I • Y^ILE«¥MIiyiEI&SIIllT«

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

Men of the Bible,
Their Lives and Times.

Edited fay Rev. J. S. EXELL, M.A.
Author of The Biblical Illustrator

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Abraham. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.
Daniel. By Rev. H. Deane, B.D.
David. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.
Elijah. By Prof. W. Milligan, D.D.
Ezra and Nehemiah. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson.
Gideon and Judges. By Rev. J. M. Lang, D.D.
Isaac and Jacob. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson.
Isaiah. By Rev. Canon Driver, M.A.
Jeremiah. By Rev. Canon Cheyne, D.D.
Jesus Christ the Divine Man. By J. F. Vallings,
M.A.
Joshua. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.
Kings of Israel and Judah. By Rev. Canon
Rawlinson.
Minor Prophets, The. By Rev. Dean Farrar, D.D.
Moses. By Rev. Canon Rawlinson, M.A.
Samuel and Saul. By Rev. W. J. Dean, M.A.
Solomon. By Rev. Dean Farrar, D.D.
St. Paul. By Rev. Prof. Iverach, D.D.
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men of tbe Bible

GIDEON AND THE JUDGES

A STUDY
Historical and Practical

Rev. John Marshall Lang, D.D.
Minister of the Barony Parish, Glasgow ; Author of " The Last Supper of
Our Lord " ; " Life, Is It Worth Living }" Etc.

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York Chicago Toronto
Publishers of Evangelical Literature

PREFACE.

So to reproduce the story of a far-past age as to present it with
the clothing, and in the warmth, of living reality is no light task.
There are special difficulties in regard to the period to which
the volume now sent forth relates. Its surrounding, scenery,
and characteristics are so widely different from all we can even
conceive that it seems scarcely possible to get into touch with
its burdens and its endeavours. In its chronicles, nations and
tribes pass under view whose antecedents are sometimes lost
in obscurity, and which long ago have wholly disappeared.
These chronicles, moreover, are very fragmentary ; in respect of
dates, order of events, of all that is essential to a consecutive
history, they are often apparently confused. They are compiled
from records or memoranda which, giving at length narratives
whose briefest form only we possess, contain many links that
are now missing. Finally, the uncertainty which prevails as to
many of the localities mentioned cripples the imagination in
the effort to vivify the prowess of the heroes of Israel. Much
indeed has been done in recent years, by explorations in Pales
tine, towards identifying the places of Holy Scripture ; and the
labours of Major Conder and those associated with him in
his scientific surveys deserve the gratitude of all students of
Biblical antiquities. The contention of Conder is that two-
thirds of the places named in the Bible have been ascertained.
It may be so ; but experts on the subject have raised the doubt
whether in several instances the identifications have a more
substantial reason than a resemblance of sound between the
ancient name and the modern. And, notwithstanding all re.
search, there are sites — e.g., the cities named in connection with

iv PREFACE.
Gideon's pursuit of the kings — which cannot be fixed with pre
cision. But, notwithstanding these and other difficulties, the work
undertaken in the following pages is both historically interesting
and homiletically profitable. It is hoped that the attention of
the reader will be sustained j that, whilst history is presented
as history, nothing of the dry-as-dust will be felt to attach to
the presentation, and that the persons to whom he is introduced'
will be recognized as men who, in their day, fought that fight
of faith which he is called to fight in his day. The volume
is mainly biographical ; what of the national life is unfolded is
associated with the typical persons whose influence and judgeship
are traced. One of these persons occupies the chief place on
the canvas ; and without unduly " improving " the features of
his career, the wealth of " instruction in righteousness " con
tained in his Life is indicated.
The author has availed himself of the valuable and manifold
help given by Commentator, Traveller, Poet, and Historian.
Commentaries are numerous ; those whose exposition was en
trusted to the Bishop of Bath and Wells — Lord Arthur Hervey
— may be specially instanced as of great value. The " Cambridge
Bible " and Principal Douglas's Handbook are useful. So are
Bible Dictionaries, and other works shedding light on questions
of Ethnology and Chronology. E wald has always flashes of light,
and his views, as well as those of Wellhausen, even when there
is room for doubt with regard to them, are suggestive. Stanley,
of course, is the delightful companion of all study. Dr. Robin
son's " Researches," Canon Tristram's " Bible Places," " The
Land and the Book," Major Conder's books, and his " Great
Map of Western Palestine," must be consulted. Josephus and
Kimchi, among Jewish writers, are entitled to be heard ; and
Bishop Lowth, Milton, Byron, Tennyson, have touched the
story, at different points, with the hand of poetic genius.
It is a story in which the impression of wars, and social chaos,
and "evil in the sight of the Lord," and the retributions of His
holy government, predominates. There is much in its develop
ment, much in the character and doings of even the best of the
men whom God raised up, which cannot be reconciled with the
testimony of the Christian conscience. But we must recollect
that the Christian conscience is an unfolding of those last
days in which God has spoken in His Son. Chrysostom has

PREFACE. v
remarked that one can get at the truth of an earlier time only
by investigating "the period, cause, motive, difference of per
son, and all the attendant circnmstances " ; and he has added,
with striking force, that the highest merit of the Old Testament
Scriptures is that we now see the defects of that time ; that " if
they had not trained us so well that we have become susceptible
of higher things, we should not now have seen their deficiency." '
But this treatise will have been written in vain if those who
peruse it are not made sensible of contact with minds whose
companionship is good, and in whose thought and action we
discern the work of that Spirit of Truth Who has illumined the
children of wisdom in all generations.
1 Homily on Matthew xvii. 5, t.
Glasgow, July i, 1890.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER L MSB
The Portion of History to be Reviewed . . . . i
A period apparently unattractive — But its importance is shown by
three considerations : I. It is a transitional epoch, illustrating the
growth of the national character, and the education through
which Israel was prepared for its future — 2. It is an age marked
by variety and intensity of human feeling, the interest chiefly
centering in some great persons whose figures are grand, and
who prove themselves men of like passions with ourselves — 3. A
distinct Providential purpose is to be traced — The difference
between the Heroic age of Israel and this age in other peoples —
The inspiration of the Judges ; in what sense to be regarded? —
The period an important link in the chain of history.
CHAPTER II.
The Book of Judges  6
The Book — When and by whom compiled? — The history not
complete — Difficulty of framing a satisfactory chronology — The
Judges— Differences between the Phoenician Suffes and the
Hebrew Shophet — The characters of the Judges— Their function
— Their tribal relations. CHAPTER III.
The Period of the Judges  14
The social condition of Israel during the period — How best
illustrated — The victory at the waters of Merom— The rest which
followed only temporary — The hold which the conquered races
maintained — These races — How classified — Their licentiousness.
CHAPTER IV.
Illustrations of the Period  21
First Illustration : The Levite of Mount Ephraim — Three Time-
Marks — The tale told in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of
Judges — The gathering together of the congregation — The war
with Benjamin — The terrible revenge— The compunction— Tbo

viii CONTENTS. PACK
means adopted to prevent the complete extinction of the tribe —
The significance of the episode. Second Illustration : The
establishment of a schismatical centre of worship — The two parts
of the history — Micah ; his mother ; the ephod and teraphim ;
the Levite — The raid of the Danites ; Their capture of the
Levite ; Who he was ; The sanctuary at Dan. Third Illustration :
Much worth preserving — Naomi — " A mighty man of wealth " —
The simplicity of Oriental life — The Spirit secretly working — A
fresh current of blessing — An illustration of Israel's social
condition. CHAPTER V.
The Prophetess of the Northern Tribes .... 34
The Judges who belonged to the southern tribes : Othniel, Ehud,
Shamgar — The lapse into idolatry, and the new period of
servitude at the death of Ehud — Jabin, king of Hazor —
Harosheth — The great army of the oppressor — The two
Deborahs — The second Deborah ; Who was she? A unique
figure in the history of Israel — Her ally in the north — The hesita
tion of Barak — The trumpet-blast — The fight, and the victory —
The fate of Sisera — Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite ; her
action to be condemned, but circumstances to be taken into
account. CHAPTER VI.
Jephthah, the Hero of Gilead  46
The history of Gideon reserved for the concluding part of the
volume — Gilead : its mountains and rich pastures : its forests and
cities : its place in the literature and history of the nation — The
backsliding of Israel into idolatry, and the period of servitude
under the children of Amnion — The revival of national life and
piety — The call to Jephthah ; his character, and his surrounding
in the land of Tob — Vows and human sacrifices among heathen
peoples — The action taken by Jephthah ; his vow ; views con
cerning it ; his daughter ; the sacrifice ; his future career, short
and stormy — The strife between the Ephraimites and the
Gileadites— " Shibboleth. "
CHAPTER VII.
Samson, the Hero of Dan ........ 64
The territory of Dan — the Philistines : Their origin and early
history — The form of their idolatry — Their national character —
The period and scene of Samson's judgeship — The prophetical
forecasts of Dan — The completeness of the biography as con
trasted with that of other judges — The nature of the story of his
life and exploits — Zorah — The appearances of the man of God to
Manoah's wife and to Manoah and his wife. With regard to
these appearances, three points— The Nazarite vow and the
institution of the Nazarite order — Mahaneh-Dan — Timnath, and
what happened in connection with it — The Rock of Etam, and
what happened in connection with it — The authority afterwards
conceded to Samson — Gaza and its gates — Enhakkore — The
Valley of Sorek — The treachery, and what followed — Milton and
his " Samson Agonistes " — The climax of the tragedy, and what
it suggests.

CONTENTS. U
CHAPTER VIII. PAGl
Gideon, the Hero of the Central Tribes . . 81
The scene of the story, Esdraelon — The memorable events
connected with it — The two Ophrahs — Abiezer, the Manassite
community — The habits and ways of the farmers of Palestine —
The dangers and toils illustrated — Joash, the father of Gideon,
and his stalwart sons — Evidence of the hold on the popular
imagination of th< story of Gideon — Its appeal to us.
CHAPTER IX.
Gideon : Israel's Cry and God's Answer . , . .86
The situation of Palestine — The series of invasions — The
Midianites : The ancient city Madjan : Mahomet's greeting :
The Tawara : The branches comprehended under the name
Midianite : Their commercial character : The links connecting
Israel and Midian : The corrupting influence of Midian — The
Amalekites : The battle of Rephidim — The " children of the
East." The fierce character of the inroads of these Bedouins —
The destruction caused by the march through Palestine — The cry
of the people — The man — The prophet, and his message — The
man, the deliverer : His occupation : His thoughts : The lesson
suggested by the view obtained of him.
CHAPTER X.
Gideon: the Call and the Response . . . • • 95
The terebinth near the house of Joash — The interest attaching to
the oak or terebinth in Holy Scripture —A visitor one day — Who
was this angel? — The " deep Providential meaning" of the Old
Testament Theophanies — The Call — It particularizes — The
separation and selection of the man — The crisis of his life — The
progress in the call — " Learn to labour and to wait" — The call
discloses the secret of the power — Gideon's Response — The need
of inward strengthening — Likeness between Gideon and the
Apostle Thomas— The Ifs projected by the mind, and the
corresponding disciplines — The sign asked — The meal-offering —
The angel's commands, and what followed — Anticipation of the
Supper of the Lord — The assurance given to Gideon— Yet, there
is death to the old man — The resurrection into newness of life.

CHAPTER XL
Gideon : the Beginning of the Enterprise .... 106
The change in the idea and aim of the life — The altar, Jehovah-
Shalom— The sign of a transferred allegiance — ' ' The same night,"
the time for action — The illustration given in the narrative of the
right witness for God — Where and how it begins — Three features
in the instruction given to Gideon : First, look to he me : Second,
build the altar in the conspicuous place ; Third, offer the
sacrifice as prescribed — Gideon obeys, but with fearfulness — The
wrath of the villagers— The answer of Joash — The new name —
The story of Jerrubbaal spreads. I *

X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIL TABU
Gideon : the Trumpet-blast  113
The return of the Midianites — The clothing of Gideon with the
Spirit of the Lord — The trumpet-blast— The response of Abi-ezer
— The summons to the northern tribes — The junction of the forces
— The emotion of Gideon — Weak, but not faithless — Two
differences between his pleading and the reluctance of Moses —
We must do justice to him — The patience of God — The craving
for a sign — The signs asked intended for the confirmation of his
own faith — Signs which would naturally occur to him — Two
points from which to regard them — The previous sign and the
two to be regarded — What these two, reversed, said to Gideon —
Their effect on him — Their symbolical meaning — More than an
idealization of the qualities which characterized him — The fleece
a symbol of Israel ; and the dry ground a symbol of the nations
— Their significance for and beyond the immediate moment — A
prophetical meaning — A parable of the Church of Christ — Teach
ing many lessons bearing on personal religion.
CHAPTER XIII.
Gideon : Tests and Siftings  126
" Jerubbaal, who is Gideon" — The well of Harod, where was it?
—The situation of the opposing armies — " God's thoughts not
our thoughts " — The main interest of the history of Israel a
religious interest — The protection against " vaunting " — The pro
clamation enjoined by the Law— The effect of the proclamation
at the spring of Jezreel — The conduct of the Israelites has its
counterpart in that of many Christians — The additional command
— The second test and its effect — A sign of the quality of the man
— The lessons taught us. CHAPTER XIV.
Gideon: "the Cake of Barley Bread" . . • . 134
The equipment for the campaign — The necessity of immediate
action — Rapid and bold movements a traditional policy of the
Israelites — The command, and the offer of a sign — The nocturnal
expedition — The camp of the Midianites — The dream — Its terms
and its matter — The interpretation — What this betokened to
Gideon — His grateful recognition of God — His return to the three
hundred, and his call to arise.
CHAPTER XV.
Gideon : Trumpets and Torches  130
The boldness of Gideon — The reason for the restriction as to
number of men— The stratagem — The instructions given to the
three hundred — The march under cover of night — The quiet of
the camp rudely and suddenly broken — The panic and confusion
— The action of the men — The flight — Israel "cried together " —
Similar stratagems, but none so completely successrul — The
passages of the Jordan occupied by the Ephraimites — Oreb and
Zeeb— The traces of this flight in the Old Testament— The small

CONTENTS. xi
MGK
and inadequate means, and the issue — The trumpet : its
significance — The torch and the pitcher— The excellency of
the power is of God. CHAPTER XVI.
Gideon "Faint, yet Pursuing"  148
The one rallying cry for the time — What of Gideon and his three
hundred? — The tale of their enterprise now resumed — The
pursuit to the river — The escape of the kings with a remnant of
the army — The pursuit into the Hauran — The power of a
supreme purpose — Held up to the light of the word applied to
the hero and his men, how many characters are shown to be
wanting in unity and consistency — Some sketches of John
Bunyan — The contrast between the spirit and the flesh illustrated
— The picture of Gideon, a stimulant to perseverance and energy.
CHAPTER XVII.
Gideon : the Pursuit and Capture of the Kings . . 154
The flight of the kings eastward— Gideon on their track — The
conduct of the Israelites to whom he appealed for help— Ephraim,
and its arrogance — The tact and self-control of Gideon in his
dealing with Ephraim — The opposition of the men of Succoth
and Penuel of another type — Difficulty of tracing the route of the
Hero — The places mentioned, Succoth, Penuel, Nobah, Jog-
behah, and Karkor — How the request for bread was met at two
of these places, and the threats of cruel punishment — The
circuit taken by Gideon — His surprise of the host which thought
itself secure — Capture of the kings — The vengeance taken on
Succoth and Penuel— Gleams of moderation of spirit— The fate
of Zebab and Zalmunna — The ornaments — The return to
Ophrah. CHAPTER XVIIL
Gideon : the Judgeship— Light and Shade . . . .168
The national sentiment reflected in the offer of a hereditary rule —
The new sense of national unity — Considerations favourable to
the idea of a succession of rulers in Gideon's family — Monarchy
contemplated in the Book of the Law, and the conditions pre
scribed there — The attitude of Samuel when the elders of Israel
demanded a king — The dominating reason of his displeasure —
The answer to his prayer, and what this answer implied —
Gideon's feeling similar to that of Samuel — The offer of the
crown a great temptation— Two kinds of ambition — Gideon's
election — A grand decision ; but tokens in the narrative of a
royal state, and of moral deterioration — Three such tokens:
First, his house with its surrounding ; many wives and children.
Second, the name set to one of his sons, Abimelech. Third, his
request when he declined the hereditary rule, willingly yielded to
by the men of Israel— The ephod : its symbolical significance —
Why Gideon determined to make and put the ephod in Ophrah :
Gratitude, Piety, Policy — The result of the act deplorable — The
current of movements sometimes bears men beyond, even contrary

xii CONTENTS. nei
to, their original intention — Israel made to sin — The snare to
Gideon and his house — Gideon's rule and its beneficial character
— The close of the life, and the burial in the sepulchre of ]oash.
CHAPTER XIX.
Gideon: what Happened "as Soon as he was Dead" . 183
The character and effect of his rule — Apparently, there was no
striking disturbance of harmony for some years after his decease :
but the tendency to idolatry operated in apostacy to the worship
of Baalberith — How Gideon had prepared for tins — The craving
for a visible god — The warning sounded for all times — St. Paul's
expression of the teaching conveyed — Baal, and the types of Baal-
worship indicated in the historical books — The parody of the
true worship in the form adopted by the men of Shechem—
Covenant, in what is it rooted ? — The contrast between the man-
god and the God-man — Mr. Maurice's entreaty — The lapse of
Israel " the certain presage of slavery."
CHAPTER XX.
Gideon : the Record as to the Fate of his House . . x33
The ingratitude of the people connected with forgetfulness of
God — Significance of Abimelech's history — Shechem : its beauty
and associations — Abimelech made king there — How his
ambitious designs were promoted — The money given him out of
the house of Berith, and the use made of it — Wealth of heathen
temples illustrated — Wholesale murder — Jotham on Gerizim —
Could he be heard from that altitude ? — Parable and fable — His
fable, and its meaning — His running away — Fulfilment of his pre
diction — Insurrection in Shechem — The siege and destruction of
the city — The tower of Shechem : how it was burnt — Thebez,
where was it? — What happened there? — The retributions of
Providence illustrated in Abimelech's end — The witness of the
Scriptures for righteousness— The changing and the abiding.

CHAPTER L
THE PORTION OF HISTORY TO BE REVIEWER
A period apparently unattractive — But its importance is shown by three
considerations : i. It is a transitional epoch, illustrating the growth of
the national character, and the education through which Israel was
prepared for its future — a. It is an age marked by variety and intensity
of human feeling, the interest chiefly centering in some great persons
whose figures are grand, and who prove themselves men of like
passions with ourselves — 3. A distinct Providential purpose is to be
traced — The difference between the Heroic age of Israel and this age
in other peoples — The inspiration of the Judges ; in what sense to be
regarded? — The period an important link in the chain of history.
In the scenery of an extensive landscape there are frequently
rugged tracts which do not invite the eye of the observer, but
which, when explored, are found to contain features of interest
and beauty. Such a tract in the history of Israel is the period
which begins with the occupation of Canaan by the victorious
tribes, and which extends to the days of the monarchy. To
one who hastily surveys the history, this may seem the least
attractive of all its spaces. The repose of the Patriarchal age
has vanished. It is wanting in the variety of effect which
marks the age of the Exodus and the wilderness. We no longer
hear the firm tread of the irresistible armies as, with a scarcely
broken onward march, they follow the standard of Joshua.
And, when compared with the compact organizations of the era
of the Kings, the records of the period bear the signs of social
chaos and confusion. There is much, therefore, which tends
to dull the attention and even repel the mind. But those who
yield to the temptation to pass lightly over the narrative will
miss many a glimpse of ancient things which it is profitable to
study, and many a lesson for even modem times which it is pro-

2 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
Stable to learn. Three points may be emphasized as indicating
its importance.
In the first place, the Epoch surveyed was transitional And
such an Epoch has a special value for those who, not satisfied
with regarding results, desire to trace the processes through
which results are realized. The constituents of national life are
then presented as passing out of their most elementary form :
we see forces and energies separated from the yesterday which
concealed them, and struggling towards the to-morrow which they
are to shape. The growth of character in a people corresponds
to the growth of character in an individual. Sometimes, we
may say, the growth is under ground— growth rather of the
root and its fibres than of the stem and its branches. But the
one prepares for the other ; only in the measure in which the
root is made firm in the soil beneath, is the upward and out
ward development accomplished. So it was with the people
which had been called out of Egypt The era of the Judges
was that in which the Monotheism imposed in the desert was
brought into contact with ancient and firmly-welded idolatries.
It was the probation of Israel. The consequences, it might
seem, were only disastrous. The consciousness of a higher
vocation which Moses had so earnestly enforced becomes dim
and torpid ; for long intervals it is all but obliterated. But the
subsequent history shows that, through the dreary centuries
in which evil-doing alternates with spasmodic repentances, a
work under the surface of events was being done ; by a discipline
of fire the people were being led into a wealthier place. That era
taught the generations to come that the secret of all greatness
lay in obedience to the Divine will ; it showed what could be
achieved when this obedience was the mainspring of action ;
it showed also the degradation which was inevitable when its
restraints were thrown aside, and the ways of the heathen were
followed. Milton sees in " the illustrious and sunny locks " of
Samson the image of the laws under which, whilst they are
kept "undiminished and unshorn," man grows into a noble
strength and perfection.1 The time of the Judges was a mani
festation of the truth which the English poet thus connects with
the hero of Dan. And, by this education, Israel was made
ready for higher things. There is disintegration ; the Israel of
the earlier day, Patriarchal and Nomad, is dissolved; but
1 " Reasons of Church Government," voL i. p. 149.

THE PORTION OF HISTORY TO BE REVIEWED. 3
out of this disintegration, through a sore birth-travail, came the
religion which is mirrored in the Psalms, and the nationality
which culminated in the reigns of David and Solomon.
In the second place, the Age which we are reviewing was
marked by variety and intensity of human feeling. It was
full of striking and stirring incident. Some of the sketches
which have been preserved are highly dramatic. They possess
a force which is characteristic of many of the narratives of Holy
Scripture ; by one or two delicate touches they bring out theheart
of things ; they set scenes and circumstances before us glowing
with reality. Of some of the most distinctive features of
tragedy, it is difficult to cite finer illustrations than those to be
found in the Book of Judges. And their appeal to the imagination
is, perhaps, all the more powerful that there is little evidence of
artistic skill in their compilation. Nor is it tragedy only ; the
story of Ruth which, although contained in a separate book, is
really a story of the Age, is an exquisite picture of rural sim
plicity ; it is a beautiful idyll, celebrating the domestic virtues,
the morals and manners, which softened the harshness of the
time, and were the savour of the salt that salted the earth.
But it is in certain great persons whose exploits and whose
rule are recorded that the interest chiefly centres. These
great persons were " the modellers, patterns, and, in a wide
sense, creators of whatsoever the general mass contrived to do
or attain." They differed in genius and in all that constitutes
the surrounding of a man. They did not wield the same kind
of influence ; and the circuits of the influence were in some
instances wider, and in some narrower. But whatever the
range and manner of their power were, they appear on the
stage of events in figures grand and bold ; in the might of a
divinely inspired manhood they move before us ; and as they
move we recognize in them "not the kindled lamp only, but
rather the natural luminary shining by the gift of heaven." *
And it has been well remarked that "in other portions of the
Hebrew annals the Divine character of the revelation is so
constantly before us, or the character of the human agent
reaches so nearly to the Divine, that we may, if we choose,
almost forget that we are reading of men of like passions with
ourselves. But, in the history of the J udges, the whole tenor
of the book, especially of its concluding chapters, renders this
¦ Carlyle's " Lectures on Heroes," Lect. i.

4 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
forgetfulness impossible. The angles and roughnesses of the
sacred narrative which elsewhere we endeavour to smooth
down into one uniform level, here start out from the surface
too vividly to be overlooked by the most superficial observer." *
Yet, let it be noted, in the last place, that with all this. play
of humanity, often far from saintly, we cannot forget that the
memoranda contained in the Sacred Book are connected with
a distinct Providential purpose. The time of the Judges has
been called the heroic age of the Hebrew nation ; and the
correspondences between it and the same age in the develop
ment of other peoples have been traced. As, for example, that
there is struggle, protracted and sometimes fierce, between the
race which has conquered and the races which have been dis
possessed ; that the condition of society is disturbed and almost
anarchical ; that there is a surrounding atmosphere of wonder
land portent and prodigy, appearances of gods and the like ; and
that the element of wild and daring adventure is conspicuous —
men rising above ordinary levels and waxing valiant in fight.
But resemblances between the heroic age of Israel and that of
Greece or other lands only suggest the differences which separate
the chronicles of the one from the poetries and mythologies of
the others. Whilst, in the one as in the others, there is a
wonderland, the colouring of the Hebrew Scripture is com
paratively sober, the reference to appearances of spiritual
beings is comparatively sparing, and is never introduced
except with regard to some moral end, or to the announce
ment and mission of a saviour of Israel. And whilst again, in
the one as in the others, there is contest, stern and cruel,
between the ancient inhabitants and the aggressive warriors
who seize on their soil, there is a consciousness in the Israelite
mind which is wholly absent from that of heathen peoples.
There was something else than the mere lust of conquest in the
wars of Joshua : there was the feeling of a Divine will that
was being executed, of a Divine vocation that was being
obeyed. Israel was the servant of the Lord. The extermina
tion of the Amorite and Canaanite was a judicial sentence of the
Most High. The cup of their iniquity was full ; if the elect
people were to be preserved in truth and holiness as a prophet to
the whole world, and the repository of God's covenant, their
removal was necessary. And Joshua, and all in whom his
1 Stanley's " History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xiii.

THE PORTION OF HISTORY TO BE REVIEWED. 5
mind survived, understood that the occupation of Palestine,
and the subjugation of its heathen tribes, were parts of His
ordination, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
With regard to the Judges of Israel, pious minds have often
stumbled over words asserting the inspiration of men such as
Samson. But we must remember the degree and object of their
inspiration. It was not to teach truth ; it was not to prophesy.
It was to act, and to act with a specific end in view. So far as
that action and that end were concerned, they were inspired by
the Spirit of God, "from whom all holy desires, all good
counsels, and all just works do proceed." And they possessed the
illumination of a faith which might be narrow, often confused,
but which at least grasped the fact with which faith connects,
" that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently
seek Him.'' They accepted His rule ; they were captains, under
Him, of His host ; they trusted Him ; they recognized that He
alone is the living and true God ; their own loyalty was not
perfect — sometimes very imperfect — but, under the guidance of
the Spirit, they fought and laboured for the crown rights of
Israel's King. And by this faith they have obtained a good
report. Thus the Book of Judges is an important link in the chain
of that history which, more than any other history, appeals to
the spiritual in human nature, illustrates the ways of God to
men, and exhibits the working of that Divine life which is the
light of men. Verily, in this book the light shines in darkness,
and the darkness, ever closing on it, yet overtakes it not. And
it exhibits in a most striking manner the influences which cor
rupt this life, the temptations to which the worshipper of the
living and true God is, in every time, exposed, and the only
mode of salvation alike for nation and individual. The things
related happened to the chosen people "for ensamples : and
they are written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the
world are come." " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith."

CHAPTER II.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES.
The Book— When and by whom compiled ?— The history not complete-
Difficulty of framing a satisfactory chronology— The Judges— Differ
ences between the Phoenician Suffes and the Hebrew Shophet — The
characters of the Judges — Their function — Their tribal relations.
Before studying the portraits of the more prominent Judges,
let us regard the Book which is our authority, and let us take
a general survey of the social and moral conditions of the period
in which the Judges lived and ruled.
When and by whom the Book was compiled cannot be definitely
ascertained. Internal evidence points to the time when there was
a king in Israel,1 and to the earlier days of the monarchy." The
1 See chap. xvii. 6 ; xviii. i ; xix. i ; xxi. 25.
2 The indications of the date of compilation in the book are obscure. A
time as late as the Captivity is fixed on by Ewald, Davidson, De Wette, and
others. And the statement in chap, xviii. 30 to the effect that the sons of
Jonathan were " priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity
of the land" is held to favour this view. It seems to point to the carrying
away of the tribes into Assyria, related in 2 Kings xv. 29. On the other
hand, the reference in chap. i. 21 to the Jebusites as dwelling in Jerusalem
"unto this day " is regarded as pointing to a period before the capture of
Jerusalem by David. Lord Arthur Hervey (" Pulpit Commentary ") argues
that " it would meet all the requirements of the passages in the Book of
Judges (except the reference to the captivity of the ten tribes) and in the
other books in which reference is made to Judges if we were to assign the
compilation to the reign of Saul, the separate contents of the book being
known even earlier." In " TheSp eaker's Commentary " he argues that the

THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 7
Schools of the Prophets, founded by Samuel, were a kind of col
legiate institution, which fostered the study of literature as well
as music. And to the court of David, who was himself a man
of letters, some who had probably been trained in these schools
attached themselves. We read, for instance, of Gad, the king's
seer, and of Nathan the prophet ; and they were more than
preachers declaring the word of the Eternal ; they were the
historians of their age ; in their books " David's reign and his
might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and
over all the kingdoms of the countries were chronicled." It
may have been one of these seers or prophets, one of the cul
tured men whom the king gathered around him, who collected
the traditions or documents relative to the heroes of previous
generations, and gave them the form of a historical volume.
As has already been said, there is little to remind us of the
artist. The chronicles are not dove-tailed each into the other,
nor is a continuous narrative constructed out of them. The
editor's part consisted chiefly in a retrospective and homiletical
chapter towards the beginning, and in occasionally supplying
explanatory or connecting statements. A complete and orderly
history is not to be looked for. Some incidents or biographies
compilation " may, with most probability perhaps, be assigned to the later
times of the Jewish monarchy." With regard to the allusion to the Cap
tivity, there is a good note in "the Book of Judges " (Cambridge Series)
bearing on the impossibility of supposing that the idolatrous worship of
Micah could have been maintained at Dan during the reign of David, pointing
out that Jeroboam's cultus would have been fatal to it, and reminding the
reader of the other note of time in chap, xviii. 3T, "All the time that the ark
was in Shiloh " (see chap. iv. of this vol. ). Lias, in this note, supposes the
captivity to mean the Philistine domination which extended, no doubt, even
as far as Dan, and says, " this opinion is confirmed by the Hebrew of
1 Sam. iv, ai, 22, where the expression, ' captivity of the land,' is replaced
by ' captivity of the glory of Israel." " The allusion to the Jebusites as
dwelling in Jerusalem "unto this day" does not involve fixing a period before
David's taking of Jerusalem. He did not take it until he had been king
for seven years, so that the compilation at any time during these seven
years is consistent with the supposition that the reference would be inac
curate after the conquest of the city. But, in point of fact, the Jebusites
did continue to dwell in Jerusalem after it fell into David's hands. We
read, 1 Kings ix. 20, 2r, that Solomon made the Jebusites who were left
bond-servants. On the whole, the dace assigned is, at least, as probable
as any other, and the style and language of the book agree with it.
These differ from the Book of Joshua, and are at the same time "un
tainted with Chaldaisms or Persicisms as the later books are."

8 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL:
are so expanded as to be thrown out of proportion with others,
and expanded, we might say, to a length that is scarcely justified
by their importance. Probably the reason was that the tradi
tions in which these incidents or biographies were embodied
having more vividly impressed the popular imagination, had
been more fully preserved. Thus the story of Samson bulks
largely in view, although, as compared with others, the record
of whose work is compressed into a few sentences, the circuit
of his influence as a Judge was narrow. The compiler is less
a historian than a seer ; he is less occupied with events in their
wider combinations and relations than with persons, in the
springs and principles of their conduct, and with the evidence
given by them of the sovereignty of the Divine election and
equipment of instruments, the power of a living faith in God,
and the struggle of this faith a jainst the contaminations of
idolatry, and the seductions of the devil, the world, and the
flesh. It is impossible to draw up a consistent chronology of the
Book. More than fifty such chronologies have been suggested.1
Some are extravagant, and objections may be taken to each of
them. The difficulty of arriving at any quite satisfactory result
arises chiefly from the character of the Book, and from the
absence of thoroughly reliable data outside of it on which to
found. It is usual to divide the volume into three parts — the Pre
fatory, comprehending the first three chapters ; the History,
from the third chapter to the sixteenth ; and the Appendix,
from the seventeenth chapter to the close. Now, there are
mixtures of dates throughout. Thus the account given in the
second chapter of the angel coming from Gilgal to Bochim and
testifying against the people, belongs to a time antecedent to
the death of Joshua — the time of the parliament which he sum
moned at Shechem, when he solemnly adjured the people to
renounce idolatry and serve the Lord." Again, the story of the
1 Keil and Delitsch Commentary.
* See Supplemental Note A in '* Speaker's Commentary," giving eight
considerations from which it appears that the events in chap. i. and in the
first five verses of chap. ii. happened before Joshua's death. " The Angel's
Message at ii. 1-5 is not only fixed to the lifetime of Joshua by the force of
ver. 6, compared with Joshua xxiv. 28, but all the other details identify the
occasion of its delivery with the assembly spoken of in Josh. xxiv. . . .
When to these remarkable coincidences in the two narratives it is added

THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 9
Levite, Sv. graphically related in the nineteenth and twentieth
chapters, connects certainly with the beginning of the era. It
is placed by Josephus immediately after the death of Joshua."
It would seem, moreover, that some of the numbers mentioned
are to be regarded as "round numbers" rather than the exact
interpretation of fact, as when we are told of the land having
rest forty or eighty years.3 And otherwise the notices bearing
on time are so brief or so vague that they cannot be too far
pressed. We have before us, in a word, a series of sketches
arranged, not in strict order of event, but in observance of some
association of ideas or, adopting the phrase of Ewald, " without
the constraint of a continuous chronology."
Nor, looking outside the Book, do we find any firm standing
ground. A valuable hint is supplied in the opening verse of the
sixth chapter of the First Book of Kings. There it is said that
" the beginning of Solomon's temple was made in the fourth
year of his reign," and "the 480th year after the children of
Israel were come out of the land of Egypt." There is no
occasion to challenge the correctness of the date thus specified ;3
and, going back from it, we can frame some scheme or schemes
as to the duration of the age of the Judges. But there is a
constant disturbance of calculations. We cannot be sure, for
instance, as to the length of Joshua's retirement after the con
quest of Canaan ; 4 nor yet as to the space which intervened
between his death and the death of the last of the elders who
that they both close with the identical words, ' and Joshua let the people
go, . . . every man to his inheritance,' it is impossible to doubt that
Judg. ii. 1-5 belongs to the lifetime of Joshua."
1 " Antiquities of the Jews," book v. chap. ii.
2 Not only so ; " it is notorious that numbers are peculiarly liable to be
corrupted in Hebrew manuscripts, as, e.g., in the familiar example of
1 Sam. vi. 10. ; so that these numbers are very uncertain, and not to be
depended upon" (" Pulpit Commentary," Introduction, p. 3).
3 "This statement approves itself as perfectly accurate. . . . The events
of the times after Moses and Joshua are often related without the constraint
of a continuous chronology, and with only more general notices of time ;
the years of the Judges being specified when the deeds of those heroes
were the principal subject (so in Judg. iii. 16), and single events being
defined by the time of some high priest or other such general indication "
(Ewald, vol. ii. pp. 140, 141).
4 Josephus says that the assembly at which Joshua delivered his farewell
charge was summoned in the twentieth year after his retirement to Shechem
("Antiquities," book v. chap. i.).

10 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
outlived him;1 nor yet as to the number of years comprehended
in the earlier portion of the Book of Samuel ; ' whilst, as has
been pointed out, figures bearing on Judgeships, and on the
rests and servitudes of Israel, are not to be received as exact
and final. Hence the difference in the views taken — four
centuries, three centuries, two centuries, one century and a
half, have been named. It is sufficient, for all purposes, to
assume that somewhere between B.C. 1300 and B.C. 1000 3 —
perhaps through two centuries — the events related in the Book
occurred, and the persons who pass before our view performed
the service to which, in the providence of God, they had been
called. The Book derives its title from those whose prowess and
faith it relates. The time, it has been said, makes the hero ;
with equal justice it may be said that the hero largely con
tributes to the making of the age. Whatever lustre belongs
to the period of the Judges is borrowed from them. They were
" the flowing life-fountains " of all that was healthy in its life
and noble in its movement. They are called Judges. Shophe-
tim is the Hebrew word. A parallel has been traced between
the Israelite Shophet and the Phoenician Suffes, as the head
of the Carthaginian state is styled in the pages of the Roman
historians.4 The parallel does not hold at all points, for the Suffes
was a magistrate elected by the people, and his function was
legally recognized ; whereas the Shophet was one commissioned
by the Invisible Ruler, whose first duty was to arouse the slum
bering energy of the people, and whose power depended on the
ability he possessed to deliver the people from the hand of the
enemy, and restore it to the consistency of self-rule. But the
title, Shophet, taken from the same root as the Carthaginian,
* " We cannot be far wrong in assigning a period of about fifty years
from the entrance into Canaan to the death of the elders, or twenty years
after the death of Joshua, supposing his government to have lasted thirty
years " (" Speaker's Commentary ").
* Probably the Judgeship of Eli, and possibly even that of Samuel, for
twenty years coincided with the Judgeship of Samson (Keil's Com
mentary). 3 Lord Arthur Hervey is led to the conclusion that the events related
in the book occurred within a space of 150 years, but he admits that the
chronology is a matter of uncertainty ("Speaker's Commentary," In.
troduction). * Livy compares him to the Roman consul.

THE BOOK OF JUDGES. II
is in itself a sign of the influence which the richer culture of
Phoenicia gradually exercised over Israel. It is not the natural
Hebrew phrase for the position of a magistrate,1 and it is note
worthy that the phrase Shophetim came into use in the latter
part of the era, suggesting that its adoption was owing to the
filtration of ideas originating in the richer literature of the con
quered races into the scantier literature of the conquerors."
In their selection, in the diversity of their gifts, in their per
sonal character and history, the thirteen Judges who pass before -
our eye in the Book illustrate the freedom of administration and
operation which is characteristic of the Spirit " who divideth to
every man severally as He wills." The first of the thirteen is
Othniel, the son of Kenaz ; the last is Samson. And sometimes
men — once a woman — are taken from circles to which we would
not naturally look for leaders. The lesson, so often repeated, is
enforced that God's choice of instruments does not necessarily
harmonize with the principles which regulate men in their choice
of instruments, " that no flesh may glory in His presence." Let
us observe these Judges. They are not set before us as models
of righteousness. Their faults are not concealed. They are not
credited with virtues which refer to a later stage of moral
development. There is no making light of the frailties of their
conduct and rule. The tale is told without varnish of any kind.
" We live by admiration," but the Bible never makes its great
men in all things admirable. It is too Divine to fall into such
an error. It takes men for what they are, and the human
nature which is common to all men for what it is ; its aim is to
show that there is a "something not of ourselves " which, not
withstanding the errors of the individual and the imperfect
standards of the time, " makes for righteousness." And if we
would realize its "profitableness for correction and instruction,"
we must recognize this when we read its records. To expect
Christian excellence, even a consistently high level of moral
excellence, in those who had scarcely emerged from the cruder
1 "The peculiar Israelite name for such a dignity would rather be
]*•¥!' " (Ewald, vol. ii. p. r33, note). This is the word used in Josh. *. 24;
Judg. xi. 6 ; and it is applied to civil rulers, Isa. i. 10.
3 " The name is the first trace of the influence of the Syrian usages on
the fortunes of the chosen people, the first-fruits of the pagan inheritance
to which the Jewish and the Christian Church has succeeded " (Stanley,
" History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xiii.).

12 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
forms of civilization, and whose only oracle was the Urim and
Thummim of the priesthood — (even that, as we shall see, disap
pears) — would be to expect an anachronism. In their day the
lamp of God burned low and dim in the temple, and there was
no open vision. What we are enjoined to follow is not their
action in detail, but that which was the source of all things
good in it ; and this is uniformly described as a descent of the
Spirit of God bidding them undertake issues vaster than they
themselves comprehended. The response to this call of the
Spirit is their faith, and "through faith they subdued kingdoms
and turned to flight the armies of the aliens."
The portraits of many of these uncrowned Hebrew kings
are attractive. Some of them, notably the one whom we
shall specially consider, rise to the higher pinnacles of heroism,
and there is a commendable self-abnegation manifest in all
whose Judgeship is particularly specified. Except in one
instance1 — and he is a person outside, rather than inside, the
circle of the true Shophetim — they rule without reigning. The
title Melek is never given to them." The best of them refused
the kingly estate. We are not told of new laws made, or of
new taxes imposed, by them. A rude splendour is attributed
to the families of one or two who belonged to the later half
of the era. But there is no evidence that this splendour was
purchased by any oppression of the people. And it does not
appear that the ordinary machinery of government was inter
fered with. In the country, or in portions of the country, they
fill the place which Moses and Joshua had filled — they hear
and decide on the greater causes ; they give their counsel when
appealed to by tribes or individuals. They wield the power
because they have proved their right to be leaders and com
manders of the people. They do not challenge or deny the
idea of the theocracy. In the name of Jehovah they raise the
banner, they revive that " shout of a king " which used to smite
hostile ranks with terror, they judge of the right as between
man and man. This done, their mission is ended. They are
only the servants and witnesses of Jehovah, the Judge, the
Lawgiver, the King of Israel.
1 Abimelech.
' "That name would have ascribed to them a power which they could
not claim, a power logically and necessarily co-extensive with the State
itself " (Ewald, vol. ii. p. 133).

THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 13
One point must be kept in view. There may have been
more than thirteen Judges in the centuries briefly noticed in
the Book. But it would be a mistake to suppose that the rule
even of these thirteen was uniformly acknowledged by all the
tribes. In point of fact, the great southern tribes of Judah and
Simeon were outside the storm-circles by which the central and
northern tribes were desolated, and they did not directly acknow
ledge the sway of the Hebrew chiefs. Judah contributed only
one of these chiefs. The song of Deborah demonstrates that,
in her day, the isolation of the southern limbs of the old nation
ality was marked, and, as the years rolled on, the isolation became
more and more distinct.1 The tribal surrounding of each Judge
is intimated in the book, and this surrounding marked the
chief theatre of his action. It might so happen that some
parts of the land were at rest, whilst others were groaning
under the heel of the oppressor. Of course a deliverance from
any hostile power at any part was really a deliverance for all
the tribes. And possibly the moral influence of the deliverer
was so widely acknowledged that, far and near, persons sub
mitted to his government. But the campaigns of the several
captains of the Lord's host and their following were, in the
main, limited to the eastern, central, western, and northern
parts of Palestine. The four heroes on whose careers we shall
afterwards dwell have been thus apportioned : " Deborah is
the typical prophetess of the northern tribes ; Gideon is the
great head of the central tribes ; Jephthah is the pride of the
land beyond the Jordan ; Samson is the ideal of joyous
strength, striving at unequal odds against Philistine as
cendancy in the west.""
1 Chapters v. 14-18 ; vi. 35; xii. 8-15.
• Ewald, vol. ii. p. 137.

CHAPTER III.
THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES.
The social condition of Israel during the period— How best illustrated—
The victory at the waters of Merom — The rest which followed only
temporary — The hold which the conquered races maintained — These
races — How classified — Their licentiousness.
Rightly to estimate the mission and work of the Judges, we
must regard the social condition of Israel at the beginning and
during the continuance of their period. This condition may
best be illustrated by a comprehensive survey of the tribes as
their situation is unfolded in the Book, and by a glance at
three pictures of manners and morals — two derived from the
appendix, which occupies so large a place in the book, and the
third from the exquisitely beautiful supplement which is
associated with the name of Ruth.
The victory which decided the fate of Palestine was gained
at the waters of Merom, in the far north, where a great army
had assembled, " with horses and chariots very many," to make
a last desperate stand against the invader. This conflict at the
Land's End of Palestine has been compared to the final gather
ing of the ancient British chiefs in resistance to the Saxon
conqueror at the Land's End of England.1 The result in both
cases was the same— the complete rout of the opposing force,
the shattering of the confederacy of chieftain and tribe, and the
subjugation of the land. And Joshua's triumph was followed up
b) a protracted warfare which issued in the slaughter of a vast
¦ Stanley's " History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xii.

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 1 5
number of kings, the capture of a vast number of cities, and
finally the dispersion of the fierce mountaineers who are called
Anakim. " The hills, the south country, the valley, and the
plain," were swept by the hosts of Israel. Then came a rest
which seemed to be perfect, when the old leader laid down the
burden of rule and counsel, and pious hands buried him " in the
border of his inheritance, in Timnath-Serah." ¦
We are soon reminded that the rest was only for a time.
Remnants, but in considerable numbers, of the inhabitants
whose territories had been stripped from them, remained in
different parts of the land. Shortly after the death of Joshua,
Judah and Simeon united in an effort to expel the Canaanites
from the southern region. The effort, although so far success
ful, did not secure their extermination. There, as elsewhere,
the heathen population remained an alien, and with the possi
bility of becoming a seriously disturbing, force." So long as the
original vigour of the old Hebrew stock was manifested, and an
authority, uniting all the tribes, was recognized in the elders
who outlived Joshua, that population formed only a servile
element in the midst of Israel. But it exhibited a singular
tenacity of life. In one of the tribes, Manasseh, there were
no fewer than seven Phoenician cities — cities so situated as
almost to separate the northern from the southern Hebrew
communities.3 And, here and there, the conquered peoples
maintained their hold, " not only on the outermost skirts of
their former possessions, but in the very heart of the country,
as on little islands rising out of a stormy sea, whence they
inspired even their conquerors with respect, recalling the fate
of Italy after its subjugation by Germans when the old inhabi
tants here and there in favourable spots held closely together,
and soon, with their array of flourishing towns, raised their
head bravely against the surrounding barbarians."4
Who were the peoples thus left, in the words of the chronicler,
" to prove Israel and to teach them war, at the least, such as
before knew nothing thereof"?
1 Otherwise called Timnath-heres : Judg. ii. 9.
" Judg. i.
' Judg. i. 27 : " The Canaanites would dwell in that land." One of the
places in which they would dwell was the important city of " Beth-Shean
(Beisan) and her towns."
4 Ewald, " History of Israel," vol. ii. pp. 98, 99.

l6 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
They are variously classified. But some of the names given
seem to indicate, not so much distinct races, as tribes occupying
certain geographical positions in the land, and representing a
mixture of races. For example, " the Perizzites" is a generic
phrase for those who occupied the open country and tilled the
ground. " The Hivites " were villagers, having sheep and cattle.
" The Amorites " were the Highlanders. " The Philistines "
were the inhabitants of the southern sea-board. "Moabites "
and "Ammonites " formed a dreaded environment* Phoenician
in origin, and in the form of their idolatry, these races, for the
most part, were. The country was known as Canaan, the home
of Canaanitish or Phoenician peoples." And these peoples, let
it be remembered, possessed a culture vastly superior to that of
the Hebrews. The one dark blot was a licentiousness so vile,
so leprous, as to make even their existence incompatible with
the preservation of Israel in moral purity and truth. It had
enfeebled them ; it had rendered their conquest an easier task
for the sons of Israel. They were worshippers of Baal and the
Ashtaroth, the male and female divinities of Phoenicia. And
the Asherah (or "groves," as the Authorized Version translates),
in which the rites of this idolatry were conducted, were scenes
of unblushing sensuality. The neighbourhood of a population

1 The peoples of Canaan are grouped in different ways in the historical
books of the Old Testament. In Gen. xiii. 7, it is said, " the Canaanite and
Perizzite dwelled then in the land." Josh. vii. 9 speaks of " the Canaan
ites and all the inhabitants of the land." In Josh. v. the distinction is
drawn between " all the kings of the Amorites which were on the side oi
Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites which were by the
sea." Six peoples are specified in Deut, xx. 17, and Josh. ix. r, as occupy
ing the hills and the valleys and the coasts of the great sea over against
Lebanon, viz., "the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the
Hivite, and the Jebusite. " These races may have dispossessed still older
races. The shadow of a race of giants called the Rephaim is traceable in
the earliest of the sacred Scriptures. The Anakim, whom the children of
Israel so much dreaded, were probably descended from it. " Whether,"
says Mr. Oliphant, " these tribes were preceded by a still older autochtho
nous population, namely, the Anakim, Hivites, and so forth, is a question
which has so far been beyond the reach of scientific research" (" Haifa,"
p. iro). The Fellaheen of Palestine are supposed by many to be descendants
of the ancient tribes. For an account of these peasants see "Abraham,"
by Rev. W. J. Deane, M.A., pp. 40, 41.
• The language of Phoenicia was closely related to the Hebrew.

