NOTES
TALES OF THE FAR-OFF DAYS.
Shinar. A part of the great plain of Babylon (the Babel of the story). On this plain great towers of bricks, once temples of the gods, are found. This story seems to be told about one of these great towers.
RUTH.
Moab lies across the Dead Sea from Judah. One can see its hills from the heights about Bethlehem, and to this day grain is brought across from its fields and sold in Jerusalem.
Kinsman. In the East the duty of caring for the family was very sacredly held. If a person was injured, he must be avenged by his kinsman. If he became poor, his kinsman must aid him. If he was obliged to sell land, his kinsman should buy it if he could, so that it need not go out of the family. According to one set of Hebrew laws, should a married man die without children, it was the duty of a kinsman to marry his widow, as Boaz did Ruth.
DEBORAH.
All the story of Deborah falls in the northern part of Israel. Zebulon and Naphtali were in the Northern hills, which in the New Testament time were called Galilee, where Jesus lived. The river Kishon flowed through a plain just to the south of the hills, in the [{488}] territory of Asher. Dan and Asher also lay in the Northern hills, and Issachar south of Naphtali and Zebulon. Gilead and Machir were across the Jordan from Issachar. The people in the south of Palestine were not concerned in this war. It brought out the heroism of a few of the people of Israel, but the rest were either too cowardly or too far away to take part in it.