Lecture XI: The conquest of Western Palestine — Battle of Beth-horon

by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D.

   The battle of Beth-horon or Gibeon is one of the     
most important in the history of the world;       
and yet so profound has been the indiffer-     
ence, first of the religious world, and then (through       
their example or influence) of the common world, to       
the historical study of the Hebrew annals, that the        
very name of this great battle is far less known to       
most of us than that of Marathon or Cannæ.          
   It is one of the few military engagements which      
belong equally to Ecclesiastical and to Civil History    
— which have decided equally the fortunes of the       
world and of the Church.  The roll will be complete         
if to this we add two or three more which we shall       
encounter in the Jewish History; and, in later times,       
the battle of the Milvian Bridge, which involved the      
fall of Paganism; the battle of Poitiers, which sealed       
the fall of Arianism; the battle of Bedr, which se-        
cured the rise of Mahometanism in Asia; the battle        
of Tours, which checked the spread of Mahometanism       
in Western Europe; the battle of Lepanto, which          
checked it in Eastern Europe; the battle of Lutzen,     
which determined the balance of power between Ro-      
man Catholicism and Protestantism in Germany.      
   The kings of Palestine, each in his little mountain    
fastness, — like the kings of early Greece, crowded       
thick together in the plains of Argos and of Thebes,       
when they were summoned to the Trojan war, —      
were roused by the tidings that the approaches to      
their territory in the Jordan valley and in the passes      
leading from it were in the hand of the enemy.      
Those who occupied the south felt that the crisis       
was yet more imminent when they heard of the ca-        
pitulation of Gibeon.  Jebus, or Jerusalem, even in       
those ancient times, was recognized as their centre.        
Its chief took the lead of the hostile confederacy.       
The point of attack, however, was not the invading      
army, but the traitors at home.  Gibeon, the       
recreant city, was besieged.  The continuance        
or the raising of the siege, as in the case of Orleans        
in the fifteenth century, and Vienna in the seven-       
teenth, became the turning question of the war.  The        
summons of the Gibeonites to Joshua was as urgent      
as words can describe, and gives the key-note to the      
whole movement.  "Slack not thy hand from thy       
servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and       
help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that      
dwell in the mountains are gathered together against       
us."  Not a moment was to be lost.  As in the bat-      
tle of Marathon, everything depended on the sudden-        
ness of the blow which should break in pieces the       
hostile confederation.  On the former occasion of     
Joshua's visit to Gibeon, it had been three days'        
journey from Gilgal, as according to the slow pace       
of eastern armies and caravans it might well be.  But         
now, by a forced march, "Joshua came unto them        
suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night."  When        
the sun rose behind him, he was already in the open        
ground at the foot of the heights of Gibeon, where        
the kings were encamped (according to tradition)      
by a spring in the neighborhood.  The towering hill      
at the foot of which Gibeon lay, rose before them on      
the west.  The besieged and the besiegers alike were      
taken by surprise.         
   As often before and after, so now, "not a man       
could stand before" the awe and the panic       
of the sudden sound of that terrible shout —       
the sudden appearance of that undaunted host, who        
came with the assurance not "to fear, nor to be dis-       
mayed, but to be strong and of a good courage, for      
the Lord had delivered their enemies into their       
hands."  The Canaanites fled down the western pass,     
and "the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and      
slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and        
chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-     
horon."  This was the first stage of the flight.  It       
is a long rocky ascent, sinking and rising more than      
once, before the summit is reached.  From the sum-     
mit, which is crowned by the village of Upper Beth-     
horon, a wide view opens over the valley of Ajalon,        
of "Stags" or "Gazelles," which runs in from the      
plain of Sharon.  Jaffa, Ramleh, Lydda, are all visible     
beyond.       
   "And it came to pass as they fled before Israel,       
and were in the going down to Beth-horon,      
that the Lord cast down great stones from      
heaven upon them unto Azekah.  This was the      
second stage of the flight.  The fugitives had out-      
stripped the pursuers; they had crossed the high ridge      
of Beth-horon the Upper; they were in full flight to       
Beth-horon the Nether.  It is a rough, rocky road,      
sometimes over the upturned edges of limestone     
strata, sometimes over sheets of smooth rock, some-       
times over loose rectangular stones, sometimes over       
steps cut in the rock.  It was as they fled      
down this slippery descent, that, as in the fight of        
Barak against Sisera, a fearful tempest, "thunder,      
lightning, and a deluge of hail," broke over the      
disordered ranks; "they were more which died of the     
hailstones than they whom the children of Israel      
slew with the sword."        
