CHAPTER III--THE HEBREWS AND THE PHILISTINES--DAMASCUS

_The Israelites in the land of Canaan: the judges--The Philistines

and the Hebrew kingdom--Saul, David, Solomon, the defection of the ten

tribes--the XXIst Egyptian dynasty--Sheshonq--Damascus._

After reaching Kadesh-barnea, the Israelites in their wanderings had

come into contact with various Bedawin tribes--Kenites, Jerahmelites,

Edomites, and Midianites, with whom they had in turn fought or allied

themselves, according to the exigencies of their pastoral life.

Continual skirmishes had taught them the art of war, their numbers had

rapidly increased, and with this increase came a consciousness of their

own strength, so that, after a lapse of two or three generations, they

may be said to have constituted a considerable nation. Its component

elements were not, however, firmly welded together; they consisted of

an indefinite number of clans, which were again subdivided into several

families. Each of these families had its chief or “ruler,” to whom it

rendered absolute obedience, while the united chiefs formed an assembly

of elders who administered justice when required, and settled any

differences which arose among their respective followers. The clans in

their turn were grouped into tribes,* according to certain affinities

which they mutually recognised, or which may have been fostered by daily

intercourse on a common soil, but the ties which bound them together at

this period were of the most slender character. It needed some special

event, such as a projected migration in search of fresh pasturage, or

an expedition against a turbulent neighbour, or a threatened invasion

by some stranger, to rouse the whole tribe to corporate action; at

such times they would elect a “nasi,” or ruler, the duration of whose

functions ceased with the emergency which had called him into office.**

* The tribe was designated by two words signifying “staff” or

“branch.”

** The word _nasi,_ first applied to the chiefs of the

tribes (_Exod._ xxxiv. 31; _Lev_. iv. 22; _Numb_. ii. 3),

became, after the captivity, the title of the chiefs of

Israel, who could not be called _kings_ owing to the foreign

suzerainty (_Esdras_ i. 8).

Both clans and tribes were designated by the name of some ancestor from

whom they claimed to be descended, and who appears in some cases to

have been a god for whom they had a special devotion; some writers have

believed that this was also the origin of the names given to several of

the tribes, such as Gad, “Good Fortune,” or of the totems of the hyena

and the dog, in Arabic and Hebrew, “Simeon” and “Caleb.” * Gad, Simeon,

and Caleb were severally the ancestors of the families who ranged

themselves under their respective names, and the eponymous heroes of

all the tribes were held to have been brethren, sons of one father, and

under the protection of one God. He was known as the Jahveh with whom

Abraham of old had made a solemn covenant; His dwelling-place was Mount

Sinai or Mount Seîr, and He revealed Himself in the storm;** His voice

was as the thunder “which shaketh the wilderness,” His breath was as “a

consuming fire,” and He was decked with light “as with a garment.” When

His anger was aroused, He withheld the dew and rain from watering the

earth; but when His wrath was appeased, the heavens again poured their

fruitful showers upon the fields.***

* Simeon is derived by some from a word which at times

denotes a hyena, at others a cross between a dog and a

hyena, according to Arab lexicography. With regard to Caleb,

Renan prefers a different interpretation; it is supposed to

be a shortened form of Kalbel, and “Dog of El” is a strong

expression to denote the devotion of a tribe to its patron

god.

** Cf. the graphic description of the signs which

accompanied the manifestations of Jahveh in the _Song of

Deborah (Judges_ v. 4, 5), and also in 1 _Kings_ xix. 11-13.

*** See 1 _Kings_ xvii., xviii., where the conflict between

Elijah and the prophets of Baal for the obtaining of rain is

described.

He is described as being a “jealous God,” brooking no rival, and

“visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third

and fourth generation.” We hear of His having been adored under the

figure of a “calf,” * and of His Spirit inspiring His prophets, as well

as of the anointed stones which were dedicated in His honour. The common

ancestor of the nation was acknowledged to have been Jacob, who, by his

wrestling with God, had obtained the name of Israel; the people were

divided theoretically into as many tribes as he had sons, but the number

twelve to which they were limited does not entirely correspond with all

that we know up to the present time of these “children of Israel.” Some

of the tribes appear never to have had any political existence, as for

example that of Levi,** or they were merged at an early date into some

fellow-tribe, as in the case of Reuben with Gad;*** others, such as

Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, and Judah, apparently did not attain their

normal development until a much later date.

* The most common of these animal forms was that of a calf

or bull (Exod. xxxii.; Deut. ix. 21; and in the kingly

period, 1 Kings xii. 28-30; 2 Kings x. 29); we are not told

the form of the image of Micah the Ephraimite (Judges xviii.

