Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Thomas Hutchinson and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: THE FINDING OF MOSES--The daughter of Pharaoh comes
to the water's edge and finds the child. By chance the child's mother is
called as nurse, and it grew and was brought to Pharaoh's daughter and
became her son--(Exodus 2; 5-10.)]

THE WONDER BOOK
OF BIBLE STORIES

EDITED AND ARRANGED BY
LOGAN MARSHALL

[Illustration: The baby in the manger]

THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO

TORONTO--THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY, LIMITED
Copyright, 1925, by
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.

Copyright, 1925,
in the Philippine Islands.

Copyright, 1904, by
THE J.C.W. CO.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
AT THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS

THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY, PROPRIETORS, PHILADELPHIA

CONTENTS

                                        PAGE
INTRODUCTION                              1

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE                 3

THE STORY OF NOAH AND THE ARK             7

THE STORY OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL            16

THE STORY OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC            22

THE STORY OF JACOB                        28

   THE SALE OF A BIRTHRIGHT               29

   THE STORY OF THE LADDER THAT REACHED TO HEAVEN         37

THE STORY OF JOSEPH

   THE COAT OF MANY COLORS                42

   THE DREAMS OF A KING                   49

   THE STORY OF THE MONEY IN THE SACKS    58

   THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST BROTHER        65

THE STORY OF MOSES, THE CHILD WHO WAS FOUND IN THE RIVER  73

THE STORY OF THE GRAPES FROM CANAAN       82

THE STORY OF GIDEON AND HIS THREE HUNDRED SOLDIERS        88

THE STORY OF SAMSON, THE STRONG MAN       98

THE STORY OF RUTH, THE GLEANER            111

THE STORY OF DAVID

   THE SHEPHERD BOY                       117

   THE STORY OF THE FIGHT WITH THE GIANT  125

THE STORY OF THE CAVE OF ADULLAM          131

THE STORY OF SOLOMON AND HIS TEMPLE       133

THE STORY OF ELIJAH, THE PROPHET          138

THE STORY OF JONAH AND THE WHALE          142

THE STORY OF THE FIERY FURNACE            147

THE STORY OF DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN     155

THE STORY OF THE ANGEL BY THE ALTAR       160

THE STORY OF JESUS

   THE BABE OF BETHLEHEM                     167

   THE STORY OF THE STAR AND THE WISE MEN    172

   THE STORY OF THE CHILD IN THE TEMPLE      179

   THE STORY OF THE WATER THAT WAS TURNED INTO WINE   184

   THE STORY OF THE STRANGER AT THE WELL     189

   THE STORY OF THE FISHERMEN                195

   THE STORY OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT      199

   THE STORY OF THE MIRACLE WORKER           206

   THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE GOOD SAMARITAN  215

   THE STORY OF THE PALM BRANCHES            221

   THE STORY OF THE BETRAYAL                 228

   THE STORY OF THE EMPTY TOMB               235

THE STORY OF THE MAN AT THE BEAUTIFUL GATE   243

THE STORY OF STEPHEN, THE FIRST MARTYR       249

ILLUSTRATIONS

                                         PAGE
The Finding of Moses                       i

Title Plate                                ii

They were driven forth by an angel         3

Cain and Abel                              5

The water rose higher and higher           12

So Noah opened the door of the ark         14

In some way she lost the road              19

Learned to shoot with the bow and arrow    20

For two days they walked                   24

"God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering"      25

"Sell me your birthright"                  29

"Now, my son, do what I tell you"          32

"May nations bow down to you"              34

Angels were upon the stairs                38

Jacob went onward in his long journey      40

Back to the Land of Canaan                 43

Walking northward over the mountains       45

For twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph           47

"The two dreams have the same meaning"                 56

"What wicked thing is this that you have done?"        70

They made the Israelites work hard                     75

She placed her baby in the ark                         76

Moses became a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian    79

God fed them day by day with manna                     81

A cluster of grapes so large that two men carried it   83

The angel touched the offering with his staff          89

The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise        95

He carried off the gates of the city                   105

He bowed forward with all his might and pulled
the pillars with him                                   109

Ruth went out into the fields to glean the grain       114

Then Samuel poured oil on David's head                 122

The giant looked down on the youth and despised him    128

David drew out the giant's own sword                   129

Solomon on his throne                                  136

Supposed form of Solomon's Temple                      137

Ship in Solomon's time                                 137

Denounced Ahab and Jezebel                             139

Made king when he was only seven years old             140

"This is the arrow of victory"                         141

To shade Jonah from the sun                            145

Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage                    150

An angel befriended them                               152

Thrown into the den of lions                           157

Daniel's Answer to the King                            158

"Do not be afraid, Zacharias"                          162

They were filled with fear                             169

The baby in the manger                                 170

The Shepherds in the Field                             171

The wise men went their way                            173

He took his wife and baby and went down to Egypt       176

Sitting in a company of the doctors of the law         181

"Fill the jars with water"                             185

"Take these things away"                               187

The net caught so many fishes they could not pull it up  196

"I came not to call those who think themselves to be good"  201

Then, on the mountain, he preached                     203

"Speak the word and my servant shall be cured"         207

The children loved to gather around him                210

Then he lifted him up                                  219

Came to Bethany where his friends Martha and Mary lived  221

She wiped his feet with her hair                       223

They threw their garments upon the ground for Jesus to ride upon   225

The great city was deaf to his pleadings               227

Peter Denies Christ                                    232

He heard their complaints                              235

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is one of the two or three oldest books in the world, but
unlike most of the ancient books, it is found not only in great
libraries, but in almost every home of the civilized world; and it is
not only studied by learned scholars, but read by the common people; and
its many stories grasp and hold the attention of little children. Happy
is that child who has heard, over and over again, the Bible stories
until they have become fixed in his mind and memory, to become the
foundations of a noble life.

It is with the desire of aiding parents and teachers in telling these
stories, and aiding children to understand them, also in the hope that
they may be read in many schools, that a few among the many interesting
stories in the Bible have been chosen, brought together and as far as
necessary simplified to meet the minds of the young.

[Signature: Jesse Lyman Hurlbut]

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE

The first man's name was Adam and his wife he called Eve. They lived in
a beautiful Garden away in the East Country which was called Eden,
filled with beautiful trees and flowers of all kinds. But they did not
live in Eden long for they did not obey God's command, but ate the fruit
of a tree which had been forbidden them. They were driven forth by an
angel and had to give up their beautiful home.

[Illustration: _They were driven forth by an angel_]

So Adam and his wife went out into the world to live and to work. For a
time they were all alone, but after a while God gave them a little child
of their own, the first baby that ever came into the world. Eve named
him Cain; and after a time another baby came, whom she named Abel.

When the two boys grew up, they worked, as their father worked before
them. Cain, the older brother, chose to work in the fields, and to raise
grain and fruits. Abel, the younger brother, had a flock of sheep and
became a shepherd.

While Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, they could talk
with God and hear God's voice speaking to them. But now that they were
out in the world, they could no longer talk with God freely, as before.
So when they came to God, they built an altar of stones heaped up, and
upon it, they laid something as a gift to God, and burned it, to show
that it was not their own, but was given to God, whom they could not
see. Then before the altar they made their prayer to God, and asked God
to forgive their sins, all that they had done was wrong; and prayed God
to bless them and do good to them.

Each of these brothers, Cain and Abel, offered upon the altar to God his
own gift. Cain brought the fruits and the grain which he had grown; and
Abel brought a sheep from his flock, and killed it and burned it upon
the altar. For some reason God was pleased with Abel and his offering,
but was not pleased with Cain and his offering. Perhaps God wished Cain
to offer something that had life, as Abel offered; perhaps Cain's heart
was not right when he came before God.

And God showed that He was not pleased with Cain; and Cain, instead of
being sorry for his sin, and asking God to forgive him, was very angry
with God, and angry also toward his brother Abel. When they were out in
the field together Cain struck his brother Abel and killed him. So the
first baby in the world grew up to be the murderer of his own brother.

And the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?"

[Illustration: _Cain and Abel_]

And Cain answered, "I do not know; why should I take care of my
brother?"

Then the Lord said to Cain, "What is this that you have done? Your
brother's blood is like a voice crying to me from the ground. Do you see
how the ground has opened, like a mouth, to drink your brother's blood?
As long as you live, you shall be under God's curse for the murder of
your brother. You shall wander over the earth, and shall never find a
home, because you have done this wicked deed."

And Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Thou hast driven me out from among men; and thou hast hid thy face from
me. If any man finds me he will kill me, because I shall be alone, and
no one will be my friend."

And God said to Cain, "If any one harms Cain, he shall be punished for
it." And the Lord God placed a mark on Cain, so that whoever met him
should know him and should know also that God had forbidden any man to
harm him. Then Cain and his wife went away from Adam's home to live in a
place by themselves, and there they had children. And Cain's family
built a city in that land; and Cain named the city after his first
child, whom he had called Enoch.

THE STORY OF NOAH AND THE ARK

After Abel was slain, and his brother Cain had gone into another land,
again God gave a child to Adam and Eve. This child they named Seth; and
other sons and daughters were given to them; for Adam and Eve lived many
years. But at last they died, as God had said they must die, because
they had eaten of the tree that God had forbidden them to eat.

By the time that Adam died, there were many people on the earth; for the
children of Adam and Eve had many other children; and when these grew up
they had other children; and these had children also. These men and
women and children lived in tents. They owned sheep and cattle, and they
moved about with them, wherever they could find pasture. The children
played around the tent doors, and sat beside the camp-fires in the
evenings, where they all sang together, and the older people told them
stories. And after a time this land where Adam's sons lived began to be
full of people.

It is sad to tell that as time went on more and more of these people
became wicked, and fewer and fewer of them grew up to become good men
and women. All the people lived near together, and few went away to
other lands; so it came to pass that even the children of good men and
women learned to be bad, like the people around them, and no longer did
what was right and good.

And as God looked down on the world that he had made, he saw how wicked
the men in it had become, and that every thought and every act of man
was evil and only evil continually.

But while most of the people in the world were very wicked, there were
some good people also, though they were very few. The best of all the
men who lived at that time was a man whose name was Enoch. He was not
the son of Cain, but another Enoch, who came from the family of Seth,
the son of Adam, who was born after the death of Abel. While so many
around Enoch were doing evil, this man did only what was right. He
walked with God and God walked with him, and talked with him. And at
last, when Enoch was a very old man and weary with life, God took him
away from earth to heaven. He did not die, as all the people have since
Adam disobeyed God, but "he was not, for God took him." This means that
Enoch was taken up from earth without dying.

All the people in the time of Enoch were not shepherds. Some of them had
learned how to make rude bows and arrows and axes and plows. And after a
long time they melted iron, and they made knives and swords and dishes
to use in their homes. They sowed grain in the fields and reaped
harvests, and they planted vines and fruit trees. But God looked down on
the earth and said:

"I will take away all men from the earth that I have made; because the
men of the world are evil, and do evil continually."

But even in those bad times God saw one good man. His name was Noah.
Noah tried to do right in the sight of God. As Enoch had walked with
God, so Noah walked with God, and talked with him. And Noah had three
sons; their names were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth.

God said to Noah, "The time has come when all the men and women on the
earth are to be destroyed. Every one must die, because they are all
wicked. But you and your family shall be saved, because you alone are
trying to do right."

Then God told Noah how he might save his life and the lives of his sons.
He was to build a very large boat, as large as the largest ships that
are made in our time; very long, and very wide and very deep; with a
roof over it; and made like a long, wide house in three stories; but so
built that it would float on the water. Such a ship as this was called
"an ark." God told Noah to build this ark, and to have it ready for the
time when he would need it.

"For," said God to Noah, "I am going to bring a great flood of water on
the earth to cover all the land and to drown all the people on the
earth. And as the animals on the earth will be drowned with the people,
you must make the ark large enough to hold a pair of each kind of
animals and several pairs of some animals that are needed by men, like
sheep and goats and oxen; so that there will be animals as well as men
to live upon the earth after the flood has passed away. And you must
take in the ark food for yourself and your family, and for all the
animals with you; enough food to last for a year, while the flood shall
stay on the earth."

And Noah did what God told him to do, although it must have seemed very
strange to all the people around, to build this great ark where there
was no water for it to sail upon. And it was a long time, because this
ship was so big, that Noah and his sons were at work building the ark,
which God had told them to build, while the wicked people around
wondered, and no doubt laughed at Noah for building a great ship where
there was no sea.

At last the ark was finished, and stood like a great house on the land.
There was a door on one side, and a window on the roof, to let in the
light. Then God said to Noah:

"Come into the ark, you and your wife, and your three sons, and their
wives with them; for the flood of waters will come very soon. And take
with you animals of all kinds, and birds, and things that creep; seven
pairs of these that will be needed by men, and one pair of all the rest,
so that all kinds of animals may be kept alive upon the earth."

