ingly sweet; and in consequence of the excellence of their | for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. (Psal. evii. 34.)grass, the cattle reared in these countries yield more milk "But it has been through the instrumentality of this very than do those of other places.' wickedness, the increasing wickedness of the inhabitants, On the division of the land of Canaan, we are informed that the awful change has been effected. Were good (Josh. xv. 20-62.) that not fewer than one hundred and twelve government, good faith, and good manners to flourish in this walled cities fell to the lot of the tribe of Judah. Many cen- fand for half a century, it would literally become again a turies afterwards, Josephus states that the regions of Samaria | land flowing with milk and honey: the proper fruits of the and Judæa were very full of people, which he notices as the mountains, honey and wax, would be collected by the indusgreatest sign of their excellency;2 that in the two Galilees trious bee from myriads of fragrant plants: the plains, the the villages were extremely numerous and thickly inhabited; valleys, and the upland slopes, would yield corn for man, and that there also were great numbers of the larger cities, and pasturage for innumerable flocks and herds. Such a the smallest of which contained a population of fifteen thou- stupendous and delightful change might well gladden not sand souls. From the two small provinces of Upper and only every child of Israel, but the heart of every Christian."e Lower Galilee alone, Josephus collected an army of more IV. Yet lovely as Palestine confessedly was, its beauty than one hundred thousand men.1 These statements abun- and the comforts it afforded were not unalloyed: among the dantly confirm the narratives of the sacred historian relative CALAMITIES of various kinds, which at different times visited to the fertility and vast population of the Holy Land. Com- the inhabitants, the pestilence, earthquakes, whirlwinds, the pare Num. xi. 21. Judg. xx. 17. 1 Sam. xv. 4. 1 Chron. devastations of locusts, famines, and the pestilential Simoom, xxvii. 4-15. 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. and 2 Chron. xvii. 14-19. demand to be distinctly noticed. Nor are the testimonies less satisfactory, which have been given by Maundrell, Shaw, Hasselquist, and other modern travellers, who have visited this country, and especially by Dr. Clarke, who thus describes its appearance between Napolose or Sichem and Jerusalem:-"The road," says he, "was mountainous, rocky, and full of loose stones; yet the cultivation was every where marvellous: it afforded one of the most striking pictures of human industry which it is pos- 2. This region, being mountainous and near the sea, is sible to behold. The limestone rocks and valleys of Judæa often shaken by EARTHQUAKES,10 from which, however, Jeruwere entirely covered with plantations of figs, vines, and olive salem seems to have suffered little if at all. (Psal. xlvi. 2trees; not a single spot seemed to be neglected. The hills, 5.) Sometimes these earthquakes were accompanied by from their bases to their upmost summits, were entirely land-slips, in which pieces of ground, lying on a declivity, covered with gardens: all of these were free from weeds, and are removed from their place. To these (which occasionally in the highest state of agricultural perfection. Even the sides happen in the present day," and which are not uncommon in of the most barren mountains had been rendered fertile by Barbary)12 the Psalmist alludes when he speaks of the mounbeing divided into terraces, like steps rising one above an-tains being carried into the midst of the sea (Psal. xlvi. 2.), other, whereon soil had been accumulated with astonishing of their skipping like rams, and the little hills like young sheep labour. Under a wise and beneficial government, the produce (Ps. cxiv. 4. 6.); and also the prophet Isaiah (xxiv. 20.) of the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its perennial when he says that the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkharvest; the salubrity of its air; its limpid springs; its rivers, ard, and shåll be removed like a cottage. These terrible conlakes, and matchless plains; its hills and vales: all these, cussions have supplied the sacred prophets and poets with added to the serenity of its climate, prove this land to be in-numerous figures, by which they have represented the condeed a field which the Lord hath blessed (Gen. xxvii. 27.): cussions and subversions of states and empires. See parGod hath given it of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the ticularly Isa. xxix. 6. liv. 10. Jer. iv. 24. Hag. ii. 6, 7. 22. earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Such being the state of the Holy Land, at least of that part of it which is properly cultivated, we can readily account for the vast population it anciently supported: and although this country, generally speaking, by no means corresponds with the statements we have of its former exuberant fertility and population, yet this is no contradiction to the narrative of the sacred writers. The devastations of the Holy Land by the Assyrians, Chaldees, Syrians, Romans, Saracens, the European crusaders, and Turks,-together with the oppressions of the inhabitants by the Turks in our own time (who not only do not encourage agricultural industry, but also extort to the uttermost from the husbandmen),—to which are to be added the depredations of robbers, and the predatory incursions of the Arabs,-all concur satisfactorily to account for the present state of this country; and, so far is it from contradicting the assertions of the Sacred Writings, that it confirms their authority; for, in the event of the Israelites proving unfaithful to their covenant engagements with Jehovah, all these judgments were predicted and denounced against them (Lev. xxvi. 32. Deut. xxix. 22. et seq.); and the exact accomplishment of these prophecies affords a permanent comment on the declaration of the royal Psalmist, that a righteous God turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, 1 Josephus de Bell. Jud. lib. iii. c. 3. §§ 2, 3, 4. a Ibid. lib. iii. c. 3. § 2. The most important facts relative to the fertility of Palestine, recorded by Maundrell and Dr. Shaw, are collected by Dr. Macknight in discourses ví. and vii. prefixed to the first volume of his Harmony, and the testimonies of Hasselquist and others are collected by Mr. Harmer. (Observations, vol. 1. pp. 213-250.) Their accounts are corroborated by Mr. Buckingham, in his Travels among the Arab Tribes, p. 14). Travels, vol. iv. pp. 283-285. 