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diff --git a/43847.txt b/43847.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a94a614..0000000 --- a/43847.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15159 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The Book of the -Twelve Prophets, Vol. I, by George Adam Smith - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Expositor's Bible: The Book of the Twelve Prophets, Vol. I - Commonly Called the Minor - -Author: George Adam Smith - -Release Date: September 29, 2013 [EBook #43847] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: 12 PROPHETS, VOL I *** - - - - -Produced by Douglas L. Alley, III, Colin Bell and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE. Edited by Rev. - - W. R. NICOLL, D.D., Editor of _London Expositor_. - - - 1ST SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =MACLAREN, Rev. Alex.=--COLOSSIANS--PHILEMON. - =DODS, Rev. Marcus.=--GENESIS. - =CHADWICK, Rev. Dean.=--ST. MARK. - =BLAIKIE, Rev. W. G.=--SAMUEL, 2 VOLS. - =EDWARDS, Rev. T. C.=--HEBREWS. - - - 2D SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =SMITH, Rev. G. A.=--ISAIAH, VOL. I. - =ALEXANDER, Bishop.=--EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. - =PLUMMER, Rev. A.=--PASTORAL EPISTLES. - =FINDLAY, Rev. G. G.=--GALATIANS. - =MILLIGAN, Rev. W.=--REVELATION. - =DODS, Rev. Marcus.=--1ST CORINTHIANS. - - - 3D SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =SMITH, Rev. G. A.=--ISAIAH, VOL. II. - =GIBSON, Rev. J. M.=--ST. MATTHEW. - =WATSON, Rev. R. A.=--JUDGES--RUTH. - =BALL, Rev. C. J.=--JEREMIAH. CHAP. I-XX. - =CHADWICK, Rev. Dean.=--EXODUS. - =BURTON, Rev. H.=--ST. LUKE. - - - 4TH SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =KELLOGG, Rev. S. H.=--LEVITICUS. - =STOKES, Rev. G. T.=--ACTS, VOL. I. - =HORTON, Rev. R. F.=--PROVERBS. - =DODS, Rev. Marcus.=--GOSPEL ST. JOHN, VOL. I. - =PLUMMER, Rev. A.=--JAMES--JUDE. - =COX, Rev. S.=--ECCLESIASTES. - - - 5TH SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =DENNEY, Rev. J.=--THESSALONIANS. - =WATSON, Rev. R. A.=--JOB. - =MACLAREN, Rev. A.=--PSALMS, VOL. I. - =STOKES, Rev. G. T.=--ACTS, VOL. II. - =DODS, Rev. Marcus.=--GOSPEL ST. JOHN, VOL. II. - =FINDLAY, Rev. C. G.=--EPHESIANS. - - - 6TH SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =RAINY, Rev. R.=--PHILIPPIANS. - =FARRAR, Archdeacon F. W.=--1ST KINGS. - =BLAIKIE, Rev. W. G.=--JOSHUA. - =MACLAREN, Rev. A.=--PSALMS, VOL. II. - =LUMBY, Rev, J. R.=--EPISTLES OF ST. PETER. - =ADENEY, Rev. W. F.=--EZRA--NEHEMIAH--ESTHER. - - - 7TH SERIES IN 6 VOLS. - - =MOULE, Rev. H. C. G.=--ROMANS. - =FARRAR, Archdeacon F. W.=--2D KINGS. - =BENNETT, Rev. W. H.=--1ST AND 2D CHRONICLES. - =MACLAREN, Rev. A.=--PSALMS, VOL. III. - =DENNEY, Rev. James.=--2D CORINTHIANS. - =WATSON Rev. R. A.=--NUMBERS. - - - 8TH AND FINAL SERIES IN 7 VOLS. - - =FARRAR, Archdeacon F. W.=--DANIEL. - =SKINNER, Rev. John.=--EZEKIEL. - =BENNETT, Rev. W. H.=--JEREMIAH. - =HARPER, Rev. Prof.=--DEUTERONOMY. - =ADENEY, Rev. W. F.=--SOLOMON AND LAMENTATIONS. - =SMITH, Rev. G. A.=--THE MINOR PROPHETS, 2 VOLS. - - -About 400 pages in each Volume. Price for either series, six volumes -$6.06. (Orders for 2 or more series at same rate will be sent by -Express. prepaid.) (Separate vols. $1.50 postpaid. Descriptive -circular sent on application.) - - - - - THE BOOK - - OF - - THE TWELVE PROPHETS - - COMMONLY CALLED THE MINOR - - - - - BY - - GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D., LL.D. - - PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS - - FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW - - - - - _IN TWO VOLUMES_ - - VOL. I.--AMOS, HOSEA AND MICAH - - _WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND A SKETCH OF PROPHECY - IN EARLY ISRAEL_ - - - - - NEW YORK - - A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON - - 3 and 5 West Eighteenth Street - - London: Hodder and Stoughton - - 1906 - - - - - TO - HENRY DRUMMOND - - - - - PREFACE - - -The Prophets, to whom this and a following volume are dedicated, -have, to our loss, been haunted for centuries by a peddling and an -ambiguous title. Their Twelve Books are in size smaller than those -of the great Three which precede them, and doubtless none of their -chapters soar so high as the brilliant summits to which we are swept -by Isaiah and the Prophet of the Exile. But in every other respect -they are undeserving of the niggardly name of "Minor." Two of them, -Amos and Hosea, were the first of all prophecy--rising cliff-like, -with a sheer and magnificent originality, to a height and a mass -sufficient to set after them the trend and slope of the whole -prophetic range. The Twelve together cover the extent of that range, -and illustrate the development of prophecy at almost every stage from -the eighth century to the fourth. Yet even more than in the case of -Isaiah or Jeremiah, the Church has been content to use a passage -here and a passage there, leaving the rest of the books to absolute -neglect or the almost equal oblivion of routine-reading. Among the -causes of this disuse have been the more than usually corrupt state -of the text; the consequent disorder and in parts unintelligibleness -of all the versions; the ignorance of the various historical -circumstances out of which the books arose; the absence of successful -efforts to determine the periods and strophes, the dramatic dialogues -(with the names of the speakers), the lyric effusions and the -passages of argument, of all of which the books are composed. - -The following exposition is an attempt to assist the bettering of all -this. As the Twelve Prophets illustrate among them the whole history -of written prophecy, I have thought it useful to prefix a historical -sketch of the Prophet in early Israel, or as far as the appearance of -Amos. The Twelve are then taken in chronological order. Under each -of them a chapter is given of historical and critical introduction -to his book; then some account of the prophet himself as a man and a -seer; then a complete translation of the various prophecies handed -down under his name, with textual footnotes, and an exposition and -application to the present day in harmony with the aim of the series -to which these volumes belong; finally, a discussion of the main -doctrines the prophet has taught, if it has not been found possible -to deal with these in the course of the exposition. - - * * * * * - -An exact critical study of the Twelve Prophets is rendered necessary -by the state of the entire text. The present volume is based on a -thorough examination of this in the light of the ancient versions and -of modern criticism. The emendations which I have proposed are few -and insignificant, but I have examined and discussed in footnotes all -that have been suggested, and in many cases my translation will be -found to differ widely from that of the Revised Version. To questions -of integrity and authenticity more space is devoted than may seem to -many to be necessary. But it is certain that the criticism of the -prophetic books has now entered on a period of the same analysis -and discrimination which is almost exhausted in the case of the -Pentateuch. Some hints were given of this in a previous volume on -Isaiah, chapters xl.-lxvi., which are evidently a composite work. -Among the books now before us, the same fact has long been clear -in the case of Obadiah and Zechariah, and also since Ewald's time -with regard to Micah. But Duhm's _Theology of the Prophets_, which -appeared in 1875, suggested interpolations in Amos. Wellhausen (in -1873) and Stade (from 1883 onwards) carried the discussion further -both on those, and others, of the Twelve; while a recent work by -Andree on Haggai proves that many similar questions may still be -raised and have to be debated. The general fact must be admitted -that hardly one book has escaped later additions--additions of an -entirely justifiable nature, which supplement the point of view of -a single prophet with the richer experience or the riper hopes of a -later day, and thus afford to ourselves a more catholic presentment -of the doctrines of prophecy and the Divine purposes for mankind. -This general fact, I say, must be admitted. But the questions of -detail are still in process of solution. It is obvious that settled -results can be reached (as to some extent they have been already -reached in the criticism of the Pentateuch) only after years of -research and debate by all schools of critics. Meantime it is the -duty of each of us to offer his own conclusions, with regard to every -separate passage, on the understanding that, however final they may -at present seem to him, the end is not yet. In previous criticism -the defects, of which work in the same field has made me aware, are -four: 1. A too rigid belief in the exact parallelism and symmetry of -the prophetic style, which I feel has led, for instance, Wellhausen, -to whom we otherwise owe so much on the Twelve Prophets, into many -unnecessary emendations of the text, or, where some amendment is -necessary, to absolutely unprovable changes. 2. In passages between -which no connection exists, the forgetfulness of the principle -that this fact may often be explained as justly by the hypothesis -of the omission of some words, as by the favourite theory of the -later intrusion of portions of the extant text. 3. Forgetfulness of -the possibility, which in some cases amounts almost to certainty, -of the incorporation, among the authentic words of a prophet, of -passages of earlier as well as of later date. And, 4. depreciation -of the spiritual insight and foresight of pre-exilic writers. These, -I am persuaded, are defects in previous criticism of the prophets. -Probably my own criticism will reveal many more. In the beginnings -of such analysis as we are engaged on, we must be prepared for -not a little arbitrariness and want of proportion; these are often -necessary for insight and fresh points of view, but they are as -easily eliminated by the progress of discussion. - - * * * * * - -All criticism, however, is preliminary to the real work which the -immortal prophets demand from scholars and preachers in our age. In -a review of a previous volume, I was blamed for applying a prophecy -of Isaiah to a problem of our own day. This was called "prostituting -prophecy." _The_ prostitution of the prophets is their confinement to -academic uses. One cannot conceive an ending, at once more pathetic -and more ridiculous, to those great streams of living water, than to -allow them to run out in the sands of criticism and exegesis, however -golden these sands may be. The prophets spoke for a practical purpose; -they aimed at the hearts of men; and everything that scholarship can -do for their writings has surely for its final aim the illustration -of their witness to the ways of God with men, and its application to -living questions and duties and hopes. Besides, therefore, seeking to -tell the story of that wonderful stage in the history of the human -spirit--surely next in wonder to the story of Christ Himself--I have -not feared at every suitable point to apply its truths to our lives -to-day. The civilisation in which prophecy flourished was in its -essentials marvellously like our own. To mark only one point, the rise -of prophecy in Israel came fast upon the passage of the nation from an -agricultural to a commercial basis of society, and upon the appearance -of the very thing which gives its name to civilisation--city-life, -with its unchanging sins, problems and ideals. - -A recent Dutch critic, whose exact scholarship is known to all -readers of Stade's _Journal of Old Testament Science_, has said of -Amos and Hosea: "These prophecies have a word of God, as for all -times, so also especially for our own. Before all it is relevant to -'the social question' of our day, to the relation of religion and -morality.... Often it has been hard for me to refrain from expressly -pointing out the agreement between Then and To-day."[1] This -feeling will be shared by all students of prophecy whose minds and -consciences are quick; and I welcome the liberal plan of the series -in which this volume appears, because, while giving room for the -adequate discussion of critical and historical questions, its chief -design is to show the eternal validity of the Books of the Bible as -the Word of God, and their meaning for ourselves to-day. - - * * * * * - -Previous works on the Minor Prophets are almost innumerable. Those -to which I owe most will be found indicated in the footnotes. The -translation has been executed upon the purpose, not to sacrifice the -literal meaning or exact emphasis of the original to the frequent -possibility of greater elegance. It reproduces every word, with -the occasional exception of a copula. With some hesitation I have -retained the traditional spelling of the Divine Name, Jehovah, -instead of the more correct Jahve or Yahweh; but where the rhythm -of certain familiar passages was disturbed by it, I have followed -the English versions and written Lord. The reader will keep in mind -that a line may be destroyed by substituting our pronunciation of -proper names for the more musical accents of the original. Thus, -for instance, we obliterate the music of "Isra'el" by making it two -syllables and putting the accent on the first: it has three syllables -with the accent on the last. We crush Yerushalayim into Jerusalem; -we shred off Asshur into Assyria, and dub Misraim Egypt. Hebrew has -too few of the combinations which sound most musical to our ears, to -afford the suppression of any one of them. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[1] J. J. P. Valeton, jun., _Amos en Hosea_, 1894: quoted by Budde in -the _Theologische Literaturzeitung_, September, 1894. - - - - - CONTENTS OF VOL. I. - - - PAGE - - PREFACE vii - - CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 1 - - _INTRODUCTION_ - - CHAP. - - I. THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE 3 - - II. THE PROPHET IN EARLY ISRAEL 11 - - 1. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TILL SAMUEL. - 2. FROM SAMUEL TO ELISHA. - - III. THE EIGHTH CENTURY IN ISRAEL 31 - - IV. THE INFLUENCE OF ASSYRIA UPON PROPHECY 44 - - - _AMOS_ - - V. THE BOOK OF AMOS 61 - - VI. THE MAN AND THE PROPHET 73 - - 1. THE MAN AND HIS DISCIPLINE - (i. 1; iii. 3-8; vii. 14, 15). - 2. THE WORD AND ITS ORIGINS - (i. 2; iii. 3-8; and _passim_). - 3. THE PROPHET AND HIS MINISTRY - (vii.; viii. 1-4). - - VII. ATROCITIES AND ATROCITIES 121 - - AMOS i. 3-ii. - - VIII. CIVILISATION AND JUDGMENT 141 - - AMOS iii.-iv. 3. - - IX. THE FALSE PEACE OF RITUAL 156 - - AMOS iv. 4-vi. - - 1. FOR WORSHIP, CHASTISEMENT - (iv. 4-13). - 2. FOR WORSHIP, JUSTICE (v.). - 3. "AT EASE IN ZION" (vi.). - 4. A FRAGMENT FROM THE PLAGUE - (vi. 9, 10). - - X. DOOM OR DISCIPLINE? 181 - - AMOS viii. 4-ix. - - 1. EARTHQUAKE, ECLIPSE AND FAMINE - (viii. 4-14). - 2. NEMESIS (ix. 1-6). - 3. THE VOICES OF ANOTHER DAWN - (ix. 7-15). - - XI. COMMON-SENSE AND THE REIGN OF LAW 196 - - AMOS iii. 3-8; iv. 6-13; v. 8, 9; - vi. 12; viii. 8; ix. 5, 6. - - - _HOSEA_ - - XII. THE BOOK OF HOSEA 211 - - XIII. THE PROBLEM THAT AMOS LEFT 227 - - XIV. THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL WIFE 232 - - HOSEA i.-iii. - - XV. THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL 253 - - HOSEA iv.-xiv. - - XVI. A PEOPLE IN DECAY: I. MORALLY 255 - - HOSEA iv.-vii. 7. - - 1. THE LORD'S QUARREL WITH ISRAEL - (iv.). - 2. PRIESTS AND PRINCES FAIL - (v. 1-14). - 3. REPENTANCE FAILS - (v. 15-vii. 2). - 4. WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES - (vii. 3-7). - - XVII. A PEOPLE IN DECAY: II. POLITICALLY 269 - - HOSEA vii. 8-x. - - 1. THE CONFUSION OF THE NATION - (vii. 8-viii. 3). - 2. ARTIFICIAL KINGS AND ARTIFICIAL - GODS (viii. 4-13). - 3. THE EFFECTS OF EXILE - (ix. 1-9). - 4. "THE CORRUPTION THAT IS THROUGH - LUST" (ix. 10-17). - 5. ONCE MORE: PUPPET-KINGS AND - PUPPET-GODS (x.). - - XVIII. THE FATHERHOOD AND HUMANITY OF GOD 290 - - HOSEA xi. - - XIX. THE FINAL ARGUMENT 299 - - HOSEA xii.-xiv. 1. - - 1. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR FATHER - JACOB (xii.). - 2. THE LAST JUDGMENT - (xiii.-xiv. 1). - - XX. "I WILL BE AS THE DEW" 308 - - HOSEA xiv. 2-10. - - XXI. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 318 - - HOSEA _passim_. - - XXII. REPENTANCE 333 - - HOSEA _passim_. - - XXIII. THE SIN AGAINST LOVE 346 - - HOSEA i.-iii.; iv. 11 ff.; - ix. 10 ff.; xi. 8 f. - - - _MICAH_ - - XXIV. THE BOOK OF MICAH 357 - - XXV. MICAH THE MORASTHITE 375 - - MICAH i. - - XXVI. THE PROPHET OF THE POOR 386 - - MICAH ii., iii. - - XXVII. ON TIME'S HORIZON 400 - - MICAH iv. 1-7. - - XXVIII. THE KING TO COME 408 - - MICAH iv. 8-v. - - XXIX. THE REASONABLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION 419 - - MICAH vi. 1-8. - - XXX. THE SIN OF THE SCANT MEASURE 426 - - MICAH vi. 9-vii. 6. - - XXXI. OUR MOTHER OF SORROWS 435 - - MICAH vii. 7-20. - - - INDEX OF PASSAGES AND TEXTS 439 - - CHRONOLOGY OF THE DOUBLE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL, _c._ 940-639 B.C. - -*** _c._ = _circa_: it refers only to the accession of the kings of -Judah and Israel; the years are exact so far as they concern the -Assyrian data. A date opposite the mere name of a king signifies the -year of his accession. - - -------+-------------+-----------------+---------+------------------------------+-----------------------+----- - | JUDAH. | ISRAEL. | THE | SYRIA, ETC. | ASSYRIA. | - | | |PROPHETS.| | | - -------+-------------+-----------------+---------+------------------------------+-----------------------+----- - 940_c._|Disruption of the Kingdom. | | | | - |Rehoboam. |Jeroboam I. | | | | - | |Establishment of | | | | - | | calf images in | | | | - | | N. Israel. | | | | - 923_c._|Abijam. | | | | | - 920_c._|Asa. | | | | | - 918_c._| ... |Nadab. | | | | - 915_c._| ... |Baasha. | | | | - 891_c._| ... |Elah. | | | | - 888_c._| ... |Zimri. Omri. | | | | - 876_c._| ... |Ahab. |} | Revolt of Mesha of Moab: the | | - 874_c._|Jehoshaphat. | ... |} Elijah.| Moabite Stone (_circa_ 860).| | - 854 | ... |First contact of |} | Israel and Syria with | Assyria at the Battle | 854 - | | |} | | of Karkar. | - 853_c._| ... |Ahaziah. |}} | | | - 852_c._| ... |Joram. | } | | | - .... | ... | Invades Moab w. | } | | | - | | Judah and Edom. | } | | | - 850 | ... | ... | } ... | }Campaigns in all these 3 yrs| by Shalmaneser II. of |{850 - 849_c._|Jehoram. | ... | } ... | } Assyria against Dadidri or | Hadadezer of Damascus.|{849 - 846 | ... | ... | } ... | }Revolt of Edom from Judah | ... |{846 - 844_c._|Ahaziah. | | } | (2 Kings viii. 20 ff.). | | - 842_c._|Athaliah. |Jehu. | }Elisha.| ... | Tribute from Jehu. | 842 - ... | ... | ... | } ... | War of Hazael with | Assyria. | ... - 839 | ... | ... | } ... | War of Hazael with | Assyria. | 839 - 836_c._|Joash. | ... | } ... | }Hazael subdues Gilead (Amos | ... |{836 - 814_c._| ... |Jehoahaz. | } ... | } i. 3); attacks Gath, but is| ... |{814 - | ... | ... | } ... | } bought off from Jerusalem. | |{ - 812 | ... | ... | } ... | ... | Ac. of Ramman-Nirari. | 812 - 806 | ... | ... | } ... | Arpad, campaign against, by | Assyria. | 806 - 803 | ... | ... | } ... | Damascus, under Meri, besieged and taken by Assyria. | 803 - ... | ... | ... | } ... | A year of pestilence. | ... | ... - 798_c._| ... |Joash. | } | | | - 797_c._|Amaziah. | | | | | - 783_c._| ... |Jeroboam II. | ... | ... | Shalmaneser III. | 783 - 778_c._|Uzziah | | | | | - | (Azariah). | | | | | - 775 | ... |}Jeroboam | ... | ... | Expedition to | - | |}re-conquers | | | Cedar Country. | 775 - 773 | ... |}Moab, Gilead, | ... | Damascus, campaign against, | by Assyria. | 773 - 772 | ... |}and part of | ... | Hadrach, campaign against, | by Assyria. | 772 - 765 | ... |}Aram. | ... | A pestilence. | Ac. of Assur-dan-il. | 765 - | | | | Hadrach, campaign against, | by Assyria. | - 763 |Total eclipse of the sun on June 15th | visible in Syria and at | Nineveh. | 763 - 759 | ... | ... | } ... | A pestilence in Western Asia.| ... | 759 - 755 | ... | ... | } ... | Hadrach suffers attack from | Assyria. | 755 - 754 | ... | ... | } Amos. | Arpad suffers attack from | Assyria. | 754 - 753 | ... | ... | } ... | ... | Ac. of Assur-Nirari. | 753 - 745 | ... | ... | } ... | ... | Accession of | - | | | } | | Tiglath-Pileser III. | 745 - 743 | ... |Zechariah, son of|} ... | } | | 743 - | |Jeroboam (6 mo.).|} ... | } ... | | - | |Shallum (1 mo.). |} ... | } Arpad besieged, and after | two or three years | - | |Menahem. |} Hosea. | } | taken by Assyria. | - 742 | ... | ... |} ... | } | | 742 - 741 | ... | ... |}} ... | } | | 741 - 740 |"The yr King | ... |}} | | | - 736? |Uzziah died."| |}} | | | - |Jotham sole ruler. |}} | | | - 738 | ... |Menahem is |}} | mentioned as tributary to | Assyria. | 738 - 737_c._| |Pekahiah. |}} | | | - 736_c._|Ahaz. |Pekah, the | } | | | - | |Gileadite. | } | [(Isa. vii.).| | - 735 |Ahaz is attacked both by Pekah | } | and by Rezin of Damascus | ... | 735 - 734 | ... |Captivity of Gil-| } | | etc., by Assyria | - | | ead, Galilee, | } | | (Isa. viii., ix.). | 734 - 733 | ... | ... | } ... |Damascus besieged and taken by| Assyria. | 733 - 732 |Ahaz pays homage | } | at Damascus to the King of | Assyria. | 732 - 731 | ... | ... | } ... | ... |Tiglath-Pileser becomes| 731 - 730_c._| ... |Hoshea. | } | | King of Babylon under| - | | | } | | the name of Pul. | - 727_c._|Hezekiah. | ... | }Isaiah.| ... | Shalmaneser IV. | 727 - 725 | ... |Siege of Samaria | } | | begins. | - 722 | ... |Fall of Samaria. | } ... | ... | Sargon takes Samaria. | 722 - or 1 | | | } | | | or 1 - 720 | ... | ... |}} ... | Gaza overthrown by Sargon as he marches past Judah | 720 - or 19 | | |}} | and defeats Egypt at Raphia. |or 19 - 715 | ... |Samaria peopled |}} | |by subjugated tribes | 715 - | | |}} | | deported from Assyria.| - 711 | ... | ... |}} ... | Ashdod taken by | Sargon. | 711 - 709 | ... | ... |}} ... | ... |Sargon takes Babylon | 709 - | | |}} | | from Merodach-Baladan.| - 705 | ... | ... |}} | ... | Death of Sargon. | 705 - | | |}} | | Ac. of Sennacherib. | - 704 | ... | ... |}} ... | ... War | with Merodach-Baladan.| 704 - 701 |Invasion of Judah |}} | and of all Syria | by Sennacherib. | 701 - |Deliverance of Jerusalem. |}} | Siege of Ekron. Battle of | | - | | |} Micah. | Eltekeh. | | - 695 |Manasseh. | ... |} | | | - _c._[2]| | | | | | - 681 | ... | ... | ... | ... | Sennacherib murdered. | 681 - | | | | | Asarhaddon succeeds. | - 678 | ... | ... | ... | Phoenicia subdued by | Asarhaddon. | 678 - 676 |Manasseh |tributary to | | | Assyria. | 676 - 671 | ... | ... | ... | Tyre taken by | Asarhaddon on his | 671 - | | | | march to Egypt, and conquest of Memphis. | - 668 | ... | ... | ... | ... | Assurbanipal. | 668 - 666 |Manasseh |and the | | other Syrian kings | tributary to Assyria. | 666 - 641_c._|Amon. | ... | ... | Tyre assists | Assurbanipal against | 641 - | | | | the Phoenician Arvad. | | - 639_c._|Josiah. | | | | | - -------+-------------+-----------------+---------+------------------------------+-----------------------+----- - - -FOOTNOTE: - -[2] This date is very uncertain. It may have been 690, or according -to some 685. - - - - - _INTRODUCTION_ - - - - - [Greek: Kai ton ib' propheton ta osta - anathaloi ek tou topou auton, - Parekalesan de ton Iakob - kai elytrosanto autous eu pistei elpidos.] - - _And of the Twelve Prophets may the bones_ - _Flourish again from their place,_ - _For they comforted Jacob_ - _And redeemed them by the assurance of hope._ - ECCLESIASTICUS xlix. 10. - - - - - CHAPTER I - - _THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE_ - - -In the order of our English Bible the Minor Prophets, as they are -usually called, form the last twelve books of the Old Testament. -They are immediately preceded by Daniel, and before him by the three -Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah (with Lamentations) and Ezekiel. Why -all sixteen were thus gathered at the end of the other sacred books, -we do not know. Perhaps, because it was held fitting that prophecy -should occupy the last outposts of the Old Testament towards the New. - -In the Hebrew Bible, however, the order differs, and is much more -significant. The Prophets[3] form the second division of the -threefold Canon: Law, Prophets and Writings; and Daniel is not among -them. The Minor follow immediately after Ezekiel. Moreover, they are -not twelve books, but one. They are gathered under the common title -_Book of the Twelve_;[4] and although each of them has the usual -colophon detailing the number of its own verses, there is also -one colophon for all the twelve, placed at the end of Malachi and -reckoning the sum of their verses from the first of Hosea onwards. -This unity, which there is reason to suppose was given to them before -their reception into the Canon,[5] they have never since lost. -However much their place has changed in the order of the books of -the Old Testament, however much their own internal arrangement has -differed, the Twelve have always stood together. There has been every -temptation to scatter them because of their various dates. Yet they -never have been scattered; and in spite of the fact that they have -not preserved their common title in any Bible outside the Hebrew, -that title has lived on in literature and common talk. Thus the Greek -canon omits it; but Greek Jews and Christians always counted the -books as one volume,[6] calling them "The Twelve Prophets," or "The -Twelve-Prophet" Book.[7]. It was the Latins who designated them "The -Minor Prophets": "on account of their brevity as compared with those -who are called the Major because of their ampler volumes."[8] And -this name has passed into most modern languages,[9] including our -own. But surely it is better to revert to the original, canonical -and unambiguous title of "The Twelve." - -The collection and arrangement of "The Twelve" are matters of -obscurity, from which, however, three or four facts emerge that are -tolerably certain. The inseparableness of the books is a proof of the -ancient date of their union. They must have been put together before -they were received into the Canon. The Canon of the Prophets--Joshua -to Second Kings and Isaiah to Malachi--was closed by 200 B.C. at -the latest, and perhaps as early as 250; but if we have (as seems -probable) portions of "The Twelve,"[10] which must be assigned to -a little later than 300, this may be held to prove that the whole -collection cannot have long preceded the fixing of the Canon of the -Prophets. On the other hand, the fact that these latest pieces have -not been placed under a title of their own, but are attached to the -Book of Zechariah, is pretty sufficient evidence that they were added -after the collection and fixture of twelve books--a round number -which there would be every disposition not to disturb. That would -give us for the date of the first edition (so to speak) of our Twelve -some year before 300; and for the date of the second edition some -year towards 250. This is a question, however, which may be reserved -for final decision after we have examined the date of the separate -books, and especially of Joel and the second half of Zechariah. That -there was a previous collection, as early as the Exile, of the books -written before then, may be regarded as more than probable. But we -have no means of fixing its exact limits. Why the Twelve were all -ultimately put together is reasonably suggested by Jewish writers. -They are small, and, as separate rolls, might have been lost.[11] It -is possible that the desire of the round number twelve is responsible -for the admission of Jonah, a book very different in form from all -the others; just as we have hinted that the fact of there being -already twelve may account for the attachment of the late fragments -to the Book of Zechariah. But all this is only to guess, where we -have no means of certain knowledge. - -"The Book of the Twelve" has not always held the place which it now -occupies in the Hebrew Canon, at the end of the Prophets. The rabbis -taught that Hosea, but for the comparative smallness of his prophecy, -should have stood first of all the writing prophets, of whom they -regarded him as the oldest.[12] And doubtless it was for the same -chronological reasons, that early Christian catalogues of the -Scriptures, and various editions of the Septuagint, placed the whole -of "The Twelve" in front of Isaiah.[13] - -The internal arrangement of "The Twelve" in our English Bible is the -same as that of the Hebrew Canon, and was probably determined by what -the compilers thought to be the respective ages of the books. Thus, -first we have six, all supposed to be of the earlier Assyrian period, -before 700--Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah; then three -from the late Assyrian and the Babylonian periods--Nahum, Habbakuk -and Zephaniah; and then three from the Persian period after the -Exile--Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. The Septuagint have altered the -order of the first six, arranging Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel and Obadiah -according to their size, and setting Jonah after them, probably because -of his different form. The remaining six are left as in the Hebrew. - -Recent criticism, however, has made it clear that the Biblical order -of "The Twelve Prophets" is no more than a very rough approximation -to the order of their real dates; and, as it is obviously best for us -to follow in their historical succession prophecies, which illustrate -the whole history of prophecy from its rise with Amos to its fall -with Malachi and his successors, I propose to do this. Detailed -proofs of the separate dates must be left to each book. All that is -needful here is a general statement of the order. - -Of the first six prophets the dates of Amos, Hosea, and Micah (but -of the latter's book in part only) are certain. The Jews have been -able to defend Hosea's priority only on fanciful grounds.[14] Whether -or not he quotes from Amos, his historical allusions are more -recent. With the exception of a few fragments incorporated by later -authors, the Book of Amos is thus the earliest example of prophetic -literature, and we take it first. The date we shall see is about 755. -Hosea begins five or ten years later, and Micah just before 722. The -three are in every respect--originality, comprehensiveness, influence -upon other prophets--the greatest of our Twelve, and will therefore -be treated with most detail, occupying the whole of the first volume. - -The rest of the first six are Obadiah, Joel and Jonah. But the Book -of Obadiah, although it opens with an early oracle against Edom, is in -its present form from after the Exile. The Book of Joel is of uncertain -date, but, as we shall see, the great probability is that it is late; -and the Book of Jonah belongs to a form of literature so different from -the others that we may, most conveniently, treat of it last. - -This leaves us to follow Micah, at the end of the eighth century, -with the group Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk from the second half -of the seventh century; and finally to take in their order the -post-exilic Haggai, Zechariah i.-ix., Malachi, and the other writings -which we feel obliged to place about or even after that date. - -One other word is needful. This assignment of the various books to -different dates is not to be held as implying that the whole of a -book belongs to such a date or to the author whose name it bears. We -shall find that hands have been busy with the texts of the books long -after the authors of these must have passed away; that besides early -fragments incorporated by later writers, prophets of Israel's new dawn -mitigated the judgments and lightened the gloom of the watchmen of her -night; that here and there are passages which are evidently intrusions, -both because they interrupt the argument and because they reflect a -much later historical environment than their context. This, of course, -will require discussion in each case, and such discussion will be -given. The text will be subjected to an independent examination. Some -passages hitherto questioned we may find to be unjustly so; others -not hitherto questioned we may see reason to suspect. But in any case -we shall keep in mind, that the results of an independent inquiry are -uncertain; and that in this new criticism of the prophets, which is -comparatively recent, we cannot hope to arrive for some time at so -general a consensus, as is being rapidly reached in the far older and -more elaborated criticism of the Pentateuch.[15] - - * * * * * - -Such is the extent and order of the journey which lies before -us. If it is not to the very summits of Israel's outlook that we -climb--Isaiah, Jeremiah and the great Prophet of the Exile--we are -yet to traverse the range of prophecy from beginning to end. We -start with its first abrupt elevations in Amos. We are carried by -the side of Isaiah and Jeremiah, yet at a lower altitude, on to the -Exile. With the returned Israel we pursue an almost immediate rise to -vision, and then by Malachi and others are conveyed down dwindling -slopes to the very end. Beyond the land is flat. Though Psalms are -sung and brave deeds done, and faith is strong and bright, there is -no height of outlook; _there is no more any prophet_[16] in Israel. - -But our "Twelve" do more than thus carry us from beginning to end of -the Prophetic Period. Of second rank as are most of the heights of -this mountain range, they yet bring forth and speed on their way not -a few of the streams of living water which have nourished later ages, -and are flowing to-day. Impetuous cataracts of righteousness--_let -it roll on like water, and justice as an everlasting stream_; the -irrepressible love of God to sinful men; the perseverance and -pursuits of His grace; His mercies that follow the exile and the -outcast; His truth that goes forth richly upon the heathen; the -hope of the Saviour of mankind; the outpouring of the Spirit; -counsels of patience; impulses of tenderness and of healing; melodies -innumerable,--all sprang from these lower hills of prophecy, and -sprang so strongly that the world hears and feels them still. - -And from the heights of our present pilgrimage there are also clear -those great visions of the Stars and the Dawn, of the Sea and the -Storm, concerning which it is true, that as long as men live they -shall seek out the places whence they can be seen, and thank God for -His prophets. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[3] Including, of course, the historical books, Joshua to 2 Kings, -which were known as "the Former Prophets"; while what we call the -prophets Isaiah to Malachi were known as "the Latter." - -[4] [Hebrew: 'shr tr sfr], the Aramaic form of the Hebrew [Hebrew: -'shr shnm], which appears with the other in the colophon to the -book. A later contraction is [Hebrew: trsr]. This is the form -transliterated in Epiphanius: [Greek: dathariasara]. - -[5] See Ryle, _Canon of the O.T._, p. 105. - -[6] So Josephus, _Contra Apion_, i. 8 (_circa_ 90 A.D.), reckons the -prophetical books as thirteen, of which the Minor Prophets could only -have been counted as one--whatever the other twelve may have been. -Melito of Sardis (_c._ 170), quoted by Eusebius (_Hist. Eccl._, iv. -26), speaks of [Greek: ton dodeka en monobiblo]. To Origen (_c._ -250: apud Ibid., vi. 25) they could only have been one out of the -twenty-two he gives for the O.T. Cf. Jerome (_Prolog. Galeatus_), -"Liber duodecim Prophetarum." - -[7] [Greek: Hoi Dodeka Prophetai]: Jesus son of Sirach xlix. 10; -[Greek: To dodeka-propheton]. - -[8] Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xviii. 29: cf. Jerome, _Proem. in Esaiam_. - -[9] The German usage generally preserves the numeral, "Die zwoelf -kleinen Propheten." - -[10] See Vol. II. on Zech. ix. ff. - -[11] _Talmud_: Baba Bathra, 14_a_: cf. Rashi's Commentary. - -[12] _Talmud_, _ibid._ - -[13] So the Codices Vaticanus and Alexandrinus, but not Cod. Sin. So -also Cyril of Jerusalem ([+] 386), Athanasius (365), Gregory Naz. -([+] 390), and the spurious Canon of the Council of Laodicea (_c._ -400) and Epiphanius (403). See Ryle, _Canon of the O.T._, 215 ff. - -[14] By a forced interpretation of the phrase in chap. i. 2, _When the -Lord spake at the first by Hosea_ (R.V.), _Talmud_: Baba Bathra, 14_a_. - -[15] For further considerations on this point see pp. 142, 194, 202 -ff., 223 ff., 308, etc. - -[16] Psalm lxxiv. 9. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - _THE PROPHET IN EARLY ISRAEL_ - - -Our "Twelve Prophets" will carry us, as we have seen, across the -whole extent of the Prophetical period--the period when prophecy -became literature, assuming the form and rising to the intensity of -an imperishable influence on the world. The earliest of the Twelve, -Amos and Hosea, were the inaugurators of this period. They were not -only the first (so far as we know) to commit prophecy to writing, but -we find in them the germs of all its subsequent development. Yet Amos -and Hosea were not unfathered. Behind them lay an older dispensation, -and their own was partly a product of this, and partly a revolt -against it. Amos says of himself: _The Lord hath spoken, who can but -prophesy?_--but again: _No prophet I, nor prophet's son_! Who were -those earlier prophets, whose office Amos assumed while repudiating -their spirit--whose name he abjured, yet could not escape from it? And, -while we are about the matter, what do we mean by "prophet" in general? - -In vulgar use the name "prophet" has degenerated to the meaning of -"one who foretells the future." Of this meaning it is, perhaps, the -first duty of every student of prophecy earnestly and stubbornly -to rid himself. In its native Greek tongue "prophet" meant not -"one who speaks before," but "one who speaks for, or on behalf of, -another." At the Delphic oracle "The Prophetes" was the title of -the official, who received the utterances of the frenzied Pythoness -and expounded them to the people;[17] but Plato says that this is a -misuse of the word, and that the true prophet is the inspired person -himself, he who is in communication with the Deity and who speaks -directly for the Deity.[18] So Tiresias, the seer, is called by -Pindar the "prophet" or "interpreter of Zeus,"[19] and Plato even -styles poets "the prophets of the Muses."[20] It is in this sense -that we must think of the "prophet" of the Old Testament. He is a -speaker for God. The sharer of God's counsels, as Amos calls him, -he becomes the bearer and preacher of God's Word. Prediction of the -future is only a part, and often a subordinate and accidental part, -of an office whose full function is to declare the character and the -will of God. But the prophet does this in no systematic or abstract -form. He brings his revelation point by point, and in connection -with some occasion in the history of his people, or some phase of -their character. He is not a philosopher nor a theologian with a -system of doctrine (at least before Ezekiel), but the messenger and -herald of God at some crisis in the life or conduct of His people. -His message is never out of touch with events. These form either -the subject-matter or the proof or the execution of every oracle he -utters. It is, therefore, God not merely as Truth, but far more as -Providence, whom the prophet reveals. And although that Providence -includes the full destiny of Israel and mankind, the prophet brings -the news of it, for the most part, piece by piece, with reference -to some present sin or duty, or some impending crisis or calamity. -Yet he does all this, not merely because the word needed for the -day has been committed to him by itself, and as if he were only its -mechanical vehicle; but because he has come under the overwhelming -conviction of God's presence and of His character, a conviction often -so strong that God's word breaks through him and God speaks in the -first person to the people. - - - 1. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TILL SAMUEL. - -There was no ancient people but believed in the power of certain -personages to consult the Deity and to reveal His will. Every man could -sacrifice; but not every man could render in return the oracle of God. -This pertained to select individuals or orders. So the prophet seems -to have been an older specialist than the priest, though in every tribe -he frequently combined the latter's functions with his own.[21] - -The matters on which ancient man consulted God were as wide as life. -But naturally at first, in a rude state of society and at a low stage -of mental development, it was in regard to the material defence -and necessities of life, the bare law and order, that men almost -exclusively sought the Divine will. And the whole history of prophecy -is just the effort to substitute for these elementary provisions a -more personal standard of the moral law, and more spiritual ideals of -the Divine Grace. - -By the Semitic race--to which we may now confine ourselves, since -Israel belonged to it--Deity was worshipped, in the main, as the god -of a tribe. Every Semitic tribe had its own god; it would appear -that there was no god without a tribe:[22] the traces of belief in -a supreme and abstract Deity are few and ineffectual. The tribe -was the medium by which the god made himself known, and became an -effective power on earth: the god was the patron of the tribe, the -supreme magistrate and the leader in war. The piety he demanded was -little more than loyalty to ritual; the morality he enforced was -only a matter of police. He took no cognisance of the character or -inner thoughts of the individual. But the tribe believed him to -stand in very close connection with all the practical interests of -their common life. They asked of him the detection of criminals, the -discovery of lost property, the settlement of civil suits, sometimes -when the crops should be sown, and always when war should be waged -and by what tactics. - -The means by which the prophet consulted the Deity on these subjects -were for the most part primitive and rude. They may be summed up -under two kinds: Visions either through falling into ecstasy or by -dreaming in sleep, and Signs or Omens. Both kinds are instanced in -Balaam.[23] Of the signs some were natural, like the whisper of -trees, the flight of birds, the passage of clouds, the movements of -stars. Others were artificial, like the casting or drawing of lots. -Others were between these, like the shape assumed by the entrails of -the sacrificed animals when thrown on the ground. Again, the prophet -was often obliged to do something wonderful in the people's sight, -in order to convince them of his authority. In Biblical language he -had to work a miracle or give a sign. One instance throws a flood of -light on this habitual expectancy of the Semitic mind. There was once -an Arab chief, who wished to consult a distant soothsayer as to the -guilt of a daughter. But before he would trust the seer to give him -the right answer to such a question, he made him discover a grain -of corn which he had concealed about his horse.[24] He required the -physical sign before he would accept the moral judgment. - -Now, to us the crudeness of the means employed, the opportunities -of fraud, the inadequacy of the tests for spiritual ends, are very -obvious. But do not let us, therefore, miss the numerous moral -opportunities which lay before the prophet even at that early -stage of his evolution. He was trusted to speak in the name of -Deity. Through him men believed in God and in the possibility of a -revelation. They sought from him the discrimination of evil from -good. The highest possibilities of social ministry lay open to him: -the tribal existence often hung on his word for peace or war; he -was the mouth of justice, the rebuke of evil, the champion of the -wronged. Where such opportunities were present, can we imagine the -Spirit of God to have been absent--the Spirit Who seeks men more than -they seek Him, and as He condescends to use their poor language for -religion must also have stooped to the picture language, to the rude -instruments, symbols and sacraments, of their early faith? - -In an office of such mingled possibilities everything depended--as -we shall find it depend to the very end of prophecy--on the moral -insight and character of the prophet himself, on his conception -of God and whether he was so true to this as to overcome his -professional temptations to fraud and avarice, malice towards -individuals, subservience to the powerful, or, worst snares of all, -the slothfulness and insincerity of routine. We see this moral issue -put very clearly in such a story as that of Balaam, or in such a -career as that of Mohammed. - -So much for the Semitic soothsayer in general. Now let us turn to -Israel. - -Among the Hebrews the _man of God_,[25] to use his widest designation, -is at first called _Seer_,[26] or _Gazer_,[27] the word which Balaam -uses of himself. In consulting the Divine will he employs the same -external means, he offers the people for their evidence the same signs, -as do the seers or soothsayers of other Semitic tribes. He gains -influence by the miracles, _the wonderful things_, which he does.[28] -Moses himself is represented after this fashion. He meets the magicians -of Egypt on their own level. His use of _rods_; the holding up of -his hands that Israel may prevail against Amaleq; Joshua's casting -of lots to discover a criminal; Samuel's dream in the sanctuary; his -discovery for a fee of the lost asses of Saul; David and the images -in his house, the ephod he consulted; the sign to go to battle _what -time thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry -trees_; Solomon's inducement of dreams by sleeping in the sanctuary at -Gibeah,--these are a few of the many proofs, that early prophecy in -Israel employed not only the methods but even much of the furniture of -the kindred Semitic religions. But then those tools and methods were at -the same time accompanied by the noble opportunities of the prophetic -office to which I have just alluded--opportunities of religious and -social ministry--and, still more, these opportunities were at the -disposal of moral influences which, it is a matter of history, were not -found in any other Semitic religion than Israel's. However you will -explain it, that Divine Spirit, which we have felt unable to conceive -as absent from any Semitic prophet who truly sought after God, that -Light which lighteth every man who cometh into the world, was present -to an unparalleled degree with the early prophets of Israel. He came to -individuals, and to the nation as a whole, in events and in influences -which may be summed up as the impression of the character of their -national God, Jehovah: to use Biblical language, as _Jehovah's spirit_ -and _power_. It is true that in many ways the Jehovah of early Israel -reminds us of other Semitic deities. Like some of them He appears -with thunder and lightning; like all of them He is the God of one -tribe who are His peculiar people. He bears the same titles--Melek, -Adon, Baal (_King_, _Lord_, _Possessor_). He is propitiated by the -same offerings. To choose one striking instance, captives and spoil -of war are sacrificed to Him with the same relentlessness, and by a -process which has even the same names given to it, as in the votive -inscriptions of Israel's heathen neighbours.[29] Yet, notwithstanding -all these elements, the religion of Jehovah from the very first -evinced, by the confession of all critics, an ethical force shared by -no other Semitic creed. From the first there was in it the promise and -the potency of that sublime monotheism, which in the period of our -"Twelve" it afterwards reached.[30] Its earliest effects of course -were chiefly political: it welded the twelve tribes into the unity -of a nation; it preserved them as one amid the many temptations to -scatter along those divergent lines of culture and of faith, which the -geography of their country placed so attractively before them.[31] It -taught them to prefer religious loyalty to material advantage, and so -inspired them with high motives for self-sacrifice and every other -duty of patriotism. But it did even better than thus teach them to -bear one another's burdens. It inspired them to care for one another's -sins. The last chapters of the Book of Judges prove how strong a -national conscience there was in early Israel. Even then Israel was -a moral, as well as a political, unity. Gradually there grew up, but -still unwritten, a body of Torah, or revealed law, which, though its -framework was the common custom of the Semitic race, was inspired by -ideals of humanity and justice not elsewhere in that race discernible -by us. - -When we analyse this ethical distinction of early Israel, this -indubitable progress which the nation were making while the rest -of their world was morally stagnant, we find it to be due to their -impressions of the character of their God. This character did not -affect them as Righteousness only. At first it was even a more -wonderful Grace. Jehovah had chosen them when they were no people, -had redeemed them from servitude, had brought them to their land; had -borne with their stubbornness, and had forgiven their infidelities. -Such a Character was partly manifest in the great events of -their history, and partly communicated itself to their finest -personalities--as the Spirit of God does communicate with the spirit -of man made in His image. Those personalities were the early prophets -from Moses to Samuel. They inspired the nation to believe in God's -purposes for itself; they rallied it to war for the common faith, and -war was then the pitch of self-sacrifice; they gave justice to it in -God's name, and rebuked its sinfulness without sparing. Criticism has -proved that we do not know nearly so much about those first prophets, -as perhaps we thought we did. But under their God they made Israel. -Out of their work grew the monotheism of their successors, whom we -are now to study, and later the Christianity of the New Testament. -For myself I cannot but believe, that in the influence of Jehovah -which Israel owned in those early times, there was the authentic -revelation of a real Being. - - - 2. FROM SAMUEL TO ELISHA. - -Of the oldest order of Hebrew prophecy, Samuel was the last -representative. Till his time, we are told, the prophet in Israel was -known as the Seer,[32] but now, with other tempers and other habits, -a new order appears, whose name--and that means to a certain extent -their spirit--is to displace the older name and the older spirit. - -When Samuel anointed Saul he bade him, for a sign that he was chosen -of the Lord, go forth to meet _a company of prophets_--Nebi'im, the -singular is Nabi'--coming down from the high place or sanctuary with -viols, drums and pipes, and _prophesying_. _There_, he added, _the -spirit of Jehovah shall come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with -them, and shalt be turned into another man_. So it happened; and the -people _said one to another, What is this that is come to the son of -Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?_[33] Another story, probably -from another source, tells us that later, when Saul sent troops -of messengers to the sanctuary at Ramah to take David, they saw -_the company of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing appointed -over them, and the spirit of God fell_ upon one after another of -the troops; as upon Saul himself when he followed them up. _And he -stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like -manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore -they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?_[34] - -All this is very different from the habits of the Seer, who had -hitherto represented prophecy. He was solitary, but these went -about in bands. They were filled with an infectious enthusiasm, by -which they excited each other and all sensitive persons whom they -touched. They stirred up this enthusiasm by singing, playing upon -instruments, and dancing: its results were frenzy, the tearing of -their clothes, and prostration. The same phenomena have appeared -in every religion--in Paganism often, and several times within -Christianity. They may be watched to-day among the dervishes of -Islam, who by singing (as one has seen them in Cairo), by swaying -of their bodies, by repeating the Divine Name, and dwelling on the -love and ineffable power of God, work themselves into an excitement -which ends in prostration and often in insensibility.[35] The whole -process is due to an overpowering sense of the Deity--crude and -unintelligent if you will, but sincere and authentic--which seems -to haunt the early stages of all religions, and to linger to the -end with the stagnant and unprogressive. The appearance of this -prophecy in Israel has given rise to a controversy as to whether it -was purely a native product, or was induced by infection from the -Canaanite tribes around. Such questions are of little interest in -face of these facts: that the ecstasy sprang up in Israel at a time -when the spirit of the people was stirred against the Philistines, -and patriotism and religion were equally excited; that it is -represented as due to the Spirit of Jehovah; and that the last of -the old order of Jehovah's prophets recognised its harmony with his -own dispensation, presided over it, and gave Israel's first king -as one of his signs, that he should come under its power. These -things being so, it is surprising that a recent critic[36] should -have seen in the dancing prophets nothing but eccentrics into whose -company it was shame for so good a man as Saul to fall. He reaches -this conclusion only by supposing that the reflexive verb used for -their _prophesying_--_hithnabbe'_--had at this time that equivalence -to mere madness to which it was reduced by the excesses of later -generations of prophets. With Samuel we feel that the word had no -reproach: the Nebi'im were recognised by him as standing in the -prophetical succession. They sprang up in sympathy with a national -movement. The king who joined himself to them was the same who -sternly banished from Israel all the baser forms of soothsaying and -traffic with the dead. But, indeed, we need no other proof than -this: the name Nebi'im so establishes itself in the popular regard -that it displaces the older names of Seer and Gazer, and becomes the -classical term for the whole body of prophets from Moses to Malachi. - -There was one very remarkable change effected by this new order of -prophets, probably the very greatest relief which prophecy experienced -in the course of its evolution. This was separation from the ritual -and from the implements of soothsaying. Samuel had been both priest -and prophet. But after him the names and the duties were specialised, -though the specialising was incomplete. While the new Nebi'im remained -in connection with the ancient centres of religion, they do not appear -to have exercised any part of the ritual. The priests, on the other -hand, did not confine themselves to sacrifice and other forms of public -worship, but exercised many of the so-called prophetic functions. They -also, as Hosea tells us, were expected to give Toroth--revelations -of the Divine will on points of conduct and order. There remained -with them the ancient forms of oracle--the Ephod, or plated image, -the Teraphim, the lot, and the Urim and Thummim,[37] all of these -apparently still regarded as indispensable elements of religion.[38] -From such rude forms of ascertaining the Divine Will, prophecy in its -new order was absolutely free. And it was free of the ritual of the -sanctuaries. As has been justly remarked, the ritual of Israel always -remained a peril to the people, the peril of relapsing into Paganism. -Not only did it materialise faith and engross affections in the -worshipper which were meant for moral objects, but very many of its -forms were actually the same as those of the other Semitic religions, -and it tempted its devotees to the confusion of their God with the gods -of the heathen. Prophecy was now wholly independent of it, and we may -see in such independence the possibility of all the subsequent career -of prophecy along moral and spiritual lines. Amos absolutely condemns -the ritual, and Hosea brings the message from God, _I will have mercy -and not sacrifice_. This is the distinctive glory of prophecy in that -era in which we are to study it. But do not let us forget that it -became possible through the ecstatic Nebi'im of Samuel's time, and -through their separation from the national ritual and the material -forms of soothsaying. It is the way of Providence to prepare for the -revelation of great moral truths, by the enfranchisement, sometimes -centuries before, of an order or a nation of men from political or -professional interests which would have rendered it impossible for -their descendants to appreciate those truths without prejudice or -compromise. - -We may conceive then of these Nebi'im, these prophets, as enthusiasts -for Jehovah and for Israel. For Jehovah--if to-day we see men cast -by the adoration of the despot-deity of Islam into transports so -excessive that they lose all consciousness of earthly things and fall -into a trance, can we not imagine a like effect produced on the same -sensitive natures of the East by the contemplation of such a God as -Jehovah, so mighty in earth and heaven, so faithful to His people, so -full of grace? Was not such an ecstasy of worship most likely to be -born of the individual's ardent devotion in the hour of the nation's -despair?[39] Of course there would be swept up by such a movement all -the more volatile and unbalanced minds of the day--as these always -have been swept up by any powerful religious excitement--but that is -not to discredit the sincerity of the main volume of the feeling nor -its authenticity as a work of the Spirit of God, as the impression of -the character and power of Jehovah. - -But these ecstatics were also enthusiasts for Israel; and this saved -the movement from morbidness. They worshipped God neither out of -sheer physical sympathy with nature, like the Phoenician devotees of -Adonis or the Greek Bacchantes; nor out of terror at the approaching -end of all things, like some of the ecstatic sects of the Middle -Ages; nor out of a selfish passion for their own salvation, like so -many a modern Christian fanatic; but in sympathy with their nation's -aspirations for freedom and her whole political life. They were -enthusiasts for their people. The ecstatic prophet was not confined -to his body nor to nature for the impulses of Deity. Israel was his -body, his atmosphere, his universe. Through it all he felt the thrill -of Deity. Confine religion to the personal, it grows rancid, morbid. -Wed it to patriotism, it lives in the open air and its blood is pure. -So in days of national danger the Nebi'im would be inspired like Saul -to battle for their country's freedom; in more settled times they -would be lifted to the responsibilities of educating the people, -counselling the governors, and preserving the national traditions. -This is what actually took place. After the critical period of Saul's -time has passed, the prophets still remain enthusiasts; but they are -enthusiasts for affairs. They counsel and they rebuke David.[40] They -warn Rehoboam, and they excite Northern Israel to revolt.[41] They -overthrow and they set up dynasties.[42] They offer the king advice -on campaigns.[43] Like Elijah, they take up against the throne the -cause of the oppressed;[44] like Elisha, they stand by the throne -its most trusted counsellors in peace and war.[45] That all this is -no new order of prophecy in Israel, but the developed form of the -ecstasy of Samuel's day, is plain from the continuance of the name -Nebi'im and from these two facts besides: that the ecstasy survives -and that the prophets still live in communities. The greatest figures -of the period, Elijah and Elisha, have upon them _the hand of the -Lord_, as the influence is now called: Elijah when he runs before -Ahab's chariot across Esdraelon, Elisha when by music he induces -upon himself the prophetic mood.[46] Another ecstatic figure is -the prophet who was sent to anoint Jehu; he swept in and he swept -out again, and the soldiers called him _that mad fellow_.[47] But -the roving bands had settled down into more or less stationary -communities, who partly lived by agriculture and partly by the alms -of the people or the endowments of the crown.[48] Their centres were -either the centres of national worship, like Bethel and Gilgal, or -the centres of government, like Samaria, where the dynasty of Omri -supported prophets both of Baal and of Jehovah.[49] They were called -prophets, but also _sons of the prophets_, the latter name not -because their office was hereditary, but by the Oriental fashion of -designating every member of a guild as the son of the guild. In many -cases the son may have succeeded his father; but the ranks could be -recruited from outside, as we see in the case of the young farmer -Elisha, whom Elijah anointed at the plough. They probably all wore -the mantle which is distinctive of some of them, the mantle of hair, -or skin of a beast.[50] - -The risks of degeneration, to which this order of prophecy was -liable, arose both from its ecstatic temper and from its connection -with public affairs. - -Religious ecstasy is always dangerous to the moral and intellectual -interests of religion. The largest prophetic figures of the period, -though they feel the ecstasy, attain their greatness by rising -superior to it. Elijah's raptures are impressive; but nobler are -his defence of Naboth and his denunciation of Ahab. And so Elisha's -inducement of the prophetic mood by music is the least attractive -element in his career: his greatness lies in his combination of the -care of souls with political insight and vigilance for the national -interests. Doubtless there were many of the sons of the prophets -who with smaller abilities cultivated a religion as rational and -moral. But for the herd ecstasy would be everything. It was so -easily induced or imitated that much of it cannot have been genuine. -Even where the feeling was at first sincere we can understand how -readily it became morbid; how fatally it might fall into sympathy -with that drunkenness from wine and that sexual passion which Israel -saw already cultivated as worship by the surrounding Canaanites. We -must feel these dangers of ecstasy if we would understand why Amos -cut himself off from the Nebi'im, and why Hosea laid such emphasis -on the moral and intellectual sides of religion: _My people perish -for lack of knowledge_. Hosea indeed considered the degeneracy of -ecstasy as a judgment: _the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit -is mad--for the multitude of thine iniquity_.[51] A later age derided -the ecstatics, and took one of the forms of the verb _to prophesy_ as -equivalent to the verb _to be mad_.[52] - -But temptations as gross beset the prophet from that which should have -been the discipline of his ecstasy--his connection with public affairs. -Only some prophets were brave rebukers of the king and the people. -The herd which fed at the royal table--four hundred under Ahab--were -flatterers, who could not tell the truth, who said Peace, peace, when -there was no peace. These were false prophets. Yet it is curious that -the very early narrative which describes them[53] does not impute -their falsehood to any base motives of their own, but to the direct -inspiration of God, who sent forth a lying spirit upon them. So great -was the reverence still for the _man of the spirit_! Rather than doubt -his inspiration, they held his very lies to be inspired. One does not -of course mean that these consenting prophets were conscious liars; -but that their dependence on the king, their servile habits of speech, -disabled them from seeing the truth. Subserviency to the powerful was -their great temptation. In the story of Balaam we see confessed the -base instinct that he who paid the prophet should have the word of the -prophet in his favour. In Israel prophecy went through exactly the same -struggle between the claims of its God and the claims of its patrons. -Nor were those patrons always the rich. The bulk of the prophets were -dependent on the charitable gifts of the common people, and in this we -may find reason for that subjection of so many of them to the vulgar -ideals of the national destiny, to signs of which we are pointed by -Amos. The priest at Bethel only reflects public opinion when he takes -for granted that the prophet is a thoroughly mercenary character: -_Seer, get thee gone to the land of Judah; eat there thy bread, and -play the prophet there!_[54] No wonder Amos separates himself from such -hireling craftsmen! - - * * * * * - -Such was the course of prophecy up to Elisha, and the borders of -the eighth century. We have seen how even for the ancient prophet, -mere soothsayer though we might regard him in respect of the rude -instruments of his office, there were present moral opportunities of -the highest kind, from which, if he only proved true to them, we cannot -conceive the Spirit of God to have been absent. In early Israel we are -sure that the Spirit did meet such strong and pure characters, from -Moses to Samuel, creating by their means the nation of Israel, welding -it to a unity, which was not only political but moral--and moral to a -degree not elsewhere realised in the Semitic world. We saw how a new -race of prophets arose under Samuel, separate from the older forms -of prophecy by lot and oracle, separate, too, from the ritual as a -whole; and therefore free for a moral and spiritual advance of which -the priesthood, still bound to images and the ancient rites, proved -themselves incapable. But this new order of prophecy, besides its moral -opportunities, had also its moral perils: its ecstasy was dangerous, -its connection with public affairs was dangerous too. Again, the test -was the personal character of the prophet himself. And so once more we -see raised above the herd great personalities, who carry forward the -work of their predecessors. The results are, besides the discipline -of the monarchy and the defence of justice and the poor, the firm -establishment of Jehovah as the one and only God of Israel, and the -impression on Israel both of His omnipotent guidance of them in the -past, and of a worldwide destiny, still vague but brilliant, which He -had prepared for them in the future. - -This brings us to Elisha, and from Elisha there are but forty years -to Amos. During those forty years, however, there arose within Israel -a new civilisation; beyond her there opened up a new world; and with -Assyria there entered the resources of Providence, a new power. It -was these three facts--the New Civilisation, the New World and the -New Power--which made the difference between Elisha and Amos, and -raised prophecy from a national to a universal religion. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[17] Herodotus, viii. 36, 37. - -[18] _Timaeus_, 71, 72. The whole passage is worth transcribing:-- - -"No man, when in his senses, attains prophetic truth and inspiration; -but when he receives the inspired word either his intelligence -is enthralled by sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or -possession. And he who would understand what he remembers to have -been said, whether in dream or when he was awake, by the prophetic -and enthusiastic nature, or what he has seen, must recover his -senses; and then he will be able to explain rationally what all such -words and apparitions mean, and what indications they afford, to this -man or that, of past, present, or future, good and evil. But, while -he continues demented, he cannot judge of the visions which he sees -or the words which he utters; the ancient saying is very true that -'only a man in his senses can act or judge about himself and his own -affairs.' And for this reason it is customary to appoint diviners or -interpreters as discerners of the oracles of the gods. Some persons -call them prophets; they do not know that they are only repeaters of -dark sayings and visions, and are not to be called prophets at all, -but only interpreters of prophecy."--Jowett's _Translation_. - -[19] _Nik._, i. 91. - -[20] _Phaedrus_, 262 D. - -[21] It is still a controversy whether the original meaning of the -Semitic root KHN is prophet, as in the Arabic KaHiN, or priest, as in -the Hebrew KoHeN. - -[22] Cf. Jer. ii. 10: _For pass over to the isles of Chittim, and -see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there -be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods?_ From the isles of -Chittim unto Kedar--the limits of the Semitic world. - -[23] Numbers xxiv. 4, _falling but having his eyes open_. Ver. 1, -_enchantments_ ought to be _omens_. - -[24] Instanced by Wellhausen, _Skizzen u. Vorarb._, No. v. - -[25] [Hebrew: lhm sh] - -[26] [Hebrew: ro'eh] - -[27] [Hebrew: chzeh] - -[28] Deut. xiii. 1 ff. admits that heathen seers were able to work -miracles and give signs, as well as the prophets of Jehovah. - -[29] Cf. Mesha's account of himself and Chemosh on the Moabite Stone, -with the narrative of the taking of Ai in the Book of Joshua. - -[30] Cf. Kuenen: _Gesammelte Alhandlungen_ (trans. by Budde), p. 461. - -[31] So in Deborah's Song. - -[32] 1 Sam. ix. 9. - -[33] 1 Sam. x. 1-16, xi. 1-11, 15. Chap. x. 17-27, xi. 12-14, belong -to other and later documents. Cf. Robertson Smith, _Old Testament in -the Jewish Church_, 135 ff. - -[34] 1 Sam. xix. 20-24. - -[35] What seemed most to induce the frenzy of the dervishes whom I -watched was the fixing of their attention upon, the yearning of their -minds after, the love of God. "Ya habeebi!"--"O my beloved!"--they -cried. - -[36] Cornill, in the first of his lectures on _Der Israelitische -Prophetismus_, one of the very best popular studies of prophecy, by a -master on the subject. See p. 73 _n_. - -[37] It is now past doubt that these were two sacred stones used for -decision in the case of an alternative issue. This is plain from the -amended reading of Saul's prayer in 1 Sam. xiv. 41, 42 (after the -LXX.): _O Jehovah God of Israel, wherefore hast Thou not answered Thy -servant this day? If the iniquity be in me or in Jonathan my son, O -Jehovah God of Israel, give Urim: and if it be in Thy people Israel, -give, I pray Thee, Thummim._ - -[38] Hosea iii. 4. See next chapter, p. 38. - -[39] Cf. Deut. xxviii. 34. - -[40] 2 Sam. xii. 1 ff. - -[41] 1 Kings xi. 29; xii. 22. - -[42] 1 Kings xiv. 2, 7-11; xix. 15 f.; 2 Kings ix. 3 ff. - -[43] 1 Kings xxii. 5 ff.; 2 Kings iii. 11 ff. - -[44] 1 Kings xxi. 1 ff. - -[45] 2 Kings vi.-viii., etc. - -[46] 1 Kings xviii. 46; 2 Kings iii. 15. - -[47] 3 Kings ix. 11. _Mad fellow_, not necessarily a term of reproach. - -[48] 1 Kings xviii. 4, cf. 19; 2 Kings ii. 3, 5; iv. 38-44; v. 20 -ff.; vi. 1 ff.; viii. 8 f., etc. - -[49] 1 Kings xviii. 19; xxii. 6. - -[50] So Elijah, 2 Kings i. 8: cf. John the Baptist, Matt. iii. 4. - -[51] Hosea ix. 7. - -[52] Jer. xxix. 26: _Every man that is mad, and worketh himself into -prophecy_ ([Hebrew: mtnv], the same form as is used without moral -reproach in 1 Sam. x. 10 ff.). - -[53] 1 Kings xxii. - -[54] Amos vii. 12. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - _THE EIGHTH CENTURY IN ISRAEL_ - - -The long life of Elisha fell to its rest on the margin of the eighth -century.[55] He had seen much evil upon Israel. The people were smitten -in all their coasts. None of their territory across Jordan was left -to them; and not only Hazael and his Syrians, but bands of their own -former subjects, the Moabites, periodically raided Western Palestine, -up to the very gates of Samaria.[56] Such a state of affairs determined -the activity of the last of the older prophets. Elisha spent his life -in the duties of the national defence, and in keeping alive the spirit -of Israel against her foes. When he died they called him _Israel's -chariot and the horsemen thereof_,[57] so incessant had been both his -military vigilance[58] and his political insight.[59] But Elisha was -able to leave behind him the promise of a new day of victory.[60] -It was in the peace and liberty of this day that Israel rose a step -in civilisation; that prophecy, released from the defence, became -the criticism, of the national life; and that the people, no longer -absorbed in their own borders, looked out, and for the first time -realised the great world, of which they were only a part. - -King Joash, whose arms the dying Elisha had blessed, won back in the -sixteen years of his reign (798-783) the cities which the Syrians -had taken from his father.[61] His successor, Jeroboam II., came in, -therefore, with a flowing tide. He was a strong man, and he took -advantage of it. During his long reign of about forty years (783-743) -he restored the border of Israel from the Pass of Hamath between the -Lebanons to the Dead Sea, and occupied at least part of the territory -of Damascus.[62] This means that the constant raids to which Israel -had been subjected now ceased, and that by the time of Amos, about -755, a generation was grown up who had not known defeat, and the most -of whom had perhaps no experience even of war. - -Along the same length of years Uzziah (_circa_ 778-740) had dealt -similarly with Judah.[63] He had pushed south to the Red Sea, while -Jeroboam pushed north to Hamath; and while Jeroboam had taken the -Syrian towns he had crushed the Philistine. He had reorganised the -army, and invented new engines of siege for casting stones. On such -of his frontiers as were opposed to the desert he had built towers: -there is no better means of keeping the nomads in subjection. - -All this meant such security across broad Israel as had not been -known since the glorious days of Solomon. Agriculture must everywhere -have revived: Uzziah, the Chronicler tells us, _loved husbandry_. -But we hear most of Trade and Building. With quarters in Damascus -and a port on the Red Sea, with allies in the Phoenician towns -and tributaries in the Philistine, with command of all the main -routes between Egypt and the North as between the Desert and the -Levant, Israel, during those forty years of Jeroboam and Uzziah, -must have become a busy and a wealthy commercial power. Hosea calls -the Northern Kingdom a very Canaan[64]--Canaanite being the Hebrew -term for trader--as we should say a very Jew; and Amos exposes all -the restlessness, the greed, and the indifference to the poor of -a community making haste to be rich. The first effect of this was -a large increase of the towns and of town-life. Every document of -the time--up to 720--speaks to us of its buildings.[65] In ordinary -building houses of ashlar seem to be novel enough to be mentioned. -Vast _palaces_--the name of them first heard of in Israel under Omri -and his Phoenician alliance, and then only as that of the king's -citadel[66]--are now built by wealthy grandees out of money extorted -from the poor; they can have risen only since the Syrian wars. There -are summer houses in addition to winter houses; and it is not only -the king, as in the days of Ahab, who furnishes his buildings with -ivory. When an earthquake comes and whole cities are overthrown, -the vigour and wealth of the people are such that they build more -strongly and lavishly than before.[67] With all this we have the -characteristic tempers and moods of city-life: the fickleness and -liability to panic which are possible only where men are gathered -in crowds; the luxury and false art which are engendered only by -artificial conditions of life; the deep poverty which in all cities, -from the beginning to the end of time, lurks by the side of the most -brilliant wealth, its dark and inevitable shadow. - -In short, in the half-century between Elisha and Amos, Israel rose -from one to another of the great stages of culture. Till the eighth -century they had been but a kingdom of fighting husbandmen. Under -Jeroboam and Uzziah city-life was developed, and civilisation, in the -proper sense of the word, appeared. Only once before had Israel taken -so large a step: when they crossed Jordan, leaving the nomadic life for -the agricultural; and that had been momentous for their religion. They -came among new temptations: the use of wine, and the shrines of local -gods who were believed to have more influence on the fertility of the -land than Jehovah who had conquered it for His people. But now this -further step, from the agricultural stage to the mercantile and civil, -was equally fraught with danger. There was the closer intercourse with -foreign nations and their cults. There were all the temptations of -rapid wealth, all the dangers of an equally increasing poverty. The -growth of comfort among the rulers meant the growth of thoughtlessness. -Cruelty multiplied with refinement. The upper classes were lifted -away from feeling the real woes of the people. There was a well-fed -and sanguine patriotism, but at the expense of indifference to social -sin and want. Religious zeal and liberality increased, but they were -coupled with all the proud's misunderstanding of God: an optimist faith -without moral insight or sympathy. - -It is all this which makes the prophets of the eighth century so -modern, while Elisha's life is still so ancient. With him we are back -in the times of our own border wars--of Wallace and Bruce, with their -struggles for the freedom of the soil. With Amos we stand among the -conditions of our own day. The City has arisen. For the development -of the highest form of prophecy, the universal and permanent form, -there was needed that marvellously unchanging mould of human life, -whose needs and sorrows, whose sins and problems, are to-day the same -as they were all those thousands of years ago. - -With Civilisation came Literature. The long peace gave leisure for -writing; and the just pride of the people in boundaries broad as -Solomon's own, determined that this writing should take the form of -heroic history. In the parallel reigns of Jeroboam and Uzziah many -critics have placed the great epics of Israel: the earlier documents -of our Pentateuch which trace God's purposes to mankind by Israel, -from the creation of the world to the settlement of the Promised -Land; the histories which make up our Books of Judges, Samuel and -Kings. But whether all these were composed now or at an earlier date, -it is certain that the nation lived in the spirit of them, proud of -its past, aware of its vocation, and confident that its God, who had -created the world and so mightily led itself, would bring it from -victory by victory to a complete triumph over the heathen. Israel of -the eighth century were devoted to Jehovah; and although passion or -self-interest might lead individuals or even communities to worship -other gods, He had no possible rival upon the throne of the nation. - -As they delighted to recount His deeds by their fathers, so they -thronged the scenes of these with sacrifice and festival. Bethel -and Beersheba, Dan and Gilgal, were the principal;[68] but Mizpeh, -the top of Tabor,[69] and Carmel,[70] perhaps Penuel,[71] were also -conspicuous among the countless _high places_[72] of the land. Of -those in Northern Israel Bethel was the chief. It enjoyed the proper -site for an ancient shrine, which was nearly always a market as -well--near a frontier and where many roads converged; where traders -from the East could meet half-way with traders from the West, the -wool-growers of Moab and the Judaean desert with the merchants of -Phoenicia and the Philistine coast. Here, on the spot on which the -father of the nation had seen heaven open,[73] a great temple was -now built, with a priesthood endowed and directed by the crown,[74] -but lavishly supported also by the tithes and free-will offerings -of the people.[75] _It is a sanctuary of the king and a house of -the kingdom._[76] Jeroboam had ordained Dan, at the other end of -the kingdom, to be the fellow of Bethel;[77] but Dan was far away -from the bulk of the people, and in the eighth century Bethel's real -rival was Gilgal.[78] Whether this was the Gilgal by Jericho, or the -other Gilgal on the Samarian hills near Shiloh, is uncertain. The -latter had been a sanctuary in Elijah's day, with a settlement of -the prophets; but the former must have proved the greater attraction -to a people so devoted to the sacred events of their past. Was it -not the first resting-place of the Ark after the passage of Jordan, -the scene of the reinstitution of circumcision, of the anointing -of the first king, of Judah's second submission to David?[79] As -there were many Gilgals in the land--literally _cromlechs_, ancient -_stone-circles_ sacred to the Canaanites as well as to Israel--so -there were many Mizpehs, _Watchtowers_, _Seers' stations_: the one -mentioned by Hosea was probably in Gilead.[80] To the southern -Beersheba, to which Elijah had fled from Jezebel, pilgrimages were -made by northern Israelites traversing Judah. The sanctuary on Carmel -was the ancient altar of Jehovah which Elijah had rebuilt; but Carmel -seems at this time to have lain, as it did so often, in the power -of the Phoenicians, for it is imagined by the prophets only as a -hiding-place from the face of Jehovah.[81] - -At all these sanctuaries it was Jehovah and no other who was -sought: _thy God, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of -Egypt_.[82] At Bethel and at Dan He was adored in the form of a calf; -probably at Gilgal also, for there is a strong tradition to that -effect;[83] and elsewhere men still consulted the other images which -had been used by Saul and by David, the Ephod and the Teraphim.[84] -With these there was the old Semitic symbol of the Maccebah, or -upright stone on which oil was poured.[85] All of them had been used -in the worship of Jehovah by the great examples and leaders of the -past; all of them had been spared by Elijah and Elisha: it was no -wonder that the common people of the eighth century felt them to be -indispensable elements of religion, the removal of which, like the -removal of the monarchy or of sacrifice itself, would mean utter -divorce from the nation's God.[86] - -One great exception must be made. Compared with the sanctuaries we -have mentioned, Zion itself was very modern. But it contained the -main repository of Israel's religion, the Ark, and in connection with -the Ark the worship of Jehovah was not a worship of images. It is -significant that from this, the original sanctuary of Israel, with the -pure worship, the new prophecy derived its first inspiration. But to -that we shall return later with Amos.[87] Apart from the Ark, Jerusalem -was not free from images, nor even from the altars of foreign deities. - -Where the externals of the ritual were thus so much the same as those -of the Canaanite cults, which were still practised in and around the -land, it is not surprising that the worship of Jehovah should be -further invaded by many pagan practices, nor that Jehovah Himself -should be regarded with imaginations steeped in pagan ideas of the -Godhead. That even the foulest tempers of the Canaanite ritual, -those inspired by wine and the sexual passion, were licensed in the -sanctuaries of Israel, both Amos and Hosea testify. But the worst -of the evil was wrought in the popular conception of God. Let us -remember again that Jehovah had no real rival at this time in the -devotion of His people, and that their faith was expressed both by -the legal forms of His religion and by a liberality which exceeded -these. The tithes were paid to Him, and paid, it would appear, -with more than legal frequency.[88] Sabbath and New Moon, as days -of worship and rest from business, were observed with a Pharisaic -scrupulousness for the letter if not for the spirit.[89] The -prescribed festivals were held, and thronged by zealous devotees who -rivalled each other in the amount of their free-will offerings.[90] -Pilgrimages were made to Bethel, to Gilgal, to far Beersheba, and the -very way to the latter appeared as sacred to the Israelite as the -way to Mecca does to a pious Moslem of to-day.[91] Yet, in spite -of all this devotion to their God, Israel had no true ideas of Him. -To quote Amos, they sought His sanctuaries, but Him they did not -seek; in the words of Hosea's frequent plaint, they _did not know -Him_. To the mass of the people, to their governors, their priests, -and the most of their prophets, Jehovah was but the characteristic -Semitic deity--patron of His people, and caring for them alone--who -had helped them in the past, and was bound to help them still--very -jealous as to the correctness of His ritual and the amount of His -sacrifices, but indifferent about real morality. Nay, there were -still darker streaks in their views of Him. A god, figured as an ox, -could not be adored by a cattle-breeding people without starting -in their minds thoughts too much akin to the foul tempers of the -Canaanite faiths. These things it is almost a shame to mention; but -without knowing that they fermented in the life of that generation, -we shall not appreciate the vehemence of Amos or of Hosea. - -Such a religion had no discipline for the busy, mercenary life of -the day. Injustice and fraud were rife in the very precincts of the -sanctuary. Magistrates and priests alike were smitten with their -generation's love of money, and did everything for reward. Again -and again do the prophets speak of bribery. Judges took gifts and -perverted the cause of the poor; priests drank the mulcted wine, -and slept on the pledged garments of religious offenders. There -was no disinterested service of God or of the commonweal. Mammon -was supreme. The influence of the commercial character of the age -appears in another very remarkable result. An agricultural community -is always sensitive to the religion of nature. They are awed by -its chastisements--droughts, famines and earthquakes. They feel -its majestic order in the course of the seasons, the procession of -day and night, the march of the great stars all the host of the -Lord of hosts. But Amos seems to have had to break into passionate -reminders of Him that maketh Orion and the Pleiades, and turneth -the murk into morning.[92] Several physical calamities visited the -land. The locusts are bad in Palestine every sixth or seventh year: -one year before Amos began they had been very bad. There was a -monstrous drought, followed by a famine. There was a long-remembered -earthquake--_the earthquake in the days of Uzziah_. With Egypt so -near, the home of the plague, and with so much war afoot in Northern -Syria, there were probably more pestilences in Western Asia than -those recorded in 803, 765 and 759. There was a total eclipse of -the sun in 763. But of all these, except perhaps the pestilence, a -commercial people are independent as an agricultural are not. Israel -speedily recovered from them, without any moral improvement. Even -when the earthquake came _they said in pride and stoutness of heart, -The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the -sycamores are cut down, but we will change to cedars_.[93] It was -a marvellous generation--so joyous, so energetic, so patriotic, so -devout! But its strength was the strength of cruel wealth, its peace -the peace of an immoral religion. - -I have said that the age is very modern, and we shall indeed go to -its prophets feeling that they speak to conditions of life extremely -like our own. But if we wish a still closer analogy from our history, -we must travel back to the fourteenth century in England--Langland's -and Wyclif's century, which, like this one in Israel, saw both the -first real attempts towards a national literature, and the first real -attempts towards a moral and religious reform. Then as in Israel a -long and victorious reign was drawing to a close, under the threat -of disaster when it should have passed. Then as in Israel there had -been droughts, earthquakes and pestilences with no moral results upon -the nation. Then also there was a city life developing at the expense -of country life. Then also the wealthy began to draw aloof from the -people. Then also there was a national religion, zealously cultivated -and endowed by the liberality of the people, but superstitious, -mercenary, and corrupted by sexual disorder. Then too there were many -pilgrimages to popular shrines, and the land was strewn with mendicant -priests and hireling preachers. And then too prophecy raised its voice, -for the first time fearless in England. As we study the verses of Amos -we shall find again and again the most exact parallels to them in the -verses of Langland's _Vision of Piers the Plowman_, which denounce the -same vices in Church and State, and enforce the same principles of -religion and morality. - - * * * * * - -It was when the reign of Jeroboam was at its height of assured -victory, when the nation's prosperity seemed impregnable after the -survival of those physical calamities, when the worship and the -commerce were in full course throughout the land, that the first of -the new prophets broke out against Israel in the name of Jehovah, -threatening judgment alike upon the new civilisation of which they -were so proud and the old religion in which they were so confident. -These prophets were inspired by feelings of the purest morality, -by the passionate conviction that God could no longer bear such -impurity and disorder. But, as we have seen, no prophet in Israel -ever worked on the basis of principles only. He came always in -alliance with events. These first appeared in the shape of the great -physical disasters. But a more powerful instrument of Providence, in -the service of judgment, was appearing on the horizon. This was the -Assyrian Empire. So vast was its influence on prophecy that we must -devote to it a separate chapter. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[55] He died in 798 or 797. - -[56] 2 Kings x. 32, xiii. 20, 22. - -[57] 2 Kings xiii. 14. - -[58] vi. 12 ff., etc. - -[59] viii., etc. - -[60] xiii. 17 ff. - -[61] 2 Kings xiii. 22-25. - -[62] xiv. 28, if not Damascus itself. - -[63] 2 Kings xv.: cf. 2 Chron. xxvi. - -[64] xii. 7 (Heb. ver. 8). Trans., _As for Canaan, the balances, etc._ - -[65] Amos, _passim_. Hosea viii. 14, etc.; Micah iii. 12; Isa. ix. 10. - -[66] [Hebrew: rmvn], a word not found in the Pentateuch, Joshua, -Judges, or Samuel, is used in 1 Kings xvi. 18, 2 Kings xv. 25, for a -citadel within the palace of the king. Similarly in Isa. xxv. 2; Pro. -xviii. 19. But in Amos generally of any large or grand house. That the -name first appears in the time of Omri's alliance with Tyre, points to -a Phoenician origin. Probably from root [Hebrew: rm], _to be high_. - -[67] Isa. ix. 10. - -[68] 1 Kings xii. 25 ff., and Amos and Hosea _passim_. - -[69] Hosea v. 1. - -[70] 1 Kings xviii. 30 ff. - -[71] 1 Kings xii. 25. - -[72] Originally so called from their elevation (though oftener on the -flank than on the summit of a hill); but like the name High Street or -the Scottish High Kirk, the term came to be dissociated from physical -height and was applied to any sanctuary, even in a hollow, like so -many of the sacred wells. - -[73] The sanctuary itself was probably on the present site of the Burj -Beitin (with the ruins of an early Christian Church), some few minutes -to the south-east of the present village of Beitin, which probably -represents the city of Bethel that was called Luz at the first. - -[74] 1 Kings xii. 25 ff.; Amos vii. - -[75] Amos iv. 4. - -[76] Amos vii. 13. - -[77] 1 Kings xii. 25 ff. - -[78] Curiously enough conceived by many of the early Christian -Fathers as containing the second of the calves. Cyril, _Comm. in -Hoseam_, 5; Epiph., _De Vitis Proph._, 237; _Chron. Pasc._, 161. - -[79] Josh. iv. 20 ff., v. 2 ff.; 1 Sam. xi. 14, 15, etc.; 2 Sam. -xix. 15, 40. This Gilgal by Jericho fell to N. Israel after the -Disruption; but there is nothing in Amos or Hosea to tell us, -whether it or the Gilgal near Shiloh, which seems to have absorbed -the sanctity of the latter, is the shrine which they couple with -Bethel--except that they never talk of "going up" to it. The passage -from Epiphanius in previous note speaks of the Gilgal with the calf -as the "Gilgal which is in Shiloh." - -[80] Site uncertain. See _Hist. Geog._, pp. 579, 586. - -[81] Amos ix. 3. But cf. i. 2. - -[82] 2 Kings xii. 28. - -[83] See above, p. 37, _n._ 1. - -[84] The Ephod, _the plated thing_; presumably a wooden image covered -either with a skin of metal or a cloak of metal. The Teraphim were -images in human shape. - -[85] The _menhir_ of modern Palestine--not a hewn pillar, but oblong -natural stone narrowing a little towards the top (cf. W. R. Smith, -_Religion of the Semites_, 183-188). From Hosea x. 1, 2, it would -appear that the macceboth of the eighth century were artificial. -_They make good_ macceboth (A.V. wrongly _images_). - -[86] So indeed Hosea iii. 4 implies. The Asherah, the pole or -symbolic tree of Canaanite worship, does not appear to have been used -as a part of the ritual of Jehovah's worship. But, that there was -constantly a temptation so to use it, is clear from Deut. xvi. 21, -22. See Driver on that passage. - -[87] See below, p. 99. - -[88] Amos iv. 4 ff. - -[89] Amos vii. 4: cf. 2 Kings v. 23. - -[90] Amos iv. 4 f. - -[91] See below, p. 185. - -[92] But whether these be by Amos see Chap. XI. - -[93] Isa ix. 10. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - _THE INFLUENCE OF ASSYRIA UPON PROPHECY_ - - -By far the greatest event in the eighth century before Christ was the -appearance of Assyria in Palestine. To Israel since the Exodus and -Conquest, nothing had happened capable of so enormous an influence at -once upon their national fortunes and their religious development. -But while the Exodus and Conquest had advanced the political and -spiritual progress of Israel in equal proportion, the effect of the -Assyrian invasion was to divorce these two interests, and destroy the -state while it refined and confirmed the religion. After permitting -the Northern Kingdom to reach an extent and splendour unrivalled -since the days of Solomon, Assyria overthrew it in 721 and left all -Israel scarcely a third of their former magnitude. But while Assyria -proved so disastrous to the state, her influence upon the prophecy -of the period was little short of creative. Humanly speaking, this -highest stage of Israel's religion could not have been achieved by -the prophets except in alliance with the armies of that heathen -empire. Before then we turn to their pages it may be well for us -to make clear in what directions Assyria performed this spiritual -service for Israel. While pursuing this inquiry we may be able to -find answers to the scarcely less important questions: why the -prophets were at first doubtful of the part Assyria was destined to -play in the providence of the Almighty? and why, when the prophets -were at last convinced of the certainty of Israel's overthrow, the -statesmen of Israel and the bulk of the people still remained so -unconcerned about her coming, or so sanguine of their power to resist -her? This requires, to begin with, a summary of the details of the -Assyrian advance upon Palestine. - -In the far past Palestine had often been the hunting-ground of the -Assyrian kings. But after 1100 B.C., and for nearly two centuries -and a half, her states were left to themselves. Then Assyria resumed -the task of breaking down that disbelief in her power with which -her long withdrawal seems to have inspired their politics. In 870 -Assurnasirpal reached the Levant, and took tribute from Tyre and -Sidon. Omri was reigning in Samaria, and must have come into close -relations with the Assyrians, for during more than a century and a -half after his death they still called the land of Israel by his -name.