the side of Barak nor on the side of Sisera. While the others were
fighting he was in the distant pastures tending his sheep, and his wife
was at home alone. So Sisera came breathless and weary with running, and
Barak was following him far behind. And Jael came out to meet Sisera,
and she asked him to come in and hide. “Turn in, my lord,” she said,
“turn in to me: fear not.” So he went in. And he said, “Give me, I pray
thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” And she opened a
bottle and gave him milk to drink. And he lay down in the tent, and she
covered him with a mantle, so that he was hid. And he said, “If anybody
comes to the tent, and asks, ‘Is there any man here?’ you must say,
‘No.’” Then he went to sleep, for he was very tired.
Then Jael took one of the big wooden pins which held the ropes of the
tent, and in her other hand a workman’s mallet, and when Sisera was
sound asleep she went to him softly, and drove the pin straight through
his head. And Barak and his men came running by in pursuit of Sisera:
and Jael came to the tent door, and said, “Come here, and I will show
you the man whom you are seeking.” And Barak came in, and there was
Sisera dead. This, you understand, was a long, long time ago, when
people did not know so much as we know now about the difference between
right and wrong: and it was in the midst of war, when very dreadful
things are done. Anyhow, Sisera was dead, and the Children of Israel
were delivered from the Canaanites.
XVIII
THE ALTAR OF BAAL
Sometimes the Children of Israel fought with the people who lived in the
Promised Land, as Barak fought with Sisera in the Great Plain. Sometimes
they made friends with them and learned their ways; and that was worse
than war, because their ways were very bad. They called God Baal, and
they thought that there were many Baals, one for each place. They
believed that Baal sent the sun and the rain and made things grow in the
fields, and they told the Children of Israel that if they wished the sun
to shine and the rain to fall they must build altars to Baal and say
their prayers to him. And some of the Children of Israel did so. They
forgot God and served Baal. But the men who served Baal thought that
Baal did not care whether they were good or bad, and so they did not
care either.
Now, after the battle of the Great Plain there was peace for many years.
And the Children of Israel had farms and pastures in the plain. There
were wide fields of wheat and barley, and droves of sheep and oxen.
Then the Midianites came.
The Midianites were wild people who lived in the deserts beyond the
Jordan. They had no cities to dwell in, but wandered about from place to
place, riding on swift camels, sleeping in tents, and stealing cattle.
And some of them came over and saw the Great Plain, how it lay shining
in the sun, with the river winding in and out between the pleasant
farms. And they went back and told the others, and pretty soon, when the
harvest was ripe, there came a great army of Midianites. They had two
kings, named Zebah and Zalmunna, and two princes, named Oreb, “the
Raven,” and Zeeb, “the Wolf.” The kings and the princes wore red cloaks,
and had gold chains around their camels’ necks; and all the dark-faced
men who rode behind them had great rings of gold hung in their ears.
Over the Jordan they came, like swarms of locusts, and settled down upon
the Great Plain. They trampled upon the farms, and stole the wheat, and
drove away the sheep and oxen. Before they came the land looked like the
Garden of Eden, but after they went away it was like a desolate
wilderness. And the Children of Israel were poor and hungry and
miserable. And the next year, when they planted the fields again and the
barley and the wheat were ripe and ready for the harvest, over came the
Midianites and destroyed the farms as they had done before. And so on,
year after year, until the Children of Israel hid themselves in dens
among the mountains and in caves among the rocks. And it seemed as if
God had forgotten them.
But in a village beside the Great Plain there was an altar of Baal. It
was made of large stones piled together, and was on the top of a cliff,
and a grove of trees stood around it. And one morning the people of the
village waked as usual and looked up towards the altar of Baal, and,
behold, it was broken down. Not one stone lay upon another. And all the
trees of the grove were cut down. And in the place of the old altar was
a new one, made like an altar of God, and on it burned a great fire made
of the wood of the sacred trees. So they asked who had done this thing,
and they found that a young man named Gideon had done it. And they laid
hold upon Gideon, intending to put him to death because he had destroyed
the altar of Baal.
But Gideon said, “I have had a message from the Lord. Yesterday I was
threshing wheat, in a secret place among the rocks to hide it from the
Midianites. And behold, there was a man, like an angel, sitting under an
oak, who said to me, ‘The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.’