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 1 7
thus corrupted was an ever active cause of evil' Patriotic, as
well as religious, interests demanded a complete separation.
This Joshua had emphatically proclaimed, warning all against
contamination through inter-marriage and mixture of race. The
congregation of Jehovah must dwell apart, must wage war to
the knife, if the old shout of a king was to be heard in its hosts
Too soon did the probation verify the complaint of prophet
and poet, that " Israel was a stubborn and rebellious generation
that set not the heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast
with God." ' " Out of sight, out of mind," says Matthew
Henry; "and here begins all the wickedness that is in the
world." 3 When the mighty works of Jehovah in the Exodus
from Egypt and the journeyings through the wilderness became
only a tradition of the past, " the people forgat the Lord their
God, and served Baalim and the Asherah." And as their leader
had foreseen, the apostasy was chiefly promoted by the taking
of the daughters of the heathen to be their wives, and the giving
of the daughters of Israel to the sons of Canaan.
Two influences — in the case of Israel inseparably connected —
might have prevented this apostasy : the one, the political
condition, and the other, the national worship. But, during the
era of the Judges, these influences were so weak as to be
unable to stem the tide of " evil in the sight of the Lord."
Theoretically, the government was a theocracy. Jehovah
was the King. All power came directly from Him. His
throne was the mercy-seat above the ark. He sat between
the cherubim. The priests were His ministers, keeping know
ledge, interpreting the oracle, declaring His law. He was both
the Shepherd of Israel, and the Stone of all the social fabric.4
Rulers were only His hand. He had led His people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Moses was not a king. He
was not even the law-giver. The law came by him. He
was the servant of Jehovah, the exponent of the will of the
Invisible Supreme. Joshua claimed only the same subordina
tion. He, too, was the servant. When the land was conquered,
he disbanded the army, and he himself retired into private life.
The only Rock of Israel was the living and true God.
* " Thus they are ordered to hate, not only impiety, but the persons of
the impious lest their friendship should be an occasion of going astray "
(Chrysostom on i Cor. xiii.). " Psa. lxxviii. 8.
i Commentary on Judg. iii. t Gen. xlix. 24.
3

1 8 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
But the consciousness of this had become pale and feeble.
The signs of the desert were no longer seen ; no longer were
there the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
Except at rare intervals, the Tabernacle was all but forsaken.
" Of the rock that begat him, Jeshurun was unmindful." '
The executive of the state, as fixed in the third month after
the Exodus from Egypt," had, more or less, fallen into abeyance
during the time of the Judges. There are indications of the
old executive in the annals of the time.3 But, owing to the
comparative isolation of the tribes from each other, and the
pressure of several co-operating causes, its outline became
gradually less distinct and its operation more uncertain.
Apparently, the congregation always had its elders. In the
assembly which discussed the terrible plight of Benjamin, they
are recognized as the counsellors of the people.4 But the basis
on which their authority rested — whether that of popular
election or that of a tacitly accepted hereditary position — it is
impossible to determine. Nor is there any evidence of power
exercised by these elders, in their official capacity, in ordinary
circumstances. We infer from the strains of Deborah's song
that the tribes were headed by chieftains — "governors,"
"nobles," "princes,"5 so they are designated — who exercised a
kind of patriarchal or feudal authority. So that, practically it
would seem, the nation was divided into a number of petty
sovereignties, or of communes presided over by head-men,
hereditary or elected. The sense of a common bond was not
wholly lost ; it existed as a potential force of action. But there
was no steady and supreme authority which all acknowledged
to be the national over-man, with strength sufficient to control
what was rude, to check the capricious violence of ambition,
and to harmonize the various elements of the social life. Again
and again, the chronicler, contrasting these days with his own,
writes, "There was no king in Israel;" and quaintly adds,
" Every man did what was right in his own eyes."6
A confused and disturbed action was inevitable, when the
centre of the state was inadequate to the supply of the needed
¦ Deut xxxii. 18. a Exod. x.
3 E-g-< J«dg. vii. 15: "My thousand is the meanest in Israel." So
also, Josh. xxiv. i : "The Elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and
their officers." •» Judg. xxi. r6. 5 Judg. v.
* Judg. xvii. 6 ; xviii. i ; xix. i ; xxi. 25.

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. 19
strength and inspiration. That centre was the tabernacle, or
tent of meeting, with its priesthood, and its sacrifices and
observances. Where was its seat ?
The first of the sacred places of Israel was Bethel, now
Beitin.1 There, on his way to Padan- Aram, he, whose name the
nation bore, beheld the mystic ladder, and there, after his return
to the land of his fathers, he erected the altar, and changed
the name of the spot from Luz to Bethel, the House of God.
And proofs of the veneration in which this place was held are
to be found in the records before us." But, in the days of
Joshua, Bethel was not free from the taint of Canaanite
idolatry.3 A temporary resting-place for the ark was found in
the camp at Gilgal, in the Jordan valley. But Gilgal was in a
corner of the land ; 4 and, after victory had crowned the warfare
of Israel, a solemn convocation was held at a place called
Shiloh,5 there to set up the tent of meeting.
There is no doubt as to the site of Shiloh, " a desolate hill
on which only two buildings remain, and even these, although
modern, and doubtless Christian churches, more than half
ruined;"6 "a place so utterly featureless, that, had it not been
for the preservation of the name (Seilun), and the extreme
precision with which its situation is described, the spot could
never have been identified."7 But a careful examination of the
undulating ground has disclosed many traces of an ancient
1 Beitin is a place of uninviting aspect. " The miserable fields are fenced
in with stone walls ; the hovels are rudely built of stone ; the hill to the
east is of hard rock, with only a few scattered fig-gardens. The ancient
sepulchres are cut in a low cliff, and a great reservoir south of the village is
excavated in rock. The place seems, as it were, turned to stone" (Major
Conder, " Tent Work," p. 52).
" At Bethel the children of Israel asked counsel of God before going to
battle against the children of Benjamin (chap. xx. 18). The word rendered
House of God in the A. V. is Bethel.
s It was conquered by the house of Joseph (chap. i. 22-26).
4 In Josh. ii. 1 the article is prefixed, The Gilgal. The word signifies
rolling, with a reference, as the occasion of the name, to the rolling off of
the reproach of Egypt from the people through the administration of the
rite of circumcision. The name was given, apparently, to more than one
of the encampments of Israel. The Gilgal, which was the site of the first
camp, and of the tabernacle, was about five miles distant from Jordan, and
two from Jericho. 3 Josh, xviii. r.
6 Thomson, " The Land and the Book," Central Palestine, p. 104.
1 Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," chap. v.

20 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
city, and, with the wide plains all around, there was ample
scope for the tents of Israel's thousands when they went up to
worship Jehovah. The situation was central, and its seclusion
was favourable to the repose which befits the worship of the
great King. There was reared the tent — " a structure of low
stone walls with a tent drawn over the top ; " there were the
altar, the oracle, and the mercy-seat, until, in Eli's priesthood,
the tragic Ichabod was pronounced, and "the Lord refused the
tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim."
But, although Shiloh was the sanctuary, and the Lamp of
God was kept ever burning beneath its roof, the Book of Judges
shows, both in what it states and in what it omits, that the
requirements of the Hebrew ritual were loosely observed, some
probably not observed at all. No mention is made in the Book
of the festivals, at which all the males were held bound to
appear before Jehovah. We do read of a yearly dance of the
daughters of Shiloh, which had a semi-religious character ; but
the dance was no part of the religious code, and the circle in
which it was observed was narrow. In the whole history of the
time of the Judges, the high priest is only once referred to,"
and the worship of the Tabernacle is not spoken of except
in connection with the Benjamite catastrophe. Very soon,
indeed, a schismatical worship was set up in the northern part
of the country.' And we read of even Ephraimite villages
which had fallen into the idolatry of Canaan.3
Thus the bond of unity was gradually loosened, and heathen
practices gained a foothold in homes and hearts. No doubt,
the centrifugal tendency was promoted, not only by mixture
with the aboriginal tribes, but also by the dangers attending the
journey to Shiloh in days when the highways, infested by rob
bers, were unoccupied, and travellers walked through bypaths.4
The disjointed condition of society, with all the consequences of
such a condition, are strikingly exhibited in the narratives
alluded to in the beginning of this chapter. Two of these shed
a lurid light on the political situation ; the third, relieving the
gloom of the delineation, shows how much in the manners and
spirit of the people was worth preserving and attuning to finer
issues. » Judg. xx. 37, 38. • Judg. xviii. 30. » Judg. rt,
4 Judg. v. 6.

CHAPTER IV.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PERIOD.
First Illustration : The Levite of Mount Ephraim — Three Time-Marks —
The tale told in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Judges — The
gathering together of the congregation — The war with Benjamin — The
terrible revenge — The compunction — The means adopted to prevent
the complete extinction of the tribe — The significance of the episode.
Second Illustration : The establishment of a schismatical centre of
worship — The two parts of the history — Micah ; his mother ; the
ephod and teraphim j the Levite — The raid of the Danites ; Their
capture of the Levite ; Who he was ; The sanctuary at Dan.
With regard to the first of the narratives alluded to, we can
distinguish three time-marks in the Book of the Judges. One
of the three is the reference made to Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron. " He stood before the ark in those
days."1 This Phinehas was priest in the time of Joshua, and
his priesthood could not have extended for long after the death
of Joshua, certainly not for long after the death of the elders
who survived Joshua. The other two marks are found in two
clauses of the history. " The congregation," it is said, " was
gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba." "
Now, this phrase does not occur in the account of previous
convocations : it could have been used only after the events
belonging to the second of our narratives — the migration of
the Danites and their capture of Laish or Leshem in the far
north, henceforth called Dan. But the clause which imme
diately follows " with the land of Gilead" suggests that this
convocation, and, by inference, that migration, was in the
earlier portion of the era. For " the land of Gilead " being
east of the Jordan was held to be outside the geographical
Israelite territory, and its people became gradually alienated
from the other children of Israel. Their inclusion in "the
assembly of the people of God " is a witness for the day when
« Judg. xx. a8. • Chap. xx. i

22 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
the feeling which had prompted the erection of the great altar
by Jordan, not for burnt-offering or sacrifice, but as a witness
between the two tribes and a half and their compatriots " * — the
feeling of fraternal unity — was still fresh and strong. We are
warranted, therefore, in connecting the tale now to be told with
the commencement of the epoch of the Judges.
The tale is this. A wife of the second rank" had proved
faithless to her husband, "a certain Levite sojourning on the
side of Mount Ephraim." In dread of her husband's wrath
" she went away to her father's house in Bethlehem-Judah, and
was there four whole months." The Levite, moved by kindly
feeling towards her, set forth to bring her again. They met,
and the wife, rejoicing in the affection for which she had not
dared to hope, brought him to her father's house. The most
genial hospitality is shown to him ; and for four days he is the
guest of "the father of the damsel." On the evening of the
fifth day the Levite begins his return. The shades of night fall
on him and his wife as they come to Jebus ; but they will not
turn aside to the city of the stranger. And they press forward
to Gibeah — a city of Benjamin — four miles distant from Jebus.
No home in Gibeah opens to them ; and they are preparing to
encamp in the mound or square of the city when a stranger, a
poor workman, but a fellow-tribesman, seeing them, insists on
being their host, and takes them to his house. Then follows the
story of a terrible wickedness, of brutal men wishing to indulge
unnatural lust, and to whose importunities, with the view of
saving them from horrible bestiality, the wife is sacrificed.
The Levite carries home the dead body of the outraged woman,
and divides the body, " together with her bones," into twelve
pieces, which he sends into all the coasts of Israel. "And," in
the quaint words of the chronicle, " it was so, that all who saw
it said, There was no such deed done or seen from the day that
the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto
this day : consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds." 3
This was the occasion of the gathering together of the con
gregation as one man. Never did fiery cross more rapidly
convene an assembly of excited warriors. The stain of the
wickedness which the Levite is summoned to relate is felt to
1 Josh. xxii. 10, 29.
° Judg. xix. 1. In Hebrew, " a woman or a wife, a concubine " — a wife
of inferior station. s Judg. xix. 30.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PLRIOD. 23
lie on the whole congregation : and, quick as lightning, fierce
and stern, is the action taken. Benjamin is summoned to
surrender the men of Belial in Gibeah who had disgraced the
name of Israel. And, on the refusal to do so, war is declared.
Sanguinary is the fight ; fearful is the bloodshed. Israel, at
first defeated, finally, by a successful ambush, overcomes :
Gibeah is given to the flames, and, with the exception of six
hundred men who had fled to the rock Rimmon and lived there
for four months, the tribe of Benjamin is exterminated."
It was a terrible vengeance ; and, when the bloody work is
done, there comes a bitter compunction. Before Shiloh's
mercy-seat the people stand from morning until evening,
" weeping sore and saying, O Lord God of Israel, why is this
come to pass in Israel that there should be to-day one tribe
lacking in Israel?" To repair the breach, another iniquity is
perpetrated. When the muster is taken it is apparent that one
town, nestling in a valley of Gilead, had furnished no contingent
for the army ; and to this town twelve thousand men are sent
with the command to smite its inhabitants with the edge of the
sword, sparing only the unmarried woi len. These, numbering
four hundred, are brought to Shiloh, and given to the surviving
remnant of Benjamin. The closing chapter of the book de
scribes the ruse by which the Benjamites, not thus mated, were
provided with wives. A solemn vow had been taken that no
Israelite would give his daughter to a son of Benjamin. But
the Benjamites are encouraged to rush into the scene of the
dance at Shiloh, and, abstracting the maidens dancing there,
hasten to their mountain fastnesses," the elders undertaking to
make peace with the fathers and brethren of the maidens.3
Thus the tribe was saved from complete extinction. Gradu-
1 Judg. xx.
1 •' Our road," says Mr. Oliphant, " lay through a fertile plain called the
Meadow of the Feast, possibly in connection with the yearly feast which
used to be held by the Jews in old times at Shiloh, from which historical
site we were not far distant. It is a comfort now and then to come upon a
Biblical site about the identity of which there is not the slightest doubt,
and such is the case with Seilun, the modern name for Shiloh. It stands
in an extremely retired valley. It was probably in this meadow, while the
maidens were dancing at the festival in honour of the ark, that the remnant
of the Benjamites concealed themselves among the vineyards on the hill
sides and carried off two hundred maidens" (" Haifa," p. 231).
3 Judg. xxi.

24 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
ally the broken-down cities were rebuilt, and boys and girls
again played in their streets.
This tragic episode is, in many respects, an index to the
internal condition of the lime of the Judges. It presents both
the kindly lights and the dark shadows of its social life. The
kindly lights, in the picture of the Levite setting forth on his
journey, with the servant and the two asses ; in the hospitalities
extended by the father of the wife whom he had forgiven ; in
the declinature to lodge in the city of aliens to the common
wealth of Israel ; in the friendliness of the poor workman who,
himself a stranger, knew the heart of a stranger ; and, finally,
in the simplicity of the yearly merry-making of the daughters
of Shiloh. But the dark shadows also, in the chief features of
the narrative. For it reminds us of the rudeness, degenerating
too often into unbridled licentiousness, which prevailed, and
whose prevalence proved how far the law given by Moses was
in advance of the people, and how even the worst traits of the
Canaanite surrounding had written their mark in the characters
of many. It reminds us also of the inferior position occupied
by woman. That position may have been more elevated in
Israel than in heathen communities, but we observe the
evidences of a degrading subserviency of woman to the passions
of men. The wife of lower degree — the concubine — is recog
nized in Levitical circles. And, to protect the man whom he
had taken into his house, the Ephraimite host does not hesitate
to offer his daughter to the vile lust of the men of Gibeah ;
whilst, to protect both his host and himself, the traveller thrusts
his concubine out of the house and leaves her to the mercy of
the band of ruffians until the dawning of the day.
Otherwise the story is suggestive. For instance, when, in
answer to the question, " Whither goest thou ? " the Levite
replies, " I am now going to the house of the Lord," * we are,
incidentally, told of a regularly maintained worship in Shiloh,
and of courses of priests and Levites discharging their functions
according to order. However it may have been neglected by
the people, the worship of the Lord we may infer was duly
maintained, Phinehas or his successors standing before the ark.
The latter part of the story not only confirms this, but indicates
the hold which the Hebrew worship still kept over the congre
gation. In great emergencies it sought after God. It asked
' Judg. xix. 18.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PEROD. 25
counsel of Him, either through Urim and Thummim or by lot.
As Dean Stanley points out, the action taken and the subsequent
repentance reflect the spirit conspicuous in Phinehas on a previous
memorable occasion, and was probably, therefore, largely in
fluenced by him as the priest whose lips kept knowledge."
When the thousands of Israel are smitten down, the congregation
comes to Shiloh, and sits before Jehovah, and offers burnt-
offerings and peace-offerings. And, once more, as proving the
reverence felt for the sacred symbols, the ark is removed from
Shiloh, first to Mizpah in Benjamin and then to Bethel, that it
might be in the neighbourhood of the army, and the priest,
standing before it, might announce the holy oracle. All this
reminds us that, notwithstanding the failure to keep many parts
of the law, and the growing tendency to lapse from the holiness
enjoined by the covenant, the tabernacle and the ark were still,
and ever, a potential force in the life and destinies of Israel.
And it is interesting to observe the rapid blaze of indignation
in every part of the country when the ghastly appeal to it was
sent by the Levite. The response to the appeal is an evidence
of ill-balanced and excessive zeal. With its vows and curses,
with its violent heat and awful retribution, it was the sign of a
community which wanted the judicial temper, even in regard to
vengeance, which the regular administration of law tends to
promote. But, both in the sudden flaming up of the wrath, and
in the remorse after the wrath had spent itself, we are reminded
of one wide distinction between Israel and the tribes by whom
they were encompassed. In Israel, beneath all the chaos of
years, when " every man did what was right in his own eyes,"
there was the underlying sense of an eternally right and true,
and of the duty of the nation, as such, to maintain the righteous
ness on which social well-being rests. The twelve tribes were,
in this matter at least, the one people of Him whose name is
Holy. It was, in respect of this consciousness, and of the
capability of a higher education which it ensured, that Israel,
even in its darkest hours, was the salt of the earth — the fore
most of the divinely-appointed agencies in the elevation and
sanctification of mankind.
A second illustration of morals and manners, introducing us
to events which have an important political bearing, is supplied
' " History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xiii.

26 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
by the history of a schismatical centre of worship in the north
of Palestine. The time of this history is fixed by the previous
narrative, for Dan, as we have seen, was the recognized northern
boundary of the land of Israel when the congregation gathered
together as one man ; and this assembly was held during the
priesthood of Phinehas, who stood before the ark in the days of
Joshua. It will otherwise appear that Josephus is probably
accurate when he assigns the story of the seventeenth and
eighteenth chapters of the Book of Judges to a date very
shortly after the death of Joshua.
The history divides into two parts.
First, we are taken to the hill-country of Ephraim. In one
of its great homes we see a widowed mother and her son.
The mother had been left, at her husband's decease, with ample
means, a considerable portion of which ¦ somehow disappeared
And, in the hearing of her son, she appeals to Him to whom
all hearts are open to bring to light the plunderer of this wealth.
Moved by the adjuration, the son confesses that he had yielded
to the whisper of avarice, and abstracted the money. For this
confession she blesses him, and intimates that, for his sake,
she had intended to devote the stolen shekels to the Lord. It
is a striking evidence of the confusion of thought which pre
vailed even in days when the memory of Joshua and his pro
testations was fresh, that she could think of honour to Jehovah
in a course of action which transgressed His most solemn
commands, and set at nought the emphatic warnings of His
servants. For her purpose was, with these shekels " to make
a graven image and a molten image." And this purpose is
carried out, although, from the chronicle, it seems that only a
fifth of the sum mentioned was appropriated to the superstitious
worship." A house of God is reared in the very region in
which Shiloh was situated. The metal is fused into the image
of a calf, beside which, as the more important feature, there
is also a graven image. We read, too, of an ephod — an im
portant part of priestly garment, and of teraphim— small
1 Eleven hundred shekels of silver, amounting to between ^130 and
£150. " Judg. xvii. 4. "His mother took two hundred shekels of silver and
gave them to the founder, who made thereof a molten image and a graven
image." Perhaps tlie oihei nine hundred shekels were devoted to other
objects coiniLLiLj Willi ihe worship

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PERIOD. V)
images which were treasured as household gods, the custom of
having which is noted even by prophets of later periods." One
feature, to complete the worship, is wanting. There is nc
priest. Micah is bold enough to set apart one of his sons as
the family priest. But he does so with a misgiving which, by
and by, is relieved.
For it happens that a Levite, dissati.fied, for some reason,
with his position, leaves the city of his residence, Bethlehem in
Judah. The lav of his God is not hidden in his heart, and he
sets out in search of a place. The house of Micah was on the
route of travellers, and he claims its shelter and hospitality.
His consecration having been ascertained, the young man is
easily persuaded to become a father and a priest to the
Ephraimite family, at a hire of a few shekels per annum, and
a suit of apparel and his living. A worthless mercenary we
judge him to have been, without loyalty to either God or man.
" Want of maintenance, no less than conscience, draws him on
to the danger of idolatrous patronage. When need meets with
unconscionableness, all conditions are easily swallowed, of
unlawful entrances, of wicked executions."" The superstitious
feed on semblances of things. He who scruples not to break
Divine law is satisfied with this simulacrum of a priesthood.
Having the service of a Levite, Micah exclaims, " Now I know
that the Lord will do me good."
The confidence is rudely broken by the second series of
events related. In the account of the settlement of the tribes,
it is said that the inheritance assigned to Dan was " too little ";
and the narrative of its extension, which is told at length
in the Book of Judges, is, in a few sentences, anticipated.3
Circumscribed as the territory originally was, it was still further
contracted by the successful opposition of the Amorites, who
would not suffer the tribesmen to come down into the valley.
The desire to find elbow-room, to move from mountainous
regions to fairer and wider lands, prompts the descendants of
Dan to send five men of valour in search of pastures new.
En route, they come to the Mount Ephraim sanctuary. They
hear the voice of a priest engaged in acts of worship — a grate
ful sound to the stalwart Israelites — inviting them within, and
offering them the opportunity of asking counsel. They are
* Hosea iii. 4. " Bishop Hall's "Contemplations," book x.
s Josh. xix. 47.

28 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
encouraged to proceed on their way. They accomplish their
mission. They return and report that they had found a country
very different from their barren highlands, wide and roomy, and
with " no want of anything that, is in the earth," a country
whose only inhabitants were a Phoenician colony, "dwelling
careless and secure," without an efficient magistracy, and
"having no business," with more powerful peoples outside
their border. And six hundred men, stirred by the report,
leave Zorah and Eshtaol to go and enter into possession of the
land. They are guided to Micah's house. They hail the
mercenary Levite. And he accepts their call to be their
priest, and to steal the sacred things of his master. And bear
ing him and them away, they move northward to the city at the
base of Mount Hermon, known as Leshem or Laish ; they
smite it with the edge of the sword ; they seize the fertile
territory, and, settling in it, they erect a sanctuary over which
the Levite presides."
This Levite is no other than Jonathan the son of Gershom.
In subsequent times the children of Israel were ashamed to
mention the lineage of the idolatrous priest. But there can
be little doubt that the rendering in the Authorized Version,
" the son of Manasseh," should be " the son of Moses.''
Gershom was the son of Moses, not Manasseh ; and, although
Jonathan may not have been the grandson of the Lawgiver, in
direct lineal succession, he certainly belonged to the family of
which the Lawgiver's son was the head." It is sad indeed to
reflect that the descendant of Moses was the man through whom
a priesthood and a ritual were originated, which marked a
revolt from Divine ordinance, and prepared for the days of
"Jeroboam who made Israel to sin."
For we are told that a tribal priestly caste remained in
the family of this Jonathan " until the captivity of the land."
What this phrase denotes is not obvious ; but the view to
* Judges xviii.
" "In the Hebrew text, the name here rendered Manasseh is written
M°SH. Without the little » suspended over the line it reads Moses whose
son was Gershom (Exod. ii. 22), whose son or descendant Jonathan
clearly was. The Masorites, probably grieved that a descendant of Moses
should have been implicated in idolatrous worship, adopted this expedient
for disguising the fact without absolutely falsifying the text " ("Speaker's
Commentary," p. 209).

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PERIOD. 29
which the majority of commentators incline is that it refers to
the ascendancy of the Philistines in the time of Samuel, when
the ark of Jehovah was taken, and the " Ichabod, Ichabod "
was sounded. The concluding sentence of the narrative sug
gests this, intimating, as it does, that the mongrel worship of
Dan continued "all the time that the house of God was in
Shiloh." * Now Shiloh ceased to be the place whither " the
tribes went up " after the capture of the covenant-symbol by
the armies of the uncircumcised. Reckoning to this capture as
the end of the Danite schism, we give it a limit of at least
a hundred years. It typified and it accentuated that departure
from the truth of Israelite government, worship and manners,
which the chronicler traces in the sentence, " Every man did
that which was right in his own eyes."
The impression left on the mind by the two previous nar
ratives is that which is naturally caused by records of unrest
and anarchy. But, lest it might be supposed that all nobility
and grace had vanished from the life of Israel, a short book,
expressly connected with " the days when the Judges judged,"
exhibits a series of pictures which show how much piety and
simplicity of manners adorned even those rude days, how much
was worth preserving because it had the possibility of higher
things. The sketches whose centre is Bethlehem of Judah, with
its cornfields and its farms, are no doubt the sign of similar
scenes and ways in other parts of the land, and they remind us
that, even under the most unfavourable conditions, virtue and
truth can flourish, that the real growth of a nation is not to be
measured by events detailed in histories, but by the types of
character fostered in its homes, and the faith and the gentleness
which inspire its people.
The Book receives its name from the fair Moabitish woman
whose romance it tells. During a protracted famine, an
Israelite called Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and his two sons,
Mahlon and Chilion, resolve to cross the line of blue moun
tains on which they had often gazed from the uplands of
Bethlehem. " And they came into the country of Moab and
continued there." Elimelech died. His two sons married
maidens of Moab, Orpah and Ruth. And for ten years, all
lived happily. But the sons also died, and died without issue.
' See note, p. 7.

30 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
The craving of Naomi for her native land was increased by
the loss of all dearest to her ; and on hearing of the prosperity
which had again visited it, she resolved to return. Her
daughters-in-law accompanied her on the way. One of the two,
yielding to Naomi's request, bade her farewell, but the other
refused, in words that have become classic " Intreat me not
to leave thee, and to return from following after thee : for
whither thou goest I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will
lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God :
where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried : the
Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee
and me." * We are chiefly interested in the unfolding of the
tale from the time when all the city of Bethlehem was moved
about the arrival of the two women " in the beginning of
barley harvest."
The Book of Judges is full of " mighty men of valour," their
wars and heir victories. The strain of the Book throughout
is martial. This fragment of biography introduces us to "a
mighty man of wealth," advanced in years, with broad acres
and many dependants, esteemed by all for his integrity and
piety. Most graphic is the outline presented of rural ways and
manners. The salutation, master to men, men to master, still
maintained in the East, especially at harvest time, breathes
a spirit which strikingly contrasts with the attitude of employer
and employed in our Western world. Quaint and touching
is the account of the gleaning, of the kindness shown to the
poor, in accordance with the provisions of law. The burly,
high-minded, man of wealth, in the frankness of his bearing
and the ordering of his household, is a splendid type of the
Israelite indeed. No more charming sketch can be found
in literature than the sketch of his farm at the period of the
barley harvest."
He becomes the husband of Ruth, and in this wise. Boaz
is the kinsman of the deceased husband of Naomi. No doubt
she had often spoken to the Moabitess of her rich relation.
And it is a sign of the simplicity of Oriental life that Ruth
begs to be allowed " to go to the field, and glean ears of corn
after him in whose sight she shall find grace." Her " hap "3 —
perhaps there was a method as to the " hap " — is to light on a
part of the field belonging to Boaz. Coming from Bethlehem
• Ruth i. 16-17. _" See Ruth, chap. 2. 3 Ruth ii. a.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PERIOD. 31
and walking through the fields, he observes her, inquires
concerning her, is at once attracted by her. He tells her to
keep to his reapers, whom he had charged to be courteous and
attentive, whom he still further charged, " to let fall also some
handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may
glean them." And thus, to the end of both barley and wheat
harvests, Ruth gleans, with the hearty good-will of all and
the special favour of the owner of the field. When the harvest
is concluded, what next ? Naomi hits on a plan which again
gives a glimpse into curious customs, and which lays on Boaz
the rights and duties of the kinsman.1 How the plan suc
ceeded, how the kinsman's part was claimed and discharged,
the Book relates. And it concludes with a brief narration of
the redemption of Elimelech's estate, and the marriage of
Ruth. As we read the words of the biographer, we seem to
see the people of the village, headed by their elders, deponing
that they had witnessed the plucking off of the shoe by the
next of kin, and the giving of it to Boaz, in token that the
kinsman's place was transferred to him : and then we seem to
hear the benediction, in which all join, on the union of the
Bethlehemite with the daughter of Moab. Months pass, and
a little son is the crown of the union : and now the women
surround Naomi, and congratulate her on the child who is to
be the restorer of her life and the nourisher of her old age —
the son of the daughter-in-law who had been better to her
than ten sons. The babe whom Naomi lays in her bosom and
nurses is called Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and
Jesse was the father of David."
The treatise thus briefly outlined has been the subject of
many expositions and homilies wherein, to quote the title of a
volume of discourses, " the wonders of Providence, the riches of
grace, the privileges of believers, and the contrition of sinners
are judiciously and faithfully exemplified and improved." 3 And
undoubtedly Ruth is the portrait of a life in which, though
outside the pale of the Covenant, God's Spirit was secretly
working, reminding us of the sovereignty of His will and the
freedom of His gifts, of the truth afterwards conveyed to the
Apostle of the Circumcision that " on the Gentiles also is
• Ruth, chap. 3. " Ruth, chap. 4.
J " Discourses on Ruth, and other important Subjects," by John Mac-
go wan, published in 171 1

32 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost." We recognize in hei
a trustful and affectionate nature attracted by the piety of the
Israelite mother-in-law to the God of Israel, under whose
wing, as Boaz discerned, she had learned to repose.1 The
way in which she is led, the recompense provided for her,
with all the accessories of the story, suggest the reflection
of an expositor : " Who would not forsake the shadow of all
the trees in the world to be covered under such wings.""
Additional interest is given to the narrative by the links in
genealogy which it supplies. It indicates a striking feature in
the family tree of the dynasty which for five centuries reigned in
Judah, and whence — as concerning the flesh — Christ came.
Hitherto association with Moab had only been a curse to
Israel. Through the gentle daughter of Moab, introduced
into the congregation as the wife of Boaz, there came a fresh
current of blessing — a hint of the more catholic conception
of the Kingdom of God, which was to be realized in David's
greater son — " a light to lighten the Gentiles," as well as "the
glory of God's people Israel." The babe born of Ruth was
named Obed, "the servant" — one who would serve as the
kinsman, restoring Naomi's life, and nourishing her old age.
In direct succession from this Obed, after many generations,
came the Child who is called Wonderful, the Obed of the Eternal
Love, whose mission was, not to be ministered to, but to
minister and give His life a ransom for many — the true kins
man of all the times, in whom the life of a sorrow and sin-
stricken humanity is restored, and the old age of the world is
supported and renewed.
But to trace the manifold significance, and to point the
many-sided moral of the story of Ruth is foreign to the
purpose contemplated in this chapter. The story is here pre
sented as an illustration of Israel's social condition in the days
when the Judges judged. And, regarded in this special con
nection, it relieves the gloom left by the chronicles of these
days, full as they are of depressions and servitudes, of
apostasies from Covenant standing with all the bitter fruits
of such apostasies, of evil in the sight of Jehovah, and of a
confusion which degenerates into violence and lawlessness. It
1 Ruth ii. ia.
2 "The Reward of Religion delivered in Sundrie Lectures upon the
Rooke of Ruth, cVc," by Edward Topsell ; published in 1613.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PERIOD. 33
bids us remember that, even in the darkest hours of the
national history, there was a remnant according to the election
of grace, that many hearts were faithful to the best traditions
of the race, and refused to bow the knee to Baal. It shows
us the soil whence sprang the noble faith which inspired the
heroes who rallied the thousands of Israel around their
standards. It proves that the salt had not wholly lost its
savour, that, here and there at least, in dwellings and hearts of
pious villagers, there was nourished the spirit of the mind
which made the judgeship of Samuel memorable, and which
found its sweetest and highest expression in the Psalms of
David. And thus, amid the storms and struggles at which we
are called to glance, we are invited to wait patiently for God,
sure that " He has not cast away His people whom He fore
knew.",

CHAPTER V.
THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIEES.
The Judges who belonged to the southern tribes : Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar
— The lapse into idolatry, and the new period of servitude at the death
of Ehud — Jabin, king of Hazor — Harosheth — The great army of the
oppressor — The two Deborahs — The second Deborah ; Who was she ?
A unique figure in the history of Israel — Her ally in the north — The
hesitation of Barak — The trumpet-blast — The fight, and the victory —
The fate of Sisera — Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite ; her action to
be condemned ; but circumstances to be taken into account.
HAVING indicated the more prominent features of the social
and political life of Israel in the time " when the Judges judged,"
let us now regard some of those Judges by whose faith the
darkness of that time was lightened, and the land which had
no king was, notwithstanding, blessed with decades of rest
and peace.
In the beginning of the Book we find brief notices of three
deliverers, belonging to the southern tribes, whom Jehovah
raised up.
The first of these earliest heroes connects the history of the
period with the mighty men of the wilderness and the long
rest. Of such mighty men, no figure is more outstanding than
that of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh — the gallant comrade of
Joshua, who had shared with him and others the dangers of
" spying out the land," who, when the courage of the people
failed because of the report of the spies, stood like a rock," and
who, almost alone of those who had taken part in the exodus,
participated in the glories of the settlement in Palestine. Caleb
is distinguished as the Kenizzite," a race, if not identical with,
at least akin to the Keniies : and his place in the armies of
Israel illustrates the saying that "a mixed multitude" went
with the Ist aeiitcs out of Egypt.3 He had a younger brothei
' Numb. xiii. 30, and xiv. 6-24. * Joshua xiv. 6. s Exod. xii. 38.

THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 35
who bore a distinctly tribal name, Kenaz ; and in Othniel, the son
of this Kenaz, the virtues of the elder brother were manifested.
It was Othniel who, by his daring, won the hand of Caleb's
daughter, and, through Caleb's daughter, obtained not only a
dry south land, but also the special blessing of a territory with
upper springs and nether springs." His descendants took root
in the land ; in the era of the monarchy they are ranked among
the aristocracy of Judah.
There came a dark and cloudy day when " the anger of
Jehovah was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand
of Chushan Rishathaim." " It is impossible to identify this
potentate with any of those whose names are recorded on
Assyrian inscriptions. The title given him in ancient books is
" Chushan the wicked, king of Syria in Euphrates." 3 From
the country between the Tigris and the Euphrates — that known
as Mesopotamia4 — he led his hosts against the sons of Jacob,
and, for eight years, his yoke was heavy on their neck. Then
rose up Othniel, in the might of a sacred inspiration, and under
his leadership the foreign usurpation was repelled. And the
land returned to a rest which, says the historian, was unbroken
during forty years.5
His death was followed by a grievous lapse into idolatry ;
and this lapse, weakening the sense of unity and destroying the
courage of the people, exposed them to a second invasion.
Eglon, king of the hostile and banned people of Moab, called
to his aid the children of Amnion (on a later occasion to figure
in our history), and the children of Amalek, of evil memory.
The united army '' smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm-
trees." For eighteen years the lusty, haughty Eglon dominated
over the tribes. Israel was brought very low ; and in the time
of its humiliation it turned to Jehovah ; and again, in answer
to its pleading, He sent a saviour. The saviour was a Benja-
mite. One peculiarity of the Benjamites was the number of
left-handed men : 6 this Benjamite, Ehud, the hero of Gera, was
a left-handed man. " What a strange choice doth God make
of an executioner," exclaims Bishop Hall, " a man wanting of
his right hand. Who would not have thought both hands too
1 Joshua xv. 16-19. * JudS- ui- 8-
S The Targum, and the Syriac and Arabic versions.
* " Syria of the two Rivers " is the translation of the Hebrew word.
* Judg. iii. n. • Judg. xxi. 16.

36 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
little for such a work, or if either might have been spared, how
much rather the left 1 It is the ordinary way of the Almighty
to make choice of the unlikeliest means." "
Josephus describes Ehud as a young man." Dean Stanley
takes the account of him in the Book of Judges to imply that
he had acquired a fame for prophetic power in the country.3
Be this as it may, it appears that he was entrusted with tribute
money due to King Eglon. Before discharging his mission, he
provides himself with a two-edged sword or dagger, which he
conceals under his white garment. The tribute having been
presented, he returns with his attendants as far as Gilgal, close
to which were " quarries," 4 rather, scooped-out places in which
images were kept. There he dismisses them, and thence re
traces his way to the royal residence. Representing that he
had a secret errand to the king, the officers of the Court show
him to the royal presence and leave him. The king is seated
in a kiosk, so constructed as to admit every cooling breeze,
and there he receives him with the respect due to a prophet.
When the two are alone, the left hand — the hand whose use
would disarm suspicion — grasps the hilt of the dagger, draws it
forth, and thrusts it into the corpulent body of the king. He
himself escapes through the entrance reserved for persons
having a private audience, and, locking the door of the kiosk,
speeds to the mountains of Ephraim. It is the opportunity of
the enslaved people. The hardy Ephraimites, responding to his
call, descend from their fastnesses, seize the fords of Jordan,
and when the alarmed Moabites rush to the fords in flight to
their purple hills, they suffer not a man to pass. That day,
thousands of warriors fall beneath the hand of Israel. And
another long rest-period is ushered in.5
A third deliverance, but local in its range, is recorded.
Apparently, its occasion was a partial disturbance of the tran
quillity enjoyed under Ehud's judgeship. The troublers of
Israel were the Philistines (of whom more again). One Shamgar,
the son of Anath, is the hero of their repulsion. The feature
' "Bishop Hall's Contemplations," Book ix.
¦ " Antiquities of the Jews," Book v. chap. iv.
3 " History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xiv.
i The Hebrew word is Pesilim. Cf. Deut. vii. 25 ; Isa. xxi. 9 ; Jer. viii. 19 J
where it is translated ' ' graven images. " Only in this passage is it rendered
"quarries." S Judg. iii. 12-29.

THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 37
of his prowess which is noticed is the instrument he used.
An ox-goad, it is called. But the ox-goad was " a really for
midable weapon, sometimes ten feet long." » It is noted that
six hundred Philistines felt the deadly effect of this weapon as
wielded by the stalwart son of Anath.2 The incident reminds
us of the battles of the Scottish Covenant, in which farming
implements, scythes, and long poles with iron blades affixed to
them, were used by the farmers and peasants who formed the
main body of the army of the Covenanters.
" The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the
Lord, when Ehud was dead." 3 With the removal of the strong
hand from the helm of the state, the drift towards social chaos
and idolatry reappeared. And another period of servitude
began ; the new oppressor being "Jabin, king of Canaan, that
reigned in Hazor." In the account of the great battle at
Merom, in the Book of Joshua,4 we read of a Jabin who reigned
in a Hazor, and who was the head of a powerful confederacy,
with chariots very many. This Jabin, we are informed, was
killed with all the inhabitants of the city, and the city itself was
burnt with fire. The mention of the same city, with a king of
the same name, at the head of a great army which possessed
nine hundred chariots, in the Book of Judges, has suggested
that the narratives in the two books are two versions of the
same event. But there are features in the two versions which
cannot be harmonized ; and we must conclude, therefore, that
the kingdom so terribly shaken by Joshua and his warriors had
been reorganized, that the burnt city had been rebuilt, that
Jabin, meaning "the intelligent," was, like "Pharaoh" in Egypt,
the hereditary name of the king, and that, as is customary with
heathen and savage tribes, nursing the purpose of revenge, the
weakness of Israel was hailed as the opportunity of carrying
the purpose into effect. The new Hazor occupied the site o'
the old, near Lake Merom. It was the seat of Jabin's Court,
although the head-quarters of his army were further south. At
Harosheth, in the great plain of Esdraelon, were gathered hosts,
numerous as the sand that is on the sea-shore, and including
various nationalities comprehended under the word, "the Gen
tiles or the nations."5
¦ Dr. Porter's "Giant Cities of Bashan," p. 201. ¦ Judg. iii. 31.
' Judg. iv. 1. 4 Josh. xi. 1-14.
5 ' ' The name ' Harosheth ' signifies workmanship— cutting and carving,

38 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
These hosts, with their array of horses and chariots, dismayed
the luckless Israelites, ill-provided, as they were, with even
spears and shields ; 'and, for twenty years, Sisera, the com
mander-in-chief of Jabin's army, oppressed them with force.
The oppression, it would seem, was felt almost entirely in the
northern and central parts of the country. And it is in
connection with this Canaanite tyranny that we are introduced
to one of the most picturesque and spirit-stirring episodes in
the history of Israel.
On the borderland between Benjamin and Ephraim there
was a narrow ravine, at whose southern extremity was the city
of Ramah, afterwards associated with Samuel, the last of the
Judges. This ravine, " a deep, hot valley,"" was connected with
an event in the history of Jacob, which, although purely
domestic, was never forgotten by his descendants. There was
buried Deborah, the faithful nurse of Rebekah, and the oak
under which her remains were laid was called Allon-Bachuth,3
" the oak of weeping." In that same valley, centuries afterwards,
a second Deborah held her courts of appeal, and spoke to the
people in the name of Jehovah. The terebinth and the palm
trees have a prominent place in the history and poetry of Israel.
A wide-spreading terebinth overshadowed the burial-place of
Deborah the nurse ; the branches of a graceful palm waved
over the oracle of Deborah the prophetess. " She dwelt under
the palm tree, between Ramah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim,
and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment."4
Who was she? The only feature of a personal nature
recorded is that she was " the wife of Lapidoth." 5 Hebrew
names are always significant. Her name means "the Bee,"
her husband's, " Lamps or Torches." Hence the tradition that
she was not literally the wife of one Lapidoth, but that she
whether in stone or wood (Exod. xxxi. 5)— and hence might be applied to
the place where such works are carried on. It has been conjectured that
this being a great timber district, rich in cedars and fir-trees, and near
great Zidon, Jabin kept a large number of oppressed Israelites at work in
hewing wood and preparing it at Harosheth for transport to Zidon ; and
that these woodcutters, armed with axes and hatchets, formed the soldiers
of Barak's army " (" Speaker's Commentary," note on Judg. iv. 2).
* Deborah, in her song, asks — " Was there a spear or shield seen among
forty thousand in Israel ? " (chap. v. 8).
¦ Canon Tristram, "Bible Places," p. 116. J Gen. xxxv. 8.
* Judg. iv. 5. s Judg. iv. 4.

THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 39
was the woman of lamps, of light as well as learning, of fiery
spirit and courage, and that her husband was really the Barak
—signifying "lightning" — whom she called from the north.
To accept this tradition would do violence to the narrative, but
it gives a hint which need not be lost sight of— the hint that it
is the junction of the Bee and the Torch, industry and illumina
tion, patience consecrated and irradiated by Divine genius,
which marks the truth of the God-inspired, God-announcing
light. She was a prophetess. To another woman in early Israelite
history this lofty title is attached. That woman was Miriam,
the sister of Moses." But Miriam did not judge or rule. On
one occasion she is joined with Aaron in revolt against Moses,
and was punished for this prominence by being smitten
with leprosy." And although, after the passage through the
Red Sea, Miriam led the daughters of Israel in singing the
Triumphal Hymn, the hymn was not the product of her mind, it
was the Song of Moses. To Deborah, therefore, who herself
sat in the seat of Moses, and whose song was the outburst of
her own enthusiasm, belongs the higher place. Similarly, she is
distinguished from other women who, in Holy Scripture, are
represented as partakers of prophetic gifts.3 She is a unique
figure in the annals of the chosen people. With one exception,*
she is the only female ruler mentioned in these annals.5 Her
hymn is a splendid expression of thought and feeling stirred
into intensest energy, and conveyed in purest rhythmic form.
" As long as I have the image of Deborah before my eyes,''
writes Coleridge, "and while I throw myself back into the
age, country, and circumstances of this Hebrew Boadicea, in
the yet not tamed chaos of the spiritual creation ; as long as
1 Exod. xv. 20. ¦ Numb. xii.
- For example, Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 14), Noadiah (Neh. vi. 14), Anna
(St. Luke ii. 36), the daughters of Philip the Evangelist (Acts xxi. 9).
4 Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah (2 Kings xi. 3).
5 "She is the magnificent impersonation of the free spirit of the Jewish
people and of Jewish life. On the arms of the Roman Empire, Judea is
represented as a woman seated under a palm tree, captive and weeping.
It is the contrast of that figure which will best place before us the character
and call of Deborah. It is the same Judean palm under whose shadow
[she sits, but not with downcast eyes, and folded hands, and extinguished
hopes ; with all the fire of faith and energy, eager for the battle, confident
of the victory " (Stanley's " Lectures on the Jewish Church," Lect. xiv.).

|0 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
I contemplate the impassioned, high-souled, heroic woman in
all the prominence and individuality of will and character, I feel
as if I were among the first ferments of the great affections, the
proplastic waves of the microcosmic chaos, swelling up against
and yet towards the outspread wings of the dove that lies
brooding on the troubled waters." "
Other judges won their reputation, and gained their supre
macy over the people, by exploits issuing in national
deliverances. The reputation of Deborah was won by the
force of her character, by the quickness of her discernment
of the right in causes submitted to her judgment, and by a
faculty of sight into the future. Her fame spread in the declin
ing period of Ehud's sway ; after his death she arose " a mother
in Israel." And her oracle under the palm tree superseded the
Urim and Thummim of the priest in Shiloh. No doubt, the
oppression of Jabin was, for long, a heavy burden on her pro
phetic soul. She pondered and prayed, and with the industry
of the Bee she planned and prepared, in readiness for the
moment to be indicated by Him before whose presence even
the stony mountains of Sinai had melted.
Her ally was a northern chieftain, to whom the hardy
Highlanders of Palestine turned as their leader. He lived at
Kadesh or Kades, amongst the hills of Naphtali," in close
vicinity to Hazor. His name was Barak or Barca (" light
ning "), " a mighty man of valour," but without the intrepidity
which a Divine impulse swaying the mind imparts, capable of
great things when aroused, but cautious even to the degree
of irresolution, and needing the support of a will swifter in
its flash and prompter in its action. Two circumstances may
have increased his timidity. The one, the knowledge which,
from his position, he possessed, of the vast resources of the
enemy, and the tremendous odds against which any uprising
of Israel must contend. And the other, the isolation of his
tribe from the stronger tribes. For the army of Sisera, which
occupied the plain of Esdraelon, virtually cut off all inter
course between Naphtali and the parts of the country south of
* " Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit," p. 34.
" Now, a village called Kadez, fully four miles to the west of Lake
Huleh, the ancient Merom, on the heights above the basin of the
Jordan. Canon Tristram (" Bible Places ") describes it as full of interest
ing ruins.

THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 4 1
the plain. Thus, the gleam of "the lightning " was for long
faint and intermittent ; the sword of the Lord lay for long
within the scabbard of the son of Abinoam. He, too, waited for
the sign which invited movement and gave the pledge of
victory. The sign came in the message sent by the prophetess to the
effect that, at length, the word of Jehovah burned like a fire in
her bones. " Hath not Jehovah, God of Israel, commanded,
saying, Go, and draw unto Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten
thousand men of the children of Naphtali, and the children of
Zebulon, and I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera,
the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multi
tude, and I will deliver him into thine hand." '
An instruction so authoritative and specific must be obeyed.
Stui Barak hesitated. The enterprise seemed so hazardous,
almost hopeless, that he and his warriors demanded some
visible token of the Divine will and presence. At other crises,
the ark of Jehovah was brought unto the host ; at this crisis,
the prophetess herself must give the inspiration. " If thou wilt
go with me," replies Barak, " then I will go ; but if thou wilt
not, then I will not go." " She, who is the weaker vessel, has
the stronger faith, and she yields to the demand ; but she
intimates that as Moses, by his backwardness when called to
stand before Pharaoh, lost a fulness of strength and blessing,
the chieftain of Naphtali,by his slowness to believe, had lost
the complete advantage which would have accrued to him.
" The journey thou takest shall not be for thine honour, for the
Lord shall sell Sisera into the hands of a woman."3
And now, over hill and dale, sounds the trumpet-blast. Far
and near, the summons to arms is sent. In the ode of victory
we are told of the result. Governors of Israel, riding on white
asses,4 hasten to the captain's standard. Naphtali and Zebulon
give their bravest for the enterprise. From Ephraim comes a
detachment of patriotic volunteers. Benjamin sends its con
tingent. From Jordan's banks Manassite leaders head willing
companies. Issachar, too, is represented by its princes. But
the brunt of the fight, and the heat and burden of the day, fall
to the two northern tribes. From many quarters there is no
• Judg. iv. 6, 7. " Judg. iv. 8. 3 Judg. iv. 9.
4 White, with a red tinge. "White-dappled," Stanley, following
Ewald's version, renders the phrase. Such she-asses were rare and costly.

42 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
response. Judah is absent. Gilead abides beyond Jordan,
Dan remains in his ships. Asher continues on the seashore.
True to the traditional character, Reuben, unstable as water,
does not act ; though he discerns the necessities of the struggle,
he abides "among the sheep-folds."' The want of national
unity, of an indomitable national spirit, is made only too
apparent in that supreme hour. It is the resolution of
Naphtali and Zebulon that saves the nation. " They jeoparded
their lives to the death."
Ten thousand men took the field ; and, according to the plan
of the campaign, moved stealthily through the mountain defiles
towards the valley of Jezreel. Sisera, informed of the insur
rection by the Kenites, marched, with horses and chariots, to
the centre of this valley. From the curious conical hill of
Tabor, which rises abruptly out of the centre, Barak saw the
mighty host " Up," cries Deborah, " this is the day. Is not
Jehovah gone out before thee ? " " It was a day of storm and
flood. The Kishon, swollen and rapid, overflowed its banks,
and the land was soft and boggy. Down from the heights
poured the sons of Israel, the old shout of a king again ring
ing forth. They rushed through the plain and charged the
enemy. The very " stars from their courses " seemed to fight
for them. A tremendous thunderstorm broke over the plain,
and huge hailstones were driven against the faces of the
Canaanites, blinding and confusing them.3 With ever increas
ing vigour, the Israelites shouted and charged. And, before
their fierce onset, the ranks of the foe were parted ; in the
heavy clay the cavalry were impeded and the chariots were
ineffectual. "The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon swept
them away": and "then did the horsehoofs stamp by reason
• " By the water-courses of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart,
Why satest thou among the sheepfolds
To hear the piping for the flocks?
At the water-courses of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart."
Judg. v. 15, 16 (Revised Version).
¦ Judg. iv. 14*
"Josephus writes: "There came down from heaven a great storm,
with a vast quantity of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in the face
of the Canaanites and so darkened their eyes that their arrows and slings
were of no advantage to them " (" Antiquities," chap. v.).

THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 43
of the prancing, the prancing of their strong ones." The
infantry turned and fled, and the rout was complete." Sisera
himself, leaving his chariot, fled on foot. The victorious
Israelites gave hot chase — Barak pursuing even to the head
quarters of Sisera. And so terrible was the slaughter that it
seemed as if not a man was left."
What of the Canaanitish general ? Barak sought him, but
he had escaped : and the story of the escape and of his end
is one of the most picturesque and tragic incidents of the
time when the Judges judged. A branch of the Kenites who
accompanied Israel to Palestine and settled at the south, had
migrated northward and planted itself as a Bedawin community
in the valley of Jezreel.3 It was in friendly relations with
Jabin and his army ; and to the tent of Heber, the chief, Sisera
fled. Now comes the part of the drama in which the prediction
that the full honours of the victory would be taken from Barak
is fulfilled. It is the part which dims the lustre of the day.
Studying the historian's narrative and the Song of Deborah,
we see the flying warrior approaching the tent of Jael.
Desperation leads him thither ; for, as being the wife's home,
it affords him a shelter more secure than that of her lord. None
might enter the harem for purposes of violence. Jael goes out
to meet him, and invites him to enter without fear. We are
told of the care with which she covers him with her rug. He
is faint and thirsty, and he asks water. She brings him cream 4
in " a lordly dish." Having partaken of her hospitality, he is
safe to rest. And she bids him do so, herself consenting to
stand as sentinel over him. Profound is the sleep of the weary
• The description of the battle and the victory in Deborah's song is
" full of poetic fire and vivid dramatic effect — its striking characters thrown
into high relief by the stroke or two of genius " (The Bishop of Bath
and Wells, " Pulpit Commentary ").
" Dean Stanley (" History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xiv.) traces
the resemblances between this battle and the battle of Crcssy, and the
battle of Crimesus in Sicily, in which the Carthaginians were defeated by
Timoleon. 3 " Heber the Kenite had severed himself from the Kenites, and
pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, rather 'unto the terebinth in
Zaanaim,' which is by Kadesh " (Judg. iv. n).
4 Or butter, or curds. Josephus ("Antiquities," chap, v.) says, "She
gave him sour milk, of which he drank so unnecessarily that he fell
asleep."

