Till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the
mountain of thine inheritance,
The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

{189}{190}

[Illustration]
SHEPHERD WITH HIS FLOCK NEAR TEKOA
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood
and used by special permission.

Two of the great prophets of Israel lived in this region, Amos at
Tekoa and Jeremiah at Anathoth. It is a wild and desolate region

"The wilderness of Judea played a great part in her history as the
refuge of political fugitives and religious solitaries--a part which
it still continues. The story of Saul's hunt after David and of
David's narrow escapes becomes very vivid among those tossed and
broken hills, where the valleys are all alike and large bodies of
men may camp near each other without knowing it. Ambushes are
everywhere possible and alarms pass rapidly across the bare and
silent hills. You may travel for hours and feel as solitary as at
sea without a sail in sight; but if you are in search of anyone,
your guide's signal will make men leap from slopes that did not seem
to shelter a rabbit, and if you are suspected, your passage may be
stopped by a dozen men as though they had sprung from the earth."
[End illustration]

{191}

THE WANDERINGS IN THE WILDERNESS

THE RED SEA IS LEFT BEHIND AND THE MARCH TO CANAAN IS BEGUN.

_The Bitter Water of Marah_.

And Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into
the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness,
and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink
of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it
was called "Marah," that is, bitter.

And the people murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, and he cast
it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made for
them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them; and he
said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy
God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, and wilt give ear to
his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the
diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am the
Lord that healeth thee."

And