CHAPTER XI

PEOPLES AND GODS IN THE JUDGES PERIOD

The first experiences of the Israelites in Canaan. The age of the Judges, or shophetim,' extends from the Israelite invasion of the land up to the founding of the monarchy under Saul. Our chief source of information for this long stretch of time is the Book of Judges and the first eight chapters of I Samuel. This interesting period of history was a time of martial deeds and thrilling adventures. An atmosphere of romance hangs over it such as we find in the early tales of Rome, the Sagas of the Norsemen, and the Iliad of the Greeks. The figures of mighty heroes loom before us-Barak and Gideon and Jephthah and Samson and "Samuel. Great men move to and fro through the shadows of that early era; and we feel the spell of its fascination as we turn the pages of the Bible story.

Certain historical factors are projected into sharp relief in the Judges period, the Israelites and Yahweh; the Amorites and the Baals. On the one side are the Israelite clans, in the hillcountry and extending out in the direction of the wilderness on the east and south. On the other side are the Amorites, chiefly in the lowlands, holding the strong, fortified cities and the adjacent villages and fields. These two peoples lived in proximity for some time before they came under the cover of one political roof and melted into the social organism of the Hebrew nation.

In the same way, the cults of these two peoples were entirely distinct at the outset. The worship of Yahweh was identified

1 Pronounced, sho-fet-eem. The final syllable is the masculine plural, and takes the accent. Compare "cherub" and "cherubim."

with the Israelites and their social usages. Likewise, the worship of the Baals was identified with the Amorites and their usages, having been practiced in the land of Canaan time out of mind. In brief, just as there was a distinction between the two peoples in the early history, so there was an equally sharp distinction between their gods.

Hostility between Yahweh and Baal is connected with antagonism between Israelite and Amorite.-"Ye shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell" (Judg. 6:10). The characteristic warfare between religious worships in the Bible is not between that of Yahweh and that of the Babylonian Marduk, or the Egyptian Amon, or the Assyrian Ashur. On the contrary, as everyone will remember who has read the Bible carefully, the great, outstanding struggle is between Yahweh and the neighboring Baals. Now these deities are precisely the gods of the races that were brought into hostile contact by the Israelite invasion of Canaan. "The contest with the Canaanite religion," as Marti says, "naturally played an important part in the struggle for the possession of the country." First and last, the Baals are the divinities against which the champions of Yahweh spend their force. The local Baals of Canaan are, so to speak, the villains in the mighty drama of the Bible. The term Baal, in fact, becomes a characteristic mark of antagonism to Yahweh; and it survives in the New Testament and in Christian theology in the name of God's great adversary, Beelzebub, "the prince of devils.'

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The Book of Judges unrolls a dramatic picture before us: Two races are on the stage. Two series of hostile social groups are placed over against each other in the same small territory

1 Marti, The Religion of the Old Testament (London, 1907), p. 98.

2 Cf. Matt. 10:25; 12:24, 27; Mark 3:22; Luke 16:15, 18, 19. Baal-zebub was god of the Philistine city of Ekron, adjacent to Israelite territory. Cf. II Kings 1:2, 3, 6, 16. The Philistines were active enemies of Israel for many years. We cannot discover by what obscure association of ideas this particular Baal condensed within himself the leadership in the "opposition" to Yahweh.

-the one chiefly in the highlands; the other chiefly in the lowlands. At that period of human history, politics and religion were closely connected. Church and State were simply the obverse and reverse aspects of the same thing. The gods were looked upon as members of the social groups that worshiped them; and in all matters of importance the gods were consulted by casting lots or otherwise. In view of this intimacy between religion and politics, the hostility of social groups against each other drew along with it the antagonism of the respective gods. Herein we find one of the sources of the idea of "war between the gods." In the light of this consideration, the meaning of the title the "Book of the Wars of Yahweh" is not mysterious (Num. 21:14). For the battles of Israel are actually called "Yahweh's battles" (I Sam. 18:17; 25:28). In harmony with this principle, during the wars between Rome and Carthage, Hannibal the Carthaginian stood before the altar of his ancestral god and swore eternal hatred for the people and the gods of Rome. In the story of David and Goliath, we read that the Philistine cursed David by his gods; while David replied that he came in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the god of the armies of Israel. Thus we see that there is nothing unusual about the mere idea of rivalry, or antagonism, between Yahweh and the Baals as involved in the hostility between Israelites and Amorites. This, however, is only a small part of the story; for these gods already symbolized the clashing standpoints of nomadism and civilization."

