HAROLD B. HUNTING
Reading edition
ABINGDON-COKESBURY PRESS NEW YORK NASHVILLE
Copyright, MCMXXI, by HAROLD B. HUNTING
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Foreword 7
I. Shepherds on the Border of the Desert 9
II. Home Life in the Tents 15
III. Desert Pilgrims 22
IV. A Struggle Against Tyranny 28
V. A Great Deliverance 34
VI. From the Desert into Canaan 39
VII. Learning to be Farmers 44
VIII. Village Life in Canaan 49
IX. Keeping House Instead of Camping Out 55
X. Moral Victories in Canaan 60
XI. Lessons in Cooperation 66
XII. Experiments in Government 70
XIII. The Nation Under David and Solomon 76
XIV. The Wars of Kings and the People's Sorrows 82
XV. A New Kind of Religion 88
XVI. A New Kind of Worship 94
XVII. Jehovah Not a God of Anger 99
XVIII. One Just God Over All Peoples 103
XIX. A Revised Law of Moses 108
XX. A Prophet Who Would Not Compromise 114
XXI. Keeping the Faith in a Strange Land 120
XXII. Undying Hopes of the Jews 127
XXIII. The Good Days of Nehemiah 134
XXIV. Hymn and Prayer Books for the New Worship 140
XXV. A Narrow Kind of Patriotism 146
XXVI. A Broad-Minded and Noble Patriotism 151
XXVII. Outdoor Teachers Among the Jews 155
XXVIII. Book Learning Among the Jews 161
XXIX. New Oppressors and New Wars For Freedom 167
XXX. The Discontent of the Jews Under Roman Rule 172
XXXI. Jewish Hopes Made Greater by Jesus 176
XXXII. A Thousand Years of a Nation's Quest 182
Review and Test Questions 185
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
A Daric, or Piece of Money Coined by Darius, One of the Earliest Specimens of Coined Money 10
Ancient Hebrew Weights for Balances 10
Hebrew Dry and Liquid Measures 10
Bronze Needles and Pins From Ruins of Ancient Canaanite City 16
Canaanite Nursery Bottles (Clay) 16
Canaanite Silver Ladle 16
Canaanite Forks 16
Egyptian Plowing 44
Egyptians Threshing and Winnowing 44
Egyptian or Hebrew Threshing Floor 44
An Egyptian Reaping 48
Canaanite Hoes 48
Canaanite Sickle 48
Canaanite or Hebrew Plowshares 48
Modern Arab Woman Spinning 52
Ancient Hebrew Door Key 52
Hebrew Needles of Bone 52
Smaller Key 52
Canaanite Chisel (Bronze) 76
Canaanite File 76
Very Ancient Canaanite Flint, for Making Stone Knives 76
Bronze Hammerhead 76
Bone Awl Handle 76
A Fish-Hook 76
Canaanite Whetstones 76
Canaanite or Hebrew Nails 76
Remains of Walls of the Canaanite City, Megiddo 134
Part of City Wall and Gate, Samaria 134
Canaanite Pipe or Fife 144
An Egyptian Harp 144
An Assyrian Upright Harp 144
An Assyrian Horizontal Harp 144
A Babylonian Harp 144
Jewish Harps on Coins of Bar Cochba, 132-135 A.D. 144
Assyrian Dulcimer 144
FOREWORDToC
Most histories have been histories of kings and emperors. The daily life of the common people—their joys and sorrows, their hopes, achievements, and ideals—has been buried in oblivion. The historical narratives of the Bible are, indeed, to a great extent an exception to this rule. They tell us much about the everyday life of peasants and slaves. The Bible's chief heroes were not kings nor nobles. Its supreme Hero was a peasant workingman. But we have not always studied the Bible from this point of view. In this course we shall try to reconstruct for ourselves the story of the Hebrew people as an account of Hebrew shepherds, farmers, and such like: what oppressions they endured; how they were delivered; and above all what ideals of righteousness and truth and mercy they cherished, and how they came to think and feel about God. It makes little difference to us what particular idler at any particular time sat in the palace at Jerusalem sending forth tax-collectors to raise funds for his luxuries. It is of very great interest and concern to us if there were daughters like Ruth in the barley fields of Bethlehem, if shepherds tended their flocks in that same country who were so fine in heart and simple in faith that to them or their children visions of angels might appear telling of a Saviour of the world. On such as these, in this study, let us as far as possible fix our attention.