congregation there; _and the land was
subdued before them_." Compare also xxi. 44, xxii. 4, where it is
remarked that at that time "the Lord gave them rest round about." (See
_Bachiene_, _Palestina_ ii. 3, S. 409 ff.) In the subjection of the
country,--in the rest which the Lord had given them from all round
about, they saw an earnest of, and a prelude to, the obedience of the
nations in general, and to the state of perfect rest which should take
place at some future time with the appearing of Shiloh. Victory, peace!
(_Siegfried!_) such was the watchword corresponding to the elevated
consciousness of the people. It is an elevation quite similar to that
which we so often perceive in the Psalms. "Sometimes there rises the
hope that the Gentiles shall, at some future period, be received among
the people of God--a hope based upon the experience of the Lord's
victorious power in the present, in which faith perceives a pledge of
the future subjection of the world's power under His sceptre. Thus, in
vers. 29-32 of Ps. lxviii., which was composed by David on the occasion
of his having, by the help of the Lord, conquered his most dangerous
enemies, the Aramites and Ammonites; in Ps. xlvii., written on the
occasion of Jehoshaphat's victory over several heathen nations; and in
Ps. lxxxvii., composed on the [Pg 90] ground of the joyful events under
Hezekiah, the germ of the hope for the conversion of the heathen, which
had all along lain dormant in the people, was developed."[17]

After the main power of the Canaanites had been broken by the
expeditions of all Israel under Joshua, Judah begins, at the command of
God, to expel the Canaanites from the territory assigned to him. In
Judges i. 1, 2, we read: "And the children of Israel asked the Lord,
Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites at the beginning to fight
against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up; behold, I deliver
the land into his hands." They were concerned to find out the tribe
who, by the decree of God, had been destined to be the fore-champion
for his brethren, and with whom they might be sure of a happy
commencement of the war. The short answer, "Judah shall go up," would
scarcely have been justified, had it not had a foundation in a previous
declaration of God's will. It indicates that Jacob's blessing upon
Judah still possessed its power.

In like manner, in the war against Benjamin, according to divine
direction, Judah goes up first to the battle, fo