   So, as it would seem, ended the direct narrative of      
this second stage of the flight.  But at this point, as      
in the case of the defeat of Sisera, we have one of       
those openings, as it were, in the structure of the       
Sacred history, which reveal to us a glimpse of an-      
other, probably an older, version, lying below the sur-       
face of the narrative.  In the victory of Barak, we      
have the whole account, first in prose and then in    
verse.  Here we have, in like manner, first, the prose    
account; and then, either the same events, or the        
events immediately following, related in poetry —     
taken from one of the lost books of the original     
canon of the Jewish Church, the Book of Jasher.          
   On the summit of the pass, where is now the ham-     
let of the Upper Beth-horon, looking far down       
the deepest descent of the Western valleys, with           
the green vale of Ajalon stretched out in the dis-     
tance, and the wide expanse of the Mediterranean      
Sea beyond, stood, as is intimated, the Israelite chief.       
Below him was rushing down, in wild confusion, the       
Amorite host.  Around him were "all his people of      
war, and all his mighty men of valor."  Behind him       
were the hills which hid Gibeon — the now rescued         
Gibeon — from his sight.  But the sun stood high      
above those hills, "in the midst of heaven," for the       
day had now far advanced, since he had emerged       
from his night-march through the passes of Ai; and        
in front, over the western vale of Ajalon, may have        
been the faint crescent of the waning moon, visible      
above the hailstorm driving up from the sea in the       
black distance.  Was the enemy to escape in safety,    
or was the speed with which Joshua had " come      
quickly, and saved and helped" his defenceless allies,    
to be rewarded, before the close of that day, by a sig-      
nal and decisive victory?       
   It is doubtless so standing on that lofty eminence,       
with outstretched hand and spear, as on the hill above      
Ai, that the Hero appears in the ancient song of the     
Book of Heroes.        

     Then spake Joshua unto JEHOVAH       
     In the day 'that God gave up the Amorite      
     Into the hand of Israel,'      
     When He discomfited them in Gibeon,    
     'And they were discomfited before the face of Israel.'      
     And Joshua said:       
         'Be thou still,' O Sun, upon Gibeon,       
         And, thou Moon, upon the valley of Ajalon!      
         And the Sun was still,      
         And the Moon stood,     
     Until 'the nation' had avenged them upon their          
        enemies.      
     And the sun stood 'in the very midst' of the heavens,         
     And hasted not to go down for a whole day.       
     And there was no day like that before it or after it,      
     That JEHOVAH heard the voice of a man,      
     For JEHOVAH fought for Israel.      
     And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp in Gilgal."       

   So ended the second stage of the flight.  In the        
lengthened day thus given to Joshua's prayer,      
comes the third stage.  "The Lord smote them       
to Azekah and unto Makkedah, and these five kings        
fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah."       
But Joshua halted not when he was told; the same      
speed was still required, — the victory was not yet      
won.  The mouth of the cave was blocked by huge     
stones, and a guard stationed to watch it whilst the      
pursuit was continued.  We know not pre-       
cisely the position of Makkedah; but it must      
have been, probably, at the point where the      
mountains sink into the plain, that this last struggle     
took place; and thither, at last, "all the people of      
Israel returned to peace; none moved his tongue       
against any of the people of Israel."  A camp was         
formed round the royal hiding-place.  It was a well-        
known cave, "the cave," overshadowed by a grove      
of trees.  The five kings were dragged out of its re-      
cesses for the first time, to the gaze of their enemies.       
