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When Samuel had said thus, the
multitude applauded his discourse, and were pleased with his exhortation to
them, and gave their consent to resign themselves up to do what was pleasing to
God. So Samuel gathered them together to a certain city called Mizpeh, which,
in the Hebrew tongue, signifies a watch-tower; there they drew water,
and poured it out to God, and fasted all day, and betook themselves to their
prayers.
2. This their assembly
did not escape the notice of the Philistines: so when they had learned that so
large a company had met together, they fell upon the Hebrews with a great army
and mighty forces, as hoping to assault them when they did not expect it, nor
were prepared for it. This thing affrighted the Hebrews, and put them into
disorder and terror; so they came running to Samuel, and said that their souls
were sunk by their fears, and by the former defeat they had received, and
"that thence it was
that we lay still, lest we should excite the power of our enemies against us.
Now while thou hast brought us hither to offer up our prayers and sacrifices,
and take oaths [to be obedient], our enemies are making an expedition against
us, while we are naked and unarmed; wherefore we have no other hope of
deliverance but that by thy means, and by the assistance God shall afford us
upon thy prayers to him, we shall obtain deliverance from the
Philistines."
Hereupon Samuel bade them be
of good cheer, and promised them that God would assist them; and taking a
sucking lamb, he sacrificed it for the multitude, and besought God to hold his
protecting hand over them when they should fight with the Philistines, and not
to overlook them, nor suffer them to come under a second misfortune.
Accordingly God hearkened to his prayers, and accepting their sacrifice with a
gracious intention, and such as was disposed to assist them, he granted them
victory and power over their enemies. Now while the altar had the sacrifice of
God upon it, and had not yet consumed it wholly by its sacred fire, the enemy's
army marched out of their camp, and was put in order of battle, and this in
hope that they should be conquerors, since the Jews (5) were caught in distressed circumstances, as neither having
their weapons with them, nor being assembled there in order to fight.
But things so fell out, that
they would hardly have been credited though they had been foretold by anybody:
for, in the first place, God disturbed their enemies with an earthquake, and
moved the ground under them to such a degree, that he caused it to tremble, and
made them to shake, insomuch that by its trembling, he made some unable to keep
their feet, and made them fall down, and by opening its chasms, he caused that
others should be hurried down into them; after which he caused such a noise of
thunder to come among them, and made fiery lightning shine so terribly round
about them, that it was ready to burn their faces; and he so suddenly shook
their weapons out of their hands, that he made them fly and return home naked.
So Samuel with the multitude pursued them to Bethcar, a place so called; and
there he set up a stone as a boundary of their victory and their enemies'
flight, and called it the Stone of Power, as a signal of that power God
had given them against their enemies.
3. So the Philistines,
after this stroke, made no more expeditions against the Israelites, but lay
still out of fear, and out of remembrance of what had befallen them; and what
courage the Philistines had formerly against the Hebrews, that, after this
victory, was transferred to the Hebrews. Samuel also made an expedition against
the Philistines, and slew many of them, and entirely humbled their proud
hearts, and took from them that country, which, when they were formerly
conquerors in battle, they had cut off from the Jews, which was the country
that extended from the borders of Gath to the city of Ekron: but the remains of
the Canaanites were at this time in friendship with the Israelites.
Footnotes
(5) This is the first place, so far as I remember, in these
Antiquities, where Josephus begins to call his nation Jews, he having
hitherto usually, if not constantly, called them either Hebrews or Israelites.
The second place soon follows; see also Ch. 3. Sect.
5.
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