Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. C. Alluaud
of Limoges.
Manasseh, restricted in its development by the neighbouring Canaanite tribes, was forced to seek a more congenial neighbourhood to the east of the Jordan—not close to Gad, in the land of Gilead, but to the north of the Yarmuk and its northern affluents in the vast region extending to the mountains of the Haurân. The families of Machir and Jair migrated one after the other to the east of the Lake of Gennesaret, while that of Nobah proceeded as far as the brook of Kanah, and thus formed in this direction the extreme outpost of the children of Israel: these families did not form themselves into new tribes, for they were mindful of their affiliation to Manasseh, and continued beyond the river to regard themselves still as his children.* The prosperity of Ephraim and Manasseh, and the daring nature of their exploits, could not fail to draw upon them the antagonism and jealousy of the people on their borders. The Midianites were accustomed almost every year to pass through the region beyond the Jordan which the house of Joseph had recently colonised. Assembling in the springtime at the junction of the Yarmuk with the Jordan, they crossed the latter river, and, spreading over the plains of Mount Tabor, destroyed the growing crops, raided the villages, and pushed, sometimes, their skirmishing parties over hill and dale as far as Gaza.**
* Manasseh was said to have been established beyond the
Jordan at the time that Gad and Reuben were in possession of
the land of Gilead (Numb, xxxii. 33, 39-42, xxxiv. 14, 15;
Dent. iii. 13-15; Josh. xiii. 8, 29-32, xxii.). Earlier
traditions placed this event in the period which followed
the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. It is not certain that all
the families which constituted the half-tribe of Manasseh
took their origin from Manasseh: one of them, for example,
that of Jair, was regarded as having originated partly from
Judah (1 Chron. ii. 21-24).
** Judges vi. 2-6. The inference that they dare not beat
wheat in the open follows from ver. 11, where it is said
that “Gideon was beating out wheat in his winepress to hide
it from the Midianites.”
A perpetual terror reigned wherever they were accustomed to pass*: no one dared beat out wheat or barley in the open air, or lead his herds to pasture far from his home, except under dire necessity; and even on such occasions the inhabitants would, on the slightest alarm, abandon their possessions to take refuge in caves or in strongholds on the mountains.1 During one of these incursions two of their sheikhs encountered some men of noble mien in the vicinity of Tabor, and massacred them without compunction.** The latter were people of Ophrah,*** brethren of a certain Jerubbaal (Gideon) who was head of the powerful family of Abiezer.****
* The history of the Midianite oppression (Judges vi.-viii.)
seems to be from two different sources; the second (Judges
viii. 4-21), which is also the shortest, is considered by
some to represent the more ancient tradition. The double
name of the hero, Gideon-Jerubbaal, has led some to assign
its elements respectively to Gideon, judge of the western
portion of Manasseh, and Jerubbaal, judge of the eastern
Manasseh, and to the consequent fusion of the two men in
one.
** This is an assumption which follows reasonably from
Judges viii. 18, 19.
*** The site of the Ophrah of Abiezer is not known for
certain, but it would seem from the narrative that it was in
the neighbourhood of Shechem.
**** The position of Gideon-Jerubbaal as head of the house
of Abiezer follows clearly from the narrative; if he is
represented in the first part of the account as a man of
humble origin (Judges vi. 15, 16), it was to exalt the power
of Jahveh, who was accustomed to choose His instruments from
amongst the lowly. The name Jerubbaal (1 Sam. xii. 11:2 Sam.
xi. 21, where the name is transformed into Jerubbesheth, as
Ishbaal and Meribbaal are into Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth
respectively), in which “Baal” seems to some not to
represent the Canaanite God, but the title Lord as applied
to Jahveh, was supposed to mean “Baal fights against him,”
and was, therefore, offensive to the orthodox. Kuenen
thought it meant “Lord, fight for him!” Renan read it
Yarebaal, from the Vulgate form Jerobaal, and translated “He
who fears Baal.” Gideon signifies “He who overthrows” in the
battle.
