de all those covenants with other
gods which Isaiah denounced.

=Laws helping the oppressed.=--All the prophets had been on the side
of the poor and the weak, against the rich and powerful who oppressed
them. The authors of the book of Deuteronomy tried to shape this new
law so as more fully to protect the poor. They made stronger all the
older laws which were intended to make life a little easier for the
weak and unfortunate, and they added others: for example, laws
protecting debtors against greedy and merciless creditors, and laws
forbidding the extremely harsh penalties which poor men were sometimes
made to suffer by rich judges.

There was an ancient law requiring that any Hebrew who had fallen into
a state of slavery on account of debt must be set free after seven
years. The new law book included this law, and added that the master
must not send him away emptyhanded at the end of the seven years, but
must give him food and clothes enough to keep him alive while he
looked for a chance to work and earn money for himself. The new law
also protected fugitive slaves from other countries. They were not to
be returned to their owners.

=A compromise.=--All of the four reformer-prophets whom we have
studied had condemned the offerings and animal sacrifices of the old
worship, not only because of the idolatry and other heathen and
immoral practices connected with them, but also on the ground that
Jehovah did not want sacrifices anyway, but only justice and love.

But the authors of the new law did not abolish sacrifices altogether.
They provided that all the small shrines, called "high places," such
as at Hebron or Gibeon, and all up and down the country should be
destroyed, but that sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem and only
there. The old-time religious feasts, such as the Passover, could no
longer be celebrated at home. All the people must come up to Jerusalem
for them. No doubt it was thought that this would help to put down
idolatry.

THE ADOPTION OF THE NEW LAW

Manasseh reigned fifty-five years. It was a long, weary time of
waiting for the disciples of the prophets. The new law book was put
away in one of the closets of the temple for safe-keeping. The years
went by and most of the men who helped to write it died. At last,
however, the end came for Manasseh. After a short period his grandson,
Josiah, who was only eight years old, became king. The boy's older
relatives and friends were all against t