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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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THE MORAL LIFE OF 
 THE HEBREWS 
 
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 i 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
 
 TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, EUKUOKA, SENDAI 
 
 THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY 
 
 SHANGHAI 
 
THE MORAL LIFE OF 
 THE HEBREWS 
 
 By / 
 
 J. M. Powis Smith 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
 
Copyright 1923 By 
 The University of Chicago 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Published April 1923 
 
 Composed and Printed By 
 The University of Chicago Press 
 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book undertakes to present a history of the 
 development of Hebrew morals as recorded in the Old 
 Testament. That there was a historical development 
 none can well deny. The aim here is to present that 
 history as objectively as possible. The facts are for 
 the most part left to speak for themselves. The 
 literary sources containing the record of this moral 
 progress are treated in the probable order of their 
 origin. 
 
 The presentation might have been made more vivid 
 and vital if space had permitted a closer integration of 
 the moral practices and ideals with the contemporary 
 social and economic conditions amid which they func¬ 
 tioned. The social aspects of ethical problems and 
 situations have not been wholly ignored. But there is 
 still need of, and room for, a good scientific handbook on 
 the sociology of the Hebrews. 
 
 The Hebrew point of view always coupled morals 
 with religion. They were one and inseparable. The 
 outstanding characteristic of Hebrew religion is the fact 
 that it gave free course to the moral forces latent within 
 it. None of the Hebrew thinkers ever separated morals 
 from religion. It was the moral passion of the Hebrew 
 religion that gave it its dynamic. Ethics and theology 
 advanced together, each supporting the other. The 
 great contribution of the prophets was that they ethicized 
 the religion of their people. Their crowning achieve¬ 
 ment was ethical monotheism. 
 
 • • 
 
 Vll 
 
PREFACE 
 
 • • • 
 
 Vlll 
 
 The charge of utilitarianism may be made against 
 Hebrew ethics with some force. But this is a necessary 
 stage in the development of any system of morals. One 
 of the earliest human motives is the desire for success 
 and prosperity; and it is a proof of profound spiritual 
 insight when a people’s leaders use this desire in such a 
 way as to further moral ends. But the Hebrew saints 
 outgrew this primary stage in their ethical training and 
 came to the point where they loved the moral life for its 
 own sake and were willing to risk their lives in defense 
 of their characters. The moral achievement of a people, 
 or of an individual, is to be measured not merely by the 
 goal at which it arrives, but also from the point at which 
 it starts. The distance won in the struggle is the test of 
 moral stamina. Nothing is more noteworthy than the 
 great progress made by the Hebrews in their thousand 
 years of moral discipline. It is doubtful if any people 
 ever traveled farther in so short a time. No moralist 
 need apologize for the ethics of the Old Testament. 
 Read in the light of history, the story of the Hebrew 
 moral life is one of constantly expanding ideals, with the 
 slow and heavy movement of the masses being constantly 
 stimulated by the spur of noble-minded leadership. 
 These men of spiritual insight still point the way of 
 moral attainment to us who would search for the same 
 great ends. The social passion of the prophets, the moral 
 discernment of the sages, and the spiritual vision of the 
 psalmists still challenge admiration. The words and 
 deeds of these men have not lost their power. They 
 will always stir the minds and inspire the hearts of lovers 
 of righteousness. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 / 
 
 PART I. THE MORALS OF PRE-PROPHETIC 
 
 ISRAEL 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Earliest Historical Narratives .... 3 
 
 II. The Traditions of Early Israel. 30 
 
 III. The Morals of the Early Codes. 49 
 
 PART II. THE MORALS OF THE PROPHETIC 
 
 PERIOD 
 
 IV. The Prophets of the Eighth Century ... 73 
 
 V. The Prophets of the Seventh Century . . .100 
 
 VI. The Deuteronomic School.123 
 
 VII. The Problem of the Exiles. 149 
 
 PART III. THE MORALS OF JUDAISM 
 
 VIII. The Program of Judaism .167 
 
 IX. The Return to Reality. 187 
 
 X. The Morals of the Egyptian Jews.207 
 
 XI. The Morals of the Psalms.220 
 
 XII. The Moral Maxims of the Sages.245 
 
 XIII. A Saint under Fire. 264 
 
 XIV. The Meaning of Life and the Light of Love . 278 
 
 XV. The Moral Standards of Legalism .... 292 
 
 XVI. A Struggle for Existence. 302 
 
 XVII. Some Concluding Observations. 319 
 
 Index. 331 
 
 IX 
 

PART I 
 
 THE MORALS OF PRE-PROPHETIC ISRAEL 
 

 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 
 
 i. The aim of Part I .—The term “pre-prophetic” as 
 here understood is applied to that period of Hebrew 
 history which preceded the work of the great prophets 
 of the eighth century b.c., viz., Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, 
 and Micah. No attempt is made here to arrange the 
 literary sources of information for that period in chron¬ 
 ological order. Any such arrangement is necessarily 
 largely determined by subjective considerations and fails 
 to command general assent. Nor is any effort made to 
 follow the course of historical events within the period 
 at all closely; for the problems besetting the study of 
 the history of this period are too numerous, too complex, 
 and too recently discovered to make any general agree¬ 
 ment upon these matters possible at present. Our aim, 
 in any case, is to set forth the ethical standards reflected 
 in the body of literature that comes from this early period 
 of Hebrew history; and that literature for the most part 
 belongs to the latter end of the period in question. It 
 records much of the ethical practices and ideals of more 
 ancient times, but it rarely fails to make clear its own 
 moral judgment upon those times either by direct state¬ 
 ment or by inference; and it is this evaluation of this 
 early literature with which we must satisfy ourselves. 
 This means that we shall not expect to learn what were 
 the moral aims and motives of an Abraham, a Jacob, 
 or even a Moses, but rather look for the standards 
 reflected in the stories about them as they were current 
 
 3 
 
4 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 in the closing century of the pre-prophetic period. For 
 convenience of treatment the literature of this period is 
 here classified in three groups of documents, to wit: 
 (i) the oldest historical material in Judges, Samuel, and 
 I Kings; (2) the ancient traditions recorded in the J 
 and E documents of the Hexateuch; and (3) the earliest 
 Hebrew codes of law. 
 
 2. The fluidity of early Hebrew ethics .—It should be 
 noted first of all that the moral standards of this early 
 period were in part an inheritance from a pre-Canaanitish 
 nomadic life in the desert and in part the product of the 
 succeeding life amid the agricultural and commercial civ¬ 
 ilization of Canaan. But these two types of life must not 
 be thought of as lying on either side of a chronological 
 line of demarcation. On the contrary, the fact is that, 
 for a century or two, in all probability, the life in Canaan 
 was kept in closest contact with the life fresh from the 
 desert. That is to say, the settlement of Israel in 
 Canaan was a long-drawn-out process rather than a 
 single dramatic experience. Some Hebraic clans found 
 entry into Palestine at least as early as the Tel-el- 
 Amarna period (i.e., the fourteenth century b.c.), and if 
 Hebrew traditions may be trusted, some came in a few 
 centuries earlier. These early comers were reinforced 
 from time to time by new instalments from the desert. 
 But the last lot of immigrants did not arrive until the end 
 of the thirteenth or beginning of the twelfth century b.c. 
 These were the clans who escaped from Egypt and with 
 other groups took possession of Judah and the south. All 
 this means that the customs and ideals of the old set¬ 
 tlers in Canaan were from time to time brought face to 
 face with the standards of the simpler life of the desert 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 
 
 5 
 
 as represented by the latest comers from that quarter. 
 Inevitably such a situation involves a conflict of customs 
 and aims which tends to keep social and individual ideals 
 in a state of flux. Such conditions are not favorable 
 to a rapid crystallization of practice and a speedy fixa¬ 
 tion of standards. 
 
 3. A change of environment .—The conditions amid 
 which the early Hebrew life in Canaan was carried on 
 need to be borne in mind as we survey the crude ethical 
 practices of this period. The Hebrews were newcomers 
 in the midst of an old civilization of which they them¬ 
 selves knew scarcely anything. There was more or less 
 hostility all the time, and much of the time open war¬ 
 fare, between them and their Canaanitish neighbors, 
 who did not welcome these intruders. They had to 
 learn an almost wholly new manner of life in Canaan. 
 The economic conditions of the desert and the nomad 
 no longer obtained. With so much new to be learned 
 and so much of the old to be unlearned, it ought not to 
 be surprising if their earlier moral and social standards 
 should break down to some extent, before new social 
 customs and institutions had been developed to replace 
 them. The Hebrews coming in from the simple life 
 of the nomad in the desert were confronted by all the 
 limitations and trials that a rich and highly developed 
 Culture presents to primitive people. They were like 
 the country boy coming to earn his living in the big city; 
 it will either make or break him. It naturally required 
 time for the Hebrews to adjust themselves to the new 
 environment and to learn to use it wisely and not abuse 
 it. The wonder is not that there is so much of the crude 
 and primitive and sensuous in the morals of early Israel, 
 
6 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 but that the soul of the people persisted in seeking after 
 the higher things and gradually shook off these lower 
 materialistic habits and developed for itself a moral 
 life that has held the admiration of mankind. It would 
 have been so much simpler and easier to have sunk to 
 the level of their Canaanitish neighbors! 
 
 4. A lack of social unity .—Still another aspect of the 
 situation must be mentioned. The struggle for the com¬ 
 plete possession of the land was long drawn out. It 
 might be better to say the struggles, for the process of 
 conquest was not carried on in any unified way. There 
 was no massing of the Israelites as a whole against the 
 Canaanites. It was rather a piecemeal process. Each 
 clan or group of clans made its own way and fought its 
 own fight. The story of the migration of the Danites told 
 in Judges, chapters 17 and 18, is an illustration of the 
 way in which the clans obtained their foothold. There 
 was thus no recognized authority over all Israel until 
 the days of the Kingdom under Saul. Each group was 
 a law unto itself. Indeed, a later writer describing the 
 life of the period says, “each man did that which was 
 right in his own eyes.” 1 There was no pronounced 
 and authoritative public sentiment throughout all Israel 
 to act as a controlling influence upon the conduct of 
 smaller groups and of individuals. Then, too, the organ¬ 
 ization of the clan itself which had been worked out under 
 nomadic conditions would have to undergo radical trans¬ 
 formation under the agricultural conditions of the life 
 in Canaan and many of the old customs and restrictions 
 would be forced to give way; and that, too, before the 
 newer life had fully worked out its own means of social 
 
 *Judg. 17:6; 21:5. 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 
 
 7 
 
 control. Such a general situation furnishes an ideal 
 background for cunning, trickery, deceit, and violence, 
 and these unsocial phenomena are present in abundance. 
 
 5. The morals of Yahweh .—In presenting the ethical 
 materials found in the oldest sources in Judges, Samuel, 
 and I Kings, we may well consider first of all the ethical 
 attitudes ascribed to Yahweh, Israel’s God. It is a 
 generally recognized fact that men first work out among 
 themselves their own rules of procedure and ideals of 
 conduct, and then find sanction for them in the mind 
 of God. Men first become ethical themselves; then 
 they cease to think unethically of God. Consequently, 
 to discover the accepted standards of an age or a group, 
 we need only examine its conception of God, for it will 
 reflect most of the higher ideals of his worshipers. 
 
 The conception of Yahweh in early Israel was not 
 rich in ethical content. The stories in the oldest docu¬ 
 ments credit him with sentiments and purposes that 
 are very human, and indeed in some cases, quite inhuman, 
 as judged by modern standards. He does not shrink 
 from resorting to the use of wicked agencies in order to 
 bring to pass his purposes. We are told, for example, 
 that “God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and 
 the men of Shechem, so that the men of Shechem dealt 
 treacherously with Abimelech” (Judg. 9:23 f.). All the 
 destruction and slaughter that followed were brought 
 about by God in order that the law of blood-revenge 
 might be satisfied (cf. Judg. 9:56 f.). In similar fashion, 
 the wickedness of the sons of Eli was in accordance with 
 the divine plan, “because Yahweh would slay them” 
 (I Sam. 2:25). Saul’s malady was due to “an evil spirit 
 from Yahweh” (I Sam. 16:15 ff.), which pushed him to 
 
8 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the point of attempting to murder David (I Sam. 19:9). 
 David’s census of all Israel was inspired by Yahweh and 
 yet it angered Yahweh that David should have yielded 
 to his suggestion (II Sam. 24:1 ff.). Samuel is advised 
 by Yahweh to camouflage his visit to Bethlehem for 
 the purpose of finding a new king by declaring that he 
 goes there in order to conduct a sacrifice (I Sam. 16:2). 
 David conceives it to be quite within the range of 
 possibility that Yahweh should have stirred up Saul to 
 seek his life. But in that case Yahweh ought to accept 
 an atoning sacrifice and be satisfied. However, “if it 
 be men that have stirred thee up fi.e., Saul] against me, 
 cursed be they before Yahweh” (I Sam. 26:19). That 
 is to say, what would have been perfectly legitimate for 
 Yahweh is cursedly immoral for men. Yahweh is above 
 all law. Yahweh makes the treacherous council of 
 Hushai to prevail with Absalom in order that his rebel¬ 
 lious enterprise may fail (II Sam. 17:14). Yahweh 
 raises up enemies against Solomon to punish him for 
 his recognition of other gods (I Kings 11:14, 23). 
 
 6. The personal responsibility of Yahweh for deeds of 
 blood .—Not only does Yahweh work out his purposes 
 through evil agencies, but at times he takes matters into 
 his own hands. He smote seventy men of Beth-shemesh 
 for their sacrilegious curiosity in looking into the sacred 
 ark (I Sam. 6:19). Uzzah was slain on the spot by 
 Yahweh for his profane touch upon the ark, even though 
 it was an involuntary act due to his desire to keep the 
 ark from injury (II Sam. 6:6, 7). Nabal, the churlish 
 farmer who refused David’s request for a material reward, 
 was smitten of Yahweh so that he died, though from our 
 point of view David had little moral right to demand pay 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 
 
 9 
 
 for having kept his men from molesting Nabal’s flocks 
 and herds (I Sam. 25:38). Yahweh’s insistence upon 
 the satisfaction of blood-revenge was so pronounced 
 that he sent a famine upon all Israel because Saul’s 
 slaughter of the Gibeonites had not been avenged. 
 Seven of Saul’s descendants were handed over to the 
 Gibeonites and were hung up before Yahweh in Gibeah; 
 then his wrath was placated (II Sam. 21:1-14). Indeed, 
 Yahweh seems to have had a craving for blood, accord¬ 
 ing to the thought of these times. Samuel hewed Agag 
 in pieces before Yahweh at the altar (I Sam. 15:32 f.). 
 When Jephthah made his rash vow and his eyes met the 
 desolating sight of his only child coming forth from his 
 house to greet him upon his return from victory, there 
 was no thought of any possibility of escape from the 
 fulfilment of the literal terms of the vow, and in due 
 course the young woman was sacrificed to Yahweh 
 (Judg. 11:30-40). The same rigid adherence to the 
 terms of an unwise vow nearly cost Jonathan his life at 
 the hands of his fanatical father (I Sam. 14:24-45). 
 The fact that the people protested and saved the hero 
 of the day is evidence of a developing ethical sense. On 
 this occasion, common sense and gratitude won a straight 
 victory over tradition and dogma. 
 
 7. Oaths , curses , and vows .—Another way in which 
 the God-idea throws light upon ethical conceptions is 
 in the matter of oaths, curses, and vows. A man takes 
 an oath in order that confidence in his integrity may be 
 reinforced by bringing the whole contract under the 
 1 protection of Yahweh. It is clear that he himself may 
 not be trusted to fulfil his word or to tell the truth and 
 nothing but the truth. Therefore he must put himself 
 
IO 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 under bonds to keep his word. If he fails, the wrath of 
 Yahweh will descend upon him with appalling results. 
 The fear of this holds him true to his pledge (Judg. 
 11:10, n; 21:1-18; I Kings 8:31 f.). An interesting 
 illustration of the effectiveness of such a fear is fur¬ 
 nished in the story of the man Micah who stole a large 
 sum of money from his mother (Judg. 17:2!). The 
 mother, perhaps suspecting her son, uttered a curse upon 
 the thief in her boy’s presence. The fear of that curse 
 so worked upon his conscience that he confessed the 
 crime and restored the money, in order to escape the 
 penalty of the malediction. Another curse that is 
 instructive is the one already mentioned which Saul 
 uttered on the day of battle. Jonathan unwittingly 
 violated its terms and Yahweh at once manifested his 
 displeasure by refusing to respond to Saul’s efforts to 
 secure an oracle as to the further course of the campaign 
 (I Sam. 14:36 ff.). Jonathan was innocent of any evil 
 intent, but the curse must operate just the same. The 
 people were here more ethical in their reaction than the 
 priests and the king. Still another vow is that by which 
 Hannah succeeds in persuading Yahweh to grant her a 
 child. The child is to be dedicated to Yahweh as a 
 Nazirite as long as he lives (I Sam. 1:11). Asa reward 
 for this surrender of her son, Hannah is given five more 
 children (I Sam. 2:20). This is a very simple and human 
 interpretation of the situation on the part of the record. 
 In another situation, in which a great oath was taken 
 by the men of Israel that none of them would give the 
 surviving men of Benjamin any of their daughters to 
 wife, the oath was evaded by a bit of Jesuitical reasoning 
 which kept the letter of the oath but broke the spirit 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES II 
 
 of it all to bits. They told the Benjamites where and 
 when they could seize some unsuspecting maidens whose 
 fathers were not informed of the proposed raid. There¬ 
 fore, nobody gave his daughter to a Benjamite husband 
 and the letter of the oath was conserved (Judg. 21:1-22). 
 
 8. Yahweh is true to his word .—Two more cases 
 exhaust the material in these sources that offers informa¬ 
 tion as to the ethical side of the idea of God. When 
 the tribe of Dan was migrating to its new home in the 
 north, it stopped on the way for a call upon Micah of 
 Ephraim, from whom they took, despite his protest, not 
 only his family priest, but also his god. This stolen 
 image was installed in the new shrine at Dan and was 
 ministered to by the kidnapped priest. Yahweh, notwith¬ 
 standing this burglary, seems to have accepted the ser¬ 
 vice of the robbers and the use of the stolen goods without 
 protest, and to have prospered Dan in its mission of exter¬ 
 mination (Judg., chaps. 17 and 18). The second episode 
 reflects a little light in our ethical darkness. After Saul 
 had aroused the wrath of Yahweh by failing to carry 
 out his orders as to the Amalekites, Saul is brought to 
 realize the gravity of his offense by Samuel and begs for 
 forgiveness. But he is met by a stern denial, and the 
 content of the refusal puts Yahweh upon a higher level 
 than he has occupied thus far: “The Glory of Israel 
 will not lie nor repent; for he is not man that he should 
 repent” (I Sam. 15:29). The contrast here is between 
 the deceit and fickleness of man and the integrity and 
 steadfastness of God. When God has announced a 
 course of action, he can be depended upon to adhere to it. 
 
 9. The Hebrew attitude toward foreigners .—We turn 
 now from consideration of the ethical aspect of the idea 
 
12 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of God to observation of the ethical relations among men.^ 
 First of all we shall take up the attitude of Israel and the 
 Israelites toward foreign nations and individuals. Here 
 it will at once appear that a foreigner has few rights that 
 an Israelite is bound to respect. The ordinary claims 
 of humanity are largely ignored in dealings with non- 
 Israelite groups and individuals. Particularly is this 
 true of Israel’s attitude toward Canaanites. When 
 Israel became sufficiently strong, the Canaanites were 
 reduced to slavery (Judg. 1:28; I Kings 9:20!). A 
 defeated king was mutilated (Judg. 1:6). The whole 
 population of Laish was taken by surprise and ruthlessly 
 slaughtered (Judg. 18:7 ffi, 27). The Song of Deborah 
 (Judg., chap. 5 ; cf. chap. 4) revels in a fierce joy over the 
 downfall of the foe and gives Jael the highest praise 
 among women for her assassination of Sisera. The prose 
 narrative of the same event intensifies the savagery of the 
 deed by adding the fact that Jabin was a friend of Jael’s 
 husband, so that Sisera had every right to expect kindly 
 treatment at Jael’s tent. Worse still, Jael admitted him 
 to her tent, gave him refreshing drink, thus bringing him 
 under the protection of the guest law, and yet murdered 
 him in his sleep. The prose narrative is generally held 
 to be later than the poem and it seems to reflect a fading 
 out of consciousness of the old guest rights of the desert. 
 David put whole communities to the edge of the sword 
 that were friendly to the Philistines, and then went back 
 to Gath and lied barefacedly to Achish as to the 
 territory in which his campaigns had been conducted 
 (I Sam. 27:9-11). Amalekites and Moabites were ruth¬ 
 lessly slaughtered (I Sam. 15:3, 8, 32, 33; II Sam. 8:2) 
 and Ammonites were reduced to slavery (II Sam. 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 13 
 
 12:31). At an earlier day, Ehud assassinated Eglon, 
 king of Moab, an oppressor of Israel, and was evidently 
 regarded as a hero by his people for so doing (Judg., 
 chap. 3). But gratitude toward the Kenites for past 
 favors led Israel to spare them from the slaughter of 
 the Amalekites with whom they dwelt (I Sam. 15:6). 
 Sporadically there were periods when kindly feelings 
 seem to have prevailed between Israel and Moab. At 
 least, when David fled from Saul, he left his aged par¬ 
 ents under the protection of the king of Moab, before 
 betaking himself to refuge in the cave of Adullam (I Sam. 
 22:3, 4). And more surprising still, perhaps, when 
 David’s fortunes were at a low ebb and he was abandon¬ 
 ing his own capital before the advance of his rebel son, 
 the king of the Ammonites gave him kindly succor 
 (II Sam. 17:27-29). With Solomon, leagues with foreign ) 
 peoples became the rule rather than the exception, a 
 quid pro quo being the basis of agreement (I Kings 
 5:5-11; 10:25-29). Evidently the geographical position 
 of Canaan, constituting as it did the great highway 
 between the eastern and western centers of civilization, 
 was effecting a change in the attitude of the erstwhile 
 nomads, so that they were coming to recognize the 
 necessity of coming to terms with their neighbors 
 instead of living in a state of perpetual hostility in which 
 every Hebrew’s hand was lifted against every alien. 
 
 10. Social solidarity .—In turning our eyes upon the 
 ethical attitudes and principles operative within the 
 Israelitish circle, we shall at once discover that the con¬ 
 ception of the relation of the individual to the social 
 order was essentially different from the view of that rela¬ 
 tionship in our own age. For us, in theory at least, each 
 
14 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 individual stands or falls upon his own merits. Our 
 social order is individualistically organized. For the 
 early Hebrews, the individual had only partially emerged 
 from the social group within which he originated. The 
 solidarity of the family or group was the outstanding 
 fact. We shall therefore find group morality and family 
 ethics functioning to a considerable extent instead of an 
 individualistic ethic. In Judges, Samuel, and I Kings, 
 there are but two or three clear cases of this sort of 
 thing, but these are enough to attest the operation 
 of the solidarity principle in early Israel, especially when 
 we find further evidence in J and E (see chap, ii), and 
 discover also that the principle continues in force to a 
 considerable degree all through Hebrew and Jewish 
 history. One of the illustrations of this conception is 
 supplied by the story of the hanging of Saul’s descendants 
 (II Sam. 21:1-14). The offense of slaying the Gibeonites 
 was committed by Saul or upon his orders. Yahweh 
 sends punishment for the crime upon all Israel and that 
 too after Saul’s death. Final satisfaction is given the 
 Gibeonites, and atonement for the crime is made by 
 hanging up before Yahweh two of Saul’s sons and five 
 of his grandsons. The ends of justice are therefore met 
 when the family of the offender is punished, even though 
 the offender himself escape. Again, David’s sin in taking 
 a census of his people is visited upon the heads of the 
 people and not upon David himself directly (II Sam. 
 24:1 ff.). In these cases the unit dealt with is not the 
 individual, but the group to which he belongs. The 
 individual involves the group in the results of his crime. 
 The group has sinned through a member; therefore the 
 group must suffer punishment. Nor is it at all essen- 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 15 
 
 tial that that member of the group who committed the 
 offense be punished rather than some other member or 
 members. The social body has offended and that body 
 must suffer—the particular member of the body that 
 suffers is a matter of slight consequence. When one 
 member suffers, all the members suffer with it. 
 
 11. The conception of woman .—An infallible index to 
 the character of the society of any age is furnished by 
 the life of its women and the esteem accorded to women 
 and the family. On this subject there is considerable 
 information in our sources. The names of Deborah, 
 Jael, Hannah, Bathsheba, Michal, Abigail, Abishag the 
 Shunammite, Tamar, the “ Witch of Endor,” and the 
 “wise woman of Tekoa” bring up a wide range of 
 pictures, pleasing and displeasing. Woman, apparently, 
 played no small part in the social and even in the political 
 life of the times. Nor were her morals appreciably differ¬ 
 ent from the morals of masculine society. Polygamy was 
 the order of the day. Samuel’s mother was one of two 
 wives (I Sam. 1:2); Gideon’s father had “many wives” 
 (Judg. 8:30); David had eight wives who are individu¬ 
 ally mentioned (I Sam. 18:20, 27; 25:39, 43; II Sam. 
 3:2-5, 13; 11:27; I Kings 1:1-4), and he married yet 
 more wives in Jerusalem (II Sam. 5:13-16), and when 
 he left Jerusalem in haste, fleeing from Absalom, he left 
 ten concubines behind him in the city (II Sam. 15:16). 
 Solomon’s uxorious proclivities are notorious (I Kings 
 11:1-3). Of course, Solomon must be given credit for 
 political and commercial aims to the accomplishment of 
 which the marriages with foreign princesses were a 
 necessary means. Inherent in the system of polygamy 
 are certain evils which are exemplified in the family 
 
i6 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 life of this period. There was rivalry and enmity be- 
 u^tween the wives of Elkanah (I Sam. i: 5-8). The family 
 tie among the children of different wives was very 
 weak. Gideon’s son Abimelech slew all but one of his 
 half-brothers, seventy in number, and set himself up as 
 king of Shechem (Judg. 9:5, 6). Amnon violated his 
 half-sister Tamar and was slain for it by her full brother, 
 Absalom (II Sam., chap. 13). Indeed he might have 
 married her, half-sister as she was (II Sam. 13:13). 
 Adonijah and Solomon were rivals for the succession to 
 David’s throne, and the younger won through the 
 influence of the fascinating Bathsheba and the prophet 
 Nathan (I Kings 1:11-40). Ultimately Adonijah was 
 slain by Solomon under suspicion of plotting to seize the 
 throne after David’s death (I Kings 2:17-35). Faith¬ 
 fulness to the marriage bond did not weigh heavily upon 
 husbands, and a general looseness of sexual relations 
 prevailed. Samson seems to have contracted what is 
 known as a sadika marriage with a Philistine woman 
 (Judg. 15:1), i.e., a marriage by the terms of which 
 the woman stays with her own people where she is visited 
 from time to time by her husband, who makes sure of 
 his welcome by bringing a present. 1 He visited a harlot 
 at Gaza (Judg. 16:1) and appears to have suffered no 
 blame; Jephthah’s mother was a woman of similar record 
 (Judg. 11 :i). The sons of Eli are condemned for their 
 relations with the women attendants of the shrine of 
 Shiloh (I Sam. 2:22), though the precise ground of the 
 censure is not clear. Abner is chided by Ishbosheth, 
 Saul’s son, for his relations with Rizpah, Saul’s concubine; 
 
 1 See W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (2d ed.), 
 PP* 83-93* 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 17 
 
 Ishbosheth’s objection, however, is based not upon moral, 
 but upon political, grounds (II Sam. 3:7 f.); compare 
 similar sentiments in the case of Absalom (II Sam. 
 16:21 f.), and of Adonijah (I Kings 2:17-25). A Levite’s 
 concubine is unfaithful to him and returns to her father’s 
 house, whither the Levite goes to bring her back with no 
 indication of any severe condemnation (Judg. 19:2, 3). 
 David’s sin with Bathsheba is condemned indeed, but the 
 ground of the condemnation is the wrong done to her 
 husband, and not any wrong to Bathsheba or himself 
 (II Sam., chap. n). Under such circumstances, women 
 as such seem to have had little consideration. Chivalry 
 was an unknown quantity. One of the most glaring illus¬ 
 trations of this is the action of the old father in Gibeah 
 who offered to turn his own virgin daughter over to the 
 lust of the mob in order to save his guest, the Levite 
 (Judg. 19:24). That same horrible story of outrage fur¬ 
 nishes another testimonial to the inconsiderateness of the 
 attitude toward women. The Levite’s concubine, after 
 a night of horror, crawled home to die on the threshold 
 of her husband’s lodging. When he opened the door 
 in the morning, there she lay—dead. Under the cir¬ 
 cumstances a touch of sympathy at least might have 
 been expected. But no! Not knowing that she was 
 dead, the husband blurted forth a curt order, “Up, and 
 let us be going!” The only ray of light in this moral 
 darkness is the moral revulsion of “ all Israel” when news 
 of the outrage spread abroad (Judg. 19:26 ff.). Another 
 set of experiences passed through by Michal, daughter of 
 Saul, shows that women were mere pawns in the game 
 of life. Michal fell in love with David (I Sam. 18:20- 
 29) and, for ulterior motives, was given to him in marriage 
 
i8 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 by Saul. When Saul turned openly against David, he 
 gave his daughter to Phalti, even though she was already 
 David’s wife (I Sam. 25:44). Later when David as 
 king of Judah is approached by Abner with a view to 
 giving David possession of the throne of northern Israel, 
 David’s first demand of Abner is that his wife Michal be 
 restored to him (II Sam. 3:13). David’s motive here is 
 at least open to the suspicion of having been that of 
 a politician rather than that of a devoted husband. 
 Incidentally, the figure of Phalti, the bereft husband, 
 accompanying his wife and “ weeping as he went,” is 
 touching and demonstrative of the fact that true affec¬ 
 tion was not wholly unknown to husbands. But Michal 
 had yet more to endure. When David so deported him¬ 
 self, at the time of the bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem, 
 as to shock Michal’s sense of decency, which we need not 
 suppose to have been highly developed, she ventured to 
 tell David what she thought of him. In return for this 
 she was apparently banished from David’s presence for 
 the rest of her life (II Sam. 6:20-23). Certainly, David’s 
 allusion to her father’s failure was anything but tactful. 
 The story of Jephthah’s daughter reveals between the 
 lines a true parental affection, compelled, however, to 
 give place to the fear of God. In like manner, the record 
 of Hannah bringing up little garments annually to her 
 small son at Shiloh shows a mother’s heart. David, too, 
 reveals his love for his children unmistakably. Indeed, 
 it overpowers his sense of justice and degenerates into 
 weak partiality. Pie fails to punish Amnon for his 
 dastardly crime, and his grief over Absalom outweighs all 
 his sense of wrong. The outraged king is lost in the 
 heartbroken father (II Sam. 18:29, 32 f.). 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 19 
 
 12. Bloodshed :—Turning from the intimacy of family 
 affairs, we take up lastly the ethical relations among 
 members of the general Hebrew public. The records 
 of internecine wars are marred by deeds of savagery 
 and brutality. Abimelech, when he took the rebellious 
 city of Shechem, slew all the population, and “ sowed the 
 city with salt,” and burned alive “ about a thousand men 
 and women” in a stronghold (Judg. 9:45, 49, 52). 
 Through the envy and greed of Ephraim war broke out 
 between Ephraim and Gilead in which forty-two thou¬ 
 sand Ephraimites were slain—a figure slightly overdrawn, 
 to be sure, but reflecting the savagery of the conflict 
 (Judg. 12:1-6). The Israelitish army slew all the men, 
 women, and children of Jabesh Gilead, with the excep¬ 
 tion of four hundred young virgins who were turned over 
 as wives to the surviving Benjamites, because Jabesh 
 Gilead had not joined in the common war against Ben¬ 
 jamin (Judg. 21:10, n). The bloody tragedy at Gibeon 
 (ii Sam. 2:12-17) was apparently due to treachery. 
 Political murder was practiced without scruple. Saul 
 slew the whole priestly group at Nob, men, women, and 
 children, on suspicion of their being friendly to his enemy 
 David (I Sam. 22: n-19). The whole house of Jeroboam 
 was slain by Nadab (I Kings 15:29, 30); Zimri murdered 
 Elah and all the house of Baasha (I Kings 16:9-12); 
 and of the end of Tibni it is stated as a matter of course, 
 “so Tibni died and Omri became king” (I Kings 16:22). 
 Blood-revenge was in full swing and accounted for many 
 deaths. The prominent cases on record are the murder 
 of Abner by Joab in revenge for Abner’s killing Asahel in 
 war (II Sam. 3:22-27); David’s slaughter of the mur¬ 
 derers of Ishbaal (II Sam. 4:4-32); and Solomon’s murder 
 
20 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of Joab (I Kings 2:5, 6, 28-34). Other cases of murder 
 without any such justification are David’s killing of 
 Uriah in order to escape the detection of his sin with 
 Uriah’s wife (II Sam., chap, n); Joab’s murder of 
 Amasa without provocation other than jealousy (II Sam. 
 20:9, 10); Saul’s attack upon the Gibeonites (II Sam. 
 21:1); Solomon’s slaying of Shimei (I Kings 2:36-46); 
 and the stoning of Adoram the taskmaster by the Israel¬ 
 ites (I Kings 12:18). David was saved from a massacre 
 of Nabal and his retinue by the clever intervention of 
 Abigail (I Sam., chap. 25); and Solomon would have killed 
 Jeroboam could he have caught him (I Kings 11:40). 
 
 13. Suicide .—Brutality in the treatment of criminals 
 is seen in David’s treatment of the murderers of Ishbaal. 
 Not satisfied with merely slaying them, he hung up their 
 bodies and cut off their hands and their feet (II Sam. 
 4:5-12). With such low standards of the value of life 
 and the dignity of personality as these, it is quite in 
 keeping that suicide should be taken as a matter of 
 course. The known cases are those of Saul and his 
 armour-bearer (I Sam. 31:4), Ahithophel (II Sam. 
 17:23), and Zimri (I Kangs 16:18). Saul regarded 
 suicide as more honorable than death at the hands of 
 the Philistines. These men were all offenders in one 
 way or another against the principles and programs 
 approved by our documents; and it may be, therefore, 
 that suicide is regarded as self-confessed failure and 
 self-condemnation which speaks for itself and need not 
 be emphasized by the recorder. It is a fitting end for 
 transgressors. 
 
 14. Deceit and lies .—Lying and deceit are so common 
 in the oriental world even at the present time as to be 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 21 
 
 classified as near-virtues rather than as vices. Similar 
 usage prevailed in the period covered by our sources. 
 David deceived Abimelech, the priest of Nob, unmerci¬ 
 fully. He assured him that he was on Saul’s private 
 business, of so 'urgent a character that he had had 
 no time to provide himself with food and weapons, and 
 that the escort which might have been expected to 
 accompany a son-in-law of the king was sent on later 
 to meet him at a rendezvous; all of which was pure 
 fabrication and intended to mislead (I Sam. 21:iff.). 
 David also deceived Uriah the Hittite and betrayed him 
 to his death (II Sam., chap. 11). “The ruling passion” 
 being “strong in death,” he passed on to his son Solomon 
 the task of compassing the death of Joab, his loyal 
 supporter and friend, against whom he had not dared 
 to lift his own hand; so also that of Shimei, the Benja- 
 mite, whom at a crucial moment he had sworn not to 
 kill (I Kings 2:5, 6, 8, 9). 1 Jonathan deceived his 
 father, Saul, because of his own love for David (I Sam. 
 
 1 This last will and testament of David’s in its present form is quite 
 generally made a later addition to the record, and is disposed of as a 
 libel upon David. The document doubtless has undergone some revision. 
 But there is insufficient reason for treating it as wholly due to later 
 imagination. We have three narratives of the life of David, viz., 
 (1) I Chron., chaps. 1-11, (2) the Sm material in Samuel, (3) the SI 
 material in Samuel. A comparison of these lives, one with another, 
 shows a steadily and rapidly developing idealization of David to have 
 taken place. It is hardly likely that in the midst of such a develop¬ 
 ment there should have originated a libel of this sort upon the ideal 
 king. Further, the David of the oldest records suffers little from 
 this account. He is already credited with deeds and attitudes which 
 make those credited to him here pale into insignificance. It is better 
 to let David carry this slight additional burden than to load it upon 
 the back of some later writer living at a more civilized and moralized 
 period. 
 
22 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 20:1-10, 18-39; 23:17:8:.). Jezebel had no difficulty 
 in obtaining false witnesses who swore away Naboth’s life 
 (I Kings, chap. 21). 
 
 15. Drunkenness and immorality .—Two other vices 
 remain to be catalogued. Drunkenness seems to have 
 .. been a common failing. How common it was may be 
 seen from the story of Hannah at Shiloh (I Sam. 1:9-16). 
 When Eh saw her engaged in silent prayer and in great 
 stress of soul, he at once leaped to the conclusion that 
 she was drunk. And that, too, notwithstanding that 
 she was a woman and in the house of Yahweh. It is 
 quite clear that drunkenness was a common spectacle 
 at Shiloh; otherwise such an interpretation would never 
 have been placed upon a good woman’s devotions. 
 Incidentally, both Eli and Hannah agree that it is a 
 reprehensible practice. ^Religious feasts seem to have 
 been occasions of heavy drinking. Absalom takes it for 
 granted that at his feast of sheep-shearing Amnon will 
 in due course be overcome with drink (II Sam. 13:28) 
 and plans his murder accordingly. Another feast of 
 sheep-shearing is better known, viz., that of Nabal the 
 Calebite, who pastured his flocks in Carmel (I Sam., 
 chap. 25). David, the head of a band of outlaws, sent 
 emissaries to Nabal asking for gifts in view of the fact 
 that David’s band had not molested Nabal’s property 
 during the previous year. Nabal surlily refused the 
 request. Thereupon David prepared to avenge the 
 insult, but was met on his way to Nabal’s farm by Abigail, 
 the beautiful and winning wife of Nabal. She and her 
 liberal gifts appeased the wrath of the passionate out¬ 
 law, and Nabal escaped impending destruction. But 
 all the time that this protection of his life and goods 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 23 
 
 was being planned and carried out, Nabal was drinking 
 himself dead drunk (I Sam. 25:36 f.). About ten days 
 thereafter Nabal died, perhaps as a result of the dissipa¬ 
 tion. When word thereof was brought to David, he 
 said, “Blessed be Yahweh,” and straightway married 
 the widow. In another case involving a woman, David 
 plied her husband with drink without accomplishing his 
 purpose (II Sam. 11:13). Elah, king of Israel, “was 
 drinking himself drunk” when he was murdered by 
 Zimri (I Kings 16:9). The second vice is one that has 
 no precise equivalent in modern civilized society. 
 Prostitution was practiced by both male and female 
 hierodules under the protection of, and as a part of, reli¬ 
 gion and in the precincts of the shrines themselves. This 
 was probably the function of the women concerned in 
 the sin of the sons of Eli (I Sam. 2:22); and it is recorded 
 that there were male prostitutes of this sort throughout 
 Judah in Rehoboam’s day (I Kings 14:24) and that they 
 were finally abolished by King Asa (I Kings 15:12). 
 This corruption of the moral and religious life of Israel 
 was probably acquired from the sensuous worship of the 
 Canaanites, whose gods and sanctuaries were readily 
 adopted by the incoming Hebrews. 
 
 16. Courage and generosity .—The virtues that shine 
 against this dark background, like stars on a moonless 
 night, are not numerous. This is probably due in part 
 to the fact that goodness is not “news.” It may be 
 taken for granted and, unless extraordinary at some 
 point, is not likely to arouse interest or to impress itself 
 deeply upon the memories of men. The ancient Hebrew 
 world probably resembled our own age in this respect. 
 We may therefore give them credit for a substantial body 
 
24 THEJmORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of “good” people, who never did anything to make 
 themselves notorious. They were measurably honest,' 
 paid their debts, were reasonably truthful, lovers of peace 
 and order, and treated their neighbor’s person and 
 property with due respect. A criminal society cannot 
 permanently exist. A few of the substantial virtues of 
 early Israel come to the surface in our sources. Among 
 a people engaged in war for generations, it goes without 
 saying that courage and bravery would develop to a 
 high pitch. Stories of personal daring would be treasured 
 and passed on from generation to generation. We hear 
 records of this sort in the case of Gideon’s exploit (Judg. 
 7:19 fL), of Jonathan and his armour-bearer routing the 
 Philistines (I Sam. 14:6 fL), of Samson with his insuper¬ 
 able strength and reckless courage (Judg., chaps. 14-16), 
 of David slaying the lion and the bear and the Philistine 
 giant (I Sam. 17:32 fL) and venturing with one com¬ 
 panion into the midst of Saul’s camp (I Sam. 26:6 fL), 
 and of the wondrous deeds of David’s heroes (II Sam. 
 23:8 fL). With this quality of courage there sometimes 
 went an admirable magnanimity. Saul’s response to 
 the appeal of Jabesh Gilead for help against the Ammo¬ 
 nites was noble and generous (I Sam., chap. n). Jona¬ 
 than’s unselfishness in supporting David to his own 
 personal disadvantage is beyond question. David’s 
 elegy over Saul and Jonathan is a beautiful bit of memo¬ 
 rial poetry and shows a large-mindedness that can forgive 
 the past. Abner shrinks from killing an unarmoured 
 man and urges Asahel to provide himself with mail 
 (II Sam. 2:18-23), but in vain. Joab generously fore¬ 
 goes the glory of taking Rabbah from the Ammonites, 
 and waits for David to appear and take it in person 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 25 
 
 (II Sam. 12:26 ff.). David himself, when his warriors at 
 Bethlehem risked their lives to get him a drink of water, 
 refused the drink procured at so great a price and sancti¬ 
 fied their deed by pouring out the water as a drink 
 offering to Yahweh (II Sam. 23:15 ft'.). 
 
 17. Hospitality .—The courteous and generous hospi¬ 
 tality of the old man at Gibeah to the wandering Levite 
 and his concubine is introduced incidentally and as a 
 matter of course, showing that there was nothing excep¬ 
 tional in it to the mind of the writer (Judg. 19:16 ft.). 
 Saul’s modesty in concealing the fact that Samuel had 
 anointed him as king is characteristic of a strong and 
 brave man (I Sam. 10:16; cf. 11:12 f., a later edito¬ 
 rial note). When Saul was slain the men of Jabesh 
 Gilead did not forget his help in their time of need but 
 expressed their gratitude by making an all-night march 
 to remove the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from the 
 walls of Beth-shan upon which they were fastened, and 
 give them decent burial (I Sam. 31:11 f.). In contrast 
 with this, the men of Keilah whom David had delivered 
 from the Philistines could not be trusted to refuse to 
 betray him into the hands of Saul (I Sam. 23:5, 12). 
 David thanked the men of Jabesh Gilead for their kind¬ 
 ness to Saul and Jonathan, and promised to reward them 
 (II Sam. 2:5-7). David himself met with kindness from 
 many hands at the time of Absalom’s rebellion and death. 
 His hungry and thirsty troops were nourished by his 
 friends (II Sam. 17:27-29), and David repaid this kind¬ 
 ness as he had opportunity (I Kings 2:7). Ahimaaz, 
 the runner, ran his best to get to David before the 
 Cushite runner and to give him good news before 
 the shock of Absalom’s death should overwhelm him 
 
26 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 (II Sam. 18:19 ff.). The people as a whole sympathized 
 deeply with David in his grief (II Sam. 19:1 ff.). 
 
 18. Friendship .—Personal affection between one man 
 and another, deepening into genuine love, is evident in 
 the case of David and Jonathan. Even Saul loved 
 David greatly upon first acquaintance (I Sam. 16:21). 
 But David and Jonathan, according to an editorial note 
 (I Sam. 18:1 ff.), loved one another at first sight so that 
 “soul was knit with soul.” This affection was severely 
 tested on both sides, but held firm to the last. David’s 
 elegy exhibits a touch of genius in the expression of 
 David’s feelings: 
 
 Jonathan, when thou didst die I was undone; 
 
 I was afflicted for thee, my brother Jonathan. 
 
 Thou wast very dear to me; 
 
 Wonderful was thy love for me— 
 
 Passing the love of women [II Sam. 1:25 f.]. 
 
 This love of David’s was abiding; it expressed itself 
 after Jonathan’s death in deeds of kindness to his 
 children (II Sam. 4:9 ff.; 9:1-13). 
 
 19. Justice— The sense of justice and right was 
 strong, even if not highly developed. The whole institu¬ 
 tion of blood-revenge is an expression of it. The prin¬ 
 ciple of “tit for tat” is clearly expressed in the account 
 of Samuel’s slaying of Agag (I Sam. 15:32 f.). Eli’s 
 sons, though priests, are charged with robbing the public 
 as it came to sacrifice at Shiloh (I Sam. 2:12 ff.), and 
 similar charges are preferred against the sons of Samuel 
 in the exercise of their judicial capacity, in a later edi¬ 
 torial note (I Sam. 8:iff.). Samuel himself, in a late 
 Deuteronomic passage (I Sam. 12:3, 4), is made to give 
 himself a clean bill of moral health in terms which are 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 27 
 
 perhaps ahead of Samuel’s times. But that Samuel was 
 a man of high moral standing as judged by the standards 
 of his own age, there can be little doubt. The Deuter- 
 onomic tradition is probably well grounded. David 
 refused to lay hands upon Saul on the ground that that 
 was Yahweh’s prerogative only, and that the just God 
 would in his own way and time smite Saul for his sins 
 (I Sam. 26:9-11). David is credited by an early editor 
 (II Sam. 8:15) with having executed justice and judg¬ 
 ment for all his people, though Absalom wins away the 
 hearts of the people from David by administering justice 
 more promptly than David and by doing so in person 
 (II Sam. 15:1-6). The parable of the ewe lamb put into 
 the mouth of Nathan is commonly thought to be some¬ 
 what later than David’s time, but its essential principle 
 that the rich must not add to their riches by robbing the 
 poor is quite within the range of our period (II Sam., 
 chap. 12). David’s division of Mephibosheth’s estate by 
 giving half of it to his servant Ziba (II Sam. 19:29) 
 shows a somewhat high-handed and arbitrary method, 
 not wholly in accordance with justice as evinced by the 
 existing record. Solomon’s shrewdness in discovering the 
 real facts of a case is illustrated by the story of the two 
 women contending for a child (I Kings 3:16 fT.). The 
 story of Ahab’s seizure of Naboth’s vineyard represents 
 the protest of the Hebrew conscience against the 
 encroachments of a despotic king upon the rights of a 
 Hebrew freeholder, and leaves no doubt as to the con¬ 
 demnation heaped upon the act of the king and queen 
 (I Kings, chap. 21). This was at the very close of our 
 pre-prophetic period and shows that the age was sound 
 at heart and recognized the right of a man to hold on to 
 
28 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 his little patrimony even when by so doing he frustrated 
 plans for the promotion of the royal pleasure. 
 
 20. Ethical authority .—The administration of justice 
 and the authority for its enforcement in later times lay 
 in the hands of the king; David already exercised it. 
 But in the earlier part of our period the public conscience 
 and generally accepted custom established authoritative 
 standards. The rigid rules of later times were largely 
 lacking and the men of those later days looked back 
 upon these times as a period of chaos; e.g., “in those 
 days there was no king in Israel; every man did what 
 was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6; 21:5). The 
 force of public opinion in shaping customary morality 
 is suggested by Tamar’s protest to her half-brother 
 Amnon, “no such thing ought to be done in Israel” 
 (II Sam. 13:12); and more emphatically by the form of 
 the statement of the woman of Abel as it runs in the 
 Septuagint: “In early times they said, Counsel is surely 
 asked at Abel and at Dan as to whether the things 
 ceased which the faithful of Israel established; they 
 shall surely ask of a matter in Abel and so forth, whether 
 they ceased’” (II Sam. 20:18). A strong personality 
 by his decision in a given crisis may establish a precedent 
 for succeeding generations and this may in course of 
 time crystallize into statutory law. One such case is 
 on record in our period (I Sam. 30:24 f.). When David 
 returned from his victory over the Amalekites, a dispute 
 arose as to the distribution of the booty. Those who 
 
 V. 
 
 had participated in the fight grudged any share of the 
 spoil to those who had stayed behind to guard the women 
 and children and the impedimenta. David, however, 
 with a keener sense of justice, decided in favor of those 
 
THE EARLIEST HISTORICAL NARRATIVES 29 
 
 who were left behind, saying, “as is his share that goes 
 down to the battle, so shall his share be that tarries by 
 the stuff; they shall share alike.” This rule of David’s 
 became an established custom in Israel, i.e., a law, from 
 that time on. Not only so, but in course of time this 
 particular law, like all law, was given divine sanction, in 
 that it was attributed to Moses, who received it directly 
 from the lips of Yahweh in the plains of Moab (Num. 
 31:25-47; cf. Josh. 22:8). 
 
 21. The significance of this period .—In reflecting 
 upon the materials surveyed in this chapter, it may at 
 first thought seem as if we had been reading a copy 
 of the crime sheet at the police headquarters of some 
 large city. But we must bear in mind not only the 
 fact already noted, viz., that goodness does not often 
 get into the limelight, but also the further fact that our 
 body of literature, small though it is, covers a history 
 of approximately four hundred years. When this 
 catalogue of evils is spread out over a period of that 
 length, the impression it makes is much less vivid. Not 
 only so, but to do justice to the ethical standards of 
 those times, and particularly of the days in which our 
 literary sources took form, we must remember to make 
 allowance for the transactions and attitudes that clearly 
 come under the condemnation even of our oldest sources 
 of information. The encouraging fact is that there was 
 a moral consciousness in early Israel. Its content 
 differed from that of later times, but it was no less vigor¬ 
 ous in its reaction against what it condemned—indeed, 
 on the whole it was more so—and it was susceptible of 
 education. It had not yet attained, but it was pressing 
 forward to higher levels. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 22 a. The sources of the materials gathered in this chap¬ 
 ter are the J and E documents of the Plexateuch. 1 These 
 documents have preserved the traditions of Israel that 
 were current from earliest times. In their present liter¬ 
 ary form they come from a relatively late period in pre- 
 prophetic Israel and consequently have doubtless suffered 
 much re-writing at the hands of editors; but much of 
 their contents certainly originated in very early times 
 and was passed on from generation to generation in 
 succession, losing something of historical value in the 
 process, but gaining much worth for the moral uplift 
 of the generations. These were the stories told by the 
 elders around the fireside and eagerly absorbed by the 
 listening youth. Their educative value, therefore, for 
 early Israel can hardly be exaggerated. Here we shall 
 find the moral ideals and practices that did much to 
 shape the thoughts and purposes of pre-prophetic Israel. 
 These documents belong to the same general period as 
 the histories we have considered in chapter i; we may 
 not expect, therefore, anything essentially different here 
 from what we have recorded there. The morals of an 
 age are in general unified, and what we find in any one 
 extensive expression of its life will be apt to reappear in 
 
 1 For an explanation of these symbols and a discussion of their 
 origin and character, see Carpenter and Harford-Battersby, The Hexa- 
 teuch (1900); E. S. Brightman, The Sources of the Hexateuch (1918); 
 A. T. Chapman, An Introduction to the Pentateuch (Cambridge Bible, 
 1911); and F. C. Eiselen, The Books of the Pentateuch (1916). 
 
 30 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 31 
 
 principle, if not also in precept and practice, in every 
 corresponding section. Let us remind ourselves also that 
 we are not looking here for information as to the char¬ 
 acters and achievements of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, 
 Jacob, Moses, and their brethren, but rather for light 
 upon the moral conceptions and practices of the latter 
 part of the pre-prophetic period as reflected in these 
 traditions about the men of days gone by. 
 
 It will appear in reading this chapter that the amount 
 of material representing standards that are today out¬ 
 grown is considerably greater than that representing the 
 more admirable qualities. It is necessary, therefore, to 
 remind ourselves again that goodness has little value as 
 “news.” Only the abnormal, unusual, striking phenom¬ 
 ena of life are apt to get into the stream of tradition. In 
 all probability the prophets who edited these documents 
 took them as they had been handed down, did not select 
 or eliminate to any great extent, and sought to use what 
 had come to their hands in the most effective way for 
 the achievement of the moral and spiritual ends they 
 themselves sought to serve. 
 
 22 b. The morals of Yahweh .—We may begin again 
 with a study of the moral aspects of the conception of 
 God. The morals of the masses, at least, will not be any 
 more exalted than the ethical attitudes and motives that 
 they assign to Yahweh. We shall note first three of J’s 
 stories, which reflect a very primitive idea of Yahweh. 
 In Exodus 24:9-11, we read, “Then went up Moses, 
 Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of 
 
 Israel, and they saw the God of Israel.And upon 
 
 the elders of Israel he laid not his hand; and they beheld 
 God, and did eat and drink.” Again in Exodus 33:18-23, 
 
32 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 we find, “And he [i.e., Moses] said, ‘Show me I pray 
 
 thee, thy glory.’ And he said, ‘Thou canst not 
 
 see my face, for man shall not see me and live/ And 
 Yahweh said, ‘Behold there is a place by me, and thou 
 shalt stand upon the rock. And it shall be that while 
 my glory passes by I will put thee in a cleft of the rock 
 and will cover thee with my hand until I have passed 
 by. And I will take away my hand and thou shalt 
 see my back; but my face shall not be seen/ ” To these 
 two extraordinary stories we add a third from Exodus 
 4:24 ff. that is even more extraordinary. “And it came 
 to pass on the way at the lodging place that Yahweh met 
 him and sought to kill him [i.e., Moses]. Then Zipporah 
 took a flint and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast 
 it at his feet; and she said, ‘Surely a bridegroom of blood 
 art thou to me/ So He let him alone/’ With such 
 conceptions of God as these—crass, materialistic, primi¬ 
 tive, non-spiritual, and non-ethical—we may not expect 
 to find a highly developed morality expressing itself in 
 the thought of God or anywhere else, 
 
 a) In his dealings with non-Israelites Yahweh seems 
 to be under very light moral obligations. Pharaoh is 
 given no chance to escape destruction for himself and 
 his people because Yahweh hardens his heart that he 
 may not repent (Exod. 9:35; 10:20, 27 f.—all E). The 
 Pharaoh who in all good faith took Sarah unto himself 
 for wife was smitten with all his household in some 
 mysterious way, because he had unwittingly taken 
 Abraham’s wife (Gen. 12:10-20 = J). In this case 
 both Abraham and Sarah had been guilty of concealing 
 the truth, but it was the innocent Pharaoh that must 
 suffer. E’s parallel story, in which the Philistine, 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 33 
 
 Abimelech, takes the place of the Egyptian Pharaoh, 
 makes one significant additional statement, viz., that 
 Abimelech was kept from sin by Yahweh, but the out¬ 
 come is the same (Gen. 2 o:i-i 8 = E). This addition 
 was made not for the sake of the heathen king’s reputa¬ 
 tion, but rather to save that of Sarah. It show r s a slight 
 advance of moral standards in E as compared with J. 
 Yahweh ruthlessly sends down fire and brimstone upon 
 Sodom and Gomorrah and wipes the cities and their 
 populations off the face of the earth, because of their 
 awful wickedness (Gen. 19:24, J). Fearful destruction 
 was wrought upon the Egyptians at the behest of the 
 angry Moses (Exod. 11:4-10, J). The midwives con¬ 
 nived with the Hebrew mothers and saved the new-born 
 sons alive, contrary to the Pharaoh’s express orders, tell¬ 
 ing him unvarnished lies in explanation, and were blessed 
 of Yahweh for so doing (Exod. 1:20 f., E). The escap¬ 
 ing Hebrews were commanded by Yahweh to despoil 
 the Egyptians (Exod. 3:22; 11:2, 3; 12:35!. = E). A 
 perpetual feud between Israel and Amalek was in accord 
 with Yahweh’s will (Exod. 17:16, E). The principle at 
 the bottom of all this sort of thing is that Yahweh is 
 conceived of as Israel’s God and that he is counted upon 
 to defend the interests of his own people and to damage 
 those of all other peoples wherever the needs of Israel 
 demand it. The prosperity of non-Hebraic peoples is 
 dependent wholly upon their attitude to the Hebrews, 
 Yahweh’s own special favorites. “I will bless them that 
 bless thee and him that curses thee I will curse” (Gen. 
 
 12:3, J). 
 
 b) The conception of Yahweh was not in this period, 
 if ever, completely ethicized. Some phases of it lay 
 
34 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 altogether outside of the sphere of ethics. For example, 
 in Exodus 19:21 f., J, when Moses ascended Mt. Sinai, 
 “Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Go down, charge the people, 
 lest they break through unto Yahweh to gaze, and many 
 of them perish. And let the priests also, that come near 
 to Yahweh, sanctify themselves, lest Yahweh break 
 forth upon them.’” Yahweh is here thought of as a 
 consuming fire that destroys everyone whom it touches. 
 The only safe way is to keep out of range of its deadly 
 power or to render one’s self immune to the danger by 
 ritualistic measures. He is a menace to friend and foe 
 alike. Character is no defense against his consuming 
 wrath; only the performance of certain almost magical 
 ceremonies is of avail. 
 
 We move back into the region of ethics again when we 
 take up the story of the Fall as found in J and scrutinize 
 it for its views of Yahweh. The origin of sin is there 
 traced back finally to the malevolence of the Serpent. 
 He makes appeal to the woman as “the weaker vessel” 
 and induces her to break the command of Yahweh by 
 eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree. No reason 
 is given for this prohibition; it is an arbitrary decision 
 on the part of Yahweh. With a slight modification of 
 the original lines, we may say: 
 
 Theirs not to reason why, 
 
 Theirs but to do or die. 
 
 The result of this disobedience is amazing. First of all, 
 the man and the woman suddenly awake to a conscious¬ 
 ness of the fact that they are naked. In other words, 
 presumably this is a discovery of sex consciousness. 
 Second, they learn that they have brought upon them- 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 35 
 
 selves endless troubles, the whole serpent brood shall lie 
 in wait for them henceforth forever; the process of 
 child-bearing shall be fraught with agony for successive 
 generations of women; woman shall be forever subordi¬ 
 nate to the will of man; the earth shall respond but 
 grudgingly to the hard labor of man so that his life shall 
 be spent in ceaseless toil; and finally he shall return in 
 death unto the dust whence he came. Third, Yahweh 
 realizes that mankind is now endowed with godlike 
 knowledge in that he can distinguish between the bene¬ 
 ficial and the injurious and, fearing lest man may “put 
 forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and 
 live forever,” 1 he drives him out of the Garden of Eden 
 into the cold and hostile world. That is, Yahweh is 
 jealous of his own supreme power and does not propose 
 to leave the way open for mankind to become immortal 
 and so to enter into rivalry with himself. The Tower of 
 Babel story (Gen. 11:1-9, J) reflects the same solicitude 
 upon Yahweh’s part that man should be kept in his 
 proper sphere and not be allowed to indulge his aspira¬ 
 tions for equality with God too freely. 
 
 c) The anger of Yahweh flamed forth with destruc¬ 
 tive effect upon sinners, even when they were members 
 of his own chosen nation. When the Hebrews were 
 seduced by the women of Moab and participated in the 
 worship of Baal of Peor, Yahweh ordered, “Take all the 
 chiefs of the people and hang them up unto Yahweh 
 before the sun, that the heat of the anger of Yahweh may 
 turn away from Israel” (Num. 25:4, J). Moses also 
 ordered the death of every man who had “joined him- 
 
 1 This passage is perhaps to be assigned to a later editor of this story; 
 but in any case it is a primitive aspect of the God-idea. 
 
36 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 self unto the Baal of Peor.” These drastic measures 
 were necessary in order to stay the plague which had 
 already carried off twenty-four thousand of the people. 
 In like manner when Yahweh had pronounced a ban upon 
 the spoil of Jericho and Achan had violated it by taking 
 “a goodly Babylonish mantle and two hundred shekels 
 of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels in weight” 
 for his own use, Yahweh sent defeat upon the Israelites 
 in their attack upon Ai, so that thirty-six men fell before 
 the foe, and Yahweh’s favor was not restored until 
 Achan and his entire family were stoned to death and 
 the stolen goods were burned. Here there is no nice 
 measuring of the guilt and apportionment of it where it 
 belongs, but all Israel must suffer that the guilt may 
 be brought to light, and the transgressor’s family perishes 
 with him (Josh. 7:1-26). The methods of Yahweh were 
 rough; but they were terribly effective. 
 
 d) Turning from these savage and almost brutal 
 aspects of the idea of God, we take up the more 
 human phases of that conception. Yahweh’s blessing is 
 bestowed upon his loyal servants in the bestowal of 
 great prosperity. This blessing is not necessarily condi¬ 
 tioned by moral considerations. “ Yahweh was with 
 Joseph and he was a prosperous man” (Gen. 39:2, 3, 
 21-23 = J). But he was also with the tricky Jacob and 
 came to him in a vision at Bethel with promises of count¬ 
 less progeny and world-wide influence (Gen. 28:11-15, 
 J). In grateful appreciation of his favor, Jacob enters 
 into a contract with God by the terms of which God is 
 to receive Jacob’s service and a tithe of all his increase 
 in return for food, raiment, and protection to Jacob 
 (Gen. 28:20-22, E). Jacob is a born trader; he even 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 37 
 
 bargains with God. In quite human fashion, Yahweh 
 is thought of as solicitous for his own reputation among 
 men, and that reputation depends upon his giving 
 victory to his people. After the defeat at Ai, Joshua 
 addresses Yahweh thus: “Oh, Yahweh, what shall I 
 say, now that Israel has turned its back before its 
 enemies ? For when the Canaanites and all the inhabit¬ 
 ants of the land hear of it, they will surround us and 
 cut off our name from the land; and what wilt thou do 
 for thy great name?” (Josh. 7:9 f., J). And yet at 
 other times the God-idea can be used to put to shame 
 the human failings. This is the case in two E passages. 
 In Numbers 23:19, Balaam impresses upon Balak the 
 dependability of God by saying: 
 
 God is not a man that he should lie; 
 
 Nor a son of man that he should change his mind; 
 
 When he has said, will he not do it ? 
 
 And when he has spoken, will he not bring it to pass ? 
 
 In a different way, the same sort of correction of human 
 standards is furnished by the story of Abraham’s under¬ 
 taking to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22:1-13. The story 
 as written is a tactful protest against the practice of 
 human sacrifice. That the practice was not unusual 
 is fairly evident from the story itself. Abraham is 
 represented as having received command from God to 
 sacrifice his only child. It does not surprise him; 
 he makes no protest, but proceeds to carry out the 
 order. If the teller of this story had thought of the 
 transaction as extraordinary or unique, he surely would 
 have represented Abraham as objecting or questioning 
 in some way; but instead Abraham takes it as a matter 
 of course. If the event really happened in any such way 
 
38 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 as is described, then it may be said that no sane man 
 would ever conceive it to be his God-given duty to 
 slaughter his only child in sacrifice, unless such doings 
 were customary in his day. In any case, the angel of 
 Yahweh is introduced to stop the impending tragedy 
 and put the seal of divine approval upon Abraham’s 
 loyalty; and a sacrificial ram is provided in Isaac’s 
 place. God prefers rams to first-born sons. This is 
 another instance in which E takes the way of ethical 
 progress. 
 
 In Genesis 15:6, “ Abraham believed Yahweh and he 
 considered it for him as righteousness,” which is variously 
 assigned to J, E, and a later editor, 1 the word “righteous¬ 
 ness” does not have its ordinary moral connotation. To 
 whatever period it may belong, the thought is that Abra¬ 
 ham’s implicit confidence in the fulfilment of the divine 
 promise, notwithstanding its extraordinary character, is 
 accepted by Yahweh as fulfilling the conditions of real 
 piety and satisfying all requirements, legalistic, ritual¬ 
 istic, or otherwise. 
 
 23. The attitude toward foreigners .—Leaving the 
 ethical aspects of the God-idea, we now turn to the 
 consideration of human relationships; and as in chapter i 
 we shall take up first the attitude of these documents 
 toward foreign nations and peoples. There is not the 
 same unmitigated hostility toward foreigners here as in 
 the historical stories in Judges and Samuel. The story 
 of the origins of Moab and Ammon, figuratively pre¬ 
 sented as due to the incest of the daughters of Lot 
 (Gen. 19:30-38, J), may be intended as a disgraceful 
 reflection upon the character of those peoples; but that 
 
 * See Driver, Gunkel, Procksch, Skinner, and Dilimann, in loc . 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 39 
 
 this was J’s point of view is by no means certain—the 
 exceptional situation may have been regarded as warrant¬ 
 ing exceptional conduct. The women of Moab are made 
 the occasion of Israel's harlotry and apostasy at a later 
 day (Num. 25:16 = J). The patriarchs made treaties 
 with foreign peoples (Gen. 21:22-32, E; 26:26:ff., J; 
 31:45-54, E) and Joshua, though inveigled into a treaty 
 with Gibeon, nevertheless adhered to its terms (Josh. 
 9:22 f. = JE). On the other hand, no blame is attached 
 to Moses for killing an Egyptian (Exod. 2:11, 12, J). 
 Jacob cheats Esau (representative of Edom) out of his 
 birthright (Gen. 27:1-45, J and E) and does not lose 
 the favor of Yahweh thereby. Jacob likewise tricks his 
 wily father-in-law, Laban the Syrian, and grows rich at 
 his expense (Gen. 30:35-43, J). E’s story makes Laban 
 initiate the wrongdoing (Gen. 29:21-23, 25; 31:4-18#). 
 E also contributes the humorous account of Rachel’s 
 successful theft of her father’s teraphim (Gen. 31:19-35), 
 and represents God as intervening with Laban in Jacob’s 
 behalf (Gen. 31:29). In this connection, attention may 
 be called to the popular misinterpretation of the Mizpah 
 “benediction” (Gen. 31:49). In its original sense, it 
 more nearly approached a curse than a blessing. As 
 the context convincingly shows, the heap of stones was 
 to testify to a contract between Jacob and Laban; and 
 the God of the contract is in these words adjured to 
 keep watch over the fulfilment of its terms and to call 
 to account either party transgressing the covenant. Woe 
 betide such transgressor! Such stories as these at the 
 expense of Syria would be more than welcome in the 
 important work of maintaining the morale of Israel dur¬ 
 ing the long period of the life-and-death struggle between 
 
40 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Damascus and Samaria, which was finally brought to 
 an end by the ruthless hand of Assyria. A dastardly 
 deed of treachery is recorded of Simeon and Levi against 
 the clan of Shechem (Gen., chap. 34, J and E). It was 
 not without provocation, certainly, in the rape of Dinah; 
 but the angry brothers ignore Shechem’s desire to make 
 amends, slaughtering him and all the males of his clan. 
 The only ground of protest given by Jacob is that his 
 sons have made it unsafe for him to stay in those parts. 
 The Blessing of Jacob, however, apparently finds the 
 reason for the later misfortunes of Simeon and Levi in this 
 massacre, and judges their wrath to have been accursed 
 (Gen. 49:5-7, J), another indication of ethical progress. 
 
 In pre-prophetic Israel there was already present the 
 consciousness that, as the people of Yahweh, Israel was 
 sharply differentiated and set apart from all the neighbor¬ 
 ing peoples. J looks upon Israel as “the special posses¬ 
 sion” of Yahweh (Exod. 19:5); and only by a mani¬ 
 festation of the presence of Yahweh with Israel can it be 
 known that his people are separated from all the peoples 
 of the land (Exod. 33:16). This conviction of privilege 
 was later to yield rich fruitage. 
 
