Jewish writers, there could have been no ancient country better provided with wide and commodious roads for messengers and travellers. All these roads, which, from the manner in which the cities were dispersed, must have intersected the country in all directions, were kept wide, level, dry, and plain, with convenient bridges over rivers, with posts, the indications on which, directing travellers from place to place, were so plainly written that those who ran might read;1 and with every possible contrivance for rendering travelling as easy and expeditious as possible. It is not unlikely that traces of those ancient ways still exist in the well-made roads which travellers sometimes fall in with in parts now forsaken, and which, in ignorance of these circumstances, they set down for Roman roads. The utmost care was bestowed on this matter by the local authorities, because it was deemed that the nearest town or village incurred the burden of blood-guiltiness, if, through any obstruction upon the road, the course of the fugitive manslayer were so retarded as to enable the avenger of blood (goel) to overtake him and wreak his vengeance upon him.

Although the use of swift camels (dromedaries) is difficult in the present state of the country, they might well be used on such roads as these; and in the absence of saddle-horses, which were not at this time in use, they might be, and doubtless were, employed on extraordinary occasions like this; and those of the right breed, trained for the saddle, travelling without baggage, and with only a single rider, have been known to go as much as two hundred miles in twenty-four hours. We may be sure that no available means of expediting the message were neglected; and if dromedaries were at all known in Palestine, as they were, and if the state of the roads allowed of their being used, as was the case, there can be no doubt that they were employed; and by these means the summons might be transmitted to the uttermost parts of the land in an incredibly shorter space of time than has been imagined.

Again, throughout the East there are trained runners who

1 The Jews think there is an allusion to this custom in the phrase in Hab. ii. 2, 'Make it plain, that he may run that readeth it.'

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can for a long time accompany a horse at full speed, and who do habitually attend on foot the princes and great men when they ride out. There were doubtless such men in Israel, for in the next generation we find men employed to run before Absalom's chariot; and how much this accomplishment of swift running was valued and cultivated, even among young men of station in Israel, for the sake of the swift transmission of intelligence in time of war, is seen in the case of Ahimaaz, the son of the high priest Zadok; of Cushi,2 and of Asahel, king David's nephew, who was light of foot as a wild roe.' It is quite likely that the message would be taken from town to town by such swift runners in turn, one after another, until it reached the utmost limits of the land.

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There is yet another resource, which there is much reason to suppose was employed on this, as we know that it was on many other occasions. It is very possible that the alarm, or summons for a general armament, was conveyed by beacons, or fiery signals kindled upon the tops of the hills; so that when the human messengers arrived, they would find the people ready assembled in arms at the several towns of their tribes in which they were wont to congregate on such occasions. Such signals were particularly available in Canaan, by reason of the mountainous nature of the country, and by the absence of any plains of great extent in which no eminences occur. By this means the call to arms, transmitted from post to post, would reach the utmost bounds of the land in the course of a few hours. These beacons are often mentioned by the prophets, and were in use not only among the Hebrews, but among all nations inhabiting hilly countries; and being easily perceived at a vast distance from each other, especially in the night-time, and being moreover distinguished by some well-known differences, according to the notice or order intended to be conveyed, were immediately answered by the sound of the trumpet in the valleys below. By such means not a city or village, whether in a low

2 2 Sam. xviii. 19-31.

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1 2 Sam. xv. I. 2 Sam. ii. 18. 4 See, inter alia, Isa. v. 26, xi. 10 seq., xiii. 2, xviii. 3, xxx. 17, xlix. 22, lxii. 10; Jer. 1. 2, li. 27; Zech. ix. 16.

or high situation, but would in less than the space of one night be roused by the general alarm, and receive some intimation of its object, either from the nature of the signal, or from the difference in the sound of the trumpets. When, therefore, the signal was for a general armament, all men able to bear arms were bound to repair at once, with weapons and provisions, to their respective standards, where they put themselves under the orders of their tribal commanders, and were mustered by the chiefs or captains of hundreds, of thousands, and at last by the chief or prince of the tribe, after which they had only to await orders from the king or general-in-chief, as to when they were to commence their march, and to what point their course was to be directed.