[94] In 854 Salmanassar II. defeated at Karkar the combined -forces of Ahab and Benhadad. In 850, 849 and 846 he conducted -campaigns against Damascus. In 842 he received tribute from Jehu,[95] -and in 839 again fought Damascus under Hazael. After this there -passed a whole generation during which Assyria came no farther -south than Arpad, some sixty miles north of Damascus; and Hazael -employed the respite in those campaigns which proved so disastrous -for Israel, by robbing her of the provinces across Jordan, and -ravaging the country about Samaria.[96] In 803 Assyria returned, and -accomplished the siege and capture of Damascus. The first consequence -to Israel was that restoration of her hopes under Joash, at which -the aged Elisha was still spared to assist,[97] and which reached -its fulfilment in the recovery of all Eastern Palestine by Jeroboam -II.[98] Jeroboam's own relations to Assyria have not been recorded -either by the Bible or by the Assyrian monuments. It is hard to think -that he paid no tribute to the "king of kings." At all events it is -certain that, while Assyria again overthrew the Arameans of Damascus -in 773 and their neighbours of Hadrach in 772 and 765, Jeroboam -was himself invading Aramean land, and the Book of Kings even -attributes to him an extension of territory, or at least of political -influence, up to the northern mouth of the great pass between the -Lebanons.[99] For the next twenty years Assyria only once came as -far as Lebanon--to Hadrach in 759--and it may have been this long -quiescence which enabled the rulers and people of Israel to forget, -if indeed their religion and sanguine patriotism had ever allowed -them to realise, how much the conquests and splendour of Jeroboam's -reign were due, not to themselves, but to the heathen power which had -maimed their oppressors. Their dreams were brief. Before Jeroboam -himself was dead, a new king had usurped the Assyrian throne (745 -B.C.) and inaugurated a more vigorous policy. Borrowing the name -of the ancient Tiglath-Pileser, he followed that conqueror's path -across the Euphrates. At first it seemed as if he was to suffer -check. His forces were engrossed by the siege of Arpad for three -years (_c._ 743), and this delay, along with that of two years more, -during which he had to return to the conquest of Babylon, may well -have given cause to the courts of Damascus and Samaria to believe -that the Assyrian power had not really revived. Combining, they -attacked Judah under Ahaz. But Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser, who -within a year (734-733) had overthrown Damascus and carried captive -the populations of Gilead and Galilee. There could now be no doubt -as to what the Assyrian power meant for the political fortunes of -Israel. Before this resistless and inexorable empire, the people of -Jehovah were as the most frail of their neighbours--sure of defeat, -and sure, too, of that terrible captivity in exile which formed the -novel policy of the invaders against the tribes who withstood them. -Israel dared to withstand. The vassal Hoshea, whom the Assyrians -had placed on the throne of Samaria in 730, kept back his tribute. -The people rallied to him; and for more than three years this -little tribe of highlanders resisted in their capital the Assyrian -siege. Then came the end. Samaria fell in 721, and Israel went into -captivity beyond the Euphrates. - -In following the course of this long tragedy, a man's heart cannot -but feel that _all_ the splendour and the glory did not lie with the -prophets, in spite of their being the only actors in the drama who -perceived its moral issues and predicted its actual end. For who can -withhold admiration from those few tribesmen, who accepted no defeat -as final, but so long as they were left to their fatherland rallied -their ranks to its liberty and defied the huge empire. Nor was their -courage always as blind, as in the time of Isaiah Samaria's so fatally -became. For one cannot have failed to notice, how fitful and irregular -was Assyria's advance, at least up to the reign of Tiglath-Pileser; -nor how prolonged and doubtful were her sieges of some of the towns. -The Assyrians themselves do not always record spoil or tribute after -what they are pleased to call their victories over the cities of -Palestine. To the same campaign they had often to return for several -years in succession.[100] It took Tiglath-Pileser himself three years -to reduce Arpad; Salmanassar IV. besieged Samaria for three years, and -was slain before it yielded. These facts enable us to understand that, -apart from the moral reasons which the prophets urged for the certainty -of Israel's overthrow by Assyria, it was always within the range of -political possibility that Assyria would not come back, and that -while she was engaged with revolts of other portions of her huge and -disorganised empire, a combined revolution on the part of her Syrian -vassals would be successful. The prophets themselves felt the influence -of these chances. They were not always confident, as we shall see, -that Assyria was to be the means of Israel's overthrow. Amos, and in -his earlier years Isaiah, describe her with a caution and a vagueness -for which there is no other explanation than the political uncertainty -that again and again hung over the future of her advance upon Syria. -It, then, even in those high minds, to whom the moral issue was so -clear, the political form that issue should assume was yet temporarily -uncertain, what good reasons must the mere statesmen of Syria have -often felt for the proud security which filled the intervals between -the Assyrian invasions, or the sanguine hopes which inspired their -resistance to the latter. - -We must not cast over the whole Assyrian advance the triumphant -air of the annals of such kings as Tiglath-Pileser or Sennacherib. -Campaigning in Palestine was a dangerous business even to the Romans; -and for the Assyrian armies there was always possible besides some -sudden recall by the rumour of a revolt in a distant province. Their -own annals supply us with good reasons for the sanguine resistance -offered to them by the tribes of Palestine. No defeat, of course, is -recorded; but the annals are full of delays and withdrawals. Then the -Plague would break out; we know how in the last year of the century -it turned Sennacherib, and saved Jerusalem.[101] In short, up almost -to the end the Syrian chiefs had some fair political reasons for -resistance to a power which had so often defeated them; while at the -very end, when no such reason remained and our political sympathy is -exhausted, we feel it replaced by an even warmer admiration for their -desperate defence. Mere mountain-cats of tribes as some of them were, -they held their poorly furnished rocks against one, two or three -years of cruel siege. - -In Israel these political reasons for courage against Assyria were -enforced by the whole instincts of the popular religion. The century -had felt a new outburst of enthusiasm for Jehovah.[102] This was -consequent, not only upon the victories He had granted over Aram, but -upon the literature of the peace which followed those victories: the -collection of the stories of the ancient miracles of Jehovah in the -beginning of His people's history, and of the purpose He had even then -announced of bringing Israel to supreme rank in the world. Such a God, -so anciently manifested, so recently proved, could never surrender His -own nation to a mere Goi[103]--a heathen and a barbarian people. Add -this dogma of the popular religion of Israel to those substantial hopes -of Assyria's withdrawal from Palestine, and you see cause, intelligible -and adequate, for the complacency of Jeroboam and his people to the -fact that Assyria had at last, by the fall of Damascus, reached their -own borders, as well as for the courage with which Hoshea in 725 threw -off the Assyrian yoke, and, with a willing people, for three years -defended Samaria against the great king. Let us not think that the -opponents of the prophets were utter fools or mere puppets of fate. -They had reasons for their optimism; they fought for their hearths and -altars with a valour and a patience which proves that the nation as a -whole was not so corrupt, as we are sometimes, by the language of the -prophets, tempted to suppose. - -But all this--the reasonableness of the hope of resisting Assyria, -the valour which so stubbornly fought her, the religious faith which -sanctioned both valour and hope--only the more vividly illustrates -the singular independence of the prophets, who took an opposite view, -who so consistently affirmed that Israel must fall, and so early -foretold that she should fall to Assyria. - -The reason of this conviction of the prophets was, of course, their -fundamental faith in the righteousness of Jehovah. That was a belief -quite independent of the course of events. As a matter of history, -the ethical reasons for Israel's doom were manifest to the prophets -within Israel's own life, before the signs grew clear on the horizon -that the doomster was to be Assyria.[104] Nay, we may go further, -and say that it could not possibly have been otherwise. For except -the prophets had been previously furnished with the ethical reasons -for Assyria's resistless advance on Israel, to their sensitive minds -that advance must have been a hopeless and a paralysing problem. -But they nowhere treat it as a problem. By them Assyria is always -either welcomed as a proof or summoned as a means--the proof of their -conviction that Israel requires humbling, the means of carrying that -humbling into effect. The faith of the prophets is ready for Assyria -from the moment that she becomes ominous for Israel, and every -footfall of her armies on Jehovah's soil becomes the corroboration -of the purpose He has already declared to His servants in the terms -of their moral consciousness. The spiritual service which Assyria -rendered to Israel was therefore secondary to the prophets' native -convictions of the righteousness of God, and could not have been -performed without these. This will become even more clear if we look -for a little at the exact nature of that service. - -In its broadest effects, the Assyrian invasion meant for Israel a very -considerable change in the intellectual outlook. Hitherto Israel's -world had virtually lain between the borders promised of old to -their ambition--_the river of Egypt,_[105] _and the great river, the -River Euphrates_. These had marked not merely the sphere of Israel's -politics, but the horizon within which Israel had been accustomed to -observe the action of their God and to prove His character, to feel -the problems of their religion rise and to grapple with them. But now -there burst from the outside of this little world that awful power, -sovereign and inexorable, which effaced all distinctions and treated -Israel in the same manner as her heathen neighbours. This was more -than a widening of the world: it was a change of the very poles. At -first sight it appeared merely to have increased the scale on which -history was conducted; it was really an alteration of the whole -character of history. Religion itself shrivelled up, before a force so -much vaster than anything it had yet encountered, and so contemptuous -of its claims. _What is Jehovah_, said the Assyrian in his laughter, -_more than the gods of Damascus, or of Hamath, or of the Philistines_? -In fact, for the mind of Israel, the crisis, though less in degree, -was in quality not unlike that produced in the religion of Europe by -the revelation of the Copernican astronomy. As the earth, previously -believed to be the centre of the universe, the stage on which the Son -of God had achieved God's eternal purposes to mankind, was discovered -to be but a satellite of one of innumerable suns, a mere ball swung -beside millions of others by a force which betrayed no sign of sympathy -with the great transactions which took place on it, and so faith in the -Divine worth of these was rudely shaken--so Israel, who had believed -themselves to be the peculiar people of the Creator, the solitary -agents of the God of Righteousness to all mankind,[106] and who now -felt themselves brought to an equality with other tribes by this sheer -force, which, brutally indifferent to spiritual distinctions, swayed -the fortunes of all alike, must have been tempted to unbelief in the -spiritual facts of their history, in the power of their God and the -destiny He had promised them. Nothing could have saved Israel, as -nothing could have saved Europe, but a conception of God which rose -to this new demand upon its powers--a faith which said, "Our God is -sufficient for this greater world and its forces that so dwarf our -own; the discovery of these only excites in us a more awful wonder -of His power." The prophets had such a conception of God. To them He -was absolute righteousness--righteousness wide as the widest world, -stronger than the strongest force. To the prophets, therefore, the rise -of Assyria only increased the possibilities of Providence. But it could -not have done this had Providence not already been invested in a God -capable by His character of rising to such possibilities. - -Assyria, however, was not only Force: she was also the symbol of -a great Idea--the Idea of Unity. We have just ventured on one -historical analogy. We may try another and a more exact one. The -Empire of Rome, grasping the whole world in its power and reducing -all races of men to much the same level of political rights, -powerfully assisted Christian theology in the task of imposing upon -the human mind a clearer imagination of unity in the government of -the world and of spiritual equality among men of all nations. A -not dissimilar service to the faith of Israel was performed by the -Empire of Assyria. History, that hitherto had been but a series of -angry pools, became as the ocean swaying in tides to one almighty -impulse. It was far easier to imagine a sovereign Providence when -Assyria reduced history to a unity by overthrowing all the rulers -and all their gods, than when history was broken up into the -independent fortunes of many states, each with its own religion -divinely valid in its own territory. By shattering the tribes Assyria -shattered the tribal theory of religion, which we have seen to be -the characteristic Semitic theory--a god for every tribe, a tribe -for every god. The field was cleared of the many: there was room for -the One. That He appeared, not as the God of the conquering race, -but as the Deity of one of their many victims, was due to Jehovah's -righteousness. At this juncture, when the world was suggested to have -one throne and that throne was empty, there was a great chance, if we -may so put it, for a god with a character. And the only God in all -the Semitic world who had a character was Jehovah. - -It is true that the Assyrian Empire was not constructive, like the -Roman, and, therefore, could not assist the prophets to the idea of a -Catholic Church. But there can be no doubt that it did assist them to -a feeling of the moral unity of mankind. A great historian has made -the just remark that, whatsoever widens the imagination, enabling it -to realise the actual experience of other men, is a powerful agent -of ethical advance.[107] Now Assyria widened the imagination and the -sympathy of Israel in precisely this way. Consider the universal Pity -of the Assyrian conquest: how state after state went down before it, -how all things mortal yielded and were swept away. The mutual hatreds -and ferocities of men could not persist before a common Fate, so -sublime, so tragic. And thus we understand how in Israel the old envies -and rancours of that border warfare with her foes which had filled the -last four centuries of her history is replaced by a new tenderness and -compassion towards the national efforts, the achievements and all the -busy life of the Gentile peoples. Isaiah is especially distinguished -by this in his treatment of Egypt and of Tyre; and even where he -and others do not, as in these cases, appreciate the sadness of the -destruction of so much brave beauty and serviceable wealth, their -tone in speaking of the fall of the Assyrian on their neighbours is -one of compassion and not of exultation.[108] As the rivalries and -hatreds of individual lives are stilled in the presence of a common -death, so even that factious, ferocious world of the Semites ceased -to _fret its anger and watch it for ever_ (to quote Amos' phrase) in -face of the universal Assyrian Fate. But in that Fate there was more -than Pity. On the data of the prophets Assyria was afflicting Israel -for moral reasons: it could not be for other reasons that she was -afflicting their neighbours. Israel and the heathen were suffering -for the same righteousness' sake. What could have better illustrated -the moral equality of all mankind! No doubt the prophets were already -theoretically convinced[109] of this--for the righteousness they -believed in was nothing if not universal. But it is one thing to hold -a belief on principle and another to have practical experience of -it in history. To a theory of the moral equality of mankind Assyria -enabled the prophets to add sympathy and conscience. We shall see all -this illustrated in the opening prophecies of Amos against the foreign -nations. - -But Assyria did not help to develop monotheism in Israel only by -contributing to the doctrines of a moral Providence and of the -equality of all men beneath it. The influence must have extended -to Israel's conception of God in Nature. Here, of course, Israel -was already possessed of great beliefs. Jehovah had created man; He -had divided the Red Sea and Jordan. The desert, the storm, and the -seasons were all subject to Him. But at a time when the superstitious -mind of the people was still feeling after other Divine powers in -the earth, the waters and the air of Canaan, it was a very valuable -antidote to such dissipation of their faith to find one God swaying, -through Assyria, all families of mankind. The Divine unity to which -history was reduced must have reacted on Israel's views of Nature, -and made it easier to feel one God also there. Now, as a matter of -fact, the imagination of the unity of Nature, the belief in a reason -and method pervading all things, was very powerfully advanced in -Israel throughout the Assyrian period. - -We may find an illustration of this in the greater, deeper meaning in -which the prophets use the old national name of Israel's God--Jehovah -Seba'oth, _Jehovah of Hosts_. This title, which came into frequent -use under the early kings, when Israel's vocation was to win freedom -by war, meant then (as far as we can gather) only _Jehovah of the -armies of Israel_--the God of battles, the people's leader in -war,[110] whose home was Jerusalem, the people's capital, and His -sanctuary their battle emblem, the Ark. Now the prophets hear Jehovah -go forth (as Amos does) from the same place, but to them the Name has -a far deeper significance. They never define it, but they use it in -associations where _hosts_ must mean something different from the -armies of Israel. To Amos the hosts of Jehovah are not the armies -of Israel, but those of Assyria: they are also the nations whom He -marshals and marches across the earth, Philistines from Caphtor, -Aram from Qir, as well as Israel from Egypt. Nay, more; according to -those Doxologies which either Amos or a kindred spirit has added to -his lofty argument,[111] Jehovah sways and orders the powers of the -heavens: Orion and Pleiades, the clouds from the sea to the mountain -peaks where they break, day and night in constant procession. It is -in associations like these that the Name is used, either in its old -form or slightly changed as _Jehovah God of hosts_, or _the hosts_; -and we cannot but feel that the hosts of Jehovah are now looked upon -as all the influences of earth and heaven--human armies, stars and -powers of nature, which obey His word and work His will. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[94] "The house of Omri": so even in Sargon's time, 722-705. - -[95] The Black Obelisk of Salmanassar in the British Museum, on which -the messengers of Jehu are portrayed. - -[96] 2 Kings x. 32 f.; xiii. 3. - -[97] 2 Kings xiii. 14 ff. - -[98] The phrase in 2 Kings xiii. 5, _Jehovah gave Israel a saviour_, -is interpreted by certain scholars as if the saviour were Assyria. In -xiv. 27 he is plainly said to be Jeroboam. - -[99] The entering in of Hamath (2 Kings xiv. 25). - -[100] Salmanassar II. in 850, 849, 846 to war against Dad'idri of -Damascus, and in 842 and 839 against Hazael, his successor. - -[101] See in this series _Isaiah_, Vol. I., pp. 359 ff. - -[102] See above, pp. 35 ff. - -[103] To use the term which Amos adopts with such ironical force: vi. -14. - -[104] When we get down among the details we shall see clear evidence -for this fact, for instance, that Amos prophesied against Israel at -a time when he thought that the Lord's anger was to be exhausted -in purely natural chastisements of His people, and before it was -revealed to him that Assyria was required to follow up these -chastisements with a heavier blow. See Chap. VI., Section 2. - -[105] That is, of course, not the Nile, but the great Wady, at present -known as the Wady el 'Arish, which divides Palestine from Egypt. - -[106] So already in the JE narratives of the Pentateuch. - -[107] Lecky: _History of European Morals_, I. - -[108] The present writer has already pointed out this with regard to -Egypt and Phoenicia in _Isaiah_ (Expositor's Bible Series), I., Chaps. -XXII. and XXIII., and with regard to Philistia in _Hist. Geog._, p. 178. - -[109] I put it this way only for the sake of making the logic -clear; for it is a mistake to say that the prophets at any time -held merely theoretic convictions. All their conviction was really -experimental--never held apart from some illustration or proof of -principle in actual history. - -[110] [Hebrew: tzvvt hvh]: 1 Sam. i. 3; iv. 4; xvii. 45, where it is -explained by the parallel phrase _God of the armies of Israel_; 2 -Sam. vi. 2, where it is connected with Israel's battle emblem, the -Ark (cf. Jer. xxii. 18); and so throughout Samuel and Kings, and also -Chronicles, the Psalms, and most prophets. The plural [Hebrew: tzvvt] -is never used in the Old Testament except of human hosts, and generally -of the armies or hosts of Israel. The theory therefore which sees the -same meaning in the Divine title is probably the correct one. It was -first put forward by Herder (_Geist der Eb. Poesie_, ii. 84, 85), and -after some neglect it has been revived by Kautzsch (_Z. A. T. W._, -vi. ff.) and Stade (_Gesch._, i. 437, _n._ 3). The alternatives are -that the hosts originally meant those of heaven, either the angels -(so, among others, Ewald, _Hist._, Eng. Ed., iii. 62) or the stars (so -Delitzsch, Kuenen, Baudissin, Cheyne, _Prophecies of Isaiah_, i. 11). -In the former of these two there is some force; but the reason given -for the latter, that the name came to the front in Israel when the -people were being drawn into connection with star-worshipping nations, -especially Aram, seems to me baseless. Israel had not been long in -touch with Aram in Saul's time, yet even then the name is accepted -as if one of much earlier origin. A clear account of the argument on -the other side to that taken in this note will be found in Smend, -_Altiestamentliche Religionsgeschichte_, pp. 185 ff. - -[111] See below, Chap. XI. - - - - - _AMOS_ - - - - -"Towers in the distance, like an earth-born Atlas ... such a man in -such a historical position, standing on the confines of light and -darkness, like day on the misty mountain-tops." - - - - - CHAPTER V - - _THE BOOK OF AMOS_ - - -The genuineness of the bulk of the Book of Amos is not doubted by -any critic. The only passages suspected as interpolations are the -three references to Judah, the three famous outbreaks in praise of -the might of Jehovah the Creator, the final prospect of a hope that -does not gleam in any other part of the book, with a few clauses -alleged to reflect a stage of history later than that in which Amos -worked.[112] In all, these verses amount to only twenty-six or -twenty-seven out of one hundred and forty-six. Each of them can be -discussed separately as we reach it, and we may now pass to consider -the general course of the prophecy which is independent of them. - -The Book of Amos consists of Three Groups of Oracles, under one -title, which is evidently meant to cover them all. - -The title runs as follows:-- - - _Words of 'Amos--who was of the herdsmen of Tekoa'--which he saw - concerning Israel in the days of 'Uzziah king of Judah, and in - the days of Jarab'am son of Joash,_[113] _king of Israel: two - years before the earthquake._ - -The Three Sections, with their contents, are as follows:-- - - FIRST SECTION: CHAPS. I., II. THE HEATHEN'S - CRIMES AND ISRAEL'S. - - A series of short oracles of the same form, directed impartially - against the political crimes of all the states of Palestine, and - culminating in a more detailed denunciation of the social evils - of Israel, whose doom is foretold, beneath the same flood of war - as shall overwhelm all her neighbours. - - SECOND SECTION: CHAPS. III.-VI. ISRAEL'S - CRIMES AND DOOM. - - A series of various oracles of denunciation, which have no - further logical connection than is supplied by a general - sameness of subject, and a perceptible increase of detail and - articulateness from beginning to end of the section. They are - usually grouped according to the recurrence of the formula _Hear - this word_, which stands at the head of our present chaps. - iii., iv. and v.; and by the two cries of _Woe_ at v. 18 and - vi. 1. But even more obvious than these commencements are the - various climaxes to which they lead up. These are all threats of - judgment, and each is more strenuous or explicit than the one - that has preceded it. They close with iii. 15, iv. 3, iv. 12, v. - 17, v. 27 and vi. 14; and according to them the oracles may be - conveniently divided into six groups. - - 1. III. 1-15. After the main theme of judgment is stated in - 1, 2, we have in 3-8 a parenthesis on the prophet's right - to threaten doom; after which 9-15, following directly on - 2, emphasise the social disorder, threaten the land with - invasion, the people with extinction and the overthrow of their - civilisation. - - 2. IV. 1-3, beginning with the formula _Hear this word_, is - directed against women and describes the siege of the capital - and their captivity. - - 3. IV. 4-12, with no opening formula, contrasts the people's - vain propitiation of God by ritual with His treatment of them - by various physical chastisements--drought, blight and locusts, - pestilence, earthquake--and summons them to prepare for another, - unnamed, visitation. _Jehovah God of Hosts is His Name._ - - 4. V. 1-17, beginning with the formula _Hear this word_, and - a dirge over a vision of the nation's defeat, attacks, like - the previous group, the lavish ritual, sets in contrast to it - Jehovah's demands for justice and civic purity; and, offering a - reprieve if Israel will repent, closes with the prospect of an - universal mourning (vv. 16, 17), which, though introduced by a - _therefore_, has no logical connection with what precedes it. - - 5. V. 18-26 is the first of the two groups that open with _Woe_. - Affirming that the eagerly expected _Day of Jehovah_ will be - darkness and disaster on disaster inevitable (18-20), it again - emphasises Jehovah's desire for righteousness rather than - worship (21-26), and closes with the threat of captivity beyond - Damascus. _Jehovah God of Hosts is His Name_, as at the close of - 3. - - 6. VI. 1-14. The second _Woe_, on them _that are at ease in - Zion_ (1, 2): a satire on the luxuries of the rich and their - indifference to the national suffering (3-6): captivity must - come, with the desolation of the land (9, 10); and in a - peroration the prophet reiterates a general downfall of the - nation because of its perversity. _A Nation_--needless to name - it!--will oppress Israel from Hamath to the River of the Arabah. - - THIRD SECTION: CHAPS. VII.-IX. VISIONS WITH - INTERLUDES. - - The Visions betray traces of development; but they are - interrupted by a piece of narrative and addresses on the same - themes as chaps. iii.-vi. The FIRST TWO VISIONS (vii. 1-6) are - of disasters--locusts and drought--in the realm of nature; - they are averted by prayer from Amos. The THIRD (7-9) is in - the sphere, not of nature, but history: Jehovah standing with - a plumbline, as if to show the nation's fabric to be utterly - twisted, announces that it shall be overthrown, and that the - dynasty of Jeroboam must be put to the sword. Upon this mention - of the king, the first in the book, there starts the narrative - (10-17) of how Amaziah, priest at Bethel--obviously upon hearing - the prophet's threat--sent word to Jeroboam; and then (whether - before or after getting a reply) proceeded to silence Amos, who, - however, reiterates his prediction of doom, again described as - captivity in a foreign land, and adds a FOURTH VISION (viii. - 1-3), of the Kaits or _Summer Fruit_, which suggests Kets, or - _End_ of the Nation. Here it would seem Amos' discourses at - Bethel take end. Then comes viii. 4-6, another exposure of the - sins of the rich; followed by a triple pronouncement of doom - (7), again in the terms of physical calamities--earthquake (8), - eclipse (9, 10), and famine (11-14), in the last of which the - public worship is again attacked. A FIFTH VISION, of the Lord by - the Altar commanding to smite (ix. 1), is followed by a powerful - threat of the hopelessness of escape from God's punishment (ix. - 1_b_-4); the third of the great apostrophes to the might of - Jehovah (5, 6); another statement of the equality in judgment - of Israel with other peoples, and of their utter destruction - (7-8_a_). Then (8_b_) we meet the first qualification of the - hitherto unrelieved sentence of death. Captivity is described, - not as doom, but as discipline (9): the sinners of the people, - scoffers at doom, shall die (10). And this seems to leave room - for two final oracles of restoration and glory, the only two in - the book, which are couched in the exact terms of the promises - of later prophecy (11-15) and are by many denied to Amos. - -Such is the course of the prophesying of Amos. To have traced it must -have made clear to us the unity of his book,[114] as well as the -character of the period to which he belonged. But it also furnishes -us with a good deal of evidence towards the answer of such necessary -questions as these--whether we can fix an exact date for the whole -or any part, and whether we can trace any logical or historical -development through the chapters, either as these now stand, or in -some such re-arrangement as we saw to be necessary for the authentic -prophecies of Isaiah. - -Let us take first the simplest of these tasks--to ascertain the -general period of the book. Twice--by the title and by the portion -of narrative[115]--we are pointed to the reign of Jeroboam II., -_circa_ 783-743; other historical allusions suit the same years. The -principalities of Palestine are all standing, except Gath;[116] but the -great northern cloud which carries their doom has risen and is ready -to burst. Now Assyria, we have seen, had become fatal to Palestine -as early as 854. Infrequent invasions of Syria had followed, in one -of which, in 803, Rimmon Nirari III. had subjected Tyre and Sidon, -besieged Damascus, and received tribute from Israel. So far then as the -Assyrian data are concerned, the Book of Amos might have been written -early in the reign of Jeroboam. Even then was the storm lowering as he -describes it. Even then had the lightning broken over Damascus. There -are other symptoms, however, which demand a later date. They seem -to imply, not only Uzziah's overthrow of Gath,[117] and Jeroboam's -conquest of Moab[118] and of Aram,[119] but that establishment of -Israel's political influence from Lebanon to the Dead Sea, which must -have taken Jeroboam several years to accomplish. With this agree other -features of the prophecy--the sense of political security in Israel, -the large increase of wealth, the ample and luxurious buildings, the -gorgeous ritual, the easy ability to recover from physical calamities, -the consequent carelessness and pride of the upper classes. All these -things imply that the last Syrian invasions of Israel in the beginning -of the century were at least a generation behind the men into whose -careless faces the prophet hurled his words of doom. During this -interval Assyria had again advanced--in 775, in 773 and in 772.[120] -None of these expeditions, however, had come south of Damascus, -and this, their invariable arrest at some distance from the proper -territory of Israel, may have further flattered the people's sense -of security, though probably the truth was that Jeroboam, like some -of his predecessors, bought his peace by tribute to the emperor. In -765, when the Assyrians for the second time invaded Hadrach, in the -neighbourhood of Damascus, their records mention a pestilence, which, -both because their armies were then in Syria, and because the plague -generally spreads over the whole of Western Asia, may well have been -the pestilence mentioned by Amos. In 763 a total eclipse of the sun -took place, and is perhaps implied by the ninth verse of his eighth -chapter. If this double allusion to pestilence and eclipse be correct, -it brings the book down to the middle of the century and the latter -half of Jeroboam's long reign. In 755 the Assyrians came back to -Hadrach; in 754 to Arpad: with these exceptions Syria was untroubled by -them till after 745. It was probably these quiet years in which Amos -found Israel _at ease in Zion_.[121] If we went down further, within -the more forward policy of Tiglath-Pileser, who ascended the throne in -745 and besieged Arpad from 743 to 740, we should find an occasion for -the urgency with which Amos warns Israel that the invasion of her land -and the overthrow of the dynasty of Jeroboam will be immediate.[122] -But Amos might have spoken as urgently even before Tiglath-Pileser's -accession; and the probability that Hosea, who prophesied within -Jeroboam's reign, quotes from Amos seems to imply that the prophecies -of the latter had been current for some time. - -Towards the middle of the eighth century--is, therefore, the most -definite date to which we are able to assign the Book of Amos. At so -great a distance the difference of a few unmarked years is invisible. -It is enough that we know the moral dates--the state of national -feeling, the personages alive, the great events which are behind the -prophet, and the still greater which are imminent. We can see that Amos -wrote in the political pride of the latter years of Jeroboam's reign, -after the pestilence and eclipse of the sixties, and before the advance -of Tiglath-Pileser in the last forties, of the eighth century. - -A particular year is indeed offered by the title of the book, which, -if not by Amos himself, must be from only a few years later:[123] -_Words of Amos, which he saw in the days of Uzziah and of Jeroboam, -two years before the earthquake_. This was the great earthquake -of which other prophets speak as having happened in the days of -Uzziah.[124] But we do not know where to place the year of the -earthquake, and are as far as ever from a definite date. - -The mention of the earthquake, however, introduces us to the answer -of another of our questions--whether, with all its unity, the Book -of Amos reveals any lines of progress, either of event or of idea, -either historical or logical. - -Granting the truth of the title, that Amos had his prophetic eyes -opened two years before the earthquake, it will be a sign of -historical progress if we find in the book itself any allusions to -the earthquake. Now these are present. In the first division we find -none, unless the threat of God's visitation in the form of a shaking -of the land be considered as a tremor communicated to the prophet's -mind from the recent upheaval. But in the second division there is -an obvious reference: the last of the unavailing chastisements, with -which Jehovah has chastised His people, is described as a _great -overturning_.[125] And in the third division, in two passages, the -judgment, which Amos has already stated will fall in the form of an -invasion, is also figured in the terms of an earthquake. Nor does -this exhaust the tremors which that awful convulsion had started; -but throughout the second and third divisions there is a constant -sense of instability, of the liftableness and breakableness of the -very ground of life. Of course, as we shall see, this was due to the -prophet's knowledge of the moral explosiveness of society in Israel; -but he could hardly have described the results of that in the terms -he has used, unless himself and his hearers had recently felt the -ground quake under them, and seen whole cities topple over. If, -then, Amos began to prophesy two years before the earthquake, the -bulk of his book was spoken, or at least written down, after the -earthquake had left all Israel trembling.[126] - -This proof of progress in the book is confirmed by another feature. -In the abstract given above it is easy to see that the judgments -of the Lord upon Israel were of a twofold character. Some were -physical--famine, drought, blight, locusts, earthquake; and some -were political--battle, defeat, invasion, captivity. Now it is -significant--and I do not think the point has been previously -remarked--that not only are the physical represented as happening -first, but that at one time the prophet seems to have understood -that no others would be needed, that indeed God did not reveal to -him the imminence of political disaster till He had exhausted the -discipline of physical calamities. For this we have double evidence. -In chapter iv. Amos reports that the Lord has sought to rouse Israel -out of the moral lethargy into which their religious services have -soothed them, by withholding bread and water; by blighting their -orchards; by a pestilence, a thoroughly Egyptian one; and by an -earthquake. But these having failed to produce repentance, God must -visit the people once more: how, the prophet does not say, leaving -the imminent terror unnamed, but we know that the Assyrian overthrow -is meant. Now precisely parallel to this is the course of the Visions -in chapter vii. The Lord caused Amos to see (whether in fancy or in -fact we need not now stop to consider) the plague of locusts. It was -so bad as to threaten Israel with destruction. But Amos interceded, -and God answered, _It shall not be_. Similarly with a plague of -drought. But then the Vision shifts from the realm of nature to that -of politics. The Lord sets the plumbline to the fabric of Israel's -life: this is found hopelessly bent and unstable. It must be pulled -down, and the pulling down shall be political: the family of Jeroboam -is to be slain, the people are to go into captivity. The next Vision, -therefore, is of the End--the Final Judgment of war and defeat, which -is followed only by Silence. - -Thus, by a double proof, we see not only that the Divine method in that -age was to act first by physical chastisement, and only then by an -inevitable, ultimate doom of war and captivity; but that the experience -of Amos himself, his own intercourse with the Lord, passed through -these two stages. The significance of this for the picture of the -prophet's life we shall see in our next chapter. Here we are concerned -to ask whether it gives us any clue as to the extant arrangement of -his prophecies, or any justification for re-arranging them, as the -prophecies of Isaiah have to be re-arranged, according to the various -stages of historical development at which they were uttered. - -We have just seen that the progress from the physical chastisements -to the political doom is reflected in both the last two sections of -the book. But the same gradual, cumulative method is attributed to the -Divine Providence by the First Section: _for three transgressions, yea, -for four, I will not turn it back_; and then follow the same disasters -of war and captivity as are threatened in Sections II. and III. But -each section does not only thus end similarly; each also begins with -the record of an immediate impression made on the prophet by Jehovah -(chaps. i. 2; iii. 3-8; vii. 1-9). - -To sum up:--The Book of Amos consists of three sections,[127] -which seem to have received their present form towards the end of -Jeroboam's reign; and which, after emphasising their origin as -due to the immediate influence of Jehovah Himself on the prophet, -follow pretty much the same course of the Divine dealings with -that generation of Israel--a course which began with physical -chastisements, that failed to produce repentance, and ended with the -irrevocable threat of the Assyrian invasion. Each section, that is to -say, starts from the same point, follows much the same direction, and -arrives at exactly the same conclusion. Chronologically you cannot -put one of them before the other; but from each it is possible to -learn the stages of experience through which Amos himself passed--to -discover how God taught the prophet, not only by the original -intuitions from which all prophecy starts, but by the gradual events -of his day both at home and abroad. - -This decides our plan for us. We shall first trace the life and -experience of Amos, as his book enables us to do; and then we shall -examine, in the order in which they lie, the three parallel forms in -which, when he was silenced at Bethel, he collected the fruits of -that experience, and gave them their final expression. - - * * * * * - -The style of the book is simple and terse. The fixity of the -prophet's aim--upon a few moral principles and the doom they -demand--keeps his sentences firm and sharp, and sends his paragraphs -rapidly to their climax. That he sees nature only under moral -light renders his poetry austere and occasionally savage. His -language is very pure. There is no ground for Jerome's charge that -he was "imperitus sermone": we shall have to notice only a few -irregularities in spelling, due perhaps to the dialect of the deserts -in which he passed his life.[128] - -The text of the book is for the most part well-preserved; but there are -a number of evident corruptions. Of the Greek Version the same holds -good as we have said in more detail of the Greek of Hosea.[129] It is -sometimes correct where the Hebrew text is not, sometimes suggestive of -the emendations required, and sometimes hopelessly astray. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[112] The full list of suspected passages is this: (1) References -to Judah--ii. 4, 5; vi. 1, _in Zion_; ix. 11, 12. (2) The three -Outbreaks of Praise--iv. 13; v. 8, 9; ix. 5, 6. (3) The Final -Hope--ix. 8-15, including vv. 11, 12, already mentioned. (4) Clauses -alleged to reflect a later stage of history--i. 9-12; v. 1, 2, 15; -vi. 2, 14. (5) Suspected for incompatibility--viii. 11-13. - -[113] So designated to distinguish him from the first Jeroboam, the -son of Nebat. - -[114] Apart from the suspected parentheses already mentioned. - -[115] Chap. vii. - -[116] And, if vi. 2 be genuine, Hamath. - -[117] 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. In the list of the Philistine cities, Amos -i. 6-8, Gath does not occur, and in harmony with this in vi. 2 it is -said to be overthrown; see pp. 173 f. - -[118] 2 Kings. In Amos ii. 3 the ruler of Moab is called, not king, -but [Hebrew: shvft], or regent, such as Jeroboam substituted for the -king of Moab. - -[119] According to Graetz's emendation of vi. 13: _we have taken -Lo-Debar and Karnaim_. Perhaps too in iii. 12, though the verse is -very obscure, some settlement of Israelites in Damascus is implied. -For Jeroboam's conquest of Aram (2 Kings xiv. 28), see p. 177. - -[120] In 775 to Erini, "the country of the cedars"--that is, Mount -Amanus, near the Gulf of Antioch; in 773 to Damascus; in 772 to Hadrach. - -[121] vi. 1. - -[122] vii. 9. - -[123] Even Koenig denies that the title is from Amos (_Einleitung_, -307); yet the ground on which he does so, the awkwardness of the -double relative, does not appear sufficient. One does not write a -title in the same style as an ordinary sentence. - -[124] Zech. xiv. 5, and probably Isa. ix. 9, 10 (Eng.). - -[125] iv. 11. - -[126] Of course it is always possible to suspect--and let us by all -means exhaust the possibilities of suspicion--that the title has -been added by a scribe, who interpreted the forebodings of judgment -which Amos expresses in the terms of earthquake as if they were -the predictions of a real earthquake, and was anxious to show, by -inserting the title, how they were fulfilled in the great convulsion -of Uzziah's days. But to such a suspicion we have a complete answer. -No later scribe, who understood the book he was dealing with, would -have prefixed to it a title, with the motive just suspected, when -in chap. iv. he read that an earthquake had just taken place. The -very fact that such a title appears over a book, which speaks of the -earthquake as past, surely attests the _bona fides_ of the title. -With that mention in chap. iv. of the earthquake as past, none -would have ventured to say that Amos began to prophesy before the -earthquake unless they had known this to be the case. - -[127] Except for the later additions, not by Amos, to be afterwards -noted. - -[128] Cf. ii. 13; v. 11.; vi. 8, 10; vii. 9, 16; viii. 8 (?). - -[129] See below, p. 221. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - _THE MAN AND THE PROPHET_ - - -The Book of Amos opens one of the greatest stages in the religious -development of mankind. Its originality is due to a few simple ideas, -which it propels into religion with an almost unrelieved abruptness. -But, like all ideas which ever broke upon the world, these also have -flesh and blood behind them. Like every other Reformation, this one -in Israel began with the conscience and the protest of an individual. -Our review of the book has made this plain. We have found in it, not -only a personal adventure of a heroic kind, but a progressive series -of visions, with some other proofs of a development both of facts and -ideas. In short, behind the book there beats a life, and our first duty -is to attempt to trace its spiritual history. The attempt is worth the -greatest care. "Amos," says a very critical writer,[130] "is one of the -most wonderful appearances in the history of the human spirit." - - - 1. THE MAN AND HIS DISCIPLINE. - - AMOS i. 1; iii. 3-8; vii. 14, 15. - -When charged at the crisis of his career with being but a -hireling-prophet, Amos disclaimed the official name and took his -stand upon his work as a man: _No prophet I, nor prophet's son, but -a herdsman and a dresser of sycomores. Jehovah took me from behind -the flock._[131] We shall enhance our appreciation of this manhood, -and of the new order of prophecy which it asserted, if we look for a -little at the soil on which it was so bravely nourished. - -Six miles south from Bethlehem, as Bethlehem is six from Jerusalem, -there rises on the edge of the Judaean plateau, towards the desert, a -commanding hill, the ruins on which are still known by the name of -Tekoa'.[132] - -In the time of Amos Tekoa was a place without sanctity and almost -without tradition. The name suggests that the site may at first have -been that of a camp. Its fortification by Rehoboam, and the mission -of its wise woman to David, are its only previous appearances in -history. Nor had nature been less grudging to it than fame. The men -of Tekoa looked out upon a desolate and haggard world. South, west -and north the view is barred by a range of limestone hills, on one -of which directly north the grey towers of Jerusalem are hardly to -be discerned from the grey mountain lines. Eastward the prospect -is still more desolate, but it is open; the land slopes away for -nearly eighteen miles to a depth of four thousand feet. Of this -long descent, the first step, lying immediately below the hill of -Tekoa, is a shelf of stony moorland with the ruins of vineyards. It -is the lowest ledge of the settled life of Judaea. The eastern edge -drops suddenly by broken rocks to slopes spotted with bushes of -"retem," the broom of the desert, and with patches of poor wheat. -From the foot of the slopes the land rolls away in a maze of low -hills and shallow dales, that flush green in spring, but for the rest -of the year are brown with withered grass and scrub. This is the -_Wilderness_ or _Pastureland of Tekoa_,[133] across which by night -the wild beasts howl, and by day the blackened sites of deserted -camps, with the loose cairns that mark the nomads' graves, reveal a -human life almost as vagabond and nameless as that of the beasts. -Beyond the rolling land is Jeshimon, or Devastation--a chaos of -hills, none of whose ragged crests are tossed as high as the shelf -of Tekoa, while their flanks shudder down some further thousands of -feet, by crumbling precipices and corries choked with debris, to the -coast of the Dead Sea. The northern half of this is visible, bright -blue against the red wall of Moab, and the level top of the wall, -broken only by the valley of the Arnon, constitutes the horizon. -Except for the blue water--which shines in its gap between the torn -hills like a bit of sky through rifted clouds--it is a very dreary -world. Yet the sun breaks over it, perhaps all the more gloriously; -mists, rising from the sea simmering in its great vat, drape the -nakedness of the desert noon; and through the dry desert night the -planets ride with a majesty they cannot assume in our more troubled -atmospheres. It is also a very empty and a very silent world, yet -every stir of life upon it excites, therefore, the greater vigilance, -and man's faculties, relieved from the rush and confusion of events, -form the instinct of marking, and reflecting upon, every single -phenomenon. And it is a very savage world. Across it all, the towers -of Jerusalem give the only signal of the spirit, the one token that -man has a history. - -Upon this unmitigated wilderness, where life is reduced to poverty and -danger; where nature starves the imagination, but excites the faculties -of perception and curiosity; with the mountain tops and the sunrise -in his face, but above all with Jerusalem so near,--Amos did the work -which made him a man, heard the voice of God calling him to be a -prophet, and gathered those symbols and figures in which his prophet's -message still reaches us with so fresh and so austere an air. - -Amos was _among the shepherds of Tekoa_. The word for _shepherd_ is -unusual, and means the herdsman of a peculiar breed of desert sheep, -still under the same name prized in Arabia for the excellence of their -wool.[134] And he was _a dresser of sycomores_. The tree, which is -not our sycamore, is very easily grown in sandy soil with a little -water. It reaches a great height and mass of foliage. The fruit is -like a small fig, with a sweet but watery taste, and is eaten only by -the poor. Born not of the fresh twigs, but of the trunk and older -branches, the sluggish lumps are provoked to ripen by pinching or -bruising, which seems to be the literal meaning of the term that -Amos uses of himself--_a pincher of sycomores_.[135] The sycomore -does not grow at so high a level as Tekoa;[136] and this fact, taken -along with the limitation of the ministry of Amos to the Northern -Kingdom, has been held to prove that he was originally an Ephraimite, -a sycomore-dresser, who had migrated and settled down, as the peculiar -phrase of the title says, _among the shepherds of Tekoa_.[137] We shall -presently see, however, that his familiarity with life in Northern -Israel may easily have been won in other ways than through citizenship -in that kingdom; while the very general nature of the definition, -_among the shepherds of Tekoa_, does not oblige us to place either -him or his sycomores so high as the village itself. The most easterly -township of Judaea, Tekoa commanded the whole of the wilderness beyond, -to which indeed it gave its name, _the wilderness of Tekoa_. The -shepherds of Tekoa were therefore, in all probability, scattered across -the whole region down to the oases on the coast of the Dead Sea, which -have generally been owned by one or other of the settled communities in -the hill-country above, and may at that time have belonged to Tekoa, -just as in Crusading times they belonged to the monks of Hebron, or are -to-day cultivated by the Rushaideh Arabs, who pitch their camps not far -from Tekoa itself. As you will still find everywhere on the borders -of the Syrian desert shepherds nourishing a few fruit-trees round the -chief well of their pasture, in order to vary their milk diet, so in -some low oasis in the wilderness of Judaea Amos cultivated the poorest, -but the most easily grown of fruits, the sycomore.[138] All this -pushes Amos and his dwarf sheep deeper into the desert, and emphasises -what has been said above, and still remains to be illustrated, of the -desert's influence on his discipline as a man and on his speech as a -prophet. We ought to remember that in the same desert another prophet -was bred, who was also the pioneer of a new dispensation, and whose -ministry, both in its strength and its limitations, is much recalled by -the ministry of Amos. John the son of Zacharias _grew and waxed strong -in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto -Israel_.[139] Here, too, our Lord was _with the wild beasts_.[140] How -much Amos had been with them may be seen from many of his metaphors. -_The lion roareth, who shall not fear?... As when the shepherd rescueth -from the mouth of the lion two shin-bones or a bit of an ear.... It -shall be as when one is fleeing from a lion, and a bear cometh upon -him; and he entereth a house, and leaneth his hand on the wall, and a -serpent biteth him._ - -As a wool-grower, however, Amos must have had his yearly journeys -among the markets of the land; and to such were probably due his -opportunities of familiarity with Northern Israel, the originals of -his vivid pictures of her town-life, her commerce and the worship -at her great sanctuaries. One hour westward from Tekoa would bring -him to the high-road between Hebron and the North, with its troops -of pilgrims passing to Beersheba.[141] It was but half-an-hour more -to the watershed and an open view of the Philistine plain. Bethlehem -was only six, Jerusalem twelve miles from Tekoa. Ten miles farther, -across the border of Israel, lay Bethel with its temple, seven miles -farther Gilgal, and twenty miles farther still Samaria the capital, -in all but two days' journey from Tekoa. These had markets as well -as shrines;[142] their annual festivals would be also great fairs. -It is certain that Amos visited them; it is even possible that he -went to Damascus, in which the Israelites had at the time their own -quarters for trading. By road and market he would meet with men of -other lands. Phoenician pedlars, or Canaanites as they were called, -came up to buy the homespun for which the housewives of Israel were -famed[143]--hard-faced men who were also willing to purchase slaves, -and haunted even the battle-fields of their neighbours for this -sinister purpose. Men of Moab, at the time subject to Israel; Aramean -hostages; Philistines who held the export trade to Egypt,--these -Amos must have met and may have talked with; their dialects scarcely -differed from his own. It is no distant, desert echo of life which -we hear in his pages, but the thick and noisy rumour of caravan and -market-place: how the plague was marching up from Egypt;[144] ugly -stories of the Phoenician slave-trade;[145] rumours of the advance of -the awful Power, which men were hardly yet accustomed to name, but -which had already twice broken from the North upon Damascus. Or it -was the progress of some national mourning--how lamentation sprang -up in the capital, rolled along the highways, and was re-echoed -from the husbandmen and vinedressers on the hillsides.[146] Or, at -closer quarters, we see and hear the bustle of the great festivals -and fairs--the _solemn assemblies_, the reeking holocausts, the -_noise of songs and viols_;[147] the brutish religious zeal kindling -into drunkenness and lust on the very steps of the altar;[148] the -embezzlement of pledges by the priests, the covetous restlessness of -the traders, their false measures, their entanglement of the poor -in debt;[149] the careless luxury of the rich, their _banquets_, -_buckets of wine_, _ivory couches_, pretentious, preposterous -music.[150] These things are described as by an eyewitness. Amos -was not a citizen of the Northern Kingdom, to which he almost -exclusively refers; but it was because he went up and down in it, -using those eyes which the desert air had sharpened, that he so -thoroughly learned the wickedness of its people, the corruption of -Israel's life in every rank and class of society.[151] - -But the convictions which he applied to this life Amos learned at -home. They came to him over the desert, and without further material -signal than was flashed to Tekoa from the towers of Jerusalem. This -is placed beyond doubt by the figures in which he describes his call -from Jehovah. Contrast his story, so far as he reveals it, with -that of another. Some twenty years later, Isaiah of Jerusalem saw -the Lord in the Temple, high and lifted up, and all the inaugural -vision of this greatest of the prophets was conceived in the figures -of the Temple--the altar, the smoke, the burning coals. But to his -predecessor _among the shepherds of Tekoa_, although revelation also -starts from Jerusalem, it reaches him, not in the sacraments of her -sanctuary, but across the bare pastures, and as it were in the roar -of a lion. _Jehovah from Zion roareth, and uttereth His voice from -Jerusalem._[152] We read of no formal process of consecration for -this first of the prophets. Through his clear desert air, the word -of God breaks upon him without medium or sacrament. And the native -vigilance of the man is startled, is convinced by it, beyond all -argument or question. _The lion hath roared, who shall not fear? -Jehovah hath spoken, who can but prophesy?_ - -These words are taken from a passage in which Amos illustrates -prophecy from other instances of his shepherd life. We have seen -what a school of vigilance the desert is. Upon the bare surface all -that stirs is ominous. Every shadow, every noise--the shepherd must -know what is behind and be warned. Such a vigilance Amos would have -Israel apply to his own message, and to the events of their history. -Both of these he compares to certain facts of desert life, behind -which his shepherdly instincts have taught him to feel an ominous -cause. _Do two men walk together except they have trysted?_--except -they have made an appointment. Hardly in the desert, for there men -meet and take the same road by chance as seldom as ships at sea. -_Doth a lion roar in the jungle and have no prey, or a young lion -let out his voice in his den except he be taking something?_ The -hunting lion is silent till his quarry be in sight; when the lonely -shepherd hears the roar across the desert, he knows the lion leaps -upon his prey, and he shudders as Israel ought to do when they -hear God's voice by the prophet, for this also is never loosened -but for some grim fact, some leap of doom. Or _doth a little bird -fall on the snare earthwards and there be no noose upon her?_ The -reading may be doubtful, but the meaning is obvious: no one ever -saw a bird pulled roughly down to earth when it tried to fly away -without knowing there was the loop of a snare about her. Or _does the -snare itself rise up from the ground, except indeed it be capturing -something?_--except there be in the trap or net something to flutter, -struggle and so lift it up. Traps do not move without life in them. -Or _is the alarum trumpet_[153] _blown in a city_--for instance, in -high Tekoa up there, when some Arab raid sweeps from the desert on -to the fields--_and do the people not tremble?_ Or _shall calamity -happen in a city and Jehovah not have done it? Yea, the Lord Jehovah -doeth nothing but He has revealed His purpose to His servants the -prophets._ My voice of warning and these events of evil in your midst -have the same cause--Jehovah--behind them. _The lion hath roared, who -shall not fear? Jehovah hath spoken, who can but prophesy?_[154] - -We cannot miss the personal note which rings through this triumph -in the reality of things unseen. Not only does it proclaim a man of -sincerity and conviction: it is resonant with the discipline by which -that conviction was won--were won, too, the freedom from illusion and -the power of looking at facts in the face, which Amos alone of his -contemporaries possessed. - -St. Bernard has described the first stage of the Vision of God as the -Vision Distributive, in which the eager mind distributes her attention -upon common things and common duties in themselves. It was in this -elementary school that the earliest of the new prophets passed his -apprenticeship and received his gifts. Others excel Amos in the powers -of the imagination and the intellect. But by the incorrupt habits of -his shepherd's life, by daily wakefulness to its alarms and daily -faithfulness to its opportunities, he was trained in that simple power -of appreciating facts and causes, which, applied to the great phenomena -of the spirit and of history, forms his distinction among his peers. -In this we find perhaps the reason why he records of himself no solemn -hour of cleansing and initiation. _Jehovah took me from following the -flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel._ -Amos was of them of whom it is written, "Blessed are those servants -whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching." Through all his -hard life, this shepherd had kept his mind open and his conscience -quick, so that when the word of God came to him he knew it, as fast -as he knew the roar of the lion across the moor. Certainly there is -no habit, which, so much as this of watching facts with a single eye -and a responsible mind, is indispensable alike in the humblest duties -and in the highest speculations of life. When Amos gives those naive -illustrations of how real the voice of God is to him, we receive them -as the tokens of a man, honest and awake. Little wonder that he refuses -to be reckoned among the professional prophets of his day, who found -their inspiration in excitement and trance. Upon him the impulses of -the Deity come in no artificial and morbid ecstasy, removed as far as -possible from real life. They come upon him, as it were, in the open -air. They appeal to the senses of his healthy and expert manhood. -They convince him of their reality with the same force as do the most -startling events of his lonely shepherd watches. _The lion hath roared, -who shall not fear? Jehovah hath spoken, who can but prophesy?_ - -The influence of the same discipline is still visible when Amos -passes from the facts of his own consciousness to the facts of -his people's life. His day in Israel sweltered with optimism. The -glare of wealth, the fulsome love of country, the rank incense of -a religion that was without morality--these thickened all the air, -and neither the people nor their rulers had any vision. But Amos -carried with him his clear desert atmosphere and his desert eyes. He -saw the raw facts: the poverty, the cruel negligence of the rich, -the injustice of the rulers, the immorality of the priests. The -meaning of these things he questioned with as much persistence as he -questioned every suspicious sound or sight upon those pastures of -Tekoa. He had no illusions: he knew a mirage when he saw one. Neither -the military pride of the people, fostered by recent successes over -Syria, nor the dogmas of their religion, which asserted Jehovah's -swift triumph upon the heathen, could prevent him from knowing that -the immorality of Israel meant Israel's political downfall. He was -one of those recruits from common life, by whom religion and the -state have at all times been reformed. Springing from the laity and -very often from among the working classes, their freedom from dogmas -and routine, as well as from the compromising interests of wealth, -rank and party, renders them experts in life to a degree that almost -no professional priest, statesman or journalist, however honest or -sympathetic, can hope to rival. Into politics they bring facts, but -into religion they bring vision. - -It is of the utmost significance that this reformer, this founder of -the highest order of prophecy in Israel, should not only thus begin -with facts, but to the very end be occupied with almost nothing -else, than the vision and record of them. In Amos there is but one -prospect of the Ideal. It does not break till the close of his -book, and then in such contrast to the plain and final indictments, -which constitute nearly all the rest of his prophesying, that many -have not unnaturally denied to him the verses which contain it. -Throughout the other chapters we have but the exposure of present -facts, material and moral, nor the sight of any future more distant -than to-morrow and the immediate consequences of to-day's deeds. -Let us mark this. The new prophecy which Amos started in Israel -reached Divine heights of hope, unfolded infinite powers of moral -and political regeneration--dared to blot out all the past, dared to -believe all things possible in the future. But it started from the -truth about the moral situation of the present. Its first prophet not -only denied every popular dogma and ideal, but appears not to have -substituted for them any others. He spent his gifts of vision on the -discovery and appreciation of facts. Now this is necessary, not only -in great reformations of religion, but at almost every stage in her -development. We are constantly disposed to abuse even the most just -and necessary of religious ideals as substitutes for experience or -as escapes from duty, and to boast about the future before we have -understood or mastered the present. Hence the need of realists like -Amos. Though they are destitute of dogma, of comfort, of hope, of the -ideal, let us not doubt that they also stand in the succession of the -prophets of the Lord. - -Nay, this is a stage of prophecy on which may be fulfilled the prayer -of Moses: _Would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets!_ To -see the truth and tell it, to be accurate and brave about the moral -facts of our day--to this extent the Vision and the Voice are possible -for every one of us. Never for us may the doors of heaven open, as they -did for him who stood on the threshold of the earthly temple, and he -saw the Lord enthroned, while the Seraphim of the Presence sang the -glory. Never for us may the skies fill with that tempest of life which -Ezekiel beheld from Shinar, and above it the sapphire throne, and on -the throne the likeness of a man, the likeness of the glory of the -Lord. Yet let us remember that to see facts as they are and to tell the -truth about them--this also is prophecy. We may inhabit a sphere which -does not prompt the imagination, but is as destitute of the historic -and traditional as was the wilderness of Tekoa. All the more may our -unglamoured eyes be true to the facts about us. Every common day leads -forth her duties as shining as every night leads forth her stars. The -deeds and the fortunes of men are in our sight, and spell, to all who -will honestly read, the very Word of the Lord. If only we be loyal, -then by him who made the rude sounds and sights of the desert his -sacraments, and whose vigilance of things seen and temporal became the -vision of things unseen and eternal, we also shall see God, and be sure -of His ways with men. - -Before we pass from the desert discipline of the prophet, we -must notice one of its effects, which, while it greatly enhanced -the clearness of his vision, undoubtedly disabled Amos for the -highest prophetic rank. He who lives in the desert lives without -patriotism--detached and aloof. He may see the throng of men more -clearly than those who move among it. He cannot possibly so much feel -for them. Unlike Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Amos was not a citizen -of the kingdom against which he prophesied, and indeed no proper -citizen of any kingdom, but a nomad herdsman, hovering on the desert -borders of Judaea. He saw Israel from the outside. His message to her -is achieved with scarcely one sob in his voice. For the sake of the -poor and the oppressed among the people he is indignant. But with the -erring, staggering nation as a whole he has no real sympathy. His -pity for her is exhausted in one elegy and two brief intercessions; -hardly more than once does he even call her to repentance. His sense -of justice, in fact, had almost never to contend with his love. This -made Amos the better witness, but the worse prophet. He did not rise -so high as his great successors, because he did not so feel himself -one with the people whom he was forced to condemn, because he did -not bear their fate as his own nor travail for their new birth. "Ihm -fehlt die Liebe." Love is the element lacking in his prophecy; and -therefore the words are true of him, which were uttered of his great -follower across this same wilderness of Judaea, that mighty as were -his voice and his message to prepare the way of the Lord, yet _the -least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he_. - - - 2. THE WORD AND ITS ORIGINS. - - AMOS i. 2; iii. 3-8; and _passim_. - -We have seen the preparation of the Man for the Word. We are now -to ask, Whence came the Word to the Man?--the Word that made him a -prophet. What were its sources and sanctions outside himself? These -involve other questions. How much of his message did Amos inherit -from the previous religion of his people? And how much did he teach -for the first time in Israel? And again, how much of this new element -did he owe to the great events of his day? And how much demands some -other source of inspiration? - -To all these inquiries, outlines of the answers ought by this time to -have become visible. We have seen that the contents of the Book of -Amos consist almost entirely of two kinds: facts, actual or imminent, -in the history of his people; and certain moral principles of the -most elementary order. Amos appeals to no dogma nor form of law, nor -to any religious or national institution. Still more remarkably, he -does not rely upon miracle nor any so-called "supernatural sign." -To employ the terms of Mazzini's famous formula, Amos draws his -materials solely from "conscience and history." Within himself -he hears certain moral principles speak in the voice of God, and -certain events of his day he recognises as the judicial acts of God. -The principles condemn the living generation of Israel as morally -corrupt; the events threaten the people with political extinction. -From this agreement between inward conviction and outward event Amos -draws his full confidence as a prophet, and enforces on the people -his message of doom as God's own word. - -The passage in which Amos most explicitly illustrates this harmony -between event and conviction is one whose metaphors we have already -quoted in proof of the desert's influence upon the prophet's -life. When Amos asks, _Can two walk together except they have -made an appointment?_ his figure is drawn, as we have seen, from -the wilderness in which two men will hardly meet except they have -arranged to do so; but the truth, he would illustrate by the figure, -is that two sets of phenomena which coincide must have sprung from -a common purpose. Their conjunction forbids mere chance. What kind -of phenomena he means, he lets us see in his next instance: _Doth -a lion roar in the jungle and have no prey? Doth a young lion let -forth his voice from his den except he be catching something?_ That -is, those ominous sounds never happen without some fell and terrible -deed happening along with them. Amos thus plainly hints that the -two phenomena on whose coincidence he insists are an utterance on -one side, and on the other side a deed fraught with destruction. -The reading of the next metaphor about the bird and the snare is -uncertain; at most what it means is that you never see signs of -distress or a vain struggle to escape without there being, though -out of sight, some real cause for them.[155] But from so general -a principle he returns in his fourth metaphor to the special -coincidence between utterance and deed. _Is the alarum-trumpet blown -in a city and do the people not tremble?_ Of course they do; they -know such sound is never made without the approach of calamity. But -who is the author of every calamity? God Himself: _Shall there be -evil in a city and Jehovah not have done it?_ Very well then; we have -seen that common life has many instances in which, when an ominous -sound is heard, it is because it is closely linked with a fatal deed. -These happen together, not by mere chance, but because the one is the -expression, the warning or the explanation of the other. And we also -know that fatal deeds which happen to any community in Israel are -from Jehovah. He is behind them. But they, too, are accompanied by a -warning voice from the same source as themselves. This is the voice -which the prophet hears in his heart--the moral conviction which he -feels as the Word of God. _The Lord Jehovah doeth nothing but He -hath revealed His counsel to His servants the prophets._ Mark the -grammar: the revelation comes first to the prophet's heart; then he -sees and recognises the event, and is confident to give his message -about it. So Amos, repeating his metaphor, sums up his argument. -_The Lion hath roared, who shall not fear?_--certain that there is -more than sound to happen. _The Lord Jehovah hath spoken, who can -but prophesy?_--certain that what Jehovah has spoken to him inwardly -is likewise no mere sound, but that deeds of judgment are about to -happen, as the ominous voice requires they should.[156] - -The prophet then is made sure of his message by the agreement between -the inward convictions of his soul and the outward events of the day. -When these walk together, it proves that they have come of a common -purpose. He who causes the events--it is Jehovah Himself, _for shall -there be evil in a city and Jehovah not have done it?_--must be -author also of the inner voice or conviction which agrees with them. -_Who_ then _can but prophesy?_ Observe again that no support is here -derived from miracle; nor is any claim made for the prophet on the -ground of his ability to foretell the event. It is the agreement of -the idea with the fact, their evident common origin in the purpose of -Jehovah, which makes a man sure that he has in him the Word of God. -Both are necessary, and together are enough. Are we then to leave -the origin of the Word in this coincidence of fact and thought--as -it were an electric flash produced by the contact of conviction with -event? Hardly: there are questions behind this coincidence. For -instance, as to how the two react on each other--the event provoking -the conviction, the conviction interpreting the event? The argument -of Amos seems to imply that the ethical principles are experienced by -the prophet prior to the events which justify them Is this so, or -was the shock of the events required to awaken the principles? And -if the principles were prior, whence did Amos derive them? These are -some questions that will lead us to the very origins of revelation. - -The greatest of the events with which Amos and his contemporaries -dealt was the Assyrian invasion. In a previous chapter we have tried -to estimate the intellectual effects of Assyria on prophecy.[157] -Assyria widened the horizon of Israel, put the world to Hebrew -eyes into a new perspective, vastly increased the possibilities -of history and set to religion a novel order of problems. We can -trace the effects upon Israel's conceptions of God, of man and -even of nature.[158] Now it might be plausibly argued that the new -prophecy in Israel was first stirred and quickened by all this -mental shock and strain, and that even the loftier ethics of the -prophets were thus due to the advance of Assyria. For, as the most -vigilant watchmen of their day, the prophets observed the rise of -that empire, and felt its fatality for Israel. Turning then to -inquire the Divine reasons for such a destruction, they found these -in Israel's sinfulness, to the full extent of which their hearts -were at last awakened. According to such a theory the prophets were -politicians first and moralists afterwards: alarmists to begin with, -and preachers of repentance only second. Or--to recur to the language -employed above--the prophets' experience of the historical event -preceded their conviction of the moral principle which agreed with it. - -In support of such a theory it is pointed out that after all the -most original element in the prophecy of the eighth century was the -announcement of Israel's fall and exile. The Righteousness of Jehovah -had often previously been enforced in Israel, but never had any voice -drawn from it this awful conclusion that the nation must perish. The -first in Israel to dare this was Amos, and surely what enabled him -to do so was the imminence of Assyria upon his people. Again, such a -theory might plausibly point to the opening verse of the Book of Amos, -with its unprefaced, unexplained pronouncement of doom upon Israel:-- - - _The Lord roareth from Zion,_ - _And giveth voice from Jerusalem;_ - _And the pastures of the shepherds mourn,_ - _And the summit of Carmel is withered!_ - -Here, it might be averred, is the earliest prophet's earliest -utterance. Is it not audibly the voice of a man in a panic--such a -panic as, ever on the eve of historic convulsions, seizes the more -sensitive minds of a doomed people? The distant Assyrian thunder has -reached Amos, on his pastures, unprepared--unable to articulate its -exact meaning, and with only faith enough to hear in it the voice of -his God. He needs reflection to unfold its contents; and the process -of this reflection we find through the rest of his book. There he -details for us, with increasing clearness, both the ethical reasons -and the political results of that Assyrian terror, by which he was at -first so wildly shocked into prophecy. - -But the panic-born are always the still-born; and it is simply -impossible that prophecy, in all her ethical and religious vigour, can -have been the daughter of so fatal a birth. If we look again at the -evidence which is quoted from Amos in favour of such a theory, we -shall see how fully it is contradicted by other features of his book. - -To begin with, we are not certain that the terror of the opening verse -of Amos is the Assyrian terror. Even if it were, the opening of a book -does not necessarily represent the writer's earliest feelings. The rest -of the chapters contain visions and oracles which obviously date from -a time when Amos was not yet startled by Assyria, but believed that -the punishment which Israel required might be accomplished through a -series of physical calamities--locusts, drought and pestilence.[159] -Nay, it was not even these earlier judgments, preceding the Assyrian, -which stirred the word of God in the prophet. He introduces them with -a _now_ and a _therefore_. That is to say, he treats them only as the -consequence of certain facts, the conclusion of certain premises. These -facts and premises are moral--they are exclusively moral. They are the -sins of Israel's life, regarded without illusion and without pity. They -are certain simple convictions, which fill the prophet's heart, about -the impossibility of the survival of any state which is so perverse and -so corrupt. - -This origin of prophecy in moral facts and moral intuitions, which are -in their beginning independent of political events, may be illustrated -by several other points. For instance, the sins which Amos marked in -Israel were such as required no "red dawn of judgment" to expose their -flagrance and fatality. The abuse of justice, the cruelty of the rich, -the shameless immorality of the priests, are not sins which we feel -only in the cool of the day, when God Himself draws near to judgment. -They are such things as make men shiver in the sunshine. And so the -Book of Amos, and not less that of Hosea, tremble with the feeling -that Israel's social corruption is great enough of itself, without -the aid of natural convulsions, to shake the very basis of national -life. _Shall not the land tremble for this_, Amos says after reciting -some sins, _and every one that dwelleth therein_?[160] Not drought nor -pestilence nor invasion is needed for Israel's doom, but the elemental -force of ruin which lies in the people's own wickedness. This is enough -to create gloom long before the political skies be overcast--or, as -Amos himself puts it, this is enough - - _To cause the sun to go down at noon,_ - _And to darken the earth in the clear day._[161] - -And once more--in spite of Assyria the ruin may be averted, if only the -people will repent: _Seek good and not evil, and Jehovah of hosts will -be with you, as you say_.[162] Assyria, however threatening, becomes -irrelevant to Israel's future from the moment that Israel repents. - -Such beliefs, then, are obviously not the results of experience, nor -of a keen observation of history. They are the primal convictions -of the heart, which are deeper than all experience, and themselves -contain the sources of historical foresight. With Amos it was not -the outward event which inspired the inward conviction, but the -conviction which anticipated and interpreted the event, though when -the event came there can be no doubt that it confirmed, deepened, and -articulated the conviction.[163] - -But when we have thus tracked the stream of prophecy as far back as -these elementary convictions we have not reached the fountain-head. -Whence did Amos derive his simple and absolute ethics? Were they -original to him? Were they new in Israel? Such questions start an -argument which touches the very origins of revelation. - -It is obvious that Amos not only takes for granted the laws of -righteousness which he enforces: he takes for granted also the -people's conscience of them. New, indeed, is the doom which sinful -Israel deserves, and original to himself is the proclamation of it; -but Amos appeals to the moral principles which justify the doom, as -if they were not new, and as if Israel ought always to have known -them. This attitude of the prophet to his principles has, in our -time, suffered a curious judgment. It has been called an anachronism. -So absolute a morality, some say, had never before been taught in -Israel; nor had righteousness been so exclusively emphasised as the -purpose of Jehovah. Amos and the other prophets of his century were -the virtual "creators of ethical monotheism": it could only be by -a prophetic licence or prophetic fiction that he appealed to his -people's conscience of the standards he promulgated, or condemned his -generation to death for not having lived up to them. - -Let us see how far this criticism is supported by the facts. - -To no sane observer can the religious history of Israel appear -as anything but a course of gradual development. Even in the -moral standards, in respect to which it is confessedly often most -difficult to prove growth, the signs of the nation's progress -are very manifest. Practices come to be forbidden in Israel and -tempers to be mitigated, which in earlier ages were sanctioned to -their extreme by the explicit decrees of religion. In the nation's -attitude to the outer world sympathies arise, along with ideals of -spiritual service, where previously only war and extermination had -been enforced in the name of the Deity. Now in such an evolution it -is equally indubitable that the longest and most rapid stage was the -prophecy of the eighth century. The prophets of that time condemn -acts which had been inspired by their immediate predecessors;[164] -they abjure, as impeding morality, a ceremonial which the spiritual -leaders of earlier generations had felt to be indispensable to -religion; and they unfold ideals of the nation's moral destiny, of -which older writings give us only the faintest hints. Yet, while the -fact of a religious evolution in Israel is thus certain, we must not -fall into the vulgar error which interprets evolution as if it were -mere addition, nor forget that even in the most creative periods -of religion nothing is brought forth which has not already been -promised, and, at some earlier stage, placed, so to speak, within -reach of the human mind. After all it is the mind which grows; the -moral ideals which become visible to its more matured vision are so -Divine that, when they present themselves, the mind cannot but think -they were always real and always imperative. If we remember these -commonplaces we shall do justice both to Amos and to his critics. - -In the first place it is clear that most of the morality which Amos -enforced is of that fundamental order which can never have been -recognised as the discovery or invention of any prophet. Whatever -be their origin, the conscience of justice, the duty of kindness to -the poor, the horror of wanton cruelty towards one's enemies, which -form the chief principles of Amos, are discernible in man as far back -as history allows us to search for them. Should a generation have -lost them, they can be brought back to it, never with the thrill -of a new lesson, but only with the shame of an old and an abused -memory. To neither man nor people can the righteousness which Amos -preached appear as a discovery, but always as a recollection and a -remorse. And this is most emphatically true of the people of Moses -and of Samuel, of Nathan, of Elijah and of the Book of the Covenant. -Ethical elements had been characteristic of Israel's religion from -the very first. They were not due to a body of written law, but -rather to the character of Israel's God, appreciated by the nation -in all the great crises of their history.[165] Jehovah had won for -Israel freedom and unity. He had been a spirit of justice to their -lawgivers and magistrates.[166] He had raised up a succession of -consecrated personalities,[167] who by life and word had purified -the ideals of the whole people. The results had appeared in the -creation of a strong national conscience, which avenged with horror, -as _folly in Israel_, the wanton crimes of any person or section of -the commonwealth; in the gradual formation of a legal code, founded -indeed in the common custom of the Semites, but greatly more -moral than that; and even in the attainment of certain profoundly -ethical beliefs about God and His relations, beyond Israel, to all -mankind. Now, let us understand once for all, that in the ethics of -Amos there is nothing which is not rooted in one or other of these -achievements of the previous religion of his people. To this religion -Amos felt himself attached in the closest possible way. The word of -God comes to him across the desert, as we have seen, yet not out -of the air. From the first he hears it rise from that one monument -of his people's past which we have found visible on his physical -horizon[168]--_from Zion_, _from Jerusalem_,[169] from the city of -David, from the Ark, whose ministers were Moses and Samuel, from the -repository of the main tradition of Israel's religion.[170] Amos -felt himself in the sacred succession; and his feeling is confirmed -by the contents of his book. The details of that civic justice -which he demands from his generation are found in the Book of the -Covenant--the only one of Israel's great codes which appears by this -time to have been in existence;[171] or in those popular proverbs -which almost as certainly were found in early Israel.[172] - -Nor does Amos go elsewhere for the religious sanctions of his -ethics. It is by the ancient mercies of God towards Israel that he -shames and convicts his generation--by the deeds of grace which made -them a nation, by the organs of doctrine and reproof which have -inspired them, unfailing from age to age. _I destroyed the Amorite -before them.... Yea, I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and -I led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the -Amorites. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your -young men for Nazirites. Was it not even thus, O ye children of -Israel? saith Jehovah._[173] We cannot even say that the belief which -Amos expresses in Jehovah as the supreme Providence of the world[174] -was a new thing in Israel, for a belief as universal inspires those -portions of the Book of Genesis which, like the Book of the Covenant, -were already extant. - -We see, therefore, what right Amos had to present his ethical truths -to Israel, as if they were not new, but had been within reach of his -people from of old. - -We could not, however, commit a greater mistake, than to confine the -inspiration of our prophet to the past, and interpret his doctrines as -mere inferences from the earlier religious ideas of Israel--inferences -forced by his own passionate logic, or more naturally ripened for him -by the progress of events. A recent writer has thus summarised the -work of the prophets of the eighth century: "In fact they laid hold -upon that bias towards the ethical, which dwelt in Jahwism from Moses -onwards, and they allowed it alone to have value as corresponding to -the true religion of Jehovah."[175] But this is too abstract to be an -adequate statement of the prophets' own consciousness. What overcame -Amos was a Personal Influence--the Impression of a Character; and it -was this not only as it was revealed in the past of his people. The God -who stands behind Amos is indeed the ancient Deity of Israel, and the -facts which prove Him God are those which made the nation--the Exodus, -the guidance through the wilderness, the overthrow of the Amorites, -the gift of the land. _Was it not even thus, O ye children of Israel?_ -But what beats and burns through the pages of Amos is not the memory -of those wonderful works, so much as a fresh vision and understanding -of the Living God who worked them. Amos has himself met with Jehovah -on the conditions of his own time--on the moral situation provided -by the living generation of Israel. By an intercourse conducted, not -through the distant signals of the past, but here and now, through the -events of the prophet's own day, Amos has received an original and -overpowering conviction of his people's God as absolute righteousness. -What prophecy had hitherto felt in part, and applied to one or other -of the departments of Israel's life, Amos is the first to feel in its -fulness, and to every extreme of its consequences upon the worship, -the conduct and the fortunes of the nation. To him Jehovah not only -commands this and that righteous law, but Jehovah and righteousness are -absolutely identical. _Seek Jehovah and ye shall live ... seek good -and ye shall live._[176] The absoluteness with which Amos conceived -this principle, the courage with which he applied it, carry him along -those two great lines upon which we most clearly trace his originality -as a prophet. In the strength of this principle he does what is really -new in Israel: he discards the two elements which had hitherto existed -alongside the ethical, and had fettered and warped it. - -Up till now the ethical spirit of the religion of Jehovah[177] had -to struggle with two beliefs which we can trace back to the Semitic -origins of the religion--the belief, namely, that, as the national God, -Jehovah would always defend their political interests, irrespective -of morality; and the belief that a ceremonial of rites and sacrifices -was indispensable to religion. These principles were mutual: as the -deity was bound to succour the people, so were the people bound to -supply the deity with gifts, and the more of these they brought the -more they made sure of his favours. Such views were not absolutely -devoid of moral benefit. In the formative period of the nation they had -contributed both discipline and hope. But of late they had between them -engrossed men's hearts, and crushed out of religion both conscience and -common-sense. By the first of them, the belief in Jehovah's predestined -protection of Israel, the people's eyes were so holden they could -not see how threatening were the times; by the other, the confidence -in ceremonial, conscience was dulled, and that immorality permitted -which they mingled so shamelessly with their religious zeal. Now the -conscience of Amos did not merely protest against the predominance of -the two, but was so exclusive, so spiritual, that it boldly banished -both from religion. Amos denied that Jehovah was bound to save His -people; he affirmed that ritual and sacrifice were no part of the -service He demands from men. This is the measure of originality in our -prophet. The two religious principles which were inherent in the very -fibre of Semitic religion, and which till now had gone unchallenged -in Israel, Amos cast forth from religion in the name of a pure and -absolute righteousness. On the one hand, Jehovah's peculiar connection -with Israel meant no more than jealousy for their holiness: _You only -have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I visit -upon you all your iniquities._[178] And, on the other hand, all their -ceremonial was abhorrent to Him: _I hate, I despise your festivals.... -Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not -accept them.... Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; I will -not hear the music of thy viols. But let justice run down as waters, -and righteousness as a perennial stream._[179] - -It has just been said that emphasis upon morality as the sum of -religion, to the exclusion of sacrifice, is the most original element -in the prophecies of Amos. He himself, however, does not regard -this as proclaimed for the first time in Israel, and the precedent -he quotes is so illustrative of the sources of his inspiration that -we do well to look at it for a little. In the verse next to the one -last quoted he reports these words of God: _Did ye offer unto Me -sacrifices and gifts in the wilderness, for forty years, O house of -Israel?_ An extraordinary challenge! From the present blind routine -of sacrifice Jehovah appeals to the beginning of His relations with -the nation: did they then perform such services to Him? Of course, a -negative answer is expected. No other agrees with the main contention -of the passage. In the wilderness Israel had not offered sacrifices -and gifts to Jehovah. Jeremiah quotes a still more explicit word of -Jehovah: _I spake not unto your fathers in the day that I brought -them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and -sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice, -and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people._[180] - -To these Divine statements we shall not be able to do justice if -we hold by the traditional view that the Levitical legislation was -proclaimed in the wilderness. Discount that legislation, and the -statements become clear. It is true, of course, that Israel must -have had a ritual of some kind from the first; and that both in the -wilderness and in Canaan their spiritual leaders must have performed -sacrifices as if these were acceptable to Jehovah. But even so the -Divine words which Amos and Jeremiah quote are historically correct; -for while the ethical contents of the religion of Jehovah were its -original and essential contents--_I commanded them, saying, Obey -My voice_--the ritual was but a modification of the ritual common -to all Semites; and ever since the occupation of the land, it had, -through the infection of the Canaanite rites on the high places, -grown more and more Pagan, both in its functions and in the ideas -which these were supposed to express.