So Noah and his wife, and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, with
their wives, went into the ark. And God brought to the door of the ark
the animals, and the birds, and the creeping things of all kinds; and
they went into the ark. And Noah and his sons put them in their places,
and brought in food enough to feed them all for many days. And then the
door of the ark was shut and no more people and no more animals could
come in.

In a few days the rain began to fall, as it had never rained before. It
seemed as though the heavens were opened to pour great floods upon the
earth. The streams filled, and the rivers rose higher and higher, and
the ark began to float on the water. The people left their houses and
ran up to the hills; but soon the hills were covered, and all the people
on them were drowned.

Some had climbed up to the tops of higher mountains, but the water rose
higher and higher, until even the mountains were covered and all the
people, wicked as they had been, were drowned in the great sea that now
rolled over all the earth where man had lived. And all the animals, the
tame animals, cattle, and sheep, and oxen, were drowned; and the wild
animals, lions, and tigers, and all the rest were drowned also. Even the
birds were drowned, for their nests in the trees were swept away, and
there was no place where they could fly from the terrible storm. For
forty days and nights the rain kept on, until there was no breath of
life remaining outside of the ark.

[Illustration: _The water rose higher and higher_]

After forty days the rain stopped, but the water stayed upon the earth
for more than six months, and the ark with all that were in it floated
over the great sea that covered the land. Then God sent a wind to blow
over the waters, and to dry them up; so by degrees the waters grew less
and less. First mountains rose above the waters, then the hills rose
up, and finally the ark ceased to float and lay aground on a mountain
which is called Mount Ararat.

But Noah could not see what had happened on the earth, because the door
was shut, and the only window was up in the roof. But he felt that the
ark was no longer moving, and he knew that the water must have gone
down. So, after waiting for a time, Noah opened a window, and let loose
a bird called a raven. Now the raven has strong wings; and this raven
flew round and round until the waters had gone down, and it could find a
place to rest, and it did not come back to the ark.

After Noah had waited for it awhile, he sent out a dove; but the dove
could not find any place to rest, so it flew back to the ark, and Noah
took it into the ark again. Then Noah waited a week longer, and
afterward he sent out the dove again. And at the evening, the dove came
back to the ark, which was its home; and in its bill was a fresh leaf
which it had picked off from an olive tree.

So Noah knew that the water had gone down enough to let the trees grow
again. He waited another week, and sent out the dove again; but this
time the dove flew away and never came back. And Noah knew that the
earth was becoming dry again. So he took off a part of the roof, and
looked out, and saw that there was dry land all around the ark, and the
waters were no longer everywhere.

Noah had now lived in the ark a little more than a year, and he was glad
to see the green land and the trees once more. And God said to Noah:

"Come out of the ark, with your wife, and your sons, and their wives,
and all the living things that are with you in the ark."

[Illustration: _So Noah opened the door of the Ark_]

So Noah opened the door of the ark, and with his family came out, and
stood once more on the ground. And the animals, and birds, and creeping
things in the ark, came out also, and began again to bring life to the
earth.

The first thing that Noah did when he came out of the ark, was to give
thanks to God for saving all his family when the rest of the people on
the earth were destroyed. He built an altar, and laid upon it an
offering to the Lord, and gave himself and his family to God and
promised to do God's will.

And God was pleased with Noah's offering, and God said:

"I will not again destroy the earth on account of men, no matter how bad
they may be. From this time no flood shall again cover the earth; but
the seasons of spring and summer and fall and winter, shall remain
without change. I give to you the earth; you shall be the rulers of the
ground and of every living thing upon it."

Then God caused a rainbow to appear in the sky, and he told Noah and his
sons that whenever they or the people after them should see the rainbow,
they should remember that God had placed it in the sky and over the
clouds as a sign of his promise, that he would always remember the
earth, and the people upon it, and would never again send a flood to
destroy man from the earth.

So as often as we see the beautiful rainbow, we are to remember that it
is the sign of God's promise to the world.

THE STORY OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL

After the great flood the family of Noah and those who came after him
grew in number, until, as the years went on, the earth began to be full
of people once more. But there was one great difference between the
people who had lived before the flood and those who lived after it.
Before the flood, all the people stayed close together, so that very
many lived in one land, and no one lived in other lands. After the flood
families began to move from one place to another, seeking for themselves
new homes. Some went one way, and some another, so that as the number of
people grew, they covered much more of the earth than those who had
lived before the flood.

Part of the people went up to the north and built a city called Nineveh,
which became the ruling city of a great land called Assyria, whose
people were called Assyrians.

Another company went away to the west and settled by the great river
Nile, and founded the land of Egypt, with its strange temples and
pyramids, its sphinx and its monuments.

Another company wandered northwest until they came to the shore of the
great sea which they called the Mediterranean Sea. There they founded
the cities of Sidon and Tyre, where the people were sailors, sailing to
countries far away, and bringing home many things from other lands to
sell to the people of Babylon, and Assyria, and Egypt, and other
countries.

Among the many cities which the people built were two called Sodom and
Gomorrah. The people in these cities were very wicked and were nearly
all destroyed. One good man named Lot and his family escaped. There was
another good man named Abraham who did not live in these cities. He
tried to do God's will and was promised a son to bring joy into his
family.

After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham moved his tent and his
camp away from that part of the land, and went to live near a place
called Gerar, in the southwest, not far from the Great Sea. And there at
last, the child whom God had promised to Abraham and Sarah, his wife,
was born, when Abraham, his father, was a very old man.

They named this child Isaac, as the angel had told them he should be
named. And Abraham and Sarah were so happy to have a little boy, that
after a time they gave a great feast and invited all the people to come
and rejoice with them, and all in honor of the little Isaac.

Now Sarah had a maid named Hagar, an Egyptian woman, who ran away from
her mistress, and saw an angel by a well, and afterward came back to
Sarah. She, too, had a child and his name was Ishmael. So now there were
two boys in Abraham's tent, the older boy, Ishmael, the son of Hagar,
and the younger boy, Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah.

Ishmael did not like the little Isaac, and did not treat him kindly.
This made his mother Sarah very angry, and she said to her husband:

"I do not wish to have this boy Ishmael growing up with my son Isaac.
Send away Hagar and her boy, for they are a trouble to me."

And Abraham felt very sorry to have trouble come between Sarah and
Hagar, and between Isaac and Ishmael; for Abraham was a kind and good
man, and he was friendly to them all.

But the Lord said to Abraham, "Do not be troubled about Ishmael and his
mother. Do as Sarah has asked you to do, and send them away. It is best
that Isaac should be left alone in your tent, for he is to receive
everything that is yours. I the Lord will take care of Ishmael, and will
make a great people of his descendants, those who shall come from him."

So the next morning Abraham sent Hagar and her boy away, expecting them
to go back to the land of Egypt, from which Hagar had come. He gave them
some food for the journey, and a bottle of water to drink by the way.
The bottles in that country are not like ours, made of glass. They are
made from the skin of a goat. One of these skin-bottles Abraham filled
with water and gave to Hagar.

And Hagar went away from Abraham's tent, leading her little boy. But in
some way she lost the road, and wandered over the desert, not knowing
where she was, until all the water in the bottle was used up; and her
poor boy in the hot sun and the burning sand had nothing to drink. She
thought that he would die of his terrible thirst; and she laid him down
under a little bush; and then she went away, for she said to herself:

[Illustration: _In some way she lost the road_]

"I cannot bear to look at my poor boy suffering and dying for want of
water."

And just at that moment, while Hagar was crying, and her boy was
moaning with thirst, she heard a voice saying to her:

"Hagar, what is your trouble? Do not be afraid. God has heard your cry
and the cry of your child. God will take care of you both, and will make
of your boy a great nation of people."

It was the voice of an angel from heaven; and then Hagar looked, and
there, close at hand, was a spring of water in the desert. How glad
Hagar was as she filled the bottle with water and took it to her
suffering boy under the bush!

[Illustration: _Learned to shoot with the bow and arrow_]

After this Hagar did not go down to Egypt. She found a place where she
lived and brought up her son in the wilderness, far from other people.
And Ishmael grew up in the desert and learned to shoot with the bow and
arrow. He became a wild man, and his children after him grew up to be
wild men also. They were the Arabians of the desert, who even to this
day have never been ruled by any other people, but wander through the
desert, and live as they please. So Ishmael came to be the father of
many people, and his descendants, the wild Arabians of the desert, are
living unto this day in that land.

THE STORY OF ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

You remember that in those times of which we are telling, when men
worshipped God, they built an altar of earth or of stone, and laid an
offering upon it as a gift to God. The offering was generally a sheep,
or a goat, or a young ox--some animal that was used for food. Such an
offering was called "a sacrifice."

But the people who worshipped idols often did what seems to us strange
and very terrible. They thought that it would please their gods if they
would offer as a sacrifice the most precious living things that were
their own; and they would take their own little children and kill them
upon their altars as offerings to the gods of wood and stone, that were
no real gods, but only images.

God wished to show Abraham and all his descendants, those who should
come after him, that he was not pleased with such offerings as those of
living people, killed on the altars. And God took a way to teach
Abraham, so that he and his children after him would never forget it.
Then at the same time he wished to see how faithful and obedient Abraham
would be to his commands; how fully Abraham would trust in God, or, as
we would say, how great was Abraham's faith in God.

So God gave to Abraham a command which he did not mean to have obeyed,
though this he did not tell to Abraham. He said:

"Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love so greatly, and
go to the land of Moriah, and there on a mountain that I will show you,
offer him for a burnt-offering to me."

Though this command filled Abraham's heart with pain, yet he would not
be as surprised to receive it as a father would in our day; for such
offerings were very common among all those people in the land where
Abraham lived. Abraham never for one moment doubted or disobeyed God's
word. He knew that Isaac was the child whom God had promised, and that
God had promised, too, that Isaac should have children, and that those
coming from Isaac should be a great nation. He did not see how God could
keep his promise with regard to Isaac, if Isaac should be killed as an
offering; unless indeed God should raise him up from the dead afterward.

But Abraham undertook at once to obey. God's command. He took two young
men with him and an ass laden with wood for the fire; and he went toward
the mountain in the north, Isaac, his son, walking by his side. For two
days they walked, sleeping under the trees at night in the open country.
And on the third day Abraham saw the mountain far away. And as they drew
near to the mountain Abraham said to the young men:

[Illustration: _For two days they walked_]

"Stay here with the ass, while I go up yonder mountain with Isaac to
worship; and when we have worshipped, we will come back to you." For
Abraham believed that in some way God would bring back Isaac to life. He
took the wood from the ass and placed it on Isaac, and they two walked
up the mountain together. As they were walking, Isaac said:

"Father, here is the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering?"

And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt
offering."

And they came to the place on the top of the mountain. There Abraham
built an altar of stones and earth heaped up; and on it he placed the
wood. Then he tied the hands and the feet of Isaac, and laid him on the
altar, on the wood. And Abraham lifted up his hand, holding a knife to
kill his son. Another moment longer and Isaac would be slain by his own
father's hand.

[Illustration: _"God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt
offering"_]

But just at that moment the angel of the Lord out of heaven called to
Abraham, and said:

"Abraham! Abraham!"

And Abraham answered, "Here I am, Lord." Then the angel of the Lord
said:

"Do not lay your hand upon your son. Do no harm to him. Now I know that
you love God more than you love your only son, and that you are obedient
to God, since you are ready to give up your son, your only son, to God."

What a relief and a joy these words from heaven brought to the heart of
Abraham! How glad he was to know that it was not God's will for him to
kill his son! Then Abraham looked around, and there in the thicket was a
ram caught by his horns. And Abraham took the ram and offered him up for
a burnt-offering in place of his son. So Abraham's words came true when
he said that God would provide for himself a lamb.

The place where this altar was built Abraham named Jehovah-jireh, words
in the language that Abraham spoke meaning, "The Lord will provide."

This offering, which seems so strange, did much good. It showed to
Abraham, and to Isaac also, that Isaac belonged to God, for to God he
had been offered; and in Isaac all those who should come from him, his
descendants, had been given to God. Then it showed to Abraham and to
all the people after him, that God did not wish children or men killed
as offerings for worship; and while all the people around offered such
sacrifices, the Israelites, who came from Abraham and from Isaac, never
offered them, but offered oxen and sheep and goats instead.

These gifts, which cost so much toil, they felt must be pleasing to God,
because they expressed their thankfulness to him. But they were glad to
be taught that God does not desire men's lives to be taken, but loves
our living gifts of love and kindness.

THE STORY OF JACOB

After Abraham died, his son Isaac lived in the land of Canaan. Like his
father, Isaac had his home in a tent; around him were the tents of his
people, and many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle feeding wherever
they could find grass to eat and water to drink.

Isaac and his wife Rebekah had two children. The older was named Esau
and the younger Jacob.

Esau was a man of the woods and very fond of hunting; and he was rough
and covered with hair.