44 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
man. We can imagine her gazing on him for a few moments-*
a struggle waging in her own heart between the sense of the
rights of hospitality, and the impulse which seized her to avenge
the wrongs of Israel. The impulse prevails ; and, taking the
peg by which the tent is fastened to the ground, she puts
"her hand to the nail and her right hand to the workmen's
hammer, and with the hammer she smites Sisera, she smites
through his head, piercing and striking through his temples,
until at her feet he bows and falls down dead." No more — thus
the song plaintively proceeds — shall mother, looking through
the lattice, greet her valiant son. She will ask why his chariot
wheels tarry ? and her ladies will answer — she herself will join
them in saying, Surely he and his comrades are dividing the
spoil, bringing back with them Hebrew maidens, and needle
work of divers colours. But soon, soon, all will know that the
tarrying hero is dead. " So," concludes the song, " let all Thine
enemies perish, O Lord ; but let them that love Him be as the
sun when he goeth forth in his might.""
The Hebrew prophetess exclaims, " Blessed above women
shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite be, above women in
the tent." The exclamation we cannot echo. Even from the
Bedawin point of view, the conduct of the chieftainess is a vio
lation of social custom in its most sacred place, " the dakkeel
or protection which is never sought in vain, and which, when
once granted, is never dishonoured." 3 Nay, she had given him
" the lordly dish," * which was the pledge of peace and safety,
and the pledge had been falsified. From a higher point of
view, the conduct can only be condemned. But we must
recollect whose the action is we are reviewing. It is that of a
passionate Arab woman, whose conscience had not even the
education of a Hebrew. Travellers have found that women,
more eager in nature and more easily swayed by personal
feeling than men, will more readily trample on tribal usage and
accepted conventionalities.5 And, in the case of Jael, there is
a special feature to be taken into account. Her people were in
1 Judg. v. 26, 27. ¦ Judg. v. 28-31.
3 Kitto's " Daily Bible Illustrations," vol. ii. p. 353.
4 " Among these people to give a person drink is to give a pledge of pro
tection, even with life, against all danger and wrong " (Kitto, ib.).
5 Lange, in his Commentary, cites Rurckhardt as having had persona!
experience of this in his wanderings.

THE PROPHETESS OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. 45
league with Jabin, she herself was in sympathy with Israel.
And in this sympathy she reflected the ancient alliance of her
race. The Kenite had become almost a part of the Hebrew
nation. All her instincts, therefore, attracted her to the
oppressed. She may or may not have been personally a
believer in Israel's God. The probability is that she was.
And, at all events, her election, as between Canaan and
Israel, was decided. To her, Sisera was the ruthless tyrant,
the violator of Hebrew homes, the man who had lifted himself
proudly against Jehovah. And swiftly, sternly, she executed
what she believed to be a righteous vengeance. She did it in a
wrong way, but a high moral sentiment did not belong to her
time or race. We can appreciate her courage, her intrepidity,
and the faith which was its mainspring, even though we repro
bate the means which she took to accomplish her end. And,
whilst we censure her, let us take heed that a like courage, a
like intrepidity, and a still higher faith, are the characteristics
of our warfare as good soldiers of Jesus Christ

CHAPTER Vt
JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD.
The history of Gideon reserved for the concluding part of the volume—
Gilead : its mountains and rich pastures : its forests and cities : its
place in the literature and history of the nation — The backsliding of
Israel into idolatry, and the period of servitude under the children of
Ammon — The revival of national life and piety — The call to Jephthah ;
his character, and his surrounding in the land of Tob — Vows and
human sacrifices among heathen peoples — The action taken by Jeph
thah ; his vow ; views concerning it ; his daughter ; the sacrifice ;
his future career, short and stormy — The strife between the Ephraim-
ites and the Gileadites — "Shibboleth."
The history of Gideon and his family follows that of Deborah
and Barak. But, since the intention of this volume is to
dwell at greater length on it than on any of the narratives in
the Book of Judges, its consideration is reserved for the con
cluding part. The object aimed at is not so much to give the
events of the period in orderly sequence as to present the
portraits of the outstanding heroes of the period, recording
their struggles and achievements when they waxed valiant in
fight and subdued kingdoms. We overlook, then, for the
present, the interval between the victory which has been traced,
and the time of the Judge who was called to lead Israel in its
effort to shake off the yoke of the Ammonites. The scene
shifts to the eastern side of Jordan, to the region between the
Sea of Chinnereth, afterwards known as the Sea of Galilee, and
the Dead Sea, and vaguely designated Gilead.
The complaint of Deborah, in her review of the tribes and
their response to the call of Barak, was that " Gilead abode
beyond Jordan." Under the word Gilead were specially in
cluded Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, to whom, in the
distribution of the inheritance of Israel, the mountainous part
of that country was assigned. The rich pasture land, " up to
the point where it melts into the steppes of the wilderness,"

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 47
remained in the possession of the sons of Ammon. From a
small headland on its southern boundary, Moses surveyed that
land of promise which he was not allowed to enter. The out
look north and west and south was magnificent ; but no part of
it equalled the view of Gilead." Its whole extent northward to
the Lake of Chinnereth could not, from any one point, be seen ;
but the portion visible was so fair that, in the words of Dean
Stanley, " the wonder— it may be said, the thankfulness— is that
the Israelites exchanged it for Palestine itself, inferior, as it
might naturally have seemed to them, in every point except for
the high purposes to which their permanent settlement on the
eastern side of the Jordan would, humanly speaking, have
wholly unfitted them.""
The land is now barren and solitary, the camping-ground of
Bedawin ; scarcely a hamlet, scarcely even a tree, breaking the
monotony of the scene. But in the olden time it had forests ;
its plains and elevated plateaus were studded with villages, and
the ruins which the traveller visits prove that for many centuries
it was the dwelling-place of a large population, and the centre
of a troubled but busy life. It has no mean place in the history
and literature of the Chosen People. The most striking of the
prophets — Elijah — was " of the inhabitants of Gilead," 3 and
his appearance and ways reflect the wild and rugged character
of its inhabitants. Towards the oak-clad mountains near the
Jabbok David fled when Absalom stole from him the hearts of
the people ; and among the most loyal of his friends were
Barzillai the Gileadite and Rabbah of the children of Ammon.4
One of the most tender and touching of Israel's songs is that
of an exile in Gilead, familiar with the gazelle bounding from
peak to peak, and panting in the summer heat, or when chased
by the hunter, for the water-streams ; an exile crying from some
little hill, some Mizar, to God his Rock — the eye wandering to the
distant Hermon, the ear hearing the roar of the rushing stream
— and, with this strange environment, remembering God, and
bidding the soul cast down within him be of good hope.5
* "The Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan and all
Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah
unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho,
the city of palm-trees, unto Zoar" (Deut. xxxiv. 1-3).
" " Sinai and Palestine," chap. viii. 3 1 Kings xvii. (.
4 2 Sam. xvii. 27. 5 Psa. xiii

48 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
To one of the historical associations of Gilead our attention
is now directed.
The tale of grievous backslidings into idolatry is one with
which the reader of the history of Israel during the time of the
Judges is only too familiar. But a specially heinous lapse
occurred after the death of that Jair whose thirty sons pos
sessed thirty cities in Gilead." To adopt the language of St.
Paul, since the Israelites " did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, He gave them over to a reprobate mind."" The
historian tells us that they paid homage to all the deities
around — " to the Baalim and Ashtaroth, to the gods of Syria and
the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the
children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and for
sook the Lord and served Him not." 3 And, as the inevitable
consequence of this evil-doing in the sight of Jehovah, they be
came the prey of the idolaters to whose worship they conformed.
For eighteen years the tribes on the other side of the Jordan
were oppressed by the Ammonites, moving on them from the
east, and the Philistines, moving on them from the west, and
preventing all intercourse between them and their brethren on
the western side of the river.4 At the end of these eighteen
years, a further aggressive raid was organized by the Ammo
nites on the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the
central tribe of Ephraim.s And, thus menaced, Israel awoke
from its ignoble lethargy ; " it was sore distressed " ; and as, in
times before and after, in its affliction there was originated the
cry, " Come and let us return to the Lord, for He hath torn and
He will heal us : He hath smitten, and He will bind us up." 6
Shiloh, which had been all but neglected for long years, was
again visited by the princes and elders of the congregation ;
before the mercy-se.it they prostrated themselves, beseeching
the direction of the sacred oracle. That oracle had only, in the
first instance, words of doom — " Go and cry unto the gods
which ye have chosen. Let them deliver you in the time of
your tribulation." But the goodness which expressed itself in
the cry for help did not prove as the morning cloud or the early
" "The sixty or the thirty towns of Jair, the ancient chief of the tribe
of Manasseh, were not called cities, but Bedouin villages or tents " (Stan
ley's "Sinai and Palestine," chap. viii.).
¦ Rom. i. 28. s Judg. x. 6. » Judg. x. 7, 8.
« Judg. x. 9. * Hos. vi. 1.

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 49
dew. The repentant congregation submitted to the judgment
of Jehovah, put away the idols which had been harboured
in its homes, and entered anew into covenant with its King.
And in the quaint phraseology of the Chronicle, " the soul of
Jehovah was shortened for the misery of Israel." "
The revived faith was the spring of a new determination. It
was indeed a perilous time. Nothing less than the extinction
of the independence of Israel and the wiping out of its name
and traditions were threatened as the result of this Ammonite
invasion. The hour for action had come — it was then or never.
But who should, who could, lead the thousands of the people ?
A man of promptitude, of daring, of ready and various resource,
was called for ; where was this man to be found ?
In a remote district called Tob, there lived a notorious free
booter, at the head of a company of " vain fellows," reckless,
light-hearted, who would not conform to the ordinary conditions
of life imposed by society. Tob — signifying " Good" — was a part
of Syria, probably a fertile part, and capable of sustaining a
large population. In the wars of David, we read of twelve
thousand warriors who issued from its villages." There, this
freebooter with his merry men levied black-mail on the peace
ful Syrians, or made foraging raids on the Ammonites, and
their exploits were talked of when son of Israel spoke to
son of Israel. In the emergency which had occurred, the
thoughts of many travelled to the Syrian plains. There was
no time for further delay. The dreaded Ammonites had been
mobilised ; they were encamped in Gilead ; the children of
Israel, gathered together in Mizpah, were threatened with
extermination unless the captain was immediately found ; and
there seemed only one hope — this freebooter of Tob.
Who was he ? and what had been his environment ? Little
of his personal history is related. His name was Jephthah or
Jiphthah. He was the son of one who is spoken of as Gilead,
and whom we may suppose to have been the prince or leading
man of the country, and therefore by name identified with
' Judg. x. 11-16 (Revised Version).
» 2 Sam. x. 6-8. The country is there called Ish-Tob. "Tob is again
mentioned in all probability in 1 Mace. v. 13 ; 2 Mace. xii. 17, and the
Thauba of Ptolemy agrees in situation as well as in name with Tob, but
no identification with any existing place has been hitherto effected" (Lord
A. Hervey, " Pulpit Commentary, Judges," p. 119),
5

50 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
it." But Jephthah had the bar-sinister across his escutcheon.
His mother was a "stranger," or "another woman," an
Aramean harlot ; and this child of shame was cast out by
those born in wedlock. Therefore, he had fled to his
mother's country — to the land of Tob previously mentioned*
He had married, but his quiver had not been filled with
children. An only daughter — his "yehid"3 — was the apple
of his eye, the joy of his home. A man he was, we may say,
cast in a heroic mould, yet wanting in many of the finer
and higher elements of heroism. Too much must not be
expected from him. He had led a rough, lawless life — a life in
which his two best friends were the sharp tongue and the sharp
sword.4 But we can discern glimpses of other qualities ; caution,
shrewdness, and tact, appear in his conduct, at least in the
earlier period of his national leadership. He will not take the
command until he has extracted a confession of the wrong
which had been done to him, and a pledge of unfaltering
devotion.s After assuming the command, he enters into nego
tiations with the oppressors. Before the arbitrament of the
sword is invoked, the arts of peace are exhausted. The
protocols exchanged between him and the king of the children
of Ammon are interesting, not only as a confirmation of the
previous records of the history of Israel, but as an exhibition of
diplomacy which reflects credit on both parties. It is only when
his appeal fails that Jephthah protests, " The Lord the Judge be
judge this day between the children of Israel and the children
of Ammon."'
To form a right estimate of the action of Jephthah so far as
that is brought before us, we must recall his surrounding, with
its manifold influence on his thought and character.
* "Gilead begat Jephthah" It has been supposed that Gilead denotes
merely the country ; but this is inadmissible. The name refers to a person,
although, in view of chap. x. 3 the words might imply no more than that
Gilead was an ancestor of Jephthah. " Judg. xi. 1-3.
3 Chap. xi. 34. Isaac also is called Abraham's "yehid."
4 " How much more intelligible does Jephthah become when we remem
ber that he was raised up, not from the regular settlements of Judah and
Ephraim, but from the half-civilized region of the Eastern tribes ; in the
wildness of his freebooting life, in the rashness and ignorance of his vow,
in the savage vengeance which he exacted from the insolence of Ephraim —
a Bedouin chief rather than an Israelitish judge" (" Sinai and Palestine,"
chap. viii.). s Judg. xi. 6-10. 6 Judg. xi. 12-28.

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 5 1
The time in which he lived was, as we have seen, one of
grievous apostasy from the covenant and the law of God.
The sons and daughters of Israel " ran greedily " after the
idolatries of the heathen peoples by whom they were encom
passed. From the circumstances of birth and upbringing, the
influence of these idolatries on Jephthah could not but be
marked. The blood of "the strange woman," the heathen
harlot, coursed in his veins. Separated, while still a young
man, from his father's family, banished to a district in Syria, he
was brought within the circle of Syrian and Ammonite super
stitions ; and these were mixed with a dim and confused know
ledge of Jehovah, and a faith in Him as the national God of
Israel. Probably, he was not fully instructed in the Mosaic
system ; he may have heard of, but he could not have been
personally acquainted with, the worship of Shiloh, and its priest
hood and its oracle. Whatever religion the fugitive to Tob —
the head of a company of " vain fellows " — possessed must
have been dominated by heathen notions and practices, many
of them dark and crueL
Of two such practices we are reminded in the narrative.
Vows— special voluntary obligations tendered to the unseen
Powers, on account of which special favours were expected —
were common to all Oriental tribes. Their use among the de
scendants of Abraham is evidenced in the Holy Scriptures, for
example, in that vow of Jacob on his way to the Hauran of which
Bethel was the standing memorial," and in the vow of Hannah
at a later period." The Law of Moses recognized the custom.
It sanctioned the Nazarite vow of separation, and prescribed a
ceremonial regarding it.3 It ordained, as a general rule, that
when a vow is vowed to the Lord, the devotee should not be
slack to pay it, that what had once gone from the lips should be
performed as a freewill offering, according to the terms of the
vow.4 The vow was a bond over the soul, and was not to be
broken, except in cases which were distinctly defined.5 In some
cases commutation was allowed. Persons, houses, cattle, pos
sessions, dedicated under some impulse to the sanctuary might,
according to estimations that were fixed, be redeemed.6 In re-
¦ Gen. xxviii. 19-22. * 1 Sam. i. 10-ix. 3 Numb. vi.
4 Numb. xxx. 2 ; Deut. xxiii. 21-22.
S E.g., vows of women when disallowed by father or husband (Numb.
xxx). ' Lev- xxvii. a-a£

52 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
gard even to these, however, it was ordained that all that was
given up to Jehovah " under a ban," — a field which had gone
out in the Jubilee, a creature, man or beast, which was doomed
to destruction — could not be redeemed ; it was inalienably
consecrated.' Vows were thus a part of the Israelite Economy, as well as
of the heathen. But in the worships of Phoenicia, Syria, and
Ammon, they were connected with another and ghastly obser
vance — with human sacrifices. The offering of children to
propitiate deities was an importation from Chaldea, which
spread through Phoenician and other idolatries." Captives and
criminals were presented as burnt offerings. Sometimes, with
a view to signal triumphs, or, to avert the wrath of the gods, or,
as an act of peculiarly meritorious piety, a life —the best the
worshipper could present — was vowed. With the varieties of
this kind of devotion, the Hebrew was familiar. Apparently,
the command to offer up his son Isaac did not seem to Abraham
one utterly alien and repugnant to the thought of God. The
giving of children to be passed through the fire to Moloch 3 was
a temptation so great that most positive prohibitions and
threatenings bearing on it were inserted in the Mosaic system.4
At a later period, we find the prophets protesting against the
prevalence of " this abomination," causing Judah to sin.5 No
doubt, in the time of Jephthah, the submission to the gods
of Syria and Zidon and Ammon had infected the mind of the
Israelite with the taint of this worst and most hideous way of
heathenism. Jephthah himself had received it from his heathen
surrounding in the land of Tob, and the effect of this reception
appears when he takes the command of the armies of Israel.
Behold, then, this lawless, superstitious son of the strange
1 Lev. xxvii. 28-29. "The word rendered 'devoted thing' is ' cherem,'
as in ver. 2r. The primary meaning is something cut off or shut up. Its
specific meaning in the Law is, that which is cut off from common use, and
given up in some sense to Jehovah without the right of recall or commuta
tion" ("Speaker's Commentary, Leviticus").
" " Porphyry quoted by Eusebius ('Prasp. Evang.' iv. 16) says: 'The
Phoenicians, in all great emergencies of war or famine or drought, used to
designate by vote one of their nearest and dearest as a sacrifice to Saturn, and
their descendants, the Carthaginians, sacrificed their finest children to the
same god ' " (" Speaker's Commentary, Judges").
s A notable instance of this is found in 2 Kings iii. 27.
4 Lev. xviii. 21 ; xx. 2. ' Jer. xxxii. 34-35 ; Amos v. 26.

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 53
woman welcomed as head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
The elders of the people pledge their faith to him whom, a few
years before, they had banished ; the people confirm their
election ; and at Mizpah, the watch-tower of the tribes, the
words of the covenant between them and their captain are
solemnly repeated before Jehovah." The negotiations with
"the king of the children of Ammon,'' already alluded to,
follow. And, when these negotiations fail, and the judgment
of the Eternal is appealed to, the campaign begins." " The
Spirit of the Lord," says the historian, " came upon Jephthah "
— in this sentence embodying the conviction of every pious
Israelite, that the heroes who delivered his nation from the
enemy were filled with a supernatural strength, fitting them for
the work given them to do. The new leader traversed Gilead
and Manasseh, summoning their thousands to arms, and,
returning with those who obeyed the summons — to Mizpah, he
organized his force, and "passed over " to the territory in which
the children of Ammon awaited the attack.3
It was a critical hour. He led men whom a long period of
servitude had demoralized, and who were ill-provided with
implements of war ; and it was consistent with his education
and temper that, at such a time, and with such material, when
brought face to face with a great host flushed with the sense of
the power exercised for many years over the prostrate
Hebrews, he should fortify his resolution by propitiating
Jehovah with a solemn vow. A vow terribly, fatally rash —
one that clouded the day, and blighted the fruits, of victory.
Lifting his hand to the heavens, he swore, " If Thou wilt
indeed deliver the children of Ammon into mine hand, then
it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my
house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of
Ammon, shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt
offering." 4
Assuring himself thus of the Divine favour, he led his army
to the fight. No details of that bloody war are given ; we are
told merely that he smote the heathens from Aroer, close to
Jordan, to Minnith, sacking twenty cities, and sweeping the
legion as far as a place which cannot now be identified, but
then called Abel-Cheramim5 — the meadow of the vineyards —
¦ Judg. xi. fr-11. " Judg. xi. 12^-27. 3 Judg. xi. 28, 29.
4 Judg. xi. 30-31. 5 Judg. xi. 32-33.

54 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
" with a very great slaughter." The triumph was complete ;
" the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of
Israel." And now comes the tragic part of the story. Radiant were
the countenances of the Israelites as, with the proud conscious
ness that they and their fellows were again free men, they
approached the famous watch-tower ; radiant all — their bold
captain alone excepted. We can imagine the shadow on his
countenance caused by the recollection of the awful vow. Who,
what would issue from the doors of his house to meet him ?
The portion of the narrative relating to this anxiety must be
specially regarded ; in it culminates the interest which attaches
to the career of Jephthah.
The incident so graphically presented has been a stumbling-
block to many. They have been unable to reconcile it, when
interpreted according to its more obvious meaning, with the
inspiration ascribed to the head over Gilead, and they have felt
that its inhumanity, as thus interpreted, is a dark and foul stain
on the religion of Israel. We can dismiss the one part of this
objection, by observing that it proceeds on* an exaggerated view
of the phrase, " The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah."
For certainly this is not to be held as implying that he was
endowed with a high and extraordinary illumination or holiness ;
it is to be held as implying only that he was fitted with the
courage and wisdom essential to a successful campaign. And
the second part of the objection has been sufficiently answered
by the sketch of the heinous backsliding of Israel, in conse
quence of which its thought and life had been tainted by
heathenish practices — of which human sacrifice was one — and
more particularly of the influence of these practices on Jeph
thah, who had spent so many years in the midst of heathenism,
and as the chief of a band of Syrian outlaws.
Those who would soften the harshness of the view generally
taken suggest some ingenious explanations of the vow. It is to
be feared that these explanations are more ingenious than in
genuous. It has been urged, for instance, that there is no need
to suppose that Jephthah contemplated more than the offering
of an animal — that which should come out of the doors of his
house. But it is difficult to conceive that the presentation of
one of his herd of cattle would be the matter of so solemn an
obligation, and assuredly it is a stretch of language — quite con-

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. Sj
trary to. Scripture use— to suppose that he would speak of a
bullock as issuing from his dwelling " to meet him." It is
urged again, that the vow may be so read as to include in it
two acts : " that which cometh forth from the doors of the
house to meet me shall be devoted to the Lord, and I will offer
Him a burnt offering." * The one clause expresses what would
be done to the person — slave or member of the household — who
would issue from the house : that person, if a male, would be
devoted to Jehovah as a priest, if a female, would be devoted
as a virgin ; and the second clause pledges that besides this a
burnt offering would be offered. This rendering is wholly in
admissible. It is, to begin with, a misreading of the text. The
last clause may be translated : " Or I will offer it ; " " but it
cannot be translated, "And I will offer Him, that is, the
Lord, a burnt offering." And in the next place the significance
given to the phrase, " Shall be the Lord's," or " shall be devoted
to the Lord," is evolved out of the consciousness of the critic ;
it is one which we cannot imagine to have been in the mind of
him who vowed.3 An honest exegesis must accept the view
which Lord Arthur Hervey has briefly stated, " If the words
'shall surely be the Lord's' had stood alone, Jephthah's vow
might have been understood like Hannah's ; but these which
follow preclude any other meaning than that Jephthah contem
plated a human sacrifice." 4 His word is general — a slave, one
of his household, but a human being, the first who came to
meet him.5
That first person is his daughter — his only child. Following
1 This rendering was proposed by an American divine, Dr. Randolph,
towards the end of the eighteenth century, and has since been zealously
advocated by Bishop South, Dr. Hewlett, and others. Bishop South speaks
of it as having "perfectly cleared up a difficulty which, for two thousand
years, has puzzled all the translators and expositors."
" So in the margin of the Authorized Version of the Bible.
3 The hypothesis of Jephthah's daughter having been devoted as a nun
is described by Dean Stanley as "contrary to the plain meaning of the
text, contrary to the highest authorities of the Church, contrary to all the
usages of the Old Dispensation" ("Lectures on the Jewish Church,"
Lect. xvi.).
4 "Speaker's Commentary, Judges."
S J ephthah's vow and the manner in which it was fulfilled have been the
occasion of "dissertations without number and endless discussions among
the learned." It was not until the twelfth Christian century that the refer
ence to a human sacrifice and the death of the daughter were questioned.

56 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
the precedent of Miriam," the sister of Moses, she put herself at
the head of her maidens, to receive him " with timbrels and with
dances." They strike the timbrel, they execute the dance,
perhaps to the music of the exalted strain of Moses, " The Lord
is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation : He
is my God : and I will prepare Him an habitation ; my father's
God, and I wi.1 exalt Him. The Lord is a Man of War : the
Lord is His name." Joyous and light in step she approaches
him. " But why, father, the cloud, dark as night itself, which
spreads over thy countenance ? Why, father, the sadness, the
averted face, the downcast eye, the tear that flows down thy
cheek, on this day of gladness and deliverance ? " So the
hero's Yehid, his only one, his darling, asks. And the answer
is returned in the robe rent and the exceeding bitter cry,
" Alas, my daughter ! thou hast brought me very low, and thou
art one of them that trouble me ; for I have opened my mouth
unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." "
Why this agony ? Persons who give the milder interpretation
of the vow which has been noticed understand that its cause
was the thought of the lifelong seclusion of the daughter —
involving separation even from him and his home — and of her
entire consecration to God. They urge that her request to be
let alone two months that she may go up and down on the
mountains is explained by herself in the words, " And bewail
my virginity, I and my fellows." To a Hebrew woman child
lessness was the saddest of conditions ; and, in the time of
reprieve asked for, they see the natural working of a submissive
but a stricken heart. These two months to pour out its sorrow,
unchecked and unhindered, and school the unwilling mind into
acceptance of the fate — it is for this that she pleads. And, at
the close of this period, she returns, and is solemnly and delibe
rately dedicated to the service of Jehovah. This we are invited
to regard as her sacrifice, for the rehearsing and celebration of
which the daughters of Israel were wont to assemble four days
in each year.
The obvious significance of the historian's language, and the
consensus of opinion with reference to it, from Josephus to the
Rabbi David Kimchi was the first to challenge the traditional view. Princi
pal Douglas, in his Handbook for Bible Classes, argues in favour of a life
long surrender of the daughter to Jehovah's service (pp. 63-66).
• Exod. xv. 20. * Judg. xi. 34, 35.

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. $)
present time, prevent, as has been said, the acceptance of this
rendering. It is to an actual human sacrifice that we are
pointed ; ' and all that is written as to daughter and sire har
monizes with this view. If the daughter was doomed to
perpetual virginity, there seems no special reason for asking' a
two months' space to bewail it. But, on the supposition that her
life must go for her father's victory, there is a touching pathos
in the opportunity for lamentation craved. It was the bitterness
of the fate, that no child would think of her as mother, and no
son would continue the name and fame of her father. Tennyson
has, with exquisite tenderness, interpreted the feeling —
'* My God, my Land, my Father— these did move
Me from my bliss of life that nature gave,
Lowered softly with a threefold cord of love,
Down to a silent grave.
And I went mourning, ' No fair Hebrew boy
Shall smile away my maiden blame among
The Hebrew mothers ' ; emptied of all joy.
Leaving the dance and song." "
The time of mourning ended, there is the execution of the
awful vow. We blame Jephthah for the rashness betrayed in
the opening of his mouth to the Lord. His promise was for
bidden by law ; as the Jewish historian declares, " It was
neither conformable to the law, nor acceptable to God ; " 3 and
the rash vow might have been redeemed.4 But he was a more
than half heathen man ; he had been a rough " soldier of a
brutalized age.'' And, condemning his oath and his act,5 we
must at the same time remember his antecedents, and his
ignorance. " No Levite or other sage arises to give a direction
to his conscientious resolve, for it is evident that his contem
poraries, also trained to barbarism, considered the precious
sacrifice to be appointed by a higher necessity to fall for the
' "We see no alternative but to conclude, although we would gladh
avail ourselves of any fair ground of escape from that conclusion, that he
offered her up in sacrifice " (Kitto, " Daily Bible Illustrations"). >
" " A Dream of Fair Women." 3 " Antiquities " bk. v. chap. 7.
4 Lev. xxvii. 1-8. Jephthah's daughter was not devoted under a ban or
curse, as in Lev. xxvii. 28.
5 "Jephthah's vow, taken in the sense in which that transaction is com
monly understood, was not binding ; because the performance, in thai
contingency, became unlawful " (Paley's " Moral Philosophy," chap. v.).

58 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
sins of the fatherland. And when such a belief pervades
even the best, the courage which shrinks not from acting or
suffering in obedience to it, must be accounted greatness of
souL" «
Very sad, most tragic indeed is the end. There is a fine
reticence in the words of the sacred book. They remind us of
the veiled words as to Judas Iscariot— " He went to his own
place." A curtain is drawn, as it were, between the mind and
the awfulness of the catastrophe. "She returned unto her
father, who did with her according to his vow which he had
vowed."" This is all — as if, in the language of Dean Stanley,
the writer averted his eyes from the end.
The story is one which touches the emotion, which appeals
to the imagination, of the reader. Other narratives bearing
features of resemblance to it are found in Greek mythology.3
Goethe has woven one of these narratives into a drama of
singular force and beauty. Diana was offended with the god-like
Agamemnon, and to propitiate the irate goddess, he vowed to
offer to her the most beautiful creature born in his household
during the year. This was his daughter, Iphigenia. The
payment of the vow was delayed from year to year, but the day
came when the king was reminded that it must no longer be
deferred. Behold, on the altar of sacrifice on which the fair
young life was to be laid, a hind in her stead. Diana had
carried her off to Tauris —
" Which had before, each stranger's heart appall'd,
For till her coming none e'er trod the realm
But fell according to an ancient rite
A bloody victim at Diana's shrine." 4
There she was consecrated as virgin-priestess in the shrine, and
there she remained until Orestes, her brother, discovered her
" Ewald's " History of Israel," vol. ii.
" " Let not the reader, however, take up the absurd fancy of the painters
that this deed was perpetrated by the high-priest at the altar of God. The
high-priest would have known his duty better" (Kitto's "Bible Illustra
tions ").
3 As, in the "Iliad," Idomeneus of Crete vowed to sacrifice whatever
should first meet him in Crete. The first person who met him was his own
son. He kept his vow, but was punished with a plague and was banished
by the people. See also " The Antigone of Sophocles."
4 Goethe's " Iphigenia in Tauris," Act I, Scene a.

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 59
and bore her back to Attica. Between this legend and the
Hebrew tale, there are parallels of feeling. But the Hebrew
tale is one of incomparably loftier and purer tone. We see
the jonflict in the heart of Jephthah's daughter— the bitter grief,
the clinging to life, the wail over the cutting off of her days in
youth and maidenhood, and yet the heroic submission, the
sweet and willing response to her father's will, the piety, mis
taken but therefore all the more to be noted, which blended
with patriotism in her resolve — " My father, if thou hast opened
thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which has
proceeded out of thy mouth ; forasmuch as the Lord hath
taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children
of Ammon."" It is this willing self-devotion which lights up
the transaction — ghastly as it is — with a beauty which suggests
the day of Christ It is not " a slaughter of an unwilling victim
as when Gaul and Greek were buried alive in the Roman
forum.'' We realize the sacrifice on the part of both the offerer
and the offered ; the terrible self-immolation — because the
immolation of his heart — of Jephthah, as he does to her
according to the vow ; the lovely self-surrender of the daughter
as she yields, not in wrath, not in the wildness of despair, but
as one bound by "the threefold cord of love — my God, my
Land, my Father." Another poet than Tennyson has painted
the scene in his glowing verse — 1.
•* Since our country's our God — oh, my sire I
Demand that thy daughter expire ;
Since the triumph was borght by thy vow,
Strike the bosom that's bared for thee now I
II.
And the voice of my mourning is o'er,
And the mountains behold me no more :
If the hand that I love lay me low,
There cannot be pain in the blow I
III.
And of this, oh, my father ! be sure—
That the blood of thy child is as pure
As the blessing I beg ere it flow,
And the last thought that soothes me below
' Judg. xi. 36.

60 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL,
IV.
Though the virgins of Salem lament.
Be the judge and the hero content!
I have won the great battle for thee,
And my father and country are free.
v.
When this blood oi thy giving hath gush'd.
When the voice that thou lovest is hush'd,
Let my memory still be thy pride,
And forget not I smiled as I died." '
Jephthath judged Israel for only six years. It Is not too
much to suppose that his life was both embittered and
shortened by the tragedy which made his home in Mizpah
desolate. One event of the later years is related — an event
which forms a sad, but suggestive, sequel to the deliverance
which had been wrought in Israel.
Ephraim, the central tribe, had acquired a position in Israel
which encouraged an overbearing spirit ; and this spirit was
manifested in an offensive attitude towards Jephthah. " There
is scarcely any one," says La Rochefoucauld, " who does not
show ingratitude for great obligations." The most black and
ungenerous ingratitude was shown by the men of Ephraim.
They had taken no part in the strife with the children of
Ammon ; and, after the armies of the valiant captain had been
successful, they assemble en masse, and move northward,"
demanding, " Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the
children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee ? we
will burn thine house upon thee with fire." Poor Jephthah —
heart-broken, his house silent, the light of his hearth ex
tinguished by worse than fire ! — this fills up the measure of
his sorrow. He had not deserved a reproach and a threat
such as those by which he was assailed. His answer,
although sharp in tone, is marked by dignity. He had given
the haughty Ephraimites the opportunity of helping in the war.
They had declined it, leaving him and his people to do battle
alone with the enemy. " Wherefore then," he rejoins, " are ye
1 Lord Byron's " Hebrew Melodies."
"The word rendered "Northward" in chapter xii. i, may also be
rendered "to Zaphon," a city mentioned (Josh. xiii. 27) along with Succoth.
Apparently the object of the movement was to cross the Jordan at the
fords of Succoth.

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 6l
come against me this day to fight against me ? " ' But remon
strance is in vain, and, for the most miserable of causes, there
ensues a fierce and bloody contention. The statement of the
historian is that " there fell forty-two thousand Ephraimites at
the passages of Jordan." * The melancholy story justifies two
remarks of the Wise Man. He says that " a brother offended
is harder to be won than a strong city, and their contentions
are as the bars of a castle ; " 3 and again he says that " the
beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water." 4
Of all wars, the most terrible are civil wars. For " to be
wroth with one we love doth work like madness in the brain."
It is a fearful madness that is set before us in the few sentences
which record the battle between the men of Gilead and the
men of Ephraim —
" Each spake words of high disdain
And insult to his heart's best brother." 5
The infuriating taunt is one at whose interpretation we can
only guess. " The men of Gilead smote Ephraim because they
said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the
Ephraimites and among the Manassites." Apparently, the
sneer conveyed was that the army of Jephthah was composed of
fugitives of Ephraim and Manasseh. The words bore the
insult to the brother ; and the hand at once grasped the
sword. The question has been put, Where were the priests ?
They might have prevented the catastrophe. They might have
prevented the vow of Jephthah, and this last recorded action
of his reign. Where were they indeed during all the stormy
time between the death of Phinehas and the days of Eli ?
Certainly the Urim and Thummim has no visibility in con
nection with the hot and senseless controversy of the ex
asperated peoples of Gad and Ephraim.

"Judg. xii. a, 3.
"Judg. xii. 6. " It is possible that the war between Jephthah and the
Ephraimites may have lasted a considerable time, though only the single
incident of the slaughter at the fords of Jordan is mentioned, so that the
large number of forty-two thousand men may be less improbable than it
seems at first sight. There is, however, always some doubt as to the
correctness of numbers " (Lord A. Hervey in " Pulpit Commentary ).
» Prov. xviii. 19. 4 Prov. xvii. T4. s Coleridge's " Christabel."

62 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
"The Gileadites took the passage of Jordan before the
Ephraimites; and it was so that when those Ephraimites
who were escaped, said, Let me go over, that the men of
Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite ? If he said
nay, then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth; and he
said Sibboleth, for he could not frame to pronounce it right.
Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan."*
In this incident we recognize a suggestion which Christendom
has not been slow to appropriate.
The word Shibboleth has a twofold meaning. It means
either an ear of corn or a stream. It may possibly have been
the name of a stream at or near the passages of Jordan. There
is another Hebrew term Sibboleth, signifying a burden; and the
curious feature is that the Ephraimite was unable to dis
tinguish in pronunciation between the two terms. He did not
frame to pronounce the sh right. Linguistic differences ana
logous to that which at once tested the man of Ephraim are
not uncommon. The Northumbrian is known by his burr.
Dialectic variations between different parts of the same country
are most marked. Few Englishmen can pronounce in Scotch
fashion the ch, as in the name Auchtermuchty. Sh is entirely
wanting in some languages. And its introduction into the
country beyond Jordan, whilst it was unknown on the western
side is "an evidence of the sound having passed into the
Hebrew from the east of Jordan, possibly from the Arabians
with whom the sound is common : at least, if we suppose the
Ephraimitic pronunciation to be that of the nine and a half
tribes. The sh may have been as impossible for an Ephraimite
to pronounce as th is to a Frenchman." •
We speak of the Shibboleths of sects and parties. Have not
many controversies which separate Christian from Christian,
making them "like cliffs which have been rent asunder, a
dreary sea flowing between," originated in verbal strifes
gendering a heat as unreasonable, but as intense, as that
which reddened the fords of the Jordan with the best blood of
Israel ? Are there not differences, often passing into separa
tions, referable to circumstances and associations which have
given a determination to modes of thought and speech
analogous to that betrayed in the pronunciations of Ephraim
and Gilead ? Are not the unions of Christians too frequently
* Jud8- xii- & ' " Speaker's Commentary, Judges."

JEPHTHAH, THE HERO OF GILEAD. 63
exclusive of all who cannot give the accent or inflection which
they give to some dogma, who cannot frame to pronounce some
test-word right ? The Shibboleth men have seized the passages
and cast out the Sibboleth men during all the centuries.
" Hold what we hold, speak as we speak ; or, Anathema"— thus
the spirit of intolerance and persecution has thundered in the
past ; and the mutters of the thunder may still be heard.
Would that Christians more fully realized the Apostle's saying,
" God hath given us the spirit of power and of love and of
a sound mind ; " and better obeyed the Apostle's precept,
" Follow after charity."

CHAPTER VII.
SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN.
territory of Dan— the Philistines : Their origin and early history— The
form of their idolatry — Their national character — The period and
scene of Samson's judgeship — The prophetical forecasts of Dan — The
completeness of the biography as contrasted with that o! other judges
— The nature of the story of his life and exploits — Zorah — The
appearances of the man of God to Manoah's wife and to Manoah
and his wife. With regard to these appearances, three points — The
Nazarite vow and the institution of the Nazarite order — Mahaneh-
Dan — Timnath, and what happened in connection with it— The Rock
of Etam, and what happened in connection with it— The authority
afterwards conceded to Samson — Gaza and its gates — Enhakkore — The
Valley of Sorek — The treachery, and what followed — Milton and his
"Samson Agonistes " — The climax of the tragedy, and what it
suggests.
Following the stream of the history of -Israel, we pass
from the far north, from Mizpah, and the green forests of
Gilead, and the fords of the Jordan, to the territory occupied
by the southern tribes, and the maritime plain which was dis
tinguished as the Shephelah, or Low Country. The children of
Dan were settled between this Shephelah and the wilderness
of Judah. Their land — bounded in the rear by barren hills, and
contracted in front by the Philistine principalities, which inter
cepted the communication with the sea — was so circumscribed
that, as we have seen, an extensive migration northward was
rendered necessary. Anditheir situation, inconvenient at best,
was rendered perilous by the hostility of the Philistines who
owned the rich cornfields and the pasturage of the sea-board.
It is to the struggle against this hostility of the remarkable
man, in whose prowess the tribe of Dan emerges from obscurity,
that our attention is now directed.
Who were the Philistines? It is a curious fact that the

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. 65
whole area conquered and inhabited by Israel received its
name from the narrow strip which belonged to them. Pales
tine is the land of the Philistines. The explanation, probably,
is that, being the people located near the shore of the Mediter
ranean, the Greeks formed their acquaintance, and called the
unknown interior by their name. They were aliens to the
Holy Commonwealth. Their origin and their early history
cannot be made clear. They were " strangers," or " wanderers."
In the genealogy of the sons of Noah they are set before us as a
Hamitic race, and as issuing from an Egyptian stock. From
Mizraim, which is undoubtedly Egypt, several peoples or tribes
are represented as springing ; and among them we rend,
" Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim) and Caphtorim."
We need not discuss who the Casluhim and the Caphtorim
were. It is to be observed that the Prophetical Books of the
Old Testament associate the Philistines with Caphtor rather
than Casluhim. Jeremiah calls them "a remnant of the isle
of Caphtor."' It has been conjectured that this isle or maritime
region was Cappadocia ; " again, that it was Cyprus ; 3 and again
that it was Crete ;4 the last of these conjectures being strength
ened by the designation of Cherethites given in the Old Testa
ment to the Philistines.5 Another meaning has, however, been
found for the term : Caphtor is said to be identical with
Capht-ur, the Great Capt. Egypt is probably Ar-Capt, or
the coast of Capt ; and the Capht-ur might be the northern
delta of Egypt.6
Be this as it may, the Philistines were not Phoenician. They
were not akin to the Hebrews. Possibly, the warlike race which
confronted the Israelites was a composite race. The identifi
cation of Caphtor with the Egyptian delta gives plausibility to the
conjecture thatfrom the Philistines sprang the Shepherd Dynasty
who conquered Lower Egypt about the time of Abraham.
When the Hyksos were expelled, a large company of relugees
may have fled into the rich pastural and corn-growing territory
of the Avim and settled there, intermarrying with the Avim.7
¦ Amos ix. 7 j Jeremiah xlvii. 4. " The Targums and old versions.
3 Michaelis and Rosenmiiller. 4 Calmet and others.
s 1 Sam. xxx. ir. David's body-guard was composed of the Cherethites
and Pelethites (a Sam. xxiii. 23. Ewald thinks that the Pelethites were
Philistines. 6 " Speaker's Commentary," Genesis, p. 91.
7 Deut ii. 33. 6

66 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
Certainly, the nation which oppressed Israel with its five
satrapies and five cities, its gigantic men, and its great hosts,
was immensely more numerous and formidable than the tribe,
with its Abimelech, or Royal Father, and its chief captain,
Phichol, which entered into leagues with Abraham, the
wandering sheikh, as with a prince of importance and power."
The idolatrous Philistines had some features in common with
Phoenicia. But their idolatry was in many respects different. Their
chief idols were a fish-god (Dagon) and a fish-goddess (Derceto),
whose temples were in Ashdod, Ascalon, and Gaza, and a god
of flies (Baalzebub), whose temple was in Ekron. There vi ere
priesthoods, and there were oracles. The idols were solemnly
borne with their armies. In their honour great festivals were
held. To the Israelites the Philistines were "the uncircum-
cised " ; and, if an Egyptian origin is ascribed to them, this
proves that their separation from Mizraim, where circum
cision was practised, must have been at an early date.
Though Hamitic, their language was largely Semitic ; at
all events, we can infer that the Hebrews could converse
with them. They were a dull people, fierce in war, but
wanting in enterprise. Although owners of the coast of the
Mediterranean, they were not, like the Phoenicians, given to
commerce. They were content with their low country, and
their'walled cities, and their raids into Israelite territory. At
the time when our narrative opens they were the masters of
the south — of Simeon, Dan, and Judah.
The precise time with which the biography of Samson con
nects we cannot determine. His judgeship may not have been
immediately in succession to those mentioned in the chapter
next before that which takes us to Zorah. It may have been
during the later years of Elon's ascendancy in North Palestine,
and of Abdon's in Ephraim. His exploits and influence were
limited to the southof Palestine. It was there that "he began to
deliver Israel."
Two forecasts of Dan occur in the early books of Scripture.
Jacob, blessing his sons, predicted that Dan would "judge his
people as one of the tribes of Israel, and that he would be as a
serpent by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse's
heels, so that his rider shall fall backward ; " " and Moses,
regarding the future of the tribes from his experience of their
1 Gen. xxi. aa. • Gen. xlix. 16, 17.

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. 67
character, declared that Dan was " a lion's whelp, whose leap
would be from Bashan."1 We saw the fulfilment of this latter
prediction in the fierce raid of the Danites on Laish, "the
city which dwelt secure," and their seizure, by force of arms,
of a northern territory. In the sketch of Samson's career we
find the accomplishment of the old patriarch's picture ; through
Samson, the tribe becomes, for a brief space, a judge of the
people. In him, too, is realized the quick, venomous bite, as
of the rattlesnake, which makes the rider and his horse fall
backward. The sovereignty of God is manifest in the selection of His
instruments. This Samson — this Israelite Hercules — is not the
person whom pious minds would have chosen as the hero to
fill the largest place in the Book of Judges. Of its twenty-one
chapters, four are devoted to the record of his freaks and
exploits. For all that marks permanent results he is far below
the level of Gideon and Barak and Jephthah. But he is the
only judge whose biography is given from the birth to the
death. In the Old Testament there are only two persons
whose birth is solemnly announced beforehand. Isaac, the
son of Abraham, is the one ; he is the other ; and in his case
there is an extraordinary circumstantiality in the announce
ment. The narrative throughout is remarkable for explicitness
of detail. His quirks and quips, his irony, his grim laughter,
as well as his feats of strength, are duly recorded ; and, as has
been observed, " there is no deliverer of whom are reported
so many weaknesses or so many miracles." " The story is
strange and fantastic — one over which we smile and sigh, one
of boisterous mirth and tearful sorrow — such wit and such
folly, such force and such feebleness, comedy so grotesque
and tragedy so awful ! As the tale proceeds, the moral in
terest is overshadowed by the mere prowess of the athlete ;
and perhaps it is to the admiration excited in the popular
mind by athletic fame that we owe the preservation of so
many of the traditions concerning him. With regard to his
work as judge, the sacred historian tersely expresses the
truth — "He began to deliver Israel." With him came a new
hopefulness to the oppressed Israelites. There is something
grand, after all, in the attitude he assumed. No trumpet-blast
summoned the thousands of the tribes to his banner. He stood
1 Deut. xxxiii. 2a. * Bishop Hall's "Contemplations."

68 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL
alone. Nothing daunted him ; his brawny arm could rend the
lion like a kid, or slay hundreds with the jawbone of an ass.
He ventured fearlessly, rashly, into all kinds of perilous situa
tions ; and, except where women betrayed him, came unscathed
through all. His name was " the Sunny ; " " and a kind of wild,
free sunniness of nature distinguished him in all the struggle
" In a state of universal depression," it has been remarked,
" all must depend on the indomitable strength which is aroused
in individuals." ' He was the man to arouse that strength.
He turned the laugh against the Philistines. He showed the
Philistine up in his stolidity, his blind idolatry, the cowardice
behind all the bullying. He bade his brethren be of good
cheer. He himself, unaided, proved what could be done by
individuals. And thus far he not only judged, but "began to
deliver Israel."
The more sad, therefore, is the catastrophe to which the
life-story hastens. The deliverer from the Philistines is him
self manacled by the Philistines. He who saved others him
self perished. He who feared not the face of man " gives up
: his fort of silence to a woman." He can carry the gates of
. a city away ; the gates of the citadel of his own soul are
carried away, and he himself is made a captive by Satan.
God's Nazarite is the devil's slave. And thus he who began
, never completed his work. The column was broken in the
middle. The story ends with a comma and a dash, blistered
over by a tear. For the light is turned into darkness ; and
how great is the darkness 1
We are introduced by the sacred historian to a worthy
couple in a city on the borderland between Dan and Judah.
It was then called Zorah ; it is now known as Surah — one of
a cluster of sacred sites around Beit-Jibrin, the ancient
Eleutheropolis — a mountain village with a rocky and rugged
surrounding.3 There lived Manoah, whom Josephus describes
as a man of extraordinary virtue and the principal man of
the place, but with one weakness — an extraordinary jealousy
of his beautiful wife, shown when she told him of the visit

1 Samson (Heb., Shimshon). Josephus says the " name signifies one that
is strong.' It may be derived from Shemesh (the sun), or from Shamam
(to lay waste). a Ewald's " History," vol. ii. p. 399.
3 See" Land and Book," Southern Palestine, chap. viii.

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. 69
of the angel. * The scriptural statement, free from all such
glosses, presents to us a simple, God-fearing man, an Israelite
indeed, and his spouse, whom God had not blessed with
children. To her, one day — so runs the narrative — appeared
an angel of the Lord. In dress and manner he resembled a
prophet ; but his countenance was very terrible —
" In his face
Terror and sweetness laboured for the place.
Sometimes his sun-bright eyes would shine so fierce
As if their pointed beams would even pierce
The soul, and strike the amaz'd beholder dead :
Sometimes their glory would disperse and spread
From easy flame, and like the star that stood
O'er Bethlehem, promise and portend some good;
Mix't was his bright aspect, as if his breath
Had equal errands both of life and death :
Glory and mildness seemed to contend
In his fair eyes." "
She did not venture to ask whence or who he was. But he
gave her the astounding news that she would yet know the pains
and joys of motherhood, and he prescribed the Nazarite vow
for the child to be born. Manoah did not doubt or deny the
vision ; he only asked that the tidings borne by his wife should
be supplemented by fuller information as to the upbringing of
the promised son. The prayer, " Let the man of God whom
Thou didst send come again," is answered ; and the interview
granted, with the words spoken and the things done, is related
at length. It was closed by an act of sacrifice — a burnt-
offering and a meal-offering" laid on a rock — and He who had
said that His name is Wonderful did wondrously. Passing out
of sight, enwrapped by the consuming fire, Manoah and his
wife fell on their faces to the ground. And, connected with
this prostration, there is a sagacity, even a nimbleness of wit,
in the reply of the wife to her husband's exclamation, " We
shall surely die, because we have seen God," which reminds
1 The angel is represented by Josephus as " a young man beautiful and
tall. . . . The wife showed so great admiration of the beauty and tallness
that her husband was astonished and out of himself for jealousy" ("Anti
quities," book v. chap. 8).
" Quarles, " History of Samson," quoted by Kitto in " Daily Bible
Readings,"

70 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL
us of qualities afterwards illustrated in the son. " If the Lord
were pleased to kill us," she answered, " He would not have
received a burnt-offering and a meal-offering at our hands.
Neither would He have shewed us all these things, nor would,
as at this time, have told us such things as these." *
It is asserted that " the angel of the Lord did no more appear
to Manoah and his wife." To many, the one appearance
recorded is " a stumbling-stone and rock of offence." Of course,
in the view of all who put the miraculous aside, it is nothing else
than a piece of legendary lore. But some who allow to miracle
a place in God's government of the universe, and who accept
it in connection with Biblical narrative, are puzzled over this
particular theophany, related with exceptional copiousness of
detail. Does the manner of Samson's life, or does the import
ance of Samson's mission warrant it ? Now, with regard to
this, three points maybe urged. First, the lessons of the life are
immeasurably intensified by the evidence of the greatness to
which it was destined. Samson was not a man whose force
should have been spent in mere feats, wild and irregular. It is
the contrast between the development of the career and the
truth of the consecration which lies in the background, that
elicits at once our sorrow and our indignation. The mark for
the prize of his calling had been foreshadowed in the most
striking possible form even before his birth ; and we grieve and
protest when we see him failing to reach the mark and obtain
the prize. The more extraordinary is his designation to a lofty
place, the more pathetic and instructive is the record of the fall.
Farther, there are peculiarities in his career which imply
specially providential circumstances. He is born after all ex
pectation of a son had ceased. He is laid under the Nazarite
vow from the moment of birth. That vow was sometimes
taken for periods longer or shorter ; but seldom indeed was it
perpetual — one which comprehended the person, babe and
man. He is not the sort of person in whom the austerities of
the Nazarite might have been expected : they were contrary to
the whole bent of his nature. And, as has been remarked,
" whilst he keeps his vow of abstinence from intoxication, he is
all the weaker and bolder with regard to the love of woman, as
if he would here make up for the want of freedom elsewhere." "
That a creature such as he — " the most frolicsome, irregular,
' Judg. xiii. a-aa. • Ewald's " History," vol. ii.

