reach beyond a natural realisation. The new promise was, therefore, intended as a prophecy; and if we look upon the fulfilment, we must acknowledge in it the same ideal yearnings, which form the genial sun-beams of the Old Testament; the seed of Abraham comprises not merely his bodily descendants, but all the heirs of that faith, which it was hoped would in time embrace the universe, not to cease in all eternity.-Abraham was further commanded, confidently to pass through the land in its length and its breadth; and wherever he set his foot, the territory was marked as his possession. The migrations of the patriarch are, therefore, not indifferent or unimportant; they hallow the soil and determine the boundaries of the future empire; they are deeds both to guide and to encourage his progeny. Hence, even his journey to Egypt must have an importance from this point of view also; it foreshadows the future extent of the Hebrew land down "to the river of Egypt," as indeed the Euphrates, from which Abraham's wanderings began, was named as the utmost eastern limit of the promised empire.

From Bethel, Abraham travelled southward till he pitched his tents in the oakgrove of Mamre, at Hebron, situated in a cool and elevated region, and commanding a fertile valley; about twenty-two Roman miles south of Jerusalem, and belonging to the later territory of Judah. Hebron was one of the oldest towns of Palestine; it was built seven years before Tanis in Egypt; and was early the residence of a heathen king. However, it was, by Joshua, appointed as one of the cities of refuge, and assigned to the Levites; it thus assumed the character of a holy town where vows were taken and

performed; and David chose it as his abode when he was king of Judah, during seven years and a half. These circumstances suffice to explain the interest evinced for Hebron in the history of the patriarchs; Abraham resided here when the angels made him the happy announcement of the birth of a son; here he acquired the first territorial property in Canaan; and here was the burial-place of himself, of Isaac, and of Jacob, of Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. The town was, therefore, appropriately distinguished by the erection of an altar (ver. 18). Later, it was fortified by Rehoboam among many other cities; it is still mentioned after the exile; it then belonged to the Idumeans, who were, however, expelled from it by Judas Maccabæus; in the Roman war, it was captured and burnt by the enemies, without, however, being destroyed. In the period of the Crusades, after having, for a time, suffered from heavy attacks, it was made the seat of the bishopric of St. Abraham (in 1167), but returned already in 1187 into the possession of the Moslems, who have ever since retained it, though it was several times assailed and plundered by rebellious pashas or lawless chiefs. In the fifteenth century, it was distinguished by a magnificent hospital and general charity for the distribution of bread and other necessaries to strangers. The present Hebron is a large village rather than a town; it counts among its inhabitants about a hundred Jewish families, living together in a separate quarter; as, in fact, Jews, though often ill-treated, oppressed, and insulted, seem always to have lived in the town, with few interruptions; but it is not unimportant in its commerce; though it is chiefly celebrated for its glass-works, which form

Let

a different atmosphere, a strange scene, a foreign spirit. The world with its strife and ambition, its selfishness and conflicting interests, is substituted for the mind with its noble aspirations, and its distant longings; and man leads instead of following, acts instead of resigning. us, with a quick step, pursue the rapid course of events which the text unfolds with a steady hand. An eastern conqueror, Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, had subdued the important district along the valley of the Jordan, which secures the connection between the Euphrates and the Nile, which guarantees the commerce between the Mediterranean Sea and Arabia, and between Arabia and eastern Asia, which forms the military road leading to the west and the south, and which extends the empires of the Euphrates and Tigris beyond the trackless Arabian Desert down to the wealthy provinces of the Arabian Gulf. At that time, there existed in the valley five chief towns (Pentapolis) which, by their power and position, commanded almost exclusively all those important advantages. They had been made tributary by the king of Elam; during twelve years they bore the yoke; in the thirteenth they revolted; and, in the fourteenth, their mighty oppressor, supported by three powerful kings, marched out with a vast army, to chastize their disobedience, and to renew their fetters. The progress of the united hosts was one of irresistible violence; they curbed and enslaved all the