Jacob was quiet and thoughtful, staying at home, dwelling in a tent, and
caring for the flocks of his father.

Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, because Esau brought to his father
that which he had killed in his hunting; but Rebekah liked Jacob,
because she saw that he was wise and careful in his work.

Among the people in those lands, when a man dies, his older son receives
twice as much as the younger of what the father has owned. This was
called his "birthright," for it was his right as the oldest born. So
Esau, as the older, had a "birthright" to more of Isaac's possessions
than Jacob. And besides this, there was the privilege of the promise of
God that the family of Isaac should receive great blessings.

THE SALE OF A BIRTHRIGHT

Now Esau, when he grew up, did not care for his birthright or the
blessing which God had promised. But Jacob, who was a wise man, wished
greatly to have the birthright which would come to Esau when his father
died. Once, when Esau came home, hungry and tired from hunting in the
fields, he saw that Jacob had a bowl of something that he had just
cooked for dinner. And Esau said:

"Give me some of that red stuff in the dish. Will you not give me some?
I am hungry."

[Illustration: _"Sell me your birthright"_]

And Jacob answered, "I will give it to you, if you will first of all
sell to me your birthright."

And Esau said, "What is the use of the birthright to me now, when I am
almost starving to death? You can have my birthright if you will give me
something to eat."

Then Esau made Jacob a solemn promise to give to Jacob his birthright,
all for a bowl of food. It was not right for Jacob to deal so selfishly
with his brother; but it was very wrong in Esau to care so little for
his birthright and God's blessing.

Some time after this, when Esau was forty years old, he married two
wives. Though this would be very wicked in our times, it was not
supposed to be wrong then; for even good men then had more than one
wife. But Esau's two wives were women from the people of Canaan, who
worshipped idols, and not the true God. And they taught their children
also to pray to idols; so that those who came from Esau, the people who
were his descendants, lost all knowledge of God, and became very wicked.
But this was long after that time.

Isaac and Rebekah were very sorry to have their son Esau marry women who
prayed to idols and not to God; but still Isaac loved his active son
Esau more than his quiet son Jacob. But Rebekah loved Jacob more than
Esau.

Isaac became at last very old and feeble, and so blind that he could
see scarcely anything. One day he said to Esau:

"My son, I am very old, and do not know how soon I must die. But before
I die, I wish to give to you, as my older son, God's blessing upon you,
and your children, and your descendants. Go out into the fields, and
with your bow and arrows shoot some animal that is good for food, and
make for me a dish of cooked meat such as you know I love; and after I
have eaten it I will give you the blessing."

Now Esau ought to have told his father that the blessing did not belong
to him, for he had sold it to his brother Jacob. But he did not tell his
father. He went out into the fields hunting, to find the kind of meat
which his father liked the most.

Now Rebekah was listening, and heard all that Isaac had said to Esau.
She knew that it would be better for Jacob to have the blessing than for
Esau; and she loved Jacob more than Esau. So she called to Jacob and
told him what Isaac had said to Esau, and she said:

"Now, my son, do what I tell you, and you will get the blessing instead
of your brother. Go to the flocks and bring to me two little kids from
the goats, and I will cook them just like the meat which Esau cooks for
your father. And you will bring it to your father, and he will think
that you are Esau, and will give you the blessing; and it really belongs
to you."

[Illustration: _"Now, my son, do what I tell you"_]

But Jacob said, "You know that Esau and I are not alike. His neck and
arms are covered with hairs, while mine are smooth. My father will feel
of me, and he will find that I am not Esau; and then, instead of giving
me a blessing, I am afraid that he will curse me."

But Rebekah answered her son, "Never mind; you do as I have told you,
and I will take care of you. If any harm comes it will come to me; so do
not be afraid, but go and bring the meat."

Then Jacob went and brought a pair of little kids from the flocks, and
from them his mother made a dish of food, so that it would be to the
taste just as Isaac liked it. Then Rebekah found some of Esau's clothes,
and dressed Jacob in them; and she placed on his neck and hands some of
the skins of the kids, so that his neck and his hands would feel rough
and hairy to the touch.

Then Jacob came into his father's tent, bringing the dinner, and
speaking as much like Esau as he could, he said:

"Here I am, my father."

And Isaac said, "Who are you, my son?"

And Jacob answered, "I am Esau, your oldest son; I have done as you bade
me; now sit up and eat the dinner that I have made, and then give me
your blessing as you promised me."

And Isaac said, "How is it that you found it so quickly?"

Jacob answered, "Because the Lord your God showed me where to go and
gave me good success."

Isaac did not feel certain that it was his son Esau, and he said, "Come
near and let me feel you, so that I may know that you are really my son
Esau."

And Jacob went up close to Isaac's bed, and Isaac felt of his face, and
his neck, and his hands, and he said:

[Illustration: _"May nations bow down to you."_]

"The voice sounds like Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Are
you really my son Esau?"

And Jacob told a lie to his father, and said, "I am."

Then the old man ate the food that Jacob had brought to him; and he
kissed Jacob, believing him to be Esau; and he gave him the blessing,
saying to him:

"May God give you the dew of heaven, and the richness of the earth, and
plenty of grain and wine. May nations bow down to you and peoples become
your servants. May you be the master over your brother, and may your
family and descendants that shall come from you rule over his family and
his descendants. Blessed be those that bless you, and cursed be those
that curse you."

Just as soon as Jacob had received the blessing he rose up and hastened
away. He had scarcely gone out, when Esau came in from hunting, with the
dish of food that he had cooked. And he said:

"Let my father sit up and eat the food that I have brought, and give me
the blessing."

And Isaac said, "Why, who are you?"

Esau answered, "I am your son; your oldest son, Esau."

And Isaac trembled, and said, "Who then is the one that came in and
brought to me food? and I have eaten his food and have blessed him; yes,
and he shall be blessed."

When Esau heard this, he knew that he had been cheated; and he cried
aloud, with a bitter cry, "O, my father, my brother has taken away my
blessing, just as he took away my birthright! But cannot you give me
another blessing, too? Have you given everything to my brother?"

And Isaac told him all that he had said to Jacob, making him the ruler
over his brother.

But Esau begged for another blessing; and Isaac said:

"My son, your dwelling shall be of the riches of the earth and of the
dew of heaven. You shall live by your sword and your descendants shall
serve his descendants. But in time to come they shall break loose and
shall shake off the yoke of your brother's rule and shall be free."

All this came to pass many years afterward. The people who came from
Esau lived in a land called Edom, on the south of the land of Israel,
where Jacob's descendants lived. And after a time the Israelites became
rulers over the Edomites; and later still, the Edomites made themselves
free from the Israelites. But all this took place hundreds of years
afterward.

It was better that Jacob's descendants, those who came after him, should
have the blessing, than that Esau's people should have it; for Jacob's
people worshipped God, and Esau's people walked in the way of the idols
and became wicked.

THE STORY OF THE LADDER THAT REACHED TO HEAVEN

After Esau found that he had lost his birthright and his blessing, he
was very angry against his brother Jacob; and he said to himself, and
told others:

"My father Isaac is very old and cannot live long. As soon as he is
dead, then I shall kill Jacob for having robbed me of my right."

When Rebekah heard this, she said to Jacob, "Before it is too late, do
you go away from home and get out of Esau's sight. Perhaps when Esau
sees you no longer, he will forget his anger, and then you can come home
again. Go and visit my brother Laban, your uncle, in Haran, and stay
with him for a little while."

We must remember that Rebekah came from the family of Nahor, Abraham's
younger brother, who lived in Haran, a long distance to the northeast of
Canaan, and that Laban was Rebekah's brother.

So Jacob went out of Beersheba, on the border of the desert, and walked
alone, carrying his staff in his hand. One evening, just about sunset,
he came to a place among the mountains, more than sixty miles distant
from his home. And as he had no bed to lie down upon, he took a stone
and rested his head upon it for a pillow, and lay down to sleep.

[Illustration: _Angels were upon the stairs_]

And on that night Jacob had a wonderful dream. In his dream he saw
stairs leading from the earth where he lay up to heaven; and angels were
going up and coming down upon the stairs. And above the stairs, he saw
the Lord God standing. And God said to Jacob:

"I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac your father;
and I will be your God, too. The land where you are lying all alone,
shall belong to you and to your children after you; and your children
shall spread abroad over the lands, east and west, and north and south,
like the dust of the earth; and in your family all the world shall
receive a blessing. And I am with you in your journey, and I will keep
you where you are going, and will bring you back to this land. I will
never leave you, and I will surely keep my promise to you."

And in the morning Jacob awakened from his sleep, and he said:

"Surely, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it! I thought
that I was all alone, but God has been with me. This place is the house
of God; it is the gate of heaven!"

And Jacob took the stone on which his head had rested, and he set it up
as a pillar, and poured oil on it as an offering to God. And Jacob named
that place Bethel, which in the language that Jacob spoke means "The
House of God."

And Jacob made a promise to God at that time, and said:

"If God really will go with me and will keep me in the way that I go,
and will give me bread to eat and will bring me to my father's house in
peace, then the Lord shall be my God: and this stone shall be the house
of God, and of all that God gives me I will give back to God one-tenth
as an offering."

Then Jacob went onward in his long journey. He walked across the river
Jordan in a shallow place, feeling his way with his staff; he climbed
mountains and journeyed beside the great desert on the east, and at last
came to the city of Haran. Beside the city was the well, where Abraham's
servant had met Jacob's mother, Rebekah; and there, after Jacob had
waited for a time, he saw a young woman coming with her sheep to give
them water.

Then Jacob took off the flat stone that was over the mouth of the well,
and drew water and gave it to the sheep. And when he found that this
young woman was his own cousin Rachel, the daughter of Laban, he was so
glad that he wept for joy. And at that moment he began to love Rachel,
and longed to have her for his wife.

[Illustration: _Jacob went onward in his long journey_]

Rachel's father, Laban, who was Jacob's uncle, gave a welcome to Jacob,
and took him into his home.

And Jacob asked Laban if he would give his daughter, Rachel, to him as
his wife; and Jacob said, "If you give me Rachel, I will work for you
seven years."

And Laban said, "It is better that you should have her, than that a
stranger should marry her."

So Jacob lived seven years in Laban's house, caring for his sheep and
oxen and camels; but his love for Rachel made the time seem short.

At last the day came for the marriage; and they brought in the bride,
who, after the manner of that land, was covered with a thick veil, so
that her face could not be seen. And she was married to Jacob, and when
Jacob lifted up her veil he found that he had married, not Rachel, but
her older sister, Leah, who was not beautiful, and whom Jacob did not
love at all.

Jacob was very angry that he had been deceived,--though that was just
the way in which Jacob himself had deceived his father and cheated his
brother Esau. But his uncle Laban said:

"In our land we never allow the younger daughter to be married before
the older daughter. Keep Leah for your wife, and work for me seven years
longer, and you shall have Rachel also."

For in those times, as we have seen, men often had two wives, or even
more than two. So Jacob stayed seven years more, fourteen years in all,
before he received Rachel as his wife.

While Jacob was living at Haran, eleven sons were born to him. But only
one of these was the child of Rachel, whom Jacob loved. This son was
Joseph, who was dearer to Jacob than any other of his children, partly
because he was the youngest, and because he was the child of his beloved
Rachel.

THE STORY OF JOSEPH AND HIS COAT OF MANY COLORS

After Jacob came back to the land of Canaan with his eleven sons,
another son was born to him, the second child of his wife Rachel, whom
Jacob loved so well. But soon after the baby came, his mother Rachel
died, and Jacob was filled with sorrow. Even to this day you can see the
place where Rachel was buried, on the road between Jerusalem and
Bethlehem. Jacob named the child whom Rachel left, Benjamin; and now
Jacob had twelve sons. Most of them were grown-up men; but Joseph was a
boy seventeen years old, and his brother Benjamin was almost a baby.

[Illustration: _Back to the Land of Canaan_]

Of all his children, Jacob loved Joseph the best, because he was
Rachel's child; because he was so much younger than most of his
brothers; and because he was good, and faithful, and thoughtful. Jacob
gave to Joseph a robe or coat of bright colors, made somewhat like a
long cloak with wide sleeves. This was a special mark of Jacob's favor
to Joseph, and it made his older brothers envious of him.

Then, too, Joseph did what was right, while his older brothers often did
very wrong acts, of which Joseph sometimes told their father; and this
made them very angry at Joseph. But they hated him still more because of
two strange dreams he had, and of which he told them. He said one day:
"Listen to this dream that I have dreamed. I dreamed that we were out in
the field binding sheaves, when suddenly my sheaf stood up, and all your
sheaves came around it and bowed down to my sheaf!"

And they said scornfully, "Do you suppose that the dream means that you
will some time rule over us, and that we shall bow down to you?"

Then, a few days after, Joseph said, "I have dreamed again. This time, I
saw in my dream the sun, and the moon, and eleven stars, all come and
bow to me!"