[181] Amos was right. Sacrifice -had never been the Divine, the revealed element in the religion of -Jehovah. Nevertheless, before Amos no prophet in Israel appears to -have said so. And what enabled this man in the eighth century to -offer testimony, so novel but so true, about the far-away beginnings -of his people's religion in the fourteenth, was plainly neither -tradition nor historical research, but an overwhelming conviction -of the spiritual and moral character of God--of Him who had been -Israel's God both then and now, and whose righteousness had been, -just as much then as now, exalted above all purely national interests -and all susceptibility to ritual. When we thus see the prophet's -knowledge of the Living God enabling him, not only to proclaim an -ideal of religion more spiritual than Israel had yet dreamed, but -to perceive that such an ideal had been the essence of the religion -of Jehovah from the first, we understand how thoroughly Amos was -mastered by that knowledge. If we need any further proof of his -"possession" by the character of God, we find it in those phrases -in which his own consciousness disappears, and we have no longer -the herald's report of the Lord's words, but the very accents of -the Lord Himself, fraught with personal feeling of the most intense -quality. _I_ Jehovah _hate, I despise your feast days.... Take thou -away from Me the noise of thy songs; I will not hear the music of -thy viols._[182]... _I abhor the arrogance of Jacob, and hate his -palaces._[183]... _The eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful -kingdom._[184]... _Jehovah sweareth, I will never forget any of -their works._[185] Such sentences reveal a Deity who is not only -manifest Character, but surgent and importunate Feeling. We have -traced the prophet's word to its ultimate source. It springs from -the righteousness, the vigilance, the urgency of the Eternal. The -intellect, imagination and heart of Amos--the convictions he has -inherited from his people's past, his conscience of their evil life -to-day, his impressions of current and coming history--are all -enforced and illuminated, all made impetuous and radiant, by the -Spirit, that is to say the Purpose and the Energy, of the Living God. -Therefore, as he says in the title of his book, or as some one says -for him, Amos _saw_ his words. They stood out objective to himself. -And they were not mere sound. They glowed and burned with God. - -When we realise this, we feel how inadequate it is to express -prophecy in the terms of evolution. No doubt, as we have seen, -the ethics and religion of Amos represent a large and measurable -advance upon those of earlier Israel. And yet with Amos we do -not seem so much to have arrived at a new stage in a Process, as -to have penetrated to the Idea which has been behind the Process -from the beginning. The change and growth of Israel's religion are -realities--their fruits can be seen, defined, catalogued--but a -greater reality is the unseen Purpose which impels them. They have -been expressed only now. He has been unchanging from old and for -ever--from the first absolute righteousness in Himself, and absolute -righteousness in His demands from men. - - - 3. THE PROPHET AND HIS MINISTRY. - - AMOS vii., viii. 1-4. - -We have seen the preparation of the Man for the Word; we have sought -to trace to its source the Word which came to the Man. It now remains -for us to follow the Prophet, Man and Word combined, upon his -Ministry to the people. - -For reasons given in a previous chapter,[186] there must always be -some doubt as to the actual course of the ministry of Amos before -his appearance at Bethel. Most authorities, however, agree that -the visions recounted in the beginning of the seventh chapter form -the substance of his address at Bethel, which was interrupted by -the priest Amaziah. These visions furnish a probable summary of -the prophet's experience up to that point. While they follow the -same course, which we trace in the two series of oracles that now -precede them in the book, the ideas in them are less elaborate. At -the same time it is evident that Amos must have already spoken upon -other points than those which he puts into the first three visions. -For instance, Amaziah reports to the king that Amos had explicitly -predicted the exile of the whole people[187]--a conviction which, -as we have seen, the prophet reached only after some length of -experience. It is equally certain that Amos must have already exposed -the sins of the people in the light of the Divine righteousness. Some -of the sections of the book which deal with this subject appear to -have been originally spoken; and it is unnatural to suppose that the -prophet announced the chastisements of God without having previously -justified these to the consciences of men. - -If this view be correct, Amos, having preached for some time to -Israel concerning the evil state of society, appeared at a great -religious festival in Bethel, determined to bring matters to a -crisis, and to announce the doom which his preaching threatened and -the people's continued impenitence made inevitable. Mark his choice -of place and of audience. It was no mere king he aimed at. Nathan had -dealt with David, Gad with Solomon, Elijah with Ahab and Jezebel. -But Amos sought the people, them with whom resided the real forces -and responsibilities of life: the wealth, the social fashions, -the treatment of the poor, the spirit of worship, the ideals of -religion.[188] And Amos sought the people upon what was not only a -great popular occasion, but one on which was arrayed, in all pomp and -lavishness, the very system he essayed to overthrow. The religion -of his time--religion as mere ritual and sacrifice--was what God -had sent him to beat down, and he faced it at its headquarters, and -upon one of its high days, in the royal and popular sanctuary where -it enjoyed at once the patronage of the crown, the lavish gifts of -the rich and the thronged devotion of the multitude. As Savonarola -at the Duomo in Florence, as Luther at the Diet of Worms, as our -Lord Himself at the feast in Jerusalem, so was Amos at the feast in -Bethel. Perhaps he was still more lonely. He speaks nowhere of having -made a disciple, and in the sea of faces which turned on him when -he spoke, it is probable that he could not welcome a single ally. -They were officials, or interested traders, or devotees; he was a -foreigner and a wild man, with a word that spared the popular dogma -as little as the royal prerogative. Well for him was it that over -all those serried ranks of authority, those fanatic crowds, that -lavish splendour, another vision commanded his eyes. _I saw the Lord -standing over the altar, and He said, Smite._ - -Amos told the pilgrims at Bethel that the first events of his time in -which he felt a purpose of God in harmony with his convictions about -Israel's need of punishment were certain calamities of a physical kind. -Of these, which in chapter iv. he describes as successively drought, -blasting, locusts, pestilence and earthquake, he selected at Bethel -only two--locusts and drought--and he began with the locusts. It may -have been either the same visitation as he specifies in chapter iv., -or a previous one; for of all the plagues of Palestine locusts have -been the most frequent, occurring every six or seven years. _Thus the -Lord Jehovah caused me to see: and, behold, a brood_[189] _of locusts -at the beginning of the coming up of the spring crops._ In the Syrian -year there are practically two tides of verdure: one which starts after -the early rains of October and continues through the winter, checked -by the cold; and one which comes away with greater force under the -influence of the latter rains and more genial airs of spring.[190] Of -these it was the later and richer which the locusts had attacked. _And, -behold, it was after the king's mowings._ These seem to have been a -tribute which the kings of Israel levied on the spring herbage, and -which the Roman governors of Syria used annually to impose in the month -Nisan.[191] _After the king's mowings_ would be a phrase to mark the -time when everybody else might turn to reap their green stuff. It was -thus the very crisis of the year when the locusts appeared; the April -crops devoured, there was no hope of further fodder till December. -Still, the calamity had happened before, and had been survived; a -nation so vigorous and wealthy as Israel was under Jeroboam II. need -not have been frightened to death. But Amos felt it with a conscience. -To him it was the beginning of that destruction of his people which -the spirit within him knew that their sin had earned. So _it came to -pass, when_ the locusts _had made an end of devouring the verdure of -the earth, that I said, Remit, I pray Thee,_ or _pardon_--a proof that -there already weighed on the prophet's spirit something more awful than -loss of grass--_how shall Jacob rise again? for he is little_.[192] -The prayer was heard. _Jehovah repented for this: It shall not be, -said Jehovah._ The unnameable _it_ must be the same as in the frequent -phrase of the first chapter: _I will not turn It back_--namely, the -final execution of doom on the people's sin. The reserve with which -this is mentioned, both while there is still chance for the people to -repent and after it has become irrevocable, is very impressive. - -The next example which Amos gave at Bethel of his permitted insight -into God's purpose was a great drought. _Thus the Lord Jehovah made -me to see: and, behold, the Lord Jehovah was calling fire into the -quarrel._[193] There was, then, already a quarrel between Jehovah -and His people--another sign that the prophet's moral conviction of -Israel's sin preceded the rise of the events in which he recognised -its punishment. _And_ the fire _devoured the Great Deep, yea, it was -about to devour the land_.[194] Severe drought in Palestine might well -be described as fire, even when it was not accompanied by the flame -and smoke of those forest and prairie fires which Joel describes as -its consequences.[195] But to have the full fear of such a drought, we -should need to feel beneath us the curious world which the men of those -days felt. To them the earth rested in a great deep, from whose stores -all her springs and fountains burst. When these failed it meant that -the unfathomed floods below were burnt up. But how fierce the flame -that could effect this! And how certainly able to devour next the solid -land which rested above the deep--the very _Portion_[196] assigned by -God to His people. Again Amos interceded: _Lord Jehovah, I pray Thee -forbear: how shall Jacob rise? for he is little._ And for the second -time Jacob was reprieved. _Jehovah repented for this: It also shall not -come to pass, said the Lord Jehovah._ - -We have treated these visions, not as the imagination or prospect of -possible disasters,[197] but as insight into the meaning of actual -plagues. Such a treatment is justified, not only by the invariable -habit of Amos to deal with real facts, but also by the occurrence of -these same plagues among the series by which, as we are told, God had -already sought to move the people to repentance.[198] The general -question of sympathy between such purely physical disasters and the -moral evil of a people we may postpone to another chapter, confining -ourselves here to the part played in the events by the prophet himself. - -Surely there is something wonderful in the attitude of this shepherd -to the fires and plagues that Nature sweeps upon his land. He is -ready for them. And he is ready not only by the general feeling of -his time that such things happen of the wrath of God. His sovereign -and predictive conscience recognises them as her ministers. They -are sent to punish a people whom she has already condemned. Yet, -unlike Elijah, Amos does not summon the drought, nor even welcome -its arrival. How far has prophecy travelled since the violent -Tishbite! With all his conscience of Israel's sin, Amos yet prays -that their doom may be turned. We have here some evidence of the -struggle through which these later prophets passed, before they -accepted their awful messages to men. Even Amos, desert-bred and -living aloof from Israel, shrank from the judgment which it was his -call to publish. For two moments--they would appear to be the only -two in his ministry--his heart contended with his conscience, and -twice he entreated God to forgive. At Bethel he told the people all -this, in order to show how unwillingly he took up his duty against -them, and how inevitable he found that duty to be. But still more -shall we learn from his tale, if we feel in his words about the -smallness of Jacob, not pity only, but sympathy. We shall learn that -prophets are never made solely by the bare word of God, but that even -the most objective and judicial of them has to earn his title to -proclaim judgment by suffering with men the agony of the judgment he -proclaims. Never to a people came there a true prophet who had not -first prayed for them. To have entreated for men, to have represented -them in the highest courts of Being, is to have deserved also supreme -judicial rights upon them. And thus it is that our Judge at the Last -Day shall be none other than our great Advocate who continually -maketh intercession for us. It is prayer, let us repeat, which, while -it gives us all power with God, endows us at the same time with moral -rights over men. Upon his mission of judgment we shall follow Amos -with the greater sympathy that he thus comes forth to it from the -mercy-seat and the ministry of intercession. - -The first two visions which Amos told at Bethel were of disasters in -the sphere of nature, but his third lay in the sphere of politics. -The two former were, in their completeness at least, averted; and -the language Amos used of them seems to imply that he had not even -then faced the possibility of a final overthrow. He took for granted -_Jacob_ was _to rise again_: he only feared as to _how_ this should -be. But the third vision is so final that the prophet does not even -try to intercede. Israel is measured, found wanting and doomed. -Assyria is not named, but is obviously intended; and the fact that -the prophet arrives at certainty with regard to the doom of Israel, -just when he thus comes within sight of Assyria, is instructive as to -the influence exerted on prophecy by the rise of that empire.[199] - -_Thus He gave me to see: and, behold, the Lord had taken His -station_--'tis a more solemn word than the _stood_ of our -versions--_upon a city wall_ built to _the plummet,_[200] _and in -His hand a plummet. And Jehovah said unto me, What art thou seeing, -Amos?_ The question surely betrays some astonishment shown by the -prophet at the vision or some difficulty he felt in making it out. -He evidently does not feel it at once, as the natural result of his -own thinking: it is objective and strange to him; he needs time to -see into it. _And I said, A plummet. And the Lord said, Behold, I -am setting a plummet in the midst of My people Israel. I will not -again pass them over._ To set a measuring line or a line with weights -attached to any building means to devote it to destruction;[201] -but here it is uncertain whether the plummet threatens destruction, -or means that Jehovah will at last clearly prove to the prophet the -insufferable obliquity of the fabric of the nation's life, originally -set straight by Himself--originally _a wall of a plummet_. For God's -judgments are never arbitrary: by a standard we men can read He shows -us their necessity. Conscience itself is no mere voice of authority: -it is a convincing plummet, and plainly lets us see _why_ we should -be punished. But whichever interpretation we choose, the result is -the same. _The high places of Israel shall be desolate, and the -sanctuaries of Isaac laid waste; and I will rise against the house -of Jeroboam with the sword._ A declaration of war! Israel is to be -invaded, her dynasty overthrown. Every one who heard the prophet -would know, though he named them not, that the Assyrians were meant. - -It was apparently at this point that Amos was interrupted by Amaziah. -The priest, who was conscious of no spiritual power with which to -oppose the prophet, gladly grasped the opportunity afforded him by -the mention of the king, and fell back on the invariable resource of -a barren and envious sacerdotalism: _He speaketh against Caesar._[202] -There follows one of the great scenes of history--the scene which, -however fast the ages and the languages, the ideals and the deities -may change, repeats itself with the same two actors. Priest and Man -face each other--Priest with King behind, Man with God--and wage -that debate in which the whole warfare and progress of religion -consist. But the story is only typical by being real. Many subtle -traits of human nature prove that we have here an exact narrative -of fact. Take Amaziah's report to Jeroboam. He gives to the words -of the prophet just that exaggeration and innuendo which betray the -wily courtier, who knows how to accentuate a general denunciation -till it feels like a personal attack. And yet, like every Caiaphas -of his tribe, the priest in his exaggerations expresses a deeper -meaning than he is conscious of. _Amos_--note how the mere mention -of the name without description proves that the prophet was already -known in Israel, perhaps was one on whom the authorities had -long kept their eye--_Amos hath conspired against thee_--yet God -was his only fellow-conspirator!--_in the midst of the house of -Israel_--this royal temple at Bethel. _The land is not able to hold -his words_--it must burst; yes, but in another sense than thou -meanest, O Caiaphas-Amaziah! _For thus hath Amos said, By the sword -shall Jeroboam die_--Amos had spoken only of the dynasty, but the -twist which Amaziah lends to the words is calculated--_and Israel -going shall go into captivity from off his own land_. This was the -one unvarnished spot in the report. - -Having fortified himself, as little men will do, by his duty to -the powers that be, Amaziah dares to turn upon the prophet; and he -does so, it is amusing to observe, with that tone of intellectual -and moral superiority which it is extraordinary to see some men -derive from a merely official station or touch with royalty. -_Visionary,_[203] _begone! Get thee off to the land of Judah; -and earn_[204] _thy bread there, and there play the prophet. But -at Bethel_--mark the rising accent of the voice--_thou shalt not -again prophesy. The King's Sanctuary it is, and the House of the -Kingdom._[205] With the official mind this is more conclusive than -that it is the House of God! In fact the speech of Amaziah justifies -the hardest terms which Amos uses of the religion of his day. In all -this priest says there is no trace of the spiritual--only fear, pride -and privilege. Divine truth is challenged by human law, and the Word -of God silenced in the name of the king. - -We have here a conception of religion, which is not merely due to -the unspiritual character of the priest who utters it, but has its -roots in the far back origins of Israel's religion. The Pagan Semite -identified absolutely State and Church; and on that identification -was based the religious practice of early Israel. It had many healthy -results: it kept religion in touch with public life; order, justice, -patriotism, self-sacrifice for the common weal, were devoutly held -to be matters of religion. So long, therefore, as the system was -inspired by truly spiritual ideals, nothing for those times could be -better. But we see in it an almost inevitable tendency to harden to -the sheerest officialism. That it was more apt to do so in Israel -than in Judah, is intelligible from the political origin of the -Northern Schism, and the erection of the national sanctuaries from -motives of mere statecraft.[206] Erastianism could hardly be more -flagrant or more ludicrous in its opposition to true religion than at -Bethel. And yet how often have the ludicrousness and the flagrancy -been repeated, with far less temptation! Ever since Christianity -became a state religion, she that needed least to use the weapons of -this world has done so again and again in a thoroughly Pagan fashion. -The attempts of Churches by law established, to stamp out by law all -religious dissent; or where such attempts were no longer possible, -the charges now of fanaticism and now of sordidness and religious -shopkeeping, which have been so frequently made against dissent by -little men who fancied their state connection, or their higher social -position, to mean an intellectual and moral superiority; the absurd -claims which many a minister of religion makes upon the homes and -the souls of a parish, by virtue not of his calling in Christ, but -of his position as official priest of the parish,--all these are the -sins of Amaziah, priest of Bethel. But they are not confined to -an established Church. The Amaziahs of dissent are also very many. -Wherever the official masters the spiritual; wherever mere dogma or -tradition is made the standard of preaching; wherever new doctrine is -silenced, or programmes of reform condemned, as of late years in Free -Churches they have sometimes been, not by spiritual argument, but -by the _ipse dixit_ of the dogmatist, or by ecclesiastical rule or -expediency,--there you have the same spirit. The dissenter who checks -the Word of God in the name of some denominational law or dogma is -as Erastian as the churchman who would crush it, like Amaziah, by -invoking the state. These things in all the Churches are the beggarly -rudiments of Paganism; and religious reform is achieved, as it was -that day at Bethel, by the abjuring of officialism. - -_But Amos answered and said unto Amaziah, No prophet I, nor prophet's -son. But a herdsman_[207] _I, and a dresser of sycomores; and Jehovah -took me from behind the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy -unto My people Israel._ - -On such words we do not comment; we give them homage. The answer -of this shepherd to this priest is no mere claim of personal -disinterestedness. It is the protest of a new order of prophecy,[208] -the charter of a spiritual religion. As we have seen, the _sons of the -prophets_ were guilds of men who had taken to prophesying because of -certain gifts of temper and natural disposition, and they earned their -bread by the exercise of these. Among such abstract craftsmen Amos -will not be reckoned. He is a prophet, but not of the kind with which -his generation was familiar. An ordinary member of society, he has been -suddenly called by Jehovah from his civil occupation for a special -purpose and by a call which has not necessarily to do with either gifts -or a profession. This was something new, not only in itself, but in -its consequences upon the general relations of God to men. What we see -in this dialogue at Bethel is, therefore, not merely the triumph of a -character, however heroic, but rather a step forward--and that one of -the greatest and most indispensable--in the history of religion. - -There follows a denunciation of the man who sought to silence this -fresh voice of God. _Now therefore hearken to the word of Jehovah -thou that sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, nor let drop thy words -against the house of Israel; therefore thus saith Jehovah...._ Thou -hast presumed to say; _Hear what God will say_. Thou hast dared to -set thine office and system against His word and purpose. See how -they must be swept away. In defiance of its own rules the grammar -flings forward to the beginnings of its clauses, each detail of the -priest's estate along with the scene of its desecration. _Thy wife -in the city--shall play the harlot; and thy sons and thy daughters -by the sword--shall fall; and thy land by the measuring rope--shall -be divided; and thou in an unclean land--shalt die._ Do not let us -blame the prophet for a coarse cruelty in the first of these details. -He did not invent it. With all the rest it formed an ordinary -consequence of defeat in the warfare of the times--an inevitable item -of that general overthrow which, with bitter emphasis, the prophet -describes in Amaziah's own words: _Israel going shall go into -captivity from off his own land_. - -There is added a vision in line with the three which preceded the -priest's interruption. We are therefore justified in supposing that -Amos spoke it also on this occasion, and in taking it as the close of -his address at Bethel. _Then the Lord Jehovah gave me to see: and, -behold, a basket of Kaits_, that is, _summer fruit. And He said, What -art thou seeing, Amos? And I said, A basket of Kaits. And Jehovah -said unto me, The Kets--the End--has come upon My people Israel. I -will not again pass them over._ This does not carry the prospect -beyond the third vision, but it stamps its finality, and there is -therefore added a vivid realisation of the result. By four disjointed -lamentations, _howls_ the prophet calls them, we are made to feel -the last shocks of the final collapse, and in the utter end an awful -silence. _And the songs of the temple shall be changed into howls -in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah. Multitude of corpses! In every -place! He hath cast out! Hush!_ - -These then were probably the last words which Amos spoke to Israel. -If so, they form a curious echo of what was enforced upon himself, -and he may have meant them as such. He was _cast out_; he was -_silenced_. They might almost be the verbal repetition of the -priest's orders. In any case the silence is appropriate. But Amaziah -little knew what power he had given to prophecy the day he forbade it -to speak. The gagged prophet began to write; and those accents which, -humanly speaking, might have died out with the songs of the temple -of Bethel were clothed upon with the immortality of literature. Amos -silenced wrote a book--first of prophets to do so--and this is the -book we have now to study. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[130] Cornill: _Der Israelitische Prophetismus. Five Lectures for the -Educated Laity._ 1894. - -[131] Amos vii. 14. See further pp. 76 f. - -[132] Khurbet Takua', Hebrew Tekoa', [Hebrew: tekov'], from [Hebrew: -tk'], _to blow a trumpet_ (cf. Jer. vi. 1, _Blow the trumpet in -Tekoa_) or _to pitch a tent_. The latter seems the more probable -derivation of the name, and suggests a nomadic origin, which agrees -with the position of Tekoa on the borders of the desert. Tekoa does -not occur in the list of the towns taken by Joshua. There are really -no reasons for supposing that some other Tekoa is meant. The two -that have been alleged are (1) that Amos exclusively refers to the -Northern Kingdom, (2) that sycomores do not grow at such levels as -Tekoa. These are dealt with on pp. 79 and 77 respectively. - -[133] 2 Chron. xx. 20. - -[134] [Hebrew: noked], noked, is doubtless the same as the Arabic -"nakkad," or keeper of the "nakad," defined by Freytag as a -short-legged and deformed race of sheep in the Bahrein province of -Arabia, from which comes the proverb "viler than a nakad"; yet the -wool is very fine. The king of Moab is called [Hebrew: noked] in 2 -Kings iii. 4 (A.V. _sheep-master_). In vii. 14 Amos calls himself -[Hebrew: boker], _cattleman_, which there is no reason to alter, as -some do, to [Hebrew: novked]. - -[135] [Hebrew: bovles], boles, probably from a root (found in -AEthiopic) balas, _a fig_; hence one who _had to do with figs, handled -them, ripened them_. - -[136] The Egyptian sycomore, _Ficus sycomorus_, is not found in -Syria above one thousand feet above the sea, while Tekoa is more -than twice as high as that. Cf. 1 Kings x. 27, _the sycomores that -are in the vale_ or _valley land_, [Hebrew: 'emek]; 1 Chron. xxvii. -28, _the sycomores that are in the low plains_. "The sycamore grows -in sand on the edge of the desert as vigorously as in the midst of -a well-watered country. Its roots go deep in search of water, which -infiltrates as far as the gorges of the hills, and they absorb it -freely even where drought seems to reign supreme" (Maspero on the -Egyptian sycomore; _The Dawn of Civilization_, translated by McClure, -p. 26). "Everywhere on the confines of cultivated ground, and even at -some distance from the valley, are fine single sycamores flourishing -as though by miracle amid the sand.... They drink from water, -which has infiltrated from the Nile, and whose existence is nowise -betrayed upon the surface of the soil" (_ib._, 121). Always and still -reverenced by Moslem and Christian. - -[137] So practically Oort (_Th. Tjidsch._, 1891, 121 ff.), when -compelled to abandon his previous conclusion (_ib._, 1880, 122 ff.) -that the Tekoa of Amos lay in Northern Israel. - -[138] In 1891 we met the Rushaideh, who cultivate Engedi, encamped -just below Tekoa. But at other parts of the borders between the -hill-country of Judaea and the desert, and between Moab and the -desert, we found round most of the herdsmen's central wells a few -fig-trees or pomegranates, or even apricots occasionally. - -[139] Luke i. 80. - -[140] Mark i. 18. - -[141] v. 5; viii. 14. - -[142] See p. 36. - -[143] Prov. xxxi. 24. - -[144] vi. 10. - -[145] i. 9. - -[146] v. 16. - -[147] v. 21 ff. - -[148] li. 7, 8. - -[149] viii. 4 ff. - -[150] vi. 1, 4-7. - -[151] See pp. 136 f. - -[152] i. 2. - -[153] [Hebrew: shvfr], as has been pointed out, means in early Israel -always the trumpet blown as a summons to war; only in later Israel -was the name given to the temple trumpet. - -[154] See further on this important passage pp. 89 ff. - -[155] _Shall a little bird fall on the snare earthwards and there be no -noose about her? Shall a snare rise from the ground and not be taking -something?_ On this see p. 82. Its meaning seems to be equivalent to -the Scottish proverb: "There's aye some water whan the stirkie droons." - -[156] There is thus no reason to alter the words _who shall not -prophesy_ to _who shall not tremble_--as Wellhausen does. To do so is -to blunt the point of the argument. - -[157] See Chap. IV. - -[158] See pp. 53 ff. - -[159] See pp. 69 f. - -[160] viii. 8. - -[161] viii. 9. - -[162] v. 14. - -[163] How far Assyria assisted the development of prophecy we have -already seen. But we have been made aware, at the same time, that -Assyria's service to Israel in this respect presupposed the possession -by the prophets of certain beliefs in the character and will of -their God, Jehovah. The prophets' faith could never have risen to -the magnitude of the new problems set to it by Assyria if there had -not been already inherent in it that belief in the sovereignty of a -Righteousness of which all things material were but the instruments. - -[164] Compare, for instance, Hosea's condemnation of Jehu's murder of -Joram, with Elisha's command to do it; also 2 Kings iii. 19, 25, with -Deut. xx. 19. - -[165] See above, p. 10. - -[166] Isa. xxviii. - -[167] Amos ii. - -[168] _Ante_, p. 74. - -[169] i. 2. - -[170] Therefore we see at a glance how utterly inadequate is Renan's -brilliant comparison of Amos to a modern revolutionary journalist -(_Histoire du Peuple Israel_, II.). Journalist indeed! How all this -would-be cosmopolitan and impartial critic's judgments smack of the -boulevards! - -[171] Exod. xx.; incorporated in the JE book of history, and, -according to nearly all critics, complete by 750; the contents must -have been familiar in Israel long before that. There is no trace in -Amos of any influence peculiar to either the Deuteronomic or the -Levitical legislation. - -[172] See especially Schultz, _O. T. Theol._, Eng. Trans. by -Paterson, I. 214. - -[173] ii. 9-11. On this passage see further p. 137. - -[174] If iv. 13, v. 8 and ix. 6 be genuine, this remark equally -applies to belief in Jehovah as Creator. - -[175] Kayser, _Old Testament Theology_. - -[176] v. 6, 14. - -[177] See above, p. 18. - -[178] iii. 2. - -[179] v. 21 ff. - -[180] Jer. vii. 22 f. - -[181] See above, p. 23. - -[182] v. 21-23. - -[183] vi. 8. - -[184] ix. 8 - -[185] viii. 7. - -[186] Chap. V., p. 71. - -[187] vii. 11. - -[188] On the ministry of eighth-century prophets to the people see -the author's _Isaiah_, I., p. 119. - -[189] So LXX., followed by Hitzig and Wellhausen, by reading [Hebrew: -yetzer] for [Hebrew: yovtzer]. - -[190] Cf. _Hist. Geography of the Holy Land_, pp. 64 ff. The word -translated _spring crop_ above is [Hebrew: lksh], and from the same -root as the name of the latter rain, [Hebrew: malkovosh], which falls -in the end of March or beginning of April. Cf. _Zeitschrift des -deutschen Palaestina-Vereins_, IV. 83; VIII. 62. - -[191] Cf. 1 Kings xviii. 5 with 1 Sam. vii. 15, 17; 1 Kings iv. 7 ff. -See Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 228. - -[192] LXX.: _Who shall raise up Jacob again?_ - -[193] So Professor A. B. Davidson. But the grammar might equally well -afford the rendering _one calling that the Lord will punish with the -fire_, the [Hebrew: l] of [Hebrew: lrv] marking the introduction of -indirect speech (cf. Ewald, Sec. 338_a_). But Hitzig for [Hebrew: kr] -reads [Hebrew: krh] (Deut. xxv. 18), to occur, happen. So similarly -Wellhausen, _es nahte sich zu strafen mit Feuer der Herr Jahve_. All -these renderings yield practically the same meaning. - -[194] A. B. Davidson, _Syntax_, Sec. 57, Rem. 1. - -[195] i. 19 f. - -[196] Cf. Micah ii. 3. [Hebrew: chelek] is the word used, and -according to the motive given above stands well for the climax of -the fire's destructive work. This meets the objection of Wellhausen, -who proposes to omit [Hebrew: chelek], because the heat does not -dry up first the great deep and then the fields (_Ackerflur_). This -is to mistake the obvious point of the sentence. The drought was so -great that, after the fountains were exhausted, it seemed as if the -solid framework of the land, described with very apt pathos as the -_Portion_, would be the next to disappear. Some take [Hebrew: hlk] as -_divided_, therefore cultivated, ground. - -[197] So for instance, Von Orelli. - -[198] Chap. iv. - -[199] See Chap. IV., p. 51. - -[200] Literally _of the plummet_, an obscure expression. It cannot -mean plumb-straight, for the wall is condemned. - -[201] 2 Kings xxi. 13: _I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of -Samaria and the plummet_ or _weight_ ([Hebrew: mishkolet]) _of the -house of Ahab_. Isa. xxxiv. 11: _He shall stretch over it the cord of -confusion, and the weights_ (literally _stones_) _of emptiness_. - -[202] John xix. 12. - -[203] The word _seer_ is here used in a contemptuous sense, and has -therefore to be translated by some such word as _visionary_. - -[204] Literally _eat_. - -[205] [Hebrew: mamlachah beit]--that is, a _central_ or _capital -sanctuary_. Cf. [Hebrew: hammamlachah 'ir] (1 Sam. xxvii. 5), _city -of the kingdom_, _i.e._ chief or capital town. - -[206] 1 Kings xii. 26, 27. - -[207] _Prophet_ and _prophet's son_ are equivalent terms, the latter -meaning one of the professional guilds of prophets. There is no need -to change herdsman, [Hebrew: vvkr], as Wellhausen does, into [Hebrew: -nvkd], shepherd, the word used in i. 1. - -[208] Cf. Wellhausen, _Hist._, Eng. Ed., Sec. 6: "Amos was the founder -and the purest type of a new order of prophecy." - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - _ATROCITIES AND ATROCITIES_ - - AMOS i. 3-ii. - - -Like all the prophets of Israel, Amos receives oracles for foreign -nations. Unlike them, however, he arranges these oracles not after, -but before, his indictment of his own people, and so as to lead up -to this. His reason is obvious and characteristic. If his aim be -to enforce a religion independent of his people's interests and -privileges, how can he better do so than by exhibiting its principles -at work outside his people, and then, with the impetus drained from -many areas, sweep in upon the vested iniquities of Israel herself? -This is the course of the first section of his book--chapters i. and -ii. One by one the neighbours of Israel are cited and condemned in -the name of Jehovah; one by one they are told they must fall before -the still unnamed engine of the Divine Justice. But when Amos has -stirred his people's conscience and imagination by his judgment of -their neighbours' sins, he turns with the same formula on themselves. -Are they morally better? Are they more likely to resist Assyria? With -greater detail he shows them worse and their doom the heavier for all -their privileges. Thus is achieved an oratorical triumph, by tactics -in harmony with the principles of prophecy and remarkably suited to -the tempers of that time. - -But Amos achieves another feat, which extends far beyond his own day. -The sins he condemns in the heathen are at first sight very different -from those which he exposes within Israel. Not only are they sins of -foreign relations, of treaty and war, while Israel's are all civic and -domestic; but they are what we call the atrocities of Barbarism--wanton -war, massacre and sacrilege--while Israel's are rather the sins of -Civilisation--the pressure of the rich upon the poor, the bribery -of justice, the seduction of the innocent, personal impurity, and -other evils of luxury. So great is this difference that a critic more -gifted with ingenuity than with insight might plausibly distinguish -in the section before us two prophets with two very different views -of national sin--a ruder prophet, and of course an earlier, who -judged nations only by the flagrant drunkenness of their war, and a -more subtle prophet, and of course a later, who exposed the masked -corruptions of their religion and their peace. Such a theory would be -as false as it would be plausible. For not only is the diversity of -the objects of the prophet's judgment explained by this, that Amos had -no familiarity with the interior life of other nations, and could only -arraign their conduct at those points where it broke into light in -their foreign relations, while Israel's civic life he knew to the very -core. But Amos had besides a strong and a deliberate aim in placing -the sins of civilisation as the climax of a list of the atrocities of -barbarism. He would recall what men are always forgetting, that the -former are really more cruel and criminal than the latter; that luxury, -bribery and intolerance, the oppression of the poor, the corruption -of the innocent and the silencing of the prophet--what Christ calls -offences against His little ones--are even more awful atrocities than -the wanton horrors of barbarian warfare. If we keep in mind this moral -purpose, we shall study with more interest than we could otherwise do -the somewhat foreign details of this section. Horrible as the outrages -are which Amos describes, they were repeated only yesterday by Turkey: -many of the crimes with which he charges Israel blacken the life of -Turkey's chief accuser, Great Britain. - -In his survey Amos includes all the six states of Palestine -that bordered upon Israel, and lay in the way of the advance of -Assyria--Aram of Damascus, Philistia, Tyre (for Phoenicia), Edom, -Ammon and Moab. They are not arranged in geographical order. The -prophet begins with Aram in the north-east, then leaps to Philistia -in the south-west, comes north again to Tyre, crosses to the -south-east and Edom, leaps Moab to Ammon, and then comes back to -Moab. Nor is any other explanation of his order visible. Damascus -heads the list, no doubt, because her cruelties had been most felt -by Israel, and perhaps too because she lay most open to Assyria. It -was also natural to take next to Aram Philistia,[209] as Israel's -other greatest foe; and nearest to Philistia lay Tyre. The three -south-eastern principalities come together. But there may have been a -chronological reason now unknown to us. - -The authenticity of the oracles on Tyre, Edom and Judah has been -questioned: it will be best to discuss each case as we come to it. - -Each of the oracles is introduced by the formula: _Thus saith,_ or -_hath said, Jehovah: Because of three crimes of ... yea, because -of four, I will not turn It back._ In harmony with the rest of the -book,[210] Jehovah is represented as moving to punishment, not for a -single sin, but for repeated and cumulative guilt. The unnamed _It_ -which God will not recall is not the word of judgment, but the anger -and the hand stretched forth to smite.[211] After the formula, an -instance of the nation's guilt is given, and then in almost identical -terms he decrees the destruction of all by war and captivity. Assyria -is not mentioned, but it is the Assyrian fashion of dealing with -conquered states which is described. Except in the case of Tyre and -Edom, the oracles conclude as they have begun, by asserting themselves -to be the _word of Jehovah_, or of _Jehovah the Lord_. It is no -abstract righteousness which condemns these foreign peoples, but the -God of Israel, and their evil deeds are described by the characteristic -Hebrew word for sin--_crimes_, _revolts_ or _treasons_ against Him.[212] - - * * * * * - -1. ARAM OF DAMASCUS.--_Thus hath Jehovah said: Because of three -crimes of Damascus, yea, because of four, I will not turn It -back; for that they threshed Gilead with iron_--or _basalt -threshing-sledges._ The word is _iron_, but the Arabs of to-day call -basalt iron; and the threshing-sledges, curved slabs[213] drawn -rapidly by horses over the heaped corn, are studded with sharp basalt -teeth that not only thresh out the grain, but chop the straw into -little pieces. So cruelly had Gilead been chopped by Hazael and his -son Ben-Hadad some fifty or forty years before Amos prophesied.[214] -Strongholds were burned, soldiers slain without quarter, children -dashed to pieces, and women with child put to a most atrocious -end.[215] But _I shall send fire on the house of Hazael, and it shall -devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad_--these names are chosen, not because -they were typical of the Damascus dynasty, but because they were the -very names of the two heaviest oppressors of Israel.[216] _And I -will break the bolt_[217] _of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant -from Bik'ath-Aven_--the Valley of Idolatry, so called, perhaps, -by a play upon Bik'ath On,[218] presumably the valley between the -Lebanons, still called the Bek'a, in which lay Heliopolis[219]--_and -him that holdeth the sceptre from Beth-Eden_--some royal Paradise -in that region of Damascus, which is still the Paradise of the Arab -world--_and the people of Aram shall go captive to Kir_--Kir in the -unknown north, from which they had come:[220] _Jehovah hath said_ it. - -2. PHILISTIA.--_Thus saith Jehovah: For three crimes of Gaza and -for four I will not turn It back, because they led captive a whole -captivity, in order to deliver them up to Edom._ It is difficult -to see what this means if not the wholesale depopulation of a -district in contrast to the enslavement of a few captives of war. -By all tribes of the ancient world, the captives of their bow and -spear were regarded as legitimate property: it was no offence to -the public conscience that they should be sold into slavery. But -the Philistines seem, without excuse of war, to have descended -upon certain districts and swept the whole of the population -before them, for purely commercial purposes. It was professional -slave-catching. The Philistines were exactly like the Arabs of to-day -in Africa--not warriors who win their captives in honourable fight, -but slave-traders, pure and simple. In warfare in Arabia itself -it is still a matter of conscience with the wildest nomads not to -extinguish a hostile tribe, however bitter one be against them.[221] -Gaza is chiefly blamed by Amos, for she was the emporium of the trade -on the border of the desert, with roads and regular caravans to Petra -and Elah on the Gulf of Akaba, both of them places in Edom and depots -for the traffic with Arabia.[222] _But I will cut off the inhabitant -from Ashdod, and the holder of the sceptre from Askalon, and I will -turn My hand upon Ekron_--four of the five great Philistine towns, -Gath being already destroyed, and never again to be mentioned with -the others[223]--_and the last of the Philistines shall perish: -Jehovah hath said it_. - -3. TYRE.--_Thus saith Jehovah: Because of three crimes of Tyre -and because of four I will not turn It back; for that they gave -up a whole captivity to Edom_--the same market as in the previous -charge--_and did not remember the covenant of brethren_. We do not -know to what this refers. The alternatives are three: that the -captives were Hebrews and the alliance one between Israel and Edom; -that the captives were Hebrews and the alliance one between Israel -and Tyre;[224] that the captives were Phoenicians and the alliance -the natural brotherhood of Tyre and the other Phoenician towns.[225] -But of these three alternatives the first is scarcely possible, for -in such a case the blame would have been rather Edom's in buying than -Tyre's in selling. The second is possible, for Israel and Tyre had -lived in close alliance for more than two centuries; but the phrase -_covenant of brethren_ is not so well suited to a league between -two tribes who felt themselves to belong to fundamentally different -races,[226] as to the close kinship of the Phoenician communities. -And although, in the scrappy records of Phoenician history before -this time, we find no instance of so gross an outrage by Tyre on -other Phoenicians, it is quite possible that such may have occurred. -During next century Tyre twice over basely took sides with Assyria -in suppressing the revolts of her sister cities.[227] Besides, the -other Phoenician towns are not included in the charge. We have every -reason, therefore, to believe that Amos expresses here not resentment -against a betrayal of Israel, but indignation at an outrage upon -natural rights and feelings with which Israel's own interests were -not in any way concerned. And this also suits the lofty spirit of the -whole prophecy. _But I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it -shall devour her palaces...._ - -This oracle against Tyre has been suspected by Wellhausen,[228] for -the following reasons: that it is of Tyre alone, and silence is kept -regarding the other Phoenician cities, while in the case of Philistia -other towns than Gaza are condemned; that the charge is the same as -against Gaza; and that the usual close to the formula is wanting. But -it would have been strange if from a list of states threatened by the -Assyrian doom we had missed Tyre, Tyre which lay in the avenger's -very path. Again, that so acute a critic as Wellhausen should cite -the absence of other Phoenician towns from the charge against Tyre -is really amazing, when he has just allowed that it was probably -against some or all of these cities that Tyre's crime was committed. -How could they be included in the blame of an outrage done upon -themselves? The absence of the usual formula at the close may perhaps -be explained by omission, as indicated above.[229] - -4. EDOM.--_Thus saith Jehovah: Because of three crimes of Edom and -because of four I will not turn It back; for that he pursued with the -sword his brother_, who cannot be any other than Israel, _corrupted -his natural feelings_--literally _his bowels of mercies--and kept aye -fretting_[230] _his anger, and his passion he watched_--like a fire, -or _paid heed_ to it--_for ever._[231] _But I will send fire upon -Teman_--the _South_ Region belonging to Edom--_and it shall devour the -palaces of Bosrah_--the Edomite Bosrah, south-east of Petra.[232] The -Assyrians had already compelled Edom to pay tribute.[233] - -The objections to the authenticity of this oracle are more -serious than those in the case of the oracle on Tyre. It has been -remarked[234] that before the Jewish Exile so severe a tone could not -have been adopted by a Jew against Edom, who had been mostly under -the yoke of Judah, and not leniently treated. What were the facts? -Joab subdued Edom for David with great cruelty.[235] Jewish governors -were set over the conquered people, and this state of affairs seems -to have lasted, in spite of an Edomite attempt against Solomon,[236] -till 850. In Jehoshaphat's reign, 873-850, _there was no king of -Edom, a deputy was king_, who towards 850 joined the kings of Judah -and Israel in an invasion of Moab through his territory.[237] But, -soon after this invasion and perhaps in consequence of its failure, -Edom revolted from Joram of Judah (849-842), who unsuccessfully -attempted to put down the revolt.[238] The Edomites appear to have -remained independent for fifty years at least. Amaziah of Judah -(797-779) smote them,[239] but not it would seem into subjection, -for, according to the Chronicler, Uzziah had to win back Elath for -the Jews after Amaziah's death.[240] The history, therefore, of the -relations of Judah and Edom before the time of Amos was of such a -kind as to make credible the existence in Judah at that time of the -feeling about Edom which inspires this oracle. Edom had shown just -the vigilant, implacable hatred here described. But was the right -to blame them for it Judah's, who herself had so persistently waged -war, with confessed cruelty, against Edom? Could a Judaean prophet -be just in blaming Edom and saying nothing of Judah? It is true -that in the fifty years of Edom's independence--the period, we must -remember, from which Amos seems to draw the materials of all his -other charges--there may have been events to justify this oracle -as spoken by him; and our ignorance of that period is ample reason -why we should pause before rejecting the oracle so dogmatically as -Wellhausen does. But we have at least serious grounds for suspecting -it. To charge Edom, whom Judah has conquered and treated cruelly, -with restless hate towards Judah seems to fall below that high -impartial tone which prevails in the other oracles of this section. -The charge was much more justifiable at the time of the Exile, when -Edom did behave shamefully towards Israel.[241] Wellhausen points -out that Teman and Bosrah are names which do not occur in the Old -Testament before the Exile, but this is uncertain and inconclusive. -The oracle wants the concluding formula of the rest.[242] - -5. AMMON.--_Thus saith Jehovah: Because of three crimes of Ammon and -because of four I will not turn It back; for that they ripped up -Gilead's women with child--in order to enlarge their borders!_ For such -an end they committed such an atrocity! The crime is one that has been -more or less frequent in Semitic warfare. Wellhausen cites several -instances in the feuds of Arab tribes about their frontiers. The Turks -have been guilty of it in our own day.[243] It is the same charge -which the historian of Israel puts into the mouth of Elisha against -Hazael of Aram,[244] and probably the war was the same; when Gilead was -simultaneously attacked by Arameans from the north and Ammonites from -the south. _But I will set fire to the wall of Rabbah_--Rabbath-Ammon, -literally _chief_ or _capital_ of Ammon--_and it shall devour her -palaces, with clamour in the day of battle, with tempest in the day of -storm_. As we speak of "storming a city," Amos and Isaiah[245] use the -tempest to describe the overwhelming invasion of Assyria. There follows -the characteristic Assyrian conclusion: _And their king shall go into -captivity, he and his princes_[246] _together, saith Jehovah_. - -6. MOAB.--_Thus saith Jehovah: Because of three crimes of Moab -and because of four I will not turn It back; for that he burned -the bones of the king of Edom to lime._[247] In the great invasion -of Moab, about 850, by Israel, Judah and Edom conjointly, the rage -of Moab seems to have been directed chiefly against Edom.[248] -Whether opportunity to appease that rage occurred on the withdrawal -of Israel we cannot say. But either then or afterwards, balked of -their attempt to secure the king of Edom alive, Moab wreaked their -vengeance on his corpse, and burnt his bones to lime. It was, in -the religious belief of all antiquity, a sacrilege; yet it does not -seem to have been the desecration of the tomb--or he would have -mentioned it--but the wanton meanness of the deed, which Amos felt. -_And I will send fire on Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of -The-Cities_--Kerioth,[249] perhaps the present Kureiyat,[250] on -the Moab plateau where Chemosh had his shrine[251]--_and in tumult -shall Moab die_--to Jeremiah[252] the Moabites were the sons of -tumult--_with clamour and with the noise of the war-trumpet. And I -will cut off the ruler_--literally _judge_, probably the vassal king -placed by Jeroboam II.--_from her_[253] _midst, and all his_[254] -_princes will I slay with him: Jehovah hath said_ it. - - * * * * * - -These, then, are the charges which Amos brings against the heathen -neighbours of Israel. - -If we look as a whole across the details through which we have been -working, what we see is a picture of the Semitic world so summary and -so vivid that we get the like of it nowhere else--the Semitic world -in its characteristic brokenness and turbulence; its factions and -ferocities, its causeless raids and quarrels, tribal disputes about -boundaries flaring up into the most terrible massacres, vengeance that -wreaks itself alike on the embryo and the corpse--_cutting up women -with child in Gilead,_ and _burning to lime the bones of the king of -Edom_. And the one commerce which binds these ferocious tribes together -is the slave-trade in its wholesale and most odious form. - -Amos treats none of the atrocities subjectively. It is not because -they have been inflicted upon Israel that he feels or condemns -them. The appeals of Israel against the tyrant become many as the -centuries go on; the later parts of the Old Testament are full of -the complaints of God's chosen people, conscious of their mission to -the world, against the heathen, who prevented them from it. Here we -find none of these complaints, but a strictly objective and judicial -indictment of the characteristic crimes of heathen men against each -other; and though this is made in the name of Jehovah, it is not in -the interests of His people or of any of His purposes through them, -but solely by the standard of an impartial righteousness which, as we -are soon to hear, must descend in equal judgment on Israel. - -Again, for the moral principles which Amos enforces no originality -can be claimed. He condemns neither war as a whole nor slavery as a -whole, but limits his curse to wanton and deliberate aggravations of -them: to the slave-trade in cold blood, in violation of treaties and -for purely commercial ends;[255] to war for trifling causes, and that -wreaks itself on pregnant women and dead men; to national hatreds, that -never will be still. Now against such things there has always been in -mankind a strong conscience, of which the word "humanity" is in itself -a sufficient proof. We need not here inquire into the origin of such -a common sense--whether it be some native impulse of tenderness which -asserts itself as soon as the duties of self-defence are exhausted, -or some rational notion of the needlessness of excesses, or whether, -in committing these, men are visited by fear of retaliation from the -wrath they have unnecessarily exasperated. Certain it is, that warriors -of all races have hesitated to be wanton in their war, and have -foreboded the special judgment of heaven upon every blind extravagance -of hate or cruelty. It is well known how "fey" the Greeks felt the -insolence of power and immoderate anger; they are the fatal element in -many a Greek tragedy.[256] But the Semites themselves, whose racial -ferocity is so notorious, are not without the same feeling. "Even the -Beduins' old cruel rancours are often less than the golden piety of -the wilderness. The danger past, they can think of the defeated foemen -with kindness, ... putting only their trust in Ullah to obtain the -like at need for themselves. It is contrary to the Arabian conscience -to extinguish a Kabila."[257] Similarly in Israel some of the earliest -ethical movements were revolts of the public conscience against -horrible outrages, like that, for instance, done by the Benjamites of -Gibeah.[258] Therefore in these oracles on his wild Semitic neighbours -Amos discloses no new ideal for either tribe or individual. Our view is -confirmed that he was intent only upon rousing the natural conscience -of his Hebrew hearers in order to engage this upon other vices to which -it was less impressionable--that he was describing those deeds of -war and slavery, whose atrocity all men admitted, only that he might -proceed to bring under the same condemnation the civic and domestic -sins of Israel. - -We turn with him, then, to Israel. But in his book as it now stands -in our Bibles, Israel is not immediately reached. Between her and -the foreign nations two verses are bestowed upon Judah: _Thus saith -Jehovah: Because of three crimes of Judah and because of four I -will not turn It back; for that they despised the Torah of Jehovah, -and His statutes they did not observe, and their falsehoods_--false -gods--_led them astray, after which their fathers walked. But I will -send fire on Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem._ -These verses have been suspected as a later insertion,[259] on the -ground that every reference to Judah in the Book of Amos must be -late, that the language is very formal, and that the phrases in which -the sin of Judah is described sound like echoes of Deuteronomy. The -first of these reasons may be dismissed as absurd; it would have been -far more strange if Amos had never at all referred to Judah.[260] -The charges, however, are not like those which Amos elsewhere makes, -and though the phrases may be quite as early as his time,[261] the -reader of the original, and even the reader of the English version, -is aware of a certain tameness and vagueness of statement, which -contrasts remarkably with the usual pungency of the prophet's style. -We are forced to suspect the authenticity of these verses. - -We ought to pass, then, straight from the third to the sixth verse -of this chapter, from the oracles on foreign nations to that on -Northern Israel. It is introduced with the same formula as they are: -_Thus saith Jehovah: Because of three crimes of Israel and because -of four I will not turn It back_. But there follow a greater number -of details, for Amos has come among his own people whom he knows -to the heart, and he applies to them a standard more exact and an -obligation more heavy than any he could lay to the life of the -heathen. Let us run quickly through the items of his charge. _For -that they sell an honest man_[262] _for silver, and a needy man for a -pair of shoes_--proverbial, as we should say "for an old song"--_who -trample to the dust of the earth the head of the poor_--the least -improbable rendering of a corrupt passage[263]--_and pervert the way -of humble men. And a man and his father will go into the maid_, -the same maid,[264] _to desecrate My Holy Name_--without doubt some -public form of unchastity introduced from the Canaanite worship into -the very sanctuary of Jehovah, the holy place where He reveals His -Name--_and on garments given in pledge they stretch themselves by -every altar, and the wine of those who have been fined they drink -in the house of their God_. A riot of sin: the material of their -revels is the miseries of the poor, its stage the house of God! Such -is religion to the Israel of Amos' day--indoors, feverish, sensual. -By one of the sudden contrasts he loves, Amos sweeps out of it into -God's ideal of religion--a great historical movement, told in the -language of the open air: national deliverance, guidance on the -highways of the world, the inspiration of prophecy, and the pure, -ascetic life. _But I, I destroyed the Amorite_[265] _before you, -whose height was as the cedars, and he was strong as oaks, and I -destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below._ What a -contrast to the previous picture of the temple filled with fumes -of wine and hot with lust! We are out on open history; God's gales -blow and the forests crash before them. _And I brought you up out of -the land of Egypt, and led you through the wilderness forty years, -to inherit the land of the Amorite._ Religion is not chambering and -wantonness; it is not selfish comfort or profiting by the miseries -of the poor and the sins of the fallen. But religion is history--the -freedom of the people and their education, the winning of the land -and the defeat of the heathen foe; and then, when the land is firm -and the home secure, it is the raising, upon that stage and shelter, -of spiritual guides and examples. _And I raised up of your sons to -be prophets, and of your young men to be Nazirites_--consecrated -and ascetic lives. _Is it not so, O children of Israel? (oracle of -Jehovah). But ye made the Nazirites drink wine, and the prophets ye -charged, saying, Prophesy not!_ - -Luxury, then, and a very sensual conception of religion, with all -their vicious offspring in the abuse of justice, the oppression of -the poor, the corrupting of the innocent, and the intolerance of -spiritual forces--these are the sins of an enlightened and civilised -people, which Amos describes as worse than all the atrocities of -barbarism, and as certain of Divine vengeance. How far beyond his own -day are his words still warm! Here in the nineteenth century is Great -Britain, destroyer of the slave-traffic, and champion of oppressed -nationalities--yet this great and Christian people, at the very time -they are abolishing slavery, suffer their own children to work in -factories and clay-pits for sixteen hours a day, and in mines set -women to a labour for which horses are deemed too valuable. Things -improve after 1848, but how slowly and against what callousness of -Christians Lord Shaftesbury's long and often disappointed labours -painfully testify. Even yet our religious public, that curses the -Turk, and in an indignation, which can never be too warm, cries out -against the Armenian atrocities, is callous, nay, by the avarice of -some, the haste and passion for enjoyment of many more, and the -thoughtlessness of all, itself contributes, to conditions of life and -fashions of society, which bear with cruelty upon our poor, taint our -literature, needlessly increase the temptations of our large towns, -and render pure childlife impossible among masses of our population. -Along some of the highways of our Christian civilisation we are just -as cruel and just as lustful as Kurd or Turk. - - * * * * * - -Amos closes this prophecy with a vision of immediate judgment. -_Behold, I am about to crush_ or _squeeze down upon you, as a waggon -crushes_[266] _that is full of sheaves._[267] An alternative reading -supplies the same general impression of a crushing judgment: _I will -make the ground quake under you, as a waggon makes it quake,_ or _as -a waggon_ itself _quakes under its load of sheaves_. This shock is to -be War. _Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not -prove his power, nor the mighty man escape with his life. And he that -graspeth the bow shall not stand, nor shall the swift of foot escape, -nor the horseman escape with his life. And he that thinketh himself -strong among the heroes shall flee away naked in that day--'tis the -oracle of Jehovah._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[209] As is done in chap. vi. 2, ix. 7. - -[210] So against Israel in chap. iv. - -[211] So Isa. v. 25: [Hebrew: ntvh dv v'vd fv shv l] Cf. Ezek. xx. -22: [Hebrew: d t vhshvvt] - -[212] [Hebrew: fsh'm] - -[213] Called _luh_, _i.e._ slab. - -[214] These Syrian campaigns in Gilead must have taken place between -839 and 806, the long interval during which Damascus enjoyed freedom -from Assyrian invasion. - -[215] 2 Kings viii. 12; xiii. 7: cf. above, p. 31. - -[216] _He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Aram, and -into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael, continually_ (2 Kings -xiii. 3). - -[217] No need here to render _prince_, as some do. - -[218] So the LXX. - -[219] The present Baalbek (Baal of the Bek'a?). Wellhausen throws -doubt on the idea that Heliopolis was at this time an Aramean town. - -[220] ix. 7. - -[221] Doughty: _Arabia Deserta_, I. 335. - -[222] On the close connection of Edom and Gaza see _Hist. Geog._, pp. -182 ff. - -[223] See _Hist. Geog._, pp. 194 ff. Wellhausen thinks Gath was -not yet destroyed, and quotes vi. 2; Micah i. 10, 14. But we know -that Hazael destroyed it, and that fact, taken in conjunction with -its being the only omission here from the five Philistine towns, -is evidence enough. In the passages quoted by Wellhausen there is -nothing to the contrary: vi. 2 implies that Gath has fallen; Micah i. -10 is the repetition of an old proverb. - -[224] Farrar, 53; Pusey on ver. 9; Pietschmann, _Geschichte der -Phoenizier_, 298. - -[225] To which Wellhausen inclines. - -[226] Gen. x. - -[227] Under Asarhaddon, 678-676 B.C., and later under Assurbanipal -(Pietschmann, _Gesch._, pp. 302 f.). - -[228] And he omits it from his translation. - -[229] So far from such an omission proving that the oracle is an -insertion, is it not more probable that an insertor would have taken -care to make his insertion formally correct? - -[230] There seems no occasion to amend with Olshausen to the _kept_ -of Psalm ciii. 9. - -[231] Read with LXX. [Hebrew: lntzch shmr], though throughout the -verse the LXX. translation is very vile. - -[232] In other two passages, Bosrah, the city, is placed in parallel -not to another city, but just as here to a whole region: Isa. xxxiv. -6, where the parallel is the _land of Edom_, and lxiii. 1, where it -is _Edom_. There is therefore no need to take Teman in our passage as -a city, as which it does not appear before Eusebius. - -[233] Under Rimman-nirari III. (812-783). See Buhl's _Gesch. der -Edomiter_, 65: this against Wellhausen. - -[234] Wellhausen, _in loco_. - -[235] 2 Sam. viii. 13, with 1 Kings xi. 16. - -[236] 1 Kings xi. 14-25. - -[237] 2 Kings iii. - -[238] 2 Kings viii. 20-22. - -[239] 2 Kings xiv. 10. - -[240] 2 Chron. xxvi. 2. - -[241] See, however, Buhl, _op. cit._, 67. - -[242] It is, however, no reason against the authenticity of the -oracle to say that Edom lay outside the path of Assyria. In answer to -that see the Assyrian inscriptions, _e.g._ Asarhaddon's: cf. above, -p. 129, _n._ 4. - -[243] Notably in the recent Armenian massacres. - -[244] 2 Kings viii. 12. - -[245] xxviii. 2, xxvii. 7, 8, where the Assyrian and another invasion -are both described in terms of tempest. - -[246] The LXX. reading, _their priests and their princes_, must be -due to taking Malcam = _their king_ as Milcom = the Ammonite god. See -Jer. xlix. 3. - -[247] - - "Great Caesar dead and turned to clay - Might stop a hole to turn the wind away." - -[248] 2 Kings iii. 26. So rightly Pusey. - -[249] Jer. xlviii. 24 without article, but in 41 with. - -[250] Though this is claimed by most for Kiriathaim. - -[251] Moabite Stone, l. 13. - -[252] xlviii. 45. - -[253] The land's. - -[254] The king's. - -[255] See above, p. 126. - -[256] [Greek: dyssebias men hybris tekos] (AEschylus, _Eumen._, 534): -cf. _Odyssey_, xiv. 262; xvii. 431. - -[257] _I.e._ a tribe; Doughty, _Arabia Deserta_, I. 335. - -[258] Judges xix., xx. - -[259] Duhm was the first to publish reasons for rejecting the passage -(_Theol. der Propheten_, 1875, p. 119), but Wellhausen had already -reached the same conclusion (_Kleine Propheten_, p. 71). Oort and Stade -adhere. On the other side see Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, -398, and Kuenen, who adheres to Smith's arguments (_Onderzoek_). - -[260] "It is plain that Amos could not have excepted Judah from the -universal ruin which he saw to threaten the whole land; or at all -events such exception would have required to be expressly made on -special grounds."--Robertson Smith, _Prophets_, 398. - -[261] _Ibid._ - -[262] [Hebrew: tzdk], _righteous_: hardly, as most commentators take -it, the _legally_ (as distinguished from the _morally_) _righteous_; -the rich cruelly used their legal rights to sell respectable and -honest members of society into slavery. - -[263] By adapting the LXX. So far as we know Wellhausen is right in -saying that the Massoretic text, which our English version follows, -gives no sense. LXX. reads, also without much sense as a whole, -[Greek: ta patounta epi ton choun tes ges, kai ekondylizon eis -kephalas ptochon]. - -[264] So rightly the LXX. Or the definite article may be here used in -conformity with the common Hebrew way of employing it to designate, not -a definite individual, but a member of a definite, well-known genus. - -[265] On the use of Amorite for all the inhabitants of Canaan see -Driver's _Deut._, pp. 11 f. - -[266] The verb [Hebrew: 'vk] of the Massoretic text is not found -elsewhere, and whether we retain it, or take it as a variant of, or -mistake for, [Hebrew: tzvk], or adopt some other reading, the whole -phrase is more or less uncertain, and the exact shade of meaning has -to be guessed, though the general sense remains pretty much the same. -The following is a complete note on the subject, with reasons for -adopting the above conclusion. - -(1) LXX.: _Behold, I roll_ ([Greek: kylio]) _under you as a waggon -full of straw is rolled_. A.V.: _I am pressed under you as a cart is -pressed_. Pusey: _I straiten myself under you, etc._ These versions -take [Hebrew: 'uk] in the sense of [Hebrew: tzuk], _to press_, and -[Hebrew: tcht] in its usual meaning of _beneath_; and the result is -conformable to the well-known figure of the Old Testament by which -God is said to be laden and weary with the transgressions of His -people. But this does not mean an actual descent of judgment, and yet -vv. 14-16 imply that such an intimation has been made in ver. 13; and -besides [Hebrew: t'k] and [Hebrew: t'k] are both in the Hiphil, the -active, _to press_, or causative, _make to press_. (2) Accordingly -some, adopting this sense of the verb, take [Hebrew: tcht] in an -unusual sense of _down upon_. Ewald: _I press down upon you as a cart -that is full of sheaves presseth_. Guthe (in Kautzsch's _Bibel_): -_Ich will euch quetschen_. Rev. Eng. Ver.: _I will press you in -your place_.--But [Hebrew: 'vk] has been taken in other senses. (3) -Hoffmann (_Z.A.T.W._, III. 100) renders it _groan_ in conformity -with Arab. 'ik. (4) Wetzstein (_ibid._, 278 ff.) quotes Arab. 'ak, -to _stop_, _hinder_, and suggests _I will bring to a stop_. (5) Buhl -(12th Ed. of Gesenius' _Handwoert_, sub [Hebrew: 'uk]), in view of -possibility of [Hebrew: 'glh] being threshing-roller, recalls Arab. -'akk, _to cut in pieces_. (6) Hitzig (_Exeg. Handbuch_) proposed to -read [Hebrew: mfk] and [Hebrew: tfk]: _I will make it shake under -you, as the laden waggon shakes_ (the ground). So rather differently -Wellhausen: _I will make the ground quake under you, as a waggon -quakes under its load of sheaves_. - -I have only to add that, in the Alex. Cod. of LXX., which reads -[Greek: kolyo] for [Greek: kulio], we have an interesting analogy to -Wetzstein's proposal; and that in support of the rendering of Ewald, -and its unusual interpretation of [Hebrew: tchtchm] which seems to me -on the whole the most probable, we may compare Job xxxvi. 16, [Hebrew: -tchth mvtzk l]. This, it is true, suggests rather the choking of a -passage than the crushing of the ground; but, by the way, that sense is -even more applicable to a harvest waggon laden with sheaves. - -[267] _Waggon full of sheaves._--Wellhausen goes too far when he -suggests that Amos would have to go outside Palestine to see such -a waggon. That a people who already knew the use of chariots for -travelling (cf. Gen. xlvi. 5, JE) and waggons for agricultural -purposes (1 Sam. vi. 7 ff.) did not use them at least in the lowlands -of their country is extremely improbable. Cf. _Hist. Geog._, Appendix -on _Roads and Wheeled Vehicles in Syria_. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - _CIVILISATION AND JUDGMENT_ - - AMOS iii.-iv. 3. - - -We now enter the Second Section of the Book of Amos: chaps. iii.-vi. -It is a collection of various oracles of denunciation, grouped partly -by the recurrence of the formula _Hear this word_, which stands -at the head of our present chapters iii., iv. and v., which are -therefore probably due to it; partly by two cries of _Woe_ at v. 18 -and vi. 1; and also by the fact that each of the groups thus started -leads up to an emphatic, though not at first detailed, prediction of -the nation's doom (iii. 13-15; iv. 3; iv. 12; v. 16, 17; v. 26, 27; -vi. 14). Within these divisions lie a number of short indictments, -sentences of judgment and the like, which have no further logical -connection than is supplied by their general sameness of subject, and -a perceptible increase of articulateness from beginning to end of -the Section. The sins of Israel are more detailed, and the judgment -of war, coming from the North, advances gradually till we discern -the unmistakable ranks of Assyria. But there are various parentheses -and interruptions, which cause the student of the text no little -difficulty. Some of these, however, may be only apparent: it will -always be a question whether their want of immediate connection -with what precedes them is not due to the loss of several words -from the text rather than to their own intrusion into it. Of others -it is true that they are obviously out of place as they lie; their -removal brings together verses which evidently belong to each other. -Even such parentheses, however, may be from Amos himself. It is only -where a verse, besides interrupting the argument, seems to reflect -a historical situation later than the prophet's day, that we can be -sure it is not his own. And in all this textual criticism we must -keep in mind, that the obscurity of the present text of a verse, so -far from being an adequate proof of its subsequent insertion, may be -the very token of its antiquity, scribes or translators of later date -having been unable to understand it. To reject a verse, only because -_we_ do not see the connection, would surely be as arbitrary, as the -opposite habit of those who, missing a connection, invent one, and -then exhibit their artificial joint as evidence of the integrity of -the whole passage. In fact we must avoid all headstrong surgery, for -to a great extent we work in the dark. - -The general subject of the Section may be indicated by the title: -Religion and Civilisation. A vigorous community, wealthy, cultured -and honestly religious, are, at a time of settled peace and growing -power, threatened, in the name of the God of justice, with their -complete political overthrow. Their civilisation is counted for -nothing; their religion, on which they base their confidence, is -denounced as false and unavailing. These two subjects are not, and -could not have been, separated by the prophet in any one of his -oracles. But in the first, the briefest and most summary of these, -chaps. iii.-iv. 3, it is mainly with the doom of the civil structure -of Israel's life that Amos deals; and it will be more convenient -for us to take them first, with all due reference to the echoes of -them in later parts of the Section. From iv. 4-vi. it is the Religion -and its false peace which he assaults; and we shall take that in the -next chapter. _First_, then, Civilisation and Judgment (iii.-iv. 3); -_Second_, The False Peace of Ritual (iv. 4-vi.). - - * * * * * - -These few brief oracles open upon the same note as that in which the -previous Section closed--that the crimes of Israel are greater than -those of the heathen; and that the people's peculiar relation to God -means, not their security, but their greater judgment. It is then -affirmed that Israel's wealth and social life are so sapped by luxury -and injustice that the nation must perish. And, as in every luxurious -community the women deserve especial blame, the last of the group of -oracles is reserved for them (iv. 1-3). - -_Hear this word, which Jehovah hath spoken against you, O children of -Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of -Egypt_--Judah as well as North Israel, so that we see the vanity of -a criticism which would cast out of the Book of Amos as unauthentic -every reference to Judah. _Only you have I known of all the families -of the ground_--not world, but _ground_, purposely chosen to stamp -the meanness and mortality of them all--_therefore will I visit upon -you all your iniquities_. - -This famous text has been called by various writers "the keynote," "the -licence" and "the charter" of prophecy. But the names are too petty -for what is not less than the fulmination of an element. It is a peal -of thunder we hear. It is, in a moment, the explosion and discharge -of the full storm of prophecy. As when from a burst cloud the streams -immediately below rise suddenly and all their banks are overflowed, -so the prophecies that follow surge and rise clear of the old limits -of Israel's faith by the unconfined, unmeasured flood of heaven's -justice that breaks forth by this single verse. Now, once for all, are -submerged the lines of custom and tradition within which the course of -religion has hitherto flowed; and, as it were, the surface of the world -is altered. It is a crisis which has happened more than once again in -history: when helpless man has felt the absolute relentlessness of the -moral issues of life; their renunciation of the past, however much they -have helped to form it; their sacrifice of every development however -costly, and of every hope however pure; their deafness to prayer, their -indifference to penitence; when no faith saves a Church, no courage a -people, no culture or prestige even the most exalted order of men; but -at the bare hands of a judgment, uncouth of voice and often unconscious -of a Divine mission, the results of a great civilisation are for its -sins swept remorselessly away. - -Before the storm bursts, we learn by its lightnings some truths -from the old life that is to be destroyed. _You only have I known -of all the families of the ground: therefore will I visit your -iniquities upon you._ Religion is no insurance against judgment, no -mere atonement and escape from consequences. Escape! Religion is -only opportunity--the greatest moral opportunity which men have, and -which if they violate nothing remains for them but a certain fearful -looking forward unto judgment. You only have I known; and because you -did not take the moral advantage of My intercourse, because you felt -it only as privilege and pride, pardon for the past and security for -the future, therefore doom the more inexorable awaits you. - -Then as if the people had interrupted him with the question, What -sign do you give us that this judgment is near?--Amos goes aside into -that noble digression (vv. 3-8) on the harmony between the prophet's -word and the imminent events of the time, which we have already -studied.[268] From this apologia, verse 9 returns to the note of -verses 1 and 2 and develops it. Not only is Israel's responsibility -greater than that of other people's. Her crimes themselves are more -heinous. _Make proclamation over the palaces in Ashdod_--if we are -not to read Assyria here,[269] then the name of Ashdod has perhaps -been selected from all other heathen names because of its similarity -to the Hebrew word for that _violence_[270] with which Amos is -charging the people--_and over the palaces of the land of Egypt, and -say, Gather upon the Mount_[271] _of Samaria and see! Confusions -manifold in the midst of her; violence to her very core! Yea, they -know not how to do uprightness, saith Jehovah, who store up wrong and -violence in their palaces._ - -"To their crimes," said the satirist of the Romans, "they owe their -gardens, palaces, stables and fine old plate."[272] And William -Langland declared of the rich English of his day:-- - - "For toke thei on trewly . they tymbred not so heigh, - Ne boughte non burgages . be ye full certayne."[273] - -_Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Siege and Blockade of the -Land!_[274] _And they shall bring down from off thee thy fortresses, -and plundered shall be thy palaces._ Yet this shall be no ordinary -tide of Eastern war, to ebb like the Syrian as it flowed, and leave -the nation to rally on their land again. For Assyria devours the -peoples. _Thus saith Jehovah: As the shepherd saveth from the mouth -of the lion a pair of shin-bones or a bit of an ear, so shall the -children of Israel be saved--they who sit in Samaria in the corner -of the diwan and ... on a couch._[275] The description, as will be -seen from the note below, is obscure. Some think it is intended -to satirise a novel and affected fashion of sitting adopted by -the rich. Much more probably it means that carnal security in the -luxuries of civilisation which Amos threatens more than once in -similar phrases.[276] The corner of the diwan is in Eastern houses -the seat of honour.[277] To this desert shepherd, with only the -hard ground to rest on, the couches and ivory-mounted diwans of the -rich must have seemed the very symbols of extravagance. But the -pampered bodies that loll their lazy lengths upon them shall be left -like the crumbs of a lion's meal--_two shin-bones and the bit of an -ear!_ Their whole civilisation shall perish with them. _Hearken and -testify against the house of Israel--oracle of the Lord Jehovah, -God of Hosts_[278]--those addressed are still the heathen summoned -in ver. 9. _For on the day when I visit the crimes of Israel upon -him, I shall then make visitation upon the altars of Bethel, and the -horns of the altar_, which men grasp in their last despair, _shall -be smitten and fall to the earth. And I will strike the winter-house -upon the summer-house, and the ivory houses shall perish, yea, swept -away shall be houses many--oracle of Jehovah._ - -But the luxury of no civilisation can be measured without its women, -and to the women of Samaria Amos now turns with the most scornful -of all his words. _Hear this word_--this for you--_kine of Bashan -that are in the mount of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush -the needy, that say to their lords, Bring, and let us drink. Sworn -hath the Lord Jehovah by His holiness, lo, days are coming when -there shall be a taking away of you with hooks, and of the last of -you with fish-hooks._ They put hooks[279] in the nostrils of unruly -cattle, and the figure is often applied to human captives;[280] but -so many should these cattle of Samaria be that for the _last of them -fish-hooks_ must be used. _Yea, by the breaches_ in the wall of the -stormed city _shall ye go out, every one headlong, and ye shall be -cast ..._[281] _oracle of Jehovah_. It is a cowherd's rough picture -of women: a troop of kine--heavy, heedless animals, trampling in -their anxiety for food upon every frail and lowly object in the way. -But there is a prophet's insight into character. Not of Jezebels, -or Messalinas, or Lady-Macbeths is it spoken, but of the ordinary -matrons of Samaria. Thoughtlessness and luxury are able to make -brutes out of women of gentle nurture, with homes and a religion.[282] - - * * * * * - -Such are these three or four short oracles of Amos. They are probably -among his earliest--the first peremptory challenges of prophecy to -that great stronghold which before forty years she is to see thrown -down in obedience to her word. As yet, however, there seems to be -nothing to justify the menaces of Amos. Fair and stable rises the -structure of Israel's life. A nation, who know themselves elect, who -in politics are prosperous and in religion proof to every doubt, -build high their palaces, see the skies above them unclouded, and -bask in their pride, heaven's favourites without a fear. This man, -solitary and sudden from his desert, springs upon them in the name of -God and their poor. Straighter word never came from Deity: _Jehovah -hath spoken, who can but prophesy?_ The insight of it, the justice of -it, are alike convincing. Yet at first it appears as if it were sped -on the personal and very human passion of its herald. For Amos not -only uses the desert's cruelties--the lion's to the sheep--to figure -God's impending judgment upon His people, but he enforces the latter -with all a desert-bred man's horror of cities and civilisation. It is -their costly furniture, their lavish and complex building, on which -he sees the storm break. We seem to hear again that frequent phrase -of the previous section: _the fire shall devour the palaces thereof_. -The palaces, he says, are simply storehouses of oppression; the -palaces will be plundered. Here, as throughout his book,[283] couches -and diwans draw forth the scorn of a man accustomed to the simple -furniture of the tent. But observe his especial hatred of houses. -Four times in one verse he smites them: _winter-house on summer-house -and the ivory houses shall perish--yea, houses manifold, saith the -Lord_. So in another oracle of the same section: _Houses of ashlar -ye have built, and ye shall not inhabit them; vineyards of delight -have ye planted, and ye shall not drink of their wine_.[284] And in -another: _I loathe the pride of Jacob, and his palaces I hate; and I -will give up a city and all that is in it.... For, lo, the Lord is -about to command, and He will smite the great house into ruins and -the small house into splinters._[285] No wonder that such a prophet -found war with its breached walls insufficient, and welcomed, as the -full ally of his word, the earthquake itself.[286] - -Yet all this is no mere desert "razzia" in the name of the Lord, a -nomad's hatred of cities and the culture of settled men. It is not -a temper; it is a vision of history. In the only argument which -these early oracles contain, Amos claims to have events on the side -of his word. _Shall the lion roar and not be catching_ something? -Neither does the prophet speak till he knows that God is ready to -act. History accepted this claim. Amos spoke about 755. In 734 -Tiglath-Pileser swept Gilead and Galilee; in 724 Shalmaneser overran -the rest of Northern Israel: _siege and blockade of the whole land!_ -For three years the Mount of Samaria was invested, and then taken; -the houses overthrown, the rich and the delicate led away captive. It -happened as Amos foretold; for it was not the shepherd's rage within -him that spoke. He had _seen the Lord standing, and He said, Smite_. - -But this assault of a desert nomad upon the structure of a nation's -life raises many echoes in history and some questions in our own -minds to-day. Again and again have civilisations far more powerful -than Israel's been threatened by the desert in the name of God, and -in good faith it has been proclaimed by the prophets of Christianity -and other religions that God's kingdom cannot come on earth till the -wealth, the culture, the civil order, which men have taken centuries -to build, have been swept away by some great political convulsion. -To-day Christianity herself suffers the same assaults, and is told by -many, the high life and honest intention of whom cannot be doubted, -that till the civilisation which she has so much helped to create -is destroyed, there is no hope for the purity or the progress of -the race. And Christianity, too, has doubts within herself. What is -the world which our Master refused in the Mount of Temptation, and -so often and so sternly told us that it must perish?--how much of -our wealth, of our culture, of our politics, of the whole fabric of -our society? No thoughtful and religious man, when confronted with -civilisation, not in its ideal, but in one of those forms which -give it its very name, the life of a large city, can fail to ask, -How much of this deserves the judgment of God? How much must be -overthrown, before His will is done on earth? All these questions -rise in the ears and the heart of a generation, which more than any -other has been brought face to face with the ruins of empires and -civilisations, which have endured longer, and in their day seemed -more stable, than her own. - -In face of the confused thinking and fanatic speech which have risen -on all such topics, it seems to me that the Hebrew prophets supply us -with four cardinal rules. - -First, of course, they insist that it is the moral question upon -which the fate of a civilisation is decided. By what means has this -system grown? Is justice observed in essence as well as form? Is -there freedom, or is the prophet silenced? Does luxury or self-denial -prevail? Do the rich make life hard for the poor? Is childhood -sheltered and is innocence respected? By these, claim the prophets, -a nation stands or falls; and history has proved the claim on wider -worlds than they dreamt of. - -But by themselves moral reasons are never enough to justify a -prediction of speedy doom upon any system or society. None of the -prophets began to foretell the fall of Israel till they read, with -keener eyes than their contemporaries, the signs of it in current -history. And this, I take it, was the point which made a notable -difference between them, and one who like them scourged the social -wrongs of his civilisation, yet never spoke a word of its fall. -Juvenal nowhere calls down judgments, except upon individuals. In his -time there were no signs of the decline of the empire, even though, -as he marks, there was a flight from the capital of the virtue which -was to keep the empire alive. But the prophets had political proof of -the nearness of God's judgment, and they spoke in the power of its -coincidence with the moral corruption of their people. - -Again, if conscience and history (both of them, to the prophets, -being witnesses of God) thus combine to announce the early doom of a -civilisation, neither the religion that may have helped to build it, -nor any remanent virtue in it, nor its ancient value to God, can avail -to save. We are tempted to judge that the long and costly development -of ages is cruelly thrown away by the convulsion and collapse of an -empire; it feels impious to think that the patience, the providence, -the millennial discipline of the Almighty are to be in a moment -abandoned to some rude and savage force. But we are wrong. _You only -have I known of all the families of the ground_, yet I must _visit upon -you your iniquities._ Nothing is too costly for justice. And God finds -some other way of conserving the real results of the past. - -Again, it is a corollary of all this, that the sentence upon -civilisation must often seem to come by voices that are insane, and -its execution by means that are criminal. Of course, when civilisation -is arraigned as a whole, and its overthrow demanded, there may be -nothing behind the attack but jealousy or greed, the fanaticism of -ignorant men or the madness of disordered lives. But this is not -necessarily the case. For God has often in history chosen the outsider -as the herald of doom, and sent the barbarian as its instrument. By -the statesmen and patriots of Israel, Amos must have been regarded as -a mere savage, with a savage's hate of civilisation. But we know what -he answered when Amaziah called him rebel. And it was not only for its -suddenness that the apostles said the _day of the Lord should come as -a thief_, but also because of its methods. For over and over again has -doom been pronounced, and pronounced truly, by men who in the eyes of -civilisation were criminals and monsters. - -Now apply these four principles to the question of ourselves. It will -scarcely be denied that our civilisation tolerates, and in part -lives by, the existence of vices which, as we all admit, ruined the -ancient empires. Are the political possibilities of overthrow also -present? That there exist among us means of new historic convulsions -is a thing hard for us to admit. But the signs cannot be hid. When -we see the jealousies of the Christian peoples, and their enormous -preparations for battle; the arsenals of Europe which a few sparks -may blow up; the millions of soldiers one man's word may mobilise; -when we imagine the opportunities which a general war would furnish -to the discontented masses of the European proletariat,--we must -surely acknowledge the existence of forces capable of inflicting -calamities, so severe as to affect not merely this nationality -or that type of culture, but the very vigour and progress of -civilisation herself; and all this without our looking beyond -Christendom, or taking into account the rise of the yellow races to a -consciousness of their approach to equality with ourselves. If, then, -in the eyes of the Divine justice Christendom merits judgment,--if -life continue to be left so hard to the poor; if innocence be still -an impossibility for so much of the childhood of the Christian -nations; if with so many of the leaders of civilisation prurience -be lifted to the level of an art, and licentiousness followed as -a cult; if we continue to pour the evils of our civilisation upon -the barbarian, and "the vices of our young nobles," to paraphrase -Juvenal, "are aped in" Hindustan,--then let us know that the -means of a judgment more awful than any which has yet scourged a -delinquent civilisation are extant and actual among us. And if one -should reply, that our Christianity makes all the difference, that -God cannot undo the development of nineteen centuries, or cannot -overthrow the peoples of His Son,--let us remember that God does -justice at whatever cost; that as He did not spare Israel at the -hands of Assyria, so He did not spare Christianity in the East when -the barbarians of the desert found her careless and corrupt. _You -only have I known of all the families of the ground, therefore will I -visit upon you all your iniquities._ - - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - _THE FALSE PEACE OF RITUAL_ - - AMOS iv. 4-vi. - - -The next four groups of oracles[287]--iv. 4-13, v. 1-17, v. 18-27 -and vi.--treat of many different details, and each of them has its -own emphasis; but all are alike in this, that they vehemently attack -the national worship and the sense of political security which it -has engendered. Let us at once make clear that this worship is the -worship of Jehovah. It is true that it is mixed with idolatry, but, -except possibly in one obscure verse,[288] Amos does not concern -himself with the idols. What he strikes at, what he would sweep away, -is his people's form of devotion to their own God. The cult of the -national God, at the national sanctuaries, in the national interest -and by the whole body of the people, who practise it with a zeal -unparalleled by their forefathers--this is what Amos condemns. And -he does so absolutely. He has nothing but scorn for the temples and -the feasts. The assiduity of attendance, the liberality of gifts, -the employment of wealth and art and patriotism in worship--he tells -his generation that God loathes it all. Like Jeremiah, he even -seems to imply that God never instituted in Israel any sacrifice -or offering.