14, 17, 18, 20, 30, 31).

** Levi appears to have suffered dispersion after the events

of which there are two separate accounts combined in Gen.

xxxiv. In conjunction with Simeon, he appears to have

revenged the violation of his sister Dinah by a massacre of

the Shechemites, and the dispersion alluded to in Jacob’s

blessing (Gen. xlix. 5-7) is mentioned as consequent on this

act of barbarism.

*** In the IXth century Mesha of Moab does not mention the

Reubenites, and speaks of the Gadites only as inhabiting the

territory formerly occupied by them. Tradition attributed

the misfortunes of the tribe to the crime of its chief in

his seduction of Bilhah, his father’s concubine (Gen. xlix.

3, 4; cf. xxxv. 22)

The Jewish chroniclers attempted by various combinations to prove that

the sacred number of tribes was the correct one. At times they included

Levi in the list, in which case Joseph was reckoned as one;* while on

other occasions Levi or Simeon was omitted, when for Joseph would be

substituted his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.** In addition to this,

the tribes were very unequal in size: Ephraim, Gad, and Manasseh

comprised many powerful and wealthy families; Dan, on the contrary,

contained so few, that it was sometimes reckoned as a mere clan.

* As, for instance, in Jacob’s blessing (Gen. xlix. 5-7) and

in the enumeration of the patriarch’s sons at the time of

his journey to Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 9-26).

** Numb. i. 20, et seq., where the descendants of Levi are

not included among the twelve, and Deut. xxxiii. 6-25, where

Simeon is omitted from among the tribes blessed by Moses

before his death.

The tribal organisation had not reached its full development at the

time of the sojourn in the desert. The tribes of Joseph and Judah, who

subsequently played such important parts, were at that period not held

in any particular estimation; Reuben, on the other hand, exercised a

sort of right of priority over the rest.*

* This conclusion is drawn from the position of eldest son

given to him in all the genealogies enumerating the children

of Jacob. Stade, on the contrary, is inclined to believe

that this place of honour was granted to him on account of

the smallness of his family, to prevent any jealousy arising

between the more powerful tribes, such as Ephraim and Judah

(_Ges. des Vollces Isr._, vol. i. pp. 151, 152).

The territory which they occupied soon became insufficient to support

their numbers, and they sought to exchange it for a wider area, such as

was offered by the neighbouring provinces of Southern Syria. Pharaoh

at this time exercised no authority over this region, and they were,

therefore, no longer in fear of opposition from his troops; the latter

had been recalled to Egypt, and it is doubtful even whether he retained

possession of the Shephelah by means of his Zakkala and Philistine

colonies; the Hebrews, at any rate, had nothing to fear from him so long

as they respected Gaza and Ascalon. They began by attempting to possess

themselves of the provinces around Hebron, in the direction of the Dead

Sea, and we read that, before entering them, they sent out spies to

reconnoitre and report on the country.* Its population had undergone

considerable modifications since the Israelites had quitted Goshen.

The Amorites, who had seriously suffered from the incursions of Asiatic

hordes, and had been constantly harassed by the attacks of the Aramæans,

had abandoned the positions they had formerly occupied on the banks

of the Orontes and the Litany, and had moved southwards, driving the

Canaanites before them; their advance was accelerated as the resistance

opposed to their hordes became lessened under the successors of Ramses

III., until at length all opposition was withdrawn. They had possessed

themselves of the regions about the Lake of Genesareth, the mountain

district to the south of Tabor, the middle valley of the Jordan, and,

pressing towards the territory east of that river, had attacked the

cities scattered over the undulating table-land. This district had

not been often subjected to incursions of Egyptian troops, and yet its

inhabitants had been more impressed by Egyptian influence than many

others.

[Illustration: 259.jpg THE AMORITE ASTARTE]

Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from the squeezes and sketches

published in the _Zeitschrift ties Palcistina-Vereins_.

Whereas, in the north and west, cuneiform writing was almost entirely

used, attempts had been made here to adapt the hieroglyphs to the native

language.

The only one of their monuments which has been preserved is a rudely

carved bas-relief in black basalt, representing a two-horned Astarte,

before whom stands a king in adoration; the sovereign is Ramses II., and

the inscriptions accompanying the figures contain a religious formula

together with a name borrowed from one of the local dialects.*

*This is the “Stone of Job” discovered by Strahmacher. The

inscription appears to give the name of a goddess, Agana-

Zaphon, the second part of which recalls the name of Baal-

Zephon.

