BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
THE PROMISED LAND.
The way from Raphia to Gaza was travelled with very different feelings by the several members of our party.
Helon, as he proceeded, was constantly looking to the right, towards the hills of Judah, which rose black and dark in the starry night, to the eastward of the road which they travelled along the coast. His feelings grew more intense with every glance; passages from the Psalms and the Prophets perpetually rose to his lips; and all the fatigues of the journey over the stony and sandy soil were forgotten in the reflection, that every step brought him nearer to the Promised Land. The history of his people passed in review before his mind, and his imagination applied every thing around him to cherish the illusion. Instead of a caravan of Phœnician traders, he seemed to be in the pastoral encampments of Abraham; with Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness; in the caravan of the queen of Sheba, when she came to visit Solomon; or amongst the exiles returning with Zerubbabel, to rebuild the ruined sanctuary.
Elisama was seated on his horse, his mind full of the glory of Israel which was about to be revealed; in the midst of the bitterness against the heathens, which was become a necessary excitement to his aged heart, and the inward ill-will which he harboured against Myron, he rejoiced in the triumph which he had gained over him by his narrative, which had been so complete, as to force the Greek, at last, to assent to the praises of Israel.
Myron’s feelings were of a very mixed kind, and some of them far from being pleasant. He felt the Jewish pride in all its force, and was perpetually tempted to keep it within bounds, by applying to it the keen edge of Attic wit. Yet when he reflected on the other hand, that the society of these Jews had enabled him to pass his time more pleasantly and instructively, than he would have done among the Phœnicians, and that the journey was now at an end, he thought it was not worth while to offend them, and so held his peace. He had a further reason for not wishing to come to a rupture with his fellow-travellers, that he might not lose the invitation to Jerusalem upon which he reckoned. For, notwithstanding all that was offensive to him, he could not but acknowledge, that the Jews were a people in the highest degree remarkable, and he had a great curiosity to see what they were in their native land, where he had often been told they could alone be fairly judged of.
With these feelings they came late at night to [Gaza]. Elisama, while the tents were erecting, paid the conductor of the caravan the sum agreed upon for the journey. As he intended, according to the ancient custom of his people, to make the journey to the passover on foot, he had already bargained with some one in the caravan for the purchase of the horses. They reposed for some hours, and rose again before the dawn.
The caravan still lay buried in profound slumber. By the time that the camels were loaded and themselves ready to depart, the morning began to dawn, and a singular spectacle was unfolded by it. The camels were crouching in a wide circle around the baggage, the horses, and the merchandise; and their long necks and little heads rose like towers above a wall. The men had encamped round fires or in tents. Most of the fires had burnt out, only here and there dying embers occasionally shot a flame, which feebly illuminated the singular groups around. Within the great circle all was still, save that the watchmen with their long staves were going their rounds, and calling their watchword in the stillness of the hour. In the distance were heard the hoarse sounds of the waves, breaking on the shore. On the other side of the camp was Gaza with its towers and ruins; and the fiery glow of morning was lightening up the scene of the fearful accomplishment of the word of prophecy. Gaza, once so populous, magnificent, and strong, when she committed the shameful outrage on Sampson, had no longer any gates at the spot where the mighty hero once lifted them up, and placed them on the hill opposite to Hebron.[[75]] Jeremiah had taken the wine-cup of fury from the hand of Jehovah, to cause the nations to drink of it to whom the Lord had sent him, and Gaza was amongst them, that they might reel and be mad because of the sword that he sent amongst them.[[76]] The shepherd of Tekoah had foretold this in yet plainer language.
Thus saith Jehovah,
Three transgressions of Gaza have I passed unnoticed,