formed themselves into a close body of men and forced their passage through the midst of their enemies, and fled to the neighbouring mountains, and seizing upon them, remained there; but the rest of them, being about twenty-five thou sand were slain. Then did the Israelites burn Gibeah, and slew the women, and the males that were under age; and did the same also to the other cities of the Benjamites. And indeed they were enraged to that degree, that they sent twelve thousand men out of the army, and gave them orders to destroy Jabesh Gilead, because it did not join with them in fighting against the Benjamites. Accordingly, those that were sent slew the men of war, with their children and wives, excepting four hundred virgins. To such a degree had they preceeded in their anger, because they not only had the suf fering of the Levite's wife to avenge, but the slaughter of their own soldiers. 12. However, they afterwards were sorry for the calamity they had brought upon the Benjamites, and appointed a fast on that account, although they supposed those men had suffered justly for their offence against the laws; so they recalled by their ambassadors those six hundred which had escaped. These had seated themselves on a certain rock called Rimmon, which was in the wilderness; so the ambassadors lamented not only the disaster that had befallen the Benjamites, but themselves also, by this destruction of their kindred, and persuaded them to take it patiently, and to come and unite with them, and not, so far as in them lay, to give their suffrage to the utter destruction of the tribe of Benjamin; and said to them, "We give you leave to take the whole land of Benjamin to yourselves, and as much prey as "So these men with you are able to carry away with you.' sorrow confessed, that what had been done was according to the decree of God, and happened for their own wickedness and assented to those that invited them, and came down to their own tribe. The Israelites also gave them the four hundred virgins of Jabesh Gilead for wives; but as to the remaining two hundred, they deliberated about it how they might compass wives enough for them, and that they might have children by them and whereas they had, before the war began, taken an oath, that no one should give his daughter to wife to a Benjamite, some advised them to have no regard to what they had sworn, because the oath had not been taken advisedly and judiciously, but in a passion, and thought that they should do nothing against God, if they were able to save a whole tribe which was in danger of perishing, and that perjury was then a sad and dangerous thing, not when it is : done out of necessity, but when it is done with a wicked intention. But when the senate were affrighted at the very name of perjury, a certain person told them, that he could show them a way whereby they might procure the Benjamites wives enough, and yet keep their oath. They asked him what his proposal was? He said, that "three times in a year, when we meet in Shiloh, our wives and our daughters accompany us, let then the Benjamites be allowed to steal away, and marry such women as they can catch, while we will neither incite them nor forbid them; and when their parents take it ill, and desire us to inflict punishment upon them, we will tell them, that they were themselves the cause of what had happened, by neglecting to guard their daughters, and that they ought not to be over angry at the Benjamites, since that anger was permitted to rise too high already." So the Israelites were persuaded to follow this advice; and decreed that the Benjamites should be allowed thus to steal themselves wives. So when the festival was coming on, these two hundred Benjamites lay in ambush before the city, by two and three together, and waited for the coming of the virgins, in the vineyards and other places, where they could lie concealed. Accordingly, the virgins came along playing, and suspecting nothing of what was coming upon them, and walked after an unguarded manner, so those that lay scattered in the road rose up, and caught hold of them; by this means these Benjamites got them wives, and fell to agriculture, and took good care to recover their former happy state. And thus was this tribe of the Benjamites, after they had been in danger of entirely perishing, saved in the manner fore-mentioned, by the wisdom of the Israelites; and accordingly, it presently flourished and soon increased to be a multitude, and came to enjoy all other degrees of happiness. And such was the conclusion of the war. CHAPTER III. HOW THE ISRAELITES, AFTER THIS MISFORTUNE, ĠREW WICKED, AND SERVED THE ASSYRIANS, AND HOW GOD DÊLIVERED THÈM BY OTHNIEL, WHO RULED OVER THEM FORTY YEARS. 1. Now it happened that the tribe of Dan suffered in like manner with the tribe of Benjamin and it came to do so on the occasion following. When the Israelites had already left off the exercise of their arms for war, and were intent upon their husbandry, the Canaanites despised them, and brought together an army, not because they expected to suffer by them, but because they had a mind to have a sure prospect of treating the Hebrews ill when they pleased, and might thereby, for the time to come, dwell in their own cities the more securely they prepared, therefore, their chariots, and gathered their soldiers together; their cities also combined together, and drew unto them Askelon and Ekron, which were within the tribe of Judah, and many more of those that lay in the plain. They also forced the Danites to fly into the mountainous country, and left them not the least portion of the plain country to set their foot on. Since then these Danites were not able to fight them, and had not land enough to sustain them, they sent five of their men into the mid-land country, to seek for a land to which they might remove their habitation; so these men went as far as the neighbourhood of Mount Libanus, and the fountains of the lesser Jordan, at the great plain of Sidon, a day's journey from the city ; and when they had taken a view of the land, and found it to be good, and exceeding fruitful, they acquainted their tribe with it, whereupon they made an expedition with the army, and built there the city Dan, of the same name with the son of Jacob, and of the same name with their own tribe. 