Oppression and suffering of the Jews, and their love for the Holy Land.

I have never seen a more oppressed Jewish community than that of Hebron. The Sheik is continually asking them for money. If he contemplates an excursion, he sends to the Jews for money; if any of his friends come to visit him, he sends to the Jews for money; so that the poor people are deprived of every farthing, and are therefore in a poor and wretched condition. When Ibrahim Pasha took possession of Hebron, they lost all they had, and were obliged to make a loan of 150,000 piastres, about 1,500l., to retrieve their fortunes; which presses very much upon them, because they are obliged to pay high interest. Lately, again, when the present Pasha of Jerusalem took possession of Hebron, and placed a garrison there, they had to suffer.

They told me all their grievances, and I wished that it were in my power to help them.

When I told them that I had seen whole communities of Jews in Bavaria, leaving the country on account of oppression, and emigrating to America, and asked them, why they did not do the same, they cried out, "Never! never! will we leave the place where our fathers' bones are resting; rather will we suffer all.”

THE JEWS.

(From Cowper's Expostulation.)

Ask now of History's authentic page,
And call up evidence from every age;
Display with busy and laborious hand
The blessings of the most indebted land;

What nation will you find whose annals prove
So rich an interest in Almighty love?

Where dwell they now, where dwelt in ancient day,
A people planted, watered, blest as they?
Let Egypt's plagues and Canaan's woes proclaim,
The favours poured upon the Jewish name;
Their freedom purchased for them at the cost
Of all their proud oppressors valued most;
Their title to a country not their own,

Made sure by prodigies till then unknown;

For them, the states they left, made waste and void;
For them, the states to which they went destroyed;
A cloud to measure out their march by day,
By night a fire to cheer the gloomy way;
That moving signal summoning, when best,
Their host to move, and when it staid, to rest.
For them the rocks dissolved into a flood,
The dews condensed into angelic food,
Their very garments sacred, old yet new,
And time forbid to touch them as he flew :
Streams swelled above the bank, enjoined to stand,
While they passed through to their appointed land;
Their leader armed with meekness, zeal, and love,
And graced with clear credentials from above:
Themselves secured beneath the Almighty wing!
Their God, their Captain,* Lawgiver, and King.
Crowned with a thousand victories, and at last
Lords of the conquered soil, there rooted fast,
In peace possessing what they won by war,
Their name far published, and revered as far;
Where will you find a race like theirs, endowed
With all that man ere wished, or heaven bestowed?
They, and they only, amongst all mankind,
Received the transcript of the eternal mind;
Were trusted with his own engraven laws,
And constituted guardians of his cause;
Theirs were the prophets, theirs the priestly call,
And theirs, by birth, the Saviour of us all.

* Vide Joshua v. 14.

LONDON Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

SEPTEMBER, 1847.

BIBLE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.
CHAPTER XXVIII.

"SAMUEL judged Israel all the days of his life,"
but when he became old he joined his sons with
him in the government. But they, like Eli's
sons, were evil men, who walked not in the way
of their father, but " took bribes and perverted
judgment." The people, who, perhaps, out of
the hardness of their hearts had long been dis-
satisfied with their priestly government, though
Jehovah Himself was at their head, now came to
Samuel, at Ramah, and said unto him, " Behold
thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways:
now make us A King to judge us like all the
nations!" 66
But the thing displeased Samuel,
when they said, give us a King to judge us.
And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the
Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice
of the people in all that they say unto thee: for
they have not rejected thee, but they have re-
jected me, that I should not reign over them.
According to all the works which they have
done since the day that I brought them up out
of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they
have forsaken me, and served other gods; so do
they also unto thee. Now, therefore, hearken

unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them."

Samuel accordingly told the people they should have a king if they would; but he warned them what manner of king they would be likely to have; how he would probably make slaves of them, and distrain them for money, and in all ways oppress them. "Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel: and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”

"And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them A King!"

And thus it was that Israel, that had for 400 years lived under the rule of a priesthood, who received the Law from God himself, now desired to be "like other nations," and have a king. Provision had been made for such an emergency by Moses (Deut. xvii. 14), and now the time was come; and God chose to fulfil to Israel the desire of their hearts.

66

The first king of Israel was chosen from the tribe of Benjamin, and in this manner: Kish, a man of that tribe, had a son named Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly; and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people." Now Saul was sent by his father to seek some asses that were lost he passed through Mount Ephraim, and through the land of Shalisha, and through

all the land of his own tribe, but found them not; and when he came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, "Come, and let us return; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us." But the servant proposed that they should consult a seer or prophet, who dwelt in a city hard by; "for," said he, "he is a man of God, an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass; peradventure he can show us the way that we should go."

66

Now this city stood upon a hill; and as they drew near to it, the young maidens came out to draw water. Inquiring of them, Saul learned that the seer was there, in the city just before them, coming out to bless the sacrifice which was about to be offered that day in the high place. And this man of God was none other than Samuel, who, as they went into the city, came out against them, for to go up to the high place." Nor was Samuel unaware who approached him; for "the Lord had told Samuel in his ear," before Saul came, saying, morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the tribe of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over thy people Israel." "And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of; this same shall reign over my people."

"To

Then Samuel took Saul up into the " high place" with him; and set him "in the chiefest place among them that were bidden," and gave him the most honourable portion of the feast, and did him all honour as a Prophet and a Judge. "And when they were come down from the high place into the city, Samuel communed