Even the thief and murderer, we are told, would hesitate before the wickedness of moving these simple, immemorial heaps of stone: such was their sanctity. What unutterable contempt for the laws of God and man is therefore revealed in the multiple witness of the Old Testament[29] against the rich and powerful in Israel, that _they_ scrupled not to remove the landmarks of their poorer brethren? Thieves and murderers would have kept their hands clean from such pollution: _Remove not the landmark of the widow, Into the field of the orphan enter not; For mighty is their Avenger, He will plead their cause against thee_ (Pr. 23^{10, 11}). CHAPTER IV The Day of Small Things Popular as the custom of making and of hearing “wise words” may have been in ancient Israel, it is not surprising that only five or six proverbial sayings are recorded in the early writings of the Old Testament. For proverbs are not likely to receive mention in literature. They are too plain for the poet, too vague for the historian, too complaisant for the law-maker. And even these five or six, it appears, have been preserved not for any merit they possess as proverbs: one is of local interest only, two are picturesque, but obscure, two are the merest truisms. The right question, therefore, is not “Why are there so few?”, but “Why have _these_ sayings been rescued from oblivion?”; and, being preserved, “Why should they receive our attention?” Suppose that in Britain fifty or a hundred years hence men should quote “It’s a long, long way to Tipperary,” when they seek an expression for the pathos and heroism that mark the acceptance of a difficult and perilous task--if those words live, why will they live? Obviously for no intrinsic merit, but for the undying memory of men who counted not their lives dear unto themselves. So with these early proverbs in the Bible. Each of them came into quickening contact with a great personality, or played a part in one of those fateful moments when the fortunes of a people or the trend of human thinking has been determined this way or that. They have lived because each has been touched by the passion of humanity. Therefore we have to study them not in isolation from the context, but in close connection with the scene or circumstance that gave them unexpected immortality. * * * * * (1) In days when Jerusalem was not yet Jerusalem, City of David, but only _Jebus_, a stronghold of the Canaanites, there had been built in the limestone uplands of Judæa an Israelitish village, _Gibeah_, situated (as the name implies), on a hill-top, doubtless for such security as the rising ground afforded.