built, and the victims for the third time slain. But Balaam was now convinced that Jehovah was pleased only to bless the people. Without resorting, therefore, any more to useless divinations, he lifted up his eyes, and looked down upon the tribes encamped in the acacia groves below him, with their goodly tents spread out like the valleys, or watercourses of the mountains, like the hanging gardens beside his own great river Euphrates, as lign-aloes which the Lord had planted, as cedar trees beside the waters (Num. xxiv. 6). And as he stood, “with tranced yet open gaze” he saw the Vision of the Almighty, and "in outline dim and vast" beheld the future of the "desert-wearied tribes" that lay encamped before him "in sight of Canaan1." He beheld them pouring water from their buckets, their seed in many waters, their king higher than any Amalekite Agag ruling in the Arabian wilderness south of where he stood. He knew that God had brought them forth out of Egypt, and that their strength was like that of the unicorn. He foresaw them couched as a lion, and lying down as a great lion, eating up the nations their enemies, breaking their bones, and piercing them through with the arrows of their archers. Blessed was he that blessed them, and cursed was he that cursed them (Num. xxiv. I-9).

Balak's vexation was now increased tenfold. Smiting his hands together he upbraided the Prophet for his deceit, and in place of advancing him, as he had intended, to high honour, bade him flee for his life to his native land. Nor was the other loath to go. But before he went, for he felt himself still moved by the prophetic spirit, he would advertise the king of what this mysterious people would do to his people in the latter days (Num. xxiv. 14). Again, therefore, he took 2nd Sunday after Easter!

1 Keble's Christian Year, Stanley's S. and P. p. 299.

66

up his parable, and saw, but not now,―he beheld but not nigh, a Star, bright as any that spangled the Eastern sky, coming out of Jacob, and a sceptre rising out of Israel, smiting through the princes of Moab1, and destroying all their wild warriors the sons of tumult2. One by one he saw the giant forms of empires on their way to ruin;" Edom and Seir becoming a possession for their enemies; Amalek, then the first of the nations, in his latter end perishing for ever; the Kenites, then strong in their dwelling-place, and putting their nest in the neighbouring rocks of En-gedi wasted and made a prey; nay even Israel carried away captive by Asshur. And yet once more he saw woe in store even for Asshur, even for his own native land. Far in the distant future he saw ships coming from Chittim, the island of Cyprus, to afflict Asshur and to afflict Eber, till the proud kingdoms of the Eastern world, and he who should afflict them perished for evers. And then the Vision closed. The "true Prophetic light died away," and the king of Moab, baffled and disappointed, returned to his people.

CHAPTER IV.

WAR WITH THE MIDIANITES-DEATH OF

MOSES.

NUMB. XXV.-XXXII. DEUT. XXXII. B. C. 1451.

UT though his tongue had pronounced eloquent

1 Num. xxiv. 17 Margin.

2 Article Sheth in Smith's Bib. Dict.

3 For the version here adopted, and on this early prophecy of the future rise of the power of Greece and of Europe, see Dr Pusey's Lectures on the Prophet Daniel, pp. 58, 59.

curse, Balaam's heart was filled with malice against them. Dismissed by the king of Moab without the promised honours and rewards, he lingered amongst the neighbouring Midianites, and with the keen hatred of his now hardened heart counselled them to join the children of Moab in seducing the Israelites from their allegiance to Jehovah. The festival of Baal-Peor was at hand, and was celebrated with all the unbridled licentiousness of a heathen orgy. If the Israelites could be persuaded to join in it, they might, he suggested, become "as other men," and the Invisible protection now vouchsafed would be withdrawn (Num. xxxi. 16). His artful suggestion was adopted. The festival was celebrated, and the Israelites fell into the snare. They joined themselves to Baal-Peor, took part in the hideous rites, and defiled themselves before the Lord. Thus they brought upon themselves a curse far more real than any that the divinations of Balaam could have effected. Had such apostasy gone unpunished, the Strength of Israel would indeed have ceased, and the counsels of the wily Prophet would have been successful. The crisis required severe and exemplary visitation. A plague broke out which swept off upwards of 24,000, and the princes of the tribes, at the command of Moses, slew the guilty with unsparing vigour, and hanged them up before the Lord. On this occasion PHINEHAS, the son of Eleazar, and grandson of Aaron, particularly distinguished himself by his righteous zeal, which was accepted as an atonement for the people, and rewarded not only by the cessation of the pestilence, but with a promise that the priesthood should remain in his family for ever.