The Israelites may possibly have had memories of a reaction against the gods and the usages of Egypt; but our best point of departure in the present study is the Judges period, which lies more clearly in the light of history than the far-away times contemplated by the Hexateuch. In any case, we begin with cultural and military antagonism between social groups. The references to Egypt in the earlier narratives of the Old Testament are scanty and uncertain. The Egyptian bondage is discussed only in later documents, such as those of Exodus, which are heavily encrusted with miracle (cf. chap. iv, “The Making of the Old Testament"). We have already seen that the Hexateuch views the origin of the Hebrew nation, and the Israelite conquest of Canaan, out of their true historical relations (cf. chap. ii).

The Yahweh-Baal conflict in the Judges period stands in isolation from the later, "prophetic" struggle against Baal worship.— The clash between the cults of Yahweh and the Baals is noticed widely throughout the Old Testament; but at this early point in our study, it becomes our duty to emphasize that the references to the struggle have a peculiar distribution corresponding to the peculiar national experience around which the Bible turns.

Thus, a number of passages occur in the Book of Judges, and the opening chapters of I Samuel, with reference to Israelite reaction against the cults of the Amorites. These passages begin with Judg. 2: 11, and end with I Sam. 7:4. While they admit the compromise of Israel with the cults of the Baals, they put stress upon the rejection of Baalism by the Israelites. According to the final notice in the series, the children of Israel put away the Baals and served Yahweh only. It should be emphasized that all these passages refer to the period before the Israelites and Amorites united to form the Hebrew nation. Having laid stress upon this fact, the importance of which will become clear as our study proceeds, we go on to point out another equally striking consideration. And this is, that setting out from the last of the notices referred to (I Sam. 7:4), we read forward in Samuel and Kings through an expanse of two thousand verses, representing a period of about two centuries, in which there is no reference to the gods of the Amorites. At the end of this period, the prophet Elijah suddenly comes before King Ahab, saying, "Thou hast followed the Baals" (I Kings 18:18). A little farther on we read that Ahab "did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did" (I Kings 21:26). From this point onward in Kings we hear a great deal about the Yahweh-Baal struggle. It may be asked now, Upon what principle is this peculiar distribution of notices determined? This question will go with us.

In the meanwhile, stepping outside the Judges-SamuelKings narratives, we find equally striking facts in the writings of the prophets who came after Elijah. This great prophet was followed in the next century (the eighth) by Hosea, who also worked in the Northern Kingdom; and the book ascribed to Hosea puts the opposition between Yahweh and the Baals into the foreground of its treatment. On the other hand, the books of Amos, Micah, and Isaiah (prophets who lived in Judah, the Southern Kingdom, during the same century with Hosea) have nothing to say about the Baals! But coming down to Jeremiah, who worked in Judah in the seventh and sixth centuries, we find the same stress upon the Baals that appears in Hosea! What is the basis of these phenomena ? Is it a mere matter of individual genius? or does it stand in the historical situation? This question is an item in the problem raised by the distribution of Baal-emphasis in the Judges-Samuel-Kings documents.'

The Deuteronomic view of the Yahweh-Baal conflict in the Judges period. According to the Deuteronomic editor, whose hand is visible in the Book of Judges and as far as I Sam. 7:4, the early history of Israel was marked by repeated compromise with Amorite Baalism, followed in each case by sharp reaction against it. Upon this view, the pre-national experience of Israel in Canaan resolved itself into recurring cycles which are described in a general way by the Deuteronomist as follows: (1) Baalism

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals. And they forsook Yahweh, the god of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them (Judg. 2:11 f.).

The Book of Deuteronomy is intensely preoccupied with the struggle of Yahweh against "other gods"; and it scarcely uses the term Baal. Nevertheless, as the context shows, it is the local gods of the Amorites that are chiefly in the writer's mind. See Deut. 6:14, 15, and 12:2, 3, 29–31, and 31:16. We shall recur to Deuteronomy in a later part of our study.