22 ¶ When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,

23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech :

24 That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.

25 And the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them and it was told Abimelech.

26 And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.

27 And 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.

28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?

29 And would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.

30 And when Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was 'kindled.

31 And he sent messengers unto Abimelech privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem ; and, behold, they fortify the city against thee. 32 Now therefore up by night, thou and the people that is with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

33 And it shall be, that in the morning, 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 to them as thou shalt find occasion.

11

35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people that were with him, from lying in wait.

36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.

37 And Gaal spake again and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of 'Meonenim.

38 Then said Zebul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them.

39 And Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate.

41 And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah : and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem.

42 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech.

43 And he took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field, and looked, and, behold, the people were come forth out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them.

44 And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them.

45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.

46 And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.

47 And it was told Abimelech, that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.

48 And Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said

9 Or, hot.

10 Heb. craftily, or, to Tormah. 13 Or, the regarders of times.

unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.

49 And all the people likewise cut down. every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.

50 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.

51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower.

52 And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

14 Heb. I have done.

53 And a certain woman "cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his scull.

54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.

56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:

57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

15 2 Sara. 11. 21.

Verse 4. The house of Baal-berith.-M. Henry, in his work, L'Egypte Pharaonique, strongly alleges that no temples, properly so called, existed at this time. He admits indeed that they had existed in Egypt, but thinks they had been destroyed by the shepherd-kings, who employed the materials in the construction of their own characteristic erections; but this seems to us doubtful, as well as his conclusion that there were no temples actually standing in Egypt till a good while after the time of Moses. That they did not exist in the neighbouring countries he is still more assured, and in this we concur with him. The contrary arguments which might be adduced from the present mention of the house of Baal-berith at Shechem, ch. ix. 4, he thus answers: We find in the Bible many places whose names begin with the word bethBeth-Phegor, Beth-Shemesh, Beth-Berith, which have been supposed to be temples raised to idols. These places were towns, and not temples (see Josh. xiii. 20; xv. 27). The word Beth in this sense means "abode," and the name of the place, as abode of Phegor, abode of Shemesh, abode of Berith, that is to say, that these are towns consecrated to those divinities who were considered to make their residence there. It was in this manner that Jacob himself gave the name of Beth-el, "abode of the Most High," to the place where during the night he had his miraculous vision. Solomon, too, gave the title of Beth to the temple which he raised in imitation of those of the Egyptians, and it is from this that the word acquired with the Jews the signification of temple.'

This certainly substantiates the opinion that no temple is indicated in this place; and if the taking forth of money should seem to attach a more definite signification to the word than this explanation supposes it to have, it quite suffices to understand it of the place in which the treasure dedicated to Baal-berith was deposited. Even when there were no temples properly so called, there must have been some place in which the implements of service, the treasures of the establishment, and perhaps the vestments of the priests were usually deposited: this seems, from v. 46, to have been in the stronghold of the town. From all the circumstances of the story it appears that Shechem was at this time in the hands of an idolatrous race; or at least that an idolatrous faction had the upper hand in the city.

5. Slew his brethren.'-Here is the first indication of a savage custom which is not yet extinct in Asia, and under which a new king deems it a measure of policy to put to death his brothers, from fear that their ambition, or the

favour of the people towards them, might lead them to form designs against his dignity or life. Thus, the commencement of a new reign is signalized by the same horrible transaction as that of which we here read. In Persia, where the same principle operates, the new monarchs have rather sought to secure their own safety by putting out the eyes of their brothers, and others whose birth had, unhappily for them, put them in near connection with the throne. An English lady was one e day in the royal zenanah, when she observed one of the princes, a boy ten years of age, with a handkerchief tied over his eyes, groping about the apartment. On inquiring what he was doing, he said that, as he knew his eyes would be put out when the king his father died, he was now trying how he should be able to do without them. The uncle and predecessor of this lad's father secured the throne to the nephew whom he loved by Abimelech's process. 'He had,' he used to say, 'raised a royal palace, and cemented it with blood, that the boy Baba Khan (the name he always gave his nephew) might sleep within its walls in peace.' Threescore and ten persons.'-Besides these seventy sons, Gideon had doubtless a proportionate number of daughters. Such enormous families are not unexampled in the East. The king mentioned in the preceding note, Futteh Ali Shah, the nephew of the blood-spiller and father of the boy who expected to be blinded, had a much larger family than this. He also, like Gideon, had many wives' (chap. viii. 30). To have many, is a piece of state in Oriental kings and rulers: but it is not always attended with such numerous families. Solomon, who in this respect was exceeded by no Oriental monarch, is not known to have had more than one son.