But a terrible vengeance was denounced against the crafty Midianites, and after a second numbering of the people by Moses and Eleazar, a Sacred War was proclaimed. A thousand warriors from each tribe, led

not by Joshua, but by Phinehas, and accompanied by the Ark, went forth to execute the task of righteous retribution. The silver trumpets sounded the signal for the onset, and the Midianites were utterly routed. Five of their chiefs, Evi and Rekem, Zur and Hur and Reba, as also all their males, were put to death; their cities were burnt; their goodly castles fired; their women and children taken captive; nor did the crafty prophet escape; he received the wages of his unrighteousness, and perished by the sword (Num. xxxi. 8; 2 Pet. ii. 15).

The country east of the Jordan, which the Israelites had now wrested from Sihon and Og, was to a great extent a long table-land of undulating downs famed for its rich pasturage1, and clothed with luxuriant vegetation. It was the forest-land, the pasture-land of Palestine, a place for cattle (Num. xxxii. 1). Of the tribes of Israel, as we have already noticed2, Reuben and Gad were eminently pastoral, they had a very great multitude of cattle (Num. xxxii. 1). On the conclusion, therefore, of the Sacred War against the Midianites, they approached Moses and the elders of Israel with the petition that they might be allowed to settle down in a region so peculiarly suited to their requirements. This request seemed to the Israelitish leader to savour of a desire to shrink from the arduous work which lay before the nation, and as likely to discourage the people from crossing over and attempting the conquest of the rugged western country, and he reproached them for their apparent selfishness and indifference to the welfare of their brethren. But the two tribes protested their perfect sympathy with the great national cause; they were ready to send the flower of their troops

1 Stanley, S. and P. p. 324. "It is still the favourite tract of the Bedouin shepherds.'

2 See above, p. 78.

across the river, and only wished for the present to build sheepfolds for their cattle, and cities for their little ones, whither they might return on the conquest of the western country. This promise was deemed sufficient, and Moses distributed between them the lately conquered territory, assigning to Reuben and Gad the kingdom of Sihon from the Arnon to the Jabbok1, and intrusting to the half of the warlike tribe of Manasseh, whose warriors had taken so prominent a part in the conquest of the east of Jordan (Num. xxxii. 39; Deut. iii. 13-15), the inaccessible heights and impassible ravines of Bashan, and the almost impregnable tract of Argob2, the chief stronghold of the giant Og.

Meanwhile it had been once and again intimated to the Israelitish leader that the day drew near, when he must be gathered unto his fathers. Under the special direction, therefore, of Jehovah, he now occupied himself with giving final and specific instructions respecting the future government of the nation. Joshua "his minister" was solemnly appointed to be his successor; the boundaries of the Promised Land were definitely marked out (Num. xxxiv.); its cities with their suburbs, including six “cities of refuge" for the unwitting manslayer, were assigned to the tribe of Levi (Num. xxxv), and other necessary regulations were made.

For an ordinary leader this would have been enough. But the recent sad occurrences in the matter of BaalPeor had only too surely reminded Moses of the fickle tendencies of the nation, and none knew better than himself the awful consequences of national apostasy. For the last time, therefore, he assembled the people together and delivered to them his final counsels. Com

1 "And the eastern side of the Jordan valley up to the lake of Chinnereth, or Gennesareth" (Num. xxxii. 34-38), Article Gad in Bib. Dictionary.

2 Article Manasseh in Smith's Bib. Dict.; Stanley, S. and P. p. 327.