tribes they encountered. From the banks of the Euphrates, they proceeded on the great military road, south-westward; but, in order not to retard their progress by a long siege, they passed at once to the south of Damascus, no doubt reserving their attack upon the fortified town till after their return (ver. 15). They marched as conquerors through the territory of those formidable giants, the Rephaim, and took their principal town, Ashteroth Karnaim, in the district of Bashan; they swept along southward through the land of the Amorites, where they defeated the fearful Zuzim in Ham; they crossed the Arnon, and continued their ravages and destructions in the province of the Moabites, where the Emim, "the terrible people," succumbed to their arms in Shaveh Kiriathaim; but, as if certain of their prey, they did not at once attack the five cities against which their expedition had originally been undertaken; they passed proudly beyond it, despising the advantages which a sudden assault would have afforded them; they advanced into the abodes of the Idumeans; they attacked and defeated the ancient Horites in their strong mountain-fastnesses of the range of Seir; they ventured, in presumptuous boldness, westward even to the very border of the dreary wilderness which separates Arabia from Egypt, and carried desolation so far as the oasis of Paran. But now they remembered the real object of their long campaign; they returned to terrify the cities of the Jordan, not, however, without on their way subduing and crushing mighty nations; they reached the frontiers of Idumca, and conquered Kadesh; they invaded the land of the Amalekites, and subjected it in its whole extent; they defeated the mighty Amorites, and advanced to their important town, Engedi, or Hazezon-Tamar; and thus, from the south-west, approached the region

of the Dead Sea (ver. 7). The kings of the five towns saw with consternation the advance of their powerful adversaries; the wanton expedition of the latter far to the south, had, indeed, allowed them more time for their armament and the maturing of strategic plans; they went out to encounter the enemy with a strong army; they offered them battle in a valley, in the dangerous bitumen-pits of which they hoped to ensnare the strangers;- but they were overpowered by the number and the valour of the inimical hosts; they suffered a fearful defeat; a part perished in those very pits which they had hoped would be fatal to their enemies, and a part, in irregular flight, sought the eastern mountains. All the wealth of the five towns, their provisions, their men and their women, fell into the hands of the East-Asiatic conquerors, who commenced their triumphant return in a north-eastern direction.

This is the general picture which the text offers regarding the impetuous expedition, and in which no trait is wanting, as none is superfluous.-We shall now consider the instructive statements in detail.

The principal king interested in the war of conquest was Chedorlaomer, the ruler of Elam; it was his sceptre to which the Pentapolis of the Dead Sea had been submitted, and under which he intended again to force it; the other three kings were, therefore, only his confederates; and in the history of the expedition itself, his name occupies the first place. The territory of Elymais, over which he ruled, is sufficiently known (see p. 189); but the opinions concerning his person are merely conjectural.

The allies of the mighty king of Elymais, who at this period had extended the boundaries of his empire as far as Canaan, were:-1. Amraphel, king of Shinar; about whose dominion we must

be contented to know that he governed in the southern part of Mesopotamia, in the Babylonian provinces (see p. 178).2. Arioch, king of Ellasar. The identity of this latter locality has always been the subject of the most conflicting conjectures. The recent study of Assyrian inscriptions has, however, led to the decipherment of a name Larsa, or Larcha, supposed to be the Ellasar of our chapter. Josephus introduces here the Assyrians; and we see no improbability in this opinion: for as the king of Elymais was able to carry his arms westward beyond the territory of Shinar, or southern Mesopotamia; he seems to have been unmolested by his northern neighbours; the more so as our text supposes a friendly relation between the kings of Central Asia. In Daniel (ii. 14) Arioch occurs as the name of a high Babylonian official, which seems to prove, what is indeed clear from our context, that in fixing the situation of Ellasar, we are scarcely permitted to go beyond the districts of the Euphrates and Tigris (comp. Judith i. 6). -3 Tidal, king of nations, the third ally, was no doubt the ruler over several smaller districts or tribes, so gradually subjugated, that it was impossible to describe him briefly with any degree of

accuracy.

These four kings undertook an aggressive campaign against the five principal towns of the district of the Jordan, among which Sodom seems to have occupied the first rank. The Sodomites were the richest, as they were the most wicked, of the inhabitants; and the prosperity which had caused their moral ruin, was now on the point of effecting their political destruction. The mission assigned to the Hebrew patriarch with regard to that part of Canaan's population will soon become manifest.

The allied kings defeated:-1. The