“And I said, ‘How can the Lord be with me when He has forgotten us all?
Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?
The Lord has cast us off and has delivered us into the hands of the
Midianites.’
“And the man said to me, ‘Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the
Midianites.’
“And I answered, ‘O Lord, how shall I save Israel? My family is the
poorest in my tribe, and I am the least in my family.’
“But he said again, ‘Go and save Israel. I will be with thee.’
“And even then I could not believe that the Lord had chosen me. I hardly
knew whether I was awake or dreaming. And I said, ‘Wait here,’ and I ran
and fetched meat and bread in a basket and broth in a pot, and gave them
to the man to eat, and he told me to put them on the rock. And so I did,
and he put forth the end of the staff which he had in his hand and
touched them, and, behold, the rock blazed with fire and the bread and
the meat and the broth were consumed, and in the smoke the angel
disappeared.
“Then I knew that I had seen a vision from the Lord. This is why I went
last night and pulled down Baal’s altar, and built the Lord’s altar in
the place of it.” And Gideon’s father said, “Let Baal look out for
himself.”
So the people of the village, and of the country round about, knew that
the Lord had called Gideon, and that he would save them from the
Midianites. And they turned away from serving Baal and served God, and
waited to see what would happen next.
XIX
THE BATTLE OF THE LAMPS AND PITCHERS
One day the word was brought to Gideon that the Midianites were coming.
King Zebah and King Zalmunna, and Oreb the Raven and Zeeb the Wolf, with
thousands of fierce men on camels, were on the march. On they came
across the Jordan, and like locusts they began to spread over the Great
Plain.
And Gideon said to himself, “Did I dream about the angel, or was it
true? Did he sit beneath the oak, and tell me that God wished me to
fight the Midianites? did he strike fire out of the rock and go up in
the smoke?” And Gideon said, “I will make sure. To-night I will spread
out a fleece of wool and ask God for a sign. If in the morning the
fleece is wet with dew while the earth around it is dry, then I will
know that the Lord has sent me.” So he spread the fleece upon the
ground, and when he rose up early the next morning, the ground was dry
and the fleece was so wet that he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a
bowlful of water.
But still he was not satisfied. “Perhaps,” he said, “it only happened
so.” And he asked for another sign. “To-night let the fleece be dry and
all the ground be wet.” And in the morning so it was. The ground was wet
with dew, but not a drop had fallen on the fleece.
Then Gideon blew a trumpet and called the people together, and sent
messengers all about the country to call the fighting men, and there was
a great army. But when Gideon came to see the army he did not like the
soldiers’ looks: it seemed to him that they were frightened. He was
afraid that when they saw the Midianites they would run away. And he
made a speech. “To-morrow,” he said, “there will be a hard battle. The
Midianites are many in number and very fierce. Perhaps you would like to
go home. If you are afraid, if your knees are trembling, that is the
best thing to do. Go straight home to-day.” And twenty-two thousand men,
with trembling knees and pale faces, drew a long breath of relief and
went home as fast as their legs could carry them. And there were left
ten thousand.
But Gideon did not like the looks of the ten thousand. Now there was a
spring in that place. The water came clear and cold out of Mount Gilboa
and became a river. And across the river were the Midianites in their
tents as far as the eye could see. And very early in the morning Gideon
brought the ten thousand to the river and the spring and bade them
drink; and as they drank he watched them. Most of them threw themselves
upon the ground beside the water and put their lips to the stream and
drank; and if there had been any Midianites hidden in the bushes they
could have shot the drinkers with arrows, for they were off their guard.
But three hundred took up water in their hands and drank, with their
other hands holding their weapons and their eyes wide open. These three
hundred Gideon chose, and sent the others home.
So the three hundred waited with Gideon for the going down of the sun.
And when it was dark, and the lights were out in the camp of the
Midianites, Gideon took his armor-bearer, and they two went alone, very
softly, and crept about among the tents of Midian. The Midianites lay in
the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were
without number, like the sand by the seaside. And as Gideon and his
armor-bearer passed a tent, they heard men talking.
One man said, “I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread
tumbled into the army of Midian, and came into a tent and struck it so
that it fell and was overturned and lay upon the ground.”
