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He told them, that what he had
said was no laughing matter; for that when they had experienced many blessings
from Gideon, they overlooked Abimelech, when he overruled all, and had joined
with him in slaying his brethren; and that he was no better than a fire
himself. So when he had said this, he went away, and lived privately in the
mountains for three years, out of fear of Abimelech.
3. A little while after
this festival, the Shechemites, who had now repented themselves of having slain
the sons of Gideon, drove Abimelech away, both from their city and their tribe;
whereupon he contrived how he might distress their city. Now at the season of
vintage, the people were afraid to go out and gather their fruits, for fear
Abimelech should do them some mischief. Now it happened that there had come to
them a man of authority, one Gaal, that sojourned with them, having his armed
men and his kinsmen with him; so the Shechemites desired that he would allow
them a guard during their vintage; whereupon he accepted of their desires, and
so the people went out, and Gaal with them at the head of his soldiery. So they
gathered their fruit with safety; and when they were at supper in several
companies, they then ventured to curse Abimelech openly; and the magistrates
laid ambushes in places about the city, and caught many of Abimelech's
followers, and destroyed them.
4. Now there was one Zebul, a magistrate of the
Shechemites, that had entertained Abimelech. He sent messengers, and informed
him how much Gaal had irritated the people against him, and excited him to lay
ambushes before the city, for that he would persuade Gaal to go out against
him, which would leave it in his power to be revenged on him; and when that was
once done, he would bring him to be reconciled to the city. So Abimelech laid
ambushes, and himself lay with them. Now Gaal abode in the suburbs, taking
little care of himself; and Zebul was with him. Now as Gaal saw the armed men
coming on, he said to Zebul, That some armed men were coming; but the other
replied, They were only shadows of huge stones: and when they were come nearer,
Gaal perceived what was the reality, and said, They were not shadows, but men
lying in ambush. Then said Zebul,
"Didst not thou
reproach Abimelech for cowardice? why dost thou not then show how very
courageous thou art thyself, and go and fight him?"
So Gaal, being in disorder,
joined battle with Abimelech, and some of his men fell; whereupon he fled into
the city, and took his men with him. But Zebul managed his matters so in the
city, that he procured them to expel Gaal out of the city, and this by accusing
him of cowardice in this action with the soldiers of Ahimelech. But Abimelech,
when he had learned that the Shechemites were again coming out to gather their
grapes, placed ambushes before the city, and when they were coming out, the
third part of his army took possession of the gates, to hinder the citizens
from returning in again, while the rest pursued those that were scattered
abroad, and so there was slaughter every where; and when he had overthrown the
city to the very foundations, for it was not able to bear a siege, and had sown
its ruins with salt, he proceeded on with his army till all the Shechemites
were slain.
As for those that were
scattered about the country, and so escaped the danger, they were gathered
together unto a certain strong rock, and settled themselves upon it, and
prepared to build a wall about it: and when Abimelech knew their intentions, he
prevented them, and came upon them with his forces, and laid faggots of dry
wood round the place, he himself bringing some of them, and by his example
encouraging the soldiers to do the same. And when the rock was encompassed
round about with these faggots, they set them on fire, and threw in whatsoever
by nature caught fire the most easily: so a mighty flame was raised, and nobody
could fly away from the rock, but every man perished, with their wives and
children, in all about fifteen hundred men, and the rest were a great number
also. And such was the calamity which fell upon the Shechemites; and men's
grief on their account had been greater than it was, had they not brought so
much mischief on a person who had so well deserved of them, and had they not
themselves esteemed this as a punishment for the same.
5. Now Abimelech, when
he had affrighted the Israelites with the miseries he had brought upon the
Shechemites, seemed openly to affect greater authority than he now had, and
appeared to set no bounds to his violence, unless it were with the destruction
of all. Accordingly he marched to Thebes, and took the city on the sudden; and
there being a great tower therein, whereunto the whole multitude fled, he made
preparation to besiege it. Now as he was rushing with violence near the gates,
a woman threw a piece of a millstone upon his head, upon which Abimelech fell
down, and desired his armor-bearer to kill him lest his death should be thought
to be the work of a woman: - who did what he was bid to do. So he underwent
this death as a punishment for the wickedness he had perpetrated against his
brethren, and his insolent barbarity to the Shechemites. Now the calamity that
happened to those Shechemites was according to the prediction of Jotham,
However, the army that was with Abimelech, upon his fall, was scattered abroad,
and went to their own homes.
6. Now it was that Jair
the Gileadite, (16) of the tribe of
Manasseh, took the government. He was a man happy in other respects also, but
particularly in his children, who were of a good character. They were thirty in
number, and very skillful in riding on horses, and were intrusted with the
government of the cities of Gilead. He kept the government twenty-two years,
and died an old man; and he was buried in Camon, a city of Gilead.
7. And now all the
affairs of the Hebrews were managed uncertainly, and tended to disorder, and to
the contempt of God and of the laws. So the Ammonites and Philistines had them
in contempt, and laid waste the country with a great army; and when they had
taken all Perea, they were so insolent as to attempt to gain the possession of
all the rest. But the Hebrews, being now amended by the calamities they had
undergone, betook themselves to supplications to God; and brought sacrifices to
him, beseeching him not to be too severe upon them, but to be moved by their
prayers to leave off his anger against them. So God became more merciful to
them, and was ready to assist them.
