Page images
PDF
EPUB

HOSANNA!

"SAVE LORD WE BESEECH THEE."

OH! 'twas a glorious thing to hear the song
Of Israel's thousands, as from leafy tent,
Bearing the palm, they came,- -a joyous throng;
And while the Priest o'er the slain victim bent,
Shouted their glad hosannas through the sky,
Till heaven and earth rung with the melody.

Hosanna! Yes, the cry went up to heaven
Year after year, and then the answer came :
Not as oft-times of old was succour given,

In Israel's hour of need, by sword or flame,
But by His presence in a human form,

Who holds the sea's dark waves, and rules the storm.

They knew Him not-they scorned Him-earth has heard

The tale of Israel's wretchedness and crime;

And earth has seen fulfilled the awful word,
Which doomed her sons through every land and
clime

To wander homeless, stricken by the rod
Of an insulted and avenging God.

Yet there is pardon! Israel, raise once more,
From the far land of exile that full song,
Which once went up from blue Tiberia's shore,
And echoed Judah's circling hills among.
Oh let Thy scattered children raise the cry,
Which from a gathered nation rose on high.

Hosanna! Yes, still louder swell the strain;

Hosanna! for the Lord will hear and save; Thou shalt return from o'er the sounding main, The palm branch in thine own fair land wave, And mid thine hosts a victor-king shall ride, Thine own anointed Lord, the crucified.

J. T.

LONDON: Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

DECEMBER, 1848.

BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.
CHAPTER XLI.

THE kingdom of Israel had been very much en-
larged, and its power extended, during the reign
of David. He found it harassed by internal
wars, and surrounded by victorious enemies ;
each tribe defending itself, as best it could, from
its nearest and most dangerous foe.
He or-
ganized an army of 24,000 men, to be furnished
in turn from the different tribes, for the defence
of the whole nation, by means of whom, under
God's blessing, the warlike Philistines, the
Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, the Sy-
rians of Damascus, and some of the wandering
Arab tribes, became tributary to David. It is
true that the idolatrous Canaanites were not yet
entirely expelled, but they had become peaceable
and obedient subjects; and, as hewers of wood
and drawers of water performed many useful
services to the state.

David was chosen by God, who "sought him a man after his own heart," to fill the throne of Israel instead of Saul: and in this was David's throne established in righteousness, that he was ever zealous for the pure worship of God; in the words of his own beautiful Psalms, he counted

[blocks in formation]

them his enemies who hated the Lord; and not all the troubles of his closing life could shake the settled purpose of his soul-to prepare silver and gold, and all needful things, to build a temple at Jerusalem.

But David's life teaches us this great lesson, that God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Only so long as his ways pleased the Lord, did the blessing of the Lord go with him; when he turned away from righteousness and committed iniquity, all his righteousness that he had done was no more remembered, until he put away his transgressions and asked for a clean heart, and a right spirit.

Solomon was only twenty years old when he became king He soon found it needful to act upon David's dying charge, if he would possess his kingdom in peace; for no sooner was the old king dead, than Adonijah, supported by Joab and Abiathar, renewed his claims to the throne. Then Solomon sware by the Lord who had set him on the throne of his father, that Adonijah should be put to death. Joab also was slain, although he fled to the altar for refuge; and Abiathar* was degraded from the priesthood and banished from Jerusalem. About the same time the king sent and called for Shimei, and commanded him to build an house in Jerusalem, and reside there, on pain of death if he ventured to go beyond the brook Kidron. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days; but at the end of three years, having set out on a journey to Gath, a

*Abiathar: Thus was the word of the Lord fulfilled, and the last priest of the house of Eli cut off from the altar of the Lord, and the priesthood restored to the house of Eleazar, in the person of Zadok.

town on the Philistine border, Solomon, suspecting him of treasonable practices, commanded him to be put to death.

And now, all rebellion being quelled, Solomon found himself in undisputed possession of his father's throne. His dominions were bounded on the north by Mount Lebanon, on the south by the river of Egypt, on the west by the Great Sea, and on the east by the Euphrates. "And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father." Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry: and they "dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."

65

66

As yet the temple was not built, and the people sacrificed unto the Lord in high places; the " great high place" was at Gibeon, and thither went the king soon after his accession, to make a costly offering of a thousand burnt sacrifices. Here the Lord appeared to him in a dream by night, saying, Ask, what I shall give thee." Solomon feeling himself to be but as a little child in the midst of a great people, asked for "an understanding heart." And it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies-I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour; so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days." "And Solomou awoke and behold it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood

66

before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants." And it was so that "Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt." And he spake "three thousand proverbs;" and he made many songs; and he spake of trees, "from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall:" and people came from all parts of the earth to hear his wisdom.

Some idea may be formed of the wealth and pomp of his court, from the fourth chapter of the first book of Kings, which gives an account of the daily provision furnished for his household and stables. He strengthened the walls of Jerusalem, and built a costly palace for himself therein, surrounded by large and beautiful gardens.

Solomon derived much wealth from his alliance with Hiram, king of Tyre, his father's friend. The Phoenicians, the people of Tyre, were the merchant princes of the world; they furnished ship-builders and sailors; and the fertile land of Palestine supplied their vessels with corn, and thus shared in the traffic of the world. The Israelites had become possessed, by conquest, of the ports of Elath and Ezion Geber, on the Red Sea, and were thus enabled to send a fleet, manned by men of Tyre, to the eastern coast of Africa, whence came the gold of Ophir. Besides all this, trade was carried on with Egypt by the Israelites themselves; the valleys of the Nile supplying them abundantly with flax and linen yarn and from Arabia they procured spices, incense, gold, and precious woods, by

« PreviousContinue »