But recent judgments had not the effect of restraining the people from apostasy. To the worship of Baal and 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 aprey 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 frombattle. The engagement took place in the forests of Gilead, and the Ammonites were utterly routed. Twenty cities, from Aroer on the Arnon to Minnith and Abel Keramim (the Meadow of the Vineyards), fell into the hands of the conqueror (Judg. xi. 33).
But his rash and heathenish vow cast a deep shadow on his triumphal return. As he drew near his home in Mizpeh (the Watch-tower) of Gilead, his daughter and only child came forth to meet him with timbrels and with dances. When the father saw her he rent his clothes, and with the utmost grief made known to her his vow, from which he declared he could not go back. But the noble maiden did not decline the awful sacrifice demanded of her. All she requested was that for two months she might be allowed to wander with her companions among the mountain-gorges of her native Gilead, and bewail her virginity. At the expiration of this period she returned to her father, and Jephthah without referring the matter to the High-priest, or remembering the strict commands of the law on this subject[213], his spirit clouded with gloomy superstition, did with her according to his vow that he had vowed (Judg. xi. 39). The memory of this awful sacrifice was kept up by a yearly festival, lasting four days, during which the daughters of Israel went up into the mountains of Gilead to praise and lament the death of their heroic sister.
Jephthah, however, was not long suffered either to enjoy his triumph, or lament the fatal vow which had stained it. Like Gideon before him, he had to encounter the complaints of the proud and jealous tribe of Ephraim for not summoning them to share the glories of the late victory. In vindication of their absurd claims, they even threatened to burn his house over his head, and invaded the territory of the Gileadites, whom theytaunted with being fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and Manassites. A second tribal war ensued, in which the men of Ephraim were thoroughly worsted. Rushing routed to the fords of the Jordan, they found them already in possession of Jephthah’s forces, who allowed none to cross that failed to pronounce the word Shibboleth[214]. Upwards of 42,000 revealed their Ephraimite origin by substituting the simple s for sh, and were massacred. The supreme authority, for which he had covenanted, Jephthah only lived to enjoy for 6 years, when he died, and was buried in one of the cities of his native land (Judg. xii. 1–7).
After him other and obscurer judges rose to display the growing tendency towards hereditary monarchy. Thus Ibzan of Bethlehem in Zebulun judged, at least north-western Israel, for 7 years, and conferred a portion of his dignity on his 30 sons and 30 daughters; Elon of the same tribe ruled for 10 years; and after him Abdon, of Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, about 6 miles from Shechem, exercised the supremacy for 8 years, and was succeeded in a portion of his almost regal honours by his numerous children (Judg. xii. 8–14).
CHAPTER VI.
INVASION FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. SAMSON.
Judg. xiii.–xvi. B.C. 1161–1120.
MEANWHILE the Philistines[215] on the south-west had not only established themselves in the Shephelah,or Low Country, but now commenced that long and deadly hostility to the Israelites, which lasted from this time through the reigns of Saul and David, and was not finally terminated till the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 8). Their oppressions naturally pressed most heavily on the little tribe of Dan, already hard pushed by the Amorites. From this tribe, then, the Deliverer came. But unlike others who had been called to the same office, he was specially set apart for it even before his birth.
On the high hill of Zorah overlooking the fertile lowlands of Philistia lived a Danite named Manoah. To his wife, who as yet had no child, it was announced by an Angel that she was about to become the mother of a son, whom she was to devote as a Nazarite[216] unto God from his birth; no razor was ever to come upon his head; wine and strong drink he was never to touch; and he should commence the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines (Judg. xiii. 5). These words were announced to Manoah by his wife, and a second appearance of theAngel was vouchsafed to assure both parents of the certainty of these events, which was further confirmed, as in the case of Gideon, by the disappearance of the Angel in the flames which consumed the Danite’s meat-offering (Judg. xiii. 20).
In process of time the child was born, and was named Samson, either the sunlight, or the strong. As he grew, he became distinguished for supernatural strength, and from time to time in Mahanah-Dan, the camp of the famous Six Hundred of his tribe[217], was moved to perform those exploits which made him the terror of the Philistines. His first action, however, when come to man’s estate, did not display that hostility to the national enemy which his parents would naturally have expected. At Timnath, then in the occupation of the Philistines, he saw one of the daughters of the place, whom he was resolved to marry. Very unwillingly did his father and mother give their consent, and went down from Zorah with their wayward son “through wild rocky gorges” to the vineyards of Timnath, situated, as was often the case, far from the village to which they belonged, and amidst rough wadies and wild cliffs[218]. In one of these Samson encountered a young lion, and, though he had nothing in his hand, rent it as he would have rent a kid. Thinking little of the circumstance, he did not mention it to his father and mother, but went with them to Timnath, and talked with the woman, and she pleased him well. On his second descent through the same wild rocky pass, he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and discovered amongst the bones a swarm of bees. A portion of the honey he took himself, and gave a portion to his parents, saying nothing of his exploit, or the place whence he had obtainedthe honey. The wedding festival was celebrated at Timnath, and lasted several days, on one of which the bridegroom put forth a riddle to his thirty Philistine “companions,” promising thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments to any that guessed it, but demanding the same of them if within the days of the feast they failed to discover it. The young men accepted the challenge, and Samson put forth his riddle, saying,