stretches southward to the mountains of Hebron, and northward to Tekoa. Innumerable wadys and broad valleys stretch

between mountain crests, often of fantastic shape. It is a pathless wildern ess, seamed by rocky clefts and caves. There,

just past the cave where David had been in hiding from Saul, up the cliff Hazziz - perhaps the modern El Husasah - had

the foe swarmed, and then deployed through the broad wady which leads towards Tekoa. Here, "at the end of the

gully,"  100 would Israel descry them, see their defeat, yet not have to do battle for the victory.

And as on that bright day the host of Israel looked towards the ascent from Engedi, they caught sight of the enemy. At

that moment as by a preconcerted signal they began to sing and to praise the LORD. Then a strange scene ensued. It

were an entire misunderstanding of what Scripture designates as the agency of God, to apply to angelic combatants the

words: "Jehovah set liers in wait [ambushme nts] against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir."

For God Himself does that which happens in His all-overruling Providence, even though it come to pass in the orderly

succession of natural events. There was no need of summoning angel-hosts. It is not only quite conceivable, but best

explains the after-event, that a tribe of Edomites, kindred but hostile to that which had joined Ammon and Moab in

their raid, should have lain in ambush in one of the wadys, waiting till the main body of the combatants had passed, to

fall on the rear-guard, or probably on the camp followers, the women and children, and the baggage. They would

calculate that long before the men in advance could turn upon them in those narrow defiles, they would have escaped

beyond the reach of pursuit. And it is equally conceivable that when the attack was made the main body of the

Ammonites and Moabites may have regarded it as a piece of treachery preconcerted between the clan of Edomites who

were with them, and the kindred clan that lay in ambush. All this is quite in accordance with what might still take place

among the Bedouins of those regions. But, in such circumstances, the Ammonites and Moabites would naturally turn to

attack their treacherous allies, and thus the first scene in the strange drama of this internecine battle would be enacted.

Mutual distrust once awakened, and passions kindled, we can easily understand how "every one helped to destroy

another" - the havoc being probably increased by the peculiar character of the country, which here abounds in steep

precipices and sudden rocky heights and descents.

While this strange battle was proceeding, Judah had advanced, to the sound of hymns of praise, beyond Tekoa, far as

the last watch-tower, where usually an outlook was kept over the wilderness, so that timely tidings might be brought of

any sudden raid by the wild tribes of the East. As "they looked unto the multitude," which they had erst descried in the

dim distance, there was "not an escaping," no hasty flight, as in such circumstances might have been expected, and it

seemed as if only dead bodies were left strewing the ground. Possibly the Judaeans had, on reaching the height of

Tekoa, caught sight of the host, and then lost it again when descending into the wady.101

When, on ascending once more, they stood at the watch-tower, they would see what formerly had been "a. multitude,"

now only dead bodies, nor could they, from the conformation of the district, discern any fugitives. It now only

remained for Judah to seize the spoil  102 of the battle in which Jehovah had gained the victory.

For three days the removal of the spoil continued. On the fourth, the host of Judah gathered in a valley, to the north-

west of Tekoa, which from the solemn thanksgiving there made received the name of "Berakhah," "blessing," in the

sense of praise and thanksgiving. It is deeply interesting to find that after the lapse of so many centuries this memorial

of Jehovah's deliverance and of Jehoshaphat's and Judah's solemn thanksgiving still continues . Many masters have

since held possession of the land: Assyrian, Roman, Moslem, Christian, and Turk: but the old name of the valley of

blessing remains in the modern name Bereikut.103

And from "the valley of blessing" Jehoshaphat and his people returned, as in procession, to the Temple, there again to

praise the LORD, Who had, as ever, been faithful to His promise. And this gratitude of a believing people is one of the

most true and beautiful results of the religious revival which Judah had experienced. It almost sounds like heaven's

antiphon to Jerusalem's praise, when we read that "the terror of Elo -him" was upon all the kingdoms of the lands round

about Judah, and that "his God" gave Jehoshaphat "rest round about."104