(a) This is the case almost exclusively in war. There the name of Jahweh is the connecting link which brings the otherwise heterogeneous elements into the closest union with one another, inspires them with enthusiasm, and leads them to victory. He is the war- God, Jahweh, whose commander-in-chief appears to Joshua in Gilgal (Jos 5'3%:) ;+ who, represented by the sacred Ark (see above, p. 628 f.), causes the walls of Jericho to fall down (Jos 6); and after the battle of Gibeon rains great stones upon the fleeing Canaanites (102), With peculiar energy the joyful confidence in Jahweh as the real leader in battle meets us in the Song of Deborah. The whole Song is meant, above all, to celebrate the praises of Jahweh (Jg p29 11) who left His dwelling-place on Sinai to hasten by Mt. Seir to the battlefield. He was the true leader in the fight, for the inhabitants of Meroz are cursed ‘because they came not to the help of Jahweh, to the help of J ahweh among the
* This statement alone probably belongs to the original text ; the rest here, as in 2 K 2313, is Deuteronomistic or still later expansion. The LXX has in part a different text.
+ The narrative now breaks off in the middle of a sentence. The close may have been deliberately suppressed because it contained a different explanation of the name *Gilgal’ from that given shortly before in 59,
636 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
heroes’ (v.24); on the other hand, ‘from heaven fought the stars, in their courses they fought against Sisera’ (v.”°). It is specially worth noting with what force expression is given also in other passages in the Song to the thought that on such an occasion it is the unconditional duty of the different tribes to take the field with Jahweh against the common foe. Hence the panegyric on the valiant tribes which showed their willingness for this service (vv.!8-"-18); and, on the other hand, the bitter scorn poured upon the dilatory ones (vv.>-!7), And the concluding verse once more lays the strongest emphasis upon the fact that the enemies of Israel are on that very account the enemies of Jahweh, but that glory and happi- ness attend on those who choose Him—
‘So must all thine enemies perish, O Jahweh :
But those that love him are as the rising of the sun in
his strength.’
The belief in a personal presence of Jahweh in decisive battles does not present itself, however, merely in highly strung poetry like the Song of Deborah. Apart from passages according to which He accompanies Israel into battle in the train of the Ark (see above, p. 628f.), David still declares, after his first decisive victory over the Philistines : ‘Jahweh hath broken mine enemies before me as waters break through (the dam),’ 2S 5°; and before the second battle he receives from Jahweh this oracle: ‘When thou hearest the noise of marching in the tops of the baka trees, set out ; for then is Jahweh gone forth to make a slaughter in the camp of the Philistines’ (v.”4).
Even if many usages which Israel practised in war, and which gave to war the appearance of an uninterrupted exercise of a religious function, date from the times of Polydemonism, and were origin- ally evoked by regard to the ‘ demons’ (see above, p. 621»), there is manifestly no longer any conscious- ness of this in the period with which we are now dealing. Israel’s wars are the ‘wars of Jahweh’ (Nu 214), The acts of consecration and the restraints to which warriors submit themselves have regard to Jahweh. Very instructive from this point of view is the very ancient narrative of 158 21%. The priest is prepared to give the sacred bread (the so-called. shewbread) to David only in case his pretended followers have kept themselves from women. David professes that it is so, and that his company set out with sacred ‘vessels’ (t.e., probably, clothes and weapons). David thus puts aside the fear that he and his companions are wanting in the purity required towards Jahweh. It was to Him then expressly that the consecration of the warrior was due. Even in Deuteronomy (23° (1°) ®-) the prescriptions about maintaining cleanliness in the camp, which in all probability have a Polydemonist motive, are in y.!* (5) based simply on the ground that ‘Jahweh thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee; there- fore shall thy camp be holy.’
(6) Again, as regards the frequent mention of the execution of the ‘ban’ (cf. above, p. 619” f.), we find all through this period no other supposition than that the devoting of human beings and of spoil is purely for the honour of Jahweh. So in Jos 674 71" 23" and especially 1S 15%3 where Samuel in the sequel executed the ‘ban’ upon the Amale- kite king Agag by hewing him to pieces ‘ before Jahweh’ (as one devoted to Jahweh) in Gilgal.
(c) The circumstance that during this period the character of Jahweh as the war-God is so prominent a feature in the conception of God, explains why now, for the first time, we make acquaintance with a designation of Jahweh which, beyond doubt, is originally connected with this side of His character, namely Jahweh Zéb@ oth (nsx),