where leading representatives of the nation were always assembled, to whom "the Angel of Jehovah" in the

first place addressed Himself, and Bochim, or "weepers," the designation given afterwards to the meeting-

place by the ancient sanctuary (either Sh echem or more probably Shiloh), where the elders of the people

gathered to hear the Divine message.

And truly what had passed between the entrance into Canaan and that period might be thus summed up:

"From Gilgal to Bochim!" The immediate impression of the words of the Angel of Jehovah was great. Not

only did the place become Bochim, but a sacrifice was offered unto Jehovah, for wherever His presence was

manifested, there might sacrifice be brought (comp. Deuteronomy 12:5; Judges 6:20, 26, 28; 13:16; 2 Samuel

But, alas! the impression was of but short continuance. Mingling with the heathen around, "they forsook

Jehovah, and served Baal and Ashtaroth."  184 Such a people could only learn in the school of sorrow.

National unfaithfulness was followed by national judgments.

Yet even so, Jehovah, in His mercy, ever turned to them when they cried, and raised up "deliverers." In the

truest sense these generations "had not known all the wars of Canaan" (Judges 3:1). For the knowledge of

them is thus expla ined in the Book of Psalms (Psalm 44:2, 3):

"Thou didst drive out the heathen with Thy hand, and plantedst them; Thou didst afflict the nations, and

east them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save

them: but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favor

unto them."

This lesson was now to be learned in bitter experience by the presence and power of the heathen around:

"to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah, which

He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses" (Judges 3:4).