The tribes of Israel also which were settled in the land of Gilead remembered with gratitude a mighty warrior who had once delivered them from grievous oppression. The Ammonites, the eastern neighbours of the land of Gilead, oppressed "the sons of Israel who dwelt beyond Jordan" for 18 years, and marched over Jordan against Judah, Benjamin and the house of Ephraim. Then the elders of the land of Gilead bethought them of Jephthah (Jephthah means "freed from the yoke"), to whom they had formerly refused the inheritance of his father because he was not the son of the lawful wife, but of a courtezan. He had retired into the gorges of the mountain and collected round him a band of robbers, and done deeds of bravery. To him the elders went; he was to be their leader in fighting against the sons of Ammon. Jephthah said, "Have ye not driven me out of the house of my father? now that ye are in distress ye come to me." Still he followed their invitation, and the people of Gilead gathered round him at Mizpeh and made him their chief and leader. "If I return in triumph from the sons of Ammon," such was Jephthah's vow, "the first that meets me at the door of my house shall be dedicated to Jehovah, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt-offering." When he had asked the tribe of Ephraim for assistance in vain he set out against the Ammonites with the warriors of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, and overcame them in a great battle on the river Arnon. The Ephraimites made it a reproach against Jephthah that he had fought against the Ammonites without them; they crossed the Jordan in arms. But Jephthah said, "I was in straits, and my people with me; I called to you, but ye aided me not." He assembled the men of Gilead, defeated the Ephraimites, and came to the fords of the Jordan before the fugitives, so that more than 42,000 men of Ephraim are said to have been slain.
When he returned to his home at Mizpeh his only daughter came to meet him joyfully, with her maidens and timbrels and dancing. Jephthah tore his garments and cried, "My daughter, thou hast brought me very low; I have opened my mouth to Jehovah and cannot take it back." "My father," she answered, "if thou hast opened thy mouth to Jehovah, do to me as thou hast spoken, for Jehovah has given thee vengeance on thine enemies, the Ammonites. But first let me go with my companions to the mountains, and there for two months bewail my virginity." This was done, and on her return Jephthah did to her according to his vow. And it was a custom in Israel for the maidens to lament the daughter of Jephthah for four days in the year. After this Jephthah is said to have been judge for six years longer beyond Jordan, i. e. to have maintained the peace in these districts.
Grievous calamity came upon Israel in this period from a migratory people of the Syrian desert, from the incursions of the Midians, who, like the Moabites and Ammonites, are designated in Genesis as a nation kindred to the Israelites, with whom Moses was said to have entered into close relations (I. 449, 468). Now the Midianites with other tribes of the desert attacked Israel in constant predatory incursions. "Like locusts in multitude," we are told, "the enemy came with their flocks and tents; there was no end of them and their camels. When Israel had sowed the sons of the East came up and destroyed the increase of the land as far as Gaza, and left no sustenance remaining, no sheep, oxen and asses. And the sons of Israel were compelled to hide themselves in ravines, and caves, and mountain fortresses."[198] For seven years Israel is said to have been desolated in this manner. Beside the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun, between Mount Tabor and the Kishon, dwelt a part of the tribe of Manasseh. The family of Abiezer, belonging to this tribe, possessed Ophra. In an incursion of the Midianites the sons of Joash, a man of this family, were slain;[199] only Gideon, the youngest, remained. When the Midianites came again, after their wont, at the time of harvest, and encamped on the plain of Jezreel, and Gideon was beating wheat in the vat of the wine-press in order to save the corn from the Midianites, Jehovah aroused him. He gathered the men of his family around him, 300 in number.[200] When Jehovah had given him a favourable sign, and he had reconnoitred the camp of the Midianites, together with his armour-bearer Phurah, he determined to attack them in the night. He divided his troop into companies containing a hundred men; each took a trumpet and a lighted torch, which was concealed in an earthen pitcher. These companies were to approach the camp of the Midianites from three sides, and when Gideon blew the trumpet and disclosed his torch they were all to do the same. Immediately after the second night-watch, when the Midianites had just changed the guards, Gideon gave the signal. All broke their pitchers, blew their trumpets, and cried, "The sword for Jehovah and Gideon!" Startled, terrified, and imagining that they were attacked by mighty hosts, the Midianites fled. Then the men of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali arose, and Gideon hastily sent messengers to the Ephraimites that they should seize the fords of Jordan before the Midianites. The Ephraimites assembled and took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb (Raven) and Zeeb (Wolf). The Ephraimites strove with Gideon that he had not summoned them sooner. Gideon replied modestly, "Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? Did not Jehovah give the princes of Midian into your hand? Could I do what ye have done?" He pursued the Midianites over the Jordan in order to get into his power their princes Zebah and Zalmunna, who had previously slain his brothers. When he passed the river at Succoth he asked the men of Succoth to give bread to his wearied soldiers. But the elders feared the vengeance of the Midianites, and said, "Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in thine hand, that we should give bread to thy men?" Gideon replied in anger, "If Jehovah gives them into my hand I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers." The inhabitants of Penuel on the Jabbok also, to which Gideon marched, refused to feed their countrymen; like those of Succoth, they feared the Midianites. Gideon led his army by the way of the dwellers in tents far away to Karkor. Here he defeated and scattered the 15,000 Midianites who had escaped, and captured the two princes. Then he turned back to Succoth and said to the elders, "See, here are Zebah and Zalmunna, for whom ye mocked me." He caused them to be seized, seventy-seven in number, and tore them to death with thorns and briers. The tower of Penuel he destroyed, and caused the inhabitants of the place to be slain. To the captured princes he said, "What manner of men were they whom ye once slew at Tabor?" And they answered, "As thou art, they looked like the sons of a king." "They were my brethren, the sons of my mother," Gideon answered. "As Jehovah liveth, if ye had saved them alive I would not slay you. Stand up," he called to his first-born son Jether, "and slay them." But the youth feared and drew not his sword, for he was yet young. "Slay us thyself," said the prisoners, "for as the man is, so is his strength." This was done. When the booty was divided Gideon claimed as his share the golden ear-rings of the slain Midianites. They were collected in Gideon's mantle, and the weight reached 1700 shekels of gold, beside the purple raiment of the dead kings, and the moons and chains on the necks of the camels.