1. Palestine is now, as it anciently was, often afflicted with the PLAGUE; which makes its entrance from Egypt and the neighbouring countries. This tremendous scourge is frequently mentioned in the Sacred Writings. From the insidious manner in which it is first introduced into a country, it is, perhaps, termed the pestilence that walketh in darkness. (Psal. xcí. 6.) Matt. xxiv. 7. 3. TORNADOES or WHIRLWINDS, followed by thunder, lightning, and rains, were also very frequent during the winter and cold seasons. Whirlwinds often preceded rain. In the figurative language of the Scriptures, these are termed the commandment and the word of God (Psal. cxlvii. 15, 18.);13 and, as they are sometimes fatal to travellers who are overwhelmed in the deserts, the rapidity of their advance is elegantly employed by Solomon to show the certainty as well as the suddenness of that destruction which will befall the impenitently wicked. (Prov. i. 27.) They are alluded to by Isaiah, as occurring in the deserts which border on the south of Judea (Isa. xxí. 1.); and they appear to blow from various points of the compass. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of one that came from the north (Ezek. i. 4.); but more frequently it blows from the south (Job xxxvii. 9.), in which case it is generally attended with the most fatal consequences to the hapless traveller. Mr. Morier, describing the whirlwinds of Persia, says, that they swept along the country in different directions, in a manner truly terrific. "They carried away in their vortex sand, branches, and the stubble of the fields, and really appeared to make a communication between the earth and the clouds. The correctness of the imagery used by the prophet Isaiah, when he alludes to this phenomenon, is very striking. The whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. (Isa. xl. 24.) Chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. (Isa. xvii. 13.) In the Psalms (lxxxiii. 13.) we read, Make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. This is happily illustrated by the rotatory action of the whirlwind, which Jowett's Christian Researches in Syria, p. 309. 10 The coast in general, and indeed the whole of Asia Minor, is still sub"In the north of Palestine," says a recent traveller, "there are manyject to earthquakes. In 1759 there happened one, which caused the greatest beautiful and fertile spots, but not so in Judæa. The breath of Jehovah's ravages, destroying upwards of 20,000 persons in the valley of Balbec. For wrath seems in a peculiar manner to have blasted and withered the terri-three months the shocks of it terrified the inhabitants of Lebanon so much, tory of the daughter of Zion. What a change has been wrought in the land, that they abandoned their houses and dwelt under tents. (Volney's Traonce flowing with milk and honey!"-See the Journal of the Rev. J. Con-vels, vol. i. p. 283.) In the autumn of 1822 another tremendous earthquake, nor (who was in Palestine in the spring of the year 1820), in the Appendix or rather a succession of earthquakes, desolated this region. to the Rev. Mr. Jowett's Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 441. (London, 1822. 8vo.) Volney has given some painfully interesting details on the oppression of the agricultural inhabitants of Palestine, by their barbarous masters, the Turks. Travels in Egypt, &c. vol. ii. pp. 311-347 11 See a description of one in the same work, vol. i. p. 278. 13 The Arabs, to this day, call them good news or messengers: and in the Koran they are termed the sent of God, c. 77. p. 477. of Sale's translation, 4to. edit. frequently impels a bit of stubble over a waste, just like a wheel set in a rapid motion." From these phenomena, the sacred writers have borrowed many very expressive figures and allusions. Compare Psal. xviii. 8-15. xxix. 1-10. Iv. 8. lxxxiii. 15. Isa. v. 30. viii. 7, 8. xi. 15. xxviii. 2. xxix. 6. Jer. xxiii. 19. Matt. vii. 25. What tornadoes are on land water-spouts are at sea, the vacuum being filled with a column of water, instead of earth, sand, &c.-To this phenomenon the Psalmist refers. (xlii. 7.) 4. Frequently the country was laid waste by vast bodies of migrating Locusts, whose depredations are one of the most terrible scourges with which mankind can be afflicted. By the prophet Joel (ii. 11.) they are termed the army of the Lord, from the military order which they appear to observe: disbanding themselves and encamping in the evening, and in the morning resuming their flight in the direction of the wind, unless they meet with food. (Nah. iii. 17. Prov. xxx. 27.) They fly in countless hosts (Jer. xlvi. 23. Judg. vi. 5.), so as to obscure the sun, and bring a temporary darkness upon the land. (Joel ii. 2. 10. Exod. x. 15.) The noise made by them is compared to the noise of chariots (Joel ii. 5.): and wherever they settle, they darken the land. (Exod. x. 15.) If the weather be cold, they encamp in the hedges, until the sun rises, when they resume their progress (Nah. iii. 17.), climbing or creeping in perfect order. Regardless of every obstacle, they mount the walls of cities and houses, and enter the very apartments. (Joel ii. 7—9.) They devour every green herb, and strip the bark off every tree (Exod. x. 12. 