Their names and cities were handed down in various      
versions to later times.  Hoham or Elam, of Hebron;         
Piram or Phidon, of Jarmuth; Japhia or Jephtha, of       
Lachish; Dabir or Debir, either of Eglon or Adullam,           
and their leader, Adoni-zedek or Adoni-bezek, of Jeru-        
salem.  If the former ("the Lord of Righteousness") is       
the name, it suggests a confirmation of the tradition      
that the Salem where Melchi-zedek, "the King of        
Righteousness" reigned, was Jerusalem, thus confer-      
ring on its rulers a kind of hereditary designation.  If      
the latter, he must have had a connection, more or less     
close, with the terrible chief who had seventy cap-     
tive princes grovelling under his table, after the sav-      
age custom of Oriental despots.  An awe is described      
as falling on the Israelite warriors, when they saw      
the prostrate kings.  At the Conqueror's bidding, they     
draw near; and according to the usage portrayed in      
the monuments of Assyria and Egypt, planted their         
feet on the necks of their enemies.  It was reserved      
for Joshua himself to slay them.  The dead bodies     
were hung aloft, each on its own separate tree, be-      
side the cave, and remained (so it would seem) "un-     
til the evening," when, at last, the memorable sun    
"went down."  The cave where they had been hid      
became the royal sepulchre.  The stones which on      
that self-same day had cut them off from escape,       
closed the mouth of their tomb; and the destruction     
of the neighboring town of Makkedah "on that day"      
completed their dreadful obsequies.         
   So ended the day to which, in the words of the      
ancient sacred song, "there was no day like, before     
or after it."  The possession of every place, sacred for      
them and for all future ages, through the whole centre      
and south of Palestine, — Shechem, Shiloh, Gibeon,       
Bethlehem, Hebron, and even for a time, Jerusalem,      
was the issue of the conflict.  "And all these kings      
and their land did Joshua take one at a time, because        
the Lord God fought for Israel."  "And Joshua re-       
turned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to       
Gilgal."  It is the only incident of this period ex-     
pressly noticed in the later books of the Old Testa-       
ment.  "The Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim;       
"He shall be wroth as in the valley by Gibeon."  The     
very day of the week was fixed in later tradi-       
tions.  With the Samaritans it was Thursday;       
with the Mussulmans it was Friday; and this has      
been given as a reason for that day being chosen as      
the sacred day of Islam.          
   Immediately upon its close, follows the rapid suc-     
cession of victory and extermination which swept the      
whole of Southern Palestine into the hands of Israel.      
It is probable, indeed, from what follows, either that       
the subjugation and destruction were less complete      
than this narrative would imply, or that the deeds of      
Joshua's companions and successors are here ascribed      
to himself and to this time.  But the concentration      
of the interest of the conquest on this one event, if       
not chronologically exact, yet no doubt justly repre-     
sents the feeling that this was the one decisive bat-     
tle, involving all the other consequences in its train.        
   There are two difficulties which have been occa-       
sioned by this event, or rather by its inter-       
pretation, which have not been without influence on      
the history of the Christian Church.         
   I.   The first has arisen from the words of Joshua,       
"Sun, 'be thou still' on Gibeon, and thou,      
Moon, over the valley of Ajalon:" or, as       
read in the Vulgate, which first gave the offence,       
"Sun, move not thou toward Gibeon, nor thou, Moon,        
towards the valley of Ajalon."  These words in the      
Book of Joshua were doubtless intended to express      
that in some manner, in answer to Joshua's earnest      
prayer, the day was prolonged till the victory was        
achieved.  How, or in what way, we are not told,        
and if we take the words in the popular and poetical       
sense in which from their style it is clear that they      
are used. there is no occasion for inquiry.  That some       
such general sense is what was understood in the      
ancient Jewish Church itself, is evident from the         
slight emphasis laid upon the incident by Josephus,       
and the Samaritan Book of Joshua; and from the ab-      
sense of any subsequent allusion to it (unless, indeed,      
in a similar poetic strain) in the Old or New Testa-     
ment.  But in later times men were not content with-      
out taking them in their literal, prosaic sense, and      
supposing that the sun and the moon actually stood      
still, and that the system of the universe was arrested.     
