In the second chapter of Deuteronomy we find another account tending to prove that Jehovah is a merciful God. We find that Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let the Hebrews pass by him, and the reason given is, that "the Lord God hardened his "spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might "deliver him into the hand" of the Hebrews. Sihon, his heart having been hardened by God, came out against the chosen people, and God delivered him to them, and "they smote him, and his sons, and all his "people, and took all his cities, and utterly destroyed "the men and the women, and the little ones of "every city: they left none to remain." And in this 231 same chapter this same God promises that the dread and fear of his chosen people should be "upon all the "nations that are under the whole heaven," and that "they should "tremble and be in anguish because of" the Hebrews. Read the thirty-first chapter of Numbers, and see how the Midianites were slain. You will find that "the children of Israel took all the women of Midian "captives, and their little ones," that they took "all "their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods," that they slew all the males, and burnt all their cities and castles with fire, that they brought the captives and the prey and the spoil unto Moses and Eleazar the priest; that Moses was wroth with the officers of his host because they had saved all the women alive, and thereupon this order was given: "Kill "every male among the little ones, and kill every "woman, * * * but all the women children "keep alive for yourselves." After this, God himself spake unto Moses, and said: "Take the sum of the prey that was taken, "both of man and of beast, thou and Eleazar the "priest * * * and divide the prey into two "parts, between those who went to war, and between "all the congregation, and levy a tribute unto the 232 "Lord, one soul of five hundred of the persons, "and the cattle; take it of their half and give it to "the priest for an offering * * * and of the "children of Israel's half, take one portion of fifty of "the persons and the animals and give them unto "the Levites. * * * And Moses and the priest "did as the Lord had commanded." It seems that they had taken six hundred and seventy-five thou- sand sheep, seventy-two thousand beeves, sixty-one thousand asses, and thirty-two thousand women children and maidens. And it seems, by the fortieth verse, _that the Lord's tribute of the maidens was thirty- two_,--the rest were given to the soldiers and to the congregation of the Lord. Was anything more infamous ever recorded in the annals of barbarism? And yet we are told that the Bible is an inspired book, that it is not a cruel book, and that Jehovah is a being of infinite mercy.