15. Joel i. 4.7. 10. 12. 16. 18. 20.), so as to render the land, which before was as the garden of Eden, a desolate wilderness, as if it had been laid waste by fire. (Joel ii. 3.) The noise made by them, when committing their ravages, is compared to the crackling noise of fire among the dry stubble, or a mighty host set in battle array. (Ibid. 5.) So fearful are the effects of their devastations, that every one was filled with dismay (Ibid. 6.), and vainly attempted to prevent them from settling on their grounds by making loud shouts (Jer. li. 14.), as the inhabitants of Egypt, and the Nogai Tartars' do to this day. What aggravates this tremendous calamity is, that when one host is departed, it is succeeded by a second, and sometimes even by a third or a fourth, by which every thing that has escaped the ravages of the preceding is inevitably consumed by the last company. As Arabia is generally considered as the native country of these depredators, they were carried thence into Egypt by an east wind (Exod. x. 13.), and were removed by a westerly wind (19.) which blew from the Mediterranean Sea (that lay to the north-west of that country), and wafted them into the Red Sea, where they perished. On their departure from a country, they leave their fetid excrements behind them, which pollute the air, and myriads of their eggs deposited in the ground, whence issues in the following year a new and more numerous army. They are generally carried off by the wind into the sea, where they perish; and their dead bodies, putrefying on the shore, emit a most offensive, and (it is said) sometimes even fatal smell. The plague of locusts, predicted by Joel, entered Palestine from Hamath, one of the northern boundaries, whence they are called the northern army, and were carried away by the wind, some into the 1 Morier's Second Journey, p. 202. Mr. Bruce, in his Travels to discover the source of the Nile, was surprised by a whirlwind in a plain near that river, which lifted up a camel and threw it to a considerable distance, with such violence as to break several of its ribs; whirled himself and two of his servents off their feet, and threw them violently to the ground; and partly demolished a but, the materials of which were dispersed all over the plain, leaving the other half standing. Mr. B. and his attendants were literally plastered with mud; if dust and sand had risen with the whirlwind in the same proportion, instead of mud, they would inevitably have been suffo cated (Travels, vol. vi. p. 346.);-a disaster which the late enterprising traTeller Mr. Park with difficulty escaped, when crossing the great desert of Sahara in his way to explore the sources of the Niger. Destitute of provi sions and water, his throat pained with thirst, and his strength nearly ex hansted, he beard a wind sounding from the east, and instinctively opened his parched mouth to receive the drops of rain which he confidently expected, but it was instantly filled with sand drifted from the desert. So immense was the quantity raised into the air and wafted upon the wings of the wind, and so great the velocity with which it flew, that he was compelled to turn his face to the west to prevent suffocation, and continued motion less till it had passed. Park's Travels, p. 178. The Rev. Mr. Hartley, an English clergyman, who visited Thyatira in June, 1826, thus describes the ravages of these destructive insects:-"I am perfectly astonished at their multitudes. They are, indeed, as a strong People, set in battle array: they run like mighty men; they climb the walls ike men of war. I actually saw them run to and fro in the city of Thyatira; they ran upon the wall; they climbed up upon the houses; they entered into the windants like a thief. (Joel ii. 5. 7.9.) This is, however, by no means one of the most formidable armies of locusts which are known in these countries." Missionary Register, July, 1827, p. 328. a Light's Travels, p. 56. Belzoni's Narrative, p. 197. dreary plain on the coast of the East (or Dead) Sea, and others into the utmost (or Mediterranean) Sea. (Joel ii. 20.) These predatory locusts are larger than those which sometimes visit the southern parts of Europe, being five or six inches long, and as thick as a man's finger. From their heads being shaped like that of a horse, the prophet Joel says, that they have the appearance of horses; and on account of their celerity they are compared to horsemen on full gallop (ii. 4.), and also to horses prepared for battle. (Rev. ix. 7.) The locust has a large open mouth; and in its two jaws it has four incisive teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, and from their mechanism are calculated to grasp and cut every thing of which they lay hold. These teeth are so sharp and strong, that the prophet, by a bold figure, terms them the teeth of a great lion. (Joel i. 6.) In order to mark the certainty, variety, and extent of the depredations of the locusts, not fewer than eight or nine different appellations, expressive of their nature, are given to them in the Sacred Writings. Such are the Scripture accounts of this tremendous scourge, which are corroborated by every traveller who has visited the East. The quantity of these insects (to whose devastations Syria, Egypt, and Persia, together with the whole middle part of Asia, are subject) is incredible to any person who has not himself witnessed their astonishing numbers. Their numerous swarms, like a succession of clouds, sometimes extend a mile in length, and half as much in breadth, darken the horizon, and intercept the light of the sun. Should the wind blow briskly, so that the swarms are succeeded by others, they afford a lively idea of that similitude of the Psalmist (cix. 23.) of being tossed up and down as the locusts. Wherever they alight, the land is covered with them for the space of several leagues, and sometimes they form a bed six or seven inches thick. The noise which they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army foraging in secret, or the rattling of hail-stones: and, whilst employed in devouring the produce of the land, it has been observed, that they uniformly proceed one way, as regularly as a disciplined army upon its march. The Tartars themselves are a less destructive enemy than these little animals; one would imagine that fire had followed their progress. Fire itself, indeed, consumes not so rapidly. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears as if a covering had been removed; trees and plants, stripped of their leaves and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed, in an instant, to the rich scenery of the spring. They have a government among them, similar to that of the bees and ants; and, when their king or leader rises, the whole body follow him, not one solitary straggler being left behind to witness the devastation. When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacle, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured by them. In Persia, as soon as they appear, the gardeners and husbandmen make loud shouts, to prevent them from settling on their grounds. To this custom the prophet Jeremiah, perhaps, alludes, when he says,-Surely I will fill thee with MEN as with locusts, and THEY SHALL LIFT UP THEIR VOICE AGAINST THEE. (Jer. li. 14.) Should the inhabitants dig pits and trenches, and fill them with water, or kindle fires of stubble therein, to destroy them, rank presses on rank, fills up the trenches, and extinguishes the fires. Where these swarms are extremely numerous, they climb over every thing in their way, entering the inmost recesses of the houses, adhering to the very clothes of the inhabitants, and infesting their food. Pliny relates that, in some parts of Ethiopia, the inhabitants lived upon nothing but locusts salted, and dried in the smoke; and that the Parthians also accounted them a pleasant article of food. The modern Arabs catch great quantities of locusts, of which they prepare a dish by boiling them with salt, and mixing a little oil, butter, or fat; sometimes they toast them before a fire, or soak them in warm water, and without any other culinary process, devour almost every part except the wings. They are also said to be sometimes pickled in • Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i. p. 296. Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. p. 319. Shaw's Travels, vol. i. pp. 340-343. Morier's Second Journey, p. 100. Sir Wm. Ouseley's Travels in Persia from 1810 to 1812, vol. i. pp. 195–200. (4to. London, 1819.) Mr. Dodwell has giver an interesting account of the ravages of the locusts in Greece; where, however, they are smaller than those of the Levant. See his Classical and Topographical Tour, vol. i. pp. 214, 215. • Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. vi. c. 30. and lib. x. c. 28. • Baron De Tott's Memoirs, extracted in Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. employed in filling bags with locusts, to be preserved and eaten like p. 319. At Busheher (or Bushire] in Persia, Mr. Price saw "many Arab women shrimps." Journal of the British Embassy to Persia, p. 6. London, 1825. fol GOVERNMENT FROM THE PATRIARCHAL TIMES vinegar. The locusts which formed part of John the Baptist's breadth, and twelve feet above the surface of the earth, travellers in the desert, when they perceive its approach, [PART II. 5. The devastations caused by the locusts, together with the burning sands, and wrap their heads in their robes, or in throw themselves on the ground, with their faces close to the absence of the former and latter rains, were generally a piece of carpet, till the wind has passed over them. The followed by a scarcity of provisions, and not unfrequently by least mischief which it produces is the drying up their skins absolute FAMINE, which also often prevailed in besieged of water, and thus exposing them to perish with thirst in the cities to such a degree, that the starving inhabitants have deserts. When this destructive wind advances, which it been reduced to the necessity of devouring not only unclean does with great rapidity, its approach is indicated by a redanimals, but also human flesh. Compare Deut. xxviii. 22-ness in the air; and, when sufficiently near to admit of being 42. 56, 57. 2 Sam. xxi. 1. 2 Kings vi. 25–23. xxv. 3. Jer. observed, it appears like a haze, in colour resembling the xiv. 15. xix. 9. xlii. 17. Lam. ii. 20. iv. 10. Ezek. v. 10— purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. 12. 16. vi. 12. vii. 15. this terrible blast it produces a desperate kind of indifference When travellers are exposed to a second or third attack of for life, and an almost total prostration of strength. Camels and other animals instinctively perceive its approach, and bury their mouths and nostrils in the ground. The effects of this blast on the bodies of those whom it destroys are peculiar. At first view, its victims appear to be asleep: but if an arm or leg be smartly shaken or lifted up, from the body, which soon after becomes black.2 In Persia, in the district of Dashtistan a sum or simoom blew it separates during the summer months, which so totally burnt corn (then near its maturity), that no animal would eat a blade of it, or touch any of its grain.3 The image of corn blasted before it be grown up, used by the sacred historian in 2 Kings xix. 26., was most probably taken from this or some similar cause. 