And his father said to him, "I do not like you to dream such dreams.
Shall I, and your mother, and your brothers, come and bow down before
you as if you were a king?"

His brothers hated Joseph, and would not speak kindly to him; but his
father thought much of what Joseph had said.

At one time, Joseph's ten brothers were taking care of the flock in the
fields near Shechem, which was nearly fifty miles from Hebron, where
Jacob's tents were spread. And Jacob wished to send a message to his
sons, and he called Joseph, and said to him:

"Your brothers are near Shechem with the flock. I wish that you would go
to them, and take a message, and find if they are well, and if the
flocks are doing well; and bring me word from them."

That was quite an errand, for a boy to go alone over the country, and
find his way, for fifty miles, and then walk home again. But Joseph was
a boy who could take care of himself, and could be trusted; so he went
forth on his journey, walking northward over the mountains, past
Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, and Bethel--though we are not sure those
cities were then built, except Jerusalem, which was already a strong
city.

When Joseph reached Shechem, he could not find his brothers, for they
had taken their flocks to another place. A man met Joseph wandering in
the field, and asked him, "Whom are you seeking?"

Joseph said, "I am looking for my brothers; the sons of Jacob. Can you
tell me where I will find them?"

And the man said, "They are at Dothan; for I heard them say that they
were going there."

Then Joseph walked over the hills to Dothan, which was fifteen miles
further. And his brothers saw him afar off coming toward them. They knew
him by his bright garment; and one said to another: "Look, that dreamer
is coming! Come, let us kill him, and throw his body into a pit, and
tell his father that some wild beast has eaten him; and then we will see
what becomes of his dreams."

[Illustration: _Walking northward over the mountains_]

One of his brothers, whose name was Reuben, felt more kindly toward
Joseph than the others. He said:

"Let us not kill him, but let us throw him into this pit, in the
wilderness, and leave him there to die."

But Reuben intended, after they had gone away, to lift Joseph out of the
pit, and take him home to his father. The brothers did as Reuben told
them; they threw Joseph into the pit, which was empty. He cried, and
begged them to save him; but they would not. They calmly sat down to eat
their dinner on the grass, while their brother was calling to them from
the pit.

After the dinner, Reuben chanced to go to another part of the field; so
that he was not at hand when a company of men passed by with their
camels, going from Gilead, on the east of the river Jordan, to Egypt, to
sell spices and fragrant gum from trees to the Egyptians.

Then Judah, another of Joseph's brothers, said, "What good will it do us
to kill our brother? Would it not be better for us to sell him to these
men, and let them carry him away? After all, he is our brother, and we
would better not kill him."

His brothers agreed with him; so they stopped the men who were passing,
and drew up Joseph from the pit, and for twenty pieces of silver they
sold Joseph to these men; and they took him away with them down to
Egypt.

After a while, Reuben came to the pit, where they had left Joseph, and
looked into it; but Joseph was not there. Then Reuben was in great
trouble; and he came back to his brothers, saying: "The boy is not
there! What shall I do!"

Then his brothers told Reuben what they had done; and they all agreed
together to deceive their father. They killed one of the goats, and
dipped Joseph's coat in its blood; and they brought it to their father,
and they said to him: "We found this coat out in the wilderness. Look at
it, father, and tell us if you think it was the coat of your son."

[Illustration: _For twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph_]

And Jacob knew it at once. He said: "It is my son's coat. Some wild
beast has eaten him. There is no doubt that Joseph has been torn in
pieces!"

And Jacob's heart was broken over the loss of Joseph, all the more
because he had sent Joseph alone on the journey through the wilderness.
They tried to comfort him, but he would not be comforted. He said: "I
will go down to the grave mourning for my poor lost son."

So the old man sorrowed for his son Joseph; and all the time his wicked
brothers knew that Joseph was not dead; but they would not tell their
father the dreadful deed they had done to their brother, in selling him
as a slave.

THE DREAMS OF A KING

The men who bought Joseph from his brothers were called Ishmaelites,
because they belonged to the family of Ishmael, who, you remember, was
the son of Hagar, the servant of Sarah. These men carried Joseph
southward over the plain which lies beside the great sea on the west of
Canaan; and after many days they brought Joseph to Egypt. How strange it
must have seemed to the boy who had lived in tents to see the great
river Nile, and the cities thronged with people, and the temples, and
the mighty pyramids!

The Ishmaelites sold Joseph as a slave to a man named Potiphar, who was
an officer in the army of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Joseph was a
beautiful boy, and cheerful and willing in his spirit, and able in all
that he undertook; so that his master Potiphar became very friendly to
him, and after a time, he placed Joseph in charge of his house, and
everything in it. For some years Joseph continued in the house of
Potiphar, a slave in name, but in reality the master of all his affairs,
and ruler over his fellow-servants.

But Potiphar's wife, who at first was very friendly to Joseph,
afterward became his enemy, because Joseph would not do wrong to please
her. She told her husband falsely, that Joseph had done a wicked deed.
Her husband believed her, and was very angry at Joseph, and put him in
the prison with those who had been sent to that place for breaking the
laws of the land. How hard it was for Joseph to be charged with a crime,
when he had done no wrong, and to be thrust into a dark prison among
wicked people!

But Joseph had faith in God, that at some time all would come out right;
and in the prison he was cheerful, and kind, and helpful, as he had
always been. The keeper of the prison saw that Joseph was not like the
other men around him, and he was kind to Joseph. In a very little while,
Joseph was placed in charge of all his fellow-prisoners, and took care
of them, just as he had taken care of everything in Potiphar's house.
The keeper of the prison scarcely looked into the prison at all; for he
had confidence in Joseph, that he would be faithful and wise in doing
the work given to him. Joseph did right, and served God, and God blessed
Joseph in everything.

While Joseph was in the prison, two men were sent there by the king of
Egypt, because he was displeased with them. One was the king's chief
butler, who served the king with wine; the other was the chief baker,
who served him with bread. These two men were under Joseph's care; and
Joseph waited on them, for they were men of rank.

One morning, when Joseph came into the room where the butler and the
baker were kept, he found them looking quite sad. Joseph said to them:

"Why do you look so sad today?" Joseph was cheerful and happy in his
spirit; and he wished others to be happy also, even in prison.

And one of them said, "Each one of us dreamed last night a very strange
dream, and there is no one to tell us what our dreams mean."

For in those times, before God gave the Bible to men, he often spoke to
men in dreams; and there were wise men who could sometimes tell what the
dreams meant.

"Tell me," said Joseph, "what your dreams are. Perhaps my God will help
me to understand them."

Then the chief butler told his dream. He said, "In my dream I saw a
grape-vine with three branches; and as I looked, the branches shot out
buds; and the buds became blossoms; and the blossoms turned into
clusters of ripe grapes. And I picked the grapes, and squeezed their
juice into king Pharaoh's cup, and it became wine; and I gave it to king
Pharaoh to drink, just as I used to do when I was beside his table."

Then Joseph said, "This is what your dream means. The three branches
mean three days. In three days, king Pharaoh shall call you out of
prison and shall put you back in your place; and you shall stand at his
table, and shall give him his wine, as you have given it before. But
when you go out of prison, please to remember me, and try to find some
way to get me, too, out of this prison. For I was stolen out of the land
of Canaan, and sold as a slave; and I have done nothing wrong to deserve
being put in this prison. Do speak to the king for me, that I may be set
free."

Of course, the chief butler felt very happy to hear that his dream had
so pleasant a meaning. And the chief baker spoke, hoping to have an
answer as good:

"In my dream," said the baker, "there were three baskets of white bread
on my head, one above another, and on the topmost basket were all kinds
of roasted meat and food for Pharaoh; and the birds came, and ate the
food from the baskets on my head."

And Joseph said to the baker:

"This is the meaning of your dream, and I am sorry to tell it to you.
The three baskets are three days. In three days, by order of the king
you shall be lifted up, and hanged upon a tree; and the birds shall eat
your flesh from your bones as you are hanging in the air."

And it came to pass just as Joseph had said. Three days after that, king
Pharaoh sent his officers to the prison. They came and took out both the
chief butler and the chief baker. The baker they hung up by his neck to
die, and left his body for the birds to pick in pieces. The chief butler
they brought back to his old place, where he waited at the king's table,
and handed him his wine to drink.

You would have supposed that the butler would remember Joseph, who had
given him the promise of freedom, and had shown such wisdom. But in his
gladness, he forgot all about Joseph. And two full years passed by,
while Joseph was still in prison, until he was a man thirty years old.

But one night, king Pharaoh himself dreamed a dream--in fact, two dreams
in one. And in the morning he sent for all the wise men of Egypt, and
told to them his dreams; but there was not a man who could give the
meaning of them. And the king was troubled, for he felt that the dreams
had some meaning which it was important for him to know.

Then suddenly the chief butler who was by the king's table remembered
his own dream in the prison two years before, and remembered, too, the
young man who had told its meaning so exactly. And he said:

"I do remember my faults this day. Two years ago king Pharaoh was angry
with his servants, with me and the chief baker; and he sent us to the
prison. While we were in the prison, one night each of us dreamed a
dream; and the next day a young man in the prison, a Hebrew from the
land of Canaan, told us what our dreams meant; and in three days they
came true, just as the young Hebrew had said. I think that if this young
man is in the prison still, he could tell the king the meaning of his
dreams."

You notice that the butler spoke of Joseph as "a Hebrew." The people of
Israel, to whom Joseph belonged, were called Hebrews as well as
Israelites. The word Hebrew means, "One who crossed over," and it was
given to the Israelites because Abraham, their father, had come from a
land on the other side of the great river Euphrates, and had crossed
over the river on his way to Canaan.

Then king Pharaoh sent in haste to the prison for Joseph; and Joseph was
taken out, and he was dressed in new garments, and was led in to Pharaoh
in the palace. And Pharaoh said:

"I have dreamed a dream; and there is no one who can tell what it
means. And I have been told that you have power to understand dreams and
what they mean."

And Joseph answered Pharaoh:

"The power is not in me; but God will give Pharaoh a good answer. What
is the dream that the king has dreamed?"

"In my first dream," said Pharaoh, "I was standing by the river: and I
saw seven fat and handsome cows come up from the river to feed in the
grass. And while they were feeding, seven other cows followed them up
from the river, very thin, and poor, and lean--such miserable creatures
as I had never seen before. And the seven lean cows ate up the seven fat
cows; and after they had eaten them up, they were as lean and miserable
as before. Then I awoke.

"And I fell asleep again, and dreamed again. In my second dream, I saw
seven heads of grain growing up on one stalk, large, and strong, and
good. And then seven heads came up after them, that were thin, and poor,
and withered. And the seven thin heads swallowed up the seven good
heads; and afterward were as poor and withered as before.

"And I told these two dreams to all the wise men, and there is no one
who can explain them. Can you tell me what these dreams mean?"

And Joseph said to the king:

"The two dreams have the same meaning. God has been showing to king
Pharaoh what he will do in this land. The seven good cows mean seven
years, and the seven good heads of grain mean the same seven years. The
seven lean cows and the seven thin heads of grain also mean seven years.
The good cows and the good grain mean seven years of plenty, and the
seven thin cows and thin heads of grain mean seven poor years. There are
coming upon the land of Egypt seven years of such plenty as have never
been seen; when the fields shall bring greater crops than ever before;
and after those years shall come seven years when the fields shall bring
no crops at all. And then for seven years there shall be such need, that
the years of plenty will be forgotten, for the people will have nothing
to eat."

[Illustration: _"The two dreams have the same meaning"_]

"Now, let king Pharaoh find some man who is able and wise, and let him
set this man to rule over the land. And during the seven years of
plenty, let a part of the crops be put away for the years of need. If
this shall be done, then when the years of need come, there will be
plenty of food for all the people, and no one will suffer, for all will
have enough."

And king Pharaoh said to Joseph: "Since God has shown you all this,
there is no other man as wise as you. I will appoint you to do this
work, and to rule over the land of Egypt. All the people shall be under
you; only on the throne of Egypt I will be above you."

And Pharaoh took from his own hand the ring which held his seal, and put
on Joseph's hand, so that he could sign for the king, and seal in the
king's place. And he dressed Joseph in robes of fine linen, and put
around his neck a gold chain. And he made Joseph ride in a chariot which
was next in rank to his own. And they cried out before Joseph, "Bow the
knee." And thus Joseph was ruler over all the land of Egypt.

THE STORY OF THE MONEY IN THE SACKS

When Joseph was made ruler over the land of Egypt, he did just as he had
always done. It was not Joseph's way to sit down, to rest and enjoy
himself, and make others wait on him. He found his work at once, and
began to do it faithfully and thoroughly. He went out over all the land
of Egypt, and saw how rich and abundant were the fields of grain, giving
much more than the people could use for their own needs. He told the
people not to waste it, but to save it for the coming time of need.