2. The Israelites grew so indolent, and unready of taking pains that misfortunes came heavier upon them, which also proceeded in part from their contempt of the divine worship; for when they had once fallen off from the regularity of their political government, they indulged themselves farther in living according to their own pleasure, and according to their own will, till they were full of the evil doings that were common among the Canaanites. God, therefore, was angry with them, and they lost that their happy state, which they had obtained by innumerable labours, by their luxury; for when Chusan, king of the Assyrians, had made war against them, they lost many of their soldiers in the battle, and when they were besieged, they were taken by force; nay, there were some who, out of fear, voluntarily submitted to him, and, though the tribute laid upon them was more than they could bear, yet did they pay it, and underwent all sort of oppression for eighty years; after which time they were freed from them, in the following manner. 3. There was one whose name was Othniel, the son of Kenaz, of the tribe of Judah, an active man, and of great courage; he had an admonition from God not to overlook the Is raelites in such a distress as they were now in; but to endea vour boldly to gain them their liberty: so, when he had procured some to assist him in this dangerous undertaking, (and few they were, who, either out of shame at their present circumstances, or out of a desire of changing them, could be prevailed on to assist him,) he first of all destroyed that garrison which Chusan had set over them; but when it was perceived that he had not failed in his first attempt, more of the people came to his assistance; so they joined battle with the Assyrians and drove them entirely before them, and compelled them to pass over the Euphrates. Hereupon Othniel, who had given such proof of his valour, received from the multitude authority to judge the people; and when he had ruled over them forty years, he died. CHAPTER IV. HOW OUR PEOPLE SERVED THE MOABITES EIGHTEEN YEARS, AND WERE THEN DELIVERED FROM SLAVERY BY ONE EHUD, WHO RETAINED THE DOMINION EIGHTY YEARS. 1. WHEN Othniel was dead, the affairs of the Israelites fell again into disorder; and while they neither paid to God the honour due to him, nor were obedient to the laws, their afflictions increased, till Eglon, king of the Moabites, did so greatly despise them on occount of the disorders of their political government, that he made war upon them, and overcame them in several battles, and made the most courageous to submit, and entirely subdued their army, and ordered them to pay him tribute. And when he had built him a royal palace at Jericho,* he omitted no method whereby he might distress them and indeed he reduced them to poverty for eighteen years. But when God had once taken pity of the Israelites, and on account of their afflictions, and was moved to compassion by their supplications put up to him, he freed them from the hard usage they had met with under the Moabites. This liberty he procured for them in the following manner. 2. There was a young man of the tribe of Benjamin, whose name was Ehud, the son of Gera, a man of very great courage * It appears by the sacred history, Judges i. 16. iii. 13, that Eglou's pavilion or palace, was at the city of Palm-trees, as the place where Jericho had stood, is called after its destruction by Joshua, that is, at or nearer the demolished city. Accordingly Josephus says it was at Jericho, or rather in that fine country of palm-trees, upon or nearer to the same spot upon which Jericho had formerly stood, and on which it was rebuilt by Hiel, 1 Kings xvi. 34. Our other copies that avoid its proper name Jericho, and call it the city of Palm-trees, speak here more accu Sately than Josephus. in bold undertakings, and of a very strong body, fit for hard labour, but best skilled in using his left hand, in which was his whole strength; and he also dwelt at Jericho. Now this man became familiar with Eglon, and that by means of presents, with which he obtained his favour, and insinuated himself into his good opinion, whereby he was also beloved of those that were about the king. Now when, on a time, he was bringing presents to the king, and had two servants with him, he put a dagger on his right thigh secretly, and went in to him: it was then summer-time, and the middle of the day, when the guards were not strictly on their watch, both because of the heat, and because they were gone to dinner. So the young man, when he had offered his presents to the king, who then resided in a small parlour that stood conveniently to avoid the heat, he fell into discourse with him, for they were now alone, the king having bid his servants that attended him to go their ways, because he had a mind to talk with Ehud. He was now sitting on his throne; and fear seized upon Ehud lest he should miss his stroke, and not give him a deadly wound, so he raised himself up, and said, he had a dream to impart to him by the command of God; upon which the king leaped out of his throne for joy of the dream, so Ehud smote him to the heart, and leaving his dagger in his body, he went out and shut the door after him. Now the king's servants were very still as supposing that the king had composed himself to sleep. 3. Hereupon Ehud informed the people of Jericho pri vately of what he had done, and exhorted them to recover their liberty; who heard him gladly, and went to their arms, and sent messengers over the country, that should sound trumpets of ram's horns, for it was our custom to call the people together by them. Now the attendants of Eglon were ignorant of what misfortune had befallen him for a great while but toward the evening, fearing some uncommon accident had happened, they entered into his parlour; and when they found him dead, they were in great disorder, and knew not what do; and before the guards could be got together, the multitude of the Israelites came upon them, so that some of them were slain immediately, and some were put to flight, and ran away toward the country of Moab, in order to save themselves. Their number was above ten thousand. The Israelites seized upon the ford of Jordan, and pursued them, and slew them, and many of them they killed at the ford, nor did one of them escape out of their hands; and by this means it was that the Hebrews freed themselves from slavery under the Moabites. Ehud also was on this account dignified with |