[289] It is all this which gives these oracles their -interest for us; and that interest is not merely historical. - -It is indeed historical to begin with. When we find, not idolatry, but -all religious ceremonial--temples, public worship, tithes, sacrifice, -the praise of God by music, in fact every material form in which -man has ever been wont to express his devotion to God--scorned and -condemned with the same uncompromising passion as idolatry itself, we -receive a needed lesson in the history of religion. For when one is -asked, What is the distinguishing characteristic of heathenism? one is -always ready to say, Idolatry, which is not true. The distinguishing -characteristic of heathenism is the stress which it lays upon -ceremonial. To the pagan religions, both of the ancient and of the -modern world, rites were the indispensable element in religion. The -gifts of the gods, the abundance of fruits, the security of the state, -depended upon the full and accurate performance of ritual. In Greek -literature we have innumerable illustrations of this: the _Iliad_ -itself starts from a god's anger, roused by an insult to his priest, -whose prayers for vengeance he hears because sacrifices have been -assiduously offered to him. And so too with the systems of paganism -from which the faith of Israel, though at first it had so much in -common with them, broke away to its supreme religious distinction. -The Semites laid the stress of their obedience to the gods upon -traditional ceremonies; and no sin was held so heinous by them as the -neglect or infringement of a religious rite. By the side of it offences -against one's fellow-men or one's own character were deemed mere -misdemeanours. In the day of Amos this pagan superstition thoroughly -penetrated the religion of Jehovah, and so absorbed the attention of -men, that without the indignant and complete repudiation of it prophecy -could not have started on her task of identifying morality with -religion, and of teaching men more spiritual views of God. But even -when we are thus aware of ceremonialism as the characteristic quality -of the pagan religions, we have not measured the full reason of that -uncompromising attack on it, which is the chief feature of this part -of the permanent canon of our religion. For idolatries die everywhere; -but everywhere a superstitious ritualism survives. It continues with -philosophies that have ceased to believe in the gods who enforced it. -Upon ethical movements which have gained their freedom by breaking away -from it, in the course of time it makes up, and lays its paralysing -weight. With offers of help it flatters religions the most spiritual -in theory and intention. The Pharisees, than whom few parties had at -first purer ideals of morality, tithed mint, anise and cummin, to the -neglect of the essence of the Law; and even sound Christians, who -have assimilated the Gospel of St. John, find it hard and sometimes -impossible to believe in salvation apart from their own sacraments, or -outside their own denominational forms. Now this is because ritual is -a thing which appeals both to the baser and to the nobler instincts of -man. To the baser it offers itself as a mechanical atonement for sin, -and a substitute for all moral and intellectual effort in connection -with faith; to the nobler it insists on a man's need in religion of -order and routine, of sacrament and picture. Plainly then the words -of Amos have significance for more than the immediate problems of his -day. And if it seem to some, that Amos goes too far with his cry to -sweep away all ceremonial, let them remember, besides the crisis of -his times, that the temper he exposes and seeks to dissipate is a rank -and obdurate error of the human heart. Our Lord, who recognised the -place of ritual in worship, who said, _Thus it behoveth us to fulfil -all righteousness_, which righteousness in the dialect of His day -was not the moral law, but man's due of rite, sacrifice, tithe and -alms,[290] said also, _I will have mercy and not sacrifice_. There is -an irreducible minimum of rite and routine in worship; there is an -invaluable loyalty to traditional habits; there are holy and spiritual -uses in symbol and sacrament. But these are all dispensable; and -because they are all constantly abused, the voice of the prophet is -ever needed which tells us that God will have none of them; but let -justice roll on like water, and righteousness like an unfailing stream. - -For the superstition that ritual is the indispensable bond between -God and man, Amos substitutes two other aspects of religion. They are -history as God's discipline of man; and civic justice, as man's duty -to God. The first of them he contrasts with religious ceremonialism -in chap. iv. 4-13, and the second in chap. v.; while in chap. vi. he -assaults once more the false political peace which the ceremonialism -engenders. - - - 1. FOR WORSHIP, CHASTISEMENT. - - AMOS iv. 4-13. - -In chap. ii. Amos contrasted the popular conception of religion as -worship with God's conception of it as history. He placed a picture -of the sanctuary, hot with religious zeal, but hot too with passion -and the fumes of wine, side by side with a great prospect of the -national history: God's guidance of Israel from Egypt onwards. That -is, as we said at the time, he placed an indoors picture of religion -side by side with an open-air one. He repeats that arrangement here. -The religious services he sketches are more pure, and the history he -takes from his own day; but the contrast is the same. Again we have -on the one side the temple worship--artificial, exaggerated, indoors, -smoky; but on the other a few movements of God in Nature, which, -though they all be calamities, have a great moral majesty upon them. -The first opens with a scornful call to worship, which the prophet, -letting out his whole heart at the beginning, shows to be equivalent -to sin. Note next the impossible caricature of their exaggerated -zeal: sacrifices every morning instead of once a year, tithes every -three days instead of every three years.[291] To offer leavened -bread was a departure from the older fashion of unleavened.[292] To -publish their liberality was like the later Pharisees, who were not -dissimilarly mocked by our Lord: _When thou doest alms, cause not -a trumpet to be sounded before thee, as the hypocrites do in the -synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men._[293] -There is a certain rhythm in the taunt; but the prose style seems -to be resumed with fitness when the prophet describes the solemn -approach of God in deeds of doom. - - _Come away to Bethel and transgress, - At Gilgal exaggerate your transgression! - And bring every morning your sacrifices, - Every three days your tithes! - And send up the savour of leavened bread as a thank-offering, - And call out your liberalities--make them to be heard! - For so ye love_ to do, _O children of Israel: - Oracle of Jehovah._ - -_But I on My side have given you cleanness of teeth in all your -cities, and want of bread in all your places--yet ye did not return -to Me: oracle of Jehovah._ - -_But I on My side withheld from you the winter rain,_[294] _while it -was still three months to the harvest: and I let it rain repeatedly -on one city, and upon one city I did not let it rain: one lot was -rained upon, and the lot that was not rained upon withered; and two -or three cities kept straggling to one city to drink water, and were -not satisfied--yet ye did not return to Me: oracle of Jehovah._ - -_I smote you with blasting and with mildew: many of your gardens and -your vineyards and your figs and your olives the locust devoured--yet -ye did not return to Me: oracle of Jehovah._ - -_I sent among you a pestilence by way of Egypt:_[295] _I slew with -the sword your youths--besides the capture of your horses--and I -brought up the stench of your camps to your nostrils--yet ye did not -return to Me: oracle of Jehovah._ - -_I overturned among you, like God's own overturning of Sodom and -Gomorrah, till ye became as a brand plucked from the burning--yet ye -did not return to Me: oracle of Jehovah._ - -This recalls a passage in that English poem of which we are again and -again reminded by the Book of Amos, _The Vision of Piers Plowman_. It -is the sermon of Reason in Passus V. (Skeat's edition):-- - - "He preved that thise pestilences . were for pure synne, - And the southwest wynde . in saterday et evene - Was pertliche[296] for pure pride . and for no poynt elles. - Piries and plomtrees . were puffed to the erthe, - In ensample ze segges[297] . ze shulden do the bettere. - Beches and brode okes . were blowen to the grounde. - Torned upward her tailles . in tokenynge of drede, - That dedly synne at domesday . shal fordon[298] hem alle." - -In the ancient world it was a settled belief that natural calamities -like these were the effects of the deity's wrath. When Israel suffers -from them the prophets take for granted that they are for the people's -punishment. I have elsewhere shown how the climate of Palestine lent -itself to these convictions; in this respect the Book of Deuteronomy -contrasts it with the climate of Egypt.[299] And although some, perhaps -rightly, have scoffed at the exaggerated form of the belief, that God -is angry with the sons of men every time drought or floods happen, -yet the instinct is sound which in all ages has led religious people -to feel that such things are inflicted for moral purposes. In the -economy of the universe there may be ends of a purely physical kind -served by such disasters, apart altogether from their meaning to man. -But man at least learns from them that nature does not exist solely -for feeding, clothing and keeping him wealthy; nor is it anything else -than his monotheism, his faith in God as the Lord both of his moral -life and of nature, which moves him to believe, as Hebrew prophets -taught and as our early English seer heard Reason herself preach. Amos -had the more need to explain those disasters as the work of the God -of righteousness, because his contemporaries, while willing to grant -Jehovah leadership in war, were tempted to attribute to the Canaanite -gods of the land all power over the seasons. - -What, however, more immediately concerns us in this passage is its -very effective contrast between men's treatment of God and God's -treatment of men. They lavish upon Him gifts and sacrifices. He--_on -His side_--sends them cleanness of teeth, drought, blasting of their -fruits, pestilence, war and earthquake. That is to say, they regard -Him as a being only to be flattered and fed. He regards them as -creatures with characters to discipline, even at the expense of their -material welfare. Their views of Him, if religious, are sensuous and -gross; His views of them, if austere, are moral and ennobling. All -this may be grim, but it is exceeding grand; and short as the efforts -of Amos are, we begin to perceive in him something already of the -greatness of an Isaiah. - -And have not those, who have believed as Amos believed, ever been the -strong spirits of our race, making the very disasters which crushed -them to the earth the tokens that God has great views about them? -Laugh not at the simple peoples, who have their days of humiliation, -and their fast-days after floods and stunted harvests. For they -take these, not like other men, as the signs of their frailty and -helplessness; but as measures of the greatness God sees in them, His -provocation of their souls to the infinite possibilities which He has -prepared for them. - -Israel, however, did not turn even at the fifth call to penitence, -and so there remained nothing for her but a fearful looking forward -to judgment, all the more terrible that the prophet does not define -what the judgment shall be. - -_Therefore thus shall I do to thee, O Israel: because I am going to -do this to thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. For, lo, He that -formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth to man -what His thought is, that maketh morning darkness, and marcheth on -the high places of earth, Jehovah, God of Hosts, is His Name._[300] - - - 2. FOR WORSHIP, JUSTICE. - - AMOS v. - -In the next of these groups of oracles Amos continues his attack on -the national ritual, and now contrasts it with the service of God in -public life--the relief of the poor, the discharge of justice. But -he does not begin with this. The group opens with an elegy, which -bewails the nation as already fallen. It is always difficult to mark -where the style of a prophet passes from rhythmical prose into what -we may justly call a metrical form. But in this short wail, we catch -the well-known measure of the Hebrew dirge; not so artistic as in -later poems, yet with at least the characteristic couplet of a long -and a short line. - -_Hear this word which I lift up against you--a Dirge, O house of -Israel_:-- - - _Fallen, no more shall she rise,_ - _Virgin of Israel!_ - _Flung down on her own ground,_ - _No one to raise her!_ - -The _Virgin_, which with Isaiah is a standing title for Jerusalem and -occasionally used of other cities, is here probably the whole nation -of Northern Israel. The explanation follows. It is War. _For thus -saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that goeth forth a thousand shall -have an hundred left; and she that goeth forth an hundred shall have -left ten for the house of Israel._ - -But judgment is not yet irrevocable. There break forthwith the only -two promises which lighten the lowering darkness of the book. Let the -people turn to Jehovah Himself--and that means let them turn from the -ritual, and instead of it purge their civic life, restore justice in -their courts and help the poor. For God and moral good are one. It -is _seek Me and ye shall live_, and _seek good and ye shall live_. -Omitting for the present all argument as to whether the interruption -of praise to the power of Jehovah be from Amos or another, we read -the whole oracle as follows. - -_Thus saith Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek Me and live. But -seek not Bethel, and come not to Gilgal, and to Beersheba pass not -over_--to come to Beersheba one had to cross all Judah. _For Gilgal -shall taste the gall of exile_--it is not possible except in this -clumsy way to echo the prophet's play upon words, "Ha-Gilgal galoh -yigleh"--_and Bethel_, God's house, _shall become an idolatry_. This -rendering, however, scarcely gives the rude force of the original; -for the word rendered idolatry, Aven, means also falsehood and -perdition, so that we should not exaggerate the antithesis if we -employed a phrase which once was not vulgar: _And Bethel, house of -God, shall go to the devil!_[301] The epigram was the more natural -that near Bethel, on a site now uncertain, but close to the edge -of the desert to which it gave its name, there lay from ancient -times a village actually called Beth-Aven, however the form may -have risen. And we shall find Hosea stereotyping this epigram of -Amos, and calling the sanctuary Beth-Aven oftener than he calls it -Beth-El.[302] _Seek ye Jehovah and live,_ he begins again, _lest He -break forth like fire, O house of Joseph, and it consume and there -be none to quench at Bethel._[303] ...[304] _He that made the Seven -Stars and Orion,_[305] _that turneth the murk_[306] _into morning, -and day He darkeneth to night, that calleth for the waters of the -sea and poureth them out on the face of the earth--Jehovah His Name. -He it is that flasheth out ruin_[307] _on strength, and bringeth -down_[308] _destruction on the fortified._ This rendering of the -last verse is uncertain, and rightly suspected, but there is no -alternative so probable, and it returns to the keynote from which the -passage started, that God should break forth like fire. - -Ah, _they that turn justice to wormwood, and abase_[309] -_righteousness to the earth! They hate him that reproveth in the -gate_--in an Eastern city both the law-court and place of the popular -council--_and him that speaketh sincerely they abhor_. So in the -English mystic's Vision Peace complains of Wrong:-- - - "I dar noughte for fere of hym . fyghte ne chyde."[310] - -_Wherefore, because ye trample on the weak and take from him a present -of corn,_[311] _ye have built houses of ashlar,_[312] _but ye shall not -dwell in them; vineyards for pleasure have ye planted, but ye shall -not drink of their wine. For I know how many are your crimes, and -how forceful_[313] _your sins--ye that browbeat the righteous, take -bribes, and bring down the poor in the gate! Therefore the prudent in -such a time is dumb, for an evil time is it_ indeed. - -_Seek good and not evil, that ye may live, and Jehovah God of Hosts be -with you, as ye say_ He is. _Hate evil and love good; and in the gate -set justice on her feet again--peradventure Jehovah God of Hosts may -have pity on the remnant of Joseph._ If in the Book of Amos there be -any passages, which, to say the least, do not now lie in their proper -places, this is one of them. For, firstly, while it regards the nation -as still responsible for the duties of government, it recognises them -as reduced to a remnant. To find such a state of affairs we have to -come down to the years subsequent to 734, when Tiglath-Pileser swept -into captivity all Gilead and Galilee--that is, two-thirds, in bulk, -of the territory of Northern Israel--but left Ephraim untouched. In -answer to this, it may, of course, be pointed out that in thus calling -the people to repentance, so that a remnant might be saved, Amos may -have been contemplating a disaster still future, from which, though -it was inevitable, God might be moved to spare a remnant.[314] That -is very true. But it does not meet this further difficulty, that the -verses (14, 15) plainly make interruption between the end of ver. 13 -and the beginning of ver. 16; and that the initial _therefore_ of the -latter verse, while it has no meaning in its present sequence, becomes -natural and appropriate when made to follow immediately on ver. 13. For -all these reasons, then, I take vv. 14 and 15 as a parenthesis, whether -from Amos himself or from a later writer who can tell? But it ought -to be kept in mind that in other prophetic writings where judgment -is very severe, we have some proof of the later insertion of calls to -repentance, by way of mitigation. - -Ver. 13 had said the time was so evil that the prudent man kept -silence. All the more must the Lord Himself speak, as ver. 16 now -proclaims. _Therefore thus saith Jehovah, God of Hosts,_[315] _Lord: -On all open ways lamentation, and in all streets they shall be -saying, Ah woe! Ah woe! And in all vineyards lamentation,_[316] _and -they shall call the ploughman to wailing and to lamentation them -that are skilful in dirges_--town and country, rustic and artist -alike--_for I shall pass through thy midst, saith Jehovah._ It is -the solemn formula of the Great Passover, when Egypt was filled with -wailing and there were dead in every house. - -The next verse starts another, but a kindred, theme. As blind as -was Israel's confidence in ritual, so blind was their confidence in -dogma, and the popular dogma was that of the _Day of Jehovah_. - -All popular hopes expect their victory to come in a single sharp -crisis--a day. And again, the day of any one means either the day he -has appointed, or the day of his display and triumph. So Jehovah's -day meant to the people the day of His judgment, or of His triumph: -His triumph in war over their enemies, His judgment upon the heathen. -But Amos, whose keynote has been that judgment begins at home, cries -woe upon such hopes, and tells his people that for them the day of -Jehovah is not victory, but rather insidious, importunate, inevitable -death. And this he describes as a man who has lived, alone with wild -beasts, from the jungles of the Jordan, where the lions lurk, to the -huts of the desert infested by snakes. - -_Woe unto them that long for the day of Jehovah! What have you to do -with the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light. As when a man -fleeth from the face of a lion, and a bear falls upon him; and he comes -into his home_,[317] _and_, breathless, _leans his hand upon the wall, -and a serpent bites him._ And then, as if appealing to Heaven for -confirmation: Is it not so? _Is it not darkness, the day of Jehovah, -and not light? storm darkness, and not a ray of light upon it?_ - -Then Amos returns to the worship, that nurse of their vain hopes, -that false prophet of peace, and he hears God speak more strongly -than ever of its futility and hatefulness. - -_I hate, I loathe your feasts, and I will not smell the savour of your -gatherings to sacrifice._ For with pagan folly they still believed that -the smoke of their burnt-offerings went up to heaven and flattered the -nostrils of Deity. How ingrained was this belief may be judged by us -from the fact that the terms of it had to be adopted by the apostles -of a spiritual religion, if they would make themselves understood, and -are now the metaphors of the sacrifices of the Christian heart.[318] -_Though ye bring to Me burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings I will -not be pleased, or your thank-offerings of fatted calves, I will not -look at them. Let cease from Me the noise of thy songs; to the playing -of thy viols I will not listen. But let justice roll on like water, and -righteousness like an unfailing stream._ - -Then follows the remarkable appeal from the habits of this age -to those of the times of Israel's simplicity. _Was it flesh- or -meal-offerings that ye brought Me in the wilderness, forty years, -O house of Israel?_[319] That is to say, at the very time when God -made Israel His people, and led them safely to the promised land--the -time when of all others He did most for them--He was not moved to -such love and deliverance by the propitiatory bribes, which this -generation imagine to be so availing and indispensable. Nay, those -still shall not avail, for exile from the land shall now as surely -come in spite of them, as the possession of the land in old times -came without them. This at least seems to be the drift of the very -obscure verse which follows, and is the unmistakable statement of the -close of the oracle. _But ye shall lift up ... your king and ... your -god, images which you have made for yourselves;_[320] _and I will -carry you away into exile far beyond Damascus, saith Jehovah--God of -Hosts is His Name!_[321] So this chapter closes like the previous, -with the marshalling of God's armies. But as there His hosts were -the movements of Nature and the Great Stars, so here they are the -nations of the world. By His rule of both He is the God of Hosts. - - - 3. "AT EASE IN ZION." - - AMOS vi. - -The evil of the national worship was the false political confidence -which it engendered. Leaving the ritual alone, Amos now proceeds to -assault this confidence. We are taken from the public worship of -the people to the private banquets of the rich, but again only in -order to have their security and extravagance contrasted with the -pestilence, the war and the captivity, that are rapidly approaching. - -_Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion_[322]--it is a proud -and overweening ease which the word expresses--_and that trust -in the mount of Samaria! Men of mark of the first of the -peoples_--ironically, for that is Israel's opinion of itself--_and -to them do the house of Israel resort!_...[323] _Ye that put -off the day of calamity_[324] _and draw near the sessions of -injustice_[325]--an epigram and proverb, for it is the universal -way of men to wish and fancy far away the very crisis that their -sins are hastening on. Isaiah described this same generation as -drawing iniquity with cords of hypocrisy, and sin as it were -with a cart-rope! _That lie on ivory diwans and sprawl on their -couches_--another luxurious custom, which filled this rude shepherd -with contempt--_and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the -midst of the stall_[326]--that is, only the most delicate of -meats--_who prate_ or _purr_ or _babble to the sound of the viol, -and as if they were David_ himself _invent for them instruments of -song;_[327] _who drink wine by ewerfuls--waterpotfuls--and anoint -with the finest of oil--yet never do they grieve at the havoc of -Joseph!_ The havoc is the moral havoc, for the social structure of -Israel is obviously still secure.[328] The rich are indifferent to -it; they have wealth, art, patriotism, religion, but neither heart -for the poverty nor conscience for the sin of their people. We know -their kind! They are always with us, who live well and imagine they -are proportionally clever and refined. They have their political -zeal, will rally to an election when the interests of their class -or their trade is in danger. They have a robust and exuberant -patriotism, talk grandly of commerce, empire and the national -destiny; but for the real woes and sores of the people, the poverty, -the overwork, the drunkenness, the dissoluteness, which more affect a -nation's life than anything else, they have no pity and no care. - -_Therefore now_--the double initial of judgment--_shall they go into -exile at the head of the exiles, and stilled shall be the revelry of -the dissolute_--literally _the sprawlers_, as in ver. 4, but used -here rather in the moral than in the physical sense. _Sworn hath the -Lord Jehovah by Himself--'tis the oracle of Jehovah God of Hosts: I -am loathing_[329] _the pride of Jacob, and his palaces do I hate, and -I will pack up a city and its fulness._[330]... _For, behold, Jehovah -is commanding, and He will smite the great house into ruins and the -small house into splinters._ The collapse must come, postpone it as -their fancy will, for it has been worked for and is inevitable. How -could it be otherwise? _Shall horses run on a cliff, or the sea be -ploughed by oxen_[331]--_that ye should turn justice to poison and -the fruit of righteousness to wormwood! Ye that exult in Lo-Debar -and say, By our own strength have we taken to ourselves Karnaim._ So -Graetz rightly reads the verse. The Hebrew text and all the versions -take these names as if they were common nouns--Lo-Debar, _a thing -of nought_; Karnaim, _a pair of horns_--and doubtless it was just -because of this possible play upon their names, that Amos selected -these two out of all the recent conquests of Israel. Karnaim, in -full Ashteroth Karnaim, _Astarte of Horns_, was that immemorial -fortress and sanctuary which lay out upon the great plateau of Bashan -towards Damascus; so obvious and cardinal a site that it appears -in the sacred history both in the earliest recorded campaign in -Abraham's time and in one of the latest under the Maccabees.[332] -Lo-Debar was of Gilead, and probably lay on that last rampart of -the province northward, overlooking the Yarmuk, a strategical point -which must have often been contested by Israel and Aram, and with -which no other Old Testament name has been identified.[333] These two -fortresses, with many others, Israel had lately taken from Aram; but -not, as they boasted, _by their own strength_. It was only Aram's -pre-occupation with Assyria now surgent on the northern flank, -which allowed Israel these easy victories. And this same northern -foe would soon overwhelm themselves. _For, behold, I am to raise -up against you, O house of Israel--'tis the oracle of Jehovah God -of the hosts_[334]--_a Nation, and they shall oppress you from the -Entrance of Hamath to the Torrent of the 'Arabah._ Every one knows -the former, the Pass between the Lebanons, at whose mouth stands Dan, -northern limit of Israel; but it is hard to identify the latter. If -Amos means to include Judah, we should have expected the Torrent of -Egypt, the present Wady el 'Arish; but the Wady of the 'Arabah may -be a corresponding valley in the eastern watershed issuing in the -'Arabah. If Amos threatens only the Northern Kingdom, he intends some -wady running down to that Sea of the 'Arabah, the Dead Sea, which is -elsewhere given as the limit of Israel.[335] - -The Assyrian flood, then, was about to break, and the oracles close -with the hopeless prospect of the whole land submerged beneath it. - - - 4. A FRAGMENT FROM THE PLAGUE. - -In the above exposition we have omitted two very curious verses, 9 -and 10, which are held by some critics to interrupt the current of -the chapter, and to reflect an entirely different kind of calamity -from that which it predicts. I do not think these critics right, for -reasons I am about to give; but the verses are so remarkable that it is -most convenient to treat them by themselves apart from the rest of the -chapter. Here they are, with the verse immediately in front of them. - -_I am loathing the pride of Jacob, and his palaces I hate. And I -will give up a city and its fulness_ to ...(perhaps _siege_ or -_pestilence_?). _And it shall come to pass, if there be left ten men -in one house, and they die,_[336] ... _that his cousin_[337] _and -the man to burn him shall lift him to bring the body_[338] _out of -the house, and they shall say to one who is in the recesses of the -house_,[339] _Are there any more with thee? And he shall say, Not one -... and they shall say, Hush!_ (_for one must not make mention of the -name of Jehovah_). - -This grim fragment is obscure in its relation to the context. But -the death of even so large a household as ten--the funeral left to a -distant relation--the disposal of the bodies by burning instead of -the burial customary among the Hebrews[340]--sufficiently reflect -the kind of calamity. It is a weird little bit of memory, the -recollection of an eye-witness, from one of those great pestilences -which, during the first half of the eighth century, happened not -seldom in Western Asia.[341] But what does it do here? Wellhausen -says that there is nothing to lead up to the incident; that before -it the chapter speaks, not of pestilence, but only of political -destruction by an enemy. This is not accurate. The phrase immediately -preceding may mean either _I will shut up a city and its fulness_, -in which case a siege is meant, and a siege was the possibility -both of famine and pestilence; or _I will give up the city and its -fulness_..., in which case a word or two may have been dropped, -as words have undoubtedly been dropped at the end of the next -verse, and one ought perhaps to add _to the pestilence_.[342] The -latter alternative is the more probable, and this may be one of the -passages, already alluded to,[343] in which the want of connection -with the preceding verses is to be explained, not upon the favourite -theory that there has been a violent intrusion into the text, but -upon the too much neglected hypothesis that some words have been lost. - -The uncertainty of the text, however, does not weaken the impression -of its ghastly realism: the unclean and haunted house; the kinsman -and the body-burner afraid to search through the infected rooms, -and calling in muffled voice to the single survivor crouching in -some far corner of them, _Are there any more with thee?_ his reply, -_None_--himself the next! Yet these details are not the most weird. -Over all hangs a terror darker than the pestilence. _Shall there be -evil in a city and Jehovah not have done it?_ Such, as we have heard -from Amos, was the settled faith of the age. But in times of woe it -was held with an awful and a craven superstition. The whole of life -was believed to be overhung with loose accumulations of Divine anger. -And as in some fatal hollow in the high Alps, where any noise may -bring down the impending masses of snow, and the fearful traveller -hurries along in silence, so the men of that superstitious age -feared, when an evil like the plague was imminent, even to utter the -Deity's name, lest it should loosen some avalanche of His wrath. _And -he said, Hush! for_, adds the comment, one _must not make mention of -the name of Jehovah_. - -This reveals another side of the popular religion which Amos has been -attacking. We have seen it as the sheer superstition of routine; -but we now know that it was a routine broken by panic. The God who -in times of peace was propitiated by regular supplies of savoury -sacrifice and flattery, is conceived, when His wrath is roused and -imminent, as kept quiet only by the silence of its miserable objects. -The false peace of ritual is tempered by panic. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[268] See above, pp. 82 ff. and pp. 89 ff. - -[269] With the LXX. [Hebrew: vshvr] for [Hebrew: vshdvd]. - -[270] [Hebrew: shd] (ver. 10). - -[271] Singular as in LXX., and not plural as in the M.T. and English -versions. - -[272] Juvenal, _Satires_, I. - -[273] _Vision of Piers Plowman._ Burgages=tenements. - -[274] Or _The Enemy, and that right round the Land!_ - -[275] _In Damascus on a couch: on a Damascus couch: on a Damascus-cloth -couch:_ or _Damascus-fashion on a couch_--alternatives all equally -probable and equally beyond proof. The text is very difficult, nor -do the versions give help. (1) The consonants of the word before _a -couch_ spell _in Damascus_, and so the LXX. take it. This would be in -exact parallel to the _in Samaria_ of the previous half of the clause. -But although Jeroboam II. is said to have recovered Damascus (2 Kings -xiv. 28), this is not necessarily the town itself, of whose occupation -by Israel we have no evidence, while Amos always assumes it to be -Aramean, and here he is addressing Israelites. Still retaining the -name of the city, we can take it with _couch_ as parallel, not to _in -Samaria_, but to _on the side of a diwan_; in that case the meaning -may have been _a Damascus couch_ (though as the two words stand it is -impossible to parse them, and Gen. xv. 2 cannot be quoted in support of -this, for it is too uncertain itself, being possibly a gloss, though -it is curious that as the two passages run the name Damascus should -be in the same strange grammatical conjunction in each), or possibly -_Damascus-fashion on a couch_, which (if the first half of the clause, -as some maintain, refers to some delicate or affected posture then come -into fashion) is the most probable rendering. (2) The Massoretes have -pointed, not _bedammeseq_ = _in Damascus_, but _bedemesheq_, a form -not found elsewhere, which some (Ges., Hitz., Ew., Rev. Eng. Ver., -etc.) take to mean some Damascene stuff (as perhaps our Damask and -the Arabic _dimshaq_ originally meant, though this is not certain), -_e.g._ _silk_ or _velvet_ or _cushions_. (3) Others rearrange the text. -_E.g._ Hoffmann (_Z. A. T. W._, III. 102) takes the whole clause away -from ver. 12 and attaches it to ver. 13, reading _O those who sit in -Samaria on the edge of the diwan, and in Damascus on a couch, hearken -and testify against the house of Jacob_. But, as Wellhausen points -out, those addressed in ver. 13 are the same as those addressed in -ver. 9. Wellhausen prefers to believe that after the words _children -of Israel_, which end a sentence, something has fallen out. The LXX. -translator, who makes several blunders in the course of this chapter, -instead of translating [Hebrew: 'rs] couch, the last word of the verse, -merely transliterates it into [Greek: hiereis]!! - -[276] Cf. vi. 4: _that lie on ivory diwans and sprawl on their couches_. - -[277] Van Lennep, _Bible Lands and Customs_, p. 460. - -[278] See p. 205, _n._ 4. - -[279] The words for hook in Hebrew--the two used above, [Hebrew: -tzinnot] and [Hebrew: sirvt]; and a third, [Hebrew: choach]--all mean -originally _thorns_, doubtless the first hooks of primitive man; but -by this time they would signify metal hooks--a change analogous to -the English word _pen_. - -[280] Cf. Isa. xxxvii. 29; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. On the use -fish-hooks, Job xl. 26 (Heb.), xli. 2 (Eng.); Ezek. xxix. 4. - -[281] The verb, which in the text is active, must be taken in the -passive. The word not translated above is [Hebrew: haharmonah] _unto -the Harmon_, which name does not occur elsewhere. LXX. read [Greek: eis -to oros to Rhomman], which Ewald renders _ye shall cast the Rimmon to -the mountain_ (cf. Isa. ii. 20), and he takes Rimmon to be the Syrian -goddess of love. Steiner (quoted by Wellhausen) renders _ye shall be -cast out to Hadad Rimmon_, that is, _violated as_ [Hebrew: kdshovt] -Hitzig separates [Hebrew: hhr] from [Hebrew: mvnh], which he takes as -contracted from [Hebrew: m'nh], and renders _ye shall fling yourselves -out on the mountains as a refuge_. But none of these is satisfactory. - -[282] I have already treated this passage in connection with Isaiah's -prophecies on women in the volume on Isaiah i.-xxxix. (Expositor's -Bible), Chap. XVI. - -[283] Cf. chap. vi. 4. - -[284] v. 11. - -[285] vi. 8, 11. - -[286] Cf. what was said on building above, p. 33. - -[287] See p. 141. - -[288] v. 26. - -[289] v. 25. - -[290] Another proof of how the spirit of ritualism tends to absorb -morality. - -[291] Ver. 4: cf. 1 Sam. i.; Deut. xiv. 28. Wellhausen offers -another exegesis: Amos is describing exactly what took place at -Bethel--sacrifice on the morning, _i.e._ next to the day of their -arrival, tithes on the third day thereafter. - -[292] See Wellhausen's note, and compare Lev. vii. 13. - -[293] Matt. vi. 2. - -[294] [Hebrew: geshem]: _Hist. Geog._, p. 64. It is interesting that -this year (1895) the same thing was threatened, according to a report -in the _Mittheilungen u. Nachrichten des D.P.V._, p. 44: "Nachdem es -im December einigemal recht stark geregnet hatte besonders an der -Meereskueste ist seit kurz vor Weihnachten das Wetter immer schoen u. -mild geblieben, u. wenn nicht weiterer Regen faellt, so wird grosser -Wassermangel entstehen denn bis jetzt (16 Febr.) hat Niemand Cisterne -voll." The harvest is in April-May. - -[295] Or in the fashion of Egypt, _i.e._ a thoroughly Egyptian -plague; so called, not with reference to the plagues of Egypt, but -because that country was always the nursery of the pestilence. See -_Hist. Geog._, p. 157 ff. Note how it comes with war. - -[296] Apertly, openly. - -[297] Men. - -[298] Undo. - -[299] _Hist. Geog._, Chap. iii., pp. 73 f. - -[300] This and similar passages are dealt with by themselves in Chap. -XI. - -[301] Cf. LXX.: [Greek: Baithel estai hos ouch hyparchousa.] - -[302] The name Bethel is always printed as one word in our Hebrew -texts. See Baer on Gen. xii. 8. - -[303] Wellhausen thinks _at Bethel_ not genuine. But Bethel has been -singled out as the place where the people put their false confidence, -and is naturally named here. LXX.: [Greek: to oiko Israel.] - -[304] Ver. 7 is plainly out of place here, as the LXX. perceived, -and therefore tried to give it another rendering which would make it -seem in place: [Greek: ho poion eis hypsos krima, kai dikaiosynen -eis gen etheken]. So Ewald removed it to between vv. 9 and 10. There -it begins well another oracle; and it may be that we should insert -before it [Hebrew: hv], as in vv. 18, vi. 1. - -[305] Literally _the Group_ and _the Giant_. [Hebrew: chmh], Kimah, -signifies group, or little heap. Here it is rendered by Aq. and at -Job ix. 9 by LXX. [Greek: Arktouros]; and here by Theod. and in Job -xxxviii. 31, _the chain_, or _cluster, of the group_ [Greek: Pleiades]. -The Targ. and Pesh. always give it as Kima, _i.e._ Pleiades. And this -is the rendering of most moderns. But Stern takes it for Sirius with -its constellation of the Great Dog, for the reason that this is the -brightest of all stars, and therefore a more suitable fellow for Orion -than the dimmer Pleiades can be. [Hebrew: chsl], the Fool or Giant, is -the Hebrew name of [Greek: Orion], by which the LXX. render it. Targum -[Hebrew: nfl]. To the ancient world the constellation looked like the -figure of a giant fettered in heaven, "a fool so far as he trusted in -his bodily strength" (Dillmann). In later times he was called Nimrod. -His early setting came at the time of the early rains. Cf. with the -passage Job ix. 9 and xxxviii. 31. - -[306] The abstract noun meaning _deep shadow_, LXX. [Greek: skia], -and rendered _shadow of death_ by many modern versions. - -[307] So LXX., reading [Hebrew: shvr] for [Hebrew: shd]; it improves -the rhythm, and escapes the awkward repetition of [Hebrew: shd]. - -[308] So LXX. - -[309] Possible alternative: _make stagnant_. - -[310] _Vision of Piers Plowman_, Passus IV., l. 52. Cf. the whole -passage. - -[311] Uncertain; Hitzig takes it as the apodosis of the previous -clause: _Ye shall have to take from him a present of corn_, _i.e._ as -alms. - -[312] See above, p. 33. - -[313] Cf. "Pecca fortiter." - -[314] As, for instance, the prophet looks forward to in iii. 12. - -[315] _God of Hosts_, perhaps an intrusion (?) between [Hebrew: dn] -and [Hebrew: hvh]. - -[316] I have ventured to rearrange the order of the clauses, which in -the original is evidently dislocated. - -[317] Lit. _the house_. - -[318] Eph. v. 2; etc. - -[319] No one doubts that this verse is interrogative. But the -Authorised Eng. Ver. puts it in a form--_Have ye brought unto Me?_ -etc.--which implies blame that they did not do so. Ewald was the -first to see that, as rendered above, an appeal to the forty years -was the real intention of the verse. So after him nearly all critics, -also the Revised Eng. Ver.: _Did ye bring unto Me?_ On the whole -question of the possibility of such an appeal see above, pp. 100 -ff., and cf. Jer. vii. 22, which distinctly declares that in the -wilderness God prescribed no ritual to Israel. - -[320] Ver. 26 is very difficult, for both the text and the rendering -of all the possible alternatives of it are quite uncertain. (1) As to -the _text_, the present division into words must be correct; at least -no other is possible. But the present order of the words is obviously -wrong. For _your images_ is evidently described by the relative -clause _which you have made_, and ought to stand next it. What then -is to be done with the two words that at present come between--_star -of your god_? Are they both a mere gloss, as Robertson Smith holds, -and therefore to be struck out? or should they precede the pair of -words, [Hebrew: tzlmchm chvn], which they now follow? This is the -order of the text which the LXX. translator had before him, only -for [Hebrew: chvn] he misread [Hebrew: reifan] or [Hebrew: reivan]: -[Greek: kai anelabete ten skenen tou Moloch kai to astron tou Theou -hymon Rhaiphan] [[Greek: Rhephan], Q], [Greek: tous typous auton] -[om. AQ] [Greek: hous epoiesate heautois]. This arrangement has the -further evidence in its favour, that it brings _your god_ into proper -parallel with _your king_. The Hebrew text would then run thus:-- - - [[Hebrew: lhchm chvchv]] [Hebrew: vt mlchchm schvt t vnshtm] - [Hebrew: lchm 'shtm shr tzlmchm chvn] - -(2) The translation of this text is equally difficult: not in the -verb [Hebrew: vnshtm], for both the grammar and the argument oblige -us to take it as future, _and ye shall lift up_; but in the two -words [Hebrew: schvt] and [Hebrew: chvn]. Are these common nouns, or -proper names of deities in apposition to _your king_ and _your god_? -The LXX. takes [Hebrew: schvt] as = _tabernacle_, and [Hebrew: chvn] -as a proper name (Theodotion takes both as proper names). The Auth. -Eng. Ver. follows the LXX. (except that it takes _king_ for the name -_Moloch_). Schrader (_Stud. u. Krit._, 1874, 324; _K.A.T._, 442 f.) -takes them as the consonants of Sakkut, a name of the Assyrian god -Adar, and of Kewan, the Assyrian name for the planet Saturn: _Ye -shall take up Sakkut your king and Kewan your star-god, your images -which_... Baethgen goes further and takes both the [Hebrew: mlch] -of [Hebrew: mlchchm] and the [Hebrew: tzlm] of [Hebrew: tzlmchm] as -Moloch and Selam, proper names, in combination with Sakkut and Kewan -(_Beitr. z. Sem. Rel._, 239). Now it is true that the Second Book -of Kings implies that the worship of the host of heaven existed in -Samaria before its fall (2 Kings xvii. 16), but the introduction into -Samaria of Assyrian gods (among them Adar) is placed by it after the -fall (2 Kings xvii. 31), and besides, Amos does not elsewhere speak -of the worship of foreign gods, nor is the mention of them in any way -necessary to the argument here. On the contrary, even if Amos were -to mention the worship of idols by Israel, would he have selected -at this point the Assyrian ones? (See, however, Tiele, _Revue de -l'Histoire des Religions_, III., p. 211, who makes Koun and the -planet Keiwan purely Phoenician deities.) Some critics take [Hebrew: -schvt] and [Hebrew: chvn] as common nouns in the construct state. So -Ewald, and so most recently Robertson Smith (_O.T.J.C._, 2): _the -shrine of your king and the stand of your images_. This is more in -harmony with the absence from the rest of Amos of any hint as to the -worship of idols, but an objection to it, and a very strong one, is -that the alleged common nouns are not found elsewhere in Hebrew. In -view of this conflicting evidence it is best therefore to leave the -words untranslated, as in the text above. It is just possible that -they may themselves be later insertions, for the verse would read -very well without them: _And ye shall lift up your king and your -images which you have made to yourselves_. - -[321] The last clause is peculiar. Two clauses seem to have run into -one--_saith Jehovah, God of Hosts_, and _God of Hosts is His Name_. -The word [Hebrew: shmv] = _His Name_, may have been added to give the -oracle the same conclusion as the oracle at the end of the preceding -chapter; and it is not to be overlooked that [Hebrew: shmv] at the -end of a clause does not occur elsewhere in the book outside the -three questioned Doxologies iv. 13, v. 8, ix. 6. Further, see below, -pp. 204 f. - -[322] _In Zion_: "very suspicious," Cornill. But see pp. 135 f. - -[323] I remove ver. 2 to a note, not that I am certain that it is -not by Amos--who can be dogmatic on such a point?--but because the -text of it, the place which it occupies, and its relation to the -facts of current history, all raise doubts. Moreover it is easily -detached from the context, without disturbing the flow of the -chapter, which indeed runs more equably without it. The Massoretic -text gives: _Pass over to Calneh, and see; and go thence to Hamath -Rabbah, and come down to Gath of the Philistines: are they better -than these kingdoms, or is their territory larger than yours?_ -Presumably _these_ _kingdoms_ are Judah and Israel. But that can -only mean that Israel is the best of the peoples, a statement out -of harmony with the irony of ver. 1, and impossible in the mouth of -Amos. Geiger, therefore, proposes to read: "Are you better than these -kingdoms--_i.e._ Calneh, Hamath, Gath--or is your territory larger -than theirs?" But this is also unlikely, for Israel's territory was -much larger than Gath's. Besides, the question would have force only -if Calneh, Hamath and Gath had already fallen. Gath had, but it is -at least very questionable whether Hamath had. Therefore Schrader -(_K.A.T._, 444) rejects the whole verse; and Kuenen agrees that if we -are to understand Assyrian conquests, it is hardly possible to retain -the verses. Bickell's first argument against the verse, that it does -not fit into the metrical system of Amos vi. 1-7, is precarious; his -second, that it disturbs the grammar, which it makes to jump suddenly -from the third person in ver. 1 to the second in ver. 2, and back to -the third in ver. 3, is not worth anything, for such a jump occurs -within ver. 3 itself. - -[324] Davidson, _Syntax_, Sec. 100, R. 5. - -[325] [Hebrew: chmm shvt]; LXX. [Greek: sabbaton pseudon], on -which hint Hoffmann renders the verse: "you that daily demand the -tribute of evil (cf. Ezek. xvi. 33), and every Sabbath extort by -violence." But this is both unnecessary and opposed to viii. 5, which -tells us no trade was done on the Sabbath. [Hebrew: shvt] is to be -taken in the common sense of sitting in judgment (rather than with -Wellhausen), in the sense of the enthronement of wrong-doing. - -[326] To this day, in some parts of Palestine, the general fold into -which the cattle are shut contains a portion railed off for calves -and lambs (cf. Dr. M. Blanckenhorn of Erlangen in the _Mittheilungen -u. Nachrichten_ of the D.P.V., 1895, p. 37, with a sketch). It must -be this to which Amos refers. - -[327] Or perhaps _melodies_, _airs_. - -[328] Of course, it is possible that here again, as in v. 15 and 16, -we have prophecy later than the disaster of 734, when Tiglath-Pileser -made a great _breach_ or _havoc_ in the body politic of Israel by -taking Gilead and Galilee captive. But this is scarcely probable, -for Amos almost everywhere lays stress upon the moral corruption of -Israel, as her real and essential danger. - -[329] [Hebrew: mtv] for [Hebrew: mt'v]. - -[330] Some words must have dropped out here. For these and the -following verses 9 and 10 on the pestilence see pp. 178 ff. - -[331] So Michaelis, [Hebrew: yam bevakar] for [Hebrew: bivkarim]. - -[332] Gen. xiv. 5; 1 Macc. v. In the days of Eusebius and Jerome (4th -century) there were two places of the name: one of them doubtless the -present Tell Ashtara south of El-Merkez, the other distant from that -fourteen Roman miles. - -[333] Along this ridge ran, and still runs, one of the most important -highways to the East, that from Beth-Shan by Gadera to Edrei. About -seven miles east from Gadera lies a village, Ibdar, "with a good -spring and some ancient remains" (Schumacher, _N. Ajlun_, 101). -Lo-Debar is mentioned in 2 Sam. ix. 45; xvii. 27; and doubtless the -Lidebir of Josh. xiii. 26 on the north border of Gilead is the same. - -[334] With the article, an unusual form of the title. LXX. here -[Greek: kyrios ton dynameon]. - -[335] 2 Kings xiv. 25. The Torrent of the 'Arabah can scarcely be -the Torrent of the 'Arabim of Isa. xv. 7 for the latter was outside -Israel's territory, and the border between Moab and Edom. The LXX. -render _Torrent of the West_, [Greek: ton dysmon]. - -[336] Here there is evidently a gap in the text. The LXX. insert -[Greek: kai hypoleiphthesontai hoi kataloipoi]; perhaps therefore the -text originally ran _and the survivors die_. - -[337] Or _uncle_--that is, a distant relative, presumably because all -the near ones are dead. - -[338] Literally _bones_. - -[339] LXX. [Greek: tois proestekosi]: evidently in ignorance of the -reading or the meaning. - -[340] The burning of a body was regarded, as we have seen (Amos -ii. 1), as a great sacrilege; and was practised, outside times of -pestilence only in cases of great criminals: Lev. xx. 14; xxi. 9; -Josh. vii. 25. Doughty (_Arabia Deserta_, 68) mentions a case in -which, in Medina, a Persian pilgrim was burned to death by an angry -crowd for defiling Mohammed's tomb. - -[341] The Assyrian inscriptions record at least three--in 803, 765, -759. - -[342] As in Psalm lxxviii. 50. [Hebrew: hisgir], to give up, is so -seldom used absolutely (Deut. xxxii. 30 is poetry and elliptic) that -we may well believe it was followed by words signifying to what the -city was to be given up. - -[343] Pp. 141 f. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - _DOOM OR DISCIPLINE?_ - - AMOS viii. 4-ix. - - -We now enter the Third Section of the Book of Amos: chaps. vii.-ix. -As we have already treated the first part of it--the group of four -visions, which probably formed the prophet's discourse at Bethel, -with the interlude of his adventure there (vii.-viii. 3)[344]--we may -pass at once to what remains: from viii. 4 to the end of the book. -This portion consists of groups of oracles more obscure in their -relations to each other than any we have yet studied, and probably -containing a number of verses which are not from Amos himself. They -open in a denunciation of the rich, which echoes previous oracles, -and soon pass to judgments of a kind already threatened, but now with -greater relentlessness. Then, just as all is at the darkest, lights -break; exceptions are made; the inevitable captivity is described no -more as doom, but as discipline; and, with only this preparation for -a change, we are swept out on a scene, in which, although the land -is strewn with the ruins that have been threatened, the sunshine of -a new day floods them; the promise of restoration is given; Nature -herself will be regenerated, and the whole life of Israel planted on -its own ground again. - -Whether it was given to Amos himself to behold this day--whether -these last verses of the book were his "Nunc Dimittis," or the hope -of a later generation, which found his book intolerably severe, -and mingled with its judgments their own new mercies--we shall try -to discover further on. Meanwhile there is no doubt that we start -with the authentic oracles of the prophet. We know the ring of his -voice. To the tyranny of the rich, which he has so often lashed, he -now adds the greed and fraud of the traders; and he paints Israel's -doom in those shapes of earthquake, eclipse and famine with which -his own generation had recently become familiar. Note that in this -first group Amos employs only physical calamities, and says nothing -of war and captivity. If the standard which we have already applied -to the growth of his doctrine be correct, these ought therefore to -be counted among his earlier utterances. War and captivity follow in -chap. ix. That is to say, this Third Section follows the same line of -development as both the First and the Second. - - - 1. EARTHQUAKE, ECLIPSE AND FAMINE. - - AMOS viii. 4-14. - -_Hear this, ye who trample the needy, and would put an end to_[345] -_the lowly of the land, saying, When will the New-Moon be over, that -we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, that we may open corn_ (_by -making small the measure, but large the weight, and falsifying the -fraudulent balances; buying the wretched for silver, and the needy -for a pair of shoes!_), _and that we may sell as grain the refuse -of the corn!_ The parenthesis puzzles, but is not impossible: in -the speed of his scorn, Amos might well interrupt the speech of the -merchants by these details of their fraud,[346] flinging these in -their teeth as they spoke. The existence at this date of the New-Moon -and Sabbath as days of rest from business is interesting; but even -more interesting is the peril to which they lie open. As in the -case of the Nazirites and the prophets, we see how the religious -institutions and opportunities of the people are threatened by -worldliness and greed. And, as in every other relevant passage of the -Old Testament, we have the interests of the Sabbath bound up in the -same cause with the interests of the poor. The Fourth Commandment -enforces the day of rest on behalf of the servants and bondsmen. When -a later prophet substitutes for religious fasts the ideals of social -service, he weds with the latter the security of the Sabbath from all -business.[347] So here Amos emphasises that the Sabbath is threatened -by the same worldliness and love of money which tramples on the -helpless. The interests of the Sabbath are the interests of the poor: -the enemies of the Sabbath are the enemies of the poor. And all this -illustrates our Saviour's saying, that _the Sabbath was made for man_. - -But, as in the rest of the book, judgment again follows hard on sin. -_Sworn hath Jehovah by the pride of Jacob, Never shall I forget their -deeds._ It is as before. The chief spring of the prophet's inspiration -is his burning sense of the personal indignation of God against crimes -so abominable. God is the God of the poor, and His anger rises, as -we see the anger of Christ arise, heavy against their tyrants and -oppressors. Such sins are intolerable to Him. But the feeling of their -intolerableness is shared by the land itself, the very fabric of -nature; the earthquake is the proof of it. _For all this shall not the -land tremble and her every inhabitant mourn? and she shall rise like -the Nile in mass, and heave and sink like the Nile of Egypt._[348] - -To the earthquake is added the eclipse: one had happened in 803, and -another in 763, the memory of which probably inspired the form of this -passage. _And it shall be in that day--'tis the oracle of the Lord -Jehovah--that I shall bring down the sun at noon, and cast darkness -on the earth in broad day._[349] _And I will turn your festivals into -mourning, and all your songs to a dirge. And I will bring up upon all -loins sackcloth and on every head baldness, and I will make it like the -mourning for an only son, and the end of it as a bitter day._ - -But the terrors of earthquake and eclipse are not sufficient for -doom, and famine is drawn upon. - -_Lo, days are coming--'tis the oracle of the Lord Jehovah--that I -will send famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a drouth of -water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. And they shall wander -from sea to sea, and from the dark North to the Sunrise shall they -run to and fro, to seek the word of Jehovah, and they shall not find -it; ... who swear by Samaria's Guilt_--the golden calf in the house -of the kingdom at Bethel[350]--_and say, As liveth thy God, O Dan! -and, As liveth the way to Beersheba! and they shall fall and not rise -any more_. I have omitted ver. 13: _in that day shall the fair maids -faint and the youths for thirst_; and I append my reasons in a note. -Some part of the received text must go, for while vv. 11 and 12 speak -of a spiritual drought, the drought of 13 is physical. And ver. 14 -follows 12 better than it follows 13. The oaths mentioned by Bethel, -Dan, Beersheba, are not specially those of young men and maidens, -but of the whole nation, that run from one end of the land to the -other, Dan to Beersheba, seeking for some word of Jehovah.[351] One -of the oaths, _As liveth the way to Beersheba_,[352] is so curious -that some have doubted if the text be correct. But strange as it may -appear to us to speak of the life of the lifeless, this often happens -among the Semites. To-day Arabs "swear _wa hyat_, 'by the life of,' -even of things inanimate; 'By the life of this fire, or of this -coffee.'"[353] And as Amos here tells us that the Israelite pilgrims -swore by the way to Beersheba, so do the Moslems affirm their oaths -by the sacred way to Mecca. - -Thus Amos returns to the chief target of his shafts--the senseless, -corrupt worship of the national sanctuaries. And this time--perhaps -in remembrance of how they had silenced the word of God when he -brought it home to them at Bethel--he tells Israel that, with all -their running to and fro across the land, to shrine after shrine in -search of the word, they shall suffer from a famine and drouth of -it. Perhaps this is the most effective contrast in which Amos has -yet placed the stupid ritualism of his people. With so many things -to swear by; with so many holy places that once were the homes of -Vision, Abraham's Beersheba, Jacob's Bethel, Joshua's Gilgal--nay, -a whole land over which God's voice had broken in past ages, lavish -as the rain; with, too, all their assiduity of sacrifice and prayer, -they should nevertheless starve and pant for that living word of the -Lord, which they had silenced in His prophet. - -Thus, men may be devoted to religion, may be loyal to their sacred -traditions and institutions, may haunt the holy associations of the -past and be very assiduous with their ritual--and yet, because of -their worldliness, pride and disobedience, never feel that moral -inspiration, that clear call to duty, that comfort in pain, that -hope in adversity, that good conscience at all times, which spring -up in the heart like living water. Where these be not experienced, -orthodoxy, zeal, lavish ritual, are all in vain. - - - 2. NEMESIS. - - AMOS ix. 1-6. - -There follows a Vision in Bethel, the opening of which, _I saw -the Lord_, immediately recalls the great inauguration of Isaiah. -He also _saw the Lord_; but how different the Attitude, how other -the Word! To the statesman-prophet the Lord is _enthroned_, -surrounded by the court of heaven; and though the temple rocks to -the intolerable thunder of their praise, they bring to the contrite -man beneath the consciousness of a life-long mission. But to Amos -the Lord is _standing_ and alone--to this lonely prophet God is -always alone--and His message may be summed up in its initial word, -_Smite_. There--Government: hierarchies of service, embassies, -clemencies, healings, and though at first devastation, thereafter -the indestructible hope of a future. Here--Judgment: that Figure of -Fate which terror's fascinated eye ever sees alone; one final blow -and irreparable ruin. And so, as with Isaiah we saw how constructive -prophecy may be, with Amos we behold only the preparatory havoc, the -levelling and clearing of the ground of the future. - -_I have seen the Lord standing over the Altar, and He said, Smite the -capital_--of the pillar--_that the very thresholds_[354] _quake, and -break them on the head of all of them!_ It is a shock that makes the -temple reel from roof-tree to basement. The vision seems subsequent -to the prophet's visit to Bethel; and it gathers his whole attack -on the national worship into one decisive and irreparable blow. -_The last of them will I slay with the sword: there shall not flee -away of them one fugitive: there shall not escape of them a_ single -_survivor!_ Neither hell nor heaven, mountain-top nor sea-bottom, -shall harbour one of them. _If they break through to Sheol, thence -shall My hand take them; and if they climb to heaven, thence shall -I bring them down. If they hide in Carmel's top, thence will I find -them out and fetch them; and if they conceal themselves from before -Mine eyes in the bottom of the sea, thence shall I charge the Serpent -and he shall bite them; and if they go into captivity before their -foes_--to Israel as terrible a distance from God's face as Sheol -itself!--_thence will I charge the sword and it shall slay them; and -I will set Mine eye upon them for evil and not for good_. - -It is a ruder draft of the Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Psalm; but the -Divine Pursuer is Nemesis, and not Conscience. - -_And the Lord, Jehovah of the Hosts; Who toucheth the earth and it -melteth, and all its inhabitants mourn, and it rises like the Nile, -all of it_ together, _and sinks like the Nile of Egypt; Who buildeth -His stories in the heavens, and His vault on the earth He foundeth; -Who calleth to the waters of the sea and poureth them forth on the -face of the earth--Jehovah_ of Hosts _is His Name_.[355] - - - 3. THE VOICES OF ANOTHER DAWN. - - AMOS ix. 7-15. - -And now we are come to the part where, as it seems, voices of another -day mingle with that of Amos, and silence his judgments in the chorus -of their unbroken hope. At first, however, it is himself without -doubt who speaks. He takes up the now familiar truth, that when it -comes to judgment for sin, Israel is no dearer to Jehovah than any -other people of His equal Providence. - -_Are ye not unto Me, O children of Israel--'tis the oracle of -Jehovah--just like the children of Kushites?_ mere black folk and far -away! _Did I not bring up Israel from Egypt, and the Philistines from -Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?_ Mark again the universal Providence which -Amos proclaims: it is the due concomitant of his universal morality. -Once for all the religion of Israel breaks from the characteristic -Semitic belief that gave a god to every people, and limited both his -power and his interests to that people's territory and fortunes. And -if we remember how everything spiritual in the religion of Israel, -everything in its significance for mankind, was rendered possible only -because at this date it broke from and abjured the particularism in -which it had been born, we shall feel some of the Titanic force of the -prophet, in whom that break was achieved with an absoluteness which -leaves nothing to be desired. But let us also emphasise, that it was by -no mere method of the intellect or observation of history that Amos was -led to assert the unity of the Divine Providence. The inspiration in -this was a moral one: Jehovah was ruler and guide of all the families -of mankind, because He was exalted in righteousness; and the field in -which that righteousness was proved and made manifest was the life and -the fate of Israel. Therefore to this Amos now turns. _Lo, the eyes of -the Lord Jehovah are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from -the face of the ground._ In other words, Jehovah's sovereignty over the -world was not proved by Israel's conquest of the latter, but by His -unflinching application of the principles of righteousness, at whatever -cost, to Israel herself. - -Up to this point, then, the voice of Amos is unmistakable, uttering -the doctrine, so original to him, that in the judgment of God Israel -shall not be specially favoured, and the sentence, we have heard -so often from him, of her removal from her land. Remember, Amos -has not yet said a word in mitigation of the sentence: up to this -point of his book it has been presented as inexorable and final. But -now to a statement of it as absolute as any that has gone before, -there is suddenly added a qualification: _nevertheless I will not -utterly destroy the house of Jacob--'tis the oracle of Jehovah_. -And then there is added a new picture of exile changed from doom to -discipline, a process of sifting by which only the evil in Israel, -_all the sinners of My people_, shall perish, but not a grain of -the good. _For, lo, I am giving command, and I will toss the house -of Israel among all the nations, like_ something _that is tossed in -a sieve, but not a pebble_[356] _shall fall to earth. By the sword -shall die all the sinners of My people, they who say, The calamity -shall not reach nor anticipate us._[357] - -Now as to these qualifications of the hitherto unmitigated judgments -of the book, it is to be noted that there is nothing in their language -to lead us to take them from Amos himself. On the contrary, the last -clause describes what he has always called a characteristic sin of his -day. Our only difficulties are that hitherto Amos has never qualified -his sentences of doom, and that the change now appears so suddenly that -the two halves of the verse in which it does so absolutely contradict -each other. Read them again, ver. 8: _Lo, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah -are on the sinful nation, and I will destroy it from off the face of -the ground--nevertheless destroying I shall not destroy the house of -Jacob: 'tis the oracle of Jehovah._ Can we believe the same prophet to -have uttered at the same time these two statements? And is it possible -to believe that prophet to be the hitherto unwavering, unqualifying -Amos? Noting these things, let us pass to the rest of the chapter. -We break from all shadows; the verses are verses of pure hope. The -judgment on Israel is not averted; but having taken place her ruin is -regarded as not irreparable. - -_In that day_--the day Amos has threatened of overthrow and ruin--_I -will raise again the fallen hut of David and will close up its -breaches, and his ruins I will raise, and I will build it up as in the -days of old_,[358] _that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all -the nations upon whom My Name has been called_--that is, as once their -Possessor--_'tis the oracle of Jehovah, He who is about to do this_. - -The _fallen hut of David_ undoubtedly means the fall of the kingdom -of Judah. It is not language Amos uses, or, as it seems to me, could -have used, of the fall of the Northern Kingdom only.[359] Again, -it is undoubted that Amos contemplated the fall of Judah: this is -implicit in such a phrase as _the whole family that I brought up -from Egypt_.[360] He saw then _the day_ and _the ruins_ of which -ver. 11 speaks. The only question is, can we attribute to him the -prediction of a restoration of these ruins? And this is a question -which must be answered in face of the facts that the rest of his book -is unrelieved by a single gleam of hope, and that his threat of the -nation's destruction is absolute and final. Now it is significant -that in face of those facts Cornill (though he has changed his -opinion) once believed it was "surely possible for Amos to include -restoration in his prospect of ruin," as (he might have added) other -prophets undoubtedly do. I confess I cannot so readily get over the -rest of the book and its gloom; and am the less inclined to be sure -about these verses being Amos' own that it seems to have been not -unusual for later generations, for whom the daystar was beginning to -rise, to add their own inspired hopes to the unrelieved threats of -their predecessors of the midnight. The mention of Edom does not help -us much: in the days of Amos after the partial conquest by Uzziah -the promise of _the rest of Edom_ was singularly appropriate. On the -other hand, what interest had so purely ethical a prophet in the mere -addition of territory? To this point we shall have to return for our -final decision. We have still the closing oracle--a very pleasant -piece of music, as if the birds had come out after the thunderstorm, -and the wet hills were glistening in the sunshine. - -_Lo, days are coming--'tis the oracle of Jehovah--when the ploughman -shall catch up the reaper, and the grape-treader him that streweth the -seed._ The seasons shall jostle each other, harvest following hard -upon seed-time, vintage upon spring. It is that "happy contention -of seasons" which Josephus describes as the perpetual blessing of -Galilee.[361] _And the mountains shall drip with new wine, and all the -hills shall flow down. And I will bring back the captivity of My people -Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and dwell_ in them, _and -plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof, and make gardens and eat -their fruits. And I will plant them on their own ground; and they shall -not be uprooted any more from their own ground which I have given to -them, saith Jehovah thy God._[362] Again we meet the difficulty: does -the voice that speaks here speak with captivity already realised? or is -it the voice of one who projects himself forward to a day, which, by -the oath of the Lord Himself, is certain to come? - - * * * * * - -We have now surveyed the whole of this much-doubted, much-defended -passage. I have stated fully the arguments on both sides. On the one -hand, we have the fact that nothing in the language of the verses, -and nothing in their historical allusions, precludes their being by -Amos; we have also to admit that, having threatened a day of ruin, -it was possible for Amos to realise by his mind's eye its arrival, -and standing at that point to see the sunshine flooding the ruins and -to prophesy a restoration. In all this there is nothing impossible -in itself or inconsistent with the rest of the book. On the other -hand, we have the impressive and incommensurable facts: _first_, that -this change to hope comes suddenly, without preparation and without -statement of reasons, at the very end of a book whose characteristics -are not only a final and absolute sentence of ruin upon the people, -and an outlook of unrelieved darkness, but scornful discouragement of -every popular vision of a prosperous future; and, _second_, that the -prophetic books contain numerous signs that later generations wove -their own brighter hopes into the abrupt and hopeless conclusions of -prophecies of judgment. - -To this balance of evidence is there anything to add? I think there -is; and that it decides the question. All these prospects of the -future restoration of Israel are absolutely without a moral feature. -They speak of return from captivity, of political restoration, of -supremacy over the Gentiles, and of a revived Nature, hanging with -fruit, dripping with must. Such hopes are natural and legitimate to -a people who were long separated from their devastated and neglected -land, and whose punishment and penitence were accomplished. But they -are not natural to a prophet like Amos. Imagine him predicting a future -like this! Imagine him describing the consummation of his people's -history, without mentioning one of those moral triumphs to rally his -people to which his whole passion and energy had been devoted. To me -it is impossible to hear the voice that cried, _Let justice roll on -like waters and righteousness like a perennial stream_, in a peroration -which is content to tell of mountains dripping with must and of a -people satisfied with vineyards and gardens. These are legitimate -hopes; but they are the hopes of a generation of other conditions and -of other deserts than the generation of Amos. - -If then the gloom of this great book is turned into light, such a -change is not due to Amos. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[344] See Chapter VI., Section 3. - -[345] The phrase is uncertain. - -[346] Wellhausen thinks that the prophet could not have put the -parenthesis in the mouth of the traders, and therefore regards it as -an intrusion or gloss. But this is hypercriticism. The last clause, -however, may be a mere clerical repetition of ii. 6. - -[347] Isa. lviii. See the exposition of the passage in the writer's -_Isaiah_ xl.-lxvi. (Expositor's Bible Series), pp. 417 ff.: "Our -prophet, while exalting the practical service of man at the expense -of certain religious forms, equally exalts the observance of the -Sabbath; ... he places the keeping of the Sabbath on a level with the -practice of love." - -[348] _She shall rise_, etc.--The clause is almost the same as in ix. -5_b_, and the text differs from the LXX., which omits _and heave_. Is -it an insertion? - -[349] Literally _in the day of light_. - -[350] That is, Samaria is used in the wider sense of the kingdom, not -the capital, and there is no need for Wellhausen's substitution of -Bethel for it. - -[351] This in answer to Gunning (_De Godspraken van Amos_, 1885), -Wellh. _in loco_, and Koenig (_Einleitung_, p. 304, _d_), who reckon -vv. 11 and 12 to be the insertion: the latter on the additional -ground that the formula of ver. 13, _in that day_, points back to -ver. 9; but not to the _Lo, days are coming_ of ver. 11. But thus -to miss out vv. 11 and 12 leaves us with greater difficulties than -before. For without them how are we to explain the _thirst_ of ver. -13. It is left unintroduced; there is no hint of a drought in 9 -and 10. It seems to me then that, since we must omit some verse, -it ought to be ver. 13; and this the rather that if omitted it is -not missed. It is just the kind of general statement that would be -added by an unthinking scribe; and it does not readily connect with -ver. 14, while ver. 12 does do so. For why should youths and maids -be specially singled out as swearing by Samaria, Dan and Beersheba? -These were the oaths of the whole people, to whom vv. 11 and 12 -refer. I see a very clear case, therefore, for omitting ver. 13. - -[352] LXX. here gives a mere repetition of the preceding oath. - -[353] Doughty: _Arabia Deserta_ I. 269. - -[354] Since it is the capital that has been struck, and the command -is given to break _the thresholds on the head of all of them_, many -translate _lintels_ or _architraves_ instead of _thresholds_ (_e.g._ -Hitzig, and Guthe in Kautzsch's _Bibel_). But the word [Hebrew: -sippim] always means thresholds and the blow here is fundamental. - -[355] LXX. adds _of Hosts_: on the whole passage see next chapter. - -[356] We should have expected _a grain_, but the word [Hebrew: -tzerovr] only means small stone: cf. 2 Sam. xvii. 13. The LXX. has -here [Greek: syntrimma], fracture, ruin. Cf. _Z.A.T.W._, III. 125. - -[357] The text has been disturbed here; the verbs are in forms not -possible to the sense. For [Hebrew: taggish] read either [Hebrew: -tasg] with Hitzig or [Hebrew: tiggash] with Wellhausen. [Hebrew: -takdim], Hiph., is not impossible in an intransitive sense, but -probably Wellhausen is right in reading Pi, [Hebrew: tekaddem]. The -reading [Hebrew: 'dnv] which the Greek suggests and Hoffmann and -Wellhausen adopt is not so appropriate to the preceding verb as -[Hebrew: v'dnv] of the text. - -[358] The text reads _their breaches_, and some accordingly point -[Hebrew: sukkat] _hut_, as if it were the plural _huts_ (Hoffmann, -_Z.A.T.W._, 1883, 125; Schwally, _id._, 1890, 226, n. 1; Guthe in -Kautzsch's _Bibel_). The LXX. has the sing., and it is easy to see -how the plur. fem. suffix may have risen from confusion with the -following conjunction. - -[359] This against Cornill, _Einleitung_, 176. - -[360] iii. 1. - -[361] III. _Wars_, x. 8. With the above verses of the Book of Amos Lev. -xxvi. 5 has been compared: "your threshing shall reach to the vintage -and the vintage to the sowing time." But there is no reason to suppose -that either of two so natural passages depends on the other. - -[362] LXX. _God of Hosts_. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - _COMMON-SENSE AND THE REIGN OF LAW_ - - AMOS iii. 3-8; iv. 6-13; v. 8, 9; vi. 12; viii. 8; ix. 5, 6. - - -Fools, when they face facts, which is seldom, face them one by one, -and, as a consequence, either in ignorant contempt or in panic. With -this inordinate folly Amos charged the religion of his day. The -superstitious people, careful of every point of ritual and very greedy -of omens, would not ponder real facts nor set cause to effect. Amos -recalled them to common life. _Does a bird fall upon a snare, except -there be a loop on her? Does the trap itself rise front the ground, -except it be catching something_--something alive in it that struggles, -and so lifts the trap? _Shall the alarum be blown in a city, and the -people not tremble?_ Daily life is impossible without putting two and -two together. But this is just what Israel will not do with the sacred -events of their time. To religion they will not add common-sense. - -For Amos himself, all things which happen are in sequence and in -sympathy. He has seen this in the simple life of the desert; he is -sure of it throughout the tangle and hubbub of history. One thing -explains another; one makes another inevitable. When he has illustrated -the truth in common life, Amos claims it for especially four of the -great facts of the time. The sins of society, of which society is -careless; the physical calamities, which they survive and forget; the -approach of Assyria, which they ignore; the word of the prophet, which -they silence,--all these belong to each other. Drought, Pestilence, -Earthquake, Invasion conspire--and the Prophet holds their secret. - -Now it is true that for the most part Amos describes this sequence -of events as the personal action of Jehovah. _Shall evil befall, and -Jehovah not have done it?... I have smitten you.... I will raise up -against you a Nation.... Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!_[363] Yet -even where the personal impulse of the Deity is thus emphasised, we -feel equal stress laid upon the order and the inevitable certainty -of the process. Amos nowhere uses Isaiah's great phrase: _a God of -Mishpat_, a _God of Order_ or _Law_. But he means almost the same -thing: God works by methods which irresistibly fulfil themselves. Nay -more. Sometimes this sequence sweeps upon the prophet's mind with -such force as to overwhelm all his sense of the Personal within it. -The Will and the Word of the God who causes the thing are crushed out -by the "Must Be" of the thing itself. Take even the descriptions of -those historical crises, which the prophet most explicitly proclaims -as the visitations of the Almighty. In some of the verses all thought -of God Himself is lost in the roar and foam with which that tide of -necessity bursts up through them. The fountains of the great deep -break loose, and while the universe trembles to the shock, it seems -that even the voice of the Deity is overwhelmed. In one passage, -immediately after describing Israel's ruin as due to Jehovah's word, -Amos asks how could it have happened otherwise:-- - -_Shall horses run up a cliff, or oxen plough the sea? that ye -turn justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into -wormwood._[364] A moral order exists, which it is as impossible to -break without disaster as it would be to break the natural order by -driving horses upon a precipice. There is an inherent necessity in -the sinners' doom. Again, he says of Israel's sin: _Shall not the -Land tremble for this? Yea, it shall rise up together like the Nile, -and heave and sink like the Nile of Egypt._[365] The crimes of Israel -are so intolerable, that in its own might the natural frame of things -revolts against them. In these great crises, therefore, as in the -simple instances adduced from everyday life, Amos had a sense of what -we call law, distinct from, and for moments even overwhelming, that -sense of the personal purpose of God, admission to the secrets of -which had marked his call to be a prophet.[366] - -These instincts we must not exaggerate into a system. There is no -philosophy in Amos, nor need we wish there were. Far more instructive -is what we do find--a virgin sense of the sympathy of all things, the -thrill rather than the theory of a universe. And this faith, which is -not a philosophy, is especially instructive on these two points: that -it springs from the moral sense; and that it embraces, not history -only, but nature. - -It springs from the moral sense. Other races have arrived at a -conception of the universe along other lines: some by the observation -of physical laws valid to the recesses of space; some by logic and the -unity of Reason. But Israel found the universe through the conscience. -It is a historical fact that the Unity of God, the Unity of History -and the Unity of the World, did, in this order, break upon Israel, -through conviction and experience of the universal sovereignty of -righteousness. We see the beginnings of the process in Amos. To him the -sequences which work themselves out through history and across nature -are moral. Righteousness is the hinge on which the world hangs; loosen -it, and history and nature feel the shock. History punishes the sinful -nation. But nature, too, groans beneath the guilt of man; and in the -Drought, the Pestilence and the Earthquake provides his scourges. It is -a belief which has stamped itself upon the language of mankind. What -else is "plague" than "blow" or "scourge"? - -This brings us to the second point--our prophet's treatment of Nature. - -Apart from the disputed passages (which we shall take afterwards -by themselves) we have in the Book of Amos few glimpses of nature, -and these always under a moral light. There is not in any chapter -a landscape visible in its own beauty. Like all desert-dwellers, -who when they would praise the works of God lift their eyes to the -heavens, Amos gives us but the outlines of the earth--a mountain -range,[367] or the crest of a forest,[368] or the bare back of the -land, bent from sea to sea.[369] Nearly all his figures are drawn -from the desert--the torrent, the wild beasts, the wormwood.[370] -If he visits the meadows of the shepherds, it is with the terror of -the people's doom;[371] if the vineyards or orchards, it is with -the mildew and the locust;[372] if the towns, it is with drought, -eclipse and earthquake.[373] To him, unlike his fellows, unlike -especially Hosea, the whole land is one theatre of judgment; but it -is a theatre trembling to its foundations with the drama enacted upon -it. Nay, land and nature are themselves actors in the drama. Physical -forces are inspired with moral purpose, and become the ministers of -righteousness. This is the converse of Elijah's vision. To the older -prophet the message came that God was not in the fire nor in the -earthquake nor in the tempest, but only in the still small voice. But -to Amos the fire, the earthquake and the tempest are all in alliance -with the Voice, and execute the doom which it utters. The difference -will be appreciated by us, if we remember the respective problems set -to prophecy in those two periods. To Elijah, prophet of the elements, -wild worker by fire and water, by life and death, the spiritual had -to be asserted and enforced by itself. Ecstatic as he was, Elijah -had to learn that the Word is more Divine than all physical violence -and terror. But Amos understood that for his age the question was -very different. Not only was the God of Israel dissociated from the -powers of nature, which were assigned by the popular mind to the -various Ba'alim of the land, so that there was a divorce between His -government of the people and the influences that fed the people's -life; but morality itself was conceived as provincial. It was -narrowed to the national interests; it was summed up in mere rules -of police, and these were looked upon as not so important as the -observances of the ritual. Therefore Amos was driven to show that -nature and morality are one. Morality is not a set of conventions. -"Morality is the order of things." Righteousness is on the scale of -the universe. All things tremble to the shock of sin; all things work -together for good to them that fear God. - -With this sense of law, of moral necessity, in Amos we must not fail -to connect that absence of all appeal to miracle, which is also -conspicuous in his book. - -We come now to the three disputed passages:-- - -iv. 13:--_For, lo! He Who formed the hills,_[374] _and createth -the wind,_[375] _and declareth to man what His_[376] _mind is; Who -maketh the dawn into darkness, and marcheth on the heights of the -land--Jehovah, God of Hosts, is His Name._ - -v. 8, 9:--_Maker of the Pleiades and Orion,_[377] _turning to morning -the murk, and day into night He darkeneth; Who calleth for the waters -of the sea, and poureth them forth on the face of the earth--Jehovah -His Name; Who flasheth ruin on the strong, and destruction cometh -down on the fortress._[378] - -ix. 5, 6:--_And the Lord Jehovah of the Hosts, Who toucheth the -earth and it rocketh, and all mourn that dwell on it, and it riseth -like the Nile together, and sinketh like the Nile of Egypt; Who hath -builded in the heavens His ascents, and founded His vault upon the -earth; Who calleth to the waters of the sea, and poureth them on the -face of the earth--Jehovah_[379] _His Name._ - -These sublime passages it is natural to take as the triple climax -of the doctrine we have traced through the Book of Amos. Are they -not the natural leap of the soul to the stars? The same shepherd's -eye which has marked sequence and effect unfailing on the desert -soil, does it not now sweep the clear heavens above the desert, and -find there also all things ordered and arrayed? The same mind which -traced the Divine processes down history, which foresaw the hosts of -Assyria marshalled for Israel's punishment, which felt the overthrow -of justice shock the nation to their ruin, and read the disasters of -the husbandman's year as the vindication of a law higher than the -physical--does it not now naturally rise beyond such instances of the -Divine order, round which the dust of history rolls, to the lofty, -undimmed outlines of the Universe as a whole, and, in consummation of -its message, declare that "all is Law," and Law intelligible to man? - -But in the way of so attractive a conclusion the literary criticism -of the book has interposed. It is maintained[380] that, while none -of these sublime verses are indispensable to the argument of Amos, -some of them actually interrupt it, so that when they are removed it -becomes consistent; that such ejaculations in praise of Jehovah's -creative power are not elsewhere met with in Hebrew prophecy before -the time of the Exile; that they sound very like echoes of the Book -of Job; and that in the Septuagint version of Hosea we actually find -a similar doxology, wedged into the middle of an authentic verse of -the prophet.[381] To these arguments against the genuineness of the -three famous passages, other critics, not less able and not less -free, like Robertson Smith and Kuenen,[382] have replied that such -ejaculations at critical points of the prophet's discourse "are -not surprising under the general conditions of prophetic oratory"; -and that, while one of the doxologies does appear to break the -argument[383] of the context, they are all of them thoroughly in the -spirit and the style of Amos. To this point the discussion has been -carried; it seems to need a closer examination. .. We may at once -dismiss the argument which has been drawn from that obvious intrusion -into the Greek of Hosea xiii. 4. Not only is this verse not so suited -to the doctrine of Hosea as the doxologies are to the doctrine of -Amos; but while they are definite and sublime, it is formal and -flat--"Who made firm the heavens and founded the earth, Whose hands -founded all the host of heaven, and He did not display them that thou -shouldest walk after them." The passages in Amos are vision; this is -a piece of catechism crumbling into homily. - -Again--an argument in favour of the authenticity of these passages -may be drawn from the character of their subjects. We have seen the -part which the desert played in shaping the temper and the style of -Amos. But the works of the Creator, to which these passages lift -their praise, are just those most fondly dwelt upon by all the poetry -of the desert. The Arabian nomad, when he magnifies the power of -God, finds his subjects not on the bare earth about him, but in the -brilliant heavens and the heavenly processes. - -Again, the critic who affirms that the passages in Amos "in every -case sensibly disturb the connection,"[384] exaggerates. In the -case of the first of them, chap. iv. 13, the disturbance is not at -all "sensible"; though it must be admitted that the oracle closes -impressively enough without it. The last of them, chap. ix. 5, -6--which repeats a clause already found in the book[385]--is as much -in sympathy with its context as most of the oracles in the somewhat -scattered discourse of that last section of the book. The real -difficulty is the second doxology, chap. v. 8, 9, which does break -the connection, and in a sudden and violent way. Remove it, and the -argument is consistent. We cannot read chap. v. without feeling that, -whether Amos wrote these verses or not, they did not originally stand -where they stand at present. - -Now, taken with this dispensableness of two of the passages and this -obvious intrusion of one of them, the following additional fact -becomes ominous. _Jehovah is His Name_ (which occurs in two of the -passages),[386] or _Jehovah of Hosts is His Name_ (which occurs at -least in one),[387] is a construction which does not happen elsewhere -in the book, except in a verse where it is awkward and where we -have already seen reason to doubt its genuineness.[388] But still -more, the phrase does not occur in any other prophet, till we come -down to the oracles which compose Isaiah xl.-lxvi. Here it happens -thrice--twice in passages dating from the Exile,[389] and once in a -passage suspected by some to be of still later date.[390] In the -Book of Jeremiah the phrase is found eight times; but either in -passages already on other grounds judged by many critics to be later -than Jeremiah,[391] or where by itself it is probably an intrusion -into the text.[392] Now is it a mere coincidence that a phrase, -which, outside the Book of Amos, occurs only in writing of the time -of the Exile and in passages considered for other reasons to be -post-exilic insertions--is it a mere coincidence that within the Book -of Amos it should again be found only in suspected verses? - -There appears to be in this more than a coincidence; and the present -writer cannot but feel a very strong case against the traditional -belief that these doxologies are original and integral portions -of the Book of Amos. At the same time a case which has failed to -convince critics like Robertson Smith and Kuenen cannot be considered -conclusive, and we are so ignorant of many of the conditions of -prophetic oratory at this period that dogmatism is impossible. For -instance, the use by Amos of the Divine titles is a matter over -which uncertainty still lingers; and any further argument on the -subject must include a fuller discussion than space here allows of -the remarkable distribution of those titles throughout the various -sections of the book.[393] - -But if it be not given to us to prove this kind of authenticity--a -question whose data are so obscure, yet whose answer fortunately is of -so little significance--let us gladly welcome that greater Authenticity -whose undeniable proofs these verses so splendidly exhibit. No one -questions their right to the place which some great spirit gave them -in this book--their suitableness to its grand and ordered theme, their -pure vision and their eternal truth. That common-sense, and that -conscience, which, moving among the events of earth and all the tangled -processes of history, find everywhere reason and righteousness at work, -in these verses claim the Universe for the same powers, and see in -stars and clouds and the procession of day and night the One Eternal -God Who _declareth to man what His mind is_. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[363] iii. 6_b_; iv. 9; vi. 14; iv. 12_b_. - -[364] vi. 12. - -[365] viii. 8. - -[366] iii. 7: _Jehovah God doeth nothing, but He hath revealed His -secret to His servants the prophets._ - -[367] i. 2; iii. 9; ix. 3. - -[368] ii. 9. - -[369] viii. 12. - -[370] v. 24; 19, 20, etc.; 7; vi. 12. - -[371] i. 2. - -[372] iv. 9 ff. - -[373] iv. 6-11; vi. 11; viii. 8 ff. - -[374] LXX. _the thunder_. - -[375] Or _spirit_. - -[376] _I.e. God's_; a more natural rendering than to take _his_ (as -Hitzig does) as meaning _man's_. - -[377] See above, pp. 166 f. _n._ - -[378] Text of last clause uncertain; see above, p. 167. - -[379] LXX. _Jehovah of Hosts_. - -[380] First in 1875 by Duhm, _Theol. der Proph._, p. 119; and after -him by Oort, _Theol. Tjidschrift_, 1880, pp. 116 f.; Wellhausen, _in -locis_; Stade, _Gesch._, I. 571; Cornill, _Einleitung_, 176. - -[381] Hosea xiii. 4 - -[382] Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 399; Kuenen, _Hist. Krit. -Einl._ (Germ. Ed.), II. 347. - -[383] v. 8, 9. - -[384] Cornill, _Einl._, 176. - -[385] Cf. viii. 8. - -[386] v. 8; ix. 6, though here LXX. read _Jehovah of Hosts is His Name_. - -[387] iv. 13. See previous note. - -[388] v. 27. See above, pp. 172 f. _n._: cf. Hosea xii. 6. - -[389] xlvii. 4 and liv. 5. - -[390] xlviii. 2: cf. Duhm, _in loco_, and Cheyne, _Introduction to -the Book of Isaiah_, 301. - -[391] x. 16; xxxi. 35; xxxii. 18; l. 34 (perhaps a quotation from -Isa. xlvii. 4); li. 19, 57. - -[392] xlvi. 18, where the words [Hebrew: shmv tzvvt] fail in LXX.; -xlviii. 15 _b_, where the clause in which it occurs is wanting in the -LXX. - -[393] But I have room at least for a bare statement of these -remarkable facts:-- - -The titles for the God of Israel used in the Book of Amos are these: -(1) _Thy God, O Israel_, [Hebrew: shrl lhch]; (2) _Jehovah_, [Hebrew: -hvh]; (3) _Lord Jehovah_, [Hebrew: hvh dn]; (4) _Lord Jehovah of the -Hosts_, [Hebrew: hvh dn tzvvt]; (5) _Jehovah God of Hosts_ or _of the -Hosts_, [Hebrew: tzvvt lh hvh] or [Hebrew: htzvvt]. - -Now in the First Section, chaps. i., ii., it is interesting that -we find none of the variations which are compounded with _Hosts_, -[Hebrew: tzvvt]. By itself [Hebrew: hvh] (especially in the phrase -_Thus saith Jehovah_, [Hebrew: mr chh hvh]) is general; and once only -(i. 8) is _Lord Jehovah_ employed. The phrase, _oracle of Jehovah_, -[Hebrew: hvh ne'um], is also rare; it occurs only twice (ii. 11, 16), -and then only in the passage dealing with Israel, and not at all in -the oracles against foreign nations. - -In Sections II. and III. the simple [Hebrew: hvh] is again most -frequently used. But we find also _Lord Jehovah_, [Hebrew: hvh dn] -(iii. 7, 8; iv. 2, 5; v. 3, with [Hebrew: hvh] alone in the parallel -ver. 4; vi. 8; vii. 1, 2, 4 _bis_, 5, 6; viii. 1, 3, 9, 11), used -either indifferently with [Hebrew: hvh]; or in verses where it seems -more natural to emphasise the sovereignty of Jehovah than His simple -Name (as, _e.g._, where _He swears_, iv. 2, vi. 8, yet when the -same phrase occurs in viii. 7 [Hebrew: hvh] alone is used); or in -the solemn Visions of the Third Section (but not in the Narrative); -and sometimes we find in the Visions _Lord_, [Hebrew: dn], alone -without [Hebrew: hvh] (vii. 7, 8; ix. 1). The titles containing -[Hebrew: tzvvt] or [Hebrew: tzvvt lh] occur _nine_ times. Of these -_five_ are in passages which we have seen other reasons to suppose -are insertions: two of the Doxologies--iv. 13, [Hebrew: tzvvt lh -hvh] and ix. 5, [Hebrew: htzvvt hvh dn] (in addition the LXX. read -in ix. 6 [Hebrew: tzvvt hvh]), and in v. 14, 15 (see p. 168) and 27 -(see p. 172), in all three [Hebrew: tzvvt lh hvh]. The _four_ genuine -passages are iii. 13, where we find [Hebrew: htzvvt lh hvh] preceded -by [Hebrew: dn]; v. 16, where we have [Hebrew: tzvvt lh hvh] followed -by [Hebrew: dn]; vi. 8, [Hebrew: lh hvh tzvvt], and vi. 14, [Hebrew: -tzvvt lh hvh]. Throughout the last two sections of the book [Hebrew: -ne'um] is used with all these forms of the Divine title. - - - - - _HOSEA_ - - - - - "For leal love have I desired and not sacrifice - And the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings." - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - _THE BOOK OF HOSEA_ - - -The Book of Hosea consists of two unequal sections, chaps. i.