A SERIES OF WORKS FROM THE SACRED SCRIPTURES PRESENTED 6271 Bible OT.THE, JUDGES.&h EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A. (CAMB.), PH.D. (PENN.) PROFESSOR OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped September, 1896. Reprinted December, Raglass 7-16-29 NXP Rocat. 12 Feb.21. EH.W. INTRODUCTION THIS third volume of Bible history is devoted to the Great Transition in the history of the People of Israel. Hitherto this people of the invisible Jehovah have stood out from the other nations of the world as a nation with an invisible king. Henceforward they will be found assimilated in the form of their government to other peoples; in theory God is still their ruler, but the visible representatives of Jehovah are no longer men raised up by a spiritual call, but 'kings' succeeding by natural descent. The intervening period then presents the Chosen Nation in its efforts towards Secular Government. I have called this volume 'The Judges': in the title of this office we have the history in embryo. It is the most general of biblical terms for a ruler, and may be applied to government of different types. As the judges are raised up from time to time by the Divine authority, the name reflects the office of the prophets. On the other hand, the function for which the judges are required is the more or less complete union of the nation for purposes of national defence; and this was the basis of the popular demand for kings: "We will have a king over us; that we also V 62722 may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." This third part of the history covers three books. Book five is concerned with the Conquest of Canaan. In spirit it is a continuation of what has preceded; Joshua is a second Moses. He wields an authority not inferior to that of his predecessor: All that thou hast commanded us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. The passage of the Jordan is a counterpart to the passage of the Red Rea. The 'Doomsday Book,' as it has well been called, occupying ten chapters of Joshua, carries on the documentary legislation of the Exodus. And the Farewell of Joshua, and the covenant which he inaugurates, are an echo of the successive appeals of Moses, and the covenants in the land of Moab, which constitute the Book of Deuteronomy. It is in the sixth book that the character of the period becomes apparent — a Succession of Judges. Isolated stories describe these officers raised up in times of national emergency, and wielding an undefined authority as long as they live. The intervals between are conveyed by the characteristic formula that there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own |