It was this interpretation which invested the passage       
with a new and alarming importance when the Coper-      
nican system was set forth by Galileo; when it ap-       
peared that the sun, being always stationary, could         
not be said to stand still or to move.  Round this        
famous prayer was fought a battle of words in eccle-     
siastical history, hardly less important than the battle      
of Joshua and the Canaanites.  It raged through the       
lifetime of Galileo; its last direct traces appear in the       
preface of the Jesuits to their edition of Newton's      
Principia, defending themselves for their apparent, but       
(as they state) only hypothetical, sanction of a theory        
which, by supposing the earth's motion, runs counter      
to the Papal decrees.  It continues still in the terrors      
awakened in many religious minds by the analogous       
collision between the letter of Scripture and the ad-      
vances of science in geology, ethnology, and philol-     
ogy.  But, in fact, the victory was won in the per-        
son of Galileo.  Even the Court of Rome has since       
admitted its mistake.  It is now universally acknowl-       
edged that on that occasion "the astronomers were        
right and the theologians were wrong."  The prin-       
ciple was then once for all established, that the Bible         
was not intended to teach scientific truth.  This inci-      
dent in the Sacred narrative has thus, instead of a       
stumbling-block, become a monument of the recon-       
ciliation of religion and science; and the advance in      
our knowledge of the Bible since that time has still      
further tended to diminish the collision which then         
seemed so frightful, because it has shown us far more       
clearly than could be seen in former times, that the      
language employed is not only popular but poeti-        
cal and rhythmical; and that the attempt to inter-        
pret it scientifically is based on a total misconception        
of the intention of the words themselves.  But, even        
with the imperfect knowledge of Biblical criticism       
then possessed, the defence of their position by the      
two great astronomers sums up the question in terms             
which not only meet the whole of this case, but ap-     
ply to any further questions of the kind which may      
meet us hereafter.          
   Galileo, with the caution which belonged to his char-     
acter and situation, mainly relies on the author-      
ity of others.  But these were almost the high-          
est that he could have named.  The first is Baronius, the     
chief ecclesiastical historian of the Roman Church: "The        
intention of Holy Scripture is to show us how to go      
to heaven, not to show us how the heaven goeth."       
The second was Jerome, the author of the most ven-        
erable translation of the Bible: "Many things are       
spoken in Scripture according to the judgment of       
those times wherein they were acted, and not ac-       
cording to that which truth contained."         
   Kepler, with that union of courage and piety which        
marks his whole career, explains the text him-       
self.  "They will not understand that the only        
thing which Joshua prayed for, was that the moun-      
tains might not intercept the sun from him.  Be-      
sides, it has been very unreasonable at this time to     
think of astronomy, or of the errors of sight; for if          
any one had told him that the sun could not really     
move on the valley of Ajalon, but only in relation to       
sense, would not Joshua have answered that his de-       
sire was that the day might be prolonged, so it were        
by any means whatsoever?"      
   So far the wise astronomer speaks of the actual his-      
toric incident.  But I may be excused for adding the         
conclusions of his treatise, in words equally profitable to       
the learned and the unlearned student.  "He who is so        
stupid as to not comprehend the science of astron-      
omy, or so weak as to think it an offence of piety     
to adhere to Copernicus, him I advise — that, leav-       
ing the study of astronomy and censuring the opin-      
ions of philosophers at pleasure, he betake himself       
to his own concerns, and that desisting from further      
pursuit of those intricate studies, he keep at home      
and manure his own ground; and with those eyes       
wherewith he alone seeth, being elevated towards this        
much-to-be-admired heaven, let him pour forth his      
whole heart in thanks and praises to God the Cre-     
ator, and assure himself that he shall therein per-       
form as much worship to God as the astronomer on     
whom God hath bestowed this gift, that though he       
seeth more clearly with the eye of his understand-     
ing, yet whatever he hath attained to he is both       
able and willing to behold his God above it.         
   "Thus much concerning Scripture.  Now as touch-      
ing the authority of the Fathers.  Sacred was Lac-        
tantius, who denied the earth's rotundity: sacred was       
Augustine, who admitted the earth to be round but      
denied the antipodes: sacred is the liturgy of our     
moderns, who admit the smallness of the earth but      
deny its motion.  But to me more sacred than all      
these is — TRUTH."         
   II.   The second difficulty is that which belongs to the        
general question of the extermination of the Ca-      
naanites; but which is brought out so much      
more forcibly by the detail of the successive      
massacres which followed the battle of Beth-horon,       
that this seems the best place for considering it.        
