Sihon was utterly routed. The Hebrews took possession of the whole country between the Arnon and the more northern river Jabbok, leaving, however, untouched the territory of the Ammonites which lay also between those two rivers. These deeds were celebrated in heroic songs, and lived long in the mouth of the Hebrews; a fragment of such a lay has fortunately been preserved

to us:

"Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared for there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it has consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh! he has given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity to Sihon, king of the Amorites. We have shot at them; Heshbon has perished even to Dibon, and we have laid them waste even to Nophah, which reaches to Medeba.'

Other conquests in the same districts were now easily accomplished, but Og, the powerful king of the fertile land of Bashan, offered an obstinate resistance. Og was indeed a formidable foe. He ruled over a large country with many fortified cities stretching northward to the foot of the Hermon, and eastward to the regions of the Euphrates. He descended from the giant race of the Rephaim, and was of huge stature. He at once marched out to meet the Hebrews at Edrei, one of his principal towns. But God said to Moses, Fear him not, for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his country, into thy hand, and thou shalt do to them as thou didst to Sihon, king of the Amorites.' The Hebrews, thus encouraged, advanced boldly, and were victorious; and they smote Og, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none of them left alive, and they took possession of his land.' It is a tale of bloodshed on which we do not care to dwell; carnage and extermination marked each advancing

step of the conquering Hebrews; thus only could the promises given to them and to their ancestors be fulfilled.

60. BALAAM'S PROPHECIES.

[NUMB. XXII-XXIV.]

The Israelites now pitched their camp once more in the south-eastern plains of the Jordan. Balak, the king of Moab, had seen the defeat of two of his most powerful neighbours, and he trembled at the approach of the apparently invincible invaders. Might he not be the next to feel their impetuous attack? He tried to effect an alliance with the adjoining Midianites, whose apprehensions it was not difficult to rouse. "Now will this host,' he said to them, 'devour all that are around us, as the ox devours the grass of the field.'

6

He bethought himself, besides, of another device. At that time a heathen prophet, Balaam, the son of Beor, who lived in Pethur, a town on the Euphrates, was famous for his wisdom and his inspired speeches prompted by Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews. To him Balak sent distinguished men from Moab and Midian with presents, and with this message: Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt; they cover the face of the earth, and they encamp over against me. Come now, therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me perhaps I shall prevail that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.'. The men arrived and delivered their message. Balaam begged them to stay over night in his house, and to hear his answer on the morrow. During that night the Lord appeared to Balaam in a vision, and said: Thou shalt not go with these messengers; thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed.' On the following morning, therefore, he declared to his guests

that he would not go with them. On their return home, Balak, in no way discouraged, sent out to Balaam other and even more eminent men with his former request. But the heathen seer replied, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.' Yet he invited the strangers to remain with him till the following day. In the night the Lord appeared to him again in a vision, and this time He bade him go with the messengers, but speak no words but those which He would command him. So then on the morning the prophet saddled his ass, and declared himself ready to accompany the men to Moab.

Now followed an event so remarkable and marvellous that we can only insert it in the very words of Scripture:

'And God's anger was kindled because he went; and the angel of the Lord placed himself in the way to oppose him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field; and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path of the vineyards, a wall being on the one side, and a wall on the other side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself against the wall, and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again. And the angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no room to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with the staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said to the ass, Because thou hast mocked

me: I wish there were a sword in my hand, for then would I kill thee. And the ass said to Balaam, Am I not thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so to thee? And he said, No. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed his head, and fell down upon his face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to oppose thee, because thy way is pernicious before me; and the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely I should then have slain thee, and saved her alive. And Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: and now, if it displease thee, I will return home. And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak to thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.'

When the king heard of Balaam's arrival, he went out to meet him at the northern boundary of his dominions, and received him with the words: Did I not earnestly send to thee, wherefore didst thou not come to me? am I not able to promote thee to honour?' To which Balaam replied, that he had now indeed come to the king, but was unable to speak anything but what God would put into his mind.

On the morrow, Balak took the prophet up to the heights sacred to Baal, and there they built seven altars, upon each of which they sacrificed an ox and a ram. Then Balaam went alone to a solitary place, hoping to receive the word of the Lord. When he returned to the king, he had beheld the vision, and he felt inspired. He stood near his burnt-offering before Balak and the princes

of Moab, and, urged by an irresistible impulse, he broke forth in these sublime utterances: Balak, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob! and come, defy Israel! How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him lo, the people that dwells alone, and does not reckon itself among the nations! Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!'

Balak was struck with dismay at this speech, and exclaimed, 'What hast thou done to me? I took thee to curse my enemies, and, behold! thou hast indeed blessed them.' Balaam repeated, that the words were not his own, but the Lord's. Then Balak insisted that he should accompany him to the heights of Pisgah, whence he could see a portion of the Hebrew encampment, and urged him now at least to call down evil upon the ruthless invaders. Again the sacrifices were offered up, and Balaam received in lonely communion the bidding of the Lord. When he returned, he was eagerly surrounded by the king and the people, and he spoke :

6 Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken to me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent; has He said, and shall He not do it? or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good? Behold! I have received commandments to bless, and He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He does not behold iniquity in Jacob, nor does He see perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him, and the trumpet-blowing of his king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt, as with the swiftness of the buffalo. Surely, no enchantment prevails against Jacob,

R