The Amorites were everywhere victorious, but our information is confined

to this bare fact; soon after their victory, however, we find the

territory they had invaded divided into two kingdoms: in the north that

of Bashan, which comprised, besides the Haurân, the plain watered by the

Yarrnuk; and to the south that of Heshbon, containing the district lying

around the Arnon, and the Jabbok to the east of the Dead Sea.* They seem

to have made the same rapid progress in the country between the Jordan

and the Mediterranean as elsewhere. They had subdued some of the small

Canaanite states, entered into friendly relation with others, and

penetrated gradually as far south as the borders of Sinai, while we find

them establishing petty kings among the hill-country of Shechem around

Hebron, on the confines of the Negeb, and the Shephelah.** When the

Hebrew tribes ventured to push forward in a direct line northwards, they

came into collision with the advance posts of the Amorite population,

and suffered a severe defeat under the walls of Hormah.*** The check

thus received, however, did not discourage them. As a direct course

was closed to them, they turned to the right, and followed, first the

southern and then the eastern shores of the Red Sea, till they reached

the frontier of Gilead.****

* The extension of the Amorite power in this direction is

proved by the facts relating to the kingdoms of Sihon and Og

Gent. i. 4, ii. 24-37, iii. 1-1.7.

** For the Amorite occupation of the Negeb and the hill-

country of Judah, cf. Numb. xiii. 29; Bent. i. 7, 19-46;

Josh. x. 5, 6, 12, xi. 3; for their presence in the

Shephelah, cf. Judges i. 34-36.

*** See the long account in Numb, xiii., xiv., which

terminates with the mention of the defeat of the Israelites

at Hormah; and cf. Bent. i. 19-46.

**** The itinerary given in Numb. xx. 22-29, xxxi., xxxiii.

37-49, and repeated in Bent, ii., brings the Israelites as

far as Ezion-geber, in such a manner as to avoid the

Midianites and the Moabites. The friendly welcome accorded

to them in the regions situated to the east of the Dead Sea,

has been accounted for either by an alliance made with Moab

and Ammon against their common enemy, the Amorites, or by

the fact that Ammon and Moab did not as yet occupy those

regions; the inhabitants in that case would have been

Edomites and Midianites, who were in continual warfare with

each other.

There again they were confronted by the Amorites, but in lesser

numbers, and not so securely entrenched within their fortresses as their

fellow-countrymen in the Negeb, so that the Israelites were able to

overthrow the kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan.*

* War against Sihon, King of Heshbon (Numb. xxi. 21-31;

Beut. ii. 26-37), and against Og, King of Bashan (Numb. xxi.

32-35; Beut. iii. 1-13).

[Illustration: 261.jpg THE VALLEY OF THE JABBOK, NEAR TO ITS CONFLUENCE

WITH THE JORDAN]

Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 336 of the _Palestine

Exploration Fund._

Gad received as its inheritance nearly the whole of the territory lying

between the Jabbok and the Yarmuk, in the neighbourhood of the ancient

native sanctuaries of Penuel, Mahanaim, and Succoth, associated with

the memory of Jacob.* Reuben settled in the vicinity, and both tribes

remained there isolated from the rest. From this time forward they took

but a slight interest in the affairs of their brethren: when the latter

demanded their succour, “Gilead abode beyond Jordan,” and “by the

watercourses of Reuben there were great resolves at heart,” but without

any consequent action.** It was not merely due to indifference on their

part; their resources were fully taxed in defending themselves against

the Aramæans and Bedawins, and from the attacks of Moab and Ammon.

Gad, continually threatened, struggled for centuries without being

discouraged, but Reuben lost heart,*** and soon declined in power, till

at length he became merely a name in the memory of his brethren.

* Gad did not possess the districts between the Jabbok and

the Arnon till the time of the early kings, and retained

them only till about the reign of Jehu, as we gather from

the inscription of Mesa.

** These are the very expressions used by the author of the

_Song of Deborah_ in Judges v. 16, 17.

*** The recollection of these raids by Reuben against the

Beduin of the Syrian desert is traceable in 1 Citron, v. 10,

18-22.

Two tribes having been thus provided for, the bulk of the Israelites

sought to cross the Jordan without further delay, and establish

themselves as best they might in the very heart of the Canaanites. The

sacred writings speak of their taking possession of the country by

a methodic campaign, undertaken by command of and under the visible

protection of Jahveh* Moses had led them from Egypt to Kadesh, and from

Kadesh to the land of Gilead; he had seen the promised land from the

summit of Mount Nebo, but he had not entered it, and after his death,

Joshua, son of Nun, became their leader, brought them across Jordan

dryshod, not far from its mouth, and laid siege to Jericho.