15, 16.) to the desolating influence of the simoom. The Psalmist evidently alludes (Psal. ciii. 6. But the greatest of all the calamities that ever visited this highly favoured country is the pestilential blast, by the Arabs termed the SAM wind, by the Persians, SAMOUN, by the Turks, SIMOOM or SAMIEL, and by the prophet Jeremiah, a dry wind of the high places in the wilderness. (Jer. iv. 11.) It blows in Persia, Arabia, and the deserts of Arabia, during the months of June, July, and Angust; in Nubia during March and April, and also in September, October, and November. It rarely lasts more than seven or eight minutes, but so poisonous are its effects, that it instantly suffocates those who are unfortunate enough to inhale it, particularly if it overtake them when standing upright. Thevenot mentions such a wind, which in 1658 suffocated twenty thousand men in one night; and another, which in 1655 suffocated four thousand persons. As the principal stream of this pestilential blast always moves in a line, about twenty yards in all the PART II. POLITICAL ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. CHAPTER I. DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, AND POLITICAL STATE OF THE HEBREWS, OR JEWS, FROM THE PATRIARCHAL TIMES TO THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. I. Patriarchal Government.-II. Government under Moses-a Theocracy ;-its Nature and Design.-1. Notices of the Heads or Princes of Tribes and Families.-2. Of the Jethronian Prefects or Judges appointed by Moses.-3. Of the Senate or Council of Seventy Assessors.-4. Scribes.-III. Government of the Judges.-IV. Regal Government instituted;—1. The Functions and Privileges of the Kings ;-2. Inauguration of the Kings ;-3. Chief Distinctions of Majesty ;-4. Scriptural Allusions to the Courts of Sovereigns and Princes explained.-V. Revenues of the Kings of Israel.-VI. Magistrates under the Monarchy.-VII. Officers of the Palace.-VIII. The royal Harem.-IX. Promulgation of Laws.-X. Schism between the twelve Tribes ;-its latent Causes ;-the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah founded;-their Duration and End. -XI. Reasons why the Kingdom of Judah subsisted longer than that of Israel.-XII. State of the Hebrews during the Babylonish Captivity. VI. Or the forms of government which obtained among mankind from the earliest ages to the time of Moses, we have but little information communicated in the Scriptures. The simplicity of manners which then prevailed would render any complicated form of government unnecessary; and accordingly we find that the PATRIARCHS, that is, the Heads or Founders of Families, exercised the chief power and command over their families, children, and domestics, without being responsible to any superior authority. Such was the government of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So long as they resided in the land of Canaan, they were subject to no foreign power, but tended their flocks and herds wherever they chose to go (Gen. xiii. 6-12.), and vindicated their wrongs by arms whensoever they had sustained any injury. (Gen. xiv.) They treated with the petty kings who reigned in different parts of Palestine as their equals in dignity, and concluded treaties with them in their own right. (Gen. xiv. 13. 18-24. xxi. 22-32. xxvi. 16. 27-33. xxxi. 44-54.) The patriarchal power was a sovereign dominion: so that parents may be considered as the first kings, and children the first subjects. They had the power of disinheriting their children (Gen. xlix. 3, 4. 1 Chron. v. 1.), and also of punishing them with death (Gen. xxxviii. 24.), or of dismessing them from home without assigning any reason. 1 Sir Win. Ouseley's Travels. vol. i. p. 197 Dodwell's Tour, vol. i. p. 215. Dr. Della Cella's Travels from Barbary to the Western Frontier of Egypt, p. 78. Jackson's Account of the Empire of Marocco, pp. 51-54. (Gen. xxi. 14.) Further, the patriarchs could pronounce a solemn blessing or curse upon their children, which at that time was regarded as a high privilege and of great consequence. Thus Noah cursed his son Canaan (Gen. ix. 25.); Isaac blessed Jacob (Gen. xxvii. 28, 29. 33.); and Jacob blessed his sons. (Gen. xlix.) On the decease of the father, the eldest son, by a natural right of succession, inherited the paternal power and dominion, which in those days was one of the rights of primogeniture. To this right the sacerdotal dignity, in the first ages, seems to have been annexed; so that the heads of families not only possessed a secular power, but also officiated as priests in the families to which they belonged. (Gen. viii. 20. xii. 7, 8. xxxv. 1—3.) power in his own family, during their father's life (Gen. i. pp. 94-96. Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. vol. ii. conjectured to be a kind of magistrates elected by them; but, from the context of the sacred historian, they rather appear to have been appointed by the Egyptians, and placed over the Israelites in order to oversee their labour.1 became motives to continuance in the true religion, instead of encouragements to idolatry.2 In the theocracy of the Hebrews, the laws were given to them by God, through the mediation of Moses, and they II. On the departure of the Israelites from the land of were to be of perpetual force and obligation so long as their their oppressors, under the guidance of Moses, Jehovah was polity subsisted. The judges by whom these laws were pleased to institute a new form of government, which has administered were represented as holy persons, and as sitting been rightly termed a THEOCRACY; the supreme legislative in the place of God (Deut. i. 17. xix. 17.); they were usually power being exclusively vested in God or in his ORACLE, who taken from the tribe of Levi; and the chief expounder of the alone could enact or repeal laws. The Hebrew government law was the high-priest. In this there was a singular proappears not only designed to subserve the common and gene- priety; for the Levites, being devoted to the study of the ral ends of all good governments;-viz. the protection of the law, were (as will be shown in a subsequent page) the literati property, liberty, safety, and peace of the