 24. Attitude toward women .—Coming to the home and 
 neighborhood ethics of the Hebrews as reflected in the 
 traditions of the J and E documents, we first look into 
 their treatment of women. It straightway appears that 
 woman as the weaker vessel is made responsible for man’s 
 “first disobedience” and all its fateful outcome of woe 
 (Gen. 3:1-6, J). The low estimate placed upon women 
 and the degree to which they were subject to paternal 
 authority are suggested by an incidental allusion to a 
 common custom that is furnished by Numbers 12:14, E. 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 41 
 
 Speaking of Miriam, for whom Moses is pleading, God 
 says, “If her father had but spit in her face, should 
 she not be unclean for seven days?” Polygamy is the 
 order of the day in these documents; a man’s harem is 
 limited only by the size of his income and his own inclina¬ 
 tion (Gen. 16:2 ff.; 22:24; 25:1; 29:26b; 32:22; 35: 
 22 a; 49:4; all = J; Gen. 29:21-23, 25 =E); a man 
 might even take two sisters to wife at the same time. 
 In such a polygamous society, family strife is inevitable 
 (Gen. 16:2-6, J). Chivalry is conspicuous by its 
 almost total absence. Lot offers his two virgin daugh¬ 
 ters to the passions of the men of Sodom, seeking thereby 
 to save his guests (Gen. 19:8, J); while Abraham passes 
 Sarah off as only his sister and imperils her honor in 
 order to save his own life (Gen. 20:1-18, E). Harlotry 
 was a disgrace for a woman, but apparently attended 
 with no serious consequences for the man, at least when 
 the woman was a recognized professional (Gen. 38:15, 
 J; Josh. 2:12-14, JE). But there was a strong senti¬ 
 ment against adultery (Gen. 26:11, J), in all probability 
 influenced strongly by the sense of property rights. And 
 in course of time, harlotry itself came to be punished by 
 the burning of the woman (Gen. 38:24, J); and rape, 
 at least when a Canaanite was the offender, was a mortal 
 offense (Gen. 34:7, J). But from this low level of 
 sensuality and commercialism, there arise a few points 
 of higher altitude. Abraham’s sympathy was aroused 
 by the plight of Hagar (Gen. 21:11, E). Joseph repulsed 
 the advances of Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39:6 ff., J). 
 Moses volunteered his aid to the daughters of Jethro in 
 their strife with the shepherds crowding around the 
 well (Exod. 2:17, J). Isaac loved Rebekah, his wife 
 
42 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 (Gen. 24:67, J); and Jacob, not only was attracted by 
 Rachel at first sight (Gen. 29:11, J), but had for her an 
 enduring affection. There is in all literature no more 
 beautiful and telling expression of strong and genuine love 
 than that describing Jacob’s feelings for Rachel: “Jacob 
 served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but 
 a few days for the love he bare her” (Gen. 29:20, J). 
 This, it may be noted, was the love of a husband for his 
 wife, not that of the unmarried lover. In such sentiments 
 as these lies the promise of a better day for women. 
 
 25. A low moral plane .—The general moral practices 
 and principles current among the Hebrews remain now 
 for consideration. The law of blood-revenge was bind¬ 
 ing, and carried the blood-feud in its train. It is glorified 
 in the savage song of Lamech: 
 
 Adah and Sillah, hear my voice; 
 
 Ye wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech! 
 
 For I have slain a man for a wound to me, 
 
 And a son for my blow. 
 
 Surely Cain is avenged seven fold; 
 
 But Lamech seventy and seven fold [Gen. 4:23 f., J]. 
 
 The same strain sounds in the story of Cain and Abel 
 (Gen. 4:9 ff., J); the blood of Abel calls unto Yahweh 
 for vengeance. The story, of course, shows that fratri¬ 
 cide, at least, was condemned by the early Hebrew con¬ 
 science, as does also the story of Joseph’s treatment by 
 his jealous brothers (Gen. 37:27, J). Theft was a crime 
 if the victim were a pious Hebrew, but was passed over 
 lightly under other circumstances. Rachel steals her 
 father’s idol, and is not condemned (Gen. 31:19, E); 
 the Hebrews despoil the Egyptians at the command of 
 Yahweh (Exod. 3:22, E); and Achan’s theft was a fatal 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 43 
 
 crime because he took what was under the ban (Josh. 
 7:1-26, JE). The drunkenness of Noah is not ex¬ 
 plicitly condemned (nor is that of Lot), but Canaan 
 brings a curse upon himself for his attitude of disrespect 
 toward his drunken father (Gen. 9:20-27, J). Lying 
 and deceit are treated as common human characteristics 
 (Num. 23:19, E) and sometimes succeed in their ends. 
 Sarah in fear lied to Yahweh, who by his divine percep¬ 
 tion immediately read her mind (Gen. 18:15, J). 
 Abraham and Isaac are represented as telling half- 
 truths in order to save their lives (Gen. 20:1-18, E; 
 26:6, J). Rebekah and Jacob conspired to deceive 
 Isaac and their end was accomplished even though it 
 involved Yahweh’s accepting their deceit (Gen. 27:5 ff., 
 J). Jacob’s whole record is smirched with trickery. 
 The habit of lying and cheating was so common that 
 it was thought necessary that the parties to a contract 
 should be bound by oath to keep their word and fulfil their 
 promises (Gen. 24:2; 25:31 ff.; 26:26ff.; 47:29ft.; 50:4-6 
 [all from J]; Gen. 21:22-32; 50:25 [ = E]). The essen¬ 
 tial primitivity of this sort of thing is suggested by the 
 fact that in some cases the oath was taken with the 
 hand upon the genital organs of the other party (Gen. 
 24:1 ff.; 47:29 ff., J). This list of offenses may close 
 with the condemnation of unnatural, sexual indulgence 
 furnished in connection with two cases (Gen. 19:5, 
 
 J; 38:8 ff., j). 
 
 26. The virtues of Israel reflected in the records in 
 J and E are more conspicuous than the sins. The pur¬ 
 pose of these documents would itself require this. The 
 makers of these narratives were seeking by means of 
 them to preach religion to their contemporaries. They 
 
44 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 were pointing them to the Israel of the past in order that 
 they might warn them by its faults and stimulate them 
 by the recital of its virtues. It would have been poor 
 homiletics to have made the record of the fathers 
 thoroughly bad; it was much better to enlarge upon the 
 good and to seek to arouse a rivalry in good deeds on the 
 part of the children. Furthermore, the records are 
 essentially true. No society of men is wholly bad. 
 The good predominates everywhere and comes to expres¬ 
 sion in many ways. 
 
 a) A fundamental conviction with the makers of 
 these documents, as with all prophetically minded 
 teachers of the pre-exilic period, was that piety was 
 always rewarded by prosperity . All the great and good 
 men of these narratives are blessed with riches and 
 success. We are expressly told that “ Abraham was 
 very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Gen. 13:2, J). 
 Isaac inherited all that was his father’s, and Jacob waxed 
 rich at the expense of his Syrian father-in-law. Moses 
 and Joshua, though severely tried on more than one 
 occasion, nevertheless won glorious success finally over 
 all obstacles and in spite of every enemy. Joseph could 
 not be kept down. The nation as a whole prospered or 
 languished in proportion as it was obedient to the will of 
 God. This theory in general held good for Hebrew thought 
 until the tragic days of the Exile, when some revision 
 of it became imperative, if faith in God was to survive. 
 
 b ) Some admirable personal qualities appear in the 
 lives of the patriarchs and other heroes of the J and E 
 traditions. Abraham is credited with great magnanimity 
 in the account of his dealings with Lot, to whom he gives 
 the first choice of pasture land, taking what was left for 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 45 
 
 himself (Gen. 13:7 ff., J). Joseph displayed even greater 
 forbearance and charity in his treatment of his brethren 
 when he had them in his power and chose to forego his 
 opportunity for vengeance (Gen. 45:1a, 4 b, 5a, J; 
 50:15-21, E). A gracious and generous hospitality is 
 accredited to Abraham when he entertains the three men 
 who turn out to be heavenly visitors (Gen. 18: iff., 
 J). A similar spirit is shown by Lot when he shelters 
 the angelic visitors to Sodom and defends them against 
 the brutality of the Sodomites (Gen. 19:1 ff., J). Moses 
 likewise met with gratitude and courteous hospitality at 
 the hands of Jethro, in return for Moses’ aid to his 
 daughters (Exod. 2:195., E). 1 
 
 c ) The family life , polygamous as it was, nevertheless 
 left room for the manifestation of affection among its 
 members. The ideal of genuine love between husband 
 and wife we have seen illustrated in the cases of Isaac 
 and Rebekah and Jacob and Rachel. Jacob also shows 
 great affection for his children, and particularly for 
 Joseph and Benjamin (Gen. 37:3, 35, J). Mothers, 
 too, naturally displayed their love for their children, 
 
 1 It must be noted that the guest right of the ancient world and the 
 practice of kindness to strangers was perhaps not so altruistic as it seems 
 to us. Anthropologists claim that such practices arise out of fear and 
 caution. The usages and rights operative within the family or clan 
 are clearly understood and generally respected and upheld. When a 
 stranger appears, a member of an alien group or clan, he represents 
 customs and rights that are not familiar and is under the protection of 
 gods and demons that are not known or understood. Therefore the 
 safe thing is to treat him with every possible courtesy that neither he 
 nor his clan, nor his protecting spirits or gods may be incensed and 
 stirred up to avenge neglect or wrong that he might otherwise suffer. 
 Such a state of fear would somewhat mitigate our condemnation of such 
 deeds as the surrender of women to the passions of the mob in order 
 that guests may be unharmed. 
 
46 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 though express statements to that effect are lacking; but 
 Rebekah, though she inspired Jacob and connived with 
 him to cheat Esau out of his right as first-born, never¬ 
 theless did not look with equanimity upon the possibility 
 of losing both her sons (Gen. 27:41-45 J). A mother’s 
 love is likewise recognizable in the story of Hagar 
 (Gen. 21:14-16, E), as also in that of Moses’ birth 
 (Exod. 2:1-10, E). Respect and affection for parents 
 on the part of their children were not lacking. Canaan’s 
 ridicule of his drunken father, Noah, is the exception, 
 not the rule. Judah’s solicitude for his aged father is 
 beautifully brought out in Judah’s plea to Joseph (Gen. 
 44:18-34, J). A similar care is attributed to Reuben 
 in the story of Joseph’s sale into Egypt (Gen. 37:21 f., J). 
 In one case, at least, the possibility of fraternal affection 
 is recognized, viz., when Joseph reveals himself to his 
 brother Benjamin (Gen. 43:29!!., J). In another case, 
 fraternal solicitude for a sister’s reputation finds some¬ 
 what exaggerated expression (Gen. 34). A certain 
 responsibility was recognized as obligatory upon broth¬ 
 ers, even though only half-brothers (Gen. 37:27, J). 
 Indeed, this went so far in one particular as to make it 
 obligatory upon a brother to marry the widow of a 
 brother dying without children and to rear the first 
 child of this marriage as the child of the dead brother 
 (Gen. 38:8 fif., J). 1 
 
 d ) Standards for public servants .—When Jethro ad¬ 
 vised Moses to unload some of his responsibilities in 
 the administration of justice and to transfer them to the 
 shoulders of subordinates, he was careful to describe the 
 
 1 The inner significance of this custom may originally have lain in 
 the belief in ancestor worship which was prevalent in the Semitic world. 
 
THE TRADITIONS OF EARLY ISRAEL 
 
 47 
 
 kind of men suitable for the office of judge (Exod. 18:21, 
 E). They should be capable, pious, truthful, and incor¬ 
 ruptible, which being interpreted means, not susceptible 
 to bribery. Those qualifications would go far toward 
 satisfying the requirements of the office today. Moses 
 himself is given credit for having been the most humble 
 man upon the face of the ground (Num. 12:3, E), an 
 ascription which shows that an unselfish life was already 
 in this period recognized as ideal. This self-eliminating 
 characteristic of Moses comes to finest expression in the 
 account of Moses’ attitude in connection with the worship 
 of the golden calf in the desert (Exod. 32:30-32, J): 
 “And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said 
 to the people, ‘You have sinned a great sin; and now 
 I will go up unto Yahweh, peradventure I shall make 
 atonement for your sin.’ And Moses returned to 
 Yahweh, and said: ‘Alas! this people has sinned a great 
 sin in that they have made for themselves gods of gold. 
 And now, if thou wilt pardon their sin—but if not, then 
 blot me out from thy book which thou hast written.’” 
 
 YFhis is an ideal of utter devotion to the public good that 
 can hardly be surpassed. 
 
 27. The nature of evil .—We close our study of these 
 traditions with the citation of two episodes which reveal 
 a high conception of the nature of sin or moral evil. 
 When Joseph’s brethren first met with difficulty at 
 Pharaoh’s court, they at once began to be troubled in 
 conscience over their former maltreatment of Joseph; 
 their own consciences condemned them (Gen. 42:21 f., 
 E). They recognized that the responsibility for the 
 wrong done to Joseph rested upon themselves and could 
 not be escaped. Still more penetrating is the view of 
 
48 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the nature of sin in the story of the Fall (Gen. 3:1 ff., 
 J). This is not merely a description of the first man’s 
 sin, but is also a diagnosis of every man’s sin. The 
 responsibility for sin is placed not upon the flesh in 
 contradistinction from the spirit, but is traced back to 
 its native lair, the will of man. This is fundamental in 
 Hebrew ethics. Never is there any effort to shield the 
 sinner from the punishment due him on the ground that 
 he is not morally responsible or that he is bound by influ¬ 
 ences beyond his control. The attitude toward the 
 transgressor throughout the Old Testament presupposes 
 that it is in the sinner’s power to turn from his evil way, 
 if he but wills to do so. The responsibility for not doing 
 so is his own. 
 
 The knowledge of “good and evil” and the ability 
 to discriminate between them is recognized by the J 
 document as conferring a godlike quality upon man¬ 
 kind (Gen. 3:22, J). 1 It is that which raises him immeas¬ 
 urably above the brute. He needs only eternal life with 
 all that it involves to make him a truly divine being. 
 As it is, the divine breath of life which is from God is 
 wedded to, and hampered by, a body formed of the 
 “dust of the earth.” Death ends this unequal yoking 
 together, and the material part of man that came from 
 the dust returns to the dust (Gen. 3:19, J). The early 
 Hebrew concerned himself but little with the fate of 
 the spirit of man. 
 
 1 The terms “good” and “evil” here were originally applied not 
 exclusively or primarily to moral issues. They meant rather, things 
 that were beneficial and things that were harmful, respectively. The 
 eating of the forbidden fruit opened man’s eyes so that he could discern 
 the difference between that which was useful and that which was useless 
 or worse. It is the dawn of practical intelligence that is here described^ 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 28. The rise of law .—The bodies of law that constitute 
 our source-material in this chapter are known as the 
 Covenant Code and the Decalogue. The Covenant Code 
 is recorded in two recensions, the one, Exodus 20:23— 
 23:33, occurring as a part of the E narrative; the 
 other, Exodus, chap. 34, being found in the J narrative. 
 The Decalogue likewise appears in two forms, one in 
 Exodus, chapter 20, the other in Deuteronomy, chap¬ 
 ter 5; the earlier form is that in Exodus and that will be 
 used here. 1 
 
 a) Before entering upon an examination of the ethical 
 content of these codes a word or two by way of intro¬ 
 duction is required. Codes of law grow slowly. They are 
 bodies of law that bring together in concise and accessible 
 form the usages and decisions that have grown up in 
 previous decades or centuries and are still in force. 
 Laws are of two kinds, consuetudinary or customary, 
 and statutory. The former consist of the customs and 
 practices generally accepted in the social and economic 
 life; the latter are the decisions of kings or great leaders, 
 priests, and judges, formulated from time to time as 
 
 1 There is also a third recension of the Decalogue recorded on a bit 
 of papyrus and offering variations from the other two. This is known 
 as the Nash Papyrus and is published in the Proceedings of the Society 
 of Biblical Archaeology, XXV (1903), 34 ff., by S. A. Cook; and by 
 F. C. Burkitt, in Jewish Quarterly Review, XV (1903), 392-408; and 
 XXI (1904), 559-61; and by N. Peters, Die diteste Abschrift der Zchn 
 Gebote, der Papyrus Nash (1905). 
 
 49 
 
50 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 critical cases arise and serving as precedents for similar 
 cases thereafter. This being the case, the codification 
 of law is necessarily the final stage of development. 
 The code is the end of the legal process, not its beginning. 
 This means that the laws of the Covenant Code and 
 the Decalogue were developing down through our pre- 
 prophetic period, but that in their present form as codes 
 they represent the close of the period rather than its 
 opening. We cannot trace the history of the rise of these 
 codes in detail, but must content ourselves with treating 
 them as units representative of the life and thought of 
 the latter part of our period. 
 
 b) A second fact must be noted. The laws of a 
 people are never on a par with the best thought and senti¬ 
 ment of that people. Law always lags behind the develop¬ 
 ing social conscience. 1 The reasons for this are obvious. 
 The makers of the law and its chief executors are always 
 “the elders” of the people. They represent the ideas 
 and ideals of the generation that is passing off the stage. 
 Youth has little if any voice in such matters. More¬ 
 over, the substantial people of any society have acquired 
 their property, influence, and power under the operation 
 of existing laws, and their influence in general is thrown 
 against any new legislation that bids fair to work a 
 change that will imperil their hard-won gains. There 
 are “vested interests’* in every social order. Then, too, 
 the developing social consciousness of the rising genera¬ 
 tion is not sufficiently unified to permit its crystalliza¬ 
 tion into law. The crying social needs of the time call 
 forth different proposals for remedy, and discussion 
 
 1 See R. E. Park and E. W. Burgess, Introduction to the Study of 
 Society (1921), pp. 449 f. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 5i 
 
 regarding these waxes hot; parties are formed, and legis¬ 
 lative action waits upon the requisite education of the 
 public mind as a whole. This gap between the higher 
 standards of a people and its legal enactments is, of 
 course, most marked in a democratically organized 
 society. But though perhaps not so pronounced in a 
 patriarchal or despotically organized society it is none 
 the less real. No ruler, or rulers, can long disregard 
 with impunity the sentiments of his people. His arbi- 
 
 1 
 
 trary power is always limited by the power of public 
 opinion; and public opinion resents being compelled 
 to conform to higher standards than it recognizes as 
 binding, just as keenly as it resents oppression of 
 any other sort. This means, then, as applied to our 
 Hebrew codes, that the standards of these codes are 
 standards generally accepted by the people of Israel 
 and that they are not the idealistic legislation of one or 
 more forward-looking individuals. We are not here 
 listening to somebody standing head and shoulders 
 above the people of his generation, as is true of some of 
 the great prophets, but we hear rather the mighty 
 voice of the great public declaring its accepted principles. 
 
 29. The ethical aspect of the conception of God is but 
 scantily represented in these early laws. In a certain 
 sense, indeed, God is presupposed as behind all these 
 laws and as giving them the indorsement of his authority. 
 These legal principles and practices doubtless grew out 
 of the social need in Israel as they did everywhere else, 
 but by the time of the J and E documents they had 
 achieved divine sanction, being promulgated as the 
 oracles of God. A few laws reflect the ethics of the 
 God-idea directly. Both Exodus 22:29 f. and 34:19 
 
52 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 record a law requiring the offering of the first-born to 
 Yahweh; the latter passage puts it upon the same basis 
 with the sacrifice of the firstlings of oxen and sheep on 
 the eighth day—but the J code hastens to add, “the 
 first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem.” It is alto¬ 
 gether probable that at an early date in Israel, as also 
 among the Canaanites, the actual sacrifice of the first¬ 
 born was demanded. But the social conscience of Israel 
 had risen above this level by the time of our oldest sources 
 of information. Samuel, Jephthah’s daughter, Samson, 
 SamueFs son Joel, and David’s brother Eliab were all 
 first-born children of their mothers. Hence clearly the 
 ancient law was more often honored in the breach than 
 in the observance. At any rate, the form of the law in 
 Exodus, chapter 34 shows that the public conscience had 
 outgrown the primitive custom. 
 
 a) A primitive custom that continued and found the 
 indorsement of the early Hebrew codes is that of the 
 ordeal . It is provided for as a means of testing innocence 
 in Exodus 22:8-11. Such an institution quite evi¬ 
 dently presupposes a conviction that God can discern 
 things hidden from the eye of man and can be depended 
 upon to detect the guilty and to punish him appro¬ 
 priately. It also recognizes the fact that under certain 
 circumstances where all evidence is lacking and no wit¬ 
 nesses can be found, some men will lie unless they be 
 held in check by fear of the wrath of a just God. The 
 penalty of death is pronounced upon witches 1 and 
 likewise upon those who sacrifice to other gods than 
 Yahweh. 2 Reverence toward God and respect for 
 rulers are enjoined together in one and the same law. 3 
 
 2 Exod. 22:20. 3 Exod. 22:28. 
 
 1 Exod. 22:18. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 53 
 
 The; conception of holiness moves in the sphere of the 
 metaphysical rather than the ethical, for Israel’s <c holi¬ 
 ness” is imperiled by the eating of the flesh of animals 
 torn by wild beasts. 1 Accidental homicide is laid upon 
 the shoulders of God rather than those of the uninten¬ 
 tional slayer. 2 Such primitive conceptions are apt to 
 linger longer in the sphere of the conception of God 
 than elsewhere. This is not surprising when we realize 
 that to ethicize is. to humanize. 
 
 30. Property rights .—The legislation of the Covenant 
 Code and the Decalogue is on the whole, in so far as it 
 has to do with the field of ethics, equally interested in 
 persons and things. Property rights and personal 
 rights are each protected by approximately the same 
 number of laws. In two cases, significantly enough, viz., 
 slaves and women, the categories of persons and property 
 are inextricably intertwined. But the dominant interest 
 in both cases is that of property. Hence we shall classify 
 them there. The laws regarding property are character¬ 
 istic of a simple society with predominantly agricultural 
 interests. The complications arising from trade and 
 commerce and industrial organization are entirely lack¬ 
 ing. In this respect it differs greatly from the life for 
 which Hammurabi’s Code was prepared. 
 
 a) Theft is prohibited by both Hebrew codes (Exod. 
 22:1-4; 3 20:15), but the simple prohibition of the 
 
 Decalogue is elaborated with reference to specific cases 
 in the Covenant Code. Apparently no penalty was 
 
 1 Exod. 22:31. 
 
 2 Exod. 21:13. 
 
 3 These verses are perhaps disarranged. In any case vss. 36 and 
 4 continue the thought of vs. 1. 
 
54 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 attached to this crime other than that of making costly 
 restitution: in case the thief kill or sell the stolen animal, 
 he must repay fourfold for sheep and fivefold for ox; 
 but if it be found in his possession still alive, the restitu¬ 
 tion need only be double. This is an interesting dis¬ 
 crimination, based presumably upon the feeling that the 
 man who does not go to the point of killing or selling the 
 stolen animal is not so far advanced in crime as he who 
 does sell or kill. In connection with this crime another 
 discrimination is made that shows a sense of right: if 
 a thief is caught breaking into an inclosure at night 
 and is slain, the slayer is not subject to the law of blood- 
 revenge; but if under similar circumstances he be slain 
 by day, the avenger of blood has full right of way. 
 
 b) Closely related to theft is the abuse of trusteeship 
 or guardianship (Exod. 22:7-13). If the trustee has 
 stolen the property put in his charge and the theft is 
 proved, he pays double as in the case of the ordinary 
 thief. If the trustee declares his innocence and no 
 convincing proof is at hand, the owner must abide by 
 the decision of God, expressed through some kind of 
 ordeal. If the accused is condemned of God, he pays 
 double for his theft, and apparently suffers no addi¬ 
 tional penalty for lying. If the animal intrusted to 
 another come to mishap, nobody knowing how the dam¬ 
 age was done, the same settlement by ordeal is provided 
 for, and if the guardian is acquitted by God, no restitu¬ 
 tion is made. But if the animal be stolen from the 
 guardian, he is held responsible and must make restitu¬ 
 tion; he should have taken better precautions. If, 
 however, a wild beast kills the intrusted animal and 
 the guardian can produce some fragments in proof, 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 55 
 
 he is free from responsibility. Likewise a borrower 
 is not held responsible for damage or death of a bor¬ 
 rowed animal, if the owner was along with it at the 
 time; but if the owner was not along, the borrower 
 must make good the loss. That is to say, when a man 
 goes out with his ox or ass to work, he must take the risks 
 involved; but if his own personal supervision is dis¬ 
 pensed with, the hirer must take the risks. 
 
 c) Carelessness resulting in damage to other people’s 
 property is also penalized. If a man leave a hole uncov¬ 
 ered and an animal fall therein and die, the careless one 
 must give another animal in place of the dead one, and 
 take the dead one for himself (Exod. 21:33 f.). A 
 rough sense of justice is seen in the case of an ox goring 
 another man’s ox to death. If it is the ox’s first offense, 
 the ox is sold and the price divided between the two men, 
 and the dead ox is likewise divided. This, of course, 
 leaves both men with equal values at the close of the 
 transaction, though the one ox may have been much 
 more valuable than the other when both were alive. 
 But the more valuable ox would almost certainly be the 
 bigger and stronger animal and the loss, therefore, would 
 fall upon the man whose ox caused the trouble. But if 
 the goring ox was known to be dangerous, the owner 
 should have kept him under control and must make good 
 the loss to the other man, taking the dead ox for himself 
 (Exod. 21:35 f•) * Similarly, the man who lets his 
 cattle run wild, must pay the damage to his neighbor’s 
 crops or vineyard by giving of the best of his own (Exod. 
 22:5). Likewise, he who kindles fire carelessly and 
 causes damage to his neighbor’s crops, must recompense 
 his neighbor for his loss (Exod. 22:6). 
 
56 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 d) The laws regarding slavery are relatively numerous 
 and explicit, showing that the institution was well 
 developed in early Israel (Exod. 21:2-11, 20, 32). All 
 the regulations are concerned with the Hebrew slaves 
 only; presumably, captives in war had few, if any, rights 
 that Hebrews were bound to respect. Hebrews became 
 slaves to fellow-Hebrews either in payment of debts 
 which they were unable to pay otherwise; or in the 
 case of girls, by being sold by their fathers for what they 
 would bring as wives and concubines (Exod. 21:7). 
 Hebrew men who became slaves were given their freedom 
 after six years of service; but no such boon was available 
 for women slaves (Exod. 21:7). If a slave wife were 
 not pleasing to her owner, he could “let her be redeemed,” 
 presumably by any relative who might be able and 
 willing; if no such redeemer was forthcoming, the 
 husband seems to have had the right to sell her to a 
 Hebrew purchaser, but he might not sell her to foreigners 
 in view of his failure to maintain her in her proper 
 status as a wife. Such a law shows that the slave wife 
 or concubine was not looked upon altogether as a thing 
 that might be bought and sold; she was recognized as 
 having some personal rights. The dependence of chil¬ 
 dren upon the mother was, of course, the reason for 
 denying the slave woman the right of release in the 
 seventh year. If a man and wife fell into slavery, the 
 wife went free with her husband at the end of six years; 
 but if the wife had been given to the slave by his master, 
 then both wife and children remained the property of 
 the master, though the slave husband went out free. 
 Naturally, under such circumstances, some slaves would 
 prefer to remain slaves rather than be deprived of their 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 57 
 
 families; if so, they bound themselves to life-long 
 servitude. 
 
 e) The purity of the slaveholder’s polygamous family 
 is carefully guarded. If a man give one of his slave 
 girls to his son as wife, he must henceforth treat her 
 like his own daughter, no matter what his previous 
 relations with her have been. If a slave-owner takes a 
 second slave wife, alongside of the first, he must in no 
 wise fail in his duty of maintenance and of marriage to 
 the first wife, on penalty of her becoming a free woman 
 if he does. Such a law was evidently intended to 
 militate against mistreatment of slave women by their 
 masters and to put a check upon the slaveholder’s lust. 
 
 /) The slave had little protection against personal 
 violence other than his own money value to his owner. 
 If an angry or cruel owner beat a slave to death on the 
 spot, he is punished in some undefined way for the deed. 
 But if the slave survive the beating for a day or two, 
 the master goes scot free; “Is he not his money?” 
 The apparent reason for discrimination here lies in the 
 presumption that if the slave die under the beater’s 
 hands, that was the end sought by the enraged master; 
 but if he survive a few days, then the master evidently 
 did not intend to kill him and is punished enough by the 
 loss of a valuable bit of property. The motive of the 
 master is the determining factor in the decision. The 
 person of the slave is protected against violence still 
 further by the law that the master who puts out a slave’s 
 eye or knocks out a tooth must free the injured slave 
 as compensation. The value of a slave is fixed by the 
 law that his owner must be given thirty pieces of silver 
 if the slave be gored to death by another man’s ox 
 
58 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 (Exod. 21:32). With slaves as valuable property, it 
 was inevitable that some rascals would not hesitate to 
 steal a man, if occasion presented itself or could be 
 found, and sell him into slavery or add him to their own 
 list of slaves. Consequently the death penalty is pro¬ 
 vided for such cases (Exod. 21:16). 
 
 g) Woman as such receives no consideration in these 
 codes. It is only in her capacity as actual or potential 
 wife and mother that she becomes the subject of legisla¬ 
 tion and that, for the most part, upon a property basis. 
 If a man seduces an unbetrothed virgin, he must take 
 her to wife, if her father consents, and must pay the full 
 dowry; but if the father refuses to give her to him, he 
 must pay the dowry notwithstanding (Exod. 22:16). 
 The obvious reason for this is that the girl’s monetary 
 value as a potential bride is seriously impaired. The 
 woman in the case is at the disposal of her father and 
 has no rights of her own; she must enforce her claims 
 through him. In the case of a woman with child who 
 is accidentally injured by another than her husband so 
 that miscarriage results, the author of the injury must 
 pay such a fine as the husband determines, but with 
 right of appeal to the judges whose decree is final. If 
 still more serious injury follows the accident, then the 
 lex talionis operates, “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for 
 tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, 
 wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exod. 21:22-25). 
 The sin of adultery is prohibited by the seventh command 
 of the Decalogue—a bare prohibition with no conditions 
 or penalties attached. Whether the motive of the 
 prohibition belonged in the property or personal sphere, 
 we have no means of knowing. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 59 
 
 31. Personal rights .—Moving over into the area of 
 personal rights and interests, we observe that while 
 many of these laws have social implications, social 
 legislation as such is for the most part lacking. Men 
 are dealt with primarily as individuals, not as social 
 groups, or organized bodies. Undue exposure of the 
 person is provided against in the law prohibiting an 
 approach by steps unto the altar of Yahweh (Exod. 
 20:26). Indulgence in unnatural lust is punished by 
 death (Exod. 22:19). The list of capital crimes is brief, 
 including only deliberate murder in general (Exod. 21: 
 12, 14), (though not accidental homicide which is 
 apparently without penalty [21:13]), and patricide and 
 matricide in particular (21:15), the laying of a curse upon 
 father or mother (21:17; cf. the fifth commandment of 
 the Decalogue, 20:12, where positive honoring of parents 
 is enjoined), man-stealing (21:16), sacrifice to other 
 gods (22:20), sorcery (22:18), and keeping a vicious ox 
 which kills a free man (21:29-31). The brevity of this 
 list compares very favorably with the long list of capital 
 crimes in many Christian countries up to within quite 
 recent times. 
 
 Personal injuries are limited to two cases, aside from 
 injuries to women and slaves already mentioned (pp. 57 f.). 
 If an ox that has heretofore had a good record kills a 
 person, the ox is stoned but its owner escapes further 
 punishment; if the ox is an old offender, the ox and 
 owner are both slain, but the owner may ransom him¬ 
 self if he has the means (21:28-31), except in case the 
 victim is a slave, when a cash penalty is fixed (see p. 57). 
 The second case concerns the man who injures another 
 in a quarrel (21:18, 19). If the injury is not fatal or 
 
6o 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 permanent, the one who inflicted the injury must pay 
 his victim for his loss of time and provide for the expenses 
 of his illness. This law presupposes some arrangement 
 for compensation in cases of permanent injury, but no 
 specific provisions of this sort are prescribed. 
 
 32. Social rights .—We take up now those laws deal¬ 
 ing with persons which are, so to speak, semi-social. 
 These laws involve cases in which society in general is 
 directly or indirectly affected by the conduct of indi¬ 
 viduals in a special degree. These are chiefly concerned 
 with the protection of the poor and weak. The observ¬ 
 ance of the Sabbath is three times enjoined (Exod. 
 20:8; 23:12; 34:21); and though the original implica¬ 
 tion of the Sabbath was wholly with reference to pleasing 
 the deity, its outcome was inevitably humanitarian, and 
 already in our older sources stress is laid upon that aspect. 
 Keep the Sabbath “that thine ox and thine ass may 
 have rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger 
 may be refreshed.” Even in the most strenuous times, 
 when slaves were liable to be overworked, viz., “in plow¬ 
 ing time and in harvest, thou shalt rest.” This same 
 interest in the “stranger” is expressed in prohibitions of 
 the oppression of “strangers” (22:21a; 23:9). The 
 
 “stranger” was in especial need of protection because, 
 coming into the Hebrew social order from outside, he was 
 a member of no powerful family or clan and was liable 
 to harsh treatment at the hands of those who thought 
 they might abuse him with impunity. 1 Care for the 
 interests of the poor is evinced by special laws. No 
 interest might be charged upon money loaned to a poor 
 
 1 Another set of motives may also have operated to the benefit of 
 strangers. Cf. p. 45, n. 1. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 61 
 
 Hebrew; and if his garment were taken as security for 
 the loan it must be returned to him at nightfall, lest he 
 be without proper covering while he tries to sleep (Exod. 
 22:25-27). The products of that portion of the land 
 which becomes fallow every year must be left for the 
 sustenance of the poor, and this includes the vineyard 
 and the olive plantation. (23:10, 11). The poor man is 
 entitled to a just judgment when he appears in court 
 (23:6); but on the other hand sympathy for the poor 
 must not prejudice either witness or judge in their favor 
 
 (23:3)- 
 
 The importance and necessity of a fair administra¬ 
 tion of justice is recognized in a group of laws. False 
 witness is forbidden (20:16). Collusion with wicked 
 witnesses is prohibited (23:1). Yielding to the might 
 of public opinion and joining the majority in violating 
 one’s own knowledge of what is right, so that judgment 
 is perverted, is denounced (23:2). The citizen is bidden 
 to shun all falseness and so to avoid slaying the innocent 
 and righteous (23:7); and the acceptance of gifts or 
 bribes is warned against on the ground that one under 
 such obligation cannot see straight nor speak truly (23:8). 
 The spreading of false or groundless reports either by 
 originating them or by passing them along comes under 
 legal condemnation (20:16; 23:1). 
 
 33. Moral insight .—There remain three laws that 
 are very penetrating in their insight into character and 
 motive. If a man meets his enemy’s ox or ass going 
 astray, he is bidden to return the stray animal to its 
 owner (23:4). If a man sees his foe’s ass fallen under a 
 load, he must turn in and help his neighbor raise the 
 fallen animal (23:5). This is making heavy draughts 
 
6 2 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 upon the good nature of the ordinary Hebrew. Finally, 
 the Decalogue comes to a climax with its embargo upon 
 coveting (20:17). 
 
 This tenth commandment is commonly made much of 
 by those who would postpone the origin of the Decalogue 
 to the seventh century and make it a summary based 
 upon the teaching of the great prophets. As the Deca¬ 
 logue now stands in our Hebrew and English Bibles, that 
 date is none too late for its appearance. But in its 
 original form as the “ten words” 1 there is no need of 
 deferring its composition to so late a period. The moral 
 precepts for the most part are of that simple, elementary 
 type without the practice of which no human society, 
 large or small, can continue. Most of these precepts 
 are already involved in the legislation of the Covenant 
 Code and worked out in more detail there. It is com¬ 
 monly urged against the tenth “word” that it deals not 
 with acts but with motives, and that subjective legisla- 
 
 1 These “ten words” have been greatly expanded by later editors. 
 The nature of that expansion may be seen by comparing the recension 
 in Exod., chap. 20 with that in Deut., chap. 5. Originally the decalogue 
 consisted of ten brief lapidary sentences, to which the title “phrases” or 
 “words” would fittingly apply, the Hebrew being much more concise 
 than the English rendering. Reduced to their original form, the “ten 
 words” were as follows: 
 
 (1) Thou shalt have no other gods beside me. 
 
 (2) Thou shalt not make for thee a graven image. 
 
 (3) Thou shalt not utter the name of Yahweh for an evil purpose. 
 
 (4) Remember the Sabbath to sanctify it. 
 
 (5) Honor thy father and thy mother. 
 
 (6) Thou shalt do no murder. 
 
 (7) Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
 
 (8) Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 (9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 
 
 (10) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 63 
 
 tion of this sort is not to be looked for prior to the pres¬ 
 entation of the moral ideals of the prophets. But as 
 we have just seen, the legislation of the Covenant Code 
 does not confine itself to objective acts. Indeed, it is 
 rather noticeable that it goes beyond and behind the 
 act itself in several instances, and takes account of the 
 motive involved. This is seen, for example, in the dis¬ 
 crimination between murder and accidental homicide 
 (see p. 59); in the remitting of interest to the poor and 
 the return of his pledged garment (see pp. 60 f.); in the 
 caution not to favor the poor in a legal trial (see p. 61); 
 in the warning not to be overborne by public opinion 
 (see p. 61); and in particular in the two laws just quoted 
 with reference to helping an enemy (see p. 61). The 
 prohibition of coveting is certainly no more searching 
 test of character than these. We may, therefore, with 
 fair warrant make the ethical precepts of the Decalogue 
 as old as the Covenant Code legislation and use it legiti¬ 
 mately as a source of information for the ethical standards 
 of the pre-prophetic period. 
 
 34. Kenite hypothesis .—-In this connection a few 
 words may be said upon the explanation of Hebrew 
 moral development offered by the advocates of the 
 Kenite hypothesis of the origin of the religion of Yahweh. 1 
 Briefly stated, this theory holds that the Israelites did 
 not know Yahweh until they learned of him through 
 Moses, who had become his worshiper while staying 
 with his father-in-law, Jethro, the Kenite. He had gone 
 
 1 For a full exposition of this theory, see Karl Budde, Religion of 
 Israel to the Exile (1899), PP- 1-38; cf. Geo. A. Barton, A Sketch of 
 Semitic Origins, chap, vii; H. P. Smith, The Religion of Israel , pp. 50 ff.; 
 and L. B. Paton, “The Origin of Yahweh-Worship in Israel,” Biblical 
 World, XXVIII (1906), 113-27. 
 
64 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 back to Egypt and in the name of Yahweh had sum¬ 
 moned the enslaved Hebrews to follow him out of Egypt. 
 After the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses had led Israel 
 to Sinai where Jethro, priest of Yahweh, had welcomed 
 them into the ranks of Yah well-worshipers and given 
 them the right hand of fellowship. This theory is 
 furthermore developed by Budde in such a way as to 
 make it furnish the cause and explanation of the wonder¬ 
 ful moral superiority of Israel’s religion over that of all 
 other Semites, including the Kenites themselves. In 
 Budde’s own words the case is thus stated: 
 
 Thus all attempts to find the germ of the ethical development 
 of the Yahweh-religion in the material content of the conception 
 of God as represented by Moses have completely failed. Let us 
 now enquire whether by asking the question “How?” instead of 
 “What?” we cannot reach a better result. How did Israel come 
 to its religion ? It went over, at Sinai, to a rude nomad religion, 
 a religion which did not stand higher than that of other tribes at 
 the same stage of civilisation. It served henceforth the same 
 God as the tribe of the Kenites to which Moses’ wife belonged. 
 But the Latin proverb rightly says, “When two do the same 
 thing it is not the same.” For one fundamental difference existed 
 between Israel and the Kenites from the beginning. The latter, 
 like numberless other tribes and peoples, had had their god from 
 time immemorial. But Israel had turned to Him of its own free 
 will, and chosen Him as its God. The Kenites served their god 
 because they knew no better; because he was of their blood- 
 kindred, and had grown up in inseparable union with them; 
 because his worship belonged to the necessary and almost uncon¬ 
 scious expression of the life of the people. This was still the case 
 with their remote descendants, the Rechabites of the time of 
 Jeremiah. But Israel served Yahweh because He had kept His 
 word; because He had won Israel as His possession by an inesti¬ 
 mable benefit; because it owed Him gratitude and fidelity in 
 return for this boon, and could ensure its further prosperity only 
 by evidences of such fidelity. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 65 
 
 Thus, in the very transition to this new religion, virtues were 
 both awakened in the heart of the people and maintained in con¬ 
 tinuous watchfulness. If Yahweh-worship itself had no ethical 
 character, this relation to Him had such character, and all future 
 development could spring therefrom. 
 
 This explanation of Budde’s gave the Kenite hypothe¬ 
 sis a new lease of life. It seemed to solve one of the 
 most difficult problems in the study of Hebrew religion 
 in comparison with other religions; and it was accepted 
 far and wide without further question. But time has 
 given opportunity for reflection and the assent to this 
 theory is not so unanimous today as twenty years ago. 1 
 We are here concerned only with the ethical phase of 
 the hypothesis; and from that point of view two serious 
 objections to its validity must be reckoned with. The 
 first of these comes from a survey of the history of 
 religions for the discovery of parallel cases. Clans, 
 tribes, and peoples have changed their gods, voluntarily 
 and involuntarily, times without number in the history 
 of man. Nowhere else in the world has such a change 
 of gods ever brought about, in and of itself, such strik¬ 
 ing moral superiority to other peoples as did the accept¬ 
 ance of Yahweh according to the Kenite hypothe¬ 
 sis. For example, the Western Semites who entered 
 Babylonia in early times accepted the culture and 
 religion of the Babylonian plains without any such 
 astonishing after-effect as is here presupposed. In like 
 manner, the Kassites came down into the same region 
 and were absorbed into the new life and culture and left 
 no marked moral impress upon that life. When the 
 Hebrews were deported from Samaria, they were them- 
 
 1 Cf. J. P. Peters, The Religion of Israel , pp. 80 ff.; A. Knudson, 
 The Religious Teaching of the Old Testament , pp. 157 ff. 
 
66 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 selves merged in the Assyrian population and accepted 
 its religion and disappeared from history. Their place 
 was taken in Samaria by certain Arab clans, who found 
 it advisable to learn the religion of the land, and no great 
 illumination or moral uplift is on record with regard to 
 them. Still further, Syria has been “ a land flowing with 
 milk and honey” to the eyes of many nomadic clans. 
 Again and again they have pressed in from the desert 
 and made for themselves a place among the settled 
 population of Syria. They have brought their native 
 gods with them and have served them alongside of the 
 gods of the land and have finally accepted the religion 
 of the land outright. Yet we have no single record of 
 any great moral progress resulting from such exchange 
 of gods. 1 Consequently, from this point of view, the 
 Kenite hypothesis offers an explanation that is itself 
 inexplicable. The second objection to this explanation 
 is that it is too simple. It traces the ethical splendor of 
 Israel back to one single cause, viz., the act of voluntary 
 choice in the adoption of Yahweh by the Hebrew clans 
 at Sinai. We might almost as reasonably attempt to 
 ascribe the origin of the ocean to a single stream. The 
 ethical life of a people is a thing of complex and composite 
 character. It is fed by many streams. Each individual 
 and every social group makes its contribution. Eco¬ 
 nomic, political, social, and religious forces all combine 
 and are inextricably interwoven in the production of 
 ethics. It is therefore extremely hazardous to pick out 
 any one single act in a people’s history and hold it respon¬ 
 sible for all the later moral progress. As a matter of 
 fact, the moral life of pre-prophetic Israel, as we have 
 
 1 See R. Dussaud, Les Arabes en Syrie avant I'Islam (1907), pp. 1-23. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 67 
 
 surveyed it in chapters i and ii, does not present any¬ 
 thing that would warrant us in bestowing any prize 
 for moral excellence upon the Hebrew people of that 
 age as compared with any other people in a similar stage 
 of progress in the upward course toward full civilization. 
 The glory of Hebrew life was a thing yet to be revealed 
 and is inexplicable apart from the great prophets. 
 
 If the Hebrew tradition regarding the proceedings at 
 Sinai-Kadesh have any solid foundation, the situation 
 was such as to give a moral impetus to the clans there 
 present. The Hebrew clans that came out of Egypt 
 there joined the Kenites, Kenizzites, Calebites, and other 
 clans dwelling in the Negeb and formed a political and 
 religious federation with them. Whatever legislation 
 was adopted there was, of course, not new but rather a 
 revision of previously existing laws and customs. But 
 more than that, it was also an expansion of the sphere 
 of operation for those laws and customs. Whereas 
 before the federation each clan had observed certain 
 principles of practice with reference to its own members, 
 after the federation these same rules and customs became 
 obligatory for all the members of the participating clans. 
 This expansion of the area within which moral obliga¬ 
 tions operated meant much for moral progress. The 
 moral principles that were embodied in the terms of the 
 federation were, of course, simple and elementary and 
 probably only such as were in force among all nomadic 
 societies of the time and region, but the inclusion within 
 the area of their enforcement of a large number of 
 members of various clans, heretofore lying outside of 
 that area, was a fact of no small importance morally. 1 
 
 1 Cf. C. H. Cooley, Social Organization (1909), chap, xi, “The Enlarge¬ 
 ment of Consciousness.” 
 
68 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 It would not be wise to trace all the later moral progress 
 of the Hebrews back to this source, after the manner of 
 the advocates of the Kenite hypothesis; but this fact 
 must be included among the causes of the moral and 
 religious leadership of Israel, the sources of which seem 
 to have lain to so large an extent to the south and south¬ 
 west of ancient Palestine. 1 
 
 35. Leading virtues .—For the sake of convenience, 
 we shall now summarize the principal virtues emphasized 
 in the literature of this pre-prophetic period. This will 
 enable us to realize the main things that commended 
 themselves to the social mind of that age. 
 
 The center of interest was not the individual, but 
 the group to which he belonged. The social life and 
 welfare took precedence of the individual’s interests. 
 The individual lived primarily not for himself, but for 
 his family, clan, or tribe. Not that the individual was 
 himself conscious of such an unselfish aim or purpose, 
 but the community at large thought of its individual 
 members from that point of view. The individual was 
 valued in terms of what he was worth to his group and 
 how he could be useful in its service. Individuals from 
 other groups, who had forsaken their own kin and were 
 seeking the protection of a Hebrew family or clan, were 
 welcomed into the new fellowship and were protected 
 
 1 See J. M. Powis Smith, “Southern Influences upon Hebrew 
 Prophecy,” American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, 
 XXXV (1918), 1-19; cf. idem, “Some Problems in the Early History 
 of Hebrew Religion,” ibid., XXXII (1916), 81-97; D. D. Luckenbill, 
 “On Israel’s Origins,” American Journal of Theology, XXII (1918), 
 24-53; T. J. Meek, “A Proposed Reconstruction of Early Hebrew 
 History,” ibid., XXIV (1920), 209-16; idem, “Some Religious Origins 
 of the Hebrews,” American Journal of Semitic Languages and Litera¬ 
 tures , XXXVII fi (i92i), 101-31. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EARLY CODES 
 
 69 
 
 in their elemental rights by the common consent of the 
 clan. Laws and customs protecting such “strangers” 
 and “guests” form a prominent element in the social 
 order. But foreigners had no claims upon Hebrews. 
 Anything that was practicable and safe might be done 
 to them apparently. The only consideration protecting 
 a foreigner or a foreign group was the question as to 
 whether or not there were powerful allies or friends either 
 spiritual or earthly who were in a position to avenge 
 wrongs done to a foreigner by the Hebrews. This same 
 social bond appears in the institution of blood-revenge, 
 which was in good and regular standing. A beginning 
 of discrimination in the practice of the rite is seen in the 
 recognition of certain places as asylums whither the 
 accidental man-killer might flee for safety, if he could 
 arrive there without being intercepted by the blood- 
 avenger. 
 
 Polygamy was in good repute. The more wives the 
 better, provided they were good ones. Women were to 
 a large extent not persons, but things to be bought and 
 sold. Yet there was room for deep family affection and 
 for genuine personal love. Religion was no respecter 
 of sex. At least, the prophetic function could be exer¬ 
 cised as well by a woman as by a man. 
 
 Slavery of foreigners and even of fellow-Hebrews was 
 a recognized part of the social fabric. It was modified 
 for the Hebrew slave by a requirement that he be released 
 at the end of six years’ labor. And further care for him 
 was exercised in that his master was penalized for cruel 
 and unusual treatment of him. In similar fashion, the 
 poor were provided for to a limited extent. They were 
 protected by law against grasping and exorbitant cred- 
 
70 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 itors and a certain amount of unstable charity was pro¬ 
 vided for them. 
 
 The elements in personal character that meet with 
 approval and commendation are simple and fundamental. 
 Among a people compelled to fight for the right to exist, 
 bravery was in high esteem. A certain largeness of mind 
 or generosity is also predicated of the best men. The 
 quality of gratitude for favors received and service 
 rendered was also greatly appreciated. Honesty, integ¬ 
 rity, and justice are indispensable elements of true 
 manhood. The loyalty of true friendship also captured 
 the imagination and made a profound impression. The 
 virtues of the second table of the Decalogue represent 
 the generally accepted standards of personal life for the 
 period. These comprise reverence for parents, regard 
 for the value of human life, solicitude for the purity of 
 family life, respect for property rights, rigid adherence 
 to the truth and nothing but the truth in matters of 
 law, and a proper control of the inner life such as shall 
 prevent covetousness. Such virtues as these lie at the 
 foundation of all moral order. The observance of these 
 laws and the living of the proper social life, together 
 with its religious obligations, were thought to insure pros¬ 
 perity and success, whether for individual or group. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE MORALS OF THE PROPHETIC PERIOD 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 36. The times of Amos .—The eighth century in Israel 
 stands out from all the centuries by reason of the fact 
 that it produced four great Hebrew prophets, Amos, 
 Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. The appearance of these 
 men marked a new era in the religious life of Israel and 
 in the history of mankind. They were idealists of the 
 first rank—men whose ideals were dearer to them than 
 life itself. They sought to make these ideals effective in 
 the life of their times and insisted upon their supreme 
 value though their contemporaries rejected them and 
 their ideals. 
 
 The first of these prophets was Amos, and he struck 
 the keynote of all subsequent prophecy. He called 
 Northern Israel to the bar, declared her guilty, and 
 passed sentence of death upon her. This judgment of 
 doom was not based upon a study of the movements of 
 armies in Western Asia, nor upon a shrewd estimate of 
 the strength of the various powers by whom Israel was 
 surrounded. Amos began his prophetic career at approx¬ 
 imately 765 b.c. 1 At that particular time and for the 
 next decade there was nothing on foot in Western Asia 
 or in Egypt that would have warranted a prediction of 
 military conquest of Israel by any possible foe. 
 
 At the death of Adad-nirari of Assyria, in 783 B.c., the Assyrian 
 Empire entered upon a struggle for life. Between 783 and 773 b.c., 
 Shalmaneser headed six campaigns against the kingdom of Urartu, 
 
 1 See W. R. Harper, Amos and Hosea (1905), pp. cii ff. 
 
 73 
 
74 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 which lay to the north of Assyria, in the region above Lake Van. 
 In the course of this struggle, the foe on one occasion pressed down 
 to within a few days’ journey of Nineveh. The Syrian states 
 farther west, who had leagued together against Assyria in 854 b.c. 
 and again in 849 and 846, and had been harassed by her armies in 
 almost each successive year from 843 to 828 b.c. and again from 
 806 to 797 b.c., were naturally vitally interested in the progress 
 of the contest between Assyria and Urartu and cast in their lot 
 with Urartu against Assyria. Hence, after repelling Urartu, 
 Shalmaneser pushed west in 773 and attacked Damascus. His 
 successors, Ashurdan and Ashur-nirari campaigned against 
 Hadrach in central Syria in 772 and 765 b.c. and defended Arpad 
 against the Chaldi of Urartu in 754 b.c. This was the last flicker 
 of Assyrian power in the West until the accession of Tiglath-pileser 
 in 745 b.c. These were days of waning power in Assyria, and the 
 future of the western lands was by no means clearly recognizable. 
 Would Assyria revive and reassert her old-time power ? Or would 
 the peoples of Urartu succeed in displacing her power by their 
 own? Amos did not undertake to answer this question for his 
 contemporaries. He is content to indicate the north as the 
 direction whence destruction is coming upon the states of Syria 
 and Palestine. 
 
 During this same period, the reign of Jeroboam II, Israel was 
 enjoying a prosperity that had not been equalled since the reign 
 of Solomon. Egypt was powerless to trouble her, the last days 
 of the 22d Dynasty being marked by internal conflicts and schisms 
 that consumed all her energy. As a result of the Assyrian cam¬ 
 paigns in the West, under Shalmaneser (859-825 b.c.) and Adad- 
 nirari (812-783 b.c.), Syria, the old enemy of Israel, who had 
 reduced her to a pitiable state in the reigns of Jehu (II Kings 10:32) 
 and Jehoahaz (II Kings 13:7), had herself been rendered powerless 
 and incapable of further molesting her southern neighbor. Jero¬ 
 boam indeed, following up the successes of Joash (II Kings 13:25), 
 expelled Damascus completely from the territory of Israel (II Kings 
 14:25-28). Judah, too, after Amaziah’s vain attempt to assert 
 independence from Joash (II Kings 14:8-14), troubled Israel no 
 more and probably paid regular tribute. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 75 
 
 Freed thus from external conflicts, Israel was left to recuperate 
 from her exhausting wars with Syria and to develop her own 
 internal resources in peace. The resulting prosperity is reflected 
 in the sermons of Amos. 1 
 
 37. The basis of the message of Amos .—As a matter 
 of fact, Amos was very vague in his reference to the 
 agent or agency through which disaster was to be brought 
 upon Israel. In several passages he expresses himself 
 in such a way as to show that he is anticipating Israel’s 
 destruction at the hands of an invading army, but he 
 never definitely names the invader (see 3:11; 4:2, 3; 
 5:27; 6:14; 7:11, 17). In other passages he seems to 
 have looked for the disaster in the form of an earthquake 
 or some other natural catastrophe (2:14-16; 5:3, 16, 
 17; 8:8-14; 9:1-4). The thing of which he is certain 
 and about which he is specific is his conviction that 
 Israel must fall, and that at the hands of her own God. 
 The basis of his certainty, therefore, was not found in 
 any external support, but lay rather within himself. It 
 was a conviction that possessed his soul, an ineradicable 
 assurance that needed no external support. As a matter 
 of fact the nation of Northern Israel was more prosperous 
 and powerful in the days of Amos than it had ever been 
 since it became a separate kingdom (II Kings 14:25-28). 
 Downfall and destruction were far from the minds of 
 the masses in Jeroboam’s day. Never had wealth and 
 luxury been more common. None but a prophet could 
 see the signs of decay and dare to utter a warning cry. 
 
 38. The Day of Yahweh .—Amos found current among 
 his contemporaries a popular expectation of an approach- 
 
 1 See J. M. Powis Smith, Amos, Ho sea, and Micah (Bible for Home 
 and School) (1914), pp. 5, 6. 
 
76 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 ing Day of Yahweh. This Day was to usher in a period 
 of glory for Israel as the chosen people of Yahweh. It 
 was to be the beginning of a Golden Age, the restoration 
 of the primeval Paradise. The enemies of Israel and 
 of Yahweh were to be overthrown and Israel was to 
 reign supreme among the nations of the earth. Pros¬ 
 perity was to abound on every hand and life be one 
 continuous song. Amos laid hold of this popular con¬ 
 viction and made use of it for the purpose of his own 
 message. He transformed the Day of Yahweh from a 
 day of triumph into a day of doom. 
 
 Woe unto you who are longing for the Day of Yahweh! 
 
 For what end is your Day of Yahweh ? 
 
 It is darkness and not light. 
 
 Even as when a man flees from before a lion, 
 
 And a bear meets him, 
 
 Or he enters a house and lays his hand upon the wall, 
 
 And a serpent bites him. 
 
 Will not the Day of Yahweh be darkness and not light, 
 
 Even dense darkness and no brightness in it 
 [Amos 5:18-20]? 
 
 This was a complete reversal of the popular conception 
 of the Day of Yahweh. Instead of victory it would spell 
 disaster. The prophet made use of his Day of Yahweh 
 to frighten his people and turn them from the error of 
 their ways, much as old-time evangelists preached hell 
 to trembling sinners. Amos thus took hold of an ancient 
 idea with no moral content and ethicized it, made it 
 Serve as reinforcement of his own moral passion. But 
 this regeneration of the idea of the Day of Yahweh was 
 only one element in his greater endeavor to ethicize the 
 whole popular religion of his day. Amos is quite com¬ 
 monly called the “Creator of Ethical Monotheism.’’ 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 77 
 
 This title is, perhaps, a bit too grandiose; but in any 
 case, the work of Amos marked a great step forward in 
 the development of ethical monotheism. 
 
 39. Popular religion. —To understand the significance 
 of this term, ethical monotheism, we must see what it 
 was that it was called upon to displace. The popular 
 religion of the times of Amos held to Yahweh as one 
 among many national gods, albeit the mightiest of them 
 all. He could be counted upon to take his people’s part 
 against any and every foe, provided that his nation 
 complied with his requirements. That he could or would 
 abandon his people and leave them to the mercy of their 
 foes, even though this might mean their destruction, 
 was almost inconceivable to them. That he should go 
 farther and himself bring about their destruction, was 
 quite beyond the range of their imagination. This is 
 explicitly stated by Micah as being the point of view of 
 his contemporaries in the latter part of the eighth 
 century. They say to him: 
 
 Do not keep on prophesying such things. 
 
 Shame cannot overtake the house of Jacob. 
 
 Is the spirit of Yahweh straitened ? 
 
 Are such his doings ? 
 
 Do not his words mean good to Israel [Mic. 2:6, 7] ? r 
 And again: 
 
 Yet do they lean upon Yahweh and say, 
 
 “Is not Yahweh in the midst of us? 
 
 No disaster can befall us” [Mic. 3:11]. 
 
 40. The message of Amos .—Amos attacked this posi¬ 
 tion along two lines. First, he declared that Yahweh’s 
 
 1 For corrections of the text involved in this translation, see J. M. 
 Powis Smith, Micah {International Critical Commentary , in loc.). 
 
78 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 interests were not confined to Israel and Judah. His 
 oracles against Damascus (1:3-5), Philistia (1:6-8), 
 Ammon (1:13-15), and Moab (2.-I-3) 1 presuppose 
 Yahweh’s interest in, and power over, those nations. 
 It may be noticed also that they are denounced not 
 solely for wrongs done to Israel, which would be quite 
 consistent with the conception of Yahweh as a purely 
 national God, but for violations of great human con¬ 
 siderations which, particularly in the case of Philistia 
 and more especially Ammon, have no apparent or 
 immediate bearing upon Israel’s interests. Besides 
 that, the offenses of the nations denounced are not 
 primarily theological; it is not that they worship other 
 gods than Yahweh, but rather that they violate the 
 commonly accepted rules of decency as applied to one 
 nation’s treatment of another. They set at naught the 
 common human rights. But going still farther than 
 that, Amos ventures to declare that Israel has no special 
 claim on the favor of Yahweh. If she has been given 
 privileges, they have but increased her responsibilities 
 proportionately (Amos 3:2). Not only so, but the 
 very favors of which she constantly boasts, have they 
 not in equal measure been bestowed upon other nations, 
 even upon peoples that have been fiercely hostile to 
 Israel ? 
 
 Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, 
 
 O house of Israel ? says Yahweh. 
 
 Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt, 
 
 And the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from 
 Kir [Amos 9:7]? 
 
 1 The oracles against Tyre and Edom are of later origin. See W. R. 
 Harper, Amos and Ho sea, in loc. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 79 
 
 Amos thus sweeps away Israel’s special privilege at a 
 stroke. Yahweh is God of the nations and treats all 
 according as he wills and they deserve. Amos’s second 
 line of attack upon the popular position was directed y 
 against the common view that Yahweh was under 
 obligation to help Israel because she had been loyal to 
 him in the doing of his will. Amos apparently had 
 no quarrel with the general principle involved in this. 
 For him, as for the people, piety might be expected to 
 yield prosperity. But he demanded a different type of 
 piety. He emphasized different elements in religion from 
 those stressed by the mass of his contemporaries. He 
 enthroned ethics in the supreme place in religion; they 
 divided the honors between ethics and ritual, with the 
 greater emphasis, perhaps, on ritual. 
 
 41. Character vs. ritual .—It will hardly do to make 
 Amos wholly discard ritual and put ethics in its place, 
 as some interpreters would have us do. 1 Certainly, some 
 of his statements in and of themselves might be so 
 interpreted, for example: 
 
 Come to Bethel, and transgress; 
 
 To Gilgal, and multiply transgression! 
 
 And bring your sacrifices every morning, 
 
 And your tithes every three days! 
 
 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is 
 leavened, 
 
 And proclaim free-will offerings and publish them: 
 
 For this pleases you, O ye children of Israel [Amos 4:4 f.]. 
 
 And again: 
 
 I hate, I despise your feasts, 
 
 And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 
 
 1 See W. R. Harper, Amos and Hosea (1905), pp. cxixf. 
 
8 o 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Yea, though ye offer me your burnt offerings and meal 
 offerings, I will not accept them; 
 
 Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 
 Take away from me the noise of thy songs; 
 
 For I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 
 
 But let judgment roll down as waters, 
 
 And righteousness as a perennial stream. 
 
 Was it sacrifices and offerings that ye brought unto me 
 Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel 
 [Amos 5:21-25] ? 
 
 In determining the significance of such statements, they 
 must be considered in the light of certain facts. Ancient 
 Semitic religions were made up very largely of ritual; 
 and Hebrew religion was no exception to this general 
 rule. A religion without ritual would have been practi¬ 
 cally inconceivable to the Hebrew mind, and the 
 prophets never ceased to be Hebrews. The idealistic 
 character of the prophet must also be reckoned with. 
 Amos was intent upon making his point and he spared 
 no language in accomplishing his purpose. He painted 
 conditions at their darkest and he stated his own ideals 
 and standards at their strongest. His language must 
 always be taken with allowance for the exaggeration 
 characteristic of a man who is in dead earnest and con¬ 
 vinced that he is pointing out the only way of deliverance. 
 Other prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, use equally 
 strong language in reference to ritual, and yet the records 
 of their work clearly show that they themselves made a 
 certain place for ritual. 1 Indeed the utterances of Amos 
 himself are not wholly without indications that he was 
 not consistently hostile to ritual. He refers to the local 
 shrines, the Nazirites, the institution of clean and 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 81 
 
 unclean, the new moon and the Sabbath at times (2:8, 
 11,12; 7:17; 8:5) without any indication of disapproval. 
 It is safer, therefore, to assume that Amos is protesting 
 not against ritual per se, but against making ritual do 
 service for character and right conduct. 
 
 42. Righteousness and justice .—Amos was pre¬ 
 eminently a preacher of righteousness and justice. 
 He might well be called the protagonist of the poor. 
 His message is couched for the most part in the language 
 of denunciation of the rich and powerful. His own 
 ideals are largely to be inferred as the contrary of the 
 things he denounces. It is noteworthy that much of 
 what he decries had, in principle at least, and often in 
 specific precept, been prohibited or warned against in 
 the Covenant Code (see above, chap, iii, pp. 49-70). He 
 charges the capitalists of his day with selling good men 
 into slavery for lack of ability to pay a trifling debt 
 (2:6; 8:6; cf. Exod. 21130; 22:21,24). They “buffet 
 the heads of the poor” (2:7); and “trample” them into 
 the dust (5:11). They violate the law of the land 
 (Exod. 22:25k) by keeping the poor man’s garment 
 overnight when taken as security for a loan (2:8). 
 They get the poor into their power in various and nefari¬ 
 ous ways. They sell him poor grain (8:6), they “take 
 exactions of wheat” from him, whatever that may mean 
 (5:11), and they cheat him with false weights and 
 measures (8:5). They bribe their judges (5:12), so 
 that judgment is turned to wormwood and justice is 
 set at naught (5:7; 6:3, 12). Even the women are 
 so far gone in their craze for luxury that they urge their 
 husbands on in their evil course of oppression (4:1, 2), 
 to the end that they may have wherewith to indulge 
 
8 2 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 themselves to the utmost in sensuous pleasures. The 
 cause of the poor is so unpopular that no shrewd man 
 will lift up his voice in their behalf (5:10, 13). Oppres¬ 
 sion and violence are abroad in the land (3:9, 10; 6:3) 
 and such methods are so prevalent that there is no chance 
 for the poor man: 
 
 Hear this, O ye that trample upon the needy, 
 
 And cause the poor of the land to cease [8:4]. 
 
 All this was in direct yiolation of the spirit and letter 
 of the Covenant Code, the recognized law of the land 
 (Exod. 22:21-27; 23:1, 2, 6-9, 12). 
 
 Drunkenness was common (Amos 2:8, 12; 4:1) and 
 a certain amount of sexual license (Amos 2:7; cf. 
 Exod. 21:7 ff.). The wealth so cruelly wrung from the 
 poor was expended in all kinds of luxury and riotous 
 living (Amos 3:12 ff.; 4:1 ff.; 6:1 ff.). In the light of 
 such conditions, Amos charges his rich contemporaries 
 with unpardonable ignorance of the principles of right 
 and wrong. 
 
 They know not how to do right [3:10]. 
 
 They are indifferent to the public welfare (6:4-6). He 
 
 urges upon them a complete reversal of their conduct: 
 
 Seek good, and not evil,That ye may live; 
 
 That so Yahweh, the God of hosts, may be with you, as 
 ye say. 
 
 Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in 
 the gate [5:14, 15]. 
 
 Let judgment roll down as waters, 
 
 And righteousness as a perennial stream [5:24]. 
 
 This is in Amos’s mind the sure path to prosperity. The 
 nation that heeds the requirements of Yahweh must pros¬ 
 per; piety and success are inseparable (cf. Amos 5:4-7). 
 
1 
 
 l 
 
 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY ' 83 
 
 43. Amos's contribution to the ethical progress of 
 Israel was of two kinds. First, he made ethics the 
 supreme concern of religion, th e-sine qua non of the divine 
 favor. Secondly, he broadened the sphere of operation 
 for Hebrew ethics. He made it clear that the moral 
 obligations binding upon the Hebrews were, at least in 
 certain special cases, obligatory likewise upon non- 
 Hebraic nations such as Syria, Philistia, Moab, and 
 Ammon. These would meet their doom not because 
 they were non-Hebrew and non-Yahwistic, but because 
 they were non-moral, or rather, immoral. In his stand¬ 
 ards for his own people, he seems not to have gone far, 
 if at all, beyond the Covenant Code. There is nothing 
 in principle new in the moral precepts of Amos. He 
 never implies in the slightest degree that he is preaching 
 a new moral code. The condemnation of his rich neigh¬ 
 bors lies in the fact that they are setting at naught 
 generally recognized laws and principles. But to stop 
 here in the summary of Amos’s moral message would be 
 to make it too simple and to leave the most important 
 thing unsaid. 
 
 Amos quite evidently was denouncing a social order. 
 By the operation of the commonly accepted methods of 
 doing business in a competitive way, and by working 
 these methods to perfection, the weak were being driven 
 to the wall. The rich were accumulating great wealth, 
 which they spent in reckless luxury, while the poor were 
 being deprived of the necessities of life. The days of 
 Jeroboam II of Israel lay in a period which we should 
 characterize as “good times.” The long and wearing 
 struggle with Syria had been brought to a successful 
 conclusion, and a period of internal prosperity had set in. 
 
8 4 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 War times are always hardest on the poor. During the 
 peaceful times which followed, the rich had been rapidly 
 widening the gulf between themselves and their less 
 fortunate, or more scrupulous, brethren. Money breeds 
 money; and with the aid of a little craft, the rich were 
 reducing the poor almost to servitude—indeed in ’some 
 cases the poor were actually sold into slavery. Amos 
 saw clearly the drift of the times, and set himself earnestly 
 and strenuously to stem the tide. That it was an eco¬ 
 nomic situation for which nobody in particular was 
 responsible made no difference in his prophetic eyes, 
 which probably did not diagnose the situation economi¬ 
 cally, but were satisfied to evaluate it ethically. If 
 cheating, stealing, bribery, and the like seem strong 
 terms for the prophet to apply to a large section of the 
 society of his day, let us remember that Amos was him¬ 
 self a poor man and that he had experienced for himself 
 the hard lot of the poorer classes. The language used 
 by Amos is relatively mild as compared with that to be 
 found in the writings and speeches of some of the repre¬ 
 sentatives of socialism and of labor in our own day. The 
 “capitalist” may be a self-respecting citizen and a well- 
 thought-of neighbor in his own group; but he is an 
 incarnation of all that is evil in the present economic 
 and social system as seen by radical reformers, and is 
 given credit for the meanest motives and the most cruel 
 economic measures by professional protagonists of the 
 “proletariat.’’ Many of the men belonging to the class 
 attacked by Amos doubtless repudiated his charges with 
 as much indignation and sincerity as the most rigid 
 “ bourbon” of the present day manifests in his protests 
 of innocence and self-vindication. But Amos saw that 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 85 
 
 something was wrong, and though he may not have made 
 an absolutely correct social or economic diagnosis of 
 the ailment, he made it impossible for thoughtful and 
 honest men henceforth to go on blindly ignoring the 
 injustice that infected the whole social fabric. 
 
