hen he let down his hand the Amalekites prevailed. To ensure
victory, Aaron and Hur stood on either side of him, and held up his
hands until the sun set. By this means Joshua discomfited the Amalekites
with great slaughter. Moses built an altar to celebrate the event,
and God swore that he would "have war with Amelek from generation to
generation." As Jehovah's vengeance was so lasting, it is no wonder that
his worshipers carried on their wars ever afterwards on the most hellish
principles.

In the thirty-first chapter of Numbers we read that 12,000 Israelites
warred against Midian. The brag of the chronicler is evident in this
number or in those which follow. This little army polished off all the
kings of Midian, burnt all their cities and castles, slew 48,000 men,
and carried off 100,000 captives, besides, 675,000 sheep, 72,000 oxen,
and 61,000 asses. What prodigious spoil there was in those days! Of the
captives Moses ordered 48,000 women and 20,000 boys to be massacred in
cold blood; while the remaining 32,000 "women that had not known man
by lying with him" were reserved for another fate. The Lord's share of
these was thirty-two! They were of course handed over to the priests
as his representatives. Parsons, who rail against the immorality of
scepticism, say that this is all true.

These Midianites were a tough lot; for although they were _all killed_
on this occasion, and their cities and castles burnt, we find them a
powerful nation again in the sixth of _Judges_, and able to prevail
against the Jews for seven years.

Another people badly punished by the Jews were the inhabitants of Bashan.
All their cities were destroyed to the number of sixty. Their king, Og,
was a gigantic fellow, and slept on an iron bed twelve feet long. The
cities of Heshbon were destroyed in the same way. All the men, women,
and children, were slaughtered. Not one was spared.

We shall hereafter follow the Jews under Joshua. For the present we must
content ourselves with a last reference to their wanderings under Moses.
While they were encamped round Mount Sinai, their leader received an
invitation to go up and visit God who had been staying there for six
days. They had much to talk about, and the interview lasted forty days
and forty nights. At the end of it Moses descended, carrying with him
the Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God on two tables of
stone. In his absence the Wandering Jews had given him up as lost, and
had i