* The history of the conquest is to be found in the _Book of

Joshua._

The walls of the city fell of themselves at the blowing of the brazen

trumpets,* and its capture entailed that of three neighbouring towns,

Aï, Bethel, and Shechem. Shechem served as a rallying-place for the

conquerors; Joshua took up his residence there, and built on the summit

of Mount Ebal an altar of stone, on which he engraved the principal

tenets of the divine Law.**

* Josh, i.-vi.

** Josh, vii., viii. Mount Ebal is the present Gebel

Sulemiyeh.

[Illustration: 263.jpg ONE OF THE MOUNDS OF ÂÎN ES-SULTÂN, THE ANCIENT

JERICHO]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph brought back by Lortet.

The sudden intrusion of a new element naturally alarmed the worshippers

of the surrounding local deities; they at once put a truce to their

petty discords, and united in arms against the strangers. At the

instigation of Adoni-zedeck, King of Jerusalem, the Canaanites collected

their forces in the south; but they were routed not far from Gibeon, and

their chiefs killed or mutilated.* The Amorites in the north, who had

assembled round Jabin, King of Hazor, met with no better success; they

were defeated at the waters of Merom, Hazor was burnt, and Galilee

delivered to fire and sword.**

* Josh. x. The same war is given rather differently in

Judges i. 1-9, where the king is called Adoni-bezek.

** Josh. xi. As another Jabin appears in the history of

Deborah, it has

[Illustration: 264.jpg THE JORDAN IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF JERICHO]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet.

The country having been thus to a certain extent cleared, Joshua set

about dividing the spoil, and assigned to each tribe his allotted

portion of territory.* Such, in its main outlines, is the account given

by the Hebrew chroniclers; but, if closely examined, it would appear

that the Israelites did not act throughout with that unity of purpose

and energy which they [the Hebrew chroniclers] were pleased to imagine.

They did not gain possession of the land all at once, but established

themselves in it gradually by detachments, some settling at the fords

of Jericho,** others more to the north, and in the central valley of the

Jordan as far up as She-chem.***

* The lot given to each tribe is described in Josh, xiii.-

xxi. It has been maintained by some critics that there is a

double rôle assigned to one and the same person, only that

some maintain that the Jabin of Josh. xi. has been

transferred to the time of the Judges, while others make out

that the Jabin of Deborah was carried back to the time of

the conquest.

** Renan thinks that the principal crossing must have taken

place opposite Jericho, as is apparent from the account in

Josh, ii., iii.

*** Carl Niebuhr believes that he has discovered the exact

spot at the ford of Admah, near Succoth.

[Illustration: 265.jpg ONE OF THE WELLS OF BEERSHEBA]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet.

The latter at once came into contact with a population having a

higher civilization than themselves, and well equipped for a vigorous

resistance; the walled towns which had defied the veterans of the

Pharaohs had not much to fear from the bands of undisciplined Israelites

wandering in their neighbourhood. Properly speaking, there were no

pitched battles between them, but rather a succession of raids or

skirmishes, in which several citadels would successively fall into the

hands of the invaders. Many of these strongholds, harassed by repeated

attacks, would prefer to come to terms with the enemy, and would cede or

sell them some portion of their territory; others would open their gates

freely to the strangers, and their inhabitants would ally themselves by

intermarriage with the Hebrews. Judah and the remaining descendants of

Simeon and Levi established themselves in the south; Levi comprised but

a small number of families, and made no important settlements; whereas

Judah took possession of nearly the whole of the mountain district

separating the Shephelah from the western shores of the Dead Sea, while

Simeon made its abode close by on the borders of the desert around the

wells of Beersheba.*

* Wellhausen has remarked that the lot of Levi must not be

separated from that of Simeon, and, as the remnant of Simeon

allied themselves with Judah, that of Levi also must have

shared the patrimony of Judah.

The descendants of Rachel and her handmaid received as their inheritance

the regions situated more to the centre of the country, the house of

Joseph taking the best domains for its branches of Ephraim and Manasseh.

Ephraim received some of the old Canaanite sanctuaries, such as Ramah,

Bethel, and Shiloh, and it was at the latter spot that they deposited

the ark of the covenant. Manasseh settled to the north of Ephraim, in

the hills and valleys of the Carmel group, and to Benjamin were assigned

the heights which overlook the plain of Jericho. Four of the less

important tribes, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulon, ventured

as far north as the borders of Tyre and Sidon, behind the Phoenician

littoral, but were prevented by the Canaanites and Amorites from

spreading over the plain, and had to confine themselves to the

mountains. All the fortresses commanding the passes of Tabor and

Carmel, Megiddo, Taanach, Ibleam, Jezreel, Endor, and Bethshan remained

inviolate, and formed as it were an impassable barrier-line between the

Hebrews of Galilee and their brethren of Ephraim. The Danites were long

before they found a resting-place; they attempted to insert themselves

to the north of Judah, between Ajalon and Joppa, but were so harassed

by the Amorites, that they had to content themselves with the precarious

tenure of a few towns such as Zora, Shaalbîn, and Eshdol. The foreign

peoples of the Shephelah and the Canaanite cities almost all preserved

their autonomy; the Israelites had no chance against them wherever they

had sufficient space to put into the field large bodies of infantry or

to use their iron-bound chariots. Finding it therefore impossible to

overcome them, the tribes were forced to remain cut off from each other

in three isolated groups of unequal extent which they were powerless

to connect: in the centre were Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan; in the south,

Judah, Levi, and Simeon; while Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulon

lay to the north.

