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THE JUDGES.

CHAPTER I.

The Judges in Israel. Nature of their office. Adoni-Bezek. Message of the Angel at Bochim.

After the death of Joshua, and till Saul, their first king, began to reign over the Israelites, they were governed, for the most part, by a succession of individuals, called Judges. These rulers were raised up for trying emergencies, and especially to rescue the nation from the oppression of their enemies. Being chosen, in some instances, by the people, and in others appointed by God himself, and invested with rightful authority, they often continued to exercise it, in a greater or less degree, during the remainder of their lives.

Their office was not hereditary, nor did they designate their successors. Without the titles or the splendors of royalty, they wielded a power not inferior to that of the kings who came after them. They made war and peace. They administered justice with a decision from which there was no appeal. They saw that the laws were car.

ried into effect, though they had not the power of forming new ones, or of imposing taxes upon the people. They maintained the dignity of the civil and religious institutions of the nation; were the avengers of crime, especially of the sin of idolatry; and endeavored to establish their countrymen in the love and obedience of the Almighty.

Among other Scripture biographies, we must not overlook those of such distinguished persons. Their actions form an essential part of the divine record, and are full of instruction to the reflecting mind. We shall, indeed, find among them some deplorable instances of human frailty and sinfulness; but we shall also see much to admire in their characters, and in the wise providence of God, who so seasonably raised them up for the good of his people.

Their history will be the better understood if we consider a little the state of affairs among the Israelites before the first of these rulers began to exercise his authority, and attend also, as we go along in the narrative, to certain transactions with which they were more or less connected.

It was a part of the farewell counsels of Joshua to assure his countrymen, that if they obeyed the commands of Jehovah, and relied on his almighty arm, they should expel the remaining Canaanites from the land, and thus attain the complete do

minion of their promised inheritance. Indeed, it was made their duty to do this, to the performance of which they were now strongly prompted by their increasing numbers, and the necessity of occupying still larger territories.

Their first step was the right one. It showed that they felt their dependence on God, and their need of his guidance. They repaired to the divine oracle. Through the high-priest of the nation, the appointed medium of communication with Jehovah,-they consulted the Urim and Thummim, to ascertain the divine will. Their inquiry was, "Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them?"

The Lord answered, "Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand."

This tribe was designated, because it was the most powerful of all, and destined to hold the highest rank, especially as being the one from which the Messiah would arise to redeem his people. With its hosts of valiant men to take the lead in this new expedition against the common enemy, the success attending the enterprise would afford an encouraging example to the other tribes in the efforts which they also would soon have to make for the entire possession of the portions of territory which had been respectively assigned them. And this consideration was one of no small importance, in renewing the wars

which the Israelites must wage against the formidable nations around them, and from which they had now, for a long time, enjoyed a respite

The lot of the tribe of Judah included that of Simeon within its limits. They were closely united by the bonds of consanguinity, being de. scended from the same father and mother, Jacob and Leah. It may have been the case, also, that the portions of these two tribes had not been cleared of the Canaanites, or that they were the parts which were now more immediately in danger. For some one or all of these reasons, the men of Judah invited those of Simeon to join them in the expedition, engaging that they also, in their turn, would assist the latter in any similar enterprise which they might be called upon to undertake.

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The war was a successful one. The Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.'

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Adoni-Bezek, the king of this city, met with a singular and merited fate. While endeavoring to make his escape by flight, he was overtaken by the Israelites, who inflicted on him a very severe punishment. They cut off his thumbs and great toes, a method in ancient times, of treating those who had been guilty of some great offence, and in the case of prisoners of war to prevent

them from afterwards handling skilfully the bow and other weapons of attack, and from being as swift of foot as they once were. It is most probable that the infliction of this peculiar kind of punishment was in consequence of the divine direction, as a providential act of vengeance upon this wicked man. For, on suffering it, he confessed that he had treated seventy kings in the same cruel manner, obliging them, after being thus maimed, as an additional mark of degradation, to gather up, for their sustenance, the crumbs from under his table. "As I have done," said he, "so God hath requited me." He was carried captive to Jerusalem, where he afterwards died.

Other tribes were soon engaged in other conquests. Victory attended their arms, but they failed to prosecute these wars to the extent of the divine command. Through timidity at one time, and remissness at another, and it may be from a false lenity, they suffered portions of the heathen to remain within their borders, when they should have been entirely cut off. This latter course was the only safe one. It was prescribed by Jehovah himself, to secure his people against the idolatry and other enticing sins of the nations around them. They were not left without a solemn warning and reproof for their disobedience.

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