6. 'All the house of Millo!'-The word i millo means 'a mound' or 'rampart,' so called (from the verb

mala, to fill') as being filled in with stones and earth; hence it also denotes a fortress or castle, which is doubtless the sense here, so that the term must be taken to denote the fortress or citadel of Shechem. Accordingly, Gesenius renders the clause: All the men of Shechem, and all that dwelt in the castle.' The same term is eventually applied to a part of the citadel of Jerusalem, probably the rampart or entrenchment.

By the plain.-The marginaloak' is right. In like manner English councils were formerly held under wide spreading oaks. Thus Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, met the British bishops under an oak

in Worcestershire, which was therefore called, as Bede tells us, Augustine's Oak. And Barkshire has its name, as it were Bare-oak-shire, from a large dead oak, in the forest of Windsor, where they continued to hold provincial councils near its trunk, as had been done more anciently under its extensive and flourishing branches. (Hody's English Councils.)

7. Stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice.'-In some places the precipices of Gerizim seem to overhang the town, so that Jotham's voice floating over the valley from one of the summits of Gerizim might easily be heard by a quiet audience eagerly listening in the plain below. See the note on 1 Sam. xxvi. 13.

8. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them,' etc.-Here we have the most ancient apologue extant; and yet one so complete and beautiful as to shew that this pleasing form of conveying instruction had long before been known and practised. The Greeks claimed to be the inventors of the apologue; but this ancient parable of Jotham would alone suffice to throw their claim to the ground, as its antiquity ascends far higher than the times to which their accounts would refer the origin of instructive fable. Indeed, modern researches, guided by a more intimate acquaintance with Oriental literature than Europe ever before possessed, tend to shew, that not only was the apologue of Oriental origin, but that the main stock of European fable may be traced to the East. There such little fictions continue to instruct those who would not listen to, or perhaps would not understand, abstract reasonings or direct address. It is probable that such a mode of instruction is about the most ancient of any. It is easy to trace its origin to the period when languages were poor in terms for the expression of ideas, and for discriminating the shades of sentiment and thought, which therefore obliged men to reason from natural objects. And this custom, being once introduced, was retained, even when languages became more copious in abstract terms; because it was found that only in this veiled form could wholesome truths gain admittance to the ear of power, on the one hand, or be rendered acceptable or intelligible to the unreasoning multitude, on the other. Hence it has happened in the East-and not in the East only-that the sternest purposes of power have been averted, and lessons of justice and mercy inculcated, by a timely and pointed fable, where open remonstrance or rebuke would not have failed to give such offence, or to provoke such indignation, as would have ruined the incautious reprover. Instances are also recorded, in which even excited multitudes have been soothed, and have consented to receive, through a wellframed fable, lessons of moderation and prudence, which able reasoners and eloquent declaimers might have endeavoured vainly to instil. A short fable is also more easily remembered, and the moral' along with it, than the moral alone expressed in abstract terms; and hence it is that the apologue has so often been chosen as the vehicle through which to transmit wholesome general truths and important precepts for moral guidance, or for the inculcation of doctrines. Fables thus variously intended, are all exemplified in the Sacred Scriptures. There we have them as employed to reprove kings, to admonish multitudes, and to instruct disciples. Our Lord himself did not disdain to employ them. They are all perfect of their kind; nearly all of them are very short; and in most instances, as in that now before us, the application is made by the speaker. We may regard them as specimens of a mode of instruction and admonishment which must obviously have been common among the Hebrews.