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. 71
uncultivated, that the nation ever produced " — should have been
bound by the most strict, consecration, should, moreover, have
been consciously dependent for his giant-strength on this conse
cration, requires to be accounted for ; and the story of the man
of God, whose countenance was terrible, and whose name was
Wonderful, with his charge to both father and mother, is all that
we have to account for it. Finally, though the work of Samson
was left incomplete, it was, in itself, one which needed the
support of an extraordinary vocation. Admit his marvellous
physical strength, we have yet to recollect the single-handed
ness of his struggle. From beginning to end he felt that
he was God's champion against the Philistines. Even in his
marriage he sought an occasion against the enemy of Jehovah's
people. Through all his rollicking, n all his amours, he had still
a certain witness in himself to a Divine mission. Is not this
explained when we remember that, in earliest years, the secret
of his birth and devotion was instilled into the mind by his
pious parents ? That was surely the finger always pointing him
onward, the source from which all that was heroic in his nature
was fed. And, alike among Israelites and Philistines, the
mystery of his birth would find currency, enhancing his deeds
in the view of his compatriots, and adding to the terror of his
foes. We conclude, therefore, that there is nothing wanton or ar
bitrary in the " bit of glory " which marks the opening chapter
of Samson's biography. To eliminate it is to injure the nar
rative and deprive it of its deeper colouring and significance.
Indeed, as Dean Stanley has pointed out, it has a significance
even beyond the limits of the hero's life. It was as the first-
fruits of an institution which was a noticeable feature of the
Jewish Church — an institution which included in its orderSamuel,
and Elijah, and John the Baptist, and James, the first Bishop
of Jerusalem — "it was as the first-fruits of this institution.no
less than as his country's champion, that the birth of Samson is
ushered in with a solemnity of inauguration which, whether we
adopt the more coarse and literal representation of Josephus or
the more shadowy and refined representation of the sacred
narrative, seems to announce the coming of a greater event
than that which is comprised in the merely warlike career of the
conqueror of the Philistines." "
1 " History of the Jewish Church," Lect. x.

72 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
So, then, according to the instructions of the heavenly pre
ceptor, the child of Manoah is dedicated as a Nazarite to God."
And Samson, the consecrated boy, grew ; his bright eye, his
quick, ready speech, his flowing locks, his mighty strength,
were the signs of the blessing of Jehovah. As in the case of
another child—" the holiest among the mighty, the mightiest
among the holy" — the youth of Israel's future champion is passed
over without relation of deed or exploit. The sanctities of the
home-life were the covering of the Hebrew boy.
The impulses which swayed his career first (to use the Scrip
ture phrase) smote him at a place under the shadow of the hills
of Judah, called Mahaneh-Dan." A place of some historical
interest, since there — hence the name — the Danites had pitched
their tents when they set out on the journey to Laish.3 A place
of family interest, since there Manoah owned a burying-ground.
By and by kinsmen of the tribe will bear the remains of the
once mighty Samson from the Philistine town to that sequestered
spot between Zorah and Eshtaol.4
The purpose and the opportunity are important factors in
the making of the great man. The purpose has taken shape,
it is moving him at times ; where, what, how, is the opportunity ?
In strange and unexpected form it comes. Against the
wish of his parents, Samson is bent on marriage with a daughter
of the Philistines. Her residence was a village nestling in the
cleft of a hill lined with vineyards and olives, and looking down
on a valley waving with corn. The wayward son will not be
thwarted, and, as is the way in the East, the marriage was
arranged by the parents. A higher hand was guiding events ; a
reference even in Samson's mind indicated that " it was of the
Lord," that, through the wedding, occasion against the domi
nant Philistines would be found.5 It was found in a train of
consequences from one incident.
For some reason unexplained, he had left, for a short time,
the company of his father and mother, when they and he went
down to Timnath 6 for the betrothal. On the rugged heights
1 The character of the vow and the strigency of the obligation are set
forth in Numbers vi. The word means "separated." How much import
ance was attached to the vow is evident from the space devoted to it in
the Mishna, and from the lamentation in the Book of the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, chap. iv. 7. ¦ Judg. xiii. 25. 3 Judg. xviii. 12.
4 Judg. xvi. 31. 5 Judg. xiv. 1-4. 6 Now Tibnah.

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. 73
above the village a lion roared against him, ready to spring."
It was young and fierce. He had no weapon in his hand, but
he received the brute with his brawny arm and rent it as he
would have rent a kid. After so doing he rejoined his party,
and said nothing of the struggle. " The greatest performers,"
remarks Bishop Hall, " make the least noise." A short time
afterwards, when, the period of betrothal having ended, he
returned to claim his wife, he went aside from the path to the
scene of his feat : and lo 1 the skin and skeleton of the lion —
the flesh all picked away by vultures and insects — and within, a
swarm of bees and combs of honey 1 ° A curious place for bees,
but " they establish themselves in situations little thought of by
us." So be it they can make their honey, rock and tree, roof of
house and rough hill-side, equally serve their purpose. And he
takes of the honey, and goes on eating, and gives to his father
and mother without telling them whence it came. " It is a weak
neglect," comments the quaint English bishop, " not to take the
honey because we hate the lion. It is honey still, though in a
dead lion." .
But the fancy of the Israelite bridegroom was set a-playing
by the curious honey-making. And, as riddles were in vogue,
he gave a riddle to his wedding companions which referred to
his discovery. " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of
the strong came forth sweetness." The stipulation was that,
if they discovered the riddle within the seven days of the feast
he would give them thirty under-garments of linen and thirty
over-garments ; if, on the other hand, they failed to discover it,
they would give the same to him. Day followed day and the
riddle remained unsolved. The secret was extracted by the
coaxing of the Philistine wife. And Samson's pledge was
redeemed by a raid on Ashkelon, and the slaughter of thirty of
' The lion was a full-grown cub. The lion is not now found in Palestine,
but the references to it in the Old Testament show that it was not uncom
mon. In 2 Kings xvii. 25, 26. we are told that when the province of
Samaria was thinly populated, in consequence of the deportation of its
people, the lions so increased that they slew the men whom the King of
Assyria placed in the cities.
2 "In the East, vultures and insects, particularly numerous swarms of
ants, which abound in vineyards, will, in an astonishingly short time, clean
completely out all the soft parts of any carcass, leaving the skeleton entire,
covered by its integuments ; for the flesh having been picked out, the skin
would not be rent or destroyed " (Kitto, " Daily Bible Readings ').

74 GIDEON,AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
its men, from whose bodies the raiment was stripped." Then
began the deadly strife and the mutual hatred. Blood had been
shed, and an implacable anger had been kindled.
Thenceforth proceeds the apparently unequal contest — Sam
son against the Philistine world. The theatre of the contest is
limited to the territory of Dan and the Low Country inhabited
by the Philistines. Once only the interest is transferred to the
neighbouring tribe of Judah. And in this wise.
The vineyards and olives, the shocks of corn and the uncut
corn, of the rich land around and below Timnath, had been
burnt, as the result of a freak of Samson, by which he had
resolved " to do his enemies a displeasure."" He had tied three
hundred jackals together, tail to tail, and put a firebrand between
the tails, and so let them go into the fields. The poor creatures,
running in fright and agony, bore the devastating fire with them.
In revenge the Philistines burnt his wife and her father. And
he retaliated by smiting them, " hip and thigh," with a great
slaughter ; and then he fled to a rock or a cleft in the range of
limestone hills belonging to Judah. The cleft was named
Etam. The man so long wanted had apparently been trapped. The
Philistines " spread themselves in Lehi," and demanded the
surrender of the fugitive ; and to their demand the men of
Judah pusiUanimously consented. Milton represents Samson as
complaining of this conduct in words which express the feeling
awakened by the narrative : —
•• What more oft in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty ;
And to despise or envy or suspect
Whom God hath of His special favour raised,
As their deliverer. If he aught begin,
How frequent to desert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds." *
Three thousand are sent to the rock to apprehend the one
man ! A striking illustration of the fear which his prowess had
inspired — one, too, which bids thought onward to the day when
the chief priests and scribes of the people of Judah sent a great
multitude with swords and staves to arrest the One, the Deliverer,
"Judg. xiv. 5-19. ' Judg. xv. 1-6. s ¦• Samson Agonistes."

SAMSON. THE HERO OF DAN. 75
from worse than Philistine bondage, who had trodden the wine
press alone !" There is a touch of generous feeling which con
trasts with their selfishness in the entreaty of Samson, that the
three thousand would not fall on him. If God helped him, it was
better that his hand should be against the common foe, and be
stained with his blood, than be turned against his own brethren,
and guiltiness for their blood lie on his soul. If no help came
to him it was better that he should so die as that his life might
be a ransom for his oppressed compatriots. The entreaty
agreed to, he is bound with new cords and taken from the rock.
We hear the roar of the Philistines — more terrible even than the
roar of the young lion of Timnath — the shout to Dagon, when
they beheld him manacled, their captive, their prey. They,
too, are ready to spring. And he is as ready to receive the
attack as on the former day. Filled with an extraordinary
strength, " the cords that were on his arms became as flax that
is burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands."
Any kind of instrument is sufficient for energy thus super-
naturally fed. The jawbone of an ass which had lately died is
lying on the ground. He snatches it ; with it he rushes on the
assembled host. And seized with a panic caused by his shout,
his rush, and the tokens of his awful force, they fly before him,
leaving a thousand stalwart warriors dead on the field."
And what of the conqueror? First, there is a gleam of
his irrepressible vivacity, as, throwing away the jawbone, he
indulges in a witticism on the defeat of the Philistines —
With the jawbone of an ass heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men.
" It is an elegant play upon the words — a paronomasia
founded on the identity of the Hebrew word for an ass and for
a heap, whereby the Philistines are represented as falling as
tamely as asses." 3 And next, the exultation of spirit manifest
in this pasan of victory is succeeded by a deep depression, the
reaction after a terrible strain aggravated by a fierce thirst. The
uigent need sends him to the God of salvation, and the desire
of his heart is fulfilled in the perception of a jet of living water
springing out of a cavity in the cliffs. The fountain thus opened
to his view was the sign of truth which the strong man in his
' Matt. xxvi. 47. » Judg. xv. 6-17. 3 Kitto's "Bible Readings."

76 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
strength was apt to forget. It reminded him of his dependence
on the Eternal. It bade him recognize whose the might and the
victory are. It taught him the place and power of prayer. Ah I
well had it been for him if he had from that moment realized
the secret of En-hakkore — the fountain of the one who calls on
God." It is immediately after the events thus related that the words
are inserted, " He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines
twenty years." We may infer from this notice that the effect of
the exploit at Lehi was such that the Philistine power, though
still dominant, was held in check, that relief from the pressure
hitherto felt was realized, and that a measure of authority was
conceded to Samson.
But, at length, exploit and rule come to an end — one most
tragic, and yet in the last moments lit with a glory akin
lo martyrdom. The cause of the end was miserable. " If,"
remarks Matthew Henry, " we sleep in the lap of our lusts, we
shall certainly awake in the hands of the Philistines." If we
did not know to what criminal follies, to what wretched infatua
tions, sensuality will lead even men wise as Solomon and strong
as Samson, we might say that the rashness of our hero in
exposing himself to the most perilous situations is inexplicable.
He seems to have remained in the quiet of the lion couchant for
some years. But the wild beast in him at last broke forth.
We see him in very foolhardiness tempting God by entering
Gaza. He might have walked through its streets, as perhaps
he had previously done, and the terror of his presence secured
freedom from molestation. But " he who had strangled a lion
could not strangle his own loves." He spent the night in the
Philistine town, and the citizens laid wait for him, saying, " In
the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him." Once more
he was delivered out of his distresses. He arose at midnight,
and pulled away the gates of the town, and carried them to a
range of hills betwixt Gaza and Hebron." Again the laugh was
turned against the stupid Philistines. But though extricated
from the meshes of the net in which he had involved himself
" Judges xv. 18, 19. In the A. V., the sentence is, "God clave an hollow
place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout." It should be
" the hollow pla:c that was in Lehi." In the time of Jerome there was a
spring near Eleutlierupoiib which was called Samson's Spring.
' Judg. xvi. 1-6.

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. ?"/
at Gaza, another net, also woven by his own reckless sensuality,
was fatal. The story of Delilah, either Philistine maiden or
Hebrew maiden, is one of the most graphic in the pages of the
Old Testament."
It is not necessary to suppose that the acts of treachery
related, between the fourth and the twentieth verses of the six
teenth chapter of the book, occurred in immediate succession
to each other. The narrative is very brief, and these acts may
have been repeated at intervals, longer or shorter. With all
his folly, Samson could scarcely have been so awfully duped
as to have given away his manhood day after day, within a
week or so, to the wiles of the woman by whose charms he had
been enslaved. Possibly many visits to the valley of Sorek are
comprehended in the chapter which reports the bribing of
Delilah by the lords of the Philistines " to get from her lover
>he secret of his strength, the cunning which she brought to
her task, and the success which ultimately she realized, when,
"his soul vexed unto death, he told her all." Pitiful, woful, is
the tale that is told : " She made him sleep on her knees,
and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the
¦jeven locks of his head ; and she began to afflict him, and his .
strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be
upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said,
I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. And
he wist not that the Lord was departed from him."3
Alas ! there is no jaw-bone now. His bitter enemies take him
and bind him, not with new cords, but " with fetters of brass."
He who had borne away the gates of Gaza is borne through the
replaced gates to prison. The first time after the narrative
of Joseph in which we read of a prison-house is at the
close of the free-hearted, open-air-loving, Samson's life. His
lusts had made him their slave ; he is made the slave of the
Philistines, and sent to grind ignobly, as the slave of the lowest
• Josephus calls her a Philistine, but there are good reasons to doubi
this. "It is a question whether Samson, with all his weakness, would
have reposed such implicit confidence in her if she had been one of hi-,
enemies. Nor, one would think, would the immense bribe mentioned in
ver. 5 have been required" (Lias, " Book of Judges ").
" "We will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver."
This amounted to £135. and this sum multiplied five times was equal to
£675. It may have been even more, as the shekel is sometimes renders J
at three shillings. ' Judg. xvi. 19, 2c.

75 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
order was obliged to do. His eyes had been the first offenders,
they are the first sufferers— though, as it has quaintly been
observed, " he was more blind when he saw licentiously than
now that he sees not." " Howbeit," it is added, "the hair of
his head began to grow again as when he was shaven." "
Separated from his carnal indulgence, the Nazarite strength
and the sense of the Nazarite vow gradually returned.
It is at this period that he is introduced to us in Milton's mag
nificent drama, " Samson Agonistes." To John Milton, with
his fine intellectual and moral perceptions, there was a special
charm in the story of Samson. It contained, in his view, an
inexhaustible wealth of suggestion. In early years he saw, in
the hero rejoicing in his strength, the picture of a noble and
righteous nation, of the ideal England." At a later period it
spoke to him of the monarchy in its true greatness, but of the
low estate into which it had fallen through the flatteries of
prelates, and of the arousing sense of majesty, involving, how
ever, loss such as that foreshadowed in the great Danite's end.
The Nazarite vow spoke to him of that discipline in the precepts
and practice of temperance and sobriety through which royalty
grows up to a noble strength. " The illustrious and sunny locks"
were the symbol of good laws. When royalty keeps them
" undiminished and unshorn," the jawbone of an ass, even "the
word of the meanest officer,'' will put thousands to confusion.
Delilah and her flatteries are the forecast of prelacy and its
flatteries by which "the tresses are shaved off," and royalty
is delivered to " evil counsels which put out the far-sighted
eyes" and make it "grind in the sinister house of evil ends,"
until, recalling the former days, it nourish again " the golden
beams of law and right, and thunder with ruin on the heads
of evil counsellors, but not without great affliction to him
self." 3
But in " Samson Agonistes " the whole strength of the poetical
Samson of England is put forth. The conception of the hero
is loftier, it may be, than the facts of the Biblical history
warrant. But it is not the less interesting, and the remark
passed by Coleridge on Chantrey's bust of Wordsworth, " It
is more like Wordsworth than Wordsworth himself is," may be
1 Judg. xvi. 21, 22.
3 Speech in behalf of liberty of unlicensed printing.
3 " Reasons of Church Government."

SAMSON, THE HERO OF DAN. 79
applied to it. The poet has drawn forth the hero's " character
from its lurking-place, and brought out the central principle
in which all his faculties and feelings unite."
He is introduced to us on the last day of his life. It is a
festival day, and he has been allowed to leave his prison and
go forth where he can feel " the breath of heaven fresh-blowing,
pure and sweet with day-spring born." And he lies on the
grassy bank, "carelessly diffused, with languished head un-
propped, as one past hope," mourning " the impotence of mind
in body strong," mourning above all the loss of sight :
" O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day.'
Thus his countrymen who come to comfort him ; thus old
Manoah "with locks white as down"; thus his wife, his
traitress, "sailing like a stately ship, with all her bravery on
and tackle trim, sails filled, and streamers waving " ; thus the
giant Harapha of Gath ; thus the officer sent by the lords of the
Philistines, to require his presence that he may make sport
to the people, find "that heroic, that renowned, irresistible
Samson." Throughout, the tragedy is sustained as only Milton
could sustain it. It is stately and solemn with those glances
into hidden things which are characteristic of him whose orbs
were sightless, but whose inner eye beheld the spiritual universe
of God. Ever and again in the replies of Samson to the chorus
of Danites, in his soliloquy, in his conversation with Manoah,
there flash forth the rays of a faith which is still " the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," the sense
of an inspiration which he has denied but which has not denied
him, the concern for interests never more fully outlined than
when, blind and lonely, he is ready to die. His is the anguish
of " the soul that suffers not the eye to harbour sleep or thought
to rest." But it is anguish not because he must " grind in the
prison-house," but because he has been untrue to the highei
vision, because he has not only soiled and lost his manhood
by "foul effeminacy," not only "profaned the mjstery of God
given him under pledge of vow," but, in doing so, has advanced
" the praises of Dagon high among the heathen round." There
is a grand protestation in his answer to Manoah, when, on

80 GIDEON, AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
being reminded that the bitterest reproach which could have
befallen him and his father's house was the magnifying of the
false fish-god, and the blaspheming of the only living and true
God, he acknowledges and confesses :
" I to God have brought
Dishonour, obloquy, and oped the mouths
Of idolists and atheists ; have brought scandal
To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt
In feeble hearts, prepense enough before
To waver, or fall off, and join with idols ;
Which is my chief affliction, shame, and sorrow."
Ah 1 verily, the career of the mighty man of valour is the
commentary on the saying put into his lips :
" What is strength without a double share
Of wisdom? Vast, unwieldly, burthensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall
By weakest subtleties, not made to rule
But to subserve where wisdom bears command." *
We look to the end, to the moment when the climax of the
tragedy is reached— when the destroyer is himself destroyed,
"self-killed, not willingly, but tangled in the fold of dire
necessity." In that moment the result is greater than the
aggregate of the past years — " the dead which he slew at his
death were more than they whom he slew in his life,"" and
" Samson quit himself like Samson, and heroically finished
a life heroic." But, as we see him tugging and shaking the two
massy pillars " till down they came and drew the whole roof
after them" ; as we hear the burst of thunder when the scene
of Dagon's sacrifice falls and crushes the idolaters, but crushes
also the man of faith "with them immixt"; as we thus con
template the awful fitiis of a career which the Most High
had claimed from infancy, we are reminded of the instruction
of eternal truth, " Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich
man glory in his riches : but let him that glorieth glory in this,
that he understandeth and knoweth Me." 3
1 See " Samson Agonistes.
¦ Judg. xvi. 27-30. J Jer. ix. 83, a*.

CHAPTER VIII.
GIDEON, THE HERO OF THE CENTRAL TRIBES.
The scene of the story, Esdraelon — The memorable events connected with
it — The two Ophrahs— Abiezer, the Manassite community— The habits
and ways of the farmers of Palestine— The dangers and toils illus
trated— Joash, the father of Gideon, and his stalwart sons — Evidence
of the hold on the popular imagination of the story of Gideon — Its
appeal to us.
North of the old Roman province of Samaria, there is a plain
to which the name Esdraelon — the Greek form of the word
Jezreel — has been given. Travellers and geographers differ as
to the extent of this plain. It is sometimes limited to a tract
of country distinguished in olden times as the Valley of Jezreel.
It is sometimes regarded as inclusive of the whole territory
from Carmel to the Jordan. As thus extended it embraces the
Valley of Megiddo, and the pass or vale — unhealthy now as
centuries ago — through which flows " one of the shortest rivers
in the world" — "that ancient river, the river Kishon." The
branches into which the plain divides are marked by three con
spicuous mountains, Jebel-el-Duhy, or Little Hermon ; Gilboa,
famous in Israelite history ; and Tabor, the traditional scene
of the Transfiguration.1 From any of its elevated platforms
one of the most striking of landscapes is beheld. To the eye
accustomed to the magnificent distances of many parts of the
Western Hemisphere it may scarcely seem entitled to be called
a great plain. But it is great as measured by the distances of
Palestine, and the variety of its scenery and the wealth of its
historical associations invest it with peculiar interest. The soil
is for the most part fertile ; indeed, if the coast washed by the
Bay of Acre is comprehended in it, it must be reckoned the
» " Tb,e Land and the Book," Central Palestine, p. an.
7

82 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL
most productive grain-growing portion of the Holy Land.
" Almost every acre," says Mr. Oliphant, " is at this moment
in the highest state of cultivation. It looks to-day like a huge
green lake of waving wheat, with its village-crowned mounds
rising from it like islands." ' A distinguished American
traveller, speaking of a view of which Esdraelon is a leading
feature, pronounces it the finest that he ever saw in any part
of the world.
On this broad plain were transacted many of the most
memorable events, were fought many of the most memorable
battles, in the history of Israel. True, it has no place in the
chronicles of David's victories. Nor were any of the wars of
the Conquest waged on its fields. These latter, with only one
exception, were waged in the south ; the one exception was the
decisive battle in the far north— at Merom, " the uppermost
lake of the Jordan." But in the stormy times which the Book
of Judges records, the valleys of Jezreel and Megiddo were often
reddened by human blood. Deborah, for example, sings of the
kings who came and fought by the waters of Megiddo, of the
armies that were swept away by Kishon." And the story to be
told in the following pages begins at the Valley of Jezreel. In
the later annals of Israel, some of their darkest pages are asso
ciated with Esdraelon. It was near Mount Gilboa that the
men of Israel "fell down slain before the Philistines," and that
the sun of Saul's royal house set in darkness.3 It was at
Megiddo that Pharaoh-Necho vanquished the hosts which had
been wantonly led against him, and that the archers fatally
wounded the good King Josiah, for whom "all Judah and
Jerusalem, Jeremiah and all the singing men and women,
lamented." 3 And so it was that to the Jew who, in days sub
sequent to the heroic ages of his nation, retraced the national
history, the Valley of Megiddo suggested another picture than
that of peaceful husbandry — the picture to which the seer of
Patmos gives a deep prophetic colouring when he selects " the
1 See "Haifa," pp. 42, 59, 60. "The whole plain of Esdraelon, as
well as part of the hills behind, is now all owned by one rich firm of Syrian
bankers, who draw an annual income of about #200,000 a year from it.
They own practically about 5,000 human beings as well who form the
population of thirty villages which are in their hands."
• Judg. v. 19-21. 3 1 Sam. xxxi.
# 2 Mings xxiii. 29, 30 ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-25.

GIDEON, THE HERO OF THE CENTRAL TRIBES. 83
place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon," i.e., the
mountain of Megiddo, as the theatre of " the battle of the great
day of God Almighty." *
Gideon, with whose biography and achievements we are now
concerned, was a native of the plain of Esdraelon. His birth
place is called Ophrah." Two villages bearing this name are
mentioned in the Old Testament There was an Ophrah,
belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, now known as El Taiybeh
— a group of hamlets " perched aloft on a dark conical hill, like
the villages of the Apennines." 3 But the Ophrah in which the
future deliverer of Israel was bom, nestled on slopes south oi
the town of Jezreel, and connecting with Mount Gilboa. No
trace of it remains ; except for its connection with Gideon,
it would have been wholly undistinguished and unknown.
There, some time between the twelfth and the tenth century
before Christ, resided a small clan or family, descended from
Manasseh, the first-born of Joseph. Esdraelon was the inheri
tance of Issachar, but Manasseh had, in it and in Asher, many
towns and much territory— "three countries"' is the phrase
employed in the Book of Joshua ; and thus Abiezer, i.e., the sons
of Jeezer, occupied Ophrah. One of these sons — perhaps we
might say their head-man —was Joash, the father of Gideon.
" When the land had rest," the little community lived simply
and peacefully. Manners have hitherto been stereotyped in the
East. From the ways of the farming-class which may be
observed to-day, we can vivify the conception of the habits of
the day of Joash. We can imagine the departure in the
morning — the cattle gathered together in preparation for the
teams to be formed, the old men who should " abide by the
stuff" aiding in arrangements for the younger who should till
the land or reap the harvest, the women preparing the food to
be taken and all the requisites for camping over night ; and
then the setting forward — oxen lowing, the children of the
homes accompanying the party for a short way, and the men,
with the servants, in twos and threes, guiding the cattle ; and
all provided with weapons of defence as well as with implements
of husbandry. Even in times of comparative quiet, there is
¦ Rev. xvi. 14-16. " Judg. vi. ir.
3 Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," p. 216. In later times, it was called
Ephraim, and to it our Lord retired after the raising of Lazarus.
* Josh. xvii. ix.

84 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
more or less of risk, for the Bedouin hover about the edge of
the cultivated districts, and the farmer is never safe from their
marauding. Of this risk in the distant past, a graphic picture
is supplied in the Book of Job. The messenger is represented
in this book as hastening to the Sheikh with the tidings, " The
oxen were ploughing and the asses feeding beside them, and
the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away, yea, they have
slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am
escaped alone to tell thee." Of other dangers, other messengers
speak — the lightning, or fire of God falling from heaven and
burning the sheep and servants, and the desolating simoom or
great wind from the wilderness smiting the four corners of the
hut, in whose overthrow the young men are slain." Very
intelligible indeed to the sons of Israel was the description
in the Psalter of bands of agriculturists " going on their way
weeping, bearing forth the seed." And very responsive was
their heart to the promise of " the return with joy, bringing the
sheaves with them." "
In the toils and the dangers of husbandry, Joash and his
family spent their days. The narrative in Judges suggests that
Joash was a man of quick and fertile wit, of mental resource,
and of that strength of will which secures the deference of
others. The people of the village looked up to him as their
chief. He possessed that which, to a Hebrew parent, was the
greatest of earthly blessings — he had stalwart sons, renowned
for noble presences and beaming countenances, faces " like the
faces of a king." 3 Conspicuous among them was the first-born
— Gideon.His biography, as the hero raised up and divinely endowed
to meet a great national emergency, is presented at some length,
and with striking beauty, in the Old Testament historical books ;
and the references to it in the prophecies of Isaiah — to " the
day of Midian," " the slaughter of Midian at the rock of
Oreb " 4 — show that, for long centuries, the story of his exploits
kept the' popular imagination in thrall. Nor is this to be
wondered at. Even to us, far separated from the period to
which it is immediately related, it appeals at many points. To
begin with, it is an illustration of the highest kind of manliness.
There is nothing overdrawn in the portrait. The man is set
• Job i. 13-19. ¦ Psa. cxxvi. 5, 6.
3 Judg. viii. 18. « Isa. ix. 4 ; x. 26.

GIDEON; THE HERO OF THE CENTRA^ TRIBES 85
before us as he actually was, in the rugged simplicity of peasant
life with its homely ways and homely folk, in the pith and the
weakness of his character, in his faults as well as his virtues.
But in all we can discern a swiftness of glance, a promptitude
in counsel and action, a reverence of spirit, a self-repression,
a gentleness toning and tempering a giant's strength, a loyalty
of purpose which disdained all by-ends and by-ways, a faculty
of inspiring and organizing enthusiasm — in a word, the qualities
which mark the foremost type of the truly great man. And
these qualities found their suitable aliment and exercise in a
service which stamps him as both patriot and hero. We see him
burdened with the sense of his country's degradation, burning
with the desire to break the oppressor's rod, heading the hosts
which obey his trumpet-blasts, restoring peace to the distracted
tribes, and refusing the crown which the grateful thousands of
Israel pressed on him. He is not unworthy of a place among
the champions, the liberators, the protectors, whom history has
immortalized. Narrow as the theatre of his action was, in that
narrow sphere he manifested the genius, he won the trophies, of
a genuine leader and commander of peoples. More still — and
this is the chief title to our regard — his life and daring form
one of the most interesting pages in the records of faith.
He is something else than a mere emancipator from foreign
tyranny : he is a witness for the true God and the kingdom of
heaven. He is the antagonist of Baal, no less than the deliverer
from Midian. We are invited to behold in him, and in his call
and equipment, an evidence of the work of Divine grace, in its
selection of individuals for ministry and blessing, and of the
manner in which the chords of the human heart vibrate to the
touch of this grace, and are tuned by it to finer issues. To the
devout mind this is the chief glory of the career of Gideon.
The mighty acts of the warrior may be much, the mighty acts
of Jehovah are more — those acts through which even the worm
can thresh the mountains and beat the hills as chaff. It is a
tale not. of military prowess only, but, as the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us, of the faith which
" subdues kingdoms, works righteousness, obtains promises,
stops the mouths of lions, quenches the power of fire, escapes
the edge of the sword, ftom weakness makes strong, waxes
mighty in war, turns to flight the armies of aliens." *
• Heb. xi. 33, 34.

CHAPTER IX
GIDEON : ISRAEL'S CRY AND GOD'S ANSWER.
The situation of Palestine — The series of invasions— The Midianites : Th«
ancient city Madjan : Mahomet's greeting : The Tawara : The
branches comprehended under the name Midianite : Their commercial
character : The links connecting Israel and Midian : The corrupting
influence of Midian— The Amalekites : The battle of Rephidim — The
" children of the East." The fierce character of the inroads of these
Bedouins — The destruction caused by the march through Palestine —
The cry of the people — The man — The prophet, and his message — The
man, the deliverer : His occupation : His thoughts : The lesson
suggested by the view obtained of him.
" Palestine," says Dean Stanley, " is an island in the midst of
pirates. The Bedouin tribes are the Corsairs of the wilderness ;
the plains which run into the mountains are the creeks into
which they naturally penetrate." ' When Gideon was a young
man, the plain of Esdraelon was the scene of an invasion, or
rather a series of invasions, which extended over seven years,
the result of which was that " no sustenance was left for Israel,
neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass." It was this gigantic inroad
which called forth the energy of the son of Joash.
The desolating hordes were composed of " Midianites, Amal
ekites, and the children of the East," the predominating power
being that of the Midianites. Let us observe this confederacy.
On the eastern coast of the gulph of Elam, there was a city
called Madjan. Not long ago, its ruins were shown to the
traveller. The name and the ruins, it is supposed, connect with
that Midian whose hand prevailed against Israel. In the time
of Mahomet, the neighbourhood of the old city was occupied
by a people one of whose chieftains the Prophet received
1 " Sinai and Palestine," p. 136.

GIDEON : ISRAEL'S CRY AND GOD'S ANSWER. 87
with the greeting, "Welcome to the brother-in-law of Moses."
And, at this day, the adjacent country is the territory of the
Tawara, the most civilized of the Semitic tribes, and the lineal
descendants of the ancient Midianites. In the very far past — a
far past even when "there was no king in Israel" — it would seem
that there were several branches or families comprehended
under that name. One branch, aboriginal and idolatrous, was
represented by the shepherds, introduced to us in the history of
Moses as coming to drive away the black-veiled daughters of
Reul-Jethro, who were filling the troughs to water their father's
flock." From some hints given in old chronicles, we conjecture
that there was a second branch to which, perhaps, Reul-Jethro
belonged — the Kenites, a moiety of which formed friendly
relations with Israel, and divided the wilderness of Judah,
" which lieth in the south of Arad," " with the Amalekites. A
third branch was the Semitic race, descended from Abraham
by his second wife Keturah. One of the six sons of this
marriage was Midian, who, like the other five sons, was sent
away from Isaac, the heir of the promise, " eastward, to the
east country," that is Arabia.3 The posterity of Midian and
his five sons spread rapidly in a westward direction through the
wadys of the Peninsula, from the borders of Moab to the
eastern coast of the arm of the Red Sea, now known as the
Gulph of Suez. All branches amalgamated, more or less, in
the course of centuries. They were not Ishmaelites, strictly so
called, but Ishmaelite was sometimes used as a general term
for the peoples of Arabia. Originally wandering herdmen, ;
like the Carthaginians, they blended the pastoral character with !
the commercial, and at times the military also. The sons of
Midian were the merchantmen of the East. Their caravans
were the ships of the desert, plying between the more fertile
and favoured regions and the rocky peninsula of Sinai. It was
to one of these caravans, "bearing spicery and balm and
myrrh," en route to Egypt, that Joseph was sold for twenty
pieces of silver.4 The account of the spoil which fell to Israel
after Gideon's victory, is the evidence of the wealth which
the merchantmen secured for the wandering children of the
East.5 ¦ Exod. ii. 16-17. * Jud8- '• l6-
3 Gen. xxv. 4-7. 4 Gen. xxxvii. 25-28.
» Ewald (" History of Israel," voL ii pp. 107-108) says of Midian,

88 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL,
Many and close are the links which connect the early history
of Israel with Midian. After his flight from Egypt, Moses was
received by the prince-priest of the Kenites, married the
prince's daughter, and for years led the prince's flock towards
the west of the desert, " along the mountain ledges green, to
glean the desert's spicy stores." It was when thus employed,
near the Mount of God, that the great sight of the burning bush
was beheld by him, and the commission to go unto Pharaoh
was solemnly given him. " The wise Kenite chief, when visiting
the Israelite lawgiver, sketched the outline of the political
constitution of the people ; 2 and, when the face of the people
was set towards the promised land, Moses invited the chief to
cast in his lot with them, " Come with us and we will do thee
good."3 And, as we have seen, a portion of the tribe did so.
Up to this time the worship of the God of Abraham had
been maintained, although not in purity, in the Semitic con
tingent of the tribes. But this worship rapidly deteriorated.
The impression made on Jethro by the victories of Israel —
" Now know I that Jehovah is greater than all gods, for in the
thing wherein they dealt proudly, He is above them " — soon
became faint. After the defeat of Sihon and Og, the elders of
Midian are found in league with the elders of Moab, with the
" rewards of divination " in their hands, inviting Balaam to
" come and curse the people that had come out from Egypt." *
Thenceforth the Midianite appears as one of the prime cor-
" This singular Arabian people were in those early times what the Cartha
ginians, originating in a neighbouring region, afterward became, devoted
principally to commerce, but, on favourable occasions to conquest also, for
which end they wisely availed themselves of the services of the children of
the desert. Distantly connected with Israel by blood and friendship,
Midian was really only a small nation. It may have originally occupied
only a small territory in North-Western Arabia near Tibuk, for the city
Madjan lay on the Arabian gulph opposite and to the east of the southern
point of the peninsula of Sinai. No situation could be better adapted for
an extensive commerce in all directions. . . . Monarchy was unknown to
them, as to the Carthaginians, yet they must, in very early times, have
possessed the art of bringing about a great union of Arabian tribes under
theii own leadership, and even of employing them in war for their own
advantage. It ruled in the Sinaitir* peninsula over Amalekite Arabs, but,
through its allies, the Arabs of the desert, it also ruled over regions far to
the East, towards the Euphrates."
¦ Exod. ii., iii. • Exod. xviii.
• Numb. *. 29-32. 4 Numb. xxii. 4 7.

GIDEON : ISRAEL'S CRY AND GOD'S ANSWER. 89
rupters of Israel : the wiles specially of Midianitish women
are the occasion of dire calamity. " Vex and smite " is the
fierce command of the leader." How sternly the command
was carried out may be inferred from a notice in the narrative
of the distribution of the cities and plains of the Amorites
among the tribe of Reuben. It is said that Moses had slain
five princes of Midian who were Dukes of Sihon dwelling in
the country."
The Midianites, in great bands, are associated with Amalekites
in the invasion of Palestine.
" Amalek," said Balaam in his song, " was the first of the
nations." 3 Long before the conquest of Canaan it was one of
the strongest of the primitive races. It has been credited even
with a temporary mastership of Egypt. For a long period it
was the master of Palestine. Driven back to the desert by
the Amorite or Canaanite, the consciousness that the land
had been the possession of their sires rankled in the mind
of successive generations. This may, perhaps, explain the
fierceness of the opposition of Amalek. At an early period
after the exodus this opposition was shown. Apparently it
was unprovoked.4 It was marked by daring impiety. One of
the most striking episodes in the Pentateuch is the battle of
Rephidim, when " Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a
stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon ; and Aaron
and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the
other on the other side, and " — symbol and pledge of victory —
" his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." It
was at the close of this battle that Moses was instructed to
register in a volume and rehearse in the ears of Joshua the
purpose of the Eternal that Amalek should be put out from
under heaven ; and the altar there and then built and named
Jehovah-Nissi had particular reference to the holy war against
Amalek as the type of Jehovah's enemies from generation to
generation.3 At the date of the invasion which we are contemplating,
Amalek had sunk into the condition of a desert-tribe. Origin-
" Numb. xxv. " Joshua xiii. 21 ; see also Numb. xxxi. 1-20.
- Numb. xxiv. 90. This may be read, " First of the nations that warred
against Israel."
* Exod. xvii. 8, " Then came Amalek and fought with Israel."
s Exod. xvii. 8-16.

go GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL
ally powerful enough to rule Midian, Midian now controlled it.
The connection between the Kenite branch and the Amalekites
had been, for many centuries, intimate. Now a power mightier
than the sword has come into play — the power of wealth.
Midianite wealth has secured them as allies, and with them a
miscellaneous host of the Arabs of the Hauran and Gilead —
those Arabs in whom we discern the prototype of the Bedouin
of more recent times. In the reign of King Josiah, an out
burst of these "corsairs of the wilderness" was sufficiently
important to attract the notice of Greek as well as Jewish
historians;1 and Scythopolis, the name into which Bethshean or
Bethshan — the point of their entrance into the valley o
Esdraelon — was changed, is a witness for the impression left
by this visit of Scythian hordes.
It was an appalling spectacle which burst on the view of the
inhabitants of the Israelite villages when these confederated
tribes poured into the valley through the Ghor from Beth
shean. The invaders seemed to be without number, " with
their cattle and their tents they came as grasshoppers for
multitude." The fields were ripening. In Eastern lands, only
a short time intervenes between the sowing and the reaping.
The harvest is gathered in the early summer ; and the sturdy
sons of Ephraim, in their homes on the spurs of the hills, had
been joyfully anticipating the sheaves filled with golden grain,
and the presses bur-sting with new wine. Alas ! all hopes are
dashed to the ground. The dark cloud of human locusts
spreading through the fair land tells them that "a day of the
Lord, a day of gloominess and darkness," has arrived.
What can the affrighted people do? To oppose such a
multitude is hopeless. The plain is abandoned to " the corsairs
of the wilderness," who eat up its increase, and move onward
through the valley of Sharon to the extreme south-west, " until
thou come to Gaza." * When all has been destroyed they retire,
but only to reappear when the next harvest comes round. For
seven weary years the scourge ''s heavy. Peaceful homes are
broken up. Men, women, and children fly to the mountainous
ranges, and perforate the cliffs, " making them dens and caves,
and strongholds." With the disappearance of the material of
physical nourishment, the heart of the Israelites dies within
1 Herodotus (see note in " Sinai and Palestine," p. 340J
¦ Judg. vi. 4.

GIDEON: ISRAEL'S CRY AND GOD'S ANSWER. 91
them. Only one resource is left — their last resource in time o(
trouble. " The children of Israel cried unto the Lord." *
The first instalment of the answer to the cry is the sending
of a prophet. The only specification which is given is the
phrase, "a man, a prophet."3 One of the essentials of a
prophet is that he be a man, with the sympathy, the force,
the fearlessness of the true manhood— vision direct, speech hot
and straight — one who is "as lightning out of heaven, the soul
of a man actually sent down from the skies with a God's
message to us." This prophet speaks in the name of the
Eternal. He pierces to the root and cause of the servitude
and ruin, and, publishing the mighty acts of Jehovah, he bids
the listening villagers reflect on the return which they had
made to Him, on their idolatry, neglect, and disobedience.
Thus, the preparation for deliverance was laid. It was a token
for good that at length " a man, a prophet," had appeared,
that a voice which the conscience recognized as the voice of
Jehovah again sounded in the ear. The sky was black as
midnight, but this was the ray of hope. He had torn Ephraim
as a lion, and apparently had gone away. But the coming of
His word with power was the pledge that He had withdrawn
only until, in their affliction, they sought His face.
" The man, the prophet," is the precursor of the Man, the
Saviour. John the Baptist, with his solemn trumpet-call
" Repent," was the forerunner of Jesus with His glad tidings
of great joy. To nation or to person, the beginning of the
gospel is always the preaching of repentance. When this
preaching is felt with power, the kingdom of heaven is at
hand. So it was in the portion of history before us.
The deliverer belongs to the tribe of Manasseh — one of the
two branches of the house of Joseph. The territory of this great
house was the central part of the Holy Land, a part rich with
" the precious things of heaven, of the dew, and the deep that
croucheth beneath, the precious fruits brought forth by the
sun and the precious things put forth by the moon, the chief
things of the ancient mountains, the precious things of the
lasting hills, and the precious things of the earth." 3 The two
branches soon moved apart, Ephraim retaining the more
central region, Manasseh taking the northern region. Between
them they occupied a tract of land which was a meet nurse for
1 Judg vi. 6. " Juilg- vi. 8 (see margin). 3 Deut. xxxiii. 13-17.

92 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
heioic men, for men who might form a national militia, por-
tecting "the outgoings" of the mountain and mediating
between the tribes of the north and the south. In the poetic
language of the seer, they were " like the horns of the buffalo
pushing the people together to the ends of the earth."
The supremacy of power remained for long with the children
of Joseph. In their inheritance lay the battle-field of Palestine.
In it were the Ghors, stretching westward from the Jordan,
which were inlets to the places that dropped the fatness which
the Bedouin coveted. They held the keys for all the tribes.
From their heights they could oversee the valleys, both inland
and maritime, rich with rolling grass or waving corn. And in
their fastnesses the oppressed could find a refuge and a covert
in the time of need. The national sanctuary stood for centuries
in one of their plains. Until the era of the royal dynasties of
Saul and David, they supplied much of the leading and light
of Israel. Joshua was an Ephraimite. From Mount Ephraim,
Ehud had led the people to victory against Moab. Deborah,
the prophetess, though a native of Issachar, dwelt under the
palm tree of Ephraim. In a town of the same mount Samuel
was born. Gideon, the greatest of the Judges, is the hero of
Manasseh. We are introduced to him when he is threshing wheat. In
ordinary times the threshing would have been done close to the
field whence the grain had been gathered, or in the immediate
neighbourhood of the village. The "baidar," or "threshing-
floor," as the word is translated in the English version of the
Scriptures, was an open space or circle in which the wheat
was laid. And the instrument used, "sharp, having teeth," was
a slab drawn by a yoke of oxen over the corn, the driver sitting
or standing in it, until the fruit was separated from the ear, and
the straw itself was ground to chaff. But in the case before us
the usual process is not followed. The farmer is not in the
baidar. He has removed the grain so precious at that time to
the wine-press." As little noise as possible must be made.
Therefore the oxen, the lowing of which might be heard from
* ' ' The objects of interest which mainly characterize all the Carmel ruins
are ancient olive mills and wine-presses. The wine-presses were nothing more
than huge vats, hewn out of the living rock, sometimes above ground in
the shape of sarcophagi, sometimes pits eight or nine feet square and the
game in depth " (Oliphant's " Haifa," pp. 94-95).

GIDEON : ISRAEL S CRY AND GOD'S ANSWER. 93
afar, are dispensed with, and the farmer uses the flail. The
Hebrew phrase is " threshing wheat with a stick." He plies
his stick in a hidden place, and the quantity beaten out is
small, sufficient only for the use of the household. For the
terror of the Midianites, who are swarming all around, is on
him as it is on all. The little that has been saved from their
ravages must be guarded. And so he works, softening as much
as may be even the thud on the grain laid on the earthen floor ;
so he works, sad, chafing, indignant in soul. He, the strong
man, the son of Israel, to be thus cowering before these children
of the East ! Has he not heard of the mighty deeds of Jehovah
in the past — how He drove the heathen from before the people
He had chosen ? Do not the fathers of the tribe recall, with
bated breath, the grand old times when the terrible shout of
Israel made kings and armies quake ? And now — woe worth
he day 1 — it has come to this, that the children of these sires
must " make them dens and caves," and he must wield his stick
with secrecy, hiding from the Midianites.
That such is the nature of his thoughts is evident from the
words which he utters when the Divine voice addresses him.
" Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen
us, and where be all His wondrous works which our fathers told us
of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt ? but now
the Lord hath cast us off and delivered us into the hand of
Midian." " A brave, honest soul is in this man, with his eye
looking straight before him, though not yet taught, in fulness
of trust and hope, to look up. Robust he is, firm and strong
as the terebinth which stands beside the wine-press, asking
eagerly, communing with his own heart, as to whether nothing
can be done to wipe out the disgrace and repair the havoc
which has been wrought among his people. He is cast dowrs,
he is utterly humiliated, but his courage is not destroyed. The
times are calling loudly for the man ; here is the man for whom
they are calling. Here is the man, not consuming his energy in
fevered dreams, or wearing out his spirit like the imprisoned
bird beating against the bars of its cage. He is standing in
his lot doing the work which lies to his hand in the station to
which God has appointed him.
Is not this a feature of all readiness for higher and fuller
service ? There are persons, not a few, who, conceiving that
¦ Judg. vi. 13.

94 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
they have special gifts or special missions, become discontented
with their surrounding, fret over their work as unsuitable, as
tending to dwarf and cramp their power, and abandon the
work, striking wildly out in quest of nobler and more con
genial tasks. And, no doubt, sometimes the environment is
unfavourable to the development of the genius, sometimes the
service is unfitted for the man, sometimes the issue justifies the
discontent. But may it not safely be said that, in the great
majority of cases, the ambition which unfits one for the hearty
discharge of present duty is a misleading light? In genuine
greatness there is a simplicity of nature, a self-unconscious
ness and devotion, widely different from the egotism and
impatience which characterize such an ambition. Elisha is no
dreamer : he is a practical homely farmer, plowing " with
twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth,"
when the prophet's mantle is thrown ' around him. David is
"taken from the sheepfold; from following the ewes" he is brought
to "feed Jacob, God's people, and Israel his inheritance."" To
shepherds watching their flocks the herald angel announces the
birth of the Royal Child, and they hear the symphony of the
heavenly host.3 He of whom they sang lived in lowliness and
obscurity until He was thirty years of age ; from Nazareth,
with its workshop and its simplicities, He goes to the Jordan
to receive the baptism in which the heavens are opened and
the Spirit of God descends on Him.4 His apostles are engaged
in their craft when the word is spoken, " Follow Me." 5 And
here is Gideon, with all the latent possibilities of a kingship
over men, threshing his wheat when the angel appears. A
beautiful symbol, indeed, of the truth never to be forgotten,
that it is ours to take care of to-day's service, and to reckon
on God for taking care of to-morrow's opportunity. It has
been wisely and pithily said that " we put ourselves in the way
of Divine visits when we employ ourselves in honest business.
The work Gideon was about was an emblem of that greater
work to which he was called, as the disciples' fishing was.
From threshing corn, he is fetched to thresh the Midianites." 6
' i Kings xix. 19. • Psa. lxxviii. 70-71. 3 Luke ii. 8-n.
* Matt. iii. 13-17. * Matt. iv. i8-aa.
6 Matthew Henry, "Commentary."

