Children of the Old Testament

Children of the Old Testament,
by Anonymous

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Title: Children of the Old Testament
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: July 28, 2007 [EBook #22162]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDREN
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Joseph sold by his brethren.]

CHILDREN

OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT

THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.
London, Edinburgh, and New York
1908

CONTENTS.
JOSEPH THE DREAMER THE STORY OF BENJAMIN THE
CHILD MOSES RUTH THE GLEANER THE CHILD SAMUEL
DAVID THE SHEPHERD YOUTH KING DAVID'S LITTLE BOY
ELIJAH AND THE WIDOW'S SON THE SHUNAMMITE'S BOY A
LITTLE JEWISH MAID

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Joseph sold by his brethren . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
The babe among the bulrushes
Ruth and Naomi
The child Samuel
David and Goliath
Naaman at the house of Elisha

CHILDREN OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

JOSEPH THE DREAMER.
Two boys, Joseph and Benjamin, sons of a rich Eastern shepherd, lived
in their father's wide tent in the great valley of Hebron. Joseph was
about seventeen years of age, and tall and strong, so that he could drive
sheep, herd cattle, and work in the harvest field. Benjamin was a little
red-cheeked boy of five, with merry brown eyes, and his brother Joseph
loved him very dearly, for their mother was dead. The father of the
boys, whose name was Jacob, had thousands of sheep and hundreds of
camels, asses, and cattle, so that he was looked upon as a very rich man;
and he had ten grown-up sons, who roamed about the country feeding
the sheep in the green valleys and by the water-brooks.
Joseph was dearly loved by Jacob, because the boy had been born when
his father was an old man; and that was one reason why his older
brothers hated Joseph and did all they could to annoy him. Perhaps they
feared that their father would leave all his wealth to his favourite son,
and you know that this sometimes makes quarrels among brothers and
sisters.
Now Jacob showed his special love for Joseph by making him a coat of
many colours--a long tunic with stripes of red, green, blue, and yellow,
having a coloured fringe at the knee, and a bright shawl to bind it
closely round his waist. Joseph was very proud of this coat, but the
others hated both it and him, believing that he would get the best of
everything from their father--all but Reuben, the eldest, who loved the
lad, and smiled kindly when he saw his gay tunic.
One day at the harvest-time the sons of Jacob were all at home, cutting
down the yellow grain, and taking it away on the backs of asses to the
threshing-place. Joseph, of course, worked with them, but they were
always finding fault with him, and trying to vex him. He knew,
however, that his father loved him, and this made him able to bear their
unkindness with patience. Besides, his mind was filled with boyish
thoughts of how great he would be, and what he would do, when he
grew up to be a man. He was very strong for his years, and joined with
the women in tying the grain into bundles, and loading it on the asses;
and it was very hard work, indeed, out there in the scorching Eastern

sun.
But rest came at night. When Joseph lay down with his little brother on
a heap of straw at the back of the tent, he slept soundly, and dreamt the
golden dreams of youth.
He dreamt one night that they were all binding sheaves once more out
in the sunny field, and his brothers' sheaves rose up and bowed down to
his sheaf. Joseph took it all in earnest, and next day he told the dream
to his brothers, perhaps as they were sitting at their midday meal in the
shade of a spreading tree; but he soon knew from their angry faces that
they saw nothing pleasant in it, and when his story was told they called
out to him,--
"Shalt thou, indeed, reign over us?"
They were jealous of him, and, of course, this did not make them any
kinder to the young lad. But Joseph remembered what his father had
told him--that dreams were sometimes messages from God; and he
believed that his dream was a message, and that he would one day be