Dreading him more than an army with banners, the Philistines had taken every precaution to secure their powerful and determined foe. Having consigned him to eternal darkness by the destruction of his eyes, they fastened his limbs with fetters of brass, and, thrusting him into a loathsome dungeon,appointed him to the menial work of an Eastern woman.[395] But He who had chosen him to be the champion and avenger of his people restored his strength, and with its restoration the day of vengeance returned. Deeming his capture a public good, the Philistines assembled to offer thanksgiving to their god Dagon. The day dawned without a cloud, and the sun rose in beauty upon the Plains of Philistia. At an early hour the streets of ancient Gaza were thronged with an excited multitude, who were hastening to the great sacrifice, and rejoicing in the capture of the giant of Zorah. The grand temple of their idol crowned the loftiest of their hills. Its broad flat roof was supported by arches resting on pillars. Two central columns, massive and strong, and standing near each other, were the key to the whole support. On the roof of the spacious temple, and also within the sacred fane, the lords of the Philistines, with their wives, had assembled to honor their god and enjoy the sports of the occasion. Though it was no part of their original purpose that Samson should add to the joy of the day by exhibitions of his strength, yet, as one pleasure never fails to excite a desire for another, and as a succession of pleasures demands the most extravagant delights, so, in the delirious excitement of the moment, the blind captive is called to make them sport. They had heard of the return of his strength, and he being now sightless, they could witness exhibitions of his power without fear of injury to themselves, asin former days, so long as they remained beyond his reach. Josephus supposes they made him a laughing-stock, and insulted him in their cups; but, rather, they forced him to perform prodigious exploits of physical strength, which accounts for his weariness, and his excuse to lean against the pillars. Led by a little Philistine boy, he came from his gloomy dungeon. The transition from darkness to light had no effect upon his sightless eyeballs. Recalling the havoc he had made among their countrymen at Lehi, and not knowing what plans of revenge were then the subject of his thoughts, many ran at his approach, while all sought to avoid his grasp. As he advanced he was greeted with shouts of ridicule and peals of laughter. Removing the brazen fetters to give full play to his mighty limbs in the contemplated performance, a guard of Philistine giants encircle him, to pierce him with spear and javelin should he attempt to avenge his misfortune. Without knowing the manner in which he acted, we are left to imagine how he made sport for his enemies. What massive block of marble did he lift? what new lion of Timnath did he grapple with? what gate with posts and bar did he carry on his shoulders? what new cord or green withes did he snap asunder, as “tow is broken when it toucheth the fire?” what new Delilah wove his fresh-grown “locks with the web, and fastened them with a pin to a beam,” that he might bear away web, pin, and beam?
Deceived by the docility of his spirit and the obedience of his behavior, he is called within the temple itself. At length, wearied with the great exertions he had been required to make, he unsuspectedly requested of the lad that led him, “Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.” Sweating, panting, weary, the captive leans for rest against the marble columns, while, in fancied security, the people shout, joke, laugh, rending his very soul. A blind man’s eye reveals no heart-secret. Samson repents a misspent life, and, conscious that his strength was Heaven’s gift, he prays, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then, seizing the two pillars, “he bowed himself with all his might,” and in a moment the roof fell in, precipitating those on the top into one broken, dying mass with those within,and, slaying more in his death than in his life, the victor and the vanquished slept the sleep that knows no waking.
I wept when I remembered the son of Manoah. He was a child of Providence. His was a miraculous birth. Chosen to punish idolatry, to deliver his country, and judge a nation, Samson was an army of one. God had purposed to accomplish through him what he had done by the mighty forces of Joshua, Deborah, Gideon, and Jephthah, and to illustrate his own divine power in subduing the enemies of his church by the arm of a single man. It was a thought worthy of a God. As in other ways of the Almighty, the secret of Samson’s power was hidden. Unlike Goliath, he was an ordinary man in stature: there was nothing in his physique that indicated his wondrous strength. It was this that confounded his foes, and impelled them to solicit Delilah with a bribe to ascertain the secret of his power. As his strength was not in his muscles, so it was not in the seven locks of his hair. When asleep and at ordinary duties he was as other men, but when the Philistines were to be punished, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. So long as he retained the solitary virtue of secrecy, and allowed his beard and hair to grow untrimmed, it pleased the Lord to use him as he did Jephthah and Cyrus, and as he does a thunderbolt or a volcano, to punish the wicked; but when he preferred the smiles of a woman to the benedictions of heaven, he became as other men. Though a failure in life, he was faithful in death; and for the faith of his dying act, St. Paul records the name of Samson among the illustrious believers.[396]
The subsequent history of Gaza is replete with memorable events. Being the key to Palestine to those on the south, and the key to Egypt to those on the north, it has been frequently subjected to the calamities of war. Besieged by Alexander the Great, its defenders surrendered their city with their lives; and in the fearful conflict the great warrior received a wound in the shoulder, which threatened to terminate his eventful career. In the first century of our own era it was twice destroyed, and, though subsequently rebuilt, it never attained its ancient splendor. Though early visited by the teachers of Christianity, yet in the fifth century it contained eight temples dedicated to the worship of heathen gods. In 634 A.D. it yielded to the conquering arms of Mohammed, and afterwardbecame the birthplace of Esh-Shâfa’y, the founder of one of the largest of the Mohammedan sects.In 1152 A.D. the Crusaders found the city deserted, and, erecting a strong fortress on the highest hill, intrusted its defense to the Knights Templars.[397] Captured and sacked by Saladin in 1170 A.D., with the exception of a brief interval, it has remained, as it is now, a Moslem city.