-iii. -and chaps. iv.-xiv., which differ in the dates of their standpoints, -to a large extent also in the details of their common subjects, -but still more largely in their form and style. The First Section -is in the main narrative; though the style rises to the pitch of -passionate pleading and promise, it is fluent and equable. If one -verse be omitted and three others transposed,[394] the argument -is continuous. In the Second Section, on the contrary, we have a -stream of addresses and reflections, appeals, upbraidings, sarcasms, -recollections of earlier history, denunciations and promises, which, -with little logical connection and almost no pauses or periods, start -impulsively from each other, and for a large part are expressed in -elliptic and ejaculatory phrases. In the present restlessness of -Biblical Criticism it would have been surprising if this difference -of style had not prompted some minds to a difference of authorship. -Graetz[395] has distinguished two Hoseas, separated by a period of -fifty years. But if, as we shall see, the First Section reflects -the end of the reign of Jeroboam II., who died about 743, then the -next few years, with their revolutionary changes in Israel, are -sufficient to account for the altered outlook of the Second Section; -while the altered style is fully explained by difference of occasion -and motive. In both sections not only are the religious principles -identical, and many of the characteristic expressions,[396] but there -breathes throughout the same urgent and jealous temper, which renders -Hosea's personality so distinctive among the prophets. Within this -unity, of course, we must not be surprised to find, as in the Book of -Amos, verses which cannot well be authentic. - - - FIRST SECTION: HOSEA'S PROPHETIC LIFE. - -With the removal of some of the verses the argument becomes clear and -consecutive. After the story of the wife and children (i. 2-9), who -are symbols of the land and people of Israel in their apostasy from -God (2, 4, 6, 9), the Divine voice calls on the living generation to -plead with their mother lest destruction come (ii. 2-5, Eng.; ii. 4-7, -Heb.[397]), but then passes definite sentence of desolation on the land -and of exile on the people (6-13, Eng.; 8-15, Heb.), which however -is not final doom, but discipline,[398] with the ultimate promise of -the return of the nation's youth, their renewed betrothal to Jehovah -and the restoration of nature (14-23). Then follows the story of the -prophet's restoration of his wife, also with discipline (chap. iii.). - -Notice that, although the story of the wife's fall has preceded the -declaration of Israel's apostasy, it is Israel's restoration which -precedes the wife's. The ethical significance of this order we shall -illustrate in the next chapter. - -In this section the disturbing verses are i. 7 and the group of -three--i. 10, 11, ii. 1 (Eng.; but ii. 1-3 Heb.). Chap. i. 7 -introduces Judah as excepted from the curse passed upon Israel; it is -so obviously intrusive in a prophecy dealing only with Israel, and -it so clearly reflects the deliverance of Judah from Sennacherib in -701, that we cannot hold it for anything but an insertion of a date -subsequent to that deliverance, and introduced by a pious Jew to -signalise Judah's fate in contrast with Israel's.[399] - -The other three verses (i. 10, 11, ii. 1, Eng.; ii. 1-3, Heb.) -introduce a promise of restoration before the sentence of judgment is -detailed, or any ethical conditions of restoration are stated. That is, -they break and tangle an argument otherwise consistent and progressive -from beginning to end of the Section. Every careful reader must feel -them out of place where they lie. Their awkwardness has been so much -appreciated that, while in the Hebrew text they have been separated -from chap. i., in the Greek they have been separated from chap. ii. -That is to say, some have felt they have no connection with what -precedes them, others none with what follows them; while our English -version, by distributing them between the two chapters, only makes -more sensible their superfluity. If they really belong to the prophecy, -their proper place is after the last verse of chap. ii.[400] This is -actually the order in which part of it and part of them are quoted -by St. Paul.[401] At the same time, when so arranged, they repeat -somewhat awkwardly the language of ii. 23, and scarcely form a climax -to the chapter. There is nothing in their language to lead us to doubt -that they are Hosea's own; and ver. 11 shows that they must have been -written at least before the captivity of Northern Israel.[402] - -The only other suspected clause in this section is that in iii. 5, -_and David their king_;[403] but if it be struck out the verse is -rendered awkward, if not impossible, by the immediate repetition of -the Divine name, which would not have been required in the absence of -the suspected clause.[404] - -The text of the rest of the section is remarkably free from -obscurities. The Greek version offers few variants, and most of these -are due to mistranslation.[405] In iii. 1 for _loved of a husband_ it -reads _loving evil_. - -Evidently this section was written before the death of Jeroboam II. -The house of Jehu still reigns; and as Hosea predicts its fall by war -on the classic battleground of Jezreel, the prophecy must have been -written before the actual fall, which took the form of an internal -revolt against Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam. With this agrees the -tone of the section. There are the same evils in Israel which Amos -exposed in the prosperous years of the same reign; but Hosea appears to -realise the threatened exile from a nearer standpoint. It is probable -also that part of the reason of his ability to see his way through the -captivity to the people's restoration is due to a longer familiarity -with the approach of captivity than Amos experienced before he wrote. -But, of course, for Hosea's promise of restoration there were, as we -shall see, other and greater reasons of a religious kind.[406] - - - SECOND SECTION: CHAPS. iv.-xiv. - -When we pass into these chapters we feel that the times are changed. -The dynasty of Jehu has passed: kings are falling rapidly: Israel -devours its rulers:[407] there is no loyalty to the king; he is -suddenly cut off;[408] all the princes are revolters.[409] Round so -despised and so unstable a throne the nation tosses in disorder. -Conspiracies are rife. It is not only, as in Amos, the the sins of -the luxurious, of them that are at ease in Zion, which are exposed; -but also literal bloodshed: highway robbery with murder, abetted by -the priests;[410] the thief breaketh in and the robber-troop maketh a -raid.[411] Amos looked out on foreign nations across a quiet Israel; -his views of the world are wide and clear; but in the Book of Hosea -the dust is up, and into what is happening beyond the frontier we -get only glimpses. There is enough, however, to make visible another -great change since the days of Jeroboam. Israel's self-reliance is -gone. She is as fluttered as a startled bird: _They call unto Egypt, -they go unto Assyria._[412] Their wealth is carried as a gift to King -Jareb,[413] and they evidently engage in intrigues with Egypt. But -everything is hopeless: kings cannot save, for Ephraim is seized by -the pangs of a fatal crisis.[414] - -This broken description reflects--and all the more faithfully because -of its brokenness--the ten years which followed on the death of -Jeroboam II. about 743.[415] His son Zechariah, who succeeded him, -was in six months assassinated by Shallum ben Jabesh, who within a -month more was himself cut down by Menahem ben Gadi.[416] Menahem -held the throne for six or seven years, but only by sending to -the King of Assyria an enormous tribute which he exacted from the -wealthy magnates of Israel.[417] Discontent must have followed these -measures, such discontent with their rulers as Hosea describes. -Pekahiah ben Menahem kept the throne for little over a year after his -father's death, and was assassinated by his captain,[418] Pekah ben -Remaliah, with fifty Gileadites, and Pekah took the throne about 736. -This second and bloody usurpation may be one of those on which Hosea -dwells; but if so it is the last historical allusion in his book. -There is no reference to the war of Pekah and Rezin against Ahaz -of Judah which Isaiah describes,[419] and to which Hosea must have -alluded had he been still prophesying.[420] There is no allusion to -its consequence in Tiglath-Pileser's conquest of Gilead and Galilee -in 734-733. On the contrary, these provinces are still regarded as -part of the body politic of Israel.[421] Nor is there any sign that -Israel have broken with Assyria; to the last the book represents them -as fawning on the Northern Power.[422] - -In all probability, then, the Book of Hosea was closed before 734 -B.C. The Second Section dates from the years behind that and back to -the death of Jeroboam II. about 743, while the First Section, as we -saw, reflects the period immediately before the latter. - -We come now to the general style of chaps. iv.-xiv. The period, -as we have seen, was one of the most broken of all the history -of Israel; the political outlook, the temper of the people, were -constantly changing. Hosea, who watched these kaleidoscopes, had -himself an extraordinarily mobile and vibrant mind. There could be -no greater contrast to that fixture of conscience which renders the -Book of Amos so simple in argument, so firm in style.[423] It was a -leaden plummet which Amos saw Jehovah setting to the structure of -Israel's life.[424] But Hosea felt his own heart hanging at the end -of the line; and this was a heart that could never be still. Amos is -the prophet of law; he sees the Divine processes work themselves -out, irrespective of the moods and intrigues of the people, with -which, after all, he was little familiar. So each of his paragraphs -moves steadily forward to a climax, and every climax is Doom--the -captivity of the people to Assyria. You can divide his book by these -things; it has its periods, strophes and refrains. It marches like -the hosts of the Lord of hosts. But Hosea had no such unhampered -vision of great laws. He was too familiar with the rapid changes of -his fickle people; and his affection for them was too anxious. His -style has all the restlessness and irritableness of hunger about -it--the hunger of love. Hosea's eyes are never at rest. He seeks, he -welcomes, for moments of extraordinary fondness he dwells upon every -sign of his people's repentance. But a Divine jealousy succeeds, and -he questions the motives of the change. You feel that his love has -been overtaken and surprised by his knowledge; and in fact his whole -style might be described as a race between the two--a race varying -and uncertain up to almost the end. The transitions are very swift. -You come upon a passage of exquisite tenderness: the prophet puts -the people's penitence in his own words with a sympathy and poetry -that are sublime and seem final. But suddenly he remembers how false -they are, and there is another light in his eyes. The lustre of their -tears dies from his verses, like the dews of a midsummer morning in -Ephraim; and all is dry and hard again beneath the brazen sun of -his amazement. _What shall I do unto thee, Ephraim? What shall I do -unto thee, Judah?_ Indeed, this figure of his own is insufficient -to express the suddenness with which Hosea lights up some intrigue -of the statesmen of the day, or some evil habit of the priests, or -some hidden orgy of the common people. Rather than the sun it is the -lightning--the lightning in pursuit of a serpent. - -The elusiveness of the style is the greater that many passages do not -seem to have been prepared for public delivery. They are more the -play of the prophet's mind than his set speech. They are not formally -addressed to an audience, and there is no trace in them of oratorical -art. - -Hence the language of this Second Section of the Book of Hosea is -impulsive and abrupt beyond all comparison. There is little rhythm -in it, and almost no argument. Few metaphors are elaborated. Even -the brief parallelism of Hebrew poetry seems too long for the quick -spasms of the writer's heart. "Osee," said Jerome,[425] "commaticus -est, et quasi per sententias loquitur." He speaks in little clauses, -often broken off; he is impatient even of copulas. And withal he uses -a vocabulary full of strange words, which the paucity of parallelism -makes much the more difficult. - -To this original brokenness and obscurity of the language are due, -_first_, the great corruption of the text; _second_, the difficulty -of dividing it; _third_, the uncertainty of deciding its genuineness -or authenticity. - -1. The TEXT of Hosea is one of the most dilapidated in the Old -Testament, and in parts beyond possibility of repair. It is probable -that glosses were found necessary at an earlier period and to a larger -extent than in most other books: there are evident traces of some; yet -it is not always possible to disentangle them.[426] The value of the -Greek version is curiously mixed. The authors had before them much the -same difficulties as we have, and they made many more for themselves. -Some of their mistranslations are outrageous: they occur not only in -obscure passages, where they may be pardoned;[427] but even where -there are parallel terms with which the translators show themselves -familiar.[428] Sometimes they have translated word by word, without -any attempt to give the general sense; and as a whole their version -is devoid both of beauty and compactness. Yet not infrequently they -supply us with a better reading than the Massoretic text. Occasionally -they divide words properly which the latter misdivides.[429] They often -give more correctly the easily confused pronominal suffixes;[430] -and the copula.[431] And they help us to the true readings of many -other words.[432] Here and there an additional clause in the Greek -is plethoric, perhaps copied by mistake from a similar verse in the -context.[433] All of these will be noticed separately as we reach them. -But, even after these and other aids, we shall find that the text not -infrequently remains impracticable. - -2. As great as the difficulty of reaching a true text in this Second -Section of the book is the difficulty of DIVIDING it. Here and there, -it is true, the Greek helps us to improve upon the division into -chapters and verses of the Hebrew text, which is that of our own -English version. Chap. vi. 1-4 ought to follow immediately on to the -end of chap. v., with the connecting word _saying_. The last few -words of chap. vi. go with the first two of chap. vii., but perhaps -both are gloss. The openings of chaps. xi. and xii. are better -arranged in the Hebrew than in the Greek. As regards verses we shall -have to make several rearrangements.[434] But beyond this more or -less conventional division into chapters and verses our confidence -ceases. It is impossible to separate the section, long as it is, into -subsections, or into oracles, strophes or periods. The reason of this -we have already seen, in the turbulence of the period reflected, in -the divided interests and abrupt and emotional style of the author, -and in the probability that part at least of the book was not -prepared for public speaking. The periods and climaxes, the refrains, -the catchwords by which we are helped to divide even the confused -Second Section of the Book of Amos, are not found in Hosea. Only -twice does the exordium of a spoken address occur: at the beginning -of the section (chap. iv. 1), and at what is now the opening of the -next chapter (v. 1). The phrase _'tis the oracle of Jehovah_, which -occurs so periodically in Amos, and thrice in the second chapter -of Hosea, is found only once in chaps. iv.-xiv. Again, the obvious -climaxes or perorations, of which we found so many in Amos, are very -few,[435] and even when they occur the next verses start impulsively -from them, without a pause. - -In spite of these difficulties, since the section is so long, attempts -at division have been made. Ewald distinguished three parts in three -different tempers: _First_, iv.-vi. 11 _a_, God's Plaint against His -people; _Second_, vi. 11 _b_-ix. 9, Their Punishment; _Third_, ix. -10-xiv. 10, Retrospect of the earlier history--warning and consolation. -Driver also divides into three subsections, but differently: _First_, -iv.-viii., in which Israel's Guilt predominates; _Second_, ix.-xi. -11, in which the prevailing thought is their Punishment; _Third_, xi. -12-xiv. 10, in which both lines of thought are continued, but followed -by a glance at the brighter future.[436] What is common to both these -arrangements is the recognition of a certain progress from feelings -about Israel's guilt which prevail in the earlier chapters, to a clear -vision of the political destruction awaiting them; and finally more -hope of repentance in the people, with a vision of the blessed future -that must follow upon it. It is, however, more accurate to say that the -emphasis of Hosea's prophesying, instead of changing from the Guilt to -the Punishment of Israel, changes about the middle of chap. vii. from -their Moral Decay to their Political Decay, and that the description of -the latter is modified or interrupted by Two Visions of better things: -one of Jehovah's early guidance of the people, with a great outbreak -of His Love upon them, in chap. xi.; and one of their future Return to -Jehovah and restoration in chap. xiv. It is on these features that the -division of the following Exposition is arranged. - -3. It will be obvious that with a text so corrupt, with a style so -broken and incapable of logical division, questions of AUTHENTICITY -are raised to a pitch of the greatest difficulty. Allusion has been -made to the number of glosses which must have been found necessary -from even an early period, and of some of which we can discern the -proofs.[437] We will deal with these as they occur. But we may here -discuss, as a whole, another class of suspected passages--suspected -for the same reason that we saw a number in Amos to be, because of -their reference to Judah. In the Book of Hosea (chaps. iv.-xiv.) -they are twelve in number. Only one of them is favourable (iv. 15): -_Though Israel play the harlot, let not Judah sin._ Kuenen[438] -argues that this is genuine, on the ground that the peculiar verb -_to sin_ or _take guilt to oneself_ is used several other times in -the book,[439] and that the wish expressed is in consonance with -what he understands to be Hosea's favourable feeling towards Judah. -Yet Hosea nowhere else makes any distinction between Ephraim and -Judah in the matter of sin, but condemns both equally; and as iv. -15 f. are to be suspected on other grounds as well, I cannot hold -this reference to Judah to be beyond doubt. Nor is the reference in -viii. 14 genuine: _And Israel forgat her Maker and built temples, and -Judah multiplied fenced cities, but I will send fire on his cities -and it shall devour her palaces_. Kuenen[440] refuses to reject the -reference to Judah, on the ground that without it the rhythm of the -verse is spoiled; but the fact is the whole verse must go. Chap. v. -13 forms a climax, which v. 14 only weakens; the style is not like -Hosea's own, and indeed is but an echo of verses of Amos.[441] Nor -can we be quite sure about v. 5: _Israel and Ephraim shall stumble by -their iniquities, and_ (LXX.) _stumble also shall Judah with them_; -or vi. 10, 11: _In Bethel I have seen horrors: there playest thou the -harlot, Ephraim; there Israel defiles himself; also Judah_ ... (the -rest of the text is impracticable). In both these passages Judah is -the awkward third of a parallelism, and is introduced by an _also_, -as if an afterthought. Yet the afterthought may be the prophet's own; -for in other passages, to which no doubt attaches, he fully includes -Judah in the sinfulness of Israel. Cornill rejects x. 11, _Judah must -plough_, but I cannot see on what grounds; as Kuenen says, it has no -appearance of being an intrusion.[442] In xii. 3 Wellhausen reads -_Israel_ for _Judah_, but the latter is justified if not rendered -necessary by the reference to Judah in ver. 1, which Wellhausen -admits. Against the other references--v. 10, _The princes of Judah -are as removers of boundaries_; v. 12, _I shall be as the moth to -Ephraim, and a worm to the house of Judah_; v. 13, _And Ephraim saw -his disease, and Judah his sore_; v. 14, _For I am as a roaring lion -to Ephraim, and as a young lion to the house of Judah_; vi. 4, _What -shall I do to thee, Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, Judah?_--there -are no apparent objections; and they are generally admitted by -critics. As Kuenen says, it would have been surprising if Hosea had -made no reference to the sister kingdom. His judgment of her is amply -justified by that of her own citizens, Isaiah and Micah. - -Other short passages of doubtful authenticity will be treated as we -come to them; but again it may be emphasised that, in a book of such -a style as this, certainty on the subject is impossible. - -Finally, there may be given here the only notable addition which the -Septuagint makes to the Book of Hosea. It occurs in xiii. 4, after -_I am Jehovah thy God_: "That made fast the heavens and founded the -earth, whose hands founded all the host of the heaven, and I did not -show them to thee that thou shouldest follow after them, and I led -thee up"--_from the land of Egypt_. - -At first this recalls those apostrophes to Jehovah's power which -break forth in the Book of Amos; and the resemblance has been taken -to prove that they also are late intrusions. But this both obtrudes -itself as they do not, and is manifestly of much lower poetical -value. See page 203. - - * * * * * - -We have now our material clearly before us, and may proceed to the more -welcome task of tracing our prophet's life, and expounding his teaching. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[394] See below, pp. 213 f. - -[395] _Geschichte_, pp. 93 ff., 214 ff., 439 f. - -[396] A list of the more obvious is given by Kuenen, p. 324. - -[397] The first chapter in the Hebrew closes with ver. 9. - -[398] Cf. this with Amos; above, pp. 192 ff. - -[399] Koenig's arguments (_Einleitung_, 309) in favour of the -possibility of the genuineness of the verse do not seem to me to be -conclusive. He thinks the verse admissible because Judah had sinned -less than Israel; the threat in vv. 4-6 is limited to Israel; the -phrase _Jehovah their God_ is so peculiar that it is difficult to -assign it to a mere expander of the text; and if it was a later hand -that put in the verse, why did he not alter the judgments against -Judaea, which occur further on in the book? - -[400] So Cheyne and others, Kuenen adhering. Koenig agrees that they -have been removed from their proper place and the text corrupted. - -[401] Rom. ix. 25, 26, which first give the end of Hosea ii. 23 (Heb. -25), and then the end of i. 10 (Heb. ii. 2). See below, p. 249, _n._ 2. - -[402] 721 B.C. - -[403] Stade, _Gesch._, I. 577; Cornill, _Einleitung_, who also would -exclude _no king and no prince_ in iii. 4. - -[404] This objection, however, does not hold against the removal of -merely _and David_, leaving _their king_. - -[405] ii. 7, 11, 14, 17 (Heb.). In i. 4 B-text reads [Greek: Iouda] -for [Hebrew: hv] while Q^{mq} have [Greek: Ieou]. - -[406] In determining the date of the Book of Hosea the title in chap. -i. is of no use to us: _The Word of Jehovah which was to Hosea ben -Be'eri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, -and in the days of Jeroboam ben Joash, king of Israel._ This title -is trebly suspicious. First: the given reigns of Judah and Israel -do not correspond; Jeroboam was dead before Uzziah. Second: there -is no proof either in the First or Second Section of the book that -Hosea prophesied after the reign of Jotham. Third: it is curious that -in the case of a prophet of Northern Israel kings of Judah should -be stated first, and four of them be given while only one king of -his own country is placed beside them. On these grounds critics are -probably correct who take the title as it stands to be the work of -some later Judaean scribe who sought to make it correspond to the -titles of the Books of Isaiah and Micah. He may have been the same -who added chap. i. 7. The original form of the title probably was -_The Word of God which was to Hosea son of Be'eri in the days of -Jeroboam ben Joash, king of Israel_, and designed only for the First -Section of the book, chaps, i.-iii. - -[407] vii. 7. There are also other passages which, while they may -be referred, as they stand, to the whole succession of illegitimate -dynasties in Northern Israel from the beginning to the end of that -kingdom, more probably reflect the same ten years of special anarchy -and disorder after the death of Jeroboam II. See vii. 3 ff.; viii. 4, -where the illegitimate kingmaking is coupled with the idolatry of the -Northern Kingdom; xiii. 10, 11. - -[408] x. 3, 7, 8, 15. - -[409] ix. 15. - -[410] vi. 8, 9. - -[411] vii. 1. - -[412] vii. 11. - -[413] x. 6. - -[414] xiii. 12 f. - -[415] The chronology of these years is exceedingly uncertain. -Jeroboam was dead about 743; in 738 Menahem gave tribute to Assyria; -in 734 Tiglath-Pileser had conquered Aram, Gilead and Galilee in -response to King Ahaz, who had a year or two before been attacked by -Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel. - -[416] 2 Kings xv. 8-16. It may be to this appearance of three kings -within one month that there was originally an allusion in the now -obscure verse of Hosea, v. 7. - -[417] 2 Kings xv. 17-22. - -[418] Or prince, [Hebrew: sr]: cf. Hosea's denunciation of the -[Hebrew: srm] as rebels. - -[419] Isa. vii.; 2 Kings xv. 37, 38. - -[420] Some have found a later allusion in chap. x. 14: _like unto the -destruction_ of (?) _Shalman_ (of ?) _Beth' Arbe'l_. Pusey, p. 5 _b_, -and others take this to allude to a destruction of the Galilean Arbela, -the modern Irbid, by Salmanassar IV., who ascended the Assyrian throne -in 727 and besieged Samaria in 724 ff. But since the construction of -the phrase leaves it doubtful whether the name Shalman is that or the -agent or object of the destruction, and whether, if the agent, he be -one of the Assyrian Salmanassars or a Moabite King Salman _c._ 730 -B.C., it is impossible to make use of the verse in fixing the date of -the Book of Hosea. See further, p. 289. Wellhausen omits. - -[421] v. 1; vi. 8; xii. 12: cf. W. R. Smith, _Prophets_, 156. - -[422] Cf. W. R. Smith, _l.c._ - -[423] Cf. W. R. Smith, _Prophets_, 157: Hosea's "language and the -movement of his thoughts are far removed from the simplicity and -self-control which characterise the prophecy of Amos. Indignation and -sorrow, tenderness and severity, faith in the sovereignty of Jehovah's -love, and a despairing sense of Israel's infidelity are woven together -in a sequence which has no logical plan, but is determined by the -battle and alternate victory of contending emotions; and the swift -transitions, the fragmentary unbalanced utterance, the half-developed -allusions, that make his prophecy so difficult to the commentator, -express the agony of this inward conflict." - -[424] See above, p. 114. - -[425] _Praef. in Duod. Prophetas._ - -[426] Especially in chap. vii. - -[427] As in xi. 2 _b_. - -[428] This is especially the case in x. 11-13; xi. 4; xiv. 5. - -[429] _E.g._ vi. 5 _b_: M.T. [Hebrew: tz vr mshftch] which is nonsense; -LXX. [Hebrew: chvr mshft], _My judgment shall go forth like light._ xi. -2: M.T. [Hebrew: mippeneihem]; LXX. [Hebrew: hem mippanai]. - -[430] iv. 4, [Hebrew: 'm] for [Hebrew: 'mch]; 8, [Hebrew: nfshm] for -[Hebrew: nf]--perhaps; 13, [Hebrew: tzillah] for [Hebrew: tzillah]; -v. 2; vi. 2 (possibly); viii. 4, read [Hebrew: chrtu]; ix. 2; xi. -2, 3; xi. 5, 6, where for [Hebrew: l] read [Hebrew: lv]; 10, read -[Hebrew: lech]; xii. 9; xiv. 9 _a_, [Hebrew: lov] for [Hebrew: li]. -On the other hand, they are either improbable or quite wrong, as in -v. 2 _b_; vi. 2 (but the LXX. may be right here); vii 1 _b_; xi. 1, -4; xii. 5; xiii. 14, 15 (ter.). - -[431] v. 5 (so as to change the tense: _and Judah shall stumble_); -xii. 3, etc. - -[432] vi. 3; viii. 10, 13; ix. 2; x. 4, 13 _b_, 15 (probably); xii. -2; xiii. 9; xiv. 3. Wrong tense, xii. 11. Cf. also vi. 3. - -[433] _E.g._ viii. 13. - -[434] Cf. the Hebrew and Greek, of _e.g._, iv. 10, 11, 12; vi. 9, 10; -viii. 5, 6; ix. 8, 9. - -[435] viii. 13 (14 must be omitted); ix. 17. - -[436] _Introd._ 284. - -[437] _E.g._ iv. 15 (?); vi. 11-vii. 1 (?); vii. 4; viii. 2; xii. 6. - -[438] _Einl._, 323. - -[439] [Hebrew: shm], v. 15; x. 2; xiii. 1; xiv. 1. - -[440] P. 313. - -[441] viii. 14 is also rejected by Wellhausen and Cornill. - -[442] _Loc. cit._ - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - _THE PROBLEM THAT AMOS LEFT_ - - -Amos was a preacher of righteousness almost wholly in its judicial -and punitive offices. Exposing the moral conditions of society in -his day, emphasising on the one hand its obduracy and on the other -the intolerableness of it, he asserted that nothing could avert the -inevitable doom--neither Israel's devotion to Jehovah nor Jehovah's -interest in Israel. _You alone have I known of all the families of -the ground: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities._ -The visitation was to take place in war and in the captivity of the -people. This is practically the whole message of the prophet Amos. - -That he added to it the promise of restoration which now closes his -book, we have seen to be extremely improbable.[443] Yet even if that -promise is his own, Amos does not tell us how the restoration is to -be brought about. With wonderful insight and patience he has traced -the captivity of Israel to moral causes. But he does not show what -moral change in the exiles is to justify their restoration, or by -what means such a moral change is to be effected. We are left to -infer the conditions and the means of redemption from the principles -which Amos enforced while there yet seemed time to pray for the -doomed people: _Seek the Lord and ye shall live_.[444] According to -this, the moral renewal of Israel must precede their restoration; but -the prophet seems to make no great effort to effect the renewal. In -short Amos illustrates the easily-forgotten truth that a preacher to -the conscience is not necessarily a preacher of repentance. - -Of the great antitheses between which religion moves, Law and Love, -Amos had therefore been the prophet of Law. But we must not imagine -that the association of Love with the Deity was strange to him. -This could not be to any Israelite who remembered the past of his -people--the romance of their origins and early struggles for freedom. -Israel had always felt the grace of their God; and, unless we be -wrong about the date of the great poem in the end of Deuteronomy, -they had lately celebrated that grace in lines of exquisite beauty -and tenderness:-- - - _He found him in a desert land,_ - _In a waste and a howling wilderness._ - _He compassed him about, cared for him,_ - _Kept him as the apple of His eye._ - _As an eagle stirreth up his nest,_ - _Fluttereth over his young,_ - _Spreadeth his wings, taketh them,_ - _Beareth them up on his pinions--_ - _So Jehovah alone led him._[445] - -The patience of the Lord with their waywardness and their stubbornness -had been the ethical influence on Israel's life at a time when -they had probably neither code of law nor system of doctrine. _Thy -gentleness_, as an early Psalmist says for his people, _Thy gentleness -hath made me great_.[446] Amos is not unaware of this ancient grace of -Jehovah. But he speaks of it in a fashion which shows that he feels it -to be exhausted and without hope for his generation. _I brought you up -out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, -to possess the land of the Amorites. And I raised up of your sons for -prophets and of your young men for Nazirites._[447] But this can now -only fill the cup of the nation's sin. _You alone have I known of -all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all -your iniquities._[448] Jehovah's ancient Love but strengthens now the -justice and the impetus of His Law. - -We perceive, then, the problem which Amos left to prophecy. It -was not to discover Love in the Deity whom he had so absolutely -identified with Law. The Love of God needed no discovery among a -people with the Deliverance, the Exodus, the Wilderness and the Gift -of the Land in their memories. But the problem was to prove in God so -great and new a mercy as was capable of matching that Law, which the -abuse of His millennial gentleness now only the more fully justified. -There was needed a prophet to arise with as keen a conscience of -Law as Amos himself, and yet affirm that Love was greater still; to -admit that Israel were doomed, and yet promise their redemption by -processes as reasonable and as ethical as those by which the doom -had been rendered inevitable. The prophet of Conscience had to be -followed by the prophet of Repentance. - -Such an one was found in Hosea, the son of Be'eri, a citizen and -probably a priest of Northern Israel, whose very name, _Salvation_, -the synonym of Joshua and of Jesus, breathed the larger hope, which -it was his glory to bear to his people. Before we see how for this -task Hosea was equipped with the love and sympathy which Amos lacked, -let us do two things. Let us appreciate the magnitude of the task -itself, set to him first of prophets; and let us remind ourselves -that, greatly as he achieved it, the task was not one which could be -achieved even by him once for all, but that it presents itself to -religion again and again in the course of her development. - -For the first of these duties, it is enough to recall how much all -subsequent prophecy derives from Hosea. We shall not exaggerate if we -say that there is no truth uttered by later prophets about the Divine -Grace, which we do not find in germ in him. Isaiah of Jerusalem was a -greater statesman and a more powerful writer, but he had not Hosea's -tenderness and insight into motive and character. Hosea's marvellous -sympathy both with the people and with God is sufficient to foreshadow -every grief, every hope, every gospel, which make the books of Jeremiah -and the great Prophet of the Exile exhaustless in their spiritual value -for mankind. Those others explored the kingdom of God: it was Hosea -who took it by storm.[449] He is the first prophet of Grace, Israel's -earliest Evangelist; yet with as keen a sense of law, and of the -inevitableness of ethical discipline, as Amos himself. - -But the task which Hosea accomplished was not one that could be -accomplished once for all. The interest of his book is not merely -historical. For so often as a generation is shocked out of its -old religious ideals, as Amos shocked Israel, by a realism and a -discovery of law, which have no respect for ideals, however ancient -and however dear to the human heart, but work their own pitiless way -to doom inevitable; so often must the Book of Hosea have a practical -value for living men. At such a crisis we stand to-day. The older -Evangelical assurance, the older Evangelical ideals have to some -extent been rendered impossible by the realism to which the sciences, -both physical and historical, have most healthily recalled us, and by -their wonderful revelation of Law working through nature and society -without respect to our creeds and pious hopes. The question presses: -Is it still possible to believe in repentance and conversion, still -possible to preach the power of God to save, whether the individual -or society, from the forces of heredity and of habit? We can at least -learn how Hosea mastered the very similar problem which Amos left to -him, and how, with a moral realism no less stern than his predecessor -and a moral standard every whit as high, he proclaimed Love to be -the ultimate element in religion; not only because it moves man to -a repentance and God to a redemption more sovereign than any law; -but because if neglected or abused, whether as love of man or love -of God, it enforces a doom still more inexorable than that required -by violated truth or by outraged justice. Love our Saviour, Love our -almighty and unfailing Father, but, just because of this, Love our -most awful Judge--we turn to the life and the message in which this -eternal theme was first unfolded. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[443] See above, pp. 193 ff. - -[444] v. 4. - -[445] Deut. xxxii. 10-12: a song probably earlier than the eighth -century. But some put it later. - -[446] Psalm xviii. - -[447] ii. 10 f. - -[448] iii. 2. - -[449] Matt. xi. 12. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - _THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL WIFE_ - - HOSEA i.-iii. - - -It has often been remarked that, unlike the first Doomster of Israel, -Israel's first Evangelist was one of themselves, a native and -citizen, perhaps even a priest, of the land to which he was sent. -This appears even in his treatment of the stage and soil of his -ministry. Contrast him in this respect with Amos. - -In the Book of Amos we have few glimpses of the scenery of Israel, -and these always by flashes of the lightnings of judgment: the towns -in drought or earthquake or siege; the vineyards and orchards under -locusts or mildew; Carmel itself desolate, or as a hiding-place from -God's wrath. - -But Hosea's love steals across his whole land like the dew, provoking -every separate scent and colour, till all Galilee lies before us, -lustrous and fragrant as nowhere else outside the parables of Jesus. -The Book of Amos, when it would praise God's works, looks to the -stars. But the poetry of Hosea clings about his native soil like its -trailing vines. If he appeals to the heavens, it is only that they -may speak to the earth, and the earth to the corn and the wine, and -the corn and the wine to Jezreel.[450] Even the wild beasts--and -Hosea tells us of their cruelty almost as much as Amos--he cannot -shut out of the hope of his love: _I will make a covenant for them -with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with -the creeping things of the ground_.[451] God's love-gifts to His -people are corn and wool, flax and oil; while spiritual blessings -are figured in the joys of them who sow and reap. With Hosea we feel -all the seasons of the Syrian year: early rain and latter rain, the -first flush of the young corn, the scent of the vine blossom, the -_first ripe fig of the fig-tree in her first season_, the bursting of -the lily; the wild vine trailing on the hedge, the field of tares, -the beauty of the full olive in sunshine and breeze; the mists and -heavy dews of a summer morning in Ephraim, the night winds laden with -the air of the mountains, _the scent of Lebanon_.[452] Or it is the -dearer human sights in valley and field: the smoke from the chimney, -the chaff from the threshing-floor, the doves startled to their -towers, the fowler and his net; the breaking up of the fallow ground, -the harrowing of the clods, the reapers, the heifer that treadeth out -the corn; the team of draught oxen surmounting the steep road, and at -the top the kindly driver setting in food to their jaws.[453] - -Where, I say, do we find anything like this save in the parables -of Jesus? For the love of Hosea was as the love of that greater -Galilean: however high, however lonely it soared, it was yet rooted -in the common life below, and fed with the unfailing grace of a -thousand homely sources. - -But just as the Love which first showed itself in the sunny Parables -of Galilee passed onward to Gethsemane and the Cross, so the love of -Hosea, that had wakened with the spring lilies and dewy summer mornings -of the North, had also, ere his youth was spent, to meet its agony and -shame. These came upon the prophet in his home, and in her in whom so -loyal and tender a heart had hoped to find his chiefest sanctuary next -to God. There are, it is true, some of the ugliest facts of human life -about this prophet's experience; but the message is one very suited to -our own hearts and times. Let us read this story of the Prodigal Wife -as we do that other Galilean tale of the Prodigal Son. There as well -as here are harlots; but here as well as there is the clear mirror of -the Divine Love. For the Bible never shuns realism when it would expose -the exceeding hatefulness of sin or magnify the power of God's love to -redeem. To an age which is always treating conjugal infidelity either -as a matter of comedy or as a problem of despair, the tale of Hosea -and his wife may still become, what it proved to his own generation, a -gospel full of love and hope. - -The story, and how it led Hosea to understand God's relations to -sinful men, is told in the first three chapters of his book. It opens -with the very startling sentence: _The beginning of the word of -Jehovah to Hosea:--And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take thee a wife of -harlotry and children of harlotry: for the Land hath committed great -harlotry in departing from Jehovah._[454] - -The command was obeyed. _And he went and took Gomer, daughter of -Diblaim;_[455] _and she conceived, and bare to him a son. And -Jehovah said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little and -I shall visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will -bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel; and it shall -be on that day that I shall break the bow of Israel in the Vale -of Jezreel_--the classic battle-field of Israel.[456] _And she -conceived again, and bare a daughter; and He said to him, Call her -name Un-Loved_, or _That-never-knew-a-Father's-Pity;_[457] _for I -will not again have pity_--such pity as a Father hath--_on the house -of Israel, that I should fully forgive them._[458] _And she weaned -Un-Pitied, and conceived, and bare a son. And He said, Call his name -Not-My-People; for ye are not My people, and I--I am not yours._[459] - -It is not surprising that divers interpretations have been put upon -this troubled tale. The words which introduce it are so startling -that very many have held it to be an allegory, or parable, invented -by the prophet to illustrate, by familiar human figures, what -was at that period the still difficult conception of the Love of -God for sinful men. But to this well-intended argument there are -insuperable objections. It implies that Hosea had first awakened -to the relations of Jehovah and Israel--He faithful and full of -affection, she unfaithful and thankless--and that then, in order to -illustrate the relations, he had invented the story. To that we have -an adequate reply. In the first place, though it were possible, it -is extremely improbable, that such a man should have invented such -a tale about his wife, or, if he was unmarried, about himself. But, -in the second place, he says expressly that his domestic experience -was the _beginning of Jehovah's word to him_. That is, he passed -through it first, and only afterwards, with the sympathy and insight -thus acquired, he came to appreciate Jehovah's relation to Israel. -Finally, the style betrays narrative rather than parable. The simple -facts are told; there is an absence of elaboration; there is no -effort to make every detail symbolic; the names Gomer and Diblaim are -apparently those of real persons; every attempt to attach a symbolic -value to them has failed. - -She was, therefore, no dream, this woman, but flesh and blood: the -sorrow, the despair, the sphinx of the prophet's life; yet a sphinx -who in the end yielded her riddle to love. - -Accordingly a large number of other interpreters have taken the story -throughout as the literal account of actual facts. This is the theory -of many of the Latin and Greek Fathers,[460] of many of the Puritans -and of Dr. Pusey--by one of those agreements into which, from such -opposite schools, all these commentators are not infrequently drawn -by their common captivity to the letter of Scripture.[461] When you -ask them, How then do you justify that first strange word of God -to Hosea,[462] if you take it literally and believe that Hosea was -charged to marry a woman of public shame? they answer either that -such an evil may be justified by the bare word of God, or that it was -well worth the end, the salvation of a lost soul.[463] And indeed -this tragedy would be invested with an even greater pathos if it -were true that the human hero had passed through a self-sacrifice -so unusual, had incurred such a shame for such an end. The -interpretation, however, seems forbidden by the essence of the story. -Had not Hosea's wife been pure when he married her she could not have -served as a type of the Israel whose earliest relations to Jehovah -he describes as innocent. And this is confirmed by other features of -the book: by the high ideal which Hosea has of marriage, and by that -sense of early goodness and early beauty passing away like morning -mist, which is so often and so pathetically expressed that we cannot -but catch in it the echo of his own experience. As one has said to -whom we owe, more than to any other, the exposition of the gospel in -Hosea,[464] "The struggle of Hosea's shame and grief when he found -his wife unfaithful is altogether inconceivable unless his first love -had been pure and full of trust in the purity of its object." - -How then are we to reconcile with this the statement of that command -to take a wife of the character so frankly described? In this way--and -we owe the interpretation to the same lamented scholar.[465] When, -some years after his marriage, Hosea at last began to be aware of the -character of her whom he had taken to his home, and while he still -brooded upon it, God revealed to him why He who knoweth all things -from the beginning had suffered His servant to marry such a woman; and -Hosea, by a very natural anticipation, in which he is imitated by other -prophets,[466] pushed back his own knowledge of God's purpose to the -date when that purpose began actually to be fulfilled, the day of his -betrothal. This, though he was all unconscious of its fatal future, had -been to Hosea the beginning of the word of the Lord. On that uncertain -voyage he had sailed with sealed orders. - -Now this is true to nature, and may be matched from our own experience. -"The beginning of God's word" to any of us--where does it lie? Does it -lie in the first time the meaning of our life became articulate, and we -were able to utter it to others? Ah no; it always lies far behind that, -in facts and in relationships, of the Divine meaning of which we are -at the time unconscious, though now we know. How familiar this is in -respect to the sorrows and adversities of life: dumb, deadening things -that fall on us at the time with no more voice than clods falling on -coffins of dead men, we have been able to read them afterwards as the -clear call of God to our souls. But what we thus so readily admit about -the sorrows of life may be equally true of any of those relations which -we enter with light and unawed hearts, conscious only of the novelty -and the joy of them. It is most true of the love which meets a man as -it met Hosea in his opening manhood. - -How long Hosea took to discover his shame he indicates by a few -hints which he suffers to break from the delicate reserve of his -story. He calls the first child his own; and the boy's name, though -ominous of the nation's fate, has no trace of shame upon it. Hosea's -Jezreel was as Isaiah's Shear-Jashub or Maher-shalal-hash-baz. But -Hosea does not claim the second child; and in the name of this little -lass, Lo-Ruhamah, _she-that-never-knew-a-father's-love_, orphan not -by death but by her mother's sin, we find proof of the prophet's -awakening to the tragedy of his home. Nor does he own the third -child, named _Not-my-people_, that could also mean _No-kin-of-mine_. -The three births must have taken at least six years;[467] and once at -least, but probably oftener, Hosea had forgiven the woman, and till -the sixth year she stayed in his house. Then either he put her from -him, or she went her own way. She sold herself for money, and finally -drifted, like all of her class, into slavery.[468] - -Such were the facts of Hosea's grief, and we have now to attempt to -understand how that grief became his gospel. We may regard the stages -of the process as two: first, when he was led to feel that his sorrow -was the sorrow of the whole nation; and, second, when he comprehended -that it was of similar kind to the sorrow of God Himself. - -While Hosea brooded upon his pain one of the first things he would -remember would be the fact, which he so frequently illustrates, that -the case of his home was not singular, but common and characteristic -of his day. Take the evidence of his book, and there must have been -in Israel many such wives as his own. He describes their sin as the -besetting sin of the nation, and the plague of Israel's life. But to -lose your own sorrow in the vaster sense of national trouble--that -is the first consciousness of a duty and a mission. In the analogous -vice of intemperance among ourselves we have seen the same experience -operate again and again. How many a man has joined the public warfare -against that sin, because he was aroused to its national consequences -by the ruin it had brought to his own home! And one remembers from -recent years a more illustrious instance, where a domestic grief--it -is true of a very different kind--became not dissimilarly the opening -of a great career of service to the people:-- - - "I was in Leamington, and Mr. Cobden called on me. I was then in - the depths of grief--I may almost say of despair, for the light - and sunshine of my house had been extinguished. All that was left - on earth of my young wife, except the memory of a sainted life and - a too brief happiness, was lying still and cold in the chamber - above us. Mr. Cobden called on me as his friend, and addressed - me, as you may suppose, with words of condolence. After a time he - looked up and said: 'There are thousands and thousands of homes in - England at this moment where wives and mothers and children are - dying of hunger. Now, when the first paroxysm of your grief is - passed, I would advise you to come with me, and we will never rest - until the Corn Laws are repealed.'"[469] - -Not dissimilarly was Hosea's pain overwhelmed by the pain of his -people. He remembered that there were in Israel thousands of homes -like his own. Anguish gave way to sympathy. The mystery became the -stimulus to a mission. - -But, again, Hosea traces this sin of his day to the worship of -strange gods. He tells the fathers of Israel, for instance, that they -need not be surprised at the corruption of their wives and daughters -when they themselves bring home from the heathen rites the infection -of light views of love.[470] That is to say, the many sins against -human love in Israel, the wrong done to his own heart in his own -home, Hosea connects with the wrong done to the Love of God, by His -people's desertion of Him for foreign and impure rites. Hosea's own -sorrow thus became a key to the sorrow of God. Had he loved this -woman, cherished and honoured her, borne with and forgiven her, only -to find at the last his love spurned and hers turned to sinful men: -so also had the Love of God been treated by His chosen people, and -they had fallen to the loose worship of idols. - -Hosea was the more naturally led to compare his relations to his wife -with Jehovah's to Israel, by certain religious beliefs current among -the Semitic peoples. It was common to nearly all Semitic religions -to express the union of a god with his land or with his people by -the figure of marriage. The title which Hosea so often applies to -the heathen deities, Ba'al, meant originally not "lord" of his -worshippers, but "possessor" and endower of his land, its husband and -fertiliser. A fertile land was "a land of Ba'al," or "Be'ulah," that -is, "possessed" or "blessed by a Ba'al."[471] Under the fertility -was counted not only the increase of field and flock, but the human -increase as well; and thus a nation could speak of themselves as -the children of the Land, their mother, and of her Ba'al, their -father.[472] When Hosea, then, called Jehovah the husband of Israel, -it was not an entirely new symbol which he invented. Up to his time, -however, the marriage of Heaven and Earth, of a god and his people, -seems to have been conceived in a physical form which ever tended to -become more gross; and was expressed, as Hosea points out, by rites -of a sensual and debasing nature, with the most disastrous effects on -the domestic morals of the people. By an inspiration, whose ethical -character is very conspicuous, Hosea breaks the physical connection -altogether. Jehovah's Bride is not the Land, but the People, and -His marriage with her is conceived wholly as a moral relation. Not -that He has no connection with the physical fruits of the land: corn, -wine, oil, wool and flax. But these are represented only as the -signs and ornaments of the marriage, love-gifts from the husband to -the wife.[473] The marriage itself is purely moral: _I will betroth -her to Me in righteousness and justice, in leal love and tender -mercies_.[474] From her in return are demanded faithfulness and -growing knowledge of her Lord. - -It is the re-creation of an Idea. Slain and made carrion by the -heathen religions, the figure is restored to life by Hosea. And this -is a life everlasting. Prophet and apostle, the Israel of Jehovah, -the Church of Christ, have alike found in Hosea's figure an unfailing -significance and charm. Here we cannot trace the history of the -figure; but at least we ought to emphasise the creative power which -its recovery to life proves to have been inherent in prophecy. This -is one of those triumphs of which the God of Israel said: _Behold, I -make all things new_.[475] - -Having dug his figure from the mire and set it upon the rock, Hosea -sends it on its way with all boldness. If Jehovah be thus the husband -of Israel, _her first husband, the husband of her youth_, then -all her pursuit of the Ba'alim is unfaithfulness to her marriage -vows. But she is worse than an adulteress; she is a harlot. She has -fallen for gifts. Here the historical facts wonderfully assisted -the prophet's metaphor. It was a fact that Israel and Jehovah were -first wedded in the wilderness upon conditions, which by the very -circumstances of desert life could have little or no reference to -the fertility of the earth, but were purely personal and moral. And -it was also a fact that Israel's declension from Jehovah came after -her settlement in Canaan, and was due to her discovery of other -deities, in possession of the soil, and adored by the natives as the -dispensers of its fertility. Israel fell under these superstitions, -and, although she still formally acknowledged her bond to Jehovah, -yet in order to get her fields blessed and her flocks made fertile, -her orchards protected from blight and her fleeces from scab, she -went after the local Ba'alim.[476] With bitter scorn Hosea points out -that there was no true love in this: it was the mercenariness of a -harlot, selling herself for gifts.[477] And it had the usual results. -The children whom Israel bore were not her husband's.[478] The new -generation in Israel grew up in ignorance of Jehovah, with characters -and lives strange to His Spirit. They were Lo-Ruhamah: He could not -feel towards them such pity as a father hath.[479] They were Lo-Ammi: -not at all His people. All was in exact parallel to Hosea's own -experience with his wife; and only the real pain of that experience -could have made the man brave enough to use it as a figure of his -God's treatment by Israel. - -Following out the human analogy, the next step should have been for -Jehovah to divorce His erring spouse. But Jehovah reveals to the -prophet that this is not His way. For He is _God and not man, the -Holy One in the midst of thee. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? -How shall I surrender thee, O Israel? My heart is turned within Me, -My compassions are kindled together!_ - -Jehovah will seek, find and bring back the wanderer. Yet the -process shall not be easy. The gospel which Hosea here preaches -is matched in its great tenderness by its full recognition of the -ethical requirements of the case. Israel may not be restored without -repentance, and cannot repent without disillusion and chastisement. -God will therefore show her that her lovers, the Ba'alim, are unable -to assure to her the gifts for which she followed them. These are His -corn, His wine, His wool and His flax, and He will take them away -for a time. Nay more, as if mere drought and blight might still be -regarded as some Ba'al's work, He who has always manifested Himself -by great historic deeds will do so again. He will remove herself from -the land, and leave it a waste and a desolation. The whole passage -runs as follows, introduced by the initial _Therefore_ of judgment:-- - -_Therefore, behold, I am going to hedge_[480] _up her_[481] _way with -thorns, and build her_[482] _a wall, so that she find not her paths. -And she shall pursue her paramours and shall not come upon them, seek -them and shall not find them; and she shall say, Let me go and return -to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now. She knew -not, then, that it was I who gave her the corn and the wine and the -oil; yea, silver I heaped upon her and gold--they worked it up for -the Ba'al!_[483] Israel had deserted the religion that was historical -and moral for the religion that was physical. But the historical -religion was the physical one. Jehovah who had brought Israel to the -land was also the God of the Land. He would prove this by taking -away its blessings. _Therefore I will turn and take away My corn in -its time and My wine in its season, and I will withdraw My wool and -My flax that should have covered her nakedness. And now_--the other -initial of judgment--_I will lay bare her shame to the eyes of her -lovers, and no man shall rescue her from My hand. And I will make -an end of all her joyaunce, her pilgrimages, her New-Moons and her -Sabbaths, with every festival; and I will destroy her vines and her -figs of which she said, "They are a gift, mine own, which my lovers -gave me," and I will turn them to jungle and the wild beast shall -devour them. So shall I visit upon her the days of the Ba'alim, when -she used to offer incense to them, and decked herself with her rings -and her jewels and went after her paramours, but Me she forgat--'tis -the oracle of Jehovah._ All this implies something more than such -natural disasters as those in which Amos saw the first chastisements -of the Lord. Each of the verses suggests, not only a devastation of -the land by war,[484] but the removal of the people into captivity. -Evidently, therefore, Hosea, writing about 745, had in view a speedy -invasion by Assyria, an invasion which was always followed up by the -exile of the people subdued. - -This is next described, with all plainness, under the figure of -Israel's early wanderings in the wilderness, but is emphasised as -happening only for the end of the people's penitence and restoration. -The new hope is so melodious that it carries the language into metre. - - _Therefore, lo! I am to woo her, and I will bring her to the - wilderness,_ - _And I will speak home to her heart._ - _And from there I will give to her her vineyards,_ - _And the Valley of Achor for a doorway of hope._ - _And there she shall answer_ Me _as in the days of her youth,_ - _And as the day when she came up from the land of Misraim._ - -To us the terms of this passage may seem formal and theological. -But to every Israelite some of these terms must have brought back -the days of his own wooing. _I will speak home to her heart_ is a -forcible expression, like the German "an das Herz" or the sweet -Scottish "it cam' up roond my heart," and was used in Israel as -from man to woman when he won her.[485] But the other terms have an -equal charm. The prophet, of course, does not mean that Israel shall -be literally taken back to the desert. But he describes her coming -Exile under that ancient figure, in order to surround her penitence -with the associations of her innocency and her youth. By the grace -of God, everything shall begin again as at first. The old terms -_wilderness_, _the giving of vineyards_, _Valley of Achor_, are, as -it were, the wedding ring restored. - -As a result of all this (whether the words be by Hosea or another),[486] - - _It shall be in that day--'tis Jehovah's oracle--that thou - shalt call Me, My husband,_ - _And thou shalt not again call Me, My Ba'al:_ - _For I will take away the names of the Ba'alim from her - mouth,_ - _And they shall no more be remembered by their names._ - -There follows a picture of the ideal future, in which--how unlike the -vision that now closes the Book of Amos!--moral and spiritual beauty, -the peace of the land and the redemption of the people, are wonderfully -mingled together, in a style so characteristic of Hosea's heart. It is -hard to tell where the rhythmical prose passes into actual metre. - -_And I will make for them a covenant in that day with the wild beasts, -and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the -ground; and the bow and the sword and battle will I break from the -land, and I will make you to dwell in safety. And I will betroth thee -to Me for ever, and I will betroth thee to Me in righteousness and in -justice, in leal love and in tender mercies; and I will betroth thee to -Me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know Jehovah._ - -_And it shall be on that day I will speak--'tis the oracle of -Jehovah--I will speak to the heavens, and they shall speak to the -earth; and the earth shall speak to the corn and the wine and the -oil, and they shall speak to Jezreel, the scattered like seed_ across -many lands; _but I will sow him_[487] _for Myself in the land: and -I will have a father's pity upon Un-Pitied; and to Not-My-People_ I -will say. _My people thou art! and he shall say, My God!_[488] - -The circle is thus completed on the terms from which we started. The -three names which Hosea gave to the children, evil omens of Israel's -fate, are reversed, and the people restored to the favour and love of -their God. - -We might expect this glory to form the culmination of the prophecy. -What fuller prospect could be imagined than that we see in the close -of the second chapter? With a wonderful grace, however, the prophecy -turns back from this sure vision of the restoration of the people as -a whole, to pick up again the individual from whom it had started, -and whose unclean rag of a life had fluttered out of sight before -the national fortunes sweeping in upon the scene. This was needed to -crown the story--this return to the individual. - -_And Jehovah said unto me, Once more go, love a wife that is loved -of a paramour and is an adulteress,_[489] _as Jehovah loveth the -children of Israel, the while they are turning to other gods, and love -raisin-cakes_--probably some element in the feasts of the gods of the -land, the givers of the grape. _Then I bought her to me for fifteen -pieces of silver and a homer of barley and a lethech of wine._[490] -_And I said to her, For many days shall thou abide for me alone; thou -shall not play the harlot, thou shall not be for any husband; and -I for my part also shall be so towards thee. For the days are many -that the children of Israel shall abide without a king and without a -prince, without sacrifice and without maccebah, and without ephod and -teraphim._[491] _Afterwards the children of Israel shall turn and seek -Jehovah their God and David their king, and shall be in awe of Jehovah -and towards His goodness in the end of the days._[492] - -Do not let us miss the fact that the story of the wife's restoration -follows that of Israel's, although the story of the wife's -unfaithfulness had come before that of Israel's apostasy. For this -order means that, while the prophet's private pain preceded his -sympathy with God's pain, it was not he who set God, but God who set -him, the example of forgiveness. The man learned the God's sorrow out -of his own sorrow; but conversely he was taught to forgive and redeem -his wife only by seeing God forgive and redeem the people. In other -words, the Divine was suggested by the human pain; yet the Divine Grace -was not started by any previous human grace, but, on the contrary, -was itself the precedent and origin of the latter. This is in harmony -with all Hosea's teaching. God forgives because _He is God and not -man_.[493] Our pain with those we love helps us to understand God's -pain; but it is not our love that leads us to believe in His love. On -the contrary, all human grace is but the reflex of the Divine. So St. -Paul: _Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye_. So St. John: _We -love Him_, and one another, _because He first loved us_. - -But this return from the nation to the individual has another -interest. Gomer's redemption is not the mere formal completion of the -parallel between her and her people. It is, as the story says, an -impulse of the Divine Love, recognised even then in Israel as seeking -the individual. He who followed Hagar into the wilderness, who met -Jacob at Bethel and forgat not the slave Joseph in prison,[494] -remembers also Hosea's wife. His love is not satisfied with His -Nation-Bride: He remembers this single outcast. It is the Shepherd -leaving the ninety-and-nine in the fold to seek the one lost sheep. - - * * * * * - -For Hosea himself his home could never be the same as it was at the -first. _And I said to her, For many days shalt thou abide, as far as -I am concerned, alone. Thou shalt not play the harlot. Thou shalt not -be for a husband: and I on my side also shall be so towards thee._ -Discipline was needed there; and abroad the nation's troubles called -the prophet to an anguish and a toil which left no room for the sweet -love or hope of his youth. He steps at once to his hard warfare for -his people; and through the rest of his book we never again hear him -speak of home, or of children, or of wife. So Arthur passed from -Guinevere to his last battle for his land:-- - - "Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God - Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest. - But how to take last leave of all I loved? - - * * * * * - - I cannot touch thy lips, they are not mine;... - I cannot take thy hand; that too is flesh, - And in the flesh thou hast sinned; and mine own flesh, - Here looking down on thine polluted, cries - 'I loathe thee'; yet not less, O Guinevere, - For I was ever virgin save for thee, - My love thro' flesh hath wrought into my life - So far, that my doom is, I love thee still. - Let no man dream but that I love thee still. - Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul, - And so thou lean on our fair father Christ, - Hereafter in that world where all are pure - We two may meet before high God, and thou - Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know - I am thine husband, not a smaller soul.... - Leave me that, - I charge thee, my last hope. Now must I hence, - Thro' the thick night I hear the trumpet blow." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[450] ii. 23, Heb. - -[451] ii. 20, Heb. - -[452] vi. 3, 4; vii. 8; ix. 10; xiv. 6, 7, 8. - -[453] vii. 11, 12; x. 11; xi. 4, etc. - -[454] Pregnant construction, _hath committed great harlotry from -after Jehovah_. - -[455] These personal names do not elsewhere occur. [Hebrew: gomer]; -[Greek: Gomer]. [Hebrew: divlayim]; [Greek: Debelaim] B; [Greek: -Debelaeim], AQ. They have, of course, been interpreted allegorically -in the interests of the theory discussed below. [Hebrew: gmr] -has been taken to mean "completion," and interpreted as various -derivatives of that root: Jerome, "the perfect one"; Raschi, "that -fulfilled all evil"; Kimchi, "fulfilment of punishment"; Calvin, -"consumptio," and so on. [Hebrew: dvlm] has been traced to [Hebrew: -divlh], Pl. [Hebrew: divlim], cakes of pressed figs, as if a name -had been sought to connect the woman at once with the idol-worship -and a rich sweetness; or to an Arabic root, [Hebrew: dvl], to press, -as if it referred either to the plumpness of the body (cf. Ezek. -xvi. 7; so Hitzig) or to the woman's habits. But all these are -far-fetched and vain. There is no reason to suppose that either of -the two names is symbolic. The alternative (allowed by the language) -naturally suggests itself that [Hebrew: dvlm] is the name of Gomer's -birthplace. But there is nothing to prove this. No such place-name -occurs elsewhere: one cannot adduce the Diblathaim in Moab (Num. -xxxiii. 46 ff.; Jer. xlviii. 2). - -[456] _Hist. Geog._, Chap. XVIII. - -[457] [Hebrew: ruchamah lo], probably 3rd pers. sing. fem. Pual -(in Pause cf. Prov. xxviii. 13); literally, _She is not loved_ or -_pitied_. The word means love as pity: "such pity as a father hath -unto his children dear" (Psalm ciii.), or God to a penitent man -(Psalm xxviii. 13). The Greek versions alternate between love and -pity. LXX. [Greek: ouk eleemene dioti ou me prostheso eti eleesai], -for which the Complutensian has [Greek: agapesai], the reading -followed by Paul (Rom. ix, 25: cf. 1 Peter ii. 10). - -[458] Here ver. 7 is to be omitted, as explained above, p. 213. - -[459] Do not belong to you; but the _I am_, [Hebrew: hh], recalls the -_I am that I am_ of Exodus. - -[460] Augustine, Ambrose, Theodoret, Cyril Alex. and Theodore of -Mopsuestia. - -[461] It is interesting to read in parallel the interpretations of -Matthew Henry and Dr. Pusey. They are very alike, but the latter has -the more delicate taste of his age. - -[462] i. 2. - -[463] The former is Matthew Henry's; the latter seems to be implied -by Pusey. - -[464] Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_. - -[465] Apparently it was W. R. Smith's interpretation which caused -Kuenen to give up the allegorical theory. - -[466] Two instances are usually quoted. The one is Isaiah vi., where -most are agreed that what Isaiah has stated there as his inaugural -vision is not only what happened in the earliest moments of his -prophetic life, but this spelt out and emphasised by his experience -since. See _Isaiah I.-XXXIX._ (Exp. Bible), pp. 57 f. The other -instance is Jeremiah xxxii. 8, where the prophet tells us that he -became convinced that the Lord spoke to him on a certain occasion -only after a subsequent event proved this to be the case. - -[467] An Eastern woman seldom weans her child before the end of its -second year. - -[468] iii. 2. - -[469] From a speech by John Bright. - -[470] iv. 13, 14. - -[471] Cf. the spiritual use of the term, Isa. lxii. 4. - -[472] For proof and exposition of all this see Robertson Smith, -_Religion of the Semites_, 92 ff. - -[473] ii. 8. - -[474] So best is rendered [Hebrew: chsd], hesedh, which means always -not merely an affection, "lovingkindness," as our version puts it, -but a relation loyally observed. - -[475] An expansion of this will be found in the present writer's -_Isaiah XL.-LXVI._ (Expositor's Bible Series), pp. 398 ff. - -[476] ii. 13. - -[477] ii. 5, 13. - -[478] ii. 5. - -[479] See above, p. 235. - -[480] The participle Qal, used by God of Himself in His proclamations -of grace or of punishment, has in this passage (cf. ver. 16) and -elsewhere (especially in Deuteronomy) the force of an immediate future. - -[481] So LXX.; Mass. Text, _thy_. - -[482] The reading [Hebrew: gederah] is more probable than [Hebrew: -gederah]. - -[483] Or _they made it into a Ba'al_ image. So Ew., Hitz., Nowack. -But Wellhausen omits the clause. - -[484] Wellhausen thinks that up to ver. 14 only physical calamities -are meant, but the [Hebrew: htzltv] of ver. 11, as well as others -of the terms used, imply not the blighting of crops before their -season, but the carrying of them away in their season, when they had -fully ripened, by invaders. The cessation of all worship points to -the removal of the people from their land, which is also implied, of -course, by the promise that they shall be sown again in ver. 23. - -[485] Cf. Isa. xl. 1: which to the same exiled Israel is the -fulfilment of the promise made by Hosea. See _Isaiah XL.-LXVI._ -(Expositor's Bible), pp. 75 ff. - -[486] Wellhausen calls ver. 18 a gloss to ver. 19. - -[487] Massoretic Text, _her_. - -[488] It is at this point, if at any, that i. 10, 11, ii. 1 (Eng., -but ii. 1-3 Heb.) ought to come in. It will be observed, however, -that even here they are superfluous: _And the number of the children -of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured -nor counted; and it shall be in the place where it was said to them, -No People of Mine are ye! it shall be said to them, Sons of the -Living God! And the children of Judah and the children of Israel -shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one -head, and shall go up from the land: for great is the day of Jezreel. -Say unto your brothers, My People, and to your sisters_ (LXX. -_sister_), _She-is-Pitied_. On the whole passage see above, p. 213. - -[489] Or _that is loved of her husband though an adulteress_. - -[490] So LXX. The homer was eight bushels. The lethech is a measure -not elsewhere mentioned. - -[491] On these see above, Introduction, Chap. III., p. 38. - -[492] On the text see above, p. 214. - -[493] xi. 9. - -[494] As the stories all written down before this had made familiar -to Israel. - - - - - CHAPTER XV - - _THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL_ - - HOSEA iv.-xiv. - - -It was indeed "thick night" into which this Arthur of Israel stepped -from his shattered home. The mists drive across Hosea's long agony -with his people, and what we see, we see blurred and broken. There -is stumbling and clashing; crowds in drift; confused rallies; gangs -of assassins breaking across the highways; doors opening upon lurid -interiors full of drunken riot. Voices, which other voices mock, cry -for a dawn that never comes. God Himself is Laughter, Lightning, -a Lion, a Gnawing Worm. Only one clear note breaks over the -confusion--the trumpet summoning to war. - -Take courage, O great heart! Not thus shall it always be! There wait -thee, before the end, of open Visions at least two--one of Memory and -one of Hope, one of Childhood and one of Spring. Past this night, -past the swamp and jungle of these fetid years, thou shalt see thy -land in her beauty, and God shall look on the face of His Bride. - - * * * * * - -Chaps, iv.-xiv. are almost indivisible. The two Visions just -mentioned, chaps. xi. and xiv. 3-9, may be detached by virtue of -contributing the only strains of gospel which rise victorious above -the Lord's controversy with His people and the troubled story of -their sins. All the rest is the noise of a nation falling to pieces, -the crumbling of a splendid past. And as decay has no climax and ruin -no rhythm, so we may understand why it is impossible to divide with -any certainty Hosea's record of Israel's fall. Some arrangement we -must attempt, but it is more or less artificial, and to be undertaken -for the sake of our own minds, that cannot grasp so great a collapse -all at once. Chap. iv. has a certain unity, and is followed by a new -exordium, but as it forms only the theme of which the subsequent -chapters are variations, we may take it with them as far as chap. -vii., ver. 7; after which there is a slight transition from the -moral signs of Israel's dissolution to the political--although Hosea -still combines the religious offence of idolatry with the anarchy -of the land. These form the chief interest to the end of chap. x. -Then breaks the bright Vision of the Past, chap. xi., the temporary -victory of the Gospel of the Prophet over his Curse. In chaps. -xii.-xiv. 2 we are plunged into the latter once more, and reach in -xiv. 3 ff. the second bright Vision, the Vision of the Future. To -each of these phases of Israel's Thick Night--we can hardly call them -Sections--we may devote a chapter of simple exposition, adding three -chapters more of detailed examination of the main doctrines we shall -have encountered on our way--the Knowledge of God, Repentance, and -the Sin against Love. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - - _A PEOPLE IN DECAY: 1. MORALLY_ - - HOSEA iv.-vii 7. - - -Pursuing the plan laid down in the last chapter, we now take the -section of Hosea's discourse which lies between chap. iv. 1 and -chap. vii. 7. Chap. iv. is the only really separable bit of it; but -there are also slight breaks at v. 15 and vii. 2. So we may attempt -a division into four periods: 1. Chap. iv., which states God's -general charge against the people; 2. Chap. v. 1-14, which discusses -the priests and princes; 3. Chaps. v. 15-vii. 2, which abjures the -people's attempts at repentance; and 4. Chap. vii. 3-7, which is a -lurid spectacle of the drunken and profligate court. All these give -symptoms of the moral decay of the people,--the family destroyed by -impurity, and society by theft and murder; the corruption of the -spiritual guides of the people; the debauchery of the nobles; the -sympathy of the throne with evil,--with the despairing judgment that -such a people are incapable even of repentance. The keynotes are -these: _No troth, leal love, nor knowledge of God in the land. Priest -and Prophet stumble. Ephraim and Judah stumble. I am as the moth to -Ephraim. What can I make of thee, Ephraim? When I would heal them, -their guilt is only the more exposed._ Morally, Israel is rotten. -The prophet, of course, cannot help adding signs of their political -incoherence. But these he deals with more especially in the part of -his discourse which follows chap. vii. 7. - - - 1. THE LORD'S QUARREL WITH ISRAEL. - - HOSEA iv. - -_Hear the word of Jehovah, sons of Israel!_[495] _Jehovah hath a -quarrel with the inhabitants of the land, for there is no troth nor -leal love nor knowledge of God in the land. Perjury_[496] _and murder -and theft and adultery!_[497] _They break out, and blood strikes upon -blood._ - -That stable and well-furnished life, across which, while it was still -noon, Amos hurled his alarms--how quickly it has broken up! If there -be still _ease in Zion_, there is no more _security in Samaria_.[498] -The great Jeroboam is dead, and society, which in the East depends -so much on the individual, is loose and falling to pieces. The sins -which are exposed by Amos were those that lurked beneath a still -strong government, but Hosea adds outbreaks which set all order at -defiance. Later we shall find him describing housebreaking, highway -robbery and assassination. _Therefore doth the land wither, and every -one of her denizens languisheth, even to the beast of the field and -the fowl of the heaven; yea, even the fish of the sea are swept up_ -in the universal sickness of man and nature: for Hosea feels, like -Amos, the liability of nature to the curse upon sin. - -Yet the guilt is not that of the whole people, but of their -religious guides. _Let none find fault and none upbraid, for My -people are but as their priestlings._[499] _O Priest, thou hast -stumbled to-day: and stumble to-night shall the prophet with thee._ -One order of the nation's ministers goes staggering after the other! -_And I will destroy thy Mother_, presumably the Nation herself. -_Perished are My people for lack of knowledge._ But how? By the -sin of their teachers. _Because thou_, O Priest, _hast rejected -knowledge, I reject thee from being priest to Me; and as thou hast -forgotten the Torah of thy God, I forget thy children_[500]--_I on -My side. As many as they be, so many have sinned against Me._ Every -jack-priest of them is culpable. _They have turned_[501] _their glory -into shame. They feed on the sin of My people, and to the guilt of -these lift up their appetite!_ The more the people sin, the more -merrily thrive the priests by fines and sin-offerings. They live -upon the vice of the day, and have a vested interest in its crimes. -English Langland said the same thing of the friars of his time. The -contention is obvious. The priests have given themselves wholly to -the ritual; they have forgotten that their office is an intellectual -and moral one. We shall return to this when treating of Hosea's -doctrine of knowledge and its responsibilities. Priesthood, let us -only remember, priesthood is an intellectual trust. - -_Thus it comes to be--like people like priest_: they also have fallen -under the ritual, doing from lust what the priests do from greed. -_But I will visit upon them their ways, and their deeds will I -requite to them. For they_--those _shall eat and not be satisfied_, -these _shall play the harlot and have no increase, because they have -left off heeding Jehovah_. This absorption in ritual at the expense -of the moral and intellectual elements of religion has insensibly -led them over into idolatry, with all its unchaste and drunken -services. _Harlotry, wine and new wine take away the brains!_[502] -The result is seen in the stupidity with which they consult their -stocks for guidance. _My people! of its bit of wood it asketh -counsel, and its staff telleth to it_ the oracle! _For a spirit of -harlotry hath led them astray, and they have played the harlot from -their God. Upon the headlands of the hills they sacrifice, and on -the heights offer incense, under oak or poplar or terebinth, for -the shade of them is pleasant._ On _headlands_, not summits, for -here no trees grow; and the altar was generally built under a tree -and near water on some promontory, from which the flight of birds -or of clouds might be watched. _Wherefore_--because of this your -frequenting of the heathen shrines--_your daughters play the harlot -and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. I will not come with -punishment upon your daughters because they play the harlot, nor -upon your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery._ Why? For -_they themselves_, the fathers of Israel--or does he still mean the -priests?--_go aside with the harlots and sacrifice with the common -women of the shrines_! It is vain for the men of a nation to practise -impurity, and fancy that nevertheless they can keep their womankind -chaste. _So the stupid people fall to ruin!_ - -(_Though thou play the harlot, Israel, let not Judah bring guilt on -herself. And come not to Gilgal, and go not up to Beth-Aven, and take -not your oath_ at the Well-of-the-Oath, Beer-Sheba,[503] _By the life -of Jehovah!_ This obvious parenthesis may be either by Hosea or a -later writer; the latter is more probable.[504]) - -_Yea, like a wild heifer Israel has gone wild. How now can Jehovah -feed them like a lamb in a broad meadow?_ To treat this clause -interrogatively is the only way to get sense out of it.[505] -_Wedded to idols is Ephraim: leave him alone._ The participle means -_mated_ or _leagued_. The corresponding noun is used of a wife as -the _mate_ of her husband[506] and of an idolater as the _mate_ of -his idols.[507] The expression is doubly appropriate here, since -Hosea used marriage as the figure of the relation of a deity to his -worshippers. _Leave him alone_--he must go from bad to worse. _Their -drunkenness over, they take to harlotry: her rulers have fallen in -love with shame, or they love shame more than their pride._[508] But -in spite of all their servile worship the Assyrian tempest shall -sweep them away in its trail. _A wind hath wrapt them up in her -skirts; and they shall be put to shame by their sacrifices._ - -This brings the passage to such a climax as Amos loved to crown his -periods. And the opening of the next chapter offers a new exordium. - - - 2. PRIESTS AND PRINCES FAIL. - - HOSEA v. 1-14. - -The line followed in this paragraph is almost parallel to that of chap. -iv., running out to a prospect of invasion. But the charge is directed -solely against the chiefs of the people, and the strictures of chap. -vii. 7 ff. upon the political folly of the rulers are anticipated. - -_Hear this, O Priests, and hearken, House of Israel, and, House -of the King, give ear. For on you is the sentence!_ You, who have -hitherto been the judges, this time shall be judged. - -_A snare have ye become at Mizpeh, and a net spread out upon Tabor, -and a pit have they made deep upon Shittim;_[509] _but I shall be -the scourge of them all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from -Me--for now hast thou played the harlot, Ephraim, Israel is defiled._ -The worship on the high places, whether nominally of Jehovah or not, -was sheer service of Ba'alim. It was in the interest both of the -priesthood and of the rulers to multiply these sanctuaries, but they -were only traps for the people. _Their deeds will not let them return -to their God; for a harlot spirit is in their midst, and Jehovah_, for -all their oaths by Him, _they have not known. But the pride of Israel -shall testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall stumble by -their guilt--stumble also shall Judah with them._ By Israel's pride -many understand God. But the term is used too opprobriously by Amos -to allow us to agree to this. The phrase must mean that Israel's -arrogance, or her proud prosperity, by the wounds which it feels in -this time of national decay, shall itself testify against the people--a -profound ethical symptom to which we shall return when treating of -Repentance.[510] Yet the verse may be rendered in harmony with the -context: _the pride of Israel shall be humbled to his face. With their -sheep and their cattle they go about to seek Jehovah, and shall not -find_ Him; _He hath drawn off from them. They have been unfaithful -to Jehovah, for they have begotten strange children_. A generation -has grown up who are not His. _Now may a month devour them with their -portions!_ Any month may bring the swift invader. Hark! the alarum of -war! How it reaches to the back of the land! - - _Blow the trumpet in Gibeah, the clarion in Ramah;_ - _Raise the slogan, Beth-Aven: "After thee, Benjamin!"_[511] - -_Ephraim shall become desolation in the day of rebuke! Among the -tribes of Israel I have made known what is certain!_ - -At this point, ver. 10, the discourse swerves from the religious to -the political leaders of Israel; but as the princes were included -with the priests in the exordium (ver. 1), we can hardly count this a -new oracle.[512] - -_The princes of Judah are like landmark-removers_--commonest of -cheats in Israel--_upon them will I pour out My wrath like water. -Ephraim is oppressed, crushed is_ his _right, for he wilfully -went after vanity._[513] _And I am as the moth to Ephraim, and as -rottenness to the house of Judah._ Both kingdoms have begun to -fall to pieces, for by this time Uzziah of Judah also is dead, and -the weak politicians are in charge whom Isaiah satirised. _And -Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sore; and Ephraim went -to Asshur and_[514] _sent to King Jareb--King Combative, King -Pick-Quarrel_,[515] a nickname for the Assyrian monarch. The verse -probably refers to the tribute which Menahem sent to Assyria in -738. If so, then Israel has drifted full five years into her "thick -night." _But He cannot heal you, nor dry up your sore. For I_, -Myself, _am like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the -house of Judah. I, I rend and go My way; I carry off and there is -none to deliver._ It is the same truth which Isaiah expressed with -even greater grimness.[516] God Himself is His people's sore; and not -all their statecraft nor alliances may heal what He inflicts. Priests -and Princes, then, have alike failed. A greater failure is to follow. - - - 3. REPENTANCE FAILS. - - HOSEA v. 15-vii. 2. - -Seeing that their leaders are so helpless, and feeling their wounds, -the people may themselves turn to God for healing, but that will -be with a repentance so shallow as also to be futile. They have no -conviction of sin, nor appreciation of how deeply their evils have -eaten. - -This too facile repentance is expressed in a prayer which the -Christian Church has paraphrased into one of its most beautiful -hymns of conversion. Yet the introduction to this prayer, and its -own easy assurance of how soon God will heal the wounds He has made, -as well as the impatience with which God receives it, oblige us to -take the prayer in another sense than the hymn which has been derived -from it.[517] It offers but one more symptom of the optimism of this -light-hearted people, whom no discipline and no judgment can impress -with the reality of their incurable decay. They said of themselves, -_The bricks are fallen, let us build with stones_,[518] and now they -say just as easily and airily of their God, _He hath torn_ only _that -He may heal_: we are fallen, but _He will raise us up again in a day -or two_. At first it is still God who speaks. - -_I am going My way, I am returning to My own place,_[519] _until they -feel their guilt and seek My face. When trouble comes upon them, they -will soon enough seek Me, saying_:[520]-- - - "_Come and let us return to Jehovah:_ - _For He hath rent, that He may heal us,_ - _And hath wounded,_[521] _that He may bind us up._ - _He will bring us to life in a couple of days;_ - _On the third day He will raise us up_ again, - _That we may live in His presence._ - _Let us know, let us follow up_[522] _to know, Jehovah;_ - _As soon as we seek Him, we shall find Him._[523] - _And He shall come to us like the winter-rain,_ - _Like the spring-rain, pouring on the land!_" - -But how is this fair prayer received by God? With incredulity, with -impatience. _What can I make of thee, Ephraim? what can I make of thee, -Judah? since your love is like the morning cloud and like the dew so -early gone._ Their shallow hearts need deepening. Have they not been -deepened enough? _Wherefore I have hewn_ them _by the prophets, I have -slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgment goeth forth like -the lightning._[524] _For leal love have I desired, and not sacrifice; -and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings._ - -That the discourse comes back to the ritual is very intelligible. -For what could make repentance seem so easy as the belief that -forgiveness can be won by simply offering sacrifices? Then the -prophet leaps upon what each new year of that anarchy revealed -afresh--the profound sinfulness of the people. - -_But they in human fashion_[525] _have transgressed the covenant! -There_--he will now point out the very spots--_have they -betrayed_[526] _Me! Gilead is a city of evildoers: stamped with -bloody footprints; assassins_[527] _in troops; a gang of priests -murder on the way to Shechem. Yea, crime_[528] _have they done. In -the house of Israel I have seen horrors: there Ephraim hath played -the harlot: Israel is defiled--Judah as well._[529] - -Truly the sinfulness of Israel is endless. Every effort to redeem -them only discovers more of it. _When I would turn, when I would -heal Israel, then the guilt of Ephraim displays itself and the evils -of Samaria_, these namely: _that they work fraud, and the thief -cometh in_--evidently a technical term for housebreaking[530]--while -_abroad a crew_ of highwaymen _foray. And they never think in their -hearts that all their evil is recorded by Me. Now have their deeds -encompassed them: they are constantly before Me._ - -Evidently real repentance on the part of such a people is impossible. -As Hosea said before, _Their deeds will not let them return._[531] - - - 4. WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. - - HOSEA vii. 3-7. - -There follows now a very difficult passage. The text is corrupt, and -we have no means of determining what precise events are intended. The -drift of meaning, however, is evident. The disorder and licentiousness -of the people are favoured in high places; the throne itself is guilty. - -_With their evil they make a king glad, and princes with their -falsehoods: all of them are adulterers, like an oven heated by the -baker,..._[532] - -_On the day of our king_--some coronation or king's birthday--_the -princes were sick with fever from wine. He stretched forth his hand -with loose fellows_,[533] presumably made them his associates. -_Like an oven have they made_[534] _their hearts with their -intriguing._[535] _All night their anger sleepeth:_[536] _in the -morning it blazes like a flame of fire. All of them glow like an -oven, and devour their rulers: all their kings have fallen, without -one of them calling on Me._ - -An obscure passage upon obscure events; yet so lurid with the -passion of that fevered people in the flagrant years 743-735 that -we can make out the kind of crimes described. A king surrounded by -loose and unscrupulous nobles: adultery, drunkenness, conspiracies, -assassinations: every man striking for himself; none appealing to God. - -From the court, then, downwards, by princes, priests and prophets, -to the common fathers of Israel and their households, immorality -prevails. There is no redeeming feature, and no hope of better -things. For repentance itself the capacity is gone. - - * * * * * - -In making so thorough an indictment of the moral condition of Israel, -it would have been impossible for Hosea not to speak also of the -political stupidity and restlessness which resulted from it. But he -has largely reserved these for that part of his discourse which now -follows, and which we will take in the next chapter. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[495] [Hebrew: ch] formally introduces the charge. - -[496] Lit. _swearing and falsehood_. - -[497] Ninth, sixth, eighth and seventh of the Decalogue. - -[498] Amos vi. 1. - -[499] iv. 4. According to the excellent emendation of Beck (quoted -by Wuensche, p. 142), who instead of [Hebrew: v'mchchmrv] proposes -[Hebrew: chchmrv v'm], for the first word of which there is support -in the LXX. [Greek: ho laos mou]. The second word, [Hebrew: chmr], is -used for priest only in a bad sense by Hosea himself, x. 5, and in -2 Kings xxiii. 5 of the calf-worship and in Zech. i. 4 of the Baal -priesthood. As Wellhausen remarks, this emendation restores sense to -a passage that had none before. "Ver. 4 cannot be directed against -the people, but must rather furnish the connection for ver. 5, and -effect the transference from the reproof of the people (vv. 1-3) to -the reproof of the priests (5 ff.)." The letters [Hebrew: chhn] which -are left over in ver. 4 by the emendation are then justly improved -by Wellhausen (following Zunz) into the vocative [Hebrew: hchhn] and -taken with the following verse. - -[500] The application seems to swerve here. _Thy children_ would -seem to imply that, for this clause at least, the whole people, and -not the priests only, were addressed. But Robertson Smith takes _thy -mother_ as equivalent, not to the nation, but to the priesthood. - -[501] A reading current among Jewish writers and adopted by Geiger, -_Urschrift_, 316. - -[502] Heb. _the heart_, which ancient Israel conceived as the seat of -the intellect. - -[503] Wellhausen thinks this third place-name (cf. Amos v. 5) has -been dropped. It certainly seems to be understood. - -[504] But see above, p. 224. - -[505] So all critics since Hitzig. - -[506] Mal. ii. 4. - -[507] Isa. xliv. 11. - -[508] The verse is very uncertain. LXX. read a different and a -fuller text from _Ephraim_ in the previous verse to _harlotry_ in -this: "Ephraim hath set up for himself stumbling-blocks and chosen -Canaanites." In the first of alternate readings of the latter half -of the verse omit [Hebrew: hvv] as probably a repetition of the end -of the preceding word; the second alternative is adapted from LXX., -which for [Hebrew: mgnh] must have read [Hebrew: mgvnh]. - -[509] So by slightly altering the consonants. But the text is uncertain. - -[510] _Note on the Pride of Israel._--[Hebrew: gvn] means _grandeur_, -and is (1) so used of Jehovah's majesty (Micah v. 3; Isa. ii. 10, 19, -21; xxiv. 14), and (2) of the greatness of human powers (Zech. x. 11; -Ezek. xxxii. 