tioned they fought gloriously, and slew above ten thousand of them, and put the rest to flight; and in the pursuit they took Adonibezek, who, when his fingers and toes were cut off by them, said, “Nay, indeed, I was not always to lie concealed from God, as I find by what I now endure, while I have not been ashamed to do the same to seventy-two kings.*" So they carried him alive as far as Jerusalem; and when he was dead they buried him in the earth, and went on still in taking the cities: and when they had taken the greatest part of them, they besieged Jerusalem: and when they had taken the lower city, which was not under a considerable time, they slew all the inhabitants; but the upper city was not to be taken without great difficulty, through the strength of its walls, and the nature of the place. 3. For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men. Now they gave this city to the Levites, as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs of two thousand cubits; but the land thereto belonging they gave as a free gift to Caleb, according to the injunctions of Moses: this Caleb was one of the spies which Moses sent into the land of Canaan. They also gave land for habitation to the posterity of Jethro the Midianite, who was the father-in-law to Moses, for they had left their own country and followed them, and accompanied them in the wil derness. 4. Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took the cities which were in the mountainous part of Canaan, as also Askelon and Ashdod, of those that lay near the sea, but Gaza and Ekron escaped them, for they, lying in a flat country, and having a great number of chariots, sorely galled those that attacked them: so these tribes, when they were grown very rich by this war, retired to their own cities, and laid aside their weapons of war. 5. But the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its inhabitants to pay tribute; so they all left off, the one to kill, and the other to expose themselves to danger, and had time to cultivate the ground: the rest of the tribes imitated that of Benjamin, and did the same; and contenting themselves with the tributes that were paid them, permitted the Canaanites to live in peace. but after some time, they caught one of the citizens that came to them to get necessaries, and they gave him some assurances that if he would deliver up the city to them, they would preserve him and his kindred: so he sware, that upon these terms he would put the city into their hands. Accordingly, he that thus betrayed the city, was preserved, with his family; and the Israelites slew all the inhabitants, and retained the city for themselves. 7. After this, the Israelites grew effeminate as to fighting any more against their enemies, but applied themselves to the cultivation of the land, which producing them great plenty and riches, they neglected the regular disposition of their settlement, and indulged themselves in luxury and pleasures, nor were they any longer careful to hear the laws that belonged to their political government: whereupon God was provoked to anger, and put them in mind first, how, contrary to his directions, they had spared the Canaanites, and after that, how these Canaanites, as opportunity served, used them very barbarously. But the Israelites, though they were in heaviness at these admonitions from God, yet were they still very unwilling to go to war, and since they got large tributes from the Canaanites, and were indisposed for taking pains by their luxury, they suffered their aristocracy to be corrupted also, and did not ordain themselves a senate, nor any other such magistrates as their laws had formerly required, but they were very much given to cultivating their fields, in order to get wealth; which great indolence of theirs brought a terrible sedition upon them, and they proceeded so far as to fight one against another. from the following occasion: 8. There was a Levite,t a man of a vulgar family, that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt therein; this man married a wife from Bethlehem, which is a place belonging to the tribe of Judah. Now he was very fond of his wife, and overcome with her beauty; but he was unhappy in this, that he did not meet with the like return of affection from her, for she was averse to him, which did more inflame his passion for her, so that they quarrelled one with another perpetually; and at last the woman was so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left her husband, and went to her parents in the fourth month. The husband being very uneasy at this her departure, and that out of his fondness for her, came to his father and mother-in-law, and made up their quarrels, and was reconciled to her, and lived with them there four days, as being kindly treated by her parents. On the fifth day he resolved to go home, and went away in the evening: for his wife's parents were loath to part with their daughter, and delayed the time till the day was gone. Now they had one servant that followed them, and an ass on which the woman rode; and when they were near Jerusa * This great number of seventy-two reguli, or small scheme being brought about, and thinks that, if it were, kings, over whom Adonibezek had tyrannized, and it would quickly be destroyed." Remarks on Italy, 4to for which he was punished according to the lex talionis, p. 151. Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Ar as well as the thirty-one kings of Canaan, subdued by menian records, though they give us the history of thir Joshua, and named in one chap., Josh. xii. and thirty-ty-nine of their most ancient heroes or governors after two kings, or royal auxiliaries to Benhadad king of Sy- the flood, before the days of Sardanapalus, had no proria, 1 Kings, xx. 1; Antiq. b. viii. ch xiv. sect 1; intimate per king till the fortieth Parærus. See Moses Chorenento us what was the ancient form of government a-sis, p. 55. And that Almighty God does not approve of inong several nations before the monarchies began, viz., hat every city or large town with its neighboring villages, was a distinct government by itself; which is the more remarkable, because this was certainly the form of ecclesiastical government that was settled by the apostles,and preserved throughout the Christian church in the first ages of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion, that "it would certainly be for the good of mankind to have all the mighty empires and monarchies of the world cantoned out into petty states and principalities, which, like so many large families, might lie under the observation of their proper governors, so that the care of the prince might extend itself to every individual per 6. However, the tribe of Ephraim, when they besieged Bethel, made no advance, nor perform. ed any thing worthy of the time they spent, and of the pains they took about that siege, yet did they persist in it, still sitting down before the city, though they endured great trouble thereby: on under his protection; though he despairs of such a sucli absolute or tyrannical monarchies, any one may learn that reads Deut. xvii. 14-20, and 1 Sam. viii. 122; although, if such kings are set up as own him for their supreme king, and aim to govern according to his laws, he hath admitted of them, and protected then, and their subjects in all generations. ↑ Josephus's early date of this history, before the beginning of the Judges, or when there was no king in Is rael, Judges xix. 1, is strongly confirmed by the large number of Benjamites both in the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xiv. 8, and xvi. 17, who yet were here reduced to 600 men; nor can those numbers be at all sup posed genuine, if they were reduced so late as the end of the Judges, where our other copies place this red ict'on K for em, having gone already thirty furlongs, the servant advised them to take up their lodgings some where, lest some misfortune should befall them if they travelled in the night, especially since they were not far off enemies, that season often giving reason for suspicion of dangers from even such as are friends; but the husband was not pleased with this advice, nor was he willing to take up his lodgings among strangers, for the city belonged to the Canaanites, but desired rather to go twenty furlongs farther, and so to take their lodging in some Israelite city. Accordingly, he obtained his purpose, and came to Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, when it was just dark; and while no one that lived in the market-place invited him to lodge with him, there came an old man out of the field, one that was indeed of the tribe of Ephraim, but resided iu Gibeah, and met him, and asked him, who he was? and for what reason he came thither so late? and why he was looking out for provisions supper when it was dark? To which he replied, that he was a Levite, and was bringing his wife from her parents, and was going home, but he told him his habitation was in the tribe of Ephraim: so the old man, as well because of their kindred, as because they lived in the same tribe, as also because they had thus accidentally met together, took him in to lodge with him. Now certain young men of the inhabitants of Gibeah, having seen the woman in the marketplace, and admiring her beauty, when they understood that she lodged with the old man, came to the doors, as contemning the weakness and fewness of the old man's family; and when the old man desired them to go away, and not to offer any violence or abuse there, they desired him to yield them up the strange woman, and then he should have no harm done to him: and when the old man alleged that the Levite was of his kindred, and that they would be guilty of horrid wickedness if they suffered themselves to be overcome by their pleasures, and so offend against their laws, they despised his righteous admonition, and laughed him to scorn. They also threatened to kill him if he became an obstacle to their inclinations; whereupon, when he found himself in great distress, and yet was not willing to overlook his guests, and see them abused, he produced his own daughter to them; and told them, that it was a smaller breach of the law to satisfy their lust upon her, than to abuse his guests; supposing that he himself should by this means prevent any injury to be done to those guests. When they noway abated of their earnestness for the strange woman, but insisted absolutely on their desires to have her, he entreated them not to perpetrate any such act of injustice; but they proceeded to take her away by force, and indulging still more the violence of their inclinations, they took the woman away to their house, and when they had satisfied their lust upon her the whole night, they let her go about daybreak. So she came to the house where she had been entertained, under great affliction at what had happened, and was very sorrowful upon occasion of what she had suffered, and durst not look her husband in the face for shame, for she concluded that he would never forgive her for what she had done, so she fell down and gave up the ghost; but her husband supposed that his wife was only fast asleep, and thinking nothing of a more melancholy nature had happened, endeavored to raise her up, resolving to speak comfortably to her, since she did not voluntarily expose herself to these men's lust, but was forced away to their house; but as soon as he perceived she was dead, he acted as *Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, when