several members among the Israelites. In difficult cases of law, however, of the community (in which the true happiness and prospe- relating both to government and war, God was to be conrity of states will always consist), but also to set apart the sulted by Urim and Thummim; and in matters, which conHebrews or Israelites as a holy people to Jehovah, and a king-cerned the welfare of the state, God frequently made known dom of priests. For thus Moses is directed to tell the chil- his will by prophets whose mission was duly attested, and dren of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, the people were bound to hearken to their voice. In all these and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto cases, Jehovah appears as sovereign king, ruling his people myself. Now, therefore, if ye will hear my voice indeed, and by his appointed ministers.3 keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. (Exod. xix. 3, 4, 5, 6.) We learn what this covenant was in a further account of it. Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God, your captains of your tribes, your elders and your officers, and all the men of Israel; that you should enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee to-day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob: for ye know, adds Moses, how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; and ye have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them, lest there should be among you, man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations. (Deut. xxix. 10-18.) A subordinate design of this constitution of the Hebrew government was, the prevention of intercourse between the Israelites and foreign nations. The prevalence of the most abominable idolatry among those nations, and the facility with which the Israelites had, on more than one occasion, adopted their idolatrous rites, during their sojourning in the wilderness, rendered this seclusion necessary, in order to secure the fundamental principle of the Mosaic law above mentioned: and many of the peculiar laws will, on this principle, be found both wisely and admirably adapted to secure this design.4 men of renown. By comparing Deut. xxix. 10. with Josh. xxiii. 2. it appears that these representatives were the heads of tribes or families, and judges and officers; and Michaelis is of opinion that, like the members of our British House of Commons, they acted in the plenitude of their own power, without taking instruction from their constituents." The form of the Hebrew republic was unquestionably democratical; its head admitted of change as to the name and nature of his office, and at certain times it could even subsist without a general head. When Moses promulgated his laws, he convened the whole congregation of Israel, to whom he is repeatedly said to have spoken; but as he could not possibly be heard by six hundred thousand men, we must conclude that he only addressed a certain number of persons who were From these passages it is evident that the fundamental deputed to represent the rest of the Israelites. Accordingly principle of the Mosaic Law was the maintenance of the in Num. i. 16. these delegates or representatives are termed doctrine and worship of one true God, and the prevention, or yn 8 (KERUAY Hоë DaH), that is, those wont to be called rather the proscription of polytheism and idolatry. The cove- the convention; in our version called the renowned of the connant of Jehovah with the Hebrew people, and their oath by gregation; and in Num. xvi. 2. they are denominated which they bound their allegiance to Jehovah, their God and my (NESIAY EDаH KеRUAY MUOED), that is, chiefs King, was, that they should receive and obey the laws which of the community, or congregation, that are called to the conhe should appoint as their supreme governor, with a particu-vention, in our version termed, famous in the congregation, lar engagement to keep themselves from the idolatry of the Bations round about them, whether the idolatry they had seen while they dwelt in the land of Egypt, or that which they had observed in the nations by which they passed into the promised land. In keeping this allegiance to Jehovah, as their immediate and supreme Lord, they were to expect the blessings of God's immediate and particular protection in the 1. HEADS OR PRINCES OF TRIBES AND FAMILIES.-All the security of their liberty, peace, and prosperity, against all various branches of Abraham's descendants, like the ancient attempts of their idolatrous neighbours; but if they should Germans or the Scottish clans, kept together in a body acbreak their allegiance to Jehovah, or forsake the covenant cording to their tribes and families; each tribe forming a of Jehovah, by going and serving other gods, and worship- lesser commonwealth, with its own peculiar interests, and ping them, then they should forfeit these blessings of God's all of them at last uniting into one great republic. The protection, and the anger of Jehovah should be kindled same arrangement, it is well known, obtained among the against the land, to bring upon it all the curses that are writ- Israelites, who appear to have been divided into twelve great ten in the book of Deuteronomy. (xxix. 25-27.) The sub-tribes, previously to their departure from Egypt. By Moses, stance, then, of this solemn transaction between God and the however, they were subdivided into certain greater families, Israelites (which may be called the original contract of the which are called D (MISHPACHOTH) or families, by way Hebrew government) was this:-If the Hebrews would vo- of distinction, and mana (Batey ABOTH) or houses of fathers luntarily consent to receive Jehovah as their Lord and King, (Num. i. 2. Josh. vii. 14.); each of whom, again, had their to keep his covenant and laws, to honour and worship him heads, which are sometimes called heads of houses of futhers, as the one true God, in opposition to all idolatry; then, and sometimes simply heads. These are likewise the same though God as sovereign of the world rules over all the na-persons who in Josh. xxiii. 