death, the first Hebrew saw the smoke from Sodom and Gomorrah going
up "as the smoke of a furnace," and he also passed through the severe
trial of sacrificing his son Isaac. At the age of one hundred and
seventy-five "the father of the faithful" "gave up the ghost, and died
in a good old age, an old man and full of years, * * * and Isaac and
Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah," at Hebron, where
Sarah had been laid to rest when the toils and cares of life were over.

From Abraham, through Ishmael, descended the Ishmaelites; through
Midian, the Midianites; and through Isaac, the chosen people, called
Israelites, from Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. The
interesting story of Joseph tells how his father and brothers, with
their families, were brought into Egypt at the time of a famine, where
they grew from a few families to a great nation, capable of maintaining
an army of more than six hundred thousand men. A new king, "who knew
not Joseph," came on the throne, and after a period of oppression, the
exodus took place, about 1490 B.C., the leader being Moses, a man eighty
years of age. At his death, after forty years of wandering in the
wilderness, Joshua became the leader of Israel, and they crossed the
Jordan at Gilgal, a few miles north of the Dead Sea, capturing Jericho
in a peculiar manner. Two other incidents in the life of Joshua may
be mentioned here. One was his victory over the Amorites in the
neighborhood of Gibeon and Beth-horon, where more were slain by the
hailstones which Jehovah cast down upon them than were killed by Israel
with the sword. It was on this occasion that Joshua said: "Sun, stand
thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon. And
the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged
themselves of their enemies. * * * And there was no day like that before
or after it." The other event is the complete victory of Israel over the
immense army of Jabin, king of Hazor, fought at the Waters of Merom, in
Galilee. The combined forces of Jabin and several confederate kings,
"even as the sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with horses
and chariots very many," were utterly destroyed. Then came the allotment
of the territory west of the Jordan to the nine and a half tribes, as
Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had been assigned land east
of the river. The allotment was made by Joshua, Eleazer, the priest,
"and the heads of the f