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THE

REFORMED CHURCH REVIEW

No. 2.-APRIL-1908.

I.

LOST BOOKS AND RECORDS QUOTED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

BY PROF. A. S. ZERBE, PH.D., D.D.

The Old Testament quotes from, or refers to, various books and authorities no longer extant. The later historical books especially, and to some extent also the earlier, mention specifically, certain books, registers and chronicles to which the writer had access and which contained additional information. Our purpose is to examine these briefly, with the view of ascertaining the extent to which the sacred writers had trustworthy data. We leave out of account all supposed documents, and confine ourselves to the writings cited in express terms.1

I. THE BOOK OF THE WARS OF JEHOVAH, NUMBERS, 21: 14. 1. The twenty-first chapter of Numbers contains three poetical quotations, the first of which is affirmed explicitly to have been taken from the "Book of the Wars of Jehovah," v. 14. The occasion of the quotation is a description of the

'Our inquiry has a bearing indirectly on the great critical question, whether the author, or authors of the Pentateuch had access to, and made use of documentary sources.

route of Israel beyond Moabite territory and to the border of the Amorites. Since the Arnon was in dispute, it is possible that the poem celebrated a war for its possession; the writer adduces a few lines as proof that the Arnon as the border of Moab has been taken by Israel. The fragment begins and ends in the middle of a sentence. If we supply a suitable verb, it runs thus: "Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah,

We passed Vaheb in Suphah,
And the valleys of the Arnon,

And the slope of the valleys

That inclineth toward the dwelling of Ar,

And leaneth upon the border of Moab,” vs. 14, 15.

We have here the clear statement of a quotation from a "book" (Hebrew sepher), and unless the word has a meaning different from the uniform usage of the Old Testament, it denotes a composition in written, and not merely in oral form. The date of this book will be considered later.2

2. The second poetical quotation, Num. 21: 17, 18, is the so-called "Song of the Well":

'The word sepher, as also sôpher, scribe, are probably denominatives from saphar, to count, to relate, to write. Some would derive sepher from the Aramaic saphar, to cut, or shave off, whence dressed skins for writing. This etymology is not generally accepted. Since the discovery of the Tell-el-Amarna Letters, a derivation from the Assyrian has been suggested. There the verb shaparu, to send a letter, and the noun shipru, a writing, a letter, and shipirtu, a message, are of frequent occurrence. (Vid. Winckler's Tell-el-Amarna Letters.) In these, the large number of Phœnician, silicit, Hebrew glosses, is noteworthy and would indicate a constant interchange of words between the Assyrian and the Phœnician in 1400 B. C., and perhaps earlier. Possibly, sepher is an old Assyrian loan-word, finding its way into the Hebrew at an early date. So GeseniusBuhl and Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicons, sub voce. It ought to be noticed, further, that the word has no connection with the usual Hebrew word meaning to write, Kathabh. If the word sepher was adopted from the Assyrian, or possibly already from the Babylonian, did not the thing signified go with it? Much can be said in support of the position of Koenig, as deduced from the Hammurabi Code, and the Amarna Letters, that writing was known among the Hebrews at the date of the Exodus, and possibly even in the Abrahamic period.

"Spring up, O Well; sing ye unto it;
The well, which the princes digged,
Which the nobles of the people delved,
With the sceptre and with their staves."

Moses at the command of Jehovah collects the people and gives direction for the digging of the well. "The seeking of the precious water by rude art in a thirsty valley kindles the mind of some poet of the people. And his song is spirited, with ample recognition of the zeal of the princes, who themselves take part in the labor. While they dig he chants, and the people join in the song till the words are fixed in their memory, so as to become part of the traditions of Israel " (R. A. Watson in Expositor's Bible).

3. The third poetical citation, Num. 21: 27-30, begins: "Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say:

Come ye to Heshbon;

Let the city of Sihon be built and established:

For a fire is gone out of Heshbon,

A flame from the city of Sihon:

It hath devoured Ar of Moab,

The lords of the high places of the Arnon, etc."