CHAPTER X.
GIDEON : THE CALL AND THE RESPONSE.
The terebinth near the house of Joash — The interest attaching to the oak
or terebinth in Holy Scripture — A visitor one day — Who was this
angel? — The "deep Providential meaning" of the old Testament
Theophanies — The Call— It particularizes — The separation and selec
tion of the man — The crisis of his life — The progress in the call —
"Learn to labour and to wait" — The call discloses the secret of the
power — Gideon's Response — The need of inward strengthening — Like
ness between Gideon and the Apostle Thomas — The Ifs projected by
the mind, and the corresponding disciplines — The sign asked — The
meal-offering — The angel's commands, and what followed — Anticipa
tion of the Supper of the Lord— The assurance given to Gideon — Yet,
there is death to the old man — The resurrection into newness of life.
In Ophrah of the Abiezrites there was a grove, the seat of its
idolatrous worship. But the house of Joash was distinguished
by one thing — close to it stood an umbrageous terebinth. The
prominence given to this tree in the Old Testament Scriptures
has been already noticed. For two reasons, it had a special
interest to the Hebrew. Many parts of Palestine are almost
treeless. In the highlands of Gilead and the plateau of the
Jaulan there is an abundance of timber ; but, in other regions,
seldom is a grateful shadow cast by the foliage of the terebinth.
Hence, as in the narrative before us and elsewhere, the emphasis
given to the oak or the palm. Moreover, the oak was the
emblem of strength. Ancient prophecy described the olive as
one of the chief blessings of the Holy Land, and its value is
indicated by the fruit and the oil which it yields, and its richly
coloured wood. The palm — tall, straight, elegant — was the
emblem of the righteous ; it was a favourite name (Tamar) for

96 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
the women of Israel. But, as compared with these and other
kinds of tree, the oak suggested what is solid, robust, and
durable. The seer Amos compares the Amorite to the cedar foi
height, and to the oak for strength."
One day a stranger sat below the wide-spreading branches of
the terebinth, near the house of Joash. On that day Gideon
was threshing wheat at the wine-press. And from the con
ference between this stranger and Gideon came the crisis and
the call.
Josephus says, " Somewhat appeared in the shape of a young
man."2 The Biblical narrative is more explicit. It styles the
stranger, " An angel of the Lord," or, " The angel of the Lord."
In the account of the interview he is called the Lord or
Jehovah.3 It is to one of the Theophanies of the Old Testa
ment that we are introduced ; and these Theophanies cannot be
set aside as legendary by those who believe that all Scripture
is God-breathed. Who is this angel ? He is the Great Presence
in Israelite history. He appeared to the patriarchs.4 He
appeared to Moses " in a flame of fire out of the midst of a
bush." s He was the leader of the people when they left the
house of bondage.6 Of the crime and consequences of dis
obedience to Him they were warned.7 He was the angel of
God's face : the name of the Adorable was in Him : He repre
sented God. Manoah and Gideon feared that, after having
conversed with Him, they would die. They felt that they had
seen God. And the words used concerning Him, whilst im
plying distinction from Jehovah, imply also a mysterious unity
with Jehovah. Was He the Word who in the beginning was
with God, and was God, and who, in the fulness of the time,
was made flesh ? So said the Christian fathers of the earlier
centuries.8 So say many commentators and divines. Augus
tine wisely counselled that it is better not to " say positively
which of the Divine Persons manifested Himself in this or that
instance to patriarchs or prophets, except where some remark
able indications determine our conclusion very decisively."'
And the words of Canon Liddon suggest the " deep Providential
meaning" in the Theophanies: " Whether in them the Word or
1 Amos ii. 9. " " Antiquities," book v. chap. 6. 3 Judg. vi. 14,
4 Gen. xxxii. 24-30. 5 Exod. iii. 2. " Exod. xiii. 21.
7 Exod. xxiii. 20, 21. 8 E.g., Justin, Tertullian, Ambrose.
9 Au^u^tiiie, " De Trinitate," quoted by Liddon, " Bumpton Lectures."

GIDEON : THE CALL AND THE RESPONSE. 97
Son actually appeared, or whether God made a created angel
the absolutely perfect exponent of His thought and will, do
they not point in either case to a purpose in the Divine Mind
which would only be realized when man had been admitted to
a nearer and more palpable contact with God than was possible
under the Patriarchal or Jewish dispensations ? Do they not
suggest as their natural climax and explanation some Personal
self-unveiling of God before the eyes of His creatures ? Would
not God appear to have been training His people, by this long
and mysterious series of communications, at length to recognize
and to worship Him when hidden under and indissolubly one
with a created nature ? Apart from the specific circumstances
which may seem to have explained each Theophany at the time
of its taking place, and considering them as a series of pheno
mena, is there any other account of them so much in harmony
with the general aspect of Holy Scripture as that they were
successive lessons addressed to the eye and to the ear of ancient
piety in anticipation of a coming Incarnation of God ? " "
God has spoken to us in these last days in His Son, the
brightness of His glory and the exact image of His Person. The
stars are helpful when the great Luminary is hidden ; His
coming from his chamber supersedes the use of the more dim
and uncertain lights. We who have the revelation of the Father
in the Son do not require the occasional and temporary angel
to declare God's will ; ours is the blessing pledged in the
saying of The Truth, " He that loveth Me shall be loved of My
Father ; and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him." "
The appearance of the angel of Jehovah was unexpected and
sudden, yet it was not such as to startle the lion-hearted Gideon.
The interview which follows is full of meaning. Let us observe
the call, and the response.
The call particularizes. " Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty
man of valour." So far, the salutation is in accordance with
the elaborate courtesies of the Oriental. But in Ophrah the
worship of Baal has superseded the worship of Jehovah, and
the invocation of the great Name strikes on the ear. Besides,
there is a marked force in the addition, " thou mighty man of
valour." May we not suppose that to the farmer, hiding at the
wine-press from the Midianites, there is a savour of irony in it ?
1 Liddon, " Bampton Lectures," Section ii. p. 58.
¦ John xiv. ax. 8

98 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
Some, indeed, trace a feeling of indignation in the farmer's
rejoinder, as if he would show that he resented the language
employed. His position was so humiliating, the circumstances
of the time were so hard, that mere politeness irritated, and
ironical compliments were intolerable. This is going too far.
Gideon's words are not indignant ; they are sad and earnest ;
they express the honest doubt and bewilderment of the mind.
There is a ring of genuine pathos in them. He at once identi
fies himself with his people. He is full of the one theme —
the condition of Israel. The stranger had said "thee"j he
replies, " Oh my Lord, if Jehovah be with us, why then is all
this befallen us i " As if he would say, " I cannot be separated
from my kindred : if He is not with them, He is not with me.
And where are the signs of His presence ? Our fathers had
the signs ; to us they are a mere tradition of the past. Where
is the strength which brought the hosts of Israel up from Egypt
through the howling wilderness ? Brave salutations ill become
such a day as this. Why say, 'Jehovah is with thee,' when it is
only too plain that He has forsaken us, and delivered us into
the hands of the Midianites ? " *
Thus protests the heart hot within him. But the angel is
sent to him, and the angel's greeting is in good faith meant for
him. God's answer to His crying, sorrowing people is the gift
of men. He has no better gift than a man with the full and
various play of consecrated power — " His elect in whom His
soul delighteth, and in whom He puts His Spirit." The appear
ance of the angel is the separation and election of the man.
It corresponds to the crisis mentioned by St. Paul when he
speaks of his apprehension or arrest by Christ Jesus." This is
the apprehension of the son of Joash. It is the birth-hour of
the new man whose biography is to be hereafter unfolded. The
period of chafing without action has passed : now begins the
purpose, the life of the hero. Such a birth-hour God-sent men
in every age have realized. Is there not, indeed, a moment
like it in spiritual history, when the regenerating grace of God's
Holy Spirit stirs the pulses, and the mind, thrilling with the
consciousness that the Eternal, hitherto unknown, has claimed
the life, becomes impatient of mere generalities, and the ear is
awakened to hear God ?
There is a noteworthy progress in the call. First, we have
• Judg. vi. 13, 13. • Philippians iii. is.

GIDEON ', THE CALL AND THE RESPONSE 99
only the distinguishing, "The Lord is with thee. Awake, arise,
thou mighty man, who art fretting and moaning because of the
Midianites. He who is with thee is more than all who can be
against thee." But, next, the attention having been aroused,
there comes the more explicit, " Thou shalt save Israel from the
hand of the Midianites." The salutation of the twelfth verse
of the chapter issues in the sixteenth verse as a definite
promise, " Surely I will be with thee," because now it is linked
to a definite charge, " Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one
man." The vocation is no longer a thing of hazy outlines ; it
has become a distinct and positive command. And can we
not trace the same progress in many a career? There is
nothing more interesting than to observe the way in which,
often from less to more, from weakness to strength, and then
from strength to strength, men are brought face to face with the
" mark for the prize of their high calling," led into the fields in
which they are specially to influence their fellows, and complete
their ministry to God and His world. May some who perchance
shall read these pages learn patience ! Have they the capability
of higher things than any to which they have attained, or, with
their present surrounding, are likely to attain ? May they seek
grace to " tarry the Lord's leisure," and be wise in the under
standing of His will ! The poet whispers a needed lesson into
the soul when he says, " Learn to labour and to waiL" To all
who listen whilst they labour, the eye waiting on God whilst
hand and brain are toiling, the whole counsel of God's will, and
the full measure of usefulness and service, will be gradually
declared. The call discloses the secret of the power. " Impossible,"
cries Gideon, "that I can save Israel. The thousand to which
I belong is among the most mean and impoverished in Israel,
and I am the least in my father's house." ' Estimating the
magnitude of the task by his abilities and opportunities, it
seemed a cruel mockery to address him as the deliverer of the
oppressed people. The Bible, indeed all history, abounds
with illustrations of inaptitudes and deficiencies, as beheld from
¦ Judges vi. 15. " ' My family is poor.' Literally ' My thousand i« the
meanest.' The thousand was probably a division for military purposes,
parallel to the mishpachoth, or septs, which were genealogical divisions. It
may be compared with the hundred or wapentake of our English fore
fathers " (Book of Judges, Cambridge Bible, cf. page 18).

IOO GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
a merely human standpoint, so complemented by a Divine ful
ness that the worm is changed into a "new sharp threshing
instrument having teeth." " Poor little monk," said the Saxon
knight as Luther confronted the majesty of the empire. God
does sometimes choose the wise, the mighty, the noble ; yet "not
many," says the apostle. How frequently He chooses what the
world, judging by appearances, pronounces " the foolish things.'
For the might is not in what men are, be their endowments
great or small, but in what He is in them. The life is not in
the branch, it is in the vine abiding in the branch. "Apart
from Me ye can do nothing." " "This is the victory that over-
cometh the world, even our faith." "
How beautifully is this set forth in the verse, "The Lord
looked on him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt
save Israel ; have not I sent thee ? " 3 Every clause, almost
every word, is expressive. The Lord looked. It is not now the
angel, it is the Name who is in him. He looked. The look
flashes the light of the eyes which are as a flame of fire. It is
the same look as that which, long centuries afterwards, an
apostle, who had denied his Master, met when "the Lord
turned and looked on him." 4 But in this latter instance, it was
a look mighty towards repentance ; in the present case, it is a
look mighty towards inspiration, pouring a new life and light
into the soul. Go in this, is the command. This look is the
true might. In the consciousness, in the recollection of it, a
man may go anywhere. Everywhere he will feel that the house
of God is with him, and the hardest service will be made light.
The look and the mission go together — " In this, thy might :
have not I sent thee ? "
Such was the call ; let us observe the response.
Gideon does not resist, but lie needs to be "strengthened
mightily by God's Spirit in the inner man." Sometimes the
first discernment of a higher duty to which the Eternal sum
mons dazzles the sight, almost confounds the reason. It
demands a self-renunciation, a devotion to hard and painful
service, from which the heart shrinks. Even the meekest and
lowliest, " though a Son," needed to learn obedience. It is not
therefore to be wondered at that, in the hour when the new
vocation burst on the eye of Gideon, there arose fightings and
" John xv. 5. "i John v. 4.
» Judg. vi. 14. « Luke xxii. 61.

GIDEON : THE CALL AND THE RESfcCjgSE. '• . IOI
fears, there was the craving for some evidence t\a£the One vyho
talked with him was not a mere phantasm, the taVj&elf a mef%_
dream ; and that there ensued a dialogue with t\e ^sitor in
which utterance was given to the emotion that sv^^^hjkn.
He will do anything if only he can be made sure tKH^he
mission is a real mission of God, and that he is the man to do"i
it. For courage is often associated with a diffidence which
needs to be fought down. Men, seeing the calmness and
prompitude of the hero, take little account of the conflict which
preceded the action, of the sensitiveness and timidity which had
to be overcome by the iron will, and of the reinforcements of
strength which, during the action, the will requires. This
farmer, one of an impoverished thousand in Israel, " the
meanest in Manasseh," himself hitherto only a member of his
father's house, must debate the whole matter. The heart of the
patriot is burning within him, but there are '¦ wherewiths," and
" ifs " which must be dealt with. And this dealing is indicated
in the conference with the messenger of God.
There is much in Gideon at this stage which reminds us of
"Thomas called Didymus." In both there is a capability of
enthusiastic devotion, but in both there is a caution which has
no relation to fear, and has no alliance with "the evil heart of
unbelief." It is the caution of a genuine manliness ; it is the
" honest doubt " in which faith lives. " They who begin first
to inquire will soonest be gladdened with revelation, and with
them Christ will be best pleased ; for the slowness of His dis
ciples troubled Him of old."" When such inquirers are glad
dened with revelation, the whole being — intellectual, moral,
spiritual — moves towards the mark ; in the unity of all the
strength, the soul greets " the vision splendid," " my Lord and
my God."
We see the wisdom as well as the patience of the Divine
dealing. There are varieties of inflection and meaning in the
"if" which the mind projects. And for these varieties there
are corresponding disciplines. Read, for example, the answer
which Gideon gave to the angel's salutation — " Oh my Lord,
if the Lord be with us," and so forth. What is the discipline
for this kind of iff It is, " The Lord looked on him." There
is no discussion. The look is enough. That is the assurance
of the presence of Jehovah. And ho iv quickly do our reason-
* " Unspoken Sermons," by George MacDonald, p. 54.

102 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
ings and impatiences vanish, how different seem the point and
force of our arguments, when we are really beneath the look !
But the second if, which is evolved as the interview proceeds, is
of another sort than that. In the second if there is no question
as to the Presence. The authoritative " Surely I will be with
thee " has entered into the soul ; and, in reverence, in deepest
sympathy with the voice, there comes back — " If now I have
found grace in Thy sight, then show me a sign that Thou
talkest with me."1 Bishop Hall interprets, "Fain would he
believe, but fain would he have good warrant for his faith.""
He had not been living in the secret of the Presence ; much
tuning was demanded before mind and soul could make one
music. But the instrument is given into the hand of the Lord.
And the gentleness of the Lord is evidenced. He will wait, He
will help out the struggling faith. Gideon speaks of a meal-
offering which he would set before his visitor. And the visitor
replies, " I will tarry until thou come again."
Was the meal-offering — the present which Gideon looked to
bring forth — a sacrifice set before the stranger as an act of
worship ? There is a suggestion that it was so.3 The word
used by Gideon is the word commonly employed for one species
of sacrifice. Perhaps, as has been remarked, " the double sense
which the word may bear of an offering to God or a gift to
man, suits the doubt in the mind as to who the visitor might
be."4 The present was, at all events, according to the light
which he had. And "if there be first a willing mind, it is
accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to
that he hath not" Apart from any association with worship,
the request of the son of Joash and his action remind us of the
manners and customs of hospitality still observed among the
Arabian and Bedouin tribes. Still, there is the invitation to
the stranger to partake of the meal. Still, for the one whom the
host delights to honour, the kid or the lamb is fetched from the
flock, and part of it served with soup and cakes. Still, the
1 Judg. vi 17. • " Contemplations," book ix. chap. 5.
1 " Minchah means sometimes a present made to man, as in chapter
iii. r8 ; but it more commonly means a sacrificial offering (Gen. iv. 3-5),
which seems to be its meaning here as explained vers. 19, 20. When
coupled with zwach, the animal sacrifice, minchah means the meat and
drink offering" (Bishop of Bath and Wells, " Pulpit Commentary").
• "Speaker's Commentary."

GIDEON : THE CALL AND THE RESPONSE. I03
homely villager presents a repast similar to that which was
brought forth under the oaks of Ophrah — the flesh by itself in
a basket or tray, and the soup or broth in a goblet.
The point which Gideon emphasizes is, " a sign that Thou
talkest with me '' — a token, that is, that he is not confronted by a
mere spectral apparition, but that there is a real conversation
proceeding between him and the Lord in whose power he shall
be able to smite the Midianites as one man. The belief in
ghosts was then, as in the later day of the risen Christ, a pre
valent belief among the Israelites ; and the man, though in
heart obedient to the heavenly vision, needed to be assured that
it was indeed the Lord, and that it was to him that the Lord's
commission to save Israel had come. It will be to him a sign
of special grace if the stranger will remain under the oak whilst
he prepares a meal, and if the stranger will accept the meal at
his hands. Thus, and then, he will know that for him there is
a peculiar and distinguishing favour, and the certainty of help
in future enterprise. As to all besides, all subsequent to the
setting forth of the present, this must be left to the angel.
The pledge asked having been granted, Gideon hastens to
the farmstead, selects the kid, makes ready the cakes, arranges
the simple meal, and returns to the terebinth where the angel
is seated as before.1 And, with all becoming deferences and
courtesies, the meal is offered. In that which follows, the
offerer is at once confirmed and confounded.
The angel command that the smoking flesh and the un
leavened cakes be laid on the adjacent rock. He commands
further, " Pour out the broth." " This second command deter
mines the character of the present. The pouring of a fluid —
wine, in some instances water — on altar or stone is one of the
most conspicuous features of a sacrifice in Holy Scripture.
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God talked with him,
even a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink-offering thereon.3
So, under the law, the drink-offering was presented as an essen
tial part of the ritual. And even in idolatrous service it was
observed. The libation which was ordered at Ophrah trans
formed what might have seemed an ordinary meal into a sacri-
1 "In this case, the stranger must have waited at least an hour while
Gideon made ready the meal which he brought forth" (Kitto, " Daily Bible
Illustrations ").
Judg. vi. 20. 3 Gen. xxxv. 14 ; also Gen. xxviii. 20.

104 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL,
fice. The broth, or juice, denoted the blood, the life of the
animal ; and this was to flow over the extemporized altar on
which the flesh and the bread were laid. A rude, but expres
sive, forecast of the Supper of the Lord— the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth, the Flesh of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world which is meat indeed, and the Blood
poured over the world which is drink indeed I
The sign is immediately given. This angel is the Shepherd
of Israel, and the shepherd's staff is in his hand. It is the way
of the Lord to use some instrument, to employ some agency.
The instrument is only what He makes it ; but He is pleased to
take account of the earthly creature, and with it, according to
His effectual operation, "to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we can ask or think." " The end of the staff" is put forth,
and it touches the flesh and the cakes." The touch of the
lower by the higher, of the natural by the supernatural, of the
carnal by the spiritual, is the truth of the blessed Wonderland.
What marvels occur in human history when the life is touched
from above 1 The fittest phrase for these marvels which the
apostle can find is, " a new creation." What marvels of will-
force, of soul-energy, are realized when the Spirit of God
appropriates the aptitudes t " Prayers and pains," said Elliot,
" through faith in Christ Jesus, can do almost anything."
Behold the effect of the touch of the staff, when behind
the staff is the might of the Lord ! Lo ! jets of fire issue from
the stone, and flesh and cakes are consumed. To the un
sophisticated son of Joash this is a great sight indeed 1
Devout thought has traced the shadow of a greater mystery
in the sign of Ophrah. As, in the outpouring of the juice of the
flesh it has discerned the figure of the libation which, for all the
world and for all the ages, is the blood of atonement, so, in the
consuming of the flesh it has discerned the figure of the sacri
fice of Calvary. And assuredly those to whom the cross of
Jesus is the centre of the world find that cross dimly and imper
fectly anticipated in the incidents before us, as in many inci
dents besides. But, to Gideon, the matter certified was the
transcendent dignity and inexhaustible resources of the "Tra
veller unknown." Who he was could not be doubted. And if
fire could be made to " rise up out of the rock," could not slum
bering potencies in him be aroused ? Could not an enthusiasm
* Judg. vi. 21.

GIDEON : THE CALL AND THE RESPONSE 10$
flame forth from even the dull and stolid Israelites? The sign
of a Divine energy both to destroy and to arouse had been
given : could he not now say, " Surely in that power to destroy
the Midianites, and in that power to arouse the oppressed
tribes, He will be with me. And 1 have found grace in His
sight." And yet, under the manifestation of grace and truth, the
heart trembles, and fear takes hold of him. Is not the vision
too splendid ? Is not this person too exalted for mortal man ?
The vision has gone ; the person has vanished." And what of
him ? He knows that the angel was not a mere angel ; that he
was the angel in whom is the name of the Eternal. And it is an
Israelite conviction that none can see the Eternal and live.
" Alas, O Lord God, for because I have seen the angel of the
Lord face to face." " It is death to the son of Joash. It is the
hour when the law, " Die and re-exist," is fulfilled. The old
idol-clinging, time-serving, enfeebled self has been killed within
him. From this moment he is another person. There is a
calling distinctly in view. He is henceforth to live not to self,
but to God and his country. He is now more than the son of
Joash, he is the servant of the Lord — all aims and ends, except
the higher, consumed as the cakes had been consumed. And
after this death comes peace. Through his soul sounds the
voice, friendly and sympathetic, " Peace to thee ; fear not ; thou
shalt not die."3 The Resurrection-life is working. A fire has
risen up out of the rock ; and this fire is the power over which
death has no dominion. Possessor of God's grace, he is the
partaker also of God's immortality ; and the secret of the
Lord is with him.
1 Judges vi. 21. lu the appearance of the angel to Manoah, it is said
that the angel " ascended in the name of the altar."
' Judg. vi. a*. * judg. vi. 33.

CHAPTER XI.
GIDEON: THE BEGINNING OF THE ENTERPRISE.
The change in the idea and aim of the life — The altar, Jehovah-Shalom—
The sign of a transferred allegiance — " The same night," the time foi
action — The illustration given in the narrative of the right witness for
God — Where and how it begins — Three features in the instruction
given to Gideon : First, look to home ; Second, build the altar in the
conspicuous place ; Third, offer the sacrifice as prescribed — Gideon
obeys, but with fearfulness — The wrath of the villagers — The answer
of Joash — The new name — The story of Jerubbaal spreads.
What a change in the idea and aim of the life has been effected !
The farmer who, a little time ago, plied his flail on the threshing-
floor, his mind a chaos of thoughts and of emotions varying
from utter despondency to fierce indignation, is now conscious
of the call of God and fully in view of a work, the means to
whose accomplishment and the manner of whose fulfilment he
cannot discern. But he has seen the angel of the Lord face to
face, and, with the message of peace brought to him through
the vision, there has come, so to say, a new lease of life for the
performance of the part which has been indicated. In that
hour of awakened energy the first impulse is to build an altar
"there unto the Lord." " The same impulse the saints of God,
in days gone by, had felt. Abraham and Jacob and Moses had
built their altars, and through them had endeavoured to give
permanence to the sense of God's presence or help which, in
special circumstances, had been evoked. Abraham, for instance,
named the altar which he had reared Jehovah-Jireh when his
son was restored to his embrace as from the dead." Moses
reared his Jehovah-Nissi when the fierce onslaught of Amalek
* Judg. vi. 24. * Gen xxii. 14.

GIDEON : THE BEGINNING OF THE ENTERPRISE. I07
was repulsed at Rephidim." Gideon, too, must rear his Jehovah-
Shalom, his stone-memorial of the peace which had been
breathed over him, associating with the memorial the prayer
that the Lord who had removed fear from his own breast would
send the peace, which the bleeding and distracted people needed,
through the smiting of the Midianites as one man.
The altar thus erected was the sign of a transferred allegiance.
Hitherto, though not formally renounced, Jehovah had been
only the traditional God ; the actual homage of the villagers,
including, it is to be feared, the family of Joash, was rendered
to Baal, whose altar and grove were the conspicuous features
of Ophrah. In the pile of stones hastily and loosely thrown
together Gideon virtually said, " The Lord, the God of Israel,
will I serve, and Him will I obey." This shrine is the token
of personal dedication, of a solemn and explicit surrender to
the Voice which had spoken to him from heaven. The new
sight has taught him a new name — Jehovah-Shalom. In the
strength of this name, he will go.
What follows ? " Bid God welcome, and He will come again."
" The same night " the Voice a second time reaches him. Ah,
would it not be well to wait, to consider the matter in all its
bearings, to discuss with himself the ways and means, to take
some chosen friends into his confidence, and have some pre
parations made for the critical hour? There is a time to wait.
Jesus waited at Nazareth until " He began to be about thirty
years of age." " And, even after the descent of the Holy Ghost,
He waited forty days, " being tempted of the deviL" 3 Nor
Can we forget that after the ascension the apostles were com
manded to "tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they were
endued with power from on high." 4 But the time to wait is
sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. " When it pleased
God to reveal His Son in me," writes St. Paul, " immediately I
conferred not with flesh and blood." 5 And in the character of
of the true soldier there is a promptitude which we delight to
honour. " When can you start for India?" the veteran general
was asked. " To-morrow," was the reply. The demand was
urgent and the obedience was instant. In the case before us,
when the name is learned and the might in which the work is

* Exod. xvii. 13. • Luke iii. 23. » Luke iv. a.
¦> Luke xxiv. 49. ! Gal. i. 15 16.

10S GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
to be done is confessed, the period for action is " that same
night." Let it be understood that whosoever in distinct personal
experience knows Jehovah-Shalom, is called to be the witness
for Him. Thenceforth' self, in its shrinkings from toil and
pain, in its timidities, in its own preferences, is to be dead, and
the life is to be hidden in God. This Old Testament story is
a beautiful illustration of the right kind and manner of witness
for the kingdom of God.
Observe where and how the witness begins. " Throw down
the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the Asherah
that is by it." ' The stamping out of the idol is the point of
departure for the hero. He must be the reformer of the evil
within if he would be the deliverer from the foes without. He
had asked, " Why is all this woe befallen us ?" He is reminded
that the worship of the Phoenician Baal is the why. The fathers
who had told him of the miracles of the past might have told
him of the Song in which the great lawgiver had testified
against the people that, in sacrificing " to gods whom they knew
knew not, to new gods that came up of late that their ancestors
dreaded not," " they were kindling a fire which should burn to
the lowest pit. The war against Midian must be preceded by
the crusade against Baal.
Three features are noticeable in the instruction given with
regard to this, the initial work of Gideon.
He is commanded to look first to his father's house. The Baal-
altar belonged to Joash, either as its owner, or its custodian
The son of Joash might have asked of himself in what form he
should set about the task assigned to him. This starting-place
would not have occurred to him. But the Divine injunction
points the moral which, in the search for some great thing to
do, we are apt to overlook — that the part of wisdom is to work
outwards from the circle next us. A man's first theatre of action
is the place in which he lives. There or nowhere is his ideal ;
there or nowhere is his duty. We may be mistaken as to
leadings of Providence or spheres of labour, but there can be
no mistake as to one sphere. " Return to thine own house," 3
said the Lord to a man whom He had healed. Ah ! it is far
more easy to go to the street and preach there than to preach
faithfully and effectually to one's own flesh and blood. But let
' Judg. vi. 33. * Deut. xxxii. 17. 1 Luke viii. 39.

GIDEON : THE BEGINNING OF THE ENTERPRISE. 169
none think of throwing down Baal-altars here and there until
they have thrown down the Baal-altars in their own home or
circle. " They are a growing sort of men," says Carlyle, " who
valiantly do the work that lies to their hand, and withal prepare
for that which is before."
Further, Gideon is commanded to " build an altar unto the
Lord his God upon the top of the stronghold in the orderly
manner." * The phraseology of the chronicler is doubtful.
Attaching the more obvious meaning to the clause " in the
orderly manner," it might be supposed that, in the injunction
given, the hero is charged to comply with the prescribed rules
or order as to the erection of altars. And much, in this view,
has been written on the duty of observing every part of a
Divine ordinance, and of seeing that, in all circumstances, the
way which God Himself has marked out be followed. The Old
Testament, in the word to the son of Joash, has been regarded
as anticipating the New Testament precept to the Churches,
" Let all things be done decently and in order." But the use
of the Hebrew term translated " in the ordered place," or " in
the orderly manner," in other passages will scarcely warrant
this interpretation. It must be held as referring to the dispo
sition of the material for the sacrifice, the pile of wood to be
laid on the altar." And the chief point of the command is,
that the altar thus to be prepared for the burnt-offering shall be
erected in the most conspicuous situation in Ophrah, on the
top of the citadel — the place which had been fortified for the
protection of the community. It is to be recollected that this
is the second altar reared on the day on which the angel of
Jehovah appeared. The first was a private memorial, not
intended for sacrifice ; it symbolized the personal separation of
the one on whom Jehovah had looked, and to whom He had
said, " Peace to thee." The second is a public testimony; it is
intended for sacrifice ; and the scene of its erection is the public
place, the "strong tower within the city," destined for shelter
in the evil day. Cresting that tower, the altar witnessed, " God
is our refuge and strength." Probably the idol of Astarte had
stood in close proximity. In the altar surmounting the tower
the fuller Voice was sounded : " There is none like to Thee,
• Judg. vi. 26.
- See Gen. xxii 9 : " Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in
order."

IIO GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
O Lord. The Lord is the true God : He is the living God and
King of eternity." * The light of such a testimony must go
forth " with the ripple and the radiance" of a brave, " I am not
ashamed," flashing on the vision of all from the summit of the
fortress. Finally the sacrifice to be offered is prescribed— "Take thy
father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years
old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath. And
take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the
wood of the Asherah which thou shalt cut down." " It is not
clear whether two bullocks are pointed to, whether we are to
read "even" or to read "and" in the former of the quoted
clauses. The weight of opinion preponderates in favour of the
conjunction "and," making the command equivalent to the taking
of two bullocks, and the sacrifice of the one of the two which
was seven years old. Why two should be specified we can only
conjecture. It may have been that only the two had been spared
from the ravages of the Midianites, or that the two indicated
were specially kept for the purposes of husbandry, or that the two
were devoted to sacrificial rites in honour of Baal. No doubt " the
labour of both would be required for pulling down and removing
the altar of Baal, and for bringing the materials for building
the altar of Jehovah." 3 The younger to be laid on the altar
is not young. The years of its age parallel those of the Midianite
oppression. And the fuel for the offering is to be obtained
by the cutting down of the posts or pillars set up in honour of
the idol. " The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof ; "
that which had been desecrated is to be reconsecrated, the
abuse is to be changed into the use, wrested from the service
of the false for the service of the true.
Gideon obeys the instructions. But, as well he might, he
obeys with fearfulness. He is the one man against the world.
He is virtually severing the future from the past — marching
into a future that is full of peril and difficulty. And the first
consequence of the step to be taken will be the wrath of his
fellow-villagers, the indignation, perhaps the fierce retribution,
of his father's house. But he has put his hand to the task,
and he cannot look back. We imagine the trepidations of the
morning next after the night in which the Voice of the Lord
found him. Must he set about the dreaded reformation ? How
1 Jer. x. 10. " Judg. vi. 26. 3 ¦¦ Speaker's Commentary."

GIDEON: THE BEGINNING OF THE ENTERPRISE. Ill
is he to do so ? Hour follows hour, and it seems more and
more hopeless in the full light of day to accomplish the part
to which he is pledged. At length the plan takes shape. He
will impart his design to some reliable men, and wait for the
cover of night. He selects ten stalwart servants of his family,'
and tells them to be ready for action ; and when the sable cur
tain is drawn across the outer world, and the village is asleep,
the daring farmer, with his little band, noiselessly but effectually
fulfils the words of the Lord. The irrevocable deed has been
done, and the most lion-hearted of mortals could not without
some misgiving abide the issue.
Lo ! in the early morning, the excited townsmen observe an
altar reared on the fortified place, and on it the remains of the
bullock that had been offered ! More still — more appalling
still ! — the altar of their village god is demolished, and the
Asherah cut down. He sees the folk of Ophrah in eager dis
cussion over the catastrophe. He hears the angry roar as they
sway hither and thither, and demand, " Who has mocked our
mighty one, who has done this ? " Perhaps he was a suspected
person ; perhaps in bygone days he had shown some zeal for
Jehovah ; perhaps his silence or his absence attracted the sus
picions of the people. For soon the cry rang forth, " This ravager
and destroyer is Gideon the son of Joash." And fierce and hot
becomes the demand, " Joash, bring out your son that he may
die." * It is a dark, critical moment. Gideon has only one
hope — Jehovah-Shalom.
But what happens ? That which Gideon feared might be his
ruin turns to his salvation. He has dreaded the anger of his
father's household. Behold, the anger is turned away. The
boldness of the son has supplied courage to the father. The
father is a man of fertile resources, nimble wit, and decision.
Very likely the son in many conversations had sown the seeds
of doubt as to Baal's right and Baal's might, and the father,
made sceptical, needed only a moment such as this to give
force to his scepticism. He will not surrender the hero of his
" Judges vi. 37. In this verse there is a distinction between " the men of
his father's house " — «'.«., of the Abi-Ezrites, ' ' the thousand " to which
Gideon belonged — and "the men of the city" ; from which it has been
conjectured that there was a Canaanite population , apart from the Israelite,
in Ophrah.
• Judg. vi. 38-30.

112 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
house, and he is ready with his keen, incisive satire. His
sharp tongue stands him in better stead than sharp sword
would have done. It is the same kind of satire as that which,
generations afterwards, flashed from Elijah in his famous con
ference on Carmel with the priests of Baal." Shrewdly, cleverly,
he turns the tables on the men who are clamouring for the
punishment of Gideon. " You, to be vehement on behalf of
Baal, you playing the part of his protector : is this befitting ?
If he is a god, is he beholden to you? Will he not protect
himself? Does he need your vengeance? Will he not avenge
himself of the one who has thrown down his altar? Gideon
die indeed ! Rather let him die this very morning who will
thus set himself above the god, and virtually deny the power
of the god ? " " Thus protests the bluff old chief to all who
stood before him, and the bold, happily conceived speech dis
arms the opposition. On that day, Gideon is styled by popular
acclamation Jerubbaal, as the one with whom Baal may settle
the quarrel caused by the overthrow of Baal's altar.3
Such is the beginning of the enterprise. Gideon has, " with
the seeing of the eye," beheld the Power who is with him. He
has learned that the only obstacle in the way of this power is
the unreformed evil of his people. He has learned the new
name Jehovah-Shalom. He is himself the owner of the new
name Jerubbaal. He has secured the confidence of the
Abiezrites and of his father's household. A national party
is already formed. The feeling has spread, " He who can do
what has been done is the very captain whom we need." Far
and near the story of Jerubbaal spreads. It finds its way into
the tents of the Midianites, awakening fear. It is told in the
dens and caves in which the children of Israel hide themselves,
awakening hope. Is not the Lord about to visit His people in
remembrance of His mercy ?
¦ I Kings xviii. * Judg. vi. 31. I Judg. vi. 3a.

CHAPTER XII.
GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST.
The return ot the Midianites — The clothing of Gideon with the Spirit ol
the Lord — The trumpet-blast— The response of Abi-ezer — The sum
mons to the northern tribes— The junction of the forces — The emotion
of Gideon — Weak, but not faithless — Two differences between his
pleading and the reluctance of Moses — We must do justice to him—
The patience of God — The craving for a sign — The signs asked in
tended for the confirmation of his own faith — Signs which would
naturally occur to him — Two points from which to regard them —
The previous sign and the two to be regarded— What these two,
reversed, said to Gideon — Their effect on him — Their symbolical mean
ing — More than an idealization of the qualities which characterized
him — The fleece a symbol of Israel ; and the dry ground a symbol of
the nations — Their significance for and beyond the immediate moment
— A prophetical meaning — A parable of the Church of Christ — Teach
ing many lessons bearing on personal religion.
The man is ready, and the moment of action is not long
delayed. The wild Bedouin tribes, after gathering the pro
duce of the earth and plundering the luckless inhabitants of
hill and dale, had withdrawn to their several regions — there to
await the return of summer. With the ripening of grain and
fruits, the cloud of human locusts reappears. They cross the
Jordan at Bethshean ; they stream through the gorges ; their
tents are pitched in the fair and fertile valley. In previous
invasions, the honest farmer had observed their occupancy of
the plain with indignation, but with the hopelessness caused
by the overwhelming numbers of the invaders, and by the
evidences of their wealth and power. He had only hung his
head when the men and women of the village appealed to Baal;
In his soul (he question always sotmded, "Why is all this
9

114 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
befallen us, and where be all the wondrous works of Jehovah of
which our fathers told us ? " There is another emotion now
burning within him.
" The Spirit of the Lord came upon him," ' or, as the phrase
may be rendered, " clothed him." What is signified is, the
possession of will and mind by a purpose which brooks no
delay, a. purpose through which the tides of a Divine energy
flow into the channels of thought, purifying and intensifying
the will to act.
" Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest,
Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny.
Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou denieat,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I." "
The result of this investiture is — A GRAND Trumpet-
Blast.3 Shrill and clear, it is heard in the homes of the
Abiezrites. They have already saluted their great man ; now,
instead of skulking into dens and caves, they rally around him,
infected by his own intrepidity. A man's foes are sometimes
they of his own household. The prophet has sometimes little
honour in his own country. It is not so on the present occa
sion. The division of the tribe of Manasseh to which Gideon
belonged is united in the voice, " Thine are we, and on thy
side, thou son of Joash."
This is a token for good : and the new leader follows it up
by an immediate and urgent call to the northern tribes to arm.
The messengers by whom " the fiery cross " is sent have an
inspiriting tale to tell. They can tell of all that has happened
in Ophrah, and of that which has been demonstrated by the
occurrences there, viz., the force of Gideon's personality. They
can tell, too, that already the nucleus of a patriotic movement
has been formed, that those who know him best have responded,
as one man, to the trumpet which he blew. And the enthu
siasm catches. All Manasseh is ablaze. Deborah, in her
song, complained that "Asher sat still at the haven of the
sea and abode by his creeks ; " Asher now wipes away the
reproach, it sends its thousands to the help of Jehovah against
« Judg. vi. 34. * T. N. Myers, "Saint Paul."
3 Judg. vi. 34, " He blew a trumpet, and Abi-ezer was gathered aftei
him,"

GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST. IIS
the mighty. Zebulun, as in the day of Barak's campaign,
"jeopards the lives" of its sons; and Naphtali claims the
high places of the field. Other tribes are not mentioned. For
Issachar, the apology has been offered that probably " it was
unable to join him because the Midianites were encamped in
the heart of their country."" The great midland tribe of
Ephraim, afterwards, demands why no call had been sent it.
But the four northern tribes contributed a gallant army ; from
the fortress crowned by the altar of Jehovah, Gideon beholds a
mighty host pouring towards him with shouts that recall the
old shout of a king which Israel's enemies knew and feared."
A grand spectacle 1 A supreme moment ! But how is it
with the hero himself?
There is something awful in a great success, especially when
the success brings the man face to face with the issue, with the
crisis which, hitherto, he has contemplated through the haze.
He has yielded himself to the dominating purpose : the work
to be done, in its general scope and aim, has been clearly
enough outlined, and the way towards its accomplishment has
been seen and followed. But now he is precipitated on the
event ; the instruments and the means of action are in his
hand ; how are they to be used ? how are the forces at disposal
to be marshalled ? Beheld from afar the battle seemed grand
and exciting ; but when it is imminent, when the enemy is right
in view, and the raw, undisciplined, material needs to be
ordered and arrayed, ah 1 the stoutest heart will quail, the
boldest and strongest faith will have its shrinkings and fears.
Is it to be wondered at that, with the thousands of Israel's
chivalry waiting for his word, ready to fight but, for the most
part, those " who before knew nothing thereof," Gideon, also
an untried soldier and ignorant of methods of warfare, invested
suddenly with a tremendous responsibility, should pause, should
retire from the noise and glare of the host, and pour out his
heart before the God whose call he had obeyed ?
Shall it be said that he was faithless and weak? He was
• "Speaker's Commentary." So also Dean Stanley {" History of Jewish
Church," lect. xv.), " Isachar, overrun by the Arab tribes, is absent."
" Judg. vi. 35. It is said of the three tribes, Asher, Zebulun, and
Naphtali, that " they came up to meet them " — probably the men of
Manasseh previously mentioned. The object of the " coming up " was to
effect a combination of the forces.

Il6 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
weak. Let it be remembered that it is to those who have no
might that the increase of strength is promised."1 We may
assume that none of the men who had responded to his
summons saw the glance or heard the word which savoured
of a craven fear. It is in standing before God that the hero
knows his own weakness ; it is to God that he confesses it, and
it is in waiting on God that he changes his strength. Those
who are led know not the secret struggles of those who lead,
their sense of the awful burden of power and command and
their " beseeching thrice " that they may know the sufficiency
of an almighty grace. Do we blame Gideon for falling back
on the ifs t He who knows what is in man does not blame
him. His may be a scanty and imperfect faith, but it is faith.
The ifs are not bred by doubt of God, by a distrust which
prompts the desire to be relieved from the task. There is a
manifest difference between his pleading and such reluctance
as that of Moses to undertake the commission to Pharaoh,
which kindled the anger of the Lord. We can trace the
difference in two respects. In the first place, to Moses there
had been a full and various revelation of God in anticipation
of, and in answer to, the questions and timidities of the human
heart. The great sight of the burning bush had been vouch
safed, the Divine commission had been explicitly given ; and
then, one by one, the objections of the mind of the flesh had
been most graciously and patiently met. The " blank cheque "
— the I atn of the Eternal — which faith can fill up as the occa
sion calls, and which, however great the amount, is always
honoured, had been given for his operation ; he had been
presented with the Covenant Name and memorial to all genera
tions ; signs had been wrought and promised to evidence the
Power in which he was to go : and when, still, Moses urged the
slow speech and slow tongue, God Himself had said, " Go, and
I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say." "
All this varied, one might say exhaustive, dealing on the part of
the Eternal Wisdom and Love, this marvellously patient loving-
kindness, had been the experience of Moses ; and his backward
ness in accepting the service marked an obstinancy which
passed the bound of humility, and entered the region of the evil
heart of unbelief. In the case of Gideon, the assurances ol
a Divine presence and strength, although distinct and ampl<\
1 Isa. xi. 39. " Exod. iii. and iv.

GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST. 117
neither in form nor in fulness approached those granted to the
prophet of the older time ; nor was there, on his part, the
craving for release from the duty to which he was designated.
" If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand," is another kind of
speech to God than " Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him
whom thou wilt send " — only, it is implied, not by me.
And this suggests the second point of difference between the
opposition of Moses and the fearfulness of Gideon. Moses in
the transaction of the desert was too busily occupied with self.
His estimate of capability for the work was the measure of his
own gifts and aptitudes. He could not find in them, the justi
fication of the mission. In himself, he wanted that which
seemed to him the insurance of success. To arouse and lead
his countrymen ? — had not he failed before, when " he supposed
that his brethren would have understood how that God, by his
hand, would deliver them " ? If he had failed then, how could
he be confident that he would succeed now ? Years had passed
since the failure on account of which he had fled from Egypt :
and these years had made him more distrustful of himself. To
go to Pharaoh ! — had not his residence at Court taught him that
the man to gain a monarch's ear must be subtle, dexterous,
and persuasive of speech ? — the very qualities in which he was
lacking. Oh no ; he was not the man for the mission. " I am
not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken
to Thy servant."1 In vain came the word, " I will be with thy
mouth." The mouth, with its stammering speech, was more
to him, at the moment, than the Presence with it. This refusal
to look away from self and trust God alone, and find in God,
not self, the reason of the mission and the fitness for it, to go
in the faith that He is " able to make all grace abound always as
an all-sufficiency in all things," was the dishonour put on God
which, in the homely phrase of the sacred writer, " kindled His
anger." True humility does not consist in thinking meanly or
otherwise of self: it consists rather in putting self aside, as
reason of service or measure of fitness, and closing, simply and
fully, with God in His will and power. Now, weak as Gideon
may have been, he has learned to look off from self. He is
God's instrument. What is to be done will be done by God.
" The Lord nad looked on him, and said, Go in this thy might."
And the Look or the revelation of the might was ever with him.
1 Exod. iv. 10.

I IS GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
We shall see how, more and more as the campaign advances,
the demonstration of the only effectual might is made. At the
present stage, we recognize the modesty, the genuine humility
of the speech, " If Thou wilt save Israel by mine hand." ' He
is not the saviour ; he is only the hand by whom the Saviour is
pleased to act.
Gideon is not hasty. Since God is to be the all in all, he is
anxious, over anxious we might say, to be certified that God
will work by his hand. Let us do justice to him.. He is not to
be subjected to tests appropriate to us, with our fulness of
revelation, and in the conditions of our religious and social
life. There was then no word of the Lord. The national
oracle was far away at Shiloh. He had grown up in a semi-
heathen community, and his views were narrow and confused.
God bears and forbears with the man whom He has caused to
approach to Him. Very beautiful is the patience by which He
makes good the promise, " To this man will I look, . . . even
to him that trembleth at My word."" The exhibition of this
patience in the sacred narrative is interesting and suggestive.
The craving for a sign, for some portent in the heavens or
some departure from the ordinary course of nature, is noted in
the New Testament as a characteristic of the Hebrew. Jesus
Christ accused His brethren according to the flesh of a
stubbornness of mind in this matter, " Except ye see signs and
wonders, ye will not believe." 3 And St. Paul writes : " The
Jews require a sign." 4 Gideon illustrates this craving ; though
in his case it was the evidence of an excess of caution, rather
than of positive unbelief. It has been conjectured that the
request for signs additional to those already vouchsafed was
prompted by the wish to have his mission fully authenticated
to the people whom he was to lead.5 This is not the motive
which a study of his words and action suggests. The dealing
with God is a private dealing. It is his personal attitude to
the call that is emphasized. And the signs selected were such
as fell within his cognizance only. The fleece was disposed by
him at night ; its moisture or its dryness was observed by him
in the morning. The historian's statement is most naturally
interpreted when it is accepted as the record of a transaction
between him and the Eternal.
1 Judg. vi. 36. " Isa. lxvi. 2. 3 John iv. 48.
* 1 Cor. L aa. 5 Dr. Kitto, " Daily Bible Readings, "

GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST. 110.
He feels that he is bold, almost to the extent of presump
tion. When the reverse sign is asked for, he uses language
similar to that of Abraham when he stood before the Lord
interceding in behalf of Sodom." It is even more intense :
" Oh let not Thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak
but this once." The Lord is very merciful, when there is faith
even like the grain of mustard seed. And '' more things are
wrought by prayer than the world dreams of."
The sign which Gideon ventures to indicate is one which
naturally occurred to the honest farmer of Ophrah. In Pales
tine, the dews are heavy," and the nights are often cold.3 A
sheepskin or fleece may have been sometimes worn by him as
a protection against the cold of night ; 4 and he may have
observed that the fleece in the morning was saturated with dew,
and may have wrung the moisture out. Thence is suggested
the token which he proposes to his Heavenly Counsellor. We
may regard this token from two points. First, what it was and
said to him ; and, second, its symbolical or didactic significance.
I. The son of Joash had a twofold mission. He was the
Jerubbaal — the one called to confound Baal and overthrow the
idolatry which had become dominant among the Abiezrites.
He had to cleanse the Church before he attempted to deliver
the State. For this aspect of his work, the most appropriate
sign was one associated with sacrifice, one which would show
that all homage is due to Jehovah, that with Him is the con
suming fire, that the touch of His rod can transform the meal
into the meal-offering, and the meal-offering into the burnt-
offering. And this was evidenced by the visit of the angel of
the Lord, and by that which happened when the meal " brought
out under the terebinth " was, by the angel's command, trans
ferred to the rock.5 The sign, then and there given, belongs
to the region of worship.
But the double work now to be regarded relates more
1 Gen. xviii. 32.
¦ So David (2 Sam. i. 21) in his lamentation over Saul and Jonathan's
appeals: "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew." And the
Psalmist (Psa. cxxxiii. 3) compares the unity of brethren to "the dew
of Hermon, and that which descends on the mountains of Zion."
3 So Jacob, replying to Laban (Gen. xxxi. 40), says, "In the day,
the drought consumed me, and the frost by night."
« " As in Afghanistan," Lord A. Hervey, " Pulpit Commentary.
I Chapter vi. 19-34.

120 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
specially to the second aspect of the mission — the deliverance
of Israel from the yoke of the oppressor. The previous wonder
said " Jehovah is God " ; the wonders now recorded say, " This
God will save His people by thy hand ; thou shalt go in His
strength." Their immediate object was to demonstrate the Divine
favour for him : to prove that, for all emergencies, the grace of
God is sufficient. " Heaven's real miracles will endure turning,
being inside and outside both alike." ' The miracles of the two
nights before the march are testimonies as to the commission
of the hero, and are pledges of all-embracing might.
" If Thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as Thou hast said,
behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the floor, and if the dew
be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside,
then shall I know that Thou wilt save Israel by mine hand as
Thou hast said. And it was so ; for he rose up early on the
morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew
out of the fleece, a bowl full of water." "
This is certainly extraordinary. The fleece is so permeated
with the dew that it seems to have received not its own share
only, but all that would have fallen on the earth around it
which is dry. It has received the whole abundance of the
grace, the environment is sterile and parched. Still, with
characteristic caution, Gideon thinks, " It is extraordinary, but
it is explicable. For it is the property of wool to attract and
absorb the moisture in the atmosphere:3 the opposite of that
which has taken place — the wool not attracting, but repelling,
whilst the soil attracts and receives all the dew — would be the
extraordinary and, on natural lines, the inexplicable circum
stance." And it is this that he dares to ask of God.
" O let not Thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak
but this once ; let me prove, I pray Thee, but this once with
• Matthew Henry, " Commentary."
• Judges vi. 36-38. The word rendered " bowl " occurs in chapter
v. 25. The line in Deborah's song translated in A V. " She brought
forth butter in a lordly dish," is literally " in a bowl of mighty ones." It
was probably " a shallow drinking cup, usually of brass " (Van Lennep,
"Bible Customs," p. 475). "A bowl full of water" — "A detail highly
characteristic of a true narrative " (Lord A. Hervey, "Speaker's Com
mentary"). ' Lord Bacon in his " Natural History " says, " Sailors have used every
night to hang fleeces of wool on the sides of their ships, towards the
water ; and they have crushed fresh water out of them in the morning."

GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST. 121
the fleece ; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and upon all
the ground let there be dew." * The prayer is granted. The
order of nature is not so rigid as to forbid the exercise of the
Divine Sovereignty, and He who hears prayer listens to the
voice of a man. On the second night, the sign is reversed ;
when the second morning dawns, " it is dry upon the fleece
only, and there was dew on all the ground." *
The timidity of Gideon was dispelled. For him, there could
be no well of trembling. We never again read of a sign asked.
He knows whom he is trusting. The lesson taught him in
Jezreel is that which the warrior of the Cross afterwards de
clared in the great words, God is " able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the
power that worketh in us."3 Henceforth he is
" One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break j
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake." *
2. The incident which confirmed the faith, and stimulated
.the courage, of the leader of Israel is so striking, that a
symbolical and prophetical character, variously interpreted and
applied, has been traced in it.
By some, indeed, it has been regarded as only the idealization
of the qualities most characteristic of Gideon. It is nothing
more, in their view, than a poetical representation of that
which he was — "Warm and overflowing with zeal, when all
besides are indifferent and dry, and, on the other hand, main
taining the greatest coolness and dryness when all other hearts
are overflowing with unreasonable impatience and excitement.
This once granted, it is easy to see how legend may have
reported of Gideon, the great commander, that he wore on his
breast a fleece which was moist when all around was dry, and
dry even when all else was moist. And if Gideon, as a
general, was distinguished by this spontaneously varying fleece,
a narrator of a poetical turn might represent him before his
entrance on his mission as supplicating from Jahveh, the
1 Judg. vi. 39. " Judg. vi. 40.
3 Ephes. iii. 20. * Browning's " Asolando."

122 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
wondrous fleece as a sign and pledge of his fitness for the
arduous campaign. And so runs our existing account." "
The " existing account " may not thus be explained away.
The indications of " a poetical turn " in the narrator are not
so obvious to those who discern a supernatural operation in
the history of Israel from the Exodus onwards, who feel that
this history is one of special proviJence and special grace.
The signs are unquestionably out of the ordinary course of
events, but the story of Gideon, and a great deal besides in
the annals of the chosen people, is also extraordinary. If
wonderland is to be waved out of sight at subordinate points
of the chronicle, it may as well be waved out of sight at the
principal points also : and then it will be difficult to determine
where the "poetical turn" " ends and where the prose of histori
cal fact begins.
One of the notes to be insisted on with regard to a " real
miracle " of Heaven is that a sufficient cause for a modification
of the order of the universe must be shown.3
Was there such a cause for compliance with Gideon's request?
The Christian believer cannot separate the history of Israel
from the purpose of God to reveal His will as the will to bless
all the families of the earth. That history is to him the
channel through which the grace afterwards to be brought at
the revelation of Jesus Christ flowed from generation to
generation. Now, the moment which we are regarding was a
critical moment. Defeat by the Midianites might involve the
crushing out of the national life, and, with this, the crushing
out of the true worship. All depended on the success of
Gideon's mission. The sufficiency was not in himself. The
comfort, the strength, was beyond himself. For the campaign
that was imminent, it was of the utmost consequence that he
should be assured of the Invisible Force behind him. And
God, the Highest, stoops to give the assurance, in answer to
the prayer of faith.
' Ewald's " History of Israel," vol. ii. p. 500.
' There are " poetical turns," rather poetical quotations, in the ancient
books of Scripture. The account of the sun standing still is apparently a
quotation from a book called the Book of Jasher, which is held by Keil to
have been a book of national songs. But the so tree of the poetry is
expressly indicated in the history.
3 Horace gives as a canon of ait, "Nee Deus intersit, nisi dignus
vindice nodus incident."

GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST. 123
Assuming, then, that the portion of the narrative which records
the signs is genuinely historical — is not an interpolation of one
with a " poetical turn " — what is the symbolic worth of the
signs ? All interpreters are agreed that they connect, more or
less directly, with Israel and the peoples around it. The fleece
of wool is the symbol of Israel; — small as compared with " all
the earth beside." Midian, for the time, is the symbol of all
the earth. Looking to the immediate event, we see, in the first
place, the vast host dry and unblest ; the vital force, the sap, is
with Gideon's band. The dew on the fleece is the pledge of an
energy able to restore and revive the nation. Again, when the
token is reversed, when the earth, not the fleece, is wet, there is
an anticipation of the excitement in Midian ; the soil whence
spring the thought and action of the great host is clammy and
moist, and the heart of the multitude becomes like water.
Contrary to all that might have been anticipated, the consterna
tion is where the resources are apparently inexhaustible, whilst
the small army of Gideon, though raw and undisciplined, is
calm and powerful. And, looking beyond the immediate event,
the question may be put, Is not the condition of the fleece on
the two successive nights, the representation of the two great
periods in the history of Israel ? There is no more beautiful
image in Sacred Prophecy than that in which Jehovah says,
through the Prophet, " I will be as the Dew unto Israel." ' The
people around were sunk in idolatry and manifold social and
moral debasement. No benediction seems to fall on them. Israel
called out of Egypt, separated from ignoble thraldoms, and
from the manner of the nations, in the solitude of Sinai, hedged
around by law, sanctified to Jehovah, is the heir of the promises.
" What could be done more to the Lord's vineyard that He did
not do in it ? " " " The Spirit was poured upon it from on high,
and the wilderness became a fruitful field, and the fruitful field
was counted for a forest." 3 The Lawgiver, contemplating the
fleece on which the Spirit had been poured, exclaims, " Happy
art thou! who is like unto thee, O people saved by the
Lord ? " 4
Gideon besought that the moisture might be on the ground,
not on the fleece. The entreaty is granted. Was he not, un
consciously, the occasion of a prophecy ? In the reversal of
' Hos. xiv. j. • Isa. v. 4.
3 Isa. xxxii. xj. * DeuL xxxlil 99.

124 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL,
the token, are we not reminded of the consequence of apostacy
from covenant grace and standing? That the fleece, not the
earth, attract the moisture, is in the Divine ordering. So, it is
in the Divine ordering that Israel receive and retain the bless
ing, not for herself but for the world. But when the elect people
departs from its sphere of worship and life, it loses the privilege
of the dew. That which should have been the fountain of
blessing to the nations is dried up and withered, and the
nations receive what passes away from it They have the
moisture ; it becomes arid. Not that God will " cast away His
people which He foreknew " ; * but He will bring it to realize that
its strength and hope perish when they are cut off from the Lord.
Israel now seems like the dry land. Yet, there is hope for the
man of God. He who watered the ground from His chambers
can bring life where there seems only death. He who can do
this otherwise than in the way of nature, can do beyond all
expectation, and even otherwise than in the way of all
appearance. And in this, whoso is wise will read a parable of the Church
of Christ — its place, the secret of its vitality, and the condition of
its power. Nor will he fail to learn many lessons bearing on
personal religion. Each of the signs has, in these connections,
its special significance. The fleece, taken from sheep or kid
which has been slain, perhaps the very kid which had been offered
to the angel, may remind us of the covering for human sinfulness
which God, through the sanctified life of Christ, has provided.
"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress."
It is the one thus covered, the one abiding in Christ, who
realizes the power of the Spirit poured from on high. On
the other hand, God, who is able "even of stones to raise
up children to Abraham,"" God, "who quickeneth the dead,
and calleth those things that be not as though they were,"3
can bless even the hard apparently unproductive earth : the
surrounding of the Church may receive the grace, whilst the
Church itself is cold and dull. For it is the conjunct testi
mony of the two signs that, without the descent of the Higher
Force, that which outwardly possesses the advantage will
1 Rom. xi. 2. • Matt iii. 9. ' Rom. iv. 17.

GIDEON : THE TRUMPET-BLAST. 125
count for little; with that descent, what is externally un
favourable and unlikely may be rendered capable of great
things. " Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith
the Lord of Hosts." * And this is the matter of the object-lesson
which Gideon received. He got the " strong consolation " which
he desired. May we imitate him in his holy importunity !
Wonders such as he craved are among the things left far behind.
God has provided some better thing for us.
"The childlike faith that asks not sight,
Waits not for wonder or for sign.
Believes because it loves aright —
Shall see things greater, things divine." ¦
But the essence of the prayer of the mighty man is the essence
of all true prayer in every time — " Let me prove, I pray thee "
— this is the essence. And the invitation and promise run —
he that hath an ear, let him hear 1 — " Prove me now herewith,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive
it."3 « Zech. iv. 6.
• Keble's " Christian Year," Hymn on St. Bartholomew.
1 Mai. iii. to.

CHAP TER XIII.
GIDEON : TESTS AND SIFTINGS.
"Jerubbaal, who is Gideon" — The well of Harod, where was it? — The
situation of the opposing armies — ' ' God's thoughts not our thoughts "
— The main interest of the history of Israel a religious interest — The
protection against " vaunting " — The proclamation enjoined by the
Law — The effect of the proclamation at the spring of Jezreel — The
conduct of the Israelites has its counterpart in that of many Christians —
The additional command — The second test and its effect — A sign of the
quality of the man — The lessons taught us.
The historian, beginning the narrative of the campaign, is care
ful to give both the name and " the new name '' of the leader of
Israel. " Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon." " Both the mission
and the might are indicated. The son of Joash goes forth, not as
a mere patriot at ¦; head of patriot-bands, but as the champion
of the Lord of Hosts, warring against the domination of Baal,
with the degrading servitude and the manifold evil which that
involved. And the strength by which he is inspired is not his
own. "The Lord has looked on him." How different is he
from "the people that were with him." In a letter to his
beloved Melancthon, Luther writes of " a common-place not in
your books, Philip, the common-place of faith." This common
place is now " writ large " in the book of Gideon's life. He sets
forward as ferubbaal, the man who has received the white
stone bearing the name of the Prince who has power with God
and men and has prevailed — an Israelite indeed, who has
learned the lesson taught to Jacob at the fords of Jabbok.
He has been fitted for his part by the transaction on which
we have dwelt. The fearfulness and trembling are past. They
' Judg. vii. i.

GIDEON : TESTS AND SIFTINGS. 127
have been set in the view of the Almighty, and the look
bestowed on him, and the signs vouchsafed to him, have dis
pelled them. The soldier of faith has received his weapons ;
he is anointed with the power to wax valiant in fight. It is now
the time to act.
" Think not of rest, though dreams be sweet ;
Start up and ply your heavenward feet."
And before the sun has risen with burning heat — in early
morning — the Lord's host is encamped " beside the well of
Harod." So the well or fountain was named in consequence of the
event in Israelite history with which it is associated. That event
is its sole association. The only reference in later Scriptures to
it is in the list ' of " the mighty men whom David had." Two
of the thirty-seven in the latter part of this list are called
Harodites. We cannot identify the fountain with any particular
spring ; but " it was possibly the same as that elsewhere called
the spring of Jezreel," " and now known as Ain Jalfid, " at the
base of the mountain range of Gilboa, about half an hour's walk
east of Zerin," 3 the ancient city of Jezreel.
The situation of the opposing armies is partly described ; and
the description is one of those traits which stamp a narrative as
genuine and authentic. Gideon is represented as leading his
people along the southern branch of the plain of Esdraelon ;
the Midianites, and Amalekites, and the children of the East
are represented as occupying a portion of the northern branch,
near to a hill called Moreli,4 perhaps the Little Hermon or one
of the slopes which overlook the valley. The Israelites had
thus a full view of the great force against which they were
moving, and which was not more than twc or three miles dis
tant. And the prospect of the vast multitude caused many a
hitherto stout heart to quail. How insufficient even the thirty
thousand warriors of the northern tribes seemed for the gigantic
task which they had undertaken I
1 2 Sam. xxiii. 25.
• Stanley's " Sinai and Palestine," chap. ix.
3 "The Land and the Book," Central Palestine, chap. vi.
* Not the place called "the plain of Moreh" in Gen. xii 6, and the
" plains of Moreh" in Deut. xi. 30. There is a hill overlooking the valley
of Jezreel, called Mutsillim, which Dr. Robinson thinks may have been
Moreh.

128 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
They thought themselves too few ; God thought them too
many. For " His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are
our ways His ways." The deliverance was to be in the line of
all His past dealing. The fathers of Israel "got not the land in
possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save
them : but His right hand and His arm, and the light of His
countenance, because He had a favour to them." " The main
interest of the history of the chosen people is a religious interest.
This was secured by the manner of all the triumphs recorded in
their annals. What these, in connection with other features,
proved was that the great constructive and aggressive forces are
those of religion. Religion — the acknowledgment of the living
and true God — was always manifested as the essence of well-being,
and every great emergency contributed to the enforcement of
the lesson. God was the All. He was the Judge, the Law
giver, the King. The Midianites trusted in horses and chariots:
the Israelites must remember only the name of the Lord their
God. On the ear of the captain falls the message — a strange
one it must have seemed to him — " The people that are with
thee are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their
hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine
own hand hath saved me." '
Gideon was the champion of Jehovah against Baal. He had
thrown down Baal's altar. But a victory which would have given
occasion for self-glorifying might have led to the erection oi
another altar to another type of idolatry — the idolatry of self—
equally, perhaps more dangerously, misleading. There musi
be no room for vaunting : the day must declare, " I am the Lord
thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." 3
A great reduction in the number of the host must be effected :
but it must be effected in the orderly manner.
There was a unique provision in the law of Israel. How far
the practice conformed to the law we cannot say. But the
ordinances to be observed on the eve of battle are thus stated :
First, the priest, in the name of the Eternal, is to address the
army, bidding all realize the imminence of the struggle, but
exhorting them to preserve an undaunted front — no fainting, or
trembling, or terror — in the assurance of the Divine power going
with them to fight for them against their enemies. But, this
1 Psa. xliv. 3 " Judg. vii. a. » Exod. xx. a, 3.

GIDEON: TESTS AND SIFTINGS. 120,
charge delivered, the officers are to announce that liberty to
withdraw from the host is given to those who have built a new
house and not dedicated it, or who have planted a vineyard and
not eaten of it, or who have betrothed a wife and not been
married ; and farther, and more generally, to any who are fear
ful and faint-hearted, lest the cowardice might be infectious
among the troops." A resolute and courageous few, it is
implied, are better than an irresolute and ill-compacted multi
tude. Jehovah could save with many or with few ; only let all
taking part in His wars be valiant and faithful.
But never was such a spectacle witnessed as that witnessed
at the spring of Jezreel. The instruction to Gideon is that the
proclamation enjoined be made ; and it is made in the form
customary with the northern tribes." What does the heroic com
mander behold ? In the early morning, he had looked on thirty-
two thousand men apparently eager to be led on : before the
day has far advanced, he sees twenty and two thousand taking
advantage of the liberty given and hastening back to their homes.
A panic, it was evident, had seized a vast majority of those who
had obeyed his trumpet-call. Is it to be wondered at ? They had
been enervated by years of servitude ; they were, many of
them, half-starved ; morally as well as physically their strength
had gone. Not in such a rabble was to be found the stuff out
of which a brave army could be formed. Better that the craven
hearts should depart from Mount Gilead.
Nor let us be too ready to cast the stone at the cowardly
Israelites. Their conduct has its counterpart in the conduct of
many who "profess and call themselves Christians." How brave
are purposes and protestations when the danger involved in
executing or adhering to them seems a thing of distant courses !
Peter was sincere, and felt the courage of his resolution, when
he declared his readiness to accompany his Master to prison and
* Deut. xx. 1-8.
" The proclamation is, " Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return
and depart early from Mount Gilead." There is no mountain of this name
in the neighbourhood of Jezreel. Gilead was beyond Jordan. It has been
supposed that Gilead is a copyist's error for Gilboa, the letters of the two
words being similar. It has been supposed, also, that the form given was
the customary form in Manasseh, or, at least, among the Abi-ezrites.
Some of Gideon's kindred (Josh. xvii. 3) dwelt beyond Jordan, near Mount
Gilead. 10

130 GIDEON AND 1HE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
to death : that any doubt should be thrown on his zeal and
ability to do so pained him. When the shades of the prison and
the possibility of death were to be reckoned with, he followed
the precedent set by the Hebrews of Gideon's day. And so it
is with many ; let each reader of this chapter ask whether it
may not have been so with him or her, at some past moment
when the severe test was applied. Ah ! we speak largely. We
are full of resource until "the host of the Midianites is seen on
the north side" of us. In the trial hour undisciplined strength
is mere weakness. Impulse is of little worth until it is con
solidated in principle. The worth of impulsiveness is shown
in the action of the twenty-two thousand at the Fountain ol
Trembling. Surprise follows surprise. What are the ten thousand in
comparison with the army of the enemy, like the sand for num
ber, and with a huge array of chariots and horsemen ? Gideon
may well have grave misgivings as to the issue of the campaign
on which he has entered- -the odds against him are so great.
But what a tax is laid on his faith when the Divine voice is
heard within, " The people are yet too many" ? Yet too many !
What can this mean? What farther weeding out must be done?
Surely, now, he has under his command the very pink and
flower of the northern chivalry ! No ; and a second trial of a
remarkable nature must be imposed. The remainder of his
army, after the departure of their comrades, continued in the
position taken up in the morning, on the rising ground above
the spring with its deep pool, and the marshy soil about it.
There they had been exposed for some time to the heat of the
sun, and their thirst was aggravated by the fatigues of previous
marches. " Bring them down unto the water," was the com
mand, " and I will try them for thee there : and it shall be that
of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same
shall go with thee ; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This
shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought
down the people to the water." *
What was the method observed in the selection of the
warriors ? What was the truth evidenced in the second of the
tests prescribed that day ?
The thirsty soldiers come to the pool. Now is the moment.
The Lord says to Gideon, " Every one that lappeth of the water
1 Judg. vii. 4.

GIDEON : TESTS AND SIFTINGS. 131
with his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself;
likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink."1
A curious mode of selection ! a strange principle of classifica
tion I All to depend on the one thing — who took, or who did
not take, the water in the palm of the hand and sip it. But
that one thing had a significance. It was a sign of the quality
of the men.
"The number of them that lapped, putting their hand to
their mouth, were three hundred men : but all the rest of the
people bowed down upon their knees to drink water." " The
three hundred are the resolute, self-denying, soldierly men,
" patient of labour and thirst, willing to stoop, content with a
little." 3 The rest of the people are the self-indulgent and rash.
They will have a great gulp of the cooling water ; all is forgotten
except the gratification of the appetite. They reflect not on the
possibility of a surprise by the enemy ; the need of the moment,
the craving of the moment, overbears all considerations ; they
throw themselves down at the brink of the pool and greedily
drink. And the Lord says, " By the three hundred that lapped
will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand :
and let all the other people go every man unto his own place."4
May we not say of this incident what St. Paul says of the
events of the history of Israel in general, that it happened unto
them for a type or picture of truth in which all future genera
tions are interested, and that it is " written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the world are come " ? 5
Think of the people who take the greedy drink "bowing
down on their knees." Are we not familiar with their counte
nance ? Is it not sometimes only too plainly evidenced in our
selves? There is no feature in moral discipline more slowly
learned, and more intermittently practised, than self-restraint.
A repression, at times even effacement, of self is indispensable
to the highest kind of work. " Strait is the gate, and narrow is
the way which leadeth unto life."6 And, even in regard to
things in themselves lawful, there are circumstances in which
the good soldier will put a curb on appetite, will even refuse the
pleading of natural human desire. "It is sometimes expedient,"
writes the saintly Thomas a Kempis " to use a restraint even
in good desires and endeavours, lest through importunity thou
" Judg. vii. 5. • Judg. vii. 6. 3 Bishop Hall's " Contemplations."
4 Judg. vii. 7. 5 1 Cor. xx. rr. 6 Matt. vii. 14,

132 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
incur distraction of mind : lest by thy want of self-government
thou beget a scandal to others ; or again being by others
thwarted and resisted thou become suddenly confounded and so
fall. Sometimes, thou must use violence, and resist manfully
thy sensual appetite — not regarding what the flesh would or
would not : but rather taking pains that even perforce it may be
made subject to the Spirit." * Now, in this self-tutoring, the
great mass of the Israelites was shown to be deficient. An
incident apparently trivial will sometimes reveal the inner spirit
and temper of a life. And the mode of using the water showed
the capability of the men whom Gideon led to the pool. Those
who bowed on their knees are not blamed ; they are only
proved to be wanting in some of the noblest traits of character.
As they rushed to the water-edge to slake their thirst, so would
they rush on the spoil in the day of victory, and be corrupted
by so doing. They do not form the most select circle of God's
warrior-bands : it is by the three hundred, not by them, that
He will save Israel.
For the test which shows a tendency to self-gratification,
and remissness in holy vigilance in the many, shows that
these features are present in the three hundred, who only
take the sips of water which their hands can hold. They can
be sparing in the use of even necessary things. They will not
be off their guard, even in moments of ease. There is a work
before them, and they are "straitened until it is accomplished."
They will not go down to the earthly thing, they will lift the
earthly thing to them. There is an unbending loftiness in the
airh, an immoveable mightiness in the will. It is they who con
tinue to the end ; they who, though faint, can and will pursue
until the victory is fully won. Such moral control is a sign of
the manhood according to God's own heart. There is a mo
ment in the career of David which illustrates it. In one of his
numerous wars against the Philistines, " he longed and said, Oh
that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of
Bethlehem which is by the gate." Three of his mighty men,
fired with devotion to their chief, broke through the host of the
Philistines and brought a jar full of the water longed for. But
he refused to drink it, because it seemed to him the blood of
the men who had gone " in jeopardy of their lives." " The lower
craving was neutralized, was denied, through the pressure of a
* " Imitation of Christ," book iii chapter a. ' 2 Sam. xxiii. 15-17.

GIDEON : TESTS AND SIFTINGS. 133
thought which dominated his soul. Those of whom it is
possible to say this, who stand out from others, distinguished
by a toughness of moral fibre, a special faculty of endurance at
the behest of a sacred purpose, are the men by whom the Lord
wills to save His Church and world.
Would that the impression of the three hundred were multi
plied ! Thermopylse and Jezreel are not solitary instances of
the force with which the Almighty can clothe the three hundred.
In the wars of the kingdom, as in the affairs of life, the pro
verb holds good, " Better is little with the fear of the Lord than
great treasure and trouble therewith." " The hordes of Xerxes
were powerless as against the few with God for them. The
hordes of the Midianites were scattered before the breath of
Gideon and his handful. " Fewer Christians and better ones,"
has been indicated as a desideratum of our day. This, at least
we may learn from the chapter on Providence before us — that
numbers, organizations, methods, occupy only the second rank
in the ordering of God. There are occasions in which He
dispenses with them, lest His " Israel vaunt themselves against
Him, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." He will recog
nize the human instrumentality ; but it must always be held as
subordinate. For ourselves, let us realize the lessons of
Gideon's band. One of the great questions of life is that which
the thought of this band at the well of Harod suggests : — Is the
man above the circumstances, or are the circumstances more
than the man ? Will he go down to the stream, or will he lift
what he needs of the stream to him ! Will he conjoin the " sober
and holy,'' with the thankful, use of comforts, and in all be true
to the nobler warfare of the heavenly kingdom ? Not by
those who are ready to throw themselves down on their knees
and take full draughts when the river of human pleasures offers
itself, will any good cause be strengthened, or any signal
victory be won. The likeness of the three hundred is manifest
in the elect of every time who " climbed the steep ascent of
heaven, through peril, toil and pain." May ours be the
breathing — " O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train."

¦ Prov. xv. 16.

CHAPTER XIV.
GIDEON : "THE CAKE OF BARLEY BREAD."
The equipment for the campaign — The necessity of immediate action —
Rapid and bold movements a traditional policy of the Israelites — The
command, and the offer of a sign — The nocturnal expedition — The
camp of the Midianites — The dream — Its terms and its matter —
The interpretation — What this betokened to Gideon — His grateful
recognition of God — His return to the three hundred, and his call
to arise.
So the great army which Gideon led to the hill of Moreh has
melted away. At dusk, the thousands whom he dismissed left
the Israelite encampment— many of them, no doubt, remaining
not far apart, and ready to rejoin their comrades when the call
to do so reached them. The leader is left, facing the immense
multitude of " Midianites, Amalekites, and the children of the
East," with the paltry three hundred " who had lapped."
Apparently, they had reserved for themselves a sufficiency of
food for present use, and a supply of the trumpets with which
the Israelites were provided." And this was the equipment, in
1 The meaning of chapter vii. ver. 8 is obscure. It seems strange that
the three hundred should be called " the people" in one clause, and in a
following clause it should be said, " He sent all Israel, every man to his
tent" The Seventy, followed by some commentators, reads, " They
took the victuals of the people in their hand," i.e., the three hundred
took the victuals of the 9,700 who had been sent away. But this is not
a satisfactory explanation ; for such a quantity of provisions would
encumber the few who were left, and it is not a correct rendering of
the Hebrew text. "Why not understand that the people took their
trumpets as well as their victuals, all the people, both the three hundred
that remained and the multitude that went away, yet who were not to go
off as fugitives, but to deceive the enemy by keeping up their military
order and discipline ? " (Principal Douglas, " Handbook on Judges,"
P- 45-)

GIDEON : "THE CAKE OF BARLEY BREAD." I35
men and means, for the campaign 1 Good Bishop Hall says
that " the strongest faith will ever have some touch of infi
delity '' : " if the captain of the Lord's host, as he reflected on
the situation, felt some touches of infidelity, could any one be
astonished ?
One thing is clear : whatever is to be done must be done
quickly. To delay would be fatal to the enterprise. It would
take the heart out of the small band of the Hebrews ; and it
would give additional force to the action of the enemy by
showing the wretchedly small resources of the insurgents. In
the wars of the Conquest, and in other wars, the great victories
of Israel were the result of sudden and bold movements,
causing panic and confusion in the ranks of the heathen.
Such a movement is necessary now. The only hope is in
starting at once, trusting God that the blow will be effectual
to the salvation of the land.
Gideon understood this. Clear and articulate in his own
breast is the Divine oracle, bidding him not wait for the
morrow, but " that same night " march on the host. He
could hear the promise sounding within, " I have delivered
it into thine hand." " But, whilst ready, he is cautious ; and
the God whom he serves knows the man whom He has chosen.
The man pled for signs, when the Lord bade him go in His
might ; he pled for assurances, even after the tribes had rallied
around him. Now, his invisible Guide offers him an aid to
his faith, a " token for good " which would scatter any lurking
fear : " Go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host :
and thou shalt hear what they say ; and afterward shall thine
hands be strengthened to go down unto the host." 3
We see the two — the hero and his trusty Phurah — stealing
forth undiscerned from the encampment. There is nothing
recorded of the follower, except that he is " his servant," rather
his " young man." 4 A loyal, valorous henchman, we take him
to have been — perhaps one of the few who had helped the son
of Joash to overthrow the altar of Baal in Ophrah. On, silently,
master and young man move. It is dark. They descend the
» " Contemplations," book ix. ¦ Chap. vii. 9.
3 Ibid. vers, ro, n.
4 The same word is applied to Joshua (Exod. xxxiil. 11). So also the
"young man who bare his armour " accompanies Jonathan in his attempt
to go over to the Philistine garrison" (1 Sam. xiv. 6).

I36 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
hill slope ; they pass the spring henceforth memorable as the
Spring of Trembling— but no trembling with them ;. the two
miles which separate the camps are soon traversed. Loose,
apparently, is the discipline of the Midianite army ; for,
unchallenged by sentinels, they are allowed to approach
close to the ranks of the armed men." We may suppose
that some appearance, at least, of the order usually observed
by an army would characterize the disposition of the enemy
" lying along in the valley like locusts for multitude, and their
camels without number like sand by the sea side." The
women, children, camel-drivers and camels, would have the
centre of the interior; in front and in rear, and as wings on either
side, would be the companies of the armed men. Protected
by the black night, the Israelites get so near one of such
companies that they can overhear the conversation of two
men, possibly on guard — awake at least while the locust-like
multitude is at rest.
It was about a dream which one of these two, who had
been asleep, had dreamed. " Lo," says the Arab, "a cake
of barley-bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came
into the tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that
the tent lay along." The matter of the dream, and the terms in
which it is related, are noteworthy. A cake of barley-bread
was the most poor and common kind of food" — "such as could
hardly be eaten by men, it was so vile," says Josephus.3 We
may infer from its being in the dream and the parlance of the
Midianite that it was frequently in use at that time among
the oppressed children of Israel. A traveller describes the
misery of the Syrian peasants in a recent year in the words,
" They are everywhere reduced to a little flat cake of barley or
doura." * This kind of cake is beheld tumbling into the host
of Midian, as if from a height. Nay, the word tumbling is
1 The expression in ver. ir is, " outside the armed men." Revised Version,
" the outermost part of the armed men." The word translated '' armed
men " may be otherwise rendered " Ranks by five." " It probably means
in battle array, which usually is in five divisions — the van, the centre, the
two wings, and the rear " (Lias, " Book of Judges").
" Barley as distinguished from flour. The cake was round, baked hastily
on coals, or on stones laid in a shallow hole in the soil.
J " Antiquities," chap. vi.
* Volney, " Travels in Egypt and Syria," vol. ii. p. 41a.

GIDEON : "THE CAKE OF BARLEY BREAD." 137
even more emphatic It has the force of brandishingsra cake
becoming like a sword, flashing and moving as if it would hew
and destroy. And so, in point of fact, it is conceived of as
doing. It comes into, not merely a tent, but the tent, the
tent of the king or general ; " and then phrase is heaped on
phrase to bring out the direness of the catastrophe. The tent
is smitten ; it falls ; it is overturned ; it lies along, levelled ,to
the ground.
Surely this dream is a proof of the appositeness of the wise
man's saying that " in the multitude of dreams there are divers
vanities."" But a thread of truth may run through divers
vanities. In the confusion of ideas there may yet be a
thought worthy of attention. The Latin poet writes of "the
time when true visions are wont to be seen " ; 3 and the Arab
soldier's dream was one of the kind to which Lord Byron
refers, as " in their development having breath,
And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy,
They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts,
They take a weight from off our waking toils,
They do divide our being ; they become
A portion of ourselves as of our time." *
The dreamer had been influenced as many a dreamer has
been before and since ; and he tells his vision eagerly to
one sharing with him the duties of the outpost. The com
panion at once finds an interpretation ; in this instance the
interpretation belongs to God.
The interpreter is haunted by a fear of this Israelite revolt.
Many sneer at it. The great host to which he belongs is
wrapped in the security which comes through the consideration
of overwhelming numbers and commanding wealth and power.
The Abiezrite and his undisciplined, half-starved peasants, what
of him and them ? Nevertheless, there is something of the
prophetic soul in the rude Arab ; and his thoughts and mis
givings at once suggest to him the significance of the dream.
The cake of barley-bread — the mean, wretched-looking thing —
that answers to the Israelite. The tumbling and brandishing
of the cake— that is the descent of these poor feeble Hebrews ;
1 The word is emphatic, and may be understood as applying to the
royal tent. " Eccles. v. 7. 3 "Ovid," Ep. 19.
4 Lord Byron's Domestic Pieces, " The Dream."

138 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
and the smiting of the tent— oh, there is no doubt what that
means ! " It is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the
son of Joash, a man of Israel : for into his hand hath God
delivered Midian, and all the host." "
This is what "the awful listener'' and his armour-bearer
hear. It is enough. It shows that there is in the vast multi
tude before him a temper, a condition of feeling, which is a
preparation for panic and rout. Dean Stanley sees in this
feeling a resemblance to the consternation which fell on the
Arabs, centuries later, when the name of Richard was men
tioned, the belief being that his shadow caused even horses to
start at the sight of a bush." We are certainly reminded by it
of the terror which filled the Canaanites before the invasion
of their territories by Israel, and which made the conquest of
the territories more easy.3 The conversation also shows that
Gideon's name has penetrated into the hostile army, and that
the keen edge of his sword is known there. He accepts the
omen. His faith receives a new anointing. It may not seem
much ; but " when we are going, a little thing drives us on."
To him it is not a little thing. He pours out his gratitude in
the worship of that Shepherd of Israel whose hand he can
recognize in the incident. " A wise Providence had prepared
a dream in the head of the Midianite, an interpretation in the
mouth of another, and brought Gideon to be an auditor of
both, and made his enemies prophets of his victory, encouragers
of the attempt, and proclaimers of their own confusion."4 He
worships. Anew before Jehovah he accepts the mission ; and
then he hastens back to "his little flock." Now or never.
" Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of
Midian." s
« Chap. vii. 14.
* " Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church," Lect 15.
s Josh. ii. 24.
4 Bishop Hall's " Contemplations," book Is. I Chap, vii, 15.

CHAPTER XV.
GIDEON : TRUMPETS AND TORCHES.
The boldness of Gideon — The reason for the restriction as to number of
men — The stratagem — The instructions given to the three hundred —
The march under cover of night— The quiet of the camp rudely and
suddenly broken — The panic and confusion — The action of the men —
The flight — Israel "cried together" — Similar stratagems, but none so
completely successful — The passages of the Jordan occupied by the
Ephraimites— Oreb and Zeeb— The traces of this flight in the Old
Testament — The small and inadequate means, and the issue — The
trumpet : its significance — The torch and the pitcher — The excellency
of the power is of God.
CAUTIOUS, even timid, before the hour comes, Gideon is resolute
when the clouds have rolled past, and the way of God's choosing
is clear. The conversation of the two soldiers, overheard by
him, has dispelled every doubt. In his mind, there is no
perhaps ; the shadow of the " ifs " and " wherewiths " has
vanished. His word to the three hundred is the bold, " Arise,
for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian."
In that hour of illumination, he understood the reason of
the restriction as to the number of the people appointed to
go with him. It was not to be a question of human force
against human force : it was to be a question of Divine power
against the enemies of the Divine order — and if God be for the
few, it matters little how many are against them. Even as
regards the kind of result to be realized, there is a noticeable
wisdom in the employment of only a small band. It was a band
of picked men, all to be thoroughly relied on, all capable of
heroic self-control, no craven among them. Silence and secrecy
were essential to the accomplishment of his plan ; these were
assured by the selection which had been made. His small host

140 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
was perfectly disciplined, and in perfect readiness for any bold
and daring stratagem. He and they must, and can, act in
thorough sympathy.
The stratagem is of the simplest possible character. Gideon
divides his three hundred into three companies or battalions,
each numbering a hundred men. One of these companies he
commands in person. The troops are really unarmed. In the
one hand of every soldier is placed a trumpet— Josephus calls
it a ram's horn " — such as that which was used by the Israelites
at the storming of Jericho. The other hand grasps a pitcher,
or earthen jar, very brittle, in which it was customary to carry
water ; " and, within the jar, there is a torch or firebrand, of the
same kind as the firebrands which, at a later period, Samson, in
one of his many freaks, attached to the tails of the jackals
which he let loose among the cornfields of the Philistines.3
The brand will be invisible until the jar is broken, when it will
suddenly flame out on view. This, apparently, is the entire
equipment of the diminutive army : swords may have been
slung to their side, but the only sword to be wielded in the
critical time of the day is " the sword of Jehovah and Gideon."
The instructions given to this singularly arrayed army are
peculiar, but definite. No mention is made of " sharpening
spears and fitting armour." 4 The sole charge is, " See in me
what you are to do. March alongside of me down the height
on to the outside of the camp. Not a word. Only observe my
movement, and follow it exactly. When you reach the out
posts, one of your companies will defile to the right, and another
to the left, so that at the moment of action it may seem that the
camp is surrounded. Your positions taken, you will await the
signal. Do not stir until I stir. As I do, so shall you do. 'When
I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye
the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The
sword of the Lord and Gideon.' " 5

1 "Antiquities," book v., chap. 6: " They had also each of them a ram's
horn in his right hand, which he used instead of a trumpet."
" So Gen. xxiv. 14, 16, 18, 20.
3 Judg. xv. 4. The torch or brand was made of resinous faggots.
* Bishop Hall's " Contemplations, " book ix. : " When we would look that
Gideon should give charge of whetting their swords and sharpening their
spears and fitting their armour, he only gives order for empty pitchers and
lighls and trumpets." 5 Judg. vii. 17, 18.

GIDEON : TRUMPETS AND TORCHES. 141
Under cover of night, the battalions, thus appointed and
instructed, march. It is near midnight. Approaching the
enemy, the Israelites can hear the change of sentries. The
second of the watches is set : ' those who have been relieved
from duty join their comrades in that which was to be the last
sleep of the vast majority of the vast host spread over the plain
of Esdraelon. All is quiet. The plan, fixed beforehand, is fully
and successfully carried out. The three companies take up
their places at the centre and the right and left wings of the
camp. The night is still. On a sudden a blast and yell which seem
unearthly startle all. With the utmost possible clang the
trumpets peal forth. The Midianites spring to their feet, seize
their arms, and rush hither and thither. The blast waxes louder
and louder ; a crash is heard ; and, as if by magic, the black
ness of darkness is illumined by flaring lights, fierce and lurid
like the flames of hell itself. Orientals are easily excited ;
all the more easily that night because the bond which unites
Midianite, Amalekite, and the children of the East, is only a
mercenary one. There is no underlying principle of cohesion.
For self-interest they are associated ; if self-interest seem to de
mand, they can be separated. An indescribable panic seizes all.2
They can distinguish a terrific cry, " For Jehovah and Gideon ;"
and from it they judge that the Hebrews have descended from
their heights in full strength. They run, in the hurry and
darkness they know not whither ; they trample one upon
another ; they mistake friend for foe, and " every man's
sword is against his fellow." 3 All the time the men of Israel
are stationary. The trumpets continue to blow ; the torches to
flash ; the battle-cry rings forth ; they themselves keep their
ranks unbroken, and their strength is conserved.4 Jehovah is
righting for them. The proud army of the hour before becomes
utterly demoralized, and is routed and scattered. A Hebrew
psalmist, having this and other deliverances in view, begins one
¦ At this period the Israelites divided the night into three watches, each
watch lasting four hours. The first was from six to ten p.m., the second
from ten to two a.m., the third, or the morning watch, from two to six a.m.
This suggests that the time of the attack would be between ten and
eleven p.m. At a later period the Roman division of four watches was
accepted. " There might be a suspicion of treachery.
3 Judg. vii. 33. 4 Ibid. vii. 31.

142 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
of the grandest of the national hymns with the strain, " Let
God arise, let His enemies be scattered ; let them also that hate
Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them
away ; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish
at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad ; let
them rejoice before God ; yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." r
Strategy, similar to that of Gideon, has been frequently
employed. Hannibal rescued his army from the snares into
which the Roman general had drawn him in the plains of
Campania by a ruse, in some features analogous to the Hebrew's,
And other illustrations might be cited. But never was a re
sult so great accomplished by means so inadequate. It was
Jehovah's doing, and it was marvellous in the eyes of His
people. But we admire the intrepidity, the unflinching courage,
the fertile resource of the untrained soldier of Ophrah not the
less, but indeed all the more, that he recognized himself as only
the instrument of a higher Power, that, as the mere lieutenant
under the real Captain of the host, he gave as the battle-word,
" The sword of Jehovah, and of Gideon."
The deliverance was complete. The camp of Midian was
wholly broken up ; all the wealth of the host was left to the
impoverished Israelites ; prince and private fled, pell-mell, in
the direction of the Jordan, to places which cannot now be
ascertained ; one of them called Beth-shittah, the House of the
Acacia, probably near the narrower part of the river ; and
another, Abel-meholah, the Meadow of the Dance, afterwards
celebrated as the birthplace of Elisha — not far, probably, from
Beth-shean." The object, of course, was to cross the river and
escape to the eastern country. Their intention was frustrated
by the conduct of the men who had been disbanded, and the
patriotism of the sons of Ephraim.
Many of those who had been sent away lingered in the
neighbourhood of the theatre of strife. The blast of the
trumpets, borne through the still night air, might awaken them
also. Anyhow, the tidings of the rout of the great army soon
spread, and the men " were cried together out of Naphtali, out
of Asher, and out of all Manasseh," 3 and pursued after the
flying Midianites. To cut off their retreat, to intercept their
escape, it was necessary to occupy the lower fords of Jordan.
And Gideon despatched messengers to Mount Ephraim be-
" Psa. lxviii. 1-3. * Judg. vii. 22. 3 Judg. vii. 23.

GIDEON : TRUMPETS AND TORCHES. 143
seeching the hardy mountaineers to seize the passages or fords
unto Beth-bara, and to guard the Jordan. As we shall see, the
Ephramites had their own grudge against the successful leader.
But this feeling was overborne by the enthusiasm of the day of
victory, and they responded to the call. When the portions of
the routed host, which were headed by two princes or emirs of
highest rank, reached the fords, they found the men of Israel in
waiting for them. And in the chase and slaughter which ensued
the two princes were captured."
In connection with these princes we notice a feature of some
interest. Their names, Oreb and Zeeb, signify respectively the
Wolf and the Raven. In uncivilized tribes, the practice of giving
a name which associated the person with an inferior creature,
on account of some real or fancied possession of qualities
belonging to the creature, was, and is, common. But, not
among savages only. In the England and the Germany of
earlier times, names which have now become common refer to
birds and beasts." One of the noblest of the patrician families
of Rome — that of the Gracchi — perpetuated some remote con
nection with a jackdaw. The names Aquinus and Corvinus
were historical ; they speak of the eagle and the crow. Thus,
in the Midianite aristocracy, we distinguish a noble of the
highest rank as the wolf, and another as the raven. Their
capture was an event of consequence only second to the capture
of the kings ; and the rocks on which they were put to death
were named after them in future ages.3 With their heads in
charge, the Ephraimite chiefs did homage to the victorious
leader.4 So ended the great event of the valley of Jezreel. It rescued
the north and the centre of Palestine from an oppressive
bondage. In the history of the nation it ranked as one of the
mighty acts of Jehovah. When the Israelite, of a later time,
wished to pour out the vials of his wrath on his enemies, the de
sire through which he breathed his hatred was, that the accursed
confederacy might meet the fate of the Midianites, and " their
nobles be made like Oreb and Zeeb ; yea, all their princes as
Zebah and as Zalmunna, who said, Let us take to ourselves the
" Judg. vii. 24, 25. ¦ Wolf, fox, &c. 3 Judg. vii. 25.
* The historian says, " They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to
Gideon on the other side Jordan." Gideon, in his pursuit of the enemy,
had crossed the river.

144 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL
houses of God in possession." * When the Assyrian threatened
destruction to the people of God, the prophet bade them be of
good cheer, assuring them that the Lord of Hosts would " stir
up a scourge for the invader, according to the slaughter of
Midian at the rock of Oreb."* Indeed, to the mind of
psalmist and seer, the " day of Midian " seemed to be typical
of all deliverances, and even to foreshadow that Messianic
triumph which should not be like the warriors' battle with
confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but should be the
breaking of a yoke or burden through "the Child to be born,
the Son to be given, whose name shall be called Wonderful." 3
Thus the dream of the cake of barley bread which tumbled
from the heights into the Arabian camp was fulfilled. As pitted
against the huge host of a hundred and thirty-five thousand
warriors,how insignificant and contemptible were Gideon and his
three hundred men ? By the power of the Eternal, this cake
overturned the royalty of Zebah and Zalmunna. Another illustra
tion was given of the principle which St. Paul expressed in the
aphorism that God has " chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to con
found the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised, yea and things which are not, to
bring to nought things that are."4 Who could have foretold a
victory, the means to which were a few trumpets and torches !
Who would have invented the narrative of such a victory ? In
the way of God to men, we find many such surprises. Who
would have thought that a shepherd-boy, watching a few sheep
in the plains of Bethlehem, should be the founder of a Royal
Dynasty which extended through many generations, and of
which, as concerning the flesh, the Christ of God should come !
Who would have thought that one who lived and toiled at Naza
reth should attract the homage of nations, east and west and
north and south, and, in this year of 1890, be hailed by more than
four hundred and thirty millions as the Son of God who has the
words of eternal life ! Who would have thought that the few
tracts and historical books in which the best part of Hebrew
literature has been preserved, should form the larger portion of
the Book which has been translated into nearly four hundred
languages, and which is read by peoples in their own tongue
1 Psa. lxxxiii. 9-12. • Isa. a. 26.
s Isa. ix. 4-8. 4 1 Cor. i. 37, a8.

GIDEON : TRUMPETS AND TORCHES. I45
as the Book of books, God-breathed and "profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous
ness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished
unto all good works " I ' Very pertinent to this aspect of Divine
procedure and providence are the words of Mr. Gladstone with
reference to the Bible : " In proportion as the means are feeble,
perplexed, and to all appearance confused, is the marvel of the
results that stand before our eyes. And the upshot may come
to be that, on this very ground we may have to cry out with the
Psalmist — absorbed in worshipping admiration, ' Oh that men
would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness, and declare
the wonders that He doeth for the children of men 1' Or ' How
unsearchable are His judgments, and his ways past finding
out.' For the memories of men and the art of writing, and the
care of the copyist, and the tablet and the rolls of parchment,
are but the secondary or mechanical means by which the Word
has been carried down to us along the river of the ages ; and
the natural and inherent weakness of these means is but a
special tribute to the grandeur and greatness of the end and
of Him that wrought it out.""
In the achievement for which the Most High used Gideon
and his men, there is a suggestion with regard to moral and
spiritual victories to which it may be interesting to refer. The
three hundred, as it has been pointed out, were practically
unarmed. The one hand held a trumpet, the other hand held
the earthen vessel which contained the torch. Now, in this
we may discern the nature of the warfare and of the triumphs
of the kingdom of God.
The trumpet occupies a conspicuous place in the Old
Testament order, and in the New Testament imagery. In the
long years of the wilderness, the calling of the assembly of
Israel, and the journeying of the camps, were regulated by the
blast of the silver trumpets which Moses was commanded to
make " of a whole piece." And the use of the trumpet " over
burnt offerings and peace offerings, and sacrifices of peace
offerings, in the day of gladness, and in solemn days, and in the
beginning of months," was enjoined as " an ordinance for ever
throughout the generations of the people." 3 In the wars of the
1 a Tim. iii. 16, 17.
•"The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture "—Good Words, April,
189a > Num. x.

146 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
conquest, the first and most decisive of all successes was
accomplished through the solemn investiture of the city by the
priests preceding the ark of the Lord bearing " seven trumpets
of rams' horns," and " a rereward coming after the ark," which
consisted of priests also blowing with trumpets. Armed men
headed the procession ; but not a spear was couched, not a
sword drew blood. When the priests blew, and the people
hearing the blast shouted, "the wall fell down flat."1 Thus,
"the great sound of a trumpet " formed part of the Israelite
imagery for all that spoke of solemn crisis, of special interposi
tion of God. Christ employed the figure in His discourse on
the dispensation of the second coming." The apostle repeats
the figure in the same connection.3 In the apocalypse of St.
John, the seven angels who stand before God are presented
with seven trumpets ; and the sounding of each trumpet heralds
the developments of the eternal purpose to which each is
specially related.4 When the seventh angel sounds, the mystery
is finished,5 and great voices in heaven exclaim, " The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." 6
A representative significance thus attaches to the triumph of
Jezreel. The blowing of the trumpets is in the line of ordinance
and prophecy. The Lord of Hosts has another kind of battle
and of victory than those which are with confused noise and
garments rolled in blood. The proclamation of truth, the
announcement of a Divine will which is stronger than all the
conspiracies and confederations of men, the man sounding or
declaring the word of the Eternal— this, not the man slaying
and killing, this, rather than the prowess of armies with chariots
and horses, is the idea of the kingdom of heaven. Hence,
the trumpet has been held to denote that "foolishness of
preaching"' by which it pleases God to save them that believe.
" Christ overcame the world," says a Christian Father, " by
unarmed apostles bearing the trumpet of preaching, and the
torch of miracles." 8
But there is more than the trumpet. Its blast is loud and
shrill, but the effect must be completed by the flashing of the
" Josh. vi. ¦ Matt. xxiv. 31. s 1 Thess, iv. 16.
4 Rev. viii. S Rev. x. 7. « Rev. xi. 15.
» 1 Cor. L at. « Theodoret, quoted in •• Pulpit Commentary."

GIDEON : TRUMPETS AND TORCHES. 147
light. If the good soldier of Jesus Christ has the trumpet in
the one hand, to sound the alarm, to summon the ungodly to
surrender, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, he has
the torch in the other hand, to flash with full force on the dark
ness and confound it, to indicate where and with whom the
salvation is. The light is hidden in the pitcher ; it is a treasure
in an earthen vessel, a vessel of inferior stuff indeed, because
the excellency of the power is only and wholly of God. And
the light is concealed until the earthenware is broken. The
carnal must die. The mere fleshly life must be given away.
It is out of this death that the power of the torch comes : from
this losing of the life, that the true life-force proceeds. The
dying of the Lord Jesus must be borne about in the body, that
the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in the body."
The trumpet and the torch are the two emblems of the fight
of faith. Yet, let it ever be remembered that the efficacy is not
in them, not in him who administers them — it is in the Living
God. The cry which rang through the camp of Midian was the
cry of Israel — " For the Lord and Gideon."
• Cf. a Cor. iv. 7-1*

CHAPTER XVI.
CIDEON "FAINT, YET PURSUING.*
The one rallying cry for the time — What of Gideon and his three hundred ?
— The tale of their enterprise now resumed — The pursuit to the river —
The escape of the kings with a remnant of the army — The pursuit
into the Hauran — The power of a supreme purpose — Held up to the
light of the word applied to the hero and his men, how many charac
ters are shown to be wanting in unity and consistency — Some sketches
of John Bunyan — The contrast between the spirit and the flesh illus
trated — The picture of Gideon, a stimulant to perseverance and energy.
Thus, the men of Israel, assembling "out of Naphtali and
Asher and all Manasseh," followed the panic-stricken
Midianites. Thus, too, the men of Ephraim cut off the
possibilities of retreat for the great mass of the disorganized
host by " taking the waters unto Beth-bara and Jordan." It
was a splendid outburst of the old national spirit. In the
enthusiasm of the hour, in the consciousness of the opportunity
which had come, all grudges and jealousies are forgotten.
Nothing is present to the view except the need of the common
fatherland. For the time, the one rallying cry is, " The sword
of the Lord and of Gideon."
But what of the leader himself and his gallant three hun
dred? We saw them standing in the lots which had been
marked out for the companies, sounding their trumpets and
flashing their lamps, whilst the children of the East " ran and
cried and fled." Did they remain in the routed camp, exploring
its wealth, and, after their long strain and scanty fare, gorging
themselves on its abundance ? No ; these water-lappers will not
throw themselves on their knees to gratify their appetite : the
parched mouth may be moistened, but this is all. Neither

GIDEON "FAINT, YET PURSUING" 149
slothful bed nor epicure's feast can tempt them. They re
appear in the historian's statement — " Gideon came to Jordan
and passed over, he and the three hundred men that were
with them, faint, yet pursuing." " The tale of their prowess
has been intermitted to complete the description of the flight
of the enemy and the action of the tribes : now it is resumed,
and an impressive word-picture of their condition and of their
energy is presented.
We seem to trace their movement after the scattering of the
great army. The trumpets and pitchers and lamps have done
their part, and are laid aside. We may suppose that the
soldiers seize their weapons, or provide themselves with the
completer armour left by the Midianites. The heroic captain
will not leave his work incomplete. He wishes to stamp out
the confederacy, so as to prevent the possibility of its being
formed again. He wishes, especially, by the capture of the
kings to strike at the centre of the whole combination. There
fore, without halt, without taking even the rest which nature
demands, he and his band march, through broiling heat, in
pursuit of the enemy, until the river is reached.
They arrive there to find that, whilst by far the greater
part of the Midianite host has been slain, a remnant headed
by the kings, had effected a passage across the river before the
men from Mount Ephraim had taken the fords. This remnant
must number several thousands. Is it prudent to pursue such
a multitude ? The men are exhausted ; will it not be wise to
wait, to recruit the wearied frame, to reorganize the com
panies and secure reinforcements, and thus move en masse
against the kings? No, for in the meantime the defeated
royalties will escape ; and, burning with the sense of shame
and the passion for revenge, they may organize fresh bands
of mercenaries and return to wipe out the disgrace which
has befallen them. While the terror is on the heathen hordes,
while the prestige of the victory is undimmed, Gideon must
push his advantage to the uttermost. The timidity of former
days has vanished. The lesson that feebleness, with God
behind, can do all things, has been thoroughly learned ; and
conferring not with flesh and blood, he pushes at once to the
other side of the river, into the Hauran, a region comparatively
unknown — " faint, yet pursuing." ¦ Judg. viii. 4.

