ii. 21,
Reuben has been substituted in the existing text for Judah.

*** Gen. xxi. 31, 33; xxii. 19; the importance of Beersheba as a holy
place resorted to by pilgrims from the northern kingdom is shown in 1
Kings xix. 3, and Amos v. 5; viii. 14.

**** Gen. xx. 3-8; xxviii. 11-15; xxxi 24; Numb. xxii. 8-12, 20.

Indeed, such cases of active interference are of rare occurrence, and
He prefers to accomplish His purpose through human agents, who act
unconsciously, or even in direct contravention of their own clearly,
expressed intentions.* Moreover it was only by degrees that He revealed
His true nature and title; the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
Joseph, had called Him Elohim, or "the gods," and it was not until
the coming of Moses that He disclosed His real name of Jahveh to His
worshippers.**

* Gen. 1. 20, end of the story of Joseph: "And as for you,
ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to
bring it to pass as it is this day, to save much people
alive."

** Exod. iii. 13, 14; verse 15 is an interpolation of much
later date.

[Illustration: 200.jpg Prayer at Sunset]

After Painting by Gerome

[Illustration: 200-text.jpg]

In a word, this new historian shows us in every line that the
theological instinct has superseded popular enthusiasm, and his work
loses unmistakably in literary interest by the change. We feel that
he is wanting in feeling and inspiration; his characters no longer
palpitate with life; his narrative drags, its interest decreases, and
his language is often deficient in force and colour. But while writers,
trained in the schools of the prophets, thus sought to bring home to
the people the benefits which their God had showered on them, the people
themselves showed signs of disaffection towards Him, or were, at
any rate, inclined to associate with Him other gods borrowed from
neighbouring states, and to overlay the worship they rendered Him
with ceremonies and ideas inconsistent with its original purity. The
permanent division of the nation into two independent kingdoms had had
its effect on their religion as well as on their political life, and
had separated the worshippers into two hostile camps. The inhabitants of
Judah still continued to build altars on their high places, as they had
done in the time before David; there, the devout prostrated themselves
before the sacred stones and before the Asherah, or went in unto
the _kedeshot