[Illustration: GIDEON HEARS THE TELLING OF A DREAM]
And the other man said, “That means the sword of Gideon, for into his
hands has God delivered all of us this night.”
Then Gideon knew that the soldiers were afraid, and he went back to his
own camp and called his three hundred men together.
And Gideon divided the three hundred into three companies, a hundred in
each company; and to every man he gave a trumpet and an empty pitcher
and a lamp; but the lamp was what we call a torch, a burning stick. And
Gideon said, “Watch me, and do as you see me do. When I blow my trumpet,
you all blow yours, and shout with all your might, ‘The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon! The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’”
So they all crept softly toward the enemy, every man with his lamp and
pitcher in his left hand and his trumpet in his right. And the
Midianites were fast asleep, for it was almost midnight. And suddenly
Gideon gave the signal; he blew a great blast upon his trumpet, then
with the trumpet he broke the pitcher, and the torch he waved about his
head, shouting, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” And all the
others did the same, and there was a great blowing of trumpets and a
great crashing of pitchers and a great shining of flaring torches, and a
great sound of shouting. And the Midianites waked up in terrible alarm,
and nobody knew what was the matter; and they looked this way and that,
and in every direction there were shouting men and flames of fire. And
they ran like frightened sheep, some on foot and some on camels, down
the valley and over the Jordan, and out of the country; and they never
came back again.
That was the end of Zebah and Zalmunna, and of Oreb the Raven and Zeeb
the Wolf, and their fierce soldiers with them.
XX
THE MIGRATION OF DAN
The Children of Israel were divided into thirteen tribes, as the
American people before the Revolution were divided into thirteen
colonies. For each of the twelve sons of Jacob became the founder of a
tribe, except Joseph, who became the founder of two tribes, Ephraim and
Manasseh. The Promised Land was divided among these thirteen tribes or
colonies. But the tribe of Dan was not satisfied. They thought that the
land which was given them was not large enough.
So the tribe of Dan sent five men to find another place for them to live
in, and away they went into the north to find it; as if, in the early
days, the colony of Rhode Island had sent men to find them a new country
in the woods of Maine. And on the way, they came to the house of a man
named Micah.
Now Micah had stolen some money which belonged to his mother. He had
taken eleven hundred pieces of silver. But afterwards he was very sorry
for the wrong thing which he had done, and he brought back the silver.
And his mother took some of the silver and had it made into two images,
to look like God: though nobody knows how God looks. And they built a
little church, which they called the House of God, and in the church
they put the images so that they might look at them while they said
their prayers. And the neighbors used to come to Micah’s church; and
Micah’s son conducted the service till they could get a regular
minister.
One day, there came walking along the road by Micah’s house a young man
named Jonathan, who was out in the world in search of his fortune. And
he stopped to speak to Micah. He told Micah that his name was Jonathan,
and that he was a grandson of Moses, and that he was a regular minister.
And Micah said, “Where are you going, Jonathan?”
And Jonathan said, “Oh, I am just wandering around looking for a good
place in which to stay.”
And Micah said, “Stay here with me, and take the service in my little
church, and be a father and a priest to me and my family, and I will
give you a salary. Every year you shall have ten pieces of silver and
your board and clothes.” That satisfied Jonathan, and he became the
minister of Micah’s church.
Now Jonathan, in his wanderings, had become acquainted with the tribe
of Dan, so that the five men who were looking for a new country knew him
well. And they came to the house of Micah just at church time, and heard
the priest saying the service. And they said one to another, “That is a
familiar voice. It sounds like the voice of Jonathan.” So they went in
and found Jonathan. And they said, “Jonathan, who brought you here? What
are you doing in this place? How much wages do you get?” And Jonathan
answered all their questions. And the spies said, “Pray for us, that we
may have a prosperous journey.”
Then on they went, and presently they came to a little town called
Laish. It stood beside the sources of the Jordan, and all around was a
fair and fertile country. Moreover, the people were so far away from any
neighbors that they had no walls, but lived quiet and secure, and never
thought of danger. The five spies agreed that this was the very spot for
which they were looking. So they went back to the tribe of Dan and said,
“We have found the very place. It is a wide and beautiful land, with
woods and water, and the people know nothing about war. Come, let us go,
and take the place away from them.” For this, you remember, was so long
ago that people thought that some things were right which we now know to
be wrong.