8. When the Ammonites
had made an expedition into the land of Gilead, the inhabitants of the country
met them at a certain mountain, but wanted a commander. Now there was one whose
name was Jephtha, who, both on account of his father's virtue, and on account
of that army which he maintained at his own expenses, was a potent man: the
Israelites therefore sent to him, and entreated him to come to their
assistance, and promised him the dominion over them all his lifetime. But he
did not admit of their entreaty; and accused them, that they did not come to
his assistance when he was unjustly treated, and this in an open manner by his
brethren; for they cast him off, as not having the same mother with the rest,
but born of a strange mother, that was introduced among them by his father's
fondness; and this they did out of a contempt of his inability [to vindicate
himself]. So he dwelt in the country of Gilead, as it is called, and received
all that came to him, let them come from what place soever, and paid them
wages. However, when they pressed him to accept the dominion, and sware they
would grant him the government over them all his life, he led them to the war.
9. And when Jephtha had
taken immediate care of their affairs, he placed his army at the city Mizpeh,
and sent a message to the Ammonite [king], complaining of his unjust possession
of their land. But that king sent a contrary message; and complained of the
exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, and desired him to go out of the land of
the Amorites, and yield it up to him, as at first his paternal inheritance. But
Jephtha returned this answer: That he did not justly complain of his ancestors
about the land of the Amorites, and ought rather to thank them that they left
the land of the Ammonites to them, since Moses could have taken it also; and
that neither would he recede from that land of their own, which God had
obtained for them, and they had now inhabited [above] three hundred years, but
would fight with them about it.
10. And when he had
given them this answer, he sent the ambassadors away. And when he had prayed
for victory, and had vowed to perform sacred offices, and if he came home in
safety, to offer in sacrifice what living creature soever should first meet
him, (17) he joined battle with the
enemy, and gained a great victory, and in his pursuit slew the enemies all
along as far as the city of Minnith. He then passed over to the land of the
Ammonites, and overthrew many of their cities, and took their prey, and freed
his own people from that slavery which they had undergone for eighteen years.
But as he came back, he fell
into a calamity no way correspondent to the great actions he had done; for it
was his daughter that came to meet him; she was also an only child and a
virgin: upon this Jephtha heavily lamented the greatness of his affliction, and
blamed his daughter for being so forward in meeting him, for he had vowed to
sacrifice her to God. However, this action that was to befall her was not
ungrateful to her, since she should die upon occasion of her father's victory,
and the liberty of her fellow citizens: she only desired her father to give her
leave, for two months, to bewail her youth with her fellow citizens; and then
she agreed, that at the forementioned thee he might do with her according to
his vow. Accordingly, when that time was over, he sacrificed his daughter as a
burnt-offering, offering such an oblation as was neither conformable to the law
nor acceptable to God, not weighing with himself what opinion the hearers would
have of such a practice.
11. Now the tribe of
Ephraim fought against him, because he did not take them along with him in his
expedition against the Ammonites, but because he alone had the prey, and the
glory of what was done to himself. As to which he said, first, that they were
not ignorant how his kindred had fought against him, and that when they were
invited, they did not come to his assistance, whereas they ought to have come
quickly, even before they were invited. And in the next place, that they were
going to act unjustly; for while they had not courage enough to fight their
enemies, they came hastily against their own kindred: and he threatened them
that, with God's assistance, he would inflict a punishment upon them, unless
they would grow wiser. But when he could not persuade them, he fought with them
with those forces which he sent for out of Gilead, and he made a great
slaughter among them; and when they were beaten, he pursued them, and seized on
the passages of Jordan by a part of his army which he had sent before, and slew
about forty-two thousand of them.
12. So when Jephtha had
ruled six years, he died, and was buried in his own country, Sebee, which is a
place in the land of Gilead.
13. Now when Jephtha
was dead, Ibzan took the government, being of the tribe of Judah, and of the
city of Bethlehem. He had sixty children, thirty of them sons, and the rest
daughters; all whom he left alive behind him, giving the daughters in marriage
to husbands, and taking wives for his sons. He did nothing in the seven years
of his administration that was worth recording, or deserved a memorial. So he
died an old man, and was buried in his own country.
14. When Ibzan was dead
after this manner, neither did Helon, who succeeded him in the government, and
kept it ten years, do any thing remarkable: he was of the tribe of Zebulon.
15. Abdon also, the son
of Hilel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and born at the city Pyrathon, was ordained
their supreme governor after Helon. He is only recorded to have been happy in
his children; for the public affairs were then so peaceable, and in such
security, that neither did he perform any glorious action. He had forty sons,
and by them left thirty grandchildren; and he marched in state with these
seventy, who were all very skillful in riding horses; and he left them all
alive after him. He died an old man, and obtained a magnificent burial in
Pyrathon.
Footnotes
(16) Our present copies of Josephus all omit Tola among the
judges, though the other copies have him next after Abimelech, and allot
twenty-three years to his administration, Judges 10:1, 2; yet do all Josephus's
commentators conclude, that in Josephus's sum of the years of the judges, his
twenty-three years are included; hence we are to confess, that somewhat has
been here lost out of his copies.
(17) Josephus justly condemns Jephtha, as do the
Apostolical Constitutions, B. VII. Ch. 37, for his rash vow, whether it
were for sacrificing his daughter, as Josephus thought, or for dedicating her,
who was his only child, to perpetual virginity, at the tabernacle or elsewhere,
which I rather suppose. If he had vowed her for a sacrifice, she ought to have
been redeemed, Leviticus 27:1-8; but of the sense of ver. 28, 29, as relating
not to things vowed to. God, but devoted to destruction, see the note on
Antiq. B. V. Ch. 1. Sect. 8.
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