with such terror of what lay before them that they rose up and cried out against Moses, ‘Would to God we had perished in Egypt! Would to God we had laid down our lives in the wilderness! To advance further is only utter destruction—an evil death to us all and perpetual bondage for our women and children.’

When Caleb strove to reason with them and to enkindle them with his own valour, they threatened to stone him where he stood. They plotted together to depose Moses, and to elect in his stead a commander who would lead them back into Goshen by the way they had come, choosing rather a life safe and secure but in miserable slavery under Pharaoh, than to risk their all for so rich an inheritance in sure trust that God would be with them.

So it had been continually. Even though in their dire need miraculous waters had flowed from the rock, and, when other food had failed them, they had been nourished as if from heaven by manna, the gift of providence in the wilderness—manna that was white as coriander seed and tasted like wafers made of honey, and that must be gathered early in the cool of the morning ere the heat of the sun should corrupt it—yet in spite of these divine mercies and the wonders that had been revealed to them in Egypt, at every threat of danger or difficulty, dearth or pestilence, they had murmured against him or broken out into open revolt against their leaders. And the punishment of God had been heavy upon them.

And yet again, now even that the Land of Promise was within but a few days’ march of them, they lost all hope and faith. Faint-hearted and irresolute, they were never of the same mind from one day to another. And the hordes of the Amalekites and the Canaanites descended upon them, defeated them in battle, and chased them back into the wilderness of Zin. There they abode many long years.

Thence at length Israel journeyed to Mount Hor, where, in the presence of Eleazar and Moses, Aaron the High Priest died and was buried. Thence, they pressed on, southward, through the valley of Elath that lay at the uppermost reaches of the eastern branch of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aquaba. And there they came to the ancient highway of the caravans journeying between Mecca and Damascus. Skirting east of Edom, because its king refused them passage through his territory, they entered the land of the Moabites, with whom at that time they dealt peaceably, for they were the descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. And they entered the mountainous region of Nebo, sheer ramparts of naked rock, the colours of their peaks and gorges ever changing in the splendour of the sun as it changes its station in the skies from dawn till eve. And not far distant hence, the waters of the river Jordan flowed into the sea.

So at length they were come again to the very borders of Canaan. And Moses knew that his end was near. He spoke for the last time before the congregation of the elders. He uttered prophecy and gave them his counsel; and he blessed the people. Then he surrendered up the sceptre of Israel to Joshua and charged him to be strong, faithful and of good courage, since to him had been given the glory of leading Israel into the land which had been promised them of old.

When this was done, he himself, weary with age and feebleness but of an indomitable will, went up alone to the heights of Mount Pisgah. There in solitude he gazed out westward, beyond the turquoise- blue waters of the Salt Sea and the river Jordan, over the sand-coloured plain of Jericho, the city of palm trees, towards Canaan, whose wooded mountains and valleys lay spread out beneath him, in the last beams of evening, and to the utmost shores of the Great Sea. He knew that it was not the will of God that he himself should set foot within its borders. So, but in agony of mind, he had stood alone, gazing out over the waters of another sea, while the chariots of Egypt were approaching the rabble of his defenceless followers, and only a miracle could save them from the vengeance of Pharaoh. Now he was at peace in the assurance that all was well with Israel, their pilgrimage at an end. His soul was refreshed with this vision of the future, and he longed to take his rest.

There in solitude he died, the Lord God his comfort; and he was buried in a valley of Moab, though no man knows the sepulchre where he was laid.