The war-cry of the Hebrews was not intonated by the ensign-bearers, as in the West, but by a Levite; for priests had likewise charge of the trumpets and the sounding of signals ; and one of them, called " the anoint- ed for war," who is said to have had the charge of ani- mating the army to action by an oration, may have been appointed to utter the cry of battle (Dent, xx, 2). It was a mere shout (1 Sam. xvii, 20), or, as in later ages. Hallelujah ! while the so-called mottoes of the central banners of the four great sides of the square of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim,and Dan were more likely the battle- songs which each of the fronts of the might}' army had sung on commencing the march or advancing to do bat- tle (Numb. X, 34, 35, 36; Deut. vi, 4). These verses may have been sung even before the two books wherein they are now found were written, and indeed the sense of the text indicates a past tense. It was to these, we think, Jehoshaphat addressed himself when about to engage the Moabites : he ordered '• the singers before the Lord" to chant the response (2 Chron. xx, 21), " Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever." With regard to the pass-word, the sign of mutual recognition occurs in Judg. vii, 18, when, after the men had blown their trumpets and shown light, they cried, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon" — a repetition of the very words over- heard by that chief while watching the hostile army.
Before an engagement the Hebrew soldiers were spared fatigue as much as possible, and food was dis- tributed to them ; their arms were enjoined to be in the best order, and they formed a line, as before described, of solid squares of hundreds, each square being ten deep, and as many in breadth, with sufficient intervals be- tween the tiles to allow of facility in the movements, the management of the arms, and the passage to the front or rear of slingers and archers. These last occu- pied posts according to circumstances, on the flanks or in advance, but in the heat of battle were sheltered be- hind the squares of spearmen ; the slingers were always stationed in the rear, until they were ordered forward to cover the front, impede a hostile approach, or com- mence an engagement, somewhat in the manner of mod- ern skirmishers. Meantime the king, or his represent- ative, appeared clad in the sacred ornaments (^"i"lln lU"1p, hadrey kodesh, in our version rendered " the beauty of holiness," Psa. ex, 3 ; 2 Chron. xx, 21), and proceeded to make the final dispositions for battle, in the middle of his chosen braves, and attended bj- priests, who, by their exhortations, animated the ranks within hearing, while the trumpets waited to sound the signal. It was now, with the enemy at baud, we may suppose, that the
slingers would be ordered to pass forward between the intervals of the line, and, opening their order, would let fly their stone or leaden missiles, until, by the gradual approach of the ojjposing fronts, they would be hemmed in and recalled to the rear, or ordered to take an appro- priate position. Then was the time when the trumpet- bearing priests received command to sound the charge, and when the shout of battle burst forth from the ranks. The signal being given, the heavy infantry would press forward under cover of their shields, with the IT^I, ru- mach, protruded directly upon the front of the enemy ; the rear ranks might then, when so armed, cast their darts, and the archers, behind them all, shoot high, so as to pitch their arrows over the lines before them into the dense masses of the enemy beyond. If the opposing forces broke through the line, we may imagine a body of charioteers in reserve rushing from their post and cliarg- ing in among the disjointed ranks of the enem}' before they could reconstruct their order; or, wheeling round a flank, fall upon the rear; or being encountered by a similar manceuvre, and perhaps repulsed, or rescued by Hebrew cavalry. The king, meanwhile, surrounded by his princes, posted close to the rear of his line of battle, and, in the middle of showered missiles, would watch the enemy and strive to remedy every disorder. Thus it was that several of the sovereigns of Judah were slain (2 Chron. xviii, 33 ; xxxv, 23), and that such an enor- mous waste of human life took place; for two hostile lines of masses, at least ten in depth, advancing under the confidence of breastplate and shield, when once en- gaged hand to hand, had difficulties of no ordinary nat- ure to retreat; because the hindermost ranks, not being exposed personally to the first slaughter, would not, and the foremost could not, fall back ; neither could the commanders disengage the line without a certainty of being routed. The fate of the day was therefore no longer within the control of the chief, and nothing but obstinate valor was left to decide the victory. Hence, with the stubborn character of the Jews, battles fought among themselves were particularly sanguinary ; such, for example, as that in which Jeroboam, king of Israel, was defeated by Abijah of Judah (xiii, 3-17), wherein, if there be no error of copyists, there was a greater slaughter than in ten such battles as that of Leipsie, al- though on that occasion three hundred and fifty thou- sand combatants were engaged for three successive days, provided with all the implements of modern destruction in full activity. Under such circumstances defeat led to irretrievable confusion, and, where either party pos- sessed superiority in cavalry and chariots of war, it would be materially increased; but where the infantry alone had principally to pursue a broken enemy, that force, loaded with shields and preserving order, could overtake very few who chose to abandon their defensive armor, unless they were hemmed in by the locality. Sometimes a part of the army was posted in ambush, but this manoeuvre was most commonly practiced against the garrisons of cities (Josh, viii, 12 ; Judg. xx, 38). In the case of Abraham (Gen. xiv, 15), when he led a small body of his own people, suddenh' collected, and, falling upon the guard of the captives, released them, and re- covered the booty, it was a surprise, not an ambush ; nor is it necessarj' to suppose that he fell in with the main army of the enemy. At a later period there is no doubt the Hebrews formed their armies, in imitation of the Romans, into more than one line of masses, and modelled their military institutions as near as possible upoli the same system.