 44. Hosea’s ideals .—A younger contemporary of 
 Amos was Hosea, not an outsider, as was Amos, but a 
 citizen of the Northern Kingdom. Conditions had 
 developed rapidly in the few years that had passed 
 since the preaching of Amos, and Hosea’s message was 
 addressed to this tenser situation. Hosea’s primary 
 interest differed from that of Amos in that he concerned 
 himself chiefly with man’s conception of God and his 
 relationship to God, while Amos stressed almost exclu¬ 
 sively man’s relations to his fellow-man. Hosea’s 
 message is naturally, therefore, not social and ethical to 
 the extent that Amos’s was. Hosea makes not a single 
 direct reference to the poor as such. He was more 
 “religious” in his point of view than Amos, though he 
 paid sufficient attention to moral issues to show that 
 his religion was by no means indifferent to these things. 
 He indorses blood-revenge in that he represents Yahweh 
 as acting upon that principle 1 (1:4); he decries harlotry 
 and adultery (2:5; 4:2, 13, 14, 18; 5:3; 7:4; '9:1); 
 he denounces murder (4:2; 6:8, 9); he deplores the 
 lack of truth, mercy, and knowledge of God (4:1) among 
 his contemporaries; and he condemns perjury (4:2; 
 10:4), theft (4:2; 7:1), drunkenness (4:18), lying and 
 deceit (7:1, 13; 11:12; 12:1), the breaking of contracts 
 
 1 This custom was of long-time standing in Israel and was thus 
 deep rooted in the social life and thought. Hence even the prophets 
 approve it, strange as it may seem to us. 
 
86 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 (4:2), burglary (7:1), the use of false balances (12:7), 
 the practice of oppression (12:7), and the stealing of land 
 by the removal of the landmarks- (5:10). Like Amos, he 
 will have none of ritual as a substitute for morals: 
 
 I desire goodness and not sacrifice, 
 
 And the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings [6:6]. 
 
 It is Israel’s tragedy that she has rejected the good 
 (8:3), and that, therefore, “ judgment springs up like 
 hemlock in the furrows of the field” (10:4). Whatever 
 goodness she has lacks depth; it is a mere fleeting emo¬ 
 tion, too facile and superficial (6:4). The things that 
 JYahweh wants are righteousness, justice, loving-kindness, 
 mercy, and faithfulness (2:19, 20). 
 
 Sow for yourselves righteousness; 
 
 Reap the fruit of piety; 
 
 Break up for yourselves an unused field of knowledge; » 
 
 Seek Yahweh, till the fruit of righteousness come to you 
 [10:12]. 1 
 
 Such words as these show that for Hosea, even as for 
 Amos, piety was expected to yield its reward. Piety 
 ought to pay; and if prosperity is not being enjoyed it 
 is clear that something is wrong with the piety. This 
 was always the moral philosophy of the prophets; they 
 and the people were of the same mind in expecting religion 
 to pay good dividends; the only point of difference on 
 this question was as to the brand of religion that should 
 be practiced. The rewards looked for were very tangible 
 and concrete (Hos. 2:18-23). The penalties for the 
 lack of piety are equally realistic. 
 
 1 Corrected in part after the Greek. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTtfRY 87 
 
 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; 
 
 His sin is laid up in store. 
 
 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him; 
 
 He is an unwise son; 
 
 For now he should not stand in the place of the breaking 
 forth of children. 
 
 Shall I ransom them from the power of the grave ? 
 
 Shall I redeem them from death ? 
 
 O death, where are thy plagues ? 
 
 O grave, where is thy destruction ? 
 
 Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. 
 
 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, 
 
 An east wind shall come, the breath of Yahweh coming 
 up from the wilderness, 
 
 And his spring shall become dry, 
 
 And his fountain shall be dried up. 
 
 He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 
 
 Samaria will be laid waste; 
 
 For she has rebelled against her God. 
 
 They shall fall by the sword; 
 
 Their infants shall be dashed in pieces; 
 
 And their women with child shall be ripped up 
 [Hos. 13:12-16]. 
 
 45. Hosea’s marriage .—The most interesting part of 
 the Book of Hosea is the story of his marriage in chapters 
 1-3. This has been the subject of much discussion 
 extending over many centuries. 1 The most popular 
 view at the present time is that which represents Hosea 
 as having fallen in love with a young woman of sensuous 
 tendencies, only to have her prove untrue to him and, 
 after the birth of three children, of whom two at least 
 were not Hosea’s, desert him and take up her residence 
 with another man. Notwithstanding all this, the great 
 
 1 For the history of the interpretation of Hosea’s marriage, see 
 W. R. Harper, Amos and Hosea (1905), pp. 208-10. 
 
88 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 love of Hosea leads him to buy his wife back from her 
 paramour and to place her under restraint preparatory 
 to receiving her back into his own home. This tragic 
 experience Hosea looks back upon and interprets as 
 Yahweh’s call to him to become a prophet to Israel, who 
 has treated Yahweh exactly as Gomer treated Hosea. 
 So Hosea gets his message out of the agony of his own 
 soul and personally discovers the truth that Yahweh’s 
 love for Israel has been cruelly spurned by his people . 1 
 The ethical significance of the record on such a basis 
 would be very great. But attractive as the theory is, 
 it will not bear close scrutiny, and must give way to a 
 more natural and simple treatment of the story . 2 
 
 The literal meaning of the story is clear enough, viz., 
 that Hosea felt himself called upon by Yahweh to marry 
 a notoriously bad woman and accordingly did so. 
 From this marriage three children were born, each of 
 whom, like the marriage itself, was made the occasion 
 for a new sermon upon the same old theme, viz., that 
 Yahweh will cast off his faithless people that has no sense 
 of its obligation to its spiritual husband and lord, even 
 Yahweh himself, and will send it into exile till such time 
 
 1 For a full statement of this view, see W. R. Harper, op. cit., pp. 
 cxliii-cxlv; and G. A. Smith, Book of the Twelve , I, 232-52. 
 
 2 For a fuller discussion of the marriage from the literal point of 
 view here followed, see J. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and His Problems 
 (1914), pp. 109-36, and idem, Amos, Hosea and Micah (1914), pp. 77-82. 
 B. Duhm, Israels Propheten (1916), pp. 98 f., now takes the same 
 literal point of view, but makes Hosea marry in succession two wives 
 of the same type. Similar literal views are presented also by C. H. 
 Toy, in Journal of Biblical Literature , XXXII, 75-79; and D. Buzy, 
 Revue biblique for 1917, pp. 376-423. Cf. G. A. Barton, The Religion of 
 Israel (1918), pp. 99 f.; and G. Holscher, Geschichte der Israelitischen und 
 jiidischen Religion (1922), p. 106. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 89 
 
 as it shall awake to the advantages of its former relation¬ 
 ship and shall long for its resumption. The ethical prin¬ 
 ciple involved is very simple and clear, viz., that it is 
 the part of a true wife to abide loyally by her own hus¬ 
 band and to have naught to do with any other man. But 
 in addition to this obvious and intended teaching as 
 applied to the duty of Israel toward Yahweh, there are 
 also some incidental facts of some significance. How 
 could Hosea ever have entertained the conviction that 
 Yahweh wanted him to marry a harlot? This is in 
 reality no more difficult from the moral approach than 
 it is to suppose that he thought of Yahweh as having 
 led him blindfolded into such a match only to break his 
 heart. For Yahweh to order him to marry a harlot is, 
 at any rate, no worse than for Yahweh to order him to 
 marry a charming girl who, as Yahweh knows right well, 
 will turn out to be wholly unworthy of his love and 
 untrue to her marital obligations. Further, to think of 
 Yahweh as commanding marriage with a harlot is no 
 more difficult or abhorrent than to think of him as in¬ 
 spiring four hundred prophets to lie (I Kings 22:20-23), 
 or as hardening Pharaoh’s heart to the end that he might 
 destroy him (Exod. 7:3, 4; 10:1), or as moving David 
 to number Israel in order that he might be justified in 
 punishing him, and then punishing him by slaying great 
 numbers of his innocent people (II Sam. 24:1 ff.). Nor 
 was the marriage itself more extraordinary than some 
 other acts performed by early prophets. The psychology 
 of a prophet was not that of the normal layman. He 
 was nearer being abnormal than normal at times. 
 Indeed the early Hebrews used the same word to express 
 both the idea of prophecy and that of insanity. The 
 
 4 
 
go 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 more sensational an act was the greater its homiletic 
 or prophetic value (cf. Ezek. 4:9-15; 24:16-18; Isa. 
 20:1-4; Jer. 16:1 f.). The extraordinary character of 
 the marriage gave it its value as a prophetic deed. It 
 compelled attention and focused interest in such a way ‘ 
 as to afford the prophet wide scope for the preaching 
 of the message he sought to impress upon Israel through 
 his marriage. 
 
 We cannot give our farewell to Hosea without noting 
 one element of his character that is forcefully illustrated 
 by his marriage. 
 
 This interpretation of the marriage experience emphasizes 
 the self-sacrifice of Hosea. He looks upon himself as belonging 
 wholly to his people and to his God. There is no sacrifice for 
 the good of Israel or for the service of Yahweh that can be called 
 too great. He is a willing tool in Yahweh’s hands, absolutely 
 submissive to Yahweh’s will. Shall the clay say to him who 
 
 molds it, “What makest thou?” [Isa. 45:9].The man who 
 
 could take upon himself a relationship like that and could exploit 
 his act for the education of the public was not only utterly self- 
 abasing and self-effacing in his devotion to his country, but was 
 evidently endowed with a strongly dramatic temperament. 
 This, combined with the inherent value of his message, succeeded 
 in impressing his preaching deeply upon the consciousness of 
 Israel so that it became a permanent element in Hebrew religion. 1 
 
 46. Social message of Isaiah.—We hear the social note 
 clearly again in the oracles of Isaiah. Isaiah’s lot was cast 
 in troublous times. His preaching years extended from 
 740 b.c. to 701 b.c. at least. In these years he lived 
 through the Syro-Ephraimitish War (735-734 b.c.), the 
 fall of Damascus (732 b.c.), the siege and fall of Samaria 
 (721 b.c.), Sargon’s campaign against Ashdod (711 b.c.), 
 
 1 J. M. Powis Smith, Amos, Hosea and Micah (1914), pp. 81 ff. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 91 
 
 and Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah (701 b.c.). The 
 Assyrian Empire, under four of its greatest kings, Tiglath- 
 pileser III, Shalmaneser IV, Sargon II, and Sennacherib, 
 was remaking the map of Western Asia. Syria and 
 Northern Israel had become provinces of the Assyrian 
 Empire; and Judah, after surrendering its independence 
 to Assyria, broke out in futile revolt against her only to 
 be reduced again to submission and subjected to heavy 
 penalties. Amid such scenes, the work of Isaiah was 
 inevitably national rather than individualistic in its 
 scope and interests. 
 
 We discover here again that interest in the welfare 
 of the poor which was so conspicuous in Amos and so 
 deficient in Hosea: 
 
 Cease to do evil; learn to do good; 
 
 Seek justice; repress violence; 
 
 Give justice to the fatherless; plead the cause of the 
 widow [Isa. 1:16, 17]. 
 
 But you—ye uproot the vineyard, 
 
 The plunder of the poor is in your houses. 
 
 What mean ye that ye crush my people, 
 
 And grind the faces of the poor [3:14, 15] ? 
 
 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, 
 
 And recorders who record trouble, 
 
 So as to turn aside the poor from judgment, 
 
 And to rob the poor of my people of justice, 
 
 So that widows become their spoil, 
 
 And they plunder the fatherless [10:1, 2]. 
 
 The methods by which the rich and powerful impoverish 
 the poorer classes are clearly suggested not only here but 
 in other passages likewise. They are the familiar, age¬ 
 long means of oppression, already exposed by Amos. 
 
92 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 A servile court is only too ready to do the bidding of the 
 rich and is not without its reward. 
 
 They acquit the guilty in return for a bribe, 
 
 And the vindication of the innocent they turn aside 
 from him [5:23]. 
 
 Bribery and corruption are the tools of their trade (cf. 
 1:21, 23, 26). By these and other means, represented 
 in modern times by exorbitant interest, foreclosure of 
 mortgages on the instant, controlling the market and 
 the like, the poor man has been driven from his little 
 patrimony and left landless and homeless, while the 
 rich oppressors 
 
 Add house to house and field to field 
 Till there is no more room [5:8]. 
 
 The economic and social problem raised by the increase 
 of large landed estates was evidently being keenly felt; 
 and the essential wrong of one man owning extensive 
 acres at the expense of other men who lost all they had 
 appeals powerfully to the prophet’s sense of justice. 
 
 The possession of so much ill-gotten wealth by a 
 relatively small class of people had its natural effect. 
 In Isaiah’s judgment, there was a general moral break¬ 
 down. Personal morality was on the decline. Violence 
 and bloodshed were abroad in the land (5:7); drunken¬ 
 ness and debauchery were the order of the day (5:11, 
 22, 23; 22:13), and the women have nothing better to 
 do than to spend time and money upon lavish personal 
 adornment of which they are sinfully proud (2:16-24). 
 The concomitant of such a situation is that the moral 
 sense is becoming dulled; there is a lack of keen moral 
 discrimination and a general unresponsiveness to ideal¬ 
 istic instruction and a smug self-satisfaction. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 93 
 
 Woe to those who call badness good and goodness bad, 
 
 That regard darkness as light, and light as darkness, 
 
 That consider bitter sweet, and sweet bitter. 
 
 Woe to the wise in their own eyes, 
 
 And intelligent in their own sight [5:20, 21]. 
 
 The response of such people to the warning of danger is 
 but to plunge deeper into debauchery and say flippantly: 
 Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die [22:13]! 
 
 They have indeed become deaf to all appeals (6:9-13). 
 
 The inevitable reaction from all this, as Isaiah 
 declares, will be a general overturning of social values, 
 which he describes in such a vivid way as almost to 
 suggest that he had the bolshevistic society of Russia 
 before his mind’s eye (3:1-5). Destruction and that 
 complete is the only possible outcome of the existing 
 situation; naught else can result from such unmitigated 
 wickedness: 
 
 For wickedness burns up like a fire which devours briars 
 and thorns, 
 
 And kindles in the thickets of the forest, 
 
 And clouds of smoke roll up [9:17]. 
 
 47. Isaiah and ritual. —Isaiah’s attitude toward ritual 
 should be particularly noted, because it is so clear and 
 so representative of the prophets in general: 
 
 Hear the word of Yahweh, 
 
 Ye rulers of Sodom; 
 
 Give ear unto the instruction of our God, 
 
 Ye people of Gomorrah. 
 
 To what end is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, 
 saith Yahweh. 
 
 I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, 
 
 And the fat of fed beasts; 
 
 And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, 
 
94 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Or of lambs, or of he-goats. 
 
 When you come to appear before me, 
 
 Who has required this at your hand— 
 
 The trampling of my courts ? 
 
 Bring no more vain oblations; 
 
 It is an offering of abomination unto me; 
 
 New moon and sabbath, the holding of assemblies. 
 
 I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn meeting. 
 Your new moons and your appointed seasons 
 My soul hates; 
 
 They are a burden to me; 
 
 I am weary of bearing them. 
 
 And when you spread forth your hands, 
 
 I will hide mine eyes from you; 
 
 Yea, when you make many prayers, 
 
 I will not hear; 
 
 Your hands are full of blood. 
 
 Wash you, make you clean, 
 
 Put away the evil of your doings 
 From before mine eyes. 
 
 Cease to do evil; 
 
 Learn to do good; 
 
 Seek justice, relieve the oppressed; 
 
 Judge the fatherless; 
 
 Plead for the widow [i: 10-17]. 
 
 There is little of the prophetic language as pronounced as 
 this in its hostility to the practice of the cultus as it was 
 then in vogue. Yet it would be a great error to charge 
 Isaiah with any desire to do away with ritual and sub¬ 
 stitute for it good works in the field of ethics. This is 
 clear from his remarks here regarding prayer. Certainly 
 Isaiah would not abolish prayer. Rather he desires that 
 the prayers may come from clean hearts and lips. A 
 just and generous life is the necessary background of 
 true religion; and ceremonial, no matter how generous 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 95 
 
 and elaborate, cannot take the place of true and upright 
 living. This is far from saying that ritual may not be 
 a helpful concomitant of piety. Indeed, it evidently 
 was so in Isaiah’s own case. For the great initial experi¬ 
 ence that sent him forth into a prophetic career was 
 staged in the temple (chap. 6), and reflects a mind very 
 responsive to the influence of dignified and majestic 
 forms. 
 
 48. Isaiah’s call .—This account of Isaiah’s call 
 (chap. 6) is an eloquent witness to the high sense of obliga¬ 
 tion that possessed Isaiah’s soul. Not every young man 
 of position and influence saw the weakness of the religious 
 and social systems of his day; and of the few who may 
 have seen it, only an Isaiah or a Micah felt called upon 
 to undertake the task of calling his contemporaries to 
 the search for higher and better things. Visions of 
 Yahweh calling for volunteers to self-denying service 
 were vouchsafed only to the high-minded and large- 
 hearted. It is ethically significant that this vision sees 
 Yahweh as the great destroyer. His holiness is a terrible, 
 cleansing agency that removes sin by destroying the 
 sinner. The primitive metaphysical conception of 
 holiness as the essence of deity in distinction from 
 humanity, as that which makes God to be God, is very 
 clear in this vision; but it is also clear that we have here 
 a long step in the direction of ethicizing the quality of 
 holiness so that it shall become an effective ally of 
 righteousness. At least Isaiah goes forth, after this 
 vision of the thrice holy Yahweh, to call his people to 
 social righteousness and purity of life. 
 
 49. Piety and prosperity. —Isaiah’s conception of the 
 value of righteousness to a people is one with that of 
 
g6 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the other prophets. Piety is the key to prosperity. This 
 appears throughout his preaching; but is most clearly 
 expressed in this passage: 
 
 Come now, let us reason together, says Yahweh. 
 
 If your sins be as scarlet, 
 
 Can they be white like snow ? 
 
 If they be red like crimson, 
 
 Can they be like wool ? 
 
 If you be willing and hearken, 
 
 The good of the land you shall eat; 
 
 But if you refuse and rebel, 
 
 On husks you shall feed [i: 18, 19]. 1 
 
 The point of this is, of course, that it is unreasonable, 
 yea preposterous, to expect to go on in sin and yet to be 
 treated by Yahweh as though they were paragons of 
 virtue; the only royal road to prosperity is the way 
 of piety. 
 
 50. Social ideals of Micah .—The prophecy of the 
 eighth century closed with Micah, whose activity fell 
 around the invasion of 701 b.c. 2 Only three chapters 
 of the book carrying his name can with any certainty 
 be credited to Micah himself—the rest are probably of 
 later origin. 3 But these three chapters are full of 
 social and ethical passion. Micah’s sermons reflect the 
 same facts and glow with the same ideals as those of 
 
 1 For the translation of the last line, see Gray, ICC , in loc. The 
 interrogative rendering of lines 3 and 5 seems to me demanded by the 
 logic of the passage, notwithstanding Dr. Burney’s argument that a 
 question without an interrogative particle is never found in the apodosis 
 of a conditional sentence {Journal of Theological Studies , XI, 433-35). 
 The lack of such another instance may be purely fortuitous; there is 
 nothing in principle to prevent such a usage. 
 
 2 See J. M. Powis Smith, Micah {ICC), pp. 19 if. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 8-16. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 97 
 
 Amos and Isaiah. Amos lived on the slopes overlooking 
 the Dead Sea; Isaiah dwelt in Jerusalem itself; Micah’s 
 home was on the western slope overlooking the Medi¬ 
 terranean. Thus we have witnesses to the social condi¬ 
 tions and ideals in all parts of the little country of 
 Judah. 
 
 The central difficulty with the attitude of his people 
 as Micah saw it lay in the fact that they were unable to 
 imagine Yahweh as capable of anything but kindness 1/ 
 and protection toward them. They were discharging the 
 routine obligations of the cultus and keeping the letter 
 of the law, and felt themselves thereby entitled to the 
 reward of Yahweh’s favor. If a god be not gracious to 
 his worshipers, why worship him ? So they expostulate 
 with the prophet: 
 
 Do not keep harping upon such things. 
 
 Shame cannot overtake the house of Jacob. 
 
 Is Yahweh impatient, or are such his deeds ? 
 
 Do not his words mean good to Israel [2:6, 7] ? 
 
 They are guilty of all kinds of antisocial conduct and yet 
 they count upon Yahweh’s approval and co-operation: 
 
 Hear this, now, ye heads of the house of Jacob, 
 
 And rulers of the house of Israel; 
 
 Who abhor justice, 
 
 And pervert all that is right; 
 
 Who build Zion with blood, 
 
 And Jerusalem with iniquity. 
 
 Her chiefs judge for a bribe, 
 
 And her priests give oracles for hire, 
 
 And her prophets divine for money; 
 
 Yet upon Yahweh they lean, saying, 
 
 “Is not Yahweh in the midst of us? 
 
 No evil can befall us” [3:9-11]. 
 
9 8 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 51. Idea of God .—It was the task of Micah, just as it 
 was that of Amos and Isaiah, to socialize and ethicize 
 the popular conception of God. The people of the 
 eighth century b.c. were not deficient in religion; their 
 need was rather for a richer and more humanized religion. 
 The prophets brought all the authority and power of 
 the God-idea to the support and re-enforcement of their 
 demand for social conduct. Micah denounces the wrongs 
 of his day not merely as antisocial, but also and prima¬ 
 rily as offensive to God. He charges the rich and ruling 
 class with driving the peasant from his land (2:1 f.) and 
 ejecting the poor from their homes (2:1, 2, 9), with 
 plundering the public (2:8; 3:2), and with being funda¬ 
 mentally hostile to everything good and set upon all that 
 is bad (2:1 ff.; 3:1 ff.). Even the professional servants 
 of God, the priests and the prophets, are slaves to the 
 greed for gain, which they satisfy by the prostitution of 
 their calling to the desires of the rich (3:5-8, 11). For all 
 these things Yahweh will bring them into judgment: 
 
 Therefore, on your account, 
 
 Zion will be ploughed as a field, 
 
 And Jerusalem will become ruins, 
 
 And the mountain of the house a high place in a forest 
 [3:12]. 
 
 52. Idealism of prophets .—Looking back upon these 
 pictures of conditions in the eighth century b.c. as 
 painted by the prophets, we must raise the question as 
 to whether or not we are to take the prophetic statements 
 and descriptions as literally matter of fact. We must 
 remember that the prophets were idealists and that to 
 the idealist, reality is always very distressing and de¬ 
 pressing. Were the common citizens and their rulers in 
 
PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 99 
 
 Israel and Judah as wholly bad, as completely selfish, 
 as restricted and materialistic in their outlook as the 
 prophets represent them to have been? May not the 
 prophets in the excess of their enthusiasm for their ideals 
 have painted existing conditions a little blacker than they 
 really were? Is not this a common homiletic failing? 
 The reason for raising this question is that the citizens 
 of Samaria at the time of its downfall held out against 
 the mighty Assyrian army for a period of almost three 
 years. Similarly the men of Jerusalem withstood Sen¬ 
 nacherib’s army stubbornly. These facts argue for 
 courage and determination on the part of the defenders. 
 They are convincing proof of the existence of a high 
 morale among the Jewish people. The contemporaries 
 of the eighth-century prophets may not have been 
 idealists after the prophet’s own heart, but they were 
 sturdy, liberty-loving patriots who knew how to fight to 
 the finish for their home and country. We need not 
 despise or underestimate the character of these plain 
 men of homely habits and monotonous manners in order 
 to appreciate properly their critics, the great prophets. 
 It is the imperishable glory of these greater souls that 
 they were filled with a divine discontent which led them 
 to abjure the lure of present comfort and to press on to 
 the attainment of a better social order. The ideals 
 they cherished did not die with them, but continued to 
 be the inspiration of succeeding generations. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 53. The seventh century in Israel was a period of 
 stirring events. Beginning right after the tragedy of 
 Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 b.c., it closed just before 
 the first deportation from Judah in 597 b.c. Between 
 these outstanding termini there came in swift succession 
 Assurbanipal’s invasion of Egypt and the resulting down¬ 
 fall of Thebes (666 B.c.); the Scythian invasion of 
 Western Asia and Egypt (ca. 625 b.c.) ; Pharaoh Necho’s 
 invasion of Western Asia, involving the battle of Megiddo, 
 in which King Josiah of Judah was slain (608 b.c.), and 
 the battle of Carchemish, in which Egypt was finally 
 repulsed (604 b.c.); and the downfall of Assyria, with 
 the capture of Nineveh by the Medes and Babylonians, 
 in 607 b.c. While these great events were taking place 
 without, within Judah was in a state of turmoil. After 
 the withdrawal of Sennacherib, Judah sorely stricken as 
 she was, found it hard to keep a vital faith in Yahweh, 
 and under Manasseh and Amon there set in a period of 
 religious and moral reaction, during which there was a 
 vigorous recrudescence of old pagan practices, the 
 thought being that since Yahweh had failed to protect 
 his people it would be well to revert to older customs 
 and to seek the aid of mightier gods. But under Josiah, 
 the prophetic ideals once more found recognition. They 
 were voiced by Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, and Ha- 
 bakkuk, and were in part enacted into law and made 
 operative by the Deuteronomic reformation in 621 b.c. 
 
 100 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY ioi 
 
 We shall leave the work of the Deuteronomists for a 
 separate chapter, and take up here the prophetic ethics 
 as expressed in the later additions to J and E, in the 
 utterances of the prophets just named, and in the facts 
 recorded in the history of the century as told in the 
 second Book of Kings. 
 
 54. Israel and foreign nations .—In such a century as 
 this was, with Israel continuously at the mercy of foreign 
 powers, it is natural to find in its literature a very 
 -definite attitude toward foreigners. Invaded by Assyr¬ 
 ians and forced to pay heavy annual tribute, threatened 
 and perhaps raided by Scythians, reduced to vassalage 
 and robbed of its king by Egypt, and finally compelled 
 to accept Babylonian suzerainty and see large groups 
 of its citizens and its last king carried into exile, its 
 capital city rendered defenseless, and its holy temple 
 destroyed, it would be passing strange if feelings of 
 hostility, resentment, and revenge had not found lodg¬ 
 ment in the heart of Israel. And they are not lacking. 
 Nor are Yahweh or Israel thought of in general as under 
 obligation of any sort to non-Hebraic peoples. Jacob 
 prays Yahweh to deliver him from the just wrath of 
 Esau and is delivered (Gen. 32:9-12). The slaughter of 
 Egypt’s first-born is but tit-for-tat in return for Egypt’s 
 slaughter of the Hebrew first-born (Exod. 4:22, 23). 
 Israel is Yahweh’s own choice possession (Exod. 19:3 ff.), 
 j v and thus entitled to special favor as over against non- 
 Yahwistic peoples. Indeed, Yahweh’s reputation among 
 the nations of the world depends upon his preserving his 
 own people from destruction (Num. 14:12-19). On the 
 other hand, it is perfectly proper for him to harden 
 Pharaoh’s heart, to the end that he may have full war- 
 
102 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 rant for destroying him and his people (Exod. 4:21 f.). 
 It should be noted here that Yahweh cannot be thought 
 of as destroying a people without moral justification for 
 the act, even if he does have to furnish that justification 
 by his own initiative. Yahweh has no scruples about 
 undertaking to “blot out the remembrance of the 
 Amalekites under heaven” (Exod. 17:14). Zephaniah 
 does not hesitate to announce a world-wide destruction 
 and devastation from which only loyal Yahweh- 
 worshipers may escape (Zeph. 1:2 ff., 18; 3:8). 
 
 The continuous domination of Israel by the foreigner 
 presented a problem to the Yahweh-worshipers which 
 they were not slow to recognize. Nahum and many 
 other orthodox souls found great relief and comfort in 
 contemplating the fall of Nineveh, marking the end of 
 the Assyrian Empire. In Nahum there appears a cer¬ 
 tain fiery form of indignation against Judah’s ancient 
 foe, which exhibits a degree of animosity for which the 
 great ethical prophets furnish no parallel. The pent-up 
 feelings of generations of suffering patriots here burst 
 forth into flame. The whole prophecy is a paean of 
 triumph over a prostrate foe and breathes out the spirit 
 of exultant revenge. In Nahum, a representative of 
 the old, narrow, and shallow prophetism finds his place in 
 the Canon of Scripture. His point of view is essentially 
 one with that of such men as Hananiah (Jer., chap. 28), 
 the four hundred prophets in opposition to Micaiah 
 ben Imlah (I Kings, chap. 22), and the so-called “false 
 prophets” in general. For such prophets, the relation, 
 between Yahweh and his nation Israel was indissoluble. ? 
 Yahweh might become angered at his people and 
 give them over temporarily into the power of the foe. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 103 
 
 But he could no more wholly abandon them than a 
 mother could desert her child. The obligation upon 
 Israel was to be loyal to Yahweh as he was loyal to 
 her; to eschew all foreign cults; to perform the cultus 
 of Yahweh with zealous adherence to all of its require¬ 
 ments; and to conform to the traditional customs and 
 ethics of the community. The possibility that “new 
 occasions might teach new duties,” that the advancing 
 civilization with its more complex life might render the 
 old usages and laws inadequate, and that Yahweh might 
 care more for full justice and overflowing mercy than for 
 the blood of bulls and goats, had not been realized by 
 them. The teaching that for a lack of fundamental, 
 ethical qualities Yahweh was intending to bring destruc¬ 
 tion upon his nation was branded by them as treason 
 both to Israel and to Yahweh. Patriotism and religion 
 combined in requiring the belief that Yahweh was able 
 and willing to deliver his people out of every danger. 
 Never could he suffer the adherents of other gods to 
 triumph permanently over his own people. Never could 
 the land of Judah and the temple of Yahweh be des¬ 
 ecrated by being abandoned to the possession of the 
 heathen. Nor could insult and injury to Yahweh and 
 his people be allowed by him to go unavenged. To men 
 of such a way of thinking, the prospect of the downfall 
 of Nineveh would bring a joy without alloy. The 
 prophecy of Nahum is a faithful transcript of the 
 thoughts and feelings of a prophet with such a point of 
 view. The overthrow of Nineveh not only brought to 
 Nahum and those of like mind satisfaction of the natural, 
 human desire for vengeance, but it also enabled them to 
 justify the ways of God to men. Such objective dem- 
 
104 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 onstration of the justice of Yahweh was essential to the 
 validity of their theology. By such vindication of 
 Yahweh and his people, faith in Yahweh was made 
 possible for them. Hence, the joy of Nahum is not only 
 and merely exultation over a fallen foe, it is also the 
 glad cry of an assured faith in the God of the fathers. 1 
 
 Jeremiah throughout his lifetime was at loggerheads 
 with his generation over the proper attitude to assume 
 toward the dominant world-power. The people of 
 Judah were liberty-loving mountaineers. They groaned 
 under the foreign yoke, and they improved every oppor¬ 
 tunity to strike a blow for freedom. This seemed to 
 them to be not only the part of true patriots, but also 
 that of loyal servants of Yahweh. It could not be the 
 will of Yahweh that they should supinely submit to the 
 rule of idolaters, denying and defying the authority of 
 the true God. To people holding such views the utter¬ 
 ances of Jeremiah seemed in the highest degree unpatri¬ 
 otic, disloyal, and irreligious; for Jeremiah from first to 
 last counseled non-resistance and a full acceptance of 
 the sway of Babylon. Even after the contest was openly 
 joined and the Babylonian army was on the soil of Judah, 
 Jeremiah persisted in urging upon his countrymen the 
 necessity of surrendering to the Babylonian. We who 
 have just come through a great war and remember 
 keenly how the pacifist and pro-German were regarded 
 jpd treated by public sentiment and official procedure 
 can easily understand that Jeremiah’s advice to the 
 men of Jerusalem to desert to the enemy and give up 
 
 1 J. M. Powis Smith, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the 
 Books of Micah, Zephaniah and Nahum (International Critical Commen¬ 
 tary) (New York: Scribners, 1911), pp. 281 f. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 105 
 
 the struggle was bitterly resented by the leaders of the 
 gallant but futile struggle for freedom. The wonder is, 
 not that Jeremiah was arrested as a deserter and 
 imprisoned, but that he was not put to death. But 
 Jeremiah was convinced that Judah was so sunk in 
 iniquity that Yahweh could do nothing less than send 
 the nation into exile. He saw that Babylonia was 
 indubitably the mistress of the world and he explained 
 it as due to the will of Yahweh, who was using Babylon, 
 even as he had used Assyria, as the rod of his punitive 
 wrath. At the outset of his ministry, like Zephaniah, 
 he had assigned this function of punishing the wicked 
 world to the Scythians. But they had failed him and 
 he apparently retired into seclusion until the Babylonian 
 Kingdom came to the fore and furnished him with the 
 instrument of wrath which he saw that his people needed. 
 
 55. The message of Habakkuk .—The most significant 
 contribution to thought during this period upon the 
 subject of Israel’s subjection to foreign powers was made 
 by Habakkuk. The common thought of the day attrib¬ 
 uted all of Judah’s misfortune to the sins of Manasseh 
 and his generation (II Kangs 23:26; 24:3). Jeremiah 
 saw that such an interpretation was paralyzing all 
 aspiration and effort toward better things, for few men 
 of any age would keep themselves firmly loyal to their 
 ideals if they became convinced that they and their 
 generation were doomed to suffer irremediable disaster 
 because of the sins of a former generation. Jeremiah, 
 therefore, never wearied of driving home the message 
 that his contemporaries need look no farther back than 
 their own times to discover justification for all that they 
 were suffering. Their own wickedness was so great that 
 
io6 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 national overthrow was inevitable. But this did not 
 wholly satisfy the mind of Habakkuk. He protests to 
 Yahweh that the land is given over into the hand of the 
 wicked and that Yahweh seems deaf to the cry of his 
 children (1:2-4). The wicked oppressors of whom he 
 complains seem most naturally to be the rich and power¬ 
 ful among his own countrymen. To this cry Yahweh 
 replies that he is about to raise up the Chaldeans to 
 punish these wicked oppressors (1:5). But this answer 
 does not commend itself to Habakkuk, for he realizes 
 that the wickedness of the Chaldean makes that of Judah 
 pale into insignificance beside it. He pushes his problem 
 further, therefore, and demands how a just God, such as 
 Yahweh is, can tolerate the unceasing oppression and 
 exploitation of his own people by a foreign people that 
 is indescribably more wicked (1:12-17). To this further 
 question Yahweh makes an answer that finds its climax 
 in the well-known verse: 
 
 Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him 
 
 But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness [2:4]. 
 
 This answer, being interpreted, is to the effect that 
 the Chaldean (i.e., the neo-Babylonian) power is essen¬ 
 tially weak and will therefore fall, not having that moral 
 sincerity and simplicity of soul that guarantee perma¬ 
 nence; but that the people of Judah, being righteous 
 and in so far as they are righteous, will persist and flourish 
 by reason of their steadfastness. The word commonly 
 rendered “faith” here is rather “faithfulness,” “trust¬ 
 worthiness”; it almost amounts to integrity. 1 
 
 At first thought we might say that Habakkuk made 
 no contribution to Hebrew thought upon the problem 
 
 1 For different interpretations of Hab. 1:2-11, cf. Nowack, Marti, 
 Stonehouse, et al. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 107 
 
 of life. Does he not merely repeat what all his prede¬ 
 cessors have said, viz., that piety insures prosperity 
 and that sin spells disaster? But that would be to 
 fail in recognizing the full value of Habakkuk’s message. 
 In the first place, Habakkuk’s insistence upon thinking 
 his problem through shows that a prophet did not 
 necessarily conceive of himself as abandoning his right 
 to think for himself when he became a spokesman of 
 Yahweh. Nor did he regard himself as under bonds to 
 accept the interpretations of experience that had been 
 handed down from the past, even though they bore the 
 seal of prophetic authority. He claimed the right to 
 ask questions and to receive answers that would satisfy 
 the demands of his intelligence. That Habakkuk should 
 have established the right to freedom of thought in the 
 field of ethics and religion, and that his thoughtful 
 inquiry should have so commended itself to the Jewish 
 mind as to have been finally granted a place in the 
 Canon of Scripture, is no mean praise for an otherwise 
 unknown prophet. Further, Habakkuk’s enunciation 
 of the theory that piety pays in the long run was not 
 merely a repetition of the teaching of previous prophets. 
 At least, he did not repeat it just because it was the 
 custom to hold such a view. His declaration of this 
 teaching rested upon the basis of his own experience. 
 He had thought and prayed the thing through for him¬ 
 self. It was his own conviction and not merely a part 
 of his mental and moral heritage. Moreover, he based 
 this teaching not only upon the divine dictum, but also 
 upon the nature of things. It was his conviction that 
 the false, the shallow, the morally perverse carried within 
 itself the seeds of its own ruin; whereas righteousness 
 
io8 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 was in accordance with the fundamental nature of things 
 and must therefore win through to vindication. Thus 
 Habakkuk’s philosophy of life, though it was in its out¬ 
 come essentially the same as that of his fathers, was in the 
 first place his very own achievement; he gained it for him¬ 
 self by the sweat of his soul; it was no conventional or con¬ 
 suetudinary religion or morals; it was his own personal 
 discovery. In the second place, it was not conceived 
 of by him merely as a gift from God which had been 
 passively received by him, but was rather something 
 that had come to him or rather sprung up in him as the 
 product of his own agonizing thought upon the condi¬ 
 tions of his day; it was a thing approved both by his 
 reason and his conscience. 
 
 The remainder of the original prophecy of Habakkuk 
 (2:5-11, 15-17) consists of a series of woes upon the 
 oppressive world-ruler. 1 The abuse of his power through 
 his pride and greed in robbery, murder, treachery, and 
 violence of every sort will react upon the oppressor 
 himself. Yahweh is the director of the moral universe 
 and right will avenge itself upon the head of the world- 
 tyrant. It is especially noteworthy that nowhere in these 
 woes is there any citation of a wrong against Jews as 
 such, but rather that the tyrant is condemned and 
 threatened for his violation of fundamental human rights 
 and principles. Of course, the animus of the writer 
 against this oppressor is aroused by the fact that the 
 Jewish people have endured much at the tyrant’s hands, 
 but the note of personal or national vengeance is sub¬ 
 merged in the chorus of protest against the tyrant’s ruth¬ 
 less disregard of considerations of humanity as a whole. 
 
 r For the text of 2:5, cf. the commentaries cited onp. 106. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 109 
 
 56. Moral character of Yahweh .—When we turn to 
 our seventh-century sources for consideration of their 
 moral standards in general, we find no lack of materials. 
 The approaching downfall of Judah furnished the prophets 
 with an inexhaustible theme. The sorrows and sufferings 
 of Judah have been brought on by the sins of Judah, and 
 in the catalogues of sin violations of the moral law are 
 constantly enumerated. But before taking up the 
 prophetic estimate of the moral standards, achievements, 
 and failures of Judah, we must see what was the seventh 
 century’s conception of the moral character of Yahweh, 
 in so far as it is indicated in the writings from that age. 
 
 We naturally learn that “ Yahweh is righteous 
 within her [i.e., Jerusalem]; he will not do wrong; 
 morning by morning he establishes his justice; light 
 fails not” (Zeph. 3:5). That is to say, Yahweh acts 
 with the same unfailing regularity in the moral order 
 of the world as in the order of the physical universe. 1 
 He punishes sin, even in the persons of the descendants 
 of the actual offenders, and he will by no means clear 
 the guilty (Num. 14:18; Nah. 1:2, 3). He is the judge 
 of the moral order and distributes his rewards and 
 punishments according to the deserts of men, being able 
 as God to read the secrets of men’s hearts and to 
 penetrate all deceptive disguises (Jer. 17:9, 10). His 
 wrath against sin is fearfully destructive, stopping 
 not at the destruction of the human race (with the 
 exception of Noah and his family) and venting itself 
 even upon inanimate nature (Gen. 6:5-8; 7:4, 22 f.; 
 Nah. 1:6). He is jealous of his own exclusive rights 
 and privileges and resents encroachment thereon, either 
 
 1 See my Commentary on Zephaniah {ICC), in loc. 
 
no 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 by men (Gen. 3:22-24) or by rival gods (Exod. 32:7- 
 10). But he is not implacable (Jer. 3:12; Nah. 9:24). 
 He is sorry that he sent a flood upon mankind when 
 he smells the odor of the burnt-offering made by Noah 
 (Gen. 8:21 f.) and he “repents” of the evil that he 
 had rashly purposed against Israel when Moses reasons 
 with him in pleading for his people (Exod. 32:7-14). 
 Indeed, he predicts disaster through his prophets pri¬ 
 marily in order that the people may be turned from 
 the error of their ways and so escape destruction (Jer. 
 18:6-10). The approach to his favor is not by the 
 sacrificial or ritualistic route, but rather by the way of 
 obedience to his precepts as expounded by the prophets 
 (Jer. 6:20; 7:21-26). The general nature of these is 
 suggested by the characterization of Yahweh given in 
 Exodus 34:6, 7: 
 
 Yahweh is a merciful and gracious God, 
 
 Slow to anger and plenteous in loving-kindness and truth; 
 Keeping loving-kindness for thousands, 
 
 Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; 
 
 But he will by no means clear the guilty, 
 
 Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 
 And upon the children’s children, upon the third and the 
 fourth generations. 
 
 And again in Jeremiah 9:23 f.: 
 
 Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; 
 
 Neither let the mighty man glory in his strength; 
 
 Let not the rich man glory in his riches. 
 
 But let him that would glory glory in this, 
 
 That he understands and knows me, 
 
 That I am Yahweh who exercises mercy, 
 
 Justice and righteousness in the earth; 
 
 For in these things I delight, 
 
 Says Yahweh. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY in 
 
 See also Numbers 14:18. 
 
 In surveying this sketch of the moral aspects of the 
 divine nature, we see at once that, as has been suggested 
 before (pp. 7, 30), the God-idea reflects the achievements 
 and limitations of the human personality. This is in 
 some respects a very humanized God. Even as the men 
 of the seventh century had not become completely 
 ethicized, so their God-concept was not as yet lifted to a 
 consistently ethical plane. But the ethical elements are 
 the dominant ones so far as Yahweh’s relations with men 
 are principally concerned, and the influence of the worship 
 of such a God could not but make for moral betterment 
 and the enrichment of individual and social life. 
 
 57. Social ideals .—From the standpoint of the 
 prophets, the social morality of the seventh century was 
 at low ebb. Habakkuk, speaking of conditions at the 
 end of the century, says: 
 
 How long, O Yahweh, have I cried, and thou dost not 
 hear? 
 
 I cry out unto thee of violence and thou dost not deliver. 
 
 Wherefore dost thou show me iniquity and dost thou look 
 upon wickedness ? 
 
 And devastation and violence are before me, and there is 
 strife, and contention lifts up [its voice]. 
 
 Therefore law is relaxed and judgment never goes forth. 
 
 For the wicked circumvents the righteous; and so judg¬ 
 ment goes forth distorted [Hab. 1:2-4]. 
 
 Zephaniah at an earlier period speaks in similar tones of 
 condemnation: 
 
 I will punish the princes and the king’s sons, 
 
 Who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit. 
 
 And I will punish every one who leaps over the threshold, 
 
 And every one who clothes himself with foreign raiment 
 [1:8, 9]. 
 
112 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 And again: 
 
 Her princes within her are roaring lions. 
 
 Her judges are evening wolves; they have left nothing till 
 the morning. 
 
 Her prophets are reckless men of treachery. 
 
 Her priests have profaned the holy; they have done vio¬ 
 lence to law [3:3, 4]. 
 
 A similar condemnation of the prophets is frequently 
 on Jeremiah’s lips (5:31; 6:14; 29:23). Taking a 
 
 totally different attitude from theirs toward the great 
 problems and policies of the day, he does not hesitate to 
 make them out to be liars, deceivers, self-seekers, and 
 adulterers. They and the priests, the two classes officially 
 responsible for the right interpretation of the will of 
 Yahweh and the proper administration of his law, are 
 charged by Jeremiah with being in an evil partnership 
 for the purpose of ruling Judah according to their own 
 evil purposes (5:31). Things have gone so far that the 
 priests even dare to introduce into the temple-ritual 
 practices alien to Yahweh-worship, and the official 
 scribes have produced a perverted version of the ancient 
 law of Yahweh (Jer. 7:31; 8:8; 19:5; cf. Ezek. 20:25). 1 
 
 With the religious and moral leadership of Judah in 
 such unscrupulous hands, it is only to be expected that 
 the conduct of the common people and rulers would be 
 cut on the same pattern. Josiah’s reform found human 
 sacrifice being practiced in honor of Molech 2 and did 
 
 1 Jeremiah’s attitude toward the Deuteronomic reform is not clear; 
 it may be that in 8:8 he was casting reflections upon the new edition of 
 the law promulgated in connection with Josiah’s reform. 
 
 2 Probably this name was purposely changed from Melek (= king) 
 in order to suggest the word bosheth ( = shame), even as Meribbaal was 
 later changed into Mephibosheth (II Sam. 4:4; cf. I Chron. 8:34; 9:40)- 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 113 
 
 away with it (II Kings 23:10). It need hardly be 
 pointed out that the practice of human sacrifice, at least 
 when the victims are the children of the sacrificers, 
 forever silences the charge that these people took their 
 religion lightly, that it merely was a mechanical routine 
 of ritual. The ancient Hebrews loved their children in 
 a perfectly normal way 1 and no more trying test of 
 sincerity in religious zeal could be imposed than the 
 demand to offer a child as a burnt offering. On the other 
 hand, such a custom testifies to a total disregard of the 
 right of every person to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness.” It sacrifices the individual in behalf of the 
 social welfare, regardless of the individual’s willingness 
 to be so utilized. With such crude conceptions of the 
 rights of personality current among the people and with 
 such crass conceptions of the will of God, it is natural to 
 find the prophets passing damnatory judgment upon 
 their generation. Jeremiah even declares them to be 
 beyond hope: 
 
 And if thou say in thy heart: 
 
 “Wherefore have these things befallen me?” 
 
 Because of the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts 
 uncovered, 
 
 And thy heels suffer violence. 
 
 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, 
 
 Or the leopard his spots ? 
 
 Then may ye also do good 
 
 That are wont to do evil [Jer. 13:22, 23]. 
 
 In dramatic fashion, Jeremiah maintains that there 
 is not a single righteous man in Jerusalem; rich and 
 poor, high and low, all alike have broken away from the 
 
 1 Witness David’s grief over Bathsheba’s son, and again over the 
 death of Absalom, ungrateful as the latter was. 
 
114 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 restraints of righteousness (Jer. 5:1 ff.). As a convin¬ 
 cing proof of the religious and moral degradation of the 
 people, Jeremiah cites the fact that widows and father¬ 
 less children have no defenders, but are made the prey 
 of the ravenous greed of the day (Jer. 5:28; 22:3; cf. 
 Exod. 22:21 ff.). 
 
 58. Slavery .—Another wrong that kindled Jeremiah’s 
 wrath was the treatment accorded slaves in his day. 
 When the Babylonian army was pressing hard upon 
 Jerusalem, the leaders of the city declared all slaves free.^ 
 This was probably, like most human actions, done from 
 mixed motives. There may have been a hope that this 
 would placate the angry Yahweh and lead him to fight 
 for Judah against her foes. There may also have been 
 present the thought that the defense of the city would 
 be strengthened, if a body of discontented slaves were 
 converted into a contingent of grateful citizens. Then, 
 too, the provisioning of the city was daily becoming 
 more difficult and the slave-owners may have been glad 
 to have fewer mouths to feed. But whatever motives 
 led them to free the slaves, when the Babylonian army 
 was temporarily withdrawn in order to meet the advan¬ 
 cing forces from Egypt, the emancipation of the slaves 
 was immediately canceled and they were once more 
 reduced to servitude (Jer. 34:8-22). 
 
 59. Poor and weak .—Though Jeremiah and the 
 prophets in general always took up the cause of the poor 
 and weak, it would be a mistake to suppose that they 
 were uncritical defenders of the defenseless or unapprecia¬ 
 tive of the worth of those whom they denounced. As a 
 matter of fact both Jeremiah and his successor Ezekiel 
 recognized that the future of Israel lay in the hands of 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 115 
 
 the better classes in the community. Jeremiah likens 
 the exiles and the remnant that was left in Judah to 
 good and bad figs, respectively (chap. 24). Yet those left 
 in Judah comprised only the poorest and weakest of the 
 population; all the efficient and influential people had 
 been carried away by Babylon (II Kings 24:14). And it 
 is the exiles who for Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the bearers 
 of the hope of Israel. The future is theirs. This shows 
 that these prophets were not mere wild-eyed idealists 
 and dreamers. They were practical men who reckoned 
 with the hard facts of experience. It was as true 
 then as now that the men who carry a country or a 
 people to influence and power are not those who have 
 made a failure in the struggle for existence and have 
 had to be carried along by the stronger elements in the 
 community. The backbone of any social or political 
 order is the great company of men and women who make 
 some sort of success in life and have energy left, after 
 caring for themselves and their dependents, to devote 
 to the interests of the community as a whole. Without 
 such people no society can permanently maintain itself. 
 This the prophets knew and sought, therefore, to influ¬ 
 ence these makers of the state to accept and be governed 
 by high moral and spiritual ideals. Jeremiah advises 
 yielding to the Babylonians in order to save his people from 
 destruction and his city from devastation, having his 
 eye upon the future of his country and seeking to conserve 
 its best elements for the building of that future (Jer., 
 chap. 27). Such advice naturally brings him under 
 suspicion and at the first opportunity he is cast into 
 prison on charges of disloyalty (Jer., chap. 38). He 
 held up the Rechabites in their simple and loyal obedi- 
 
n6 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 ence to the wish of their founder as an example to his 
 countrymen (35:1-11), and in all probability commended 
 their simple nomadic way of living in contrast to the 
 more complex, luxuriant, and debased life of the civi¬ 
 lization of his day. His devotion to his people was 
 genuine and unselfish in the highest degree, as attested 
 by his heartbroken grief over their waywardness and 
 sin (9:1; 14:17-21) and by his voluntary choice of 
 residence in Jerusalem, when the opportunity to leave 
 his land and become a petted protege of the Babylonian 
 Court was offered to him (Jer., chap. 40). 
 
 60. Ethical miscellany .—To complete this socio- 
 ethical sketch of the seventh century in Judah, we must 
 gather up a few outlying social facts. The story of 
 Abraham pleading with Yahweh for the deliverance of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:23-33) demonstrates the 
 acceptance of a view of righteousness as having vicarious 
 efficiency. For the sake of a few righteous men an entire 
 city may be spared destruction. The feeling lying at 
 the heart of this view is that it is not fair to destroy the 
 righteous man on account of the sins of the wicked. It 
 is better to let the wicked go unpunished. This is a 
 step toward the recognition of individual worth and 
 individual responsibility before God and man (cf. Jer. 
 5:1, 2). Later interpretations of the law emphasize the 
 humanitarian character of the Sabbath as a day of rest 
 for man and beast, slave and free (Exod. 20:9-11), and 
 prohibit the taking of interest upon loans to members 
 of the Hebrew community (Exod. 22:25). This is 
 evidence of a relatively simple economic fife and of a 
 feeling of obligation toward fellow-Hebrews as distin¬ 
 guished from foreigners. Zephaniah looks forward to 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 117 
 
 a time when the ideal Israel shall come into being and 
 gives us a picture of a stricken and trembling people who 
 have learned obedience by the things they have suffered: 
 
 In that day thou wilt not be shamed by any of thy deeds 
 wherein thou hast rebelled against me; 
 
 For then I shall remove from the midst of thee thy 
 proudly exulting ones, 
 
 And thou wilt no more be haughty in my holy mountains; 
 
 But I shall leave in the midst of thee a people humble and 
 poor, 
 
 And the remnant of Israel will seek refuge in the name 
 of Yahweh. 
 
 They will do no wickedness, nor will they speak lies, 
 
 Nor will there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue, 
 
 For they will feed and lie down with none to disturb 
 them [Zeph. 3:11-13]. 
 
 61. Personal standards .—In the foregoing social 
 practices and ideals, there has, of course, appeared 
 much that reveals the personal standards and attain¬ 
 ments of the times in the sphere of morals, for the social 
 and the personal necessarily are closely related and react 
 and interact one upon the other. But some actions and 
 ideals more particularly personal remain to be noted. 
 It would seem from the statements of Jeremiah (5:7 f.; 
 9:2; 29:23) that sexual crime was common in the land, 
 extending even to the professional representatives of 
 religion. That there was much reason for Jeremiah to 
 denounce this abuse seems clear from the fact that in 
 Josiah’s reform movement, one of the outstanding evils 
 to be laid low was the public practice of Sodomy. Men 
 and women were officially set apart for the practice of 
 harlotry, their chambers having been given room in the 
 very temple of Yahweh itself (II Kings 23:7). This 
 
n8 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 practice, probably originating among the Canaanites 
 and thence coming into Israel, had been in vogue in 
 Judah from an early day, one editor at least putting it 
 back as far as the reign of Rehoboam (I Kings 14:24; 
 cf. 15:12; 22:46). In the light of such practices it is 
 altogether likely that when the prophets talked about 
 adultery and the like they are to be understood as 
 meaning exactly what they said. To be sure, at times 
 they did use such terms figuratively of Israel’s apostasy 
 from Yahweh, but that figurative use is itself a testimony 
 to the widespread practice of the thing itself. They 
 knew the meaning of the figure only too well. 
 
 62. Lying was another widespread evil (Jer. 9:2-6). 
 Particularly significant here is the fact that under some 
 circumstances a lie was deemed excusable, if not com¬ 
 mendable. This was, of course, the persistence of an 
 old point of view (see Gen. 12:10-20) d But at a critical 
 juncture, Jeremiah did not hesitate to adopt the sug¬ 
 gestion to tell a lie, or at least a half-truth, in order that 
 evil consequences might be avoided. When summoned 
 to a private interview by Zedekiah and bidden by the 
 king to report to the princes that the purpose and content 
 of the interview were something other than what they 
 were, Jeremiah fell in with the suggestion and followed 
 the king’s behest (Jer. 38:14-27). Jeremiah’s motive in 
 so doing was scarcely fear; he had defied the public 
 desire too often to be afraid for his life now. Yet he 
 doubtless reckoned himself worth more to his country 
 
 1 WelLhausen, followed by many scholars, would make this passage 
 one of the secondary or later elements in J; but it is better to follow 
 Gunkel in regarding it as very ancient material coming from another 
 strand of J: see Skinner (ICC), in loc. 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 119 
 
 alive than dead. Further, he knew that if he reported 
 the conversation as it was, the king himself would prob¬ 
 ably be deposed or slain. That would mean the domi¬ 
 nance of the politicians of the court and the removal of 
 the last vestige of hope for the adoption of Jeremiah’s 
 policy wherein lay the only chance of escape for his 
 country. What should Jeremiah have done? Truth 
 for truth’s sake was not a working principle in Jere¬ 
 miah’s day. 
 
 63. Jeremiah was after all a very natural human 
 being. He was susceptible to all kinds of emotion and 
 capable of all that characterizes a man. He craved the 
 approval of his fellows; he wept over their sins; he 
 longed for the comforts and joys of a home of his own, 
 though he felt compelled by the exigencies of the times 
 to forego all such satisfactions (Jer. 16:1 f.); he devel¬ 
 oped a righteous anger against his foes. Indeed the 
 vengeful character of his desires regarding them is 
 shocking to our paler emotions (Jer. 11:19 ff.; 12:3; 
 i5:ioff.; 17:18; 18:18 ff.; 2o:i2). 1 At times he 
 
 shrank from the burden of living in such a tragic 
 period and cursed the day of his birth (Jer. 20:14 ff.). 
 This is anything but a “Christian” point of view. But 
 it shows us the depths of gloom to which Jeremiah’s 
 spirits could upon occasion descend. It would be unfair 
 and unscientific to appraise Jeremiah’s estimate of the 
 
 1 Such passages as these are denied to Jeremiah by some interpreters, 
 but the fact that they express a desire for revenge is no sufficient warrant 
 for so deciding. Jeremiah is not to be judged by Christian standards, 
 nor may we decide as to what he was morally and spiritually by any 
 preconceived estimates. Jeremiah was a strong, virile patriot and his 
 anger was raised to white heat by the evil machinations of his foes, not 
 only against himself but also against the public good. 
 
120 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 value of life upon an utterance like this that does but 
 reflect a passing mood. It is to the everlasting credit of 
 Jeremiah that he was able to rise above this level and live 
 a normal and inspiring life at a period when the situa¬ 
 tion of his country that he so dearly loved was des¬ 
 perate enough to warrant pessimism of sombrest hue. 
 
 Jeremiah seems to have regarded Josiah, at least 
 relatively, as the ideal type of king. In rebuking 
 Jehoiakim for his love of display and his failure to pay 
 his workmen who erected his fine buildings, he bids him 
 consider Josiah: 
 
 Shalt thou reign because thou strivest to excel in cedar ? 
 
 Did not thy father eat and drink and do justice and 
 righteousness ? 
 
 Then it was well with him. 
 
 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; 
 
 Then it was well. 
 
 Is not this to know me? says Yahweh [Jer. 22:15, 16]. 
 
 64. Everyday morals .—That the common people of 
 this century were not wholly bad, notwithstanding the 
 charges brought against them by the prophets, is shown 
 by the record of the honesty and integrity of the work¬ 
 men engaged in the repairing of the temple in 621 b.c. 
 They were intrusted with large sums of money contrib¬ 
 uted by the worshipers for the purchase of materials 
 and the payment of wages. “Howbeit, there was no 
 reckoning made with them of the money that was 
 delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully” 
 (II Kings 22:7). 
 
 65. Utilitarian morals .—The morals of this prophetic 
 group are through and through utilitarian, showing no 
 appreciable change from the prophetic standpoint of 
 
PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 121 
 
 the eighth century (see chap. 4). The constant stress 
 of the prophets is upon the necessity of right conduct as 
 the prerequisite of success and prosperity. Misfortune 
 and disaster are interpreted as convincing evidence of 
 sin. Yahweh punishes wickedness and rewards good¬ 
 ness and piety. Jeremiah says of his contemporaries: 
 
 Neither say they in their hearts: 
 
 Let us now fear Yahweh our God, 
 
 That gives the former rain and the latter rain in due 
 season; 
 
 That keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest. 
 
 Your iniquities have turned away these things, 
 
 And your sins have withholden good from you 
 [Jer. 5:24, 25]. 
 
 The motive urged to re-enforce the appeal to right¬ 
 eousness is that this is the royal road to the divine favor 
 and to the well-being that flows therefrom (Exod. 15:26; 
 20:1 2b; Zeph. 1:17 f.). Zephaniah recognizes the fact 
 that the practical man of his day was a bit skeptical 
 about the direct relation between his economic and 
 political welfare on the one hand and the divine will on 
 the other; and he threatens such men with dire punish¬ 
 ment: 
 
 I will punish those who are at ease, thickened upon their 
 lees; 
 
 Those who say in their hearts, “Yahweh does neither 
 good nor bad”; 
 
 And their substance will become a ruin, and their houses 
 a desolation [Zeph. 1:12 f.]. 
 
 The same point of view is present at the end of the 
 century when the Jews who fled to Egypt worshiped the 
 “Queen of heaven” in defiance of the prophet’s protest. 
 Their argument is that they are but doing what their 
 
122 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 fathers did; and that so long as the “Queen of heaven” 
 was worshiped things went well with them, but that 
 when they ceased worshiping her everything went wrong 
 (Jer. 44:15-19). Therefore, they intend to resume and 
 persist in her worship. Thus prophets and populace 
 alike agree that the aim of worship is to secure results in 
 concrete physical well-being; they differ only as to the 
 means whereby it may be attained. The people argue 
 that Yahweh ought to be content with the forms of wor¬ 
 ship inherited from the fathers and the ethical practices 
 and principles of the past, and finally forsake Yahweh 
 and turn to other gods when the desired prosperity is 
 not forthcoming from him. The prophets explain the 
 lack of prosperity as due to a failure to comply with the 
 demands of Yahweh, which are insistent upon the exercise 
 of justice and mercy. But neither prophets nor people 
 have yet any clear conception of the value of religion and 
 morals apart from the material blessings they are 
 counted upon to bring to the pious. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 66. Deuteronomy .—In this chapter we shall take up 
 the ethical principles and motives of the so-called Deuter- 
 onomic School. This term is applied to the group of 
 writers that produced the Book of Deuteronomy and 
 edited the traditions and prophecies extant in their day 
 from the point of view of the Deuteronomic philosophy 
 of life. Their work will be found in the Book of Deuter¬ 
 onomy, of course, and in editorial elements now incorpo¬ 
 rated not only in the Hexateuch as a whole, and in the 
 Books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, but also in the 
 pre-exilic prophetic writings. The work of this school 
 was done, for the most part, in the early years of the 
 Exile, while Deuteronomy itself came into existence 
 gradually, beginning its development some time between 
 Hezekiah and Josiah and coming to completion during 
 the first half of the Exile. 1 The Deuteronomic Code 
 (Deut., chaps. 12-26 and 28) represents the ideals 
 crystallized into statutes, under which the Jews lived 
 for a century and a half or more of the most troubled 
 period of their history. Much of its legislation was 
 necessarily in abeyance during their absence from 
 Palestine and until the Temple was re-erected in 516 
 B.c. But the Code was not the less recognized as 
 furnishing the ideal standard of practice even though 
 
 1 For a careful study of the origin of the Book of Deuteronomy, 
 see Sir George Adam Smith, The Book of Deuteronomy (Cambridge 
 
 Bible, 1918). 
 
 123 
 
124 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 for the time being it could not be wholly realized. These 
 standards, being incorporated in a code of laws, are not 
 representative of the most advanced thought of their 
 times, but rather of the average man’s morality. As 
 was pointed out in connection with the study of the ethics 
 of the Covenant Code (see pp. 50 f.), the ethics of a code 
 of laws or of individual statutes never comes from the 
 front line of moral progress. Legalized ethics is always 
 the ethics of the average man—especially when the 
 laws in which it is enshrined have to obtain the approval 
 of the group as a whole, as was the case with the Deuter- 
 onomic Code. Of course, the first eleven chapters of 
 the Book of Deuteronomy are not statutory in character, 
 but homiletic; and therefore were not subject to the 
 same limitations in aspiration as the legal part of the 
 book. But the tone of these chapters is not essentially 
 different from that of the Code itself. The same ideals 
 pervade the book, in general, from beginning to end. 1 
 
 In summarizing the ethical principles and practices 
 of Deuteronomy, we shall begin with the moral aspects 
 of the conception of God, pass on to the attitude of Israel 
 toward people of other nations, consider next the laws 
 dealing with the rights of women and family obligations, 
 and follow these with those regarding slavery, treatment 
 of the poor, and the administration of justice. The 
 chapter will close with a consideration of the ethical 
 motive stressed by the Deuteronomists and of their 
 claim to Mosaic origin for this body of law. 
 
 67. The conception of God .—For the ethical element 
 in the conception of God, we might cite the whole book 
 
 1 For an excellent statement on this matter, see Sir George Adam 
 Smith’s Deuteronomy (Cambridge Bible, 1918), especially pp. xci-xciv. 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 125 
 
 of Deuteronomy, since the scheme of the book involves 
 assigning all of its contents to direct and personal 
 divine revelation. But for convenience of treatment 
 we shall confine our study of the morals of Yahweh to 
 the materials relating directly to Yahweh’s own attitudes 
 and activities as reflected in the records. The constant 
 presupposition of Deuteronomy is that Yahweh has 
 chosen Israel as his own people, and that he naturally 
 does all in his power to favor Israel and takes every 
 opportunity to injure Israel’s foes. He gave the Hebrews 
 the land of Canaan and enabled them to take it away 
 forcibly from its previous inhabitants (Deut. 1:20; 
 7:6; 26:18, 19). It is his will to set Israel high above 
 all other peoples (28:1). He does this sort of thing not 
 because of any especial merit on the part of the Hebrews, 
 but on account of the sins of the Canaanites (9:4-6). 
 
 This deprecating of any special love for Israel on 
 Yahweh’s part in giving Canaan to them is probably 
 motivated by a desire to take away from the Hebrew 
 mind any occasion for undue self-esteem and to bring viv¬ 
 idly to consciousness the fact that Yahweh abhors un¬ 
 righteousness, even to the point of exterminating an 
 unrighteous nation. Let Israel itself take heed! In pur¬ 
 suit of this same desire to keep Israel from being too self- 
 satisfied, the Deuteronomists inform Israel that Yahweh’s 
 love for his people is based not upon a special worthiness 
 on their part, but upon his own will so to do. “Yahweh 
 did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because 
 ye were more in number than any people—for ye were 
 the fewest of all peoples—but because Yahweh loved 
 you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore 
 with your fathers, etc.” (Deut. 7:7, 8). Yahweh loved 
 
126 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 you, because he loved you! It is an inexplicable act of 
 divine grace. Because of that unreasoned love, Yahweh 
 will fight Israel’s battles (Deut. i: 30); while on the other 
 hand, he hardened Sihon’s heart that he might destroy 
 him and his people (2:30) and he bade Israel destroy 
 Heshbon of Moab, man, woman, and child (2:31-36). 
 Similar destruction was sent by him upon Og and the 
 people of Bashan (3:1-7). Intermarriage with the 
 Canaanites is forbidden and their complete extermination 
 decreed (7:2, 3). Perpetual hostility toward Ammon 
 and Moab is enjoined (23:3-6), and even the memory of 
 Amalek is to be blotted out (25:19). Vengeance upon 
 certain foes is evidently a virtue in the eyes of Yahweh. 
 Nevertheless, though the Moabites and Ammonites are 
 to be denied admission to the assembly of Yahweh even 
 to the tenth generation, the children of Edom may enter 
 said assembly in the third generation (23:8). This more 
 kindly attitude toward Edom changed in the course of 
 time to a deadly hatred on the part of Israel in response 
 to wrongs heaped upon her by Edom. Yahweh assures 
 Israel that this Deuteronomic law which he gives her 
 is far and away the best law in the world, that no other 
 nation has anything approaching it in righteousness 
 (4:8), even as no other nation has a God so nigh unto 
 them as Yahweh is to his people. 
 
 68. Israel’s duty .—These favors on the part of 
 Yahweh of course involve certain obligations on the part 
 of Israel. She is forbidden the worship of any other 
 God, on pain of the loss of Yahweh’s blessing (13:13- 
 18). Any promoter of such worship must be put to death 
 (13:10). Yahweh’s worship must be kept free from 
 contamination by sexual indulgence in any form (23:18). 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 127 
 
 Vows made to Yahweh must be paid; it is no sin not 
 to vow, but it is unpardonable not to fulfil a vow once 
 made (23:22, 23). The penalty for displeasing Yahweh 
 might be very severe. Because Israel was afraid to 
 trust Yahweh and enter boldly upon the conquest of 
 Palestine when the spies brought back their report, 
 Yahweh was wroth and swore a mighty oath in accord¬ 
 ance with which he kept Israel out of Canaan for a 
 whole generation (1:34 ft.). Not all the pleading of 
 Israel availed anything to change the divine will 
 (1:41-45). Indeed Moses himself fell under the divine 
 wrath on account of the sins of the people (1:37) and 
 was not permitted to enter the promised land (3:26, 27). 
 This is vicarious punishment that accomplished nothing 
 in the way of atonement for the actual sinners or anybody 
 else. But while Moses was involved in the punishment 
 of Israel, he was nevertheless able to dissuade Yahweh 
 from his purpose to destroy Israel completely by appeal¬ 
 ing to Yahweh’s pride (9:i8f., 25 ff.; 10:10). In like 
 manner he succeeded in saving Aaron (9:20 f.). Another 
 interpretation of the forty years in the desert is given 
 in 8:2. There it is said that Yahweh afflicted Israel 
 thus in order that he might thereby test them and so 
 find out whether or not they would keep his command¬ 
 ments. This was a protracted examination of a very 
 human kind. 
 