So six hundred bold men of the tribe of Dan took weapons of war in their
hands and started on the march for Laish. And as they went, they passed
the house of Micah. And the five spies said, “Do you know what is here?
This man has images of gods, made of gold and silver. Might they not be
useful for us?” So the six hundred stood at Micah’s gate, and the five
went quietly into Micah’s church, and brought the images.
But Jonathan saw them, and he cried out and said, “What are you doing?”
And they said, “Hold your peace, lay your hand upon your mouth, and go
with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it not better to be the
minister of a tribe than the minister of one man?”
And Jonathan, when he heard that, was very glad. He let the spies steal
Micah’s images, and he himself went with them. So they all went upon the
way to Laish.
Now when they had gone a good way, they heard a noise of shouting; and
they looked back, and who should come running along the road but Micah
and his neighbors. And they turned and said to Micah, “What is the
matter with you? Why do you follow us and make all this noise?”
And Micah cried, “You have stolen both my priest and my gods, and away
you go. And you say, ‘What is the matter with you?’”
And the men of Dan said, “Micah, take our advice: don’t talk so loud.
Some of us might possibly get mad and hurt you!” So they went their way.
And when Micah saw that they were too many for him, he turned and went
back to his house. Then the men of Dan took Laish and settled in that
country; and they built a church for Micah’s images, and Jonathan became
their priest.
XXI
THE RIDDLE OF THE LION AND THE BEES
On the side of a green hill, in the midst of the Promised Land, lived a
man named Manoah and his wife. They belonged to the tribe of Dan, but
had stayed behind when the six hundred went out to settle in the land of
Laish. In the distance, along the edge of the sky, lay the sea; and
between the hill and the sea were miles and miles of yellow cornfields,
with vineyards here and there, and groves of olive trees. But all of
this fair country belonged to the Philistines. And the Philistines and
the Children of Israel were enemies; and after the six hundred boldest
men of Dan had gone, the Philistines were very bad to those who were
left. Indeed, all of the Children of Israel were afraid of them.
Now as Manoah and his wife looked out from their hillside over the
Philistine country, they said often one to another, “Oh, that we had a
good stout son to defend us against our enemies in our old age!” And one
day when Manoah came home from work, his wife said, “What do you
suppose happened to-day? A strange man stopped and spoke to me, and said
that we would have a son. I was so frightened that I forgot to ask him
whence he came, and he did not tell his name. Indeed, I didn’t know
whether he was a man or an angel. But he said that our prayer would be
answered and that God would send us a son.”
The next day, the strange man came by again, and Manoah’s wife was in
the field, and she saw him and called her husband.
And Manoah said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife yesterday?” And
he said, “I am.”
And Manoah said, “Let thy words come to pass. Only tell us how to bring
up the child that he may be strong and sturdy.”
And the angel answered, “Let neither the mother nor the child taste
either grapes or wine, and never let his hair be cut.”
Then Manoah brought out bread and meat and laid them on a rock, and
there was a fire burning by the rock, and somehow,--whether the flame
dazzled their eyes or the smoke was blown in their faces so that they
could not see,--when they looked, the man had disappeared.
Then days passed and days passed, and God sent the child, as the man had
said, and his hair was so yellow and his face was so bright that they
named him Samson; that is, “The Little Sun.” He grew up a stout lad, the
strongest in the neighborhood. He never tasted either grapes or wine,
and every year his hair grew longer and longer, till they braided it in
seven big braids hanging down his back. But if the boys with whom he
played ever said anything about the length of Samson’s hair, they said
it when Samson could not hear them; for they were very careful not to
make him angry. Nobody could throw so high, or jump so far, or run so
fast as Samson.
At last, it became time for Samson to be married, and he fell in love
with a Philistine girl who lived in a place called Timnath. And Samson
went down one day, with his father and mother, to call upon the father
and mother of the girl, and there came out a young lion from a vineyard
and roared against Samson. And Samson caught the lion and killed him
with his hands. Then, after a while, as the wedding day drew near,
Samson and his father and mother went again to Timnath to the marriage.