With respect to the present fable, we only need cite the following remarks of Dr. Hales: For their ingratitude to the house of Gideon, the Shechemites were indignantly upbraided by Jotham, in the oldest and most beautiful apologue of antiquity extant-the trees choosing a king. With the mild and unassuming dispositions of his pious and honourable brethren, declining, like their father, we may suppose, the crown, when offered to them perhaps successively, under the imagery of the olive-tree, the fig. tree, and the vine, he pointedly contrasts the upstart am

bition and arrogance of the wicked and turbulent Abimelech, represented by the bramble; inviting his new and nobler subjects, the cedars of Lebanon, to put their trust in his pigmy shadow, which they did not want, and which he was unable to afford them; but threatening them imperiously, on their refusal, to send forth a fire from himself to devour those cedars: whereas, the fire of the bramble was short and momentary even to a proverb, Ps. lviii. 9; Eccl. vii. 6.'

9. Olive tree' ( zaith, Olea Europaea).-The olive seems to have been originally a native of Asia, whence it was transplanted into Egypt and Barbary and the south of Europe. The wood is hard-grained and heavy, and not liable to be assailed by insects. Its colour is yellowish, veined, and of an agreeable odour, while its texture renders it susceptible of a fine polish. The appearance of the olive-tree is not unlike that of our willows, as the leaves are lance-shaped, or narrow, and hoary. The fruit, when ripe, is like a damson to the eye, with a soft oleaginous pulp, and a hard nut in the centre. Cultivation has produced several varieties of olive, which differ in their

OLIVE BRANCH, WITH FRUIT.

fatness and savour. The olive was consecrated to Minerva by the Athenians, who regarded the culture and protection of the olive tree as a religious duty. In some parts of France, the inhabitants eat the berries of the olive with their bread, and find them an agreeable and wholesome condiment. The olive in general requires a little preparation in brine or hot water, to dissipate the bitter principle which it contains, though a variety, which is very uncommon in France, is so sweet that it may be eaten at once. It is probable that the olives of Judæa, when in its prosperity, were of this character, and formed to the inhabitants a pleasant accompaniment to the more substantial articles of their daily food. The oil of the olive is pre-eminent among vegetable oils, and has not only always had an extensive use in culinary purposes, but formed the menstruum or vehicle for the most celebrated perfumes.

13. My wine, which cheereth God and man.'-Wine is here expressed as cheering God, because it was used in the sacrifices and offerings made to him. In the same way we must explain verse 9, where God is said to be honoured by olive-oil,-it being used in sacrifices, and for other purposes connected with his service.

14. 'Bramble' ( Atad; Sept. þáμvos; Vulg. Rhamnus). This was probably a species of buckthorn, perhaps the Zizyphus vulgaris, which is a native of Syria and Palestine, whence it migrated into Europe in the reign of Augustus Cæsar. Many of the buckthorn family are remarkable for the length and abundance of their spines, which are the transformed stipulæ. The fruit of the one before us is an edible drupe, a pulpy mass with a twoseeded nut in the centre. Its comparative fruitfulness gave it a specious claim to be counted the king of trees, while the singularly combustible nature of its wood suggested the idea of that 'fire' which was to come forth and consume the disaffected.

21. 'Beer. The word Beer, whether alone or in compound names, denotes a well. The Beer of the present text is not named in any other place: it was in the tribe of Judah. Eusebius places it eight Roman miles north of Eleutheropolis. This is probably an error, as he also states that it becomes visible at the seventh Roman mile on the road from Nicopolis to Jerusalem, which cannot be true of a town situated as he indicates; but is true of a place still bearing the corresponding name el-Bireh, which, since Maundrell's time, has been identified with Beer. Eusebius probably wrote 'Eleutheropolis' for 'Jerusalem; for the place in question is nearly at the expressed distance, northward, from the latter city. Bireh is mentioned, under the name of Bira, by Brocard, in whose time it was held by the Templars. By the Crusaders and the later ecclesiastics it was erroneously confounded with the ancient Michmash. Bireh is situated on the ridge, running from east to west, which bounds the northern prospect as beheld from Jerusalem and its vicinity, and may be seen from a great distance north and south. It is now a large village, with a population of 700 Moslems. The houses are low, and many of them half under ground. Many large stones and various substructions evince the antiquity of the site; and there are remains of a fine old church of the time of the Crusades.

