conquered foe. Willingly into his cloak the people flung the ornaments, jewels, and chains from the camels' necks to the weight of 1700 shekels, and with these Gideon made an ephod, and put it in his native Ophrah, and all Israel went a whoring after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his house. Though he declined the royal dignity, he was addicted to a royal failing. He multiplied wives and begat 70 sons, and after living to a good old age descended in peace to the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites1 (Judg. viii. 32).

AFT

CHAPTER V.

A BIMELECH AND JEPHTHAH.

JUDG. IX.--XII. B. C. circ. 1249-1188.

FTER the death of Gideon, Jehovah, whose minister, he had been for the deliverance of the people, was again forgotten by the Israelites. Forgetting Gideon, forgetting Him who had sent Gideon, they made BaalBerith, Baal of the Covenant, their god, and set up his sanctuary even in Shechem, though hallowed by the memories of the patriarchs and the solemn ratification of the Law3.

Meanwhile Gideon's 70 sons appear to have exercised authority over some portion of the country. One of them, whose name was ABIMELECH, the son of a slave a Canaanite native of Shechem, after consultation with his mother's brethren and her relatives (Judg. ix. 1), suggested that in place of the divided authority of his numerous brothers, he, their bone and their flesh (Judg. ix. 2), should be vested with the supreme authority.

1 For subsequent mention of this deliverance, see I Sam. xii. 11; Ps. lxxxiii. 11; Isai. ix. 4, x. 26; Heb. xi. 32. 3 See above, p. 209.

2 See above, pp. 31, 55.

The spirit of clanship was strong. He is our brother, whispered the family to the Shechemites, who at length fell in with the scheme, and lent Abimelech seventy pieces of silver from the sanctuary of Baal-Berith.

With the money he hired a body of men, and going to his father's house at Ophrah, murdered all his brethren, save JOTHAM the youngest, who managed to escape. He was now left alone, and was solemnly anointed king by the men of Shechem, who thus formally signified their revolt from the Hebrew commonwealth. Tidings of what was going on reached the ears of Jotham. Emerging from his hiding-place, he stationed himself on one of the rocky inaccessible spurs of Mount Gerizim3, and taking up his parable from the variegated foliage of the valley below and the neighbouring forest, bade the men of Shechem listen while he addressed to them the earliest Parable, that of the BrambleKing. Once, he said, the Trees went forth to anoint a king over them. The Olire, the Vine, the Fig were each asked to accept the royal dignity, but each declined;

1 "Several lofty precipices of Gerizim literally overhang the city, any one of which would answer Jotham's purpose. Nor would it be difficult to be heard, as everybody knows who has listened to the public crier of villages on Lebanon. In the stillness of the evening, after the people have returned home from their distant fields, he ascends the mountain-side above the place, or to the roof of some prominent house, and then lifts up his voice and cries as Jotham did. Indeed, the people in these mountainous countries are able, from long practice, so to pitch their voices as to be heard distinctly at distances almost incredible. They talk with persons across enormous wadies, and give the most minute directions, which are perfectly understood; and in doing this they seem to speak very little louder than their usual tone of conversation. Jotham, therefore, might easily be heard by the greater part of the inhabitants of Shechem...The very trees which most abound at Nablous (Shechem) are the olive, the fig, the vine, and the bramble." Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 474; Stanley's Lectures, p. 350; Tristram, p. 150.

the Olive could not leave his fatness, or the Fig-tree his sweetness, or the Vine the juice of his grapes. Recourse was then had to the Bramble, which not only accepted the proffered honour, but bade the other trees put their trust in its shadow, and threatened, if they did not, that fire should come forth from it and devour even the cedars of Lebanon. Jotham then reminded the Shechemites of the services his father had rendered to the nation, and rebuked them for their gross ingratitude to his family. If they thought they had done well in electing Abimelech, the Bramble-King, he bade them rejoice in him; if not, he hoped a fire might come forth from the king, in whose shadow they had placed their trust, and destroy him and all who had joined in electing him. With these words the speaker fled.