12). In Psalm xlvii. 5 it is parallel to the land of -Israel (cf. Nahum ii. 3). (3) In a grosser sense the word is used of -the rank vegetation of Jordan (Eng. wrongly _swelling_) (Jer. xii. -5; Zech. xi. 3: cf. Job xxxviii. 11). It would appear to be this -grosser sense of _rankness_, _arrogance_, in which Amos vi. 8 takes -it as parallel to _the palaces of Israel_ which _Jehovah loathes and -will destroy_. In Amos viii. 7 the phrase may be used in scorn; yet -some take it even there of God Himself (Buhl, last ed. of Gesenius' -_Lexicon_). - -Now in Hosea it occurs twice in the phrase given above--[Hebrew: v'nh -vfnv shrl gvn] (v. 5, vii. 10). LXX., Targum and some Jewish exegetes -take [Hebrew: 'nh] as a [Hebrew: lv] verb, _to be humbled_, and this -suits both contexts. But the word [Hebrew: vfnv] _to his face_ almost -compels us to take [Hebrew: 'nh] as a [Hebrew: l] verb, _to witness -against_ (cf. Job xvi. 8; Jer. xiv. 7). Hence Wellhausen renders -"With his arrogance Israel witnesseth against himself," and confirms -the plaint of Jehovah--the arrogance being the trust in the ritual -and the feeling of no need to turn from that and repent (cf. vii. -10). Orelli quotes Amos vi. 8 and Nahum ii. 3, and says injustice -cleaves to all Israel's splendour, so it testifies against him. - -But the context, which in both cases speaks of Israel's gradual -decay, demands rather the interpretation that Israel's material -grandeur shows unmistakable signs of breaking down. For the ethical -development of this interpretation, see below, pp. 337 f. - -[511] Probably the ancient war-cry of the clan. Cf. Judg. v. 14. - -[512] Yet ver. 9 goes with ver. 8 (so Wellhausen), and not with ver. -10 (so Ewald). - -[513] For [Hebrew: tzv] read [Hebrew: shv]. - -[514] Wellhausen inserts _Judah_, with that desire to complete a -parallel which seems to me to be overdone by so many critics. If -Judah be inserted we should need to bring the date of these verses -down to the reign of Ahaz in 734. - -[515] Guthe: "King Fighting-Cock." - -[516] See _Isaiah I.-XXXIX._ (Expositor's Bible), pp. 242 ff. - -[517] Cheyne indeed (Introduction to Robertson Smith's _Prophets -of Israel_) takes the prayer to be genuine, but an intrusion. His -reasons do not persuade me. But at least it is clear that there is a -want of connection between the prayer and what follows it, unless the -prayer be understood in the sense explained above. - -[518] Isaiah ix. 10. - -[519] Cf. Isaiah xviii. 4. - -[520] _Saying_: so the LXX. adds and thereby connects chap. v. with -chap. vi. - -[521] Read [Hebrew: vyich]. - -[522] Literally _hunt_, _pursue_. It is the same word as is used of -the unfaithful Israel's pursuit of the Ba'alim, chap. ii. 9. - -[523] So by a rearrangement of consonants ([Hebrew: nmtzhv chn -chshchrnv]) and the help of the LXX. ([Greek: heuresomen auton]) -Giesebrecht (_Beitraege_, p. 208) proposes to read the clause, which -in the traditional text runs, _like the morn His going forth shall be -certain_. - -[524] Read [Hebrew: yetze cha'or mishpati]. - -[525] Or _like Adam_, or (Guthe) _like the heathen_. - -[526] The verb means to prove false to any contract, but especially -marriage. - -[527] Read [Hebrew: mchch]. - -[528] In several passages of the Old Testament the word means -unchastity. - -[529] Here the LXX. close chap. vi., taking 11 _b_ along with chap. -vii. Some think the whole of ver. 11 to be a Judaean gloss. - -[530] Cf. Joel ii. 9, and the New Testament phrase _to come as a thief_. - -[531] v. 4. - -[532] The text is unsound. Heb.: "like an oven kindled by the baker, -the stirrer (stoker or kneader?) resteth from kneading the dough -until it be leavened." LXX.: [Greek: hos klibanos kaiomenos eis -pepsin katakaumatos apo tes phlogos apo phyraseos steatos heos tou -xymothenai auto]--_i.e._ for [Hebrew: shvt] they read [Hebrew: lchvt -sh]. Oort emends Heb. to [Hebrew: fhv hm vv'r], which gets rid of the -difficulty of a feminine participle with [Hebrew: tnvr]. Wellhausen -omits whole clause as a gloss on ver. 6. But if there be a gloss it -properly commences with [Hebrew: shvt]. - -[533] LXX. [Greek: metatoimon]?? - -[534] LXX. _kindled_, [Hebrew: ba'erav]. So Vollers, _Z.A.T.W._, III. -250. - -[535] Lit. _lurking_. - -[536] Massoretic Text with different vowels reads _their baker_. LXX. -[Greek: Ephraim]! - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - - _A PEOPLE IN DECAY: II. POLITICALLY_ - - HOSEA vii. 8-x. - - -Moral decay means political decay. Sins like these are the gangrene -of nations. It is part of Hosea's greatness to have traced this, -a proof of that versatility which distinguishes him above other -prophets. The most spiritual of them all, he is at the same time the -most political. We owe him an analysis of repentance to which the New -Testament has little to add;[537] but he has also left us a criticism -of society and of politics in Israel, unrivalled except by Isaiah. We -owe him an intellectual conception of God,[538] which for the first -time in Israel exploded idolatry; yet he also is the first to define -Israel's position in the politics of Western Asia. With the simple -courage of conscience Amos had said to the people: You are bad, -therefore you must perish. But Hosea's is the insight to follow the -processes by which sin brings forth death--to trace, for instance, -the effects of impurity upon a nation's powers of reproduction, as -well as upon its intellectual vigour. - -So intimate are these two faculties of Hosea, that in chapters -devoted chiefly to the sins of Israel we have already seen him -expose the political disasters that follow. But from the point we -have now reached--chap. vii. 8--the proportion of his prophesying is -reversed: he gives us less of the sin and more of the social decay -and political folly of his age. - - - I. THE CONFUSION OF THE NATION. - - HOSEA vii. 8-viii. 3. - -Hosea begins by summing up the public aspect of Israel in two -epigrams, short but of marvellous adequacy (vii. 8):-- - - _Ephraim--among the nations he mixeth himself:_ - _Ephraim has become a cake not turned._ - -It is a great crisis for any nation to pass from the seclusion of -its youth and become a factor in the main history of the world. But -for Israel the crisis was trebly great. Their difference from all -other tribes about them had struck the Canaanites on their first -entry to the land:[539] their own earliest writers had emphasised -their seclusion as their strength;[540] and their first prophets -consistently deprecated every overture made by them either to Egypt -or to Assyria. We feel the force of the prophets' policy when we -remember what happened to the Philistines. These were a people as -strong and as distinctive as Israel, with whom at one time they -disputed possession of the whole land. But their position as traders -in the main line of traffic between Asia and Africa rendered the -Philistines peculiarly open to foreign influence. They were now -Egyptian vassals, now Assyrian victims; and after the invasion of -Alexander the Great their cities became centres of Hellenism, while -the Jews upon their secluded hills still stubbornly held unmixed -their race and their religion. This contrast, so remarkably developed -in later centuries, has justified the prophets of the eighth in -their anxiety that Israel should not annul the advantages of her -geographical seclusion by trade or treaties with the Gentiles. But it -was easier for Judaea to take heed to the warning than for Ephraim. -The latter lies as open and fertile as her sister-province is barren -and aloof. She has many gates into the world, and they open upon many -markets. Nobler opportunities there could not be for a nation in the -maturity of its genius and loyal to its vocation:-- - - _Rejoice, O Zebulun, in thine outgoings:_ - _They shall call the nations to the mountain;_ - _They shall suck of the abundance of the seas,_ - _And of the treasure that is stored in the sands._[541] - -But in the time of his outgoings Ephraim was not sure of himself -nor true to his God, the one secret and strength of the national -distinctiveness. So he met the world weak and unformed, and, instead -of impressing it, was by it dissipated and confused. The tides of a -lavish commerce scattered abroad the faculties of the people, and -swept back upon their life alien fashions and tempers, to subdue -which there was neither native strength nor definiteness of national -purpose. All this is what Hosea means by the first of his epigrams: -_Ephraim--among the nations he lets himself be poured out_, or -_mixed up_. The form of the verb does not elsewhere occur; but it -is reflexive, and the meaning of the root is certain. _Balal_ is to -_pour out_, or _mingle_, as of oil in the sacrificial flour. Yet -it is sometimes used of a mixing which is not sacred, but profane -and hopeless. It is applied to the first great confusion of mankind, -to which a popular etymology has traced the name Babel, as if for -Balbel. Derivatives of the stem bear the additional ideas of staining -and impurity. The alternative renderings which have been proposed, -_lets himself be soaked_ and _scatters himself_ abroad like wheat -among tares, are not so probable, yet hardly change the meaning.[542] -Ephraim wastes and confuses himself among the Gentiles. The nation's -character is so disguised that Hosea afterwards nicknames him -Canaan;[543] their religion so filled with foreign influences that he -calls the people the harlot of the Ba'alim. - -If the first of Hosea's epigrams satirises Israel's foreign -relations, the second, with equal brevity and wit, hits off the -temper and constitution of society at home. For the metaphor of which -this epigram is composed Hosea has gone to the baker. Among all -classes in the East, especially under conditions requiring haste, -there is in demand a round flat scone, which is baked by being laid -on hot stones or attached to the wall of a heated oven. The whole art -of baking consists in turning the scone over at the proper moment. If -this be mismanaged, it does not need a baker to tell us that one side -may be burnt to a cinder, while the other remains raw. _Ephraim_, -says Hosea, _is an unturned cake._ - -By this he may mean one of several things, or all of them together, -for they are infectious of each other. There was, for instance, the -social condition of the people. What can better be described as an -unturned scone than a community one half of whose number are too -rich, and the other too poor? Or Hosea may refer to that unequal -distribution of religion through life with which in other parts of -his prophecy he reproaches Israel. They keep their religion, as -Amos more fully tells us, for their temples, and neglect to carry -its spirit into their daily business. Or he may refer to Israel's -politics, which were equally in want of thoroughness. They rushed -hotly at an enterprise, but having expended so much fire in the -beginning of it, they let the end drop cold and dead. Or he may wish -to satirise, like Amos, Israel's imperfect culture--the pretentious -and overdone arts, stuck excrescence-wise upon the unrefined bulk -of the nation, just as in many German principalities last century -society took on a few French fashions in rough and exaggerated forms, -while at heart still brutal and coarse. Hosea may mean any one of -these things, for the figure suits all, and all spring from the -same defect. Want of thoroughness and equable effort was Israel's -besetting sin, and it told on all sides of his life. How better -describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived -religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half-baked scone? - -We who are so proud of our political bakers, we who scorn the rapid -revolutions of our neighbours and complacently dwell upon our equable -ovens, those slow and cautious centuries of political development -which lie behind us--have we anything better than our neighbours, -anything better than Israel, to show in our civilisation? Hosea's -epigram fits us to the letter. After all those ages of baking, -society is still with us _an unturned scone_: one end of the nation -with the strength burnt out of it by too much enjoyment of life, the -other with not enough of warmth to be quickened into anything like -adequate vitality. No man can deny that this is so; we are able to -live only by shutting our hearts to the fact. Or is religion equably -distributed through the lives of the religious portion of our nation? -Of late years religion has spread, and spread wonderfully, but of how -many Christians is it still true that they are but half-baked--living -a life one side of which is reeking with the smoke of sacrifice, -while the other is never warmed by one religious thought. We may -have too much religion if we confine it to one day or one department -of life: our worship overdone, with the sap and the freshness burnt -out of it, cindery, dusty, unattractive, fit only for crumbling; our -conduct cold, damp and heavy, like dough the fire has never reached. - -Upon the theme of these two epigrams the other verses of this -chapter are variations. Has Ephraim mixed himself among the peoples? -_Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not_, -senselessly congratulating himself upon the increase of his trade and -wealth, while he does not feel that these have sucked from him all -his distinctive virtue. _Yea, grey hairs are sprinkled upon him, and -he knoweth it not._ He makes his energy the measure of his life, as -Isaiah also marked,[544] but sees not that it all means waste and -decay. _The pride of Israel testifieth to his face, yet_--even when -the pride of the nation is touched to the quick by such humiliating -overtures as they make to both Assyria and Egypt[545]--_they do not -return to Jehovah their God, nor seek Him for all this_. - -With virtue and single-hearted faith have disappeared intellect and -the capacity for affairs. _Ephraim is become like a silly dove--a dove -without heart_, to the Hebrews the organ of the wits of a man--_they -cry to Egypt, they go off to Assyria_. Poor pigeon of a people, -fluttering from one refuge to another! But _as they go I will throw -over them My net, like a bird of the air I will bring them down. I -will punish them as their congregation have heard_--this text as it -stands[546] can only mean "in the manner I have publicly proclaimed in -Israel." _Woe to them that they have strayed from Me! Damnation to them -that they have rebelled against Me! While I would have redeemed them, -they spoke lies about Me. And they have never cried unto Me with their -heart, but they keep howling on their beds for corn and new wine._ No -real repentance theirs, but some fear of drought and miscarriage of -the harvests, a sensual and servile sorrow in which they wallow. They -seek God with no heart, no true appreciation of what He is, but use -the senseless means by which the heathen invoke their gods: _they cut -themselves,_[547] _and_ so _apostatise from Me! And yet it was I who -disciplined them, I strengthened their arm, but with regard to Me they -kept thinking_ only _evil!_ So fickle and sensitive to fear, _they -turn_ indeed, _but not upwards_; no Godward conversion theirs. In their -repentance _they are like a bow which swerves_--off upon some impulse -of their ill-balanced natures. _Their princes must fall by the sword -because of the bitterness_--we should have expected "falseness"--_of -their tongue: this is their scorn in the land of Egypt!_ To the -allusion we have no key. - -With so false a people nothing can be done. Their doom is inevitable. So - - "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war." - -_To thy mouth with the trumpet! The Eagle is down upon the house of -Jehovah!_[548] Where the carcase is, there are the eagles gathered -together. _For_--to sum up the whole crisis--_they have transgressed -My covenant, and against My law have they rebelled. To Me they cry, -My God, we know Thee, we Israel!_ What does it matter? _Israel hath -spurned the good:_[549] _the Foe must pursue him._ - -It is the same climax of inevitable war to which Amos led up his -periods; and a new subject is now introduced. - - - 2. ARTIFICIAL KINGS AND ARTIFICIAL GODS. - - HOSEA viii. 4-13. - -The curse of such a state of dissipation as that to which Israel had -fallen is that it produces no men. Had the people had in them "the -root of the matter," had there been the stalk and the fibre of a -national consciousness and purpose, it would have blossomed to a man. -In the similar time of her outgoings upon the world Prussia had her -Frederick the Great, and Israel, too, would have produced a leader, a -heaven-sent king, if the national spirit had not been squandered on -foreign trade and fashions. But after the death of Jeroboam every man -who rose to eminence in Israel, rose, not on the nation, but only on -the fevered and transient impulse of some faction; and through the -broken years one party monarch was lifted after another to the brief -tenancy of a blood-stained throne. They were not from God, these -monarchs; but man-made, and sooner or later man-murdered. With his -sharp insight Hosea likens these artificial kings to the artificial -gods, also the work of men's hands; and till near the close of his -book the idols of the sanctuary and the puppets of the throne form -the twin targets of his scorn. - -_They have made kings, but not from Me; they have made princes, but -I knew not. With their silver and their gold they have manufactured -themselves idols, only that they_[550] _may be cut off_--king after -king, idol upon idol. _He loathes thy Calf, O Samaria_, the thing -of wood and gold which thou callest Jehovah. And God confirms this. -_Kindled is Mine anger against them! How long will they be incapable of -innocence?_--unable to clear themselves of guilt! The idol is still in -his mind. _For from Israel is it also_--as much as the puppet-kings; -_a workman made it, and no god is it. Yea, splinters shall the Calf of -Samaria become._[551] Splinters shall everything in Israel become. -_For they sow the wind, and the whirlwind shall they reap._ Indeed like -a storm Hosea's own language now sweeps along; and his metaphors are -torn into shreds upon it. _Stalk it hath none: the sprout brings forth -no grain: if it were to bring forth, strangers would swallow it._[552] -Nay, _Israel hath let herself be swallowed up! Already are they become -among the nations like a vessel there is no more use for._ Heathen -empires have sucked them dry. _They have gone up to Assyria like a -runaway wild-ass. Ephraim hath hired lovers._[553] It is again the -note of their mad dissipation among the foreigners. _But if they_ thus -_give themselves away among the nations, I must gather them in, and_ -then _shall they have to cease a little from the anointing of a king -and princes_.[554] This wilful roaming of theirs among the foreigners -shall be followed by compulsory exile, and all their unholy artificial -politics shall cease. The discourse turns to the other target. _For -Ephraim hath multiplied altars--to sin; altars are his own--to sin. -Were I to write for him by myriads My laws,_[555] _as those of a -stranger would they be accounted. They slay burnt-offerings for Me and -eat flesh._[556] _Jehovah hath no delight in them. Now must He remember -their guilt and make visitation upon their sin. They--to Egypt--shall -return_....[557] Back to their ancient servitude must they go, as -formerly He said He would withdraw them to the wilderness.[558] - - - 3. THE EFFECTS OF EXILE. - - HOSEA ix. 1-9. - -Hosea now turns to describe the effects of exile upon the social and -religious habits of the people. It must break up at once the joy -and the sacredness of their lives. Every pleasure will be removed, -every taste offended. Indeed, even now, with their conscience of -having deserted Jehovah, they cannot pretend to enjoy the feasts of -the Ba'alim in the same hearty way as the heathen with whom they -mix. But, whether or no, the time is near when nature-feasts and all -other religious ceremonies--all that makes life glad and regular and -solemn--shall be impossible. - -_Rejoice not, O Israel, to_ the pitch of _rapture like the heathen, -for thou hast played the harlot from thy God; a harlot's hire hast -thou loved on all threshing-floors._[559] _Threshing-floor and -wine-vat shall ignore_[560] _them, and the new wine shall play them -false. They shall not abide in the land of Jehovah, but Ephraim shall -return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat what is unclean. They -shall not pour libations to Jehovah, nor prepare_[561] _for Him -their sacrifices. Like the bread of sorrows shall their bread_[562] -_be; all that eat of it shall be defiled:_ yea, _their bread shall -be_ only _for their appetite; they shall not bring it_[563] _to the -temple of Jehovah._ He cannot be worshipped off His own land. They -will have to live like animals, divorced from religion, unable to -hold communion with their God. _What shall ye do for days_[564] _of -festival, or for a day of pilgrimage to Jehovah? For lo,_ they _shall -be gone forth from destruction_,[565] the shock and invasion of -their land, only _that Egypt may gather them in, Memphis give them -sepulture, nettles inherit their jewels of silver, thorns_ come up -_in their tents_. The threat of exile still wavers between Assyria -and Egypt. And in Egypt Memphis is chosen as the destined grave of -Israel; for even then her Pyramids and mausoleums were ancient and -renowned, her vaults and sepulchres were countless and spacious. - -But what need is there to seek the future for Israel's doom, when -already this is being fulfilled by the corruption of her spiritual -leaders? - -_The days of visitation have come, have come the days of requital. -Israel already experiences_[566] _them! A fool is the prophet, raving -mad the man of the spirit._ The old ecstasy of Saul's day has become -delirium and fanaticism.[567] Why? _For the mass of thy guilt and -the multiplied treachery! Ephraim acts the spy with my God._ There -is probably a play on the name, for with the meaning a _watchman_ -for God it is elsewhere used as an honourable title of the prophets. -_The prophet is a fowler's snare upon all his ways. Treachery--they -have made it profound in the very house of their God._[568] _They -have done corruptly, as in the days of Gibeah. Their iniquity is -remembered; visitation is made on their sin._ - - * * * * * - -These then were the symptoms of the profound political decay which -followed on Israel's immorality. The national spirit and unity of the -people had disappeared. Society--half of it was raw, half of it was -baked to a cinder. The nation, broken into factions, produced no man -to lead, no king with the stamp of God upon him. Anarchy prevailed; -monarchs were made and murdered. There was no prestige abroad, -nothing but contempt among the Gentiles for a people whom they had -exhausted. Judgment was inevitable by exile--nay, it had come already -in the corruption of the spiritual leaders of the nation. - -Hosea now turns to probe a deeper corruption still. - - - 4. "THE CORRUPTION THAT IS THROUGH LUST." - - HOSEA ix. 10-17: cf. iv. 11-14. - -Those who at the present time are enforcing among us the revival of a -Paganism--without the Pagan conscience--and exalting licentiousness -to the level of an art, forget how frequently the human race has -attempted their experiment, with far more sincerity than they -themselves can put into it, and how invariably the result has been -recorded by history to be weariness, decay and death. On this -occasion we have the story told to us by one who to the experience of -the statesman adds the vision of the poet. - -The generation to which Hosea belonged practised a periodical -unchastity under the alleged sanctions of nature and religion. And, -although their prophet told them that--like our own apostates from -Christianity--they could never do so with the abandon of the Pagans, -for they carried within them the conscience and the memory of a higher -faith, it appears that even the fathers of Israel resorted openly -and without shame to the licentious rites of the sanctuaries. In an -earlier passage of his book Hosea insists that all this must impair -the people's intellect. _Harlotry takes away the brains._[569] He has -shown also how it confuses the family, and has exposed the old delusion -that men may be impure and keep their womankind chaste.[570] But now he -diagnoses another of the inevitable results of this sin. After tracing -the sin, and the theory of life which permitted it, to their historical -beginnings at the entry of the people into Canaan, he describes how -the long practice of it, no matter how pretentious its sanctions, -inevitably leads not only to exterminating strifes, but to the decay of -the vigour of the nation, to barrenness and a diminishing population. - -_Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel, like the first fruit -on a fig-tree in her first season I saw your fathers._ So had the -lusty nation appeared to God in its youth; in that dry wilderness all -the sap and promise of spring were in its eyes, because it was still -pure. But _they--they came to Ba'al-Peor_--the first of the shrines -of Canaan which they touched--_and dedicated themselves to the Shame, -and became as abominable as the object of their love_. _Ephraim_--the -_Fruitful_ name is emphasised--_their glory is flown away like a -bird. No more birth, no more motherhood, no more conception!_[571] -_Blasted is Ephraim, withered the root of them, fruit they produce -not: yea, even when they beget children I slay the darlings of their -womb. Yea, though they bring up their sons I bereave them_, till -they are _poor in men. Yea, woe upon themselves also, when I look -away from them! Ephraim_--again the _Fruitful_ name is dragged to -the front--_for prey, as I have seen, are his sons destined._[572] -_Ephraim_--he _must lead his sons to the slaughter_. - -And the prophet interrupts with his chorus: _Give them, O LORD--what -wilt Thou give them? Give them a miscarrying womb and breasts that -are dry!_ - -_All their mischief is in Gilgal_--again the Divine voice strikes the -connection between the national worship and the national sin--_yea, -there do I hate them: for the evil of their doings from My house I will -drive them. I will love them no more: all their nobles are rebels._[573] - -And again the prophet responds: _My God will cast them away, for they -have not hearkened to Him, and they shall be vagabonds among the -nations_. - -Some of the warnings which Hosea enforces with regard to this sin -have been instinctively felt by mankind since the beginnings of -civilisation, and are found expressed among the proverbs of nearly -all the languages.[574] But I am unaware of any earlier moralist -in any literature who traced the effects of national licentiousness -in a diminishing population, or who exposed the persistent delusion -of libertine men that they themselves may resort to vice, yet keep -their womankind chaste. Hosea, so far as we know, was the first -to do this. History in many periods has confirmed the justice of -his observations, and by one strong voice after another enforced -his terrible warnings. The experience of ancient Persia and Egypt; -the languor of the Greek cities; the "deep weariness and sated -lust" which in Imperial Rome "made human life a hell"; the decay -which overtook Italy after the renascence of Paganism without the -Pagan virtues; the strife and anarchy that have rent every court -where, as in the case of Henri Quatre, the king set the example of -libertinage; the incompetence, the poltroonery, the treachery, that -have corrupted every camp where, as in French Metz in 1870, soldiers -and officers gave way so openly to vice; the checks suffered by -modern civilisation in face of barbarism because its pioneers mingled -in vice with the savage races they were subduing; the number of great -statesmen falling by their passion, and in their fall frustrating -the hopes of nations; the great families worn out by indulgence; -the homes broken up by infidelities; the tainting of the blood of a -new generation by the poisonous practices of the old,--have not all -these things been in every age, and do they not still happen near -enough to ourselves to give us a great fear of the sin which causes -them all? Alas! how slow men are to listen and to lay to heart! Is -it possible that we can gild by the names of frivolity and piquancy -habits the wages of which are death? Is it possible that we can enjoy -comedies which make such things their jest? We have among us many -who find their business in the theatre, or in some of the periodical -literature of our time, in writing and speaking and exhibiting as -closely as they dare to limits of public decency. When will they -learn that it is not upon the easy edge of mere conventions that -they are capering, but upon the brink of those eternal laws whose -further side is death and hell--that it is not the tolerance of their -fellow-men they are testing, but the patience of God Himself? As for -those loud few who claim licence in the name of art and literature, -let us not shrink from them as if they were strong or their high -words true. They are not strong, they are only reckless; their claims -are lies. All history, the poets and the prophets, whether Christian -or Pagan, are against them. They are traitors alike to art, to love, -and to every other high interest of mankind. - -It may be said that a large part of the art of the day, which takes -great licence in dealing with these subjects, is exercised only -by the ambition to expose that ruin and decay which Hosea himself -affirms. This is true. Some of the ablest and most popular writers -of our time have pictured the facts, which Hosea describes, with -so vivid a realism that we cannot but judge them to be inspired to -confirm his ancient warnings, and to excite a disgust of vice in a -generation which otherwise treats vice so lightly. But if so, their -ministry is exceeding narrow, and it is by their side that we best -estimate the greatness of the ancient prophet. Their transcript of -human life may be true to the facts it selects, but we find in it -no trace of facts which are greater and more essential to humanity. -They have nothing to tell us of forgiveness and repentance, and yet -these are as real as the things they describe. Their pessimism is -unrelieved. They see the _corruption that is in the world through -lust_; they forget that there is an _escape_ from it.[575] It is -Hosea's greatness that, while he felt the vices of his day with all -needed thoroughness and realism, he yet never allowed them to be -inevitable or ultimate, but preached repentance and pardon, with the -possibility of holiness even for his depraved generation. It is the -littleness of the Art of our day that these great facts are forgotten -by her, though once she was their interpreter to men. When she -remembers them the greatness of her past will return. - - - 5. ONCE MORE: PUPPET-KINGS AND PUPPET-GODS. - - HOSEA x. - -For another section, the tenth chapter, the prophet returns to the -twin targets of his scorn: the idols and the puppet-kings. But few -notes are needed. Observe the reiterated connection between the -fertility of the land and the idolatry of the people. - -_A wanton vine is Israel; he lavishes his fruit:_[576] _the more his -fruit, the more he made his altars; the goodlier his land, the more -goodly he made his_ macceboth, or _sacred pillars. False is the heart -of them: now must they atone for it. He shall break the neck of their -altars; He shall ruin their pillars. For already they are saying, -No king have we, for we have not feared Jehovah, and the king--what -could he do for us? Speaking_[577] _of words, swearing of false -oaths, making of bargains--till law_[578] _breaks out like weeds in -the furrows of the field._ - -_For the Calf of Beth-Aven the inhabitants_[579] _of Samaria shall -be anxious: yea, mourn for him shall his people, and his priestlings -shall writhe for him--for his glory that it is banished from him._ In -these days of heavy tribute shall the gold of the golden calf be safe? -_Yea, himself shall they pack_[580] _to Assyria; he shall be offered -as tribute to King Pick-Quarrel._[581] _Ephraim shall take disgrace, -and Israel be ashamed because of his counsel._[582] _Undone Samaria! -Her king like a chip_[583] _on the face of the waters!_ This may refer -to one of the revolutions in which the king was murdered. But it seems -more appropriate to the final catastrophe of 724-1: the fall of the -kingdom, and the king's banishment to Assyria. If the latter, the verse -has been inserted; but the following verse would lead us to take these -disasters as still future. _And the high places of idolatry shall be -destroyed, the sin of Israel; thorn and thistle shall come up on their -altars. And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the -hills, Fall on us._ It cannot be too often repeated: these handmade -gods, these chips of kings, shall be swept away together. - -Once more the prophet returns to the ancient origins of Israel's -present sins, and once more to their shirking of the discipline -necessary for spiritual results, but only that he may lead up as -before to the inevitable doom. _From_[584] _the days of Gibeah thou -hast sinned, O Israel. There have they remained_--never progressed -beyond their position there--_and this without war overtaking them -in Gibeah against the dastards_.[585] _As soon as I please, I -can chastise them, and peoples shall be gathered against them in -chastisement for their double sin._ This can scarcely be, as some -suggest, the two calves at Bethel and Dan. More probably it is still -the idols and the man-made kings. Now he returns to the ambition of -the people for spiritual results without a spiritual discipline. - -_And Ephraim is a broken-in heifer, that loveth to thresh._[586] _But -I have come on her fair neck. I will yoke Ephraim; Judah must plough; -Jacob must harrow for himself._ It is all very well for the unmuzzled -beast[587] to love the threshing, but harder and unrewarded labours of -ploughing and harrowing have to come before the floor be heaped with -sheaves. Israel must not expect religious festival without religious -discipline. _Sow for yourselves righteousness; then shall ye reap the -fruit of God's leal love._[588] _Break up your fallow ground, for it -is time to seek Jehovah, till He come and shower salvation_[589] _upon -you._[590] _Ye have ploughed wickedness; disaster have ye reaped: -ye have eaten the fruit of falsehood; for thou didst trust in thy -chariots,_[591] _in the multitude of thy warriors. For the tumult_ of -war _shall arise among thy tribes,_[592] _and all thy fenced cities -shall be ruined, as Salman beat to ruin Beth-Arbel_[593] _in the day of -war: the mother shall be broken on the children_--presumably the land -shall fall with the falling of her cities. _Thus shall I do to you, O -house of Israel,_[594] _because of the evil of your evil: soon shall -the king of Israel be undone--undone._ - -The political decay of Israel, then, so deeply figured in all these -chapters, must end in utter collapse. Let us sum up the gradual -features of this decay: the substance of the people scattered abroad; -the national spirit dissipated; the national prestige humbled; the -kings mere puppets; the prophets corrupted; the national vigour -sapped by impurity; the idolatry conscious of its impotence. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[537] See below, Chap. XXII. - -[538] See Chap. XXI. - -[539] Numb. xxiii. 9 _b_; Josh. ii. 8. - -[540] Deut. xxxiii. 27. - -[541] Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19. - -[542] [Hebrew: yitbolel] from [Hebrew: vll]. In Phoen. [Hebrew: vll] -seems to have been used as in Israel of the sacrificial mingling of -oil and flour (cf. Robertson Smith, _Religion of Semites_, I. 203); -in Arabic _ball_ is to weaken a strong liquid with water, while -_balbal_ is to be confused, disordered. The Syriac _balal_ is to mix. -Some have taken Hosea's [Hebrew: tvll] as if from [Hebrew: vll] (Isa. -xxx. 24; Job vi. 5), usually understood as a mixed crop of wheat -and inferior vegetables for fodder; but there is reason to believe -[Hebrew: vll] means rather fresh corn. The derivation from [Hebrew: -vlh] to grow old, does not seem probable. - -[543] xii. 8. - -[544] ix. 9 f. - -[545] See above, p. 261, and below, p. 337. - -[546] But the reading is very doubtful. - -[547] For [Hebrew: tgrrv] read [Hebrew: tgddv]. - -[548] Wellhausen's objection to the first clause, that one does not -set a trumpet to one's _gums_, which [Hebrew: chech] literally means, -is beside the mark. [Hebrew: chech] is more than once used of the -mouth as a whole (Job viii. 7; Prov. v. 3). The second clause gives -the reason of the trumpet, the alarum trumpet, in the first. Read -[Hebrew: nshr ch] (so also Wellhausen). - -[549] Cf. Amos: _Seek Me_ = _Seek the good_; and Jesus: _Not every -one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord; but he that doeth the will of My -Father in heaven_. - -[550] So LXX., but Hebrew _it_. - -[551] Davidson's _Syntax_, Sec. 136, Rem. 1, and Sec. 71, Rom. 4. - -[552] So by the accents runs the verse, but, as Wellhausen has -pointed out, both its sense and its assonance are better expressed by -another arrangement: _Hath it grown up?_ then _it hath no shoot, nor -bringeth forth fruit_. - - en lo semach, - b'li ya'aseh qemach. - -Yet to this there is a grammatical obstacle. - -[553] Wellhausen's reading _to Egypt with love gifts_ scarcely suits -the verb _go up_. Notice the play upon P(h)ere', _wild-ass_ and -Ephra'[im]. - -[554] So LXX. reads. Heb.: _they shall involve themselves with -tribute to the king of princes_, presumably the Assyrian monarch. - -[555] So LXX. - -[556] Text obscure. - -[557] LXX. addition here is plainly borrowed from ix. 3. For the -reasons for omitting ver. 14 see above, p. 223. - -[558] ii. 16. - -[559] On this verse see more particularly below, pp. 340 ff. - -[560] So LXX. - -[561] Read [Hebrew: 'rchv]. Cf. with the whole passage iii. 4 f. - -[562] [Hebrew: lchmm] for [Hebrew: lhm]. - -[563] [Hebrew: yavi'u]. - -[564] Plural: so LXX. - -[565] Others read _they are gone to Assyria_. - -[566] Literally _knows_. See below, p. 321, _n._ 9. - -[567] See above, p. 28. - -[568] So, after the LXX., by taking [Hebrew: h'mkv] with this verse, -8, instead of with ver. 9. - -[569] iv. 12. - -[570] iv. 13, 14. - -[571] Here, between vv. 11 and 12, Wellhausen with justice proposes -to insert ver. 16. - -[572] So Wellhausen, after LXX.; probably correct. - -[573] So we may attempt to echo the play on the words. - -[574] Cf., _e.g._, the _Proverbs of Ptah-Hotep_ the Egyptian, _circa_ -2500 B.C. "There is no prudence in taking part in it, and thousands -of men destroy themselves in order to enjoy a moment, brief as a -dream, while they gain death so as to know it. It is a villainous -... that of a man who excites himself (?); if he goes on to carry it -out, his mind abandons him. For as for him who is without repugnance -for such an [act], there is no good sense at all in him."--From the -translation in _Records of the Past_, Second Series, Vol. III., p. 24. - -[575] 2 Peter i. - -[576] Doubtful. The Heb. text gives an inappropriate if not -impossible clause, even if [Hebrew: yoshvh] be taken from a root -[Hebrew: shvch], to _set_ or _produce_ (Barth, _Etym. Stud._, -66). LXX.: [Greek: ho karpos euthenon autes] (A.Q. [Greek: autes -euthenon]), "her [the vine's] fruit flourishing." Some parallel is -required to [Hebrew: vkk] of the first clause; and it is possible -that it may have been from a root [Hebrew: shuach] or [Hebrew: -shich], corresponding to Arabic sah, "to wander" in the sense of -scattering or being scattered. - -[577] After LXX. - -[578] Doubtful. Lawsuits? - -[579] "Calf," "inhabitants"--so LXX. - -[580] LXX. supplies. - -[581] See above, p. 263. - -[582] Very uncertain. Wellhausen reads _from his idol_, [Hebrew: -m'tzvv]. - -[583] [Hebrew: ktzf]: compare Arabic qsf, "to break"; but there is -also the assonant Arabic qsb, "reed." The Rabbis translate _foam_: -cf. the other meaning of [Hebrew: ktzf]--outbreak of anger, which -suggests _bubble_. - -[584] Rosenmueller: _more than in_. These days are evidently not the -beginning of the kingship under Saul (so Wellhausen), for with that -Hosea has no quarrel, but either the idolatry of Micah (Judg. xvii. 3 -ff.), or more probably the crime of Benjamin (Judg. xix. 22). - -[585] Obscure; text corrupt, and in next verse uncertain. - -[586] For the tense of the verse both participles are surely needed. -Wellhausen thinks two redundant. - -[587] Deut. xxv. 4; 1 Cor. ix. 9; 1 Tim. v. 18. - -[588] LXX.: _fruit of life_. - -[589] [Hebrew: tzdk] surely in the sense in which we find it in Isa. -xl. ff. LXX.: _the fruits of righteousness shall be yours_. - -[590] We shall return to this passage in dealing with Repentance; see -p. 345. - -[591] So LXX. Wellhausen suspects authenticity of the whole clause. - -[592] Wellhausen proposes to read [Hebrew: v'rd] for [Hebrew: v'mch], -but there is no need. - -[593] See above, p. 216, _n._ 5. - -[594] So LXX. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - - _THE FATHERHOOD AND HUMANITY OF GOD_ - - HOSEA xi. - - -From the thick jungle of Hosea's travail, the eleventh chapter breaks -like a high and open mound. The prophet enjoys the first of his two -clear visions--that of the Past.[595] Judgment continues to descend. -Israel's Sun is near his setting, but before he sinks-- - - "A lingering light he fondly throws - On the dear hills, whence first he rose." - -Across these confused and vicious years, through which he has painfully -made his way, Hosea sees the tenderness and the romance of the early -history of his people. And although he must strike the old despairing -note--that, by the insincerity of the present generation, all the -ancient guidance of their God must end in this!--yet for some moments -the blessed memory shines by itself, and God's mercy appears to triumph -over Israel's ingratitude. Surely their sun will not set; Love must -prevail. To which assurance a later voice from the Exile has added, in -verses 10 and 11, a confirmation suitable to its own circumstances. - - _When Israel was a child, then I loved him,_ - _And from Egypt I called_ him _to be My son._ - - -The early history of Israel was a romance. Think of it historically. -Before the Most High there spread an array of kingdoms and peoples. -At their head were three strong princes--sons indeed of God, if all -the heritage of the past, the power of the present and the promise of -the future be tokens. Egypt, wrapt in the rich and jewelled web of -centuries, basked by Nile and Pyramid, all the wonder of the world's -art in his dreamy eyes. Opposite him Assyria, with barer but more -massive limbs, stood erect upon his highlands, grasping in his sword -the promise of the world's power. Between the two, and using both -of them, yet with his eyes westward on an empire of which neither -dreamed, the Phoenician on his sea-coast built his storehouses and -sped his navies, the promise of the world's wealth. It must ever -remain the supreme romance of history, that the true son of God, -bearer of His love and righteousness to all mankind, should be found, -not only outside this powerful trinity, but in the puny and despised -captive of one of them--in a people that was not a state, that had -not a country, that was without a history, and, if appearances be -true, was as yet devoid of even the rudiments of civilisation--a -child people and a slave. - -That was the Romance, and Hosea gives us the Grace which made it. -_When Israel was a child, then I loved him._ The verb is a distinct -impulse: _I began, I learned, to love him_. God's eyes, that passed -unheeding the adult princes of the world, fell upon this little slave -boy, and He loved him and gave him a career: _from Egypt I called_ -him _to be My son_. - -Now, historically, it was the persuasion of this which made Israel. -All their distinctiveness and character, their progress from a -level with other nomadic tribes to the rank of the greatest -religious teachers of humanity, started from the memory of these -two facts--that God loved them, and that God called them. This was -an unfailing conscience--the obligation that they were not their -own, the irresistible motive to repentance even in their utmost -backsliding, the unquenchable hope of a destiny in their direst days -of defeat and scattering. - -Some, of course, may cavil at the narrow, national scale on which such -a belief was held, but let them remember that it was held in trust for -all mankind. To snarl that Israel felt this sonship to God only for -themselves, is to forget that it is they who have persuaded humanity -that this is the only kind of sonship worth claiming. Almost every -other nation of antiquity imagined a filial relation to the deity, but -it was either through some fabulous physical descent, and then often -confined only to kings and heroes, or by some mystical mingling of the -Divine with the human, which was just as gross and sensuous. Israel -alone defined the connection as a historical and a moral one. _The sons -of God are begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor -of the will of man, but of God._[596] Sonship to God is something not -physical, but moral and historical, into which men are carried by a -supreme awakening to the Divine love and authority. Israel, it is true, -felt this only in a general way for the nation as a whole;[597] but -their conception of it embraced just those moral contents which form -the glory of Christ's doctrine of the Divine sonship of the individual. -The belief that God is our Father does not come to us with our carnal -birth--except in possibility: the persuasion of it is not conferred by -our baptism except in so far as that is Christ's own seal to the fact -that God Almighty loves us and has marked us for His own. To us sonship -is a becoming, not a being--the awakening of our adult minds into the -surprise of a Father's undeserved mercy, into the constraint of His -authority and the assurance of the destiny He has laid up for us. It is -conferred by love, and confirmed by duty. Neither has power brought it, -nor wisdom, nor wealth, but it has come solely with the wonder of the -knowledge that God loves us, and has always loved us, as well as in the -sense, immediately following, of a true vocation to serve Him. Sonship -which is less than this is no sonship at all. But so much as this is -possible to every man through Jesus Christ. His constant message is -that the Father loves every one of us, and that if we _know_[598] that -love, we are God's sons indeed. To them who feel it, adoption into the -number and privileges of the sons of God comes with the amazement and -the romance which glorified God's choice of the child-slave Israel. -_Behold_, they cry, _what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon -us, that we should be called the sons of God_.[599] - -But we cannot be loved by God and left where we are. Beyond the -grace there lies the long discipline and destiny. We are called from -servitude to freedom, from the world to God--each of us to run a -course, and do a work, which can be done by no one else. That Israel -did not perceive this was God's sore sorrow with them. - -_The more I_[600] _called to them, the farther they went from Me._[601] -_They to the Ba'alim kept sacrificing, and to images offering -incense._ But God persevered with grace, and the story is at first -continued in the figure of Fatherhood with which it commenced; then -it changes to the metaphor of a humane man's goodness to his beasts. -_Yet I taught Ephraim to walk, holding them on Mine arms,_[602] _but -they knew not that I healed them_--presumably when they fell and hurt -themselves. _With the cords of a man I would draw them, with bands of -love; and I was to them as those who lift up the yoke on their jaws, -and gently would I give them to eat._[603] It is the picture of a team -of bullocks, in charge of a kind driver. Israel are no longer the -wanton young cattle of the previous chapter, which need the yoke firmly -fastened on their neck,[604] but a team of toiling oxen mounting some -steep road. There is no use now for the rough ropes, by which frisky -animals are kept to their work; but the driver, coming to his beasts' -heads, by the gentle touch of his hand at their mouths and by words -of sympathy _draws_ them after him. _I drew them with cords of a man, -and with bands of love._ Yet there is the yoke, and it would seem that -certain forms of this, when beasts were working upwards, as we should -say _against the collar_, pressed and rubbed upon them, so that the -humane driver, when he came to their heads, eased the yoke with his -hands. _I was as they that take the yoke off their jaws_;[605] and -then, when they got to the top of the hill, he would rest and feed -them. That is the picture, and however uncertain we may feel as to some -of its details, it is obviously a passage--Ewald says "the earliest of -all passages"--in which "human means precisely the same as love." It -ought to be taken along with that other passage in the great Prophecy -of the Exile, where God is described as He that led them through _the -deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble: as -a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave him -rest_.[606] - -Thus then the figure of the fatherliness of God changes into that -of His gentleness or humanity. Do not let us think that there is -here either any descent of the poetry or want of connection between -the two figures. The change is true, not only to Israel's, but to -our own experience. Men are all either the eager children of happy, -irresponsible days, or the bounden, plodding draught-cattle of life's -serious burdens and charges. Hosea's double figure reflects human -life in its whole range. Which of us has not known this fatherliness -of the Most High, exercised upon us, as upon Israel, throughout our -years of carelessness and disregard? It was God Himself who taught -and trained us then;-- - - "When through the slippery paths of youth - With heedless steps I ran, - Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe, - And led me up to man." - -Those speedy recoveries from the blunders of early wilfulness, those -redemptions from the sins of youth--happy were we if we knew that -it was _He who healed us_. But there comes a time when men pass -from leading-strings to harness--when we feel faith less and duty -more--when our work touches us more closely than our God. Death must -be a strange transformer of the spirit, yet surely not more strange -than life, which out of the eager buoyant child makes in time the -slow automaton of duty. It is such a stage which the fourth of these -verses suits, when we look up, not so much for the fatherliness as -for the gentleness and humanity of our God. A man has a mystic power -of a very wonderful kind upon the animals over whom he is placed. On -any of these wintry roads of ours we may see it, when a kind carter -gets down at a hill, and, throwing the reins on his beast's back, -will come to its head and touch it with his bare hands, and speak to -it as if it were his fellow; till the deep eyes fill with light, and -out of these things, so much weaker than itself, a touch, a glance, a -word, there will come to it new strength to pull the stranded waggon -onward. The man is as a god to the beast, coming down to help it, -and it almost makes the beast human that he does so. Not otherwise -does Hosea feel the help which God gives His own on the weary hills -of life. We need not discipline, for our work is discipline enough, -and the cares we carry of themselves keep us straight and steady. -But we need sympathy and gentleness--this very humanity which the -prophet attributes to our God. God comes and takes us by the head; -through the mystic power which is above us, but which makes us like -itself, we are lifted to our task. Let no one judge this incredible. -The incredible would be that our God should prove any less to us than -the merciful man is to his beast. But we are saved from argument -by experience. When we remember how, as life has become steep and -our strength exhausted, there has visited us a thought which has -sharpened to a word, a word which has warmed to a touch, and we have -drawn ourselves together and leapt up new men, can we feel that -God was any less in these things, than in the voice of conscience -or the message of forgiveness, or the restraints of His discipline? -Nay, though the reins be no longer felt, God is at our head, that we -should not stumble nor stand still. - -Upon this gracious passage there follows one of those swift revulsions -of feeling, which we have learned almost to expect in Hosea. His -insight again overtakes his love. The people will not respond to -the goodness of their God; it is impossible to work upon minds so -fickle and insincere. Discipline is what they need. _He shall return -to the land of Egypt, or Asshur shall be his king_ (it is still an -alternative), _for they have refused to return_ to Me....[607] 'Tis but -one more instance of the age-long apostasy of the people. _My people -have a bias_[608] _to turn from Me; and though they_ (the prophets) -_call them upwards, none of them can lift them_.[609] - -Yet God is God, and though prophecy fail He will attempt His Love -once more. There follows the greatest passage in Hosea--deepest if -not highest of his book--the breaking forth of that exhaustless mercy -of the Most High which no sin of man can bar back nor wear out. - - _How am I to give thee up, O Ephraim?_ - How _am I to let thee go, O Israel?_ - _How am I to give thee up?_ - _Am I to make an Admah of thee--a Seboim?_ - _My heart is turned upon Me, - My compassions begin to boil:_ - _I will not perform the fierceness of Mine anger,_ - _I will not turn to destroy Ephraim;_ - _For God am I and not man,_ - _The Holy One in the midst of thee, yet I come not to - consume!_[610] - -Such a love has been the secret of Hosea's persistence through so -many years with so faithless a people, and now, when he has failed, -it takes voice to itself and in its irresistible fulness makes this -last appeal. Once more before the end let Israel hear God in the -utterness of His Love! - -The verses are a climax, and obviously to be succeeded by a pause. -On the brink of his doom, will Israel turn to such a God, at such a -call? The next verse, though dependent for its promise on this same -exhaustless Love, is from an entirely different circumstance, and -cannot have been put by Hosea here.[611] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[595] See above, p. 253. - -[596] St. John's Gospel, i. 12, 13. - -[597] Or occasionally for the king as the nation's representative. - -[598] See below, pp. 321-3. - -[599] 1 John iii. - -[600] So rightly the LXX. - -[601] LXX., rightly separating [Hebrew: mippeneihem] into [Hebrew: -mippanai] and [Hebrew: hem], which latter is the nominative to the -next clause. - -[602] So again rightly the LXX. - -[603] The reading is uncertain. The [Hebrew: lo] of the following -verse (6) must be read as the Greek reads it, as [Hebrew: lov], and -taken with ver. 5. - -[604] x. 11. - -[605] Or lifted forward from the neck to the jaws. - -[606] Isa. lxiii. 13, 14. - -[607] Ver. 6 has an obviously corrupt text, and, weakening as it does -the climax of ver. 5, may be an insertion. - -[608] _Are hung_ or _swung towards turning away from Me_. - -[609] This verse is also uncertain. - -[610] For [Hebrew: v'r], which makes nonsense, read [Hebrew: lv'vr], -_to consume_, or with Wellhausen amend further [Hebrew: lv'r vvh l], -_I am not willing to consume_. - -[611] _They will follow Jehovah; like a lion He will roar, and they -shall hurry trembling from the west. Like birds shall they hurry -trembling from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I -will bring them to their homes--'tis the oracle of Jehovah._ Not only -does this verse contain expressions which are unusual to Hosea, and a -very strange metaphor, but it is not connected either historically or -logically with the previous verse. The latter deals with the people -before God has scattered them--offers them one more chance before -exile comes on them. But in this verse they are already scattered, -and just about to be brought back. It is such a promise as both in -language and metaphor was common among the prophets of the Exile. In -the LXX. the verse is taken from chap. xi. and put with chap. xii. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - - _THE FINAL ARGUMENT_ - - HOSEA xii.-xiv. 1. - - -The impassioned call with which last chapter closed was by no means an -assurance of salvation: _How am I to give thee up, Ephraim? how am I -to let thee go, Israel?_ On the contrary, it was the anguish of Love, -when it hovers over its own on the brink of the destruction to which -their wilfulness has led them, and before relinquishing them would -seek, if possible, some last way to redeem. Surely that fatal morrow -and the people's mad leap into it are not inevitable! At least, before -they take the leap, let the prophet go back once more upon the moral -situation of to-day, go back once more upon the past of the people, and -see if he can find anything else to explain that bias to apostasy[612] -which has brought them to this fatal brink--anything else which may -move them to repentance even there. So in chaps. xii. and xiii. Hosea -turns upon the now familiar trail of his argument, full of the Divine -jealousy, determined to give the people one other chance to turn; but -if they will not, he at least will justify God's relinquishment of -them. The chapters throw even a brighter light upon the temper and -habits of that generation. They again explore Israel's ancient history -for causes of the present decline; and, in especial, they cite the -spiritual experience of the Father of the nation, as if to show that -what of repentance was possible for him is possible for his posterity -also. But once more all hope is seen to be vain; and Hosea's last -travail with his obstinate people closes in a doom even more awful than -its predecessors. - -The division into chapters is probably correct; but while chap. xiii. -is well-ordered and clear, the arrangement, and in parts the meaning, -of chap. xii. are very obscure. - - - 1. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR FATHER JACOB. - - HOSEA xii. - -In no part even of the difficult Book of Hosea does the sacred text -bristle with more problems. It may well be doubted whether the -verses lie in their proper order, or, if they do, whether we have -them entire as they came from the prophet, for the connection is -not always perceptible.[613] We cannot believe, however, that the -chapter is a bundle of isolated oracles, for the analogy between -Jacob and his living posterity runs through the whole of it,[614] -and the refrain that God must requite upon the nation their deeds is -found both near the beginning and at the end of the chapter.[615] -One is tempted to take the two fragments about the Patriarch (vv. -4, 5, and 13 f.) by themselves, and the more so that ver. 8 would -follow so suitably on either ver. 2 or ver. 3. But this clue is not -sufficient; and till one more evident is discovered, it is perhaps -best to keep to the extant arrangement.[616] - -As before, the argument starts from the falseness of Israel, which is -illustrated in the faithlessness of their foreign relations. _Ephraim -hath compassed Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, and -Judah_ ...[617] _Ephraim herds the wind_[618] _and hunts the sirocco. -All day long they heap up falsehood and fraud:_[619] _they strike -a bargain with Assyria, and carry oil to Egypt_, as Isaiah also -complained.[620] - -_Jehovah hath a quarrel with Israel_[621] _and is about to visit upon -Jacob his ways; according to his deeds will He requite him. In the -womb he supplanted his brother, and in his man's strength he wrestled -with God._[622] _Yea, he wrestled with_ the _Angel and prevailed; he -wept and besought of Him mercy. At Bethel he met with Him, and there -He spake with him_[623] (or _with us_--that is, in the person of -our father)....[624] _So thou by thy God_--by His help,[625] for no -other way is possible except, like thy father, through wrestling with -Him--_shouldest return: keep leal love and justice, and wait on thy -God without ceasing_.[626] To this passage we shall return in dealing -with Hosea's doctrine of Repentance. - -In characteristic fashion the discourse now swerves from the ideal to -the real state of the people. - -_Canaan!_ So the prophet nicknames his mercenary generation.[627] -_With false balances in his hand, he loves to defraud. For Ephraim -said_, Ah but _I have grown rich, I have won myself wealth._[628] -_None of my gains can touch me with guilt which is sin._[629] _But -I, Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt--I could make thee dwell -in tents again, as in the days of the Assembly_ in Horeb--I could -destroy all this commercial civilisation of thine, and reduce thee to -thine ancient level of nomadic life--_and I spake to the prophets: -it was I who multiplied vision, and by the hand of the prophets gave -parables. If Gilead_ be for _idolatry, then shall it become vanity!_ -If _in Gilgal_--Stone-Circle--_they sacrifice bullocks,_[630] -_stone-heaps shall their altars become among the furrows of the -field._ One does not see the connection of these verses with the -preceding. But now the discourse oscillates once more to the national -father, and the parallel between his own and his people's experience. - -_And Jacob fled to the land_[631] _of Aram, and Israel served for -a wife, and for a wife he herded_ sheep. _And by a prophet Jehovah -brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was shepherded. And -Ephraim hath given bitter provocation; but his blood-guiltiness shall -be upon him, and his Lord shall return it to him._ - -I cannot trace the argument here. - - - 2. THE LAST JUDGMENT. - - HOSEA xiii.-xiv. 1. - -The crisis draws on. On the one hand Israel's sin, accumulating, -bulks ripe for judgment. On the other the times grow more fatal, or -the prophet more than ever feels them so. He will gather once again -the old truths on the old lines--the great past when Jehovah was God -alone, the descent to the idols and the mushroom monarchs of to-day, -the people, who once had been strong, sapped by luxury, forgetful, -stupid, not to be roused. The discourse has every mark of being -Hosea's latest. There is clearness and definiteness beyond anything -since chap. iv. There are ease and lightness of treatment, a playful -sarcasm, as if the themes were now familiar both to the prophet and -his audience. But, chiefly, there is the passion--so suitable to last -words--of how different it all might have been, if to this crisis -Israel had come with store of strength instead of guilt. How these -years, with their opening into the great history of the world, might -have meant a birth for the nation, which instead was lying upon them -like a miscarried child in the mouth of the womb! It was a fatality -God Himself could not help in. Only death and hell remained. Let -them, then, have their way! Samaria must expiate her guilt in the -worst horrors of war. - -Instead of with one definite historical event, this last effort of -Hosea opens more naturally with a summary of all Ephraim's previous -history. The tribe had been the first in Israel till they took to idols. - -_Whenever Ephraim spake there was trembling._[632] _Prince_[633] _was -he in Israel; but he fell into guilt through the Ba'al, and so--died. -Even now they continue to sin and make them a smelting of their -silver, idols after their own model,_[634] _smith's work all of it. -To them_--to such things--_they speak! Sacrificing men kiss calves!_ -In such unreason have they sunk. They cannot endure. _Therefore shall -they be like the morning cloud and like the dew that early vanisheth, -like chaff which whirleth up from the floor and like smoke from the -window. And I was thy God_[635] _from the land of Egypt; and god -besides Me thou knowest not, nor saviour has there been any but -Myself. I shepherded_[636] _thee in the wilderness, in the land of -droughts_--long before they came among the gods of fertile Canaan. -But once they came hither, _the more pasture they had, the more they -ate themselves full, and the more they ate themselves full, the more -was their heart uplifted, so they forgat Me. So that I must be_[637] -_to them like a lion, like a leopard on the way I must leap._[638] _I -will fall on them like a bear robbed of its young, and will tear the -caul of their hearts, and will devour them like a lion--wild beasts -shall rend them._[639] - -When _He hath destroyed thee, O Israel--who then may help thee?_[640] -_Where is thy king now? that he may save thee, or all thy princes? -that they may rule thee;_[641] _those of whom thou hast said, Give -me a king and princes._ Aye, _I give thee a king in Mine anger, and -I take him away in My wrath!_ Fit summary of the short and bloody -reigns of these last years. - -_Gathered is Ephraim's guilt, stored up is his sin._ The nation is -pregnant--but with guilt! _Birth pangs seize him, but_--the figure -changes, with Hosea's own swiftness, from mother to child--_he is an -impracticable son;_[642] _for_ this _is no time to stand in the mouth -of the womb_. The years that might have been the nation's birth are by -their own folly to prove their death. Israel lies in the way of its -own redemption--how truly this has been forced home upon them in one -chapter after another! Shall God then step in and work a deliverance on -the brink of death? _From the hand of Sheol shall I deliver them? from -death shall I redeem them?_ Nay, let death and Sheol have their way. -_Where are thy plagues, O death? where thy destruction, Sheol?_ Here -with them. _Compassion is hid from Mine eyes._ - -This great verse has been very variously rendered. Some have taken -it as a promise: _I will deliver ... I will redeem...._ So the -Septuagint translated, and St. Paul borrowed, not the whole Greek -verse, but its spirit and one or two of its terms, for his triumphant -challenge to death in the power of the Resurrection of Christ.[643] -As it stands in Hosea, however, the verse must be a threat. The last -clause unambiguously abjures mercy, and the statement that His people -will not be saved, for God cannot save them, is one in thorough -harmony with all Hosea's teaching.[644] - -An appendix follows with the illustration of the exact form which -doom shall take. As so frequently with Hosea, it opens with a play -upon the people's name, which at the same time faintly echoes the -opening of the chapter. - -_Although he among his brethren_[645] _is the fruit-bearer_--yaphri', -he Ephraim--_there shall come an east wind, a wind of Jehovah rising -from the wilderness, so that his fountain dry up and his spring be -parched_. He--_himself_, not the Assyrian, but Menahem, who had to -send gold to the Assyrian--_shall strip the treasury of all its -precious jewels. Samaria must bear her guilt: for she hath rebelled -against her God._ To this simple issue has the impenitence of the -people finally reduced the many possibilities of those momentous -years; and their last prophet leaves them looking forward to the -crash which came some dozen years later in the invasion and captivity -of the land. _They shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be -dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped up._ Horrible -details, but at that period certain to follow every defeat in war. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[612] xi. 7. - -[613] This is especially true of vv. 11 and 12. - -[614] Even in the most detachable portion, vv. 8-10, where the -[Hebrew: vn] of ver. 9 seems to refer to the [Hebrew: vvnv] of ver. 4. - -[615] Viz. in vv. 3 and 15. - -[616] Beer indeed, at the close of a very ingenious analysis of the -chapter (_Z.A.T.W._, 1893, pp. 281 ff.), claims to have proved that -it contains "eine wohlgegliederte Rede des Propheten" (p. 292). But -he reaches this conclusion only by several forced and precarious -arguments. Especially unsound do his pleas appear that in 8_b_ -[Hebrew: l'shk] is a play upon the root-meaning of [Hebrew: chn'n], -"lowly"; that [Hebrew: chn'n], in analogy to the [Hebrew: vvtn] of -ver. 4, is the crude original, the raw material, of the Ephraim of -ver. 9; and that [Hebrew: mv'd chm] is "the determined time" of the -coming judgment on Israel. - -[617] Something is written about Judah (remember what was said above -about Hosea's treble parallels), but the text is too obscure for -translation. The theory that it has been altered by a later Judaean -writer in favour of his own people is probably correct: the Authorised -Version translates in favour of Judah; so too Guthe in Kautzsch's -_Bibel_. But an adverse statement is required by the parallel clauses, -and the Hebrew text allows this: _Judah is still wayward with God, -and with the Holy One who is faithful_. So virtually Ewald, Hitzig, -Wuensche, Nowack and Cheyne. But Cornill and Wellhausen read the second -half of the clause as [Hebrew: ntzmd 'm-kdshm], _profanes himself with -Qedeshim_ (_Z.A.T.W._, 1887, pp. 286 ff.). - -[618] Why should not Hosea, the master of many forced phrases, have -also uttered this one? This in answer to Wellhausen. - -[619] So LXX., reading [Hebrew: shv] for [Hebrew: shd]. - -[620] Isa. xxx. 6. - -[621] Heb. _Judah_, but surely Israel is required by the next verse, -which is a play upon the two names Israel and Jacob. - -[622] _Supplanted_ is 'aqab, the presumable root of Ja'aqab (Jacob). -_Wrestled with God_ is Sarah eth Elohim, the presumable origin of -Yisra'el (Israel). - -[623] Heb. _us_, LXX. _them_. - -[624] Ver. 6--_And Jehovah God of Hosts, Jehovah is His memorial_, -_i.e._ name--is probably an insertion for the reasons mentioned -above, pp. 204 f. - -[625] This, the most natural rendering of the Hebrew phrase, has been -curiously omitted by Beer, who says that [Hebrew: vlhch] can only -mean _to thy God_. Hitzig: "durch deinen Gott." - -[626] Some take these words as addressed by Jehovah at Bethel to the -Patriarch. - -[627] So nearly all interpreters. Hitzig aptly quotes Polybius, _De -Virtute_, L. ix.:[Greek: dia ten emphyton Phoinixi pleonexian, k.t.l.]. -One might also refer to the Romans' idea of the "Punica fides." - -[628] Or, full man's strength: ct. ver. 4. - -[629] But the LXX. reads: _All his gains shalt not be found of him -because of the iniquity which he has sinned_; and Wellhausen emends -this to: _All his gain sufficeth not for the guilt which it has -incurred_. - -[630] Others _to demons_. - -[631] Field, but here in sense of territory. See _Hist. Geog._, pp. -79 f. - -[632] Uncertain. - -[633] [Hebrew: nsh] for [Hebrew: nsh]. - -[634] Read with Ewald [Hebrew: chtvntm]. LXX. read [Hebrew: chtmvnt]. - -[635] Here the LXX. makes the insertion noted on pp. 203, 226. - -[636] So LXX., [Hebrew: r'tch]. - -[637] Read [Hebrew: ve'ehi]. - -[638] [Hebrew: 'oshvr], usually taken as first fut. of [Hebrew: -shvr], to lurk. But there is a root of common use in Arabic, sar, to -spring up suddenly, of wine into the head or of a lion on its prey; -sawar, "the springer," is one of the Arabic names for lion. - -[639] We shall treat this passage later in connection with Hosea's -doctrine of the knowledge of God: see pp. 330 f. - -[640] After the LXX. - -[641] Read with Houtsma [Hebrew: vshftvch shrch vchl]. - -[642] Literally a _son not wise_, perhaps a name given to children -whose birth was difficult. - -[643] The LXX. reads: [Greek: Pou he dike sou, thanate; pou to kentron -sou, hade;] But Paul says: [Greek: Pou sou, thanate, to nikos; pou sou, -thanate, to kentron;] I Cor. xv. 55 (Westcott and Hort's Ed.). - -[644] The following is a list of the interpretations of verse 14. - -A. Taken as a threat 1. "It is I who redeemed you from the grip of -the grave, and who delivered you from death--but now I will call up -the words (_sic_) of death against you; for repentance is hid from -My eyes." So Raschi. 2. "I would have redeemed them from the grip of -Sheol, etc., if they had been wise, but being foolish I will bring -on them the plagues of death." So Kimchi, Eichhorn, Simson, etc. 3 -"Should I" or "shall I deliver them from the hand of Sheol, redeem -them from death?" etc., as in the text above. So Wuensche, Wellhausen, -Guthe in Kautzsch's _Bibel._ etc. - -B. Taken as a promise. "From the hand of Sheol I will deliver -them, from death redeem them," etc. So Umbreit, Ewald, Hitzig and -Authorised and Revised English Versions. In this case repentance -in the last clause must be taken as _resentment_ (Ewald). But, as -Ewald sees, the whole verse must then be put in a parenthesis, as an -ejaculation of promise in the midst of a context that only threatens. -Some without change of word render: "I will be thy plagues, O death? -I will be thy sting, O hell." So the Authorised English Version. - -[645] Text doubtful. - - - - - CHAPTER XX - - "_I WILL BE AS THE DEW_" - - HOSEA xiv. 2-10. - - -Like the Book of Amos, the Book of Hosea, after proclaiming the -people's inevitable doom, turns to a blessed prospect of their -restoration to favour with God. It will be remembered that we decided -against the authenticity of such an epilogue in the Book of Amos; -and it may now be asked, how can we come to any other conclusion -with regard to the similar peroration in the Book of Hosea? For the -following reasons. - -We decided against the genuineness of the closing verses of Amos, -because their sanguine temper is opposed to the temper of the whole -of the rest of the book, and because they neither propose any ethical -conditions for the attainment of the blessed future, nor in their -picture of the latter do they emphasise one single trace of the -justice, or the purity, or the social kindliness, on which Amos has -so exclusively insisted as the ideal relations of Israel to Jehovah. -It seemed impossible to us that Amos could imagine the perfect -restoration of his people in the terms only of requickened nature, -and say nothing about righteousness, truth and mercy towards the -poor. The prospect which now closes his book is psychologically alien -to him, and, being painted in the terms of later prophecy, may be -judged to have been added by some prophet of the Exile, speaking from -the standpoint, and with the legitimate desires, of his own day. - -But the case is very different for this epilogue in Hosea. In the -first place, Hosea has not only continually preached repentance, and -been, from his whole affectionate temper of mind, unable to believe -repentance impossible; but he has actually predicted the restoration -of his people upon certain well-defined and ethical conditions. In -chap. ii. he has drawn for us in detail the whole prospect of God's -successful treatment of his erring spouse. Israel should be weaned -from their sensuousness and its accompanying trust in idols by a -severe discipline, which the prophet describes in terms of their -ancient wanderings in the wilderness. They should be reduced, as at -the beginning of their history, to moral converse with their God; and -abjuring the Ba'alim (later chapters imply also their foreign allies -and foolish kings and princes) should return to Jehovah, when He, -having proved that these could not give them the fruits of the land -they sought after, should Himself quicken the whole course of nature -to bless them with the fertility of the soil and the friendliness -even of the wild beasts. - -Now in the epilogue and its prospect of Israel's repentance we find -no feature, physical or moral, which has not already been furnished -by these previous promises of the book. All their ethical conditions -are provided; nothing but what they have conceived of blessing is -again conceived. Israel is to abjure senseless sacrifice and come -to Jehovah with rational and contrite confession.[646] She is to -abjure her foreign alliances.[647] She is to trust in the fatherly -love of her God.[648] He is to heal her,[649] and His anger is to -turn away.[650] He is to restore nature, just as described in chap. -ii., and the scenery of the restoration is borrowed from Hosea's own -Galilee. There is, in short, no phrase or allusion of which we can -say that it is alien to the prophet's style or environment, while the -very keynotes of his book--_return, backsliding, idols the work of -our hands, such pity as a father hath_, and perhaps even the _answer_ -or _converse_ of verse 9--are all struck once more. - -The epilogue then is absolutely different from the epilogue to -the Book of Amos, nor can the present expositor conceive of the -possibility of a stronger case for the genuineness of any passage -of Scripture. The sole difficulty seems to be the place in which we -find it--a place where its contradiction to the immediately preceding -sentence of doom is brought out into relief. We need not suppose, -however, that it was uttered by Hosea in immediate proximity to -the latter, nor even that it formed his last word to Israel. But -granting only (as the above evidence obliges us to do) that it is -the prophet's own, this fourteenth chapter may have been a discourse -addressed by him at one of those many points when, as we know, he -had some hope of the people's return. Personally, I should think -it extremely likely that Hosea's ministry closed with that final, -hopeless proclamation in chap. xiii.: no other conclusion was -possible so near the fall of Samaria, and the absolute destruction of -the Northern Kingdom. But Hosea had already in chap. ii. painted the -very opposite issue as a possible ideal for his people; and during -some break in those years when their insincerity was less obtrusive, -and the final doom still uncertain, the prophet's heart swung to -its natural pole in the exhaustless and steadfast love of God, and -he uttered his unmingled gospel. That either himself or the unknown -editor of his prophecies should have placed it at the very end of his -book is not less than what we might have expected. For if the book -were to have validity beyond the circumstances of its origin, beyond -the judgment which was so near and so inevitable, was it not right to -let something else than the proclamation of this latter be its last -word to men? was it not right to put as the conclusion of the whole -matter the ideal eternally valid for Israel--the gospel which is ever -God's last word to His people?[651] - -At some point or other, then, in the course of his ministry, there -was granted to Hosea an open vision like to the vision which he has -recounted in the second chapter. He called on the people to repent. -For once, and in the power of that Love to which he had already said -all things are possible, it seemed to him as if repentance came. -The tangle and intrigue of his generation fell away; fell away the -reeking sacrifices and the vain show of worship. The people turned -from their idols and puppet-kings, from Assyria and from Egypt, and -with contrite hearts came to God Himself, who, healing and loving, -opened to them wide the gates of the future. It is not strange that -down this spiritual vista the prophet should see the same scenery -as daily filled his bodily vision. Throughout Galilee Lebanon[652] -dominates the landscape. You cannot lift your eyes from any spot of -Northern Israel without resting them upon the vast mountain. From the -unhealthy jungles of the Upper Jordan, the pilgrim lifts his heart to -the cool hill air above, to the ever-green cedars and firs, to the -streams and waterfalls that drop like silver chains off the great -breastplate of snow. From Esdraelon and every plain the peasants -look to Lebanon to store the clouds and scatter the rain; it is not -from heaven but from Hermon that they expect the dew, their only -hope in the long drought of summer. Across Galilee and in Northern -Ephraim, across Bashan and in Northern Gilead, across Hauran and on -the borders of the desert, the mountain casts its spell of power, its -lavish promise of life.[653] Lebanon is everywhere the summit of the -land, and there are points from which it is as dominant as heaven. - -No wonder then that our northern prophet painted the blessed future -in the poetry of the Mountain--its air, its dew and its trees. -Other seers were to behold, in the same latter days, the mountain -of the Lord above the tops of the mountains; the ordered city, her -steadfast walls salvation, and her open gates praise; the wealth of -the Gentiles flowing into her, profusion of flocks for sacrifice, -profusion of pilgrims; the great Temple and its solemn services; and -_the glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, fir-tree and pine and -box-tree together, to beautify the place of My Sanctuary_.[654] But, -with his home in the north, and weary of sacrifice and ritual, weary -of everything artificial whether it were idols or puppet-kings, Hosea -turns to the _glory of Lebanon_ as it lies, untouched by human tool -or art, fresh and full of peace from God's own hand. Like that other -seer of Galilee, Hosea in his vision of the future _saw no temple -therein_.[655] His sacraments are the open air, the mountain breeze, -the dew, the vine, the lilies, the pines; and what God asks of men -are not rites nor sacrifices, but life and health, fragrance and -fruitfulness, beneath the shadow and the Dew of His Presence. - -_Return, O Israel, to Jehovah thy God, for thou hast stumbled by -thine iniquity. Take with you words_[656] _and return unto Jehovah. -Say unto Him, Remove iniquity altogether, and take good, so will we -render the calves_[657] _of our lips_; confessions, vows, these are the -sacrificial offerings God delights in. Which vows are now registered:-- - - _Asshur shall not save us;_ - _We will not ride upon horses_ (from Egypt); - _And we will say no more, "O our God," to the work of our - hands:_ - _For in Thee the fatherless findeth a father's pity._ - -Alien help, whether in the protection of Assyria or the cavalry which -Pharaoh sends in return for Israel's homage; alien gods, whose idols -we have ourselves made,--we abjure them all, for we remember how Thou -didst promise to show a father's love to the people whom Thou didst -name, for their mother's sins, Lo-Ruhamah, the Unfathered. Then God -replies:-- - - _I will heal their backsliding,_ - _I will love them freely:_ - _For Mine anger is turned away from them._ - _I will be as the dew unto Israel:_ - _He shall blossom as the lily,_ - _And strike his roots_ deep _as Lebanon;_ - _His branches shall spread,_ - _And his beauty shall be as the olive-tree,_ - _And his smell as Lebanon--_ - -smell of clear mountain air with the scent of the pines upon it. The -figure in the end of ver. 6 seems forced to some critics, who have -proposed various emendations, such as "like the fast-rooted trees -of Lebanon,"[658] but any one who has seen how the mountain himself -rises from great roots, cast out across the land like those of some -giant oak, will not feel it necessary to mitigate the metaphor. - -The prophet now speaks:-- - - _They shall return and dwell in His shadow._ - _They shall live well-watered as a garden,_ - _Till they flourish like the vine,_ - _And be fragrant like the wine of Lebanon._[659] - -God speaks:-- - - _Ephraim, what has he_[660] _to do any more with idols!_ - _I have spoken_ for him, _and I will look after him._ - _I am like an ever-green fir;_ - _From Me is thy fruit found._ - -This version is not without its difficulties; but the alternative -that God is addressed and Ephraim is the speaker--_Ephraim_ says, -_What have I to do any more with idols? I answer and look to Him: -I am like a green fir-tree; from me is Thy fruit found_--has even -greater difficulties,[661] although it avoids the unusual comparison -of the Deity with a tree. The difficulties of both interpretations -may be overcome by dividing the verse between God and the people:-- - - _Ephraim! what has he to do any more with idols:_ - _I have spoken_ for him, _and will look after him._ - -In this case the _speaking_ would be intended in the same sense as -the _speaking_ in chap. ii. to the heavens and earth, that they might -_speak_ to the _corn and wine_.[662] Then Ephraim replies:-- - - _I am like an ever-green fir-tree;_ - _From me is Thy fruit found._ - -But the division appears artificial, and the text does not suggest -that the two _I_'s belong to different speakers. The first version -therefore is the preferable. - - * * * * * - -Some one has added a summons to later generations to lay this book -to heart in face of their own problems and sins. May we do so for -ourselves! - - _Who is wise, that he understands these things?_ - _Intelligent, that he knows them?_ - _Yea, straight are the ways of Jehovah,_ - _And the righteous shall walk therein, but sinners shall - stumble upon them._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[646] Cf. vi. 6, etc. - -[647] Cf. xii. 2, etc. - -[648] Cf. i. 7; ii. 22, 25. - -[649] Cf. xi. 4. - -[650] Cf. xi. 8, 9. - -[651] Since preparing the above for the press there has come into -my hands Professor Cheyne's "Introduction" to the new edition of -Robertson Smith's _The Prophets of Israel_, in which (p. xix.) he -reaches with regard to Hosea xiv. 2-10 conclusions entirely opposite -to those reached above. Professor Cheyne denies the passage to Hosea -on the grounds that it is akin in language and imagery and ideas to -writings of the age which begins with Jeremiah, and which among other -works includes the Song of Songs. But, as has been shown above, the -"language, imagery and ideas" are all akin to what Professor Cheyne -admits to be genuine prophecies of Hosea; and the likeness to them -of, _e.g._, Jer. xxxi. 10-20 may be explained on the same ground as -so much else in Jeremiah, by the influence of Hosea. The allusion -in ver. 3 suits Hosea's own day more than Jeremiah's. Nor can I -understand what Professor Cheyne means by this: "The spirituality -of the tone of vers. 1-3 is indeed surprising (contrast the picture -in Hos. v. 6)." Spirituality surprising in the book that contains -"I will have love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God -rather than burnt-offerings"! The verse, v. 6, he would contrast -with xiv. 1-3 is actually one in which Hosea says that when they go -"with flocks and herds" Israel shall not find God! He says that "to -understand Hosea aright we must omit it" (_i.e._ the whole epilogue). -But after the argument I have given above it will be plain that if -we "understand Hosea aright" we have every reason _not_ "to omit -it." His last contention, that "to have added anything to the stern -warning in xiii. 16 would have robbed it of half its force," is fully -met by the considerations stated above on p. 310. - -[652] By Lebanon in the fourteenth chapter and almost always in the -Old Testament we must understand not the western range now called -Lebanon, for that makes no impression on the Holy Land, its bulk -lying too far to the north, but Hermon, the southmost and highest -summits of Anti-Lebanon. See _Hist. Geog._, pp. 417 f. - -[653] Full sixty miles off, in the Jebel Druze, the ancient Greek -amphitheatres were so arranged that Hermon might fill the horizon of -the spectators. - -[654] Isa. lx. 13. - -[655] Revelation of St. John xxi. 22. - -[656] On all this exhortation see below, p. 343. - -[657] LXX. _fruit_, [Hebrew: fr] for [Hebrew: frm]; the whole verse -is obscure. - -[658] So Guthe; some other plant Wellhausen, who for [Hebrew: vch] -reads [Hebrew: vlchv]. - -[659] Ver. 8 obviously needs emendation. The Hebrew text contains at -least one questionable construction, and gives no sense: "They that -dwell in his shadow shall turn, and revive corn and flourish like -the vine, and his fame," etc. To cultivate corn and be themselves -like a vine is somewhat mixed. The LXX. reads: [Greek: epistrepsousin -kai kathiountai hypo ten skepen autou, zesontai kai methysthesontai -sito; kai exanthesei ampelos mnemosynen autou hos oinos Dibanou]. -It removes the grammatical difficulty from clause 1, which then -reads [Hebrew: vyashevu yashuvu vetzillo]; the supplied _vau_ may -easily have dropped after the final _vau_ of the previous word. -In the 2nd clause the LXX. takes [Hebrew: hv] as an intransitive, -which is better suited to the other verbs, and adds [Greek: kai -methysthesontai], [Hebrew: vrvv] (a form that may have easily slipped -from the Hebrew text, through its likeness to the preceding [Hebrew: -vhv]). _And they shall be well-watered._ After this it is probable -that [Hebrew: dgn] should read [Hebrew: chaggan]. In the 3rd clause -the Hebrew text may stand. In the 4th [Hebrew: zchr] may not, as many -propose, be taken for [Hebrew: zchrm] and translated _their perfume_; -but the parallelism makes it now probable that we have a verb here; -and if [Hebrew: zchr] in the Hiph. has the sense _to make a perfume_ -(cf. Isa. lxvi. 3), there is no reason against the Kal being used in -the intransitive sense here. In the LXX. for [Greek: methysthesontai] -Q^a reads [Greek: sterichthesontai]. - -[660] LXX. - -[661] This alternative, which Robertson Smith adopted, "though not -without some hesitation" (_Prophets_, 413) is that which follows the -Hebrew text, reading in the first clause [Hebrew: li], and not, like -LXX., [Hebrew: lo], and avoids the unusual figure of comparing Jehovah -to a tree. But it does not account for the singular emphasis laid in -the second clause on the first personal pronoun, and implies that God, -whose name has not for several verses been mentioned, is meant by -the mere personal suffix, "I will look to Him." Wellhausen suggests -changing the second clause to _I am his Anat and his Aschera_. - -[662] [Hebrew: 'nh], ii. 23. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - - _THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD_ - - HOSEA _passim_. - - -We have now finished the translation and detailed exposition of -Hosea's prophecies. We have followed his minute examination of his -people's character; his criticism of his fickle generation's attempts -to repent; and his presentation of true religion in contrast to -their shallow optimism and sensual superstitions. We have seen an -inwardness and spirituality of the highest kind--a love not only warm -and mobile, but nobly jealous, and in its jealousy assisted by an -extraordinary insight and expertness in character. Why Hosea should -be distinguished above all prophets for inwardness and spirituality -must by this time be obvious to us. From his remote watchfulness, -Amos had seen the nations move across the world as the stars across -heaven; had seen, within Israel, class distinct from class, and -given types of all: rich and poor; priest, merchant and judge; the -panic-stricken, the bully; the fraudulent and the unclean. The -observatory of Amos was the world, and the nation. But Hosea's was -the home; and there he had watched a human soul decay through every -stage from innocence to corruption. It was a husband's study of a -wife which made Hosea the most inward of all the prophets. This was -_the beginning of God's word by him_.[663] - -Among the subjects in the subtle treatment of which Hosea's service -to religion is most original and conspicuous, there are especially -three that deserve a more detailed treatment than we have been able -to give them. These are the Knowledge of God, Repentance and the Sin -against Love. We may devote a chapter to each of them, beginning in -this with the most characteristic and fundamental truth Hosea gave to -religion--the Knowledge of God. - - * * * * * - -If to the heart there be one pain more fatal than another, it is the -pain of not being understood. That prevents argument: how can you -reason with one who will not come to quarters with your real self? It -paralyses influence: how can you do your best with one who is blind -to your best? It stifles Love; for how dare she continue to speak -when she is mistaken for something else? Here as elsewhere "against -stupidity the gods themselves fight in vain." - -This anguish Hosea had suffered. As closely as two souls may live -on earth, he had lived with Gomer. Yet she had never wakened to -his worth. She must have been a woman with a power of love, or -such a heart had hardly wooed her. He was a man of deep tenderness -and exquisite powers of expression. His tact, his delicacy, his -enthusiasm are sensible in every chapter of his book. Gomer must have -tasted them all before Israel did. Yet she never knew him. It was -her curse that, being married, she was not awake to the meaning of -marriage, and, being married to Hosea, she never appreciated the holy -tenderness and heroic patience which were deemed by God not unworthy -of becoming a parable of His own. - -Now I think we do not go far wrong if we conclude that it was partly -this long experience of a soul that loved, but had neither conscience -nor ideal in her love, which made Hosea lay such frequent and pathetic -emphasis upon Israel's _ignorance_ of Jehovah. To have his character -ignored, his purposes baffled, his gifts unappreciated, his patience -mistaken--this was what drew Hosea into that wonderful sympathy with -the heart of God towards Israel which comes out in such passionate -words as these: _My people perish for lack of knowledge._[664] _There -is no troth, nor leal love, nor knowledge of God in the land._[665] -_They have not known the Lord._[666] _She did not know that I gave her -corn and wine._[667] _They knew not that I healed them._[668] _For now, -because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee._[669] _I will -have leal love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than -burnt-offerings._[670] Repentance consists in change of knowledge. And -the climax of the new life which follows is again knowledge: _I will -betroth thee to Me, and thou shall know the Lord._[671] _Israel shall -cry, My God, we know Thee._[672] - -To understand what Hosea meant by knowledge we must examine the -singularly supple word which his language lent him to express it. -The Hebrew root "Yadh'a,"[673] almost exclusively rendered in the -Old Testament by the English verb to know, is employed of the many -processes of knowledge, for which richer languages have separate -terms. It is by turns to perceive, be aware of, recognise, understand -or conceive, experience and be expert in.[674] But there is besides -nearly always a practical effectiveness, and in connection with -religious objects a moral consciousness. - -The barest meaning is to be aware that something is present or has -happened, and perhaps the root meant simply to see.[675] But it was -the frequent duty of the prophets to mark the difference between -perceiving a thing and laying it to heart. Isaiah speaks of the -people _seeing_, but not so as _to know_;[676] and Deuteronomy -renders the latter sense by adding _with the heart_, which to the -Hebrews was the seat, not of the feeling, but of the practical -intellect:[677] _And thou knowest with thy heart that as a man -chastiseth his son, so the Lord your God chastiseth you_.[678] -Usually, however, the word _know_ suffices by itself. This practical -vigour naturally developed in such directions as _intimacy_, -_conviction_, _experience_ and _wisdom_. Job calls his familiars -_my knowers_;[679] of a strong conviction he says, _I know that my -Redeemer liveth_,[680] and referring to wisdom, _We are of yesterday -and know not_;[681] while Ecclesiastes says, _Whoso keepeth the -commandment shall know_--that is, _experience_, or _suffer--no -evil_.[682] But the verb rises into a practical sense--to the -knowledge that leads a man to regard or care for its object. Job uses -the verb _know_ when he would say, _I do not care for my life_;[683] -and in the description of the sons of Eli, that _they were sons -of Belial, and did not know God_, it means that they did not have -any regard for Him.