22. Abimelech ... reigned ... over Israel.'-It is probable that his authority did not at first extend much beyond the city of Shechem, which had made him king: but by gradual encroachments he seems to have extended his authority over the neighbouring towns and territories, compelling them to acknowledge his power, as we find him in v. 50 warring against Thebez, in the tribe of Ephraim, as a rebellious city, that seems to have refused submission to him.

23. God sent an evil spirit,' etc.-As the circumstances which follow are somewhat complicated and obscure, the following connected statement of this portion of the history from our Pictorial History of Palestine will spare the need of many separate annotations:

Abimelech reigned three years in Shechem, during which he so disgusted the men by whom he had been raised to that bad eminence on which he stood, that they expelled him from their city. In return, he, with the aid of the desperate fellows who remained with him, did his utmost to distress the inhabitants, so that at the season of vintage they were afraid to go out into their vineyards to collect their fruits. Hearing of these transactions, one Gaal went over to Shechem with his armed followers and kinsmen, to see how they might be turned to his advantage. We know not precisely who this person was, or whence he came; but there are circumstances in the original narrative which would suggest that he was a Canaanite, descended from the former rulers of Shechem, and that his people also were a remnant of the original Shechemites. He came so opportunely, that the people very gladly accepted his protection during the vintage. In the feasts which followed the joyful labours of that season, Gaal, who seems to have been a cowardly, boasting fellow, spoke contemptuously of Abimelech, and talked largely of what he could and would do, if authority were vested in him. This was heard with much indignation by Zebul, one of the principal magistrates of the city, who lost no time in secretly sending to apprise Abimelech how matters stood, and advised him to shew himself suddenly be

fore the place, when he would undertake to induce Gaal to march out against him. Accordingly, one morning, when Zebul and other principal persons were with Gaal at the gate of the city, armed men were seen descending the hills. Zebul amused Gaal till they came nearer, and then, by reminding him of his recent boastings, compelled him to draw out his men to repel the advance of Abimelech. They met, and no sooner did Gaal see a few of his men fall, than, with the rest, he fled hastily into the town. Zebul availed himself of this palpable exhibition of impotence, if not cowardice, to induce the people of Shechem to expel Gaal and his troop from the city. Abimelech, who was staying at Arumah, a place not far off, was informed of this the next morning, as well as that the inhabitants, although no longer guarded by Gaal, went out daily to the labours of the field. He therefore laid ambushes in the neighbourhood; and when the men were come forth to their work in the vineyards, two of the ambushed parties rose to destroy them, while a third hastened to the gates to prevent their return to the town. The city itself was then taken, and Abimelech caused all the buildings to be destroyed, and the ground to be strewn with salt, as a symbol of the desolation to which his intention consigned it. The fortress, however, still remained, and a thousand men were in it. But they, fancying that it was not tenable, withdrew to the stronghold, which had the advantage of standing in a more elevated and commanding position. On perceiving this, Abimelech cut down the bough of a tree with his battle-axe, and bore it upon his shoulder, directing all his men to do the same. The wood was deposited against the entrance and walls of the fortress, and, when kindled, made a tremendous fire, in which the building and the thousand men it contained in it were destroyed.

45. Beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.-Virgil is sometimes quoted in illustration of this practice :— 'Salt earth and bitter are not fit to sow,

Nor will be turn'd or mended with the plough."