   There are few who hear the closing scenes of the      
10th chapter of the Book of Joshua read without ask-       
ing how such a total extirpation could have been car-       
ried out without the demoralization of those concerned       
or how any sanction to it could be given in a book       
claiming to be, at least, one stage in the Divine rev-       
elations.       
   Many explanations have been given — the denial      
of the fact, the treatment of the whole as an allegory,    
the alleged parallels in the promiscuous destruction of        
human life by earthquake and pestilence.      
   It is believed, however, that most reflecting minds       
will acquiesce in the general truth of an answer       
given long ago by Chrysostom, and founded on        
the express and fundamental teaching of Christ and      
his Apostles.         
   He is speaking of the verse in the 139th Psalm,        
— "I hate them with a perfect hatred," and wishes      
to reconcile it with the duty of Christian charity.        
"Now," he says, "a higher philosophy is required of       
us than of them. . . .  For thus they are ordered to           
hate not only impiety, but the persons of the im-      
pious, lest their friendship should be an occasion of      
going astray.  Therefore he cut off all intercourse,        
and freed them on every side."         
   The difference in this respect between the Old and      
New dispensation is laid down in the strongest      
manner by the Lord himself.        
   "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for    
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you,      
That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite      
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other        
also."            
   "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt      
love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say      
unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse        
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for      
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;      
that ye may be the children of your Father which is      
in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil      
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and      
on the unjust."        
   "And when His disciples James and John saw this,      
they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to     
come down from heaven, and consume them, even as       
Elijah did?  But He turned, and rebuked them, and               
said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.      
For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's      
lives, but to save them."       
   And further, that this inferiority of the Old dispen-      
sation was an acknowledged element in the      
"gradualness and partialness" of Revelation,        
inevitably flows from the definition of Reve-      
lation as given by the author of the Epistle to the      
Hebrews.  "God who at sundry times and in divers       
manners spake in times past to our fathers."         
   How necessary this accommodation may have been      
to that rude age, we see from analogous         
instances in later history.  Not only in the       
ancient world do we read, even approvingly, of like       
conduct in the Homeric or the early Roman heroes,        
but even in Christian times we can point to cases in       
which no shock has been given to the general moral      
sense by an impulse or command of the destructive      
character, and in which the general moral character      
has risen above this particular depression of its hu-      
maner instincts.  I refer not merely to the darker      
periods of Christendom, more nearly resembling the      
Judaic spirit of the age of Joshua, but even to our      
own.  We have no right to find objections to these     
portions of the Old Testament, when we acknowledge       
the same feelings in ourselves or others without repro-        
bation.  Two instances may suffice.      
    (1.)  In the late Indian mutiny, at the time when      
the belief in the Sepoy atrocities (since ex-      
ploded) prevailed throughout India, it will be      
in the memory f some that letters were received      
from India, from conscientious and religious men, con-      
taining phrases to this effect.  "The Book of Joshua is        
now being read in church" (in the season when this      
chapter forms one of the first Lessons of the services      
of the Church of England).  "It expresses exactly          
what we are all feeling.  I never before understood       
the force of that part of the Bible.  It is the only      
rule for us to follow."  I do not quote this senti-      
ment to approve of it.  I quote it to show that        
what could be felt, even for a moment, by civilized     
Christendom now, might well be pardoned, or even      
commended, in Jewish soldiers three thousand years   
ago.          
   (2.)  Oliver Cromwell, in the storming of Drogheda,         
ordered an almost promiscuous massacre of      
the Irish inhabitants.  Of the act itself I do       
not speak.  It is now generally admitted that      
the Puritans attached an undue authority to the de-      
tails of the Jewish Scriptures.  But the point to be       
observed is, that Cromwell's act has received a high     
eulogy in our own time from one who, as well by his     
genius and learning as by his command of the sym-     
pathies of the rising generation, in a great measure       
represents the most advanced intelligence of our age.           
   "Oliver's proceedings here have been the theme of       
much loud criticism, and sibylline execration, into     
which it is not our plan to enter at present.  Ter-       
rible surgery this; but is it surgery and judgment,      
or atrocious murder merely?  That is a question      
which should be asked, and answered.  Oliver Crom-     
well did believe in God's judgments; and did not         
believe in the rose-water plan of surgery; — which,        
in fact, is this editor's case too!           
