Hours with the Bible, Or, the Scriptures in the Light of Modern Knowledge (Volume 2)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1892. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII. THE EVE OF THE CONQUEST. As the long centuries during which the Hehrews remained in Egypt are passed over without notice in the Scripture narrative, there is a long interval of thirty-seven years silently ignored between the events recorded in the thirteenth verse of the twentieth chapter of Numbers, and that mentioned in the fourteenth verse. The discipline of the wilderness had done its work. For a generation Israel had led a nomadic life, passing from place to place as pasturage invited, though Kadesh had been their centre; their movements, no doubt, bringing them often into fierce conflict with the tribes whom they for the time at least virtually dispossessed. The men who had come from Egypt gradually died out, and their sons had grown, under the inspiration of Moses, and those associated with him, into a strong and vigorous nation. He had given them a constitution which was democratic in the noblest sense, for every Israelite, whether poor or rich, was equal before the law and was a free man. They had been taught to feel themselves the people of God; and to treat them like slaves, as the Pharaohs treated the Egyptians, was a crime against Jehovah.1 Moses, though their leader and dictator, bore himself as only the instrument and voice of God, from whom their laws came, and to whom, supremely, they owed spirit' > Bunsen's Bibel Urkunden, vol. 1. p. 189. ual and temporal obedience. All the legislation given them had been based on the recognition of the highest moral law, and embodied the purest and loftiest conceptions of duty to God and man. Love of their neighbour, brotherly fellowship, equality as Israelites, gentleness, and absolute uprightness, were the ideals he had set before them. Such maxims and laws were impressed on them till they be...