It is no doubt true, as he says, that a naturally salt and bitter soil is not productive: but merely strewing fertile land with salt is not calculated to make it unproductive. Besides, there would have been no meaning in strewing with salt a demolished city, with the view of rendering it unproductive, because a town is not intended for culture, but for building. As, however, lands have been rendered utterly sterile by saline admixture or incrustation, salt might well be taken to symbolize the desolation to which the city was doomed. Or else, as salt was used in the confirmation of covenants, this act may possibly have been part of a ceremony by which the city was doomed to be rebuilt no more, so far as the interdiction of the destroyer could have effect. This ceremony was not peculiar to the Jews. When Hadrian levelled Jerusalem with the ground, he caused salt to be strewed on the site it had occupied: and when, at a period much more modern (1162), the emperor Frederic Barbarossa destroyed Milan, he not only ploughed it up (another Hebrew practice), but strewed it with salt, in memory of which, a street of the present city is called Contrado della Sala. Sigonius, De Regn. Ital. 1. 13, 14.

48. Mount Zalmon.'-The name means 'shady,' and from what follows it would appear to have derived it from being well clad with wood. It is perhaps another name for Ebal or Gerizim, or possibly a collective name for both, as there are no other high mountains in the neighbourhood of Shechem.

50. Thebez.-This place was in the region of Shechem, and Eusebius and Jerome describe it as thirteen Roman miles distant from the latter towards Scythopolis or Bethshean. In this quarter there still exists a village of the name of Tubas, which may perhaps represent this ancient site.

51. A strong tower within the city.'-This was doubtless a sort of citadel, such as exists in most considerable towns of Western Asia, and which serves the people as a last retreat when the town is taken by an enemy, and

where the people in authority shut themselves up on occasions of popular tumult. In some parts we have seen such towers in the open country, where the neighbouring peasantry may deposit their more valuable property, or themselves take refuge when the approach of an enemy or of a plundering tribe is expected.

53. A piece of a millstone.'-Literally 'the rider,' as the upper millstone from its riding or revolving upon the lower. The Eastern hand-mill consists of two flat round stones, about two feet in diameter, which they rub one on the other by means of an upright pin infixed as a handle near the edge of the upper stone. In the operation of

a, the hand-mill complete; b, section of the upper millstone; c, the lower millstone.

grinding, the corn falls down on the under stone through a hole in the middle of the upper, which by its circular motion spreads it on the under stone, where it is bruised and reduced to flour; this flour working out of the rim of the millstones lights on a board set on purpose to receive it. If, as is usual, a woman were working such a mill on the roof of the tower, she would naturally be prompted, in defence of herself and people, to run to the battlements

with the rider millstone; which, let fall on the head of Abimelech, would inevitably fracture his scull.

— And all to brake his scull.'-According to the present use of language this would seem rather to express intention than the result of action; but it does express the latter, as the past tense (brake) of the verb 'to break' indicates. All to,' in many of our old writers, means 'altogether' or 'entirely, and is so used here. So the meaning is, and entirely brake his scull.' Without understanding this, some copies of our version have changed it, to indicate intention, by substituting 'break' for brake.' The death of Pyrrhus at Argos, as told by Plutarch, resembles, in many of its circumstances, this account of the death of Gideon's unworthy son. The women in the East are often very active in throwing all sorts of missiles, such as bricks, tiles, and stones, from the walls of besieged places.

54. That men say not of me, A woman slew him.'—It was, in ancient times, accounted in the highest degree dishonourable for a warrior to die by the hands of a woman; and certainly, military men would not, even now, count it in any respect an honourable death. Burder quotes, in illustration of this, Seneca the tragedian, who thus deplores the death of Hercules :

'O turpe fatum! fœmina Herculeæ necis Auctor fertur.'-Herc. Etaus, v. 1177. 'O dishonourable fate! a woman is reported to have caused the death of Hercules.'

Abimelech's device, to avoid this dishonourable fate, availed him little; for nearly three centuries afterwards we find his death ascribed to the woman who threw the piece of millstone from the wall. 2 Sam. xi, 21.

CHAPTER X.

1 Tola judgeth Israel in Shamir. 3 Jair, whose thirty sons had thirty cities. 7 The Philistines and Ammonites oppress Israel. 10 In their misery God sendeth them to their false gods. 15 Upon their repentance he pitieth them.

AND after Abimelech there arose to 'defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.

2 And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

3¶ And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.

4 And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called "Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.

5 And Jair died, and was buried in Ca

hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

9 Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

10 T And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

11 And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

13 'Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods wherefore I will deliver you no