 69. Family solidarity .—To complete the Deuter- 
 onomic conception of the ethics of Yahweh, we cite one 
 more point of view. In the explanatory material added 
 to the second command of the Decalogue, Yahweh is 
 described as “ visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon 
 the children, upon the third and upon the fourth genera- 
 
128 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 tion of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto 
 thousands of them that love me and keep my command¬ 
 ments” (Exod. 20:5, 6; Deut. 5:9, 10; cf. Exod. 34:7). 
 Here is the old family solidarity clearly recognized. 
 The parent involves his children and children’s children 
 in disaster by his sin, which Yahweh will and must 
 punish. But the mercy of Yahweh extends even further 
 than his wrath. “The intention of the passage is thus 
 to teach that God’s mercy transcends in operation his 
 wrath; in his providence the beneficent consequences 
 of a life of goodness extend indefinitely further than the 
 retribution which is the penalty of persistence in sin.” 1 
 This thought is brought out even more clearly in 7:9 f., 
 where it is supplemented by the statement that Yahweh 
 visits the transgression of the sinner upon his own person. 
 “Know therefore that Yahweh thy God—he is God, 
 the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy with 
 them that love him and keep his commandments to a 
 thousand generations, and repays them that hate him 
 to their face, to destroy them—he will not be slack 
 to him that hates him, he will repay him to his face.” 
 In keeping with this emphasis upon the idea that the 
 sinner will suffer at God’s hand for his sin, is the express 
 precept in the Deuteronomic Code itself to the same 
 effect: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the 
 children, neither shall the children be put to death for 
 the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own 
 sin” (24:16). This emphasis upon individual responsi- 
 
 1 Driver, Exodus , on Exod. 20:6. This intention is brought out 
 more clearly by the translation of the Jewish Publication Society (1917) 
 which runs: “Showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them 
 that love me, etc.” But this rendering calls for a slight change of text. 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 129 
 
 bility as over against family and group solidarity is in 
 such marked contrast to the spirit of the rest of the 
 Deuteronomic Code that it is most easily accounted for 
 as a later element in the Code inspired by the teaching 
 of Ezekiel (see pp. 176 ff.). 1 
 
 70. Attitude toward foreigners .—Turning from the con¬ 
 sideration of the moral element in the idea of God, we 
 take up the ethical principles illustrated in the precepts 
 and statutes controlling man’s relations with his fellows. 
 The attitude toward foreigners is in general that with 
 which we have already become familiar. A sharp 
 distinction is made in favor of the Hebrew as over against 
 the non-Hebrew. Foreigners are not granted any 
 benefits from the operation of the law providing for the 
 release from all debts every seventh year (15:2). The 
 carcass of an animal that dies a natural death may not 
 be eaten by a Hebrew, but he may give it to a “ sojourner” 
 or sell it to a foreigner (14:21). No foreigner may be 
 chosen as King of Israel (17:15). No interest may be 
 charged upon loans to fellow Hebrews, but upon loans 
 to foreigners there is no restriction; the Hebrew may 
 charge them “all the traffic will bear.” 
 
 In war against foreign nations, Israel’s treatment of 
 the foe is to be determined by the geographical location 
 of the enemy. If the foe is a people very near at hand, 
 Israel must show no mercy but inflict total destruction 
 (2o:i6ff.). If the hostile people are farther removed 
 from Hebrew territory, then the treatment accorded 
 them is determined by their own attitude. If they wish 
 to submit to Israel, terms of peace may be drawn up; but 
 
 1 But cf. Sir George Adam Smith on Deut. 24:16 (Cambridge Bible, 
 1918). 
 
130 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 if they are irreconcilable and implacable, they must be 
 smitten by the sword and all their males slain (20: n ff). 
 One regulation regarding war is in striking contrast to 
 the course of proceedings followed by our friends, the 
 enemy, in the late world-war. Fruit trees are not to be 
 destroyed; other kinds of trees may be made use of for 
 military purposes (20:19). 
 
 71. The laws regarding women show practically no 
 advance over those of the Covenant Code (see p. 58). 
 However, in the Deuteronomic edition of the Decalogue, 
 the revised form of the tenth commandment (5:18) 
 puts woman in the first place among the things that may 
 not be coveted, whereas in Exodus 20:17 she had to 
 yield that position of pre-eminence to the house. Most 
 of the regulations regarding women deal with her from 
 the point of view of sex. The low status of family life 
 is seen in the fact that the women of a beaten and 
 destroyed nation are taken over and added to the harems 
 of the conquering Hebrews (21: n ff.). If the conqueror 
 be not pleased with his slave wife, he is required to give 
 her her freedom; he may not sell her, nor treat her as a 
 slave after he has taken her to wife, because he has 
 “humbled her.” This shows some appreciation of the 
 rights and dignity of human personality. In another 
 type of case, however, there is a strange bluntness of 
 feeling revealed. If a man falsely accuses his young 
 wife of not having guarded her virginity prior to her 
 marriage, the evidence shall be exhibited to the public 
 gaze, and the accuser shall not only be whipped and 
 forced to pay his father-in-law a hundred shekels, but 
 he is also compelled to live with the accused wife as long 
 as she lives. All the conditions for a life-long tragedy 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 131 
 
 are thus provided. If the charges of the husband are 
 found to be true, the guilty woman is stoned to death 
 by the men of her city (22:13-21). If a man be caught 
 in adultery with the wife of another man, both offenders 
 are put to death (22:22). If the woman be a betrothed 
 virgin and the offense be committed in a city, both man 
 and woman must die; but if in the open country, the 
 woman goes free. The supposition is that the woman 
 in the country cried out for help, but was not heard; 
 whereas in the city she could have made herself heard 
 if she had wanted to do so (22:23-27). If the woman 
 be an unbetrothed virgin, no harm is done that the man 
 cannot make good—he merely pays fifty shekels of 
 silver as dowry to the girl’s father and she becomes his 
 wife for life (22:28). Sexual intercourse with a wife 
 of one’s father is prohibited in 22:30 and 27:20. This 
 prohibition is absolute and not limited to the father’s 
 lifetime. It is directed against a practice that was 
 quite common in early Israel in accordance with which 
 a son inherited his father’s wives along with the rest 
 of his father’s property. This is a sign of a growing 
 consciousness of the rights of personality as applied to 
 woman and it was a step toward greater stability in 
 family relations. The offspring of certain prohibited 
 unions are denied admission to the congregation of 
 Yahweh (23:2), even to the tenth generation. 1 A 
 divorced wife who is married to another husband may 
 not be remarried to the first husband after the second 
 one has died or has likewise divorced her (24:1-3). 
 The motive of this regulation is not wholly clear, but 
 
 1 The Hebrew word describing such children is mamzer. It occurs 
 again only in Zech. 9:6. Its meaning is wholly uncertain. 
 
13 2 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 it would certainly act as a deterrent upon easy divorce 
 and quick remarriage and would make for greater 
 permanency of the marriage relation. This was a mild 
 check upon the husband’s power, for he seems to have 
 had the initiative in matters of divorce and to have 
 needed only to give the wife a written statement certify¬ 
 ing his release of her and she was left to the mercies of 
 an unsympathetic world. There is no provision in the 
 Deuteronomic law nor in any other Hebrew code for 
 the divorce of a husband by his wife. Such cases did 
 not arise. A woman without a husband was without 
 visible means of support and few women would willingly 
 subject themselves to all that that involved. The purity 
 and integrity of the family tie is guarded by prohibitions 
 against sexual intercourse with a sister or half-sister or 
 one’s mother-in-law (27:22 f.). A newly married husband 
 is exempt for one year after his marriage from all military 
 service and public responsibility that he may be free to 
 “cheer his wife” (24:5). An indelicate woman is 
 drastically punished (25:11 f.). No better proof that a 
 woman is regarded primarily as means rather than as 
 an end in herself can be asked than that which is furnished 
 by the law of Levirate marriage (25:5-10). . If a man 
 dies without a son his brother must marry his widow 
 and the first son of this marriage must be regarded as 
 the dead brother’s child. The widow has no voice in 
 the matter; that she will accept the situation is taken 
 for granted. Public opinion blackens the name of a 
 brother who will not do this favor to the departed brother 
 (cf. Gen., chap. 38). In the early days, this custom had 
 its origin in ancestor-worship, the purpose of such a 
 marriage being to provide the dead husband with an 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 133 
 
 heir whose obligation it was to perform the rites due to 
 his supposititious deceased parent. Deuteronomy, of 
 course, would not countenance such usage; but in the 
 course of the generations this old practice doubtless 
 changed somewhat in significance and came to be 
 associated more consciously with the right of inheritance 
 to a deceased brother’s estate. 1 The duty of a child to 
 honor father and mother is reaffirmed by Deuteronomy 
 and a curse pronounced upon the one who refuses so to 
 do (5:16; 27:16). 
 
 It is quite evident that woman as such had few rights. 
 She was the property of father, brother, or husband and 
 was safeguarded by such laws as would conserve her 
 value as property. But the law gives her no recognition 
 as a citizen and little as an independent personality. 
 She comes to expression and recognition in father, 
 brother, husband, or son. She is a liability economi¬ 
 cally or a commercial asset, as the case may be, according 
 as she is a marketable commodity as a potential bride, 
 or a capable worker as a wife and mother, or worn-out 
 and useless physically, merely a mouth to be fed and a 
 body to be housed and clothed. She is always at the 
 mercy of other people and prospers or otherwise accord¬ 
 ing as they are kind and generous or the reverse. The 
 law affords her little protection against those who have 
 her in their power. Her only armor is her own character 
 and the force of public opinion which acts slowly and not 
 always effectively. It must be remembered, however, 
 that the law as such is always outrun in progress by the 
 best public sentiment and we shall make no mistake if 
 we assume that the women of pre-exilic Israel led fairly 
 
 1 See I. Benzinger, art. “Marriage,” Encyclopaedia Biblica , Vol. III. 
 
THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 x 34 
 
 happy lives and succeeded in obtaining by their own 
 merits much more than the law guaranteed to them. 
 
 72. Parents and children .—We may add here, in 
 order to close up the consideration of matters directly 
 pertaining to the family, two laws regarding children. 
 The first of these (21:15 ff.) provides for the security of 
 the rights of first-born sons; it insists upon such a son’s 
 right to the lion’s share of the inheritance even though 
 he be the child of a wife that is relegated to a second 
 place or lower in her husband’s affections. No other 
 child may be put in the place of the first-born. The 
 element of justice in this, of course, granting the legiti¬ 
 macy of a discrimination in favor of the first-born, 
 as universally recognized in that period, is that the 
 first-born son is shielded against suffering the conse¬ 
 quences of his mother’s misfortune. The second law 
 pertaining to children provides that when a father and 
 mother unite in an appeal to the elders against a glutton¬ 
 ous, drunken, stubborn, or rebellious son, he shall be 
 stoned to death by the men of the city (21:18-21). 
 Such an appeal would, of course, be forthcoming only 
 in very aggravated cases, in view of its serious conse¬ 
 quences. But such a law shows on the one hand the 
 extent to which parental authority went, and on the 
 other the limit placed upon its exercise by public opin¬ 
 ion. If death must be inflicted, it is only in case the 
 community indorses the penalty to the extent of actually 
 participating in its infliction. 
 
 73. Slavery .—The laws as to slaves are few and reflect 
 little advance upon those of the Covenant Code (see 
 pp. 56 ff.). The seventh year manumission for Hebrew 
 slaves is reaffirmed (15:12 ff.) and is supplemented by 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 135 
 
 regulations providing that the owner shall furnish the 
 departing slave with a supply of goods sufficient to 
 sustain him a reasonable time until he gets upon his 
 economic feet. The same privilege of release after six 
 years of service is now extended to the woman slave, 
 as it was not in the Covenant Code. There is no specifica¬ 
 tion of conditions as to husband or children in the case 
 of the woman; she is simply put upon the same basis 
 as the man. Provision is made for perpetual slavery 
 just as in the Covenant Code; I5:i6f. (cf. pp. 56 f.). 
 Slaves are included among those who participate in the 
 jubilation attending the Feast of Weeks and the Feast 
 of Tabernacles (16:11-14). The stealing of Hebrews and 
 selling them into slavery is made a capital crime (24:7), 
 just as in the Covenant Code (see p. 58). A fugitive 
 slave law is in the Code which is in contrast to the 
 Fugitive Slave Law of the United States before the 
 Civil War in that it distinctly provides that in case a 
 slave flees from his master and takes refuge in Israel 
 he must not be delivered over to his former owner 
 (23:15, 16). It is quite clear from the phraseology of 
 this verse that the slave here protected is one, either 
 Hebrew or foreigner, who has been in slavery among some 
 foreign people and has sought refuge and freedom in 
 Israel. Of course, pre-exilic Israel would feel no obliga¬ 
 tion to a foreign nation or individual in such a case to 
 accommodate them by returning the runaway; but 
 it is notable that the language of the law provides for 
 the welfare of the runaway by insisting that he shall 
 not be oppressed (23:16). We have already seen that 
 the contemporaries of Jeremiah in Jerusalem did not 
 live up to the requirements of the manumission of slaves 
 
136 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 in the seventh year (p. 114); so that in this particular 
 case the law was ahead of the public sentiment of the 
 day. However, the days following the reign of Josiah 
 were shadowed by reaction in religion and morals and 
 this disregard of the slave law was part of a general 
 moral relaxation. 
 
 74. The poor and weak .—It is but a short step between 
 slavery and poverty; hence we may naturally consider 
 next the laws designed to protect the poor and weak. 
 This sort of legislation is one of the outstanding fea¬ 
 tures of the Deuteronomic Code. It greatly exceeds in 
 quantity the similar legislation in the Covenant Code 
 (pp. 60 f.); and it shows a solicitude and sympathy for 
 the needy that is of the same type as that of the Cov¬ 
 enant Code, but it is worked out in more detail and is 
 everywhere present. Those who are specifically included 
 within the scope of this legislation are the stranger, the 
 poor, the Levite, the fatherless, and the widow. This 
 humanitarian note first appears in the Deuteronomic 
 version of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue 
 (5:14!.). Whereas, in Exodus 20, the reason for the 
 observance of the Sabbath lies in the fact that Yahweh 
 rested upon the seventh day from all his creative labors, 
 so that man should order his scheme of work likewise, 
 here it is found in the body’s necessity for rest and 
 particularly in the need of rest upon the part of man¬ 
 servant and maidservant. The master’s sensitiveness to 
 this need is quickened by a reference to the slave life of 
 Israel in Egypt in the early days. In similar fashion, Israel 
 is urged to “love” the “stranger,” 1 whom Yahweh loves 
 
 1 The term “stranger” is used in a technical sense to designate 
 non-Israelites who have come under the protection of Israel, and are 
 dependent upon her for their existence. 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 137 
 
 and provides with food and raiment, remembering that 
 they were “strangers” in Egypt (10:17-19). Special 
 attention is called to the need of the Levite who has no 
 property and is dependent upon the generosity of the 
 worshipers (12:12, 19; 14:27). He shares in the tri¬ 
 
 ennial tithe with the stranger, the fatherless, and the 
 widow (14:29; 26:12, 13). 
 
 75. Release of debts .—One of the laws most character¬ 
 istic of the Deuteronomic spirit is that which pertains 
 to the remission of debts every seventh year (15:1-11). 
 The year of release is to be definitely fixed and to be 
 the same all over the land. Well-to-do Hebrews are 
 bidden to loan freely to their needy brethren and to 
 charge no interest upon such loans. Foreigners may be 
 required to pay in terest, but not Hebrews (see also 23:20). 
 If the needy Hebrew has been unable to repay the loan 
 by the time the seventh year comes around, the creditor 
 must wipe the slate clean that the debtor may have a 
 new start unhampered by clinging debts. If the year 
 of release is close at hand, the good Hebrew is charged 
 not to allow that fact to affect his willingness to lend to 
 his brother in need. This is making heavy demands 
 again upon human nature. The lawmaker realizes this 
 and hastens to say, first, that there will be no poor in 
 Israel, if the people will but obey the laws of Yahweh. 
 This, however, he recognizes as a state of society that 
 does not yet exist and so, coming down to hard facts, 
 he declares that “the poor will never cease out of the 
 land” and encourages Israel to take up this apparently 
 unprofitable business of making loans that will probably 
 not be repaid by assuring her that this is the key to the 
 divine favor. Religion is here brought in to re-enforce 
 
138 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 ethics in a very direct way. This same concern for the 
 poor is seen in the prohibition against taking the poor 
 man’s mill or upper millstone as a pledge for the repay¬ 
 ment of a loan; it is his “life” (24:6). Without it, 
 the daily food for the family table could not be prepared. 
 Nor may a widow’s garment be taken in pledge (24:17); 
 and the law of the Covenant Code requiring the return 
 of the poor man’s pledged garment every night that he 
 may be warm while he sleeps is reaffirmed. A bit of 
 delicate consideration for the poor family’s feelings is 
 evinced in the regulation that the creditor shall not follow 
 the debtor into his home to obtain the pledge, but shall 
 wait outside while the pledge is found and brought out 
 to him (24:10-13). A similar appreciation of the 
 necessities and feelings of the poor is manifested in the 
 law requiring masters to pay their servant’s wages at 
 the close of each day’s service (24:14 f.); in this matter 
 Hebrew and “stranger” must be treated alike. Nor 
 may a poor man or woman be unjustly treated in court; 
 the “stranger,” fatherless, and widow are to receive their 
 full rights before the law and not to be denied them in 
 favor of the more powerful and rich (24:17 f.; 27:19). 
 A curse is pronounced upon him who wilfully misleads 
 the blind (27:18). The farmer is instructed not to 
 return to pick up a forgotten sheaf of grain, but to leave 
 it for the “stranger,” the fatherless, and the widow 
 (24:19). In the interest of the welfare of the same 
 needy group, the olive tree must not be too thoroughly 
 beaten, nor the vineyard carefully gleaned (24:20, 21). 
 
 76. Exercise of justice .—Closely related to this care 
 for the poor is the emphasis laid upon the duty of 
 exercising justice. Justice is always primarily the 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 139 
 
 protector of the weak from oppression and robbery at 
 the hands of the strong. This appears in the first 
 reference to justice in Deuteronomy (1:16, 17); the 
 Hebrew judges should be just, having no respect of 
 persons, but treating all classes impartially and fearing 
 nobody, remembering always that in the last analysis 
 the judgment is God’s. Yahweh himself is the just 
 judge par excellence; “he regards not persons, takes no 
 reward [i.e., a bribe], and executes justice” (10:17 f.). 
 This absolute freedom from favoritism on the part of 
 the judges is insisted upon (16:18-20). If any case 
 is too difficult for the regular judges, it should be referred 
 to the priests, who as representatives of Yahweh, the 
 supreme judge, constitute a court of last resort; they 
 obtain the final decision directly from Yahweh by 
 consultation of the oracle (17:8-13). The general 
 principle in accordance with which justice is to be exer¬ 
 cised is that of the lex talionis , “life for life, eye for eye, 
 tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (19:21). 
 In an age when a general standardization of weights 
 and measures was unknown, the temptation to cheat 
 was ever present; consequently all that juggle with 
 their weights and measures are declared to be an abomi¬ 
 nation unto Yahweh (25:13-16). In a case involving 
 capital punishment, great care is taken to insure the 
 accused against false testimony; only if two or more 
 witnesses testify to his guilt may he be put to death; 
 and that the witnesses may not take their responsibility 
 lightly, it is provided that the witnesses themselves shall 
 cast the first stones (17:2-7; cf. 13:9,10). This is in ac¬ 
 cord with the ninth command of the Decalogue (5:20; 
 Exod. 20:16). Each city is made responsible for the pres- 
 
140 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 ervation of law and order in the immediately contiguous 
 territory to a certain extent. If a man be found slain 
 in the open country, expiation of the crime through 
 the killing of a heifer that has not been broken in to 
 work must be made by the elders of that city which was 
 nearest to the spot where the murdered man lay (21:1-9). 
 There is nothing essentially new in this law, nor is there 
 any strictly moral attitude reflected, except in the 
 provision that the nearest town is responsible. It is 
 an old ceremony, probably connected with the fear of 
 wandering spirits, and the principle of community 
 responsibility for such things was of widespread accept¬ 
 ance. 1 Murder is, of course, still prohibited (5:17), 
 and two special types are especially mentioned, viz., 
 secret murder (27:24) and the hiring of assassins (27:25). 
 A distinction is recognized between accidental homicide 
 or killing in self-defense, and deliberate murder, in that 
 cities of refuge are provided to which the slayer may flee 
 and where he may find refuge from the blood-avenger, 
 in case he is not a deliberate murderer. This is a special 
 endeavor to mitigate the law of blood-revenge and shows 
 how implacable that law was, for the innocent slayer 
 is safe only so long as he stays within his asylum, thus 
 being kept indefinitely from his home and business 
 (4:41-43; 19:3-13). If a man’s house lacks a parapet 
 around the roof and someone falls from it and is injured 
 or slain, the owner of the house is held responsible and 
 comes under the operation of the laws for manslaughter, 
 personal injury, etc.; hence it is prescribed that every 
 
 1 Sir George Adam Smith, Deuteronomy, ad loc., calls attention to 
 parallel cases in the code of Hammurabi (§§ 23, 24); Kitab-el-Aghani IX, 
 178, II.25 ff.; Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I, 176; and in modem Palestine. 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 141 
 
 house shall have a balustrade around the roof (22:8). 
 The farmer is protected against the depredations of 
 robbers by a law that forbids the taking of a basket or 
 sack into a neighbor’s vineyard in order to carry away 
 the fruit, or taking a sickle into his grain-field to reap 
 the grain for one’s self (23:24, 25). Allowance is made for 
 the weakness of human nature in that the visitor is 
 allowed to pluck and eat all that he wishes. What a 
 boon this would be to the Negro in his white neighbor’s 
 melon-patch! The removing of landmarks against which 
 the prophets had protested is prohibited in 27:17; 
 this was, of course, a method of increasing one’s own 
 holdings of land at the expense of one’s neighbors. 
 A proper sense of justice is reflected in the decision 
 ascribed to Moses that the Reubenites and Gadites 
 who had been helped by the rest of Israel to obtain their 
 settlements east of the Jordan should cross over and aid 
 their brethren in securing the west of the Jordan for 
 themselves (3:18 ff.). 
 
 77. Influence of prophets .—The increased interest in 
 the poor and weak and the added emphasis upon 
 Yahweh’s demand for justice as compared with the 
 corresponding material in the Covenant Code (pp. 53-61), 
 is evidence of the influence of the preaching of the great 
 prophets upon the public mind. Deuteronomy is a 
 product of the prophetic age and represents a composite 
 of prophetic and priestly materials. In a sense it is a 
 compromise between the two schools of thought. It is 
 an attempt to put the prophetic ideals into legal form 
 and to bring the whole force of the law to their enforce¬ 
 ment. It was a step fraught with great danger, since it 
 opened the way for the substitution of the legalistic 
 
142 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 spirit for the free spirit of prophecy. To put this in 
 another way, it was the beginning of the movement 
 which ended by substituting the authority of the past 
 for the inspiration of the present. It accepted a “thus 
 said Yahweh” in place of a “thus saith Yahweh.” It 
 tended to cause the conscience of the present and its 
 confidence in the validity of its own judgments to become 
 dulled, in that religious and moral decisions must always 
 be determined by the law once delivered in days gone 
 by to the great men who were no longer living and 
 serving. 
 
 Deuteronomy itself marks progress. It definitely 
 and explicitly prohibits human sacrifice, divination, 
 sorcery, soothsaying, enchantments and charms, wizards, 
 and necromancers (18: io ff.). Enlightenment and intel¬ 
 ligence are taking the place of ignorance and superstition. 
 The high ideals of the Covenant Code as to restoring 
 stray animals to their owners and helping unfortunate 
 neighbors to raise a fallen animal are here reaffirmed 
 (22:1-4). Animals even are not wholly disregarded 
 for the master must unmuzzle the ox that tramples 
 upon his grain on the threshing-floor (25:4; cf. 5:14); 
 and while the eggs or young of a bird may be taken 
 from the nest, the dam must be released (22:6, 7). 
 The motive for this latter law, which is given nowhere 
 else, is not clear; whether impelled by economic consider¬ 
 ations or by sympathy, or by superstition is open to 
 question. Mankind is warned against undue self-pride 
 and urged to give credit for his achievements to Yahweh 
 (8:11 ff.). And one aphorism regarding the philosophy 
 of living was thought worthy at a later age, when given 
 a slightly different shade of meaning, to be placed upon 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 143 
 
 the lips of Jesus when lured by Satan in the wilderness, 
 “man does not live upon bread alone; but upon every¬ 
 thing that proceeds from the mouth of Yahweh does man 
 live” (8:3). The thought here is not in a contrast 
 between bread and Yahweh’s word, but rather in the 
 truth that all of man’s subsistence and existence is 
 dependent upon the good will of Yahweh, to whom, there¬ 
 fore, he should be profoundly grateful. While a proper 
 humility before Yahweh is thus inculcated, it must not 
 be forgotten that the individual man as man is possessor 
 of a certain personal worth and dignity that must not 
 be imperiled. Even in the infliction of corporal punish¬ 
 ment, the rights of personality must be respected; 
 and so no man may be given more than forty stripes, 
 for in such a case “thy brother would be dishonored 
 before thy eyes” (25:1-3). 
 
 78. The motive for goodness .—One of the outstanding 
 characteristics of the Deuteronomic ethics is the constant 
 and ever-recurring obtrusion of the motive for goodness. 
 This is the dominant note of the whole book and of the 
 Code itself. The motive is in principle always the same. 
 Whether for nation or for individual, the inducement to 
 keep the law is never lacking. It is urged upon the 
 Israelite at every turn and is so inseparable from the 
 Deuteronomic thought as to constitute an almost 
 infallible test of Deuteronomic editorial activity where- 
 ever it appears. It is phrased in various ways: “Hearken 
 etc. that ye may live ”(4:1); “ that it may go well with 
 thee and with thy children after thee, that thou mayest 
 prolong thy days upon the land” (4:40; 5:16, 29; 
 6:2, 18; 7:12-16; 8:1; 11:8, 9; 11:20 f.; 12:25, 28; 
 16:20; 17:20; 22:7); “Yahweh commanded us to fear 
 
144 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Yahweh for our good always that he might preserve us 
 alive etc.” (6:24); “it shall be our righteousness, if we ob¬ 
 serve to do all this commandment ” (6:25; 24:13). The 
 favor of Yahweh in the bestowal of concrete and material 
 blessings is the reward for virtue and the loss of these 
 blessings is the penalty for disobedience and vice. “It 
 shall come to pass that if you hearken attentively to my 
 commandments .... then I will give the rain of your 
 land in its season, the early and the later rain; and thou 
 shalt gather thy corn and thy new wine and thy oil; and 
 I will give herbage in thy field for thy cattle, and thou shalt 
 eat and be satisfied.” (11:13-15). But on the contrary, if 
 Israel is disobedient, rebellious, and disloyal, then “the 
 anger of Yahweh will burn against you and he will 
 restrain the heavens and there will be no rain and the 
 ground will not yield its increase, and you will perish 
 quickly from upon the goodly land which Yahweh is 
 going to give you” (11:17; cf. 4:25 If.; n: 22 ff., 26 ff.; 
 15:18). It is noteworthy that in the great enumeration 
 of blessings and curses at the close of the book (28:1-68), 
 constituting a list of rewards and punishments for virtues 
 and vices respectively, the list of curses is far more 
 extended than the corresponding list of blessings. It is 
 quite apparent that in the thought of the makers of those 
 lists the motive of fear as a deterrent from evil was looked 
 upon as far more effective than the motive of gain as an 
 incentive toward the good. 
 
 As we have seen in our study of the morals of the 
 prophetic teachings, this motive of reward for piety and 
 punishment for disobedience is characteristic of all the 
 prophets. It was the only practical motive operative 
 with the great mass of the people in pre-exilic Israel, 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 145 
 
 even if, indeed, it is not so with the majority of the human 
 race today. Some appreciation of less tangible aspects 
 of life was slowly developing, but no such idealistic 
 sentiments had achieved sufficient standing to have 
 obtained recognition in the law. It is worthy of note 
 that to a very large extent the laws and precepts of the 
 Deuteronomic Code are without definite and specific 
 penalties, but are dependent upon the support of public 
 sentiment and upon the hopes and fears of the people 
 for their enforcement. That is why there is so much 
 of the hortatory and persuasive element in the Deuter¬ 
 onomic Code. The legislators are appealing to the 
 desires and fears of the people themselves to secure 
 conformity to the law and not to any great extent to 
 any official authority with power to enforce its will as 
 expressed in the letter of the law. This subjective 
 element in Deuteronomy, as also in the prophetic sermons, 
 was one of the great educational influences of pre-exilic 
 Israel tending to develop an enlightened and keenly 
 sensitive conscience, at least in the more spiritually 
 minded members of the Hebrew community. 
 
 79. The claim for Mosaic authorship .—There remains 
 for consideration an aspect of the Deuteronomic legisla¬ 
 tion that has given much concern to many people. The 
 Book of Deuteronomy and the Code it sets forth make 
 the claim of Mosaic origin; the laws were given by 
 Yahweh himself through Moses to the people of Israel 
 (1:1; 4 :1 I 3 f-j 44 f-; 5:1-5; 6:1 f.; 8:1; 10:1-5; 
 11:32; 27:1, et passim). Similar claims are made for 
 the Decalogue in Exodus and the Covenant Code 
 (Exod. 20:1, 22, E; 24:18, E; 32:16, E; 34:1, 27, 28, J; 
 etc.). If there is one thing above all others clearly 
 
146 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 established by historical and literary criticism it is 
 that the Book of Deuteronomy and its Code originated 
 centuries later than the days of Moses. What then 
 shall we say to such claims as are made by the authors ? 
 Are they deliberate lies made with intent to deceive? 
 Before deciding that question, we should consider the 
 attitude of the ancient world to such matters. We 
 have a close parallel in the Code of Hammurabi. Ham¬ 
 murabi reigned in Babylonia from 2123-2081 b.c. In 
 January, 1902, a code of laws promulgated by this 
 king was found by the French expedition at Susa, the 
 capital of ancient Elam, whither it had been carried by an 
 Elamite conqueror of Babylon. Hammurabi’s Code pre¬ 
 supposes the existence of an ancient and highly-developed 
 civilization in Babylon. As we have seen (pp. 49 f.), a 
 code is the last stage in the development of a body of 
 law, and presupposes as the materials for its construction 
 earlier statutes and customs. 1 Hammurabi’s Code was 
 no exception to this rule. We actually have in our hands 
 now the older Sumerian family laws which were taken 
 over by Hammurabi and incorporated in his Code. Some 
 of these laws are almost verbatim duplicates of laws in 
 Hammurabi’s Code and they antedate that Code by 
 centuries. 2 Hammurabi then was but an editor, reviser, 
 
 1 For an excellent statement of this fact, see J. G. Frazer, Folk-Lore 
 in the Old Testament , III (1918), 93 ff. 
 
 2 See A. T. Clay, “A Sumerian Prototype of the Hammurabi Code,” 
 Orientalistische Literatur-Zeitung, XVII (1914), 1 ff., who says, “It is 
 now quite clear from a tablet in the Yale Babylonian Collection not 
 only that the Code of Hammurabi was preceded in point of time by a 
 Sumerian code or codes, as has hitherto been maintained, but also, as 
 has been naturally inferred, that the Babylonian law-giver actually 
 based his laws upon existing codes.” See also A. T. Clay, Miscellaneous 
 Inscriptions in the Yale Babylonian Collections (1915), p. 45- 
 
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL 
 
 147 
 
 codifier of law; he did not originate ab ovo , nor did he 
 receive it straight from the heavens. Yet Hammurabi 
 represents himself on his stele as standing before 
 Shamash, the god of justice, and receiving the law from 
 him. To leave no possibility of our misunderstanding 
 the pictured scene, he distinctly says in the Epilogue 
 to his Code: “Hammurabi, the King of righteousness, 
 to whom Shamash has communicated the laws, am I.” 
 This statement is not a later bit of praise ascribed to the 
 king by distant admirers; it is under his own authority; 
 it is his own claim. It is not necessary to charge either 
 Hammurabi or the authors of the Deuteronomic legisla¬ 
 tion with deliberate fraud; to do so would show a lack 
 of the genuinely historical mind. The explanation is 
 to be found partly in the ancient Weltanschauung , which 
 was through and through religious. Everything good 
 was credited to the activity of the gods. Hammurabi, 
 therefore, would inevitably attribute to the inspiration of 
 the gods any thought that came to him for the betterment 
 of the existing legislation of his land, in whatever form 
 that inspiration might work itself out. Similarly the 
 Hebrews were wholly honest in claiming a divine origin 
 for their laws. It was their perfectly sincere explanation 
 of the genesis of their law. In this they were of the same 
 mind as the ancient world in general. The Cretans at¬ 
 tributed their law to Jupiter, the Spartans derived theirs 
 from Apollo; the Romans claimed that Numa wrote 
 their laws at the dictation of the goddess Egeria; the 
 Etruscans got theirs from the god Tages. 1 Further, in 
 
 1 See de Coulanges, La cite antique (13th ed., 1890), p. 221 (cited by 
 Causse, Les Prophetes d 1 Israel et les Religions de VOrient [1913], p. 71). 
 Strabo (XVI, 2, 38 f.), who was born 63 b . c ., notes the fact that ancient 
 legislators presented their laws as of divine origin. 
 
148 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 regard to the Deuteronomic Code, it must be remembered 
 that this was a body of law in large measure resting 
 upon the past. Much that is in this Code goes back 
 into relatively ancient times. Consequently it required 
 no stretch of the imagination to call it a Mosaic produc¬ 
 tion. There is no sufficient reason to deny the possibility 
 of the origin of some of the customs incarnated in this 
 Code in a period at least as old as that of Moses; and 
 the makers of the Code were not interested in nor 
 equipped for a task of fine historical discrimination. 1 
 Finally, the purpose of the Deuteronomists must be 
 reckoned with. They were not concerned in a task of 
 literary or historical criticism. In their day questions of 
 this sort had not arisen anywhere in the world. Rights 
 of authorship were of no particular value, nor were 
 charges of plagiarism reckoned with. There was no 
 conscience upon such matters. These men were con¬ 
 cerned in putting through a great reform movement 
 which absorbed their whole energy. To render the path 
 of reform less arduous, they laid hold of the old tradition 
 lhat Moses obtained laws from Yahweh at Sinai and they 
 gave their law, which was a combination of old and new 
 legislation, all the prestige that attached to the name of 
 Moses. They had the co-operation of a representative 
 of the prophets in carrying out their plan (II Kings 
 22:14-20). Judged by the standards of their own day, 
 they were wholly within their rights; and no other 
 standards can be properly applied to their acts. 
 
 1 We still speak of Webster's Dictionary though much of its contents 
 came into being after Webster’s day. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 80. The situation of the exiles .—In 597 b.c. and 
 again in 586, the Babylonian army invaded Palestine, 
 defeated the Jews who had revolted against Babylon’s 
 authority, and finally destroyed Jerusalem and carried 
 off the most influential elements of the population into 
 exile in Babylonia. This condition of subjection to 
 Babylon continued till the rise of Persia and the issuance 
 of a decree by Cyrus permitting the exiles to return to 
 the home-land (II Chron. 36:22 f.; Ezra 1:1-4). This 
 catastrophe dealt a fatal blow to the old popular religion 
 which had banked upon Yahweh’s loyalty to his people 
 and had derided the prophets and persecuted them for 
 their predictions of dire disaster. These events had 
 vindicated the prophets at least, and had shown that the 
 smug complacency of the people and their political 
 leaders was without solid foundation. They were left 
 without a program and with faith imperiled. Amid these 
 conditions and in the closing days of the Babylonian 
 supremacy, there lived the prophet whose writings are 
 now found in Isaiah, chapters 40-55. 1 What the prob¬ 
 lems of his day were and how he tried to solve them are 
 clearly shown in his utterances. For the sake of con- 
 
 1 For the considerations that lead to placing these chapters in this 
 period, see S. R. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament 
 (1914), pp. 230-46; G. B. Gray, A Critical Introduction to the Old Testa¬ 
 ment (^13), pp. 184 f.; J. Skinner, The Book of the Prophet Isaiah , 
 chaps, xl-lxvi (Cambridge Bible, 1917), pp. xv-xl; J. A. Bewer, The 
 Literature of the Old Testament (1922), pp. 200-213. 
 
 149 
 
150 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 venience, this prophet is usually distinguished from Isaiah 
 of the eighth century b.c. by being called Deutero-Isaiah. 
 
 Our interest here is in the ethical side of the situation 
 in which Deutero-Isaiah and his contemporaries found 
 themselves. But we must introduce our consideration 
 of that by following the prophet’s general line of thought. 
 The old prophetic teaching that piety is rewarded by 
 prosperity was in desperate need of rehabilitation. The 
 easy explanation that Yahweh was punishing the sinful 
 Israel through the hands of a pagan nation no longer satis¬ 
 fied Jewish minds. As we have already seen (pp, 105 ff.), 
 it had given rise to serious questions in the latter part of 
 the pre-exilic period. The answer given by Habakkuk 
 was not equal to the solution of the problem as it was 
 now formulating itself. This is the task to which 
 Deutero-Isaiah gave himself. A solution of the prob¬ 
 lem was essential if his countrymen were to continue to 
 believe in Yahweh. 
 
 81. The goodness of God .—It is quite evident that 
 many Jews were strongly tempted to forego their faith 
 in Yahweh, as a result of the series of disasters that had 
 befallen them. Were not the gods of the Babylonians 
 the rulers of the universe? Why remain loyal to a 
 powerless deity, who was unable to protect or reward his 
 followers? It is to meet such a state of mind that 
 Deutero-Isaiah gives so much prominence to the power 
 of Yahweh and particularly to his creative energy (see 
 e.g., Isa. 40:12-17, 22-26; 42:5; 43:16). To the same 
 end, he ridicules the idolatry of Babylon, pointing out 
 the futility of idols in masterly manner (see especially 
 Isa. 40:18-20; 44:10-20; and 46:1-7). He also uses 
 the argument from prediction to contrast the greatness 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 151 
 
 of Yahweh with the nothingness of Babylon’s idols 
 (see 41:21-29; 42:9; 43:9, 10, 12; 44:6-8; 48:14). 
 But the people’s thought is that if the prophet’s state¬ 
 ments are true, then Yahweh surely does not love his 
 people, or he has forgotten them (40:27). To this 
 charge the prophet brings a fervent denial, setting up 
 his own firm confidence in the divine goodness in opposi¬ 
 tion to the doubt of the people: 
 
 But Zion said: “Yahweh has forsaken me, 
 
 And the Lord has forgotten me.” 
 
 Can a woman forget her sucking child, 
 
 And not have compassion upon the son of her womb ? 
 
 Even if these should forget, I will not forget thee. 
 
 See—I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; 
 
 Thy walls are constantly before me [Isa. 49:14-16]. 
 
 And again: 
 
 For as a wife forsaken and wounded in spirit, will Yahweh 
 summon thee; 
 
 And a wife wedded in youth—that she should be aban¬ 
 doned! saith thy God. 
 
 For a brief moment I forsook thee, 
 
 But with great tenderness will I gather thee. 
 
 In a little anger, I hid my face from thee for a moment, 
 
 But with unending kindness will I be tender toward thee, 
 
 Says thy vindicator, Yahweh. 
 
 Like the days of Noah is this to me; 
 
 As I swore that the waters of Noah 
 Should never again flood the earth, 
 
 So do I swear that I will not be wroth with thee, 
 
 Nor chide thee. 
 
 For though the mountains depart, 
 
 And the hills remove, 
 
 My kindness shall not depart from thee, 
 
 Nor shall my covenant of peace remove; 
 
 Says Yahweh who loves thee [Isa. 54:6-10]. 
 
152 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 In pursuance of this line of thought, the prophet 
 assures Israel that her sins which were the cause of her 
 distress (42:24; 43:27, 28) have now been punished in 
 full (40:1, 2) and are, indeed, blotted out from Yahweh’s 
 memory (43:25). Not only so, but the new age in which 
 Yahweh’s favor will be gloriously manifested in behalf 
 of his people is already at the door (41:11; 45:8; 46:11- 
 13). The agent of Israel’s deliverance from her foes is 
 even now upon the scene and engaged in his great work. 
 Cyrus, the Persian, was for the prophet the anointed of 
 Yahweh for this tremendous task (41:2-6, 25; 44:28; 
 45:1; 46:11; 48:14, 15). Let Israel gird herself in 
 readiness for the return home (43:14-21; 55:1-5). 
 
 82. The problem of suffering .—There remains, how¬ 
 ever, the difficult fact that Israel has suffered in compari¬ 
 son with other peoples out of all proportion to her sins. 
 The prophet himself seems to admit this in his opening 
 utterance (40:1). Before the people can have any very 
 confident faith in the prophet’s promises or in Yahweh’s 
 goodness toward them, some explanation must be forth¬ 
 coming of the long history of suffering with its terrible 
 climax of disaster amid which they are all now living. 
 If Yahweh loves his people, why has he led them through 
 so bitter an experience ? What a strange manifestation 
 of love! 
 
 Not only the love of Yahweh, but also his righteous¬ 
 ness was at stake. How could a righteous administrator 
 of the universe permit such perversions of right as the fate 
 of Israel to continue indefinitely ? The writer of Isaiah, 
 chapters 40-55, meets this state of mind in two ways. 
 The first attempt at solution of the problem is the reitera¬ 
 tion of the declaration that the new age which is about 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 153 
 
 to dawn, and in which Yahweh will deliver Israel from 
 all foes, will be a glorious manifestation of the righteous¬ 
 ness of Yahweh. The prophet again and again uses the 
 word “ righteousness ” as descriptive of this approaching 
 deliverance. The term “righteousness” is for him 
 almost synonymous with “vindication” and “deliver¬ 
 ance.” It is a usage of the word which is characteristic 
 of this prophet as of no other writer. Nothing could be 
 better proof that the great problem of the thought of 
 the times was that of the righteousness of God. See, 
 for example, such passages as 45:8, 21, 23, especially 
 such words as these in 46:13: 
 
 I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off; 
 
 And my salvation shall not tarry; 
 
 And I will place salvation in Zion 
 
 For Israel my glory. 
 
 But promises for the future, no matter how glowing, 
 cannot wipe out the memory of the past; and no prog¬ 
 ress can be made in winning back the people’s confidence 
 in Yahweh until some satisfactory explanation of past 
 sufferings is forthcoming. It is at this point that 
 Deutero-Isaiah makes his chief contribution to the 
 thought of his day. This contribution is formulated 
 in a series of four oracles commonly known as the Serv¬ 
 ant of Yahweh Songs, viz. (1) Isaiah 42:1-4; (2) 49: 1-6; 
 
 (3) S o; 4 - 9 ; an d (4) 52:13—53 :i2 . 
 
 83. The Servant Songs have given rise to an extensive 
 literature in modern times. Two main questions have 
 been under discussion: (i) are the Songs from the author 
 of the remainder of Isaiah, chapters 40-55, or are they 
 from some other writer ? (2) who is to be understood as 
 representing the servant of Yahweh of whom the Songs 
 
i 54 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 are continually speaking ? We may not take space here 
 for the discussion of these introductory matters, which 
 will be found fully treated in many other places. 1 We 
 shall proceed upon the conviction that the Songs are 
 the product of the same pen that produced Isaiah, 
 chapters 40-55, as a whole, and that the Servant of 
 Yahweh in the Songs, as is clearly the case outside of 
 the Songs, is none other than the nation of Israel as a 
 whole. Sometimes the nation is seen at its worst, but 
 more often it is magnificently idealized and thus sum¬ 
 moned to the achievement of its best. The Servant is 
 positively identified with Israel in 49:3 ; 2 and there is 
 no good reason to question the legitimacy of this identi¬ 
 fication. The statements in the English version of 
 49:5, 6 which seem to rule the nation out as a candidate 
 for recognition as Servant disappear from the text with 
 a better translation, viz.: 
 
 And now, Yahweh, who formed me from the womb to be his 
 servant, says that he will restore Jacob to himself and that Israel 
 
 1 See e.g., for the question of the unity of Isa., chaps. 40-55, B. 
 Duhm, Das Buck Jesaia (3d ed., 1914), pp. xix f.; J. Skinner, The Book 
 of the Prophet Isaiah , chaps, xl-lxvi (Cambridge Bible, 1917), pp. xv- 
 xxxi, and 257-63; K. Marti, Das Buch Jesaja (1900), p. xv; T. K. 
 Cheyne, Introduction to the Book of Isaiah (1895), pp. 237-83; G. B. 
 Gray, A Critical Introduction to the Old Testament (1915), pp. 184-87; 
 S. R. Driver, An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (new 
 edition, 1914), pp. 230-46. For the varying views of the identity of 
 the Servant, see e.g., K. Budde, American Journal of Theology , III 
 (1899), 499 ff.; T. K. Cheyne, art. “Servant of the Lord” (§§ 1-4), 
 Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. IV (1903); A. S. Peake, The Problem of 
 Suffering in the Old Testament (1904), pp. 34-72, 180-93; S. Mowinckel, 
 Der Knecht Jahwds (1921). 
 
 2 The defenders of a personal servant have to drop this verse as a 
 later interpolation. But this is without warrant other than the neces¬ 
 sities of the theory. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 155 
 
 shall be gathered to him—for I shall be honored in the eyes of 
 Yahweh and my God will be my strength—yea, he says, “In view 
 of the fact that thou art my servant, it is too light a thing that I 
 should but raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved 
 of Israel; and so I will give thee as a light of the nations, that my 
 deliverance may be unto the end of the earth.” 
 
 84. The first Song (42:1-4) calls attention to the 
 Servant, sets forth the method of his mission, and states 
 its purpose. He is commissioned of Yahweh to cause 
 “the right” to go forth to the nations from one end of 
 the earth to the other. He is to accomplish this neither 
 by force nor by ordinary methods of publicity. The 
 impression left is that of a rather passive witness to “the 
 right”; he serves to illustrate and illumine “the right” 
 for the whole world. This word, “the right,” is here 
 descriptive of the religion of Yahweh as a whole. It is 
 significant that this term should be used, since by its 
 use attention is focused upon the ethical element in 
 the religion of Yahweh. Yahweh, therefore, is here 
 declaring that it is the mission of the Servant to make 
 the Yahweh-religion known to the world and that this 
 mission will be accomplished without fail. 1 
 
 85. In the second Song (49:1-6), the servant invites 
 the attention of the world to the fact of his divine call 
 and the intention of Yahweh to glorify himself in Israel. 
 He confesses that he has been discouraged at times as 
 he has seen his labor come to naught, but he has sustained 
 
 1 For expressions here applied to the Servant and elsewhere applied 
 to Israel cf. 42:1 and 41:10 (“I uphold”); 41:8 (“I have chosen”); 
 so also 43:20 and 45:4; and 44:3 (“My Spirit upon”). The Greek 
 rendering of the Septuagint inserts in 42:1 the word “Israel” before 
 “My chosen” and the word “Jacob” before “my servant,” showing 
 at least that this was the interpretation given to the servant by the Jews 
 of the second and third centuries b.c. 
 
156 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 himself with the conviction that his vindication and 
 recompense are in Yahweh’s keeping and in due time 
 will be forthcoming. Now, he proudly declares that 
 Yahweh, who destined him of old to be his Servant, will 
 restore him (viz., Israel) to his own land, and not content 
 with that will make him a “light of the nations/’ that 
 the vindication of Israel and Yahweh may extend through 
 the known world. 1 
 
 86. In the third Song (50:4-9), the Servant relates the 
 story of the long period of discipline through which 
 Yahweh has put him and the severe character of that 
 training, to which he submitted uncomplainingly because 
 he had confidence in the goodness of the ultimate purpose 
 of Yahweh. He completes this recital with a challenge 
 to his foes to array themselves against him, assuring them 
 that Yahweh is on his side and that therefore they can 
 do naught but meet with ruin. As the prophet here 
 describes the past attitude of Israel, he is indulging in a 
 bit of imaginative idealism; for in actuality there has 
 rarely been a more persistent and recalcitrant rebel 
 than Israel showed itself to be under foreign domination 
 in the pre-exilic days. But idealization of both past and 
 future was always easy for the prophets and Deutero- 
 Isaiah himself was master of the art. 
 
 87. The Great Song .—In none of the first three songs 
 have we progressed any further in the way of explanation 
 of Israel’s past and present sufferings than the claim that 
 these sufferings were of disciplinary value and that the 
 chastened Israel is to be glorified and made the agent of 
 
 1 For the same personal terms as appear in 49:1 applied to the 
 Servant, cf. 44:2 and 46:3, where they are used in connection with 
 Israel. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 157 
 
 the conversion of the whole world to the religion of 
 Yahweh. It remains for the last song (52:13—53:12) to 
 offer an explanation of the sufferings themselves. This 
 Song is better entitled the Glorified Servant than the 
 Suffering Servant, as is commonly done. In the first 
 stanza (52:13-15), Yahweh calls attention to his Serv¬ 
 ant and foretells that he will attain to exalted glory; 
 that even as his sufferings in days gone by have amazed 
 the world, so in the coming days nations and kings will 
 be stricken dumb with amazement as they shall see 
 unheard of things taking place for his good. 
 
 Behold, my Servant shall prosper; 
 
 He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 
 
 Just as many were amazed at thee— 
 
 So marred was his appearance from that of a man, 
 
 And his form from that of the sons of men— 
 
 Even so shall he startle many nations; 
 
 On account of him kings shall shut their mouths. 
 
 For what was not told them they shall see, 
 
 And what they have not heard they shall discern. 
 
 In the second stanza (53:1-3), the nations themselves 
 are dramatically introduced to express their astonish¬ 
 ment at what they see and hear. It is so entirely con¬ 
 trary to all that anyone could have expected. The past 
 history of the Hebrew nation has been so disastrous that 
 no nation was willing to be associated with so con¬ 
 temptible a people. Indeed so far gone was the nation 
 on its path to ruin that it was given up for dead. 
 
 Who could have believed what we have heard ? 
 
 And the arm of Yahweh—to whom was it revealed ? 
 
 For he grew up before him like a suckling, 
 
 And like a root out of dry ground. 
 
 He had no form nor charm, that we should look upon him, 
 
158 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Nor beauty, that we should covet him; 
 
 Despised was he and abandoned of men, 
 
 A man of pain and familiar with sickness. 
 
 And as one before whom men hide their faces 
 
 He was despised, and we reckoned not with him. 
 
 In the third stanza of the Song (53:4-6), the nations 
 continue speaking and go on to state the interpretation 
 of the past history of Israel’s suffering which they now 
 understand. In remorseful gratitude they declare that 
 the afflictions borne by Israel should rightfully have 
 come upon themselves, and that Israel’s bearing of his 
 punishment has brought deliverance to them. It was 
 the will of Yahweh that Israel should bear the penalty 
 of the sins of the world. 
 
 Verily, our sicknesses he bore, 
 
 And our pains he carried; 
 
 But we regarded him as stricken, 
 
 Smitten of God and afflicted. 
 
 But he was wounded for our transgressions, 
 
 Crushed for our iniquities. 
 
 The chastisement of our welfare was upon him; 
 
 And through his stripes we were healed. 
 
 All we like sheep had gone astray; 
 
 We had turned every one to his own way; 
 
 But Yahweh made to alight upon him, 
 
 The guilt of us all. 
 
 In the fourth stanza (53:7-9), the nations complete 
 their statement. They describe the submissive attitude 
 of the Servant beneath all his afflictions, though he was 
 oppressed and wronged and finally done to death, not¬ 
 withstanding the fact of his innocence and integrity. 
 Death is here, of course, a symbol of the Babylonian 
 captivity which brought the national existence of Israel 
 to an end. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 159 
 
 He was oppressed and he was afflicted, 
 
 But he opened not his mouth. 
 
 Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter; 
 
 And as a ewe is dumb before her shearers, 
 
 Even so he opened not his mouth. 
 
 By oppression and by judgment he was taken away. 1 
 And his generation—who gave it any thought ? 
 
 For he was cut off from the land of the living; 
 
 For our transgressions he was smitten to the death. 2 
 And they made his grave with the wicked, 
 
 And with the rich his tomb; 3 
 Though he had done no violence; 
 
 Nor was there deceit in his mouth. 
 
 In the fifth and last stanza (53:10-12), the prophet 
 takes up the word again only to give place to Yahweh 
 himself, who closes the Song. The stanza reiterates the 
 statement that the suffering of the Servant was God- 
 ordained and for the purpose of saving others from the 
 consequences of their sin. But it goes on to repeat the 
 thought of the opening stanza by announcing the glori¬ 
 fication of the Servant as his reward for having borne 
 the sin of the many. 
 
 Yet it pleased Yahweh to crush him by sickness. 
 
 If his soul would make a guilt-offering, 
 
 He should see his seed, he should prolong his life, 
 
 And the purpose of Yahweh would prosper in his hand. 
 
 Of the travail of his soul he should see and be satisfied. 
 
 Through knowledge of him the righteous one—my 
 Servant—should justify many; 
 
 1 Or by a slight change of text, read with Marti: “deprived of 
 judgment he was taken away.” 
 
 2 This involves slight changes of text which are in part suggested 
 by the Greek version. The Hebrew text as it stands reads, “For the 
 transgression of my people a stroke (was) to him.” 
 
 3 Hebrew = “in his deaths.” 
 
i6o 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 And should carry their iniquities. 
 
 Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, 
 
 And with the strong he shall share spoil, 
 
 Because he bared his soul to the death; 
 
 But he bore the sin of many, 
 
 And interceded for transgressors. 
 
 We may now gather up the contribution of the Serv¬ 
 ant Songs to the solution of the great ethical problem 
 of the Exile: Why has Israel suffered so terribly ? How 
 can Yahweh be considered just, if he has the power to 
 protect his people and yet has failed to take care of 
 them ? 
 
 88 . The solution .—In considering the answer of the 
 Songs it will be noted that the sufferings of the Servant 
 are all in the past. The future holds in store for him 
 nothing but glory. The sufferings have been keen and 
 long drawn out, but they are to yield a “far more exceed¬ 
 ing weight of glory ” in days to come. You have suffered, 
 0 Israel, only that you may have greater joy in the 
 glorious future. Not only so, but this suffering has been 
 of vicarious value. Israel has suffered, not for his own 
 sins; but for the sins of the nations. Yahweh is God 
 of the world and he is a righteous God; therefore sin 
 must always be punished. Unpunished sin is abnormal 
 in a moral universe. Israel has therefore received the 
 punishment due to others. To our modern minds the 
 question immediately presents itself, Wherein is the jus¬ 
 tice of punishing one nation for the sins of other 
 nations? This is precisely the point at which our 
 prophet made his contribution to the ethical thought 
 of his day. The Hebrew world of the Exilic period had 
 grown up amid the conception of group solidarity. That 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 161 
 
 is to say, the individual had not yet come into his full 
 rights; he was reckoned with primarily merely as one 
 of a social group. His identity was lost in that group. 
 The common thought of the times was that the Hebrews 
 of the Exilic period were suffering for the sins of Ma- 
 nasseh’s generation. The group of the Exilic age was the 
 same as the group of that earlier day. Individuals died 
 but the group as such continued to live. Its life was 
 continuous. Hence to punish the group at one point 
 in its history for sins it had committed at another earlier 
 stage was perfectly legitimate to a public mind that 
 focused its attention and interest, not upon the welfare 
 of individuals, but upon the welfare of the group as a 
 whole. Or to punish one section or member of the 
 group for the sins of another section or member was a 
 common procedure. We have seen Israel smitten severely 
 because of the sins of the king. We have seen innocent 
 individuals sharing in the punishment meted out to the 
 guilty, because they belonged to the same family or 
 social group. The prophets were always concerned with 
 the interests of the nation primarily; any attention that 
 they gave to individuals was but secondary and was 
 motivated by the fact that the individual was an im¬ 
 portant factor in the nation. The thinking of Israel 
 had been done for generations largely in terms of 
 solidarity. 1 
 
 The prophet Deutero-Isaiah continued to think in 
 terms of solidarity. His problem was not the welfare of 
 individuals, but the welfare of Israel. But he took a 
 long step forward. He widened the group concept until 
 
 1 See the study of the rise of the sense of personal responsibility in 
 my Prophet and His Problems (1914), chap. vii. 
 
162 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 it was broad enough to include the entire world. He 
 had thought long and earnestly upon the problem of 
 Israel’s suffering. He was continually confronted by the 
 fact that Israel’s fate was inextricably interwrought 
 with the life of the nations round about her. He could 
 not escape, if he had wished to do so, the knowledge that 
 Israel and its neighbors were all bound up in the bundle 
 of life together. Their economic, social, political, mili¬ 
 tary, and religious life was all interpenetrated, each by 
 that of every other state. Not only so, but Deutero- 
 Isaiah and his most enlightened fellow-Hebrews had been 
 forced by the logic of events to accept a monotheistic 
 world. They had made Yahweh the God of the Uni¬ 
 verse. It was not a far cry from this point of view to 
 the position that all men everywhere were the creative 
 offspring of Yahweh. This at once gave them a tie 
 binding all nations together into one great family under 
 the common God and Father. But when that comes to 
 pass, we have a field for the operation of the old principle 
 of solidarity on a world-wide scale. So Deutero-Isaiah 
 proceeded to solve his problem for himself and his 
 contemporaries by giving it a world atmosphere. Israel 
 is but one element in the world family. Yahweh has 
 been punishing her for the sins of other members of 
 the family. This was an extremely bold, yea, a daring 
 step for a prophet to take in those days. The feeling of 
 Israel toward the nations was anything but cordial; it 
 was bitterly resentful and fiercely hostile. For a prophet 
 to ask his people to regard themselves as members of one 
 
 great family with their oppressors and as having suffered 
 
 * 
 
 untold calamities in punishment for the sins of those 
 same oppressors was to challenge incredulity and ridicule, 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE EXILES 
 
 163 
 
 if not deadly opposition. How unacceptable that mes¬ 
 sage was to Deutero-Isaiah’s times and how unintelligible 
 it was is evidenced by the fact that, so far as we have any 
 information, not a single follower of this interpretation 
 was forthcoming among his prophetic contemporaries 
 and successors, and no reference even is made to this 
 substitutionary interpretation of suffering until IV Mac¬ 
 cabees 1:11; 9:29; and 17:21 f. 
 
 That such a world-view was possible to Deutero- 
 Isaiah is shown by the frequency with which he recurs to 
 the conception that Israel’s mission in the world was to 
 make Yahweh known to the nations (see 42:4, 6; 
 45:22, 23; 49:6, 7, 22; 51:4). He can even speak of 
 Cyrus, king of Persia, as Yahweh’s “ Messiah,” “whose 
 right hand I have holden” (45:1). He conceives of the 
 nations as coming from far countries and prostrating 
 themselves before the Jews and acknowledging Yahweh 
 as the only true God (45:14 f.; 54:5; 55:4!.). It is in 
 this connection indeed that he makes a further contri¬ 
 bution to the interpretation of suffering in the Servant 
 Songs themselves. The sufferings of Israel, the Servant, 
 are declared by him not only to have paid the penalty 
 due the nations at large for their sins, but also to have 
 constituted the very means by which the nations are to 
 be brought to a recognition of Yahweh as the true God 
 and to a realization of their own sinfulness. Israel’s 
 sufferings have had not only punitive, but also redemp¬ 
 tive value. It is as the nations behold the exaltation of 
 the Servant which is soon to take place that they will 
 come to a recognition of the real meaning of his sufferings. 
 Realizing this, that Israel was suffering in their place, 
 they will be smitten with shame, contrition, and con- 
 
164 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 fession and thus will be brought into reconciliation 
 with Israel’s God and accept him as their own. 1 
 
 “To transform the conception of substitutionary 
 sacrifice into so sublime an interpretation of the signifi¬ 
 cance of suffering is a spiritual achievement at which the 
 world will ever marvel. To believe that righteous men, 
 by moral transformation through suffering, may in the 
 very moment of seeming defeat and humiliation be 
 actually working out the redemptive purpose of God is 
 to give to the world a transcendent interpretation of the 
 deepest mystery of life. Even what human judgment 
 declares to be a dire affliction serves the purpose of the 
 righteous God, and although it does not cease to be a 
 real evil, it becomes completely moralized.” 2 
 
 1 See also E. D. Burton, J. M. Powis Smith, and G. B. Smith, 
 Biblical Ideas of Atonement (1909), pp. 34-38; and for a more complete 
 presentation of the interpretation here given, see J. M. Powis Smith, 
 “The Ethical Significance of Isaiah, Chapter 53,” Journal of Religion, 
 m (1923), 132-40. 
 
 2 G. B. Smith, in E. D. Burton, J. M. Powis Smith, G. B. Smith, 
 Biblical Ideas of Atonement (1909), p. 279. 
 
PART III 
 
 THE MORALS OF JUDAISM 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 k 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 89. The two sources of information for this chapter 
 are the Book of Ezekiel and the Holiness Code. These 
 two come together naturally, for they were produced 
 at about the same time and they are so alike in spirit 
 and method that they have been regarded by some 
 scholars as the products of one and the same author. 1 In 
 point of chronological sequence, they belong to the period 
 preceding the work of the prophet treated in our last 
 chapter; but they are the first expression of a new 
 spiritual attitude in Israel which continued to exercise a 
 dominant interest all through its later history, while 
 Deutero-Isaiah brought the career of prophecy to a 
 splendid climax and clearly marks the close of a period 
 of creative spiritual vision. 
 
 90. Nature of Judaism .—The new type of thought 
 and feeling introduced by Ezekiel is best known as 
 Judaism. Ezekiel has been aptly entitled the “Father 
 of Judaism.” There are four outstanding character¬ 
 istics of this type of thought. First of all, it is narrow 
 and exclusive. It is intensely particularistic. It is 
 interested in Jews, first, last, and all the time. The 
 broad, catholic spirit of Deutero-Isaiah is wholly want¬ 
 ing. The present world ought to be, and the coming age 
 will be, a Jewish world, with all other peoples existing 
 only for the glory of the Jews and the God of the Jews. 
 
 1 See e.g., Graf, Die geschichtlichen Bucher des alien Testaments 
 (1866), pp. 81-83; Colenso; and Horst, Lev. 17-26 und Hezekiel (1881). 
 
 167 
 
THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 168 
 
 A second aspect of Judaism is its emphasis upon the 
 importance of ritual and its legalistic interpretation of 
 religion. Scarcely anything is left to the spontaneous 
 expression of the free, exuberant spirit. Everything is 
 reduced to ceremonial order and brought into line with 
 legalistic prescription. Almost the entire life-activity of 
 the individual is ultimately brought within the scope of 
 legalistic and ceremonial enactment. Religion and life 
 become a procession of deeds properly performed. 
 Thereby the attempt is made to render the whole of 
 life pleasing to God by keeping out of its area of being 
 everything that is evil and filling it up with innumerable 
 acts of ceremonial and legal piety. By such means is 
 the favor of God secured and freedom from further 
 disaster guaranteed. A third facet of this system reveals 
 its splendidly idealistic disregard for the actual facts of 
 life. Its ideals must be carried through at all costs. 
 Nothing shall stand in their way. This gives a certain 
 air of unreality to much of the content of Judaism. For 
 example, Ezekiel, in arranging the holdings of the tribes 
 in Palestine for the coming Golden Age, gives them each 
 an equal width of territory, descending from the north 
 to the south, regardless of the varying width of the strip 
 of land between the Mediterranean and the desert, and 
 regardless of the fact that some portions would fall in 
 the fertile plain of Esdraelon while others would be made 
 up largely of relatively barren mountain range. He also 
 arbitrarily and daringly introduces a river as taking its 
 rise in the temple mount and making its way down to 
 the Dead Sea, fructifying and vitalizing all that it 
 touches. For such men hard facts give way to lovely 
 dreams. Having seen the disappearance of all chance 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 169 
 
 of achievement of their goal for the nation through 
 natural means, they take refuge in the supernatural. 
 Being freed from the necessity of conforming to the 
 requirements of reality, they give free reign to their 
 imaginations. In dealing with an imaginary world, 
 they ignore the facts of experience and freely create 
 situations and conditions that would be unintelligible in 
 a real world. Cutting loose from reality, they are afloat 
 upon a boundless ocean of fantasy. We read their writ¬ 
 ings not as the reports of mariners returning from the dis¬ 
 covery of new worlds, but as the glowing visions of eager 
 hearts forced to stay at home. The fourth main feature 
 of this Judaistic conception of life was its fondness for 
 eschatological and apocalyptic interpretations of the past, 
 present, and future. In brief, this was an expression of 
 despair as to the possibilities of self-improvement on the 
 part of the human race in general and the Jewish people 
 in particular, and a corresponding dependence upon and 
 hope in the goodness and power of God. All betterment 
 of human society was thought of as coming down from 
 above rather than from the hearts of men. The Judaistic 
 pictures of the future, therefore, abound in the miraculous 
 and the supernatural and involve a complete overthrow 
 of the present world-order and the substitution in its 
 place of a Kingdom of God coming down from heaven. 
 In illustration of this may be cited the lurid description 
 of the gathering of the world-forces under Gog of Magog 
 upon the field of Armageddon and their destruction at 
 the hands of God, the people of God, viz., Israel, having 
 no part in the overthrow other than that of burying the 
 dead and cleaning up the battle-field (Ezek., chaps. 38 
 and 39). A different type of illustration is furnished by 
 
170 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, in which is given a constitution 
 for the government of the coming messianic kingdom. 
 This is a strange mixture of reality and unreality, a 
 moving picture of things more or less as they are, mingled 
 with such things as never were on land or sea. 
 
 91. Ezekiel and his problem .—The progenitor of the 
 Judaistic point of view was the prophet Ezekiel. 1 He 
 was a member of the group of exiles carried to Babylon 
 in 597 b.c. His prophetic activity reached as far as 
 570 at least (cf. 29:17), and perhaps somewhat farther. 
 As a prophet he was confronted by the same problem 
 as his compatriots, the problem to the solution of which 
 Deutero-Isaiah later gave himself, viz., “ Why does Israel 
 suffer ?” This was the overwhelming religious problem 
 of the age. An answer to it must be found if Israel's 
 faith in Yahweh was to be preserved. To this task 
 Ezekiel set himself bravely. His countrymen left be¬ 
 hind in Jerusalem were discouraged and were losing 
 their grip upon Yahweh. They were saying, 
 
 Yahweh sees us not; 
 
 Yahweh has forsaken the land [Ezek. 8:12; 9:9]. 
 
 His fellow-sojourners in Babylon had even more occa¬ 
 sion than those left behind in Jerusalem to doubt 
 Yahweh’s power and justice and they were not slow 
 to give expression to such sentiments. Ezekiel quotes 
 them as saying, with biting irony: 
 
 1 The best commentaries on Ezekiel are: A. B. Davidson and A. W. 
 Streane, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (Cambridge Bible, 1916); W. R. 
 Lofthouse, Ezekiel (New Century Bible, 1909); C. H. Toy, The Book of 
 the Prophet Ezekiel—A New English Translation with Explanatory Notes 
 (1899); R. Kraetzschmar, Das Buch Ezeckiel (1900); A. Bertholet, 
 Das Buch Hesekiel (1897); and J. Herrmann, Ezechielstudien (1908). 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 171 
 
 The fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
 
 And the children’s teeth are set on edge [Ezek. 18:2]! 
 
 And more bluntly, 
 
 The way of Yahweh is not fair [Ezek. 18:25, 29]. 
 
 Ezekiel’s answer to such charges and complaints is 
 direct and forceful. Israel has outdone the nations in 
 her wickedness (5:5-8), and the exile is the well-earned 
 punishment for sin. The sins of the present generation 
 are so heinous that even Sodom, Gomorrah, and Samaria, 
 the outstanding embodiments of evil thus far, cannot 
 compare with Jerusalem in iniquity (16:44-52). There 
 is no need to seek the cause of the suffering in the past; 
 the present is quite equal to the responsibility of furnish¬ 
 ing the reason for Yahweh’s wrath. Ezekiel is tireless 
 in the enumeration and denunciation of the sins of his 
 people. These catalogues of sin include not only ritual¬ 
 istic offenses, but also numerous violations of the moral 
 law, such as murder, oppression of the poor and weak, 
 disrespect toward parents, lewd conduct, adultery, usury, 
 bribery, violation of sexual tabus, talebearing, robbery, 
 and juggling with weights and measures (Ezek. 9:9; 
 11:12; 22:7, 9-12, 29). 
 
 92. Among the more heinous sins of Ezekiel’s list are 
 three that he particularly emphasizes. He charges the 
 prophets of his day with being so far lost to a sense of 
 right that they deliberately prophesy what they know to 
 be lies; and they do it for the purpose of making a living 
 thereby (13:1-23; 22:25!.). In estimating the value 
 of this testimony, allowance must be made for the 
 influence of odium theologicum. Ezekiel and the proph¬ 
 ets he denounces are representatives of opposing 
 points of view. Each declares the other to be in the 
 
172 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 wrong, and, as not infrequently happens, charges of 
 moral laxity fly back and forth. It may well have been 
 that the opponents of Ezekiel were just as honest in 
 their mistaken position as Ezekiel was himself. But that 
 Ezekiel should recognize such sincerity would be asking 
 for greater tolerance and charity than the representatives 
 of that age possessed. A second offense that is held to 
 have been in and of itself a sufficient warrant for the 
 overthrow of Jerusalem is the fact that the graves of 
 the kings were located in immediate proximity to the 
 temple walls (43:7-9). The third great crime is that 
 they have sacrificed their own sons and daughters to 
 foreign gods (16:20; 20:26; 23:39). This horrible 
 
 practice, carried on in the name of religion, and appar¬ 
 ently for a while at least as a regular part of the Yahweh 
 religion itself, aroused Ezekiel’s indignation and met 
 with his unsparing denunciation. 
 
