John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 12

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 12


Today is: Thursday, March 28th, 2024 (Show Today's Devotion)

Select a Day for a Devotion in the Month of June: (Show All Months)

Nomad Aggressions

Jdg_6:1-6

The next oppression under which the Israelites fell for their sins, after forty years of rest, well deserves our consideration, involving, as it does, a form of calamitous visitation still but too well known in settled countries bordered by tribes of nomad habits, always on the watch for any signs of weakness which may enable them to enter the land.

The old enemies of Israel, the Midianites, had, in the course of two hundred years, recovered strength. Living on the borders, between cultivated countries and the desert, between settled nations and Arabian tribes, they showed the habits of both. Their semi-nomad character is indicated, at the time of their overthrow by Gideon, where “the ornaments that were about their camels’ necks” formed no mean portion of the spoil. They now began to move against the Hebrews. The remembrance of Israel’s ancient might made them feel, probably, that they were not strong enough to act by themselves; besides which they might apprehend that the engagement of their forces in a distant expedition, would tempt the neighboring tribes to ravage their own land. They therefore engaged these tribes to unite with them in an undertaking so congenial to their habits, and so promising of the kind of spoil they most desired. The presence of these tribes, among whom were the most ancient and inveterate enemies of Israel, the Amalekites, gave, by the predominance of their numbers in the united host, an entirely Bedouin character to the expedition.

It does not appear that there was any general action in opposition to them, when they came up with their flocks and herds to devour the land. Their numbers seem to have been too enormously great to allow the thought of opposition to this dreadful incursion to be entertained. It is emphatically stated, that “they came up like locusts”—an image which conveys a lively idea of both their countless numbers and their cruel ravages. Like locusts “they destroyed the increase of the earth; and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.” They came up, doubtless, as is now the custom, at the commencement of summer, before the time of harvest—which they gathered, or appropriated to their own use, after the peasants had cut it down—and remained till after the season of autumnal fruits, which they in like manner appropriated, their flocks and herds meanwhile consuming all the herbage of the land. To this would be added severe exactions in money from the people, and the violent seizure of whatever seemed good in their eyes. At the present day, something of the same state of things prevails in the different parts of Syria, and particularly in the country beyond the Jordan, once occupied by the people of Moab, and by the tribes of Reuben and Gad. One cannot take up a book relating to that region without being able to gather from it abundant facts in illustration of Israel’s oppression under the Midianites. We will produce some of these presently; but let us go on now to observe, that these things occurring—the peasantry finding it useless to sow what they may not reap, after a few years abandon the culture of the ground, whence arises the utmost extremity of want. They consider, however, that since they must want, it is as well to want without, as with, bestowing their strength upon the culture from which they are allowed no benefit—and they may also hope that the spoiler will desist from that degree of violence which destroys the source of his own gains. Their only resource is then to abandon their homes, and repair to the mountains, if in them they can find or make habitable retreats, however wretched, in the caves and dens. With such retreats Palestine is abundantly provided; and we read, accordingly, that “because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens that are in the mountains, and the caves and strongholds.” In general, when the Arab tribes suspect things are coming to this extremity, and in order not thereby to cut off their own resources, they agree to accept a kind of annual ransom for the harvest—which is generally very heavy, and aggravated by extraordinary extortions and violence—no limit being sought but just that between what shall induce cultivation for a mere existence—a scanty and miserable one—and what shall cause all cultivation to be abandoned in despair. The Midianites had overstepped this limit, and had caused the cultivation to be given up, except in some remote places; and had thus driven the people to their retreats in the mountains—returning to their homes, probably, in the winter, when the enemy had for the time retreated to his deserts. But had this domination continued, the Arab tribes, having grown into the habit of periodical occupation of this rich land, would have found it their interest, so far to relax the rigor of their oppression as to enable the people to resume the cultivation of which they were to reap the substantial benefits.

It is, with good reason, supposed to have been during the scarcity occasioned by this abandonment of cultivation, that Elimelech and his family withdrew into the land of Moab—and that to the discontinuance of the oppression and the return of plenty, we are to refer the return of his widow and her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to the land of Israel.

We now give a few notes from travelers in illustration of the state of oppression which has been indicated—

We may begin with the latest—Lieut. Lynch, the commander of the American expedition for the exploration of the Dead Sea. The party made a trip to Kerak, a place of historical celebrity, about twelve miles to the east of the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, the main body of the inhabitants of which are Christians. The writer repeats the information he obtained from Abd’Allah, the Christian sheikh of the town—“They are kept in subjection by the Muslim Arabs, living mostly in huts outside the town. He stated that they are in every manner imposed upon. If a Muslim [Arab] comes into the town, instead of going to the house of another Muslim, he quarters himself upon a Christian, and appropriates the best of everything; that christian families have been two days together without food—all that they had having been consumed by their self-invited guests. If a Muslim sheikh buys a horse for so many sheep, he makes the Christians contribute till the number be made up. Their property, he said, is seized at will, without their being any one to whom to appeal; and remonstrance on their part only makes it worse. Already a great many have been driven away—poverty alone keeping the remainder….. The locusts and the sirocco have for the last seven years blasted their fields, and nearly all spared by them has been swept away by the Muslims.” Note: Narrative of Expedition to the Dead Sea, p. 362.

So Buckhardt, in speaking of the Bedouins of the Haouran, beyond the Jordan, says that they are of two classes—those who are resident, and those who visit it in the spring and summer only. “By resident, I do not mean that they have fixed habitations, but that their wanderings are confined to the Haouran, or some particular districts of it.” But besides these, “in May the whole Haouran is covered with swarms of wanderers from the desert, who remain there till September. They come for a twofold purpose, water and pasturage for the summer, and a supply of corn for the winter. The oppressions of the government on the one hand, and of these Bedouins on the other, have reduced the fellah (cultivator) to a state little better than that of the wandering Arabs. Few individuals die in the same village where they were born. Families are continually moving from one place to another. In the first year of their new settlement, the sheikh acts with moderation towards them; but his vexations being in a few years insupportable, they fly to some other place, where they have heard that their brethren are better treated; but they soon find that the same system prevails over the whole country. This continued wandering is one of the principal reasons why no village of the Haouran has either orchards, or fruit-trees, or gardens for the growth of vegetables. ‘Shall we sow for strangers?’ was the answer of a fellah to whom I once spoke on the subject.” Note: Travels in Syria, pp. 306-308. All these tribes, whether resident or visitant, consider themselves entitled to certain tributes from all the villages, in consideration of which they abstain from touching the harvest of the village, and from driving off its cattle and camels, when they meet them in the way. The amount of this tribute is continually increasing, for the Arab sheikh is not always contented with the quantity of corn he received the preceding year, but asks something additional as a present, which soon becomes a part of his accustomed dues. Besides this, depredations are often committed beyond the possibility of redress. Note: Travels in Syria, pp. 301, 302.