CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



The history of the extraordinary nation which 

 once inhabited this land, must be so much more 

 familiar to our readers than that of any other 

 ancient nation, that all that is necessary here is a 

 brief sketch, such as will assist the imagination in 

 tracing with due completeness the general career 

 of the East till the establishment of the Persian 

 empire. From the accounts given in Scripture, 

 and from the History of Josephus, we learn that 

 the Jews were descended from Abraham, the tenth 

 in descent from Noah, through his second son 

 Shem. According to Josephus, Abraham, who 

 was born in the 2g2d year (according to other 

 authorities, in the 352d year) after the Deluge, 

 ' left the land of Chaldaea when he was seventy- 

 five years old, and at the command of God, went 

 into Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and 

 left it to his posterity. He was a person of great 

 sagacity, both for understanding of all things and 

 persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his 

 opinions ; for which reason he began to have 

 higher notions of virtue than others had, and he 

 determined to renew and to change the opinion 

 all men happened then to have concerning God ; 

 for he was the first that ventured to publish this 

 notion, that there was but ONE God, the Creator 

 of the universe ; and that as to other gods, if they 

 contributed anything to the happiness of men, that 

 each of them afforded it only according to His 

 appointment, and not by their own power. For 

 which doctrines, when the Chaldaeans and other 

 people of Mesopotamia raised a tumult against 

 him, he thought fit to leave that country, and, at 

 the command of God, he came and lived in the 

 land of Canaan. And when he was there settled, 

 he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God.' 

 After the death of Abraham's son Isaac, his younger 

 son, Jacob, remained for a number of years in 

 Canaan, surrounded by a family of twelve sons, 

 one of whom, Joseph, as related in Scripture, 

 became the cause of the removal of his father and 

 brethren, and all belonging to them, into Egypt. 

 The Hebrew emigrants were seventy in number, 

 and formed at the first a respectable colony among 

 the Egyptians. Jacob died after having been 

 seventeen years in Egypt, and his body was carried 

 by Joseph to Hebron, and buried in the sepulchre 

 of his father and grandfather. Joseph also died 

 in Egypt at the age of no, and at length his 

 brethren died likewise. Each of the twelve sons 

 of Jacob became the progenitor of a family or 

 tribe, and the twelve tribes, personified by the 

 term ISRAEL, continued to reside in Egypt, where 

 they increased both in number and in wealth. 

 Their rapid increase and prosperity soon excited 

 the jealousy of the masters of the country ; and 

 from being in high favour, the different tribes 

 gradually fell under the lash of power, and came 

 to be treated as public slaves. 



The entire body of Israelites, guided by Moses, 

 fled from Egypt in the year 1490 before Christ, at 

 a time when Thebes, Memphis, and the other 

 magnificent cities of that country, were in all their 

 glory. Proceeding in a north-easterly direction 

 from Rameses (near the site of modern Cairo), 

 they went through the level region of the land of j 

 Goshen (now a barren sandy plain) to the head of 

 the Gulf of Suez, the western branch of the Red 

 Sea. Here they crossed in a miraculous manner 

 to the opposite shore, to a spot now called the 

 Wells of Moses, where, according to the Scripture 



74 



narrative, they sang their song of thanksgiving: 

 for their deliverance. The country in which they 

 had now arrived was a portion of Arabia Petraea, 

 consisting of a dismal barren wilderness, now 

 called the Desert of Sinai, from the principal 

 mountain which rises within it From the point 

 at which the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea 

 from Egypt, they were conducted by a most 

 circuitous and tedious route towards the Promised 

 Land of Canaan. Their tiresome journey ex- 

 tended over a period of forty years, and was not 

 completed till all the Hebrews who were above 

 twenty years of age when they left the land of 

 Egypt (excepting Caleb and Joshua) had died,, 

 and a new generation, possessing greater courage- 

 and confidence in the Almighty, had succeeded. 

 them. In the trackless wilderness through which 

 they were led, their multitudes, as we learn from 

 Scripture, could neither have traced their way nor 

 procured subsistence without a continued miracle. 

 The hand of God brought for them streams of 

 water out of the flinty rock; rained manna or 

 bread from heaven; and gave a pillar of cloud to- 

 direct their journeys through the day, and a pillar 

 of fire by night. He delivered the tables of a 

 moral law, comprehending the ten command- 

 ments, to Moses their leader ; and promulgated a 

 set of regulations for the ceremonies of worship,, 

 the establishment of a separate order devoted to 

 religion and learning, and for the civil government 

 of the nation. The Hebrews had thus a regular 

 polity and written laws when most other nations- 

 knew only the law of the sword, or of savage ani- 

 mal superiority. 



The country on the shore of the Mediterranean 

 which was allotted as a settlement to this people,, 

 was at that time occupied by many warlike tribes, 

 who had grown strong in its fertile plains and 

 valleys ; and the generation of the Hebrews who 

 were conducted into it were compelled to fight for 

 its possession. The struggle was not of long con- 

 tinuance. The whole land was conquered in the 

 year 1450 B.C. 



According to the account given in the 26th 

 chapter of the Book of Numbers, the Hebrew 

 nation thus brought out of the land of Egypt and 

 settled in Canaan amounted to 601,730 souls,, 

 unto whom the land was divided for an inherit- 

 ance, according to the number of individuals in 

 the respective tribes. The tribe of Levi (to which 

 belonged Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar the high- 

 priest), amounting to 23,000 males from a month 

 aid and upwards, received no share of the land : 

 being set apart for the priesthood, the tenth or 

 tithe of the general produce was assigned them as- 

 their perpetual inheritance. 



The political government of the various tribes,, 

 after their conquest and settlement of Canaan, 

 appears to have been republican, with military 

 leaders called Judges; but these acted by the 

 direction of the priesthood, who were immediately 

 counselled by the Deity within the sanctuary. 

 This period of separate government in tribes, 

 called the Period of the Judges, lasted 300 years- 

 (1427-1112 B.C.), and was one of daring actions 

 and great deliverances the heroic age of the 

 Jews. 



The epoch of kings succeeded that of judges. 

 The reign of Saul, their first monarch, though the 

 people were stronger by being united, was 

 gloomy and troubled. David, who succeeded, 



^ 