The period following the occupation of Canaan constituted the heroic age

of the Hebrews. The sacred writings agree in showing that the ties which

bound the twelve tribes together were speedily dissolved, while their

fidelity and obedience to God were relaxed with the growth of the young

generations to whom Moses or Joshua were merely names. The conquerors

“dwelt among the Canaanites: the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the

Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite: and they took their

daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons,

and served their gods. And the children of Israel did that which was

evil in the sight of the Lord their God, and served the Baalim and the

Asheroth.” *

[Illustration: 268.jpg MAP OF PALESTINE IN TIME OF THE JUDGES]

When they had once abandoned their ancient faith, political unity was

not long preserved. War broke out between one tribe and another; the

stronger allowed the weaker to be oppressed by the heathen, and were

themselves often powerless to retain their independence. In spite of the

thousands of men among them, all able to bear arms, they fell an easy

prey to the first comer; the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and

the Philistines, all oppressed them in turn, and repaid with usury the

ills which Joshua had inflicted on the Canaanites. “Whithersoever they

went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord

had spoken, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were sore

distressed. And the Lord raised up judges, which saved them out of the

hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they hearkened not unto their

judges, for they went a-whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves

down unto them: they turned aside quickly out of the way wherein their

fathers walked obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not

so. And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the

judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of

the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groaning by reason

of them that oppressed them and vexed them. But it came to pass, when

the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than

their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down

unto them; they ceased not from their doings, nor from their stubborn

way.” * The history of this period lacks the unity and precision with

which we are at first tempted to credit it.

* Judges ii. 15-19.

The Israelites, when transplanted into the promised land, did not

immediately lose the nomadic habits they had acquired in the desert.

They retained the customs and prejudices they had inherited from their

fathers, and for many years treated the peasantry, whose fields they

had devastated, with the same disdain that the Bedawin of our own day,

living in the saddle, lance in hand, shows towards the fellahîn who till

the soil and bend patiently over the plough. The clans, as of old,

were impatient of all regular authority; each tribe tended towards an

isolated autonomy, a state of affairs which merited reprisals from the

natives and encouraged hatred of the intruders, and it was only when

the Canaanite oppression became unendurable that those who suffered most

from it united themselves to make a common effort, and rallied for

a moment round the chief who was ready to lead them. Many of these

liberators must have acquired an ephemeral popularity, and then have

sunk into oblivion together with the two or three generations who had

known them; those whose memory remained green among their kinsmen were

known by posterity as the judges of Israel.*

* The word “judges,” which has been adopted to designate

these rulers, is somewhat misleading, as it suggests the

idea of an organized civil magistracy. The word “shophet,”

the same that we meet with in classical times under the form

_suffetes_, had indeed that sense, but its primary meaning

denotes a man invested with an absolute authority, regular

or otherwise; it would be better translated _chief, prince,

captain_.

These judges were not magistrates invested with official powers and

approved by the whole nation, or rulers of a highly organised republic,

chosen directly by God or by those inspired by Him. They were merely

local chiefs, heroes to their own immediate tribe, well known in their

particular surroundings, but often despised by those only at a short

distance from them. Some of them have left only a name behind them, such

as Shamgar, Ibzan, Tola, Elon, and Abdon; indeed, some scholars have

thrown doubts on the personality of a few of them, as, for instance,

Jair, whom they affirm to have personified a Gileadite clan, and

Othnîel, who is said to represent one of the Kenite families associated

with the children of Israel.* Others, again, have come down to us

through an atmosphere of popular tradition, the elements of which modern

criticism has tried in vain to analyse. Of such unsettled and turbulent

times we cannot expect an uninterrupted history:** some salient episodes

alone remain, spread over a period of nearly two centuries, and from

these we can gather some idea of the progress made by the Israelites,

and observe their stages of transition from a cluster of semi-barbarous

hordes to a settled nation ripe for monarchy.

