of the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf. On this plateau the Israelites could advance northwardly without interfering with the Edomites, whose feelings they were commanded to respect. The Edomites it was also said should be afraid of them; and thus, in such a line of journeying, there would be forbearance on either side.

The conducting cloud moved eastwardly from Eziongaber, doubtless up the Wady Ithm; and the Israelites, after a two days' journey, found themselves on this high plateau, and eastward of the possessions of the churlish king of Edom. It was to them a pleasant transition from that scorched valley of Arabah, and the scarcely less dreaded deserts on its west; and they might also now look forward toward the end of their journeyings. So they travelled on, day after day, the Edomites keeping a close watch upon them but finding them to be harmless and even friendly; and to the Israelites, any kind intercourse with another nation was indeed a novelty. The buoyancy of our nature returned to them; they began also to have some confidence in their own martial strength,—which was indeed soon to be tried. Though the superhuman cause was unseen by them, the fact was clear to their eyes, that the Edomites, notwithstanding the former churlish defiance, were afraid of them, and were treating them with the respect which such dread produces. Thus, on this high plateau, where the air was pure and cool, and the breezes swept refreshingly about them, their feelings rose up into new strength and gladness, and they travelled on in the free joyousness of the nomadic life. But the aged patriarch himself, now oppressed by the weight of so many years, and with a face on which long cares and vexations from them had ploughed deep marks, and with hair white as new snows on Lebanon, -on him this buoyancy and joyousness and social feeling fell as something apart from himself. He was old and solitary; he felt that it was time for his own end to come, and

he knew that it was not far off. There was one hope to cheer him he would then go home to God.

:

For his people he still had many anxieties. He knew that there were nations before them different from the Edomites, and on whom, indeed, his nation would probably have to make war; and the exhibitions of the military prowess of his own hosts back of Kadesh had not been such as to produce confidence in them. He had confidence in God, but he was still bound to make use of the human means within his power; and he must now be preparing the great force of his fighting men' for any danger from hostilities that might be awaiting them. Before them were two nations barring all progress, and both might be expected to be unfriendly; for one of them had the established reputation of an aggressive, warlike people, and the other were a people descended from the old Rephaim race-the race of giants. Among these latter were walled cities of great strength, in which every house indeed might be considered as a castle.

Moses had probably no full and clear knowledge of either of these nations, and yet some reports of their prowess, and of the danger in his front must have reached him and his people, as they were now journeying on toward the north. He knew that God was sufficient for all dangers, but it was a very anxious question whether his people would be true. to God? They had so often failed in their allegiance to Jehovah, and so often rebelled, that the leader had altogether lost confidence in them. Consequently, what results were before them now he could not tell. He only looked up and saw the leadership of the cloud, and knew that God's special presence was still with them. Over the wide plain were the multitudes rejoicing in their improved condition of purer and cooler air and wider freedom of motion; they were travelling on, most of them joyous, careless,

1 601,730 in number. See Num. xxvi. 51.

thoughtless: he was thoughtful and anxious. The aged man felt now how great was the bereavement incurred in his brother's death.

Thus the hundred miles' extent of Edom was passed by, on its eastern side; and then crossing the upper waters of the brook Zered,' now Wady Asha, they had on their .left the country of the Moabites. These latter, together with the Ammonites, were descendants of Lot; and the Israelites were also forbidden to do them injury, on account of consanguinity. This small region, only about thirty miles on each side, belonged to the Moabites; but their relatives, the Ammonites, probably a nomadic race scattered about wherever they could find pasturage, appeared to consider it also as their home. Both are sometimes spoken of under the same name; and both were now presently united in an intended mischief upon the Israelites. The Ammonites, when alone, showed themselves to be a set of fierce and bloody marauders. This region was also passed without any molestation given or received, the churlish inhabitants keeping aloof,* though closely watching the Israelites.

The small territory of Moab was bounded on the north by the river Arnon, now Modjeb, which, after passing for some distance along its eastern side, sweeps round to the west, and through a deep cleft enters the Dead Sea; thus it made a strongly-marked dividing line between the Moabites, and their dangerous, aggressive neighbors, the Amorites on the north. The physical geography of the whole

1 See Judges xi. 18.

2 Deut. ii. 13; Num. xxi. 12. This brook now separates two districts, Kerek, on the north, and Djebal on the south. The stream is now also called Kerahy, doubtless after its ancient name. Burckhardt says it runs

in a deep and narrow bed of rocks, the banks overgrown with Defle trees. The country adjoining the place where he crossed it, was fertile, and abounding in fruits.

of that country, and the names of cities or ruins still bearing the same names as in the days of Moses, seem to carry us back and place us among the very times of this journey of the Israelites. Burckhardt, in travelling through this region, was shown two miles north of the Arnon the ruins of Diban (Dibon, Num. xxi. 30; xxxii. 34): on the northern edge of the precipice leading down to the river, he saw Araayr (Aroer, Num. xxxii. 34), and he had passed, a little further north, the ruins of Hesban, the capital city, Heshbon, of the Amorites, where extensive remains of houses and deep wells cut in the rock, and a large reservoir, still bear witness to the former great importance of this place. Of the Arnon, he says, "The view which the Modjeb presents is very striking; from the bottom where the river runs. through a narrow stripe of verdant level about forty yards across, the steep and barren banks arise to a great height, covered with immense blocks of stone which have rolled down from the upper strata, so that when viewed from above, the valley looks like a deep chasm formed by some tremendous convulsion of the earth, into which there seems no possibility of descending to the bottom; the distance from the edge of one precipice to that of the opposite one is about two miles in a straight line. There are three fords across the Modjeb. I have never felt such suffocating heat as I experienced in this valley from the concentrated rays of the sun, and their reflection from the rocks. We were thirty-five minutes in reaching the bottom."

Across this deep chasm the Moabites, on its southern and western sides, watched the great multitudes of the Israelites as they now passed along, and across it they afterward secretly stole in their efforts to do fatal mischief to these strangers, their relatives.

The latter, passing by the Arnon, came immediately at the north of it in contact with the Amorites. Here they could no longer make a circuit around; for their course to the

Promised Land lay directly through the territory of these people. They could have little hope of being allowed an easy transit through this region; for the Amorites were themselves a nation of aggressors, accustomed to the use of arms, were a conquering people, and had lately come into the possession of this territory.' They would consequently have the jealousy of new possessors, and would look with double suspicion upon the Israelites, whom they must consider to be a nation of invaders. The Amorites had originally occupied the hilly country about Hebron, where they were among the earliest settlers: but increasing in numbers and attracted by the rich lands east of the Jordan, they had crossed that stream and made war upon the Moabites, whose territory at that time extended beyond the Arnon on the north, as far even as the Jabbok and the mountains of Gilead. These occupants were driven back behind the narrow limits south of the Arnon, and the invaders under Sihon their king had full and quiet possession of the conquered country. In this condition the Israelites found. them. It was necessary to pass through their territory in order to reach the Jordan. Heshbon, their capital, was about twenty miles north of the Arnon and fifteen eastward from the Jordan, and was built on a hill commanding a view over this high table-land.

The Israelites paused. In the migratory habits of nomads, their company is sometimes scattered for many miles over hill and plain, but their scouts always give quick warning of danger, and they are soon gathered into a small compass and prepared for a defence. There was no need of scouts here or of haste in putting themselves in a defensive attitude, for all had known that there was probably danger before them, and that blood might soon be shed.

Moses sent a respectful and very peaceable message to

1 See Num. xxi. 26-30.

2 Gen. x. 16.