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he considered a merited chastisement upon the offenders. In doing this, he said that on them would rest the great burden of guilt, while he would be comparatively blameless.

He caught, probably with the assistance of others, three hundred animals of the fox-kind, (though some think they were jackals, or as they are sometimes termed, wolf-foxes,) and tied them together, two and two, by their tails, attaching to each pair, between the tails, a firebrand, or rather, as the word in the original might be rendered, a torch. Lighting these torches, he turned the animals loose among the fields of grain of the Philistines, which they set on fire in all directions, running wildly hither and thither, and making a great devastation.

It was soon ascertained that Samson was the cause of this mischief, and that he had done it in consequence of the treatment which he received from his father-in-law in giving his wife to another, and in refusing afterwards to restore her to him. Enraged at the Timnite for being the means of bringing such a calamity upon them, the Philistines came up, in great fury, to his residence, and burnt both himself and his daughter with fire. It was the very fate with which she had once been threatened, and which now, at length, overtook her after attempting to escape it by her treachery to her husband.

This cruel deed only aroused afresh the resentment of Samson. He determined to give his enemies one more proof of his vengeance. Finding an opportunity of attacking a number of them together, he completely overcame them, putting them to death with a great slaughter; and, perceiving that he would soon be exposed to the fury of the Philistines, and be under the necessity of defending himself against them, he withdrew to a strong-hold of the rock Etam, where he remained.

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It was as he expected. A numerous band of his enemies came near the place, and encamped there, with a view of making him their prisoner. The men of Judah, within whose territory this took place, inquired the reason of the movement. "To bind Samson, are we come up," was the "to do to him as he hath done to us.' Intimidated by their numbers, and required by the Philistines to assist in the enterprise, the men of Judah approached the top of the rock, to expostulate with Samson, and to see if there was any way of getting him into their hands. They asked him if in doing what he had done to exasperate the Philistines, he had forgotten that himself and his countrymen were under their dominion, and that by such acts of violence he would expose the Israelites to still greater evils. His

only reply was; "As they did unto me, so have I done unto them."

Finding, thus, that there was no relenting on his part, they told him plainly what their intention was, to bind him, and deliver him a prisoner to the Philistines. He made no remonstrance in opposition to such cowardly and treacherous conduct; being willing rather to suffer wrong from his countrymen, than to come out in hostility against them; and knowing that, by yielding to their wishes, he would only be furnished with another favorable opportunity of chastising their common enemy. He exacted an oath of them, however, that they would do him no violence, which they were ready to take; and surrendering himself into their hands, they bound him strongly with two new cords, and proceeded to deliver him, in that condition, to the Philistines.

How grateful we should be to the kind Providence of God, that it is not made our lot to mingle in such scenes of strife and blood as we have just had pass in review before us. But, while we rejoice at this exemption, let us be ever on our guard, lest the spirit of contention and animosity rankle in our breasts, and show itself, if not in deeds of violence, in attacks upon the motives and character of others, and especially of our christian brethren, which are wholly irreconcilable with that divine charity that the Gospel en

joins. Let us always be ready to suffer wrong, rather than do wrong; be candid and forgiving; return good for evil; overcome resentment with love; and follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

CHAPTER XXI.

Samson kills a thousand men with the jaw-bone of an ass. He escapes from Gaza. Delilah.

Samson, under the care of his keepers, approached the camp of the Philistines. Seeing him bound in such a manner as to prevent, in their opinion, his making any resistance, they felt secure of their victim. The air rang with shouts of exultation. The enemy whom they had so long dreaded was now in their power, and they resolved to make him feel the full weight of their vengeance.

But their triumph was of short duration. The God of Samson and of the Israelites interposed. Endowed for the emergency with strength from "the Spirit of the Lord," he burst free from his bonds with as much ease as if the cords which bound him had been flaxen ones after being burnt

with fire. Being thus at liberty, and looking round for the best mode of defending himself against the Philistines, and even of attacking them should the opportunity offer, he saw on the ground the jaw-bone of an ass that had but lately died, and which had not yet become dried and brittle so as to cause it to break easily. Seizing it on a sudden, and rushing impetuously among his enemies, who were overwhelmed with surprise and consternation, he assailed them, one after another, with this strange weapon. Wielded by his powerful arm, the blows inflicted by it caused death in every direction. The slain lay upon each other in heaps; nor did Samson cease from the work of destruction till one thousand had fallen beneath the strokes of his giant-arm. Surveying the field of death, and breaking forth in a strain of joy at his victory, he exclaimed, " With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.” The insignificance of the instrument, and that in the hand, too, of a single individual contending with hundreds, led Samson to be filled with wonder at what he had achieved, and to feel that he owed his triumph over the Philistines to God alone. He threw away the weapon of destruction which he had been using, and in commemoration of what had occurred, called the place Ramath-lehi, or the hill of the jaw-bone.

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