Askelon is on the sea, twelve miles to the north from Gaza. The great route thither runs along the eastern side of the sand downs which separate it from the shore, and, continuing northward, passes through several Arab towns, surrounded with orchards of figs and groves of palms. Despite the incessant efforts of the villagers, the drifting sand is annually approaching their homes, and, if not resisted by a more formidable barrier, will completely destroy their gardens and overwhelm their dwellings. It is not uncommon to see trees so buried that only a green twig is visible, indicating the position of the tree, while the branches of those not yet entombed are dusted with the flying sand.
As one of the five royal cities of the Philistines, Askelon was celebrated for the grandeur of its architecture. It occupied an area not unlike in form an amphitheatre. Along the shore extend a series of bold cliffs, a mile in length and eighty feet high. From the northern end of this range a lofty ridge sweeps round like a semicircle, first to the eastward, then to the southward, and finally, bending westward, runs to the sea. Within this space are the ruins of the city, and on the top of this curving ridge the wall was built, defended by strong towers, the immense fragments of which, thrown together in confused heaps, suggest a destroying angel more powerful than the hand of man. On the east are the remains of a large castle, and near it is the chief entrance to the city. Not far from a ruinous wely are the traces of a noble avenue, which was once lined with columns, and within 200 yards of it is a low excavated area, on which are thirty large granite and marble shafts. Beneath mounds of sand there must be other remains, perhaps of temples and palaces, but at present not even the outlines of a building can be traced. Whether viewed in its ruins, or as defenseless against the encroaching waves of sand, Askelon wears an air of dreariness as indescribable as it issad. On her rests the burden of prophecy: “Askelon shall be a desolation.[398] Askelon shall not be inhabited.”[399]
RUINS OF ASKELON.
Though it was allotted to the tribe of Judah, the Philistines held possession of their city throughout the whole period of the Jewish monarchy. Its significance in sacred history is derived from its gross idolatry, and the fearful judgments denounced against it by the prophets, rather than from any great events having occurred within its limits. But, beyond the inspired record, it has a history in which figure many illustrious characters. Regarding its maritime location as invaluable, Herod the Great adorned the city with baths, porticoes, and fountains, and after his death his sister Salome resided there in a palace which her brother had built. Suffering greatly in the wars between the Jews and the Romans, the original citizens became the allies of the latter, and Askelon was the scene of a horrid massacre, in which 2500 Jews were put to death. In after years the Christians and the Moslems lost and won in turns this important sea-port town. Captured by Baldwin III. in 1152 A.D., it subsequently reverted to the Moslems, but yielded again to the Crusaders, under Richard Cœur de Lion, in 1191 A.D., who compelled Saladin to abandon this stronghold; and when, in turn, the Christians were expelled, Askelon began to wane, and to-day it is an uninhabited town.
Less than 100 yards to the northeast stands the wretched village of El-Jûrah, the modern representative of the royal city. Through its gardens the road leads to Ashdod, eight miles to the north. Two miles on the way is the town of Mejdel, the largest and most flourishing of all the villages on the Plain of Philistia. The buildings are large and well constructed, the streets are wide and clean, and the scenery and gardens around it are exceedingly beautiful. Passing through the village of Hamâmeh, the path runs along the sandy downs, and after ascending a low ridge, enters Ashdod on the south. Its mud houses are located on the declivity of a hill, and near it is a lake 500 yards in circumference. Though once the capital of a lordship, yet Ashdod is without antique ruins, and the traveler is left to record its history amid the beautiful gardens, without the remains of temples and palaces to aid his recollection. It was here the Ark of the Lord was brought after the battle of Aphek, and the Philistines, deeming it a religioustrophy, placed it in the temple of their idol, “And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord.” Elevating their deity to his place, the Philistines found him in the dust again on the second night.Smitten by the Lord with pestilence for their impiety, in their distress they sent the Ark to Gath.[400]Three centuries later Ashdod was dismantled by King Uzziah;[401]and it is afterward mentioned by Nehemiah, who reproaches the Jews for having there married heathen wives after their return from captivity.[402]Called by the Greeks Azotus, it was here that Philip the Evangelist was found after the baptism of the eunuch.[403] But Ashdod is conspicuous in profane history for having withstood a siege of twenty-nine years, when invested by Psammetichus, king of Egypt, which is the longest siege on record.