2. and xxiv. 1. are called Elders. tious of the earth, and all nations are under the general care (Compare also Deut. xix. 12. and xxi. 1-9.) It does not of his providence, he would govern the Hebrew nation by peculiar laws of his particular appointment, and bless it with a more immediate and particular protection; he would secure to them the invaluable privileges of the true religion, together with liberty, peace, and prosperity, as a favoured people above all other nations. This constitution, it will be observed, is enforced chiefly by temporal sanctions, and with singular wisdom; for temporal blessings and evils were at that time the common and prevailing incitements to idolatry: but by thus taking them into the Hebrew constitution, as rewards to obedience and punishments for disobedience, they 1 Pareau Antiquitas Hebraica, pp. 231--233. VOL. II. F 2 Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews, pp. 8-10. See also masterly observations on the introduction of temporal sanctions into the Dr. Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch, vol. ii. pp. 141-185. for some Mosaic law. Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. i pp. 190-196. Ibid. vol. i. pp. 202-225. Bruning's Antiq. Heb. pp. 91-93. Mr. Low man (Civil Government of the Hebrews, pp. 17-31) has illustrated the wisdom of this second design of the Jewish theocracy by several pertinent examples. Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. p. 231. In this manner were the Ishmaelites governed by twelve princes according to the number of Ishinael's sons (Gen. xxv. 16.); and the Bedouins their descendants have always preserved some traces of this patriarchal govern ment. Their families continue together; and under the name of Emir, one is prince among people, who are all his kindred within a certain degree of affinity. Michaelis's Cormentaries, vol. i. p. 232. appear in what manner these heads or elders of families were chosen, when any of them died. The princes of tribes do not seem to have ceased with the commencement, at least, of the monarchy: from 1 Chron. xxvii. 16-22. it is evident that they subsisted in the time of David; and they must have proved a powerful restraint upon the power of the king. It will now be readily conceived how the Israelitish state might have subsisted not only without a king, but even occasionally without that magistrate who was called a Judge, although we read of no supreme council of the nation. Every tribe had always its own independent chief magistrate, who may not inaptly be compared to the lords-lieutenants of our British counties; subordinate to them, again, were the heads of families, who may be represented as their deputy-lieutenants: and, if there were no general ruler of the whole people, yet there were twelve smaller commonwealths, who in certain cases united together, and whose general convention would take measures for their common interest. In many cases particular tribes acted as distinct and independent republics, not only when there was neither king nor judge, but even during the times of the kings. Instances of wars being carried on by one or more particular tribes, both before and after the establishment of the regal government, may be seen in Josh. xvii. 15—17. Judg. iv. 10. and xviii-xx. 1 Chron. v. 18-23. 41-43. It appears from 1 Chron. xxiii. 11. that a certain number of persons was necessary to constitute a family, and to empower such a family to have a representative head; for it is there said that the four sons of Shimei had not a numerous progeny, and were therefore reckoned only as one family. Hence we may explain why, according to Micah v. 2., Bethlehem may have been too small to be reckoned among the families of Judah. It is impossible to ascertain, at this distance of time, what number of individuals was requisite to constitute a house or family; but probably the number was not always uniform.1 2. The JUDGES, who were appointed by Moses, had also a right, by virtue of their office, to be present in the congregation, or convention of the state. After the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, Moses, for some time, was their sole judge. Jethro, his father-in-law, observing that the daily duties of this office were too heavy for him, suggested to him (subject to the approbation of Jehovah) the institution of Judges or rulers, of tens, of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands, who determined every affair of little importance among themselves, but brought the hard causes to Moses. (Exod. xviii. 14-26.) Of the judges of tens, therefore, there must have been sixty thousand, of the judges of fifties, twelve thousand of the judges of hundreds, six thousand; and of the judges of thousands, six hundred. These judges, or Jethronian prefects (as they have been called), seem to have been a sort of justice of the peace in several divisions, probably taken from the military division of an host into thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens; this was a model proper for them as an army marching, and not unsuitable to their settlement as tribes or families, in a sort of counties, hundreds, and tithings. Perhaps our old Saxon constitution of sheriffs in counties, hundredors or centgraves in hundreds, and deciners in decennuries, may give some light to this constitution of Moses. Some of our legal antiquaries have thought that those constitutions of the Saxons were taken from these laws of Moses, introduced by Alfred, or by his direction.2 It is not probable, that in the public deliberative assemblies the whole sixty thousand judges of tens had seats and voices. Michaelis conjectures that only those of hundreds, or even those only of thousands, are to be understood, when mention is made of judges in the Israelitish conventions.3 But, after the establishment of the Hebrews in the land of Canaan, as they no longer dwelt together in round numbers, Moses ordained that judges should be appointed in every city (Deut. xvi. 18.), and it should seem that they were chosen by the people. In succeeding ages these judicial offices were filled by the Levites, most probably because they were the persons best skilled in the law of the Hebrews. (See 1 Chron. xxiii. 