* The name Tola occurs as that of one of the clans of

Issachar (Gen. xlvi. 13; Numb. xxvi. 23); Elon was one of

the clans of Zebulon (Gen. xlvi. 14; Numb. xxvi. 26)

** Renan, however, believes that the judges “formed an

almost continuous line, and that there merely lacks a

descent from father to son to make of them an actual

dynasty.” The chronology of the _Book of Judges_ appears to

cover more than four centuries, from Othnîel to Samson, but

this computation cannot be relied on, as “forty

years” represents an indefinite space of time. We must

probably limit this early period of Hebrew history to about

a century and a half, from cir. 1200 to 1050 B.C.

The first of these episodes deals merely with a part, and that the least

important, of the tribes settled in Central Canaan.* The destruction of

the Amorite kingdoms of Heshbon and Bashan had been as profitable to

the kinsmen of the Israelites, Ammon and Moab, as it had been to the

Israelites themselves.

* The episode of Othnîel and Cushan-rishathaim, placed at

the beginning of the history of this period (Judges iii. 8-

11), is, by general consent, regarded as resting on a

worthless tradition.

The Moabites had followed in the wake of the Hebrews through all the

surrounding regions of the Dead Sea; they had pushed on from the banks

of the Arnon to those of the Jabbok, and at the time of the Judges were

no longer content with harassing merely Reuben and Gad.

[Illustration: 272.jpg MOABITE WARRIOR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the original in the Louvre.

They were a fine race of warlike, well-armed Beda-wins. Jericho had

fallen into their hands, and their King Eglon had successfully scoured

the entire hill-country of Ephraim,* so that those who wished to escape

being pillaged had to safeguard themselves by the payment of an annual

tribute.

* The text seems to infer (Judges iii. 13-15) that, after

having taken the Oily of Palm Trees, i.e. Jericho (Deut.

xxxiv. 3; 2 Ghron. xxviii. 15), Eglon had made it his

residence, which makes the story incomprehensible from a

geographical point of view. But all difficulties would

disappear if we agreed to admit that in ver. 15 the name of

the capital of Eglon has dropped out.

Ehud the Left-handed concealed under his garments a keen dagger, and

joined himself to the Benjamite deputies who were to carry their dues to

the Moabite sovereign. The money having been paid, the deputies turned

homewards, but when they reached the cromlech of Gilgal,* and were safe

beyond the reach of the enemy, Ehud retraced his steps, and presenting

himself before the palace of Eglon in the attitude of a prophet,

announced that he had a secret errand to the king, who thereupon

commanded silence, and ordered his servants to leave him with the divine

messenger in his summer parlour.

* The cromlech at Gilgal was composed of twelve stones,

which, we are told, were erected by Joshua as a remembrance

of the crossing of the Jordan (Josh. iv. 19-24).

“And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of

his seat. And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his

right thigh, and thrust it into his belly: and the haft also went in

after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, for he drew not the

sword out of his belly; and it came out behind.” Then Ehud locked the

doors and escaped. “Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and

they saw, and, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked; and they

said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.” But by the

time they had forced an entrance, Ehud had reached Gilgal and was in

safety. He at once assembled the clans of Benjamin, occupied the fords

of the Jordan, massacred the bands of Moabites scattered over the plain

of Jericho, and blocked the routes by which the invaders attempted to

reach the hill-country of Ephraim. Almost at the same time the tribes

in Galilee had a narrow escape from a still more formidable enemy.* They

had for some time been under the Amorite yoke, and the sacred writings

represent them at this juncture as oppressed either by Sisera of

Harosheth-ha-Goyîm or by a second Jabin, who was able to bring nine

hundred chariots of iron into the field.** At length the prophetess

Deborah of Issachar sent to Barak of Kadesh a command to assemble his

people, together with those of Zebulon, in the name of the Lord;*** she

herself led the contingents of Issachar, Ephraim, and Machir to meet him

at the foot of Tabor, where the united host is stated to have comprised

forty thousand men. Sisera,**** who commanded the Canaanite force,

attacked the Israelite army between Taanach and Megiddo in that plain

of Kishon which had often served as a battle-field during the Egyptian

campaigns.

* The text tells us that, after the time of Ehud, the land

had rest eighty years (Judges iii. 30). This, again, is one

of those numbers which represent an indefinite space of

time.

** It has been maintained that two versions are here blended

together in the text, one in which the principal part is

played by Sisera, the other in which it is attributed to

Jabin. The episode of Deborah and Barak (Judges iv., v.)

comprises a narrative in prose (chap, iv.), and the song

(chap, v.) attributed to Deborah. The prose account probably

is derived from the song. The differences in the two

accounts may be explained as having arisen partly from an

imperfect understanding of the poetic text, and partly from

one having come down from some other source.