 The inhabitants of Jerusalem who were not trans¬ 
 ported into exile seem to have been even worse than the 
 exiles in Ezekiel’s judgment. He declares that a few 
 survivors will be left from the final destruction of 
 Jerusalem for the purpose of publishing abroad the 
 terrible wickedness of the city; so that the world at large 
 may know that Yahweh did not destroy it without suffi¬ 
 cient warrant (12:16). He goes even further and assures 
 his fellow-exiles that when they shall see the surviving 
 remnant of the population of Jerusalem they will be 
 consoled by the revelation of their moral turpitude for 
 the destruction of the city: 
 
 Behold, therein shall be left a remnant, 
 
 Those brought forth, both sons and daughters. 
 
 Behold, they shall be brought forth unto you; 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 173 
 
 And you will see their way and their doings; 
 
 And you will be consoled over the disaster that I have 
 brought upon Jerusalem, 
 
 All that I have brought upon her; 
 
 For they will console you when you see their way and 
 their doings; 
 
 And you will know that not for nothing have I done all 
 that I have done therein. 
 
 It is the oracle of the Lord Yahweh [14:22, 23]. 
 
 93. The cause of sin .—One of the most interesting 
 points of view in this interesting book of Ezekiel’s is his 
 explanation of the origin of this state of outbreaking sin 
 in Israel. Ezekiel seems to have been a thoroughgoing 
 monotheist. He has no room or function for other 
 responsible agents in the world-order alongside of Yah¬ 
 weh. Other and later writers would have attributed this 
 glaring wickedness to the machinations of Satan. But 
 Ezekiel does not shrink from laying the final responsi¬ 
 bility upon the shoulders of Yahweh himself. He says that 
 Israel had gone so far in iniquity that Yahweh determined 
 to destroy them and to that end gave them wicked statutes 
 and ordinances, the observance of which would give him 
 full moral justification for their destruction. 
 
 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, 
 
 And ordinances whereby they should not live; 
 
 And I polluted them in their own gifts, 
 
 In that they set apart all that openeth the womb, 
 
 That I might destroy them, 
 
 To the end that they might know that I am Yahweh 
 [Ezek. 20:25, 26]. 
 
 Here, as in the story of David’s census in II Samuel 
 24:1, no moral difficulty was felt in making Yahweh 
 incite a people to sin and then punish them drastically 
 
174 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 for that sin. The emphasis is rather upon the necessity 
 of furnishing sufficient justification in the conduct of the 
 people for the fearful punishment they are undergoing. 
 
 94. No vicarious righteousness .—In his denial of 
 what was evidently a popular doctrine, Ezekiel reveals 
 another phase of his ethical system. In 14:12-20, he 
 flatly contradicts the current opinion as to the extent of 
 a good man’s extenuating influence in behalf of his 
 countrymen. There he maintains that God’s purpose 
 to destroy a wicked people can be in no way deflected 
 by the presence among that people of a few righteous 
 individuals. Even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were 
 in such a community they would not avail to save it from 
 punishment; the best they could do would be to save 
 themselves. There is no place for vicarious righteous¬ 
 ness in Ezekiel’s moral program. Here he departs from 
 the standpoint of the narrative regarding the destruction 
 of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham’s plea for those 
 doomed cities; and he would have found it hard to accept 
 Deutero-Isaiah’s interpretation of Israel’s sufferings as 
 redeeming mankind at large (see chap. 7). He is con¬ 
 cerned here with emphasizing the inevitability and 
 completeness of the coming destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 95. Hope for the future .—Though Ezekiel is thus 
 intent upon justifying Yahweh’s punishment of Israel in 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, he is not ready to stop 
 there. He encourages his smitten contemporaries by 
 holding out to them the promise of a glorious future for 
 the survivors of the great chastisement. He first of 
 all takes up the chief nations individually and portrays 
 the destructive overthrow awaiting them each in turn 
 (chaps. 25-32). He particularly points out that this 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 175 
 
 punishment is coming to them because of the way in 
 which they have abused and oppressed the Hebrews 
 (see 28:24; 35:5, 10, 12). He then passes on to a vivid 
 and lurid description of the final overthrow at Armaged¬ 
 don, on the soil of Palestine, of all the foes of Yahweh 
 and of Israel in one great battle wherein all these wicked 
 peoples are destroyed. There is no place in Ezekiel’s 
 scheme of things for foreigners. But with all the for¬ 
 eigners destroyed and the Hebrews themselves reduced 
 to a mere handful, the practical question presents itself 
 as to the available source of supply for the citizenship 
 of the new world-order. To this question, Ezekiel gives 
 a ready answer in chapter 37. He takes refuge in the 
 inscrutable wisdom and inexhaustible resources of Yah¬ 
 weh. In pictorial fashion he says to his people, “You 
 wonder whence the population for the new golden age 
 is coming. But consider now: it is inexplicable to you 
 how Yahweh can bring the dead back to life; and yet we 
 know that he can and does do it. Even so, though we 
 know not how, Yahweh can and will bring to life again 
 our dead nation and restore us to our own land and estab¬ 
 lish us as his people.” For this restored and purified 
 nation, he works out a religious program and constitu¬ 
 tion in chapters 40-48. By living in accordance with 
 its provisions, the future generations of the people of 
 Yahweh will be guaranteed against the repetition of 
 such disasters as have befallen the generation of the 
 Exiles. This is an attempt to legalize and crystallize 
 the old dogma that piety must yield prosperity and sin 
 involve adversity. It goes further than heretofore in 
 that it undertakes to prescribe the course of conduct for 
 the community more definitely and specifically than 
 
176 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 ever before. To live in conformity to the program here 
 outlined is piety, and such a course of life is a guaranty 
 of the divine favor. 
 
 96. Individual responsibility .—Thus far we have been 
 dealing with Ezekiel’s attitude toward the problem of 
 the nation’s suffering and have seen how he sought to 
 justify that suffering on the one hand, and so to clear 
 the reputation of Yahweh; and, on the other hand, how 
 he held out hope to the surviving remnant and thus 
 braced them for endurance of their hard lot until the 
 final deliverance of Israel should come. But the prob¬ 
 lem of individual welfare was also acute and demanded 
 his attention. The rights of personality and the impor¬ 
 tance of the individual in society were but slowly realized 
 in Israel. In the earlier days, social solidarity had made 
 it hard for the individual to find recognition on his own 
 merits. He counted primarily and in many ways only 
 as a member of his group, whether family, tribe, or nation. 
 But certain influences in the developing civilization of 
 Israel were working persistently toward bringing the indi¬ 
 vidual to the fore and, with the tragic experiences of 
 the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of the population to 
 a new habitat, the individual finally came into his own. 1 
 The contemporaries of Ezekiel clearly recognized the 
 rights of the individual; and it is interesting to find 
 Ezekiel driven to the formulation of his doctrine of indi¬ 
 vidual responsibility by a sneer at the old theology that 
 was current at that time: 
 
 The fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
 
 And the children’s teeth are set on edge [Ezek. 18:2!! 
 
 1 For a study of the historical development of the idea of individual re¬ 
 sponsibility before God, see chap, viiin my Prophet and His Problems (1914). 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 177 
 
 This is a protest on the part of the people against the 
 injustice of Yahweh’s course of action: “The way of 
 Yahweh is not fair” (Ezek. 18:25, 29; 33:20). A man 
 ought not to suffer for the conduct of his parents. 
 Ezekiel accepts that proposition fully and works it out 
 in detail. He declares that all souls are equal in the 
 sight of Yahweh, the creator and possessor of all, and 
 that only those who sin are punished (Ezek. 18:4, 20). 
 Yahweh never visits chastisement upon a pious son for 
 his father’s sin nor vice versa; consequently if a man fall 
 into trouble, he should first scrutinize his own conduct to 
 discover the cause of the disaster and not seek to evade 
 responsibility and guilt by placing it upon the shoulders 
 of his parents. 
 
 With the natural enthusiasm of the proponent of a 
 new doctrine, Ezekiel carries his individualistic principle 
 too far. He seems to lay emphasis upon deeds rather 
 than upon character. It is not what a man is that counts 
 so much as what a man does. It is not the general 
 trend and purpose of a man’s life that determines his 
 fate, so much as momentary variations from his normal 
 program (Ezek. 3:16-21; 33:12-20). There is a some¬ 
 what atomistic quality about this point of view; 
 emphasis is laid upon the details of life rather than 
 upon its organic unity. On the other hand, it must 
 be recognized that Ezekiel’s teaching on this matter 
 would tend to stress the importance of persistent con¬ 
 tinuance in well-doing as the only guaranty of uniform 
 prosperity. 
 
 Ezekiel did not fail to apply his conception of the 
 individual’s responsibility before God for his own deeds 
 to the conduct of his own life. He is the first and only 
 
178 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Hebrew, so far as we know, to take the “cure of souls” as 
 a burden upon his own heart. He feels a personal 
 responsibility for the welfare of his contemporaries indi¬ 
 vidually and expects to be called to account for the faith¬ 
 ful discharge of this responsibility. He is a watchman 
 for his fellow-Israelites and will fail in his duty at his 
 own peril (Ezek. 3:16-21; 33: 1-9). He recognizes this 
 as his mission from God, who does everything in his 
 power to save men from sin and its consequences, not 
 desiring that any should perish: 
 
 As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, 
 
 Am I pleased that the wicked should die, 
 
 And not rather that the wicked should turn from his way 
 and live ? 
 
 Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, 
 
 For why will you die, O house of Israel [Ezek. 33:11; 
 cf. 18:23, 32]? 
 
 97. The ideal man .—Ezekiel has not left us in any 
 doubt as to what his ideal of a just and righteous man is. 
 He has put himself upon record on this subject fully 
 and repeatedly (see Ezek. 18:5-20; 22:7, 9-12; 45: 
 9-12; 46:16-18). The moral element in Ezekiel’s 
 requirements is clear and prominent. The good man 
 who shall enjoy Yahweh’s favor must be just and law- 
 abiding, not an adulterer, nor a thief, nor a usurer, nor 
 an oppressor, but one who makes good on his promises 
 and pledges, is generous to the poor and needy, and 
 respects and honors his parents. Similar requirements 
 are laid upon the rulers and particular stress is laid 
 upon the necessity of just weights and measures, the 
 standards for which are expressly indicated. While 
 Ezekiel makes no place for foreigners in his scheme of 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 179 
 
 things, he does provide for the protection of the interests 
 of the “stranger,” i.e., the defenseless foreigner who has 
 forsaken his own people and placed himself under the 
 aegis of Israel and Israel’s God (Ezek. 47:22, 23). 
 
 98. Ritual vs. ethics .—Though Ezekiel gives a large 
 place to the moral element in life, it is nevertheless not 
 a large enough place, because it is not the supreme 
 place. He has lost something of the ethical passion of 
 the earlier prophets. He is content to put ethics and 
 ritual side by side upon the same level. His constitu¬ 
 tion for the messianic state is far more concerned with 
 the necessity of ritualistic regularity than with the 
 demand for moral integrity. Eating “with the blood” 
 is for him a heinous offense to be placed alongside of 
 adultery (33:25, 26). The ritualistic and the moral are 
 coupled together in his catalogue of vices and virtues 
 (Ezek. 18:5-20). Ritual has within itself a wonderful 
 power of expansion. Give it a foot and it will take an ell. 
 Ezekiel let the camel’s nose of ritual into the sanctuary 
 of religion, and ritual ended by occupying nearly the 
 whole structure. The soulless legalism of later Judaism 
 was the direct descendant of Ezekiel’s ritualistic inter¬ 
 pretation of religion. 
 
 99. The new hirth .—In closing our survey of Ezekiel’s 
 contribution to the moral life of his times, one other 
 aspect of his views requires mention. Ezekiel was under 
 no illusions as to the inclinations and purposes of his 
 countrymen. As he contemplated them and looked 
 back upon their history, he came to the conclusion that 
 the hope of Israel lay not in his countrymen, but in God. 
 He could see no likelihood of moral or religious better¬ 
 ment in their unaided efforts. He was thoroughly 
 
i8o 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 pessimistic as to the possibilities of the human spirit in 
 and of itself. But he had an unlimited confidence in 
 Yahweh and in his good purpose for Israel, and he saw 
 that purpose working itself out in the divine regeneration 
 of the Hebrew people. They cannot make themselves 
 good; but Yahweh will do it for them: 
 
 And I will give them one heart, 
 
 And I will put a new spirit within you; 
 
 And I will remove the stony heart out of their flesh, 
 
 And I will give them a heart of flesh; 
 
 That they may walk in my statutes, 
 
 And keep mine ordinances and do them; 
 
 And they shall be my people, 
 
 And I will be their God [Ezek. 11:19, 20; see also 36:25- 
 27; and cf. 18:31]. 
 
 This and the promise of the “new covenant” written in 
 the heart that is found in Jer. 31 ^i-^ 1 are the earliest 
 known expressions of the teaching of the new birth of 
 which Christianity has made such good use. It empha¬ 
 sizes splendidly the profoundly moral principle that true 
 goodness must find its inspiration and motif coming 
 from within and not from without the heart of man. 
 Ezekiel’s Messianic Kingdom is therefore to be composed 
 of Jewish citizens who have been miraculously converted 
 from the passions and purposes of their former selves 
 and given new hearts that shall make them love and 
 long for the ways of righteousness and of God. 
 
 1 Jer. 3 1:31-34 is probably a later addition to the Book of Jeremiah; 
 see the commentaries on Jeremiah by Movers, and Duhm; also Stade, 
 Geschichte des Volkes Israel , I, 643, and Smend, Lehrbuch der Alttesta- 
 mentliche Religionsgeschichte, pp. 239-41; and N. Schmidt, Encyclopaedia 
 Biblica, cols. 934, 2391; but the genuineness of the passage is vigorously 
 maintained by Giesebrecht, Cornill, Peake, L. E. Binns, and W. J. 
 Moulton ( The Expositor [1906], pp. 370 ff.). 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 181 
 
 100. The Holiness Code .—The details of the program 
 of Judaism, especially as it applies to the life of the 
 individual, are worked out in the Holiness Code. 1 This 
 Code appears mainly in Lev. 17-26. 2 It is a codifica¬ 
 tion of customs and laws that in large part had grown up 
 in the generations preceding Ezekiel; but these were 
 newly edited and revised somewhere about Ezekiel’s time; 
 and in its present form the Code reflects essentially the 
 same general conception of religion and life as does the 
 prophet. Its dominant idea is that of holiness, which is 
 the end aimed at in all its enactments. This fact sug¬ 
 gested the name applied to it by modern scholars. The 
 ethical material in this Code is abundant, a fact that 
 makes it stand out in striking contrast with the rest of 
 the priestly law. Our treatment of it, owing to the 
 exigencies of space, must be all too brief and bare. It 
 may be grouped under five categories, (1) the attitude 
 toward woman, (2) the treatment of slaves, (3) protec¬ 
 tion of the weak and poor, (4) the sense of justice, and 
 (5) the ethical motives of the legislation. 
 
 101. Estimate of woman .—It is significant of the 
 relatively low estimate of woman that she comes into 
 consideration almost wholly from the point of view of 
 sexual relations. The only exception is that children 
 are enjoined under penalty of death to refrain from curs¬ 
 ing mother and father and to show them godly fear 
 
 1 This term was first introduced (in its German form, Das Heilig- 
 keitsgesetz) by Ivlostermann, Zeitschrift fur lutherisclie Theologie for 1877, 
 pp. 401 ff. 
 
 2 Other fragments of this code are found according to some inter¬ 
 preters in Exod. 31:13, 14a; Lev. 11:43-45; and Num. 15:37-41. 
 For a careful study and analysis of this code, see Driver, Introduction to 
 the Literature of the Old Testament (1914), pp. 47-59. 
 
182 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 (Lev. 19:3; 20:9). A man may not have two sisters to wife 
 at the same time (Lev. 18:18), a striking departure from 
 the patriarchal practice of earlier times. Nor may a man 
 marry a mother and her daughter at the same time on pen¬ 
 alty of all three being burned together (Lev. 20:14). Such 
 laws presuppose the right of a man to a plurality of wives; 
 they simply restrict the range of his selection somewhat. 
 Adultery is prohibited, the penalty being death for both 
 participants (Lev. 18:20; 20:10). Sodomy and unnat¬ 
 ural lust are punished by death (Lev. 18:22; 20:15, 
 16). Sexual relations are forbidden to a man with his 
 sister, his son’s wife, his father’s wife, his aunts on either 
 side of the family, his brother’s wife, his uncle’s wife, or 
 a menstruating woman (Lev. 20:11, 12, 17-21). Fathers 
 are forbidden to make harlots of their daughters (Lev. 
 19:29); and a priest’s daughter found in such practice is 
 burned (Lev. 21:9). 
 
 102. Slavery does not receive much attention. For¬ 
 eigners and the children of “strangers” may be held in 
 perpetual slavery (Lev. 25:44-46); but all Hebrew 
 slaves must be freed in the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25: 
 8-13). The poor Hebrew who sells himself to a fellow- 
 Hebrew is not to be treated with rigor as a slave and 
 must be fed in the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:39-43, 46). 
 If he sells himself to a “ stranger,” he is to be treated as 
 a hired servant and may be redeemed at any time, either 
 by a kinsman or by himself; and in any case he must 
 be freed in the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:47-55). If a man 
 violates a slave woman that is betrothed, he is not to 
 be slain (she was only a slave!); he merely brings the 
 guilt-offering and is forgiven (Lev. 19:2of.). These reg¬ 
 ulations regarding slaves are very meager and inade- 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 
 
 183 
 
 quate and show little consideration for the rights of 
 slaves as human beings. But the attitude of the times 
 on the subject of slavery, as attested by the conduct of 
 Jeremiah’s contemporary slave-holders toward their 
 slaves, made it very difficult to initiate or enforce legisla¬ 
 tion protecting the slave in any effective way. 
 
 103. The needy classes in Israel were the poverty- 
 stricken, the “ stranger,” the Levite, the defective, the 
 widow, and the fatherless. The last two receive no 
 consideration at the hands of the Holiness Code. The 
 poor-relief measures seem rather haphazard and unme¬ 
 thodical; but the spirit of the law is good. At harvest 
 time, the corners of the field must not be reaped, nor the 
 grain-fields gleaned, nor the vineyards picked clean; 
 the gleanings of all must be left for the poor (Lev. 19:9 f.; 
 23:22). The poor Hebrew must neither be oppressed 
 nor robbed; nor should the wages of a servant be kept 
 overnight (Lev. 19:13). The deaf must not be cursed, 
 nor the blind caused to stumble (Lev. 19:14); for in 
 both cases the victims have no chance to guard them¬ 
 selves against danger. The “stranger” is not to be 
 taken advantage of, but to be treated like a fellow- 
 Hebrew; “thou shalt love him as thyself” (Lev. 19:33, 
 34). The same law should apply to the “stranger” and 
 home-born (Lev. 24:22). Indeed, in urging proper treat¬ 
 ment of the poor Hebrew, the law insists that he shall 
 be treated like a “stranger” (Lev. 25:35-40). Of 
 neither should any interest be taken upon loans of money 
 or food. The financial interest of the Levite is guarded 
 in that his lands are inalienable; and his town property 
 if sold, is subject to a perpetual right of redemption at 
 any time and must return to him or his heirs in the 
 
184 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:29-34). The general and all 
 inclusive principle inculcated is, “Love thy neighbor as 
 thyself” (Lev. 19:18,34). The neighbor here is of course 
 a member of the Hebrew community. It was the task 
 of Stoicism 1 and later Christianity to give to this idea an 
 unlimited scope of application that was not present in 
 the minds of the originators of this precept. 
 
 104. The Code's sense of justice is all pervasive and 
 penetrating. The common vices and crimes are pro¬ 
 hibited, viz., theft, cheating, lying, false swearing, and 
 murder (Lev. 19:11, 12, 13; 24:17-210). The pious 
 Hebrew must not be a talebearer or slanderer (Lev. 
 19:16). 2 The honest business man will not use false 
 weights and measures (Lev. 19:35, 36). A Hebrew who 
 is maimed by his fellow-Hebrews is entitled to the satis¬ 
 faction of seeing his injurer suffer the same injury (Lev. 
 24:19, 20). Yet a Hebrew must not bear grudge against 
 his fellow, hate him secretly, nor take vengeance (Lev. 
 19:17, 18). It is better to speak out the wrath that is 
 within than to cherish it and so “bear sin” because of it. 
 In the administration of justice there must be no dis¬ 
 crimination either in favor of the rich or of the poor. 
 The judge must be absolutely impartial, moved by no 
 considerations aside from justice (Lev. 19:15). 
 
 The regulations regarding the year of Jubilee reckon 
 with the requirements of justice in various details. The 
 main provisions of the institution are (1) that in 
 the fiftieth year all landed property shall return to the 
 
 1 See R. D. Hicks, Stoic and Epicurean. 
 
 2 The phrase in vs. 16, “thou shalt not stand up against the blood 
 of thy neighbor,” probably means “thou shalt not endanger thy neigh¬ 
 bor’s life by false testimony.” See the commentaries, ad loc. 
 
THE PROGRAM OF JUDAISM 185 
 
 families that originally held title to it; (2) that all 
 Hebrew slaves receive their freedom in the year of 
 Jubilee; (3) that all farm lands rest from tillage in the 
 fiftieth year as well as in every seventh year (Lev. 
 25:2-13). This makes it necessary to evaluate prop¬ 
 erty in buying and selling in proportion to the number 
 of years remaining before the Jubilee (Lev. 25:14-16). 
 If a poor man must sell his land, it is the duty of his 
 kinsman to buy it. But if there is no kinsman, the 
 seller is given the right to reclaim his land at any time 
 that he may be able to buy it back. In such a case, 
 the buyer pays on the basis of the number of years 
 remaining before the Jubilee. At the worst, the poor 
 man or his family recovers the property without pur¬ 
 chase in the fiftieth year (Lev. 25:23-28). A house 
 in a walled city may be redeemed only within the first 
 year after the sale and it does not go back to the original 
 owners in the Jubilee, though houses in unwalled villages 
 are treated like farm lands (Lev. 25:29, 34). This shows 
 some recognition of the realities of the complex economic 
 and social life of the large town. A poor Hebrew sold to 
 a “stranger” may be redeemed at any time, account 
 being taken of the time he has still to serve before the 
 Jubilee (Lev. 25:47-55). The most striking proof of 
 the unreality of this legislation in general is the provision 
 made in view of the fact that the regular Sabbatical year 
 and the Jubilee year come in immediate succession. 
 How shall the people live when the land is out of cultiva¬ 
 tion for two years in succession ? The answer is simple 
 beyond belief; the forty-eighth year will produce crops 
 sufficiently abundant to provide sustenance for the 
 remaining two years (Lev. 25:19-22). 
 
i86 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 105. The ethical motives brought to bear in the Holi¬ 
 ness Code are quite tangible and specific. For the most 
 part, it is a case of rewards and punishments. These 
 are listed in chapter 26:3-41. The notable thing about 
 this list is the materialistic character of the considera¬ 
 tions involved and the preponderance of the punish¬ 
 ments over the rewards. The appeal is evidently largely 
 made to the element of fear. This is attested also by 
 a survey of the Code as a whole. The death penalty 
 occurs with appalling frequency (18:29; 20:1-6,9-12, 
 14, 15,17; 18:21-29; 20:27; 22: 35 2 3 :2 9>3°; 24:10-17, 
 21 bj 23). Among the methods of inflicting the death 
 penalty are stoning and burning (20:14, 27; 24:16). 
 The national punishment is exile, which is national 
 death (Lev. 18:26 fL; 20:22). Furthermore, ethics is 
 depreciated, as in Ezekiel, by being put upon the same 
 level with ritual (see e.g., 17:3-16; 23:28 f.; 24:10-16, 
 23). The saving element in the Code is its recognition 
 of the law of love to which attention has already been 
 called (§ 103). If this law had been given full sway, 
 the Holiness Code, with its insistence upon justice, would 
 have been ethically supreme. It is enough praise, how¬ 
 ever, for one Code that it should have formulated one 
 such principle. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 106. The fifth century .—In this chapter we shall deal 
 with the moral conditions and ideals in Judaism during 
 the latter part of the sixth century and the whole of 
 the fifth century b.c. The sources of information for 
 this period are the books of Haggai, Zechariah, chapters 
 1-8, Malachi, Obadiah, Isaiah, chapters 56-66, Zechariah, 
 chapters 9-14, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ruth, and Jonah. These 
 books represent a variety of points of view and deal 
 with many aspects of the situation that confronted 
 Judaism during this period. It was in general a period 
 of disillusionment. The high hopes that had been 
 stimulated and encouraged in every possible way by 
 prophets like Ezekiel and the author of Isaiah, chapters 
 40-55, had failed of fulfilment and the mounting spirits 
 of Jewry were dashed to earth. The exiles had been led 
 to look for a speedy manifestation of the messianic 
 glory and, in so far as they had returned to Palestine, 
 had returned in anticipation of being sharers in the speedy 
 triumph of the coming Messiah. But the Persian mon- 
 archs continued to rule the world. The return to 
 Judah was a painfully slow and long-drawn-out process, 
 being participated in for the most part only by the most 
 idealistic and zealous of the exiles. The practical, 
 business-like members of the exilic group had quickly 
 adjusted themselves to the ways and conditions of their 
 new home in Babylonia and had built themselves into 
 its social and economic life. They had gained a place 
 
 187 
 
i88 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 for themselves and were not any more anxious to leave 
 behind their trade and business in Babylon, in order to 
 start afresh in the broken and ruined life of Canaan, 
 than the Jewish merchants and bankers of the United 
 States are to embrace the opportunity of returning to 
 Palestine today. They were not attracted by the invita¬ 
 tion to announce genuine “ Sacrifice Sales,” and to put up 
 such signs as “Selling Out,” “Going Out of Business.” 
 Furthermore, the exiles of 536 b.c. were for the most 
 part a generation bom in Babylonia; they had never 
 known Jerusalem; it was to them little more than a 
 name with some sentimental associations of a slight and 
 tenuous nature. By reason of these things, a very small 
 number had gone back to Judah. So the population of 
 Jerusalem and Judah was made up of the descendants of 
 the weakest and poorest of the land, whom the 
 Babylonians had not thought it worth while to transport 
 to Babylon, and of a slight sprinkling of enthusiasts 
 who had come back from Babylon and were probably not 
 significant enough either in personal quality or in numbers 
 to effect any great change in the progress of affairs in 
 Judah. Still further, as we learn from Haggai, chapter 1, 
 the crop production in Canaan during these first years of 
 the return was disappointingly inadequate. The outlook, 
 therefore, was gloomy and the hearts of men were low. 
 
 107. The task of Haggai and Zechariah .—Amid such 
 a situation Haggai and Zechariah felt themselves called 
 to the prophetic office in 520 b.c . 1 They were therefore 
 
 1 The best commentaries on Haggai and Zechariah are by H. G. 
 Mitchell (International Critical Commentary, 1912); W. E. Barnes 
 (Cambridge Bible, 1917); George Adam Smith (Expositor’s Bible, 1898); 
 S. R. Driver (Century Bible, 1906); W. Nowack {Hand-Kommentar 
 zum Alten Testament, 3d ed., 1922); K. Marti ( Kurzer Hand-commentar 
 zum Alten Testament, 1904). 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 189 
 
 confronted by the same problem as their predecessors, 
 with its seriousness accentuated by the longer duration 
 of the suffering. “Hope deferred maketh the heart 
 sick.” It was necessary that Haggai and Zechariah 
 should find some explanation for the long delay in the 
 coming of deliverance and prosperity. They must do 
 something to keep alive faith in Yahweh and to maintain 
 unimpaired the old doctrine that prosperity is the reward 
 of piety and disaster is the punishment of sin. To this 
 end they must find sin great enough to account for the 
 continuance of the bitter experience of suffering. Such 
 a sin was forthcoming, according to the judgment of 
 both prophets, in the failure of the Jews to rebuild the 
 ruined temple in Jerusalem (Hag. 1:2-11; Zech. 8:9 ff.). 
 The people responded to this challenge and straightway 
 began the work of reconstruction (Hag. 1:12-15). 
 They are encouraged to persist in this praiseworthy 
 enterprise by glowing promises of a brilliant future 
 (Hag. 2:1-9). The people were too impatient to wait 
 long for results and they grew restless as the hard times 
 continued notwithstanding their activity in temple build¬ 
 ing. The prophet assures them that the messianic 
 age is near at hand with its glory and prosperity and 
 two months later (just three months from the day 
 when the rebuilding was begun) he reasons with them 
 to the effect that they can hardly expect that a few short 
 months of pious work upon the temple should at once 
 
 r 
 
 overcome the effect of the deep-rooted and heinous sin 
 of which they have been guilty (Hag. 2:10-14). But he 
 assures them that the longed-for change will immediately 
 come (Hag. 2:15-19), and that their leader Zerubbabel 
 shall rule over them as messianic prince (Hag. 2:20-23). 
 
190 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 108. The message of Zechariah .—Zechariah was one 
 with Haggai in all his activity and message. He firmly 
 believed that obedience to Yahweh meant success and 
 prosperity and that disobedience was responsible for 
 the punishment and exile of his people. He calls atten¬ 
 tion to the preaching of the great prophets and shows 
 how recent history has verified it (Zech. 1:2-6). He 
 emphasizes the ethical element in the preaching of the 
 former prophets who demanded justice, mercy, com¬ 
 passion, and kindness to the poor (7:8-10); and he 
 insists upon these same virtues as prerequisite to 
 the coming of the Messiah (8:16 f.). He recognizes the 
 need of divine aid to prepare Judah for the coming of 
 the messianic age and so describes in figurative terms 
 the cleansing process that shall purge all wickedness 
 out of the land (Zech. 5:1-11). But the bulk of his 
 preaching is devoted to promises to Jewry and to kindling 
 the hopes of his people to white heat. Prosperity is at 
 hand; the temple will be finished; and Jerusalem is to 
 be rebuilt (Zech. 1:7-17). Foreign foes are to meet 
 with well-merited defeat and destruction and the city 
 of Jerusalem is to overflow with population (Zech. 
 2:1-9). The exiles should return home, for Yahweh is 
 aroused to aid his people and will henceforth dwell with 
 them and protect them, while many nations will join 
 Yahweh and his people and accept their leadership 
 (Zech. 2:10-13; 8:20-23). The iniquity of Judah is 
 pardoned and the long-expected Messiah is near at hand 
 (Zech. 3:1-10). These things are to be brought about 
 not by physical force but by the spiritual power of 
 Yahweh, who through his messianic priest and king will 
 rule over ah (Zech. 4:1-6#, 106, n, 13; and 4:66-10#). 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 I 9 I 
 
 109. The messianic hope .—The most striking thing 
 about the ministry of Haggai and Zechariah is the fact 
 that they regarded Zerubbabel, their own contemporary 
 governor, as the man destined to be the Messiah. They 
 actually went so far as to place the messianic crown 
 upon his head (Zech. 6:9-13). 1 This act shows how 
 genuinely in earnest these prophets were in thei^-preach- 
 ing. They had no doubt about their message. To do 
 a thing like that almost certainly would arouse the 
 antagonism of the Persian government, which would 
 speedily learn of this seditious movement. The result 
 would be fatal to Jewish hopes for the time being. It is 
 perhaps significant that after the preaching of Haggai 
 and Zechariah there was a period of quiescence, generally 
 known as “the sixty years of silence.” 
 
 Zechariah closes his preaching with a picture of the 
 prosperity awaiting Jerusalem in the messianic age. 
 The city will be famous for its truth. Old people will 
 be seen upon its streets. Boys and girls will fill its 
 thoroughfares. Exiles will come flocking to it from all 
 quarters. Whereas prior to the building of the temple 
 there was no peace nor prosperity, now all nature will 
 
 1 Zech. 6:9-13 has undergone some change from its original form. 
 As the text now stands it is Joshua that is crowned. But the passage 
 becomes more intelligible if Zerubbabel be given the crown. With the 
 aid of the Septuagint we may translate vss. n ff. as follows: “Take 
 silver and gold and make a crown and set it upon the head of Zerubbabel; 
 and say unto them, Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Behold a man, whose 
 name is Branch, and he will branch forth from where he stands, and he 
 will build the temple of Yahweh; and he will bear glory; and he will 
 sit upon his throne and rule; and a priest will be at his right hand; and 
 there will be peaceful counsel between the two of them. And the crown 
 shall be for Helem, etc.” The other passages showing that the messianic 
 hope centered in Zerubbabel are Hag. 2:23; Zech. 3:8; 4:6-10. 
 
192 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 combine to bless Judah. The purpose of Yahweh 
 toward his land and people is good, provided they do 
 but love truth and peace. The renown of Judah will 
 become world-wide and people from every nation will 
 seek to attach themselves to her people because of the 
 evidence that God is with them (Zech. 8:1-23). 
 
 no. The prophet Malachi was one of the first to break 
 the sixty years of silence. He spoke about the middle of 
 the fifth century b.c., probably just before the appearance 
 of Nehemiah at Jerusalem. 1 His task was essentially 
 the same as that of his predecessors. He had to explain 
 why Yahweh had so long delayed his coming and he must 
 also revive an almost dead faith in Yahweh and his 
 purpose to bless his nation. The zeal called forth by 
 Haggai and Zechariah had rapidly cooled. The reaction 
 from the enthusiasm that had built the temple was 
 violent. The conditions now were just as forbidding 
 and unpromising as they had ever been. All Judah’s 
 labor and sacrifice were apparently in vain. The people 
 were discouraged and dejected. Many of them were 
 ready to abandon Yahweh just as he had abandoned 
 them. They were saying, what is the use of worshiping 
 Yahweh? It does not pay to be pious. Yahweh has 
 no interest in justice and righteousness. Malachi says, 
 
 You have made Yahweh weary by your statements. 
 
 Yet you say, How have we made him weary ? 
 
 In that you say, Every one that does evil is good in the 
 eyes of Yahweh, and in them he takes pleasure 
 [Mai. 2:17]. 
 
 1 On the date of Malachi, see my commentary in the “ International 
 Critical Series” (1912); Driver (Century Bible, 1906); George Adam Smith 
 (Expositor’s Bible, 1898); Nowack {Handkommentar zum Alten Testament f 
 3d ed., 1922); Marti (Kurzer Hand-commentar zum Alten Testament, 1904); 
 C.H. Comil ^{Introduction to the Canonical Books of the Old Testament , 1907) 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 193 
 
 And again:—“You say, ‘It is useless to serve God, and 
 what profit is it that we have kept his charge and that 
 we have walked in mourning before Yahweh of hosts? 
 And now 1 —we are deeming the arrogant fortunate; 
 yea, the doers of wickedness are built up; yea, they 
 test God and escape’ ” (Mai. 3:14, 15). 
 
 The value of piety is here quite frankly put upon a 
 commercial basis. Piety ought to pay; but it does not 
 pay; why then be pious? Malachi accepts this valua¬ 
 tion of piety. It is his own philosophy of life as much 
 as that of his listeners. He has no other ethical or 
 religious theory or program. This was a terribly hard 
 doctrine to live by in that period. The material and 
 tangible rewards of life were passing Judah by con¬ 
 sistently. But Malachi and similarly minded prophets 
 never thought of changing their theory to fit the facts 
 or of supplementing the theory with any new amend¬ 
 ments or modifications. Malachi fell back upon two 
 old methods of meeting the problem, the same methods 
 that Haggai and Zechariah had employed. 
 
 hi. The argument of Malachi .—Malachi first cleared 
 out of the way the charge that Yahweh did not love his 
 people. His method of refutation is noteworthy. He 
 brings forward as the most convincing proof possible of 
 Yahweh’s love the fact that Edom has recently suffered 
 a terrible disaster. This, of course, reveals the state of 
 mind of Judah toward her Eastern neighbor. She hates 
 Edom with a deadly hatred. If Yahweh has brought 
 Edom low, what better evidence could Judah desire of 
 his love for herself? Does he not hate Edom even as 
 she does ? Is he not therefore Judah’s friend ? The 
 treatment of Judah by Edom at the time of Judah’s 
 
194 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 great disaster furnished the ground for this spirit of 
 revenge. Precisely the same attitude is taken in the 
 little Book of Obadiah, where the cause is explicitly stated 
 (Obad. io ff.), and a soul-satisfying revenge is assured 
 to Judah (vss. 15-18). In Isaiah, chapter 63, Edom 
 is looked upon in the same way and a paean of triumph 
 is lifted up over her anticipated overthrow. A bitterness 
 of spirit like that cannot be kept in an air-tight compart¬ 
 ment; it spreads over the whole personality and more 
 or less vitiates the whole being. 
 
 But if Yahweh really loves his people, why does he 
 permit her to suffer so long and so terribly? What a 
 strange sort of love that is! To this Malachi rejoins 
 that the sins of Judah have abundantly justified all the 
 harsh treatment she has received and is still receiving. 
 Prosperity is the reward of piety, not of wickedness. 
 Judah has not honored Yahweh (1:6). Her priests 
 have failed in the discharge of their duties; they have 
 been careless and indifferent in the conduct of the 
 ritual; and they have shown favoritism in the adminis¬ 
 tration of the law (2:2-9). I n addition to these ritual¬ 
 istic offenses, Malachi denounces with deep feeling the 
 sin of divorce (Mai. 2:10-16). This was apparently a 
 quite common practice then as now. Malachi empha¬ 
 sizes two aspects of it as radically wrong: first, the fact 
 that Hebrew women who had been married in their youth 
 were cast off when old and helpless and left to shift for 
 themselves. The tears and cries of these deserted women 
 come up before God and drown out all the appeals of 
 sinful Judah. Second, Jewish men are marrying foreign 
 women. It may well be that the divorces were often 
 preparatory to such new alliances. These marriages 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 195 
 
 are an unpardonable offense in Yahweh’s eyes. The 
 blood of Judah and the religion of Yahweh should be kept 
 pure, free from contamination with alien and corrupting 
 influences. 1 Malachi’s opposition to divorce is therefore 
 based on two grounds; it is both religiously and ethically 
 wrong. This is the only outspoken and clear condemna¬ 
 tion of divorce per se in the Old Testament. 2 
 
 The sin of Judah being so blatant, a process of puri¬ 
 fication must be gone through with before there can 
 be any restoration of prosperity. To this end Yahweh 
 is coming in judgment to cleanse Judah, ‘Tike a refiner’s 
 fire and fuller’s soap.” This purificatory work will start 
 at the temple with the priesthood, but it will extend 
 throughout the population and will purge away all 
 moral wrongs. These are listed as sorcery, adultery, 
 perjury, and oppression of the poor and weak (Mai. 
 3:1-6). Special emphasis is laid upon the necessity of 
 paying the tithes (3:7-11). Yahweh can hardly be 
 expected to pour out blessings upon his people when 
 they are remiss and delinquent in their obligations to 
 
 1 Malachi’s denunciation of the marriage of foreign wives is treated 
 by C. C. Torrey (Journal of Biblical Literature, XVII [1898], 1-15), as 
 an attack upon the evils of apostasy from the religion of Yahweh to a 
 foreign cult. See my commentary, ad loc. 
 
 2 In early Israel divorce was the exclusive privilege of the husband 
 and was permissible on slight provocation. The Deuteronomic law 
 (24:1 ff.) put certain obstacles in the way in that it required a written 
 statement (= a bill of divorcement) to be given the wife by the husband 
 and it prohibited the remarriage of the divorced woman to the first 
 husband in case she should have married again and been made a widow 
 again by death or by divorce. Divorce was absolutely denied in two 
 cases: (1) when a man had been forced to marry a virgin whom he had 
 seduced (Deut. 22:29) and ( 2 ) when a husband had slandered his newly 
 married wife (Deut. 22:19). These were ameliorating provisions; but 
 the initiative in divorce always remained with the husband. 
 
196 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 him. If they perform their moral and religious duty to 
 the full, Yahweh will not fail to reward them abundantly. 
 
 112. The final word of Malachi, as of his immediate 
 predecessors, was a promise of the dawn of the new age. 
 It is significant of his point of view that he describes 
 this as the rising of the “sun of righteousness with heal¬ 
 ing in its wings” (Mai. 4:2). The word “righteousness” 
 here as in Isaiah, chapters 40-55, has the special mean¬ 
 ing of “vindication.” The content of the term is clearly 
 indicated in the context (3:16—4:3). There is to be a day 
 of judgment at the opening of the messianic era. The 
 good and the bad are to receive their respective dues. The 
 good will be granted a blessed triumph over the wicked, 
 whose overthrow is depicted as extermination by fire and 
 as being trampled under foot of the righteous. This is 
 Malachi’s method of justifying the ways of God to man. 1 
 
 113. The same two fundamental notes appear in Isaiah, 
 chapters 56—66. 2 These chapters come from the same 
 period in general as Malachi, though they are probably 
 not all from the same time or the same author. The 
 problem treated is still the same. And the prophetic 
 diagnosis is the same. The delay in the manifestation 
 of Yah welds favor and the consequent continuation of 
 the period of suffering find justification in the sins of 
 Judah. A dark picture is painted of contemporary 
 
 1 The reference to the “wings” of the sun recalls the fact that the 
 common symbol of the sun and the sun-god in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, 
 and Persia was a winged disk. The same symbolism apparently pene¬ 
 trated into Judah. 
 
 2 On the reasons for placing these chapters in this general period, see 
 the commentaries of O. C. Whitehouse, Isaiah , II (Century Bible, 1908), 
 225-38; J. Skinner (Cambridge Bible, 1917); G. W. Wade (Westminster 
 Commentaries, 1911); B. T)ahm(Handkommentar zum Alten Testament , 3d 
 ed., 1914); K. Marti ( Kurzer Hand-commentar zum Alten Testament, 1904). 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 197 
 
 conditions. The rulers of Judah are blind and dumb; 
 they have no insight into the situation; they are fatu¬ 
 ously optimistic and careless of tomorrow; they are a 
 prey to laziness, greed, and sensuousness (Isa. 56:10-12). 
 Nobody heeds the fact that the righteous are perishing 
 or recognizes that they are better off dead than alive 
 (Isa. 57:1, 2). Sorcery, harlotry, and adultery are rife; 
 falsehood is universal; and children are being offered 
 up as sacrificial victims (Isa. 57:3-5). Murder, theft, 
 evil-speaking, and perjury are the order of the day 
 (Isa. 59:3-8). There seems to be no faithful administra¬ 
 tion of justice or regard for truth; iniquity stalks abroad 
 unrebuked (Isa. 59:9-15). And yet the very men who 
 do these things are most scrupulous in their outer 
 conformity to the claims of religion (Isa. 58:2 f.). 
 
 This period of moral chaos and evil is at an end. 
 The Messianic age is at the door. Let Judah prepare 
 itself for the coming day (Isa. 56:1). The prerequisites 
 of the messianic kingdom are compounded of ritualistic 
 and moral elements. Justice and righteousness are 
 indispensable (Isa. 60:17, 18, 21; 61:8). So also is 
 the observance of the Sabbath (Isa. 56:2; 58:13). 
 
 Humility of spirit and a contrite heart insure Yahweh’s 
 abiding presence (Isa. 57:15). The pious will do away 
 with all forms of oppression, feed the hungry, house the 
 homeless poor, and clothe the naked. This is real religion 
 (Isa. 58:3-10). The doing of such things will insure a 
 glorious future. 
 
 114. The attitude toward the non-Jewish people is not 
 unified. In chapter 56 there is a remarkable breadth 
 of spirit shown, an all-inclusive charity. Even aliens 
 and eunuchs are welcomed into the fellowship of Yah- 
 
198 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 weh’s worship and assured that they shall not be dis¬ 
 criminated against (Isa. 56:3 ff.), while of the temple 
 it is said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer 
 for all peoples” (Isa. 56:7). 
 
 On the other hand there is a Jewish prejudice against 
 foreigners that rises into a bitter hatred in chapter 
 63. Yahweh is about to repay fury to his adversaries 
 occupying the islands of the sea (Isa. 59:18). The 
 nation that will not serve Israel shall utterly perish 
 (Isa. 60:12). The nations will honor Yah weh’s people 
 and come flocking to them from every quarter, ready to 
 minister unto their needs in every way. The children 
 of Judah’s oppressors will come cringing before the Jews 
 (Isa. 60:14-16); and strangers will cultivate their fields 
 and herd their flocks (Isa. 61:5). The future Israel, 
 after all the wicked and apostate element has been 
 purged out of her (Isa. 65:8-12), is to be crowned with 
 every blessing. These rewards are of a very tangible 
 sort. They include abundance of food and drink, joy of 
 heart, long life, permanent possession of their habita¬ 
 tion, and universal peace extending even to the animal 
 world (Isa. 65:14-25). The wealth of the world shall 
 flow into the lap of Judah (Isa. 66:12). Piety brings 
 prosperity with a vengeance. The spiritual and the ma¬ 
 terial worlds are closely interrelated and the ethical and 
 ritual aspects of religion are equally important (Isa. 
 56:2). We are still on Ezekiel’s platform. 
 
 115. Zechariah , chapters9-14 , marks no advance in eth¬ 
 ical theory or practice. 1 It perpetuates the bitter spirit 
 
 1 For the date of these chapters, see H. G. Mitchell {International 
 Critical Commentary , 1912); K. Marti, Das Dodekapropheton (1904); 
 W. Nowack, Die kleine Propheten (3d ed., 1922). 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 199 
 
 of the past toward foreigners. It comforts Judah by 
 promising her vengeance upon Tyre, Sidon, Syria, and 
 Philistia (Zech. 9:1-8). All her enemies are to be 
 overthrown by Yahweh (Zech. 12:1-9). The nations 
 that survive will come up to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to 
 worship and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If they 
 should fail to come, the heavens would withhold rain 
 from their fields, except that in Egypt, which has no rain, 
 a failure of the Nile will bring about the punitive famine 
 (Zech. 14:16-19). There is not a trace of the generous 
 spirit of Deutero-Isaiah and Isaiah, chapter 56. 
 
 116. Nehemiah? s reform .—At this point we may well 
 consider the moral element in Nehemiah’s reform move¬ 
 ment. This movement is described in the Books of 
 Ezra and Nehemiah. These books as they stand are 
 the work of the Chronicler, the same editorial hand that 
 gave us the Books of Chronicles. But the nature of the 
 original reform spirit is fairly obvious, notwithstanding 
 the Chronicler’s handling of the narrative. 1 Nehemiah 
 was a pious Jew who held the high office of the king’s 
 cupbearer at the Persian court (Neh. 1:11). His soul 
 was troubled by the tidings that came to him from 
 Judah of the bad state of affairs existing there. There¬ 
 fore, he obtained leave of absence from the king and went 
 to Jerusalem in person to see what could be done. He 
 found the walls of the city still lying in ruins, though 
 nearly a century had passed since Cyrus had issued 
 
 1 For the discussion of the literary problem of Ezra and Nehemiah, 
 see the standard Introductions by Driver, Gray, Cornill, Bewer, and 
 Steuernagel, and the commentaries of L. W. Batten (“International 
 Critical Series,” 1913); A. Bertholet, Die Biicher Esra und Nehemiah 
 (1902); C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies (1910); T, Witton Davies (Century 
 Bible, 1914); H. E. Ryle (Cambridge Bible, 1893). 
 
200 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 his decree permitting the exiles to return home if they 
 would. Not only so but the city population was pitiably 
 reduced and the Jews were currying favor with their 
 neighbors from Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Samaria, 
 and Arabian tribes to the detriment of their own spiritual 
 welfare. Nehemiah set himself at once to the task of 
 organizing the population for the work of rebuilding the 
 city walls, a task which he finally completed in the face 
 of all sorts of difficulties and opposition. Then it 
 became necessary to provide an adequate population 
 for the occupation and defense of the city; and this was 
 accomplished by drafting members of the rural popula¬ 
 tion for this service (Neh. ii:i, 2). A further step in 
 this reconstruction program was the prohibition of 
 marriages between the Jewish population and its various 
 neighbors (Neh. 10:30; 13:23-27). This was of course 
 a very radical step, giving rise to much bitterness of 
 spirit, especially as it involved the breaking-up of 
 families already constituted upon an interclan basis. 
 But the spirit that lay behind the reform was indomit¬ 
 able. It insisted upon a pure-blooded Jewry and it was 
 equally strenuous upon the necessity of a pure Yahweh 
 cultus. In this program, the narrow, particularistic, 
 exclusive attitude was fastened upon Judaism; and all 
 approach to a sympathetic appreciation of the good in 
 non-Jewish systems and peoples was cut off. The Jew 
 became officially narrow minded. 
 
 117. Wrongs righted .—While this program of activi¬ 
 ties was being carried through by Nehemiah, certain 
 wrongs were being righted. In Neh. 5:1-13, we read 
 that the common people engaged in the work of 
 reconstruction made loud protest against their treatment 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 201 
 
 by the rich. The lands of the poor and even their persons 
 were being seized for debts overdue, the failure to pay 
 being in part, at least, due to the fact that the debtors 
 were engaged in work for the public welfare and so were 
 neglecting their own interests. Nehemiah was able to 
 prevail upon the rich to forego their rights in view of the 
 circumstances. Still further, the regular remission of debts 
 in the seventh year was re-established and all trading upon 
 the Sabbath was prohibited (Neh. 10:31; 13:19-22). 
 
 118. Nehemiah?s personal conduct during this period 
 of reconstruction, the first stage of which extended over 
 twelve years, was of a most public-spirited kind. He 
 devoted himself with unremitting zeal to the public 
 good. He spared neither time, labor, nor money. He 
 puts on record the fact that he refrained from using the 
 public funds that were at his lawful disposal as governor 
 for the upkeep of his establishment, because of his desire 
 to lighten the burdens of taxation upon the public as 
 much as possible. Therefore, he spent his own money 
 and that freely, keeping a hospitable table at which a 
 large number of people were fed freely (Neh. 5:14-19). 
 It is interesting to note that Nehemiah expected all of 
 his generosity and good works to be counted to his 
 credit upon God’s ledger. Every now and again he 
 inserts a brief prayer to God that none of this merit 
 may be overlooked (Neh. 5:19; 6:14; 13:22, 29, 31). 
 He firmly believes that piety deserves prosperity and 
 he keeps careful account of his deserts. 
 
 119. The tale of Ruth .—The anti-foreign, narrow, 
 exclusive spirit seen in Isaiah, chapter 63, in Zechariah, 
 chapters 9-14, and coming to its own in the positive 
 program of Nehemiah, did not achieve its victory 
 
202 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 without protest. The broad, generous spirit of Isaiah, 
 chapters 40-55, was not a lone voice crying in the wilder¬ 
 ness. There were spiritual successors and heirs of this 
 great soul. Two of these are represented in the Books 
 of Ruth and Jonah. These books are most easily 
 accounted for as campaign documents put forth in an 
 effort to check the progress of the particularistic and 
 intolerant spirit that won out in Nehemiah’s reform. 
 In any case, they reveal an attitude of universality that 
 is in striking contrast to the prevailing spirit of the fifth 
 century b.c. In the story of Ruth, 1 the universalistic 
 point of view appears clearly and in a prominent way. 
 Ruth, the heroine, is a Moabitish woman and that fact 
 is not allowed to escape notice (Ruth 1:4, 22; 2:2, 6, 
 11, 21; 4:5, 10). Her attitude toward her Jewish 
 widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, is from a Jewish point 
 of view simply ideal. She steadfastly refuses to forsake 
 her and identifies herself with her even to the extent of 
 adopting her God (Ruth 1:16, 17). Not only so but 
 she is diligent in looking after her own and her mother- 
 in-law’s material welfare, and to that end goes out to 
 glean in the harvest fields (Ruth 2:2ff.). She follows 
 Naomi’s admonitions faithfully in every particular and 
 wins for her husband the rich land-owner Boaz. To 
 this union was born a boy who became the grandfather 
 of David (Ruth 4:17). Thus Ruth, the Moabitess, was 
 ancestress of the great king; and yet the Jews would 
 prohibit and penalize such marriages! 
 
 1 The best commentaries on Ruth are: G. A. Cooke (Cambridge 
 Bible, 1913); K. Budde ( Kurzer HayuL-commentar zum Alien Testament , 
 1897); and W. Nowack ( Handkommentar zum Alten Testament, 1900). 
 See also the standard Introductions of Driver, Gray, Comill, Bewer, and 
 Steuemagel. 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 203 
 
 120. The Book of Jonah 1 is even more outspoken in 
 support of an attitude of broad sympathy and all- 
 embracing love for all peoples. It would not exclude 
 even the most abhorred of Israel’s foes from the circle 
 of influence of God’s mercy. The story centers around 
 the name of a prophet who lived in the eighth century b.c. 
 and prophesied good things for the army of Jeroboam II 
 (II Kings 14:25). This prophet is here represented as 
 having heard the voice of God bidding him to go to 
 Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and preach what God 
 shall direct him to say. Upon the receipt of this mission 
 Jonah straightway turned his back upon Nineveh, went 
 aboard a ship at Joppa, paid his fare, lay down in a 
 remote recess and fell asleep through sheer exhaustion, 
 probably due to the haste of his flight from duty. There¬ 
 upon Yahweh sent a violent storm upon the sea so that 
 the ship was like to sink. The sailors first of all, panic- 
 stricken, pray to their various gods; then they set them¬ 
 selves to lightening the ship; but to no avail, and the 
 storm increases in fury. Hereupon the captain discovers 
 the sleeping Jonah, arouses him, and urges him to pray to 
 his God. Jonah tells why this terrible storm has arisen 
 and bids the crew to throw him overboard that the sea 
 may become calm. This is the only bit of generosity 
 attributed to Jonah throughout the tale. The alien 
 sailors are not willing to sacrifice even a Jew in this way, 
 and they strive strenuously to bring the ship back to 
 land, but without success. Then they take Jonah at 
 his word and hurl him into the sea, with many misgivings, 
 
 1 The best commentaries on Jonah are: J. A. Bewer (. International 
 Critical Commentary, 1912); George Adam Smith (Expositor’s Bible, 
 1898); W. Nowack {Handkommentar zum Alien Testament, 3d ed., 1922); 
 K. Marti {Kurzer Hand-commentar zum Alien Testament, 1904). 
 
204 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 and the sea at once ceases its violence. This scene ends 
 with the pagan sailors acknowledging the power of the 
 Hebrew God, offering sacrifices, and making vows to 
 Yahweh to be paid when they get ashore. So these 
 foreigners appear in much better light than the Hebrew 
 Jonah thus far (Jonah 1:1-16). 
 
 Meantime Jonah has been swallowed by a huge fish, 1 
 which Yahweh had prepared and brought ready to the 
 spot. In the interior of this fish Jonah comes to his 
 senses, and prays to Yahweh. Thereupon, the fish 
 takes him ashore, where he is once more bidden to go 
 and preach to Nineveh. This time he obeys and travels 
 to that city, where he goes up and down the streets 
 proclaiming the destruction of the city within forty days. 
 The entire city betakes itself to mourning and fasting, 
 from the king upon his throne to the very animals in 
 the streets, all alike being clothed in sackcloth. This 
 is an expression of their repentant desire to placate 
 Yahweh and escape his just wrath. The second scene 
 thus closes with the heathen city turning from the error 
 of its ways and seeking the true God, the God of Israel. 
 (Jonah 2:1—3:9). 
 
 The cry of the city was heeded by God and he 
 refrained from carrying out his fell purpose. But Jonah 
 was exceedingly angry at this turn of affairs and up¬ 
 braided Yahweh, saying that he had suspected this from 
 the start and therefore had been unwilling to undertake 
 the mission. What is life worth to a discredited prophet ? 
 
 1 The Hebrew says nothing about a whale; it is rather “a great 
 fish,” made by Yahweh for the especial purpose of housing Jonah and 
 transporting him to land. The size of a whale’s throat is therefore not 
 an element that needs to be considered from any point of view. 
 
THE RETURN TO REALITY 
 
 205 
 
 Jonah then went out of the city and sat himself down 
 sullenly to see what Yahweh might yet do to the city. 
 But the terrific heat of the tropical sun beat down upon 
 his head, and so the good God prepared a gourd which 
 came up over night and furnished grateful shade and 
 protection. But no sooner did Jonah begin to enjoy 
 the relief thus provided than God prepared a worm which 
 killed the gourd. To make matters worse, God prepared 
 a sultry sirocco-like east wind, which, together with the 
 blazing sun, made life intolerable. To Jonah’s protest 
 and lament, Yahweh replied: 
 
 Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou has not 
 laboured, neither didst thou make it grow, which came up in a 
 night, and perished in a night; and should not I have pity upon 
 Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than one hundred 
 and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their 
 right hand and their left hand, 1 and also much cattle [Jonah 
 3:10-4:11]? 
 
 There is no possible answer but an affirmative to 
 such a question, from any broad human point of view. 
 It boldly challenges one to deny that the heart of God 
 is at least as merciful and tender as that of a normal man. 
 Will the good God treat his children with less considera¬ 
 tion than an earthly father ? It puts all human beings 
 alike upon the same level as objects of the divine care. 
 It refuses to discriminate against any people in an 
 inhuman way. The story is an allegory with a very 
 direct bearing upon the problems of the latter part of 
 the fifth century in Judah. Jonah represents the 
 narrow-minded, nationalistic Israel that prior to the Exile 
 had failed in performing its God-given function in the 
 
 1 These are, of course, very young infants. 
 
206 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 world. Then they were thrown into captivity and exile 
 until they came to some realization of their shortcomings 
 in the sight of Yahweh. They had been given another 
 chance after the Exile to make the riches of Yahweh’s 
 grace known to humanity at large. But they had done 
 this, if at all, in a reluctant and half-hearted, indeed a 
 sullen spirit. Now when they ought to be acting as 
 missionaries to the whole world, they are putting up 
 barriers between themselves and that world and striving 
 to exclude the latter from all contact with Jewry and 
 knowledge of the ways of the true God. The book is a 
 plea for a wide-open Jewry, for a breadth of spirit which 
 shall recognize all men as children of God. It is a protest 
 against the exclusive and partisan spirit which tempo¬ 
 rarily prevailed. It is a worthy successor to and heir 
 of the spirit of the great unknown prophet of the Exile. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 
 
 121. The Assouan papyri .—In the years 1904 to 
 1907, the interest of the world of biblical scholarship 
 was kept agog by news of discoveries of Aramaic papyri 
 on the island of Elephantine in the River Nile. This 
 island lies just opposite the town of Assuan which is on 
 the east bank of the river. The island and town are set 
 right at the foot of the First Cataract. The distance by 
 rail from Alexandria to Assuan is 680 miles. At this fron¬ 
 tier port of the Persian Empire there was stationed the 
 Jewish garrison whose members wrote these Aramaic doc¬ 
 uments and left them for our learning. 1 These Jews had 
 been there probably since the seventh century b.c., for the 
 letters inform us that when Cambyses invaded Egypt in 
 525 b.c. he had left the Jewish temple in Assuan un¬ 
 harmed. But a temple as elaborate as the one at Assuan 
 would not have been erected at once by a new colony; it 
 presupposes the possession of considerable wealth and an 
 assured feeling of continuity of residence in the community. 
 
 These Aramaic documents are of inestimable value 
 for historical purposes. They are contemporary writings 
 
 1 These papyri have been published by various scholars: e.g., A. H. 
 Sayce and A. E. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri Discovered at Assuan (1906); 
 A. Ungnad, Aramaische Papyrus aus Elephantine (1911). The standard 
 text is that of Eduard Sachau, Aramaische Papyrus und Ostraka aus 
 einer judischen Militar-Kolonie zu Elephantine (1911). The best English 
 translation is by Martin Sprengling, in the American Journal of Theology, 
 XXI (1917), 411 ff.; XXII (1918), 34 ff. The citations of the papyri 
 in this chapter follow the numbering given them in Dr. Sprengling’s 
 rendering. For those not yet translated by Sprengling, the numbers of 
 Sachau’s publication are employed. 
 
 207 
 
208 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 by Jews of the fifth century b.c. They are furthermore 
 representatives of the most trustworthy type of docu¬ 
 ment in that they are in large part private letters and 
 business contracts. They are therefore writings that 
 are uncolored by any motive external to their main 
 purpose and they have escaped all processes of editing 
 at later hands which would have deprived us of much 
 of their real value. They represent the actual practice 
 and thought of the Jews of the fifth century b.c. We 
 deal in them with actual facts of the experience of that 
 period and not with theories of later minds about that 
 period. They give us the point of view of the common 
 folk of the period and an insight into the social and 
 economic world of that day as they themselves saw it. 
 In this connection, we must not forget that these colonists 
 were mercenaries in the Persian army. They were 
 professional, hired soldiers. They were not prophets, 
 poets or priests; they were members of the masses. The 
 rank and file of a professional army does not represent 
 the highest ideals, nor the practice of perfection. But 
 common folk as they were, they were profoundly religious 
 and spared no pains nor cost in the pursuit of their 
 religious rights and the support of their temple with its 
 ordinances. 
 
 122. The Old Testament an incomplete record .—The 
 papyri make clear what was already evident to the 
 student, viz., that the Old Testament does not aim to 
 be a complete record of the fife of Israel. It is but a 
 fragment of the literary product of that life. Even its 
 codes of law are not complete; they leave whole areas of 
 life’s activities unprovided with regulations. There was 
 a large amount of law and ritual that lay outside of the 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 209 
 
 codes as they appear in the Old Testament. The Old 
 Testament legislation is to a great extent theoretical 
 and idealistic. These letters and contracts from Assuan 
 show us life and conduct as it actually was. If we could 
 have this kind of a supplementary literature to the entire 
 Old Testament, furnishing us with concrete illustrative 
 material for the entire period covered by the Old Testa¬ 
 ment, it would cause the rewriting of all our his¬ 
 tories of Hebrew life and thought. 
 
 123. Babylonian influence .—These papyri show the 
 perpetuation and persistence of Babylonian influence 
 upon Hebrew and Persian life in the fifth century b.c. 
 Business and commerce are carried on according to 
 Babylonian methods. Every transaction is recorded 
 upon a contract and filed away for future reference. 
 Into this contract are written all the details of the 
 transaction with great care and the whole matter is 
 attested by the signatures of witnesses. This kind of 
 procedure was in the interests of justice. It militated 
 against false claims and deliberate misinterpretation of 
 terms. Everything was put plainly in writing. It shows 
 a recognition of the necessity of truthfulness and honest 
 dealing in business affairs. True it is also an evidence 
 that dishonesty and lying were a common enough thing 
 to have made this means of self-protection necessary in 
 
 1 
 
 the commercial world. It is also a safeguard against the 
 misunderstandings due to fallible memories. 
 
 124. A typical contract is here given, providing for 
 the ownership and use of what appears to have been 
 a wall between two houses: 1 
 
 1 This translation is essentially that of my colleague, Dr. Martin 
 Sprengling, as given in American Journal of Theology, XXII (1918), 371-75. 
 
210 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 On the 18th of Elul, that is the 28th day of Pachons, 1 the 
 15th year of Xerxes the king, 2 Qoniah, the son of Zadok, an 
 Aramaean of Assuan, belonging to the colors of Warizath, spoke 
 to Mahseiah, the son of Jedoniah, an Aramaean of Assuan, belong¬ 
 ing to the colors of Warizath, as follows: I came to thee and thou 
 didst give me the gateway of thy house to build one buttress- 
 wall [?] there. That buttress-wall [?] which is attached to my 
 house at its corner which is toward the south shall be thine. 
 That buttress-wall [ ?] shall adjoin the side of my house from the 
 ground upwards, from the corner of my house which is toward 
 the south as far as the house of Zechariah. Neither tomorrow 
 nor any later day shall I have power to restrain thee from building 
 upon [or above] this thy buttress-wall [?]. If I should restrain 
 thee, I will pay thee the sum of ten shekels by the King’s weights, 
 pure silver, and that buttress-wall [ ?] shall be thine nevertheless. 
 And if Qoniah should die, neither tomorrow nor on any later day 
 shall son or daughter, brother or sister, near or distant relative, 
 trooper or civilian, have power to restrain Mahseiah or any 
 descendant of his from building upon [or above] that buttress- 
 wall [ ?] of his. Whoever shall restrain any one of them shall pay 
 to him the sum which is written above, and the buttress-wall [ ?] 
 shall be thine nevertheless, and thou shalt have full power to 
 build upon [or above] it upwards, and I Qoniah shall not have 
 the right to say to Mahseiah as follows: That gateway is not 
 thine and thou shall not go forth [by it] into the street which is 
 between us and the house of Pftu-neit, the sailor. If I should 
 restrain thee, I will pay thee the sum which is written above, 
 and thou shalt have full power to open that gateway and to go 
 forth [by it] into the street which is between us. 
 
 Pelatiah the son of Ahio has written this deed at the dictation 
 of Qoniah. The witnesses thereto: 
 
 witness Mahseiah, the son of Isaiah; 
 
 witness, Satibarzanes, the son of-; 
 
 witness, Shemaiah, the son of Hosea; 
 witness, Pharataphernes, the son of Artaphernes; 
 
 1 The date is given first according to the Hebrew calendar and then 
 by the Persian calendar; it represents Sept. 12th. 
 
 2 1.e., 471 b.c. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 211 
 
 witness, Baga-data, the son of Nabu-Kudurri; Nabu-li, the 
 son of Drgmn; witness, Bubis, the son of Rehemre; witness, 
 Shalom, the son of Hoshaiah. 
 
 This document shows almost as much meticulous 
 care and attention to the possibilities that may arise 
 as does a modern legal instrument. 
 
 125. Attitude toward non-Jews .—Turning to the direct 
 and positive statements of the papyri themselves, con¬ 
 taining as they do the personal testimony of real Jews, 
 let us begin by observing their relations with non-Jews. 
 It will at once appear that under the circumstances 
 conditioning their existence the exclusive nationalistic 
 attitude of the triumphant party in Jerusalem was 
 impracticable in Elephantine and Assuan. The colonists 
 were in the pay of the Persian government and subject 
 at every turn to its orders. Their contact with the non- 
 Jewish community was constant and continuous. They 
 conducted business with Persians and Egyptians freely 
 and without repugnance. Nor did the exchange of 
 goods end the communication between the Jews and the 
 non-Jews. The two groups gave informal hostages 
 each to the other for good behavior, in that intermarriage 
 of Jews and non-Jews was more or less practiced. The 
 variation between the names of children and their fathers 
 is best accounted for in this way. 1 There is at least one 
 case in which a Jew has a wife with a non-Jewish name. 2 
 
 1 E.g., in Papyrus 1, lines 3 and 22, the Jewish Hananiah has a son 
 
 with the name Esp., which can hardly be the beginning of a 
 
 Jewish name; in 15, line 19, appears Hada-Nuri; in 15, line 105, Mega- 
 phemes; in 18, line 5, Hanan son of Pa-Khnum; and the names as a 
 whole in 18 are a mixture of Jewish and Egyptian. 
 
 2 In Papyrus 13, line 3. Hosea the Jew has a wife called “ ’Srsut,” 
 which is clearly non-Jewish. 
 
212 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 There is one foreigner whom they hate to the utter¬ 
 most, viz., Widarnag, who as a former military governor 
 of Assuan had complied with the request of the priests of 
 the Egyptian god Khnum and had totally destroyed the 
 Jewish temple in Assuan. This shows a bitter hostility 
 between the Jews and the Egyptian priests, which was 
 quite natural, almost inevitable, in view of the racial 
 and religious differences between the two groups. But 
 Widarnag is the chief offender and is spoken of in no 
 uncertain terms: 
 
 In the month of Tammuz, the 14th year of Darius the king, 1 
 when Arsham had departed and gone with the King, the shavelings 
 of the god Khnum who are in Yeb the fortress, 2 made a plot with 
 Widarnag, who was military governor here, to wit: Let the temple 
 of Yahu the god which is in Yeb, the fortress, be removed thence. 
 Then that Widarnag, the accursed [ ?], sent a letter unto Napayan, 
 his son, who was commander at Assuan the fortress, as follows: 
 The Temple which is in Yeb the fortress shall be destroyed. 
 Thereupon Napayan led forth the Egyptians and other troops; 
 they came to the fortress of Yeb with their implements; they 
 entered into that temple; they razed it to the ground. 
 
 But when this had happened we with our wives and children 
 put on sackcloth and fasted and prayed to Yahu, the lord of 
 heaven: Show us that cur Widarnag with his anklets wrenched 
 from his feet and bereft of all his possessions, and all the men who 
 sought evil against that temple slain, so that we may look upon 
 theirs [dead bodies]. 
 
 This reminds us of the vindictiveness of the Impreca¬ 
 tory Psalms; but the provocation was exceedingly great. 
 