Gideon had gained a brilliant victory; no more is heard of the raids of the Midianites. Out of the booty he set up a gilded image (ephod) at Ophra.[201] He overthrew the altar of Baal and the image of Astarte in his city; and this, as is expressly stated, in the night (from which we must conclude that the inhabitants of Ophra were attached to this worship); and in the place of it he set up an altar to Jehovah on the height, and in the city another altar, which he called "Jehovah, peace." "Unto this day it is still in Ophra."
After the liberation of the land, which was owing to him, Gideon held the first place in Israel. We are told that the crown had been offered to him and that he refused it.[202] But if Gideon left 70 sons of his body by many wives, if we find that his influence descended to his sons, he must have held an almost royal position, in which a harem was not wanting. He died, as it seems, in a good old age, and was buried in the grave of his fathers (after 1150 B.C.[203]).
The same need of protection which preserved Gideon in power till his death had induced some cities to form a league, after the pattern of the cities of the Philistines, for mutual support and security. Shechem, the old metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim, was the chief city of this league. Here on the citadel at Shechem the united cities had built a temple to Baal Berith, i. e. to Baal of the league, and established a fund for the league in the treasury of this temple. One of the 70 sons of Gideon, the child of a woman of Shechem, by name Abimelech, conceived the plan of establishing a monarchy in Israel by availing himself of Gideon's name and memory, the desire for order and protection from which the league had arisen, and the resources of the cities. At first he sought to induce the cities to make him their chief. Supported by them, he sought to remove his brothers and to take the monarchy into his own hands as the only heir of Gideon. A skilful warrior like Abimelech, who carried with him the fame and influence of a great father, must have been welcome to the cities as a leader and chief in such wild times. Abimelech spoke to the men of Shechem: "Consider that I am your bone and your flesh; which is better, that 70 men rule over you or I only?" Then the citizens of Shechem and the inhabitants of the citadel assembled under the oak of Shechem and made Abimelech their king, and gave him 70 shekels of silver from the temple of Baal Berith, "that he might be able to pay people to serve him." With these and the men of Shechem who followed him he marched and slew all his brethren at Ophra in his father's house (one only, Jotham, escaped him), and Israel obeyed him. Abimelech seemed to have reached his object. Perhaps he might have maintained the throne thus won by blood had he not, three years afterwards, quarrelled with the cities which helped him to power. The cities rose against him. Abimelech with his forces went against the chief city, Shechem. The city was taken and destroyed, the inhabitants massacred. About 1000 men and women fled for refuge into the temple of Baal Berith in the citadel; Abimelech caused them to be burned along with the temple. Then he turned from Shechem to Thebez, some miles to the north. When he stormed the city the inhabitants fled into the strong tower, closed it, and went up on the roof of the tower. Abimelech pressed on to the door of the tower to set it on fire, when a woman threw a stone down from above which fell on Abimelech and broke his skull. Then the king called to his armour-bearer, "Draw thy sword and slay me, that it may not be said, A woman slew him." The youthful monarchy was wrecked on this quarrel of the citizens with the new king.
After this time Eli the priest at the sacred tabernacle, a descendant of Ithamar, the youngest son of Aaron,[204] is said to have been in honour among the Israelites. Not only was he the priest of the national shrine, but counsel and judgment were also sought from him. But Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas; did evil, and lay with the women who came to the sacred tabernacle to offer prayer and sacrifice.[205]
FOOTNOTES:
[181] Judges v. 10, 14; x. 4.
[182] Judges x. 1-5; xii. 8-15.