And he called upon the people to give him for the king one bushel of
grain out of every five, to be stored up. The people brought their
grain, after taking for themselves as much as they needed, and Joseph
stored it up in great storehouses in the cities; so much at last that no
one could keep account of it.

The king of Egypt gave a wife to Joseph from the noble young women of
his kingdom. Her name was Asenath; and to Joseph and his wife God gave
two sons. The oldest son he named Manasseh, a word which means "Making
to Forget."

"For," said Joseph, "God has made me to forget all my troubles and my
toil as a slave."

The second son he named Ephraim, a word that means "Fruitful."
"Because," said Joseph, "God has not only made the land fruitful; but he
has made me fruitful in the land of my troubles."

The seven years of plenty soon passed by, and then came the years of
need. In all the lands around people were hungry, and there was no food
for them to eat; but in the land of Egypt everybody had enough. Most of
the people soon used up the grain that they had saved; many had saved
none at all, and they all cried to the king to help them.

"Go to Joseph!" said king Pharaoh, "and do whatever he tells you to do."

Then the people came to Joseph, and Joseph opened the storehouses, and
sold to the people all the grain that they wished to buy. And not only
the people of Egypt came to buy grain, but people of all the lands
around as well, for there was great need and famine everywhere. And the
need was as great in the land of Canaan, where Jacob lived, as in other
lands. Jacob was rich in flocks and cattle, and gold and silver, but his
fields gave no grain, and there was danger that his family and his
people would starve. And Jacob--who was now called Israel also--heard
that there was food in Egypt and he said to his sons: "Why do you look
at each other, asking what to do to find food? I have been told that
there is grain in Egypt. Go down to that land, and take money with you,
and bring grain, so that we may have bread, and may live."

Then the ten older brothers of Joseph went down to the land of Egypt.
They rode upon asses, for horses were not much used in those times, and
they brought money with them. But Jacob would not let Benjamin, Joseph's
younger brother, go with them, for he was all the more dear to his
father, now that Joseph was no longer with him; and Jacob feared that
harm might come to him.

Then Joseph's brothers came to Joseph to buy food. They did not know
him, grown up to be a man, dressed as a prince, and seated on a throne.
Joseph was now nearly forty years old, and it had been almost
twenty-three years since they had sold him. But Joseph knew them all, as
soon as he saw them. He wished to be sharp and stern with them, not
because he hated them; but because he wished to see what their spirit
was, and whether they were as selfish, and cruel, and wicked as they had
been in other days.

They came before him, and bowed, with their faces to the ground. Then,
no doubt, Joseph thought of the dream that had come to him while he was
a boy, of his brothers' sheaves bending down around his sheaf. He spoke
to them as a stranger, as if he did not understand their language, and
he had their words explained to him in the language of Egypt.

"Who are you? And from what place do you come?" said Joseph, in a harsh,
stern manner.

They answered him very meekly: "We have come from the land of Canaan to
buy food."

"No," said Joseph, "I know what you have come for. You have come as
spies, to see how helpless the land is, so that you can bring an army
against us, and make war on us."

"No, no," said Joseph's ten brothers. "We are no spies. We are the sons
of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan; and we have come for food,
because we have none at home."

"You say that you are the sons of one man, who is your father? Is he
living? Have you any more brothers? Tell me all about yourselves."

And they said: "Our father is an old man in Canaan. We did have a
younger brother, but he was lost; and we have one brother still, who is
the youngest of all, but his father could not spare him to come with
us."

"No," said Joseph. "You are not good, honest men. You are spies. I
shall put you all in prison, except one of you; and he shall go and
bring that youngest brother of yours; and when I see him, then I will
believe that you tell the truth."

So Joseph put all the ten men in prison, and kept them under guard for
three days; then he sent for them again. They did not know that he could
understand their language, and they said to each other, while Joseph
heard, but pretended not to hear: "This has come upon us because of the
wrong that we did to our brother Joseph, more than twenty years ago. We
heard him cry, and plead with us, when we threw him into the pit, and we
would not have mercy on him. God is giving us only what we have
deserved."

And Reuben, who had tried to save Joseph, said: "Did I not tell you not
to harm the boy? and you would not listen to me. God is bringing our
brother's blood upon us all."

When Joseph heard this, his heart was touched, for he saw that his
brothers were really sorry for the wrong that they had done to him. He
turned away from them, so that they could not see his face, and he wept.
Then he turned again to them and spoke roughly as before, and said:

"This I will do, for I serve God. I will let you all go home, except
one man. One of you I will shut up in prison; but the rest of you can go
home and take food for your people. And you must come back and bring
your youngest brother with you, and I shall know then that you have
spoken the truth."

Then Joseph gave orders, and his servants seized one of his brothers,
whose name was Simeon, and bound him in their sight and took him away to
prison. And he ordered his servants to fill the men's sacks with grain,
and to put every man's money back into the sack before it was tied up,
so that they would find the money as soon as they opened the sack. Then
the men loaded their asses with the sacks of grain, and started to go
home, leaving their brother Simeon a prisoner.

When they stopped on the way to feed their asses, one of the brothers
opened his sack, and there he found his money lying on the top of the
grain. He called out to his brothers: "See, here is my money given again
to me!" And they were frightened, but they did not dare to go back to
Egypt and meet the stern ruler of the land. They went home and told
their old father all that had happened to them, and how their brother
Simeon was in prison, and must stay there until they should return,
bringing Benjamin with them.

When they opened their sacks of grain, there in the mouth of each sack
was the money that they had given; and they were filled with fear. Then
they spoke of going again to Egypt and taking Benjamin, but Jacob said
to them:

"You are taking my sons away from me. Joseph is gone, and Simeon is
gone, and now you would take Benjamin away. All these things are against
me!" Reuben said: "Here are my own two boys. You may kill them, if you
wish, in case I do not bring Benjamin back to you." But Jacob said: "My
youngest son shall not go with you. His brother is dead, and he alone is
left to me. If harm should come to him, it would bring down my gray
hairs with sorrow to the grave."

THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST BROTHER

The food which Jacob's sons had brought from Egypt did not last long,
for Jacob's family was large. Most of his sons were married and had
children of their own; so that the children and grandchildren were
sixty-six, besides the servants who waited on them, and the men who
cared for Jacob's flocks. So around the tent of Jacob was quite a camp
of other tents and an army of people.

When the food that had come from Egypt was nearly eaten up, Jacob said
to his sons:

"Go down to Egypt again, and buy some food for us."

And Judah, Jacob's son, the man who years before had urged his brothers
to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites, said to his father: "It is of no use
for us to go to Egypt, unless we take Benjamin with us. The man who
rules in that land said to us, 'You shall not see my face, unless your
youngest brother be with you'."

And Israel said, "Why did you tell the man that you had a brother? You
did me great harm when you told him."

"Why," said Jacob's sons, "we could not help telling him. The man asked
us all about our family, 'Is your father yet living? Have you any more
brothers?' And we had to tell him, his questions were so close. How
should we know that he would say, 'Bring your brother here, for me to
see him'?"

And Judah said, "Send Benjamin with me, and I will take care of him. I
promise you that I will bring him safely home. If he does not come back,
let me bear the blame forever. He must go, or we shall die for want of
food; and we might have gone down to Egypt and come home again, if we
had not been kept back."

And Jacob said, "If he must go, then he must. But take a present to the
man, some of the choicest fruits of the land, some spices, and perfumes,
and nuts, and almonds. And take twice as much money, besides the money
that was in your sacks. Perhaps that was a mistake, when the money was
given back to you. And take your brother Benjamin, and may the Lord God
make the man kind to you, so that he will set Simeon free, and let you
bring Benjamin back. But if it is God's will that I lose my children, I
cannot help it."

So ten brothers of Joseph went down a second time to Egypt, Benjamin
going in place of Simeon. They came to Joseph's office, the place where
he sold grain to the people; and they stood before their brother, and
bowed as before. Joseph saw that Benjamin was with them, and he said to
his steward, the man who was over his house:

"Make ready a dinner, for all these men shall dine with me today."

When Joseph's brothers found that they were taken into Joseph's house,
they were filled with fear. They said to each other:

"We have been taken here on account of the money in our sacks. They will
say that we have stolen it, and then they will sell us all for slaves."

But Joseph's steward, the man who was over his house, treated the men
kindly; and when they spoke of the money in their sacks, he would not
take it again, saying:

"Never fear; your God must have sent you this as a gift. I had your
money."

The stewards received the men into Joseph's house, and washed their
feet, according to the custom of the land. And at noon, Joseph came in
to meet them. They brought him the present from their father, and again
they bowed before him, with their faces on the ground.

And Joseph asked them if they were well, and said: "Is your father still
living, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he well?"

And they said, "Our father is well and he is living." And again they
bowed to Joseph.

And Joseph looked at his younger brother Benjamin, the child of his own
mother Rachel, and said:

"Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious
unto you, my son."

And Joseph's heart was so full that he could not keep back the tears. He
went in haste to his own room, and wept there. Then he washed his face,
and came out again, and ordered the table to be set for dinner. They set
Joseph's table for himself, as the ruler, and another table for his
Egyptian officers, and another for the eleven men from Canaan; for
Joseph had brought Simeon out of the prison, and had given him a place
with his brothers.

Joseph himself arranged the order of the seats for his brothers, the
oldest at the head, and all in order of age down to the youngest. The
men wondered at this, and could not see how the ruler of Egypt could
know the order of their ages. And Joseph sent dishes from his table to
his brothers, and he gave to Benjamin five times as much as to the
others. Perhaps he wished to see whether they were as jealous of
Benjamin as in other days they had been toward him.

After dinner, Joseph said to his steward: "Fill the men's sacks with
grain, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in his sack.
And put my silver cup in the sack of the youngest, with his money."

The steward did as Joseph had said; and early in the morning the
brothers started to go home. A little while afterward, Joseph said to
his steward:

"Hasten, follow after the men from Canaan, and say, 'Why have you
wronged me, after I had treated you kindly? You have stolen my master's
silver cup, out of which he drinks'."

The steward followed the men, and overtook them, and charged them with
stealing. And they said to him:

"Why should you talk to us in this manner? We have stolen nothing. Why,
we brought back to you the money that we found in our sacks; and is it
likely that we would steal from your lord his silver or gold? You may
search us, and if you find your master's cup on any of us, let him die,
and the rest of us may be sold as slaves."

Then they took down the sacks from the asses, and opened them; and in
each man's sack was his money, for the second time. And when they came
to Benjamin's sack, there was the ruler's silver cup! Then, in the
greatest sorrow, they tied up their bags again, and laid them on the
asses, and came back to Joseph's palace.

And Joseph said to them:

"What wicked thing is this that you have done? Did you not know that I
would surely find out your deeds?"

Then Judah said, "O, my lord, what can we say? God has punished us for
our sins; and now we must all be slaves, both we that are older, and the
younger in whose sack the cup was found."

[Illustration: _"What wicked thing is this that you have done?"_]

"No," said Joseph. "Only one of you is guilty; the one who has taken
away my cup. I will hold him as a slave, and the rest of you can go home
to your father."

Joseph wished to see whether his brothers were still selfish, and were
willing to let Benjamin suffer, if they could escape.

Then Judah, the very man who had urged his brothers to sell Joseph as a
slave, came forward, and fell at Joseph's feet, and pleaded with him to
let Benjamin go. He told again the whole story, how Benjamin was the one
whom his father loved the most of all his children, now that his brother
was lost. He said:

"I promised to bear the blame, if this boy was not brought home in
safety. If he does not go back it will kill my poor old father, who has
seen much trouble. Now let my youngest brother go home to his father,
and I will stay here as a slave in his place!"

Joseph knew now, what he had longed to know, that his brothers were no
longer cruel nor selfish, but one of them was willing to suffer, so that
his brother might be spared. And Joseph could not any longer keep his
secret, for his heart longed after his brothers; and he was ready to
weep again, with tears of love and joy. He sent all of his Egyptian
servants out of the room, so that he might be alone with his brothers,
and then he said:

"Come near to me; I wish to speak with you." And they came near,
wondering. Then Joseph said:

"I am Joseph; is my father really alive?"

How frightened his brothers were, as they heard these words spoken in
their own language by the ruler of Egypt and for the first time knew
that this stern man, who had their lives in his hand, was their own
brother whom they had wronged! Then Joseph said again:

"I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But do not feel
troubled because of what you did. For God sent me before you to save
your lives. There have been already two years of need and famine, and
there are to be five years more, when there shall neither be plowing of
the fields nor harvest. It was not you who sent me here, but God; and he
sent me to save your lives. God has made me like a father to Pharaoh and
ruler over all the land of Egypt. Now I wish you to go home, and to
bring down to me my father and all his family."

Then Joseph placed his arms around Benjamin's neck, and kissed him, and
wept upon him. And Benjamin wept on his neck. And Joseph kissed all his
brothers, to show them that he had fully forgiven them; and after that
his brothers began to lose their fear of Joseph and talked with him more
freely.

