THE WARS OF THE LORD. T HE lost "Book of the
Wars of the Lord " is only once referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is supposed by scholars that it was a collection of war songs. If so there is no reason to suppose that the whole of its contents would be new to us even if it were found. The Hebrew Scripture is full of the fierce eloquence of war. The spirit of fierceness confused itself at times with the religious fervour of the Jews and was ascribed to Jehovah Himself. "The Lord is a man of war," they said ; and modern readers can only shrink from the imagery employed by the poets who conceived of a tribal God capable of those savage storms of emotion which attack all nations, perhaps all men, in the wild days of their youth. "I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judg- ment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood." It is horrible, but it is splendid. We seem to hear the rattle of war as Scott heard it and as Isaiah heard it " when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." What do the words sound like in the Hebrew, one wonders. How much of their poetry is due to the period of their translation P Not very much, we imagine. It must be great poetry, indeed, which can inspire such a rendering. " The thunder of the captains and the shouting" reached the ears of the Elizabethans, and many a young Puritan longing for adventure must have felt the thrill that disturbed the young men of Israel "at the time that kings go out to battle." In the quiet church we can imagine an English boy listening entranced to the reader, and saying over to himself through a long sermon, "I cannot hold my peace because thou hest heard 0 my soul I the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war." Per- haps finer words with a more Puritan ring would strike on his ear as his mind returned for a moment to listen to his pastor discoursing from the Old Testament : " When he had consulted with the people he appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army."
If we set David aside there is no happy warrior to be found in Scripture—no one whom every man at arms would wish to be. David had the power to attract love and command forgiveness; he was sometimes clement and he was seldom cruel. He is a hero, but, as he said of himself, he was " a man of blood" no less than a man at arms, and it is plain that he did not think himself worthy to build the Temple. Nothing became David like his humility, but it was not without cause. Setting, as we have said, David aside, acts of martial magnanimity are far to seek in the Bible. The most conspicuous instance suggests that a higher ideal existed than found any frequent illustration in practice. "My Father, shall I smite them, shall I smite them P" said the young man to the prophet. "And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them. Wouldat thou smite those whom thou halt taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow ? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat, drink, and go to their master." As a rule when we read of the warriors who " left nothing that breathed," we are inclined to say with Jacob: " Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel," and, again : "Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations, 0 my soul ; come not thou into their secret."
Later on the prophets took a larger view of war. The far-sighted Isaiah caught glimpses of the modern imperial spirit. " I have set thee this day over the nations and over the kingdoms to blot out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant." More than a glimpse also, perhaps, of the spirit which yearns for peace. Through defeat the Jews learned pity. Could the desolation of a conquered city be better depicted than in the following lines ?—" Her gates are sunk into the ground ; he hath destroyed and broken her bars ; her king and her princes are among the Gentiles. The law is no more." We see the deep distress of Jerusalem. The children, we read, "swoon in the streets of her. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? They swooned as the wounded in the streets of their city when their soul was poured out into their mother's bosom." But Isaiah, who dreamed of the Prince of Peace and of the mountains where nothing can hurt or destroy, put the man at arms first in his list of great men when he describes " the stay and the staff " of a nation : " The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent and.the ancient, the captains of fifty and the honourable man, and the counsellor and the cunning artificer and the eloquent orator." The orator last I Where would Isaiah have placed " the man with the ink-horn " P Ezekiel put him very high.
There is a curious passage in the Book of Chronicles which describes the introduction by Uzziah of instruments of de- struction more complicated and effective than any which preceded them : " He made in Jerusalem engines invented by gunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones withal, and his name spread far abroad, for he was marvellously helped till he was strong. But when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruc- tion." How much is suggested in this passage I Perhaps if we found "the Book of the Wars of the Lord" we should know more of Uzziah, his heart and his engines.
A good many of the most often-quoted passages of Scripture having reference to war are put into the mouths of women.
" By strength shall no man prevail " was said, according to the chronicler, by Hannah. " They that stumbled are girded with strength" is her saying also. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera " is part of the Song of Deborah, together with the bitter curses pronounced against the tribes who shirked the wars of the Lord—who remained in ships, abode in the breaches, or simply came not. Cowards were rare in early times, but the famous opportunity allowed by the law for every man who distrusted his nerve to save himself shows that they were not unknown. All men over twenty were bound to fight—the exceptions are well known. We apologize for quoting the last exception for the benefit of any one who has forgotten it. "What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart." A strange mixture of the systems of compulsory and voluntary service truly! Proclaim yourself a coward and take your discharge is what the words amount to.
When all is said Hannah was right. It was not by strength that the Jews prevailed. One new fragment of the Gospel, did it contain but one sentence of counsel, warning, or bene- diction, would be of greater value than the whole book of the wars of Jehovah. They belong to the far past. " Where is the fury of the oppressor " now ? Even " Pharaoh King of Egypt is but a noise." The prophets knew it would be so. "What do these feeble Jews ? " asked their oppressors. The history of the Western world is the only adequate reply.
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