. The precise course of the Exodus is still disputed. Ramses, named as the point of departure (Ex. xii. 37), was the royal city-the residence of Menephthah. Succoth or booths, where the muster took place, is identified with Pithom, being the civil name, as Pithom was the sacred name. Succoth was the town which sprang up round the precincts of the temple of Tum. The ordinary line of march from hence to Palestine traversed by many an expedition under Thothmes or Ramses would be across the Egyptian frontier, and along the Mediterranean coast to the land of the Philistines. But this route was forbidden: "lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt" (Ex. xiii. 17). The first encampment was at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. At this point in obedience to the divine command the Hebrews turned back and marched southward, a course which seemed to entangle them in the land, and which encouraged the irresolute Menephthah to pursue. Pi-hahiroth, Migdol and Baalzephon are not iden The next phase in the national life of Israel raises many questions. Among these are: the route taken across the wilderness-the position of Mount Sinai— the means of subsistence. The first and second are connected, and though the theory that the Hebrews followed the Haj route nearly due east from the point of crossing, and in the north of the Sinaitic peninsula, and that Sinai is to be sought among the mountains of Edom, has recently found able and learned support, the traditional view which takes the Hebrews southward along the western coast of the Gulf of Suez, and places Sinai in the south of the peninsula, is generally accepted. As to the means of subsistence there is a good deal of evidence to shew that the Sinaitic region supported a far larger population than it does at present. Powerful tribes dwelling on the shores of the Red Sea had successfully resisted invasion from Egypt in former times. And at the period of the Exodus a large mining industry was carried on under Egyptian direction. The area of cultivation was then larger than it is now. But even at the present day the Bedouin grow wheat, and have abundance of dates, milk and flesh on which to subsist. The wilderness was a mountainous district intersected with wide-spreading valleys down which sudden torrents run in winter, and in many there are perennial springs, pools and streams of running water. The wilderness of Shur (Ex. xv. 22) is probably the same as the wilderness of Etham (Numb. xxxiii. 8), both implying the fortress wall constructed along the eastern frontier of Egypt. The term 'wandering in the desert' is misleading. The Hebrews would remain encamped like the modern Bedouin, sometimes for months, sometimes for a year, until their crops had grown. They had become a nomad tribe. The various restingplaces on the march are for the most part identified with tolerable certainty by modern travellers-Marah, now 'Ayûn Mûsa, with many springs of somewhat brackish or 'bitter' water Elim, where the Israelites encamped for a month, re-discovered in the Wady Gharandel with_its streams and rich vegetation. The turn to the Red Sea from Elim (Numb. xxxiii. 10) would be taken to avoid the Egyptian garrisons stationed at the copper mines of Sarbut-el-Khadim, the position and workings of which are still known. It was the proximity of these mines, and the possibility of return to slavery and the regular rations of the slave, that made the rising discontent doubly dangerous. In the wilderness of Sin, probably a seaside plain, the Hebrews, yearning after the flesh-pots of Egypt, were fed with manna. After passing Dophkah and Alush the host of Israel reached Rephidim, identified with the long and winding valley now called Wady Feirân, where maddened by the desert thirst (see Ps. Ixiii. 1), the people 'chode' with Moses: Why had he brought them up out of Egypt to kill them and their children and their cattle with thirst?' At God's command Moses struck the rock in Horeb and a stream of water flowed forth. But in memory of the temptation and the chiding the place was named Meribah and Massah. At Rephidim the Hebrews encountered their first foe, the Amalekites, and won their first victory, under Joshua, at that time Hoshea-a name of good omen. The Amalekites are first mentioned Gen. xiv. 7. Unless therefore that passage is proleptic, the tribe was not descended from the Edomite Amalek. Arab historians by a probable tradition represent the Amalekites as driven from their original seat on the Persian Gulf by the pressure of the Babylonian power. The incursion of Israel from the west threatened their hold on the Sinaitic peninsula. It was more than a struggle for springs of water or for pasturage. The words of Ex. xvii. 14 are remarkable: "Write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly put out the memorial of Amalek from under heaven." See also 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3 and 1 Chron. iv. 43. The friendship of Jethro, priest of Midian-the other ruling tribe in the peninsula-stands in contrast with the hostility of Amalek. Jethro, who was either father-in-law or brother-in-law of Moses, visits the Hebrew camp bringing with him Zipporah the wife of Moses and his two sons Gershom and Eliezer. On his advice Moses organizes a plan for the orderly government of the people, appointing able men to be rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens' (Ex. xviii. 