were fertile plains, fruitful vales, and pleasant streams in the land of Israel. The more pleasant and luxuriant their allotment, the more reluctant were the tribes of Israel to undertake the fatigue and selfdenial of fulfilling the duty which God had assigned to them, and the more readily they were drawn into the snare of the enemy. SECTION III. THE ANGEL AT BOCHIM. HE second chapter of the book of Judges opens THE with an account of a second great assembly of the Israelitish people. On the former occasion the tribes had met, in anxiety and fear, to inquire of the Lord which of them should be the first to march against the Canaanites. An answer had been given, and victory had crowned the arms of Judah. On this occasion they met, lamenting their unfaithfulness, being stung by the sharp reproofs of a messenger of the Lord for not having continued to drive out the inhabitants of the land. It is probable that they were assembled at one of the periodical festivals, which at that time were held before the ark at Shiloh, that central yet secluded spot in the land of Ephraim, which continued for ages to be the great sanctuary of the house of Joseph. The name Bochim, or Weepers, by which the place is designated, appears to have been given in commemoration of their outcries of grief; but as it does not occur again in the sacred history we may infer that the name did not permanently attach to the locality. While the tribes were assembled, an unknown messenger presented himself. He is described as "an angel of the Lord," who "came up from Gilgal to Bochim." As to the real nature of this extraordinary messenger, opinions have been various. It has been conjectured that he was the high-priest for the year, or that he was a prophet commissioned for this particular message, and standing forward, like Elijah, no man knowing his antecedents. Our belief is, that he was neither a mortal prophet or priest, nor a created angel, but the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity. For the Son of God was pleased, on many occasions previous to that manifestation of Himself when He pitched His tent here on earth for more than thirty years, to appear to His servants under the old covenant in a visible form, and to converse with them in an audible voice. This was the Angel whom Jehovah had promised to send before Israel, to bring them into the place which He had prepared ;* who revealed Himself to Joshua as Captain of the Lord's host; who bare and carried His people all the days of old;‡ and whom we shall find, in the course of this history, appearing again to Gideon at Ophrah, and to the parents of Samson in the field of Zorah. § He "came up," we are significantly told, "from Gilgal to Bochim." Gilgal was the place of the manifestation of Jehovah's power, and of His people's triumph. Gilgal was the first place in Canaan at *Exod. xxiii. 20. † Josh. v. 14. ‡ Isa. lxiii. 9. which they had halted, after the miraculous passage of the Jordan; it was at Gilgal that the reproach of Egypt had been rolled away from Israel by the circumcision with the knives of stone; Gilgal was the first place in Canaan where they had kept the passover; and from Gilgal the mercies of God and the conquests of Joshua in Canaan dated their origin.* The prophetic phrase, "from Shittim unto Gilgal," represents the progress of the Church of Israel from sin, shame, and misery, to a glorious resurrection and recovery; and now the phrase "from Gilgal to Bochim," or the Weepers, bespeaks her decline from primitive holiness and honour, to a state of abasement and woe. The words of this Divine Messenger were few, but they were powerful; so that "the people lifted up their voice and wept." He declared that it was He Himself who had brought them out of Egypt and made a perpetual covenant with them; but that because they had forsaken Him, and had been in league with the inhabitants of the land, He had subsequently said that He would no more exert His power in their behalf, but would leave them to be chastised by the heathen and deluded by their gods.‡ The charge thus laid against the Israelites is amply sustained by the facts detailed in the latter part of the first chapter of the book. We are told that * Josh. iv. 19, v. 2-10. + Mic. vi. 5; Num. xxv. I; Josh. iii. 1. Jud. ii. even victorious Judah "could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron;" so feeble was his faith, and so readily, like sinking Peter, were his fears aroused. Joshua had not been afraid of these iron chariots; but timorous Judah, of little faith, dared not face them. "The children of Benjamin " too, hardy and fierce though they were reputed to be, were lax in the performance of the task assigned to them; they "did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem," but permitted them to reside there with themselves. Manasseh and Ephraim, instead of driving the Canaanites out of their border, listened to their overtures, accepted their tribute money, and permitted them to dwell beside them as neighbours and friends, and afterwards became enslaved under their yoke. In the same way Zebulun became degenerate, and instead of using his strength to glorify God, he used it to enrich himself with the tribute money of the heathen whom he ought to have destroyed. Asher was more degenerate still; for he was content to incorporate himself and dwell with 'the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land." The same is said of Naphtali, who was content, instead of extirpating the enemy, to dwell quietly among them "in Beth-shemesh," the "city of the sun," the high place of their idolatry. Worst of all, the children of Dan, in Aijalon, the place where Joshua had commanded the sun to stand still, so far from being animated by the memory of their leader's faith, were actually driven back by the heathen, and forced to |