*** Some critics suppose that the prose narrative (Judges

iv. 5) has confounded the prophetess Deborah, wife of

Lapidoth, with Deborah, nurse of Rachel, who was buried near

Bethel, under the “Oak of Weeping” (Gen. xxxv. 8), and

consequently place it between Rama and Bethel, in the hill-

country of Ephraim.

**** In the prose narrative (Judges iv. 2-7) Sisera is

stated to have been the general of Jabin: there is nothing

incompatible in this statement with the royal dignity

elsewhere attributed to Sisera. Harosheth-ha-Goyîm has been

identified with the present village of El-Haretîyeh, on the

right bank of the Kishon.

It would appear that heavy rains had swelled the streams, and thus

prevented the chariots from rendering their expected service in the

engagement; at all events, the Amorites were routed, and Sisera escaped

with the survivors towards Hazor.

[Illustration: 275.jpg TELL]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Lortet.

The people of Meroz facilitated his retreat, but a Kenite named Jael,

the wife of Heber, traitorously killed him with a blow from a hammer

while he was in the act of drinking.*

* Meroz is the present Marus, between the Lake of Huleh and

Safed. I have followed the account given in the song (Judges

v. 24-27). According to the prose version (iv. 17-22), Jael

slew Sisera while he was asleep with a tent-pin, which she

drove into his temple. [The text of Judges v. 24-27 does not

seem to warrant the view that he was slain “in the act of

drinking,” nor does it seem to conflict with Judges iv. 11.-

-Tr.]

This exploit was commemorated in a song, the composition of which is

attributed to Deborah and Barak: “For that the leaders took the lead in

Israel, for that the people offered themselves willingly, bless ye the

Lord. Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing

unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.” * The

poet then dwells on the sufferings of the people, but tells how Deborah

and Barak were raised up, and enumerates the tribes who took part in

the conflict as well as those who turned a deaf ear to the appeal. “Then

came down a remnant of the nobles and the people.... Out of Ephraim

came down they whose root is in Amalek:--out of Machir came down

governors,--and out of Zebulon they that handle the marshal’s

staff.--And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah--as was Issachar

so was Barak,--into the valley they rushed forth at his feet.**--By the

watercourses of Reuben--there were great resolves of heart.--Why satest

thou among the sheepfolds,--to hear the pipings for the flocks?--At

the watercourses of Reuben--there were great searchings of heart--Gilead

abode beyond Jordan:--and Dan, why did he remain in ships?--Asher sat

still at the haven of the sea--and abode by his creeks.--Zebulon was a

people that jeoparded their lives unto the death,--and Naphtali upon the

high places of the field.--The kings came and fought;--then fought the

kings of Canaan.--In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo:--they took no

gain of money.--They fought from heaven,--the stars in their courses

fought against Sisera.--The river of Kishon swept them away,--that

ancient river, the river Kishon.--O my soul, march on with

strength.--Then did the horsehoofs stamp--by reason of the pransings,

the pransings of their strong ones.”

* Judges v. 2, 3 (R.V.).

** The text of the song (Judges v. 14) contains an allusion

to Benjamin, which is considered by many critics to be an

interpolation. It gives a mistaken reading, “_Issachar_ with

Barak;” Issachar having been already mentioned with Deborah,

probably Zébulon should be inserted in the text.

Sisera flies, and the poet follows him in fancy, as if he feared to see

him escape from vengeance. He curses the people of Meroz in passing,

“because they came not to the help of the Lord.” He addresses Jael and

blesses her, describing the manner in which the chief fell at her feet,

and then proceeds to show how, at the very time of Sisera’s death, his

people were awaiting the messenger who should bring the news of his

victory; “through the window she looked forth and cried--the mother

of Sisera cried through the lattice--‘Why is his chariot so long in

coming?--Why tarry the wheels of his chariot?’--Her wise ladies answered

her,--yea, she returned answer to herself,--‘Have they not found, have

they not divided the spoil?--A damsel, two damsels to every man;--to

Sisera a spoil of divers colours,--a spoil of divers colours of

embroidery on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?--So let all Thine

enemies perish, O Lord:--but let them that love Him be as the sun when

he goeth forth in his might.’”

It was the first time, as far as we know, that several of the Israelite

tribes combined together for common action after their sojourn in the

desert of Kadesh-barnea, and the success which followed from their

united efforts ought, one would think, to have encouraged them to

maintain such a union, but it fell out otherwise; the desire for freedom

of action and independence was too strong among them to permit of the

continuance of the coalition.

[Illustration: 278.jpg MOUNT TABOR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by M. C. Alluaud

of Limoges.

