CHAPTER XXVI. War-song of the Amorites. Applied by Moses to his own conquest. Dr. Kennicott's and Herder's versions of this song. IN the chapter* containing the Hebrew song to the well, there follows, from the twenty-seventh to the thirty-first verse, a poem of considerable beauty, as will be presently seen. It stands thus in the common version of our Bibles:"Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come unto Heshbon! Let the city of Sihon be built and prepared: A flame from the city of Sihon: It hath consumed Ar of Moab, And the lords of the high places of Arnon. Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: Unto Sihon, king of the Amorites. Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, And we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, This is evidently a war-song, written in commemoration of some success obtained against a former king of Moab by the Amorites, and now quoted by Moses to celebrate his own success. * Numbers xxi. It seems to have been a song in some repute at that time, it being quoted as the production of one of the poets of that period referred to by Moses as "they who speak in proverbs," and no doubt deservedly popular. It would appear, indeed, to have been a composition of considerable celebrity from the words which immediately precede it. "Wherefore they who speak in proverbs say;" by whom we shall understand bards or wise men, as the poets in those, and, indeed, in ages long subsequent, were called. There can be no doubt, from this song, that compositions not inspired, in which intellect of a high order was displayed, existed in those days, though they have long since passed into oblivion, together with a vast mass of human records, which did not contain within themselves the principles of enduring vitality. "This song," says Bishop Patrick, "seems to have been composed by some of the Amorites upon the victory which Sihon obtained over the Moabites, particularly upon the taking of Heshbon, which I suppose he besieged immediately upon the routing of their army. This Moses thought good to insert in his history, as an evidence that this country belonged to the Amorites when the Israelites subdued it. Thus he quotes a common saying about Nimrod, to justify what he says of his greatness (see Gen. x. 9)." It would seem, from the whole tenor of this fragment, that the country now subdued by the Israelites, that is, at the time of which Moses is writing, was previously in possession of the Amorites, who had taken it from the Moabites, and composed this triumphal song upon the occasion: Come unto Heshbon ! Let the city of Sihon be built and prepared. The poet here represents the victorious Amorites as addressing each other in a strain of triumphant rejoicing, and declaring that the Moabitish city of Heshbon, now become, by right of conquest, the city of the Amoritish king, Sihon, shall be repaired and rendered immediately fit for the royal residence. For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, A flame from the city of Sihon : It hath consumed Ar of Moab, And the lords of the high places of Arnon. The bard now rises into a poetical orgasm, and predicts the conquest of the entire country by the army of Sihon marching out of Heshbon, fire being emblematical of desolation. He then speaks of that as being done which he predicts shall be done, the present being frequently employed for the future in prophetic poetry, among which this song may be classed; for although the bard who composed it was not inspired, and therefore his prediction never came to pass, it being written in accordance with his hopes of the future, not with his knowledge of it, yet it was intended, no doubt, by him to be prophetical. The lords of the high places of Arnon is understood to mean the princes of Moab, who dwelt in the strong forts of their country, built upon the heights in the neighbourhood of the river Arnon, and difficult of access by an invading army. Woe to thee, Moab! Thou art undone, O people of Chemosh : Unto Sihon, king of the Amorites. The author of the song still goes on depicting the future calamities of Moab. He calls them people of Chemosh, because this was the name of their divinity, whom he shows was unable to deliver his worshippers out of their tribulation. The impotence of their god is at once shown, together with the vanity of idolatrous worship. In this passage, the bard of the Amorites is, though undesignedly, no doubt, as severe against his own nation as against the vanquished Moabites. We have shot at them, that is, we have vanquished them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, And we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, As if he had said, 'the glory of the Moabites is departed, from one end of the country to the other.' Dr. Kennicott's version of this extremely happy: poem is FIRST PART. Come ye to Heshbon, let it be rebuilt; And a flame from the city of Sihon : SECOND PART. Alas for thee, O Moab ! Thou hast perished, O people of Chemosh! And his daughters, into captivity THIRD PART. But on them we lifted destruction We have destroyed even to Nophah: The "The ode is here divided into three parts. The first six lines record with bitter irony the late insults of Sihon and his subjects over the conquered Moabites. The second part, comprised in the five lines following the first part, expresses the compassion of the Israelites over the desolations of Moab, with a severe sarcasm against their god Chemosh, who had abandoned his votaries in their distress, or was unable to rescue them from the hands of their foes. third part, embracing the four concluding lines, sets forth the revenge taken by Israel upon the whole country of Sihon, from Heshbon to Dibon, and from Nophah even to Medeba.”* If this latter observation be exclusively true of the Israelitish conquest, it is clear that the third part cannot belong to the original Amoritish song, but must have been added by Moses. It is, however, probable that Moses merely applied * See Dr. Adam Clarke's note. |