Afterward Joseph sent his brothers home with good news, and rich gifts,
and abundant food. He sent also wagons in which Jacob and his sons'
wives and the little ones of their families might ride from Canaan down
to Egypt. And Joseph's brothers went home happier than they had been for
many years.

THE STORY OF MOSES, THE CHILD WHO WAS FOUND IN THE RIVER

The children of Israel stayed in the land of Egypt much longer than they
had expected to stay. They were in that land about four hundred years.
And the going down to Egypt proved a great blessing to them. It saved
their lives during the years of famine and need. After the years of need
were over, they found the soil in the land of Goshen, that part of Egypt
where they were living, very rich, so that they could gather three or
four crops every year.

Then, too, the sons of Israel, before they came to Egypt, had begun to
marry the women in the land of Canaan who worshipped idols, and not the
Lord. If they had stayed there, their children would have grown up like
the people around them and soon would have lost all knowledge of God.

But in Goshen they lived alone and apart from the people of Egypt. They
worshipped the Lord God, and were kept away from the idols of Egypt. And
in that land, as the years went on, from being seventy people, they grew
in number until they became a great multitude. Each of the twelve sons
of Jacob was the father of a tribe, and Joseph was the father of two
tribes, named after his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

As long as Joseph lived, and for some time after, the people of Israel
were treated kindly by the Egyptians, out of their love for Joseph, who
had saved Egypt from suffering by famine. But after a long time another
king began to rule over Egypt, who cared nothing for Joseph or Joseph's
people. He saw that the Israelites (as the children of Israel were
called) were very many, and he feared that they would soon become
greater in number and in power than the Egyptians.

He said to his people: "Let us rule these Israelites more strictly. They
are growing too strong."

Then they set harsh rules over the Israelites, and laid heavy burdens on
them. They made the Israelites work hard for the Egyptians, and build
cities for them, and give to the Egyptians a large part of the crops
from their fields. They set them at work in making brick and in building
storehouses. They were so afraid that the Israelites would grow in
number that they gave orders to kill all the little boys that were born
to the Israelites; though their little girls might be allowed to live.

But in the face of all this hate, and wrong, and cruelty, the people of
Israel were growing in number, and becoming greater and greater.

At this time, when the wrongs of the Israelites were the greatest, and
when their little children were being killed, one little boy was born.

[Illustration: _They made the Israelites work hard_]

He was such a lovely child that his mother kept him hid, so that the
enemies did not find him. When she could no longer hide him, she formed
a plan to save his life; believing that God would help her and save her
beautiful little boy.

She made a little box like a boat and covered it with something that
would not let the water into it. Such a boat as this covered over was
called "an ark." She knew that at certain times the daughter of king
Pharaoh--all the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh, for Pharaoh means
a king--would come down to the river for a bath. She placed her baby
boy in the ark, and let it float down the river where the princess,
Pharaoh's daughter, would see it. And she sent her own daughter, a
little girl named Miriam, twelve years old, to watch close at hand. How
anxious the mother and the sister were as they saw the little ark
floating away from them on the river!

[Illustration: _She placed her baby in the ark_]

Pharaoh's daughter, with her maids, came down to the river, and they saw
the ark floating on the water, among the reeds. She sent one of her
maids to bring it to her so that she might see what was in the curious
box. They opened it, and there was a beautiful little baby, who began to
cry to be taken up.

The princess felt kind toward the little one, and loved it at once. She
said: "This is one of the Hebrews' children." You have heard how the
children of Israel came to be called Hebrews. Pharaoh's daughter
thought that it would be cruel to let such a lovely baby as this die out
on the water. And just then a little girl came running up to her, as if
by accident, and she looked at the baby also, and she said: "Shall I go
and find some woman of the Hebrews to be a nurse to the child for you
and take care of it?"

"Yes," said the princess. "Go and find a nurse for me."

The little girl--who was Miriam, the baby's sister--ran as quickly as
she could and brought the baby's own mother to the princess. Miriam
showed in this act that she was a wise and thoughtful little girl. The
princess said to the little baby's mother: "Take this child to your home
and nurse it for me, and I will pay you wages for it."

How glad the Hebrew mother was to take her child home! No one could harm
her boy now, for he was protected by the princess of Egypt, the daughter
of the king.

When the child was large enough to leave his mother Pharaoh's daughter
took him into her own house in the palace. She named him "Moses," a word
that means "drawn out," because he was drawn out of the water.

So Moses, the Hebrew boy, lived in the palace among the nobles of the
land, as the son of the princess. There he learned much more than he
could have learned among his own people; for there were very wise
teachers. Moses gained all the knowledge that the Egyptians had to give.
There in the court of the cruel king who had made slaves of the
Israelites, God's people, was growing up our Israelite boy who should at
some time set his people free!

Although Moses grew up among the Egyptians, and gained their learning,
he loved his own people. They were poor and were hated, and were slaves,
but he loved them, because they were the people who served the Lord God,
while the Egyptians worshipped idols and animals. Strange it was that so
wise a people as these should bow down and pray to an ox, or to a cat,
or to a snake, as did the Egyptians.

When Moses became a man, he went among his own people, leaving the
riches and ease that he might have enjoyed among the Egyptians. He felt
a call from God to lift up the Israelites and set them free. But at that
time he found that he could do nothing to help them. They would not let
him lead them, and as the king of Egypt had now become his enemy, Moses
went away from Egypt into a country in Arabia, called Midian.

He was sitting by a well, in that land, tired from his long journey,
when he saw some young women come to draw water for their flocks of
sheep. But some rough men came, and drove the women away, and took the
water for their own flocks. Moses saw it, and helped the women and drew
the water for them.

These young women were sisters, the daughters of a man named Jethro, who
was a priest in the land of Midian. He asked Moses to live with him, and
to help him in the care of his flocks. Moses stayed with Jethro and
married one of his daughters. So from being a prince in the king's
palace in Egypt, Moses became a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian.

[Illustration: _Moses became a shepherd in the wilderness of
Midian_]

But Moses did not remain a shepherd. While he was tending his sheep God
appeared to him in a burning bush and told him that he should return to
Egypt and become the leader of his people. The Lord told him that the
wicked Egyptians would be punished for the ill-treatment they were
giving the Israelites. In your Bible you will find in the book of Exodus
how God wonderfully fulfilled his promise. The Egyptians were punished
by many plagues, and finally allowed the Israelites to go. They crossed
the Red Sea in a wonderful way, and traveled for a long time through a
wilderness, where God fed them day by day with manna from heaven. God
also gave them rules as a guide for their daily living; these rules we
call the Ten Commandments; yet they forgot the Lord so far as to make
images and worship them.

[Illustration: _God fed them day by day with manna_]

THE STORY OF THE GRAPES FROM CANAAN

The Israelites stayed in their camp before Mount Sinai almost a year,
while they were building the Tabernacle and learning God's laws given
through Moses. At last the cloud over the Tabernacle rose up, and the
people knew that this was the sign for them to move. They took down the
Tabernacle and their own tents, and journeyed toward the land of Canaan
for many days.

At last they came to a place just on the border between the desert and
Canaan, called Kadesh, or Kadesh-barnea. Here they stopped to rest, for
there were many springs of water and some grass for their cattle. While
they were waiting at Kadesh-barnea and were expecting soon to march into
the land which was to be their home, God told Moses to send onward some
men who should walk through the land and look at it, and then come back
and tell what they had found; what kind of a land it was, and what
fruits grew in it, and what people were living in it. The Israelites
could more easily win the land if these men, after walking through it,
could act as their guides and point out the best places in it and the
best plans of making war upon it.

[Illustration: _A cluster of grapes so large that two men carried
it_]

So Moses chose out some men of high rank among the people, one ruler
from each tribe, twelve men in all. One of these was Joshua, who was the
helper of Moses in caring for the people, and another was Caleb, who
belonged to the tribe of Judah. These twelve men went out and walked
over the mountains of Canaan and looked at the cities and saw the
fields. In one place, just before they came back to the camp, they cut
down a cluster of ripe grapes which was so large that two men carried it
between them, hanging from a staff. They named the place where they
found this bunch of grapes Eshcol, a word which means "a cluster." These
twelve men were called "spies," because they went "to spy out the land";
and after forty days they came back to the camp, and this was what they
said:

"We walked all over the land and found it a rich land. There is grass
for all our flocks, and fields where we can raise grain, and trees
bearing fruits, and streams running down the sides of the hills. But we
found that the people who live there are very strong and are men of war.
They have cities with walls that reach almost up to the sky; and some of
the men are giants, so tall that we felt that we were like grasshoppers
beside them."

One of the spies, who was Caleb, said, "All that is true, yet we need
not be afraid to go up and take the land. It is a good land, well worth
fighting for; God is on our side, and he will help us to overcome those
people."

But all the other spies, except Joshua, said, "No, there is no use in
trying to make war upon such strong people. We can never take those
walled cities, and we dare not fight those tall giants."

And the people, who had journeyed all the way through the wilderness to
find this very land, were so frightened by the words of the ten spies
that now, on the very border of Canaan, they dared not enter it. They
forgot that God had led them out of Egypt, that he had kept them in the
dangers of the desert, that he had given them water out of the rock, and
bread from the sky, and his law from the mountain.

All that night, after the spies had brought back their report, the
people were so frightened that they could not sleep. They cried out
against Moses, and blamed him for bringing them out of the land of
Egypt. They forgot all their troubles in Egypt, their toil and their
slavery, and resolved to go back to that land. They said:

"Let us choose a ruler in place of Moses, who has brought us into all
these evils, and let us turn back to the land of Egypt!"

But Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies, said, "Why should we fear? The
land of Canaan is a good land; it is rich with milk and honey. If God is
our friend and is with us, we can easily conquer the people who live
there. Above all things, let us not rebel against the Lord, or disobey
him, and make him our enemy."

But the people were so angry with Caleb and Joshua that they were ready
to stone them and kill them. Then suddenly the people saw a strange
sight. The glory of the Lord, which stayed in the Holy of Holies, the
inner room of the Tabernacle, now flashed out, and shone from the door
of the Tabernacle.

And the Lord, out of this glory, spoke to Moses, and said, "How long
will this people disobey me and despise me? They shall not go into the
good land that I have promised them. Not one of them shall enter in,
except Caleb and Joshua, who have been faithful to me. All the people
who are twenty years old and over it shall die in the desert; but their
little children shall grow up in the wilderness, and when they become
men they shall enter in and own the land that I promised to their
fathers. You people are not worthy of the land that I have been keeping
for you. Now turn back into the desert and stay there until you die.
After you are dead, Joshua shall lead your children into the land of
Canaan. And because Caleb showed another spirit and was true to me, and
followed my will fully, Caleb shall live to go into the land, and shall
have his choice of a home there. To-morrow, turn back into the desert by
the way of the Red Sea."

And God told Moses that for every day that the spies had spent in
Canaan, looking at the land the people should spend a year in the
wilderness; so that they should live in the desert forty years, instead
of going at once into the promised land.

When Moses told all God's words to the people they felt worse than
before. They changed their minds as suddenly as they had made up their
minds.

"No," they all said, "we will not go back to the wilderness; we will go
straight into the land, and see if we are able to take it, as Joshua and
Caleb have said."

"You must not go into the land," said Moses.

But the people would not obey. They marched up the mountain and tried to
march at once into the land. But they were without leaders and without
order--a mob of men, untrained and in confusion. And the people in that
part of the land, the Canaanites and the Amorites, came down upon them
and killed many of them and drove them away. Then, discouraged and
beaten, they obeyed the Lord and Moses, and went once more into the
desert.

And in the desert of Paran, on the south of the land of Canaan, the
children of Israel stayed nearly forty years; and all because they would
not trust in the Lord.

THE STORY OF GIDEON AND HIS THREE HUNDRED SOLDIERS

At last the people of Israel came into the promised land, but they did
evil in the sight of the Lord in worshipping Baal; and the Lord left
them to suffer for their sins. Once the Midianites, living near the
desert on the east of Israel, came against the tribes. The two tribes
that suffered the hardest fate were Ephraim, and the part of Manasseh on
the west of Jordan. For seven years the Midianites swept over their land
every year, just at the time of harvest, and carried away all the crops
of grain, until the Israelites had no food for themselves, and none for
their sheep and cattle. The Midianites brought also their own flocks and
camels without number, which ate all the grass of the field.

The people of Israel were driven away from their villages and their
farms, and were compelled to hide in the caves of the mountains. And if
any Israelite could raise any grain, he buried it in pits covered with
earth, or in empty winepresses, where the Midianites could not find it.

One day, a man named Gideon was threshing out wheat in a hidden place,
when he saw an angel sitting-under an oak-tree. The angel said to him:
"You are a brave man, Gideon, and the Lord is with you. Go out boldly,
and save your people from the power of the Midianites." Gideon answered
the angel:

[Illustration: _The angel touched the offering with his staff_]

"O, Lord, how can I save Israel? Mine is a poor family in Manasseh, and
I am the least in my father's house."