Assembling all his people at the call of the trumpet, Jerubbaal chose from among them three hundred of the strongest, with whom he came down unexpectedly upon the raiders, put them to flight in the plain of Jezreel, and followed them beyond the Jordan. Having crossed the river, “faint and yet pursuing,” he approached the men of Succoth, and asked them for bread for himself and his three hundred followers. Their fear of the marauders, however, was so great that the people refused to give him any help, and he had no better success with the people of Penuel whom he encountered a little further on. He did not stop to compel them to accede to his wishes, but swore to inflict an exemplary punishment upon them on his return. The Midianites continued their retreat, in the mean time, “by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah,” but Jerubbaal came up with them near Karkâr, and discomfited the host. He took vengeance upon the two peoples who had refused to give him bread, and having thus fulfilled his vow, he began to question his prisoners, the two chiefs: “What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?” “As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.” “And he said, They were my brethren, the sons of my mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth.” True Bedawins as they were, the chiefs’ pride revolted at the idea of their being handed over for execution to a child, and they cried to Jerubbaal: “Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength.” From this victory rose the first monarchy among the Israelites. The Midianites, owing to their marauding habits and the amount of tribute which they were accustomed to secure for escorting caravans, were possessed of a considerable quantity of gold, which they lavished on the decoration of their persons: their chiefs were clad in purple mantles, their warriors were loaded with necklaces, bracelets, rings, and ear-rings, and their camels also were not behind their masters in the brilliance of their caparison. The booty which Gideon secured was, therefore, considerable, and, as we learn from the narrative, excited the envy of the Ephraimites, who said: “Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with Midian?” *
* Judges viii. 1-3.
The spoil from the golden ear-rings alone amounted to one thousand seven hundred shekels, as we learn from the narrative, and this treasure in the hands of Jerubbaal was not left unemployed, but was made, doubtless, to contribute something to the prestige he had already acquired: the men of Israel, whom he had just saved from their foes, expressed their gratitude by offering the crown to him and his successors. The mode of life of the Hebrews had been much changed after they had taken up their abode in the mountains of Canaan. The tent had given place to the house, and, like their Canaanite neighbours, they had given themselves up to agricultural pursuits. This change of habits, in bringing about a greater abundance of the necessaries of life than they had been accustomed to, had begotten aspirations which threw into relief the inadequacy of the social organisation, and of the form of government with which they had previously been content. In the case of a horde of nomads, defeat or exile would be of little moment. Should they be obliged by a turn in their affairs to leave their usual haunts, a few days or often a few hours would suffice to enable them to collect their effects together, and set out without trouble, and almost without regret, in search of a new and more favoured home. But with a cultivator of the ground the case would be different: the farm, clearings, and homestead upon which he had spent such arduous and continued labour; the olive trees and vines which had supplied him with oil and wine—everything, in fact, upon which he depended for a livelihood, or which was dependent upon him, would bind him to the soil, and expose his property to disasters likely to be as keenly felt as wounds inflicted on his person. He would feel the need, therefore, of laws to secure to him in time of peace the quiet possession of his wealth, of an army to protect it in time of war, and of a ruler to cause, on the one hand, the laws to be respected, and to become the leader, on the other, of the military forces. Jerubbaal is said to have, in the first instance, refused the crown, but everything goes to prove that he afterwards virtually accepted it. He became, it is true, only a petty king, whose sovereignty was limited to Manasseh, a part of Ephraim, and a few towns, such as Succoth and Penuel, beyond the Jordan. The Canaanite city of Shechem also paid him homage. Like all great chiefs, he had also numerous wives, and he recognised as the national Deity the God to whom he owed his victories.
Out of the spoil taken from the Midianites he formed and set up at Ophrah an ephod, which became, as we learn, “a snare unto him and unto his house,” but he had also erected under a terebinth tree a stone altar to Jahveh-Shalom (“Jehovah is peace”).* This sanctuary, with its altar and ephod, soon acquired great celebrity, and centuries after its foundation it was the object of many pilgrimages from a distance.
Jerubbaal was the father by his Israelite wives of seventy children, and, by a Canaanite woman whom he had taken as a concubine at Shechem, of one son, called Abimelech.**