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that they should be subject to all the sons of Gideon, seventy persons in number; and if the government of one man was to be desired, who had so strong a claim to their preference and attachment as one so closely connected with them as Abimelech? These suggestions had their weight upon the leading men of Shechem, particularly the consideration that he was "their brother." They supplied him with money out of the treasury of Baal-berith, whose worship seems to have been that to which the Israelites were at this time the most inclined. The sum was not large, but it served him to hire a set of unprincipled men, prepared for any undertaking he might propose. And, with the usual short-sightedness of wicked men, thinking to concentrate in his own person the attachment of the Israelites to the house of Gideon, as well as to extinguish that which was likely to be the most active opposition he would have to encounter, Abimelech marched his troop to Ophrah, where he put to death all his brethren, the sons of Gideon, with the exception of the youngest, named Jotham, who managed to escape. This is the first example of a stroke of barbarous policy which has since been very common in the history of the East. In the first instance it had the effect he intended, for on his return to Shechem the people of that place assembled and anointed Abimelech king, close to a pillar of stone that stood near that town, perhaps the same which Joshua had set up there as a memorial of the covenant with God.

When Jotham was made acquainted with this, he repaired secretly to the neighbourhood of Shechem, and taking advantage of some festival which brought the inhabitants together outside the town, he appeared suddenly on a cliff overlooking the valley in which they were assembled, and, in a loud voice, called their attention to his words. He then delivered that earliest and very fine parable, which represents the trees as making choice of a king :—The olive refused to leave its oil, the fig-tree its sweetness, and the vine-tree its wine, to reign over the trees (thus intimating the refusal of Gideon's sons); but the upstart bramble (representing Abimelech) accepts, with great dignity, the offered honour, and even proposes the conditions of its acceptance. These are exquisitely satirical, both in their terms and in their application—" If ye truly intend to anoint me king over you, come, take shelter under my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon." That they might be at no loss to understand his meaning, Jotham gave the obvious" moral," in which he included a bitter rebuke of the ingratitude of the people to their deliverer, all whose sons, save himself, they had slain; together with an intimation, which proved prophetic, of the probable result. He then fled with all haste, in fear of Abimelech; and ultimately settled beyond his reach, at Beer, in the tribe of Benjamin.

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 show himself suddenly before the city, 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 Seventy shekels of silver, about equal to eight pounds of our money. But proper allowance must be made for a great difference in the real value of money, although the precise amount of that difference cannot be stated. 3 E

VOL. I.

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 city. 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 town. 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 strong-hold of the temple of Baal-Berith,” which had the advantage of standing in a more elevated and commanding position. This, it will be noted, is the first temple which we read of in Scripture. 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 strong-hold, and, when kindled, made a tremendous fire, in which the building and the thousand men it contained in it were destroyed.

To follow up this victory, Abimelech marched against Thebez, another revolted town. As before, he took the town itself with little difficulty, but all the people had shut themselves up in the tower or fortress, which offered a more serious obstacle. However, Abimelech advanced to the door with the intention of burning it down, when a woman threw a large stone from the battlements above. It fell upon him, and broke his skull; and mindful, even in that bitter moment of that principle of military honour which counts death from a woman's hands disgraceful, he hastily called to his armour-bearer to thrust him through with his sword, that it might not be said a woman slew him. But the disgrace which he desired to avoid, attached for ever to his name; for it was always remembered to his dishonour that a woman slew him. After Abimelech, Tola, of the tribe of Issachar, but dwelling in Mount Ephraim, governed the people for twenty-three years.

He was succeeded by Jair, a Gileadite (of eastern Manasseh), who judged Israel twenty-two years. His opulence is indicated by his being the owner of thirty villages, which, collectively, bore the name of Havoth-Jair (Jair's villages), and that he had thirty sons, all of whom he could afford to mount on young asses. In those days horses and mules were not in use among the Hebrews. Their place was not unworthily substituted by the fine breed of asses which the country afforded; and to possess as many as thirty of these, young and vigorous, and fit for the saddle (implying the possession of many more, older and of inferior condition), was no questionable sign of wealth.

As the administration of these two judges was peaceable, the notice of them is confined to a few lines; the chief design of the sacred historian being to record the calamities which the Israelites drew upon themselves by their apostacies to the idolatries of the surrounding nations, and their providential deliverances upon their repentance and return to their God and King. After the calm of these administrations, they multiplied their idolatries, and, in punishment for this, they were brought under a servitude to the Ammonites, which continued for eighteen years, and was particularly severe upon the tribes beyond Jordan, although the southern and central tribes on this side the river-Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, were also subdued.