he took the Hebrew word Beth-El, which denotes the house of God, or the tabernacle, Judg. xx. 18. for the proper name of a place Bethel, it noway ap prudently as the greatness of his misfortunes would admit, and laid his dead wife upon the beast, and carried her home; and cutting her limb by limb into twelve pieces, he sent them to every tribe, and gave it in charge to those that carried them, to inform the tribes of those that I were the causes of his wife's death, and of the violence they had offered to her. 9. Upon this the people were greatly disturbed! at what they saw, and at what they heard, as never having had the experience of such a thing before; so they gathered themselves to Shiloh, out of a prodigious and a just anger, and assembling in a great congregation before the tabernacle, they immediately resolved to take arms, and to treat the inhabitants of Gibeah as enemies; but the senate restrained them from doing so; and persuaded them that they ought not so hastily to make war upon people of the same nation with them, before they discoursed with them by words concerning the accusation laid against them, it being part of their law that they should not bring an army against foreigners themselves when they appear to have been injurious, without sending an embassage first, and trying thereby whether they will repent or not and accordingly they exhorted them to do what they ought to do in obedience to their laws, that is, to send to the inhabitants of Gibeah, to know whether they would deliver up the offenders to them, and if they deliver them up, to rest satisfied with the punishment of those offenders; but if they despised the message that was sent them, to punish them, by taking up arms against them. Accordingly, they sent to the inhabitants of Gibeah, and accused the young men of the crimes committed in the affair of the Levite's wife, and required of them those that had done what wa contrary to the law, that they might be punished as having justly deserved to die for what they had done; but the inhabitants of Gibeah would not deliver up the young men, and thought it too reproachful to them, out of fear of war, to submit to other men's demands upon them. vaunting themselves to be noway inferior to any in war, neither in their number, nor in courage The rest of their tribe were also making grea* preparations for war, for they were so insolently mad, as also to resolve to repel force by force. 10. When it was related to the Israelites what the inhabitants of Gibeah had resolved upon, they took their oath that no one of them would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite, but make war with greater fury against them, than we have learned our forefathers made war against the Canaanites, and sent out presently an army of four hundred thousand against them, while the Benjamites' army was twenty-five thousand and six hundred; five hundred of whom were excellent at slinging stones with their left hands, insomuch that when the battle was joined at Gibeah, the Benjamites beat the Israelites, and of them there fell two thousand men; and probably more had been destroyed had not the night come on and prevented it, and broken off the fight; so the Benjamites returned to the city with joy, and the Israelites returned to their camp in a great fright at what had happened. On the next day, when they fought again, the Benjamites beat them, and eighteen thousand of the Israelites were slain, and the rest deserted their camp out of fear of a greater slaughter. So they came to Bethel, a city that was near their camp, and fasted on the next day; and be sought God by Phineas, the high priest, that his wrath against them might cease, and that he would be satisfied with these two defeats, and pearing that the tabernacle was ever at Bethel; only so far it is true, that Shiloh, the place of the taber nacle in the days of the Judges, was not far from Bethel. give them the victory and power over their enenies. Accordingly, God promised them so to do by the prophesying of Phineas. and that perjury was then a sad and dangerous thing, not when it was 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 Benja mites be allowed to steal away, and maʼry 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 toIn the vineyards and other places where they could lie concealed. Accordingly, the virgins came along playing, and suspected 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 forementioned, by the wisdom of the Is raelites; and accordingly it presently flourished and soon increased to be a multitude and came to enjoy all other degrees of happit ess. And such was the conclusion of this war. 11. When therefore they had divided the army into two parts, they laid the one-half of them in ambush about the city of Gibeah by night, while the other half attacked the Benjamites, and retiring upon the assault, the Benjamites pursued them, while the Hebrews retired by slow degrees, as very desirous to draw them entirely from the city, and the others followed them as they retired, till both the old men and young en that were left in the city, as too weak to fight, came running out together with them, as willing to bring their enemies under. However, when they were a great way from the city, the Hebrews ran away no longer, but turned back to fight them, and lifted up the signal they had agreed on to those that lay in ambush, who rose up, and with a great noise fell upon the enemy. Now, as soon as ever they perceived themselves to be deceived, they knew not what to do, and when they were driven into a certain hollow place which was in a valley, they were shot at by those that encompassed them, till they were all destroyed, excepting six hundred, which formed themselves into a close body of