150 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
The illustration of the energy and patience which mark the
highest kind of heroism, and the word which interprets these
qualities, are noteworthy. Any purpose that commands the
interest neutralizes the action of fleshly cravings and shrink
ings, lifts a man above the level of even pressing want, and
leads him on, in spite of hindrances and difficulties, to the
end which he contemplates. It need not be a purpose in
trinsically great, or one which connects with great issues.
What an amount of force, impelling and controlling action, is
manifested in those who, year after year, insist on climbing
the Alps or performing other gymnastic feats 1 Only let the
will in a man become concentrated on some object, and it
is scarcely possible to set a limit to the faculty of endurance
or the power of accomplishment. " You can have only half-
willed," said Suwarrow to some who had failed in doing what
their hand found to do.
But how elevating, how ennobling, is this will-power when
the gaze is steadfast towards a mark of light, when the aim
is one that associates the life with "things lovely and of
good report " ! Down the stream of time there come many
voices which articulate the perseverance so grandly exemplified
in Gideon ; none more lofty and sustained than that of the
apostle and prisoner of our Lord, as expressed in the im
mortal lines, " I count not myself to have apprehended, but
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press
towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus." "
"Faint, yet pursuing"— it is the word of the hero. Held
up to its light, how wanting in a certain unity and consis
tency are the characters of many— some most amiable, most
liktable, with good intentions, and good parts both intellectual
and moral 1 They have no " chief end " which proportions
other ends, and is like a magnet to the filings of their force,
attracting and causing them to cohere, and giving solidity to
the disposition. And so they keep oscillating, like the pen
dulum of a clock, between almost opposite sets of things ; only,
unlike the pendulum, theirs is not the oscillation which secures
the keeping of time. For they lose the time. They make little
headway. They fail to grasp the opportunity, as all do who
' Phil. iii. 13, 14.

GIDEON "FAINT, YET PURSUING." IJI
merefy look out for opportunity instead of making it. They
drift rather than act. They are impelled and then are driven
back — mere jelly-fish, whose motion depends on tides and
currents around them. Not by such can any work be performed
which, through well-doing, furthers well-being. They have no
part with Gideon and his three hundred.
John Bunyan introduces us to some who form an outer circle.
We remember Little Faith, who lived in the town of Sincere,
and who, " going on pilgrimage, chanced to sit down in Dead
Man's Lane, and slept there." And, so sleeping, he was espied
by " three sturdy rogues, Faint-Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt
(three brothers)," who came up to him and bade him stand
— Faint - Heart exclaiming, " Deliver thy purse," Mistrust
pulling a bag of silver out of his pocket, and Guilt knocking
him down. The poor man was robbed, and would have been
murdered but for a sound which the robbers feared might be
the steps of " Great Grace." ' For "Faint-Heart " is often the
robber, and, but for " Great Grace," ready with reserves for
even the feeblest faith, would often be also the murderer of
Little Faith. What prayer more appropriate than the prayer
of the apostles, " Lord, increase our faith, so that, though
faint, we may not falter, or sit down and sleep, but always
pursue " 1
We remember too that good man, Mr. Ready-to-Halt and the
word of Christiana to him, before she went to the river : " Thy
travel hither has been with difficulty, but that will make thy
rest the sweeter." And Mr. Feeble-Mind, apt to fear and
doubt of God's goodness, but who, when the errand from the
King was brought to him, exclaimed, " As for my feeble mind,
that I will leave behind me ; when I am gone I desire that you
Mr. Valiant bury it." " It is better, surely, like Mr. Ready-to-
Halt, to go on crutches than not go at all ; better, even with Mr.
Feeble-Mind, to be the pilgrim, than, with strength of mind, to
refuse the pilgrim's staff. But why keep to the crutches ? Why
doubt and tremble when the Lord calls, and gives us the
resources of Omnipotence? No task can be too hard, no
burden can be too heavy, no cross can be too crucifying, if only
we are sure that His grace is sufficient, and that we are really
following Him. It is for us to press with the little strength
which we have : in pressing, the strength is increased. " They
» " Pilgrim's Progress," First Part. * Ibid. Second Part.

152 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
who wait on the Lord change their strength. 'Faint, yet
pursuing,' they run and are not weary, they walk and are not
faint." "
" Faint, yet pursuing." The contrast suggested between
the spirit willing and the flesh weak is often very striking.
The three hundred are footsore." They have scarcely slept
for nights. They have given themselves no leisure to eat.
They are tired and ready to lie down. But their look is
onward. The joy of the Lord is their strength. And has
not the same triumph of mind over matter, of faith
over sense, been frequently evidenced in men and women
of all sorts and conditions ? " He was simply the
bravest man I have known," writes Dr. Samuel Cox of the
late Mr. Lynch ; and the story he tells is this : " To think,
to compose, was an unfailing delight to him : the treasuries
from which he drew his thoughts seemed inexhaustible ; but
to write was an agony which no words can fully utter. Hardly
was he seated at his desk before he was assailed by the
rending, suffocating pangs of his cruel disease. As the work
went on, the anguish grew, until the intolerable agony com
pelled him to fling himself on the floor, where he lay patiently
and stedfastly enduring the pressure of his great pain. No
sooner was the fierce spasm past than he rose, seated himself
once more at his desk, and resumed his labour till seized by
another intolerable spasm. And thus the day would wear on,
labour and anguish alternating many times ; until, at last,
utterly exhausted by the weary conflict, he would lie still and
prostrate on the ground." " Courage such as this is interpreted
by the words applied to Gideon and his band, "Faint, but
pursuing" What time our hearts are overwhelmed, we may recall the
picture of the sturdy band — Gideon and his helpers in the
war. Faint, weary in well-doing, we are apt to become. As
the years pass, the ideals become dim, we sink down into a
dull contentment with low levels, we count ourselves to have
apprehended. We are sometimes disappointed too. Expec
tations are belied. We sow, but there seems little or no
harvest. The fruit is blighted. For one reason or another,
we begin to ask, What profit is there in such service or toil ?
When, thus, our hearts turn coldly on themselves, the recollec-
• Isa. xl. 31. ¦ " Sermons for my Curates," Preface, pp. 11, 13.

GIDEON "FAINT, YET PURSUING." 153
tion of the old-world story may greet us like a vision of angels
beckoning nearer God, and breathing into our hearts the
assurance that " We rise by the things that are under our feet,
By what we have mastered of good and gain,
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet."

CHAPTER XVII.
GIDEON: THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS.
The flight of the kings eastward — Gideon on their track — The conduct of
the Israelites to whom he appealed for help — Ephraim, and its ara>
gance — The tact and self-control of Gideon in his dealing with Ephraim
— The opposition of the men of Succoth and Penuel of another type —
Difficulty of tracing the route of the Hero — The places mentioned,
Succoth, Penuel, Nobah, Jogbehah, and Karkor — How the request for
bread was met at two of these places, and the threats of cruel punish
ment — The circuit taken by Gideon — His surprise of the host which
thought itself secure — Capture of the kings — The vengeance taken on
Succoth and Penuel — Gleams of moderation of spirit — The fate of
Zebah and Zalmunna — The ornaments — The return to Ophrah.
THE kings, with a remnant of their huge host, had fled in an
easterly direction. They had effected a passage across the
Jordan before the Israelites had taken the fords, and they had
pushed through the territory of Gad, either due east, or east with
a bend towards the south. Their object was to reach a place
which would provide a cover for the panic-stricken troops, and
would render them secure from " the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon." On the track of the Midianite royalties, Gideon and
his three hundred cross the river, " faint, yet pursuing."
It might have been supposed that a great wave of enthusiasm
would break at the feet of the Hero of Israel, whose wonderful
daring and faith had been the means of national deliverance.
Alas for human nature 1 the conduct of Israelites, to whom he
appeals for help in the time of need, verified the reflection of
the Preacher, " I considered all travail, and every right work,
that for this a man is envied of his neighbour." '
* Eccles. iv. 4.

GIDEON: THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS 1 55
The first sign of this envy was given by the men of Ephraim.
When they presented the heads of Ore'i and Zeeb to Gideon,
" they did chide with him sharply ; " the matter of their sharp
speech being, " Why hast thou served us thus that thou calledst
us no', when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites ? " * This
is not a solitary example of the arrogance of the great central
tribe. The same chiding was encountered by J ephthah, the hero
of Gilead, when he returned from his successful campaign against
the Ammonites." And indeed the tribe was notorious for its
" pride and stoutness of heart." 3 In later times, allegiance to
King David and King Solomon was only half-hearted, because
by the glories of their dynasty pre-eminence was given to Judah.
When the schism of the ten tribes occurred, Ephraim became
the leading unit in the northern kingdom. Hosea, identifying
it with this kingdom, speaks of it as "a cake not turned,"4 as
" like a silly dove without heart," s as "a heifer taught and loving
to tread out the corn."' In the day when the Lord will be to
Israel as the dew which saturated Gideon's fleece, Ephraim will
say, " What have I to do any more with idols."7 And Isaiah
represents the traditional feeling between it and Judah, in the
word in which he forecasts the blessed days of a Messiah's
reign, " The envy also of Ephraim shall depart ; Ephraim shall
not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim." 8
Verily, " by pride cometh contention." There is a haughty
scorn in the sharp speech. One of the half-tribe of Manasseh,
and he a member of one of the poorest thousands, thus to treat
the great neighbour ! Why should it have been slighted by
not being summoned to take its part in the great warfare against
the common foe ?
The tact and gentleness of Gideon are illustrated in his reply.
It breathes the air of that charity which " vaunteth not itself, and
is not easily provoked." It was not a time for fierce recrimina
tion between those who had been partners in a great enterprise,
and had contributed to a notable victory. His self-control on
this occasion strikingly contrasts with the impetuous temper of
Jephthah when the same provocation was offered.9 We cannot
but admire the moderation of the son of Joash. Instead of
meeting " words of high disdain * with words also of high dis-
1 Judg. viii. X. * Judg. xii. 1. » Isa. ix. 9. * Hos. vii. 8.
» Hos. vii. 11. * Hos. x. 11. » Hos. xiv. 8. • Isa. xi. 13.
» Judg. xii. 4.

156 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
dain, and thus precipitating a contention which would have
issued in bloodshed, he disarms the wrath of the Ephraimites
by a sweet reasonableness, nay, by a graceful self-depreciation.
He magnifies the exploit of the exasperated Israelites. The
heads of the two nobles in his view, recalling the great battle of
the rocks near Jordan, invited and gave point to the magnani
mous " What have I done in comparison with you ? " The part
he himself had played, when measured by the slaughter which
they had effected, and the service which they had rendered,
seemed like the poor hills of Manasseh in contrast with the rich
slopes and plains of the other branch of the House of Joseph.
" Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the
vintage of Abiezer ? God hath delivered into your hands the
princes of Midian, and what was I able to do in comparison of
you." *
It was this wit, wisdom, graciousness which won the day.
The outbreak of passion in others will never be conquered by
the outbreak of passion in ourselves. He is the conqueror who
can rule his own spirit. Gideon might have threshed the
Midianites, and been threshed and beaten by his own irritation.
He was enabled to practise the art of self-repression ; and the
enmity which had swelled like a flood-tide, soon subsided and
ebbed. " Then," adds the historian, " their anger was abated
towards him when he had said that." "
But the opposition afterwards encountered was of another
type. In Milton's " Samson Agonistes," the fallen champion
is represented as saying that " in nations grown corrupt, and
by their vices brought to servitude," nothing is more common
than " To despise or envy or suspect
Whom God hath of His special favour raised
As their deliverer. If he aught begin,
How frequent to desert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deed."
And the chorus of Danites responds —
" Thy words to my remembrance bring
How Succoth and the fort of Penuel
Their great deliverer contemned,
The matchless Gideon in pursuit
Of Midian and her vanquished kings.** •
« Judg. viii. a, 3. » Judg. viii. 3. s " Samson Agonistes.'

GIDEON : THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS. 1 57
This ingratitude, this base contemning, is set before us in the
history. And the hearing of " the matchless Gideon " towards
those who were guilty of it is wanting in the nobleness which
he manifested when replying to the pride of Ephraim.
It is impossible to trace, with accuracy, the route of the
Israelite leader in his pursuit of the fugitive kings. The sum of
the Biblical narrative is that he came to Succoth, then to
Penuel ; that, thereafter, he " went up by the way of them that
dwelt in tents, on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah," and swept
down on the Midianite host encamped in security at Karkor.
This route, these places, offer a problem whose solution has
hitherto baffled interpreters of Holy Scripture.
The impression naturally conveyed is that all these places
were on the east side of the Jordan, over which it is said that
" Gideon and his three hundred men had passed." But this
impression has been challenged. The site of the first of the
places, the Succoth whose rulers were so false to every generous
instinct, is looked for by some topographers on the west side of
the river, at ruins ten miles south of Beisan or Beth-shean."
Others, again, who admit that the old city is to be sought
for on the east side of the river, identify it with an ancient
town called SukkSr, a little way farther south than Beth-shean."
But these views separate the Succoth of Gideon's history from
the Succoth of Jacob's ; and the conjunction of the one, as of the
other, with Penuel, makes it more than probable that the same
town is mentioned in both histories. The Succoth of the Book
of Genesis was near the Jabbok, west of Mahanaim, " in the
valley." 3 It was there that Jacob rested after his memorable
interview with Esau.4 The name was bestowed in recollection
of the booths which he had made for his cattle. In subsequent
times, it was noted for its thick, deep soil of clay, out of which
Solomon cast the vessels of bright brass which he consecrated
to the service of the Lord in the temple which he built.5
Penuel was only a short way from Succoth. It was on the
height overlooking the valley in which Succoth was situated.
Close to it, was the scene of the wrestling of the Angel of God's
» Robinson, Van de Velde, Tyrwhitt Drake, Major Conder, identify the
ancient Succoth with the ruin Sakut.
" Burkhardt. Jerome also mentions a Sochoth in the same region.
3 In Joshua xiii. 27, Succoth is described as " in the valley."
* Gen. xxxiii. 17. ' 3 Chron. Iv. 17.

158 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
face with Jacob, on the night before the meeting with Esau,
when the new name Israel was given to the patriarch. '¦' As
he passed over Penuel, the sun rose on him, and he halted on
his thigh." * After the conquest, it was distinguished, like some
cities which occupied important strategical positions, for its
lofty tower." From that tower, the eye could sweep the terri
tory of the trans-Jordanic tribes. It was a point of so much
consequence, that Jeroboam rebuilt it after the kingdom of the
ten tribes had been formed.3
These places were on the high road from the Jordan through
the inheritance of Gad. Jacob, in his journeying from " the land
of the people of the East," came first to Penuel, and next to
Succoth ; Gideon, reversing the route, came first to Succoth.
It was a city with an imposing organization of rulers and
elders. No fewer than seventy-seven are mentioned ; seventy
councillors or elders, and seven princes or rulers at their head.4
It had not sent any contingent to the national army : surely, in
the hour of triumph, it would gladly contribute of its abundance
to the gallant band which pursued the common foe, though
hungry and thirsty. He appealed to the men of Succoth,
" Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow
me, for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zal-
munna, kings of Midian."5 It was an appeal both to their
humanity and their patriotism. The appeal was dishonoured.
Their conduct was selfish and cowardly in the extreme. The
people following Gideon seemed, in point of numbers, wholly
inadequate to the purpose contemplated. They had, perhaps,
seen the array of Midianite troops, camels, and chariots, impos
ing even though a mere remnant of the great host ; and these
paltry three hundred, weary and feeble-looking, what could they
avail ? The probabilities were that they would never capture
the kings, that they would be ignominiously routed, and their
quixotic enterprise would prove a failure. If so, the
victorious Midianites might retaliate on them for any help
given at that juncture. It was safer not to risk this vengeance,
even though refusal might irritate Gideon, than to close with
his request and thus risk the wrath of the foe. The fever of
national enthusiasm burned very low in these Gadites. Practi-
» Gen. xxxiL 31,
¦ Shechem, see Judg. ix. 46, and Sion, see 2 Sam. vii. 9.
3 1 Kings xii. 25. * Judg. viii. 14. s Judg. viii. 5.

GIDEON : THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS. 1 59,
cally, the river had divided them from their brethren according
to the flesh ; and this isolation meant pettiness of feeling and
local selfishness." There was no chivalry of sentiment, there
was no sense of piety or honour, there was no bond of covenant
in these calculating wise-acres, as they answered, " Are the
hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand that we should
give bread unto thine army ? " '
The beautiful self-control which distinguished Gideon on the
occasion previously referred to, is absent on this occasion. After
all, the case of the Ephraimites was very different from that of
the churlish Gadites. The former had manfully borne the
brunt of a great fight. They had taken their part as became
men of Israel and worshippers of Jehovah ; and, though they
might be arrogant, the arrogance was charged with the con
sciousness of their position as in the front rank of God's sacra
mental host. They were men of Israel first, and men of Ephraim
second. The people of Succoth were practically disavowing their
responsibility to their brethren ; they were withdrawing them
selves from the national league ; they were closing their eyes to
the great things which God had done for His people : they were
magnifying Baal, not Jehovah. And the wild beast in the mighty
Abiezrite was aroused. It broke loose from the retreat to which
the look of the Lord had sent it. It was the savage, rather
than the man of God, who answered the baseness of the seventy
and seven with the threat, " When the Lord hath delivered Zebah
and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with
the thorns of the wilderness and with briers." 3
From the valley, Gideon ascended the slope to Penuel which,
with its tower, seemed to invite the weary men. But the same
request was answered in the same spirit and in the same terms
as at Succoth. The elders had gone into their famous tower,
and from it hurled their refusal. Again the wild nature of the
irritated man dictated his rejoinder. With a defiant, " When I
come again in peace, I will break down this tower,"4 he passed
on. 1 The answer of the men of Succoth and Penuel strikingly contrasts with
the answer of the children of Gad to the heads of the thousands of Israel,
reported Josh. xxii. 21-29.
3 Judg. viii. 6. The word translated "the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna"
is literally " the palms." In some old versions (e.g. Wycliff's) the distinction
is preserved, " the palmes of the hoondes ben in thine hond." A reference
to the firm grasp of the Midianites is traced by some commentators.
s Judg. viii. 7. 4 Judg. viii. 9.

160 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
He had ascertained that the Midianite princes, surrounded
by their fifteen thousand troops, " all that were left of all the
hosts of the children of the East," " were encamped at a place
called Karkor. Where and what was this Karkor ? " It was
far in the desert, beyond the usual range of the nomadic tribes," *
says Dean Stanley. A more definite description cannot be given.
We know of an ancient town named Karkaria, not far from the
Dead Sea, and only a day's journey from Joktheel or Petra.3
But this is too far south. It is to be observed that the article
should be used in connection with the word — the Karkor. Now,
etymologically, Karkor signifies a walled or enclosed place ;
and possibly the shelter which the kings had found may have
been an extensive walled enclosure erected by the Gadites for the
protection of cattle or sheep. And it is interesting in this
connection to recall that, in the notice of the fenced cities of the
children of Gad in the Book of Numbers, we find the Jogbehah
mentioned in the narrative of Gideon's pursuit among the cities ;
and immediately after the cities there is added the phrase,
" folds for the sheep." 4 The Karkor whose security the
Midianites appropriated may have been a fold in the neighbour
hood of the Jabbok so extensive as to be distinguished as the
Karkor. Be this as it may, the camp of the enemy had been fixed at a
spot far enough from the high road towards the east to set the
Midianites at ease. "The host were secure,"5 says the historian.
Gideon, to escape the observation of outposts, made a wide
circuit. " He went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents "
— following, we infer, a route familiar to the Bedouin, and leading
to Bedouin settlements — "on the east of Nobah," a city belong
ing to the half-tribe of Manasseh, which formerly was called
Kenath, but had received the name of one of the families of
Machir ; 6 and then re-entering the territory of Gad, east of
Jogbehah, one of the fenced cities of that territory.7 The sites
of Nobah and Jogbehah cannot be identified, but the cities
1 Judg. viii. 10.
• " Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church," Lect. xv.
3 So Eusebius and Jerome ; Ewald also favours the view.
* Num. xxxii. 36. 5 Judg. viii. it.
6 Numb, xxxii. 42. The place is now called Kunawat. Nobah has been
supposed to be Nawa, a place on the road to Damascus. But the proba
bilities are that it was the old Israelite town on Mount Bashan.
7 Num. xxxii. 35.

GIDEON : THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS. l6l
were on the eastern frontier of the land of the Israelites ;
and the intrepid warrior selected a route which skirted their
fields, in order that, unnoticed, he might approach and surprise
the army which was wrapped in security. The attack is dis
missed in a single clause, " He smote the host." *
Zebah and Zalmunna are the names of the two kings who
were at its head. In the Book of Joshua it is said that Moses
smote the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned
in Heshbon, with five princes of Midian, who were " dukes of
Sihon, dwelling in the country."" These vassal princes of the
Amorite king were so independent that they are called kings
in an earlier historical book ; 3 and probably, after the dis
memberment of the kingdom of Sihon, their successors, or some
of them, assumed regal rank and power. The two kings who had
fled from Jezreel are presented to us as still surrounded by the
state and dignity of Eastern potentates, even their dromedaries
being richly caparisoned, and having strings of jewelled moons
or crescents hung around their necks. With Oriental indolence
and abandon they are at rest in Karkor, little thinking of
the " Jehovah who is terrible to the kings of the earth." In a
moment, " the stout-hearted are spoiled ; they have slept their
sleep ; none of the men of might find their hands." 4
The assault on the host was made at night. We may suppose
that the tactics of the previous surprise were, to some extent
at least, repeated. The repetition would strike terror, would
awaken the superstitious dread which still clung to the Midian
ites. On a sudden, in the darkness, again the blare of the
trumpets is heard. Again the cry rings forth, " The sword of
the Lord and of Gideon." Panic seizes the troops ; they rush
hither and thither ; they scatter and fly in wild confusion.
Gideon and his warriors penetrate into the interior of the
camp, searching for the two monarchs. The two monarchs
have also fled. He gives chase, and soon arrests them : and
he so terrifies the disorganized army that all resistance is
dropped, the only care being to save dear life.5 The triumph
" Judg. viii. ix.
• Joshua xiii. ai, "The princes of Midian, and Evi, Rekem, and Zur,
and Hur, and Reba, which were dukes of Sihon, dwelling in the country."
3 Numb. xxxi. 8. 4 Psa. lxxvi. 1-5.
5 It is written (chap. viii. ver. 13), " He discomfited all the host" The
verb "discomfited" means "terrified." 12

1 62 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
is complete. The confederacy, once so terrible, is now and for
ever broken. Victory has crowned the march of the brave
water-lappers, " faint, yet pursuing."
Will they not rest now? What means the sentence, "Gideon,
the son of Joash, returned from battle before the sun was up " ?
The Chaldee Targum renders the phrase, " Before the sun
went down." Modern opinion inclines to the view that the
word translated sun, Heres, should be regarded as a proper
noun." It is pointed out that, although it is sometimes, it is not
generally employed to represent the sun." It is pointed out
also that the adverb up is not used in the Hebrew Scriptures to
denote sun-rise, and that, as in " the going up of Akrabbin," 3
it is used of ascent in a mountainous country. Two additional
considerations are urged — the one, that Heres is a name given
to places and mountains, as Timnath- Heres, the residence of
Joshua ; and the other, that Heres was the name of a mountain
north-west of Judah, close to the border of Dan, which, against
the efforts of the children of Dan, the Amorites retained as a
mountain fastness.4 The suggestion, therefore, is pressed that,
in the clause quoted, the historian indicates the return of Gideon
to a mountain or hilly upland for the purpose of recruiting after
the exhausting fatigues of the expedition.5
It may be so, but there is much to be said in favour of the
ordinary reading. " The sun went down " is a Hebrew phrase
ology ; if we translate " the sun was up," we keep to the same
line of figure — the line, indeed, which is observed in Genesis,
where it is written that "the morning arose when the angels
hastened Lot," * and that " the sun was risen or gone forth on
the earth when Lot entered Zoar."7 And it is in harmony with
the swiftness of all Gideon's movements to suppose that, having
captured the two kings, andbroken up the Midianite encampment,
he would at once return to the places on which he had declared
he would empty the vials of his wrath when the Midianite chiefs
were in his possession. Assuming that his attack was made in
1 The Septuagint and the Syriac and Arabic versions so regard the word.
• It is used to denote the sun in poetry : seldom in prose, though it is
thus used in chap. xiv. 18. 3 Judg. i. 36. 4 Judg. i. 35.
5 "Dr. Cassel remarks that, as we have the splendour of. the dawn
(Zareth-Shahar) as the name of a town on the same side of Jordan (Josh.
xiii. 19), we need not be surprised at an ascent of the sun as the name of a
mountain " ("Cambridge Bible").
• Gen. xix. 15. 7 Gen. xix. aa,

GIDEON: THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS. 163
the second watch of the night, the prey would before long be " in
the hands of the mighty." We assume that Penuel and Succoth
were not far distant. Before the day had been fully ushered in
he may have led back his three hundred men, no longer pursu
ing, and the sense of faintness neutralized by the elation of
glorious victory.
The demon of revenge was raging in the breast of Gideon.
Very different was his spirit from that of the Leader of Salva
tion when He prayed for His enemies, " Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." ' But he was an Abiezrite,
who lived eleven centuries before the day of Christ ; the time
to which he belonged was a half- savage time; his upbringing
had been semi-heathen ; and the dastardly conduct of the men
of the Israelite towns had stirred into fierce indignation both
the resolution of the patriot and the zeal of the Jerubbaal.
Yet, grim and ghastly as was the punishment threatened and
inflicted, the severity of the vengeance is lightened by some
gleams of moderation.
It is to be noted, for instance, that he furnishes himself with
a carefully prepared list of the seventy elders, and the seven
princes, or rulers, of Succoth. A young man of the town is
caught, who, on being interrogated and commanded, writes the
names of the threescore and seventeen." Gideon's desire is to
save the townsmen ; his only quarrel is with the chiefs. When
it is said that " he taught (or corrected) the men of Succoth," the
reference is not to the entire population, but, as is implied in the
language of the chronicler, to the elders.3 And we are at Uberty
to infer this also as to the case of Penuel. Resistance to him
there, it would seem, was given by the headmen, and it may have
been by others, from the tower. The tower was battered down ;
and "the men of the city" — the same expression as that
applied to the elders of Succoth, presumably their chief men —
were slain. At all events, in both places the women and chil
dren were spared.
Gideon's threat, when the men of Succoth refused to give his
little army bread, was, " I will tear your flesh with the thorns of
1 Luke xxiii. 34.
• Judg. viii. 14. In the A.V. the phrase is, the young man " described
the princes of Succoth." Literally it is " wrote."
3 Judg. viii. 16, "He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the
wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth."

164 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
the wilderness and with briers." The verb translated " tear "
might be otherwise rendered "thresh," and we are asked by
some critics to interpret the threat as meaning that he would
correct the churlish Israelites by threshing instruments with
sharp points, like thorns of the wilderness and prickly briers.
David subjected the Ammonites of Rabbah to a similar cruelty
when " he put them under saws and harrows of iron " harrows
meaning "threshing instruments having teeth."" Is there a
sufficient reason for questioning the more obvious interpretation
of the words ? Thorny branches in abundance might be
obtained from the acacia groves of the country, and the briers
were a common kind of scrub. A revoltingly harsh revenge he
could take, with the use of these thorns and briers. " The
probability is that the naked bodies of the men were laid in the
midst of a heap of thorns, briers, and prickly bush, and then
threshing sledges or other heavy implements of husbandry
were drawn over them. In Northern nations where the body is
completely covered, the idea of such punishments with thorns on
the naked person seems a far-fetched device ; but in the East,
where the clothing leaves much more of the person exposed,
and where, in consequence, men are continually lacerating their
skins by passing through thickets, the idea of such laceration
is always kept present, either by the actual experience of suffer
ing, or by the constant observation of it. Thus, tearing the flesh
with thorns comes to be a familiar idea of penal infliction, and,
as such,. is still popularly mentioned as among the punishments
which evil-doers deserve or will obtain, not only in this life,
but in the life to come." *
Another gleam of gentler feeling is evidenced in the address
of Gideon to the two captive kings.
Their execution was not the result of that blood-thirstiness
which makes the annals of warfare, epecially in earlier times,
so painful. It was the act rather of the avenger of blood, as
recognized in Israelite law, than of the ruthless and merciless
conqueror. Brothers of the Deliverer of the people had, at some
period either before, during, or after the campaign, been put to
death. It may have been after the victory of Jezreel ; it may
have been at the beginning of the strife when they were en
deavouring to join the army assembling at Ophrah ; it may have
1 Such instruments are mentioned in Isaiah xxviii. 17 and xii. 15.
'" K.t.u's " Pictorial Bible," Judges viii.

GIDEON : THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS. 165
been in the days when the Hebrews were obliged to hide in
dens and caves of mountains. But, at or near Tabor, they had
been put to death. Of this the question put to the kings informs
us. And it has justly been remarked that the incidental notice
of this hitherto unreported event reminds us how much has not
been related which, directly or indirectly, concerns the crisis,
and the knowledge of which would have made the antecedents
and the circumstances of the war more intelligible to us." The
chronicles of Israel are so brief; the tale of transactions and
deeds is so curtly told, that we miss important links in the
chain of narrative.
" What manner of men," demands Gideon, " were they whom
ye slew at Tabor?"" The kings reply with Oriental obse
quiousness. They give him a regal dignity, and intimate that
the slain men resembled him — the same beaming countenance
and native majesty. "As thou art, so were they; each re
sembled the children of a king." 3 Their answer explains the
disappearance of his brothers. Where members of the family
circle having the same father might have different mothers,
those who had the same mother were specially attached to each
other ; and these lion-like men were Gideon's uterine brothers,
whom he had dearly loved. " As the Lord liveth," he exclaims,
" if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you." 4 But to
put the murderers of his kindred to death seemed, according to
the notions of the period, a duty demanded of him. And he
turned to his young son, Jether, "his firstborn," and com
manded, " Up, and slay them."
The boy hesitated; he was "yet a youth."5 His heart
revolted from the task assigned to him. Too gentle, it may be,
for these rough days, Jether has no place in subsequent
history ; and in the light of his " fear to draw the sword " 6 we
can understand why. The unhappy Midianites entreat that
the father, in the fulness of his vigour, should himself be their
executioner. " Rise thou, and fall on us : for as the man is, so
1 In chap. x. 11, 12 reference is made to deliverances not recorded in
the historical books of Scripture. " Such references show the existence of
a real history in the background of that which has been preserved in the
Bible " (" Pulpit Commentary ") . " Judg. viii. 18.
3 Or " the king." The marginal reading is "according to the form of a
Jang." 4 Judg. viii. 1.
* See Numbers xxxv. 19. ' Judg. viii, so.

166 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
is his strength." " Their request is granted ; and the lifeless
corpses of the once puissant Zebah and Zalmunna are the token
that the servitude under which Israel had so long groaned is
ended, and that the emancipation of the national life is com
plete. Here we might have wished that the story ended. But Holy
Scripture is always faithful to fact. The men of the Bible are
only men ; and faults and errors are never concealed. And the
closing portion of Gideon's biography shows how insensibly the
evil steals into the soul, even through what in itself is natural,
or is allied to a purpose goad and pious. The beginning
of the deterioration has been traced to the action with regard
to the men of Succoth and Penuel. That, it is held, indicated
the relaxation of the spell by which the look of Jehovah had
bound the mighty man. He ceased then to be the man of faith ;
he fell to the level of the man of sense. And no doubt this is
so far true. But the decline (let us not exaggerate it; there is
the stamp of the " Israelite indeed" to the end) may rather date
from the moment when the covetous glance was cast on " the
ornaments that were on the camels' necks."" These ornaments,
as has been remarked, were a part of the Arab royal state. They
were small crescents, or moons, of gold and silver, with chains
and bronzes.3 He on whom Jehovah himself had gazed and
sent him forth in His might ; he who, through summer heat
and notwithstanding manifold privations, had toiled, intent
only on his God-appointed service ; he who had headed the
water-lappers, himself the most abstinent of all, bestows long
ing glances on these little moons. And they are stripped from
the necks of the dromedaries, and borne away in triumph by
him and his three hundred. The wiles of the Midianites had
conquered Israel in the past ; the gold and the wealth of the
Midianites were now an evil and a curse to the people re
deemed from the hand of the enemy. This we shall presently
see. • Judg. \rlii. 21. ¦ Judg. viii. 21.
3 In the 26th verse of the chapter, " chains about the camels' necks "
are mentioned. Ornaments were also taken from the person of the kings.
In Isaiah iii. 18, among the signs of female vanity are mentioned " round
tires like the moon." " The custom of adorning the necks of their camels
with gold chains and ornaments prevailed among the Arabs so late as the
time of Mahomet, and part of the Prophet's booty after the taking of
Caibar consisted of such jewels " (" Speaker's Commentary "),

GIDEON : THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE KINGS. 167
Thus, after a short, brilliant, and decisive campaign, Gideon,
surnamed Jerubbaal, returned to Ophrah. We can imagine the
welcome which awaited him there ! We can imagine the
emotion with which he would visit the wine-press where he had
threshed the wheat, and the terebinth under which had sat the
Holy One who looked on him. What a change ! Jehovah
was God. He had remembered His people, and had, through
him and by the strength which he had communicated, raised up
"an horn of salvation." At the altar which his own hands had
reared, the patriot presented his Laus Deo.

CHAPTER XVIII.
GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE.
The national sentiment reflected in the offer of a hereditary rule— The new
sense of national unity — Considerations favourable to the idea of a
succession of rulers in Gideon's family — Monarchy contemplated in the
Book of the Law, and the conditions prescribed there — The attitude
of Samuel when the elders of Israel demanded a king — The domina
ting reason of his displeasure — The answer to his prayer, and what this
answer implied — Gideon's feeling similar to that of Samuel — The
offer of the crown a great temptation — Two kinds of ambition —
Gideon's election— A grand decision ; but tokens in the narrative of a
royal state, and of moral deterioration — Three such tokens : First, his
house with its surrounding ; many wives and children. Second, the
name set to one of his sons, Abimelech. Third, his request when he
declined the hereditary rule, willingly yielded to by the men of Israel —
The ephod : its symbolical significance — Why Gideon determined to
make and put the ephod in Ophrah : Gratitude, Piety, Policy — The
result of the act deplorable — The current of movements sometimes bears
men. beyond, even contrary to, their original intention — Israel made
to sin — The snare to Gideon and his house — Gideon's rule and its
beneficial character — The close of the life, and the burial in the
sepulchre of Joash.
TRIUMPHANT, and bearing splendid trophies of his triumph,
Gideon recrosses the Jordan. Whether he was the object of a
great popular enthusiasm, and in what manner any such en
thusiasm was expressed, we are not informed. The narratives
of Holy Scripture omit much that bulks largely in other nar
ratives. What does not seem essential to their purpose finds no
place in the page. But one thing is mentioned, and in it we
see the reflection of the national sentiment. He is asked to
accept the position of ruler. The word " king " is not used ; but

GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE 169
the reality signified by the word is formally and solemnly
offered. And not for himself only, but for his family also. For
the first time in Israel's history the idea of a hereditary, dynastic
government is articulated. Possibly an assembly of the tribes,
as represented by the princes and elders, was summoned and
was held, the result of whose deliberation was the unanimous
request : " Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy
son's son also : for thou hast delivered us from the hand of
Midian.'" In that hour of recovered freedom and prosperity, the nation
felt that its urgent necessity was a strong and continuous central
power. It is " the men of Israel" who ask the son of Joash to
constitute this power. The phrase " the men of Israel " is to be
interpreted in harmony with the phrases previously used, " the
men of Succoth" and "the men of Penuel." It points to the
head-men, the princes and elders of the people ; and not the
Manassites only, the Ephraimites and others ; — the men repre
sent Israel. The success of the great leader has drawn them
for the time together ; it has softened the pride of Ephraim, has
touched the commercial spirit of Dan and Asher with a new
emotion," has quickened the valour of Zebulun and Naphtali,3
has even drawn Gilead out of its seclusion beyond Jordan.4
A spirit of fellowship, the esprit de corps which, under the years
of servitude, had almost died out, is stirred into vitality ; and to
all it seems obvious that he who had ventured so much, and
had planned with such marvellous wisdom and boldness, is the
true Heart, and the true Head also, of the land. He shall be the
visible bond and pledge of union ; his authority shall be supreme
over all ; his trumpet shall be the call to arms ; his judgment
shall be the arbiter of disputes ; his genius shall be the inspira
tion of all that is free and chivalrous. He has proved his right
to be thus enthroned, and the enthronement seems the condition
of that order which is both truth and liberty. And the pre
sumption is that the children of such a head will inherit some
measure of the father's force and spirit. They will at least
" Judg. viii. 22.
" In Deborah's song (Judges v. 17) it is written, " Why did Dan remain
in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his creeks."
3 Judg. v. 17, "Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded
their lives unto the death in the high places of the field."
4 Judg. v. 17, " Gilead abode beyond Jordan."

170 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
perpetuate the tradition of his noble daring, and thus be, in
themselves, an embodiment of imperishable memories. More
over, the succession of rule delegated to them will save from the
chaos which must follow the ruler's death. The acknowledg
ment of that succession will prevent intrigues on the part of
ambitious and unscrupulous men, and tribal jealousies with all
the evils which must appear in their train. Is it not better at
once to extend the call to the generations to come ? To do so
marks the fulness of their confidence in Gideon, and interprets
the hope of a continuity of national policy : " Rule thou, and
thy son, and thy son's son."
In the Book of Deuteronomy, the establishment of monarchy
when Israel should come into the land given it by the Lord is
contemplated and provided for. The day would come, it is
announced, when the people would desire to be like all the
nations around them, and, it is added, that the wish should be
acceded to. The stipulations are laid down that the king
elected must not be a stranger, must not multiply horses, must
not multiply wives, must not multiply silver and gold, and must
" write him a copy of the law," and " diligently observe the
law."" Does not the election of Gideon and his house to the
sovereignty of the land prove that the clock has struck the
hour predicted in the Scripture of the Hebrews ? Is not the
Vox populi in this instance the Vox Deif
Very striking is the attitude of Samuel when, at a later
period, the Israelites did demand that they should have a king
like the nations around them. Before we regard Gideon's
declinature we may observe this attitude, and the Divine word
concerning it. We shall thus be reminded of the standpoint of
the Israelite indeed — that of Gideon in the declinature.
" The thing," we are told, "displeased Samuel when they said,
Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord." *
No doubt a personal feeling was an element of this displeasure.
The demand was ungracious ; apparently it ignored the faithful
service which Samuel had rendered to Israel. It implied the
exclusion of his family from government : it implied that his
function as a judge should cease. 3 To a man who had given
his whole strength to his work, who had defrauded none, op-
¦ Deut. xvii. 14-20. " 1 Sam. viii. 6.
s The elders, indeed, say, "Thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy
ways ; now make us a king."

GIDEON ! THE JUDGESHIP — LIGHT AND SHADE 17 1
pressed none, whose hand had never received a bribe to blind
his eyes therewith," this could not be otherwise than painful.
But the personal feeling was only an element ; it was not the
chief determining cause of the prayer to Jehovah. The domi
nating impulse of the appeal to Heaven was the instinct of the
true prophet — the instinct afterwards interpreted by Elijah,
when he said, " I have been very jealous for the Lord God of
hosts." " The conduct of the Israelites seemed to be a denial
of the first principle of the Theocracy — that the King of Israel
was Jehovah, and none besides.
And the answer returned to the prayer confirmed the impres
sion — " They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me,
that I should reign over them." 3 The petition of the elders of
Israel, in the form in which it was presented, ignored the real
seat and source of the Kingly Power. They wished a king to
judge them after the fashion of the heathen nations by which
they were surrounded. They wished a general to lead their
armies, and arbitrate in all their concerns. In their desire
there was no acknowledgment of the Invisible Ruler, no con
sultation of Him, no expression of faith that He could and
would raise up a prophet like to Moses and Samuel ; no craving
that their leader might be a different kind of person from a
leader of the heathen, that he might be the reflection of the
Higher Lordship in respect of which they were separated from
all other peoples. The Divine Oracle told Samuel to recognize
in their actions the tendency which had been manifest from the
beginning of their history — the tendency to substitute the visible
for the invisible, to lose the ideal truth of Israel, and sink
to the level of the nations. Their conduct in pleading for a king
was " according to all the works which they had done since the
day that the Lord brought them out of Egypt unto that day,
wherewith they had forsaken Him and served other gods." 4
The error consisted not in the substance, but in the manner
of the request. To wish a more stable government— one which
gave greater securities for vigour of administration, prompitude
of purpose, and unity of tribal action, was right and patriotic.
But the elders of the people broke loose from the basis of the
nation, when they failed to recognize the Supreme King, and
to ask for one who should be the captain of the Lord's host,
• I Sam. xii. 3. ' 1 Kings xix. 10.
3 1 Sam. viii. 7. 4 1 Sam. viii. 9.

173 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
responsible to Him, and judging in His name. The throne of
the king whom they asked was to be to them a substitute for
the Mercy Seat, as the throne of the Unseen Ruler, where He
met and communed with His flock through His ministers. The
mercy seat, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifice, the Urim
and Thummim — theoretically the centre of the whole people
— had ceased to be so. The lamp of God was dim and low in
the temple of Jehovah, where the ark of God was," and the
importunity for a warrior-king, like the king of the heathen
nations, was virtually the sign that the popular mind had lost
sight of the real foundation and strength of Israel. " They
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me." Neverthe
less, the instruction was to hearken to their voice, protesting
solemnly, and showing the manner of the king for whom they
pleaded. A strong will and arm had come to be necessary :
they sought what was necessary in a wrong way ; but it must
be conceded ; and, out of royalties, some of which would be a
travesty, some a dark counterfeit, some a feeble likeness of the
true king, would emerge the Reality, whose pattern is in the
heavens ; the man who reigns in righteousness, and who is
" an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ;
as rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land." "
Gideon, at the period of our present contemplation of him, is
the Israelite indeed. He has the same consciousness as that
mirrored in the prayer of Samuel : his self-denial, when pressed
to mount the throne and become the " father of kings," is one
of the noblest incidents of history ; it has been remarked, and
not without cause, that " we may almost look in vain for parallels
to it." 3 It was a great temptation ; one which proved the
quality of a man's mind, which divided asunder soul and spirit,
joints and marrow, and was a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart I " There are two kinds of ambition,"
1 Cf. I Sam. iii. 3. • Isaiah xxxii. 1-2.
3 Cambridge Bible : " Moses and Joshua might have made themselves
kings, but they were never invited to do so. Cincinnatus returned quietly
to his farm when his dictatorship ended, but it was never offered to him as
an hereditary dignity. Caesar's refusal of the crown was dictated by policy
rather than principle. The same may be said of Oliver Cromwell. To
Washington the opportunity of founding a dynasty was never given.
Gideon's conduct displays not only disinterestedness, but faith of a high
order."

GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE. 173
writes Carlyle, " one wholly blameable, the other laudable and
inevitable. The selfish wish to shine over others, let it be
accounted altogether poor and miserable. 'Seekest thou great
things for thyself,' seek them not — this is most true. And yet
there is an irrepressible tendency in every man to develop
himself according to the magnitude which nature has made him
of, to speak out, to act out what nature has laid on him. This
is proper, fit, inevitable ; nay, it is a duty and even the summary
of duties for a man. The meaning of life here on earth might
be defined as consisting in this — to unfold yourself, to work
what thing you have the faculty for. It is a necessity for the
human being — the first law of its existence. Coleridge beauti
fully remarks that the infant learns to speak by the necessity it
feels." " Gideon is tested by the summons of the men of Israel
Shall he leap into the hereditary ruler's chariot, and thus hug
the blameable ambition, " seeking great things for himself"?
We could not have said that to have done so was " wholly
blameable." There was much not only to excuse, but, it might
be affirmed, even to justify it. He had not sought the great
thing. Rather, the great thing had sought him. And its ac
ceptance would give him a vantage ground which could not be
challenged. But he had beheld the vision of the Eternal. He
had seen the angel of God face to face. He had gone in the
strength of the look which Jehovah had fixed on him. He had
been only the instrument of the King of Israel. He dared not
assume the purple of potentates like the Zebah and the Zal
munna whom he had captured. No : " According to the
magnitude which nature " — and grace — " had made him of,"
he would develop himself. He would rule, but only as Jehovah's
servant. The reply, swift and straight as his movements were
wont to be, is given, " I will not rule over you, neither shall my
son rule over you : the Lord shall rule over you."
It was a grand decision. But poor human nature can seldom
tarry long on the heights of such grandeur. A hereditary
principality was declined; but Gideon did not retire to his
farm like the Roman Cincinnatus. He did not continue to
judge Israel under a palm tree, like Deborah. On the contrary,
there are tokens, in the brief notice of his latter days, of a state
and importance bordering on the regal, and tokens, it must be
added, of a tendency to overstep the bounds of rule in the fear
¦ " Lecture on Heroes," Lect. vi.

174 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
of God, and of that moral deterioration which too often follows
great prosperity. Let us notice these tokens.
" Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went and dwelt in his own
house."" Hitherto, he had lived under the paternal roof. But
now a residence of a more pretentious character is built — it may
have been by the direction and at the cost of the men of Israel
And there he lives with the style and surrounding of a prince.
We have seen that one of the prohibitions contained in the
ordinance regarding the king who might be chosen was directed
against the multiplication of wives. This was a way of heathen
royalties. Parents were always willing to give their fairest
daughters to the monarch ; and, for political reasons, as well as
for pleasure, it was sometimes regarded as expedient to enlarge
the alliances of the monarch. Israel's history is a standing
testimony to the evils of polygamy. Solomon's huge array of
wives and concubines turned away his heart after other gods."
David's life was overshadowed by sin caused through the multi
plying of wives ; and out of his family life came the direst
troubles and calamities of his reign. Gideon, who had resisted
the attractions of a throne, could not resist other attractions.
His harem was magnificent as that of an Oriental royalty. A
very township must have grown up around his own house, to
contain his many wives with their many children. We read of
" threescore and ten sons of his body begotten," 3 and we are
told of at least one son not included in this enumeration, and
no doubt there were daughters besides. Tragedies, in this wide
circle, were inevitable ; these tragedies brought lamentation and
woe to the country after his decease.4 And the ruler was him
self morally enervated. He who headed the water-lappers at
Jezreel becomes corrupted by sensual indulgence ; and, possibly,
the idolatry which, under an altered guise, again stole into the
life of Israel, was encouraged with the view of providing for
the enormous expense of the household and establishment which
transformed the once simple rural Ophrah into the seat of both
a court and a temple.
An incident in the brief chronicle of the judgeship of Gideon
suggests that, though the kingly title was not claimed, there was
a craving after the kingly position. A woman of Shechem,
perhaps a Canaanite, and not therefore ranking among wives of
1 Judg. viii. 29. ¦ 1 Kings xi. 4.
3 Judg. viii. 30. 4 Cf. chapter ix.

GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE. 1 75
the first degree, bore a son to Gideon, " whose name he called
Abimelech." " The verb translated " called," literally means
set. It was not, we may suppose, the circumcision name ; but
one set to him at a later period. It was not assumed by the
young man himself ; nor was it given to him by the people of
Shechem ; nor yet by his mother's family." Gideon set the
name, which was the official name of a line of kings of Gerar,3
and which may be rendered either " Father of a king," or " My
father, a king.'' If we accept the former rendering, it may
signify the projection of the father's thought about his son —
" He shall be a king, and the new designation will remind him
of the fatherhood, whence came the patents of the royalty."
If we accept the latter, it may have been intended to indicate
that, though uncrowned, he, the father, had been the king.
In either case it is at least striking that the son who afterwards
did grasp at the throne which Gideon declined for his family as
for himself, should, by Gideon's act, be formally charged with a
name associated, both in etymology and history, with the con
ception of royal power and dignity.
A third notice concerning Gideon, in the period subsequent
to the capture of the king, is of special significance. When
he declined the crown which was offered him, he " desired a
request " of the men of Israel. Well had it been for him, well
for them, well for the whole country, if that request had never
been made, or if it had been denied, and if he had returned to
the poverty of his family in Manasseh. The request was that
every one would give him the prey which he had taken from the
vanquished Midianites. To explain why the prey was so great
and costly, it is said, " They had golden earrings because they
were Ishmaelites." 4 They belonged to regions famous for
cattle, and for gold and precious stones.5 The love of rings for
" Judg. viii. 31. The position of this woman, called by Josephus ("Anti
quities of the Jews") Drumah, was similar to that of Hagar in Abraham's
household. But it is said that this inferior wife of Gideon resided in
Shechem. » Cf. Neh. ix. 7 : " Thou didst choose Abram . . . and settest him the
name of Abraham." The suggestion is, a surname, or a name additional
to the one given in infancy. Cf. also 2 Kings xviii. 34 ; Dan. v. 12.
3 Gen. xx. ^.
4 Judg. viii. 24. The " Children of the East " were sometimes compre
hended under the name Ishmaelites.
5 Arabia had its gold mines— " The gold of Ophir."

