Page:The Ancient Scriptures and the Modern Jew (Baron, David).djvu/336

 APPENDIX

manner of the visions of the prophets is described in the twelfth chapter of Numbers, " If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream" (see verses 6-8). By the Urim and Thummim, therefore, must have been given signs and directions only, as it is said, " He shall ask counsel for him (viz., the priest shall ask for Joshua) after the judgment (or directions) of the Urim," not " after the words of the Urim," for it never answered by words. We have seen now how Joshua was ordered by God to come before the priest with every doubtful matter, and ask direction of the Urim. Let us now see what was the first difficulty in judgment that occurred in the times of Joshua, and how he asked counsel of the Urim. When Achan committed a trespass, in that he took of the accursed things of Jericho, the wrath of God was kindled against Israel, and they were defeated in their expedition against Ai. Joshua, therefore, rent his garments, and cast himself down in dust and ashes before the ark of the Lord (see Josh. vii. 7-9). Then we read in verse 10, " And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face ? Israel hath sinned ; they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them ; for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and have put among their own stuff." It was evident that the Lord spoke these words unto Joshua in the same manner as he spoke to the other prophets, namely, in a vision. When Joshua lay upon his face mourning and supplicating, he fell into a trance, and the Lord communicated unto him the reason of the punishment which he had sent upon Israel. But the name of the criminal the Lord did not tell unto him.

As this was a public affair, the searching and finding out of the guilty individual was to be done by the oracle Urim, and publicly. Therefore the Lord was pleased, to show unto Joshua, for the first time, how to use the oracle and how to find out the guilty person who had the accursed things. We read : " Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to- morrow : for thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel ; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning, therefore, ye shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof ; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households ; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man " (Josh. vii. 13, 14).

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