IV. NO “SMITH” IN ISRAEL

I have said that the Canaanites, who were spared by the Israelites after the first encounter with them, partly that they might derive from the conquered race a tribute, and partly that they might employ them in the servile offices of hewing wood and drawing water, by degrees recovered their spirit, waged war successfully against their invaders, and for many years mightily oppressed Israel. The Philistines, the most formidable of the inhabitants of Canaan, and those under whom the Israelites suffered the most severely, added policy to power. For at their bidding it came to pass (and probably the precaution was adopted by others besides the Philistines), that “there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords and spears. But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.” [1 Sam. 13:19.] Such is said to have been the rigorous law of the conquerors. The workers in iron were everywhere put down, lest, under pretence of making implements for the husbandman, they should forge arms for the rebel. Now that some such law was actually in force (I am not aware that direct mention is made of it except in this one passage), is a fact confirmed by a great many incidents, some of them very trifling and inconsiderable, none of them related or connected, but all of them turned by this one key.

Thus, when Ehud prepared to dispatch Eglon the King of Moab, to whom the Israelites were then subject, “he made him” (we are told) “a dagger, which had two edges, of a cubit length, and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh;” [Judges 3:16.] he made it himself, it seems, expressly for the occasion, and he bound it upon his right thigh, instead of his left, which was the sword-side, to baffle suspicion; whilst, being left-handed, he could wield it nevertheless. Moreover it may be observed, in passing, that Ehud was a Benjamite [Judges. 3:15.] ; and that of the Benjamites, when their fighting men turned out against Israel in the affair of Gibeah, there were seven hundred choice slingers left-handed [Judges. 2:16.] ; and that of this discomfited army, six hundred persons escaped to the rock Rimmon, none so likely as the light-armed; and that this escape is dated by one of our most careful investigators of Scripture, Dr. Lightfoot, at thirteen years before Ehud’s accession [Lightfoot’s Works, i. 44–47.] . What, then, is more probable—yet I need not say how incidental is this touch of truth—than that this left-handed Ehud, a Benjamite, was one who survived of those seven hundred left-handed slingers, who were Benjamites?

Thus, again, Shamgar slays six hundred of the Philistines with an ox-goad [Judges 3:31.] ; doubtless having recourse to an implement so inconvenient, because it was not permitted to carry arms or to have them in possession.

Thus Samson, when he went down to Timnath with no very friendly feeling towards the Philistines, however he might feign it, nor at a moment of great political tranquillity, was still unarmed; so that when “the young lion roared against him, he rent him, as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand.” [Judges. 14:5, 6.] And when the same champion slew a thousand of the Philistines, it was with a jaw-bone, for he had no other choice. “Was there a shield or a spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?” [Judges 5:8.]

All these are indications, yet very oblique ones, that no smith or armourer wrought throughout all the land of Israel; for it will be perceived, on examination, that every one of these incidents occurred at times when the Israelites were under subjection.

Moreover, it was probably in consequence of this same restrictive law, that the sling became so popular a weapon amongst the Israelites. It does not appear that it was known, or at least used, under Moses. Whilst Israel was triumphant, it was not needed: in those happier days, her fighting-men were men that “drew the sword.” In the days of her oppression they were driven to the use of more ignoble arms. The sling was readily constructed, and readily concealed. Whilst a staff or hempen-stalk grew in her fields, and a smooth stone lay in her brooks, this artillery at least was ever forthcoming. It was not a very fatal weapon, unless wielded with consummate skill. The Philistines despised it: Goliath, we may remember, scorns it as a weapon against a dog: but, by continual application to the exercise of it (for it was now their only hope), the Israelites converted a rude and rustic plaything into a formidable engine of war. That troop of Benjamites, of whom I have already spoken, had taken pains to make themselves equally expert with either hand—(every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth and not miss)—and the precision with which David directed it, would not perhaps be thought extraordinary amongst the active and practised youths of his day.

These particulars, it will be perceived, are many and divers; and though they might not of themselves have enabled us to draw them into an induction that the inhabitants of Canaan withheld from Israel the use of arms; yet, when we are put in possession of the single fact, that no smith was allowed throughout all Israel, we are at once supplied with the centre towards which they are one and all perceived to converge.

I know not how incidents of the kind here produced can be accounted for, except by the supposition that they are portions of a true and actual history; and they who may feel that there is in them some force, but who may at the same time feel that fuller evidence is wanted to compel their assent to a Scripture which makes upon them demands so large; who secretly whisper to themselves, in the temper of the incredulous Jew of old, “We would see a sign;” or of him who mocked, saying, “Let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe”—let such calmly and dispassionately consider, that there could be no room for faith, if there were no room for doubt; that the scheme of our probation requires, perhaps as a matter of necessity, that faith should be in it a very chief ingredient; that the exercise of faith (as we may partly perceive), both the spirit which must foster it, and the spirit which must issue from it, is precisely what seems fit for moulding us into vessels for future honour; that natural religion lifts up its voice to tell us, that in this world we are undoubtedly living under the dispensation of a God, who has given us probability, and not demonstration, for the principle of our ordinary guidance; and that He may be therefore well disposed to proceed under a similar dispensation, with regard to the next world, trying thereby who is the “wise servant”—who is reasonable in his demands for evidence, for such He rejects not; and who is presumptuous, for such He still further hardens;—saying to the one with complacency and satisfaction, “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these;” [John 1:50.] and to the other, in sorrow and rebuke, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” [John 20:29.]