In a short time his words were fulfilled. For three years Abimelech maintained his supremacy, residing himself at Arumah (Judg. ix. 41), not far from Shechem, while that place was entrusted to Zebul, his viceroy. During the joyous season of the vintage1 (Judg. ix. 27) Gaal the son of Ebed, a leader of a body of freebooters tried to persuade the people of Shechem to transfer their allegiance from Abimelech, who was but half a kinsman, to the Hivite tribe of Hamor. Intelligence of this movement reached the ears of Zebul, who without delay sent word to Abimelech, bidding him levy his forces and surprise the plotters in the city. After a desperate battle Abimelech captured the place, put the entire population to the sword, and sowed the ruins of the city with salt (Judg. ix. 45). A remnant, however, of the insurgents took refuge in the temple of BaalBerith. Thither Abimelech pursued them at the head of his followers, whom he commanded on their way to cut down boughs from the trees on the wooded emi

1 See Calendar, p. 155.

nence of Zalmon (Ps. lxviii. 14) close to the city. These he piled against the hold, set them on fire, and suffocated and burnt the refugees. From Shechem he repaired to Thebez1 (Tûbas) and speedily captured the town; but again the inhabitants took refuge in one of its strong towers, and there held out. Forcing his way up to it, Abimelech was about to repeat the stratagem he had found so successful at Shechem (Judg. ix. 52), when a woman flung a fragment of millstone at his head. Unwilling to die thus ingloriously, he bade his armourbearer thrust him through with his sword, and so expired.

Other judges now succeeded, of whom TOLA, of the tribe of Issachar, governed Israel for a space of 23 years at Shamir in Mount Ephraim (Judg. x. 1, 2); he was succeeded by JAIR of Gilead, who during 22 years shared his almost regal honours with his thirty sons (Judg. x. 3, 4).

Invasion of the Ammonites; Jephthah.

But recent judgments had not the effect of restraining the people from apostasy. To the worship of Baaland Astarte they now added that of the gods of Syria, of Zidon, of Moab and Ammon, as also of the Philistines. The national punishment they thus drew down upon themselves came from two quarters. On the south-west and along the fertile borders of the Shephelah the Philistines rose and reduced a portion of the country to subjection, while the tribes on the east of Jordan fell a

1 "Situated 13 Roman miles from Shechem, on the road to Scythopolis. There it still is; its name— e-Tubas-hardly changed; the village on a rising ground to the left of the road, a thriving, compact, and strong-looking place, surrounded by immense woods of olives." See Robinson, Bib. Res. 111, P. 305; Smith's Bib. Dict., Article Thebez.

2 See 2 Sam. xi. 21.

prey to the Ammonites, and for 18 years endured the humiliation of irksome oppression. Nor were they the only sufferers, for the Ammonites crossed the Jordan and carried on their ravages even in the territories of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim (Judg. x. 6—9). So terrible was the oppression they now endured, that at length the Israelites were roused to a deep repentance; finding it in vain to cry unto their false gods in the day of tribulation, they put them away, and besought Jehovah if only this once to stretch forth His hand and deliver them. Grieved for the misery of Israel (Judg. x. 16), the Lord raised up a deliverer in the person of JEPHTHAH, a base-born native of Gilead. Driven forth from his father's house by his legitimate sons, Jephthah had fled into the land of Tob, somewhere on the east of Gilead, where putting himself at the head of brave but lawless men, he lived the life of a freebooter, making incursions from time to time into the territories of neighbouring tribes, and living on the proceeds of the spoil (Judg. xi. 1—3).

Determined to throw off the Ammonitish yoke, the tribes on the east of Jordan now turned to Jephthah, and promised him the chieftaincy, if he would undertake to lead them against the enemy. Jephthah consented, and it was formally agreed that, in the event of success, he should retain the supreme command. His first step was to send an embassy to the Ammonites urging the right of the Israelites to the land of Gilead. This being unsuccessful, he prepared for open war, and traversing Gilead and Manasseh collected warriors from such places as acknowledged his authority. But before entering on the campaign, in imitation probably of heathen customs, and especially of the Ammonites (2 Kin. iii. 27), he solemnly vowed to offer as a burnt-offering to Jehovah whatever should first come forth from his house to meet him on his return from