 126. Bribery and deceit .—As the subjects and 
 employees of a foreign master, it may be taken for 
 
 1 That is in June-July, 410 b.c. 
 
 2 This is the name of Elephantine in the papyri. 
 
 s From the translation of Dr. Martin Sprengling in American 
 Journal of Theology , XXI (1917), 437 f. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 213 
 
 granted that there would be occasion for resort to bribery 
 and sycophancy for the attainment of coveted ends; and 
 there is clear evidence that this sort of thing was actually 
 done. In the letter sent by the priests of the Assuan 
 temple to Bagoas, the governor, from which the passage 
 quoted above was taken, Bagoas is not only assured 
 that if he will use his influence with the Egyptian officials 
 to bring about the restoration of the temple he shall 
 receive merit in the presence of Yahu greater in amount 
 “than that of the man who offers burnt-offerings and 
 sacrifices of more than 1000 talents in value,” but it is 
 also intimated that a substantial quid pro quo will be 
 likewise forthcoming. 1 In Papyrus n, we read that as 
 the Egyptians had given a bribe the Jews likewise had 
 had to resort to counter bribery. In Papyrus 12, we 
 are informed that the Jews gave to some official 1000 
 measures of barley for the restoration of their temple 
 worship. A necessary resort to such underground 
 methods for obtaining even perfectly proper ends besets 
 the whole moral life of a community with peril. 
 
 127. Women seem on the whole to have had more 
 liberty of action than the legislation considered thus far 
 would allow. In part, at least, they had the same civil 
 rights as men. They could subscribe in their own names 
 to the support of the local temple of Yahu, as appears 
 from the names in the subscription list given in Papyrus 
 15. They could make gifts of money in their own right. 2 
 
 1 See Papyrus 8, line 28, which reads, “and as for the gold, con¬ 
 cerning this we have sent information”; that is, of course, in some more 
 private way. 
 
 2 Sachau, No. 35. Numbers preceded by “Sachau” are from 
 Sachau’s standard edition cited on p. 207. 
 
214 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 They could even borrow money in their own names giv¬ 
 ing such security as was satisfactory. In one case 
 this security was in the shape of a mortgage upon real 
 estate owned by the debtor. 1 They could buy, sell, and 
 mortgage real estate freely. 2 Marriage was arranged 
 by the father of the bride; 3 but the dowry was paid by 
 the husband to the bride. 4 
 
 One of the most startling revelations of these papyri 
 is the fact that Yahu, their God, was provided with a 
 female consort. Two subordinate deities are mentioned 
 in such a way as to leave no doubt of their relationship. 
 In a list of gifts to the local temple made apparently in 
 419 b.c. and bearing the heading: “These are the names 
 of the Jewish army who gave money for Yahu the god, 
 man for man, the sum of two shekels,” there appears 
 this summary: 
 
 Therein to Yahu, 12 Keresh, 6 shekels. 
 
 To Ashimath-Bethel, 7 Keresh, 
 
 To Anath-Bethel, 12 Keresh. 
 
 The second name is not certainly a feminine proper 
 name; it may equally well be masculine. But the third 
 is unquestionably feminine. We find the same goddess 
 referred to again as “Anath-Yahu” in another papyrus. 5 
 Thus Yahu, whom the Old Testament knows as Yahweh, 
 is brought into immediate association not only with 
 subordinate deities, but with a female deity. 6 This 
 
 1 Sachau, No. 30. 
 
 2 Sachau, Nos. 31 and 32. 
 
 3 Sachau, No. 39. 4 Sachau, No. 37. s Sachau, No. 32 (?). 
 
 6 A similar composite deity is known to have been worshiped in 
 early Moab under the name “Ashtar-Chemosh”; see Moabite stone, line 
 17, as published by Bennett, The Moabite Stone (1911), pp. 31-51 f. 
 The Phoenicians also worshiped a composite male and female deity, 
 named Atargatis. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 215 
 
 speaks volumes as to the character of the Yahu-worship 
 in Assuan. Not only so, but it makes us take more 
 seriously the reference to sensuous rites at the temple in 
 Jerusalem (II Kings 23:7) and the protest of the women, 
 in Jeremiah, chapter 52, against being forbidden to wor¬ 
 ship the Queen of heaven as their predecessors had done. 
 The presence of the sex-element in religion has always and 
 everywhere proved contaminating. This revelation from 
 Assuan leads us to take more literally what the earlier 
 prophets had had to say about adultery and harlotry. 
 To a greater extent than has been generally supposed, this 
 language has to be taken literally, instead of figuratively, 
 as has hitherto been the case. On the other hand, the 
 attribution of deity, though of an inferior degree, to a 
 female, would to some extent at least put the conception 
 of womanhood upon a somewhat higher scale. 
 
 128. The attitude of the colony toward justice and its 
 ways of conserving the interests of justice are well 
 illustrated in these papyri. Attention has already been 
 called to the stress laid upon the careful preparation of 
 written records of all important transactions of a busi¬ 
 ness character and the care taken to put witnesses of the 
 bargain on record. Further, after a contract was made, 
 it was a legal offense punishable by heavy fines for any¬ 
 one to dispute the rights therein established. Two sis¬ 
 ters exchange a plot of land that has been awarded to 
 them by the king’s judge and by the commander of the 
 army for some real estate held by a third woman. If 
 anybody disputes the right to the plot they have handed 
 over he shall pay seven keres damages. 1 Similarly when 
 
 1 Sachau, No. 31; similarly also in Sachau, No. 32 recording the pur¬ 
 chase of property by a woman. 
 
2l6 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 one person makes a gift to another the matter is recorded 
 and the giver binds himself under penalty never to ask 
 the return of the gift. A woman presenting some money 
 to her sister guarantees the sister perpetual possession 
 of the gift and agrees to pay two keres to the sister if she 
 ever asks the return of the gift. 1 A man and woman 
 bind themselves in similar fashion never to ask back a 
 gift made to others in a spirit of love. 2 Such measures 
 did not, however, put a stop to suits for the recovery of 
 property alleged to be wrongfully held. One papyrus 
 seems to be the record of such a claim, in that a man 
 impugns another’s right to the possession of a she-ass. 3 
 It is significant of the force of the God-idea in practical 
 life that in several cases an oath before God is accepted 
 as settling a question at issue in a legal dispute. 4 The 
 fear of punishment at the hands of an outraged deity 
 was evidently strong enough to keep men from false 
 swearing. One man charges another with having broken 
 into his home and stolen money, doing violence to his 
 wife in the process, and he cites him before the tribunal 
 of God and makes him take an oath of purgation in the 
 presence of four witnesses. A refusal to do so would of 
 course be treated as a confession of guilt. In another 
 case a contract for the purchase of fish is made binding 
 by an oath before God. Yet in one case a simple IOU, 
 or promise to pay, is accepted as satisfactory. A 
 husband promised to pay his wife by a certain date the 
 balance due her on a pre-nuptial marriage contract. 5 
 
 1 Sachau, No. 35. 3 Sachau, No. 36; similarly in Sachau, No. 38. 
 
 3 Sachau, No. 33. 
 
 4 See Sachau, Nos. 27, 28, 34; and Sayce-Cowley, B 4, F 5. 
 
 s No. 14. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 217 
 
 The fact that this transaction fell within the limits of 
 the family probably made a great difference. 
 
 One document seems to contain fragments of an 
 appeal from the decision of a judge or a court to some 
 higher authority. 1 Whether this authority is the Persian 
 Satrap or some group of officials or judges is not clear, 
 owing to the fragmentary state of the papyrus. The 
 royal authority was invoked to settle the troublesome 
 matter of square dealing with weights and measures. 
 There was a royal standard which determined all such 
 questions. In one document, a woman named Mib- 
 tahyah puts on record that out of love she has given to 
 her sister silver amounting to six pounds according to 
 the king’s weights. 2 
 
 129. Interest on loans .—The record of a loan to a 
 woman from a fellow-Jew is of considerable significance. 
 It shows that Jews charged interest upon loans to fellow- 
 Jews notwithstanding the law against such procedure 
 (see p. 137), and that every precaution was taken to 
 insure the payment of both principal and interest, in 
 that a mortgage was taken upon the entire property of 
 the debtor, personal and real, and the debtor’s heirs were 
 held responsible for the debt if not paid before the 
 death of the original debtor. The body of the contract 
 reads as follows: 
 
 Thou hast given me as a loan four shekels of silver, i.e., four 
 according to the weights of the king. I will pay thee interest 
 thereon at the rate of two hallur per shekel per month, i.e., at the 
 rate of eight hallur per month. If the interest is added to the 
 capital 3 I will pay thee interest upon this interest even as upon 
 
 1 No. 6. 
 
 2 Sachau, No. 35; so also in Sachau, No. 30. 
 
 3 I.e., if I fail to pay interest when due. 
 
2l8 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the [original] capital. If the change of the year conies and I 
 have not satisfied thy claim to thy capital and to the interest 
 upon it according to the conditions of this document, then you 
 O Meshullam, and your sons are justified in seizing as pledge 
 anything which thou mayest find in my possession, a house of 
 brick, silver and gold, bronze and iron, manservant and maid¬ 
 servant, barley and spelt and any sort of food which thou mayest 
 find in my possession, until I have fully paid thee thy capital 
 with interest. And meantime I shall have no right to say to 
 thee, “I have satisfied thy claim to thy money and interest upon 
 it,” so long as this document is in thy hand. Nor shall I have 
 any right to complain of thee before the magistrate and the judge 
 by saying, “Thou hast taken away a pledge from me,” so long as 
 this document is still in thy hand. And if I die without having 
 satisfied thy claim to thy money and the interest upon it, then 
 my sons must pay thee in full this money and the interest upon 
 it. If they, however, do not pay thee in full this money and the 
 interest upon it, then thou, O Meshullam, hast the right to take 
 to thyself any food or pledge which thou mayest find in their 
 possession until they have paid thee in full thy capital with interest, 
 while they will have no right to complain of thee before the magis¬ 
 trate and the judges, so long as this document is still in thy hands. 
 If they, however, go to court notwithstanding, they shall not 
 obtain a judgment so long as this document is still in thy hand. 1 
 
 Since the relation of the hallur to the shekel is not 
 yet definitely known, the rate of interest cannot be cer¬ 
 tainly known. The most probable calculation, reckoned 
 upon the basis of ioo hallur to the shekel, yields a rate 
 of interest of 2 per cent per month, or 24 per cent per 
 annum. This is approximately the rate known to have 
 been prevalent in the time of Jerome ( ca . 331-420 a.d.). 
 It is evident that the contracting parties and witnesses 
 are not concerned about the violation of any law prohibit¬ 
 ing the charging of interest. If they knew of such a 
 law, they never thought of taking it seriously. And the 
 
 1 As translated by Dr. M. Sprengling, loc. cit. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS 219 
 
 nature of the contract, with its detailed provision for 
 collection of the interest and capital and its references 
 to court procedure, shows that this kind of transaction 
 was of common occurrence and that the holder of the 
 mortgage had no need to worry over the possibility of 
 his contract being annulled by the judges or arousing 
 opposition or hostility on the part of the Jewish 
 community. 
 
 130. The spirit of Judaism .—On the whole the Assuan 
 Papyri picture a Jewish colony living on relatively 
 friendly terms with its non-Jewish neighbors. There was 
 no lack of devotion to the Hebrew God, Yahu, nor to the 
 institutions of Yahu, such as temple-worship, sacrifice, 
 and passover. But there is a notable lack of that 
 excessively exclusive spirit represented by legalistic 
 Judaism. Similarly woman seems to have had greater 
 freedom of activity than was contemplated by the 
 existing legislation. She moved about as a woman of 
 the world having apparently most of the rights granted 
 to men. Life as a whole seems a very real thing, carried 
 on in its essential features much as it goes on today. 
 There is a natural lack of exalted idealism, since that 
 commodity does not easily blend with the business of 
 buying and selling with which these papyri are much 
 concerned. Yet that these Jews were capable of sacrifice 
 in devotion to high ends is clearly evident from the grief 
 that overwhelmed them when their temple was wantonly 
 destroyed and the measures they took to bring about its 
 restoration. Religion was to them something more than 
 a luxury; it was a vital necessity; and they were ready 
 to deny themselves much in order to be permitted to 
 satisfy this need of the spirit. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 131. The Psalter as a hymnbook .—The Psalter has 
 been fitly called “ the hymn book of the second Templed’ 1 
 This does not imply that there are no psalms from the 
 pre-exilic period but it does mean that the bulk of the 
 Psalter was written in the post-exilic age. Not only so, 
 but the Psalter as such was constructed for use in the 
 Second Temple and the Psalms were sung by the choirs 
 and worshipers in that post-exilic sanctuary. Therefore, 
 they must have expressed the thoughts and satisfied the 
 needs of that period. 
 
 Hymnbooks, however, represent the thoughts and 
 feelings of the average man. The best poetry is never 
 found in hymnals; the limitations of space and of 
 subject-matter are too heavy shackles upon the wings of 
 poetic imagination to permit of the highest flights in 
 hymnology. The best Hebrew poetry is in the Book of 
 Job. The same handicap fetters thought. People go to 
 worship, not to think, but to pray. A hymnbook that 
 is too intellectual is doomed to failure. A similar situa¬ 
 tion is revealed in the field of ethics. The best ethics will 
 be found outside of the Psalter. It is not a handbook 
 of morals, but a hymnbook. It is on that account all 
 the more reliable as a witness upon these matters. The 
 data it presents are not selected to bolster up any theory 
 or proposition, but are incidental to the main purpose of 
 the anthology, which is prayer and praise. They reveal 
 
 1 See the chapter under this title in my Religion of the Psalms (1922). 
 
 220 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 221 
 
 the mind and heart of the Hebrew as no formal treatise 
 on morals could ever do. We see him in the Psalter 
 as he really is, devoid of all pretense and pose. 
 
 132. The “ J” of the Psalmists .—One problem at once 
 confronts the interpreter of the Psalms and that is the 
 determination of the significance of the pronoun “I,” 
 which is so constantly in evidence throughout the Psalter. 
 Who is this that is continually talking about himself 
 and his sorrows? What individual could have been 
 significant enough to have imposed the problem of his 
 personal welfare so persistently upon the consciousness 
 of the people ? Or, were many poets so gifted as to be 
 able to describe their own psychological reactions in 
 such a way as that their writings became the satisfactory 
 expression of the hopes and longings of multitudes? 
 These are open questions today for the most part; but 
 in general, it may be said, the thought of scholars is 
 inclined to regard the “I” in the majority of cases as 
 representing the personified Jewish community. It is the 
 nation that speaks and that is so absorbing a theme of 
 interest to the poets and people. We must, therefore, 
 accept the utterances of the Psalms as for the most part 
 expressing the community’s sentiments. Even where 
 the psalm was originally the expression of an individual’s 
 experience, upon being taken up into the Temple hymn- 
 book it came to be looked upon as expressing a generally 
 representative state of mind. 1 
 
 133. The problem of suffering .—The problem pre¬ 
 sented to the Jewish community by its continued 
 sufferings takes up much of the psalmists’ attention. 
 The note of discouragement sounds repeatedly: 
 
 1 See ibid., pp. 21-32. 
 
222 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 How long, O Yahweh, wilt thou forget me forever? 
 
 How long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? 
 
 How long must I take counsel with myself, 
 
 Having sorrow in my heart daily ? 
 
 How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me 
 [Ps. 13:1, 2; cf. 44:9-26; 94:3-7]? 
 
 The arrogant attitude of the wicked is deplored and 
 pictured in most vivid terms (Pss. 10:3-11; 12:3, 4; 
 38:1911.; 73:3-12). But notwithstanding all this, the 
 pious are adjured to forego all worry and have a satisfying 
 confidence in God (Pss. 37; 92:7,8,12-15). To this end, 
 the final judgment and overthrow of the nations here upon 
 earth is glowingly portrayed (Pss. 96:10-13 J 9818,9); and 
 the rule of the Messiah over all nations is foretold (Ps. 2). 
 
 134. Imprecatory Psalms .—In this connection are 
 found many prayers for and exultations over the coming 
 destruction of the wicked. These are commonly known 
 as the Imprecatory Psalms. The most bitter of them 
 are Pss. 59, 6-15; 69; 83; 109:6-20; 137:7-9; and 
 149:5-9. What is to be said as to such vitriolic utter¬ 
 ances? For those who would make the psalmists to 
 have been paragons of virtue, saints without blemish, 
 these psalms present insuperable difficulties. But the 
 psalmists were after all human beings and as such 
 subject to human reactions. Not only so, but they were 
 Jews; and as such they had that intensity of spirit 
 which is characteristic of the Semitic peoples. When we 
 recall the long history of oppression and wrong through 
 which the Hebrews had gone at the hands of Assyrians, 
 Babylonians, and Persians, the wonder is not that there 
 is some sentiment of this violent sort in their literature, 
 but that there is not more. If we think of Israel in terms 
 of the experiences during the great world-war of such 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 223 
 
 countries as Belgium, France, Serbia, and Armenia, we 
 shall not find it hard to understand and to forgive the 
 Jewish state of mind. To understand their religious 
 and moral problem we must remember that they esti¬ 
 mated the value of religion by the tangible test of 
 material prosperity. But they had been ardently 
 religious; and yet they had experienced and were 
 experiencing only adversity. As a matter of fact 
 judged by any just standard, Israel was a more pious 
 and a purer people than any of their oppressors. They 
 were being wrongfully robbed and slaughtered and the 
 robbers and murderers were prospering! 
 
 Still another approach to the interpretation and 
 evaluation of these Imprecatory Psalms must be made. 
 The passionate hatred of these psalmists for those who 
 had oppressed Israel is but the obverse of their passion 
 for justice. The measure of a man’s enthusiasm for 
 righteousness is often indicated by the intensity of his 
 wrath against sin. To be lukewarm or indifferent in 
 the presence of wrong is no mark of a true lover of 
 justice. Still further, for the post-exilic Jews justice and 
 piety had to be vindicated in the life that now is, for 
 they had no conception of rewards and punishments in 
 a life to come. If the justice of God was to be com¬ 
 mended to men, it must manifest itself plainly here on 
 earth. Death held nothing in store for the righteous. 
 Death, indeed, was to be dreaded, for the existence 
 anticipated in Sheol was empty and worthless, and by 
 no means to be coveted (Pss. 6:5; 16:9-11; 30:3, 9; 
 88:10-12; 115:17, 18). One of the most highly treas¬ 
 ured rewards of the pious was continuance of life on 
 earth to a hale and hearty old age (Pss. 103:4, 5; 128:5, 
 
THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 224 
 
 6; 143:7). To be cut off prematurely in the prime of 
 life is the fitting reward of the wicked (Pss. 9:17-19; 
 55:15, 23; 86:13; 88:5). If the wicked do enjoy good 
 fortune for a season, it is but a transient, fleeting experi¬ 
 ence to be brought to a speedy ending. 
 
 135. Life after death .—There are three difficult 
 passages in the Psalms that are open to debate as to 
 whether or not they contain any gleam of hope regarding 
 the life to come. The first of these is Ps. 17:13-15. This is 
 a very bad piece of text and any translation must be tenta¬ 
 tive. The following involves some slight changes of text: 
 
 Arise, 0 Yahweh, confront him, cast him down; 
 
 Deliver me from the wicked. 
 
 Slay them by thy sword; 
 
 By thy hand, O Yahweh, slay them out of the world. 
 
 May this be their portion in life. 
 
 And may their bodies be filled with thy stored-up [penalty]. 
 
 And may their sons be sated therewith. 
 
 And may they hand on the residue to their babes. 
 
 But I—I shall see thy face in vindication; 
 
 I shall be satisfied when thy form awakes. 
 
 According to this rendering, the poet anticipates seeing 
 in this life the execution of Yahweh’s judgment upon 
 the wicked and the corresponding vindication of his 
 own righteousness and that of Yahweh himself. This 
 translation of the last two lines is the most natural 
 grammatically and fits in well with Hebrew modes of 
 thought. Yahweh is quite humanly represented very 
 often; and it is not repugnant to the Hebrew mind that 
 he should take a nap. 1 
 
 1 The more common rendering is “I shall be satisfied when I awake 
 with thy form.” But this is harsher Hebrew and leaves the “awaking” 
 very vaguely identified. Is it after death, or, figuratively, after a period 
 of stupor ? 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 225 
 
 The second ambiguous passage is Ps. 49:6-21. This 
 is a statement of the fact that the wealth of the 
 wicked will not avail to release him from the death that 
 surely awaits him. All men die; there is no release 
 from that war. But the implication clearly is that the 
 wicked die before their time. The pious, however, are 
 under the care of God, who does not permit death to 
 snatch his saints away prematurely. 
 
 Surely God will rescue me, 
 
 From the power of Sheol he will indeed take me [Ps. 49:15]. 
 
 This is an expression of the assurance that though 
 Sheol reach forth greedy claws for its prey, God will 
 rescue the pious from its clutch. There is no thought 
 of life after death here any more than in verse 15 where 
 the pious is pictured as having the rule over the wicked 
 in the morning. This is not the morning of resurrection 
 but the dawn of a new era in which the righteous shall 
 attain their proper pre-eminence. A similar usage of 
 the phrase is seen in Ps. 143:8, where the poet be¬ 
 seeches God to manifest himself in his behalf: 
 
 Do not hide thy face from me, 
 
 That I should be like those descending into the pit. 
 
 Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning; 
 
 For I have trusted in thee. 
 
 Teach me the way that I should go; 
 
 For unto thee have I lifted up my soul [Ps. 143:7, 8]. 
 
 It is quite clear that “in the morning” here refers to 
 a time to come in the life of the speaker upon earth. 
 
 The third passage in which the thought of life after 
 death has been found is Ps. 73:23-28. In the pre¬ 
 ceding verses the Psalmist has expressed the thought 
 that the wicked are suddenly swept away by the hand 
 
226 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of God. Then after regretting his temporary forgetful¬ 
 ness of this fact, the poet goes on to say: 
 
 But I am continually with thee. 
 
 Thou dost hold my right hand. 
 
 By thy counsel thou wilt guide me, 
 
 And after thee thou wilt take me by the hand. 1 
 Whom have I in the heavens ? 
 
 And besides thee I have no delight in the earth. 
 
 My flesh and my heart fail; 
 
 But God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever. 
 
 For lo, those that are far from thee will perish; 
 
 Thou wilt surely destroy all who become apostates from thee. 
 But as for me—the nearness of God is my good; 
 
 I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, 
 
 To tell of all thy works. 
 
 The thought of this passage concerns itself with the 
 consciousness of the immediate and unfailing presence of 
 
 God here in the life upon earth. The pious rejoice in 
 
 0 
 
 and are sustained by this, while the wicked are cut off 
 from life. 
 
 It is on the whole improbable that there is any 
 thought of a worthful life after death in the Psalter. 
 The function of a hymnbook, as we have already sug¬ 
 gested, is to express the aspiration and worship of the 
 common man. It does not come into being as an agency 
 for the propagation of new ideas or ideals. But the 
 thought of rewards and punishments in a future life 
 was certainly an unfamiliar idea in the exilic and post- 
 exilic age. Even if all the possible references to future 
 life in the Psalms and in the other exilic and post-exilic 
 
 1 This line is very difficult. The Hebrew text as it stands says, 
 “And after glory thou wilt take me”; or perhaps, “And afterward 
 gloriously thou wilt take me.” The rendering given above rests upon 
 a slight change of text. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 227 
 
 writings really did express this hope, yet the total 
 amount of material on the subject would be very small, 
 showing that this thought did not play a large part in 
 the life of early Judaism. The absence of this hope 
 made the ethical problem very acute for a people who 
 estimated the value of religion in terms of the tangible 
 good derived therefrom. The surprising thing is that, 
 lacking any hope of this sort and compelled to find the 
 satisfactions of religion in the life that now is, the Jews 
 clung steadfastly to their religious faith and were ready 
 when occasion arose to die for their ideals. The ethical 
 problem was especially acute from the point of view of 
 the individual man. The nation perpetuates itself 
 continually; and the rewards that fail in one generation 
 may be anticipated for a later one, but the individual 
 dies and “where is he ?” We turn now to this individual 
 to see what his standards were and what were his consola¬ 
 tions and hopes. 
 
 136. The worth of man .—The individual, though crea¬ 
 ted by God, is as nothing and less than nothing in 
 God’s sight: 
 
 Let me know how frail I am [39:4]. 
 
 And not only I, but 
 
 Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity 
 
 [39:5]- 
 
 So also in 9:20; 39:11. This is the natural conclusion 
 when man is altogether “of the earth” (10:18); how 
 can such an one be of account in the sight of heaven ? 
 The vanity and brevity of human life are so self-evident 
 that one of the psalmists expresses his wonder that God 
 should give man any consideration at all: 
 
228 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Yahweh, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him, 
 
 Or the son of man that thou takest account of him ? 
 
 Man is like unto a breath; 
 
 His days are as a shadow that passes away [144:3 f.j. 
 
 These somber and depressing strains are not left, 
 however, to ring in our memories alone. At least one 
 of the Psalms challenges this conception of humanity 
 with confidence. Perhaps there is deliberate expres¬ 
 sion of contrary opinion in these two psalms. In any 
 case the phraseology of the two passages is in part 
 identical: 
 
 What is man that thou art mindful of him, 
 
 And the son of man that thou visitest him ? 
 
 For thou has made him but little lower than God, 
 
 And hast crowned him with glory and honor. 
 
 Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of 
 thy hands; 
 
 Thou hast put all things under his feet. 
 
 All sheep and oxen; 
 
 Yea, and the beasts of the field, 
 
 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea; 
 
 Whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas [8:4-8]. 
 
 The low estimate of man is made in view of the un¬ 
 approachable majesty and excellence of God; the high 
 valuation, on the other hand, is based on a compari¬ 
 son with subhuman life. The average view of the 
 Psalms regarding human nature and its capacity is 
 midway between these extremes. The balance inclines, 
 indeed, toward the higher level rather than the lower, 
 for the longing and aspirations of man savor rather 
 of the divine than of the brute. 
 
 137. The ways of the wicked .—The ideal character 
 of the psalmists is constantly brought into contrast with 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 229 
 
 its opposite type, viz., the wicked. The virtues of the 
 pious shine by contrast with the vices and crimes of the 
 sinner. Who are sinners ? If we may accept the answer 
 of Ps. 130:3, all men are in that class: 
 
 If Thou shouldest keep watch of iniquities, O Yahweh, 
 
 Who could stand ? 
 
 A similar opinion of humanity crops out in Ps. 14:1-3: 
 
 They have dealt corruptly, they have done abominably; 
 There is none that doeth good. 
 
 Yahweh looked forth from heaven upon the sons of men 
 To see if there were any man of understanding that did 
 seek after God; 
 
 They are all corrupt, they are together become impure; 
 
 There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
 
 Another psalmist, in a period of depression, utters a 
 more specific charge against the human race: 
 
 I said in my perturbation, “All men are liars” [116:11]. 
 
 But such sentiments are by no means the general judg¬ 
 ment of the Psalms. There is rather a very sharp 
 discrimination between the good and the bad. Deceit 
 and lying are especially characteristic of the wicked, and 
 are an abomination to Yahweh. 1 False swearing, of 
 course, falls under the ban. 2 Hypocrites are subject to 
 the wrath of God, for they find no response in His heart 
 to their pretenses. 3 
 
 Ungodly people are unstable morally. They cannot 
 be depended upon to fulfil their contracts. They say 
 and do not do. They speak smoothly with their lips 
 while malice is in their hearts: 
 
 1 5:6; 7^4; 12:2; 43:1; 101:7. 3 24:4. 3 28:3; 50:16-20. 
 
230 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 There is no sincerity in their mouth; 
 
 Their inward part is a yawning gulf, 
 
 Their throat is an open sepulchre; 
 
 They make smooth their tongue [5:9]. 1 
 
 They are characterized likewise by a spirit and attitude 
 of hauteur and arrogance. They are bursting with 
 pride and hold the pious in contempt, not hesitating 
 even at slander and eagerly spreading evil reports about 
 their neighbors. 2 They are so increased and so spread 
 themselves as that they seem to occupy every place 
 and leave no room for the righteous. 3 
 
 138. The iniquity of the wicked is represented not as a 
 static quantity, but rather as a dynamic principle. It is 
 ever seeking to find expression in acts of ill will toward 
 the pious. The wicked inflict injury without provocation 
 and basely return evil for good. 4 They lay traps to 
 ensnare the pious and they bribe authorities to pervert 
 just decisions. 5 Their wickedness is a disturbing force 
 within them, causing them to travail with evil plans 
 like a woman with child. 6 Fortunately their wickedness 
 often recoils upon themselves. They hate the good and 
 stop at nothing to accomplish their evil purposes against 
 them. Their record teems with deeds of oppression and 
 bloodshed. They watch the pious and plan their de¬ 
 struction. They are bloodthirsty lovers of violence. 7 
 
 139. The identity of the wicked .—The intensity of the 
 feeling and the violence of the language in these denuncia¬ 
 tions of the wicked stir our curiosity. Who are these 
 
 1 So also 26:4; 28:3. 4 See 7:4; 35:12; 38:20. 
 
 2 See 1:1; 5:5; 15:3; 40:4; 101:5. 5 Pss. 15:5; 26:9k; 31:4- 
 
 3 See 12:1, 8; 13:2. 6 Ps. 7:14. 
 
 7 Pss. 5:6; 11:5; 17:9k; 18:40; 26:9; 37:12-14. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 231 
 
 “wicked”? Are they fellow-Jews or pagans? Is the 
 language to be taken literally ? Are the foes of the pious 
 really murderers ? Do they live in the constant endeavor 
 to do injury to their neighbors? No normal society 
 ever existed for any length of time with any considerable 
 proportion of its members murderously inclined toward 
 the rest. If these charges of the psalmists are to be 
 given any credence, we must recognize that the com¬ 
 munity of the pious was in real danger. They must 
 have lived in perpetual and fearful trepidation, no man 
 trusting his neighbor. There are two alternatives to 
 this situation. On the one hand, such language is 
 explicable on the basis of odium theologicum. That is 
 to say, it may reflect a split in the Jewish community 
 itself, one section remaining loyal to the customs and 
 beliefs of the fathers, the other having abandoned the 
 viewpoint of the past and committed itself to some 
 new world-view or philosophy. The presuppositions for 
 such an interpretation of the language are at hand in 
 abundance from the later period to which most of the 
 Psalms belong. Alexander’s conquest of the Orient 
 meant not only the triumph of Greek arms, but also 
 the superimposing of Greek civilization upon the Oriental 
 ' world. The Hellenization of the Orient was from that 
 time on a progressive process. Alexandria in the heart 
 of Egypt became a center of Greek influence. Other 
 Greek cities sprang up all over the Oriental world and 
 became foci for the propagation of Greek civilization. 
 Hellenization of the Orient was on the march and, had 
 it not been for the folly of Antiochus Epiphanes, who 
 was not content to let well enough alone, the Jewish 
 people themselves might have yielded as not unwilling 
 
232 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 victims of its alluring charms. But Antiochus sought to 
 hasten the process and to convert the Jews to the 
 Hellenic program by force. This attempt roused the 
 latent loyalty of the Jewish people and fanned the flame 
 of a religious revolt which succeeded in saving Judaism 
 from impending destruction. During this long-drawn- 
 out struggle between the Hebraic and the Hellenic 
 world-views, the feelings of the opposing parties became 
 very intense. Such language and attitudes as are 
 reflected in the Psalms, particularly in the description of 
 and imprecations upon the wicked, might conceivably 
 spring out of this situation. In that case the pious of 
 the Psalter would be the faithful Jews who remained 
 steadfastly loyal to the way of the fathers, and the 
 wicked would of course be renegade Jews who identified 
 themselves with the newer philosophy and civilization of 
 Greece. 1 Family quarrels are apt to give rise to intense 
 feeling and harsh language. When to this element is 
 added the bitterness of religious strife, the language and 
 tone of the Imprecatory Psalms become readily intel¬ 
 ligible. 
 
 The second alternative to the view just stated is 
 that the “wicked” of the Psalter were non-Jews or 
 pagans. In that case, the enemies of the pious Jew 
 would be represented by the Greek government, which 
 held the Jews in subjection from the days of Alexander 
 and his immediate successors down through the Seleucid 
 era to the Maccabaean revolt in the second century b.c. 
 From this point of view the two emotions combining to 
 produce this ferocity of spirit and of language would be 
 
 1 This interpretation is forcefully presented and defended by Fried- 
 lander, Griechische Philosophic im Allen Testament (1904). 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 233 
 
 loyalty to the Jewish religion, as it was undergoing more or 
 less active persecution, and hatred of the alien oppressor. 
 
 140. The atheism of the wicked .—In any case, which¬ 
 ever of these diagnoses be correct, or if neither is satis¬ 
 factory, the wicked are people who do not give God His 
 due. They deny God: 
 
 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God” 
 
 [14:1; 53:1]. 
 
 The “fool” in question is not so much a man lacking 
 in intellectual keenness; he is rather one who fails to 
 appreciate the moral and spiritual interests in life. Nor 
 is it the thought of the psalmists that these deniers of 
 God are theoretical atheists. They are rather thinking 
 of them as men whose practical conduct implies that 
 “there is no fear of God before their eyes” (36:1). This 
 is clear from a comparison of 10:4 with 10:3, n, 13. 
 In 10:3: 
 
 The wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, 
 
 And the covetous vaunteth himself, though he contemn 
 Yahweh. 
 
 If Yahweh is contemned, He nevertheless exists; con¬ 
 tempt is not poured out upon a non-existent person. 
 Similarly in 10:13: 
 
 He [the wicked] has said in his heart, “ God has forgotten; 
 
 “He [God] hides His face, He will never see.” 
 
 Here again the wicked takes the existence of God for 
 granted; but he does not reckon with Him as a potent 
 influence upon the affairs of men. Consequently the 
 same conception is inherent in 10:4: 
 
 The wicked in the pride of his countenance says, “He 
 [God] will not require”; 
 
 All his thoughts are: “There is no God.” 
 
234 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 It is a practical atheism that is here described. There 
 are men who dismiss the thought of God from all their 
 purposes and plans. “They call not upon God” (53:4). 
 He is for them a negligible quantity. And yet, in all 
 probability they would indignantly resent the charge of 
 atheism. Indeed, some of them are too ready to accept 
 the theory of the divine government of the universe, 
 for they are not satisfied with the worship of Yahweh 
 alone, but supplement it by the practice of pagan cults 
 in honor of other gods (16:4). Such apostates from the 
 true religion are in the writer’s mind in 40:4: 
 
 Happy is the man that has made Yahweh his trust, 
 
 And has not turned away to the arrogant nor to such as 
 fall away treacherously. 
 
 The psalmists’ estimate of these pagan gods is clearly 
 reflected in 31:6: 
 
 I hate them that regard lying vanities; 
 
 But I trust in Yahweh. 
 
 If these idolators are fellow-Jews, as is probably true, 
 at least in some cases, it is significant of the length and 
 intensity of the struggle for a monotheistic worship in 
 Israel. Indeed, we know that as late as the fifth century 
 b.c. the Jewish military colony at Assuan in Egypt, 
 enthusiastic Yahweh-worshipers though they were, yet 
 frankly recognized other gods than Yahweh and wor¬ 
 shiped them alongside of, and in association with, him. 
 The monotheistic view was never uncontested in Israel; 
 it was always in need of ardent and intelligent defense. 
 And such defense was not lacking at the hands of prophets 
 and psalmists. 
 
 141. The character of the pious .—Turning from this 
 dark picture of the wicked man, we find the pious 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 235 
 
 presented to us in shining contrast. Yet it is no ideal 
 man that the Psalms portray, but a man torn by hopes 
 and fears and rent by passions such as are common to 
 man. In contrast with the arrogance and pride of the 
 ungodly, the pious thinks of himself and his people as 
 poor and weak. 1 He walks in the fear of God. 2 He 
 craves the mercy of God and dreads the outpouring 
 of His wrath. 3 He is overwhelmed at times with dis¬ 
 couragement and doubt. 4 He is in continual sorrow 
 and at times gives way to tears and groans. 5 He even 
 indulges himself in envy as he beholds the prosperity 
 of the wicked. 6 He is depressed as he sees the success 
 of iniquity and he concludes that “the faithful fail 
 from among the sons of men” (12:1). He recognizes 
 that the pious are in constant need of divine guidance 
 and that it is given to them when they comply with the 
 requirements of God; 7 the meek and God-fearing man 
 indeed is admitted into the very secret intimacy of God. 
 But man is by nature sinful and needs the forgiveness 
 of God. 8 His conception of divine cleansing and pardon 
 anticipates the Christian teaching of the necessity of 
 regeneration. All this is incomparably expressed in 
 Psalm 51, the classic utterance of the sense of sin and 
 the longing for pardon: 
 
 Be gracious unto me, O God, in accordance with Thy 
 loving-kindness; 
 
 In accordance with the multitude of Thy mercies wipe 
 out my transgressions. 
 
 Wash me thoroughly from my guilt, 
 
 1 E.g., 9:12, 18; 10:12, 17. s E.g., 13: 2; 6:6, 7. 
 
 2 E.g., 5:7; 33:18; 34:9; cf. 25:9, 14. 6 E.g., 73:3 ff. 
 
 3 E.g., 4:1; 6:2. 7 E.g., 25:4, 9, 12, 14. 
 
 4 E.g., 22:6; 74:1 ff.; 77:7 ff. 8 E.g., 25:7, 11; 66:18. 
 
236 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 And cleanse me from my sin. 
 
 For my transgressions I know, 
 
 And my sin is ever before me. 
 
 Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, 
 
 And what is evil in Thine eyes I have done; 
 
 That Thou mayest be right when Thou speakest, 
 
 And pure when Thou judgest. 
 
 Verily I was brought forth in iniquity. 
 
 And in sin did my mother conceive me. 
 
 Verily Thou desirest faithfulness in the hidden parts; 
 
 In the secret parts, then, teach me wisdom. 
 
 Purge me with hyssop that I may be clean, 
 
 Wash me that I may be whiter than snow. 
 
 Do Thou let me hear joy and gladness; 
 
 Let the bones which Thou has broken rejoice. 
 
 Hide Thy face from my sins, 
 
 And wipe out all my iniquities. 
 
 Create for me a clean heart, O God, 
 
 And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
 
 Cast me not away from Thy presence, 
 
 And take not Thy holy spirit from me. 
 
 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, 
 
 And let a willing spirit sustain me. v 
 
 I would teach transgressors Thy ways, 
 
 And sinners would return unto Thee. 
 
 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, God of my salvation, 
 That my tongue may sing aloud Thy righteousness. 
 
 O Lord, open Thou my lips, 
 
 That my mouth may declare Thy praise. 
 
 For Thou desirest not sacrifice; 
 
 And would I give burnt-offering, Thou hast no pleasure. 
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; 
 
 A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. 
 
 We may not suppose that the pious were continually 
 in the frame of mind represented by Psalm 51, nor indeed 
 that all of them were ever in that attitude. This is 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 23 7 
 
 rather a mood that characterizes the most spiritually 
 minded only, and that too only occasionally. Such 
 sentiments crystallizing into a permanent attitude of 
 life would be fatal to healthy, normal activities. That 
 the state of mind of such passages as Psalm 51 was only 
 sporadic and temporary, is shown by statements of 
 quite a contrary sort in other psalms. One psalmist 
 confidently declares that he has kept the ways of Yahweh 
 and cites his good fortune in support of his claim: 
 
 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, 
 
 And have not wickedly departed from my God. 
 
 For all His ordinances were before me, 
 
 And I put not away His statutes from me. 
 
 And I was perfect with him, 
 
 And I kept myself from mine iniquity. 
 
 Therefore has Yahweh recompensed me according to my 
 righteousness, 
 
 According to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes 
 [18:21-24; cf. 26:1-6, 11]. 
 
 Another covets the scrutinizing eye of Yahweh to ferret 
 out any hidden defects in his character: 
 
 Search me, O God, and know my heart, 
 
 Try me and know my thoughts; 
 
 And see if there be any harmful way in me; 
 
 And lead me in the way everlasting [139:23 f.]. 
 
 Still another in contrast with this last shrinks from 
 the eye of Yahweh, knowing himself after all to be 
 nought but man: 
 
 Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, 
 
 For in Thy sight shall no man living be justified [143:2]. 
 
 From this point of view the constant help of God is 
 necessary that the speech and thought of the pious may 
 be kept pleasing unto Yahweh: 
 
238 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Who can discern errors ? 
 
 Clear Thou me from hidden faults. 
 
 Restrain Thy servant also from arrogant men, 
 
 Let them not rule over me. 
 
 Then shall I be perfect, 
 
 And I shall be innocent of great transgression. 
 
 Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my 
 heart 
 
 Be acceptable in Thy sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my 
 redeemer [19:12-14]. 
 
 The pious is the favorite of God, enjoys His protec¬ 
 tion, delights in His law, is grateful for His bounty, and 
 lives to praise Him . 1 He delights in the temple and its 
 services; he loves companionship with his fellow-saints; 
 and identifies the interests of the pious with the interests 
 of God . 2 He prides himself upon his uprightness of 
 heart and his righteousness . 3 
 
 His further virtues include generosity to the poor, 
 of whose necessity he does not take advantage by 
 exacting interest; on the contrary he deals graciously 
 with them and lends freely . 4 He was even capable of 
 brotherly kindness to those who rewarded him by hos¬ 
 tility . 5 He claims the merit of meekness , 6 though his 
 bitter hatred of his foes seems to spring from a contrary 
 state of mind . 7 He rejoices whole-heartedly when he 
 sees dire disaster befall his enemies . 8 He is conscious 
 of his own incorruptible integrity and, though appreci- 
 
 1 E.g., 1:2; 13:6; 18:20; 40:8; 4:3,7,85 9:14; 24:66:.; 74:12. 
 
 2 E.g., 16:3; 26:4, 5; 69:9; 35:1. 
 
 3 E.g., 24:3-6; 25:21; 73:1; 7:9; 11:7; 18:20; 43:1, 2. 
 
 4 E.g., 41:1-3; 37:25 k; 112:5. 5 E.g.,35:13,14. 6 E.g., 25:9. 
 
 7 E.g., 7:6 ff.; 18:40; 21; 28:3ft.; 35*4 40:13-15; 4 i: 7 ®- 
 
 8 E.g., 35:9; 54:7; 55:i6ff. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 239 
 
 ative of wealth, knows that it cannot preserve anyone 
 from death. 1 Long life, on the contrary, is assured to 
 those whose speech is pure, who love peace, and who live 
 the good life. 2 An attractive sketch of the pious char¬ 
 acter is presented in Psalm 15: 
 
 O Yahweh, who can sojourn in Thy tent ? 
 
 Who can dwell in Thy holy hill ? 
 
 He who walks in integrity and works righteousness, 
 
 And speaks truth in his heart. 
 
 There is no slander upon his tongue; 
 
 Neither has he done wrong to his friend; 
 
 Nor taken up a reproach against his neighbor. 
 
 A reprobate is despised in his eyes; 
 
 But he honours those that fear Yahweh. 
 
 He swears to his own hurt and does not retract. 
 
 He does not give out his money upon interest; 
 
 Nor has he taken a bribe against the innocent. 
 
 Whoso does such things will never be moved. 
 
 142. Such men have inner resources that fortify them 
 against the shocks of life. Even when fortune deserts 
 them, faith does not fail them: 
 
 Tremble and sin not. 
 
 Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. 
 
 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, 
 
 And put your trust in Yahweh [4:4, 5]. 
 
 In this trust, the pious looks forward without fear. 
 Yahweh will be mindful of His own. 3 Indeed the loyal 
 servant of Yahweh bears a charmed life. He walks 
 amid the ills of life unharmed: 
 
 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; 
 
 He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
 
 1 E.g., 41:12; ioi:6ff.; 112:3; 49:6ff. 
 
 2 E.g., 34:12-14; 37:27; 92:13 ff. 3 p s . 73 . 
 
240 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Planted in the house of Yahweh, 
 
 They shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
 
 They shall bring forth fruit in old age; 
 
 They shall be full of sap and richness; 
 
 To declare that Yahweh is upright, 
 
 My Rock, in whom is no unrighteousness [92:12-15]. 
 
 Still more vividly is this confidence in God’s care 
 His people expressed in Psalm 91: 
 
 He that dwelleth in the intimacy of the Most High, 
 
 That sojoumeth under the shadow of the Almighty, 
 
 Says of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress, 
 
 My God in whom I trust.” 
 
 Surely He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, 
 And from the noisome pestilence. 
 
 He will cover thee with His pinions, 
 
 And under His wings shalt thou take refuge. 
 
 His truth shall be a shield and buckler. 
 
 Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, 
 
 Nor of the arrow that flies by day, 
 
 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, 
 
 Nor of the destruction that devastates at noon-day. 
 
 A thousand will fall at thy side, 
 
 And ten thousand at thy right hand; 
 
 But it shall not come nigh thee. 
 
 Thou shalt merely behold with thine eyes, 
 
 And see the reward of the wicked. 
 
 For Yahweh is thy refuge; 
 
 Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation. 
 Calamity shall not be sent upon thee; 
 
 Nor shall plague come nigh thy tent. 
 
 For He will give his angels charge concerning thee, 
 
 To keep thee in all thy ways. 
 
 They will carry thee on their hands, 
 
 Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 241 
 
 Thou shalt tread upon lion and adder; 
 
 The young lion and the serpent thou shalt trample under 
 foot. 
 
 Because he has set his love upon Me, I will deliver him; 
 
 I will set him on high because he has known My name. 
 
 He will call upon Me and I will answer him; 
 
 I will be with him in trouble; 
 
 I will rescue him and honor him; 
 
 With long life will I satisfy him, 
 
 And I will show him My salvation. 
 
 143. Such an idyllic life can hardly have ever been 
 realized; it is a dream, a vision of faith, rather than an 
 experience. Yet the writer of Psalm 103 bursts into a 
 paean of praise in recognition of just such favors from 
 God: 
 
 Bless Yahweh, O my soul, 
 
 And all that is within me bless His holy name. 
 
 Bless Yahweh, O my soul, 
 
 And forget not all His benefits, 
 
 Who pardons all thine iniquity; 
 
 Who heals all thy diseases; 
 
 Who redeems thy life from the pit; 
 
 Who crowns thee with loving kindness and mercies; 
 
 Who satisfies thy desires with good things, 
 
 So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. 
 
 144. The ethical motives of the Psalms are very clearly 
 expressed. The underlying urge to goodness is the 
 familiar conviction that piety pays and wickedness is 
 punished. This idea is the opening note of the Psalter 
 (Ps. 1) and it is sounded over and over again. 1 But there 
 are flashes here and there of a less commercial point of 
 view. The Golden Age is pictured in ethical terms in 
 
 1 Pss. 5:12; 6:10; 9:6; 11:5-7; 34:10, II, 19, 20; 84:12; 91; 
 92:12-15; 103:1-18; 112:1-9; 127; 128:1-4; 144:12-15. 
 
242 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Ps. 85:9-13. Righteousness is declared to be better 
 than riches in Ps. 119:72, 127; and the gift of Yahweh 
 may be something better than abundance of corn and 
 wine (Ps. 4:7). But we must go to a psalm that did 
 not find admission into the Psalter to hear the highest 
 note of the poets of Judaism. 1 In the third chapter of 
 Habakkuk is found what is unmistakably a psalm. 
 This is an eschatological poem, portraying the manifesta¬ 
 tion of divine power which the Psalmist hopes for and 
 expects to see. But at verse 17 the point of view 
 changes. The writer checks himself, apparently, and 
 asks himself some such question as this: “Suppose that 
 my hopes are not realized—what then?” To such a 
 question he makes reply: 
 
 Though the fig-tree do not blossom, 
 
 And there be no fruit on the vines; 
 
 Though the product of the olive fail, 
 
 And the fields yield no food; 
 
 Though the flock be cut off from the fold, 
 
 And there be no ox in the stalls; 
 
 Yet I will exult in Yahweh, 
 
 I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 
 
 Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength; 
 
 And he has made my feet like hinds’ feet; 
 
 And he will make me to walk upon the heights 
 
 [Hab. 3:17-19]. 
 
 This says that though all material rewards fail, the 
 poet will nevertheless find his highest satisfaction in 
 Yahweh. He takes his refuge in mysticism when 
 practical realities fail. This is convincing proof that 
 there was a growing conviction in Judaism that the 
 needs of the soul were not to be met by mere things. 
 
 1 But cf. Ps. 73:28, “the nearness of God is my good.” 
 
THE MORALS OF THE PSALMS 
 
 243 
 
 145. A narrow piety .—The ideal man of the Psalter 
 is a good Jew. His characteristics are such as most 
 good men covet for themselves. He is modest, but self- 
 respecting; honest, straightforward, and faithful, gener¬ 
 ous and kind. He would be distinctly a desirable 
 citizen in any Jewish community. But he is first and 
 last a Jew. He has been ever on the defensive against 
 the rest of mankind and he has naturally developed no 
 love for them. He hates them with his whole soul. 
 He has no sense of obligation to the world at large. He 
 assumes no responsibility for humanity. His heart 
 does not beat in unison with the heart of mankind. 
 He never dreams of the brotherhood of man and he feels 
 no call to serve the race. His interests and energies 
 are centered upon himself and his own people. He is 
 intensely devoted to them and correspondingly aloof 
 from the rest of the world. He is narrow-minded and 
 exclusive in his outlook upon life. But we must do him 
 justice and keep in mind that in this respect he was no 
 whit inferior to, or different from, the world in general. 
 The conception of human brotherhood had found expres¬ 
 sion nowhere else in the world at that time and the nearest 
 approach to it was in the writings of the Jews themselves. 
 The writers of the Psalms did not belong, however, to 
 the most liberal and broad-minded circles of the Jewish 
 people, but rather to those who stood for rigid adherence 
 to the old paths. They were orthodox to the core. 
 
 It is significant that it was the good fortune of this 
 class of men to create a literature that has ministered 
 to the needs of the pious, both Jew and Christian, 
 through the succeeding centuries. The Psalter is the 
 best known and most used book of the Hebrew Canon. 
 
244 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 The literary products of the more liberally minded Jews, 
 greater in literary excellence and broader in outlook, 
 such as Job and Jonah and Isaiah 40-55, never achieved 
 such popularity as belongs to the Psalter. This prefer¬ 
 ence for the Psalms is due to their lyric quality on the 
 one hand and to their genuinely religious fervor on 
 the other. Added to these things is the fact that the 
 average man finds his own ideals and experiences inter¬ 
 preted for him in the Psalms in a way that he can 
 easily understand and thoroughly appreciate. The 
 saint of the Psalter has found a response to his own 
 outpourings of soul in the hearts of the saints of all 
 the ages. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 146. The making of aphorisms was a favorite pastime 
 in the ancient Semitic Orient. That it w T as popular in 
 early Egypt is well known and is well attested by the 
 literature that has survived up to the present day. 1 The 
 Babylonians and Assyrians likewise treasured pungent 
 apothegms and passed them on from generation to 
 generation. 2 The Hebrew tradition posits great pro¬ 
 verbial activity on the part of Solomon and Hezekiah, 
 and the story of Samson contains one or two homely 
 maxims. 3 There is no reason to suppose that proverb¬ 
 making was not freely indulged in during the pre-exilic 
 period; and it is quite probable that the nucleus of some 
 of the collections of proverbs now found assembled in 
 the Book of Proverbs was gathered before the Exile. 
 But the Book of Proverbs as it now stands is probably a 
 product of the early Greek period in Judaism, and may 
 well be taken as representative of the ethical practice 
 of that age and of the latter part of the Persian period. 4 
 
 1 See, for example, A. H. Gardiner, The Admonitions of an Egyptian 
 Sage (1909); G. Maspero, Les enseignements d’Amenemhait I tr d son 
 fils Sanouasrit I er (1914); J. H. Breasted, Development of Religion and 
 Thought in Ancient Egypt (1912), Lecture 7; F. Pierret, “Preceptes de 
 morale: extraits d’un papyrus demotique du Musee du Louvre,” 
 Recueil de Travaux, I, 40-46. 
 
 2 See, for example, R. F. Harper’s Assyrian and Babylonian Litera¬ 
 ture (1901), pp. 448-50; and the Proverbs of Ahikar as translated in 
 Charles’s Apocrypha and Pseudipigrapha , II (1913), 715-84. 
 
 3 Prov. 1:1; 10:1; 25:1; I Kings 5:12; Judg. 14:14, 18. 
 
 4 The best commentary on Proverbs is that by C. H. Toy in the 
 International Critical Commentary. 
 
 245 
 
246 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 The Book of Ecclesiasticus, or more exactly, “The 
 Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach,” may be classed 
 along with Proverbs. It arose in Alexandria about 200 
 b.c. and is consequently a bit later than the Book of 
 Proverbs, but the spirit and tone of the two works are 
 practically identical and are representative of the ethics 
 of the common man during the latter part of the history 
 of Judaism. 1 
 
 Proverbial literature, in the very nature of the case, 
 cannot and does not move in the forefront of thought. 
 It rather gathers up the approved judgments of time. 
 It does not present the speculative theories of pioneers, 
 but rather the platitudes of conventional and generally 
 accepted thought. Hence we do not find in the Books 
 of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus anything strikingly new 
 in the field of ethics. The morals of these writers are 
 those of the orthodox thinkers and represent the ideals 
 of the average man. Indeed, much of the content of 
 these maxims is of that ageless variety that might appear 
 at almost any time in a well-ordered and highly developed 
 social organization. The proverbs deal with practical 
 matters and record the results of the observation and 
 experience of the common man. 
 
 It is impracticable here, in view of the necessary limits 
 of space, to scrutinize closely all the mass of material 
 presented in Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus. It must 
 suffice us to note the outstanding facts and to limit 
 the illustrative material to a few typical cases. Yet 
 these two books contain more positive, direct, and con- 
 
 1 The best English commentary on Ecclesiasticus is W. O. E. Oest- 
 erley, The Wisdom of Jesus , the Son of Sirach , or Ecclesiasticus in the 
 Revised Version with Introduction and Notes (Cambridge Bible, 1912). 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 247 
 
 crete moral teaching than all the rest of the Old Testa¬ 
 ment put together. All that we shall obtain here is a 
 bird’s-eye view. 
 
 147. The fundamental principles of the sages are two: 
 (1) that religion is the basis of all true wisdom, knowledge, 
 and morals; (2) that the practice of religion and morality 
 pays dividends in real goods. The first of these principles 
 finds frequent expression. “The fear of Yahweh is the 
 beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). 1 All wisdom and 
 knowledge come from him (Prov. 2:6). Wisdom includes 
 justice and righteousness (Prov. 8:20). Yahweh is the 
 omniscient supervisor and administrator of the moral 
 universe (Prov. 15 \f ). 2 3 The fear of God is the highest 
 good, because it carries with it all other goods: 
 
 Wealth and strength lift up the heart; 
 
 But better than both is the fear of God. 
 
 In the fear of the Lord there is no want, 
 
 And with it there is no need to seek [other] help 
 [Ecclus. 40:26 ].3 
 
 The sage never imagined the possibility of a separation 
 between religion and ethics. In his eyes no man could 
 be moral who denied God and turned his back upon 
 religion. 
 
 148. That piety pays is the constant burden of the 
 sages’ teachings. Pay your first-fruits and your barns 
 will overflow (Prov. 3:9, 10) . 4 Live righteously and 
 you will live long; but live wickedly and you will be 
 
 1 So also Ecclus. 1:11-20. 
 
 2 So also Prov. 16:2, 4, 33; 17:3; 21:2; 22:2; 29:13. 
 
 3 Similarly Ecclus. 2:3, 7-11. 
 
 4 So also Prov. 4:18, 19; 10:3; 11:28,31; 12:3,12,13,28; 13:6, 
 9,22; 14:11,19,34; 15:6,24; 16:7; 21:21; 22:4; 24:16; 25:5. 
 
 c 
 
248 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 soon cut off (Prov. 2:19-22). 1 The righteous has a 
 glad outlook before his eyes; but the expectation of the 
 wicked will perish (Prov. 10:28); and “the memory of 
 the wicked shall rot ” (Prov. 10:7). For such minds 
 there is no problem of suffering. A facile explanation is 
 furnished by the old theory that sin is responsible for 
 all human ills. God chastens his children by sending 
 sufferings upon them (Prov. 3:11, 12). The wicked are 
 not to be an occasion of envy or worry though they may 
 prosper for a while, for their prosperity is but transient 
 and they themselves will quickly perish (Prov. 24:19, 
 20). The righteous, on the other hand, is delivered out 
 of all his troubles, and the role of sufferer temporarily 
 played by him is soon taken permanently by the wicked 
 (Prov. 11:8). 2 
 
 149. The contents of the terms righteousness and wicked¬ 
 ness are very clearly and explicitly listed by the sages. 
 We can do little here but name the virtues and the vices 
 enumerated in their maxims, and we shall begin with the 
 vices. It is pleasant to find the sages giving far more 
 attention to positive and constructive teaching of virtue 
 than to mere denunciation of sin. They were not 
 prophets nor preachers, delighting in the exposure of 
 evil, but quiet souls who found their satisfaction in 
 making virtue attractive. However, they leave no 
 doubt as to the severity of their disapprobation of evil. 
 They warn the young against the vice of greed and 
 covetousness, together with the envy that is so constant 
 a companion of these two corroding sins. 3 A proud, 
 
 1 So also Prov. 3:2; 4:10; 8:35,36; 9:11,18; 10:16,25,27,30; 
 11:4,17-19,21; 12:7,21; 13:14; 16:31. 
 
 2 Similarly Ecclus. 16:12-14. 
 
 3 Prov. 1:10-19; 14:30; 15:27; 21:26; 28:16; Ecclus. 14:3-19. 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 249 
 
 haughty, and arrogant spirit meets with emphatic dis¬ 
 approval 1 and the havoc wrought by hatred is vividly 
 suggested. 2 The destructive and disruptive power of 
 hate is sharply contrasted with the forgiving and healing 
 grace of love: 
 
 Hatred stirreth up strifes; 
 
 But love covereth all transgressions [Prov. 10:12]. 
 
 Much attention is bestowed upon lying, slander, false 
 witnessing, and talebearing. 3 These were fruitful causes 
 of discord and all sorts of evil machinations. Downright 
 murdfer is spoken of but once (Prov. 28:17); but harlotry 
 and adultery are the occasion of much warning. 4 It is 
 suggestive of the point of view as to woman that the 
 initial responsibility for this sin is in every case but one 
 laid either directly or by implication upon the woman; 
 the man in the case is evidently but a poor victim who 
 needs protection! The one exception is in Ecclus. 
 23:16-27, where the man is given the blame that is 
 rightly due him. 
 
 150. The vice of drunkenness is depicted in telling 
 terms that suggest abundant opportunity for observa¬ 
 tion of its evils on the part of the sages. s But, on the 
 other hand, they recognized a legitimate use of wine and 
 did not dream of prohibition. 6 Personal extravagance 
 
 1 Prov.11:2; 16:18, 19; 18:12; 21:4, 24; 29:23. 
 
 2 Prov. 26:24-26. 
 
 3 Prov. 6:12-19; 10:18; 12:17; 13:5; 14:5; 17:4, 7; 19:5, 9; 
 20:19; 21:6,28; 24:28; 25:18; 26:28; 30:10; Ecclus. 20:24, 26. 
 
 4Prov. 5:1-20; 6:24-35; chap. 7; 22:14; 23:27,28; 29:3; 30:20; 
 3i:3- 
 
 s Prov. 20:1; 23:20, 21, 29-35; 3 i: 4> 5 - 
 
 6 Prov. 31:6, 7. 
 
250 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 on the one hand and parsimoniousness on the other are 
 alike rebuked. 1 Gambling is referred to perhaps once, 
 but naturally in an unfavorable way (Ecclus. 14:15). 
 The more elusive sins of hypocrisy, flattery, deceit, and 
 cunning are abhorrent to the sages’ zeal for honesty and 
 reality. 2 The lazy, slothful, indolent man comes in for 
 frequent remark and is spared no sarcasm or stinging 
 rebuke. 3 
 
 151. The social offenses listed include the use of false 
 weights and measures, 4 the hoarding of grain, 5 various 
 forms of robbery and oppression of the poor, 6 bribery, 7 
 the curse that is causeless, 8 unfilial cursing of parents, 9 
 charging interest upon loans, 10 and returning evil for 
 good. 11 The interests of the sages as distinguished from 
 those of the prophets were primarily and almost exclu¬ 
 sively individualistic rather than social. Their problems 
 moved in the field of personal character and not that of 
 social or national well-being. Group interests as such 
 receive no attention from them. Even the influence of 
 the group life upon the individual is untouched. Soci¬ 
 ology both in name and in content was to them terra 
 incognita. 
 
 152. The virtues commended by the sages are naturally 
 in large part the opposite of the vices condemned. 
 
 1 Prov. 11:24; 21:17; Ecclus. 4:31; 14:3-7. 
 
 2 Prov. 29:5; Ecclus. 1:29; 5:9—6:1; 19:25, 28. 
 
 3 Prov. 10:5; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15, 24; 20:4, 13; 21:25; 22:13; 
 23:21; 24:30-34; 26:13, I 45 Ecclus. 22:1, 2. 
 
 4 Prov. 11 :i; 16:11; 20:10,23. 8 Prov. 26:2. 
 
 s Prov. 11:26. 9 Prov. 20:20. 
 
 6 Prov. 14:31; 22:22,28; 23:10; 28:3,6. 10 Prov. 28:8. 
 
 7 Prov. 15:27; 18:16; 29:4. 11 Prov. 17:13. 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 251 
 
 Reverence for parents is one of the outstanding charac¬ 
 teristics of the good man. 1 The filial spirit reflected in 
 these utterances is beyond praise. Piety toward parents 
 is effective in making atonement for sin. Father and 
 mother alike deserve and must receive every consid¬ 
 eration : 
 
 My son, help thy father in his old age. 
 
 And grieve him not all the days of his life. 
 
 Alms to a father shall not be blotted out, 
 
 And it shall stand firm as a substitute for sin. 
 
 In the day of trouble it shall be remembered, 
 
 Obliterating thine iniquities as heat the hoar-frost. 
 
 As one that is arrogant is he that despiseth his father, 
 
 And as one that provoketh his Creator is he that curseth 
 his mother [Ecclus. 3:12-16]. 
 
 A proper regard for the aged is also required of the 
 good man. 2 Kindness to one’s fellow-man and even to 
 animals is praiseworthy. 3 Mercy and truth are joined 
 together and are given great weight in the scales of 
 merit; like charity they “cover a multitude of sins.” 4 
 The commonplace but essential virtue of industry is 
 greatly stressed. 5 It is the outstanding characteristic 
 of the ideal wife. 6 The idea that the good man need 
 only trust in God to take care of him was far from the 
 sage’s mind. His philosophy of life was rather, “God 
 helps those who help themselves.” As a companion 
 
 1 Prov. 1:8, 9; 6:20; 15:5,20; 19:26; 23:22-25; 28:7; 30:11, 17; 
 Ecclus. 3:1-16; 16:1-5. 
 
 2 Ecclus. 8:6, 9. 
 
 3 Prov. 12:10; 19:17. 
 
 4Prov. 3:3; 16:6; 20:28. 
 
 s Prov. 6:6-11; 10:4; 12:11,24,27; 13:4; 21:5; 22:29; 28:19. 
 
 6 Prov. 31:13, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 27. 
 
252 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 virtue to industry, frugality is approved. The proverb 
 on this subject would serve as an excellent motto for the 
 modern savings bank: 
 
 Wealth gotten in haste shall be diminished, 
 
 But he that gathers little by little shall increase 
 [Prov. 13:11]. 
 
 Amid all the toil and saving there must be a contented 
 mind: 
 
 The chief requisites of life are water and bread, 
 
 And a garment, and a house to cover nakedness: 
 
 Better the life of a poor man under a shelter of logs, 
 
 Than sumptuous fare among strangers. 
 
 Be contented with little or much [Ecclus. 29:21-23]. 
 
 In the midst of one’s own prosperity, thought should be 
 taken for the unfortunate. Charity and generosity toward 
 the needy are given much emphasis. 1 Prompt aid is 
 commended in contrast to the procrastinating kind that 
 delays relief when it might be immediately available. 
 The man who finds satisfaction in the distresses of his 
 fellows is classed with him who blasphemes God. By 
 Jesus, the son of Sirach, almsgiving is accorded merit 
 as atoning for sin. 2 The prophet’s emphasis upon the 
 supreme importance of justice and righteousness is 
 echoed in some of the sages’ maxims. 3 
 
 To do righteousness and justice 
 
 Is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice [Prov. 21:3]. 
 
 1 Prov. 3:27, 28; 11:25; 17:5; 19:17; 21:13; 22:9,16; 28:27; 
 
 Ecclus. 4:1-5; 7:10. 
 
 3 Ecclus. 3:30; 4:10. 
 
 3 Prov. 3:29, 30; 16:12; 18:5; 20:7; 21:15,18; 24:23-26; 29:2, 
 6, 7, 14, 16, 27; 31:9; Ecclus. 4:30; 21:4, 8. 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 253 
 
 The sages’ advocacy of justice is wholly lacking in the 
 passion that was so characteristic of the prophet, nor 
 does it have much in mind the national interest that lay 
 so near to the heart of the prophet. Their concern is 
 rather, on the whole, with the relationship of justice to 
 personal character. 
 
 153. The value of friendship is set very high; and 
 the nature and function of friendship are correctly inter¬ 
 preted. The true friend is sharply differentiated from 
 the fair-weather friend. 1 Much advice and encourage¬ 
 ment are given toward the development of self-control. 2 
 Anger is especially the subject of warning. 3 The evils 
 of quarrelsomeness are vividly depicted; 4 and hasty 
 speech is earnestly deprecated. 5 A fitting spirit of 
 humility is urged upon the good man; 6 at the same 
 time he is bidden not to descend too low in his own 
 estimation but to maintain a proper self-esteem. If he 
 does not value himself, who else will value him (Ecclus. 
 10:29)? 
 
 154. The attitude of the sages toward foreigners seems 
 to have become more pronouncedly hostile with the 
 progress of time. Wisdom teaching on the whole seems 
 to have been broad and human in its reactions. In 
 Proverbs little, if any, allusion is made to distinctions 
 between Jew and non-Jew. It is, of course, true that 
 the thought of the sage did not positively include the 
 
 1 Prov. 18:24; Ecclus. 6:5-17; 12:8—13:1. 
 
 2 Prov. 29:11, 20; Ecclus. 6:2-4; 8:11; 18:30—19:3. 
 
 3 Prov. 14:29; 15:18; 16:32; 17:1; 19:11,19; 22:24; Ecclus. 1:22. 
 
 4 Prov. 17:14; 26:21; Ecclus. 8:1-3. 
 
 5 Prov, 13:3; 17:7, 28; 21:23; Ecclus. 19:4-12; 23:7-15. 
 
 6 Prov. 15:33; 18:12; 29:23; Ecclus. 3:17-25; 7:4-7. 
 
254 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 interests of foreigners, but at the same time it did not 
 descend to hatred and hostility toward aliens. In 
 Proverbs there is no indubitable criticism of or warning 
 ^against foreigners. 1 In the Wisdom of Jesus, son of 
 Sirach, however, the old-time hatred of Edom, Philistia, 
 and the Samaritans reasserts itself. 2 Conversely, the 
 thought of Israel as God’s favored nation is confidently 
 expressed: 
 
 For every nation he appointed a ruler, 
 
 But Israel is the Lord’s portion [Ecclus. 17:17]. 
 
 155. The family .—The sages give a great deal of 
 consideration to questions relating to women and 
 children. They recognize fully that children are- not 
 infrequently a source of grief and anxiety; 3 and they 
 lay stress upon the necessity of discipline in youth that 
 the child may grow up aright. 4 They commend cor¬ 
 poral punishment, but would not have it go too far. 5 
 
 Withhold not chastisement from the child; 
 
 If thou beat him with the rod, he will not die. 
 
 Thou must beat him with the rod, 
 
 And thus rescue him from Sheol [Prov. 23:13, 14]. 
 
 Good children are highly prized, being looked upon as the 
 most desirable proof of the favor of God. 6 There is no 
 insight into either principles or methods of elementary 
 or secondary education. Knowledge and morals alike 
 must be inculcated by the use of the rod. 
 
 1 The “strange” woman of Proverbs is not a foreigner but rather 
 the wife of another man than the person addressed. Cf. Toy’s rendering 
 of Prov. 20:16; 27:13. 
 
 2 Ecclus. 50:25, 26. 3 Prov. r7:21, 25; 19:13. 4 Prov. 22:6. 
 
 s Prov. 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 29:15, I 7 > 21 j Ecclus. 30:1-13. 
 