And the Lord said to him: "Surely I will be With you, and I will help
you drive out the Midianites."

Gideon felt that it was the Lord who was talking with him, in the form
of an angel. He brought an offering, and laid it on a rock before the
angel. Then the angel touched the offering with his staff. At once, a
fire leaped up and burned the offering; and then the angel vanished from
his sight. Gideon was afraid when he saw this; but the Lord said to him:
"Peace be unto you, Gideon, do not fear, for I am with you."

On the spot where the Lord appeared to Gideon, under an oak tree, near
the village of Ophrah, in the tribe-land of Manasseh, Gideon built an
altar and called it by a name which means: "The Lord is peace." This
altar was standing long afterward in that place.

Then the Lord told Gideon that before setting his people free from the
Midianites, he must first set them free from the service of Baal and
Asherah, the two idols most worshipped among them. Near the house of
Gideon's own father stood an altar to Baal, and the image of Asherah.

On that night, Gideon went out with ten men, and threw down the image of
Baal, and cut in pieces the wooden image of Asherah, and destroyed the
altar before these idols. And in its place he built an altar to the God
of Israel; and on it laid the broken pieces of the idols for wood, and
with them offered a young ox as a burnt-offering.

On the next morning, when the people of the village went out to worship
their idols, they found them cut in pieces, the altar taken away; in its
place an altar of the Lord, and on it the pieces of the Asherah were
burning as wood under a sacrifice to the Lord. The people looked at the
broken and burning idols; and they said: "Who has done this?"

Some one said: "Gideon, the son of Joash, did this last night."

Then they came to Joash, Gideon's father, and said:

"We are going to kill your son because he has destroyed the image of
Baal, who is our god."

And Joash, Gideon's father, said: "If Baal is a god, he can take care of
himself, and punish the man who has destroyed his image. Why should you
help Baal? Let Baal help himself."

And when they saw that Baal could not harm the man who had broken down
his altar and his image, the people turned from Baal, back to their own
Lord God.

Gideon sent messengers through all Manasseh on the west of Jordan, and
the tribes near on the north; and the men of the tribes gathered around
him, with a few swords and spears, but very few, for the Israelites were
not ready for war. They met beside a great spring on Mount Gilboa,
called "the fountain of Harod." Mount Gilboa is one of the three
mountains on the east of the plain of Esdraelon, or the plain of
Jezreel, where once there had been a great battle. On the plain,
stretching up the side of another of these mountains, called "the Hill
of Moreh," was the camp of a vast Midianite army. For as soon as the
Midianites heard that Gideon had undertaken to set his people free, they
came against him with a mighty host.

Gideon was a man of faith. He wished to be sure that God was leading
him, and he prayed to God and said:

"O Lord God, give me some sign that thou wilt save Israel through me.
Here is a fleece of wool on this threshing floor. If to-morrow morning
the fleece is wet with dew, while the grass around it is dry, then I
shall know that thou art with me; and that thou wilt give me victory
over the Midianites."

Very early the next morning, Gideon came to look at the fleece. He found
it wringing wet with dew, while all around the grass was dry. But Gideon
was not yet satisfied. He said to the Lord:

"O Lord, be not angry with me; but give me just one more sign. To-morrow
morning let the fleece be dry, and let the dew fall all around it, and
then I will doubt no more."

The next morning, Gideon found the grass, and the bushes wet with dew,
while the fleece of wool was dry. And Gideon was now sure that God had
called him, and that God would give him victory over the enemies of
Israel.

The Lord said to Gideon: "Your army is too large. If Israel should win
the victory, they would say, 'we won it by our own might.' Send home all
those who are afraid to fight."

For many of the people were frightened, as they looked at the host of
their enemies, and the Lord knew that these men would only hinder the
rest in the battle. So Gideon sent word through the camp:

"Whoever is afraid of the enemy may go home." And twenty-two thousand
people went away, leaving only ten thousand in Gideon's army. But the
army was stronger though it was smaller, for the cowards had gone, and
only the brave men were left.

But the Lord said to Gideon: "The people are yet too many. You need only
a few of the bravest and best men to fight in this battle. Bring the men
down the mountain, past the water, and I will show you there how to find
the men whom you need."

In the morning Gideon, by God's command called his ten thousand men out,
and made them march down the hill, just as though they were going to
attack the enemy. And as they were beside the water, he noticed how they
drank, and set them apart in two companies, according to their way of
drinking.

When they came to the water, most of the men threw aside their shields
and spears, and knelt down and scooped up a draft of the water with both
hands together like a cup. These men Gideon commanded to stand in one
company.

There were a few men who did not stop to take a large draft of water.
Holding spear and shield in the right hand, to be ready for the enemy if
one should suddenly appear, they merely caught up a handful of the water
in passing and marched on, lapping up the water from one hand. God said
to Gideon:

"Set by themselves these men who lapped up each a handful of water.
These are the men whom I have chosen to set Israel free."

Gideon counted these men, and found that there were only three hundred
of them, while all the rest bowed down on their faces to drink. The
difference between them was that the three hundred were earnest men, of
one purpose; not turning aside from their aim even to drink, as the
others did. Then, too, they were watchful men, always ready to meet
their enemies.

So Gideon, at God's command, sent back to the camp on Mount Gilboa all
the rest of his army, nearly ten thousand men, keeping with himself only
his little band of three hundred.

Gideon's plan did not need a large army; but it needed a few careful,
bold men, who should do exactly as their leader commanded them. He gave
to each man a lamp, a pitcher, and a trumpet, and told the men just what
was to be done with them. The lamp was lighted, but was placed inside
the pitcher, so that it could not be seen. He divided his men into three
companies, and very quietly led them down the mountain in the middle of
the night, and arranged them all in order around the camp of the
Midianites.

[Illustration: _The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise_]

Then at one moment a great shout rang out in the darkness, "The sword of
the Lord and of Gideon," and after it came a crash of breaking pitchers,
and then a flash of light in every direction. The three hundred men had
given the shout, and broken their pitchers, so that on every side
lights were shining. The men blew their trumpets with a mighty noise;
and the Midianites were roused from sleep, to see enemies all round
them, lights beaming and swords flashing, while everywhere the sharp
sound of the trumpets was heard.

They were filled with sudden terror, and thought only of escape, not of
fighting. But wherever they turned, their enemies seemed to be standing
with swords drawn. They trampled each other down to death, flying from
the Israelites. Their own land was in the east, across the river Jordan,
and they fled in that direction, down one of the valleys between the
mountains.

Gideon had thought that the Midianites would turn toward their own land,
if they should be beaten in the battle, and he had already planned to
cut off their flight. The ten thousand men in the camp he had placed on
the sides of the valley leading to the Jordan. There they slew very many
of the Midianites as they fled down the steep pass toward the river. And
Gideon had also sent to the men of the tribe of Ephraim, who had thus
far taken no part in the war, to hold the only place at the river where
men could wade through the water. Those of the Midianites who had
escaped from Gideon's men on either side of the valley were now met by
the Ephraimites at the river, and many more of them were slain. Among
the slain were two of the princes of the Midianites, named Oreb and
Zeeb.

A part of the Midianite army was able to get across the river, and to
continue its flight toward the desert; but Gideon and his brave three
hundred men followed closely after them, fought another battle with
them, destroyed them utterly, and took their two kings, Zebah and
Zalmunna, whom he killed. After this great victory the Israelites were
freed forever from the Midianites. They never again ventured to leave
their home in the desert to make war on the tribes of Israel.

After this, as long as Gideon lived, he ruled as Judge in Israel. The
people wished him to make himself a king.

"Rule over us as king," they said, "and let your son be king after you,
and his son king after him."

But Gideon said:

"No, you have a king already; for the Lord God is the King of Israel. No
one but God shall be king over these tribes."

Of all the fifteen men who ruled as Judges of Israel, Gideon, the fifth
Judge, was the greatest, in courage, in wisdom, and in faith in God.

THE STORY OF SAMSON, THE STRONG MAN

Now we are to learn of three judges who ruled Israel in turn. Their
names were Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. None of these were men of war, and in
their days the land was quiet.

But the people of Israel again began to worship idols; and as a
punishment God allowed them once more to pass under the power of their
enemies. The seventh oppression, which now fell upon Israel, was by far
the hardest, the longest and the most widely spread of any, for it was
over all the tribes. It came from the Philistines, a strong and warlike
people who lived on the west of Israel upon the plain beside the Great
Sea. They worshipped an idol called Dagon, which was made in the form of
a fish's head on a man's body.

These people, the Philistines, sent their armies up from the plain
beside the sea to the mountains of Israel and overran all the land. They
took away from the Israelites all their swords and spears, so that they
could not fight; and they robbed their land of all the crops, so that
the people suffered for want of food. And as before, the Israelites in
their trouble, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard their prayer.

In the tribe-land of Dan, which was next to the country of the
Philistines, there was living a man named Manoah. One day an angel came
to his wife and said:

"You shall have a son, and when he grows up he will begin to save Israel
from the hand of the Philistines. But your son must never drink any wine
or strong drink as long as he lives. And his hair must be allowed to
grow long and must never be cut, for he shall be a Nazarite under a vow
to the Lord."

When a child was given especially to God, or when a man gave himself to
some work for God, he was forbidden to drink wine, and as a sign, his
hair was left to grow long while the vow or promise to God was upon him.
Such a person as this was called a Nazarite, a word which means "one who
has a vow"; and Manoah's child was to be a Nazarite, and under a vow, as
long as he lived.

The child was born and was named Samson. He grew up to become the
strongest man of whom the Bible tells. Samson was no general, like
Gideon or Jephthah, to call out his people and lead them in war. He did
much to set his people free; but all that he did was by his own
strength.

When Samson became a young man he went down to Timnath, in the land of
the Philistines. There he saw a young Philistine woman whom he loved,
and wished to have as his wife. His father and mother were not pleased
that he should marry among the enemies of his own people. They did not
know that God would make this marriage the means of bringing harm upon
the Philistines and of helping the Israelites.

As Samson was going down to Timnath to see this young woman, a hungry
lion came out of the mountain, roaring against him. Samson seized the
lion, and tore him in pieces as easily as another man would have killed
a little kid of the goats, and then went on his way. He made his visit
and came home, but said nothing to any one about the lion.

After a time Samson went again to Timnath for his marriage with the
Philistine woman. On his way he stopped to look at the dead lion; and in
its body he found a swarm of bees, and honey which they had made. He
took some of the honey and ate it as he walked, but told no one of it.

At the wedding-feast, which lasted a whole week, there were many
Philistine young men, and they amused each other with questions and
riddles.

"I will give you a riddle," said Samson. "If you answer it during the
feast, I will give you thirty suits of clothing; and if you cannot
answer it then you must give me the thirty suits of clothing." "Let us
hear your riddle," they said. And this was Samson's riddle:

"Out of the eater came forth meat,
And out of the strong came forth sweetness."

They could not find the answer, though they tried to find it all that
day and the two days that followed. And at last they came to Samson's
wife and said to her:

"Coax your husband to tell you the answer. If you do not find it out, we
will set your house on fire, and burn you and all your people."

And Samson's wife urged him to tell her the answer. She cried and
pleaded with him and said:

"If you really loved me, you would not keep this a secret from me."

At last Samson yielded, and told his wife how he had killed the lion and
afterward found the honey in its body. She told her people, and just
before the end of the feast they came to Samson with the answer. They
said:

"What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" And
Samson said to them:

    "If you had not plowed with my heifer,
    You had not found out my riddle."

By his "heifer,"--which is a young cow,--of course Samson meant his
wife. Then Samson was required to give them thirty suits of clothing. He
went out among the Philistines, killed the first thirty men whom he
found, took off their clothes, and gave them to the guests at the feast.
But all this made Samson very angry. He left his wife and went home to
his father's house. Then the parents of his wife gave her to another
man.

But after a time Samson's anger passed away, and he went again to
Timnath to see his wife. But her father said to him:

"You went away angry, and I supposed that you cared nothing for her. I
gave her to another man, and now she is his wife. But here is her
younger sister; you can have her for your wife, instead."

But Samson would not take his wife's sister. He went out very angry;
determined to do harm to the Philistines, because they had cheated him.
He caught all the wild foxes that he could find, until he had three
hundred of them. Then he tied them together in pairs, by their tails;
and between each pair of foxes he tied to their tails a piece of dry
wood which he set on fire. These foxes with firebrands on their tails he
turned loose among the fields of the Philistines when the grain was
ripe. They ran wildly over the fields, set the grain on fire, and
burned it; and with the grain the olive trees in the fields.

When the Philistines saw their harvests destroyed, they said, "Who has
done this?"

And the people said, "Samson did this, because his wife was given by her
father to another man."