And as they went, they passed the place where Samson had killed the
lion, and behold, among the dry bones of the lion there was a swarm of
bees; and Samson took some of the
[Illustration: SAMSON KILLS THE LION WITH HIS HANDS]
honey and gave it to his father and mother, and they went along the way
eating it.
Now it was the custom in those days, at weddings, to tell riddles. And
Samson told a riddle. And his riddle was this: “Out of the eater came
forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” And the wedding
guests tried to guess the riddle: one said this, and another said that,
but none was right. The game was that if any of the thirty guests could
find out the riddle within seven days, Samson was to give every man a
shirt and a suit of clothes; but if they could not guess it, they were
to give him thirty shirts and thirty suits of clothes. So the seventh
day came, and nobody had guessed the riddle. Now the guests had gone to
Samson’s wife and said, “If you don’t make your husband tell you the
answer to the riddle and then tell us, we will burn down your house.” So
Samson’s wife came to him every day, and cried and cried, and said, “You
don’t love me. If you loved me you would tell me the answer to the
riddle.” But he said, “I have not told even my father or my mother.” At
last, however, on the seventh day, she begged so hard that Samson told
her: and straight she went and told the wedding guests. So just as the
sun was going down on the evening of the seventh day, they came to
Samson, boasting and laughing, and they said, “What is sweeter than
honey? and what is stronger than a lion?” Thus they guessed the riddle,
and Samson paid the forfeit of thirty shirts and thirty suits of
clothes.
XXII
THE SECRET OF STRENGTH
Samson was not the captain of an army, like Joshua and Barak and Gideon.
He fought the Philistines alone. He used to go out by himself, when they
were not looking for him, and surprise them. The favorite stories of the
Israelites were the adventures of Samson, as the favorite stories of the
Greeks were the adventures of Hercules.
One time, they said, he caught three hundred foxes and tied their tails
together, and in each knot he put a lighted torch, and away went the
foxes with the firebrands into the standing corn, and burned it down.
Another time, the Philistines were after him, and he let his neighbors
tie him with ropes and leave him on a rock. And three thousand
Philistines were in pursuit, and when they saw him they gave a great
shout and rushed upon him; and he burst the ropes, and picked up a dry
bone, the jawbone of an ass, and fought the Philistines with it so that
they fled like frightened sheep.
Once he was in the town of Gaza, which had stout walls around it. And
they thought that they had him fast. But in the night, he took the great
gates of the city, and picked them up, and the posts with them, and
carried them off. And when the Philistines awoke in the morning, Samson
was gone, and there were the gates away up on the side of a hill.
But at last, after Samson’s wife was dead, he fell in love with another
Philistine woman, whose name was Delilah. And she was a false friend.
For the Philistines said to Delilah, “Come now, get Samson to tell you
the secret of his strength, that we may have the mastery of him, and we
will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” And she promised to do
it.
So Delilah said, “Tell me, Samson, what is the secret of your strength?
What is the way to bind you so that you cannot get loose?”
And Samson answered, “If I were bound with seven new bowstrings I should
be as weak as any other man.”
And Delilah said, “Oh, Samson, let me try; let me see if I can tie you
so that you cannot get free.”
And Samson held out his arms, and she tied seven new bowstrings tight
about him with hard knots. And the lords of the Philistines were in the
next room, waiting.
And Delilah cried, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And he
started up, and broke the bowstrings as if they were strings which had
been scorched in the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
But the next day, Delilah teased Samson again to tell the secret. “You
mocked me, yesterday,” she said, “and told me lies. Now, truly, Samson,
how may you be bound so that you must stay bound?”
And Samson said, “If I were to be tied with new ropes which have never
been used, then I should be as weak as any other man.”
So Delilah took new ropes and tied him fast. And the lords of the
Philistines were in the next room, waiting.
And Delilah cried, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And he broke
the ropes as if they had been thread.
Again, the next day, she asked him the same question. And Samson said,
“If the seven locks of my hair were woven into a web, I could not get
away.” And Delilah was weaving cloth upon a loom, and while Samson was
asleep she wove his long hair into the web and cried again, “The
Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And straight he waked, and stood up,
and pulled away the web and the loom together.
Then Delilah said, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when every day you
mock me and lie to me! Tell me true, what is the secret of your mighty
strength?”
And Samson told her true. “If they cut off my hair,” he said, “then I
shall have no strength at all.”