25). This was undoubtedly a measure of great importance in the training of Israel for national life. In exactly three months after the Exodus the camp of Israel was pitched before Sinai. The site is disputed, but the height of Ras Sufsâfeh on the northwest cliffs of Jebel Mûsa seems to answer the required conditions better than any other mountain in the peninsula. The lowest rocks rise abruptly from the plain of Er Râhâh, a wide expanse suitable for the encampment of the thousands of Israel. Through wild ravines between mighty walls of rock Moses scaled the heights of Sinai to receive the divine message: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all peoples: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Ex. xix. 4-6). On the third day amid thunder and lightnings and smoke like a furnace (again an Egyptian word is used) Moses conversed with God. He is charged once more to enjoin on the people to observe the bounds placed round the sacred mountain. Again Moses ascended the mount, this time with Aaron, and the Lord spake face to face with the people out of the midst of the fire' (Deut. v. 4). Of the Commandments-the ten words-there given which were destined to mould the religious life of Israel and of the whole world, it is enough to note here: (1) how that in their deepest interpretation they cover the teaching of the New Covenant as well as of the Old: (2) how completely they impressed themselves on Hebrew thought and life through all the ages of their history. Even Pagan writers hundreds of years afterwards caught fragments of them from the lips of Jews. When Martial speaks of the Jew forswearing himself: "jura, verpe, per Anchialum" (Ep. XI. 94. 8), he is unconsciously quoting the first Word': while Juvenal characterizes the Jew as "metuentem sabbata" (Sat. xiv. 96). The same poet describes the law of Moses as written "arcano volumine" (Sat. XIV. 102). The law given from Sinai-'the book of the Covenant'-is contained in Exodus xx. to xxiii. 19. Besides the ten commandments there are rules for justice, equity and purity far transcending any known ancient legislation, and regulations in regard to the Sabbatical year and the observance of the three great feasts of the Passover, of the Firstfruits, and of the Ingathering, and in regard to sacrifice and offerings. In the Angel who is promised as the guide and protector of Israel we may discern the presence of Jehovah Himself. The Covenant is ratified by sacrifice, and sprink ling of blood--an act of deep significance (Ex. xxiv. 7, 8. Cp. St Matthew xxvi. 28). At the sacrificial feast which followed the God of Israel manifested His presence to Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy elders of Israel: 'they heard the voice of words, but saw no form' (Deut. iv. 12). After that Moses and his minister Joshua went up into the mount of God, and were in the mount forty days and forty nights (Ex. xxiv. 13--18). During the forty days on Sinai the pattern of the Tabernacle is presented to Moses (Ex. xxv. 1-xxxi. 11). As in other instances of divine illumination the elements of human culture and association are to be taken into account. Many of the details are influenced by Egyptian art. The materials are such as the special circumstances of time and place would suggest. Artificers of known skill, Bezalel, grandson of Hur, and according to Josephus husband of Miriam, of the tribe of Judah, and Oholiab, of the tribe of Dan, were appointed to the work. Each of them was inspired with divine wisdom "to work in all manner of workmanship." The special task of Bezalel was the carved work in metal, wood or stone, that of Oholiab the coverings and curtains of the tent. The people were called upon to make freewill offerings of dyed wool, fine linen, skins of rams and of seals or porpoises (not badgers' skins), wood, oil, incense and precious stones. The number, variety and costliness of the offerings are explained partly by the spoils taken from Amalek, partly by the gifts of Egypt. And it may also be supposed that during the earlier and less oppressive years of the Egyptian bondage the Hebrews were allowed to trade on their own account, while their large flocks would enable them to barter with the desert caravans. The most sacred deposit in the sanctuary, or innermost chamber of the tabernacle, was the ark of the Covenant-a box or coffer (Heb. aron) of acacia wood covered with gold. It was the motive for the sacred dwelling and its central object. Above it was the mercy-seat and over that the Cherubim with wings that met. And there in an awful sense was the actual presence of Jehovah dwelling with His people. It was the Ark of the Covenant containing the 'book of the law,' the visible sign of the compact between Jehovah and His people, and therefore closely associated with the election and sanctification of Israel. While this scene went on among the cliffs of Sinai, the people in the plain below, weary and distrustful in the long absence of Moses, demanded of Aaron that he should make them a god (Ex. xxxii. 1, R. V. marg.) to go before them. Aaron yielded. With his own hands he fashioned a molten calf from the golden rings which the people offered, built an altar to the idol and proclaimed a feast. He spoke indeed of 'a feast to the Lord.' But it was in fact the Egyptian worship of Mnevis or Apis thinly veiled. Moses intercedes for his brethren, averting the just wrath of Jehovah. He chooses rather to be their mediator than on the ruin of Israel to be the founder of a new nation. But as he descends the flanks of Sinai, not the front of the mountain facing the plain, he hears the sounds of revelry. Drawing near to the camp in his anger he brake the tables of stone, "the work of God," written on both sides, resembling probably the inscribed tablets from Babylonia and Egypt. The golden calf is ground to |