[193] Judges xx. 8; xxi. 7-18.
[194] Gen. xlix. 27; Judges xx. 16; 1 Chron. viii. 39; xii. 2; 2 Chron. xiv. 7.
[195] These events belong, according to Judges xx. 27 ff., to the period immediately after the conquest: as a fact, the war against Benjamin is not to be placed long after this, i. e. about 1200 B.C. Cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," S. 326.
[196] Judges iii. 12 ff.
[197] Judges iv., v.
[198] Judges vi. 2-5.
[199] Judges viii. 19.
[200] The observation that Gideon was the least in the house of his father, and his family the weakest in Manasseh (Judges vi. 15), is due no doubt to the tendency of the Ephraimitic text to show how strong Jehovah is even in the weak. From similar motives it is said that Gideon himself reduced his army to 300 men (Judges vii. 2-6). In the presence of the Ephraimites Gideon speaks only of the family of Abiezer.
[201] What is meant in Judges viii. 27 by an ephod is not clear. The words which follow in the verse—that all Israel went whoring after Gideon—are obviously an addition of the prophetic revision.
[202] Judges viii. 22.