4. xxvi. 29–32. 2 Chron. xix. 8-11. xxxiv. 13.)1 3. During the sojourning of the Israelites in the wilderness, Moses established a council or SENATE of seventy, to assist him in the government of the people. The Jewish rabbinical writers, who have exercised their ingenuity in conjecturing why the number was limited to seventy, have 1 Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. i. pp. 231-234. 244. Bacon on English Government, parti. p. 70. Lowman's Civil Govern ment of the Hebrews, p. 162. a Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 245. • Ibid. p. 246. pretended that this was a permanent and supreme court of judicature; but as the sacred writers are totally silent concerning such a tribunal, we are authorized to conclude that it was only a temporary institution. After their return from the Babylonish captivity, it is well known that the Jews did appoint a sanhedrin or council of seventy at Jerusalem, in imitation of that which Moses had instituted. In the New Testament, very frequent mention is made of this supreme tribunal, of which an account will be found in a subsequent chapter of this volume. 4. Among the persons who appear in the Israelitish congregation or diet (as Michaelis terms it), in addition to those already mentioned, we find the (SHOTERIM) or Scribes. It is evident that they were different from the Jethronian prefects or judges; for Moses expressly ordained that they should not only appoint judges in every city, but also shoferim or scribes. What their functions were, it is now difficult to ascertain. Michaelis conjectures, with great probability, that they kept the genealogical tables of the Israelites, with a faithful record of births, marriages, and deaths; and that to them was assigned the duty of apportioning the public burthens and services on the people individually. Under the regal government, these scribes were generally taken from the tribe of Levi. (1 Chron. xxiii. 4. 2 Chron. xix. 8—11. and xxxiv. 13.) In Deut. xxix. 10. xxxi. 28. Josh. viii. 33. and xxiii. 2. we find them as representatives of the people in the diets, or when they entered into covenant with God. In time of war they were charged with the duty of conveying orders to the army (Deut. xx. 5.); and in 2 Chron. xxvi. 11. we meet with a scribe, who appears to have been what is now termed the muster-master-general. III. On the death of Moses, the command of the children of Israel was confided to JOSHUA, who had been his minister (Exod. xxiv. 13. Josh. i. 1. ); and under whom the land of Canaan was subdued, and divided agreeably to the divine injunctions. On the death of Joshua and of the elders of his council, it appears that the people did not choose any chief magistrate or counsellors in their place. The consequence (as might naturally be expected) was a temporary anarchy, in which we are told that every man did what was right in his own eyes. (Judg. xxi. 25.) This state of things occasioned the government of Israel to be committed to certain supreme magistrates, termed JUDGES. Their dignity was, in some cases, for life, but not always: and their office was not hereditary, neither was their succession constant. There also were anarchies, or intervals of several years' continuance, during which the Israelites groaned under the tyranny of their oppressors, and had no governors. But though God himself did regularly appoint the judges of the Israelites, the people nevertheless, on some occasions, elected him who appeared to them most proper to deliver them from their immediate oppression: thus Jephthah was chosen by the Israelites beyond Jordan. As, however, it frequently happened that the oppression which rendered the assistance of judges necessary were not felt equally over all Israel, so the power of those judges, who were elected in order to procure their deliverance from such servitudes, did not extend over all the people, but only over that district which they had delivered. Thus Jephthah did not exercise his authority on this side Jordan, neither did Barak exercise his judicial power beyond that river. The authority of the judges was not inferior to that which was afterwards exercised by the kings: it extended to peace and war. They decided causes without appeal; but they had no power to enact new laws, or to impose new burthens upon the people. They were protectors of the laws, defenders of religion, and avengers of crimes, particularly of idolatry, which was high-treason against Jehovah their Sovereign. Further, these judges were without pomp or splendour, and destitute of guards, train, or equipage: unless indeed their own wealth might enable them to make an appearance suitable to their dignity. Their income or revenue arose solely from presents. This form of administration subsisted from Joshua to Saul, during a period of about 339 years.7 IV. At length the Israelites, weary of having God for their sovereign, and provoked by the misconduct of the sons of the judge and prophet Samuel, who in his old age had associated them with himself for the administration of affairs, desired a KING to be set over them, to judge them like all the Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. i. pp. 247-249. Tappan's Lectures on Jewish Antiquities, p. 77. Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. i. pp. 262-264. Dr. Graves's Lectures on the Pentateuch, vol. ii. pp. 95-104. |