 6 Prov. 17:6. 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 255 
 
 Wives, too, are not uniformly satisfactory. Quarrel¬ 
 some wives seem to have been of very common occur¬ 
 rence. 1 Two types of wives are regarded as intolerable; 
 viz., the woman lacking winsomeness who at last obtains 
 a husband only to find that he comes to hate her, and 
 the maidservant, who succeeds in supplanting her 
 mistress. 2 Jesus, the son of Sirach, is more dubious 
 about women than the earlier proverb-makers were. He 
 bids the husband trust his wife, but fight shy of all other 
 women lest he fall into trouble. 3 He becomes almost 
 savage in his tirade against bad wives: 
 
 Any wickedness, only not the wickedness of a woman. 
 
 There is no wrath above the wrath of a woman. 
 
 There is little malice like the malice of a woman. 
 
 From a woman did sin originate, 
 
 And because of her we all must die [Ecclus. 25:13-26]. 
 
 He would protect men from the dangers lurking in the 
 ways of bad women and so he paints them in vivid 
 colors. 4 In the same sort of tone, he talks about the 
 worry in which daughters involve their parents; and he 
 closes his words upon this theme with this preposterous 
 statement: 
 
 For from the garment cometh forth the moth, 
 
 And from a woman a woman’s wickedness. 
 
 Better the wickedness of a man than the goodness of a 
 woman, 
 
 And a daughter that causeth shame and poureth forth 
 reproach [Ecclus. 42:9-14]. 
 
 But the sages were not blind to the merits of women; 
 and they frequently give them the highest praise. The 
 
 1 Prov. 19:13; 21:9, 19; 25:24; 27:15, 16. 
 
 2 Prov. 30:23. ^Ecclus. 9:1-9. 4 Ecclus. 26:5-12. 
 
256 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 good wife is a much coveted treasure for which Yahweh 
 is to be thanked. Jesus, son of Sirach, joins with the older 
 sages in generous praise of such women, 1 but he cannot 
 even in this connection refrain from a sly fling at their 
 volubility: 
 
 A silent woman is a gift from the Lord [Ecclus. 26:14]. 
 
 In his scale of values, given in chapter 40, he places 
 woman very high. 2 The most attractive picture of 
 womanhood, however, is that presented in Prov. 
 31:10-31. The first fine of this panegyric, as rendered 
 in the English Bible, casts a slur upon womanhood 
 that was far from the writer’s thought. The word 
 “virtuous” here has no reference to sexual purity, but 
 is used in the old English sense related to the Latin 
 virtus. The Hebrew is difficult to reproduce exactly; 
 but we may use some such adjective as “worthful,” 
 “forceful,” or “capable.” The kind of wife meant is 
 the one described in the poem that follows. It is admitted 
 that such a wife is difficult to obtain, but when found she 
 is of incalculable value. She has indefatigable energy 
 and executive capacity. She is generous and charitable 
 to the poor. She dresses well and takes excellent care 
 of her husband and household. She is wise and kindly 
 and commands the confidence of her husband and the 
 esteem and affection of her children. Such an ideal 
 fails to include many things that characterize the ideal 
 woman of today. It confines woman’s sphere of activity 
 to the home and family. It gives her no voice in the 
 affairs of town and state. It leaves no time for the 
 
 1 Prov. 12:4; 18:22; 19:14; Ecclus. 26:1-4, 13-18; 36:21-26; 40:23. 
 
 3 Ecclus. 40:19, 23. 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 257 
 
 culture of the so-called “fine arts.” It puts no emphasis 
 upon intellectual attainments of the more specialized 
 kind. It leaves her social interests unmentioned. But 
 judged by the standards of the times, the soundness of 
 this view of woman cannot be too highly estimated. 
 The things which engage this woman’s energies are all 
 in themselves good. As far as she goes she is thoroughly 
 praiseworthy. A people in that period with a concep¬ 
 tion of ideal womanhood as essentially good as this was 
 in the forefront of moral progress. Other peoples might 
 praise their women for their beauty and physical charms; 
 the Jew, though not despising the beautiful, places his 
 highest estimate upon moral excellence. He praises the 
 homely, household virtues of industry, wisdom, and 
 loving-kindness. 
 
 156. The general characteristics of the wisdom found 
 in the moral maxims of the sages are readily recognizable. 
 Their observations reveal a marked degree of practicality 
 and shrewd common sense. 1 They face the everyday 
 problem of life, “how can I live a happy, prosperous 
 life, esteemed by my fellow-men and enjoying the favor 
 of God?” In their manifold answer, they display a 
 keen insight into human nature and an open-eyed recogni¬ 
 tion of facts, e.g., 
 
 A man’s gift makes room for him, 
 
 And brings him before great men [Prov. 18:16]. 
 
 A gift in secret turns away anger, 
 
 And a present in the bosom violent wrath [Prov. 21:14]. 
 
 To have respect of persons is not good— 
 
 For a piece of bread a man may sin [Prov. 28:21]. 
 
 1 Prov. 10:15; 14:20; 16:26; 19:4, 6, 7; 20:6, 14; 27:10, 21; 
 29:12; Ecclus. 13:21-23; 27:2; 31:5-11. 
 
258 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 They do not lack an occasional glint of humor; for ex¬ 
 ample, in the warning against garrulity, we come across 
 this: 
 
 Hast thou heard anything? Let it die with thee; 
 
 Be of good courage, it will not burst thee [Ecclus. 19:10!! 
 
 One of the prevailing notes of the sages is caution. 
 They would not have men give way to wild enthusiasms, 
 or indulge in venturesome enterprises. A man should 
 keep to safe and sure methods and principles. There¬ 
 fore, a man should be slow to go surety for debts, for he 
 may have to pay them. 1 The sage desires for himself 
 a moderate and well-balanced life that avoids extremes, 
 either of poverty or riches. 2 He cautions his disciples 
 against trusting in wealth and warns them against 
 trying to get rich quickly 3 Practical jokes are put upon 
 his list of prohibitions. 4 The wise will seek the guidance 
 of good counselors, and the prosperity of the state 
 depends upon such counsel. 5 
 
 157. Pragmatic morals .—The ethics of the sages can 
 hardly escape the charge of being prevailingly utilitarian. 
 There is constantly held up before the disciple the prac¬ 
 tical good to be derived by following the course of con¬ 
 duct laid down. It is a high level of utilitarianism upon 
 which the thought of the sages moves, far above a merely 
 material and sensuous interpretation of life. But there 
 is scant recognition of the power and beauty of ideals as 
 
 I Prov.6:i~5; 11:15; 17:18; 20:16; 22:26,27; Ecclus. 8:12, 13; 
 29:14-20. 
 
 2 Prov. 30:7-9. 3 Prov. 1:10—19; 20:21; 23:4,5; 28:20,22. 
 
 4 Prov. 26:18, 19; cf. Ecclus. 8:4. 
 
 sProv. 11:14; cf. 29:18, where Toy would substitute for “vision” 
 some such word as “guidance.” 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 259 
 
 such. There is but little evidence of the thought that 
 “virtue is its own reward.” “Be good, because it pays 
 dividends in prosperity, esteem and happiness,” is the 
 sages’ advice; not, “be good, because goodness is a 
 blessed thing in and of itself.” 1 In addition to this defect 
 the ethics of these maxims is in the main egoistic, indi¬ 
 vidualistic, and self-centered. There is little trace of 
 altruism or of social interest. The thought of the indi¬ 
 vidual as living for the good of the whole rather than for 
 his own self-interest is scarcely perceptible. A man has 
 certain positive obligations, it is true, to parent’s and 
 children and to the poor and weak; and he is expected 
 to conduct himself toward the community at large as 
 a decent citizen; but there is no thought of any direct 
 and positive obligation on the part of a citizen to strive 
 for the betterment of society or to work for the progress 
 of the state. The vision of the sages moves within a 
 restricted area and does not extend to the farthest 
 confines of his world. He lived too early in history for 
 this larger world-view to have been possible for him. 
 
 The method of the sages is not synthetic, but ato¬ 
 mistic. There may have been in their minds certain 
 great underlying ethical unities; but, if so, they never 
 came to expression. They talk not in terms of character 
 but in those of action. Life for them consists in deeds; 
 and a man is judged by his acts rather than by his 
 motives. On the other hand, the sages recognize 
 certain great moral principles to which a man must 
 adjust himself if he would succeed. They constitute 
 a sort of moral law, the mandates of which are inexorable. 
 In the words of Professor C. H. Toy: 
 
 1 Cf. Prov. 11:17; 14:30; 15:15. 
 
26 o 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 The sages set forth a natural law in the moral world, which 
 is no more capable of pity than physical law; the rule is: be wise 
 or perish—it is the rule of the ethical philosopher, not of the 
 patriot or the preacher. In this respect, as in others, we are 
 struck by the modernness of Proverbs: prophets and historians 
 often seem remote from us, and sometimes even the psalms; but 
 Proverbs might almost have been written yesterday. 1 
 
 158. A melancholy note is occasionally sounded by the 
 sages. They were too wide-awake to ignore completely 
 the tragic element in life, notwithstanding their view 
 that all things work together for good to them that fear 
 God. Sorrow is common to all; 2 and outward manifesta¬ 
 tions of joy sometimes conceal inner grief. 3 This prev¬ 
 alence of sorrow is explicable, for all men are guilty of 
 sin. 4 No man may be adjudged happy till he dies, for 
 death may reveal the saddening truth. 5 Death is the 
 end of all men; 6 and the wicked die prematurely. 7 
 There is no outlook beyond the grave, and life is too short 
 to permit full attainment of all possibilities: 
 
 For all things cannot be in men, 
 
 For a son of man is not immortal [Ecclus. 17:30]. 
 
 But even so, the tragedy of life is not allowed to obscure 
 the joy. The good man is no pessimist. He enters 
 fully into the joy of living: 
 
 The path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn, 
 
 Which shines ever brighter till the full day comes 
 [Prov. 4:18]. 
 
 The good man carries a glad heart, which is an antidote 
 for sickness and sorrow. 8 The wicked are prostrated by 
 
 1 Encyclopedia Biblica, col. 3914. 
 
 2 Prov. 14:10. 4 Prov. 20:9. 6 Ecclus. 7:17; 4 i:I- 4~ 
 
 3 Prov. 14:13. s Ecclus. 11: 28. 7 Prov. 10:27; 11:7. 
 
 8 Prov. 10:22; 14:30; 15:13,15; 17:22; 29:6; Ecclus. 1:11 2 . 
 
1 HE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 
 
 261 
 
 misfortune, but the righteous has confidence in trouble 
 because of his integrity. 1 He may trust Yahweh and 
 need not envy the wicked, because his hope for reward 
 will not come to naught. 2 Men reap what they sow; 
 and the pious may count upon full fruition of their hopes. 3 
 Good advice is given to mourners, though perhaps it 
 does seem a bit unfeeling and cold-blooded, not to say 
 hypocritical. 4 But mourning is not to be allowed to 
 dominate a life. Death is the common lot of man, and 
 is to be accepted in a philosophical spirit. 
 
 159. Moral heights. —In bringing this chapter to a 
 close, we shall note some of the highest levels attained 
 by these sages. Wealth is by no means their highest 
 good. Wisdom far transcends it. 5 Love in a cottage 
 is better than hatred in a palace. 6 Poverty is far from 
 being the worst misfortune. 7 Truthfulness and a good 
 reputation are better than riches. 8 Sound knowledge is 
 the best of jewels. 9 In the scale of values formulated 
 by Jesus, son of Sirach, 10 the prizes are awarded to wisdom, 
 true love between man and woman, purity of speech, 
 a “discreet wife,” righteousness, good counsel, and best • 
 of all—the fear of God. Emphasis is laid upon the inner 
 life as the source of all activities. 11 The ethical content of 
 religion is stressed even as by the prophets. 12 True 
 
 1 Prov. 14:32; cf. Toy’s Commentary, in loc. 
 
 2 Prov. 23:18; 24:19, 20. 
 
 3 Ecclus. 3:26-31; 14:1. 
 
 4 Ecclus. 38:16-23. 
 
 s Prov. 3:13-15; 8:11, 19; 16:16; Ecclus. 10:30—11:1. 
 
 6 Prov. 15:16, 17. 8 Prov. 22:1. 10 Ecclus. 40:18-27. 
 
 7 Prov. 19:22. 9 Prov. 20:15. 11 Prov. 4:23. 
 
 12 Prov. 15:18f; 21:27; Ecclus. 34:19—35:17. 
 
262 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 friendship is highly exalted; 1 the demands made upon 
 long-suffering human nature by the sages are not light. 
 Even if a borrower is ungrateful, the good must keep on 
 lending to him. 2 The lex talionis is discarded; the good 
 man will not repay the one who wrongs him “ tit for tat,” 
 but will forgive that he himself may be forgiven. 3 Nor 
 will he humiliate the penitent, for he will bear in mind 
 that all men are sinners. 4 The good will not even 
 exult over the misfortunes of the wicked, for that might 
 lead Yahweh to turn away his wrath from the wicked! 
 Behind this rather shocking sentiment there is a feeling 
 that it is unseemly to delight in the afflictions of 
 others. The Sermon on the Mount with its “if thine 
 enemy hunger, feed him,” etc., is anticipated in Prov. 
 25:21, 22, but the motive is somewhat mixed. 
 
 For thou wilt heap coals of fire upon his head, 
 
 And Yahweh will reward thee. 
 
 The spirit that animated the Jews in the terrible strug¬ 
 gle against Antiochus Epiphanes finds stirring expression 
 in Ecclus. 4:28: 
 
 Strive for the right till death, 
 
 And the Lord will reward thee. 
 
 Jesus, son of Sirach, lays down clearly the proposition 
 that the will of man is free. He is not a mere pawn upon 
 the chess-board. He is master of his own destiny. He 
 must fight out his battle with his own evil nature, 5 and 
 victory is within his reach: 
 
 1 Prov. 17:17; Ecclus. 14:13. 3 Prov. 24:29; Ecclus. 27:30—28:7. 
 
 2 Ecclus. 29:1-13. 4 Ecclus. 8:5. 
 
 s Ecclus. 15:14; cf. the article by F. C. Porter on “The Yecer 
 Hara—A Study in the Jewish Doctrine of Sin,” in Biblical and Semitic 
 Studies , Critical and Historical Essays by the Members of the Biblical and 
 Semitic Faculty of Yale University (1901), pp. 93-156. 
 
THE MORAL MAXIMS OF THE SAGES 263 
 
 If thou desirest, thou canst keep the commandment, 
 
 And it is wisdom to do his good pleasure, 
 
 And if thou trust him, of a truth thou shalt live. 
 
 Poured out before thee are fire and water, 
 
 Stretch forth thy hand unto that which thou desirest. 
 
 Life and death are before man, 
 
 That which he desires shall be given him 
 [Ecclus. 15:15-17]. 
 
 There is no citation of authority by the sages. They 
 do not seek to add any extraneous influence to their 
 utterances. They proceed rather upon the view that 
 “ truth is its own best witness.” So they are content to 
 state the truth as they see it and to allow it to make its 
 own unaided appeal to the hearts of men. They have 
 enough confidence in human nature to believe that it 
 will respond to the best in life when that is presented and 
 they sincerely believe that they have the best. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 160. The Book of Job is one of the masterpieces of 
 world literature. It deals with the eternally insoluble 
 problem of suffering. It represents an ideal man as the 
 victim of hostile circumstances losing all that men hold 
 dear, save life itself, yet holding fast to his integrity. 
 His sufferings constitute the theme of discussion between 
 him and three of his friends. They argue that his 
 misfortunes demonstrate his sinfulness; he repudiates 
 the charge and challenges the moral order of the universe. 
 He has, on the whole, the better of the argument. But 
 he and his friends are alike rebuked and corrected by 
 Yahweh himself in a speech which forms the climax of 
 the book. Thereupon Job is restored to his former 
 prosperity, and his friends are forgiven for his sake. 
 
 161. The theme of the book is as old as the thought of 
 man. The ancient Egyptians had dealt with it early in 
 their literary history; 1 and the old Babylonians had also 
 given it serious thought. 2 The Book of Job itself takes 
 an old story as its basis and sets itself the task of proving 
 that the old solution of the problem of suffering is no 
 solution at all. The point of view of the author of the 
 book is independent and creative. Naturally it did not 
 commend itself to some minds and they sought to supple¬ 
 ment it and correct it by the addition of new material. 
 
 1 See James H. Breasted, The Development of Religion and Thought 
 in Ancient Egypt (1912), pp. 188 £f. 
 
 2 See George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible (1916), pp. 392-97. 
 
 264 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 265 
 
 Such additions are represented particularly by the 
 speeches of Elihu (chaps. 32-37), and a large section of 
 the speech of Yahweh (40:6—41:34), and the description 
 of Wisdom in chapter 28. 1 
 
 162. The development of the thought of the book, 
 compellingly interesting as it is, cannot be followed 
 through here step by step. We shall rather analyze and 
 summarize the contribution of the discussion to the prob¬ 
 lem of suffering, hoping that this will send some readers 
 to the Book of Job itself for direct contact with the 
 author’s thought in all its beauty and power. The 
 problem of the book, more precisely formulated, is this: 
 How can the fact of suffering on the part of the good be 
 best accounted for in a supposedly moral universe and 
 under the administration of a moral God? Or, more 
 succinctly stated, is God moral? There are several 
 responses to these queries in the Book of Job, and to these 
 we now turn. 
 
 163. The theory of life held by Job and the three 
 friends alike is to the effect that the pious life ought to 
 be the prosperous life and conversely, the wicked should 
 suffer. The difference between the friends and Job is 
 that they say that life is actually organized and admin¬ 
 istered upon the basis of this principle; while Job declares 
 emphatically that it is not. Herein lies Job’s problem. 
 The pious ought to be rewarded for their piety, and the 
 wicked ought to suffer for their sin; but the experiences 
 
 1 The best English books on Job are: S. R. Driver and G. Buchanan 
 Gray, The Book of Job (International Critical Commentary, 1921); 
 A. S. Peake, The Book of Job (New Century Bible, 1904); A. B. David¬ 
 son and H. C. O. Lanchester, The Book of Job (Cambridge Bible, 1918); 
 Morris Jastrow, Jr., The Book of Job (1920); M. Buttenwieser, The Book 
 of Job (1922). 
 
2 66 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of life show that this is not the way in which things 
 really go. Job is represented by the author as having 
 lived the pious life par excellence (Job i: 8), and as having 
 received his appropriate reward of material prosperity up 
 to the point at which the story begins (Job i: 1-5). The 
 moral elements in the life of such a man are of particular 
 interest and value for our study. A catalogue of Job’s vir¬ 
 tues is given in his apologia pro vita sua found in chapters 
 29-31. The moral qualities here listed are of course 
 representative of the highest ideal of life in the period 
 from which the Book of Job comes. Job declares him¬ 
 self to have been a ready helper of the poor and weak. 
 Orphans and widows found in him succor and strong 
 defense against the oppressor. 1 He even felt himself to 
 be brother to his slaves. 2 He was always to be found 
 upon the side of justice and righteousness and was of 
 impeccable honesty. 3 He was possessed of a cheerful, 
 buoyant disposition which made him an encouragement 
 and joy to his fellows. 4 He eschewed all forms of insin¬ 
 cerity and deceit, 5 and had no consciousness of any secret 
 sins. 6 He was wholly free from sexual taint, avoiding 
 even impure thoughts, much more acts of shame. 7 He 
 disclaimed all undue esteem for wealth and declared that 
 he never put his hope and confidence in his riches. 8 He 
 shared his abundance with the less fortunate and prac¬ 
 ticed a liberal hospitality both toward his neighbors and 
 toward travelers. 9 He had been faithful to all obliga¬ 
 tions arising out of his position as a holder and tiller of 
 
 1 Job 29:12-17; 31:16-20. 4 Job 29:21-15. 7job3i:i, 9. 
 
 a Job 31:13-15. s Job 31:5. 8 Job 31:24, 25. 
 
 8 Job 29:14, 16&, 17; 31:7. 6 Job 31:33, 34- 9 Job 31:31, 32. 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 267 
 
 the soil. 1 Best of all, he did not find any satisfaction in 
 the misfortunes of his personal enemies, nor had he ever 
 called down curses upon them. 2 A survey of these 
 claims will reveal that there is here nothing new. All 
 these ideals have found expression already in the earlier 
 literature. The unusual thing is that these virtues are 
 all concentrated in one ideal person, so that Job becomes 
 a man without a flaw. But Job’s pre-eminence is not so 
 much in the realm of deeds, as in that of thought. It is 
 in the quality of his mind and its courage and strength, 
 as revealed in the long debate, that his supremacy lies. 
 
 164. The setting of the problem is given in the Prologue 
 to the Book of Job (chaps. 1-2). The perfect man, Job, 
 is held up by Yahweh as a character beyond reproach. 
 The Satan challenges this proposition, intimating that 
 there is no such thing among men as disinterested piety 
 (Job 1:9-11). Job has been good because it paid. If 
 his prosperity and welfare were interfered with Job would 
 abandon his piety without delay. The Satan functions 
 here as a prosecuting attorney, with a strong prejudice 
 against the prisoner at the bar; compare Zechariah. He 
 is also the intermediary agent who carries the direct re¬ 
 sponsibility for the suffering of the pious and thereby lifts 
 the load from Yahweh’s back. Suffering can thus be 
 thought of as the work of the Satan and not be charged up 
 against God. Job underwent the test of the loss of his 
 prosperity and of his children and came out with his piety 
 unscathed (Job 1:13-22). The Satan thereupon insists 
 that the test was not thorough enough and that if pushed 
 
 I Job3i:38f. This passage eludes exact interpretation; see the 
 commentaries, in loc. 
 
 2 Job 31:29, 30. 
 
268 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 further Job’s character would break down; but Job 
 undergoes the final test and passes with a grade of ioo 
 per cent plus (Job 2:1-10). The contribution of the 
 Prologue is very clear, definite, and important. The 
 truly pious man does not demand rewards as the pre¬ 
 requisite for his continuance in the way of goodness. 
 Piety is a quality of the inner life which is not dependent 
 upon outer circumstances. Virtue is its own reward. 
 A commercialized piety would not stand the strain of 
 the untoward experiences of life. 
 
 165. The Job of the discussion is a changed man. His 
 equanimity has vanished. He challenges the worth- 
 fulness of life and wishes that he had never been born. 
 He shocks his pious, orthodox friends by the daring 
 attacks he makes upon the moral order. They under¬ 
 take to reason with him and to restore him to a normal 
 way of thinking. They are perfectly satisfied with the 
 conventional view as to the place and function of suffer¬ 
 ing in life; and they keep on reiterating it, despite Job’s 
 indignant and forceful expostulations. That view is 
 that suffering is the punishment for sin and that the 
 pious suffer only temporarily. The wicked perish pre¬ 
 maturely, but the pious live to a ripe old age. Job, there¬ 
 fore, has no warrant for his complaint, if he is the 
 righteous man he seems to have been. 1 He can rest 
 assured that he will not be cut off from life before his 
 time. His piety is his guaranty of well-being. This is 
 the teaching of the former generations of wise men and 
 ought to be trusted. 2 
 
 Job, though accepting this as the right theory of life, 
 cites the facts of experience to show that the theory does 
 
 1 Job 4:6-9; 5:1-6; 11:20; 15:20-35; 18:5. 2 Job 8:8-20. 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 269 
 
 not operate in the actual everyday world. The wicked 
 flourish and prosper; they grow richer and richer; they 
 pay no heed to God, esteeming it useless to worship 
 him; and they die an easy death, not suffering months 
 and years of agony as Job is doing. If the friends would 
 save their theory by the claim that the punishment for 
 sin often lights upon the sinner’s children, Job protests 
 that this is unfair, and that the sinner should suffer for his 
 own sin. 1 Job, therefore, represents the newer doctrine 
 of individual responsibility before God and repudiates the 
 old doctrine of family solidarity. 2 
 
 166. Traditional views .—The friends can but admit 
 that suffering does befall the pious. They account for 
 this disturbing fact in two ways. They declare that the 
 sufferings of the righteous are merely temporary and 
 are sent upon the pious for purposes of a disciplinary 
 character. They are to correct the errors of the pious 
 and lead them back into the paths of righteousness. If 
 Job will but make acknowledgment of his sins and repent, 
 he will be at once restored to the divine favor and be 
 crowned with blessings of prosperity. This promise is 
 most beautifully phrased by Eliphaz: 
 
 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; 
 
 And despise thou not the chastening of the Almighty. 
 
 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up; 
 
 He woundeth, and his hands heal. 
 
 In six troubles he will deliver thee; 
 
 And in seven no evil will touch thee. 
 
 In famine he will redeem thee from death; 
 
 And in war from the power of the sword. 
 
 From the scourge of the tongue thou shalt be hid; 
 
 Neither shalt thou be afraid of desolation when it cometh. 
 
 1 Job 21:7-21. 
 
 2 See pp. 127 f., 176. 
 
270 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 At destruction and death thou shalt laugh; 
 
 And of the beasts of the earth be thou not afraid. 
 
 For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field; 
 
 And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee, 
 
 And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace; 
 
 And thou shalt visit thy homestead and shalt miss nothing. 
 Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great, 
 
 And thine offspring as the herbage of the earth. 
 
 Thou shalt come to thy grave in firm strength, 
 
 As a shock of corn cometh in in its season [Job 5:17-26]. 1 
 
 167. A second line of defense is put up by the friends 
 in the proposition that human nature as such is sinful 
 and must therefore suffer punishment. Job is after all 
 only a man; and as such shares the faults of his kind 
 and must likewise share their punitive sorrows and 
 pains. Eliphaz puts this impressively in his first address 
 where he represents himself as having learned this great 
 truth by a special, direct revelation from God: 
 
 For to me a word was stealthily conveyed, 
 
 And my ear received a whisper thereof. 
 
 In meditations, from visions of the night, 
 
 When deep sleep falls upon men, 
 
 Terror fell upon me and trembling, 
 
 And all my bones were made to fear. 
 
 A breeze passed over my face; 
 
 The hair of my flesh was made to stand on end. 
 
 It stood still—and I could not discern its appearance, 
 
 A form was before mine eyes; 
 
 Silence—and I heard a voice: 
 
 “Can one be just before God, 
 
 Or can a man be pure before his Maker ? 
 
 Behold, he puts no trust in his servants; 
 
 And to his angels he ascribes error. 
 
 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, 
 
 Whose basis is in the dust! 
 
 1 Cf. Job 11:13-19; 22:21-30. 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 271 
 
 They are crushed more quickly than a moth; 
 
 Between morning and evening they are pulverized. 
 
 Without anyone heeding, 
 
 They perish forever. 
 
 When their tent-cord is plucked up, 
 
 Do they not die—and that without wisdom ?” 
 
 [Job 4:12-21.] 
 
 Such a being as man is “born unto trouble even as 
 sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Incidentally, this frailty 
 and sinfulness of man are largely due to the fact that he 
 is bom of woman! This prejudice against woman is 
 shared by both sides of the discussion. Both Eliphaz 1 
 and Bildad 2 give expression to it, and Job is no less 
 emphatic upon the subject. 3 
 
 Job never tires of confronting the theories of the 
 friends with facts drawn from his own observation and 
 experience. He valiantly maintains that he has not been 
 guilty of any such gross sin as his sufferings would imply. 
 He is suffering without due cause. 4 The friends cannot 
 accept Job’s claims without giving up their theology. 
 Forced to choose between their friend and their theology, 
 they cling to their theories and interpret their friend in 
 accordance with theory rather than facts. So they 
 boldly charge Job with being guilty of glaring crimes. 
 The sufferings of Job are their only evidence for these; 
 but they are aided to their conclusion by the bitterness 
 of spirit that has characterized so much of Job’s utter¬ 
 ance. Zophar, the bluntest of the three friends, goes so 
 far as to maintain that Job has not suffered to the full 
 extent of his sins; he deserves to suffer even more. 5 
 
 1 Job 15:14-16. 2 Job 25:4. 3 Job 2:9, 10; 14:1. 
 
 4 Job 6 :10, 30; 16:17; 23:10-12; 27:1-6; 29:12-17; 31:1-40. 
 
 s Job 11:6; cf. Bildad, in 8:3-6; and Eliphaz, in 22:5-9. 
 
272 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 168. Job indignantly repudiates these charges , and, 
 forced by his theology, throws back the responsibility 
 for his suffering upon God himself, whom he declares 
 to be non-moral, if not immoral. God is attacking him 
 furiously. 1 God is too great and powerful to concern 
 himself with the details of human life. 2 3 He disregards 
 the moral interests of his world: 
 
 Though I be righteous, my own mouth condemns me; 
 
 I am innocent, but he has proved me perverse; 
 
 I do not know myself. I despise my life. 
 
 It is one; therefore, I say, 
 
 Innocent and wicked he destroys. 
 
 If the scourge kills suddenly, 
 
 He mocks at the trial of the pure. 
 
 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; 
 
 He covers the faces of its judges. 
 
 If it is not he, then who is it [Job 9:20-24] ?* 
 
 Under conditions like these, Job’s thoughts turn to 
 death as his way of escape. He dwells upon the rest 
 and peace of Sheol, where all classes of men are equal 
 and all cares cease. 4 He protests against the fact that 
 life is forced upon men though they do not want to live. 5 
 Life is an intolerable burden, ending in the grave. 6 
 Death ends all. Even God himself cannot recover Job 
 after he shall have died. 7 Life on earth is brief; and 
 there is no worthful life beyond the grave. 8 
 
 169. Flashes of insight .—In the midst of all this 
 bitterness and gloom, Job sends forth flashes of insight 
 that compel admiration. He steadfastly and repeatedly 
 
 1 Job 6:4; 19:62.; i9:2if. 
 
 2 Job 9:1-19. 
 
 3 Cf. Job 10:3; 12:6. 
 
 4 Job 3:11-19. 
 
 sJob 3:20-26; 10:18-22. 
 
 6 Job 7:1-10; 17:13-16. 
 
 7 Job 7:21. 
 
 8 Job 14:1-22; 16:22. 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 273 
 
 refuses to stultify himself by making confession of sins 
 of which he has no consciousness. He knows himself to 
 be essentially sound, and though there is much in the 
 world that he declares himself unable to understand, he 
 clings fast to the fact of his own integrity. Of that he 
 is sure. He knows himself. He is so sure of this that he 
 is forced to the further assurance that God himself will 
 in due time be compelled to recognize his innocence. 
 Like the friends, he interprets his troubles as an expres¬ 
 sion of the wrath of God; but he looks forward to a time 
 when God’s wrath shall be past, and his own true char¬ 
 acter be recognized by his God. He appeals from Philip 
 drunk to Philip sober. Like Mohammed, he realizes 
 that there is “no appeal from God except to God.” 
 
 0 earth, cover not my blood; 
 
 And let there be no place for my cry; 
 
 Yet now, behold, my witness is in the heavens; 
 
 And he who vouches for me is on high. 
 
 My friends scorn me; 
 
 Unto God mine eye drops tears [Job 16:18-20]. 
 
 He has a deep underlying faith in the justice of God. 
 He refuses to believe that God can or will endure any 
 specious or unfair advocacy of his own cause; God insists 
 upon truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 1 
 The friends, therefore, by shutting their eyes to facts, 
 are rendering themselves liable to the wrath of God. 
 
 He himself longs for an opportunity to present his 
 case to God that he may obtain a full vindication. 2 The 
 certainty of such a future vindication seems to come to 
 him in the famous passage, 19:25ft. Unfortunately, 
 the text of this passage is so imperfect and ambiguous 
 
 'Job 13:7-12, 16. 2 J°b 23:3-12; cf. 19:23 b 
 
274 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 that it is scarcely susceptible of translation and interpre¬ 
 tation. The certain elements in the verse are two, 
 viz., (i) “I know my vindicator lives,” and (2) “I shall 
 see God.” The intervening lines elude precise defini¬ 
 tion. Job repeats the assurance that God is on his side 
 and declares that he himself will be conscious of God’s 
 vindication of him. Whether he thinks of that vindica¬ 
 tion as coming before or after death we cannot discover. 
 If the expectation of vindication looks forward to its 
 realization in a life after death, then the passage can 
 hardly be thought of as having been an original element 
 in the Book of Job. It is a later addition to the discus¬ 
 sion by some reader or copyist. The Book of Job 
 nowhere else recognizes a worthful existence after death. 
 This passage therefore would be foreign to the thought 
 of the book. Indeed, the language of the book in regard 
 to death is so positively against the hope of life after 
 death that the presence of that thought on Job’s lips 
 would be inexplicable. 1 The splendor of Job’s position 
 lies in the fact that he remains true to himself and faith¬ 
 ful to his ideals though he sees no solution to his problems, 
 either in this life or in another. He is confident that 
 God knows him and knows that he is righteous, and 
 he is certain that at some time in the future he will have 
 the satisfaction of vindication at the bar of God; and 
 with that he must be content. 
 
 170. The climax of the Book of Job is reached in the 
 appearance of Yahweh upon the scene. Here the author 
 
 1 This is felt to such an extent by G. B. Gray, ad loc., that he declines 
 to recognize a full-fledged hope of a future life here, but sees rather an 
 expectation of a temporary restoration to consciousness of sufficient 
 length only to permit Job to see his vindication at the bar of God’s 
 judgment. 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 275 
 
 of the book speaks his message. The vision of God 
 grants Job the interview for which he had been longing. 
 But both Job and the friends meet with rebuke. Job’s 
 maintenance of his integrity against the insinuations and 
 accusations of the friends is tacitly approved. Thereby 
 the friends are shown to have been wrong. The omnip¬ 
 otence and omniscience of God are set forth in majestic 
 terms and it is unmistakably shown how far the power 
 and wisdom of the deity transcend the comprehension 
 of man. Thereby, Job is shown to have been in the 
 wrong when he was so foolish and impertinent as to 
 make charges against the character of God. All this 
 has its effect upon Job, who is satisfied by the vision 
 of God and made profoundly conscious of his own limita¬ 
 tions. The contribution of the Yahweh speeches, there¬ 
 fore, is not in the form of an ethical solution of the prob¬ 
 lem of suffering, but rather in the inculcation of a befitting 
 religious attitude toward the problem. The point of 
 the speech is that Job should trust God even though he 
 does not and cannot understand all the workings of the 
 physical world, let alone the moral universe. 
 
 The author of the Book of Job had no positive theory 
 to present or expound. He recognized the insolubility 
 of the problem of suffering. His only purpose was to 
 show the utter inadequacy of the current or orthodox 
 view as to the cause and function of suffering. He used 
 the character, Job, to utter his views on this point. 
 Through the discourses of Job he shattered the conven¬ 
 tional orthodoxy as to suffering and lifted an intolerable 
 burden from the minds of many sufferers who read his 
 message. He showed them that the suffering soul is 
 not necessarily a victim of the wrath of God; and so 
 
276 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 freed them from a terrible uneasiness and dread. But 
 notwithstanding Job’s splendid stand against the con¬ 
 ventional view of suffering, that view continued to hold 
 its ground with the common man and is regnant over 
 many minds even yet. 
 
 171. The speeches of Elihu .—The original Book of 
 Job did not satisfy everybody. One of the malcontents 
 has put his views on record and incorporated them into 
 the Book of Job itself. They are represented in the 
 speeches of Elihu (chaps. 32-37). Elihu is introduced 
 to supplement the teachings of the friends. He is 
 essentially in sympathy with their point of view, but 
 thinks that they have not done full justice to it. He 
 therefore makes the following additional suggestions. In 
 reply to Job’s complaint that God does not communicate 
 with men, he maintains that God does speak to men 
 and that in two ways, (1) through dreams, and (2) 
 through chastisements which God sends upon men for 
 the purpose of discipline, that they may be trained aright 
 and that their mounting pride may be kept within 
 bounds, lest they dash headlong to destruction. 1 He 
 likewise argues that God as the governor of the world 
 is above and beyond* the criticism of mere man. 2 He 
 also points out that God has nothing to gain or lose by 
 man’s righteousness or unrighteousness and that he is 
 therefore not moved by self-interest in his dealings with 
 man. 3 And he closes his address with the proposition 
 that God is beyond all possibility of being understood 
 by men, even in his creation and administration of the 
 physical universe. His whole effort is to save the char- 
 
 1 Job 33:15-28. 2 Job 34:17 ft- 3 job 35:1-8. 
 
A SAINT UNDER FIRE 
 
 277 
 
 acter of God. He adds nothing to the solution of the 
 ethical problem. 
 
 172. The limitations of the discussion .—The entire 
 treatment of the problem of suffering in the Book of 
 Job is noteworthy for what it lacks, and not only for 
 what it gives. The treatment is conspicuously and 
 exclusively a religious one. The problem is conceived 
 of in terms of religion and wrought out along religious 
 lines. There is no recognition of the contribution of 
 suffering to life. The nearest approach to this is the 
 emphasis laid upon the repressive restraint that suffer¬ 
 ing lays upon certain tendencies in human nature which, 
 if developed too far, would bring man into opposition with 
 God. But that suffering should function in a positive 
 way toward the enrichment and deepening of character is 
 a thought that never enters the mind of the friends, 
 Elihu, or Job. The function of pain as a danger signal; 
 the rise of sympathy for our fellows because of our own 
 similar experiences making us appreciative of the meaning 
 of certain aspects of life; the driving power of suffering 
 in the creation of dissatisfaction with existing conditions, 
 and a hunger for improvement in the standards of life, 
 all of which eventuate in the making of a better world; 
 the testing and purifying of human love as it goes through 
 the fire of suffering and comes out spiritualized and 
 ethicized to a degree unknown apart from suffering; these 
 are aspects of the ethical and social side of the problem 
 that the Book of Job left for later generations to discover. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE MEANING OF LIFE AND THE 
 LIGHT OF LOVE 
 
 173. Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs .—In this chapter 
 we bring together, for convenience’s sake, two books 
 which are as widely separated one from the other in 
 spirit and method as two books could well be. The 
 books in question are Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. 
 They are alike only in the fact that they both lie outside 
 the circles of thought within which the rest of the Old 
 Testament moves. Without them the Old Testament 
 would be a narrower and a poorer book. 
 
 174. The Book of Ecclesiastes .—Like most of the Old 
 Testament books Ecclesiastes is a composite work. 
 It contains at least three main strata. The original 
 writer, whom we may call Qoheleth, using the Hebrew 
 title of the book, has been called an agnostic, a skeptic, 
 a “gentle cynic,” and the like, terms indicative of the 
 general character of his contribution. His work has 
 been supplemented and corrected by an orthodox editor 
 who sought to furnish an antidote for the heresy so 
 powerfully presented by Qoheleth. This orthodox con¬ 
 tribution is responsible for the admittance of Qoheleth 
 into the Sacred Canon and is therefore deserving of 
 deep gratitude from all students. But we shall find 
 nothing new for our consideration in this element in 
 the book and shall therefore confine our attention to 
 Qoheleth proper. The third stratum of Ecclesiastes 
 consists of certain harmless platitudes reflecting the 
 
 278 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 279 
 
 mind of the average sage, which we can well afford to 
 neglect. 1 
 
 175. The times of Qoheleth .—Qoheleth did his work 
 in the early part of the Greek period of Jewish history. 
 This began formally with Alexander’s conquest of the 
 oriental world. But the Orient had been in close con¬ 
 tact with the Hellenic mind for some time prior to that 
 event; and Alexander’s conquest was as much a conquest 
 of mind as one of arms. Alexander sought not merely 
 to subdue the oriental world on the field of battle, but 
 also to Hellenize the Orient. He gave great impetus to 
 the Hellenizing movement already under way. Greek 
 cities were founded on strategic sites as centers of culture, 
 whence Greek influences might go out to permeate the 
 surrounding regions. A great library grew up in Alex¬ 
 andria where the literary treasures of both Occident and 
 Orient were gathered together and made accessible to 
 students. Greek merchants and Greek mercenaries 
 carried the goods, the arts, the crafts, the thoughts, 
 and the ideals of Greece throughout the oriental world. 
 
 176. Qohelettis political background was Greek. His 
 economic world was in Greek hands. His philosophic 
 masters were Greeks. His religion could not wholly 
 escape the influence of the dominant people who deter¬ 
 mined the conditions amid which it functioned. That 
 Qoheleth’s mind was not untouched by Greek thought is 
 proved from the fact that he has been variously inter¬ 
 preted as a disciple of the Epicureans, 2 a follower of 
 
 I The best English studies of Ecclesiastes are: A. H. McNeile, 
 Introduction to Ecclesiastes (1904); George A. Barton, A Critical Exegetical 
 Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes (1908); Morris Jastrow, A Gentle 
 Cynic (1919). 
 
 2 So Paul Haupt, The Book of Ecclesiastes (1905). 
 
28 o 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the Stoics, 1 and a pupil of Heraclides. 2 But no one of 
 these views has succeeded in winning general approval. 
 The characteristics of Qoheleth that have led to the 
 formulation of such theories seem better accounted for 
 by a more general hypothesis. It is not necessary to 
 make Qoheleth an exponent of any particular type of 
 Greek philosophy. It is more probable that the Greek 
 spirit which was shed abroad among all men of culture 
 was shared by him and affected his mode of thought 
 and utterance. The Greek philosophical and speculative 
 attitude of mind was a common characteristic of the 
 intellectual world at large. It dominated the thinking 
 of the day. It was a part of the commonly accepted 
 Weltanschauung of the educated world. It was like 
 the so-called scientific spirit of the present day, which 
 more or less directly influences all intellectual effort. 
 Many who are influenced by it know practically nothing 
 of science in the strict sense. Just as many a writer 
 today uses the method and terms of the science of evolu¬ 
 tion, though often knowing next to nothing about 
 
 evolution itself, so Qoheleth ordered his discussion of 
 
 \ 
 
 the problem of the worthfulness of life by Greek canons 
 though not necessarily knowing Greek philosophy at 
 first hand. A new attitude of mind was abroad in the 
 oriental world and Qoheleth could not escape it. Indeed 
 it seems to have been congenial to him, so that he easily 
 shook off the old dogmatic shackles of his Semitic and 
 Jewish teachers and launched out into the freedom of 
 inquiry and investigation which was so characteristic 
 of the Greek mind. 
 
 1 T. Tyler, Ecclesiastes (2d ed., 1899); Plumptre, The Book of Eccle¬ 
 siastes (Cambridge Bible, 1892). 
 
 2 Pfleiderer, Die Philosophic des Heraklit von Ephesus (1886) 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 281 
 
 177. The question that Qoheleth set himself to answer 
 was, Is life worth living ? He approached this problem 
 by many avenues, all of which led him out on to the 
 same bare and bleak plateau. His course of thought 
 may be briefly traced and summarized here, after which 
 its merits and limitations may be indicated. 
 
 178. Qoheleth’s opinions. — a) Qoheleth declares that 
 the world is a cycle in ceaseless movement. Everything 
 ends where it began. There is never anything new. 
 What seems new is but the old coming back into human 
 experience again. Men too, like everything else, come 
 and go and are soon forgotten. It has always been so; 
 and it always will be so (Eccles. 1:3-11). 
 
 h) I have tried, says Qoheleth, all aspects of life, and 
 have come to the same conclusion for all: there is no 
 substantial or permanent gain within the reach of man. I 
 became a student of life in its multiform varieties, and 
 I saw that human effort at betterment was futile. Even 
 my own studies were of no value. I tried the many 
 forms of amusement and found them a hollow mockery. 
 I gave myself to the task of building up a great estate, 
 with every convenience and luxury that great wealth 
 could furnish. I did not forsake my wisdom while 
 following these interests; and I enjoyed myself as I 
 went along; but there was no substantial or permanently 
 satisfying result to all my labor (Eccles. 1:12—2: n). 
 
 c) I surveyed the whole area of human experience, 
 and what did I find ? That wisdom excels folly as light 
 does darkness, I grant you; but wise and foolish come to 
 the same end and are alike forgotten. Therefore I have 
 come to hate life. Of what use is all man’s labor? 
 He cannot take it with him; and he has no assurance 
 
282 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 that he will leave it in wise hands. To what purpose 
 does a man spend weary days and anxious nights ? To 
 leave his substance to a man who never lifted his hand 
 to honest labor ? As I see life, the thing to do is to eat 
 and drink and enjoy one’s self as one goes along, getting 
 pleasure from the toil itself and thanking God for the 
 opportunity to labor (Eccles. 2:12-25). 
 
 d) Everything in the order of nature is fixed and pre¬ 
 determined. Man cannot change a single iota; his efforts 
 are utterly futile. The arrangements of the universe 
 are admirable; but God has implanted in the mind of 
 man a conception of eternity, so that he can never satisfy 
 himself with the mere present. Yet he lacks the capacity 
 to see beyond the present and survey the whole program 
 of God from start to finish. So man must content 
 himself with his food and drink and the joy of his work, 
 all of which is the gift of God. But God’s work is 
 finished; he has left nothing for man to do; past, present, 
 and future are all wrought out in the mind of God; it is 
 a predetermined universe (Eccles. 3:1-15). 
 
 e) There is no moral order in human society. Things 
 are topsy-turvy. As I have pondered upon this, I have 
 come to the conclusion that it is God’s way of revealing 
 to men their true nature—they are no better than brutes. 
 Man and beast alike die; all alike return to the dust; 
 and who shall say whether or not the spirit of man goes 
 upward and the spirit of the beast downward ? So my 
 conviction is that man should rejoice in his daily toil, 
 for he will never know what follows upon his death. 
 And when one considers the problem of oppression in 
 society and the sorrow and pain resulting from it, the 
 dead are to be congratulated that they are dead; and 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 283 
 
 they would have been better off still if they had never 
 been born. The skilful and industrious man does but 
 arouse the envy of his fellows; of what value then is his 
 toil ? Better to be content with but a little. Especially 
 is this true of the solitary man, whose hard-earned wealth 
 does him no good; nor has he anyone upon whom to 
 bestow it. The recent changes in political affairs strik¬ 
 ingly illustrate my proposition that there is nothing of 
 permanent value. One king went and another came; 
 and though the new king is wise and the old one was a 
 fool, yet both in turn will be alike forgotten by the 
 masses (Eccles. 4:1-16). 
 
 /) There is no genuine value in wealth. The only 
 satisfaction the rich man has in his riches is in the con¬ 
 sciousness that he possesses them. They are a constant 
 worry to him and rob him of his sleep. He is never sure 
 of retaining his possession of them. His children may 
 squander his wealth for him. In any case, he must leave 
 it behind at death. Of what use, then, was it that he 
 should have worn himself out in obtaining his wealth ? 
 The only sensible course is to eat, drink and be merry 
 while life lasts. If you have had riches and enjoyed the 
 use of them, thank God. Enjoy yourself as you go along 
 and life will not be an altogether intolerable burden. 
 The commonly accepted valuations of life are all wrong. 
 Of what value are riches, no matter how great, if their 
 owner cannot make use of them, but must see others use 
 them? Or if a man have a hundred children and live 
 to a ripe old age, but gets no satisfaction while he lives 
 and is deprived of burial when he dies, it would have 
 been better for him to have been born dead. For then 
 he would have escaped all worry. If a man should live 
 
284 the MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 two thousand years and fail to enjoy himself while he 
 was living, of what value would it be? Would he not 
 go at last to the same place as other people? Or, in 
 what way is a wise man any better off than a fool ? 
 Man’s career is predetermined for him by God and 
 cannot be changed. Nobody can tell what is best for 
 a man while he lives, nor what will happen after he dies 
 (Eccles. 5:7-19; 6:1-6, 8, 10-12). 
 
 g ) The sooner one dies the better , and mourning is 
 preferable to mirth. God’s work is fixed and unchange¬ 
 able, no matter what man may do. Man must adjust 
 himself to changes of fortune and realize that God does 
 not intend to permit any knowledge of the future. The 
 righteous often perish notwithstanding their righteous¬ 
 ness and sinners live out their days in sin. Be not over- 
 righteous nor over-wise, nor over-wicked, nor foolish 
 unless you desire a speedy end. Let moderation in all 
 things be your policy. There are none wholly without 
 sin. Man cannot attain wisdom; amid all my searching, 
 I have found only one certainty, viz., that you may 
 come across one good and wise man in a thousand, but 
 not one woman (Eccles. 7:1-3, 13-20, 23-28). 
 
 h) The misery of all miseries for man is that he can 
 know nothing of the future. He does not even know 
 the length of his life, nor can he in any way defer the 
 day of his death. No amount of wickedness and no 
 formal piety will avail to shield a man from death. Not 
 only so, but the righteous often receive the reward 
 properly due the wicked; and vice versa. I therefore 
 deem it best that man should eat, drink and be merry 
 as he goes along life’s way, taking it all as the gift of 
 God (Eccles. 8:66-10, 14, 15). 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 285 
 
 i) I have discovered life to be a riddle that no man can 
 solve , no matter how hard he try. Men are all alike in 
 the hands of God and none knows whether God will 
 treat him kindly or cruelly. All share the same final 
 fate and no moral discrimination is ever exercised. The 
 wicked do indeed meet death; and after all, life is better 
 than death; for the dead know nothing, while the living 
 at least know that they will die. All virtues and vices 
 alike come to an end in the grave. Therefore, eat and 
 drink with a glad heart and enjoy life with your beloved 
 wife as long as you may. That is your portion in life. 
 Live strenuously while you have the chance, for there is 
 nothing to be done in Sheol (Eccles. 8:16—9:7, 10). 
 
 j) Men are victims of chance and circumstance. Moral 
 desert plays no part in the determination of a man’s 
 lot. I saw this illustrated in the case of a small town 
 that was besieged. A poor wise man could have saved 
 the town, but men paid him no heed. So I observed 
 that wisdom is better than might, even though a poor 
 man’s wisdom be not appreciated. Human society is 
 upside down; slaves ride and princes walk. Happy is 
 the land that has a mature and wise king and sober 
 counselors. It is not safe to curse the mighty even in 
 secret; for it is likely to be revealed and to cause trouble. 
 A man’s investments should be widely distributed; for 
 one never knows what will happen; and some of them 
 will probably prosper. No man knows the plans of 
 God. We are all perfectly helpless in this regard. 
 Nevertheless, this inevitable uncertainty must not be 
 allowed to paralyze our efforts and the tasks of life must 
 be faced bravely and philosophically; something is 
 likely to succeed. It is good to be alive; and though we 
 
286 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 live long, we may be glad all the way. But let us not 
 forget the innumerable days of darkness (Eccles. 9:11- 
 16; 10:4-7,16-20; 11:1-8). 
 
 k) The proper procedure for a young man is that he 
 should enjoy life while he is young , putting away all 
 sorrow and trouble; for he will never be young again. 
 Old age will come upon him with its blunting of the 
 senses and crippling of the faculties. This in turn will 
 lead to death. Then his flesh goes back to the earth as 
 it was and his spirit shall return to God who gave it 
 (Eccles. 11:9, 10; 12:2-7). 
 
 179. Qoheleth’’s challenge. —Many of Qoheleth’s obser¬ 
 vations and conclusions challenge commonly accepted 
 views; for example, his harsh judgment of human 
 nature in general and of women in particular; his 
 utterly utilitarian and hedonistic attitude toward the 
 values of life; and the shrewd and calculating spirit 
 with which he approaches the whole question of living. 
 He represents practicality at its worst. On the other 
 hand, Qoheleth serves a useful purpose in the Canon of 
 Scripture. He stands for the right to investigate the 
 deepest and most sacred problems of life. He holds that 
 nothing is above criticism, that everything must show 
 cause for its existence and be able to defend itself upon 
 its merits. He is of great value, too, as a reminder of 
 the necessity of reckoning with the hard facts of life. 
 He serves as a check upon airy speculation and wild¬ 
 eyed idealism. He insists upon keeping his feet upon 
 the ground. He stresses the necessity of staying close 
 to reality. 
 
 180. Qoheleth's contribution. —He is on the right 
 track, likewise, in that he insists upon the need of an 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 287 
 
 ultimate value for life. He can see none; but this to 
 him is the great tragedy of living. Are we getting any¬ 
 where ? Is there any goal toward which our faces are 
 set ? Is mankind making any progress ? Are we 
 achieving any permanent values ? Is the individual life 
 worth a candle ? Do we make any contribution to the 
 enrichment of the world ? To all such questions 
 Qoheleth gives a negative answer. But he rendered a 
 great service in raising them. He felt that such goals 
 ought to be, and it is a great grief to him that so far as 
 he can see they are not. He has no clearly formulated 
 standard of value for human effort; but by implication, 
 it would seem that he would demand for the individual 
 some permanent impress for betterment upon the course 
 of human life, so that man might not pass as the brute 
 into an endless oblivion. Perhaps, too, he longed for a 
 perpetuation of personality in a life beyond the grave; 
 but of this he had no hope. 
 
 181. Qohelettis outlook upon life is anything but 
 inspiring. His general approach to the program of 
 life is oriented by the conviction that life is lacking in 
 the reach and outlook that would make it really worth 
 while; but that even so, the thing to do is to make the 
 best of a bad situation. Your sphere of influence and 
 freedom is limited; but within those limitations, obtain 
 what joy is available as you go along. But the limita¬ 
 tions are not to any extent as oppressive as Qoheleth 
 makes them out to be. Qoheleth thinks of man as a 
 mere puppet upon the stage of a predetermined universe. 
 Man has no freedom; he is utterly bound on a revolving 
 wheel of circumstances. Such an interpretation of life 
 involves complete paralysis of all aspiration, ambition, 
 
288 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 and initiative in the field of ethics. It takes the snap 
 out of life. Fortunately, such a view of life is not in 
 accord with the facts of consciousness. We are all aware 
 that it is in our power to choose our own course of action, 
 that in any given situation we might have done differ¬ 
 ently, if we had so desired. Nothing is more clear to 
 consciousness than this sense of inner freedom; and it is 
 one of the most precious possessions of personality. 
 
 182. Another deject in Qoheleth’s theory is that he has 
 no historical perspective. His claim that there is nothing 
 new in human experience, that man does not affect the 
 course of history and the progress of civilization is in 
 direct opposition to the facts of history. The world has 
 grown better as it has grown older. Man has changed 
 the environment of his life for good. The story of the 
 centuries is a tale of progress and of continual change, 
 and the greater part of this change and progress has been 
 brought about directly and immediately by the efforts of 
 men and women. The history of the world is by no 
 means a record of constantly recurring and forever 
 unvarying phenomena such as would discourage all 
 endeavor at improvement; it is rather a record of 
 repeated endeavor on the part of man to better his 
 condition and of marvelous success in so doing; so that 
 a knowledge of the achievements of man becomes a 
 great stimulus toward a perpetuation of the same kind 
 of endeavor. 
 
 183. Lack of social interest .—In one more important 
 ethical aspect Qoheleth’s interpretation of life is lacking; 
 and that is in the total absence of any social outlook 
 upon life. He is purely individualistic in all his inter¬ 
 ests. He does not relate himself in any way to the social 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 289 
 
 order; he is an unrelated individual. He manifests no 
 altruistic elements; he makes no gestures of co-operation 
 with his fellows. He has no place in the thought and 
 action of the individual for the welfare and progress of 
 his fellows. He has no conception of himself as a part 
 of an ongoing stream of humanity which he may broaden 
 and deepen by the contribution of his own personal 
 endeavor. He thinks of himself simply as a helpless 
 atom in a constantly revolving flux which carries him 
 along and takes him nowhere, always coming back to the 
 place whence it started. The conception of social prog¬ 
 ress apparently was foreign to his mind. He is a 
 representative of individualism gone to seed. With all 
 of his attention and energy focused upon himself, the 
 fountains of his life-energy are stopped up; they lack 
 all social outflow and he becomes a stagnant pool. This 
 is one of the most conspicuously non-Jewish aspects of 
 Qoheleth’s teaching; for the Jew was essentially socially 
 minded. He lived not only for himself but also for 
 Jewry and its glory. 
 
 184. The message of Canticles .—As an antidote to 
 Qoheleth’s pessimism with reference to woman, we sub¬ 
 join here a brief summary of the message of the Song of 
 Songs. This book has a long and varied history of 
 interpretation. 1 The oldest Christian view was that 
 the book was an allegory, setting forth the love of Christ 
 for his church. More recently it was held that the 
 Song was a drama setting forth the story of the love of 
 a man for a woman. Today the growing tendency is 
 
 1 The best English commentaries on the Song of Songs are: Morris 
 Jastrow, The Song of Songs (1921); Andrew Harper, The Song of Solomon 
 (Cambridge Bible, 1902). 
 
290 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 to regard it as a collection of love lyrics used at weddings. 
 But a new and attractive interpretation has just been 
 offered which would make it a body of liturgical poetry 
 that had its origin in the worship of Tammuz, a worship 
 which celebrated the marriage of the sun-god to the god¬ 
 dess of fertility, from which union results all the luxuriant 
 life of budding nature in the spring. 1 The original 
 Tammuz character was in due time eliminated and the 
 Song came to be used in connection with spring celebra¬ 
 tions as a part of the worship of Yah well. 
 
 185. The value of Canticles .—Whatever may have 
 been the original or final function of the Song, it is clear 
 that it is a bit of rich lyric poetry that came right out 
 of the heart of the masses in Jewry. Its central theme 
 is love, and that the love between man and woman. It 
 sounds somewhat sensuous, if not sensual, in our ears; 
 but those who find in it only an orgy of erotic passion 
 are blind to the beauty of its naive and unconvention¬ 
 alized emotion. The Song reflects the force and passion 
 of genuine love. It is a bright light amid the prevailing 
 darkness of the Old Testament attitude toward woman. 
 Elsewhere she is altogether too much the plaything, 
 possession, and tool of man. Here she appears as a 
 person in her own right. Here she is, at least, man’s 
 equal, not his slave. The relation between the sexes is 
 upon a basis of equality of worth. The love between 
 man and woman is not conceived of as a mere fleeting 
 passion; it is rather a permanent and invincible attitude 
 of mind and heart. The climax of the description of 
 
 1 So T. J. Meek, “Canticles and the Tammuz Cult,” American 
 Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures , XXXIX (1922), 1-14. 
 
THE MEANING OF LIFE 
 
 291 
 
 the power of love in chapter 8:6, 7, is unsurpassed and 
 perhaps, unsurpassable in literature: 
 
 For strong as death is love, 
 
 Unchangeable as Sheol is [its] passion; 
 
 Its flames are flames of fire, 
 
 A devouring fire. 
 
 Many waters cannot quench love, 
 
 Even rivers cannot sweep it away. 
 
 If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, 
 
 They would utterly despise him. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE MORAL STANDARDS OF LEGALISM 
 
 186. Priestly sources .—We gather together in this 
 chapter the materials that show the moral standards of 
 the priestly school of editors and writers. Their literary 
 products are represented by the P document in the 
 Hexateuch, the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the 
 Books of Chronicles. Their work was done pretty well 
 along in the fourth century b.c. It will be recognized 
 in advance that it is the nature of the priestly mind to 
 be conservative and cling to the past. It will also be 
 granted that the interest of the priestly mind is in ritual 
 and tradition rather than in ethics. The prophet was 
 the great protagonist of the ethical and he not infre¬ 
 quently found the priest in opposition to him, fighting 
 for his ancient customs, institutions, and opinions. So 
 we may not expect to find anything here but the tra¬ 
 ditional and orthodox note in matters relating to 
 morals. 
 
 187. Characteristics of the priestly sources .—What we 
 have in these documents is a re-writing of the old tradi¬ 
 tions, customs, and laws. The priestly scribes took the 
 familiar materials that had come down from the past 
 and got them out in new and revised editions. This is 
 plentifully proven and illustrated by a comparison of 
 the Books of Kings, for example, with the Books of 
 Chronicles. Such a comparison reveals not only the 
 fact that Chronicles is but a revision of the history as it 
 appears in Kings, but also the spirit, point of view, and 
 
 292 
 
MORAL STANDARDS OF LEGALISM 
 
 293 
 
 purpose of that work of revision. It is a reinterpreta¬ 
 tion of the past from the point of view of the Chronicler’s 
 present, made for the purpose of forcefully illustrating 
 by means of the past the importance of faithful and 
 strict adherence to the ritual and principles held to be 
 indispensable by the Chronicler and his priestly con¬ 
 temporaries. Their interests and hope did not move in 
 the field of the moral, but in that of the ceremonial and 
 legal. They were content to pass on the accepted moral 
 standards of their time without enrichment. Their con¬ 
 tribution was made along other lines. 
 
 188. The old uncomplimentary estimate of woman is 
 found in these writers in full force. They record without 
 protest or criticism the fact that polygamy was practiced 
 in ancient Israel by its leading men. Abraham, David, 
 Rehoboam, Abijah, Joash, and many others had two or 
 more wives and yet come in for no rebuke. 1 This silence 
 certainly implies approval, for the Chronicler is not slow 
 to express disapproval when he is so minded. Natu¬ 
 rally the estimate of woman was low and the restrictions 
 placed upon her were severe. The mother of a girl was 
 unclean after her daughter’s birth twice as long as the 
 mother of a boy and was likewise debarred from entering 
 the sanctuary for twice as long a period (Lev. 12:2-5). 
 A woman’s market value was only a little more than one- 
 half that of a man (Lev. 27:1-7). In the ordeal imposed 
 upon complaint of a jealous husband the burden of taking 
 the nasty dose is upon the suspected woman even though 
 she be innocent (Num. 5:16-31). Apparently, she is 
 presumed to be guilty until “proved” innocent! A 
 
 J I Chron. 1:32; 2:18, 26, 48; 3:1-3, 5-9; 4:5; 7 H, 14; 8:8; 
 II Chron. 11:21; 13:21; 24:3; Gen. 16:1a; 26:34!.; 28:8 f.; 36:1-5. 
 
294 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 woman’s vow is void unless approved by her husband 
 or, if unmarried, her father. A widow may make a 
 vow in her own right (Num. 30:1-16). No daughter may 
 marry outside of her own tribe, because by so doing the 
 inheritance of her tribe might be diminished (Num. 
 36:1-3). Such procedure takes no account of the 
 woman’s personality whatsoever. That is of no impor¬ 
 tance as compared with property interests. 
 
 189. Jews are not under any obligation to foreigners .— 
 The Jew is immeasurably superior to them and must 
 maintain that superiority by separating himself from 
 them. There ought to be no intermarriage between 
 Jew and non-Jew. The Jewish blood must be kept 
 pure. So Ezra (9:1—10:44) is reported to have induced 
 his contemporaries to put away their non-Jewish wives 
 with their children. The same attitude of mind appears 
 in Num. 25:6-18, where it is related that when an 
 Israelite brought a Midianitish wife into the camp a 
 plague broke out and slew 24,000 people before it was 
 stopped by the killing of the offending couple. It 
 appears also in II Chron. 24:26, where the narrative 
 as it was presented in II Kings 12:21 suffers a slight 
 but significant change, in that the assassins of Joash the 
 king are made to have been sons of a Moabite woman 
 and an Ammonite woman, respectively. Edom comes 
 in for a full share of this hostility and hatred toward 
 foreigners. In II Chron. 25:11-12, the narrative in 
 Kangs that Amaziah of Judah slew 10,000 Edomites in 
 battle is augmented by the further statement that he 
 captured another 10,000 and hurled them down headlong 
 from the top of a cliff. Yet in I Chron. 2:34 f., a Jewish 
 father is recorded as having given his daughter in mar- 
 
MORAL STANDARDS OF LEGALISM 
 
 295 
 
 riage to his Egyptian slave, and no blame is attached 
 to the action. 
 
 The same exclusiveness is carried over into the field 
 of religion. Moabites and Ammonites are permanently 
 shut out from admission into the congregation of Yahweh 
 (Neh. 13:1); and no foreigner is permitted to partake 
 of the Passover (Exod. 12:43). The superiority of the 
 Jew to the foreigner is brought out by the Chronicler in 
 his records of the relations of Israel with foreign nations. 
 Solomon ruled over all the kings of the earth and they 
 brought him tribute year by year (II Chron. 9:22-24, 
 26). Philistines and Arabs likewise brought gifts to the 
 good king Jehoshaphat (II Chron. 17:11, 12). The 
 God-fearing Jews did not need to fight Moab and its 
 allies; they merely “stood still and saw the deliverance 
 of Yahweh,” while their foes fell one upon another and 
 killed themselves off (II Chron., chap. 20). King Asa 
 of Judah is denounced for having called in Benhadad of 
 Syria to his aid in his war with Northern Israel instead 
 of having put his full trust in Yahweh (II Chron. 16: 
 i-4, 7)- 
 
 190. Attitude toward Northern Israel .—This hostile 
 attitude toward foreigners was likewise held toward 
 Northern Israel. This was the home of the Samaritans 
 and the Israelites were their ancestors. Consequently 
 the Israelites are the victims of all the bitter enmity 
 felt by the Jews toward the Samaritans. The history 
 of Northern Israel is left out wherever possible, and 
 when mentioned it is almost always for the purpose of 
 condemnation. 1 Amaziah of Judah had hired Israelitish 
 
 ^ee I Chron. 5:25, 26; 10:13, 14; II Chron. 20:35-37; 21:6, 
 12-15, 18,19; 22:7-9; 25:17-24. 
 
 
296 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 mercenaries for a campaign and had paid them in 
 advance; but upon the bidding of a prophet who prom- 
 mised him his money back and greater gain from Yahweh, 
 he sent them all back home unused (II Chron. 25:5-10). 
 In the reign of Ahaz, Pekah of Israel, who had carried 
 captive 200,000 women and children from Judah, was 
 bidden by a prophet to return them to their homes and 
 treat them with all kindness and consideration, lest 
 Yahweh should smite Israel which already had too much 
 sin to its account (II Chron. 28:9-15)! When Hezekiah 
 invited Northern Israel to join in the celebration of the 
 Passover at Jerusalem his messengers were laughed to 
 scorn and mocked by the Israelites (II Chron. 30:10). 
 In the days of Nehemiah, the Samaritans opposed and 
 hindered him in every way as he set himself to the task 
 of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem; and Nehemiah re¬ 
 taliated by calling down the vengeance of Yahweh upon 
 them (Neh. 4:1-5; 6:1-14). 
 
 191. In reckoning with the moral limitations of this 
 priestly element we must give full weight to the narrow, 
 restrictive, and exclusive spirit in Judaism. This priestly 
 literature perpetuates that spirit. In the days of Nehe¬ 
 miah and Ezra the narrow, sectarian, and particularistic 
 elements in Judaism won the supremacy in the com¬ 
 munity’s councils. Broad-minded patriots, such as gave 
 utterance to the sentiments of the Book of Ruth, the 
 story of Jonah, and certain parts of Isaiah, chapters 
 56-66, were then silenced. The right of way was given 
 to these minds of a lower order. In the ethical narrow¬ 
 ness and dulness of these priestly documents we see 
 these strict and narrow-minded Jews at their worst. 
 They were not wholly incapable of high idealism and 
 
MORAL STANDARDS OF LEGALISM 
 
 297 
 
 noble enthusiasm as we shall see in our next chapter. 
 But their narrow and legalistic minds do not appear to 
 advantage in the field of ethics. 
 
 192. A traditional view .—The old doctrine against 
 which Job had so effectively protested, viz., that the 
 pious prosper and the wicked suffer, is reaffirmed in these 
 writings without any recognition of its incompleteness or 
 inadequacy. 1 The flood was punishment for sin; the 
 Exile was due to Israel’s sin. The pious David prospered 
 and died at an advanced age full of riches and honor. 
 The good priest Jehoiada lived to be one hundred and 
 thirty years old. A small Aramaean army was given vic¬ 
 tory over a large Jewish force on account of the wicked¬ 
 ness of King Joash. The pious Nehemiah asks Yahweh’s 
 blessing in view of the fact that he has not used govern¬ 
 ment funds for the maintenance of his establishment, but 
 has spent his own money (Neh. 5:14-19). He counts 
 confidently upon his various good deeds being entered 
 to his credit upon the day-book of Yahweh. “Remem¬ 
 ber me, O my God, for this and wipe not out my good 
 deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for 
 the wards thereof” (Neh. 13:14; cf. 13:226, 316). But 
 the good are kept humble by the thought that there are 
 none without sin in the sight of God (II Chron. 6:36). 
 Not only so, but concrete blessings of a materialistic 
 sort, such as riches, honor, long life, and revenge 
 upon foes, are held to be of a value inferior to that 
 of more spiritual gifts. Hence Solomon who asked 
 only for these latter is given all. The richest blessings 
 
 1 See Gen. 6:11-13; I Chron. 2:3; 4:41; 9:1; 11:9; 22:11, 13; 
 28:7; 29:28; II Chron. 6:36-39; 7:17-22; 17:5; 24:20-25; 26:5-21; 
 27:6; 28:1-5, 19-21. 
 
298 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 are the possession of wisdom and knowledge (II Chron. 
 1:10-12). 
 
