Elated by the victory over Sisera, Israel sang a hymn of praise, the
song of Deborah, and God, to reward them for their pious sentiments,
pardoned the transgression of the people. (92) But they soon slipped
back into the old ways, and the old troubles harassed them. Their
backsliding was due to the witchcraft of a Midianite priest named Aud.
He made the sun shine at midnight, and so convinced the Israelites that
the idols of Midian were mightier than God, and God chastised them by
delivering them into the hands of the Midianties. (93) They worshipped
their own images reflected in the water, (94) and they were stricken
with dire poverty. They could not bring so much as a meal offering, the
offering of the poor. (95) On the eve of one Passover, Gideon uttered
the complaint: "Where are all the wondrous works which God did for our
fathers in this night, when he slew the first-born of the Egyptians,
and Israel went forth from slavery with joyous hearts?" God appeared
unto him, and said: "Thou who art courageous enough to champion Israel,
thou art worthy that Israel should be saved for thy sake." (96)
An angel appeared, and Gideon begged him for a sign, that he would
achieve the deliverance of Israel. He excused his petition with the
precedent of Moses, the first prophet, who likewise has asked for a
sign. The angel bade him pour water on the rock, and then gave him the
choice of how he would have the water transformed. Gideon desired to
see one-half changed into blood, and one-half into fire. Thus it
happened. The blood and the fire mingled with each other, yet the blood
did not quench the fire, nor did the fire dry out the blood. Encouraged
by this and other signs, (97) Gideon undertook to carry on the war
against the Midianites with a band of three hundred God-fearing men,
and he was successful. Of the enemy one hundred and twenty thousand
corpses covered the field, and all the rest fled precipitately. (98)
Gideon enjoyed the privilege of bringing salvation to Israel because he
was a good son. His old father feared to thresh his grain on account of
the Midianites, and Gideon once went out to him in the field and said:
"Father, thou art too old to do this work; go thou home, and I shall
finish thy task for thee. If the Midianites should surprise me out
here, I can run away, which thou canst not do, on account of thy age."
(99)
The day on which Gideon gained his great victory was during the
Passover, and the cake of barley bread that turned the camp of the
enemy upside down, of which the Midianite dreamed, was a sign that God
would espouse the cause of His people to reward them for bringing a
cake of barley bread as an 'Omer offering. (100)
After God had favored Israel with great help through him, Gideon had an
ephod made. In the high priest's breastplate, Joseph was represented
among the twelve tribes by Ephraim alone, not by Manasseh, too. To wipe
out this slight upon his own tribe, Gideon made an ephod bearing the
name of Manasseh. He consecrated it to God, but after his death homage
was paid to it as an idol. (101) In those days the Israelites were so
addicted to the worship of Beelzebub that they constantly carried small
images of this god with them in their pockets, and every now and then
they were in the habit of bringing the image forth and kissing it
fervently. (102) Of such idolaters were the vain and light fellows who
helped Abimelech, the son of Gideon by his concubine from Shechem, to
assassinate the other sons of his father. But God is just. As Abimelech
murdered his brothers upon a stone, so Abimelech himself met his death
through a millstone. It was proper, then, that Jotham, in his parable,
should compare Abimelech to a thorn-bush, while he characterized his
predecessors, Othniel, Deborah, and Gideon, as an olive-tree, or a
fig-tree, or a vine. This Jotham, the youngest of the sons of Gideon,
was more than a teller of parables. He knew then that long afterward
the Samaritans would claim sanctity for Mount Gerizim, on account of
the blessing pronounced from it upon the tribe. For this reason he
chose Gerizim from which to hurl his curse upon Shechem and it
inhabitants. (103)
The successor to Abimelech equalled, if he did not surpass, him in
wickedness. Jair erected an altar unto Baal, and on penalty of death he
forced the people to prostrate themselves before it. Only seven men
remained firm in the true faith, and refused to the last to commit
idolatry. Their names were Deuel, Abit Yisreel, Jekuthiel, Shalom,
Ashur, Jehonadab, and Shemiel. (104) They said to Jair: "We are mindful
of the lessons given us by our teachers and our mother Deborah. 'Take
ye heed,' they said, 'that your heart lead you not astray to the right
or to the left. Day and night ye shall devote yourselves to the study
of the Torah.' Why, then, dost thou seek to corrupt the people of the
Lord, saying, 'Baal is God, let us worship him'? If he really is what
thou sayest, then let him speak like a god, and we will pay him
worship." For the blasphemy they had uttered against Baal, Jair
commanded that the seven men be burnt. When his servants were about to
carry out his order, God sent the angel Nathaniel, the lord over the
fire, and he extinguished the fire though not before the servants of
Jair were consumed by it. Not only did the seven men escape the danger
of suffering death by fire, but the angel enabled them to flee
unnoticed, by striking all the people present with blindness. Then the
angel approached Jair, and said to him: "Hear the words of the Lord ere
thou diest. I appointed thee as prince over my people, and thou didst
break My covenant, seduce My people, and seek to burn My servants with
fire, but they were animated and freed by the living, the heavenly
fire. As for thee, thou wilt die, and die by fire, a fire in which thou
wilt abide forever."
Thereupon the angel burnt him with a thousand men, whom he had taken in
the act of paying homage to Baal. (105)