the Hebrew lyric of joy attained its greatest heights only in the rapturous outpouring of the poet's soul to his God; the Hebrew song of mourning attained its greatest perfection, not in sorrow for the dead, but in anguish when the wrath of God was poured out upon the sin of His people.

It may be that not all the poems of Lamentations were composed in the early years of the exile; but all except the third seem quite clearly to have the conditions of this period as their background, and no important reasons appear for regarding 2 and 4, at least, as of any later date.

Whether the brief oracle of Obadiah was occasioned by the conduct of the Edomites at the capture of Jerusalem in 586 or by the circumstances of some later time is not wholly clear. At the time of the exile, we know that the Edomites took advantage of the depopulation of Judea to extend their territory northward; Ezekiel speaks of "all Idumea which have appointed my land into their possession." It may well be that the picture given in Obadiah describes the conduct of the Edomites in 586 B.C.

For the violence done to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But look not thou on the day of thy brother in the day of his disaster, and rejoice not over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither speak proudly in the day of distress. Enter not into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, look not thou on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither lay ye hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. And stand thou not in the crossway, to cut off those of his that escape; and deliver not up those of his that remain in the day of distress.2

Despite its brevity, Obadiah is certainly a composite writing; the verses preceding those given above contain an older oracle against Edom that has no special reference to the circumstances of Obadiah's time. The closing verses of Obadiah give a glorious outlook for the future of Jerusalem.

1 36 5.

2 Obadiah 10-14.

Essentially the same oracle is given at an earlier date in Jeremiah 49 14-16, 9-10a, 7. That Obadiah does not quote from Jeremiah seems clear from the fact that he has the material in the better order. Both prophets quote an earlier prophecy.

CHAPTER XVIII

PROPHETIC PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO HISTORY

(About 600 to 550 B.C.)

ISRAEL'S narrative writing during the two centuries from the time of the united kingdom to the period of Amos, produced the fresh and beautiful stories of Saul and David, of the Judges, of Moses, of the Patriarchs, and of pre-patriarchal times, of Israel's wars with Syria, and of the deeds of Elijah and other early prophets. Much of this material is so imbued with the spirit of Israel's prophets that some of the documents are commonly called prophetic histories. The Joseph narratives, for example, show that before the days of Amos and Isaiah, Israel's God was conceived in terms both ethical and international; for Joseph to sin against his Egyptian master was to sin against God,1 and God was thought of as using even the evil purposes of man to bring about beneficent ends.2

Our study has showed that narrative prose writing was not stopped by the coming of the great era of prophetic literature, yet the first great age of historical prose writing had reached its fruition before 750 B.C., and that which followed in the next century was only an aftermath. The fresh creative genius of Israel was now occupied with present crises and was expressing itself in the varied forms of the prophetic oracles or, when public speech was forcibly checked, was busied in formulating its great principles into working laws. Thus the new prophetic movement and the experiences of Manasseh's reactionary reign occasioned the great code of Deuteronomy; again, Deuteronomy and the experience of the exile occasioned the second great era of historical writing. The leading ideas of Deuteronomy seemed to receive absolute, divine sanction by the fact of the exile. Israel's disloyalty had

1 Genesis 39 9.

2 Genesis 50 20.

led to the consequences repeatedly urged in Deuteronomy. The requirements of the law could not be carried out in the exile as they were in Josiah's reign, hence the vital spirit of the nation's creative thought turned to the past where it was possible to study the outworking of the Deuteronomic principles.

The two great principles that underlay Josiah's reform were aspects of the doctrine of absolute loyalty to Jehovah alone. One of these principles was that Israel's prosperity and continuance in Canaan depended upon such loyalty. The other was that such loyalty demanded the destruction of the high places with all their accompaniments and the centralization of public worship in the Jerusalem temple. The hero stories of the age of struggle with Canaanite and Philistine afforded ample material for emphasizing the first. The stories of this age, as preserved in the north and south, had already been woven into one narrative. Whether they formed a separate roll or had been treated up to this time as merely a continuation of the conquest narrative, they were now taken as a distinct literary unit and were given an elaborate editing. The stories themselves were full of loyalty to Jehovah and of faith because of his deliverances from the many enemies in Canaan and round about. What better examples of the truth of Deuteronomy's doctrine could be found than the old narratives of this age of vicissitudes? It needed only to point the moral, and all must see. So the old pictures of frequent distress from enemies and deliverance by national heroes were framed all to match, and a general frame constructed for the whole, giving a unitary impression to all the collection.

And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah and Jehovah strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and smote Israel, and they possessed the city of palm-trees. And the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

But when the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah, Jehovah raised them up a saviour, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. And the children of Israel sent tribute by him unto Eglon the king of Moab. And Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his raiment upon his right thigh. And he offered the tribute unto Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a very fat man. And

when he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people that bare the tribute. But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king. And he said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat. And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body: and the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, for he drew not the sword out of his body; and it came out behind. Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room upon him, and locked them.

Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and, behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber. And they tarried till they were ashamed; and, behold, he opened not the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened them; and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.

And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirah. And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he before them. And he said unto them, Follow after me; for Jehovah hath delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and suffered not a man to pass over. And they smote of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.

And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who smote of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad: and he also saved Israel.1

And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, when Ehud was dead. And Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles. And the children of Israel cried unto Jehovah: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

And the land had rest forty years.2

1 Judges 3 12-31

24 1-3, 5 sib

These examples may serve to illustrate the kind of editorial treatment that is given also to the stories of Gideon-Jerubbaal, Jephthah, and Samson. Fortunately the editors did little to these stories from Israel's golden age of narrative except to give them their frame a frame of wood, we are tempted to call it.

The story of Othniel is no story at all, but is wholly made up of the characteristic phrases of the editors. The same is true of the six so-called minor judges, concerning whom no details are given. Whether these were added by a later hand to bring the number to twelve or were in the sources, we cannot tell.

The general introduction prefixed to the collection of stories is found in chapters 2 6-3 6. The heart of this is 2 11-19.

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim; and they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them: and they provoked Jehovah to anger. And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah had spoken, and as Jehovah had sworn unto them: and they were sore distressed.

And Jehovah raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those that despoiled them. And yet they hearkened not unto their judges; for they played the harlot after other gods, and bowed themselves down unto them: they turned aside quickly out of the way wherein their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Jehovah; but they did not so. And when Jehovah raised them up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented Jehovah because of their groaning by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. But it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.

To the Deuteronomic book of Judges that was compiled during the exile, later hands added from old sources the brief summary

1 Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon.