2. Nothing was more remote from ancient Israel than the hatred of the stranger or hostility to other nations, so often attributed to it.(1251) In the time of the patriarchs and under the monarchy, the Hebrews fostered a spirit of friendly intercourse with their neighbors, which was often confirmed by peaceful alliances.(1252) Of course, during war time the spirit of hostility had full sway, particularly as ancient warfare imposed a relentless ban upon both booty and human life among the vanquished. But even then the kings of Israel were called compassionate also toward their enemies when compared with other rulers.(1253) Indeed, the code of Israel is distinguished from all other codes of antiquity by mildness and tender compassion. On the other hand, the God of justice, revealed through Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, punishes Israel and the nations impartially on account of their moral transgressions.(1254) He avenges acts of treachery, even when committed against pagan tyrants. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?”(1255) Such is the recurrent thought that governs Israel, demanding the same standard of judgment for Israelite and stranger. 3. The simple sense of justice inherent in the Jewish people admits so little difference between our own God-consciousness and that of others, that Scripture represents the Philistine King Abimelech as receiving a warning from Abraham’s God *JHVH*.(1256) As the Bible holds up Job, the Bedouin Sheik, as the pattern of a blameless servant of God and true lover of mankind,(1257) so the Talmud cites the Philistine Dama ben Nethina as an example of filial piety.(1258) Altogether, the merits of the heathen receive their full measure of appreciation throughout Jewish literature,(1259) even though a narrow dissenting view occurs now and then.(1260) 4. Still from the very beginning a tendency to relentless harshness existed in one direction, when the pure worship of Israel’s one and only God was endangered. The early Book of the Covenant forbade every alliance with idolatrous nations,(1261) and the Deuteronomic Code made this more stringent by prohibiting intermarriage and even the toleration of idolaters in the land, lest they seduce the people of God to turn away from Him.(1262) The Pharisean leaders, the founders of Rabbinism, went still further by placing an interdict upon eating with the heathen or using food and wine prepared by them, thus aiming at a complete separation from the non-Jewish world.(1263)