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or king, who swayed the sceptre by hereditary right, and exercised authority over the whole empire, there existed multitudes of petty chiefs or princes, who, whilst they readily paid allegiance to their common superior, exercised, within the limits of their respective principalities, absolute power. Such arrangements, indeed, seem unavoidable in a state of society which has not yet attained to just notions touching the original rights of man; nor is the period very distant, even in this country, since a perfect specimen of them could be found among the Highlanders of Scotland. So in the Book of Genesis we read of the kings of Elam, Shinar, and Ellasar; of Tidal, the king of nations, and Bera and Birsha, with their allies: all of whom seem to have been no more than heads of clans or septs, independent in relation to one another, but subject to the King of Assyria.

In like manner the nations with which Joshua came into collision, appear all to have been parcelled out into clans or septs, which looked up to their hereditary chiefs as magistrates in time of peace, and as natural leaders in time of war. Thus the Edomites had their dukes, and the Moabites and Midianites their kings, whilst of the Canaanites no fewer than one-and-thirty princes are enumerated as having fallen in the progress of the first contests with the Hebrews. It is quite manifest that these could have been nothing more than leaders of hordes, similar in most respects to our own highland clans; though it is extremely probable that there was one in each nation superior to the rest, to whom they paid the same kind of obedience which our Highland chiefs were in the habit of paying to the Scottish monarch. He, therefore, who hesitates to receive the declarations of Holy Writ, because these happen not to accord, in every respect, with his own preconceived opinions, will do well to make himself acquainted with facts as they stand, and he will find that it is not Scripture, but his own mind which is in error, by attaching to terms a different sense from that which they were intended to convey.

CHAPTER XIII.

Death of Joshua.-Government of the judges.-Apostacies and punishments of the Israelities.-Objections stated and answered.

A. M. 3829 to 4259.-B. C. 1582 to 1152.

THE death of Joshua appears to have restored to the children of Israel that ancient and universal system of rule, which gives to the head of each family the direction and control of all its members. Unlike his predecessor in power, the great Hebrew leader nominated no chief magistrate to succeed him; and the events first recorded after his decease, clearly establish the fact, that to every tribe was thenceforth committed the management of its own affairs, with full powers of waging war and making peace, independently of the advice or sanction of any general senate. As the state of society to which such an arrangement gave birth was exceedingly curious, and as some knowledge of it is essential to a right understanding of the whole narrative of Sacred History, it may not be amiss if we endeavour, in this place, to give a short account of it.

From the earliest times, the descendants of Jacob appear to have been subject to no other rule than that which nature, not less than the will of their great ancestor pointed out. Even amidst the pressure of Egyptian bondage, we find traces of the patriarchal form of government, more especially as the hour drew nigh which was to witness their deliverance; when Moses, after receiving his commission, was commanded by Jehovah to gather the elders of Israel together, and to communicate with them. In like manner, when the law was delivered from Mount Sinai, a similar distinction was made between the heads of families and their clansmen, Aaron and the rulers of the congregation advanced first to converse with Moses, "and afterwards all the children of Israel."*

This natural jurisdiction of family chiefs seems for a time to have been necessarily superseded by the military power of the inspired lawgiver, who, during the sojourn in the wilderness, on the confines of the promised land, was obey

*Exodus iii. 16.

ed, not alone as a civil magistrate, but also as the comman der of the armies of Israel, and the lieutenant of the Lord of Hosts. The same system prevailed to a still greater degree under Joshua, who, till the conquest of Canaan was effected, appears in the single light of a successful general, whilst in the congregation of the Hebrews is seen only a band of veteran soldiers, rendered hardy by long service in a parching climate, and formidable by the acquisition of discipline, under a skilful leader. "From the Exode, in short, till towards the end of Joshua's administration, we lose sight of that simple scheme of domestic superintendence which Jacob established among his sons. The princes of tribes, and the heads of families, were converted into captains of thousands, of hundreds and of fifties, regulating their move. ments by the sound of the trumpet, and passing their days of rest amidst the vigilance and formality of a regular encampment."*

The necessity for this order of things no sooner ceased, by the acquisition of fixed settlements, and the partial overthrow of their enemies, than the Israelites again reverted to their more ancient form of society. The land being divided, as described, in the preceding chapter, Joshua, we read, "sent the people away;" and from that moment the milita ry gave place to the patriarchal model, upon which, indeed, it had been no more than a compulsory innovation. Still Joshua, during the remainder of his life, appears to have excercised an authority paramount to that of all other officers in the congregation. He continued to be the head of a confederation of republics, as he had previously been the generalissimo of an allied army; and though we do not read of references made to him, from any of the inferior tribunals, this furnishes no ground for supposing that he ever retired absolutely into private life.

