Be of good: This is a very animating address, and equal to anything of the kind in ancient or modern times. Ye fight pro aris et focis:; for every good, sacred and civil; for God, for your families, and for your countries. Such harangues, especially in very trying circumstances, are very natural, and may perhaps be found in the records of every nation. Several instances might be quoted from Roman and Grecian history; but few are more remarkable than that of Tyrtaeus, the lame Athenian poet, to whom the command of the army was given in one of the Messenian wars. The Spartans had at that time suffered great losses, and all their stratagems proved ineffectual, so that they began to despair of success; when the poet, by his lectures on honour and courage, delivered in moving verse to the army, ravished them to such a degree with the thoughts of dying for their country, that, rushing on with a furious transport to meet their enemies, they gave them an entire overthrow, and by one decisive battle brought the war to a happy conclusion. Numbers 13:20; Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:6-7, Joshua 1:9, Joshua 1:18; 1 Samuel 14:6, 1 Samuel 14:12, 1 Samuel 17:32; 2 Chronicles 32:7; Nehemiah 4:14; Hebrews 13:6
the Lord: 2 Samuel 16:10-11; Judges 10:15; 1 Samuel 3:18; Job 1:21