itled to look to him for help
in every emergency. Jehovah had no other people; he was entirely
bound up with Israel, he must, if only for his own honour, come to
the aid of his own people when they needed him. He never could permit
Israel to suffer any fatal injury, such as deportation to a foreign
country. Religious faith forbade the thought that such a thing was
possible; if Israel was destroyed, where would Israel's religion be?
It was utter impiety, therefore, to doubt that Israel was safe, that
Jehovah watched over his own land and his own people, or that he
would guard them from any fatal harm. If, on the other hand, as was
too often the case, Israel had to submit to injury and insult from
other peoples, there could be no doubt that Jehovah took notice of
the fact, and that in due time he would set things right. It might be
some time before his attention was sufficiently directed to the case;
he might be waiting till more of the same kind of occurrences took
place before he finally interposed; but the time would come, the "Day
of the Lord" would arrive in due season, when the spoilers and
insulters of Israel would be dealt with according to their deserts,
and Israel set on high in full deliverance and peace.

Criticism of the Old Religion by the Prophets.--The prophets,
impressed more deeply than the people by the moral character of
Jehovah, and under the pressure of great national dangers and
calamities, attained to views of God and of his ways so different
from those current at the time as to appear, when first produced,
most unpatriotic and even impious. In their character of seers they
foresaw with clearness the terrible catastrophes which were about to
burst upon their people. Amos prophesies that Israel will be carried
away captive out of his land; Isaiah announces the same thing in the
southern kingdom, and declares that only a remnant shall return.
These men are in no doubt as to the impending political annihilation
of Israel, and they set themselves to find some reason for an
occurrence so portentous, so impossible to harmonise with ordinary
religious faith. They account for it by a view of the nature of
Jehovah far exalted above that of their people. He is punishing them
for their iniquities, they say, he is so righteous that he must
punish sin, and he must punish the sin of Israel his beloved people
not less strictly, but more strictly than that of other peoples. As a
husband whose wife has gone astray