[684] Finally, there is a moral use of the word -in which it approaches the meaning of conscience: _Their eyes were -opened, and they knew that they were naked_.[685] They were aware -of this before, but they felt it now with a new sense. Also it is -the mark of the awakened and the fullgrown to know, or to feel, the -difference between good and evil.[686] - -Here, then, we have a word for _knowing_, the utterance of which -almost invariably starts a moral echo, whose very sound, as it were, -is haunted by sympathy and by duty. It is knowledge, not as an effort -of, so much as an effect upon, the mind. It is not _to know_ so as to -see the fact of, but _to know_ so as to feel the force of; knowledge, -not as acquisition and mastery, but as impression, passion. To quote -Paul's distinction, it is not so much the apprehending as the being -apprehended. It leads to a vivid result--either warm appreciation -or change of mind or practical effort. It is sometimes the talent -conceived as the trust, sometimes the enlistment of all the affections. -It is knowledge that is followed by shame, or by love, or by reverence, -or by the sense of a duty. One sees that it closely approaches the -meaning of our "conscience," and understands how easily there was -developed from it the evangelical name for repentance, Metanoia--that -is, change of mind under a new impression of facts. - -There are three writers who thus use knowledge as the key to -the Divine life--in the Old Testament Hosea and the author of -Deuteronomy, in the New Testament St. John. We likened Amos to St. -John the Baptist: it is not only upon his similar temperament, but -far more upon his use of the word knowledge for spiritual purposes, -that we may compare Hosea to St. John the Evangelist. - -Hosea's chief charge against the people is one of stupidity. High and -low they are _a people without intelligence_.[687] Once he defines -this as want of political wisdom: _Ephraim is a silly dove without -heart_, or, as we should say, _without brains_;[688] and again, as -insensibility to every ominous fact: _Strangers have devoured his -strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, grey hairs are scattered upon -him, and he knoweth it not_,[689] or, as we should say, _lays it not -to heart_. - -But Israel's most fatal ignorance is of God Himself. This is the sign -and the cause of every one of their defects. _There is no troth, nor -leal love, nor knowledge of God in the land._[690] _They have not -known the LORD._[691] _They have not known Me._ - -With the causes of this ignorance the prophet has dealt most -explicitly in the fourth chapter.[692] They are two: the people's -own vice and the negligence of their priests. Habitual vice destroys -a people's brains. _Harlotry, wine and new wine take away the heart -of My people._[693] Lust, for instance, blinds them to the domestic -consequences of their indulgence in the heathen worship, _and so -the stupid people come to their end_.[694] Again, their want of -political wisdom is due to their impurity, drunkenness and greed to -be rich.[695] Let those take heed who among ourselves insist that art -is independent of moral conditions--that wit and fancy reach their -best and bravest when breaking from any law of decency. They lie: -such licence corrupts the natural intelligence of a people, and robs -them of insight and imagination. - -Yet Hosea sees that all the fault does not lie with the common -people. Their teachers are to blame, priest and prophet alike, for -both _stumble_, and it is true that a people shall be like its -priests.[696] _The_ priests _have rejected knowledge and forgotten -the Torah_ of their God; they think only of the ritual of sacrifice -and the fines by which they fill their mouths. It was, as we have -seen, _the_ sin of Israel's religion in the eighth century. To -the priests religion was a mass of ceremonies which satisfied the -people's superstitions and kept themselves in bread. To the prophets -it was an equally sensuous, an equally mercenary ecstasy. But to -Hosea religion is above all a thing of the intellect and conscience: -it is that _knowing_ which is at once common-sense, plain morality -and the recognition by a pure heart of what God has done and is doing -in history. Of such a knowledge the priests and prophets are the -stewards, and it is because they have ignored their trust that the -people have been provided with no antidote to the vices that corrupt -their natural intelligence and make them incapable of seeing God. - -In contrast to such ignorance Hosea describes the essential -temper and contents of a true understanding of God. Using the word -_knowledge_, in the passive sense characteristic of his language, not -so much the acquisition as the impression of facts, an impression -which masters not only a man's thoughts but his heart and will, -Hosea describes the _knowledge of God_ as feeling, character and -conscience. Again and again he makes it parallel to loyalty, -repentance, love and service. Again and again he emphasises that it -comes from God Himself. It is not something which men can reach by -their own endeavours, or by the mere easy turning of their fickle -hearts. For it requires God Himself to speak, and discipline to -chasten. The only passage in which the knowledge of God is described -as the immediate prize of man's own pursuit is that prayer of the -people on whose facile religiousness Hosea pours his scorn.[697] -_Let us know, let us follow on to know the Lord_, he heard them say, -and promise themselves, _As soon as we seek Him we shall find Him_. -But God replies that He can make nothing of such ambitions; they -will pass away like the morning cloud and the early dew.[698] This -discarded prayer, then, is the only passage in the book in which the -knowledge of God is described as man's acquisition. Elsewhere, in -strict conformity to the temper of the Hebrew word to know, Hosea -presents the knowledge of the Most High, not as something man finds -out for himself, but something which comes down on him from above. - -The means which God took to impress Himself upon the heart of His -people were, according to Hosea, the events of their history. Hosea, -indeed, also points to another means. _The Torah of thy God_, which -in one passage[699] he makes parallel to _knowledge_, is evidently -the body of instruction, judicial, ceremonial and social, which has -come down by the tradition of the priests. This was not all oral; -part of it at least was already codified in the form we now know -as the Book of the Covenant.[700] But Hosea treats of the Torah -only in connection with the priests. And the far more frequent and -direct means by which God has sought to reveal Himself to the people -are the great events of their past. These Hosea never tires of -recalling. More than any other prophet, he recites the deeds done -by God in the origins and making of Israel. So numerous are his -references that from them alone we could almost rebuild the early -history. Let us gather them together. The nation's father Jacob _in -the womb overreached his brother, and in his manhood strove with -God; yea, he strove with the Angel and he overcame_,[701] _he wept -and supplicated Him; at Bethel he found Him, and there He spake with -us--Jehovah God of Hosts, Jehovah is His name_.[702] _... And Jacob -fled to the territory_[703] _of Aram, and he served for a wife, and -for a wife he tended sheep. And by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel -up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was tended._[704] _When Israel -was young,_[705] _then I came to love him, and out of Egypt I called -My son._[706] _As often as I called to them, so often did they go -from Me:_[707] _they to the Ba'alim kept sacrificing, and to images -offering incense. But I taught Ephraim to walk, taking him upon -Mine_[708] _arms, and they did not know that I nursed them._[709] ... -_Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel, like the firstfruits -on an early fig-tree I saw your fathers; but they went to Ba'al-Peor, -and consecrated themselves to the Shame._[710] ... _But I am Jehovah -thy God from the land of Egypt, and gods besides Me thou knowest not, -and Saviour there is none but Me. I knew thee in the wilderness, in -the land of burning heats. But the more pasture they had, the more -they fed themselves full; as they fed themselves full their heart was -lifted up: therefore they forgat Me._[711] ... _I Jehovah thy God -from the land of Egypt._[712] And all this revelation of God was not -only in that marvellous history, but in the yearly gifts of nature -and even in the success of the people's commerce: _She knew not that -it was I who have given her the corn and the wine and the oil, and -silver have I multiplied to her._[713] - -This, then, is how God gave Israel knowledge of Himself. _First_ it -broke upon the Individual, the Nation's Father. And to him it had -not come by miracle, but just in the same fashion as it has broken -upon men from then until now. He woke to find God no tradition, but -an experience. Amid the strife with others of which life for all so -largely consists, Jacob became aware that God also has to be reckoned -with, and that, hard as is the struggle for bread and love and -justice with one's brethren and fellow-men, with the Esaus and with -the Labans, a more inevitable wrestle awaits the soul when it is left -alone in the darkness with the Unseen. Oh, this is our sympathy with -those early patriarchs, not that they saw the sea dry up before them -or the bush ablaze with God, but that upon some lonely battle-field -of the heart they also endured those moments of agony, which imply a -more real Foe than we ever met in flesh and blood, and which leave -upon us marks deeper than the waste of toil or the rivalry of the -world can inflict. So the Father of the Nation came to _find_ God at -Bethel, and there, adds Hosea, where the Nation still worship, God -_spake with us_[714] in the person of our Father. - -The _second_ stage of the knowledge of God was when the Nation awoke -to His leading, and _through a prophet_, Moses, were _brought up out -of Egypt_. Here again no miracle is adduced by Hosea, but with full -heart he appeals to the grace and the tenderness of the whole story. -To him it is a wonderful romance. Passing by all the empires of -earth, the Almighty chose for Himself this people that was no people, -this tribe that were the slaves of Egypt. And the choice was of love -only: _When Israel was young I came to love him, and out of Egypt I -called My son._ It was the adoption of a little slave-boy, adoption -by the heart; and the fatherly figure continues, _I taught Ephraim -to walk, taking him upon Mine arms_. It is just the same charm, seen -from another point of view, when Hosea hears God say that He had -_found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, like the firstfruits on -an early fig-tree I saw your fathers_. - -Now these may seem very imperfect figures of the relation of God to -this one people, and the ideas they present may be felt to start more -difficulties than ever their poetry could soothe to rest: as, for -instance, why Israel alone was chosen--why this of all tribes was -given such an opportunity to know the Most High. With these questions -prophecy does not deal, and for Israel's sake had no need to deal. -What alone Hosea is concerned with is the Character discernible in -the origin and the liberation of his people. He hears that Character -speak for itself; and it speaks of a love and of a joy, to find -figures for which it goes to childhood and to spring--to the love a -man feels for a child, to the joy a man feels at the sight of the -firstfruits of the year. As the human heart feels in those two great -dawns, when nothing is yet impossible, but all is full of hope and -promise, so humanly, so tenderly, so joyfully had God felt towards -His people. Never again say that the gods of Greece were painted more -living or more fair! The God of Israel is Love and Springtime to His -people. Grace, patience, pure joy of hope and possibility--these are -the Divine elements which this spiritual man, Hosea, sees in the -early history of his people, and not the miraculous, about which, -from end to end of his book, he is utterly silent. - -It is ignorance, then, of such a Character, so evident in these facts -of their history, with which Hosea charges his people--not ignorance -of the facts themselves, not want of devotion to their memory, for -they are a people who crowd the sacred scenes of the past, at Bethel, -at Gilgal, at Beersheba, but ignorance of the Character which shines -through the facts. Hosea also calls it forgetfulness, for the people -once had knowledge.[715] The cause of their losing it has been their -prosperity in Canaan: _As their pastures were increased they grew -satisfied; as they grew satisfied their heart was lifted up, and -therefore they forgat Me._[716] - -Equally instructive is the method by which Hosea seeks to move Israel -from this oblivion and bring them to a true knowledge of God. He -insists that their recovery can only be the work of God Himself--the -living God working in their lives to-day as He did in the past of -the nation. To those past deeds it is useless for this generation to -go back, and seek again the memory of which they have disinherited -themselves. Let them rather realise that the same God still lives. -The knowledge of Him may be recovered by appreciating His deeds in -the life of to-day. And these deeds must first of all be violence -and terror, if only to rouse them from their sensuous sloth. The -last verse we have quoted, about Israel's complacency and pride, is -followed by this terrible one: _I shall be_[717] _to them like a -lion, like a leopard I shall leap_[718] _upon the way. I will meet -them as a bear bereft_ of her cubs, _that I may tear the caul of -their heart, that I may devour them there like a lion: the wild beast -shall rend them._[719] This means that into Israel's insensibility -to Himself God must break with facts, with wounds, with horrors they -cannot evade. Till He so acts, their own efforts, _then shall we know -if we hunt up to know_,[720] and their assurance, _My God, we do know -Thee_,[721] are very vain. Hosea did not speak for nothing. Events -were about to happen more momentous than even the Exodus and the -Conquest of the Land. By 734 the Assyrians had depopulated Gilead and -Galilee; in 725 the capital itself was invested, and by 721 the whole -nation carried into captivity. God had made Himself known. - -We are already aware, however, that Hosea did not count this as God's -final revelation to His people. Doom is not doom to him, as it was -to Amos, but discipline; and God withdraws His people from their -fascinating land only that He may have them more closely to Himself. He -will bring His Bride into the wilderness again, the wilderness where -they first met, and there, when her soul is tender and her stupid heart -broken, He will plant in her again the seeds of His knowledge and His -love. The passages which describe this are among the most beautiful of -the book. They tell us of no arbitrary conquest of Israel by Jehovah, -of no magic and sudden transformation. They describe a process as -natural and gentle as a human wooing; they use, as we have seen, the -very terms of this: _I will woo her, bring her into the wilderness, -and speak home to her heart.... And it shall be in that day that thou -shalt call Me, My husband, ... and I will betroth thee to Me for ever -in righteousness and in justice, and in leal love and in mercies and in -faithfulness; and thou shalt know Jehovah._[722] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[663] i. 2. - -[664] iv. 6. - -[665] iv. 1. - -[666] v. 4. - -[667] ii. 10. - -[668] xi. 3. - -[669] iv. 6. - -[670] vi. 6. - -[671] ii. 22. - -[672] viii. 2. - -[673] [Hebrew: d']. - -[674] The Latin _videre_, _scire_, _noscere_, _cognoscere_, -_intelligere_, _sapere_ and _peritus esse_. - -[675] Cf. the Greek [Greek: oida] from [Greek: eidein]. - -[676] vi. 9. - -[677] See above, pp. 258, 275; and below, p. 323. - -[678] viii. 5: cf. xxix. 3 (Eng. 4), _Jehovah did not give you a -heart to know_. - -[679] Job xix. 13: still more close, of course, the intimacy between -the sexes for which the verb is so often used in the Old Testament. - -[680] xix. 25: cf. Gen. xx. 6. - -[681] viii. 9. - -[682] viii. 5: cf. Hosea ix. 7. - -[683] ix. 21. - -[684] 1 Sam. ii. 12. A similar meaning is probably to be attached to -the word in Gen. xxxix. 6: Potiphar _had no thought_ or _care for -anything_ that was in Joseph's hand. Cf. Prov. ix. 13; xxvii. 23; Job -xxxv. 15. - -[685] Gen. iii. 7. - -[686] Gen. iii. 5; Isa. vii. 15, etc. - -[687] iv. 14, [Hebrew: l-vn 'm]: if the original meaning of [Hebrew: -vn] be to _get between_, _see through_ or _into_, so _discriminate_, -_understand_, then intelligence is its etymological equivalent. - -[688] vii. 11. See above, p. 321, _n._ 4. - -[689] vii. 9. - -[690] iv. 1. - -[691] v. 4. - -[692] For exposition of this chapter see above, pp. 256 ff. - -[693] iv. 11, 12, LXX. - -[694] iv. 14 f. See above, pp. 258 f. - -[695] vii. _passim_. - -[696] iv. 4-9. Above, pp. 257 f. - -[697] vi. 1 ff. See above, pp. 263 ff. - -[698] vi. 4. - -[699] iv. 6. See above, p. 257. - -[700] See above, pp. 97 f. On the other doubtful phrase, viii. -12--literally _I write multitudes of My Torah, as a stranger they -have reckoned it_--no argument can be built; for even if we take the -first clause as conditional and render, _Though I wrote multitudes -of My Toroth, yet as those of a stranger they would regard them_, -that would not necessarily mean that no Toroth of Jehovah were yet -written, but, on the contrary, might equally well imply that some at -least had been written. - -[701] Or _was overcome_. - -[702] xii. 4-6. See above, p. 302. LXX. reads _they supplicated Me -... they found Me ... He spoke with them_. Many propose to read the -last clause _with him_. The passage is obscure. Note the order of the -events--the wrestling at Peniel, the revelation at Bethel, then in the -subsequent passage the flight to Aram. This however does not prove that -in Hosea's information the last happened after the two first. - -[703] [Hebrew: shdh], _field_, here used in its political sense: -cf. _Hist. Geog._, p. 79. Our word _country_, now meaning territory -and now the rural as opposed to the urban districts, is strictly -analogous to the Hebrew _field_. - -[704] xii. 13, 14. - -[705] _A youth._ - -[706] LXX., followed by many critics, _his sons_. But _My son_ is a -better parallel to _young_ in the preceding clause. Or trans.: _to be -My son_. - -[707] So LXX. See p. 293. - -[708] So rightly LXX. - -[709] xi. 1-3. - -[710] ix. 10. - -[711] xiii. 4-6. - -[712] xii. 10. Other references to the ancient history are the story -of Gibeah and the Valley of Achor. - -[713] ii. 10. - -[714] See above, p. 302. - -[715] iv. 6. - -[716] xiii. 5. - -[717] With Wellhausen read [Hebrew: 'ehyeh] for [Hebrew: va'ehi]. - -[718] See above, p. 305, _n._ 4. - -[719] xiii. 7 ff. - -[720] vi. 3. - -[721] viii. 2. - -[722] i. 16, 18, 21, 22. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - - _REPENTANCE_ - - HOSEA _passim_. - - -If we keep in mind what Hosea meant by knowledge--a new impression -of facts implying a change both of temper and of conduct--we shall -feel how natural it is to pass at once from his doctrine of knowledge -to his doctrine of repentance. Hosea may be accurately styled the -first preacher of repentance yet so thoroughly did he deal with this -subject of eternal interest to the human heart, that between him and -ourselves almost no teacher has increased the insight with which it -has been examined, or the passion with which it ought to be enforced. - -One thing we must hold clear from the outset. To us repentance is -intelligible only in the individual. There is no motion of the heart -which more clearly derives its validity from its personal character. -Repentance is the conscience, the feeling, the resolution of a man -by himself and for himself--"_I_ will arise and go to my Father." -Yet it is not to the individual that Hosea directs his passionate -appeals. For him and his age the religious unit was not the Israelite -but Israel. God had called and covenanted with the nation as a -whole; He had revealed Himself through their historical fortunes and -institutions. His grace was shown in their succour and guidance as -a people; His last judgment was threatened in their destruction as a -state. So similarly, when by Hosea God calls to repentance, it is the -whole nation whom He addresses. - -At the same time we must remember those qualifications which we -adduced with regard to Hosea's doctrine of the nation's knowledge of -God.[723] They affect also his doctrine of the national repentance. -Hosea's experience of Israel had been preceded by his experience -of an Israelite. For years the prophet had carried on his anxious -heart a single human character--lived with her, travailed for her, -pardoned and redeemed her. As we felt that this long cure of a soul -must have helped Hosea to his very spiritual sense of the knowledge -of God, so now we may justly assume that the same cannot have been -without effect upon his very personal teaching about repentance. But -with his experience of Gomer, there conspired also his intense love -for Israel. A warm patriotism necessarily personifies its object. To -the passionate lover of his people, their figure rises up one and -individual--his mother, his lover, his wife. Now no man ever loved -his people more intimately or more tenderly than Hosea loved Israel. -The people were not only dear to him, because he was their son, -but dear and vivid also for their loneliness and their distinction -among the peoples of the earth, and for their long experience as the -intimate of the God of grace and lovingkindness. God had chosen this -Israel as His Bride; and the remembrance of the unique endowment -and lonely destiny stimulated Hosea's imagination in the work of -personifying and individualising his people. He treats Israel with -the tenderness and particularity with which the Shepherd, leaving -the ninety and nine in the wilderness, seeks till He find it the one -lost lamb. His analysis of his fickle generation's efforts to repent, -of their motives in turning to God, and of their failures, is as -inward and definite as if it were a single heart he were dissecting. -Centuries have passed; the individual has displaced the nation; -the experience of the human heart has been infinitely increased, -and prophecy and all preaching has grown more and more personal. -Yet it has scarcely ever been found either necessary to add to the -terms which Hosea used for repentance, or possible to go deeper in -analysing the processes which these denote. - - * * * * * - -Hosea's most simple definition of repentance is that _of returning unto -God_. For _turning_ and _re-turning_ the Hebrew language has only one -verb--shubh. In the Book of Hosea there are instances in which it is -employed in the former sense;[724] but, even apart from its use for -repentance, the verb usually means to return. Thus the wandering wife -in the second chapter says, _I will return to my former husband_;[725] -and in the threat of judgment it is said, _Ephraim will return to -Egypt_.[726] Similar is the sense in the phrases _His deeds will I turn -back upon him_[727] and _I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim_.[728] -The usual meaning of the verb is therefore, not merely to turn or -change, but to turn right round, to turn back and home.[729] This is -obviously the force of its employment to express repentance. For this -purpose Hosea very seldom uses it alone.[730] He generally adds either -the name by which God had always been known, Jehovah,[731] or the -designation of Him, as _their own God_.[732] - -We must emphasise this point if we would appreciate the thoroughness -of our prophet's doctrine, and its harmony with the preaching of the -New Testament. To Hosea repentance is no mere change in the direction -of one's life. It is a turning back upon one's self, a retracing of -one's footsteps, a confession and acknowledgment of what one has -abandoned. It is a coming back and a coming home to God, exactly as -Jesus Himself has described in the Parable of the Prodigal. As Hosea -again and again affirms, the Return to God, like the New Testament -Metanoia, is the effect of new knowledge; but the new knowledge is -not of new facts--it is of facts which have been present for a long -time and which ought to have been appreciated before. - -Of these facts Hosea describes three kinds: the nation's misery, the -unspeakable grace of their God, and their great guilt in turning from -Him. Again it is as in the case of the prodigal: his hunger, his -father, and his cry, "I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight." - -We have already felt the pathos of those passages in which Hosea -describes the misery and the decay of Israel, the unprofitableness -and shame of all their restless traffic with other gods and alien -empires. The state is rotten;[733] anarchy prevails.[734] The -national vitality is lessened: _Ephraim hath grey hairs_.[735] Power -of birth and begetting have gone; the universal unchastity causes the -population to diminish: _their glory flieth away like a bird_.[736] -The presents to Egypt,[737] the tribute to Assyria, drain the wealth -of the people: _strangers devour his strength_.[738] The prodigal -Israel has his far-off country where he spends his substance among -strangers. It is in this connection that we must take the repeated -verse: _the pride of Israel testifieth to his face_.[739] We have -seen[740] the impossibility of the usual exegesis of these words, -that by _the Pride of Israel_ Hosea means Jehovah; the word "pride" -is probably to be taken in the sense in which Amos employs it of the -exuberance and arrogance of Israel's civilisation. If we are right, -then Hosea describes a very subtle symptom of the moral awakening -whether of the individual or of a community. The conscience of many -a man, of many a kingdom, has been reached only through their pride. -Pride is the last nerve which comfort and habit leave quick; and -when summons to a man's better nature fail, it is still possible in -most cases to touch his pride with the presentation of the facts -of his decadence. This is probably what Hosea means. Israel's -prestige suffers. The civilisation of which they are proud has its -open wounds. Their politicians are the sport of Egypt;[741] their -wealth, the very gold of their Temple, is lifted by Assyria.[742] -The nerve of pride was also touched in the prodigal: "How many hired -servants of my father have enough and to spare, while I perish -with hunger." Yet, unlike him, this prodigal son of God will not -therefore return.[743] Though there are grey hairs upon him, though -strangers devour his strength, _he knoweth it not_; of him it cannot -be said that "he has come to himself." And that is why the prophet -threatens the further discipline of actual exile from the land and -its fruits,[744] of bitter bread[745] and poverty[746] on an unclean -soil. Israel must also eat husks and feed with swine before he arises -and _returns to his God_. - -But misery alone never led either man or nation to repentance: the -sorrow of this world worketh only death. Repentance is the return to -God; and it is the awakening to the truth about God, to the facts of -His nature and His grace, which alone makes repentance possible. No -man's doctrine of repentance is intelligible without his doctrine -of God; and it is because Hosea's doctrine of God is so rich, so -fair and so tender, that his doctrine of repentance is so full and -gracious. Here we see the difference between him and Amos. Amos -had also used the phrase with frequency; again and again he had -appealed to the people to seek God and to return to God.[747] But -from Amos it went forth only as a pursuing voice, a voice crying -in the wilderness. Hosea lets loose behind it a heart, plies the -people with gracious thoughts of God, and brings about them, not the -voices only, but the atmosphere, of love. _I will be as the dew unto -Israel_, promises the Most High; but He is before His promise. The -chapters of Hosea are drenched with the dew of God's mercy, of which -no drop falls on those of Amos, but there God is rather the roar -as of a lion, the flash as of lightning. Both prophets bid Israel -turn to God; but Amos means by that, to justice, truth and purity, -while Hosea describes a husband, a father, long-suffering and full -of mercy. "I bid you come back," cries Amos. But Hosea pleads, "If -only you were aware of what God is, you would come back." "Come back -to God and live," cries Amos; but Hosea, "Come back to God, for He -is Love." Amos calls, "Come back at once, for there is but little -time left till God must visit you in judgment"; but Hosea, "Come -back at once, for God has loved you so long and so kindly." Amos -cries, "Turn, for in front of you is destruction"; but Hosea, "Turn, -for behind you is God." And that is why all Hosea's preaching of -repentance is so evangelical. "I will arise and go _to my Father_." - -But the _third_ element of the new knowledge which means repentance is -the conscience of guilt. _My Father, I have sinned._ On this point it -might be averred that the teaching of Hosea is less spiritual than that -of later prophets in Israel, and that here at last he comes short of -the evangelical inwardness of the New Testament. There is truth in the -charge; and here perhaps we feel most the defects of his standpoint, -as one who appeals, not to the individual, but to the nation as a -whole. Hosea's treatment of the sense of guilt cannot be so spiritual -as that, say, of the fifty-first Psalm. But, at least, he is not -satisfied to exhaust it by the very thorough exposure which he gives -us of the social sins of his day, and of their terrible results. He, -too, understands what is meant by a conscience of sin. He has called -Israel's iniquity harlotry, unfaithfulness to God; and in a passage -of equal insight and beauty of expression he points out that in the -service of the Ba'alim Jehovah's people can never feel anything but a -harlot's shame and bitter memories of the better past. - -_Rejoice not, O Israel, to the pitch of rapture like the heathen: -for thou hast played the harlot from thine own God; 'tis hire -thou hast loved on all threshing-floors. Floor and vat shall not -acknowledge them; the new wine shall play them false._[748] Mere -children of nature may abandon themselves to the riotous joy of -harvest and vintage festivals, for they have never known other gods -than are suitably worshipped by these orgies. But Israel has a -past--the memory of a holier God, the conscience of having deserted -Him for material gifts. With such a conscience she can never enjoy -the latter; as Hosea puts it, they will not _acknowledge_ or _take -to_[749] her. Here there is an instinct of the profound truth, that -even in the fulness of life conscience is punishment; by itself the -sense of guilt is judgment. - -But Hosea does not attack the service of strange gods only because -it is unfaithfulness to Jehovah, but also because, as the worship of -images, it is a senseless stupidity utterly inconsistent with that -spiritual discernment of which repentance so largely consists. And -with the worship of heathen idols Hosea equally condemns the worship -of Jehovah under the form of images. - -Hosea was the first in Israel to lead the attack upon the idols. -Elijah had assaulted the worship of a foreign god, but neither he nor -Elisha nor Amos condemned the worship of Israel's own God under the -form of a calf. Indeed Amos, except in one doubtful passage,[750] -never at all attacks idols or false gods. The reason is very obvious. -Amos and Elijah were concerned only with the proclamation of God as -justice and purity: and to the moral aspects of religion the question -of idolatry is not relevant; the two things do not come directly into -collision. But Hosea had deeper and more wide views of God, with which -idolatry came into conflict at a hundred points. We know what Hosea's -_knowledge of God_ was--how spiritual, how extensive--and we can -appreciate how incongruous idolatry must have appeared against it. We -are prepared to find him treating the images, whether of the Ba'alim -or of Jehovah, with that fine scorn which a passionate monotheism, -justly conscious of its intellectual superiority, has ever passed upon -the idolatry even of civilisations in other respects higher than its -own. To Hosea the idol is an _'eseb, a made thing_.[751] It is made -of the very silver and gold with which Jehovah Himself had endowed -the people.[752] It is made only _to be cut off_[753] by the first -invader! Chiefly, however, does Hosea's scorn fall upon the image under -which Jehovah Himself was worshipped. _Thy Calf, O Samaria!_[754] he -contemptuously calls it. _From Israel is it also_, as much as the -Ba'alim. _A workman made it, and no god is it: chips shall the Calf of -Samaria become!_ In another place he mimics the _anxiety of Samaria -for their Calf; his people mourn for him, and his priestlings writhe -for his glory_, why?--_because it is going into exile_:[755] the gold -that covers him shall be stripped for the tribute to Assyria. And -once more: _They continue to sin; they make them a smelting of their -silver, idols after their own modelling, smith's work all of it. To -these things they speak! Sacrificing men_ actually _kiss calves!_[756] -All this is in the same vein of satire which we find grown to such -brilliance in the great Prophet of the Exile.[757] Hosea was the first -in whom it sparkled; and it was due to his conception of _the knowledge -of God_. Its relevancy to his doctrine of repentance is this, that so -spiritual an apprehension of God as repentance implies, so complete a -_metanoia_ or _change of mind_, is intellectually incompatible with -idolatry. You cannot speak of repentance to men who _kiss calves_ and -worship blocks of wood. Hence he says: _Ephraim is wedded to idols: -leave him alone_.[758] - -There was more than idolatry, however, in the way of Israel's -repentance. The whole of the national worship was an obstacle. Its -formalism and its easy and mechanical methods of _turning to God_ -disguised the need of that moral discipline and change of heart, -without which no repentance can be genuine. Amos had contrasted the -ritualism of the time with the duty of civic justice and the service -of the poor:[759] Hosea opposes to it leal love and the knowledge of -God. _I will have leal love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of -God rather than burnt-offerings._[760] It is characteristic of Hosea -to class sacrifices with idols. Both are senseless and inarticulate, -incapable of expressing or of answering the deep feelings of the -heart. True repentance, on the contrary, is rational, articulate, -definite. _Take with you words_, says Hosea, _and_ so _return to -Jehovah_.[761] - -To us who, after twenty-five more centuries of talk, know painfully -how words may be abused, it is strange to find them enforced as -the tokens of sincerity. But let us consider against what the -prophet enforces them. Against the _kissing of calves_ and such -mummery--worship of images that neither hear nor speak. Let us -remember the inarticulateness of ritualism, how it stifles rather -than utters the feelings of the heart. Let us imagine the dead -routine of the legal sacrifices, their original symbolism worn -bare, bringing forward to the young hearts of new generations no -interpretation of their ancient and distorted details, reducing those -who perform them to irrational machines like themselves. Then let -us remember how our own Reformers had to grapple with the same hard -mechanism in the worship of their time, and how they bade the heart -of every worshipper _speak_--speak for itself to God with rational -and sincere words. So in place of the frozen ritualism of the Church -there broke forth from all lands of the Reformation, as though it -were birds in springtime, a great burst of hymns and prayers, with -the clear notes of the Gospel in the common tongue. So intolerable -was the memory of what had been, that it was even enacted that -henceforth no sacrament should be dispensed but the Word should be -given to the people along with it. If we keep all these things in -mind, we shall know what Hosea means when he says to Israel in their -penitence, _Take with you words_. - -No one, however, was more conscious of the danger of words. Upon -the lips of the people Hosea has placed a confession of repentance, -which, so far as the words go, could not be more musical or -pathetic.[762] In every Christian language it has been paraphrased to -an exquisite confessional hymn. But Hosea describes it as rejected. -Its words are too easy; its thoughts of God and of His power to save -are too facile. Repentance, it is true, starts from faith in the -mercy of God, for without this there were only despair. Nevertheless -in all true penitence there is despair. Genuine sorrow for sin -includes a feeling of the irreparableness of the past, and the true -penitent as he casts himself upon God does not dare to feel that he -ever can be the same again. _I am no more worthy to be called Thy -son: make me as one of Thy hired servants._ Such necessary thoughts -as these Israel does not mingle with her prayer. _Come and let us -return to Jehovah, for He hath torn_ only _that He may heal, and -smitten_ only _that He may bind up. He will revive us again in a -couple of days, on the third day raise us up, that we may live before -Him. Then shall we know if we hunt up to know the Lord. As soon -as we seek Him we shall find Him: and He shall come upon us like -winter-rain, and like the spring-rain pouring on the land._ This -is too facile, too shallow. No wonder that God despairs of such a -people. _What am I to make of thee, Ephraim?_[763] - -Another familiar passage, the Parable of the Heifer, describes the -same ambition to reach spiritual results without spiritual processes. -_Ephraim is a broken-in heifer--one that loveth to tread_ out the -corn. _But I will pass upon her goodly neck. I will give Ephraim a -yoke, Judah must plough. Jacob must harrow for himself._[764] Cattle, -being unmuzzled by law[765] at threshing time, loved this best of -all their year's work. Yet to reach it they must first go through -the harder and unrewarded trials of ploughing and harrowing. Like a -heifer, then, which loved harvest only, Israel would spring at the -rewards of penitence, the peaceable fruits of righteousness, without -going through the discipline and chastisement which alone yield them. -Repentance is no mere turning or even re-turning. It is a deep and -an ethical process--the breaking up of fallow ground, the labour and -long expectation of the sower, the seeking and waiting for Jehovah -till Himself send the rain. _Sow to yourselves in righteousness; -reap in proportion to love_ (the love you have sown), _break up your -fallow ground: for it is time to seek Jehovah, until He come and rain -righteousness upon us_.[766] - -A repentance so thorough as this cannot but result in the most clear -and steadfast manner of life. Truly it is a returning not by oneself, -but _a returning by God_, and it leads to the _keeping of leal love -and justice, and waiting upon God continually_.[767] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[723] See above, p. 320. - -[724] vii. 16, _They turn, but not upwards_; xiv. 5, _Mine anger is -turned away_. - -[725] ii. 9. - -[726] viii. 13; ix. 3; xi. 5. - -[727] iv. 9: cf. xii. 3, 15. - -[728] xi. 9: cf. ii. 11. - -[729] This may be further seen in the very common phrase [Hebrew: -shvvt shvv 'm], _to turn again_ the captivity of My people (see Hosea -vi. 11); or in the use of [Hebrew: shvv] in xiv. 8, where it has -the force, auxiliary to the other verb in the clause, of repeating -or coming back to do a thing. But the text here needs emendation: -cf. above, p. 315. Cf. Amos' use of the Hiphil form to _draw back_, -_withdraw_, i. 3, 6, 9, 11, 13; ii. 1, 4, 6. - -[730] Cf. xi. 5, _they refused to return_. - -[731] vi. 1, _Come and let us return to Jehovah_; vii. 10, _They did -not return to Jehovah_; xiv. 2, 3, _Return, O Israel, to Jehovah_. - -[732] iii. 5, _They shall return and seek Jehovah their God_; v. 4, -_Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God_. - -[733] v. 12, etc. - -[734] iv. 2 ff.; vi. 7 ff., etc. - -[735] vii. 7. - -[736] ix. 11 ff. - -[737] xii. 2. - -[738] vii. 7. - -[739] v. 5; vii. 10. - -[740] See above, p. 261. - -[741] vii. 16. - -[742] x. 5. - -[743] vii. 10. - -[744] ii. 16, etc.; ix. 2 ff., etc. - -[745] ix. 4. - -[746] xii. 10. - -[747] iv. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. - -[748] ix. 1. See above, p. 279. - -[749] See above, p. 279, _n._ 4. - -[750] v. 26. - -[751] [Hebrew: 'etzev] from [Hebrew: 'atzav], which in Job x. 8 is -parallel to [Hebrew: 'shh]. - -[752] ii. 8. - -[753] viii. 4. - -[754] viii. 5. - -[755] x. 5. - -[756] xiii. 2. - -[757] Isa. xli. ff. - -[758] iv. 17. - -[759] Amos v. - -[760] vi. 6. - -[761] xiv. 2. Perhaps the curious expression at the close of -the verse, _so will we render the calves of our lips_, or (as a -variant reading gives) _fruit of our lips_, has the same intention. -Articulate confession (or vows), these are the sacrifices, _the -calves_, which are acceptable to God. - -[762] vi. 1-4. - -[763] For the reasons for this interpretation see above, pp. 263 ff. - -[764] x. 11. - -[765] See above, p. 288. - -[766] x. 12. - -[767] xii. 7. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII - - _THE SIN AGAINST LOVE_ - - HOSEA i.-iii.; iv. 11 ff.; ix. 10 ff.; xi. 8 f. - - -The Love of God is a terrible thing--that is the last lesson of the -Book of Hosea. _My God will cast them away._[768] - -_My God_--let us remember the right which Hosea had to use these -words. Of all prophets he was the first to break into the full -aspect of the Divine Mercy--to learn and to proclaim that God is -Love. But he was worthy to do so, by the patient love of his own -heart towards another who for years had outraged all his trust and -tenderness. He had loved, believed and been betrayed; pardoned and -waited and yearned, and sorrowed and pardoned again. It is in this -long-suffering that his breast beats upon the breast of God with -the cry _My God_. As he had loved Gomer, so had God loved Israel, -past hope, against hate, through ages of ingratitude and apostasy. -Quivering with his own pain, Hosea has exhausted all human care -and affection for figures to express the Divine tenderness, and he -declares God's love to be deeper than all the passion of men, and -broader than all their patience: _How can I give thee up, Ephraim? -How can I let thee go, Israel? I will not execute the fierceness of -Mine anger. For I am God, and not man._ And yet, like poor human -affection, this Love of God, too, confesses its failure--_My God -shall cast them away._ It is God's sentence of relinquishment upon -those who sin against His Love, but the poor human lips which deliver -it quiver with an agony of their own, and here, as more explicitly in -twenty other passages of the book, declare it to be equally the doom -of those who outrage the love of their fellow men and women. - -We have heard it said: "The lives of men are never the same after -they have loved; if they are not better they must be worse." "Be -afraid of the love that loves you: it is either your heaven or your -hell." "All the discipline of men springs from their love--if they -take it not so, then all their sorrow must spring from the same -source." "There is a depth of sorrow, which can only be known to -a soul that has loved the most perfect thing and beholds itself -fallen." These things are true of the Love, both of our brother and -of our God. And the eternal interest of the life of Hosea is that he -learned how, for strength and weakness, for better for worse, our -human and our Divine loves are inseparably joined. - - - I. - -Most men learn that love is inseparable from pain where Hosea learned -it--at home. There it is that we are all reminded that when love -is strongest she feels her weakness most. For the anguish which -love must bear, as it were from the foundation of the world, is the -contradiction at her heart between the largeness of her wishes and -the littleness of her power to realise them. A mother feels it, -bending over the bed of her child, when its body is racked with -pain or its breath spent with coughing. So great is the feeling of -her love that it ought to do something, that she will actually feel -herself cruel because nothing can be done. Let the sick-bed become -the beach of death, and she must feel the helplessness and the -anguish still more as the dear life is now plucked from her and now -tossed back by the mocking waves, and then drawn slowly out to sea -upon the ebb from which there is no returning. - -But the pain which disease and death thus cause to love is nothing to -the agony that Sin inflicts when he takes the game into his unclean -hands. We know what pain love brings, if our love be a fair face and -fresh body in which Death brands his sores while we stand by, as if -with arms bound. But what if our love be a childlike heart, and a -frank expression and honest eyes, and a clean and clever mind. Our -powerlessness is just as great and infinitely more tormented when Sin -comes by and casts his shadow over these. Ah, that is Love's greatest -torment when her children, who have run from her to the bosom of sin, -look back and their eyes are changed! That is the greatest torment -of Love--to pour herself without avail into one of those careless -natures which seem capacious and receptive, yet never fill with -love, for there is a crack and a leak at the bottom of them. The -fields where Love suffers her sorest defeats are not the sick-bed -and not death's margin, not the cold lips and sealed eyes kissed -without response; but the changed eyes of children, and the breaking -of "the full-orbed face," and the darkening look of growing sons -and daughters, and the home the first time the unclean laugh breaks -across it. To watch, though unable to soothe, a dear body racked with -pain, is peace beside the awful vigil of watching a soul shrink and -blacken with vice, and your love unable to redeem it. - -Such a clinical study Hosea endured for years. The prophet of God, we -are told, brought a dead child to life by taking him in his arms and -kissing him. But Hosea with all his love could not make Gomer a true -whole wife again. Love had no power on this woman--no power even at -the merciful call to make all things new. Hosea, who had once placed -all hope in tenderness, had to admit that Love's moral power is not -absolute. Love may retire defeated from the highest issues of life. -Sin may conquer Love. - -Yet it is in this his triumph that Sin must feel the ultimate -revenge. When a man has conquered this weak thing and beaten her down -beneath his feet, God speaks the sentence of abandonment. - -There is enough of the whipped dog in all of us to make us dread -penalty when we come into conflict with the strong things of -life. But it takes us all our days to learn that there is far -more condemnation to them who offend the weak things of life, and -particularly the weakest of all, its love. It was on sins against the -weak that Christ passed His sternest judgments: _Woe unto him that -offends one of these little ones; it were better for him that he had -never been born._ God's little ones are not only little children, -but all things which, like little children, have only love for their -strength. They are pure and loving men and women--men with no weapon -but their love, women with no shield but their trust. They are the -innocent affections of our own hearts--the memories of our childhood, -the ideals of our youth, the prayers of our parents, the faith in -us of our friends. These are the little ones of whom Christ spake, -that he who sins against them had better never have been born. Often -may the dear solicitudes of home, a father's counsels, a mother's -prayers, seem foolish things against the challenges of a world, -calling us to play the man and do as it does; often may the vows and -enthusiasms of boyhood seem impertinent against the temptations which -are so necessary to manhood: yet let us be true to the weak, for if -we betray them, we betray our own souls. We may sin against law and -maim or mutilate ourselves, but to sin against love is to be cast out -of life altogether. He who violates the purity of the love with which -God has filled his heart, he who abuses the love God has sent to meet -him in his opening manhood, he who slights any of the affections, -whether they be of man or woman, of young or of old, which God lays -upon us as the most powerful redemptive forces of our life, next to -that of His dear Son--he sinneth against his own soul, and it is of -such that Hosea spake: _My God will cast them away_. - -We talk of breaking law: we can only break ourselves against it. But -if we sin against Love, we do destroy her; we take from her the power -to redeem and sanctify us. Though in their youth men think Love a -quick and careless thing--a servant always at their side, a winged -messenger easy of despatch--let them know that every time they send -her on an evil errand she returns with heavier feet and broken wings. -When they make her a pander they kill her outright. When she is no -more they waken to that which Gomer came to know, that love abused is -love lost, and love lost means Hell. - - - II. - -This, however, is only the margin from which Hosea beholds an -abandonment still deeper. All that has been said of human love and -the penalty of outraging it is equally true of the Divine love and -the sin against that. - -The love of God has the same weakness which we have seen in the love -of man. It, too, may fail to redeem; it, too, has stood defeated on -some of the highest moral battle-fields of life. God Himself has -suffered anguish and rejection from sinful men. "Herein," says a -theologian, "is the mystery of this love, ... that God can never by -His Almighty Power compel that which is the very highest gift in the -life of His creatures--love to Himself, but that He receives it as -the free gift of His creatures, and that He is only able to allow men -to give it to Him in a free act of their own will." So Hosea also -has told us how God does not compel, but allure or _woo_, the sinful -back to Himself. And it is the deepest anguish of the prophet's -heart, that this free grace of God may fail through man's apathy -or insincerity. The anguish appears in those frequent antitheses -in which his torn heart reflects herself in the style of his -discourse. _I have redeemed them--yet have they spoken lies against -Me._[769] _I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness--they went to -Ba'al-Peor._[770] _When Israel was a child, then I loved him ... but -they sacrificed to Ba'alim._[771] _I taught Ephraim to walk, but they -knew not that I healed them._[772] _How can I give thee up, Ephraim? -how can I let thee go, O Israel?... Ephraim compasseth Me with lies, -and the house of Israel with deceit!_[773] - -We fear to apply all that we know of the weakness of human love to -the love of God. Yet though He be God and not man, it was as man He -commended His love to us. He came nearest us, not in the thunders -of Sinai, but in Him Who presented Himself to the world with the -caresses of a little child; Who met men with no angelic majesty -or heavenly aureole, but whom when we saw we found nothing that -we should desire Him, His visage was so marred more than any man, -and His form than the sons of men; Who came to His own and His own -received Him not; Who, having loved His own that were in the world, -loved them up to the end, and yet at the end was by them deserted and -betrayed,--it is of Him that Hosea prophetically says: _I drew them -with cords of a man and with bands of love_. - -We are not bound to God by any unbreakable chain. The strands which -draw us upwards to God, to holiness and everlasting life, have the -weakness of those which bind us to the earthly souls we love. It is -possible for us to break them. We love Christ, not because He has -compelled us by any magic, irresistible influence to do so; but, as -John in his great simplicity says, _We love Him because He first -loved us_. - -Now this is surely the terror of God's love--that it can be resisted; -that even as it is manifest in Jesus Christ we men have the power, -not only to remain, as so many do, outside its scope, feeling it to -be far-off and vague, but having tasted it to fall away from it, -having realised it to refuse it, having allowed it to begin its moral -purposes in our lives to baffle and nullify these; to make the glory -of Heaven absolutely ineffectual in our own characters; and to give -our Saviour the anguish of rejection. - -Give Him the anguish, yet pass upon ourselves the doom! For, as I -read the New Testament, the one unpardonable sin is the sin against -our Blessed Redeemer's Love as it is brought home to the heart by -the power of the Holy Spirit. Every other sin is forgiven to men but -to crucify afresh Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. The most -terrible of His judgments is "the wail of a heart wounded because -its love has been despised": _Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would -I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye -would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!_ - -Men say they cannot believe in hell, because they cannot conceive how -God may sentence men to misery for the breaking of laws they were -born without power to keep. And one would agree with the inference, -if God had done any such thing. But for them which are under the law -and the sentence of death, Christ died once for all, that He might -redeem them. Yet this does not make a hell less believable. When we -see how Almighty was that Love of God in Christ Jesus, lifting our -whole race and sending them forward with a freedom and a power of -growth nothing else in history has won for them; when we prove again -how weak it is, so that it is possible for millions of characters -that have felt it to refuse its eternal influence for the sake of -some base and transient passion; nay, when _I myself_ know this power -and this weakness of Christ's love, so that one day being loyal I -am raised beyond the reach of fear and of doubt, beyond the desire -of sin and the habit of evil, and the next day finds me capable -of putting it aside in preference for some slight enjoyment or -ambition--then I know the peril and the terror of this love, that it -may be to a man either Heaven or Hell. - -Believe then in hell, because you believe in the Love of God--not -in a hell to which God condemns men of His will and pleasure, but a -hell into which men cast themselves from the very face of His love -in Jesus Christ. The place has been painted as a place of fires. -But when we contemplate that men come to it with the holiest flames -in their nature quenched, we shall justly feel that it is rather a -dreary waste of ash and cinder, strewn with snow--some ribbed and -frosted Arctic zone, silent in death, for there is no life there, and -there is no life there because there is no Love, and no Love because -men in rejecting or abusing her have slain their own power ever again -to feel her presence. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[768] x. 17. - -[769] vii. 13. - -[770] ix. 10. - -[771] xi. 1, 2. - -[772] xi. 4. - -[773] xi. 8; xii. 1. - - - - - _MICAH_ - - - - - "But I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah - To declare to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel his sin." - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV - - _THE BOOK OF MICAH_ - - -The Book of Micah lies sixth of the Twelve Prophets in the Hebrew -Canon, but in the order of the Septuagint third, following Amos and -Hosea. The latter arrangement was doubtless directed by the size of -the respective books;[774] in the case of Micah it has coincided with -the prophet's proper chronological position. Though his exact date be -not certain, he appears to have been a younger contemporary of Hosea, -as Hosea was of Amos. - -The book is not two-thirds the size of that of Amos, and about half -that of Hosea. It has been arranged in seven chapters, which follow, -more or less, a natural method of division.[775] They are usually -grouped in three sections, distinguishable from each other by their -subject-matter, by their temper and standpoint, and to a less degree -by their literary form. They are A. Chaps. i.-iii.; B. Chaps. iv., -v.; C. Chaps, vi., vii. - -There is no book of the Bible, as to the date of whose different -parts there has been more discussion, especially within recent -years. The history of this is shortly as follows:-- - - Tradition and the criticism of the early years of this century - accepted the statement of the title, that the book was composed - in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah--that is, between - 740 and 700 B.C. It was generally agreed that there were in it - only traces of the first two reigns, but that the whole was put - together before the fall of Samaria in 721.[776] Then Hitzig - and Steiner dated chaps, iii.-vi. after 721; and Ewald denied - that Micah could have given us chaps, vi., vii., and placed them - under King Manasseh, _circa_ 690-640. Next Wellhausen[777] sought - to prove that vii. 7-20 must be post-exilic. Stade[778] took a - further step, and, on the ground that Micah himself could not - have blunted or annulled his sharp pronouncements of doom, by the - promises which chaps, iv. and v. contain, he withdrew these from - the prophet and assigned them to the time of the Exile.[779] But - the sufficiency of this argument was denied by Vatke.[780] Also - in opposition to Stade, Kuenen[781] refused to believe that Micah - could have been content with the announcement of the fall of - Jerusalem as his last word, that therefore much of chaps, iv. and - v. is probably from himself, but since their argument is obviously - broken and confused, we must look in them for interpolations, and - he decides that such are iv. 6-8, 11-13, and the working up of v. - 9-14. The famous passage in iv. 1-4 may have been Micah's, but was - probably added by another. Chaps, vi. and vii. were written under - Manasseh by some of the persecuted adherents of Jehovah. - - We may next notice two critics who adopt an extremely - conservative position. Von Ryssel,[782] as the result of a - very thorough examination, declared that all the chapters were - Micah's, even the much doubted ii. 12, 13, which have been - placed by an editor of the book in the wrong position, and chap. - vii. 7-20, which he agrees with Ewald can only date from the - reign of Manasseh, Micah himself having lived long enough into - that reign to write them himself. Another careful analysis by - Elhorst[783] also reached the conclusion that the bulk of the - book was authentic, but for his proof of this Elhorst requires a - radical rearrangement of the verses, and that on grounds which - do not always commend themselves. He holds chap. iv. 9-14 and v. - 8 for post-exilic insertions. Driver[784] contributes a thorough - examination of the book, and reaches the conclusions that ii. 12, - 13, though obviously in their wrong place, need not be denied to - Micah; that the difficulties of ascribing chaps, iv., v., to the - prophet are not insuperable, nor is it even necessary to suppose - in them interpolations. He agrees with Ewald as to the date of - vi.-vii. 6, and, while holding that it is quite possible for - Micah to have written them, thinks they are more probably due to - another, though a confident conclusion is not to be achieved. As - to vii. 7-20, he judges Wellhausen's inferences to be unnecessary. - A prophet in Micah's or Manasseh's time may have thought - destruction nearer than it actually proved to be, and, imagining - it as already arrived, have put into the mouth of the people a - confession suited to its circumstance. Wildeboer[785] goes further - than Driver. He replies in detail to the arguments of Stade and - Cornill, denies that the reasons for withdrawing so much from - Micah are conclusive, and assigns to the prophet the whole book, - with the exception of several interpolations. - -We see, then, that all critics are practically agreed as to the -presence of interpolations in the text, as well as to the occurrence -of certain verses of the prophet out of their proper order. This -indeed must be obvious to every careful reader as he notes the somewhat -frequent break in the logical sequence, especially of chaps, iv. and -v. All critics, too, admit the authenticity of chaps, i.-iii., with -the possible exception of ii. 12, 13; while a majority hold that -chaps, vi. and vii., whether by Micah or not, must be assigned to the -reign of Manasseh. On the authenticity of chaps, iv. and v.--_minus_ -interpolations--and of chaps, vi. and vii., opinion is divided; but we -ought not to overlook the remarkable fact that those who have recently -written the fullest monographs on Micah[786] incline to believe in the -genuineness of the book as a whole.[787] We may now enter for ourselves -upon the discussion of the various sections, but before we do so let -us note how much of the controversy turns upon the general question, -whether after decisively predicting the overthrow of Jerusalem it was -possible for Micah to add prophecies of her restoration. It will be -remembered that we have had to discuss this same point with regard both -to Amos and Hosea. In the case of the former we decided against the -authenticity of visions of a blessed future which now close his book; -in the case of the latter we decided for the authenticity. What were -our reasons for this difference? They were, that the closing vision of -the Book of Amos is not at all in harmony with the exclusively ethical -spirit of the authentic prophecies; while the closing vision of the -Book of Hosea is not only in language and in ethical temper thoroughly -in harmony with the chapters which precede it, but in certain details -has been actually anticipated by these. Hosea, therefore, furnishes us -with the case of a prophet who, though he predicted the ruin of his -impenitent people (and that ruin was verified by events), also spoke of -the possibility of their restoration upon conditions in harmony with -his reasons for the inevitableness of their fall. And we saw, too, that -the hopeful visions of the future, though placed last in the collection -of his prophecies, need not necessarily have been spoken last by the -prophet, but stand where they do because they have an eternal spiritual -validity for the remnant of Israel.[788] What was possible for Hosea is -surely possible for Micah. That promises come in his book, and closely -after the conclusive threats which he gave of the fall of Jerusalem, -does not imply that originally he uttered them all in such close -proximity. That indeed would have been impossible. But considering how -often the political prospect in Israel changed during Micah's time, and -how far the city was in his day from her actual destruction--more than -a century distant--it seems to be improbable that he should not (in -whatever order) have uttered both threat and promise. And naturally, -when his prophecies were arranged in permanent order, the promises -would be placed after the threats.[789] - - - - FIRST SECTION: CHAPS. I.-III. - -No critic doubts the authenticity of the bulk of these chapters. The -sole question at issue is the date or (possibly) the dates of them. -Only chap. ii. 12, 13, are generally regarded as out of place, where -they now stand. - -Chap. i. trembles with the destruction of both Northern Israel and -Judah--a destruction either very imminent or actually in the process -of happening. The verses which deal with Samaria, 6 ff., do not -simply announce her inevitable ruin. They throb with the sense either -that this is immediate, or that it is going on, or that it has just -been accomplished. The verbs suit each of these alternatives: _And I -shall set_, or _am selling_, or _have set_, _Samaria for a ruin of -the field_, and so on. We may assign them to any time between 725 -B.C., the beginning of the siege of Samaria by Shalmaneser, and a -year or two after its destruction by Sargon in 721. Their intense -feeling seems to preclude the possibility of their having been -written in the years to which some assign them, 705-700, or twenty -years after Samaria was actually overthrown. - -In the next verses the prophet goes on to mourn the fact that the -affliction of Samaria reaches even to the gate of Jerusalem, and he -especially singles out as partakers in the danger of Jerusalem a -number of towns, most of which (so far as we can discern) lie not -between Jerusalem and Samaria, but at the other corner of Judah, in -the Shephelah or out upon the Philistine plain.[790] This was the -region which Sennacherib invaded in 701, simultaneously with his -detachment of a corps to attack the capital; and accordingly we -might be shut up to affirm that this end of chap. i. dates from that -invasion, if no other explanation of the place-names were possible. -But another is possible. Micah himself belonged to one of these -Shephelah towns, Moresheth-Gath, and it is natural that, anticipating -the invasion of all Judah, after the fall of Samaria (as Isaiah[791] -also did), he should single out for mourning his own district of the -country. This appears to be the most probable solution of a very -doubtful problem, and accordingly we may date the whole of chap. -i. somewhere between 725 and 720 or 718. Let us remember that in -719 Sargon marched past this very district of the Shephelah in his -campaign against Egypt, whom he defeated at Raphia.[792] - -Our conclusion is supported by chap. ii. Judah, though Jehovah be -planning evil against her, is in the full course of her ordinary -social activities. The rich are absorbing the lands of the poor -(vv. i. ff.): note the phrase _upon their beds_; it alone signifies -a time of security. The enemies of Israel are internal (8). The -public peace is broken by the lords of the land and men and women, -disposed to live quietly, are robbed (8 ff.). The false prophets -have sufficient signs of the times in their favour to regard Micah's -threats of destruction as calumnies (6). And although he regards -destruction as inevitable, it is not to be to-day; but _in that day_ -(4), viz. some still indefinite date in the future, the blow will -fall and the nation's elegy be sung. On this chapter, then, there -is no shadow of a foreign invader. We might assign it to the years -of Jotham and Ahaz (under whose reigns the title of the book places -part of the prophesying of Micah), but since there is no sense of a -double kingdom, no distinction between Judah and Israel, it belongs -more probably to the years when all immediate danger from Assyria -had passed away, between Sargon's withdrawal from Raphia in 719 -and his invasion of Ashdod in 710, or between the latter date and -Sennacherib's accession in 705. - -Chap. iii. contains three separate oracles, which exhibit a similar -state of affairs: the abuse of the common people by their chiefs and -rulers, who are implied to be in full sense of power and security. -They have time to aggravate their doings (4); their doom is still -future--_then at that time_ (_ib._). The bulk of the prophets -determine their oracles by the amount men give them (5), another sign -of security. Their doom is also future (6 f.). In the third of the -oracles the authorities of the land are in the undisturbed exercise -of their judicial offices (9 f.), and the priests and prophets of -their oracles (10), though all these professions practise only for -bribe and reward. Jerusalem is still being built and embellished -(10). But the prophet, not because there are political omens pointing -to this, but simply in the force of his indignation at the sins of -the upper classes, prophesies the destruction of the capital (12). It -is possible that these oracles of chap. iii. may be later than those -of the previous chapters.[793] - - - SECOND SECTION: CHAPS. IV., V. - -This section of the book opens with two passages, verses 1-5 and verses -6, 7, which there are serious objections against assigning to Micah. - -1. The first of these, 1-5, is the famous prophecy of the Mountain -of the Lord's House, which is repeated in Isaiah ii. 2-5. Probably -the Book of Micah presents this to us in the more original form.[794] -The alternatives therefore are four: Micah was the author, and Isaiah -borrowed from him; or both borrowed from an earlier source;[795] or -the oracle is authentic in Micah, and has been inserted by a later -editor in Isaiah; or it has been inserted by later editors in both -Micah and Isaiah. - -The last of these conclusions is required by the arguments first -stated by Stade and Hackmann, and then elaborated, in a very strong -piece of reasoning, by Cheyne. Hackmann, after marking the want of -connection with the previous chapter, alleges the keynotes of the -passage to be three: that it is not the arbitration of Jehovah,[796] -but His sovereignty over foreign nations, and their adoption of His -law, which the passage predicts; that it is the Temple at Jerusalem -whose future supremacy is affirmed; and that there is a strong -feeling against war. These, Cheyne contends, are the doctrines of a -much later age than that of Micah; he holds the passage to be the -work of a post-exilic imitator of the prophets, which was first -intruded into the Book of Micah and afterwards borrowed from this -by an editor of Isaiah's prophecies. It is just here, however, that -the theory of these critics loses its strength. Agreeing heartily -as I do with recent critics that the genuine writings of the early -prophets have received some, and perhaps considerable, additions from -the Exile and later periods, it seems to me extremely improbable -that the same post-exilic insertion should find its way into _two_ -separate books. And I think that the undoubted bias towards the -post-exilic period of all Canon Cheyne's recent criticism, has in -this case hurried him past due consideration of the possibility of -a pre-exilic date. In fact the gentle temper shown by the passage -towards foreign nations, the absence of hatred or of any ambition -to subject the Gentiles to servitude to Israel, contrasts strongly -with the temper of many exilic and post-exilic prophecies;[797] -while the position which it demands for Jehovah and His religion -is quite consistent with the fundamental principles of earlier -prophecy. The passage really claims no more than a suzerainty of -Jehovah over the heathen tribes, with the result only that their war -with Israel and with one another shall cease, not that they shall -become, as the great prophecy of the Exile demands, tributaries and -servitors. Such a claim was no more than the natural deduction from -the early prophets' belief of Jehovah's supremacy in righteousness. -And although Amos had not driven the principle so far as to promise -the absolute cessation of war, he also had recognised in the most -unmistakable fashion the responsibility of the Gentiles to Jehovah, -and His supreme arbitrament upon them.[798] And Isaiah himself, in -his prophecy on Tyre, promised a still more complete subjection of -the life of the heathen to the service of Jehovah.[799] Moreover the -fifth verse of the passage in Micah (though it is true its connection -with the previous four is not apparent) is much more in harmony with -pre-exilic than with post-exilic prophecy: _All the nations shall -walk each in the name of his god, and we shall walk in the name of -Jehovah our God for ever and aye_. This is consistent with more -than one prophetic utterance before the Exile,[800] but it is not -consistent with the beliefs of Judaism after the Exile. Finally, -the great triumph achieved for Jerusalem in 701 is quite sufficient -to have prompted the feelings expressed by this passage for the -_mountain of the house of the Lord_; though if we are to bring it -down to a date subsequent to 701, we must rearrange our views with -regard to the date and meaning of the second chapter of Isaiah. In -Micah the passage is obviously devoid of all connection, not only -with the previous chapter, but with the subsequent verses of chap. -iv. The possibility of a date in the eighth or beginning of the -seventh century is all that we can determine with regard to it; the -other questions must remain in obscurity. - -2. Verses 6, 7, may refer to the Captivity of Northern Israel, the -prophet adding that when it shall be restored the united kingdom -shall be governed from Mount Zion; but a date during the Exile is, of -course, equally probable. - -3. Verses 8-13 contain a series of small pictures of Jerusalem in -siege, from which, however, she issues triumphant.[801] It is -impossible to say whether such a siege is actually in course while -the prophet writes, or is pictured by him as inevitable in the near -future. The words _thou shalt go to Babylon_ may be, but are not -necessarily, a gloss. - -4. Chap. iv. 14-v. 8 again pictures such a siege of Jerusalem, but -promises a Deliverer out of Bethlehem, the city of David.[802] -Sufficient heroes will be raised up along with him to drive the -Assyrians from the land, and what is left of Israel after all these -disasters shall prove a powerful and sovereign influence upon the -peoples. These verses were probably not all uttered at the same time. - -5. Verses 9-14.--In prospect of such a deliverance the prophet -returns to what chap. i. has already described and Isaiah frequently -emphasises as the sin of Judah--her armaments and fortresses, her -magic and idolatries, the things she trusted in instead of Jehovah. -They will no more be necessary, and will disappear. The nations that -serve not Jehovah will feel His wrath. - -In all these oracles there is nothing inconsistent with authorship -in the eighth century: there is much that witnesses to this date. -Everything that they threaten or promise is threatened or promised -by Hosea and by Isaiah, with the exception of the destruction (in -ver. 12) of the Macceboth, or sacred pillars, against which we find -no sentence going forth from Jehovah before the Book of Deuteronomy, -while Isaiah distinctly promises the erection of a Maccebah to -Jehovah in the land of Egypt.[803] But waiving for the present the -possibility of a date for Deuteronomy, or for part of it, in the -reign of Hezekiah, we must remember the destruction, which took place -under this king, of idolatrous sanctuaries in Judah, and feel also -that, in spite of such a reform, it was quite possible for Isaiah to -introduce a Maccebah into his poetic vision of the worship of Jehovah -in Egypt. For has he not also dared to say that the _harlot's hire_ -of the Phoenician commerce shall one day be consecrated to Jehovah? - - - THIRD SECTION: CHAPS. VI., VII. - -The style now changes. We have had hitherto a series of short -oracles, as if delivered orally. These are succeeded by a series of -conferences or arguments, by several speakers. Ewald accounts for the -change by supposing that the latter date from a time of persecution, -when the prophet, unable to speak in public, uttered himself in -literature. But chap. i. is also dramatic. - -1. Chap. vi. 1-8.--An argument in which the prophet as herald calls -on the hills to listen to Jehovah's case against the people (1, -2). Jehovah Himself appeals to the latter, and in a style similar -to Hosea's cites His deeds in their history, as evidence of what -He seeks from them (3-5). The people, presumably penitent, ask how -they shall come before Jehovah (6, 7). And the prophet tells them -what Jehovah has declared in the matter (8). Opening very much like -Micah's first oracle (chap. i. 1), this argument contains nothing -strange either to Micah or the eighth century. Exception has been -taken to the reference in ver. 7 to the sacrifice of the first-born, -which appears to have become more common from the gloomy age of -Manasseh onwards, and which, therefore, led Ewald to date all chaps. -vi. and vii. from that king's reign. But child-sacrifice is stated -simply as a possibility, and--occurring as it does at the climax of -the sentence--as an extreme possibility.[804] I see no necessity, -therefore, to deny the piece to Micah or the reign of Hezekiah. Of -those who place it under Manasseh, some, like Driver, still reserve -it to Micah himself, whom they suppose to have survived Hezekiah and -seen the evil days which followed. - -2. Verses 9-16.--Most expositors[805] take these verses along with -the previous eight, as well as with the six which follow in chap. -vii. But there is no connection between verses 8 and 9; and 9-16 -are better taken by themselves. The prophet heralds, as before, the -speech of Jehovah to _tribe and city_(9). Addressing Jerusalem, -Jehovah asks how He can forgive such fraud and violence as those -by which her wealth has been gathered (10-12). Then addressing the -people (note the change from feminine to masculine in the second -personal pronouns) He tells them He must smite; they shall not enjoy -the fruit of their labours(14, 15). They have sinned the sins of -Omri and the house of Ahab (query--should it not be of Ahab and -the house of Omri?), so that they must be put to shame before the -Gentiles[806](16). In this section three or four words have been -marked as of late Hebrew.[807] But this is uncertain, and the -inference made from it precarious. The deeds of Omri and Ahab's house -have been understood as the persecution of the adherents of Jehovah, -and the passage has, therefore, been assigned by Ewald and others -to the reign of the tyrant Manasseh. But such habits of persecution -could hardly be imputed to the City or People as a whole; and we -may conclude that the passage means some other of that notorious -dynasty's sins. Among these, as is well known, it is possible to -make a large selection--the favouring of idolatry, or the tyrannous -absorption by the rich of the land of the poor (as in Naboth's case), -a sin which Micah has already marked as that of his age. The whole -treatment of the subject, too, whether under the head of the sin or -its punishment, strongly resembles the style and temper of Amos. It -is, therefore, by no means impossible for this passage also to have -been Micah's, and we must accordingly leave the question of its date -undecided. Certainly we are not shut up, as the majority of modern -critics suppose, to a date under Manasseh or Amon. - -3. Chap. vii. 1-6.--These verses are spoken by the prophet in his own -name or that of the people's. The land is devastated; the righteous -have disappeared; everybody is in ambush to commit deeds of violence -and take his neighbour unawares. There is no justice: the great ones -of the land are free to do what they like; they have intrigued with -and bribed the authorities. Informers have crept in everywhere. Men -must be silent, for the members of their own families are their foes. -Some of these sins have already been marked by Micah as those of his -age (chap. ii.), but the others point rather to a time of persecution -such as that under Manasseh. Wellhausen remarks the similarity to the -state of affairs described in Mal. iii. 24 and in some Psalms. We -cannot fix the date. - -4. Verses 7-20.--This passage starts from a totally different temper of -prophecy, and presumably, therefore, from very different circumstances. -Israel, as a whole, speaks in penitence. She has sinned, and bows -herself to the consequences, but in hope. A day shall come when her -exiles shall return and the heathen acknowledge her God. The passage, -and with it the Book of Micah, concludes by apostrophising Jehovah as -the God of forgiveness and grace to His people. Ewald, and following -him Driver, assign the passage, with those which precede it, to the -times of Manasseh, in which of course it is possible that Micah was -still active, though Ewald supposes a younger and anonymous prophet as -the author. Wellhausen[808] goes further, and, while recognising that -the situation and temper of the passage resemble those of Isaiah xl. -ff., is inclined to bring it even further down to post-exilic times, -because of the universal character of the Diaspora. Driver objects to -these inferences, and maintains that a prophet in the time of Manasseh, -thinking the destruction of Jerusalem to be nearer than it actually -was, may easily have pictured it as having taken place, and put an -ideal confession in the mouth of the people. It seems to me that all -these critics have failed to appreciate a piece of evidence even more -remarkable than any they have insisted on in their argument for a late -date. This is, that the passage speaks of a restoration of the people -only to Bashan and Gilead, the provinces overrun by Tiglath-Pileser -III. in 734. It is not possible to explain such a limitation either by -the circumstances of Manasseh's time or by those of the Exile. In the -former surely Samaria would have been included; in the latter Zion and -Judah would have been emphasised before any other region. It would be -easy for the defenders of a post-exilic date, and especially of a date -much subsequent to the Exile, to account for a longing after Bashan and -Gilead, though they also would have to meet the objection that Samaria -or Ephraim is not mentioned. But how natural it would be for a prophet -writing soon after the captivity of Tiglath-Pileser III. to make this -precise selection! And although there remain difficulties (arising from -the temper and language of the passage) in the way of assigning all -of it to Micah or his contemporaries, I feel that on the geographical -allusions much can be said for the origin of this part of the passage -in their age, or even in an age still earlier: that of the Syrian -wars in the end of the ninth century, with which there is nothing -inconsistent either in the spirit or the language of vv. 14-17. And I -am sure that if the defenders of a late date had found a selection of -districts as suitable to the post-exilic circumstances of Israel as the -selection of Bashan and Gilead is to the circumstances of the eighth -century, they would, instead of ignoring it, have emphasised it as a -conclusive confirmation of their theory. On the other hand, ver. 11 can -date only from the Exile, or the following years, before Jerusalem was -rebuilt. Again, vv. 18-20 appear to stand by themselves. - -It seems likely, therefore, that chap. vii. 7-20 is a Psalm composed -of little pieces from various dates, which, combined, give us a -picture of the secular sorrows of Israel, and of the conscience -she ultimately felt in them, and conclude by a doxology to the -everlasting mercies of her God. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[774] See above, pp. 6 f. - -[775] Note that the Hebrew and English divisions do not coincide -between chaps. iv. and v. In the Hebrew chap. iv. includes a -fourteenth verse, which in the English stands as the first verse of -chap. v. In this the English agrees with the Septuagint. - -[776] Caspari. - -[777] In the fourth edition of Bleek's _Introduction_. - -[778] _Z.A.T.W._, Vols. I., III., IV. - -[779] See also Cornill, _Einleitung_, 183 f. Stade takes iv. 1-4, -iv. 11-v. 3, v. 6-14, as originally one prophecy (distinguished by -certain catchwords and an outlook similar to that of Ezekiel and the -great Prophet of the Exile), in which the two pieces iv. 5-10 and v. -4, 5, were afterwards inserted by the author of ii. 12, 13. - -[780] _Einleitung in das A.T._, pp. 690 ff. - -[781] _Einleitung._ - -[782] _Untersuchungen ueber dis Textgestalt u. die Echtheit des Buches -Micha_, 1887. - -[783] _De Profetie van Micha_, 1891, which I have not seen. It is -summarised in Wildeboer's _Litteratur des A.T._, 1895. - -[784] _Introduction_, 1892. - -[785] _Litteratur des A.T._, pp. 148 ff. - -[786] Wildeboer (_De Profet Micha_), Von Ryssel and Elhorst. - -[787] Cheyne, therefore, is not correct when he says ("Introduction" -to second edition of Robertson Smith's _Prophets_, p. xxiii.) that it -is "becoming more and more doubtful whether more than two or three -fragments of the heterogeneous collection of fragments in chaps. -iv.-vii. can have come from that prophet." - -[788] See above, p. 311. - -[789] Wildeboer seems to me to have good grounds for his reply to -Stade's assertion that the occurrence of promises after the threats -only blunts and nullifies the latter. "These objections," says -Wildeboer, "raise themselves only against _the spoken_, but not -against the written word." See, too, the admirable remarks he quotes -from De Goeje. - -[790] See below, pp. 383 ff. - -[791] x. 18. - -[792] Smend assigns the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem -in iii. 14, along with Isaiah xxviii.-xxxii., to 704-701, and -suggests that the end of chap. i. refers to Sennacherib's campaign -in Philistia in 701 (_A. T. Religionsgeschichte_, p. 225, _n._). The -former is possible, but the latter passage, following so closely on -i. 6, which implies the fall of Samaria to be still recent, if not in -actual course, is more suitably placed in the time of the campaign of -Sargon over pretty much the same ground. - -[793] See above, p. 363, _n._ 2. - -[794] So Hitzig ("ohne Zweifel"), and Cheyne, _Introduction to the -Book of Isaiah_; Ryssel, _op. cit._, pp. 218 f. Hackmann (_Die -Zukunftserwartung des Jesaia_, 127-8, _n._) prefers the Greek of -Micah. Ewald is doubtful. Duhm, however, inclines to authorship by -Isaiah, and would assign the composition to Isaiah's old age. - -[795] Hitzig; Ewald. - -[796] As against Duhm. - -[797] So rightly Duhm on Isa. ii. 2-4. - -[798] Amos i. and ii. See above, pp. 124, 133. - -[799] Isa. xxiii. 17 f. - -[800] Jer. xvii. - -[801] Wellhausen indeed thinks that ver. 8 presupposes that Jerusalem -is already devastated, reduced to the state of a shepherd's tower in -the wilderness. This, however, is incorrect. The verse implies only -that the whole country is overrun by the foe, Jerusalem alone standing, -with the flock of God in it, like a fortified fold (cf. Isaiah i.). - -[802] Roorda, reasoning from the Greek text, takes _House of -Ephratha_ as the original reading, with Bethlehem added later; and -Hitzig properly reads Ephrath, giving its final letter to the next -word which improves the grammar, thus: [Hebrew: htz'r frt] - -[803] Isa. xix. 19. - -[804] So also Wellhausen. - -[805] _E.g._ Ewald and Driver. - -[806] For [Hebrew: 'm] read [Hebrew: 'mm] with the LXX. - -[807] Wellhausen states four. But [Hebrew: tvshh] of ver. 9 is an -uncertain reading. [Hebrew: rmh] is found in Hosea vii. 16, though -the text of this, it is true, is corrupt. [Hebrew: zchh] in another -verbal form is found in Isa. i. 16. There only remains [Hebrew: mth], -but again it is uncertain whether we should take this in its late -sense of tribe. - -[808] And also Giesebrecht, _Beitraege_, p. 217. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV - - _MICAH THE MORASTHITE_ - - MICAH i. - - -Some time in the reign of Hezekiah, when the kingdom of Judah was -still inviolate, but shivering to the shock of the fall of Samaria, -and probably while Sargon the destroyer was pushing his way past -Judah to meet Egypt at Raphia, a Judaean prophet of the name of Micah, -standing in sight of the Assyrian march, attacked the sins of his -people and prophesied their speedy overthrow beneath the same flood -of war. If we be correct in our surmise, the exact year was 720-719 -B.C. Amos had been silent thirty years, Hosea hardly fifteen; Isaiah -was in the midway of his career. The title of Micah's book asserts -that he had previously prophesied under Jotham and Ahaz, and though -we have seen it to be possible, it is by no means proved, that -certain passages of the book date from these reigns. - -Micah is called the Morasthite.[809] For this designation -there appears to be no other meaning than that of a native of -Moresheth-Gath, a village mentioned by himself.[810] It signifies -_Property_ or _Territory_ of Gath, and after the fall of the latter, -which from this time no more appears in history, Moresheth may have -been used alone. Compare the analogous cases of Helkath (_portion -of_--) Galilee, Ataroth, Chesulloth and Iim.[811] - -In our ignorance of Gath's position, we should be equally at fault -about Moresheth, for the name has vanished, were it not for one -or two plausible pieces of evidence. Belonging to Gath, Moresheth -must have lain near the Philistine border: the towns among which -Micah includes it are situate in that region; and Jerome declares -that the name--though the form, Morasthi, in which he cites it is -suspicious--was in his time still extant in a small village to the -east of Eleutheropolis or Beit-Jibrin. Jerome cites Morasthi as -distinct from the neighbouring Mareshah, which is also quoted by -Micah beside Moresheth-Gath.[812] - -Moresheth was, therefore, a place in the Shephelah, or range of low -hills which lie between the hill-country of Judah and the Philistine -plain. It is the opposite exposure from the wilderness of Tekoa,[813] -some seventeen miles away across the watershed. As the home of Amos -is bare and desert, so the home of Micah is fair and fertile. The -irregular chalk hills are separated by broad glens, in which the -soil is alluvial and red, with room for cornfields on either side of -the perennial or almost perennial streams. The olive groves on the -braes are finer than either those of the plain below or of the Judaean -tableland above. There is herbage for cattle. Bees murmur everywhere, -larks are singing, and although to-day you may wander in the maze -of hills for hours without meeting a man or seeing a house, you are -never out of sight of the traces of ancient habitation, and seldom -beyond sound of the human voice--shepherds and ploughmen calling to -their flocks and to each other across the glens. There are none of the -conditions or of the occasions of a large town. But, like the south of -England, the country is one of villages and homesteads, breeding good -yeomen--men satisfied and in love with their soil, yet borderers with -a far outlook and a keen vigilance and sensibility. The Shephelah is -sufficiently detached from the capital and body of the land to beget in -her sons an independence of mind and feeling, but so much upon the edge -of the open world as to endue them at the same time with that sense of -the responsibilities of warfare, which the national statesmen, aloof -and at ease in Zion, could not possibly have shared. - -Upon one of the westmost terraces of this Shephelah, nearly a -thousand feet above the sea, lay Moresheth itself. There is a great -view across the undulating plain with its towns and fortresses, -Lachish, Eglon, Shaphir and others, beyond which runs the coast road, -the famous war-path between Asia and Africa. Ashdod and Gaza are -hardly discernible against the glitter of the sea, twenty-two miles -away. Behind roll the round bush-covered hills of the Shephelah, with -David's hold at Adullam,[814] the field where he fought Goliath, and -many another scene of border warfare; while over them rises the high -wall of the Judaean plateau, with the defiles breaking through it to -Hebron and Bethlehem. - -The valley-mouth near which Moresheth stands has always formed the -south-western gateway of Judaea, the Philistine or Egyptian gate, as -it might be called, with its outpost at Lachish, twelve miles across -the plain. Roads converge upon this valley-mouth from all points -of the compass. Beit-Jibrin, which lies in it, is midway between -Jerusalem and Gaza, about twenty-five miles from either, nineteen -miles from Bethlehem and thirteen from Hebron. Visit the place at any -point of the long history of Palestine, and you find it either full -of passengers or a centre of campaign. Asa defeated the Ethiopians -here. The Maccabees and John Hyrcanus contested Mareshah, two miles -off, with the Idumeans. Gabinius fortified Mareshah. Vespasian and -Saladin both deemed the occupation of the valley necessary before -they marched upon Jerusalem. Septimius Severus made Beit-Jibrin -the capital of the Shephelah, and laid out military roads, whose -pavements still radiate from it in all directions. The _Onomasticon_ -measures distances in the Shephelah from Beit-Jibrin. Most of the -early pilgrims from Jerusalem by Gaza to Sinai or Egypt passed -through it, and it was a centre of Crusading operations whether -against Egypt during the Latin kingdom or against Jerusalem during -the Third Crusade. Not different was the place in the time of Micah. -Micah must have seen pass by his door the frequent embassies which -Isaiah tells us went down to Egypt from Hezekiah's court, and seen -return those Egyptian subsidies in which a foolish people put their -trust instead of in their God. - -In touch, then, with the capital, feeling every throb of its -folly and its panic, but standing on that border which must, as -he believed, bear the brunt of the invasion that its crimes were -attracting, Micah lifted up his voice. They were days of great -excitement. The words of Amos and Hosea had been fulfilled upon -Northern Israel. Should Judah escape, whose injustice and impurity -were as flagrant as her sister's? It were vain to think so. The -Assyrians had come up to her northern border. Isaiah was expecting -their assault upon Mount Zion.[815] The Lord's Controversy was not -closed. Micah will summon the whole earth to hear the old indictment -and the still unexhausted sentence. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Hear ye, peoples_[816] _all;_ - _Hearken, O Earth, and her fulness! - That Jehovah may be among you to testify,_ - _The Lord from His holy temple!_ - _For, lo! Jehovah goeth forth from His place;_ - _He descendeth and marcheth on the heights of the earth._[817] - _Molten are the mountains beneath Him,_ - _And the valleys gape open,_ - _Like wax in face of the fire,_ - _Like water poured over a fall._ - -God speaks:-- - - _For the transgression of Jacob is all this,_ - _And for the sins of the house of Israel._ - _What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria?_ - _And what is the sin of the house_[818] _of Judah? is it not - Jerusalem?_ - _Therefore do I turn Samaria into a ruin of the field,_[819] - _And into vineyard terraces;_ - _And I pour down her stones to the glen,_ - _And lay bare her foundations._[820] - _All her images are shattered,_ - _And all her hires are being burned in the fire;_ - _And all her idols I lay desolate,_ - _For from the hire of a harlot they were gathered,_[821] - _And to a harlot's hire they return._[822] - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _For this let me mourn, let me wail,_ - _Let me go barefoot and stripped_ (of my robe), - _Let me make lamentation like the jackals,_ - _And mourning like the daughters of the desert._[823] - _For her stroke_[824] _is desperate;_ - _Yea, it hath come unto Judah!_ - _It hath smitten right up to the gate of my people,_ - _Up to Jerusalem._ - -Within the capital itself Isaiah was also recording the extension of -the Assyrian invasion to its walls, but in a different temper.[825] He -was full of the exulting assurance that, although at the very gate, -the Assyrian could not harm the city of Jehovah, but must fall when -he lifted his impious hand against it. Micah has no such hope: he is -overwhelmed with the thought of Jerusalem's danger. Provincial though -he be, and full of wrath at the danger into which the politicians of -Jerusalem had dragged the whole country, he profoundly mourns the -peril of the capital, _the gate of my people_, as he fondly calls her. -Therefore we must not exaggerate the frequently drawn contrast between -Isaiah and himself.