Corrected by calamity, the Israelites put away their idols and cried to God for pardon and deliverance. In reply to their suit, they were reminded of the deliverances which they had already experienced, notwithstanding which they had repeatedly turned to serve other gods. Their prayer was therefore refused; and they were told-" Go and cry to the gods that ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation." Their reply to this was very proper;-"We have sinned: do thou to us whatever seemeth good unto thee; only deliver us, we pray thee, this time." And forthwith they rooted out the remains of idolatry from

among them, and worshipped Jehovah with such singleness and zeal that "his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel."

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There was a man called Jephthah, who was, like Abimelech, the spurious son of a man who had a large family of legitimate children. When the father died, the other sons expelled Jephthah from among them, saying, "Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman. As this last phrase generally denotes a foreigner, or one not of Israel, this treatment, although very harsh, was less unjust, under the peculiar circumstances of the Hebrew constitution, than might at the first view appear; for it was a strong point of the Mosaic policy to discourage all connection with foreigners (necessarily idolaters); and nothing was better calculated to this end, for a people like the Hebrews, than the disqualification of the progeny of such connections from receiving a share in the inheritance.

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On this Jephthah withdrew into "the land of Tob," towards the borders of the desert and as he had before this found opportunities of establishing a character for spirit and courage, he was soon joined by a number of destitute and idle young men, who were led by inclination, or more imperative inducements, to prefer the free life he led to the sober habits which a settling community requires. Besides, from pastoral societies, such as those beyond Jordan, the step into the free life of the desert is much shorter than it would be among a more agri. cultural people. It is really useless to attempt to consider Jephthah's troop otherwise than as a set of daring, careless fellows, acting as men do at the present day act in the East under similar circumstances, and similarly brought together. Being without any other means of subsistence, they unquestionably lived by a sort of robbery, as we should call it now, examples of which are found in all rude states of society, and to which, in such states of society, no one dreams of attaching disgrace. They lived doubtless by raids, or plundering excursions, into the neighbouring small states, driving off the cattle, and taking whatever came to their hands; and we may from analogy conclude that they waylaid and levied black-mail upon caravans, when composed of parties which they had no reason to treat with favour. Their point of honour probably was, to abstain from any acts against their own countrymen; and this exception existing, the body of the Israelites must have regarded the performances of Jephthah and his troop with favour, especially if, as is likely, they were thorns in the sides of the Ammonites, and took pleasure to annoy, in their own quarters, the enemies of Israel. However this may be, the courage and conduct of Jephthah became so well known by his successful enterprises, that when, after their repentance, the tribes beyond Jordan determined to make a stand against the Ammonites, but felt the want of a leader, they agreed that there was no known person so fit as Jephthah to lead them to battle. The chiefs of Gilead, his native district, therefore went in person to the land of Tob, to solicit this already celebrated person to undertake the conduct of the expedition. They were rather harshly received. "Did ye not hate me," said the hero, "and expel me from my father's house? and why do ye come to me now, when ye are in distress?" They, however, continued to press him, and intimated that, as had been usual in such cases, the government of, at least, the land of Gilead, would be the reward of his success. This was very agreeable to Jephthah, who forthwith accompanied them to Mizpeh, where this agreement was solemnly ratified, and all things necessary for conducting the war were regulated.

By the time Jephthah had organised his forces in Mizpeh, the Ammonites, taking alarm, had assembled a numerous army in Gilead. Although, from his previous habits of life, we should hardly have expected it from him, we find the Hebrew general commencing the war with much more than usual attention to those formalities which are judged necessary to render the grounds of quarrel manifest. He sent ambassadors to the king of the Ammonites, requiring to know why he had come to fight against the Hebrews in their own land. The king, in reply, alleged that he came to recover the land taken from his ancestors by the Israelites, on their way from Egypt, and of which he, therefore, required peaceable restitution. Jephthah. in his reply gave a fair and clear recital of the whole transaction which had put these lands into the possession of the Hebrews, and he refused to surrender them on the following grounds:-1. He denied that the Ammonites had any existing title to the lands, for they had

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been driven out of these lands by the Amo rites before the Hebrews appeared; and that they (the Hebrews) in overcoming and driving out the Amorites, without any assistance from, or friendly understanding with, the Ammonites, became entitled to the territory which the conquered people occupied. 2. That the title of the Israelites was confirmed by a prescription of above 300 years, during which none of Ammon or of Moab had ever reclaimed these lands; and,-3, as an argumentum ad hominem, he alleged that the God of Israel was as well entitled to grant his people the lands which they held as was their own god Chemosh, according to their opinion, to grant to the Ammonites the lands which they now occu pied. This admirable and well-reasoned statement concluded with an appeal to heaven to decide the justice of the cause by the event of the battle which was now inevitable.