It will thus be seen that the couriers, bearing the parts of the oxen, and charged with the urgent mandate of the king, had only to repair to the places known to be those where the several tribes usually assembled within their own territories, where they would find them under arms, ready to march, and awaiting the orders which they brought. This statement incidentally meets the puerile objection of some, that the two oxen must have been cut up into mince-meat, in order that a small portion might be sent to all the towns and villages of Israel; and we can see that if, as Josephus affirms, the legs only of the animals were thus employed, these would have sufficed. In confirmation of this view it may be observed, that the Levite separated the dead body of his concubine into twelve parts, one for each of the tribes of Israel. This was all that he felt to be necessary, and doubtless all that was required now; and assuredly for the same reason that each portion was sent direct to the place which was recognised as the centre of union in each of the tribes.

It would seem, from the Biblical narrative, that while the elders of Jabesh-gilead asked seven days' respite to send messengers 'unto all the coasts of Israel,' in reality they sent immediately and directly to Benjamin. It was natural they should do so, because they had doubtless heard of the election of Saul; and, besides,

they were closely related to the Benjamites. Saul himself may have sprung from one of the daughters of Jabesh (Judg. xx.). The ties of blood were felt; and outraged family feeling may have served to awaken his spirit. It does seem a remarkable coincidence, that the relief of Jabesh should have been the first triumph of the young Benjamite warrior. The people of Jabesh never forgot their deliverance, and their debt of gratitude to Saul. When his headless trunk hung dishonoured on the walls of Bethshean, the men of Jabesh, at the risk of their lives, rescued and buried it; and when the family of the fallen monarch was driven from home and country, they found an asylum among the fastnesses of Gilead.

Thirty-first Week—Fifth Day.

RELIEF OF JABESH-GILEAD.—I SAMUEL XI. 9–15.

THE objections which have been urged to the raising and bringing into action of so large an army in so short a time, have, we trust, been satisfactorily disposed of. But there remain other objections, as to the final movement and result, which likewise deserve our attention.

The objections against the probability of the respite granted by the Ammonites to the besieged, have been also considered; but it has, moreover, been urged as altogether unlikely that king Nahash would, during the interval of respite, keep so bad a look-out, as to remain wholly in ignorance of what was passing on the other side the Jordan, and to suffer his camp to be surprised and surrounded by Saul and his army, on the very morning of the day on which he expected the city to be delivered up to him. Surprising and uncommon, however, as this oversight may appear, we meet with similar instances of apparent neglect, not only in sacred and ancient history, but even among modern and warlike nations. It was the maxim of the greatest of modern generals, never to despise an enemy; and most of the failures of this kind have arisen from inattention to this principle. There is the remarkable instance of the French general Count Tallard, who, when he might easily have opposed

the confederate army under Marlborough, and prevented them from passing the Rhine to come at him, yet suffered them to cross that rapid river unmolested; alleging, that the more that came over, the more there would be to be killed or taken : the consequence of which egregious oversight was the total defeat of the French army at Hochstadt, the taking of their insolent general prisoner, with a prodigious number of other officers of distinction, and the preservation of the German empire from the impending danger. How much Nahash despised the Israelites, has already been indicated; and supposing him apprised of their movements, the probability is that he would, under the influence of such feelings, keep his army in its cantonments till the enemy came up, without taking the trouble of meeting them, or of resisting their passage of the Jordan.

Considering the strange neglect of ancient armies, and indeed of modern oriental armies, in sending out scouts for intelligence, in maintaining advanced picquets, and in keeping strict watch-of which neglect we have many examples in Scripture-it does not appear to us by any means incredible, that the Ammonites were unapprised of these movements among the Israelites. But without taking advantage of this resource, and again supposing that they did know that the Israelites were bestirring themselves west of the Jordan, it is more probable, considering the shortness of the time, that they supposed all this movement was intended to resist their further progress into Palestine, than that it was destined for the relief of the besieged. And further, whatever martial precautions they may have taken, yet several seemingly accidental circumstances, such as often occur in warfare, may, through the policy of the Hebrew monarch, have rendered them ineffectual, if not indeed contributory to that fatal security and indolence which their contempt of the enemy was calculated to induce. It is quite likely that Saul and some of the tribes might take advantage of their proximity to the place of rendezvous, to secure all the passes and defiles leading from the Jordan to the enemy's camp, and thereby intercept all intelligence of his approach from reaching them, and they would think themselves.