the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their wickedness. For it is not for thy justice and the uprightness of thy heart that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but because they have done wickedly, they are destroyed at thy coming in: and that the Lord might accomplish His word, which He promised by oath to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justice, for thou art a very stiff-necked people. Deut. XVII. SECT. XLIV. MOSES FORETELLS THAT KINGS SHALL REIGN OVER THE Precepts for future Observance. When thou art come into 14-20. the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee, and possessest it, and shalt say: I will set a king over me, as all nations have that are round about: thou shalt set him whom the Lord thy God shall choose out of the number of thy brethren. Thou mayst not make a man of another nation king, that is not thy brother. And when he is made king, he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor lead back the people into Egypt, being lifted up with the number of his horsemen, especially since the Lord hath commanded you to return no more the same way. He shall not have many wives, that may allure his mind, nor immense sums of silver and gold. Deut. XVIII. But after he is raised to the throne of his kingdom, he shall copy out to himself the Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, taking the copy of the priests of the Levitical tribe, and he shall have it with him, and shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and keep His words and ceremonies, that are commanded in the law. And that his heart be not lifted up with pride over his brethren, nor decline to the right or to the left, that he and his sons may reign a long time over Israel. The priests and Levites, and all that are of the same tribe, 1-14. shall have no part nor inheritance with the rest of Israel, because they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord, and His oblations, and they shall receive nothing else of the possession of their brethren for the Lord Himself is their inheritance, as He hath said to them. : This shall be the priest's due from the people, and from them that offer victims: whether they sacrifice an ox, or a sheep, they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the breast: the firstfruits also of corn, of wine, and of oil, and a part of the wool from the shearing of their sheep. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him of all thy tribes, to stand and to minister to the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever. If a Levite go out of any one of the cities throughout all Israel, in which he dwelleth, and have a longing mind to come to the place which the Lord shall choose, he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, that shall stand at that time before the Lord. He shall receive the same portion of food that the rest do: besides that which is due to him in his own city, by succession from his fathers. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations. Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard, nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune-tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead. For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations He will destroy them at thy coming. Thou shalt be perfect and without spot before the Lord thy God. These nations, whose land thou shalt possess, hearken to soothsayers and diviners; but thou art otherwise instructed by the Lord thy God. Promise of a great Prophet.-The Lord thy God will raise Deut. up to thee a prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto XVIIIme: him thou shalt hear.* As thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the assembly was gathered together, and saidst: Let me not hear any more the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see any more this exceeding great fire, lest I die. And the Lord said to me: They have spoken all things well. I will raise them up a prophet out of the midst of their brethren like to thee: and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. And him that will not hear his words, which he shall speak in My name, I will punish. But the prophet, who being corrupted with pride shall speak in My name things that I did not command him to say, or in the name of strange gods, shall be slain. And if in silent * This could not refer only to Josue, for in the 18th chap. it is said that there arose no prophet in Israel like Moses. And the Jews in the time of our Lord were still expecting the prophet, that is, the one promised by Moses. S. Peter, in his sermon at the Temple, quotes this passage as a prophecy of the coming of our Lord. Acts iii. 15-22. thought thou answer: How shall I know the word that the Lord hath not spoken? thou shalt have this sign: whatsoever that same prophet foretelleth in the name of the Lord, and it cometh not to pass: that thing the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath forged it by the pride of his mind: and therefore thou shalt not fear him. Deut. Punishment for Disobedience.-If a man have a stubborn XXI. and unruly son, who will not hear the commandments of his 18-21. father or mother, and being corrected, slighteth obedience: they shall take him and bring him to the ancients of his city, and to the gate of judgment, and shall say to them: This our son is rebellious and stubborn, he slighteth hearing our admonitions, he giveth himself to revelling, and to debauchery and banquetings. The people of the city shall stone him: and he shall die, that you may take away the evil out of the midst of you, and all Israel hearing it may be afraid. : Deut. Death of Moses.-Then Moses went up from the plains of XXXIV. Moab upon mount Nebo, to the top of Phasga over-against 1-12. Jericho and the Lord showed him all the land of Galaad as far as Dan. And all Nephtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasses, and all the land of Juda unto the furthermost sea, and the south part, and the breadth of the plain of Jericho the city of palm-trees as far as Segor. And the Lord said to him: This is the land, for which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to thy seed. Thou hast seen it with thy eyes, and shalt not pass over to it. And Moses the servant of the Lord died there, in the land of Moab, by the commandment of the Lord: and He buried him in the valley of the land of Moab over-against Phogor: and no man hath known of his sepulchre until this present day. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, neither were his teeth moved. And the children of Israel mourned for him in the plains of Moab thirty days: and the days of their mourning in which they mourned for Moses were ended. And Josue the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. And the children of Israel obeyed him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose no more a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which He sent by him, to do in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land, and all the mighty hand, and great miracles, which Moses did before all Israel. NOTE ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. Palestine was first known as Canaan or the land of Canaan, because Canaan, the youngest son of Cham, settled there after the deluge. Because God promised it to Abraham and his posterity, it was called the land of Promise. It was sometimes called Philistia, from the Philistines, and Palestine is only another form of this word. It is so called in the Book of Exodus and by Isaias. When the Israelites had established themselves there, it came to be called the land of Israel. But after the Captivity, the title of Judæa, which was properly applied only to the kingdom of Juda, gradually extended itself to the whole land. It is called the Holy Land by the prophet Zacharias, but this name was not commonly applied to it till the Middle Ages. It is so called, of course, as being the scene of our Lord's earthly life and mighty works. Its size is very small when compared with its historical importance. It is about as large as Wales, and consists of a strip of country about 140 miles long by 40 in average width. The topmost or northern end is the narrowest, and it gradually widens as it extends to the south. On the north it is bounded by the mountain ranges of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and the valley that lies between them. On the south it is open to the desert, that separates it from Egypt. On the west it is bounded by the Mediterranean, or, as it was then called, the Great Sea. And on the east it is separated from the mountainous country of Moab by three lakes which run into one another. At the north is a small lake called the Waters of Merom. An insignificant stream runs from this southwards into the large lake of Tiberias, or Galilee, or Gennesarethfor it was called by all these names-and from the southernmost or lower end of this runs the river Jordan—the only stream of any size-into the much larger lake called the Dead Sea, which lies at south of the land. The whole country is mountainous, but the slope of the land is steep on the east side towards the lakes and the river Jordan, and inclines more gently and gradually towards the west or Mediterranean Sea. There is, however, one exception to this; for in one place, about halfway up the country, the high land runs off in a slanting direction towards the sea, forming the ridge called Mount Carmel, and ending in an abrupt promontory. To the north-east of Mount Carmel is the great plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, through which runs the brook Cison or Kishon. Owing to the limestone formation of the hills, a great number of caverns exist; so much so as to make the country remarkable for them. These caves are constantly referred to in the Scripture as places of dwelling, of concealment, and of burial. The soil is very rich in the valleys, and these are well irrigated by the early or former rains, which come in December, and still more abundantly by the latter rains, which fall after Christmas. But during the rest of the year there is but little fall of rain. This land was divided between seven different tribes or peoples, who were all descended from Canaan, though one of them went especially by that name. These were dispossessed, and for the most part destroyed, by Josue, who divided the land amongst the twelve tribes. The extreme north was given to Dan, and the south to Juda and Benjamin. To the north of Juda was the portion given to Ephraim and Manasses, which contained Sechem and Silo, and which afterwards formed the country called Samaria. The rest of the country was divided among the other tribes, with the exception of the tribe of Levi-who had no inheritance-and the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Manasses, who selected the land to the east of the Jordan, which thus came to be reckoned for a time as a part of the land of Israel. Josue I. 1-11. THE BOOK OF JOSUE. This book is called Josue, because contains the history of what passed under him, and according to the common opinion was written by him. The Greeks call him Jesus; for Josue and Jesus in the Hebrew are the same name, and have the same signification, viz. Saviour. He is justly regarded as a striking type of our Saviour, inasmuch as he led the people of God into the inheritance promised to them, as Christ gives us possession of the Kingdom of Heaven, to which we are heirs. The events recorded in the Book of Josue occupied twenty-seven years. SECT. XLV. JOSUE PREPARES TO CROSS THE JORDAN. Josue succeeds Moses.-Now it came to pass after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and said to him: Moses My servant is dead: arise, and pass over this Jordan, thou and thy people with thee, into the land which I will give to the children of Israel. I will deliver to you every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, as I have said to Moses. From the desert and from Libanus unto the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hethites unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border. No man shall be able to resist you all the days of thy life as I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee. Take courage, and be strong: for thou shalt divide by lot to this people the land, of which I swore to their fathers, that I would deliver it to them. Take courage therefore, and be very valiant that thou mayst observe and do all the law, which Moses My servant hath commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayst understand all things which thou dost. Let not the book of this law depart from thy mouth: but thou shalt meditate on it day and |