The Hebrews were unquestionably too impatient to enjoy the fruits of their successes, and Joshua gave, perhaps, too ready a consent to their so doing. Instead of continuing the war until the Canaanites had been completely expelled, they no sooner drove them from the open country, than they themselves began to sow and plant, whilst treaties were improvidently entered into with the very nations which they had been commissioned to extirpate. Whilst Joshua survived, and indeed for some time after, no evil consequences ap

*Russell's Connexion of Sacred and Profane History.

pear to have arisen out of these arrangements. The memory of their recent defeats kept the Canaanites quiet, and the Israelites, satisfied with what they had already done, seemed more anxious for repose, than for fresh conquests; nor was it till they began to feel their settlements too narrow, that they entered upon a renewal of hostilities. The fol lowing appears to be a correct outline of the political and social relations which then existed, and which under certain modifications continued to exist, during five centuries, throughout Israel:

With respect to the form of government, it came as near to the patriarchal, as was at all consistent with the administration of a code, upon which no innovation could be made. Every tribe had its prince, or head, the lineal representative of the patriarch from whom the whole were descended, to whom his brethren looked up as their chief magistrate in seasons of peace, and their natural leader or general in case of war. Subordinate to the prince were the heads of families; the term being used not in its ordinary acceptation to signify a mere household, but rather in the heraldic sense, to denote a lineage or kindred, descended from a common ancestor, and constituting one of the main branches of the original stock. To what amount these lineages prevailed we are informed in the 26th chapter of the Book of Numbers, where the heads are described as amounting to fifty-seven in all. Again, there was an authority still inferior to that of the heads of families, in the heads of households, the fathers, or representatives of the fathers of a common posterity, from among whom, beyond a question, the petty judges of towns and cities were chosen. All these officers, it will be observed, exercised over the people an authority which claimed to rest upon the distinctions of nature, though they were equally incapable of acting in any instance, except agreeably to the law of Moses.

In perfect accordance with this simple system of rule, was the distribution of property, and the establishment of locations among the Israelites. To every tribe was assigned a definite portion of territory, complete within itself, while the tribe was settled according to its families; and as these were arranged with a strict attention to the contiguity of kindred households, each individual may be said to have dwelt in the midst of his relations. Again, there was no man in Israel who could not boast of his own little farm or estate, which the fundamental laws of the land rendered

inalienable. Whatever his difficulties might be, the utmost that he was permitted to do was, to dispose of that patrimony for a period of forty-nine years, and as the right was never taken away from him of redeeming it at any mo ment, so the estate absolutely reverted to himself or to his heirs at the year of the jubilee.

The effect of this agrarian law in a country where commerce and manufactures were long unknown, was to perpetuate among the people that equality of rank and political importance which appears to have been one of the main objects of Moses when he framed the Hebrew constitution. As land was not permitted to be sold, no individual could attain to any marked ascendancy over his brethren; and as every householder inherited a portion of the soil, sufficient to maintain in comfort a large family, no Israelite could be reduced to a state of absolute indigence. But these were not the only good effects arising out of it. All land being held in Israel on military tenure, every male capable of bearing arms was liable to be called upon as often as the exigencies of the state required, and hence a numerous militia was supported, without the burden of taxes, or the remotest danger to civil liberty. It is to be observed, moreover, that with the exception of tithes, which were dedicated to the support of the tabernacle, and the use of the Levites, no burdens of any kind were imposed upon the twelve tribes. Their chiefs and rulers, nay, their supreme judges, as often as such were chosen, all maintained themselves out of the produce of their own estates, which, in the case of hereditary princes and heads of families, were large in proportion to the rank in society held by the proprietors.

Such, in few words, is an outline of the social system, as it prevailed in every one of the twelve tribes, which seem, during the space of nearly five centuries, to have been held together, more after the fashion of a confederation of independent states, than as forming a single empire. That the chiefs occasionally met to consult upon great matters, such as appeared to effect the common weal of the whole nation, is undeniable, and that the profession of a common religion, at the head of which was, of course, a high-priest, as well as the necessity of meeting at stated periods before the tabernacle, and consulting the oracle of Urim and Thummim, tended to keep them in remembrance, even during the times of anarchy, that they belonged to the same stock, is equally true; but till the aristocratic gave place to

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