Since the introductory words, 'al-ken yomeru, are the same as in v. 14 (except that the verb is naturally in the plural), it may be inferred that the quotation was made by the same writer from the same source. The words," they that speak in proverbs" (in the Hebrew, one word, a participial noun) may refer to the above "Book of the Wars of Jehovah," to a different book, or even to a song handed down orally.3 Driver

The persons who recited the poem are called meshalim (v. 27), from a verb meaning to utter a mashal. A mashal may be either a parable, as in the American Revision of Ps. 49: 4 (Hebrew v. 5) and 78: 2; a satiric hymn, Micah 2: 4; Hab. 2: 6; a maxim, Prov. 1: 1, 6; or even a prophecy in verse, as the parables of Balaam, Num. 23: 7, 18; 24: 3. The second of these meanings seems to suit best here. The meshalim are Israelites. The words, "let the city of Sihon be built and established," imply that it was destroyed. Satirically the Israelites call on the vanquished Amorites to rebuild the city if they are able. The justification of the triumphal song is found in v. 28: “a fire is gone out of Heshbon,"

and critics generally regard the three fragments as parts of one poem. Kautzsch thinks it probable that the "Song of the Well" and other poems, as Ex. 15: 1-18, 21, were taken from this "Book": "All these fragments point to a collection of songs for the glorification of the brave deeds of the people, and especially of Jehovah as the leader and the God of Battles " (Abriss, etc.).

That which concerns us especially in this connection is the early date of this "Book" and the still earlier date of the poems preserved in it. Some, as Gray, hold that the book was a collection of ancient popular songs that had been handed down orally till the fuller establishment of a national life brought with it a period of literary activity (Commentary, p. 285). Fuerst and the older critics place it in the Mosaic period; Dillmann in that of David and Solomon; Stade in the time of Omri; Kuenen under Jehoshaphat; E. Meyer 850; Driver prior to 900. Holzinger, reviewing the recent literature, concludes: “Ueber Vermutungen kommt man da nicht hinaus" (Einleitung, Hexateuch, p. 230). Dillmann argues: "Since the book is cited for the Moses-Joshua period, and since it cannot be supposed that the later writers (J and E) would quote for their readers very late songs as witnesses of that remote period, the Wars of Jehovah must mean the old conflicts for the possession of the land; and the composition of the book or the collection of the songs must be placed not later and probably earlier than the David-Solomon period, when the recollections were still fresh in the memory. The age of Moses is out of the Question" (Numeri, Deut. u. Jos., 123).

The connection clearly shows that at an early period a guild of men existed not unlike the Greek rhapsodists, who recited etc. The view that the poem is a satiric ode is held by Ewald, Keil, Sayce, Dillmann. Others, as Stade and E. Meyer, claim that the poem has nothing to do with the Amorites, but is a triumphal ode celebrating a victory over Moab at a much later date. In any event, the Mashalim were an order of long standing in Israel.

before the people the old songs and poems of the nation.* We shall not err much either way, if we regard the nucleus of the Book of the Wars of Jehovah " as originating shortly after the events celebrated and as committed to writing already in the period of the Judges. Whatever the date of composition, it is clear that written sources existed in the early days of the Judges.5

II. THE BOOK OF JASHAR.

1. At the battle of Gibeon, Joshua said:

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;

And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.

And the sun stood still and the moon stayed

Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies.

Is not this written in the Book of Jashar?" (Josh. 10: 12-13).

What was the character and the date of this Book? "It was probably a collection, rhythmical in form, and poetical in diction, of various pieces celebrating the heroes of the Hebrew nation, and their achievements. . . . The book was naturally compiled by degrees, and gradually any ode or song deemed worthy of preservation added to it" (Maclear, Cambridge Bible, p. 89). Since the word hayyashar means the "Righteous One," the book may have been a record of the deeds of

It is easy to imagine how these reciters went about in Israel and, especially in time of war, by reciting poems like the present (compare Is. 4: 4; Hab. 2: 6) and thus recalling former victories, stimulated and encouraged the people (Judges 5: 31). But possibly the repertoire of these ballad-singers was not confined to odes of war and victory (Gray, Numbers, p. 299).

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Any one caring to see a good example of the self-refutation of a certain type of textual and literary criticism will find it in T. K. Cheyne's article in the Encyclopædia Biblica, col. 5271, where the absurd Jerahmeel hypothesis is brought to bear on this subject, and the contention put forth that there was probably no Sepher Milhamoth at all, but rather a Sepher Yeraḥmehel, i. e., "the book, or list, of Jerahmeel," "a geographical survey y"!

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