The Philistines looked on Samson's father-in-law as the cause of their
loss; and they came and set his home on fire, and burned the man and his
daughter whom Samson had married. Then Samson came down again, and alone
fought a company of Philistines, and killed them all, as a punishment
for burning his wife.

After this Samson went to live in a hollow place in a split rock, called
the rock of Etam. The Philistines came up in a great army, and overran
the fields in the tribe-land of Judah.

"Why do you come against us?" asked the men of Judah, "what do you want
from us?"

"We have come," they said, "to bind Samson, and to deal with him as he
has dealt with us."

The men of Judah said to Samson:

"Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? Why do you
make them angry by killing their people? You see that we suffer through
your pranks. Now we must bind you and give you to the Philistines, or
they will ruin us all."

And Samson said, "I will let you bind me, if you will promise not to
kill me yourselves; but only to give me safely into the hands of the
Philistines."

They made the promise; and Samson gave himself up to them, and allowed
them to tie him up fast with new ropes. The Philistines shouted for joy
as they saw their enemy brought to them, led in bonds by his own people.
But as soon as Samson came among them, he burst the bonds as though they
had been light strings; and picked up from the ground the jawbone of an
ass, and struck right and left with it as with a sword. He killed almost
a thousand of the Philistines with this strange weapon. Afterward he
sang a song about it, thus:

    "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps,
    With the jawbone of an ass, have I slain a thousand men."

After this Samson went down to the chief city of the Philistines, which
was named Gaza. It was a large city; and like all large cities, was
surrounded with a high wall. When the men of Gaza found Samson in their
city, they shut the gates, thinking that they could now hold him as a
prisoner. But in the night Samson rose up, went to the gates, pulled
their posts out of the ground, and put the gates with their posts upon
his shoulder. He carried off the gates of the city and left them on the
top of a hill not far from the city of Hebron.

After this Samson saw another woman among the Philistines, and he loved
her. The name of this woman was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines
came to Delilah and said to her:

"Find out, if you can, what it is that makes Samson so strong, and tell
us. If you help us to get control of him, so that we can have him in our
power, we will give you a great sum of money."

[Illustration: _He carried off the gates of the city_]

And Delilah coaxed and pleaded with Samson to tell her what it was that
made him so strong. Samson said to her:

"If they will tie me with seven green twigs from a tree, then I shall
not be strong any more."

They brought her seven green twigs, like those of a willow tree; and she
bound Samson with them while he was asleep. Then she called out to him:

"Wake up, Samson, the Philistines are coming against you!"

And Samson rose up and broke the twigs as easily as if they had been
charred in the fire, and went away with ease.

And Delilah tried again to find his secret. She said:

"You are only making fun of me. Now tell me truly how you can be bound."
And Samson said:

"Let them bind me with new ropes that have never been used before; and
then I cannot get away."

While Samson was asleep again, Delilah bound him with new ropes. Then
she called out as before:

"Get up, Samson, for the Philistines are coming!" And when Samson rose
up, the ropes broke as if they were thread. And Delilah again urged him
to tell her; and he said:

"You notice that my long hair is in seven locks. Weave it together in
the loom, just as if it were the threads in a piece of cloth."

Then, while he was asleep, she wove his hair in the loom, and fastened
it with a large pin to the weaving-frame. But when he awoke, he rose up,
and carried away the pin and the beam of the weaving-frame; for he was
as strong as before.

And Delilah, who was anxious to serve her people, said:

"Why do you tell me that you love me, as long as you deceive me and keep
from me your secret?" And she pleaded with him day after day, until at
last he yielded to her and told her the real secret of his strength. He
said:

"I am a Nazarite, under a vow to the Lord, not to drink wine, and not to
allow my hair to be cut. If I should let my hair be cut short, then the
Lord would forsake me, and my strength would go from me, and I would be
like other men."

Then Delilah knew that she had found the truth at last. She sent for the
rulers of the Philistines, saying:

"Come up this once, and you shall have your enemy; for he has told me
all that is in his heart."

Then while the Philistines were watching outside, Delilah let Samson go
to sleep, with his head upon her knees. While he was sound asleep, they
took a razor and shaved off all his hair. Then she called out as at
other times.

"Rise up, Samson, the Philistines are upon you."

He awoke, and rose up, expecting to find himself strong as before; for
he did not at first know that his long hair had been cut off. But the
vow to the Lord was broken, and the Lord had left him. He was now as
weak as other men, and helpless in the hands of his enemies. The
Philistines easily made him their prisoner; and that he might never do
them more harm, they put out his eyes. Then they chained him with
fetters, and sent him to prison at Gaza. And in the prison they made
Samson turn a heavy millstone to grind grain, just as though he were a
beast of burden.

But while Samson was in prison, his hair grew long again; and with his
hair his strength came back to him; for Samson renewed his vow to the
Lord.

One day, a great feast was held by the Philistines in the temple of
their fish-god, Dagon. For they said:

"Our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hand. Let us be glad
together and praise Dagon."

And the temple was thronged with people, and the roof over it was also
crowded with more than three thousand men and women. They sent for
Samson, to rejoice over him; and Samson was led into the court of the
temple, before all the people, to amuse them. After a time, Samson said
to the boy who was leading him:

[Illustration: _He bowed forward with all his might and pulled the
pillars with him_]

"Take me up to the front of the temple, so that I may stand by one of
the pillars, and lean against it."

And while Samson stood between the two pillars, he prayed:

"O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and give me strength, only this
once, O God: and help me, that I may obtain vengeance upon the
Philistines for my two eyes!"

Then he placed one arm around the pillar on one side, and the other arm
around the pillar on the other side; and he said: "Let me die with the
Philistines."

And he bowed forward with all his might, and pulled the pillars over
with him, bringing down the roof and all upon it upon those that were
under it. Samson himself was among the dead; but in his death he killed
more of the Philistines than he had killed during his life.

Then in the terror which came upon the Philistines the men of Samson's
tribe came down and found his dead body, and buried it in their own
land. After that it was years before the Philistines tried again to rule
over the Israelites.

Samson did much to set his people free; but he might have done much
more, if he had led his people, instead of trusting alone to his own
strength; and if he had lived more earnestly, and not done his deeds as
though he was playing pranks. There were deep faults in Samson, but at
the end he sought God's help, and found it, and God used Samson to set
his people free.

THE STORY OF RUTH, THE GLEANER

In the time of the Judges in Israel, a man named Elimelech was living in
the town of Bethlehem, in the tribe of Judah, about six miles south of
Jerusalem. His wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and
Chilion. For some years the crops were poor, and food was scarce in
Judah; and Elimelech with his family went to live in the land of Moab,
which was on the east of the Dead Sea, as Judah was on the west.

There they stayed ten years, and in that time Elimelech died. His two
sons married women of the country of Moab, one named Orpah, the other
named Ruth. But the two young men also died in the land of Moab; so that
Naomi and her two daughters-in-law were all left widows.

Naomi heard that God had again given good harvests and bread to the land
of Judah, and she rose up to go from Moab back to her own land and her
own town of Bethlehem. The two daughters-in-law loved her, and both
would have gone with her, though the land of Judah was a strange land to
them, for they were of the Moabite people.

Naomi said to them: "Go back, my daughters, to your own mothers' homes.
May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have been kind to your
husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you may yet find
another husband and a happy home."

Then Naomi kissed them in farewell, and the three women all wept
together. The two young widows said to her:

"You have been a good mother to us, and we will go with you, and live
among your people."

"No, no," said Naomi. "You are young, and I am old. Go back and be happy
among your own people."

Then Orpah kissed Naomi, and went back to her people; but Ruth would not
leave her. She said:

"Do not ask me to leave you, for I never will. Where you go, I will go;
where you live, I will live; your people shall be my people; and your
God shall be my God. Where you die, I will die, and be buried. Nothing
but death itself shall part you and me."

When Naomi saw that Ruth was firm in her purpose, she ceased trying to
persuade her; so the two women went on together. They walked around the
Dead Sea, and crossed the river Jordan, and climbed the mountains of
Judah, and came to Bethlehem.

Naomi had been absent from Bethlehem for ten years, but her friends
were all glad to see her again. They said:

"Is this Naomi, whom we knew years ago?"

Now the name Naomi means "pleasant." And Naomi said:

"Call me not Naomi; call me Mara, for the Lord has made my life bitter.
I went out full, with my husband and two sons; now I come home empty,
without them. Do not call me 'Pleasant,' call me 'Bitter.'"

The name "Mara," by which Naomi wished to be called means "bitter." But
Naomi learned later that "Pleasant" was the right name after all.

There was living in Bethlehem at that time a very rich man named Boaz.
He owned large fields that were abundant in their harvests; and he was
related to the family of Elimelech, Naomi's husband, who had died.

It was the custom in Israel when they reaped the grain not to gather all
the stalks, but to leave some for the poor people, who followed after
the reapers with their sickles, and gathered what was left. When Naomi
and Ruth came to Bethlehem, it was the time of the barley harvest; and
Ruth went out into the fields to glean the grain which the reapers had
left. It so happened that she was gleaning in the field that belonged to
Boaz, this rich man.

Boaz came out from the town to see his men reaping, and he said to
them, "The Lord be with you"; and they answered him, "The Lord bless
you."

And Boaz said to his master of the reapers: "Who is this young woman
that I see gleaning in the field?"

The man answered: "It is the young woman from the land of Moab, who came
with Naomi. She asked leave to glean after the reapers, and has been
here gathering grain since yesterday."

Then Boaz said to Ruth: "Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to any
other field, but stay here with my young women. No one shall harm you;
and when you are thirsty, go and drink at our vessels of water."

[Illustration: _Ruth went out into the fields to glean the grain_]

Then Ruth bowed to Boaz, and thanked him for his kindness, all the more
kind because she was a stranger in Israel. Boaz said: "I have heard how
true you have been to your mother-in-law Naomi, in leaving your own
land and coming with her to this land. May the Lord, under whose wings
you have come, give you a reward!"

And at noon, when they sat down to rest and to eat, Boaz gave her some
of the food. And he said to the reapers:

"When you are reaping, leave some of the sheaves for her; and drop out
some sheaves from the bundles, where she may gather them."

That evening, Ruth showed Naomi how much she had gleaned, and told her
of the rich man Boaz, who had been so kind to her. And Naomi said:

"This man is a near relation of ours. Stay in his fields, as long as the
harvest lasts." And so Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz until the
harvest had been gathered.

At the end of the harvest, Boaz held a feast on the threshing-floor. And
after the feast, by the advice of Naomi, Ruth went to him, and said to
him:

"You are a near relation of my husband and of his father, Elimelech. Now
will you not do good to us for his sake?"

And when Boaz saw Ruth, he loved her; and soon after this he took her as
his wife. And Naomi and Ruth went to live in his home; so that Naomi's
life was no more bitter, but pleasant. And Boaz and Ruth had a son,
whom they named Obed; and later Obed had a son named Jesse; and Jesse
was the father of David, the shepherd boy who became king. So Ruth, the
young woman of Moab, who chose the people and the God of Israel, became
the mother of kings.

THE STORY OF DAVID, THE SHEPHERD BOY

Living at Ramah, in the mountains of Ephraim, there was a man whose name
was Elkanah. He had two wives, as did many men in that time. One of
these wives had children, but the other wife, whose name was Hannah, had
no child.

Every year Elkanah and his family went up to worship at the house of the
Lord in Shiloh, which was about fifteen miles from his home. And at one
of these visits Hannah prayed to the Lord, saying:

"O Lord, if thou wilt look upon me, and give me a son, he shall be given
to the Lord as long as he lives."

The Lord heard Hannah's prayer, and gave her a little boy, and she
called his name Samuel, which means "Asked of God"; because he had been
given in answer to her prayer.

Samuel grew up to be a good man and a wise Judge, and he made his sons
Judges in Israel, to help him in the care of the people. But Samuel's
sons did not walk in his ways. They did not try always to do justly.

The elders of all the tribes of Israel came to Samuel at his home in
Ramah; and they said to him: "You are growing old, and your sons do not
rule as well as you ruled. All the lands around us have kings. Let us
have a king also; and do you choose the king for us."

This was not pleasing to Samuel. He tried to make the people change
their minds, and showed them what trouble a king would bring them.

But they would not follow his advice. They said: "No; we will have a
king to reign over us."

So Samuel chose as their king a tall young man named Saul, who was a
farmer's son of the tribe of Benjamin. When Saul was brought before the
people he stood head and shoulders above them all. And Samuel said:

"Look at the man whom the Lord has chosen! There is not another like him
among all the people!"

And all the people shouted, "God save the king! Long live the king!"

Then Samuel told the people what should be the laws for the king and for
the people to obey. He wrote them down in a book, and placed the book
before the Lord. Then Samuel sent the people home; and Saul went back to
his own house at a place called Gibeah; and with Saul went a company of
men to whose hearts God had given a love for the king.

So after three hundred years under the fifteen Judges, Israel now had a
king. But among the people there were some who were not pleased with the