that you love the Lord your God. But if you will embrace the errors of these nations that dwell among you, and make marriages with them, and join friendships: know ye for a certainty that the Lord your God will not destroy them before your face but they shall be a pit and a snare in your way, and a stumbling-block at your side, and stakes in your eyes, till He take you away and destroy you from off this excellent land, which He hath given you. Behold, this day I am going into the way of all the earth; and you shall know with all your mind, that of all the words which the Lord promised to perform for you, not one hath failed. Therefore as He hath fulfilled in deed what He promised, and all things prosperous have come: so will He bring upon you all the evils He hath threatened, till He take you away and destroy you from off this excellent land, which He hath given you, when you shall have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He hath made with you, and shall have served strange gods, and adored them then shall the indignation of the Lord rise up quickly and speedily against you; and you shall be taken away from this excellent land, which He hath delivered to you.

And Josue gathered together all the tribes of Israel in Sichem; and called for the ancients, and the princes, and the judges, and the masters: and they stood in the sight of the Lord: and he spoke thus to the people : Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt of old on the other side of the river, Thare the father of Abraham, and Nachor: and they served strange gods. And I took your father Abraham from the borders of Mesopotamia, and brought him into the land of Chanaan: and I multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac: and to him again I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave to Esau mount Seir for his possession: but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with many signs and wonders. And I brought you and your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen, as far

:

as the Red Sea. And the children of Israel cried to the Lord and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them. Your eyes saw all that I did in Egypt: and you dwelt in the wilderness a long time: and I brought you into the land of the Amorrhite, who dwelt beyond the Jordan. And when they fought against you, I delivered them into your hands: and you possessed their land, and slew them. And Balac, son of Sephor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and called for Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you and I would not hear him: but on the contrary I blessed you by him, and I delivered you out of his hand. And you passed over the Jordan, and you came to Jericho. And the men of that city fought against you, the Amorrhite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Gergesite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite: and I delivered them into your hands. And I sent before you hornets: and I drove them out from their places, the two kings of the Amorrhites, not with thy sword nor with thy bow. And I gave you a land in which you had not laboured, and cities to dwell in which you built not, vineyards and olive-yards which you planted not. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him with a perfect and most sincere heart; and put away the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And the people answered, and said: God forbid we should leave the Lord, and serve strange gods. The Lord our God He brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; and did very great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way by which we journeyed, and among all the people through whom we passed. And He cast out all the nations, the Amor

rhite, the inhabitant of the land into which we are come. Therefore we will serve the Lord, for He is our God. And Josue said to the people: You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God, and mighty, and jealous, and will not forgive your wickedness and sins. If you leave the Lord, and serve strange gods, He will turn, and will afflict you, and will destroy you after all the good He hath done you. And the people said to Josue: No, it shall not be so as thou sayest; but we will serve the Lord. And Josue said to the people: You are witnesses, that you yourselves have chosen you the Lord to serve Him. And they answered: We are witnesses. Now therefore, said he, put away strange gods from among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord the God of Israel. And the people said to Josue: We will serve the Lord our God, and we will be obedient to His commandments. Josue therefore on that day made a covenant, and set before the people commandments and judgments in Sichem. And he wrote all these things in the volume of the law of the Lord : and he took a great stone, and set it under the oak that was in the sanctuary of the Lord: and he said to all the people: Behold, this stone shall be a testimony unto you, that it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which He hath spoken to you: lest perhaps hereafter you will deny it, and lie to the Lord. And he sent the people away, every one to their own possession.

CHAP. V. The Successors of Josue. Debbora and Barac.

On the death of Josue, Caleb took his place as judge of the Israelites, and under his guidance the victories of the people over the remaining Chanaanitish nations were continued. Prosperity, however, soon corrupted them, and they fell into idolatry, worshipped Baalim and Ashtaroth, the gods of the heathens, and degraded themselves by every pagan vice. The root of their temptations lay in their disobedience to God's express command, that they should utterly extirpate all the idola

trous races whose land God had given them. Many of the tribes neglected this injunction, and suffered the conquered people to live among them. The pagan worship thus remaining at their very doors, the carnal minds of the Jews were speedily corrupted, and they took to worshipping the gods of the very nations they had made their slaves.

Then the vengeance of God came down upon them. The neighbouring princes defeated them in war, and subjected them to their power, until touched to the heart by their miseries, they repented, and cried to God for deliverance. From time to time, as they thus mourned for their sins, God raised up some powerful deliverer, who set them free from their tyrants, and ruled them himself under the authority of the one true God alone. Othoniel, the nephew of Caleb, Aod, and Samgar, successively thus delivered them; but as soon as Aod was dead, the old wickednesses revived, and they fell under the dominion of Jabin, a Chanaanitish prince, and for twenty years groaned beneath his oppression.

At length, deliverance was granted to their cries. A holy woman, a prophetess, named Debbora, the wife of Lapidoth, at that time dwelt in Mount Ephraim, and administered justice to all who came to her for her counsel. She aroused the terrified Hebrews, and urged upon Barac, a man of the tribe of Nephtali, that he should raise an army of fighting men, and attack the oppressor. Barac obeyed her commands, on the condition that she herself went with him, telling him at the same time that the glory of the victory should not be his, for that God would deliver Sisara, the commander of Jabin's forces, into the hand of a woman. With 10,000 soldiers Barac then met the troops of Sisara, who fled before their assault, Sisara himself escaping from the field of the battle to the tent of a person whom he supposed friendly to his cause, by name Haber, a Cinite.

Haber's wife, Jahel, met him as he came near, and said to him: Come in to me, my lord; come in, fear He went into her tent, and being covered by her

not.

with a cloak, said to her: Give me, I beseech thee, a little water, for I am very thirsty. She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him to drink, and covered him. And Sisara said to her: Stand before the door of the tent, and when any shall come and inquire of thee, saying: Is there any man here? thou shalt say: There is none. So Jahel, Haber's wife, took a nail of the tent, taking also a hammer: and going in softly, and with silence, she put the nail upon the temples of his head, and striking it with the hammer, drove it through his brain fast into the ground: and so passing from deep sleep to death, he fainted away and died. And behold, Barac came pursuing after Sisara: and Jahel went out to meet him, and said to him: Come, and I will shew thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, he saw Sisara lying dead, and the nail fastened in his temples.

Whether Jahel's conduct was warranted by the customs of war of the country, and her feigned friendship with Sisara was only a lawful deception of an enemy, or whether she was really guilty of forbidden treachery, does not appear from the narrative of the death of Sisara as recorded in the Scriptures. But from the mention that is made of her in a song of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God, with which Debborah and Barac celebrated their victory, it would seem that her conduct was not contrary to the rules of warfare; and that not only was it the will of God that Sisara should die, but that the means employed by Jahel were on the whole acceptable in His sight.

CHAP. VI. Gedeon's Sacrifice and Victory.

AGAIN the Israelites fell into their usual sins, and for seven years God gave them over into the hands of the Madianites, their old and bitter enemies. At length they were humbled, and prayed for mercy; and an angel was sent to Gedeon, an inhabitant of Ephra, of the tribe of Manasses, and said to him, as he was thrashing wheat,