176 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
ear or for nose was a characteristic feature of Arab peoples,"
and the spoil which the Israelites had gathered in the deserted
camp was immense. Gideon asked that this spoil be surren
dered to him, and the answer returned was, " We will willingly
give it." A garment — may we suppose the ruler's military cloak?"
— was spread, and into it every man cast his share of the golden
rings. A most valuable pile ! The weight of the nose-rings which
formed it was " a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold,"
equal to more than .£3,000 sterling.3 Besides, there were small
crescents similar to those which had been stripped from the
dromedaries of the kings, and pendants or ear-drops, and chains 4
which had hung around the necks of camels ; and, rarer than
all, a variety of the costly purple which was worn only by
kings.5 Never had such wealth been gathered and presented
to a son of Israel as the wealth that day gathered and presented
to the son of Joash.
What was his object in " desiring the request " thus complied
with? It has been said that "in this desire for gold, he falls
to the level of ordinary men." 6 But his was not an ordinary
craving for gold. He asked it as a means to an extraordinary
end, and one which probably, in its inception in his own mind
and in his original intention, did not aim at the mere enrichment
of himself and his family. " He made an ephod " of the gifts
of the elders, "and put it in his city, even in Ophrah." 7
The ephod was the part of the priestly dress which, in the
popular imagination, was most intimately associated with the
priesthood. It was always worn by the high priest when he
asked counsel of the unseen Judge by Urim and Thummim-
' It is characteristic of Arab peoples stilL Even the Bedouin of the
desert have their ear or nose rings and other ornaments.
* It is the outer garment — the shawl or cloak, that is pointed to. Dean
Stanley (Lect. xv.) writes, " His vast military mantle receives the spoils of
the whole army."
-, The ring presented to Rebekah weighed half a shekel (Gen. xxiv. 22).
The shekel was more than twice the weight of a sovereign in sterling money.
Assuming that the rings were as heavy as Rebekah's, those thrown into the
pile would represent rings taken from 3,400 bodies.
4 Chains are mentioned as ornaments of woman's and man's necks —
Cant. iv. 9 ; Prov. i. 9.
* The renowned Tyrian purple, made from a shell-fish found in the
Mediterranean. 4 "Speaker's Commentary.'' 7 Judg. viii. 27.

GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE. I77
There was a beautiful symbolism in all its prominent features.
The onyx stones which connected its two parts — the one cover
ing the front and the other the back — were set " in ouches of
gold," " graven as signets are graven with the names of the
children of Israel ; " the breastplate fastened " by wreathen
chains " to the ouches on the shoulders and bound " with a lace
of blue" that it might never be loosed, with its four rows of
precious stones, each row consisting of three stones, and the
twelve tribes memorialized on the stones ; the "curious girdle,"
below which hung the bells and pomegranates, "round about
the hem of the robe "—the bells to ring and make music as the
priest ministered and went into the holy place ; — these, the
marked points of the garment, appealed to the eye and
the imagination of the Israelite." The son of Manasseh had
only a slight acquaintance with Shiloh and its sacrifices. To
him the priest, in his function and service, was almost an
unknown person. But the ephod was the outstanding sign of
acts in which some relation to the Invisible was established.
It seemed to be necessary to this relation. The suggestion,
indeed, was that it — not the one who was clothed with it, or
the office which it expressed, but itself — constituted a medium
between God and man. Micah, of Mount Ephraim, made an
ephod for the house of his gods : he assured himself of the
favour of Heaven when the wandering Levite entered that house
arrayed in the ephod." Gideon, with visions of worship and of
responses by Urim and Thummim, utilizes the nose-rings and
ornaments, and eardrops, and purple raiment, once worn by
Midian's kings, in making an ephod and putting it, or setting it
up, in Ophrah.
Three reasons may have operated in the determination to
make this ephod ; — these three, Gratitude, Piety, Policy.
This Ophrah was a memorable place to him. Bethel, one of
Israel's primitive sanctuaries, was the scene of Jacob's dream,
and the place in which he reared the altar, El-Bethel. Was
not the Abiezrite village a place equally hallowed? Had not
God appeared to him there ? there sent him ? there pledged
the deliverance of the people ? The two altars told a wondrous
tale : the one spoke of Jehovah-shalom ; the other was the
witness for the work perpetuated in the name Jerubbaal. Is
pot this the house of God ? His experience answers, Yes ; his
» Exod. xxviii. 4-36. ? Judg. xvii. 13.

178 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
soul says, Yes. Let it be distinguished then as a holy place ; there
let the ephod, the sign of the house of God, be set ; let it wait
for the priest whom God will send. He must suitably me
morialize the great events which have occurred ; and what
memorial can be more suitable than the vestment which belongs
to the worship of Jehovah, and testifies to Him as against Baal
and those that are -no gods ?
Thus, the making of the ephod was a pious work. Let us
believe that it was the interpretation of a genuinely pious
feeling. The connection of the statement of the desire for
the earrings with the refusal of the hereditary rule on the
ground that Jehovah was the only Ruler over Israel, suggests
that, in this desire, Gideon had regard to Jehovah's glory. He
may have thought that, by devoting the spoil to a religious
purpose, he was teaching the people that their homage was due
to the Unseen King, that by Him the victory had been gained,
and to Him its fruits should be dedicated." His experience,
too, of God's favour, and of the blessedness of the man whom
God caused to approach to Himself, may have prompted the
wish to have the constituted means of communion with God —
the Urim and Thummim— at hand. The ideal of a ruler, as
sketched in the instruction concerning Joshua, was that he
should stand before the priest and obtain counsel through the
priest "after the judgment of Urim before the Lord."" Are
we not at liberty to infer that Gideon wished to realize this
ideal ? And, with regard to the people, in placing the richly
jewelled and beautifully constructed ephod in Ophrah, was it
not practically a way of withdrawing their interest from the
false worship, and binding them anew to the covenant which
had been established with their fathers, and laid down for their
obedience in the ordinances of Moses ?
No doubt, a political consideration entered into his resolu
tion. Shiloh, where the tent of meeting was placed, was in the
territory of the tribe of Ephraim ; and though the anger of the
men of that tribe had abated towards him, Gideon knew how
uncertain their temper was. His access to the priest at Shiloh
* In Numbers xxxi. there is the account of a great spoiling of the
Midianites. And the officers come to Moses, and say, " We have
brought an oblation for the Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels
of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an
atonement for our souls before the Lord." " Numb, xxvii. x8-zi.

GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE. 1 79
could not be constant and direct. It was, probably, part of his
policy to reduce the pretensions of the haughty Ephraimites,
and to keep more fully within his own control the power exer
cised by the national religion. Politicians, from a purely
political point of view, have in all times recognized that forces
so strong and penetrative in their action as religious forces should
be under the influence of the State, that there should be an alli
ance in some form between religion and authority. Gideon, who
was a statesman as well as a warrior, may have been guided by
this view ; and, in taking the step he took, he was aided by the
neglect of the tent of meeting which had become prevalent,
and by the absence of the priesthood from all that marked the
enterprise of the nation. No priest had read to his troops the
prescribed proclamations before battle. No priest had asked
counsel for him before the Lord. After the death of the
illustrious Phinehas, the high priest had almost disappeared
from public view. Possibly Gideon resented the apathy of
the priests and Levites to him and his mission. More pro
bably, he felt that a new impetus must be given to the national
worship if it was to direct the national life, if it was to mark the
visibility of Jehovah's rule over Israel. And, with the view of
promoting such an impetus in a manner which would at the
same time increase his authority and make his Ophrah the
seat of a new power, Gideon, we conceive, put the ephod in his
city. Whatever his motives may have been — and it is only justice
to him to suppose that they were not selfish or sinister — the
result of his action was deplorable. He made Israel to sin,
though his intention assuredly was opposed to this. The good
intention is not sufficient. Human nature, in its wilfulness, is
sometimes too strong for its teachers. Movements, when once
originated, sometimes bear those who are in their current
far beyond, indeed in directions never contemplated by, the
thought of the originators. Sometimes the originators are
themselves led whither, in the beginning, they protested
against its being possible that they could go. This has been
abundantly verified in both ecclesiastical and political history
The evidences of it are most conspicuous in our own day. To
glance at only one. No more touching and, in many ways,
noteworthy book has been published within the last half-
Century than Dr. Newman's " Apologia pro Vita Suq.* The

180 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
history of the religious opinions given in it is fitly interpreted
in the words to be found in its preface. Referring to the vague
impression that his conduct towards the Anglican Church,
while he was a member of it, " was inconsistent with Christian
simplicity and uprightness," he says : " An impression of this
kind was almost unavoidable under the circumstances of the
case, when a man who had written strongly against a cause
and had collected a party round him by virtue of such writings,
gradually faltered in his opposition to it, unsaid his words,
threw his own friends into perplexity and their proceedings
into confusion, and ended by passing over to the side of those
whom he had so vigorously denounced." " Dr. Newman has
drawn the outline of a picture which, with more or less variety
of detail, has been frequently realized. Jerubbaal is not a sinner
above all others. He who had overthrown Baal prepares,
through his inconsiderate, though well-meant, zeal, for the
return of his nation to the service of Baal. His personal in
fluence and his widespread fame drew the people to the ephod
which he had placed, and the ministrations conducted in con
nection with it. He himself meant that the sanctuary of
Ophrah should lead to God : gradually it led away from God.
Superstition, like a deadly serpent, coiled around the cult he
had established. Farther and farther this cult departed from the
ritual and the truth of Israelite worship. For a time, he might
not observe the departure : if he observed, he might doubt as
to the way of its growth. From protest he might slide into
acquiescence, and gradually into a more positive sanction of
usages which, at an earlier period, he would have condemned.
And thus, having misled others, he and his became themselves
misled. He had effected a political unity : he was guilty of a
great religious schism. In the emphatic language of the Scrip
ture, "All Israel went a whoring after his ephod: which thing
became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house."
Very striking is the phrase, " which thing became a snare." "
' "Apologia pro Vita Sua," p. 4.
* In chap. ii. 3 the angel of Jehovah protests to the Israelites, " The
gods of the people of the land will be a snare to you." There, as in other
passages (Exod. x. 7, xxiii. 33 ; 1 Sam. xviii. 21), the snare involves such a
complication as leads to destruction. The idolatrous worship of the ephod,
with the image or the teraphim with which probably it was associated, led to
the ruin of Gideon's family.

GIDEON : THE JUDGESHIP— LIGHT AND SHADE l8l
The rich ephod trapped the wise man. His wisdom could not
keep him out of the trap. He had lost the consciousness o|
the look of Jehovah. Wisdom, with will-worship, is powerless
against the seduction of idolatry in one form or another. And
the ephod speaks of will-worship. He deviated from the Divine
order ; and such deviations, however slight at first, increase
and widen, until the original idea is parted from. Even what,
in itself, should point beyond itself is corrupted into an end.
The serpent of brass which memorialized a notable event of
the wilderness became, in the course of years, a snare, because
an idolatrous character was attached to it, and to it the people
burnt incense. And the good king called it Nehushtan — meaning
a mere piece of brass — and he broke it into fragments.1 The
best things may ensnare, unless the mind is prepared to obey
God, and observe His ordinances in the way of His appoint
ment It is never safe, though there be much to encourage
and even justify it, to swerve from the path of precept. Precept
and promise are in closest neighbourhood : when we wander
from the one, we lose the key of the other. " Never man,"
writes Bishop Hall, "meant better than Gideon in his rich
ephod ; yet this very act set all Israel a whoring. God had
chosen a place and a service of His own. When the wit of
man will be overpleasing God with better devices than His
own, it turns to madness and ends in mischief." "
And now the story of the life hastens to its close. Of the
judgeship of Gideon and the development of Israel under that
judgeship scarcely anything is said. The only notice taken is
the brief sentence, " The country was in quietness forty years." 3
No band of Midianites was seen on the fertile plain of Esdra
elon ; no enemy from north or south disturbed the repose of the
land. "The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon" could not be
forgotten. A moral cancer was eating out the pith of national
well-being ; but its work was unobserved. The wise and good
might feel that for the quietness in which they rejoiced they
were, under God, indebted to the one man whose sway was
acknowledged by all ; that his decease was certain to bring
about disunion and chaos. But, during the four decades of
« 3 Kings xviii. 4. • " Contemplations," Book ix. cap. 7.
3 Judg. viii. 28. The frequent employment of the numeral 40 suggests
that it may not record the exact number of years, but may be " a round
qumber."

1 82 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
Jerubbaal's ascendancy, " Israel dwelt safely : the fountain of
Jacob was on a land of corn and wine ; also his heavens dropt
down dew."'
But the inevitable did come, though not until many years
had passed over the head of the deliverer of his people. " In a
good old age" he died, his children surrounding him, the nation
weeping, " My father, my father ! " Pious hands laid the
remains of the once mighty man in the sepulchre of Joash ;
and Ophrah was left, with its ephod, with the house in which
he had lived, with the family ; but without the one whose
prowess had shed lustre on what would otherwise have been
a village of the Abiezrites, unnoticed and unknown. Its re
nowned person was a man never to be forgotten — one who, in
his far past time, and in the narrow theatre which Palestine
afforded, shone like a star in the firmament of God — ¦
"One of those great spirits
Who go down like suns,
And leave upon the mountain-tops of death
A light that makes them lovely."

1 Deut. xxxiii. 28.
" " There is a sweetness and nobleness blended with his courage, such as
lifts us into a higher region : something of the past greatness of Joshua,
something of the future grace of David ' ('' Lectures on the History of the
Je vish Church," Lect. xv.).

CHAPTER XIX.
GIDEON : WHAT HAPPENED " AS SOON AS HE WAS DEAD."
The character and effect of his rule — Apparently, there was no striking
disturbance of harmony for some years after his decease : but the
tendency to idolatry operated in apostacy to the worship of Baal-
berith — How Gideon had prepared for this— The craving for a visible
god — The warning sounded for all times — St. Paul's expression of the
teaching conveyed — Baal, and the types of Baal-worship indicated in
the historical books — The parody of the true worship in the form
adopted by the men of Shechem — Covenant, in what is it rooted ? —
The contrast between the man-god and the God-man — Mr. Maurice's
entreaty — The lapse of Israel " the certain presage of slavery."
Gideon had done a great work. He had reformed the nation.
He had proclaimed Jehovah the God and King of Israel. He
had restored the consciousness of the unity of the tribes. His
rule had been generally acknowledged. The pride of Ephraim
had been held in check. It had been obliged, though perhaps
with sullen temper, to acknowledge the ascendancy of Manasseh
and its hero; to recognize in Ophrah, the hitherto obscure village
of the Abiezrite, the seat of government and even the centre of
worship. For forty years the land had enjoyed its Sabbath.
No hostile attack menaced it from without ; no internal feud
and foray reddened its fields with the blood of its people.
Universal, and apparently profound, was the tranquillity when
the sepulchre was closed in which had reverently been laid the
remains of one of the noblest of national heroes — the illustrious
Jerubbaal." 1 The name Jerubbaal becomes the prominent name in the later part of
the narrative concerning Gideon and his house. It is the only name given
to the hero in the ninth chapter. The overthrow of the altar of Baal was
the event which appealed to the national imagination. It has been con-

1 84 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
The narrative seems to imply that the disturbance of political
order and social harmony, caused by the usurpation of Abime
lech, did not occur for some years after the death of Gideon.
We can scarcely suppose that a sanctuary of Baal, so near to
Ophrah as Shechem, would have been allowed, or that this
sanctuary would have been endowed with the gifts and votive
offerings of people, during his rule ; and therefore, when we
read of a house of Baal at Shechem, from which the men of
the city took " threescore and ten pieces of silver " to aid
the usurper, it is inferred by some writers that the erection and
enrichment of the house were subsequent to the decease of the
overthrower of Baal. If so, we must allow for the lapse of
a considerable time, during which the seventy sons continued
to live in Ophrah, and the people to dwell in security under
their vines and fig-trees. But the absence of the strong arm
was slowly but surely felt. When there was no king in Israel,
the tendency was for every man to do what was right in his
own eyes. And the history sets before us the operation of that
cause of disorganization and evil with which we are only too
familiar — the apostacy from the Covenant God into the
idolatry of a Deity of Covenants, a type of Baal-worship
signified by the phrase Baal-berith.
As has already been indicated, Gideon had prepared for this
apostacy by the great mistake of his life. A strange incon
sistency, indeed, that he who had destroyed the worship of the
false should yet have provided for the return to that worship !
In the national priesthood and the sacrifices of the tabernacle
lay the securities for the acknowledgment of Jehovah and His
law. Instead of strengthening, Gideon had weakened these
securities. The priesthood had, before his day, lost its power :
it had ceased to be the accepted medium between the people
and the Eternal Wisdom and Holiness. It was still further
obscured by the simulacrum which he set up in the Holy Place
beside the terebinth. Shiloh was displaced by Ophrah, with its
ephod and teraphim. These offered a visibility of the Divine.
And Israel craved for some visibility." The worship of the
jectured, by way of accounting for the exclusive use of the Jerubbaal name
in the ninth chapter, that the biography of Abimelech is taken from another
source than the previous history.
" As illustrated in the idolatry of the golden calf in the wilderness. When
Moses "delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered

GIDEON : WHAT HAPPENED " AS SOON AS HE WAS DEAD." 185
true God was too severe, too sublime. It went a whoring after
the vestment, with the images which were possibly connected
with it. It was on the down-grade to the service of the Baalim
and the Asherah.
"And it came to pass that, as soon as Gideon was dead,
the children of Israel turned again."" "As soon as he was
dead" — the one man who had stood between them and the sin !
His personal influence was the only preventive. Israel, like
other nations, was a hero-worshipper. It kept in the right way
so long as the hero was spared and he led in that way. But
the bent was towards the evil. It was prone to go quickly out
of the Divine path. It had been turned to God, but the
repentance was not after a godly sort. It did so, following
its hero. The hero gone, the reaction at once set in. Does not
the ancient chronicle sound a warning for all times ? The
apostle apprehended the warning when he protested that he
would not have the faith of those whom he had begotten
through the gospel stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God;" when he besought them not to glory in men,
not to magnify those by whom they believed, but to see that the
ground of all their confidence was the entire surrender of them
selves to the Holy Spirit of the promise. His seal, he would
teach us, is the only effectual authentication of the message ;
His work is the only earnest and confirmation of the inheritance.
They who would possess the truth must be possessed by the
truth — must have it, not for the sake of another or on the word
of another, but for the truth's own sake. The human soul is
not the property of any, however mighty or noble or wise. It
is the property of the Eternal. " All things are yours ; whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas. . . . And ye are Christ's ; and
Christ is God's." 3
"The children of Israel made Baal-berith their God."4
" Baal-berith " means Lord of the Covenant. We have several
types of Baal set before us in the Old Testament books. For
themselves together unto Aaron, and said, Up, make us gods which shall
go before us." They demanded a visible form ; and the form selected was
the one with which they had become familiar in Egypt— the ox-worship of
Egypt, whose rites at Heliopolis and at Memphis they knew. Jeroboam
reverted to this type of idolatry when he set up his golden calves in Bethel
and in Dan (1 Kings xii. 28-30). " Judg. viii. 33.
» 1 Cor. ii. 5. 3 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. 4 Judg. viii. an.

1 86 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES Or ISRAEL.
Moab and Midian, there is Peor — " the opening " — to whose
sacrifices Israel joined himself in the wilderness.1 The Phili
stines of Ekron had their Zebub, " the fly," a divinity to which
an Israelite king sent to inquire." The Baal-worship was the
worship of Power ; and different modifications or aspects of
Power were incorporated into it. Is there not a parody of the
true worship in the form which the men of Shechem adopted ?3
The children of Israel turned from Jehovah of the Covenant,
from the "I am" of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had
manifested Himself as their Shepherd, to the vain imagina
tion which the mind of man had projected. So it is. Covenant
is a side of Power. Constituted as men are, and circumstanced
as men are, union, or covenant — which means union on a de
fined plan — is the form and condition of strength. Those who
know that the " yea and amen" in which covenant stands is the
Eternal, Unseen Truth, realize that the basis of society is the
Living God. Those whose foolish heart is darkened, who see
not the God in the heavens, rest their society on Force — on the
right of the strongest. The alternative is — the God whose name
is Jah, declared in the Son, who is one with the Father; or the
Baal, whose exponent is an Abimelech trampling on others and
writing his covenant in characters of blood. As Mr. Maurice
has so strikingly brought out, the contrast through all the ages
is between the God-man and the man-god — the Covenant God
whose name is Love, and the covenant deity whose name is Baal.
'' Consider both images well," so he urges. " Both are pre
sented to us ; we must admire and copy one of them. And
whichever we take, we must resolutely discard the other. If we
have ever mixed them together in our minds, a time is at hand
1 Numb. xxv. 1-9. " Peor is supposed to have been the original name of
the mountain, and Baal-peor to be the designation of the God worshipped
there ("Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature").
" 2 Kings i. a-16. Josephus ("Antiquities" ix. 2) says: "Ahaziah
sent to the god Fly for that in the name of the God."
3 Various meanings have been given to the word Baal-berith. (1) Baal,
the god of the covenants, corresponding to the Z£ic"Opi«oc of the Greeks.
(2) Baal, with whom they had ent-red into the covenant. (3) The god of the
covenant into w'lich the Israelites entered with the Canaanites. (4) Bochart
conjectures that the name means God of Berytus. (5) Stanley supposes
that " a religious league had been formed between Shechem and the neigh
bouring towns, and that the temple was at Shechem under the name of Baal
of the League." See Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible."

GIDEON : WHAT HAPPENED "AS SOON AS HE WAS DEAD." 187
that will separate them for ever. One was marked on your
foreheads in childhood, when you were signed with the sign of
the cross, and the prayer was prayed for you that you might
not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified against
sin, the world, and the devil. The other, the Babylonian mark
and image, your own evil nature, a corrupt society, the evil
spirit, have been striving to stamp you with ever since. Each
hour you are tempted to think a man less precious than the
gold of Ophir. The current maxims of the world take for
granted that he is : you, in a thousand ways, are acting on these
maxims. Oh, remember that in them and the habits which
they beget, lies the certain presage of slavery for men and
nations, the foretaste of decay and ruin which no human con
trivances can avert, which the gifts and blessings of God's
providence only accelerate. And think this also. When once
the disease has penetrated into the vitals of a people, it may be
very decorous and very religious, but it cannot believe in the
Son of Man." «
The Israelite, of the era of the Judges, no longer thought of
the Sacred Bull of Egypt. Egyptian symbolism had vanished
from his consciousnesss. But the disease which is shown in
the preference of power after the fashion of a ruler of earth, to
Power according to the pattern of the God of Abraham, had
" penetrated into the vitals of the people." And it was " the
certain presage of slavery.'' The tale of Abimelech and his
kingdom is the evidence of this.
1 " Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament," Sermon xvi.

CHAPTER XX.
GIDEON: THE RECORD AS TO THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE.
The ingratitude of the people connected with forgetfulness of God — Signifi
cance of Abimelech's history — Shechem : its beauty and associations —
Abimelech made king there — How his ambitious designs were pro
moted — The money given him out of the house of Berith, and the use
made of it — Wealth of heathen temples illustrated — Wholesale murder
— Jotham on Gerizim — Could he be heard from that altitude ? —
Parable and fable — His fable, and its meaning — His running away —
Fulfilment of his prediction — Insurrection in Shechem — The siege and
destruction of the city — The tower of Shechem : how it was burnt —
Thebez, where was it ? — What happened there ? — The retributions of
Providence illustrated in Abimelech's end — The witness of the Scriptures
for righteousness — The changing and the abiding.
The historian anticipates the course of events when, before
tracing the career of Abimelech, he associates "forgetfulness
of God with ingratitude to the memory of Jerubbaal." * Under
these two heads, he sums up the infatuation of the people. In
gratitude, as has been remarked, is not a vice to be charged
against Israel. " In the time of the Judges, by one great
service a man — from whatever rank in life — so secured the
gratitude and respect of the people that he remained in power,
as their governor, all the rest of his life, however long that life
may be. In the case of Gideon they went farther; . . . they were
anxious that the government should be made hereditary in his
family."" It was under the influence of evil counsels that their
hearts were turned against the family of their deliverer. And,
no doubt, the lapse from faith in the Covenant-God, with the
consciousness that thereby they broke from all that was most
¦ Judg. viii. 34, 35.
• Kitto's " Daily Bible Illustrations," twenty-fourth week, seventh day.

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE. l8g
intimately associated with Gideon, intensified this alienation.
" What can be looked for from idolaters ? If a man have cast
off his God, he will easily cast off his friends. When religion
is once gone, humanity will not stay long after." '
The episode of Abimelech's reign must not be omitted from
our survey of the time of Gideon and the Judges. It completes
the annals of " the house of Jerubbaal," and, in so doing, it sup
plies one out of many proofs of the vanity of the desire to found
a family. Titles may be hereditary ; not character, not force.
It introduces us to the first official sovereignty in Israel — to a
king before the days of monarchy. It records the destruction
of the most primitive and sacred city of Palestine. As a picture
of morals and manners, it sheds a lurid light on the period. It
forms a striking paragraph in the book of Retributive Provi
dence. Our attention is directed to ancient Shechem, the city of
Hamor the Canaanite, from one of whose line Jacob bought •' a
parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent," and on which
he erected the altar called El-elohe-Israel." It was on "the
border of Jehovah's sanctuary ; " it was itself the most vene
rable of sanctuaries. The twin heights of Gerizim and Ebal,
the one rising behind, the other rising in front of it, were
designated by the Lawgiver before the entrance into the Pro
mised Land, the one as the pulpit for the sounding of the
blessings, and the other as the pulpit for the sounding of
the curses, of the Law.3 Shechem stood near the opening
of a valley renowned for its beauty 4 — " the only very beauti
ful spot in central Palestine." Travellers dwell on its many
charms, contrasting with the barren hills in Judea, differ
ing from Carmel, from Lebanon, from " the awful gorge of
the Leontes." " Here," exclaims one traveller, '' there is no
wilderness, here there are no wild thickets, yet there is always
verdure ; always shade, not of the oak, the terebinth, and the
¦ Bishop Hall's "Contemplations,'' Cont. viii. Book ix.
» Gen. xxxiii. 18-20. 3 Deut. xi. 29 ; Josh. viii. 33-35.
* The site of the modern city of Nablus is not identical with that of the
ancient Shechem. Nablus "is one of the few instances in which the
Roman, or rather the Greek, name has superseded in popular language the
ancient Semitic appellation— Nablus being the corruption of Neapolis, the
new town founded by Vespasian after the ruin of the older Shechem, which
probably lay farther eastward, and therefore nearer to the opening of the
valley" ("Sinai and Palestine," chap. v.).

190 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
carob tree, but of- the olive grove — so soft in colour, so pictu
resque in form, that for its sake we can willingly dispense with
all other wood. Here there are no impetuous mountain-torrents,
yet there is water : water, too, in more copious supplies than
anywhere else in the land ; and it is just to its many fountains,
rills, and watercourses, that the valley owes its beauty." "
At Shechem, the first king in Israel was crowned ; but his
was an irregular and a " base " kingdom. The coronation,
such as it was, marked the end of low intrigues, and it was pre
ceded by a terrible act of blood-guiltiness.
Two causes promoted the ambitious designs of Abimelech.
The one was the arrogance of the tribe of Ephraim, which had
for long chafed under the ascendancy of the half-tribe of Ma
nasseh. A government whose centre was Shechem would restore
the superiority, almost claimed as a right, by the Ephraimites.
And the other was the sense of kindness between the men of
Shechem and the sons of the Shechemite slave. Although we
cannot be certain, the probability is that she was a Hivite ; and
that there was a considerable Canaanite population in the old
city is evident from the call addressed by the treacherous Gaal
to serve the men of Hamor." To this population the usurper
dexterously appealed. He pointed to the seventy sons.
" Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerub
baal, who are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or
that one reign over you ; remember also that I am your bone
and your flesh." 3 Then he " communed with his mother's
¦ Van de Welde — quoted in " Sinai and Palestine," chap. v. This
traveller also notices " the peculiar colouring which objects assumed in the
vale of Shechem." Therein it contrasts with the scenery of Palestine in
general. In the vale, " the exhalations remain hovering among the
branches and leaves of the olive-trees, and hence that lovely bluish haze.
The valley is far from broad, not exceeding in some places a few hundred
feet. This you find generally enclosed on all sides ; there likewise the
vapours are condensed. And so you advance under the shade of the foliage
along the living waters, and charmed by the melody of a host of singing
birds— for they, too, know where to find their best quarters — while the per
spective fades away and is lost in the damp vapoury atmosphere."
• Judg. ix. 28. The " men " might be read the " lords " or " masters."
See also Josh. xxiv. 16 j 1 Sam. xxiv. 12. The " masters " are supposed
by many to have been Israelites. " Just as, for a long period in our own
history, the barons were almost exclusively of Norman descent " (" Cam
bridge Bible" — Judges). " Judg. ix. a.

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE. 191
brethren, and all the family of the house of his mother's father,"
bidding them press his claims on the community. And their
representations were successful. The hearts of the citizens
"inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our
brother." "
And, in proof of their adherence, the rulers of the city vote
him money wherewith to advance his claim. The temples of
antiquity were repositories of wealth. The spoils of war were
often presented to the Deities to whom the temples were dedi
cated, and, both for religious purposes and as places of safety,
money and valuables were laid up within their precincts. Be
fore the capture of Jericho, Joshua commanded that all the
silver and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, were to be con
veyed to the treasury of Jehovah." And in the Chronicles of
the kings we read that the wrath of foreign potentates was
averted, or the favour of allies was purchased, by the exhaustion
of the money found in the coffers of the sanctuary.3 Heathen
temples were sometimes very rich. From the temple of Delphi
two and a half millions sterling were taken at one time.4 Out
of the store accumulated in the house of Baal-berith, the men of
Shechem give seventy shekels to their favourite — not certainly a
large sum, equivalent indeed only to about £7, but it was suffi
cient to secure the service of some mercenaries, ready for any
enterprise which opened prospects of booty. With the money
thus given, Abimlech " hired vain and light persons, who
followed him." s
Their first action was one in consonance with the practice of
Oriental despotisms. It was a precedent repeated at particular
epochs in the future history of Israel. The whole family of
Jeroboam was put to death by Baasha;6 the whole family of
Baasha was put to death by Zimri ; 7 the seventy sons of Ahab
were slain by Jehu.8 And the annals of many Eastern mon-
» Judg. ix. 3. " Josh. vi. 19.
J 1 Kings xv. 18 ; 2 Kings xviii. 15, 16.
* The wealth of the temple at Delphi induced Xerxes, 480 B.C., to send
an army for the purpose of plunder, but peals of thunder and the fall of two
crags crushing many soldiers, struck the army with terror, and it fled
(Smith's " Classical Dictionary ").
5 "Vain," i.e. empty, the same word as " Raca," Matt. v. 22. "Light,"
i.e., boiling over, or furious.
« 1 Kings xv. 29. 7 1 Kings xvi. n, 12. " 2 Kings x. 7.

192 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
archies are full of similar cruelties. Even in recent times, it was
the custom in Turkey either to slay or put out the eyes of the
children of the deceased king, other than the heir to the throne.
It is a consequence of polygamy that family union and affection
are destroyed, and that claimants for power are so multiplied as
to menace the welfare both of the dynasty and of the state.
A bloody and hateful massacre took place at Ophrah. The
weak, unsuspecting sons of Gideon were seized, and borne one
after another to the same rock — possibly the rock on which
their father had offered his sacrifice, and whence had arisen the
fire of the Lord ; and on that rock, on one block of stone, all
were put to death." All, with a single exception, the youngest
son, who hid himself, and of whom we hear more again.
Having thus disposed of those who might dispute his claim,
Abimelech put himself at the head of the men of Shechem. We
do not read of any assembly of the elders of Israel, at which the
resolution to offer the crown to this son of Jerubbaal was taken.
The historian makes it plain that the coronation was not the act
of the tribes, or even of some of the tribes, but that it was the
act of the Shechemites alone. With them were associated
the men of "the house of Millo"" — apparently a walled and forti
fied place not far apart from the city. It is they, the citizens or
chiefs of the city and the occupants of this keep, who make
Abimelech king. We can imagine the assembly under the
shadow of the famous terebinth, beneath which Jacob buried the
strange gods which his household had carried away from their
Syrian home,3 and where, towards the close of his life, Joshua
erected the great stone of witness.4 At this stone or pillar, beneath
the oak, the supporters of Abimelech proclaimed their brother
king and lord.5 " It marks a sad declension in the condition of
Israel at this time, as compared with the days of Joshua, that
' Judg. ix. 5.
" Judg. ix. 6, "All the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the
house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the
pillar that was in Shechem." Millo, a strong wall, or rampart, or fortified
place, near Shechem. There was a Millo at Jerusalem (2 Sam. v. 9). King
Joash (2 Kings xii. 20) is said to have been murdered by conspirators in
'" the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla."
3 Gen. xxxv. 4. * Josh. xxiv. 26.
5 The words translated " the plain of the pillar," should be rendered the
oak or terebinth of the pillar or the monument — probably the great stone
erected by Joshua,

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE. 1 93
the Shechemite Abimelech should be made king with a view
to the restoration of Baal-worship, on the very spot where their
fathers had made a solemn covenant to serve the Lord.'"
The jubilations and festivities in connection with this event
have not concluded when the people are startled by a voice, clear
and distinct though borne from afar.
On a lofty, outstanding bluff of Gerizim a figure is discerned,
and, by some, it is recognized as the figure of Gideon's youngest
son — the one who had escaped from the massacre on the stone
at Ophrah. Gerizim rises to a height of nearly three thousand
feet above the level of the Mediterranean. It may be ob
jected that, from such an altitude, a voice could not so carry as
to be distinctly heard by persons in the valley below. But
climatic and topographical peculiarities must be taken into
account. In the rare, pure air of Eastern lands, sound is con
veyed through great spaces." And the conformation of that part
of Palestine in which Shechem was situated is remarkable.
Palestine has a dividing range of mountains : and near the
primitive city, this range is " cleft in twain, and a deep valley, in
places scarcely more than five hundred yards wide, is sunk eight
hundred feet below the enclosing mountains of Ebal to the
north, and Gerizim to the south." 3 One speaking from Gerizim
can be distinctly heard by another on Ebal. There is no diffi
culty, therefore, in conceiving that Jotham, articulating slowly and
with clear voice, would be audible to the multitude assembled
below.4 Dr. Thomson reminds us that "the people in these
mountainous countries are able, from long practice, so to pitch
* " Pulpit Commentary '' — Judges, p. 98.
• " The deep stillness and consequent reverberation of the human voice
can never be omitted in any enumeration of the characteristics of Mount
Sinai. ... It was the belief oi the Arabs who conducted Niebuhr, that
they could make themselves heard across the Gulf of Akaba ; a belief doubt
less exaggerated, yet probably originated or fostered by the great distance
to which in those regions the voice can actually be carried " (" Sinai and
Palestine," chap. i.).
3 Canon Tristram, " Bible Places," p. 181.
4 Lord Arthur Hervey writes : "I have myself heard the human voice
utter an articulate word at a measured distance of one mile, one furlong,
and seventeen yards ; but it was in a peculiar state of the atmosphere. The
experiment has been made in recent years, and it has been proved that
a man's voice can be distinctly heard in Nablus, and also upon Ebal, from
Gerizim '' (" Pulpit Commentary "). 14

194 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
their voices as to be heard distinctly at distances almost in
credible." *
This son of Gideon possesses his father's courage, and pos
sesses also the wit and readiness which Joash, his grand
father, illustrated on a memorable occasion. He delivers his
charge in the form, not of a parable, but rather of a fable.
His is one of only two fables found in the Old Testament."
Parable is the favourite clothing of truth, especially in the
Gospels. For it differs from the fable in this, that its stand
point is heavenly, not earthly ; it is so arranged that, through
natural objects, it conveys spiritual instruction to the mind,
it invites thought to the eternal side of things, to the deeper
and higher verities of the moral universe. The fable is
earthly in its point, in its aim. It is intended to teach lessons
of prudence, of wise conduct, of foresight in action. The
parable never reverses the order of nature ; the fable does.
Animals speak, laugh, reason, instruct.3 In the two Old Testa
ment fables, it is not animals but trees : in the fable before us,
trees discourse to excellent purpose.
Abright, pithy, sarcastic address is that of Jotham. Itsmaterial
was presented to him in the beautiful landscape which, from his
craggy precipice, he contemplated. For there in luxuriance were
—there, to this day, are — the olive, the fig tree, the vine, and,
clinging to rock and scar, the thorny bramble. The trees are
represented as bent on having a king, though the reason of the
determination is not obvious. They turn to the Olive — beautiful
in form and abundant in the neighbourhood of Shechem. No :
to reign over others is not its mission. It will not leave its right
use — that by means of which men honour God and man — that
it may clutch the dignity of a crown. They apply to the Fig-tree.
No : it has no mind to forsake its faculty of service ; far more
to it are the sweetness and the good fruit than the regal dis-
» " Land and Book " — Central Palestine, p. 141.
• The other fable is in 2 Kings xiv. 9.
J For the difference between the parable and the fable, cf. Trench on
** Parables," pp. 2 and 3. In a note to p. 2, the Archbishop, referring to
the two Old Testament fables, says : " In neither case is it God that is
speaking, nor yet messengers of His, delivering His counsel ; but men, and
from an earthly standing-point, not a Divine. Jotham seeks only to teach
the men of Shechem their folly, not their sin, in making Abimelech king
over them ; the fable never lifting itself to the rebuke of sin as it is sin : this
is beyond its region ; but only in so far as it is folly."

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE. 195
tinction. They hasten to the Vine. No : to leave the produc
tion of the cheering wine and be promoted over * its fellows —
Never ! Thus rejected by trees of repute, the electors repair to
the Bramble. And now there is no hesitation. It has no special
use. It sucks the sap secreted in some rock ; it bristles over with
thorns ; it makes none better, apparently, for its living. It is ready
for any promotion. It consents. Only, in its mean vaunting, it
demands, as the price of the anointing, that those over whom it
is set shall place themselves under its shadow, shall surrender
wholly to it : if not, there shall be destruction by a fire which
will consume even the cedars of Lebanon. This was the
sting of the address. Gideon had been offered the crown, and
had declined it. He preferred to be the judge, to do the work,
to fulfil the ministry which God had appointed to him ; he would
not abandon his sweetness and nobleness and the good fruit of his
office. To a man who sees into the heart of things what are mere
titles ? He will not part with the substance of a God-glorifying
life to grasp at shadows of promotion. He does not seek himself ;
he does not seek honour from man ; if honours are pressed on him
he will consider them with reference to his ministry. Will he
be more useful ? Is the honour in the line of world-kingships,
or in the line of the man whom God chooses ? The mean,
bramble-like natures have no scruples. They have nothing to
lose. Their aim is to suck the moisture of others ; to be fed, or
to feed themselves. And their success means the destruction of
what is best and loftiest — of all the interests that are of good
report, even " the cedars of Lebanon." Now, therefore, con
cludes the homilist, "if you are satisfied with your conduct to
the family of him who fought for you and adventured his life far,
and delivered you out of the hand of Midian ; you who have
slain his sons, threescore and ten persons upon one stone ; if
this is the act which approves itself to you : if you have been
honest and sincere in your choice of Abimelech, the son of my
father's slave : I wish you joy — you of him and he of you. You
are fit for each other. He is the sort of king whom you should
have : you are the sort of subjects whom he should have. But, if
• The verb translated "to be promoted" means literally to wave over,
which, in a tree, suggests rule. A moral significance has been attached to
the phrase. "Here it refers to the instability of worldly greatness, or
perhaps, as some suppose, to the distractions and cares of loyalty"
(" Cambridge Bible ").

I96 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
you have been duped and cajoled, you, having sown the wind
will reap the whirlwind ; you will be destroyed by your king,
and he will be destroyed by you. And so will end the
lesson." *
Having thus spoken, he ran away ; swift on foot as he had
proved himself swift in purpose, he escaped to some safe hiding-
place," outside the inheritance of Ephraim.3 And we hear no
more of Jotham.
But the prediction implied in his fable was fulfilled to the letter.
The reign of Abimelech proved the ruin of Shechem ; and in
its ruin the tyrant was ruined also. The stages and the complete
ness of the catastrophe are graphically related in the history.
Three years pass. There has been no outbreak, but, reading
between the lines of the Scripture, we can infer that an uneasy
feeling, boding future trouble, prevails. For some reason not
fully explained, the king does not, it would seem, reside within
the walls of his capital. His lieutenant is one Zebul, named "the
ruler of the city."4 Brigandage increases :s and brigandage is
always the sign of either a tyrannous or a feeble executive.
The words of the historian show that, in this case, the govern
ment was hateful to its subjects. They are represented as
dealing treacherously with their chief. His support was found
in the Hivite population, and, after this population had called
him to rule, it became faint-hearted and finally disloyal. The
banditti who lurked in the mountain ridges not only robbed
" all who came along that way," but waited for opportunities to
insult and maraud the agents of Abimelech, even to take himself
captive.' The king was informed of their designs, but, appa
rently, was either unwilling or unable to take vengeance on the
1 Judg. ix. 7-20.
* " He spoke, like the Bard of the English ode, and before the startled
assembly below could reach the rocky pinnacle where he stood, he was gone "
(" Lectures on the Jewish Church," Lect. xv.).
> The hiding-place is called Beer, i.e. Wild. The place has been sup
posed to be Beeroth, among the heights of Benjamin (Josh. ix. 17). Ewald
thinks it is the Beer beyond Jordan (Numb. xxi. 16).
4 Zebul sends messengers, urging Abimelech to lie in wait overnight in
the field, and in the morning set on the city (Judg. ix. 31-33).
5 Judg. ix. 25.
• It is said, ver. 25, that " the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him
in the top of the mountain." They may have intended to seize Abimelech
if be should take the route by the mountains to Shechem.

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE. 197
rebellious robbers. And thus the storm kept brewing. It burst
on the occasion of a festival of the people of the League.
Then, a blustering Hivite, heading a party from some adjacent
village, gained the ear of the Shechemites. He appealed to the
sentiment which prevailed amongst them. They were discon
tented ; " an evil spirit," as it is expressed in the narrative,
separated ruler from ruled. He had won their favour because of.
his relationship to the Canaanites of Shechem on the mother's
side. " He is our brother," they had cried. " Your brother ? "
exclaimed this Hivite — Gaal, the son of Ebed. "Only your half-
brother. He is an Israelite after all : he is the son of Jerub
baal, the antagonist of your Baal. He is not really one of us,
though he boasted, for his own purposes, of being ' our bone and
our flesh.' Why should we, Canaanites, serve him ? Let us
serve the lords who represent the Father of our city, the dynasty
founded by Hamor of Shechem.'' * And the fickle hundreds to
whom he spoke gave the rebel their allegiance ; and, shouting
his praises, and proclaiming him their head, " they went out into
the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes,
and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did
eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech." "
The position had become critical, and the governor of
Shechem informed his master that, for him and his cause, it was
now or never. Not a moment was to be lost : " Up by night,
thou and the people with thee. As soon as the sun is up, thou
shalt rise early, and set upon the city ; and behold, when he and
the people that is with him come out against thee, then mayest
thou do unto them as thou shalt find occasion." Abimelech,
thoroughly aroused, showed that he had inherited his father's
courage and rapidity of movement. As his father, by judicious
division of his small company, had realized a great effect, so
now he distributed the men attached to him into four bands,
whose simultaneous march from different positions might give the
impression of a larger force than he had at his command, and
might threaten the city on four sides. And before the sun had
risen, Shechem was besieged.3
How Zebul trapped the foolhardy and half-intoxicated Gaal :
how he contrived to delude him when he declared that he saw
¦ The words of Gaal, vers. 24, 29, have a parallel in the words of Nabul
(r Sam. xxv. 10), and of the ten tribes (1 Kings xii. r6).
• Judg. ix. 37. 3 J"<Jg. ix. 31-34.

198 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
people coming down from the top of the mountains, and other
people coming by the " middle of the land," and other people
still coming by the oak of the sorcerers," until the forces of the
king were actually at the gates of the city, is briefly, but pic
turesquely told in the chronicle. A battle ensued, and the result
was the complete discomfiture of the Hivites. And, as Gideon
had chased the Midianite chiefs, so Abimelech chased Gaal, who,
with his band, was driven from the city.3 His expulsion left the
work only half-done, though the people, lulled by a foolish sense
of security, returned to their labours in the fields. They did not
reckon that the king, who had retired to Arumah 4 after the rout
of Gaal, was determined on a terrible revenge. They were seized
and slain when engaged in their husbandry.5 At the city gates
Abimelech stationed his soldiers. For a whole day he and his
companies fought against Shechem ; he battered down its gates ;
he overthrew temple and houses ; the ancient town was sacked,
destroyed, and, in token that it was to be henceforth abandoned
and desolate, it was sown with suit.6
The tower of Shechem 1 still held out against the besiegers.
Those who occupied it crowded into an upper portion of it,
sacred to the god Berith. Apparently, the tower was impreg
nable. But what the sword could not accomplish, fire could.
Abimelech was equal to the emergency. Not far from Shechem,
a little south of Gerizim was a mountain, whose snow-capped
height was a familiar feature to the Ephraimites.8 This moun
tain was densely wooded. Axe in hand, the king bade his
soldiers follow. They cut down boughs, and, each man carrying
one on his shoulder, they returned to the tower. The boughs
were so arranged that, when lighted, the tower was caught in the
conflagration, " so that all the men of the tower of Shechem
died also, about a thousand men and women." '
" The margin has the word " navel " Gesenius renders " elevated por
tion." • " The plain of Meonenim " (ver. 27) should be rendered " the oak of
the sorcerers," or soothsayers. Stanley identifies it with " the well-known
terebinth " (" Lectures on the Jewish Church," Lect xv.).
s Vers. 39, 40.
4 A place near Shechem ; possibly the Rumah mentioned 2 Kings xxiii.
36. ' Ver. 42. * Vers. 44, 43.
» Apparently the same as the house of Millo.
* Mount Zalmon, or " the shady." Cf. Psa. lxviii, 14,
» Vers. 46-49.

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE. 199
Abimelech resolved to stamp out the rebellion. A city
thirteen miles northward — perhaps the city from which Gaal had
come — was implicated in the revolt. And thither Abimelech
directed his forces. The story of Shechem was repeated.
Like Shechem, Thebez had a tower or fortified place. When
the city surrendered, the wretched inhabitants fled to the tower
and crowded on its roof." Abimelech had provided himself
with wood for fuel, and he ordered its disposal against the door
of the keep, himself pressing towards the door to indicate what
was required. A very short time will suffice to complete his
task. Ah, but — from the roof there is hurled downwards — and
this by a woman's hand— the upper part of a mill- stone, a
solid piece of heavy masonry ; " and this missile falls on the
king's head with a violence which fractures the skull.3 In the
very moment of complete triumph, he is a dead man. Even in
death, the instinct of the soldier is strong. It seemed to him a
reproach on his memory that ii should be said that a woman
slew him. His last thought was about his reputation, not his
souL Turning to his armour-bi.arer, he besought him to " draw
his sword and slay him. And his young man thrust him
through, and he died."4
Thus Jotham's curse was accomplished. He who had
devoured the men of Shechem and the house of Millo is himself
devoured in consequence cf the fire — the insurrection — which
had come out from the men of Shechem and the house of
Millo. And his death ended his petty and abortive kingship.
It had been nothing better than a house of cards, and by one
blow it was swept away. In the words of Dean Stanley, " the
true king of Israel is still far in the distance." s
The Hebrew historian sees in this tragedy the Nemesis that
overtakes the wicked. It was God, he reminds us, who " sent
an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem." In
• Thebez is identified with a village "large and beautiful " called Tubas,
about thirteen miles from Shechem, between Nablus and Beisan (Major
Conder, whose Handbook accepts this, the view of Eusebius and Ritter).
¦ Literally, a millstone rider, the upper part of the stone " which rides,
as it were, or moves over the fixed ne.her stone."
3 The phrase in the Authorized Version ver. S3, is an obsolete one—' * all to
brake his skull." " It is mere ignorance of old English which in many
copies of the Bible changed " alto brake," that is " altogether brake,"
into " all to break " (Principal Douglas's " Handbook ").
4 Vers. 54. 55- 5 " Lectures on the Jewish Church," Lect. xv.

200 GIDEON AND THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL.
the ruin both of Shechem and its tyrant, he bids us recognize
the hand of the Supreme. It was God who " rendered the
wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his father, in
slaying his seventy brethren : and all the evil of the men of
Shechem did God render upon their heads." * The conviction
that the government of the Eternal is not a dream, that He is
ever and in many ways fulfilling Himself, is the centre of the
genuine Hebrew faith. It feels, indeed, that we can trace
only a small portion of His way. But that a Purpose to
realize the supremacy of the Good and True is being wrought
out through all the ages, and that all kinds of things are
subservient to it, is the assurance which pervades the
Prophecy, Poetry, and History of Israel. " Conduct," it has
been said, " is the word of common life, morality is the word
of philosophical disquisition, Righteousness is the word of
religion."" And righteousness is the grand word of the Old
Testament scriptures. Their pages are often records of blood
shed and strife ; the biographies to which they introduce us
are marred and stained by many errors and negligences ;
the standards of life presented in the centuries through whose
struggles we are led are imperfect, sometimes are low and con
fused ; but there is always an Israel within the Israel, a con
sciousness never wholly obscured, forcing itself through cloud and
darkness, that " God is good to such as are of a clean heart," 3
and that " His face is against them that do evil." 4 It is this
which makes Holy Scripture from Genesis to Revelation a
teacher of mankind. There is a hand which is ever pointing
upward ; there is a voice ever sounding, that " the Lord is not
slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness," s
and that the blessing of the heaven above and of the earth
beneath is the portion of the righteous. The marrow of all its
instruction is contained in the argument of the ancient
psalm, when the mind reflects on a tale such as that of
Abimelech, " I have seen the wicked in great power, and
spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. But one
passed by, and lo, he was not : yea, I sought him, but he could
not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright :
for the latter end of that man is peace."'
1 Judg. ix. 56, 57. * " Literature and Dogma," p. ai.
s Psa. bndii. x. * Psa. xxxiv. 16.
5 a Peter iii. 9. * Psa. xxxvii. 35-37.

GIDEON : THE FATE OF HIS HOUSE 201
Gideon's house had its day — a short day — and it ceased to
be. Israel itself is scattered among the nations. Its people
are the "tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast."" The
ages come and go. There is only one Permanence. The
period we have rapidly surveyed reminds us, in its flux and re
flux, in its unrest and change, of the word in which the man
of God interprets the lesson of History, " Lord, thou hast
been our dwelling place in all generations."*
• Byron'a " Hebrew Melodies." • tm. we. i.

""SB BN3&

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