men, and for-gether, and waited for the coming of the virgins, ced their passage through the midst of their ene mies, and fled to the neighboring mountains, and seizing upon them, remained there; but the rest of them, being about twenty-five thousand, 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 proceeded in their anger, because they not only had the suffering of the Levite's wife to avenge, but the slaughter of their own soldiers. CHAP. III. How the Israelites, after this Misfortune, grew wicked, and served the Assyrians, and how God delivered them 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 treat 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 these 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 Rinmon,' which was in the wilderness; so the ambassadors lamented not only the disaster that had befallen the Benjamites, out 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 uttering the Hebrews ill when they pleased, and might destruction of the tribe of Benjamin; and said to them, "We give you leave to take the whole fand of Benjamin to yourselves, and as much prey as you are able to carry away with you." So these men with sorrow confessed, that what had been done was according to the decree of God, and had happened for their own wickedness, and assented to those that invited them, and came down to their own ribe. The Israelites also gave them four hundred virgins of Jabesh Gilead for wives; but as 'o 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 would 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 whole tribe which was in danger of perishing, thereby, for the time to come, dwell in their own cities the more securely; they prepared therefore their chariots, and gathered their soldiery together, their cities also combined together, and drew over to 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 midland country to see for a land to which they might remove their habitation: so these men went as far as the neighborhood 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 of 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 their happy state, which they had obtained by innumerable labors, by their luxury; for when Chushan, 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 eight years; after which time they were freed from them in the following manner: 3. There was one whose name was Othniel, the son of Kenez, of the tribe of Judah, an active man, and of great courage. He had an admonition from God not to overlook the Israelites in such a distress as they were now in, but to endeavor 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 Chushan 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 Euphrates. Hereupon Othniel, who had given such proofs of his valor, received from the multitude authority to judge the people; and when he had ruled over them forty years, he died. CHAP. 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 honor due to him, nor were obedient to the laws, their afflictions increased, till Eglon, king of the Moabites, did so greatly despise them, on account of the disorders of their political government, that he made war upon thein, and overcame then 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, 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 It appears by the sacred history, Judg. i. 16: iii. 13, that Egion's pavilion, or palace, was at the city of palm trees, as the place where Jericho had stood is called af ter its destruction by Joshua, that is, at or near the demolished city. Accordingly, Josephus says it was at Je richo, or rather in that fine country of palm-trees, upon or near to the same spot of ground on 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 only, speak here more accurately than Josephus. These bu years for the government of Eliud are with under the Moabites. This liberty he pro cured for them in the following manner: 2. There was a young man of the tribe of Ben janin, whose name was Ehud, the son of Gera, a man of very great courage in bold under takings, and of a very strong body, fit for hard labor, 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 favor, and insinuated himself into his good opinion, whereby he was also be loved 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 strict. ly 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 privately of what he had done, and exhorted them to recover their liberty; who heard him gladly, and went to their arius, and sent messengers over the country, that should sound trumpets of rams' 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 towards the evening, fearing some uncommon accident when they found him dead they were in great had happened, they entered into his parlour, and disorder, and knew not what to 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 the government over all the multitude, and died after he had held the government eighty years. He was a man worthy of commendation, even besides what he deserved for the forementioned act of his. After him Shamgar, the son of Anath, was elected for their governor, but died in the first year of his government. necessary to Josephus's usual large numbers between the exodus and the building of the temple, of 592 or 612 years, but not to the smallest number of 480 years, 1 Kings vi. 1, which lesser number Josephus seems sometimes to have followed. And since in the beginning of the next chapter it is said by Josephus, that here was hardly a breathing time for the Israelites before Jabin came and enslaved them, it is highly proba ble that some of the copies in his time bad here only & years instead of 0; as had that of Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autoyle, L. iii. and this most probably from his copy of Josephus. |