The result was such as might be expected. Jephthah defeated the Ammonites with great slaughter, and reduced the nation to subjection.

But not joy to exalt and gladden his heart, but a bitter grief to rend it deeply, awaited the victor on his return to Mizpeh. Feeling, perhaps, that he had not, like former deliverers, been expressly and publicly

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called and appointed by God to the work he had undertaken, he had sought to propitiate heaven by a vow, that if allowed to return to his home in peace, whatsoever first came forth to meet him should be offered as a burnt-offering to Jehovah.

Jephthah had no child, save one daughter, a virgin, beautiful and young. And she, when the news came of his great victory, and of his return in triumph and peace, went forth at the head of her fair companions to meet her glorious father, dancing joyously to their timbrels as he drew nigh. Here, then, was the object of his vow-his cherished daughter-the only object in the world which could call forth those kindly sympathies and tendernesses which lurk deep within even those natures which have been the most scarred and roughened in the storms of life. The desolated father rent his clothes, crying, "Alas! my daughter, thou hast brought me low indeed!. . . for I have opened my mouth to Jehovah and I cannot reverse it." Then, understanding the nature of his vow, that noble maiden, mindful only that Israel was delivered, and impressed with the solemn obligation which that vow imposed, sought not to turn her father from his purpose, or encouraged him to seek those evasions which others have since discovered for him. With unexampled magnanimity she cried, "My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to Jehovah, do with me according to that which thou hast spoken; forasmuch as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for thee upon thine enemies, upon the Ammonites." All she desired was that she might be allowed for two months to wander among the mountains, with her companions, to bewail that it was not her lot to be a bride and mother in Israel. At the end of that time Jephthah " did with her according to his vow."

It is much to be regretted that the reluctance of the sacred writer to express in plain terms the dreadful immolation which we believe to be thus indicated, has left the whole matter open as a subject of dispute. The early Jewish and Christian writers (including Josephus) made no question that Jephthah, under a most mistaken notion of duty, did, after the manner of the heathen, really offer his daughter in sacrifice; but the ingenuity of modern criticism has discovered the alternative that she was not immolated on the altar, but was devoted to perpetual virginity in the service of the tabernacle. It must be confessed that the subject is one of such difficulty, as to render it hard to reach a positive conclusion. But on anxiously re-considering the question which has before engaged our attention,* we are sorry to feel constrained to adhere to the harsher alternative, which we were then led to consider the most probable.

There was no institution among the Jews under which practical effect could be given to the alternative which modern interpretation has provided; and even had not this been the case, there was, at the time that this devotement to the tabernacle must have taken place, no access to the tabernacle from the east; for Jephthah was about that time waging a bitter war with the tribe of Ephraim, in whose territory, at Shiloh, the ark was situated. This posture of affairs would preclude him from receiving from the priests those instructions and remonstrances which would have prevented that piteous immolation which he deemed his vow to require. We are persuaded that the more thoroughly any one makes himself acquainted with the spirit of the time, the state of religion, the nature of the ideas which then prevailed, the peculiarities of the ecclesiastical polity among the Hebrews, and the character of Jephthah himself, the more strong will be his conviction that the infatuated hero really did offer his daughter in sacrifice, and the greater will the difficulty seem of providing any other alternative. The opinion of the Jews themselves is also entitled to some weight; and at a time when they abhorred the idea of human sacrifices, they not only state it as an unquestionable fact that this sacrifice did take place, but ascribe the deposition of the line of Eleazer from the high-priesthood, and the substitution of that of Ithamar, to the circumstance that the existing pontiff did not take measures to prevent this stain upon the annals of Israel.

We must consider how long the minds of the Israelites had been saturated with notions imbibed from the surrounding heathen, which implies the neglect, and consequent ignorance, of the divine law; and that among those ideas and practices that of the superior efficacy of human sacrifices occupied a prominent place. We may also reflect that a rough military adventurer, like Jephthah, had been even more than usually exposed to contaminating influPictorial Bible' on Judges xi.

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