[826] To Micah also Jerusalem was dear, and his -subsequent prediction of her overthrow[827] ought to be read with the -accent of this previous mourning for her peril. Nevertheless his heart -clings most to his own home, and while Isaiah pictures the Assyrian -entering Judah from the north by Migron, Michmash and Nob, Micah -anticipates invasion by the opposite gateway of the land, at the door -of his own village. His elegy sweeps across the landscape so dear to -him. This obscure province was even more than Jerusalem his world, the -world of his heart. It gives us a living interest in the man that the -fate of these small villages, many of them vanished, should excite in -him more passion than the fortunes of Zion herself. In such a passion -we can incarnate his spirit. Micah is no longer a book, or an oration, -but flesh and blood upon a home and a countryside of his own. We see -him on his housetop pouring forth his words before the hills and the -far-stretching heathen land. In the name of every village within sight -he reads a symbol of the curse that is coming upon his country, and -of the sins that have earned the curse. So some of the greatest poets -have caught their music from the nameless brooklets of their boyhood's -fields; and many a prophet has learned to read the tragedy of man and -God's verdict upon sin in his experience of village life. But there was -more than feeling in Micah's choice of his own country as the scene -of the Assyrian invasion. He had better reasons for his fears than -Isaiah, who imagined the approach of the Assyrian from the north. For -it is remarkable how invaders of Judaea, from Sennacherib to Vespasian -and from Vespasian to Saladin and Richard, have shunned the northern -access to Jerusalem and endeavoured to reach her by the very gateway at -which Micah stood mourning. He had, too, this greater motive for his -fear, that Sargon, as we have seen, was actually in the neighbourhood, -marching to the defeat of Judah's chosen patron, Egypt. Was it not -probable that, when the latter was overthrown, Sargon would turn back -upon Judah by Lachish and Mareshah? If we keep this in mind we shall -appreciate, not only the fond anxiety, but the political foresight -that inspires the following passage, which is to our Western taste so -strangely cast in a series of plays upon place-names. The disappearance -of many of these names, and our ignorance of the transactions to -which the verses allude, often render both the text and the meaning -very uncertain. Micah begins with the well-known play upon the name -of Gath; the Acco which he couples with it is either the Phoenician -port to the north of Carmel, the modern Acre, or some Philistine -town, unknown to us, but in any case the line forms with the previous -one an intelligible couplet: _Tell it not in Tell-town; Weep not in -Weep-town_. The following Beth-le-'Aphrah, _House of Dust_, must be -taken with them, for in the phrase _roll thyself_ there is a play upon -the name Philistine. So, too, Shaphir, or Beauty, the modern Suafir, -lay in the Philistine region. Sa'anan and Beth-esel and Maroth are -unknown; but if Micah, as is probable, begins his list far away on the -western horizon and comes gradually inland, they also are to be sought -for on the maritime plain. Then he draws nearer by Lachish, on the -first hills, and in the leading pass towards Judah, to Moresheth-Gath, -Achzib, Mareshah and Adullam, which all lie within Israel's territory -and about the prophet's own home. We understand the allusion, at least, -to Lachish in ver. 13. As the last Judaean outpost towards Egypt, and on -a main road thither, Lachish would receive the Egyptian subsidies of -horses and chariots, in which the politicians put their trust instead -of in Jehovah. Therefore she _was the beginning of sin to the daughter -of Zion_. And if we can trust the text of ver. 14, Lachish would pass -on the Egyptian ambassadors to Moresheth-Gath, the next stage of their -approach to Jerusalem. But this is uncertain. With Moresheth-Gath is -coupled Achzib, a town at some distance from Jerome's site for the -former, to the neighbourhood of which, Mareshah, we are brought back -again in ver. 15. Adullam, with which the list closes, lies some eight -or ten miles to the north-east of Mareshah. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Tell it not in Gath,_ - _Weep not in Acco,_[828] - _In Beth-le-'Aphrah_[829] _roll thyself in dust._ - _Pass over, inhabitress of Shaphir,_[830] _thy shame - uncovered!_ - _The inhabitress of Sa'anan_[831] _shall not march forth;_ - _The lamentation of Beth-esel_[832] _taketh from you its - standing._ - _The inhabitress of Maroth_[833] _trembleth for good, - For evil hath come down from Jehovah to the gate of - Jerusalem._ - _Harness the horse to the chariot, inhabitress of - Lachish,_[834] - _That hast been the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion;_ - _Yea, in thee are found the transgressions of Israel._ - _Therefore thou givest ..._[835] _to Moresheth-Gath:_[836] - _The houses of Achzib_[837] _shall deceive the kings of - Israel._ - _Again shall I bring the Possessor_ [_conqueror_] _to thee, - inhabitress of Mareshah;_[838] - _To Adullam_[839] _shall come the glory of Israel._ - _Make thee bald, and shave thee for thy darlings;_ - _Make broad thy baldness like the vulture,_ - _For they go into banishment from thee._ - -This was the terrible fate which the Assyrian kept before the peoples -with whom he was at war. Other foes raided, burned and slew: he -carried off whole populations into exile. - -Having thus pictured the doom which threatened his people, Micah -turns to declare the sins for which it has been sent upon them. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[809] Micah i.; Jer. xxvi. 18. - -[810] i. 14. - -[811] Ataroth (Numb. xxxii. 3) is Atroth-Shophan (_ib._ 35); -Chesulloth (Josh. xix. 18) is Chisloth-Tabor (_ib._ 12); Iim (Numb. -xxxiii. 45) is Iye-Abarim (_ib._ 44). - -[812] "Michaeam de Morasthi qui usque hodie juxta Eleutheropolim, -haud grandis est viculus."--Jerome, Preface to Micha. "Morasthi, -unde fuit Micheas propheta, est autem vicus contra orientem -Eleutheropoleos."--_Onomasticon_, which also gives "Maresa, in -tribu Juda: cuius nunc tantummodo sunt ruinae in secundo lapide -Eleutheropoleos." See, too, the _Epitaphium S. Paulae_: "Videam -Morasthim sepulchrum quondam Michaeae, nunc ecclesiam, et ex latere -derelinquam Choraeos, et Gitthaeos et Maresam." The occurrence of a -place bearing the name Property-of-Gath so close to Beit-Jibrin -certainly strengthens the claims of the latter to be Gath. See _Hist. -Geog._, p. 196. - -[813] See above, pp. 74 ff. - -[814] For the situation of Adullam in the Shephelah see _Hist. -Geog._, p. 229. - -[815] Isa. x. 28 ff. This makes it quite conceivable that Micah i. -9, _it hath struck right up to the gate of Jerusalem_, was composed -immediately after the fall of Samaria, and not, as Sinend imagines, -during the campaign of Sennacherib. Against the latter date there -is the objection that by then the fall of Samaria, which Micah i. 6 -describes as present, was already nearly twenty years past. - -[816] The address is either to the tribes, in which case we must -substitute _land_ for _earth_ in the next line; or much more probably -it is to the Gentile _nations_, but in this case we cannot translate -(as all do) in the third line that the Lord will be a witness _against_ -them, for the charge is only against Israel. They are summoned in -the same sense as Amos summons a few of the nations in chap. iii. 9 -ff.--The opening words of Micah are original to this passage, and -interpolated in the exordium of the other Micah, 1 Kings xxii. 28. - -[817] Jehovah's _Temple_ or _Place_ is not, as in earlier poems, -Sinai or Seir (cf. Deborah's song and Deut. xxxiii.), but Heaven (cf. -Isaiah xix. or Psalm xxix.). - -[818] So LXX. and other versions. - -[819] Wellhausen's objections to this phrase are arbitrary and -incorrect. A ruin in the midst of soil gone out of cultivation, where -before there had been a city among vineyards, is a striking figure of -desolation. - -[820] Which is precisely how Herod's Samaria lies at the present day. - -[821] So Ewald. - -[822] It must be kept in mind that all the verbs in the above passage -may as correctly be given in the future tense; in that case the -passage will be dated just before the fall of Samaria, in 722-1, -instead of just after. - -[823] [Hebrew: 'nh vnvt], that is, the ostriches: cf. Arab, wa'ana, -"white, barren ground." The Arabs call the ostrich "father of the -desert: abu sahara." - -[824] LXX. - -[825] Isa. x. 28 ff. - -[826] It is well put by Robertson Smith's _Prophets_^2, pp. 289 ff. - -[827] iii. 12. - -[828] LXX. [Greek: en Akeim]; Heb. "weep not at all." - -[829] [Hebrew: le'afrah] cannot be the Ophrah, [Hebrew: 'aferah], of -Benjamin. It may be connected with [Hebrew: 'ofer], a gazelle; and -it is to be noted that S. of Beit-Jibrin there is a wady now called -El-Ghufr, the corresponding Arabic word. But, as stated in the text -above, the name ought to be one of a Philistine town. - -[830] Beauty town. This is usually taken to be the modern Suafir -on the Philistine plain, 4-1/2 miles S.E. of Ashdod, a site not -unsuitable for identification with the [Greek: Sapheir] of the -_Onom._, "between Eleutheropolis and Ascalon," except that [Greek: -Sapheir] is also described as "in the hill country." Guerin found the -name Safar a very little N. of Beit-Jibrin (_Judee_, II. 317). - -[831] March-town: perhaps the same as Senan ([Hebrew: tzenan]) of Josh. -xv. 37; given along with Migdal-Gad and Hadashah; not identified. - -[832] Unknown. - -[833] "Bitternesses": unknown. - -[834] Tell-el-Hesy. - -[835] _Ambassadors_ or _letters of dismissal_. - -[836] See above, p. 376. - -[837] Josh. xv. 44; mentioned with Keilah and Mareshah; perhaps the -present Ain Kezbeh, 8 miles N.N.E. of Beit-Jibrin. - -[838] [Hebrew: mareshah], but in Josh. xv. 44 [Hebrew: mrshh], which -is identical with spelling of the present name of a ruin 1 mile S. of -Beit-Jibrin. [Greek: Maresa] is placed by Eusebius (_Onom._) 2 Roman -miles S. of Eleutheropolis ( = Beit-Jibrin). - -[839] 6 miles N.E. of Beit-Jibrin. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI - - _THE PROPHET OF THE POOR_ - - MICAH ii., iii. - - -We have proved Micah's love for his countryside in the effusion of -his heart upon her villages with a grief for their danger greater -than his grief for Jerusalem. Now in his treatment of the sins -which give that danger its fatal significance, he is inspired by -the same partiality for the fields and the folk about him. While -Isaiah chiefly satirises the fashions of the town and the intrigues -of the court, Micah scourges the avarice of the landowner and the -injustice which oppresses the peasant. He could not, of course, help -sharing Isaiah's indignation for the fatal politics of the capital, -any more than Isaiah could help sharing his sense of the economic -dangers of the provinces;[840] but it is the latter with which Micah -is most familiar and on which he spends his wrath. These so engross -him, indeed, that he says almost nothing about the idolatry, or the -luxury, or the hideous vice, which, according to Amos and Hosea, were -now corrupting the nation. - -Social wrongs are always felt most acutely, not in the town, but in -the country. It was so in the days of Rome, whose earliest social -revolts were agrarian.[841] It was so in the Middle Ages: the -fourteenth century saw both the Jacquerie in France and the Peasants' -Rising in England; Langland, who was equally familiar with town and -country, expends nearly all his sympathy upon the poverty of the -latter, "the poure folk in cotes." It was so after the Reformation, -under the new spirit of which the first social revolt was the -Peasants' War in Germany. It was so at the French Revolution, which -began with the march of the starving peasants into Paris. And it is -so still, for our new era of social legislation has been forced open, -not by the poor of London and the large cities, but by the peasantry -of Ireland and the crofters of the Scottish Highlands. Political -discontent and religious heresy take their start among industrial and -manufacturing centres, but the first springs of the social revolt are -nearly always found among rural populations. - -Why the country should begin to feel the acuteness of social wrong -before the town is sufficiently obvious. In the town there are -mitigations, and there are escapes. If the conditions of one trade -become oppressive, it is easier to pass to another. The workers are -better educated and better organised; there is a middle class, and -the tyrant dare not bring matters to so high a crisis. The might of -the wealthy, too, is divided; the poor man's employer is seldom at -the same time his landlord. But in the country power easily gathers -into the hands of the few. The labourer's opportunities and means of -work, his home, his very standing-ground, are often all of them the -property of one man. In the country the rich have a real power of -life and death, and are less hampered by competition with each other -and by the force of public opinion. One man cannot hold a city in -fee, but one man can affect for evil or for good almost as large a -population as a city's, when it is scattered across a countryside. - -This is precisely the state of wrong which Micah attacks. The social -changes of the eighth century in Israel were peculiarly favourable -to its growth.[842] The enormous increase of money which had been -produced by the trade of Uzziah's reign threatened to overwhelm -the simple economy under which every family had its croft. As in -many another land and period, the social problem was the descent -of wealthy men, land-hungry, upon the rural districts. They made -the poor their debtors, and bought out the peasant proprietors. -They absorbed into their power numbers of homes, and had at their -individual disposal the lives and the happiness of thousands of -their fellow-countrymen. Isaiah had cried, _Woe upon them that join -house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room_ -for the common people, and the inhabitants of the rural districts -grow fewer and fewer.[843] Micah pictures the recklessness of those -plutocrats--the fatal ease with which their wealth enabled them to -dispossess the yeomen of Judah. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Woe to them that plan mischief,_ - _And on their beds work out evil!_ - _As soon as morning breaks they put it into execution,_ - _For--it lies to the power of their hands! - They covet fields and--seize them,_ - _Houses and--lift them up._ - _So they crush a good man and his home,_ - _A man and his heritage._ - -This is the evil--the ease with which wrong is done in the country! -_It lies to the power of their hands: they covet and seize._ And -what is it that they get so easily--not merely field and house, -so much land and stone and lime: it is human life, with all that -makes up personal independence, and the security of home and of the -family. That these should be at the mercy of the passion or the -caprice of one man--this is what stirs the prophet's indignation. -We shall presently see how the tyranny of wealth was aided by the -bribed and unjust judges of the country; and how, growing reckless, -the rich betook themselves, as the lords of the feudal system in -Europe continually did, to the basest of assaults upon the persons of -peaceful men and women. But meantime Micah feels that by themselves -the economic wrongs explain and justify the doom impending on the -nation. When this doom falls, by the Divine irony of God it shall -take the form of a conquest of the land by the heathen, and the -disposal of these great estates to the foreigner. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Therefore thus saith Jehovah:_ - _Behold, I am planning evil against this race,_ - _From which ye shall not withdraw your necks,_ - _Nor walk upright;_ - _For an evil time it is!_[844] - _In that day shall they raise a taunt-song against you,_ - _And wail out the wailing_ ("_It is done_");[845] _and say,_ - _"We be utterly undone:_ - _My people's estate is measured off!_[846] - _How they take it away from me!_[847] - _To the rebel our fields are allotted."_ - _So thou shalt have none to cast the line by lot_ - _In the congregation of Jehovah._ - -No restoration at time of Jubilee for lands taken away in this -fashion! There will be no congregation of Jehovah left! - -At this point the prophet's pessimist discourse, that must have -galled the rich, is interrupted by their clamour to him to stop. - -The rich speak:-- - - _Prate not, they prate, let none prate of such things!_ - _Revilings will never cease!_ - _O thou that speakest_ thus _to the house of Jacob,_[848] - _Is the spirit of Jehovah cut short?_ - _Or are such His doings?_ - _Shall not His words mean well with him that walketh - uprightly?_ - -So the rich, in their immoral confidence that Jehovah was neither -weakened nor could permit such a disaster to fall on His own people, -tell the prophet that his sentence of doom on the nation, and -especially on themselves, is absurd, impossible. They cry the eternal -cry of Respectability: "God can mean no harm to the like of us! His -words are good to them that walk uprightly--and we are conscious of -being such. What you, prophet, have charged us with are nothing but -natural transactions." The Lord Himself has His answer ready. Upright -indeed! They have been unprovoked plunderers! - -God speaks:-- - - _But ye are the foes of My people,_ - _Rising against those that are peaceful;_ - _The mantle ye strip from them that walk quietly by,_ - _Averse to war!_[849] - _Women of My people ye tear from their happy homes,_[850] - _From their children ye take My glory for ever._ - _Rise and begone--for this is no resting-place!_ - _Because of the uncleanness that bringeth destruction,_ - _Destruction incurable._ - -Of the outrages on the goods of honest men, and the persons of women -and children, which are possible in a time of peace, when the rich -are tyrannous and abetted by mercenary judges and prophets, we have -an illustration analogous to Micah's in the complaint of Peace in -Langland's vision of English society in the fourteenth century. The -parallel to our prophet's words is very striking:-- - - "And thanne come Pees into parlement . and put forth a bille, - How Wronge ageines his wille . had his wyf taken. - 'Both my gees and my grys[851] . his gadelynges[852] feccheth; - I dar noughte for fere of hym . fyghte ne chyde. - He borwed of me bayard[853] . he broughte hym home nevre, - Ne no ferthynge ther-fore . for naughte I couthe plede. - He meynteneth his men . to marther myne hewen,[854] - Forstalleth my feyres[855] . and fighteth in my chepynge, - And breketh up my bernes dore . and bereth aweye my whete, - And taketh me but a taile[856] . for ten quarters of otes, - And yet he bet me ther-to . and lyth bi my mayde, - I nam[857] noughte hardy for hym . uneth[858] to loke.'" - -They pride themselves that all is stable and God is with them. How can -such a state of affairs be stable! They feel at ease, yet injustice can -never mean rest. God has spoken the final sentence, but with a rare -sarcasm the prophet adds his comment on the scene. These rich men had -been flattered into their religious security by hireling prophets, who -had opposed himself. As they leave the presence of God, having heard -their sentence, Micah looks after them and muses in quiet prose. - -The prophet speaks:-- - -_Yea, if one whose walk is wind and falsehood were to try to cozen_ -thee, saying, _I will babble to thee of wine and strong drink, then -he might be the prophet of such a people._ - -At this point in chap. ii. there have somehow slipped into the text -two verses (12, 13), which all are agreed do not belong to it, and -for which we must find another place.[859] They speak of a return -from the Exile, and interrupt the connection between ver. 11 and -the first verse of chap. iii. With the latter Micah begins a series -of three oracles, which give the substance of his own prophesying -in contrast to that of the false prophets whom he has just been -satirising. He has told us what they say, and he now begins the first -of his own oracles with the words, _But I said_. It is an attack upon -the authorities of the nation, whom the false prophets flatter. Micah -speaks very plainly to them. Their business is to know justice, and -yet they love wrong. They flay the people with their exactions; they -cut up the people like meat. - - The prophet speaks:--_But I said,_ - _Hear now, O chiefs Of Jacob,_ - _And rulers of the house of Israel:_ - _Is it not yours to know justice?--_ - _Haters of good and lovers of evil,_ - _Tearing their hide from upon them_ - (he points to the people), - _And their flesh from the bones of them;_ - _And who devour the flesh of my people,_ - _And their hide they have stripped from them_ - _And their bones have they cleft,_ - _And served it up as if from a pot,_ - _Like meat from the thick of the caldron!_ - _At that time shall they cry to Jehovah,_ - _And He will not answer them;_ - _But hide His face from them at that time,_ - _Because they have aggravated their deeds._ - -These words of Micah are terribly strong, but there have been many -other ages and civilisations than his own of which they have been no -more than true. "They crop us," said a French peasant of the lords -of the great Louis' time, "as the sheep crops grass." "They treat us -like their food," said another on the eve of the Revolution. - -Is there nothing of the same with ourselves? While Micah spoke he -had wasted lives and bent backs before him. His speech is elliptic -till you see his finger pointing at them. Pinched peasant-faces peer -between all his words and fill the ellipses. And among the living -poor to-day are there not starved and bitten faces--bodies with -the blood sucked from them, with the Divine image crushed out of -them? Brothers, we cannot explain all of these by vice. Drunkenness -and unthrift do account for much; but how much more is explicable -only by the following facts! Many men among us are able to live in -fashionable streets and keep their families comfortable only by -paying their employes a wage upon which it is impossible for men -to be strong or women to be virtuous. Are those not using these -as their food? They tell us that if they are to give higher wages -they must close their business, and cease paying wages at all; and -they are right if they themselves continue to live on the scale -they do. As long as many families are maintained in comfort by the -profits of businesses in which some or all of the employes work -for less than they can nourish and repair their bodies upon, the -simple fact is that the one set are feeding upon the other set. It -may be inevitable, it may be the fault of the system and not of the -individual, it may be that to break up the system would mean to make -things worse than ever--but all the same the truth is clear that -many families of the middle class, and some of the very wealthiest -of the land, are nourished by the waste of the lives of the poor. -Now and again the fact is acknowledged with as much shamelessness as -was shown by any tyrant in the days of Micah. To a large employer of -labour, who was complaining that his employes, by refusing to live -at the low scale of Belgian workmen, were driving trade from this -country, the present writer once said: "Would it not meet your wishes -if, instead of your workmen being levelled down, the Belgians were -levelled up? This would make the competition fair between you and the -employers in Belgium." His answer was, "I care not so long as I get -my profits." He was a religious man, a liberal giver to his Church, -and he died leaving more than one hundred thousand pounds. - -Micah's tyrants, too, had religion to support them. A number of the -hireling prophets, whom we have seen both Amos and Hosea attack, -gave their blessing to this social system, which crushed the poor, -for they shared its profits. They lived upon the alms of the rich, -and flattered according as they were fed. To them Micah devotes the -second oracle of chap. iii., and we find confirmed by his words -the principle we laid down before, that in that age the one great -difference between the false and the true prophet was what it has -been in every age since then till now--an ethical difference; and -not a difference of dogma, or tradition, or ecclesiastical note. The -false prophet spoke, consciously or unconsciously, for himself and -his living. He sided with the rich; he shut his eyes to the social -condition of the people; he did not attack the sins of the day. This -made him _false_--robbed him of insight and the power of prediction. -But the true prophet exposed the sins of his people. Ethical insight -and courage, burning indignation of wrong, clear vision of the facts -of the day--this was what Jehovah's spirit put into him, this was -what Micah felt to be inspiration. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Thus saith Jehovah against the prophets who lead my people astray,_ - _Who while they have ought between their teeth proclaim peace._ - _But against him who will not lay to their mouths they sanctify war!_ - _Wherefore night shall be yours without vision,_ - _And yours shall be darkness without divination;_ - _And the sun shall go down on the prophets,_ - _And the day shall darken about them;_ - _And the seers shall be put to the blush,_ - _And the diviners be ashamed:_ - _All of them shall cover the beard,_ - _For there shall be no answer from God._ - _But I--I am full of power by the spirit of Jehovah, and justice and - might,_ - _To declare to Jacob his transgressions and to Israel his sin._ - -In the third oracle of this chapter rulers and prophets are -combined--how close the conspiracy between them! It is remarkable -that, in harmony with Isaiah, Micah speaks no word against the king. -But evidently Hezekiah had not power to restrain the nobles and the -rich. When this oracle was uttered it was a time of peace, and the -lavish building, which we have seen to be so marked a characteristic -of Israel in the eighth century,[860] was in process. Jerusalem was -larger and finer than ever. Ah, it was a building of God's own city _in -blood_! Judges, priests and prophets were all alike mercenary, and the -poor were oppressed for a reward. No walls, however sacred, could stand -on such foundations. Did they say that they built her so grandly, for -Jehovah's sake? Did they believe her to be inviolate because He was in -her? They should see. Zion--yes, Zion--should be ploughed like a field, -and the Mountain of the Lord's Temple become desolate. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Hear now this, O chiefs of the house of Jacob,_ - _And rulers of the house of Israel,_ - _Who spurn justice and twist all that is straight,_ - _Building Zion in blood, and Jerusalem with crime!_ - _Her chiefs give judgment for a bribe,_ - _And her priests oracles for a reward,_ - _And her prophets divine for silver;_ - _And on Jehovah they lean, saying:_ - "_Is not Jehovah in the midst of us?_ - _Evil cannot come at us._" - _Therefore for your sakes shall Zion be ploughed like a field,_ - _And Jerusalem become heaps,_ - _And the Mount of the House mounds in a jungle._ - -It is extremely difficult for us to place ourselves in a state of -society in which bribery is prevalent, and the fingers both of justice -and of religion are gilded by their suitors. But this corruption -has always been common in the East. "An Oriental state can never -altogether prevent the abuse by which officials, small and great, -enrich themselves in illicit ways."[861] The strongest government takes -the bribery for granted, and periodically prunes the rank fortunes of -its great officials. A weak government lets them alone. But in either -case the poor suffer from unjust taxation and from laggard or perverted -justice. Bribery has always been found, even in the more primitive and -puritan forms of Semitic life. Mr. Doughty has borne testimony with -regard to this among the austere Wahabees of Central Arabia. "When I -asked if there were no handling of bribes at Hayil by those who are -nigh the prince's ear, it was answered, 'Nay.' The Byzantine corruption -cannot enter into the eternal and noble simplicity of this people's -(airy) life, in the poor nomad country; but (we have seen) the art is -not unknown to the subtle-headed Shammar princes, who thereby help -themselves with the neighbour Turkish governments."[862] The bribes -of the ruler of Hayil "are, according to the shifting weather of the -world, to great Ottoman government men; and now on account of Kheybar, -he was gilding some of their crooked fingers in Medina."[863] Nothing -marks the difference of Western government more than the absence of all -this, especially from our courts of justice. Yet the improvement has -only come about within comparatively recent centuries. What a large -space, for instance, does Langland give to the arraigning of "Mede," -the corrupter of all authorities and influences in the society of -his day! Let us quote his words, for again they provide a most exact -parallel to Micah's, and may enable us to realise a state of life so -contrary to our own. It is Conscience who arraigns Mede before the -King:-- - - "By ihesus with here jeweles . youre justices she shendeth,[864] - And lith[865] agein the lawe . and letteth hym the gate, - That feith may noughte have his forth[866] . here floreines go so - thikke, - She ledeth the lawe as hire list . and lovedays maketh - And doth men lese thorw hire love . that law myghte wynne, - The mase[867] for a mene man . though he mote[868] hir eure. - Law is so lordeliche . and loth to make ende, - Without presentz or pens[869] . she pleseth wel fewe. - - * * * * * - - For pore men mowe[870] have no powere . to pleyne[871] hem though - thei smerte; - Suche a maistre is Mede . amonge men of gode."[872] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[840] Isa. v. 8. - -[841] Mr. Congreve, in his Essay on Slavery appended to his edition -of Aristotle's _Politics_, p. 496, points out that all the servile -wars from which Rome suffered arose, not in the capital, but in the -provinces, notably in Sicily. - -[842] See above, pp. 32 ff. - -[843] Isa. v. 8. - -[844] Cf. Amos v. 13. - -[845] "Fuit." But whether this is a gloss, as of the name of the -dirge or of the tune, or a part of the text, is uncertain. Query: -[Hebrew: vmr nhh vnchh]. - -[846] So LXX., and adds: "with the measuring rope." - -[847] Or (after the LXX.) _there is none to give it back to me_. - -[848] Uncertain. "Is the house of Jacob...?" (Wellhausen). "What a -saying, O house of Jacob?" (Ewald and Guthe). In the latter case the -interruption of the rich ceases with the previous line, and this one -is the beginning of the prophet's answer to them. - -[849] So we may conjecture the very obscure details of a verse whose -general meaning, however, is evident. For [Hebrew: vtmvl] read -[Hebrew: l vtm]. The LXX. takes [Hebrew: shlmh] as _peace_ and not as -_cloak_, for which there seems to be no place beside [Hebrew: dr] (or -[Hebrew: drt]). Wellhausen with further alterations renders: "But ye -come forward as enemies against My people; from good friends ye rob -their ..., from peaceful wanderers war-booty." - -[850] Wellhausen reads [Hebrew: vn] for [Hebrew: vt], "tenderly bred -children," another of the many emendations which he proposes in the -interests of complete parallelism. See the Preface to this volume. - -[851] Little pigs. - -[852] Fellows. - -[853] A horse. - -[854] Servants. - -[855] Fairs, markets. - -[856] A tally. - -[857] Am not. - -[858] Scarcely. - -[859] - - _I will gather, gather thee, O Jacob, in mass,_ - _I will bring, bring together the Remnant of Israel!_ - _I will set them like sheep in a fold,_ - _Like a flock in the midst of the pasture._ - _They shall hum with men!_ - _The breach-breaker hath gone up before them:_ - _They have broken the breach, have carried the gate, and are gone out - by it;_ - _And their king hath passed on before them, and Jehovah at their - head._ - -[860] See above, p. 33. - -[861] Noeldeke, _Sketches from Eastern History_, translated by Black, -pp. 134 f. - -[862] _Arabia Deserta_, I. 607. - -[863] _Id._, II. 20. - -[864] Ruins. - -[865] Lieth. - -[866] Course. - -[867] Confusion. - -[868] Summon. - -[869] Pence. - -[870] May. - -[871] Complain. - -[872] Substance or property. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII - - _ON TIME'S HORIZON_ - - MICAH iv. 1-7. - - -The immediate prospect of Zion's desolation which closes chap. iii. -is followed in the opening of chap. iv. by an ideal picture of her -exaltation and supremacy _in the issue of the days_. We can hardly -doubt that this arrangement has been made of purpose, nor can we deny -that it is natural and artistic. Whether it be due to Micah himself, -or whether he wrote the second passage, are questions we have already -discussed.[873] Like so many others of their kind, they cannot be -answered with certainty, far less with dogmatism. But I repeat, I -see no conclusive reason for denying either to the circumstances -of Micah's times or to the principles of their prophecy the -possibility of such a hope as inspires chap. iv. 1-4. Remember how -the prophets of the eighth century identified Jehovah with supreme -and universal righteousness; remember how Amos explicitly condemned -the aggravations of war and slavery among the heathen as sins against -Him, and how Isaiah claimed the future gains of Tyrian commerce as -gifts for His sanctuary; remember how Amos heard His voice come forth -from Jerusalem, and Isaiah counted upon the eternal inviolateness -of His shrine and city,--and you will not think it impossible for a -third Judaean prophet of that age, whether he was Micah or another, to -have drawn the prospect of Jerusalem which now opens before us. - -It is the far-off horizon of time, which, like the spatial horizon, -always seems a fixed and eternal line, but as constantly shifts -with the shifting of our standpoint or elevation. Every prophet has -his own vision of _the latter days_; seldom is that prospect the -same. Determined by the circumstances of the seer, by the desires -these prompt or only partially fulfil, it changes from age to age. -The ideal is always shaped by the real, and in this vision of the -eighth century there is no exception. This is not any of the ideals -of later ages, when the evil was the oppression of the Lord's people -by foreign armies or their scattering in exile; it is not, in -contrast to these, the spectacle of the armies of the Lord of Hosts -imbrued in the blood of the heathen, or of the columns of returning -captives filling all the narrow roads to Jerusalem, _like streams -in the south_; nor, again, is it a nation of priests gathering -about a rebuilt temple and a restored ritual. But because the pain -of the greatest minds of the eighth century was the contradiction -between faith in the God of Zion as Universal Righteousness and the -experience that, nevertheless, Zion had absolutely no influence upon -surrounding nations, this vision shows a day when Zion's influence -will be as great as her right, and from far and wide the nations -whom Amos has condemned for their transgressions against Jehovah -will acknowledge His law, and be drawn to Jerusalem to learn of -Him. Observe that nothing is said of Israel going forth to teach -the nations the law of the Lord. That is the ideal of a later age, -when Jews were scattered across the world. Here, in conformity with -the experience of a still untravelled people, we see the Gentiles -drawing in upon the Mountain of the House of the Lord. With the same -lofty impartiality which distinguishes the oracles of Amos on the -heathen, the prophet takes no account of their enmity to Israel; nor -is there any talk--such as later generations were almost forced by -the hostility of neighbouring tribes to indulge in--of politically -subduing them to the king in Zion. Jehovah will arbitrate between -them, and the result shall be the institution of a great peace, with -no special political privilege to Israel, unless this be understood -in ver. 5, which speaks of such security to life as was impossible, -at that time at least, in all borderlands of Israel. But among the -heathen themselves there will be a resting from war: the factions -and ferocities of that wild Semitic world, which Amos so vividly -characterised,[874] shall cease. In all this there is nothing beyond -the possibility of suggestion by the circumstances of the eighth -century or by the spirit of its prophecy. - -A prophet speaks:-- - - _And it shall come to pass in the issue of the days,_[875] - _That the Mount of the House of Jehovah shall be established on the - tops_[876] _of the mountains,_ - _And lifted shall it be above the hills,_ - _And peoples shall flow to it,_ - _And many nations shall go and say:_ - "_Come, and let us up to the Mount of Jehovah,_ - _And to the House of the God of Jacob,_ - _That He may teach us of His ways,_ - _And we will walk in His paths._" - _For from Zion goeth forth the law,_ - _And the word of Jehovah from out of Jerusalem!_ - _And He shall judge between many peoples,_ - _And decide_[877] _for strong nations far and wide;_[878] - _And they shall hammer their swords into ploughshares,_ - _And their spears into pruning-hooks:_ - _They shall not lift up, nation against nation, a sword,_ - _And they shall not any more learn war._ - _Every man shall dwell under his vine_ - _And under his fig-tree,_ - _And none shall make afraid;_ - _For the mouth of Jehovah of Hosts has spoken._ - -What connection this last verse is intended to have with the preceding -is not quite obvious. It may mean that every family among the Gentiles -shall dwell in peace; or, as suggested above, that with the voluntary -disarming of the surrounding heathendom, Israel herself shall dwell -secure, in no fear of border raids and slave-hunting expeditions, with -which especially Micah's Shephelah and other borderlands were familiar. -The verse does not occur in Isaiah's quotation of the three which -precede it. We can scarcely suppose, fain though we may be to do so, -that Micah added the verse in order to exhibit the future correction -of the evils he has been deploring in chap. iii.: the insecurity of -the householder in Israel before the unscrupulous land-grabbing of the -wealthy. Such are not the evils from which this passage prophesies -redemption. It deals only, like the first oracles of Amos, with the -relentlessness and ferocity of the heathen: under Jehovah's arbitrament -these shall be at peace, and whether among themselves or in Israel, -hitherto so exposed to their raids, men shall dwell in unalarmed -possession of their houses and fields. Security from war, not from -social tyranny, is what is promised. - -The following verse (5) gives in a curious way the contrast of the -present to that future in which all men will own the sway of one God. -_For_ at the present time _all the nations are walking each in the -name of his God, but we go in the name of Jehovah for ever and aye_. - -To which vision, complete in itself, there has been added by another -hand, of what date we cannot tell, a further effect of God's blessed -influence. To peace among men shall be added healing and redemption, -the ingathering of the outcast and the care of the crippled. - - _In that day--'tis the oracle of Jehovah--I will gather the halt,_ - _And the cast-off I will bring in, and all that I have afflicted;_ - _And I will make the halt for a Remnant,_[879] - _And her that was weakened_[880] _into a strong people,_ - _And Jehovah shall reign over them_ - _In the Mount of Zion from now and for ever._ - -Whatever be the origin of the separate oracles which compose this -passage (iv. 1-7), they form as they now stand a beautiful whole, -rising from Peace through Freedom to Love. They begin with obedience -to God and they culminate in the most glorious service which God or -man may undertake, the service of saving the lost. See how the Divine -spiral ascends. We have, first, Religion the centre and origin of -all, compelling the attention of men by its historical evidence of -justice and righteousness. We have the world's willingness to learn -of it. We have the results in the widening brotherhood of nations, -in universal Peace, in Labour freed from War, and with none of her -resources absorbed by the conscriptions and armaments which in our -times are deemed necessary for enforcing peace. We have the universal -diffusion and security of Property, the prosperity and safety of the -humblest home. And, finally, we have this free strength and wealth -inspired by the example of God Himself to nourish the broken and to -gather in the forwandered. - -Such is the ideal world, seen and promised two thousand five hundred -years ago, out of as real an experience of human sin and failure as -ever mankind awoke to. Are we nearer the Vision to-day, or does it -still hang upon time's horizon, that line which seems so stable from -every seer's point of view, but which moves from the generations as -fast as they travel to it? - -So far from this being so, there is much in the Vision that is not -only nearer us than it was to the Hebrew prophets, and not only -abreast of us, but actually achieved and behind us, as we live and -strive still onward. Yes, brothers, actually behind us! History -has in part fulfilled the promised influence of religion upon the -nations. The Unity of God has been owned, and the civilised peoples -bow to the standards of justice and of mercy first revealed from -Mount Zion. _Many nations_ and _powerful nations_ acknowledge the -arbitrament of the God of the Bible. We have had revealed that High -Fatherhood of which every family in heaven and earth is named; and -wherever that is believed the brotherhood of men is confessed. We -have seen Sin, that profound discord in man and estrangement from -God, of which all human hatreds and malices are the fruit, atoned -for and reconciled by a Sacrifice in face of which human pride and -passion stand abashed. The first part of the Vision is fulfilled. -_The nations stream to the God of Jerusalem and His Christ._ And -though to-day our Peace be but a paradox, and the "Christian" nations -stand still from war not in love, but in fear of one another, there -are in every nation an increasing number of men and women, with -growing influence, who, without being fanatics for peace, or blind -to the fact that war may be a people's duty in fulfilment of its own -destiny or in relief of the enslaved, do yet keep themselves from -foolish forms of patriotism, and by their recognition of each other -across all national differences make sudden and unconsidered war -more and more of an impossibility. I write this in the sound of that -call to stand upon arms which broke like thunder upon our Christmas -peace; but, amid all the ignoble jealousies and hot rashness which -prevail, how the air, burned clean by that first electric discharge, -has filled with the determination that war shall not happen in the -interests of mere wealth or at the caprice of a tyrant! God help us -to use this peace for the last ideals of His prophet! May we see, not -that of which our modern peace has been far too full, mere freedom -for the wealth of the few to increase at the expense of the mass of -mankind. May our Peace mean the gradual disarmament of the nations, -the increase of labour, the diffusion of property, and, above all, -the redemption of the waste of the people and the recovery of our -outcasts. Without this, peace is no peace; and better were war -to burn out by its fierce fires those evil humours of our secure -comfort, which render us insensible to the needy and the fallen at -our side. Without the redemptive forces at work which Christ brought -to earth, peace is no peace; and the cruelties of war, that slay and -mutilate so many, are as nothing to the cruelties of a peace which -leaves us insensible to the outcasts and the perishing, of whom there -are so many even in our civilisation. - -One application of the prophecy may be made at this moment. We are -told by those who know best and have most responsibility in the -matter that an ancient Church and people of Christ are being left a -prey to the wrath of an infidel tyrant, not because Christendom is -without strength to compel him to deliver, but because to use the -strength, would be to imperil the peace, of Christendom. It is an -ignoble peace which cannot use the forces of redemption, and with the -cry of Armenia in our ears the Unity of Europe is but a mockery. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[873] See above, pp. 365 ff. - -[874] See above, Chap. VII. - -[875] [Hebrew: chrt] is the hindmost, furthest, ultimate, whether of -space (Psalm cxxxix. 9: "the uttermost part of the sea"), or of time -(Deut. xi. 12: "the end of the year"). It is the end as compared with -the beginning, the sequel with the start, the future with the present -(Job xlii. 12). In Proverbs it is chiefly used in the moral sense -of issue or result. But it chiefly occurs in the phrase used here, -[Hebrew: hmm chrt], not "the latter days," as A.V., nor ultimate -days, for in these phrases lurks the idea of time having an end, but -the _after-days_ (Cheyne), or, better still, the _issue of the days_. - -[876] LXX. - -[877] Or _arbitrate_. - -[878] Literally: "up to far away." - -[879] That which shall abide and be the stock of the future. - -[880] LXX. _cast off_. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII - - _THE KING TO COME_ - - MICAH iv. 8-v - - -When a people has to be purged of long injustice, when some high aim -of liberty or of order has to be won, it is remarkable how often the -drama of revolution passes through three acts. There is first the -period of criticism and of vision, in which men feel discontent, -dream of new things, and put their hopes into systems: it seems then -as if the future were to come of itself. But often a catastrophe, -relevant or irrelevant, ensues: the visions pale before a vast -conflagration, and poet, philosopher and prophet disappear under -the feet of a mad mob of wreckers. Yet this is often the greatest -period of all, for somewhere in the midst of it a strong character -is forming, and men, by the very anarchy, are being taught, in -preparation for him, the indispensableness of obedience and loyalty. -With their chastened minds he achieves the third act, and fulfils all -of the early vision that God's ordeal by fire has proved worthy to -survive. Thus history, when distraught, rallies again upon the Man. - -To this law the prophets of Israel only gradually gave expression. We -find no trace of it among the earliest of them; and in the essential -faith of all there was much which predisposed them against the -conviction of its necessity. For, on the one hand, the seers were so -filled with the inherent truth and inevitableness of their visions, -that they described these as if already realised; there was no room -for a great figure to rise before the future, for with a rush the -future was upon them. On the other hand, it was ever a principle of -prophecy that God is able to dispense with human aid. "In presence of -the Divine omnipotence all secondary causes, all interposition on the -part of the creature, fall away."[881] The more striking is it that -before long the prophets should have begun, not only to look for a -Man, but to paint him as the central figure of their hopes. In Hosea, -who has no such promise, we already see the instinct at work. The age -of revolution which he describes is cursed by its want of men: there -is no great leader of the people sent from God; those who come to the -front are the creatures of faction and party; there is no king from -God.[882] How different it had been in the great days of old, when -God had ever worked for Israel through some man--a Moses, a Gideon, a -Samuel, but especially a David. Thus memory equally with the present -dearth of personalities prompted to a great desire, and with passion -Israel waited for a Man. The hope of the mother for her firstborn, -the pride of the father in his son, the eagerness of the woman for -her lover, the devotion of the slave to his liberator, the enthusiasm -of soldiers for their captain--unite these noblest affections of -the human heart and you shall yet fail to reach the passion and the -glory with which prophecy looked for the King to Come. Each age, of -course, expected him in the qualities of power and character needed -for its own troubles, and the ideal changed from glory unto glory. -From valour and victory in war, it became peace and good government, -care for the poor and the oppressed, sympathy with the sufferings of -the whole people, but especially of the righteous among them, with -fidelity to the truth delivered unto the fathers, and, finally, a -conscience for the people's sin, a bearing of their punishment and -a travail for their spiritual redemption. But all these qualities -and functions were gathered upon an individual--a Victor, a King, a -Prophet, a Martyr, a Servant of the Lord. - -Micah stands among the first, if he is not the very first, who thus -focussed the hopes of Israel upon a great Redeemer; and his promise -of Him shares all the characteristics just described. In his book it -lies next a number of brief oracles with which we are unable to trace -its immediate connection. They differ from it in style and rhythm: -they are in verse, while it seems to be in prose. They do not appear -to have been uttered along with it. But they reflect the troubles out -of which the Hero is expected to emerge, and the deliverance which -He shall accomplish, though at first they picture the latter without -any hint of Himself. They apparently describe an invasion which is -actually in course, rather than one which is near and inevitable; and -if so they can only date from Sennacherib's campaign against Judah -in 701 B.C. Jerusalem is in siege, standing alone in the land,[883] -like one of those solitary towers with folds round them which were -built here and there upon the border pastures of Israel for defence -of the flock against the raiders of the desert.[884] The prophet sees -the possibility of Zion's capitulation, but the people shall leave -her only for their deliverance elsewhere. Many are gathered against -her, but he sees them as sheaves upon the floor for Zion to thresh. -This oracle (vv. 11-13) cannot, of course, have been uttered at the -same time as the previous one, but there is no reason why the same -prophet should not have uttered both at different periods. Isaiah had -prospects of the fate of Jerusalem which differ quite as much.[885] -Once more (ver. 14) the blockade is established. Israel's ruler is -helpless, _smitten on the cheek by the foe_.[886] It is to this last -picture that the promise of the Deliverer is attached. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _But thou, O Tower of the Flock,_ - _Hill of the daughter of Zion,_ - _To thee shall arrive the former rule,_ - _And the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Zion._ - _Now wherefore criest thou so loud? - Is there no king in thee,[887] or is thy counsellor perished,_ - _That throes have seized thee like a woman in childbirth?_ - _Quiver and writhe, daughter of Zion, like one in childbirth:_ - _For now must thou forth from the city,_ - _And encamp on the field (and come unto Babel);_[888] - _There shalt thou be rescued,_ - _There shall Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thy foes!_ - - _And now gather against thee many nations, that say,_ - "_Let her be violate, that our eyes may fasten on Zion!_" - _But they know not the plans of Jehovah,_ - _Nor understand they His counsel,_ - _For He hath gathered them in like sheaves to the floor._ - _Up and thresh, O daughter of Zion!_ - _For thy horns will I turn into iron,_ - _And thy hoofs will I turn into brass;_ - _And thou wilt beat down many nations,_ - _And devote to Jehovah their spoil,_ - _And their wealth to the Lord of all earth._ - - _Now press thyself together, thou daughter of pressure_:[889] - The foe _hath set a wall around us,_ - _With a rod they smite on the cheek Israel's regent_! - _But thou, Beth-Ephrath,_[890] _smallest among the thousands_[891] - _of Judah,_ - _From thee unto Me shall come forth the Ruler to be in Israel!_ - _Yea, of old are His goings forth, from the days of long ago!_ - _Therefore shall He suffer them till the time that one bearing shall - have born._[892] - (_Then the rest of His brethren shall return with the children of - Israel._)[893] - _And He shall stand and shepherd His flock_[894] _in the strength of - Jehovah,_ - _In the pride of the name of His God._ - _And they shall abide!_ - _For now is He great to the ends of the earth._ - _And Such an One shall be our Peace._[895] - -Bethlehem was the birthplace of David, but when Micah says that the -Deliverer shall emerge from her he does not only mean what Isaiah -affirms by his promise of a rod from the stock of Jesse, that the -King to Come shall spring from the one great dynasty in Judah. Micah -means rather to emphasise the rustic and popular origin of the -Messiah, _too small to be among the thousands of Judah_. David, the -son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, was a dearer figure than Solomon son -of David the King. He impressed the people's imagination, because he -had sprung from themselves, and in his lifetime had been the popular -rival of an unlovable despot. Micah himself was the prophet of the -country as distinct from the capital, of the peasants as against the -rich who oppressed them. When, therefore, he fixed upon Bethlehem as -the Messiah's birthplace, he doubtless desired, without departing -from the orthodox hope in the Davidic dynasty, to throw round its new -representative those associations which had so endeared to the people -their father-monarch. The shepherds of Judah, that strong source of -undefiled life from which the fortunes of the state and prophecy -itself had ever been recuperated, should again send forth salvation. -Had not Micah already declared that, after the overthrow of the -capital and the rulers, the glory of Israel should come to Adullam, -where of old David had gathered its soiled and scattered fragments? - -We may conceive how such a promise would affect the crushed peasants -for whom Micah wrote. A Saviour, who was one of themselves, not -born up there in the capital, foster-brother of the very nobles who -oppressed them, but born among the people, sharer of their toils and -of their wrongs!--it would bring hope to every broken heart among the -disinherited poor of Israel. Yet meantime, be it observed, this was a -promise, not for the peasants only, but for the whole people. In the -present danger of the nation the class disputes are forgotten, and the -hopes of Israel gather upon their Hero for a common deliverance from -the foreign foe. _Such an One shall be our peace._ But in the peace He -is _to stand and shepherd His flock_, conspicuous and watchful. The -country-folk knew what such a figure meant to themselves for security -and weal on the land of their fathers. Heretofore their rulers had not -been shepherds, but thieves and robbers. - -We can imagine the contrast which such a vision must have offered to -the fancies of the false prophets. What were they beside this? Deity -descending in fire and thunder, with all the other features of the -ancient Theophanies that had now become so much cant in the mouths -of mercenary traditionalists. Besides those, how sane was this, how -footed upon the earth, how practical, how popular in the best sense! - -We see, then, the value of Micah's prophecy for his own day. Has -it also any value for ours--especially in that aspect of it which -must have appealed to the hearts of those for whom chiefly Micah -arose? "Is it wise to paint the Messiah, to paint Christ, so much as -a working-man? Is it not much more to our purpose to remember the -general fact of His humanity, by which He is able to be Priest and -Brother to all classes, high and low, rich and poor, the noble and -the peasant alike? Is not the Man of Sorrows a much wider name than -the Man of Labour?" Let us answer these questions. - -The value of such a prophecy of Christ lies in the correctives which -it supplies to the Christian apocalypse and theology. Both of these -have raised Christ to a throne too far above the actual circumstance -of His earthly ministry and the theatre of His eternal sympathies. -Whether enthroned in the praises of heaven, or by scholasticism -relegated to an ideal and abstract humanity, Christ is lifted away -from touch with the common people. But His lowly origin was a fact. -He sprang from the most democratic of peoples. His ancestor was a -shepherd, and His mother a peasant girl. He Himself was a carpenter: -at home, as His parables show, in the fields and the folds and the -barns of His country; with the servants of the great houses, with -the unemployed in the market; with the woman in the hovel seeking -one piece of silver, with the shepherd on the moors seeking the lost -sheep. _The poor had the gospel preached to them; and the common -people heard Him gladly._ As the peasants of Judaea must have listened -to Micah's promise of His origin among themselves with new hope and -patience, so in the Roman empire the religion of Jesus Christ was -welcomed chiefly, as the Apostles and the Fathers bear witness, by -the lowly and the labouring of every nation. In the great persecution -which bears his name, the Emperor Domitian heard that there were two -relatives alive of this Jesus whom so many acknowledged as their -King, and he sent for them that he might put them to death. But when -they came, he asked them to hold up their hands, and seeing these -brown and chapped with toil, he dismissed the men, saying, "From such -slaves we have nothing to fear." Ah but, Emperor! it is just the -horny hands of this religion that thou and thy gods have to fear! Any -cynic or satirist of thy literature from Celsus onwards could have -told thee that it was by men who worked with their hands for their -daily bread, by domestics, artisans and all manner of slaves, that -the power of this King should spread, which meant destruction to thee -and thine empire! _From little Bethlehem came forth the Ruler_, and -_now He is great to the ends of the earth_. - -There follows upon this prophecy of the Shepherd a curious fragment -which divides His office among a number of His order, though the -grammar returns towards the end to One. The mention of Assyria stamps -this oracle also as of the eighth century. Mark the refrain which -opens and closes it.[896] - - _When Asshur cometh into our land,_ - _And when he marcheth on our borders,_[897] - _Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds_ - _And eight princes of men._ - _And they shall shepherd Asshur with a sword,_ - _And Nimrod's land with her own bare blades_ - _And He shall deliver from Asshur,_ - _When he cometh into our land._ - _And marcheth upon our borders._ - -There follows an oracle in which there is no evidence of Micah's hand -or of his times; but if it carries any proof of a date, it seems a -late one. - - _And the remnant of Jacob shall be among many peoples_ - _Like the dew from Jehovah,_ - _Like showers upon grass,_ - _Which wait not for a man,_ - _Nor tarry for the children of men._ - _And the remnant of Jacob_ (_among nations_,) _among many peoples,_ - _Shall be like the lion among the beasts of the jungle,_ - _Like a young lion among the sheepfolds,_ - _Who, when he cometh by, treadeth and teareth,_ - _And none may deliver._ - _Let thine hand be high on thine adversaries,_ - _And all thine enemies be cut off!_ - -Finally in this section we have an oracle full of the notes we had -from Micah in the first two chapters. It explains itself. Compare -Micah ii. and Isaiah ii. - - _And it shall be in that day--'tis the oracle of Jehovah--_ - _That I will cut off thy horses from the midst of thee,_ - _And I will destroy thy chariots;_ - _That I will cut off the cities of thy land,_ - _And tear down all thy fortresses,_ - _And I will cut off thine enchantments from thy hand,_ - _And thou shall have no more soothsayers;_ - _And I will cut off thine images and thy pillars from the midst of - thee,_ - _And thou shall not bow down any more to the work of thy hands;_ - _And I will uproot thine Asheras from the midst of thee,_ - _And will destroy thine idols._ - _So shall I do, in My wrath and Mine anger,_ - _Vengeance to the nations, who have not known Me._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[881] Schultz, _A. T. Theol._, p. 722. - -[882] See above, pp. 276 ff. - -[883] Wellhausen declares that this is unsuitable to the position -of Jerusalem in the eighth century, and virtually implies her ruin -and desolation. But, on the contrary, it is not so: Jerusalem is -still standing, though alone (cf. the similar figure in Isa. i.). -Consequently the contradiction which Wellhausen sees between this -eighth verse and vv. 9, 10, does not exist. He grants that the latter -may belong to the time of Sennacherib's invasion--unless it be a -_vaticinium post eventum_! - -[884] See above, p. 32. - -[885] This in answer to Wellhausen, who thinks the two oracles -incompatible, and that the second one is similar to the -eschatological prediction common from Ezekiel onwards. Jerusalem, -however, is surely still standing. - -[886] Even Wellhausen agrees that this verse is most suitably dated -from the time of Micah. - -[887] Those who maintain the exilic date understand by this Jehovah -Himself. In any case it may be He who is meant. - -[888] The words in parenthesis are perhaps a gloss. - -[889] Uncertain. - -[890] The name Bethlehem is probably a later insertion. I read with -Hitzig and others [Hebrew: htz'r frt], and omit [Hebrew: lhvt]. - -[891] Smallest form of district: cf. English _hundreds_. - -[892] Cf. the prophecy of Immanuel, Isa. vii. - -[893] This seems like a later insertion: it disturbs both sense and -rhythm. - -[894] So LXX. - -[895] Take this clause from ver. 4 and the following oracle and put -it with ver. 3. - -[896] Wellhausen alleges in the numbers another trace of the late -Apocalyptic writings--but this is not conclusive. - -[897] So LXX. Cf. the refrain at the close. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX - - _THE REASONABLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION_ - - MICAH vi. 1-8. - - -We have now reached a passage from which all obscurities of date -and authorship[898] disappear before the transparence and splendour -of its contents. "These few verses," says a great critic, "in -which Micah sets forth the true essence of religion, may raise -a well-founded title to be counted as the most important in the -prophetic literature. Like almost no others, they afford us an -insight into the innermost nature of the religion of Israel, as -delivered by the prophets." - -Usually it is only the last of the verses upon which the admiration of -the reader is bestowed: _What doth the Lord require of thee, O man, -but to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God?_ But in -truth the rest of the passage differeth not in glory; the wonder of it -lies no more in its peroration than in its argument as a whole. - -The passage is cast in the same form as the opening chapter of the -book--that of an Argument or Debate between the God of Israel and His -people, upon the great theatre of Nature. The heart must be dull that -does not leap to the Presences before which the trial is enacted. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Hear ye now that which Jehovah is saying;_ - _Arise, contend before the mountains,_ - _And let the hills hear thy voice!_ - _Hear, O mountains, the Lord's Argument,_ - _And ye, the everlasting! foundations of earth!_ - -This is not mere scenery. In all the moral questions between God and -man, the prophets feel that Nature is involved. Either she is called -as a witness to the long history of their relations to each other, or -as sharing God's feeling of the intolerableness of the evil which men -have heaped upon her, or by her droughts and floods and earthquakes -as the executioner of their doom. It is in the first of these -capacities that the prophet in this passage appeals to the mountains -and eternal foundations of earth. They are called, not because they -are the biggest of existences, but because they are the most full of -memories and associations with both parties to the Trial. - -The main idea of the passage, however, is the Trial itself. We have -seen more than once that the forms of religion which the prophets had -to combat were those which expressed it mechanically in the form of -ritual and sacrifice, and those which expressed it in mere enthusiasm -and ecstasy. Between such extremes the prophets insisted that -religion was knowledge and that it was conduct--rational intercourse -and loving duty between God and man. This is what they figure in -their favourite scene of a Debate which is now before us. - - _Jehovah hath a Quarrel with His People,_ - _And with Israel He cometh to argue._ - -To us, accustomed to communion with the Godhead, as with a Father, -this may seem formal and legal. But if we so regard it we do it -an injustice. The form sprang by revolt against mechanical and -sensational ideas of religion. It emphasised religion as rational -and moral, and at once preserved the reasonableness of God and the -freedom of man. God spoke with the people whom He had educated: He -pled with them, listened to their statements and questions, and -produced His own evidences and reasons. Religion, such a passage as -this asserts--religion is not a thing of authority nor of ceremonial -nor of mere feeling, but of argument, reasonable presentation and -debate. Reason is not put out of court: man's freedom is respected; -and he is not taken by surprise through his fears or his feelings. -This sublime and generous conception of religion, which we owe -first of all to the prophets in their contest with superstitious -and slothful theories of religion that unhappily survive among us, -was carried to its climax in the Old Testament by another class of -writers. We find it elaborated with great power and beauty in the -Books of Wisdom. In these the Divine Reason has emerged from the -legal forms now before us, and has become the Associate and Friend of -Man. The Prologue to the Book of Proverbs tells how Wisdom, fellow of -God from the foundation of the world, descends to dwell among men. -She comes forth into their streets and markets, she argues and pleads -there with an urgency which is equal to the urgency of temptation -itself. But it is not till the earthly ministry of the Son of God, -His arguments with the doctors, His parables to the common people, -His gentle and prolonged education of His disciples, that we see the -reasonableness of religion in all its strength and beauty. - -In that free court of reason in which the prophets saw God and man -plead together, the subjects were such as became them both. For God -unfolds no mysteries, and pleads no power, but the debate proceeds -upon the facts and evidences of life: the appearance of Character -in history; whether the past be not full of the efforts of Love; -whether God had not, as human wilfulness permitted Him, achieved the -liberation and progress of His people. - -God speaks:-- - - _My people, what have I done unto thee?_ - _And how have I wearied thee--answer Me?_ - _For I brought thee up from the land of Misraim,_ - _And from the house of slavery I redeemed thee._ - _I sent before thee Moses, Aharon and Miriam._ - _My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counselled,_ - _And how he was answered by Bala'am, Be'or's son--_ - _So that thou mayest know the righteous deeds of Jehovah._[899] - -Always do the prophets go back to Egypt or the wilderness. There God -made the people, there He redeemed them. In lawbook as in prophecy, -it is the fact of redemption which forms the main ground of His -appeal. Redeemed by Him, the people are not their own, but His. -Treated with that wonderful love and patience, like patience and -love they are called to bestow upon the weak and miserable beneath -them.[900] One of the greatest interpreters of the prophets to our -own age, Frederick Denison Maurice, has said upon this passage: "We -do not know God till we recognise him as a Deliverer; we do not -understand our own work in the world till we believe we are sent into -it to carry out His designs for the deliverance of ourselves and the -race. The bondage I groan under is a bondage of the will. God is -emphatically the Redeemer of the will. It is in that character He -reveals Himself to us. We could not think of God at all as the God, -the living God, if we did not regard Him as such a Redeemer. But if -of my will, then of all wills: sooner or later I am convinced He will -be manifested as the Restorer, Regenerator--not of something else, -but of this--of the fallen spirit that is within us." - -In most of the controversies which the prophets open between God and -man, the subject on the side of the latter is his sin. But that is -not so here. In the controversy which opens the Book of Micah the -argument falls upon the transgressions of the people, but here upon -their sincere though mistaken methods of approaching God. There God -deals with dull consciences, but here with darkened and imploring -hearts. In that case we had rebels forsaking the true God for idols, -but here are earnest seekers after God, who have lost their way and -are weary. Accordingly, as indignation prevailed there, here prevails -pity; and though formally this be a controversy under the same legal -form as before, the passage breathes tenderness and gentleness from -first to last. By this as well as by the recollections of the ancient -history of Israel we are reminded of the style of Hosea. But there is -no expostulation, as in his book, with the people's continued devotion -to ritual. All that is past, and a new temper prevails. Israel have at -last come to feel the vanity of the exaggerated zeal with which Amos -pictures them exceeding the legal requirements of sacrifice;[901] and -with a despair, sufficiently evident in the superlatives which they -use, they confess the futility and weariness of the whole system, even -in the most lavish and impossible forms of sacrifice. What then remains -for them to do? The prophet answers with the beautiful words, that -express an ideal of religion to which no subsequent century has ever -been able to add either grandeur or tenderness. - -The people speak:-- - - _Wherewithal shall I come before Jehovah,_ - _Shall I bow myself to God the Most High?_ - _Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings,_ - _With calves of one year?_ - _Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams,_ - _With myriads of rivers of oil?_ - _Shall I give my firstborn for a guilt-offering,_[902] - _The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?_ - -The prophet answers:-- - - _He hath shown thee, O man, what is good;_ - _And what is the LORD seeking from thee,_ - _But to do justice and love mercy,_ - _And humbly_[903] _to walk with thy God?_ - -This is the greatest saying of the Old Testament; and there is only -one other in the New which excels it:-- - - _Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will - give you rest._ - _Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in - heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls._ - _For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[898] See above, pp. 369 ff. - -[899] Omitted from the above is the strange clause _from Shittim to -Gilgal_, which appears to be a gloss. - -[900] See the passages on the subject in Professor Harper's work on -Deuteronomy in this series. - -[901] See above, p. 161. - -[902] See above, p. 370, on the futility of the argument which -because of this line would put the whole passage in Manasseh's reign. - -[903] This word [Hebrew: htzn'] is only once used again, in Prov. xi. -2, in another grammatical form, where also it might mean _humbly_. -But the root-meaning is evidently _in secret_, or _secretly_ (cf. the -Aram. [Hebrew: tzn'], to be hidden; [Hebrew: tzn'], one who lives -noiselessly, humble, pious; in the feminine of a bride who is modest); -and it is uncertain whether we should not take that sense here. - - - - - CHAPTER XXX - - _THE SIN OF THE SCANT MEASURE_ - - MICAH vi. 9-vii. 6. - - -The state of the text of Micah vi. 9-vii. 6 is as confused as the -condition of society which it describes: it is difficult to get -reason, and impossible to get rhyme, out of the separate clauses. We -had best give it as it stands, and afterwards state the substance -of its doctrine, which, in spite of the obscurity of details, is, -as so often happens in similar cases, perfectly clear and forcible. -The passage consists of two portions, which may not originally have -belonged to each other, but which seem to reflect the same disorder -of civic life, with the judgment that impends upon it.[904] In the -first of them, vi. 9-16, the prophet calls for attention to the -voice of God, which describes the fraudulent life of Jerusalem, and -the evils He is bringing on her. In the second, vii. 1-6, Jerusalem -bemoans her corrupt society; but perhaps we hear her voice only in -ver. 1, and thereafter the prophet's. - -The prophet speaks:-- - - _Hark! Jehovah crieth to the city!_ - ('_Tis salvation to fear Thy Name!_)[905] - _Hear ye, O tribe and council of the city!_ (?)[906] - -God speaks:-- - - ... in _the house of the wicked treasures of wickedness,_ - _And the scant measure accursed!_ - _Can she be pure with the evil balances,_ - _And with the bag of false weights,_ - _Whose rich men are full of violence,_[907] - _And her citizens speak falsehood,_ - _And their tongue is deceit in their mouth?_ - _But I on My part have begun to plague thee,_ - _To lay_ thee _in ruin because of thy sins._ - _Thou eatest and art not filled,_ - _But thy famine_[908] _is in the very midst of thee!_ - _And_ but _try to remove,_[909] _thou canst not bring off;_ - _And what thou bringest off, I give to the sword._ - _Thou sowest, but never reapest;_ - _Treadest olives, but never anointest with oil,_ - _And must, but not to drink wine!_ - _So thou keepest the statutes of Omri,_[910] - _And the habits of the house of Ahab,_ - _And walkest in their principles,_ - Only _that I may give thee to ruin,_ - _And her inhabitants for sport--_ - _Yea, the reproach of the Gentiles_[911] _shall ye bear!_ - -Jerusalem speaks:-- - - _Woe, woe is me, for I am become like sweepings of harvest,_ - _Like gleanings of the vintage--_ - _Not a cluster to eat_, not _a fig that my soul lusteth after._ - _Perished are the leal from the land,_ - _Of the upright among men there is none:_ - _All of them are lurking for blood;_ - _Every man takes his brother in a net._ - _Their hands are on evil to do it thoroughly._[912] - _The prince makes requisition,_ - _The judge_ judgeth _for payment,_ - _And the great man he speaketh his lust;_ - _So_ together _they weave it out._ - _The best of them is but a thorn thicket,_[913] - _The most upright_ worse _than a prickly hedge._[914] - _The day that thy sentinels_ saw, _thy visitation, draweth on;_ - _Now is their havoc_[915] _come!_ - _Trust not any friend! Rely on no confidant!_ - _From her that lies in thy bosom guard the gates of thy mouth._ - _For son insulteth father, daughter is risen against her mother, - daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;_ - _And the enemies of a man are the men of his house._ - -Micah, though the prophet of the country and stern critic of its -life, characterised Jerusalem herself as the centre of the nation's -sins. He did not refer to idolatry alone, but also to the irreligion -of the politicians, and the cruel injustice of the rich in the -capital. The poison which weakened the nation's blood had found -its entrance to their veins at the very heart. There had the evil -gathered which was shaking the state to a rapid dissolution. - -This section of the Book of Micah, whether it be by that prophet -or not, describes no features of Jerusalem's life which were not -present in the eighth century; and it may be considered as the more -detailed picture of the evils he summarily denounced. It is one of -the most poignant criticisms of a commercial community which have -ever appeared in literature. In equal relief we see the meanest -instruments and the most prominent agents of covetousness and -cruelty--the scant measure, the false weights, the unscrupulous -prince and the venal judge. And although there are some sins -denounced which are impossible in our civilisation, yet falsehood, -squalid fraud, pitilessness of the everlasting struggle for life are -exposed exactly as we see them about us to-day. Through the prophet's -ancient and often obscure eloquence we feel just those shocks and -sharp edges which still break everywhere through our Christian -civilisation. Let us remember, too, that the community addressed by -the prophet was, like our own, professedly religious. - -The most widespread sin with which the prophet charges Jerusalem in -these days of her commercial activity is falsehood: _Her inhabitants -speak lies, and their tongue is deceit in their mouth._ In Mr. -Lecky's _History of European Morals_ we find the opinion that "the -one respect in which the growth of industrial life has exercised a -favourable influence on morals has been in the promotion of truth." The -tribute is just, but there is another side to it. The exigencies of -commerce and industry are fatal to most of the conventional pretences, -insincerities and flatteries, which tend to grow up in all kinds of -society. In commercial life, more perhaps than in any other, a man -is taken, and has to be taken, in his inherent worth. Business, the -life which is called _par excellence_ Busy-ness, wears off every -mask, all false veneer and unction, and leaves no time for the cant -and parade which are so prone to increase in all other professions. -Moreover the soul of commerce is credit. Men have to show that they -can be trusted before other men will traffic with them, at least upon -that large and lavish scale on which alone the great undertakings of -commerce can be conducted. When we look back upon the history of trade -and industry, and see how they have created an atmosphere in which -men must ultimately seem what they really are; how they have of their -needs replaced the jealousies, subterfuges, intrigues, which were once -deemed indispensable to the relations of men of different peoples, by -large international credit and trust; how they break through the false -conventions that divide class from class, we must do homage to them, as -among the greatest instruments of the truth which maketh free. - -But to all this there is another side. If commerce has exploded -so much conventional insincerity, it has developed a species of -the genus which is quite its own. In our days nothing can lie like -an advertisement. The saying "the tricks of the trade" has become -proverbial. Every one knows that the awful strain and harassing of -commercial life is largely due to the very amount of falseness that -exists. The haste to be rich, the pitiless rivalry and competition, -have developed a carelessness of the rights of others to the truth -from ourselves, with a capacity for subterfuge and intrigue, which -reminds one of nothing so much as that state of barbarian war out of -which it was the ancient glory of commerce to have assisted mankind -to rise. Are the prophet's words about Jerusalem too strong for large -portions of our own commercial communities? Men who know these best -will not say that they are. But let us cherish rather the powers -of commerce which make for truth. Let us tell men who engage in -trade that there are none for whom it is more easy to be clean and -straight; that lies, whether of action or of speech, only increase -the mental expense and the moral strain of life; and that the health, -the capacity, the foresight, the opportunities of a great merchant -depend ultimately on his resolve to be true and on the courage with -which he sticks to the truth. - -One habit of falseness on which the prophet dwells is the use of -unjust scales and short measures. The _stores_ or fortunes of his -day are _stores of wickedness_, because they have been accumulated -by the use of the _lean ephah_, the _balances of wrong_ and _the -bag of false weights_. These are evils more common in the East than -with us: modern government makes them almost impossible. But, all -the same, ours is the sin of the scant measure, and the more so in -proportion to the greater speed and rivalry of our commercial life. -The prophet's name for it, _measure of leanness_, of _consumption_ or -_shrinkage_, is a proper symbol of all those duties and offices of -man to man, the full and generous discharge of which is diminished -by the haste and the grudge of a prevalent selfishness. The speed -of modern life tends to shorten the time expended on every piece of -work, and to turn it out untempered and incomplete. The struggle for -life in commerce, the organised rivalry between labour and capital, -not only puts every man on his guard against giving any other more -than his due, but tempts him to use every opportunity to scamp and -curtail his own service and output. You will hear men defend this -parsimony as if it were a law. They say that business is impossible -without the temper which they call "sharpness" or the habit which -they call "cutting it fine." But such character and conduct are the -very decay of society. The shrinkage of the units must always and -everywhere mean the disintegration of the mass. A society whose -members strive to keep within their duties is a society which cannot -continue to cohere. Selfishness may be firmness, but it is the -firmness of frost, the rigour of death. Only the unselfish excess -of duty, only the generous loyalty to others, give to society the -compactness and indissolubleness of life. Who is responsible for the -enmity of classes, and the distrust which exists between capital and -labour? It is the workman whose one aim is to secure the largest -amount of wages for the smallest amount of work, and who will, in -his blind pursuit of that, wreck the whole trade of a town or a -district; it is the employer who believes he has no duties to his men -beyond paying them for their work the least that he can induce them -to take; it is the customer who only and ever looks to the cheapness -of an article--procurer in that prostitution of talent to the work -of scamping which is fast killing art, and joy and all pity for the -bodies and souls of our brothers. These are the true anarchists and -breakers-up of society. On their methods social coherence and harmony -are impossible. Life itself is impossible. No organism can thrive -whose various limbs are ever shrinking in upon themselves. There is -no life except by living to others. - -But the prophet covers the whole evil when he says that the _pious -are perished out of the land_. _Pious_ is a translation of despair. -The original means the man distinguished by "hesedh," that word which -we have on several occasions translated _leal love_, because it -implies not only an affection but loyalty to a relation. And, as the -use of the word frequently reminds us, "hesedh" is love and loyalty -both to God and to our fellow-men. We need not dissociate these: they -are one. But here it is the human direction in which the word looks. -It means a character which fulfils all the relations of society with -the fidelity, generosity and grace, which are the proper affections -of man to man. Such a character, says the prophet, is perished from -the land. Every man now lives for himself, and as a consequence preys -upon his brother. _They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every -man his brother with a net._ This is not murder which the prophet -describes: it is the reckless, pitiless competition of the new -conditions of life developed in Judah by the long peace and commerce -of the eighth century. And he carries this selfishness into a very -striking figure in ver. 4: _The best of them is as a thorn thicket, -the most upright_ worse _than a prickly hedge_. He realises exactly -what we mean by sharpness and sharp-dealing: bristling self-interest, -all points; splendid in its own defence, but barren of fruit, and -without nest or covert for any life. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[904] See above, pp. 370 ff. - -[905] Probably a later parenthesis. The word [Hebrew: tvoshh] is one -which, unusual in the prophets, the Wisdom literature has made its -own Prov. ii. 7, xviii. 1; Job v. 12, etc. For _Thy_ LXX. read _His_. - -[906] Translation of LXX. emended by Wellhausen so as to read -[Hebrew: h'r mv'd], the [Hebrew: 'r] being obtained by taking and -transferring the [Hebrew: 'vd] of the next verse, and relieving -that verse of an unusual formation, viz. [Hebrew: 'vd] before the -interrogative [Hebrew: hsh]. But for an instance of [Hebrew: 'vd] -preceding an interrogative see Gen. xix. 12. - -[907] The text of the two preceding verses, which is acknowledged -to be corrupt, must be corrected by the undoubted 3rd feminine -suffix in this one--"_her_ rich men." Throughout the reference must -be to the city. We ought therefore to change [Hebrew: hzchh] of -ver. 11 into [Hebrew: htzchh], which agrees with the LXX. [Greek: -dikaiothesetai]. Ver. 10 is more uncertain, but for the same reason -that "the city" is referred to throughout vv. 9-12, it is possible -that it is the nominative to [Hebrew: z'vmh]; translate "cursed with -the short measure." Again for [Hebrew: tzrvt] LXX. read [Hebrew: -'otzerot 'otzeret], to which also the city would be nominative. And -this suggests the query whether in the letters [Hebrew: vt hsh], that -make little sense as they stand in the Massoretic Text, there was -not originally another feminine participle. The recommendation of a -transformation of this kind is that it removes the abruptness of the -appearance of the 3rd feminine suffix in ver. 12. - -[908] The word is found only here. The stem [Hebrew: chosh] is no doubt -the same as the Arabic verb wahash, which in Form V. means "Inami -ventre fuit prae fame; vacuum reliquit stomachum" (Freytag). In modern -colloquial Arabic wahsha means a "longing for an absent friend." - -[909] Jussive. The objects removed can hardly be goods, as Hitzig and -others infer; for it is to _the sword_ they afterwards fall. They -must be persons. - -[910] LXX. _Zimri_. - -[911] So LXX.; but Heb. _My people_. - -[912] Uncertain. - -[913] Cf. Prov. xv. 19. - -[914] Roorda, by rearranging letters and clauses (some of them -after LXX.), and by changing points, gets a reading which may be -rendered: _For evil are their hands! To do good the prince demandeth -a bribe, and the judge, for the reward of the great, speaketh what -he desireth. And they entangle the good more than thorns, and the -righteous more than a thorn hedge._ - -[915] Cf. Isa. xxii. 5. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXI - - _OUR MOTHER OF SORROWS_ - - MICAH vii. 7-20. - - -After so stern a charge, so condign a sentence, confession is -natural, and, with prayer for forgiveness and praise to the mercy -of God, it fitly closes the whole book. As we have seen,[916] the -passage is a cento of several fragments, from periods far apart in -the history of Israel. One historical allusion suits best the age of -the Syrian wars; another can only refer to the day of Jerusalem's -ruin. In spirit and language the Confessions resemble the prayers of -the Exile. The Doxology has echoes of several Scriptures.[917] - -But from these fragments, it may be of many centuries, there rises -clear the One Essential Figure: Israel, all her secular woes upon -her; our Mother of Sorrows, at whose knees we learned our first -prayers of confession and penitence. Other nations have been our -teachers in art and wisdom and government. But she is our mistress in -pain and in patience, teaching men with what conscience they should -bear the chastening of the Almighty, with what hope and humility they -should wait for their God. Surely not less lovable, but only more -human, that her pale cheeks flush for a moment with the hate of the -enemy and the assurance of revenge. Her passion is soon gone, for she -feels her guilt to be greater; and, seeking forgiveness, her last -word is what man's must ever be, praise to the grace and mercy of God. - -Israel speaks:-- - - _But I will look for the LORD,_ - _I will wait for the God of my salvation:_ - _My God will hear me!_ - _Rejoice not, O mine enemy, at me:_ - _If I be fallen, I rise;_ - _If I sit in the darkness, the LORD is a light to me._ - - _The anger of the LORD will I bear--_ - _For I have sinned against Him--_ - _Until that He take up my quarrel,_ - _And execute my right._ - _He will carry me forth to the light;_ - _I will look on His righteousness:_ - _So shall mine enemy see, and shame cover her,_ - _She that saith unto me, Where is Jehovah thy God?--_ - _Mine eyes shall see her,_ - _Now is she for trampling, like mire in the streets!_ - -The prophet[918] responds:-- - - _A day for the building of thy walls shall that day be!_ - _Broad shall thy border be_[919] _on that day!_ - - ...[920]_and shall come to thee_ - _From Assyria unto Egypt, and from Egypt to the River,_ - _And to Sea from Sea, and Mountain from Mountain;_[921] - _Though_[922] _the land be waste on account of her inhabitants,_ - _Because of the fruit of their doings._ - -An Ancient Prayer:-- - - _Shepherd Thy people with Thy staff,_ - _The sheep of Thy heritage dwelling solitarily...._[923] - _May they pasture in Bashan and Gilead as in days of old!_ - _As in the days when Thou wentest forth from the land of Misraim, - give us wonders to see!_ - _Nations shall see and despair of all their might;_ - _Their hands to their mouths shall they put,_ - _Their ears shall be deafened._ - _They shall lick the dust like serpents;_ - _Like worms of the ground from their fastnesses,_ - _To Jehovah our God they shall come trembling,_ - _And in fear before Thee!_ - -A Doxology:-- - - _Who is a God like to Thee? Forgiving iniquity,_ - _And passing by transgression, to the remnant of His heritage;_ - _He keepeth not hold of His anger for ever,_ - _But One who delighteth in mercy is He;_ - _He will come back, He will pity us,_ - _He will tread underfoot our iniquities--_ - _Yea, Thou wilt cast to the depths of the sea every one of our sins._ - _Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob, leal love to Abraham,_ - _As Thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of yore._ - -FOOTNOTES: - -[916] Above, pp. 372 ff. - -[917] Cf. with it Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7 (J); Jer. iii. 5, l. 20; Isa. -lvii. 16; Psalms ciii. 9, cv. 9, 10. - -[918] It was a woman who spoke before, the People or the City. But -the second personal pronouns to which this reply of the prophet is -addressed are all masculine. Notice the same change in vi. 9-16 -(above p. 427). - -[919] [Hebrew: rchk-chk], Ewald: "distant the date." Notice the -assonance. It explains the use of the unusual word for _border_. -LXX. _thy border_. The LXX. also takes into ver. 11 (as above) the -[Hebrew: hv vm] of ver. 12. - -[920] Something has probably been lost here. - -[921] For [Hebrew: hhr] read [Hebrew: mhr]. - -[922] It is difficult to get sense when translating the conjunction -in any other way. But these two lines may belong to the following. - -[923] The words omitted above are literally _jungle in the midst -of gardenland_ or _Carmel_. Plausible as it would be to take the -proper name Carmel here along with Bashan and Gilead (see _Hist. -Geog._, 338), the connection prefers the common noun _garden_ or -_gardenland_: translate "dwelling alone like a bit of jungle in the -midst of cultivated land." Perhaps the clause needs rearrangement: -[Hebrew: 'rvtvchchrml], with a verb to introduce it. Yet compare -[Hebrew: karmillo ya'ar], 2 Kings xix. 23; Isa. xxxvii. 24. - - - - - INDEX OF PASSAGES AND TEXTS - - -_A single text will always be found treated in the exposition of the -passage to which it belongs. Only the other important references -to it are given in this index. In the second of the columns Roman -numerals indicate the chapters, Arabic numerals the pages._ - - AMOS - - i., ii. 62 - - i. 1 61, 67 f., 69 _n._ - - i. 2 81, 93, 98 - - i. 3-ii. VII. - - ii. 13 72 - - iii.-vi. 62 ff. - - iii.-iv. 3 62, 63, VIII. - - iii. 3-8 81 ff., 89 ff., 196 - - iii. 7 198 - - iv. 4-13 IX., Sec. 1; 199 f. - - iv. 11 68 - - iv. 12 197 - - iv. 13 164, 201 ff. - - v. 63; IX., Sec. 2 - - v. 8, 9 166, 201 ff. - - v. 26, 27 108, 170 ff., 204 - - vi. 63; IX., Sec. 3 - - vi. 9, 10 IX., Sec. 4 - - vi. 12 198 - - vii.-ix. 63 f. - - vii.-viii. 4 70; V., Sec. 3 - - vii. 218 - - vii. 12 28 f. - - vii. 14, 15 27, 74, 76 ff. - - viii. 4-ix. 64; X. - - viii. 4-14 X., Sec. 1 - - viii. 8 68, 95, 198 - - viii. 9 66, 95 - - ix. 1-6 64; X., Sec. 2 - - ix. 1 111, 151 - - ix. 5, 6 201 ff. - - ix. 7-15 64; X., Sec. 3 - - HOSEA - - i. 1, _Title_ 215 _n._ 1 - - i.-iii. 211, 212 ff.; XIV.; XXIII. - - i. 7 213 _n._ 1 - - ii. 1-3 213, 249 _n._ 2 - - ii. 8 341 - - ii. 9 335 - - ii. 10 328 - - iii. 1 214 - - iii. 5 214 - - iv.-xiv. 215 ff.; XV. - - iv.-vii. 7 223; XVI. - - iv. XVI., Sec. 1 - - iv. 1 323 - - iv. 2 320 - - iv. 4 221 _n._ 4 - - iv. 4-9 324 - - iv. 6 320, 326, 330 - - iv. 9 335 - - iv. 12-14 241, 282, 323; XXIII. - - iv. 15 224 - - iv. 17 342 - - v. 1-14 XVI., Sec. 2 - - v. 5 225, 337 f. - - v. 10, 12-14 225 - - v. 15-vii. 2 XVI., Sec. 3 - - v. 14-vi. 1 222 - - vi. 1-4 344 - - vi. 5 221 _n._ 3 - - vi. 8, 9 216 - - vi. 11-vii. 1 222 - - vii. 3-7 XVI., Sec. 4 - - vii. 8-x. XVII. - - vii. 8-viii. 3 XVII., Sec. 1 - - vii. 9-11 323, 337 - - vii. 16 335 _n._ 1 - - viii. 4-13 XVII., Sec. 2 - - viii. 4 221 _n._ 4 - - viii. 5 341 - - viii. 10 221 _n._ 6 - - viii. 13 221 _n._ 7 - - viii. 14 224 - - ix. 1-9 XVII., Sec. 3 - - ix. 1 340 - - ix. 2 221 _n._ 6 - - ix. 7 28, 222 _n._ 1 - - ix. 8, 9 222 _n._ 1 - - ix. 10-17 XVII., Sec. 4; XXIII. - - ix. 17 222 _n._ 2 - - x. XVII., Sec. 5 - - x. 1, 2 38 _n._ 4 - - x. 5 221 _n._ 6 (read x. 5); 341, 342 - - x. 9 327 _n._ 10 - - x. 11, 12 225, 344 f. - - x. 13 221 _n._ 6 - - x. 14 217 _n._ 5 - - x. 15 221 _n._ 6 - - xi. XVIII. - - xi. 1 327 - - xi. 2-4 221 _nn._ 1-4 - - xi. 5 221 _n._ 4, 336 _n._ 2 - - xi. 8 XXIII.; 351 - - xii.-xiv. 1 XIX. - - xii. XIX., Sec. 1 - - xii. 1 225 - - xii. 2 221 _n._ 6 - - xii. 3 225 - - xii. 4, 5 326 - - xii. 7 345 - - xii. 8 33 - - xii. 13, 14 327 - - xiii.-xiv. 1 XIX., Sec. 2 - - xiii. 2 342 - - xiii. 4 203, 226 - - xiii. 6 327, 330 - - xiii. 7 330 f. - - xiv. 2-10 XX. - - xiv. 3 343 - - xiv. 5 335 _n._ 1 - - xiv. 6-9 233 - - MICAH - - i. 1, _Title_ 358 - - i.-iii. 358, 360, 362 ff. - - i. 362 f.; XXV. - - ii., iii. 363, 364; XXVI. - - ii. 12, 13 359, 360, 362, 393 _n._ 1 - - iii. 14 363 _n._ 2 - - iv., v. 357, 358, 360, 365 ff. - - iv. 1-7 XXVII. - - iv. 1-5 358, 365 - - iv. 5 367 - - iv. 6-8 358, 367 - - iv. 8-13 367 - - iv. 8-v. XXVIII. - - iv. 9-14 358, 359 - - iv. 11-13 358 - - iv. 14-v. 8 368 - - v. 8 359 - - v. 9-14 368 - - vi., vii. 357, 358, 359, 360, 369 - - vi. 1-8 369; XXIX. - - vi. 9-vii. 6 XXX. - - vi. 9-16 370 - - vii. 1-6 359, 371 - - vii. 7-20 359, 372 ff.; XXXI. - - vii. 11 373 - - vii. 14-17 373 - - vii. 18-20 373 - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - - -Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. - -Non-Latin characters have been replaced with the nearest Latin -equivalent for example oe (the oe ligature), was replaced with oe. - -Inconsistent hyphenation is as in the original. - -Page 364: Verse references have been updated to reflect their actual -references. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The Book of the -Twelve Prophets, Vol. I, by George Adam Smith - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: 12 PROPHETS, VOL I *** - -***** This file should be named 43847.txt or 43847.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/8/4/43847/ - -Produced by Douglas L. 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