 193. Breaches of the moral law .—Amid the many 
 demands of the priestly and ritualistic interest, it would 
 not have been strange if the requirements of ethics had 
 received no notice. But attention is called to some 
 breaches of the moral law and its claims are enforced. 
 Intertribal wars are wrong (II Chron. 11:1-4). Blood- 
 revenge is imperative in its demands; but cities of refuge 
 are provided for the accidental homicide. 1 The fore¬ 
 closure of mortgages held by rich Jews upon the lands, 
 goods, and persons of poor Jewish debtors was vehe¬ 
 mently denounced by Nehemiah, who demanded the 
 remission of such debts; and his demands were granted 
 (Neh. 5:1-13). Among the sins penalized in the priestly 
 law are misuse of funds deposited for safekeeping; hard 
 bargains; robbery; oppression; retention of lost articles 
 by a finder who lies and swears falsely regarding his find; 
 failure to tell the whole truth in your possession if called 
 into court as a witness; and swearing to do something 
 which turns out to be an evil thing (Lev. 6:1-7; 5:1,4). 
 It is the duty of a king to enforce justice and righteous¬ 
 ness (II Chron. 9:8). Judges act not for men, but as 
 the representatives of God; hence there must be no 
 iniquity in their decisions, no respect of persons, no 
 bribery (II Chron. 19:5-9). God himself is the supreme 
 judge and in the last resort will discriminate between 
 the righteous and the wicked in the taking of oaths 
 (II Chron. 6:22-23). 
 
 194. The non-ethical in general and the ritualistic in 
 particular are so enlarged upon and emphasized as to 
 
 1 Gen. 9:5, 6; Num. 35:9-34; Josh. 20:7-9. 
 
MORAL STANDARDS OF LEGALISM 
 
 299 
 
 imperil the right evaluation of the ethical by the masses. 
 All Israel swears to put to death any Jew that will not 
 “seek Yahweh” (II Chron. 15:12-15). Sin may be com¬ 
 mitted “unwittingly,” i.e., without knowing or intend¬ 
 ing it. The whole congregation of Israel may commit 
 such sin and become “guilty.” Even to touch an 
 “unclean” thing unwittingly is to become “guilty.” 1 
 The violation of the Sabbath is a capital offense; even 
 so slight a labor as picking up a few sticks is punished 
 by death. 2 Death is inflicted upon the one who eats 
 the flesh of the peace-offering when unclean; eats fat, or 
 drinks blood; touches the sanctuary when helping to 
 transport it; or fails to keep the Passover if at home at 
 the time and if ritually “clean.” 3 Nadab and Abihu were 
 slain by fire from Yahweh because they offered incense 
 of strange fire; and Yahweh was so incensed by their 
 conduct that he was liable to blaze forth in fiery wrath 
 upon the whole congregation (Lev. 10: iff.). Upon 
 another occasion the anger of Yahweh, which impresses 
 us as somewhat childish, was assuaged and halted in its 
 destructive course by the interposition of Moses and 
 Aaron with incense, but not until it had already slain 
 14,700 members of the congregation (Num. 16:41-50). 
 When a thing has been set aside for Yahweh under the 
 ban, it may not be withdrawn; even a man under such 
 circumstances cannot be redeemed—he must be put to 
 death (Lev. 27:27-29). Such a law presupposes and 
 recognizes the right of one man or a group of men to 
 dispose of another man’s life. Probably the victim 
 
 1 Lev. 4:2, 13, 22, 27; 5:2, 15, 17, 18; Num. 15:24, 26, 27 f. 
 
 2 Exod. 16:22-30; 31:14; Num. 15:32-36. 
 
 3 Lev. 7:19-27; Num. 4:15, 20; 9:13. 
 
3°° 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 contemplated was a slave or a captive; and probably, 
 likewise, such a law was never actually enforced. 
 
 With reference to these non-ethical regulations two 
 things are notable. First, that there is a great disregard 
 of the rights of personality and even of human life itself. 
 Secondly, that these death penalties are imposed pre¬ 
 vailingly for ritualistic derelictions. The penalties for 
 the violation or neglect of ritual are on the whole much 
 more severe than those imposed upon violations of the 
 moral law. This is in keeping with the whole spirit of 
 the priestly writers and lawmakers, in that breaches of 
 the moral law are primarily offenses against man, whereas 
 violations of the laws of ritual were thought of as sins 
 against God himself, and so far more heinous. 
 
 195. A certain lack of keen ethical insight is seen in 
 the deliberate perversion and misrepresentation of fact 
 so characteristic of these priestly writers, and especially 
 of the Chronicler. There is a notable disregard for the 
 exact truth, a too easy-going attitude toward historical 
 sources, a failure to recognize the importance of a knowl¬ 
 edge of the facts. There is no more dangerous proceed¬ 
 ing than to treat history disrespectfully and to wrest it 
 violently from its true meaning. History is mankind’s 
 greatest teacher. But its lessons are lost if we fail to 
 listen to its utterances with close attention and respect. 
 The actual facts of history are in the long run more 
 instructive and helpful to the succeeding generations 
 than any wrong interpretation that anybody can tempo¬ 
 rarily impose upon them. But the priestly writers did 
 not merely misinterpret history; they destroyed it, and 
 substituted a new record of their own making, supplying 
 both the facts and the interpretation thereof. 
 
MORAL STANDARDS OF LEGALISM 
 
 301 
 
 196. The legalistic attitude of the priestly school of 
 writers was that which came to dominate the life of 
 later Judaism as a whole. It found its logical fulfilment 
 in Pharisaism, which has, of course, been too harshly 
 judged. But the legalistic mind sought to secure the 
 divine favor by a literalistic obedience to every detail of 
 the divine will as formulated in the law. This law was 
 expanded and interpreted to fit and cover every aspect 
 of life. Salvation meant conformity to every jot and 
 tittle. But such an attitude is that of a slave, rather than 
 a free man. It represents a cramping of the spirit, a 
 throttling of life. It is death to all liberty of thought 
 and all spontaneity of life. It substitutes an external 
 authority for an inner spirit. It kills the creative mind. 
 It substitutes fetters for wings. 
 
 In small matters there is some advance beyond the 
 earlier records on the part of these later writers. In 
 I Chron. 2:4, there is no mention of Tamar’s strategy 
 in ensnaring Judah. In the story of the bringing up of 
 the ark to Jerusalem, David is provided with decent 
 clothing (I Chron. 15:27). The Bathsheba episode is 
 entirely omitted from David’s life-story. In the account 
 of David’s census of all Israel, Satan is made to come in 
 and displace Yahweh in bearing the responsibility for 
 moving David to commit this great sin (I Chron. 21:1). 
 
 In this chapter we have met the priestly spirit on its 
 lower levels; in the next, we shall find it in its highest 
 outreachings and shall come to see how great things can 
 be done and can be endured by people of limited outlook 
 when doing their best. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 197. Life in Palestine during the first half of the 
 second century b.c. was fraught with interest and danger 
 for the Jewish people. They were under the necessity 
 of submission to a series of changing rulers, all of whom 
 were chiefly concerned with extracting money from their 
 subjects that they might be able to finance their continual 
 wars. But with the accession of Antiochus IV (175 
 b.c.), the situation became acute and the tyranny of the 
 master more and more intolerable. Antiochus organized 
 an expedition against Egypt in 173 b.c. and got as far 
 as Alexandria, to which he laid siege. But he was 
 unable to push this to a successful issue on account of 
 disturbed conditions in Syria, whither he hastened back. 
 On the way he paused long enough to go up to Jerusa¬ 
 lem and plunder the temple, killing many of the leading 
 citizens. 
 
 198. The situation in Jerusalem gave him an ostensible 
 pretext for this procedure. There had long been there 
 a sharp diversion of sentiment that had split the people 
 into two factions. Alexander’s program for the Hellen- 
 ization of the Orient had been continued by his successors 
 and had found many adherents in Judea itself. Those 
 who were faithful to the old Jewish ideals had become 
 more zealous in their defense as they saw them imperiled 
 by advancing Hellenism. Hence the community was 
 divided between the Hellenists and the loyalists. Anti¬ 
 ochus IV found the former willing adherents to his policy 
 
 302 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 303 
 
 of Hellenization and co-operated with them. Onias, the 
 High Priest, who was naturally a supporter of strict 
 Judaism, was displaced early in the new reign by Jason, 
 a Hellenistic Jew, who bribed Antiochus to appoint him 
 High Priest, promising him heavier tribute and a 
 vigorous program of Hellenization. In accordance with 
 this, a gymnasium was built close by the temple, and 
 the Greek games there carried on attracted many of the 
 priests themselves to a participation in them. Many 
 Jews who took up with the new life sought to protect 
 themselves from ridicule by undergoing an operation 
 for the removal of the mark of circumcision. The two 
 opposing groups of the faithful and the Hellenizers came 
 to blows, and Onias was forced to flee to Egypt for safety. 
 But Jason was in turn deposed from, and succeeded in, 
 the High Priesthood, which was now for sale to the 
 highest bidder, by Menelaus, who offered a larger 
 bribe. Jason sought to recover his office by force and 
 succeeded in imprisoning Menelaus while Andochus was 
 campaigning in Egypt. These proceedings furnished an 
 excuse for the visit of Antiochus to Jerusalem and his 
 drastic treatment of the city. 
 
 199. The Maccabaean revolt .—Two years later Anti¬ 
 ochus was turned back from another attempt to conquer 
 Egypt by a Roman legate who forbade his further prog¬ 
 ress under the penalty of the hostility of the Imperial 
 City. Upon his return Antiochus gave orders for a 
 most rigorous treatment of the Jews. They were for¬ 
 bidden to practice circumcision upon pain of death to 
 all concerned. The reading of the Hebrew Scriptures 
 was proscribed, and orders given to destroy such writings 
 wherever found. Observance of the Sabbath was pro- 
 
304 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 hibited. The offerings and sacrifices in the temple were 
 brought to an end. In short, the king sought to banish 
 the worship of Yahweh from the land and to establish 
 the cults of the Greek gods in its place. The crowning 
 insult was the erection of a Greek altar upon the top 
 of the altar of Yahweh in the temple and the sacrifice of 
 swine and other unclean things thereupon. This is 
 Daniel’s “ abomination of desolation.” Many of the 
 faithful suffered death rather than to be disloyal to 
 their most holy faith. Finally, Mattathias, a priest, 
 slew a renegade Jew who stepped forward to sacrifice 
 upon the Greek altar at Modin. He thereupon slew 
 the king’s officer, leveled the pagan altar to the 
 ground, and then took to the hills with his five 
 sons. More and more of like mind gathered about 
 them and the Maccabaean revolt was on. 1 It was to 
 hearten and sustain the pious while they were passing 
 through such terrific trials that the writings we take up 
 in this chapter were prepared. They were campaign 
 documents. They were to build up and maintain the 
 morale of a small group of faithful Jews fighting against 
 tremendous odds for the right to worship God according 
 to the dictates of their own conscience. 
 
 200. The story of Esther .—One way to furnish inspira¬ 
 tion and to stimulate courage was to tell stories of the 
 wonderful deeds of Yahweh in days gone by in behalf of 
 his hard-pressed people. If he had intervened thus 
 marvelously in order to deliver those who were loyal to 
 him in the past, could he not be depended upon to do 
 the same thing again in these days when his loyal people 
 
 1 The source of our information for this state of affairs is I Maccabees, 
 chaps, i and 2. 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 305 
 
 are oppressed beyond endurance? This kind of liter¬ 
 ature is seen at its worst ethically in the Book of Esther. 1 
 Queen Vashti refuses to present herself before her 
 drunken lord and master, valuing the dignity of her own 
 person too highly to permit herself to be made the play¬ 
 thing of a drunken court. This insubordination is 
 punished by her ejection from her exalted position. The 
 motive for this severe punishment is that a proper 
 example may be set to other wives in order that hus¬ 
 bands may not become contemptible in the eyes of their 
 wives. This attributes to the Persians a conception of 
 the subordination of wives to husbands that was all too 
 well known among the Jews themselves. The removal of 
 Vashti opens the way for the rise of the Jewess Esther to 
 the supreme honor available to women in that day. To 
 Esther comes the great opportunity of serving and saving 
 her own people. The wicked Haman has obtained 
 from the king a decree authorizing the slaughter of all 
 Jews throughout the empire. Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, 
 adjures Esther to intercede for her own people, saying 
 unto her, “Who knows but that thou art come to the 
 kingdom for such a time as this ?” Esther accepts the 
 responsibility and undertakes to present herself before 
 the King even though she thereby imperils her life, saying, 
 “If I perish, I perish.” This is the highest ideal in the 
 book; and it is embodied in the act and attitude of a 
 woman. She is willing to lose her life in an attempt to 
 save her people’s life. 
 
 201. The downfall of Haman .—At this point a brief 
 interlude is permitted in which Haman, the bitter 
 
 1 The best English commentary on Esther is that by Lewis B. Paton 
 in the International Critical Commentary. 
 
306 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 enemy of the Jews, meets his proper fate, and Mordecai 
 is given the highest honors. The king is represented as 
 cleverly leading Haman on to name the honors that shall 
 be showered upon Mordecai on the supposition that he is 
 naming honors to be bestowed upon himself. But when 
 he has named all the things that he covets for himself, 
 he finds himself asked to bestow them upon Mordecai, 
 the Jew. Not only so, but charges are preferred against 
 Haman that lead him to plead with Esther for protection. 
 At this juncture Ahasuerus appears and is enraged by 
 Hainan’s conduct so that he decrees that he be hung. 
 The last touch to this bit of poetic justice is given in the 
 fact that Haman is hung upon the gallows he had him¬ 
 self ordered built for the Jew, Mordecai. 
 
 202. The main theme of the story is now brought to a 
 conclusion. Esther and Mordecai procure from Ahas¬ 
 uerus a decree to offset the earlier edict that decreed 
 the destruction of the Jews. This new decree authorizes 
 the Jews to defend themselves against their enemies who 
 were bent upon their extermination. So the Jews armed 
 themselves and upon the day decreed for their slaughter 
 they set upon their foes and cut them down ruthlessly, 
 the fear of Mordecai, now in the highest place of power, 
 having fallen upon all the peoples. 
 
 203. Purpose of the Book of Esther .—This story, which 
 is wholly lacking in historical basis of fact, is full of race 
 prejudice, national hatred, and revenge. But it served 
 the purpose of stirring up the national and religious 
 loyalty of the Jews and helped to strengthen their faith 
 in the goodness and power of their God. The story in 
 its present form was probably not written down until 
 toward the last third of the second century b.c., after 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 307 
 
 the Maccabaean struggle had succeeded. But it reflects 
 the feelings of the faithful in that struggle and 
 immediately thereafter; and shows that Judaism knew 
 how to hate wholeheartedly. 
 
 204. The Book of Daniel .—Another bit of story¬ 
 telling literature from this same general period, which 
 served to hearten the faithful in the Maccabaean strug¬ 
 gle, is found in Daniel, chapters 1-6. 1 These stories tell 
 of men being loyal to their ideals at the peril of their lives 
 and of their being sustained in their idealism and glo¬ 
 riously vindicated by the power of God. Daniel and his 
 three friends, for example, when chosen to go into 
 training for high positions in the Babylonian court, 
 refuse to defile themselves by eating of the food and 
 drink provided by the king. They requested that they 
 be put upon a diet of pulse and water and, notwithstand¬ 
 ing this scant fare, at the end of the training period they 
 were found to be “ten times better” both in physical 
 condition and in mental attainments than all the magi¬ 
 cians and enchanters that were in all the king’s realm. 
 The value of such a story in a period when the govern¬ 
 ment was insisting upon the disregard of all Jewish 
 dietary laws is at once evident. 
 
 205. The story of Shadrach , Meshach, and Abednego 
 and the Fiery Furnace is another case in point. Nebu¬ 
 chadnezzar made a golden image and decreed that all 
 men should worship it at stated times. The three youths 
 
 1 The best English commentaries on the Book of Daniel are those 
 by S. R. Driver (Cambridge Bible, 1900), R. H. Charles (New Century 
 Bible), A. A. Bevan (1892), and J. D. Prince (1899). It is more than 
 probable that the stories in Dan., chaps. 1-6, were in circulation a century 
 or two before the Maccabaean period, though the present Book of Daniel 
 is a Maccabaean product. 
 
308 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 are accused of failure to obey this decree and are sum¬ 
 moned before the king. When he threatens them with 
 death by fire if they persist in their refusal to bow down 
 before his idol they reply to the effect that even if their 
 God should not deliver them from this awful death, 
 nevertheless, “be it known unto thee, 0 King, that we 
 will not worship thy god, and we will not bow down to 
 the golden image which thou hast set up.” After this 
 there is nothing for the king to do but to carry out his 
 threat. The furnace is heated seven times hotter than 
 usual, so hot, indeed, that as the men cast in the 
 three youths, they themselves are slain by the heat. 
 Yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego suffer no harm 
 from the flames, not even was the hair of their heads 
 singed; their bonds only were burned, allowing them to 
 walk about freely in the glowing furnace. The king 
 cries out in amazement as he sees four men in the fur¬ 
 nace and the appearance of the fourth like that of a 
 divine being. The youths are given their liberty and a 
 decree made that their God must be treated with rever¬ 
 ence upon pain of death to all offenders. The bearing 
 of such a story is at once apparent when we recall that 
 Antiochus decreed death to all who should fail to sacrifice 
 and worship before the Greek gods. 
 
 206. Daniel and the lions .—Of similar aim and pur¬ 
 port is the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Darius 
 the king made a decree that for the next thirty days no 
 one could worship or pray to any god save the king 
 himself, on pain of being cast to the lions. Daniel 
 continued to pray three times a day kneeling down 
 before his open window as his custom was. This dis¬ 
 obedience is at once reported to Darius and he is forced, 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 309 
 
 notwithstanding his liking for Daniel, to order his 
 commitment to the lions’ den. After a bad night, due 
 to his troubled conscience, Darius goes early in the 
 morning to the den and to his astonishment and joy 
 finds Daniel alive and unharmed. Thereupon Daniel is 
 released and the men who had accused him are cast 
 into the lions’ den together with their wives and children, 
 and before they had so much as reached the bottom of 
 the den they were torn in pieces by the hungry beasts. 
 Darius then decrees that the entire kingdom of Persia 
 “ tremble and fear before the God of Daniel.” It must 
 be noted here that at so late a period as this—the middle 
 of the second century b.c. —the ethical conscience of the 
 Jew found no offense in the thought of revenge upon 
 the foes of Judaism and did not revolt against involving 
 innocent women and children in the punitive fate of 
 their husbands and fathers. The old sense of family 
 solidarity was still deeply rooted. 
 
 207. The purpose of apocalyptic writings .—Alongside 
 of this story-telling literature, there was current an 
 entirely different kind that had the same aim, viz., to 
 keep up the morale of Judaism in times of stress and 
 strain. This is known as Apocalyptic Literature. 
 Typical examples of it are the Book of Enoch and the 
 last six chapters of Daniel. The method and purpose 
 of such literature are readily discernible. The writers 
 seek to bring encouragement, with renewed and invigor¬ 
 ating faith, to their contemporaries living in troublous 
 and terrible times. They despair of any help from man 
 against the overwhelming forces of evil arrayed in opposi¬ 
 tion to the righteous; but they look forward confidently 
 to a miraculous intervention by God in behalf of his 
 
3io THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 < 
 
 pious children. They seek to strengthen their struggling 
 and well-nigh fainting brethren by imparting to them 
 something of the same faith and hope that fill their own 
 souls. The common method of doing this is to select 
 some ancient worthy, like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, 
 Moses, Isaiah, or Daniel, and make him the mouthpiece 
 of a revelation from God. Such an one from ancient 
 times is represented as having received from God in 
 advance an account of the course of later history and as 
 having put this predictive narrative on record. It is 
 now brought to light, after centuries in hiding, that it 
 may hearten the faithful in their great trial. It presents 
 a great series of world-pictures, beginning at some point 
 in the actual past, not only portraying the course of 
 world-history as it has thus far actually developed, but 
 also passing on from the known present into the unknown 
 future. This future always holds in store for the pious 
 a sure deliverance and a glorification. The argument 
 is to the effect that since the ancient seer’s prediction of 
 the course of history has been fulfilled up to the present 
 time, he ought on all counts to be given confidence and 
 trust in reference to his predictions regarding the still 
 unknown future. The fundamental conviction lying 
 behind all such literature is that this is a moral universe 
 and under the control of the God of the Jews; therefore 
 Judaism and its adherents must in the very nature of 
 things receive vindication and glorification at the hands 
 of its God in the immediate future. A good and God¬ 
 fearing people cannot be forever ruthlessly trampled 
 into the dust by its foes with impunity. 
 
 208. The Book of Enoch .—The two products of the 
 apocalyptic mind that belong to the Old Testament 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 3 ii 
 
 period are the earlier portions of the Book of Enoch 
 and the latter half of the Book of Daniel. We turn to 
 the Book of Enoch first. The parts of Enoch that may 
 with reasonable assurance be assigned to the period before 
 and during the Maccabaean revolt are chapters 6-36 and 
 83-90. It may also be that 93:1-10 and 91:12-17 
 should be assigned to this same general period. 1 There 
 is not much of detail in the field of morals in these chap¬ 
 ters. But what little there is calls for consideration. 
 For the first time in Hebrew thought the task of moral 
 discrimination is carried over into the region beyond the 
 grave. There the good and the bad are reckoned with 
 according to their deserts. In Sheol the departed spirits 
 are classified under three categories (Enoch 22:8-14). 
 These are (1) the righteous, (2) sinners who are not 
 judged while living, who are to continue till the great 
 day of judgment, and (3) sinners who received some 
 punishment in the form of suffering while they were 
 upon earth. The final judgment mentioned is to take 
 place in the “valley of the accursed” (27:2), and is to 
 take place at the end of the last ten weeks. In the eighth 
 week “all mankind shall look to the path of righteous¬ 
 ness.” In the ninth week “the righteous judgment 
 shall be revealed to the whole world.” “All the works 
 of the godless shall vanish from all the earth; and the 
 world shall be written down for destruction.” 
 
 And after this in the tenth week in the seventh part, 
 
 There shall be the great eternal judgment, 
 
 In which He will execute vengeance amongst the angels; 
 
 And the first heaven shall depart and pass away, 
 
 And a new heaven shall appear, 
 
 1 So R. H. Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. 
 
312 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 And all the powers of the heavens shall give sevenfold 
 light, 
 
 And after that will be many weeks without number for 
 ever. 
 
 And all shall be in goodness and righteousness, 
 
 And sin shall no more be mentioned for ever 
 [Enoch 91 :15-17]. 
 
 209. Such words reveal the prevailing characteristic of 
 Apocalypticism. —The seer despairs of humanity. It has 
 no power to renovate itself. It is hopelessly enmeshed 
 in the toils of evil, and cannot lift itself to the higher 
 moral levels. Nevertheless, the seers do not despair of 
 their ideals. These must arrive. Therefore they count 
 upon God to enforce them. The power of God will 
 achieve that which surpassed the strength of mere men. 
 They are firmly convinced of the justice of God; and 
 with unshakable faith and resolution they wait for its 
 manifestation among men. They call upon the divine 
 world to supplement the defects of the present world 
 and they bear the pains and disappointments of the 
 dispensation that now is in hope of sharing the triumph 
 and blessedness of an age to come when all existing 
 wrongs shall be righted. 
 
 210. The last six chapters of Daniel approach the 
 problem of the vindication of the righteous people of 
 God in the same way. They represeent the seer Daniel 
 as having lived in the period of the Exile and as having 
 received from God a series of visions in which he is 
 shown pictorially the succeeding course of history, 
 commencing with his own day and continuing through 
 the Maccabaean struggle until its consummation in the 
 Kingdom of God, which is to be manifested and estab- 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 313 
 
 lished upon earth in the days immediately following the 
 writer’s own time. It is noteworthy that the record of 
 the history of the earlier postexilic age is rather vague 
 and at times inaccurate, but that the events immediately 
 preceding the Maccabaean revolt are detailed with 
 considerable minuteness, while the immediate future is 
 again vague and general and not entirely in accord 
 with the history which actually developed. 
 
 211. The future life .—One detail of the writer’s 
 expectation has ethical value. He is looking forward to 
 the vindication and glorification of the pious Jewish 
 nation. This is to come without delay. But the reward 
 to be received by those who have engaged in the present 
 life-and-death struggle for their ideals and have survived 
 to share the hoped-for blessings belongs rightfully also 
 to those who underwent similar trials and dangers in 
 days of the near and more distant past and are not now 
 alive to share in the joys of the coming kingdom. They 
 earned their reward as fully as any of the existing genera¬ 
 tion and they ought not to be deprived of it. Therefore, 
 the writer of Daniel leaps to the conclusion that they 
 too will share in the coming vindication of the pious and 
 that to that end they will be restored to life upon earth. 
 
 And at that time thy people shall be delivered, 
 
 Every one that is found written in the book. 
 
 And many of those that sleep in the dust of the ground 
 shall awake, 
 
 Some to life eternal, 
 
 And others to reproaches, to eternal horror. 
 
 But the wise shall shine like the brightness of the firma¬ 
 ment, 
 
 And those that justify many 
 
 Like the stars for ever and aye [Dan. 12:1-3]. 
 
314 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 This is the first and only occurrence in the Old 
 Testament proper of the thought that moral discrimina¬ 
 tions are carried beyond the grave. It takes for granted 
 the view that piety is not necessarily rewarded in the 
 life that now is in any tangible and satisfactory way; 
 and it seeks to find compensation for the suffering of the 
 present in the glories of the future. Piety must be 
 worth while; if it does not yield full satisfaction on the 
 spot, deferred payments may be anticipated in a future 
 existence. The doctrine that “virtue is its own reward” 
 did not wholly satisfy the Apocalyptists. The reason for 
 this lay partly in the fact that they were too material¬ 
 istic in their outlook upon life; but they were also 
 jealous for the reputation of God among men in general. 
 This consideration demanded a public manifestation in 
 unmistakable terms of the divine justice, that all men 
 might see and know that God punishes wickedness and 
 rewards virtue. It thus appears that the doctrine of a 
 bodily resurrection of the dead was to a large extent 
 born out of a moral passion that set death at naught 
 in the effort to find satisfaction for its own needs. Both 
 the future life and the belief in monotheism in Israel 
 found their strongest support on ethical grounds. 
 
 Daniel does not anticipate a universal resurrection. 
 Not all the dead will arise, but “many” will. This is 
 not a carefully and systematically thought-out view of the 
 future. It is but a fragment of an unknown universe, 
 which the mind of this explorer had not as yet traversed. 
 
 212. The lack of the historical spirit .—One other aspect 
 of this apocalyptic literature requires consideration from 
 the point of view of ethics. As has been observed, the 
 theory of such books as Daniel is that the ancient author 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 315 
 
 received a revelation of the course of history from his 
 own day on to the coming of the final Golden Age. The 
 force of the argument is to the effect that this revelation 
 has been fulfilled up to the present hour as any student 
 of history may know; therefore, the picture of the imme¬ 
 diate future should also be accepted and given full 
 credence. This raises two questions in the mind of 
 the modern man. First, would the pious public at large 
 readily accept such representations? Second, how did 
 the writers themselves think of their own work ? Were 
 they not deliberately making false claims for their books, 
 giving them an antiquity and a special divine authority 
 to which they could lay no rightful claim? In answer 
 to the first question, it need only be said that by the 
 second century b.c. no such thing as a sober, critical 
 attitude toward life in general and ancient history in 
 particular had as yet arisen anywhere in the world. 
 People were all too ready to believe marvelous and 
 miraculous tales without asking for credentials. The 
 passion for accuracy and for fidelity to fact so charac¬ 
 teristic of the modern historical method was practically 
 unknown in the ancient world. The “ history ” recorded 
 by Herodotus is an excellent illustration of this lack of 
 critical scholarship. Nor ought we to be surprised at it 
 when we recall the avidity with which the European 
 public seized upon all sorts of wild rumors during the 
 recent war and the popularity and credence accorded 
 such stories as that of the intervention of the angelic 
 bowmen in behalf of the British on the tragic retreat 
 from Mons. 
 
 213. The idealism of the apocalyptic writers .—The 
 second question is not so easily answered. Of course, 
 
316 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the writers of these apocalyptic visions expected them 
 to be taken at their face value. There would have been 
 no point in telling such tales if they had not expected and 
 intended them to be believed. But more than that, 
 they must have believed their tales themselves. They 
 were men of high moral character and devoted to the 
 defense of lofty spiritual and moral ideals. They were 
 willing and ready to die if need be for their principles. 
 It is inconceivable that they should have been anything 
 less than wholeheartedly sincere in their statements. 
 They were not trying to “put over” upon their con¬ 
 temporaries what they themselves knew to be a tissue 
 of lies. They believed in themselves and in their mes¬ 
 sage. How could they? Many elements enter into 
 the answer to this question; and, of course, the explana¬ 
 tion would not be the same in every individual case. 
 At least, the proportions of the ingredients of the answer 
 would vary with the individual. But the main forma¬ 
 tive factors may be stated. The lack of a keenly critical 
 spirit in that generation has already been mentioned. 
 This means that the lines between fact and fiction were 
 not sharply drawn. The primary interest of these 
 writers was not to discover actual facts and to discrimi¬ 
 nate clearly between truth and error; it was rather to 
 edify and stimulate their readers to deeds and lives of 
 heroism in behalf of their faith. Their first question, 
 therefore, was not, “Is it true?” but “Will it serve my 
 purpose ?” Moreover, these writers were the exponents 
 and champions of a highly idealistic interpretation of 
 life and of the universe. Their whole being was wrapped 
 up in their ideals; and ideals were immeasurably dearer 
 to them than cold-blooded facts. It is always easy for 
 
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 
 
 317 
 
 the genuine idealist to transcend facts; and this indiffer¬ 
 ence to reality is always the greatest peril of idealism. 
 Still further, these writers were endowed with rich and 
 fertile imaginative powers. To these they gave loose 
 rein. They roamed at will in the realms of the unreal 
 and the fantastic and added to their store of materials 
 much that was produced by their own creative imagina¬ 
 tions. Furthermore, the apocalyptists carried on to an 
 even greater intensity the old prophetic belief in a 
 supernaturalistic universe. They substituted super¬ 
 naturalism for natural law. In a very real sense, the 
 supernatural was for them the natural thing. The 
 Supernatural Person in control of the universe was 
 free to express himself as he would. He was bound by 
 no laws of matter or energy. In such a world the 
 extraordinary is taken for granted. It is a matter of 
 course. There is nothing inherently incredible. When 
 we add to these things a profoundly emotional nature 
 coupled with a mystical temperament, we get a com¬ 
 bination that represents the personality of a saintly 
 seer. Such a man brooding over the problem of the 
 world and communing with his own inner spirit in dark 
 and solitary places would easily become the victim of a 
 kind of self-hypnosis which would render him incapable 
 of distinguishing clearly between the fermentations of 
 his own mind and the product of a divine revelation. 
 He longs for a word from God and the word comes. He 
 does not dream of questioning its authenticity or author¬ 
 ity. Parallel cases in modern times are represented by 
 the names of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon 
 movement; Mrs. Eddy, the mother of the Christian 
 Science community; and John Alexander Dowie, the 
 
3 iS THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 father of Zionism. These and others of the same sort 
 are not to be thought of as unmitigated frauds; they are 
 better understood if regarded as in large measure, at 
 least, sincere, but self-deluded. Even as they impressed 
 large numbers of people with their spiritual power and 
 left vigorous religious groups behind them, so likewise 
 the apocalyptic writers found a large and devoted 
 following and helped the faithful tide over a trying period 
 in their history. 
 
 214. The moral heroism of Judaism .—The Mac- 
 cabaean revolt, pushed through to a successful issue 
 despite tremendous difficulties and deadly dangers, is 
 convincing proof of the underlying moral heroism of the 
 loyal Jews. They entitled themselves the Chasidim; 
 i.e., the pious. They were the product of the legalistic 
 and particularistic school of thought and life, which 
 interpreted religion and morals in extremely strict, 
 narrow, and pietistic ways. But they made a great 
 contribution to the history of humanity by saving their 
 religion at peril of their lives. This attests the posses¬ 
 sion of an underlying moral stamina that is beyond all 
 praise. Such men made spiritual and moral values 
 supreme and ventured all their possessions and hopes 
 in their defense. “They counted not their lives dear 
 unto themselves.” Christianity and modern Judaism 
 represent the perpetuation of another aspect of Jewish 
 life and thought, viz., the universal brotherhood of 
 such writings as Ruth and Jonah. But had not the 
 Maccabaean saints fought their good fight, there would 
 have been nothing left with which to carry on the 
 noble tradition, and the religious history of the world 
 would have suffered incalculable loss. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 
 
 215. Morals and religion .—In looking back over the 
 long history of Hebrew morals, some general considera¬ 
 tions stand out clearly. With a brief statement of 
 these we bring our discussion to a close. They need no 
 elaboration here, having been already suggested and 
 illustrated in the foregoing historical record. 
 
 The relation between morals and religion is every¬ 
 where evident. Morals cannot be thought of apart 
 from religion; the two are inseparable. The sanction 
 and authority for morals are always furnished by religion. 
 Yahweh was thought of as the giver of both the moral 
 and the religious law. The moral law was a part of 
 the religious law. The value of this was that it placed 
 the whole power of religion at the disposal of the moral 
 interests. 
 
 216. Morals and ritual .—The two main elements in 
 Hebrew religion were morals and ritual. These two were 
 never congenial partners. In the early centuries the 
 ritualistic element bulked largest in Hebrew religion and 
 small room was left for ethics. But the expansive power 
 of the moral principle could not be kept down, and in 
 the time of the great prophets it made for itself a large 
 place. The notable and characteristic feature of this 
 progress is that it was not made outside of the scope of 
 religion and then later taken up by religion and incorpo¬ 
 rated into itself; but that it was developed within the 
 limits of religion itself in the name and under the auspices 
 
 319 
 
320 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of religion. This moral enrichment was an achievement 
 of the religious spirit. After the passing of the prophets, 
 the ritualists once more took the reins; but the progress 
 made under prophetic control was never lost. Indeed, 
 the highest levels of moral attainment as reflected in 
 the literature were not reached until later times, as 
 appears from such materials as Mic. 6:6-8 and the 
 Book of Job. 
 
 217. The idea of God .—One of the clearest indications 
 of the growth of moral ideals is furnished by the history 
 of the idea of God. In the earliest documents, Yahweh 
 is represented as inspiring and doing many things that 
 shock our sense of ethical fitness. He stirs up David 
 to take a census and then punishes Israel with plagues 
 because the census was taken. He hardens Pharaoh’s 
 heart so that he cannot respond to proper motives and 
 then punishes him and his people for not responding. 
 He inspires Ahab’s prophets to tell him a lie, as a result 
 of which Ahab plunges into war and meets his death on 
 the battlefield. He favors his followers even when they 
 are in the wrong and punishes the citizens of other 
 nations when they have done no wrong. He wades 
 through blood to the achievement of his purposes. 
 But as the decades glide past they leave more and 
 more of ethical deposit behind; and ultimately all this 
 is taken up by the God-idea which becomes ethically 
 rich. Satan comes in to relieve Yahweh of a portion 
 of the responsibility for the presence of sin in human 
 life. The idea of falsehood becomes loathsome to 
 Yahweh, so that a curse is pronounced upon everyone 
 “that loveth and maketh a lie.” Job’s indignation is 
 stirred by the thought that anyone should dream of 
 
SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 
 
 3 21 
 
 flattering God by saying of him or his work that which 
 is not true: 
 
 Will you speak unrighteously for God, 
 
 And talk deceitfully for him ? 
 
 Will you show him favour ? 
 
 Will you contend for God ? 
 
 Would it be good that he should search you out ? 
 
 Or as one mocks a man will you mock him ? 
 
 He will surely reprove you, 
 
 If you do secretly show favour [Job 13:7-10]. 
 
 A late prophet addresses Yahweh as one who cannot 
 tolerate the sight of evil: 
 
 Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, 
 
 And that canst not look upon wickedness [Hab. 1:13]. 
 
 The terrible and destructive nature of Yahweh is softened 
 down in the course of time to the point where he would 
 rather save than destroy: 
 
 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
 
 But that the wicked turn from his way and live; 
 
 Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, 
 
 For why will ye die, O house of Israel [Ezek. 33:11]? 
 
 Justice and mercy developed side by side among the 
 Hebrews and their progress was constantly reflected in 
 the development of the thought of God. These two 
 principles acted as mutually corrective agencies, so 
 that neither grew to undue proportions at the expense 
 of the other. It is a large part of the glory of the 
 God-idea in Israel that it incorporated both justice and 
 mercy within itself and so became a mighty influence 
 toward moral progress. 
 
 218. The motive of the moral life .—The growth of the 
 moral sense in Israel is revealed again in the development 
 
322 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 of the ethical motive. In the early days 7 the motive 
 was almost exclusively utilitarian. Men were deterred 
 from the doing of evil by fear of the consequences in 
 the form of direct chastisements of various sorts from 
 Yahweh. The prophets continually urge their con¬ 
 temporaries on toward goodness by urging them to 
 forsake their evil ways and flee from the wrath to come; 
 and by holding before them glowing pictures of the 
 success and prosperity that are in store for the righteous 
 people. Nowhere is this method of teaching more 
 clearly and constantly used than in the Book of Deuter¬ 
 onomy. This method of approach to the ethical problem 
 persisted all through Hebrew history and is found 
 clearly stated over and over again in such books as 
 Psalms, Proverbs, Chronicles, and Daniel. But here 
 and there men were coming to a deeper appreciation of 
 goodness. In Job we are given the picture of a righteous 
 man who holds on to his integrity in spite of the fact 
 that he fails to receive the expected rewards of the 
 righteous and on the contrary is overwhelmed by 
 fortunes such as were properly the lot of the wicked. 
 The book clearly recognizes that external fortune is by 
 no means a safe guide in the judgment of a man’s charac¬ 
 ter. It is, on the contrary, the conviction of its author 
 that there is no necessary connection between character 
 and fortune. The good man will persist in his goodness 
 even when it does not pay the coveted material rewards. 
 There is such a thing as disinterested piety; Job is good 
 for goodness’ sake. The same advanced attitude toward 
 the worth of goodness is attested by the Psalm of 
 Habakkuk (3:17, 18), a later supplement to the Book of 
 Habakkuk. Here the poet declares his intention and 
 
SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 
 
 323 
 
 resolve to continue in the path of piety even though the 
 customary returns for such a life are not forthcoming. 
 The spiritual character of the ethical motive is particu¬ 
 larly noteworthy when we bear in mind the fact that 
 there was no generally accepted belief in a worth-while 
 life beyond the grave. It is measurably easy to struggle 
 and endure in behalf of the true and the right, if such 
 hard experiences are softened by a lively expectation of a 
 glory in the hereafter that shall help us to view the 
 sufferings of the present, which are but for a moment 
 and not grievous, as not worthy to be compared with the 
 glory that shall be hereafter. But a goodness which 
 persists through good report and ill report, without any 
 external support derived from a future hope, is a type 
 of virtue not to be lightly thought of, but to be classed 
 among the great achievements of the race. 
 
 219. The social aspect of Hebrew morals is another 
 thing deserving special emphasis. The Hebrews came 
 into Canaan directly from the nomadic life of the desert. 
 In that stage of experience the clan and tribe were the 
 controlling forces in the life of the people. The interests 
 of each were in a very real sense the interests of all. 
 They all prospered and suffered together. Upon entering 
 Canaan the old clan life rapidly disintegrated under the 
 influences of the economic and political struggle for 
 existence that was entered upon there. The old bonds 
 relaxed. More and more it became a relentless com¬ 
 petitive scramble in which each must look out for him¬ 
 self; and woe to the weakest! Against this increasing 
 tendency the great prophets lifted their voices. They 
 pleaded earnestly and eloquently the cause of the poor 
 and the weak, and denounced passionately and fearlessly 
 
3 2 4 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 the oppression and extortion practiced by the rich and 
 the strong. Their words were treasured by the pious 
 in Israel and continue to be an inspiration toward social 
 justice amid the whirl and clash of machinery in our own 
 industrial age. This social interest did not cease in 
 Israel with the passing of the prophets, but continued 
 to the end, as is seen from the fact that the pictures of 
 the messianic future are always drawn in terms of 
 community life and not in those of personal and indi¬ 
 vidual experience. 
 
 220. The development of the sense of individual value .—- 
 An interesting story of the development of Hebrew 
 ethics is the record of the rise of the sense of individual 
 worth and responsibility. As suggested above, the 
 emphasis in the nomadic life was upon the tribal, clan, 
 and family interests. This emphasis only gradually 
 gave way to the interests of the individual after the 
 Hebrews entered Canaan. In the early centuries of 
 life in Palestine, it is a common thing to find it recorded 
 that the nation or the group suffered punishment from 
 Yahweh for the sins of some member of the group. 
 David sins and Israel suffers the consequences. The 
 fathers sin and the children are punished. One section 
 of Israel goes astray and all Israel must pay the price. 
 This sense of the solidarity of the Hebrew people was of 
 inestimable value in the re-enforcement it brought to 
 the claims of social justice. The terrible consequences 
 to the nation as a whole of social sin on the part of the 
 leaders, the rich, and the powerful were continually 
 urged upon the attention of the people by the great 
 prophets. But the forces of life as organized in civilized 
 agricultural and commercial communities finally brought 
 
SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 
 
 325 
 
 the individual to the front and secured for him full 
 recognition. The specialization that is a necessary 
 feature of civilized life worked in many ways toward the 
 emergence of individual worth. The mystical experience 
 of the prophet set him apart from other men as a marked 
 man. The organization of the standing army ignored 
 clan and family lines and was upon a frankly individual¬ 
 istic basis. The town life, with its arts and crafts, its 
 competition in trade and commerce, and its inevitable 
 recognition of exceptional men and women, worked 
 effectively to push the individual into the foreground. 
 The ownership of land passed rapidly from the communal 
 to an individualistic basis. The great tragedy of the 
 Exile finally broke down completely the old-time soli¬ 
 darity, in that the exiles were not chosen on the basis of 
 clan or family relationships, but rather because of their 
 influence and strength as individuals in the community; 
 so that Ezekiel, living among the exiles in Babylonia, 
 was the first to make a clear and insistent statement of 
 the position that a man’s treatment by Yahweh was 
 determined not upon the basis of his parents’ deserts, 
 but solely in accordance with his own merits as an indi¬ 
 vidual. 1 
 
 221. Rise of a world outlook .—Closely related to the 
 rise of the sense of individual worth and responsibility 
 was the corresponding development from a nationalistic 
 and particularistic outlook upon life to a point of view 
 that was general and universal. In the early periods 
 the attitude toward foreigners was for the most part 
 one of hostility and fear. In no case did the Hebrew 
 
 1 See J. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and His Problems (1914), pp. 
 168-208. 
 
326 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 feel any responsibility for or obligation toward other 
 nations or the members of such nations. The Hebrew 
 nation was the chosen people of Yahweh who could be 
 counted upon to defend his own against all comers. 
 The foreigner as such had no rights that the Hebrew was 
 bound to respect, except as he could enforce them with 
 his sword. The great prophets never really got away 
 from this point of view in principle, though they did 
 admit foreign nations into Yahweh’s plan to the extent 
 that they might be used to chastise Israel for its sins. 
 But as the power of Israel declined and its troubles 
 multiplied, the idea of Yahweh rapidly expanded from 
 that of a merely national God to that of the God of the 
 Universe. Correspondingly, the attitude of the thinker 
 in Israel toward the outside world also changed. As we 
 have seen, the author of Isaiah, chapter 53, interprets 
 the sufferings of Israel as having atoning and redemptive 
 value for the world as a whole. The old principle of 
 national solidarity is here expanded to the bursting point 
 and made to include the nations of the world in general. 
 Israel is suffering, a part for the whole, being indissolubly 
 bound up in the divine purpose with the world at large. 
 Such a recognition of brotherhood among the nations is 
 past all praise and constitutes an ideal which is yet far 
 from realization. In similar fashion, we have seen 
 Ruth pleading for a generous attitude toward non-Jews; 
 and Jonah going so far as to make it the binding obliga¬ 
 tion of the Hebrew people to serve as missionaries of 
 the true God to the nations of the world, calling them 
 to repentance that they may flee from the wrath to come. 
 This breadth of mind and generosity of heart did not 
 capture the imagi lation of the Hebrews as a whole; 
 
SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 
 
 3 27 
 
 but survived in their literature as an inspiration and ideal 
 for later centuries. 
 
 222. The outstanding characteristic of Hebrew ethics 
 was evidently its capacity for growth. There was little 
 of the static and much of the dynamic in it. It is not 
 to be supposed that the Hebrews were any less conserv¬ 
 ative than other peoples. Indeed, tradition was always 
 a powerful force in Israel. Their life-story might be 
 written in terms of tradition and progress. These two 
 principles were continually at war. The fact that there 
 was so much in the way of positive progress is due to 
 the experiences through which the people passed. Theirs 
 was a history of constant change of one sort and another. 
 They came in from the nomadic life of the desert to the 
 settled agricultural life of Canaan. The long period of 
 settlement in the new home and of adaptation to the 
 conditions of the new manner of life was an invaluable 
 process of education. The long wars with Philistia, Syria, 
 and finally Assyria, continued the educational process. 
 Their minds were kept alert, their knowledge of the 
 world and its peoples was broadened, and their own 
 internal problems made more complex and difficult by 
 these foreign wars. Then came the captivity of Northern 
 Israel and finally the exile of Judah. Thereby many 
 old ideas and institutions were shattered. Life had to 
 be lived under a new set of conditions. Intimate and 
 constant contact with the conquering people was inevit¬ 
 able. The life of Judah was immensely enriched by this 
 experience. From that time on Judah and the Jews 
 were continually under foreign control and in direct 
 contact with foreign civilizations. Persians followed the 
 Babylonians and Greeks followed them. By these 
 
328 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 representatives of two rich cultures the Jews were greatly- 
 stirred and from them they learned to good purpose. 
 Perhaps no nation upon the face of the earth has had 
 so long and so varied a history as the Jews. Nor has 
 any nation ever been more strategically located from 
 the point of view of its relation to the life of the dominant 
 nations of its time. All the life of the ancient Oriental 
 world passed back and forth through Palestine. The 
 people living alongside of that international road could 
 not remain narrow and provincial in their thought and 
 feeling. We may not be able to make precise com¬ 
 parative measurements of the moral and intellectual ca¬ 
 pacity of the Hebrews as compared with other peoples, 
 but it is clear that their history was of an exceptional 
 character and that the forces by which they were tossed 
 about, in bringing them violently into contact with many 
 and various phases of world-thought and life, contrib¬ 
 uted heavily to their progress in mind and heart. They 
 were the fortunate victims of circumstances. Their 
 course in education was not by any means an easy one; 
 but by hard experiences they learned hard lessons and 
 at the price of suffering they achieved a degree of moral 
 excellence that still challenges the admiration of men. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aaron, 299 
 Abednego, 307 f. 
 
 Abel, 42 
 Abihu, 299 
 Abijah, 293 
 Abimelech, 19 
 Abner, 16 
 
 Abomination, of desolation, 304 
 Abraham, 3 f., 31, 37 f., 293 
 Absalom, 8 
 Achan,36 
 
 Adultery, 85, 131, 171, 178, 182, 
 195, 197, 215, 249 
 
 Aged, attitude toward, 251 
 Ahab, 320 
 Ahasuerus, 306 
 
 Alexander, conquest by, 231 f., 279 
 Almsgiving, 252 
 Altar, Greek, 304 
 Altruism, 259, 289 
 Amaziah, 295 f. 
 
 Ammon, 37 
 Ammonites, 295 
 
 Amos, 73 ff.; certainty of, 75; 
 message of, 77 f., 83; times of, 
 73 f- 
 
 Ancestor worship, 46 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, 262, 302 f. 
 Aphorisms, oriental, 245 
 Apocalyptic writings, 309 f. 
 
 Arabs, 295 
 Armageddon, 175 
 Arrogance, 230, 249 
 
 Assouan, papyri, 207 ff.; colony 
 at, 234 
 
 Assyrians, 245 
 Asylum, right of, 140 
 
 Atheism, 233 f. 
 
 Authority, 28 f., 263 
 
 Babylonia, influence of, 209 f. 
 Bargains, hard, 298 
 Bathsheba, 16 f., 301 
 
 Bibliography, 154, 164, 170, 180, 
 184, 188, 192, 196, 198, 202, 203, 
 207, 232, 245, 262, 264 f., 279, 
 280, 289, 305, 307 
 Birth, new, 179 f. 
 
 Blood-revenge, 42, 85, 140, 298 
 Bloodshed, 19 f., 92, 230 
 Bolshevism, 93 
 Borrower, 55, 262 
 Bravery, 70 
 
 Bribery, 61, 81, 92, 171, 212 f., 
 230, 250, 298 
 
 Brotherhood, international, 326 
 Budde, 63 ff. 
 
 Burglary, 86 
 
 Cain, 42 
 
 Canaan, son of Noah, 46 
 
 Canticles, message of, 289 f.; value 
 of, 290 f. 
 
 Capital punishment, 52, 58, 59, 
 126, 131, 134, 139, 182, 299 
 
 Captives, 300 
 Caution, 258 
 Census, David’s, 301 
 Character, 79 f., 259 
 Charity, 45, 252, 256 
 Cheating, 43, 46, 81, 139, 184 
 Children, 113, 134, 181, 254, 324 
 Chivalry, 17 
 Christianity, 318 
 Chronicler, the, 199 
 
 33i 
 
332 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Chronicles, Books of, 292 f. 
 Circumcision, 303 
 
 Code, Deuteronomic, 123 f.; ethics 
 of, 124 
 
 Codes, growth of 49 ff.; of law, 
 146 ff. 
 
 Community, Jewish, 221 
 Consciousness, moral, 29 
 Contentment, 252 
 
 Contracts, business, 209 ff.; mar¬ 
 riage, 216; validity of, 85 
 
 Corruption, 92 
 Courage, 23 f. 
 
 Covenant code, 49 f., 63, 83 
 Criticism, 315 f. 
 
 Cunning, 250 
 “Cure of Souls,” 177 f. 
 
 Curse, 9 f., 267, 320 
 Cursing of parents, 250 
 Cyrus, 152, 163 
 
 Damages, 55 
 
 Daniel, 304, 322; Book of, 307 ff. 
 Daughters, 255 
 
 David, 8, 12 f., 14 f., 18 ff., 25 ff., 
 293, 297, 301,320, 324; will of, 21 
 
 Death, 48, 158, 223, 260 f., 272, 
 282, 284 ff., 299; life after, 
 273 f.; penalty of, 186 
 Debauchery, 92 f. 
 
 Debts, 137; release of, 200 f. 
 Decalogue, 49 f., 62 f., 130 
 
 Deceit, 20 f., 43, 85, 212 f., 229, 
 250, 266 
 
 Defectives, 183 
 Deutero-Isaiah, 149 ff. 
 Deuteronomy, 123 f., 141 f., 322 
 Dishonesty, 209 
 Disillusionment, 187 
 Divorce, 131 f., 194 f., 294 
 Dowie, John A., 317 
 
 Drunkenness, 22 f., 43, 82, 85, 92, 
 249 f. 
 
 Ecclesiastes, 278 f.; Book of, 246 
 Economic motives, 142; situation, 
 5, 84, 92, 187 f. 
 
 Eddy, Mrs., 317 
 
 Edom, 126, 193 f., 254, 294 
 
 Education, 327 f. 
 
 Elephantine, 207 
 Elihu, 276 f. 
 
 Eliphaz, 270 ff. 
 
 Enoch, Book of, 310 f. 
 Environment, change of, 5; influ¬ 
 ence of, s 
 Envy, 248 
 Epicureans, 279 
 Esther, 304 f. 
 
 Ethics, and religion, 247; and 
 ritual, 179, 186; best, 239, 244 
 Eunuchs, 197 f. 
 
 Evil, nature of, 47 f. 
 
 Exhortations, 145 
 Exile, 186, 297 
 Exiles, situation of, 149 
 Expiation, 140 
 Extravagance, 249 f. 
 
 Ezekiel, 170 ff., 198 
 Ezra, 292, 294 
 
 Fact, and fiction, 316 
 Faith, 239, 241 
 
 Faithfulness, 86, 106 
 Fall, story of, 34 f. 
 
 Fallow-land, 61 
 Falsehood, 197, 320 
 False measures, 139,171; weights, 
 81, 86, 139, 171 
 
 Family, 254 
 
 Fathers, and children, 324 
 Fear, 186 
 
 First-born, rights of, 134; sacri¬ 
 fice of, 52 
 Flattery, 250 
 Flood, 297 
 
INDEX 
 
 333 
 
 Foreigners, attitude toward, n ff., 
 32 f., 38 ff., 83, ioi ff., 126, 
 129 f., 135, 137, 162, 175, 178 f., 
 194 f., 197 f., 199, 200, 202 f., 
 2Ilf., 243, 253 f., 294 f., 306 f., 
 325 f- 
 
 Fratricide, 42 
 
 Friendship, 26, 70, 251, 253, 262 
 Frugality, 251 
 Funds, trust, 298 
 
 Gambling, 250 
 
 Generosity, 23!., 178, 238, 252, 
 256 
 
 God, conception of, 51 f., 98, 
 
 124 f., 139, 320 f.; goodness of, 
 150 f. 
 
 Golden Age, 168 
 Grace, divine, 126 
 Grain, hoarding of, 250 
 Gray, G. B., 274 
 Greece, philosophy of, 232 
 Greed, 197, 248 
 Grudges, 184 
 Gymnasium, 303 
 
 Habakkuk, 105 f.; contribution 
 of, 107 f. 
 
 Haggai, 188 ff. 
 
 Haman, 305 f. 
 
 Hammurabi, code of, 53, 140, 
 146 ff. 
 
 Hannah, 18, 22 
 
 Harlotry, 85, 182, 197, 215, 249 
 Hatred, 249, 307 
 Hearts, new, 180 
 Heaven, Queen of, 121 f. 
 Hellenization, 231 f., 279, 303 f. 
 Heraclides, 280 
 Heresy, 278 
 Heroism, moral, 318 
 Hezekiah, 296 
 History, value of, 300 
 Holiness-code, 181 ff. 
 
 Holiness, idea of, 52, 95 
 
 Homicide, accidental, 53, 140, 298 
 
 Honesty, 266 
 
 Honor, 297 
 
 Hope, future, 174 f. 
 
 Hosea, 73 ff.; marriage of, 87 s.; 
 
 message of, 85 ff. 
 
 Hospitality, 25, 45, 266 
 Humanitarianism, 116, 136 
 Humanity, despair of, 312 
 Humility, 197 
 Humor, 258 
 
 Hypocrisy, 229 f., 250, 261 
 I, in Psalter, 221 
 
 Idealism, 80 f., 115, 156, 168, 219 
 
 Ideals, 241 f., 267; social, 96ff.> 
 98 f., in f.; moral, 261, 312; 
 3 r 5 f- 
 
 Idolatry, 150 ff. 
 
 Impartiality, 184 
 Imprecatory Psalms, 212, 222 ff. 
 
 Individual, 68; responsibility of, 
 128 f., 250, 269, 289; worth of, 
 116, 324 f. 
 
 Industry, 251, 256, 283 
 Inheritance, 294 
 Injuries, personal, 59 f., 140 f. 
 Insanity, 89 
 
 Insight, moral, 61 f., 300 
 Insincerity, 266 
 Integrity, 238, 261, 273 
 
 Interest, on loans, 129, 137, 183, 
 217 f., 238, 250; social, 288 f. 
 
 Investments, 285 
 Isaac, 31, 41 f. 
 
 Isaiah, 73 ff.; call of, 95; chapter 
 53, 156 ff.; message of, 90 ff.; 
 chapters 56-66, 196 ff. 
 
 Israel, Northern, 295 f.; as chosen 
 people, 125 f.; duty of, 126 f. 
 
 Jacob, 3 f., 31, 42 f. 
 
 Jael, 12 
 
334 
 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Jason, 303 
 Jehoiada, 297 
 Jephthah, 9, 18 
 
 Jeremiah, 104 ff., 119 f.; vengeance 
 of, 119 
 
 Jesuitical reasoning, 10 f. 
 
 Jesus, 143 
 
 Jesus, ben Sirach, 246 
 Jews, morale of, 99 
 Joab, 19 f. 
 
 Joash, 293, 297 
 Job, Book of, 264, 320, 322 
 Jokes, practical, 258 
 Jonah, 203 ff., 296, 326 
 Jonathan, 9 f., 21, 26 
 Joseph, 46 f. 
 
 Joshua, 37 
 Joy, 260 
 
 Jubilee, year of, 182, 184 f. 
 Judaism, spirit of, 167 ff., 219 
 Judges, 298 
 
 Justice, 26 ff., 61, 81 f., 86, 138 f., 
 178, 184, 197, 209, 215 f., 223, 
 252 f., 266, 298, 321, 324 
 
 Kenite, hypothesis, 63 ff. 
 
 Kenites, 63 ff. 
 
 Kindness, 251 
 Knowledge, 298 
 
 Landmarks, 86, 141 
 Law, consuetudinary, 49; moral, 
 259 f., 298, 300, 319; origin of, 
 49 ff- 
 
 Laws, dietary, 307 
 Laziness, 197, 250 
 Legalism, 179, 292 ff., 301 
 Legislation, unreality of, 185 
 Levirate marriage, 132 f. 
 
 Levites, 183 
 
 Lex talionis, 58, 101, 139, 184, 262 
 
 Life, brevity of, 228 f.; future, 
 224 ff., 313 k, 323; length of, 
 239, 297; a riddle, 285 
 
 Loans, interest on, 217 f. 
 
 Lot, 45 
 
 Love, 69, 249, 261, 277, 290; 
 law of, 186 
 
 Loving-kindness, 86 
 Lust, 59, 182 
 
 Lying, 20 f., 43, 52, 54, 85, 118, 
 184, 229, 249, 298 
 
 Magic, 34 
 
 Magnanimity, 24 f., 44 
 Maccabean revolt, 303 f. 
 
 Malachi, 192-96 
 
 Man, the ideal, 178; worth of, 
 227 f. 
 
 Man-stealing, 135 
 Materialism, 186, 198, 314 
 Matricide, 59 
 Mattathias, 304 
 Measures, false, 250 
 Meekness, 238 
 Melancholy, 260 
 Menelaus, 303 
 Mercy, 85 f., 251, 321 
 Meshach, 307 f. 
 
 Messianic state, 179, 180, 187 ff., 
 191 f., 324 
 
 Method, historical, 315 f. 
 
 Micah, prophet, 73 ff.; message of, 
 96 ff. 
 
 Micah, of Ephraim, 10, n 
 Missionary, spirit of, 206 
 Mizpah benediction, 39 
 Moab, 37 
 Moabites, 295 
 Moderation, 284 
 
 Monotheism, 76 f., 162, 234, 314, 
 326 
 
 Morals, and religion, vii, 137 f., 
 319; pragmatic, 258; social 
 aspect of, 323 f.; and ritual, 86, 
 300, 319 f. 
 
 Mordecai, 305 f. 
 
 Mortgage, 214, 217 ff. 
 
INDEX 
 
 335 
 
 Mosaic code, 145 ff. 
 
 Moses, 3 f., 31 ff., 35, 39, 41, 47 , 
 127, 141, 299 
 
 Mother, love of, 46 
 
 Motives, moral, 143 f., 186, 241 f., 
 267 f., 321 f. 
 
 Murder, 85, 140, 171, 184, 197, 231 
 Mysticism, 242, 325 
 
 Naboth, 27 
 Nadab, 299 
 Nahum, 103 
 Nash papyrus, 49 
 Nature, human, 263, 270 f. 
 
 Needy, the, 183 
 
 Nehemiah, 192, 199 f., 297 f.; con¬ 
 duct of, 201 
 
 Nineveh, 203 ff. 
 
 Noah, 31 
 
 Oaths, 9 f., 216, 298; false, 229 
 Obadiah, 194 
 
 Odium theologicum, 171 f., 231 
 Old Testament, nature of, 208 f. 
 Onias, 303 
 
 Oppression, 230, 250, 298, 323 f. 
 Ordeal, 52 f., 54, 293 
 Order, moral, 282 
 Orphans, 266 
 
 Orthodoxy, 243, 246, 268 f., 275, 
 278, 292 
 
 P, document, 292 
 Pain, 277 
 
 Parents, 134, 181 f. 
 
 Parsimony, 250 
 Particularism, 167, 200, 296 
 Passover, 299 
 Patricide, 59 
 Pekah, 296 
 Penalties, death, 300 
 Penitence, 262 
 Perjury, 85, 195, 197 
 
 Personality, rights of, 130 f., 143, 
 176, 300 
 
 Perspective, historical, 288 
 Pessimism, 260 
 
 Pharaoh, 32 f., 320; heart- 
 
 hardened, 101 
 
 Pharisaism, 301 
 Philanthropy, 197 
 Philistia, 254 
 Philistine, 295 
 
 Philosophy, moral, 86, 108, 142 f., 
 193; Greek, 280 
 
 Piety and prosperity, 44, 79, 82, 
 86, 95 f., 121 f., 144 f., 150, 
 175 ff., 189, 198, 223, 241, 247 f., 
 258 f., 265 ff., 297, 322 f. 
 
 Piety, commercialized, 268; nar¬ 
 row, 243 
 
 Pious, 234 ff. 
 
 Plagiarism, 148 
 Pledges, 61, 81, 138 
 Poetry, best Hebrew, 220 
 Polygamy, 15, 45, 57, 69, 182, 293 
 Poor, and weak, 60 f., 69 f., 81 f., 
 91 f., 114 f., 136 f., 171,195, 235, 
 
 323 f- 
 
 Poor-relief, 183 
 Poverty, extremes of, 258 
 Prayer, 94, 198, 308 f. 
 
 Prediction, argument from, 150 f. 
 Privilege, special, 78 f. 
 
 Progress, moral, 40, 67 f., 319 f., 
 327; social, 289 
 
 Prohibition, 249 
 Property interests, 294 
 Prophecy, 69 
 
 Prophets, false, 102 f., 171; homi¬ 
 letics of, 90, 99; influence of, 
 141 f.; practicality of, 115; 
 psychology of, 89 
 
 Prosperity and piety, 44, 79, 82, 
 86, 95 f., 121 f., 144 f., 174 f., 
 189, 198, 201, 223, 241, 247 f., 
 258 f., 2655., 267 f., 297, 322 f. 
 
 Prostitution, 23 
 
336 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE HEBREWS 
 
 Proverbs, Book of, 245, 322 
 Psalter, as hymnbook, 220, 322 
 
 Punishment, capital, 186; cor¬ 
 poral, 254 
 
 Purity, of speech, 261 
 
 Qoheleth, 278 f.; challenge of, 
 286; opinions of, 281 ff.; contri¬ 
 bution of, 286 f.; outlook of, 
 287 f. 
 
 Redemption, of land, 185 
 Reform, under Nehemiah, 199 f. 
 Refuge, cities of, 140, 298 
 Rehoboam, 293 
 
 Religion, and morals, vii, 137 f., 
 247, 319; and ritual, 79 f., 93 ff., 
 168; popular, 77 
 
 Responsibility, of individual, 176 f. 
 Restitution, 54 
 Resurrection, 314 
 Revenge, 297, 309; blood, 298 
 Reverence, for parents, 70, 178, 
 
 251 
 
 Riches, 261, 297; extremes of, 258; 
 
 trust in, 266 
 Right, meaning of, 155 
 
 Righteousness, 38, 81 f., 86, 95 f., 
 197, 242, 248 f., 252 f., 266, 
 298; meaning of, 153, 196; 
 vicarious, 174 
 
 Rights, of persons, 53, 56, 57, 59, 
 60; of property, 53, 216; 
 
 human, 78, 108, 183 
 
 Ritual, 298 f.; and morals, 86, 
 110 f179, 186, 292, 300, 319!.; 
 and religion, 79 f., 94 f., 168, 194 
 
 Robbery, 171, 250, 298 
 Ruth, 201 f., 296, 326 
 
 Sabbath, 136, 197, 201, 299, 303 f. 
 Sabbatical year, 185 
 
 Sacrifice, 304; human, 37 f., 112 f., 
 172, 197 
 
 Sadika marriage, 16 
 
 Samaritans, 254, 295 f. 
 
 Samson, 16, 245 
 Samuel, 9, 26 
 Satan, 173, 267, 301, 320 
 Saul, 9, 11, 14, 24 
 Self-sacrifice, 47 
 Semites, 222 
 Sensuality, 81 f., 171 
 Sensuousness, 197 
 Sermon, on the Mount, 262 
 
 Servant-Songs, 153 ff.; contribu¬ 
 tion of, 160 
 
 Settlement in Canaan, 4 
 
 Sex, relations of, 130, 181 f., 214 f. 
 
 Sexual indulgence, 43, 59, 82, 117, 
 126, 131, 132, 266 
 
 Shadrach, 307 f. 
 
 Sheol, 223, 225, 272, 285, 311 
 Sin, origin of, 173 
 Sinai, 67 f. 
 
 Sincerity, 316 
 
 Sinners, 229 f., 262 
 
 Sins, secret, 266 
 
 Slander, 171, 184, 197, 230, 249 
 
 Slave, value of, 57 f. 
 
 Slavery, 56®., 81, 114, 130, 134 f., 
 182 f., 266. 300 
 
 Slaves, release of, 114, 134 f., 182, 
 185 
 
 Smith, Joseph, 317 
 
 Social: interests, 68; order, 83; 
 rights, 60; unity, 6 
 
 Sociology, 250 
 Sodomy, 117, 182 
 
 Solidarity, social, 13 ff., 127 ff., 
 160 ff., 176, 269, 309, 324 f. 
 
 Solomon, 8, 12, 15, 297 
 Sorcery, 59, 195, 197 
 Sorrow, 260, 286 
 Spirit, historical, 314 f. 
 
 Spirits, fear of, 140 
 Standard, of weights and meas¬ 
 ures, 217 
 
INDEX 
 
 33 7 
 
 Stoics, 184, 280 
 Strangers, 60, 183, 185 
 
 Suffering, in Babylonia, 264; in 
 Egypt, 264; problem of, 109, 
 152 ff., 170 f., 189, 221 f., 248, 
 264 ff., 326; views of, 269 f. 
 
 Suicide, 20 
 Sun-god, 196 
 
 Supernaturalism, 169 f., 317 
 Swearing, false, 184 
 Sympathy, 277 
 
 Tamar, 301 
 Tammuz, 290 
 
 Temple, building of, 189 f.; of 
 Assuan, 207 f., 212 f. 
 
 Theft, 42, 53 f., 85, 178, 184, 197 
 Thought, freedom of, 107 
 Tithe, 137, 195 f. 
 
 Tradition, 9; force of, 327 
 Trustees, 54 
 Truth, 85, 251, 263 
 Truthfulness, 70, 119, 197, 209 
 
 Unclean, 299 
 
 Universalism, 202 ff., 205 f. 
 
 Universe, moral, 310; predeter¬ 
 mined, 282, 284 
 
 Unwitting sins, 299 
 Usury, 171, 178 
 
 Utilitarianism, viii, 120 f., 258, 322 
 
 Vashti, 305 
 Vengeance, 108, 184 
 
 Vicarious atonement, 127; right¬ 
 eousness, 116 
 
 Vindictiveness, 112 
 Virtues, 43 f., 68, 70, 120, 142 f., 
 144, 248 f., 250 f., 266 
 
 Vows, 9 f., 127, 293 
 
 Wages, payment of, 138, 183 
 Weak, and poor, 136 f., 235, 323 f. 
 Wealth, 258, 261, 266, 283 
 Weights, and measures, 184 
 Weights, false, 250 
 Wickedness, 248 f.; dynamic, 230 
 Widows, 138, 266; vow of, 294 
 Wife, ideal, 251 
 
 Wisdom, 247, 261, 298; character¬ 
 istics of, 257 
 Witness, false, 249 
 Witnesses, 139 
 Witches, 52 
 Wives, 255 f. 
 
 Woman, attitude toward, 15 ff., 
 40 ff., 130 ff., 181 f., 213 ff., 219, 
 249, 271, 290 f., 293 f., 305; love 
 for, 42, 45; rights of, 58, 69, 
 213 f. 
 
 Women, sensuality of, 81 f., 92; 
 value of, 293; vow of, 293 f.; 
 volubility of, 256 
 
 World outlook, 325 
 World-view, 162 f. 
 
 Yahu, consorts of, 214 f. 
 
 Yahweh, anger of, 35 f.; bloody 
 deeds of, 8f.; Day of, 75 f.; 
 integrity of, n; love of, 152, 
 194; mercy of, 128; morals of, 
 7 f., 31 ff., 109 ff., 173 f.; right¬ 
 eousness of, 153 f. 
 
 Zechariah, 188 ff., 190 f.; chap¬ 
 ters 9-14, 198 ff. 
 
 Zephaniah, hi f. 
 
 Zerubbabel, 189 f. 
 
 Zophar, 271 ff. 
 
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