  "The reader of Cromwell's Letters, . . .  who still       
looks with a recognizing eye on the ways of the      
Supreme Powers with this world, will find here, in       
the rude practical state, a phenomenon which he      
will account noteworthy.  An armed soldier, solemnly      
conscious to himself that he is a soldier of God       
the Just, — a consciousness which it well beseems        
all soldiers and all men to have always, — armed       
soldiers, terrible as Death, relentless as Doom; doing     
God's judgments on the enemies of God!  It is a      
phenomenon not of joyful nature; no, but of aw-     
ful, to be looked at with pious terror and awe."          
   Finally, whether we justify this or any like applica-      
tion of Joshua's example in later times, there        
remains (as, indeed, is implied in the passage     
just quoted) one permanent lesson, — the duty of       
keeping alive in the human heart the sense of burn-       
ing indignation against moral evil, — against selfish-      
ness, against injustice, against untruth, in ourselves      
as well as in others.  That is as much a part of the       
Christian as of the Jewish dispensation.  In this case,       
the severe curse of the Psalm on which Chrysostom      
comments is still true.  "Do not I hate them that       
hate thee?  yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred,     
even as though they were mine enemies."  It is im-         
portant to divide between the evil principle and the      
person in whose mixed character the evil is found.    
To make such a distinction is one main peculiarity     
of the Gospel.  But it is also important to hate the        
evil with an undivided and perfect hatred.  "A good       
hater" in this sense, is a character required alike       
by the Gospel and the Law.  And the evil, which, ac-     
cording to the imperfect twilight of those times, was        
confounded with those in whom it was personified,      
was one which even at this distance we see to have        
been of portentious magnitude.  It has been well       
shown that the results of the discipline of the Jew-      
ish nation may be summed up in two points, — a       
settled national belief in the unity and spirituality of         
God, and an acknowledgement of the paramount im-       
portance of purity, as a part of morality; and further,     
that these two ideas are cardinal points in the edu-        
cation of the world.  It was these two points espe-       
cially which were endangered by the contact and     
contamination of the idolatry and the sensuality of     
Phœnician tribes.  "It is better" — so spoke a theo-        
logian of no fanatical tendency, in a strain, it may be,     
of excessive, but still of noble indignation — "it is        
better that the wicked should be destroyed a hun-        
dred times over than that they should tempt those          
who are as yet innocent to join their company.        
Let us but think what might have been our fate,     
and the fate of every other nation under heaven at       
this hour, had the sword of the Israelites done its         
work more sparingly.  Even as it was, the small      
portions of the Canaanites who were left, and the       
nations around them, so tempted the Israelites by      
their idolatrous practices, that we read continually     
of the whole people of God turning away from his     
service.  But had the heathen lived in the land in        
equal numbers, and, still more, had they intermar-      
ried largely with the Israelites, how was it possible,      
humanly speaking, that any sparks of the light of        
God's truth should have survived to the coming of     
Christ?  Would not the Israelites have lost all their        
peculiar character? and if they had retained the      
name of Jehovah as of their God, would they not      
have formed as unworthy notions of his attributes,        
and worshipped with a worship as abominable,      
as that which the Moabites paid to Chemosh, or     
the Philistines to Dagon?        
   "But this was not to be, and therefore the nations     
of Canaan were to be cut off utterly.  The Israel-      
ites' sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a        
work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to      
the very end of the world.  They seem of very       
small importance to us now, those perpetual contests       
with the Canaanites, and the Midianites, and the       
Ammonites, and the Philistines, with which the Books     
of Joshua and Judges and Samuel are almost filled.        
We may half wonder that God should have inter-        
fered in such quarrels, or have changed the course     
of nature, in order to give one of the nations of       
Palestine the victory over another.  But in these       
contests, on the fate of one of these nations of Pal-         
estine, the happiness of the human race depended.       
The Israelites fought not for themselves only, but      
for us.  It might follow that they should thus be        
accounted the enemies of all mankind, — it might        
be that they were tempted by their very distinct-      
ness to despise other nations; still they did God's       
work, — still they preserved unhurt the seed of      
eternal life, and were the ministers of blessing to     
all other nations, even though they themselves failed     
to enjoy it."         

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
Lecture XI: The conquest of Western Palestine — Battle of Beth-horon
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 266-285