Hebrew Life and Times | Page 3

tribe. Sometimes, perhaps, a small boy was
taken along on the donkey's back behind his father to see the sights.
And for him the sights must have been rather wonderful--the great thick
walls of the town, the massive gates, the houses, row on row, and the
people, more of them in one street than in the whole tribe to which he
belonged!
=The market.=--They took their wool, of course, to the open square
where all the merchants sold their goods. Soon buyers appeared who
wanted wool. It was a long process then, as now, to strike a bargain in
an Oriental town. It is very impolite to seem to be in a hurry. You must
each ask after one another's health, and the health of your respective
fathers, and all your ancestors. By and by, you cautiously come around
to the subject of wool. How much do you want for your wool? At first
you don't name a price. You aren't even sure that you want to sell it.
Finally you mention a sum about five times as large as you expect to
get. The buyer in turn offers to pay about a fifth of what it is worth.
After a time you come down a bit on your price. The buyer comes up a
bit on his. After an hour or two, or perhaps a half a day, you
compromise and the wool is sold.
=Weighing out the silver or gold.=--In those early days there was no
coined money. Silver and gold were used as money, only they had to be
weighed every time a trade was put through; just as though we were to
sell so many pounds of flour for so many ounces of silver. The weights
used were very crude; usually they were merely rough stones from the
field with the weight mark scratched on them. The scale generally used
was as follows:
60 shekels = 1 mana. 60 manas = 1 talent.
The shekel was equal to about an ounce, in our modern avoirdupois
system. There was no accurate standard weight anywhere. Honest
dealers tried to have weights which corresponded to custom. But it was
easy to cheat by having two sets of weights, one for buying and one for
selling. So when our shepherds came to town, they had to watch the
merchant who bought from them lest he put too heavy a talent weight

in the balance with their wool, and too light a shekel-weight in the
smaller balance with the silver.
THE HARD SIDE OF SHEPHERD LIFE
The most precious and uncertain thing in the shepherd's life was water.
If in the rainy season the rains were heavy, and the wells and brooks
did not dry up too soon in the summer, they had plenty of goat's milk
for food, and could bring plenty of wool to market in the fall. But if the
rains were scant their flocks perished, and actual famine and death
stared them in the face. In the dry years many were the tribes that were
almost totally wiped out by famine and the diseases that sweep away
hungry men. The next year, on the site of their last camp, strangers
would find the bones of men and women and little children, whitening
by the side of the trail. No wonder they looked upon wells and springs
as sacred. Surely, they thought, a god must be the giver of those
life-giving waters that bubble up so mysteriously from the crevices in
the rock.
=War with other tribes.=--In addition to their constant struggle to make
a living from a somewhat barren land, these shepherds were almost
constantly in danger from human enemies. A small, weak tribe, grazing
its flocks around a good well, was always in danger lest a stronger tribe
swoop down upon them to kill and plunder. There were many robber
clans who did little else besides preying on their neighbors and passing
caravans of traders. Nowhere was there any security. The desert and its
borders was a world of bitter hatreds and long-standing feuds. Certain
rival tribes fought each other at every opportunity for centuries with a
warfare that hesitated at no cruelty or treachery.
DESERT RELIGION
Such a life of eager longings, fierce passions, and dark despair is a
fertile soil for religion. And these early Hebrew shepherds were
intensely religious. It is true that in the earliest days the fierceness and
cruelty of their wars were reflected in the character of the gods in
whom they believed. They thought of them as doing many cruel and
selfish things. Yet a people who believe very deeply and seriously in

their religion, even in an imperfect religion, are sure to be a force in the
world. Hence it is not surprising that three of the world's greatest
religions,