Manasseh, restricted in its development by the neighbouring Canaanite

tribes, was forced to seek a more congenial neighbourhood to the east of

the Jordan--not close to Gad, in the land of Gilead, but to the north

of the Yarmuk and its northern affluents in the vast region extending

to the mountains of the Haurân. The families of Machir and Jair migrated

one after the other to the east of the Lake of Gennesaret, while that

of Nobah proceeded as far as the brook of Kanah, and thus formed in this

direction the extreme outpost of the children of Israel: these families

did not form themselves into new tribes, for they were mindful of

their affiliation to Manasseh, and continued beyond the river to

regard themselves still as his children.* The prosperity of Ephraim and

Manasseh, and the daring nature of their exploits, could not fail

to draw upon them the antagonism and jealousy of the people on their

borders. The Midianites were accustomed almost every year to pass

through the region beyond the Jordan which the house of Joseph had

recently colonised. Assembling in the springtime at the junction of the

Yarmuk with the Jordan, they crossed the latter river, and, spreading

over the plains of Mount Tabor, destroyed the growing crops, raided the

villages, and pushed, sometimes, their skirmishing parties over hill and

dale as far as Gaza.**

* Manasseh was said to have been established beyond the

Jordan at the time that Gad and Reuben were in possession of

the land of Gilead (Numb, xxxii. 33, 39-42, xxxiv. 14, 15;

Dent. iii. 13-15; Josh. xiii. 8, 29-32, xxii.). Earlier

traditions placed this event in the period which followed

the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. It is not certain that all

the families which constituted the half-tribe of Manasseh

took their origin from Manasseh: one of them, for example,

that of Jair, was regarded as having originated partly from

Judah (1 Chron. ii. 21-24).

** Judges vi. 2-6. The inference that they dare not beat

wheat in the open follows from ver. 11, where it is said

that “Gideon was beating out wheat in his winepress to hide

it from the Midianites.”

A perpetual terror reigned wherever they were accustomed to pass*: no

one dared beat out wheat or barley in the open air, or lead his herds to

pasture far from his home, except under dire necessity; and even on such

occasions the inhabitants would, on the slightest alarm, abandon their

possessions to take refuge in caves or in strongholds on the mountains.1

During one of these incursions two of their sheikhs encountered some

men of noble mien in the vicinity of Tabor, and massacred them without

compunction.** The latter were people of Ophrah,*** brethren of a

certain Jerubbaal (Gideon) who was head of the powerful family of

Abiezer.****

* The history of the Midianite oppression (Judges vi.-viii.)

seems to be from two different sources; the second (Judges

viii. 4-21), which is also the shortest, is considered by

some to represent the more ancient tradition. The double

name of the hero, Gideon-Jerubbaal, has led some to assign

its elements respectively to Gideon, judge of the western

portion of Manasseh, and Jerubbaal, judge of the eastern

Manasseh, and to the consequent fusion of the two men in

one.

** This is an assumption which follows reasonably from

Judges viii. 18, 19.

*** The site of the Ophrah of Abiezer is not known for

certain, but it would seem from the narrative that it was in

the neighbourhood of Shechem.

**** The position of Gideon-Jerubbaal as head of the house

of Abiezer follows clearly from the narrative; if he is

represented in the first part of the account as a man of

humble origin (Judges vi. 15, 16), it was to exalt the power

of Jahveh, who was accustomed to choose His instruments from

amongst the lowly. The name Jerubbaal (1 Sam. xii. 11:2 Sam.

xi. 21, where the name is transformed into Jerubbesheth, as

Ishbaal and Meribbaal are into Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth

respectively), in which “Baal” seems to some not to

represent the Canaanite God, but the title Lord as applied

to Jahveh, was supposed to mean “Baal fights against him,”

and was, therefore, offensive to the orthodox. Kuenen

thought it meant “Lord, fight for him!” Renan read it

Yarebaal, from the Vulgate form Jerobaal, and translated “He

who fears Baal.” Gideon signifies “He who overthrows” in the

battle.

Assembling all his people at the call of the trumpet, Jerubbaal chose

from among them three hundred of the strongest, with whom he came

down unexpectedly upon the raiders, put them to flight in the plain of

Jezreel, and followed them beyond the Jordan. Having crossed the river,

“faint and yet pursuing,” he approached the men of Succoth, and asked

them for bread for himself and his three hundred followers. Their fear

of the marauders, however, was so great that the people refused to give

him any help, and he had no better success with the people of Penuel

whom he encountered a little further on. He did not stop to compel them

to accede to his wishes, but swore to inflict an exemplary punishment

upon them on his return. The Midianites continued their retreat, in the

mean time, “by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of

Nobah and Jogbehah,” but Jerubbaal came up with them near Karkâr, and

discomfited the host. He took vengeance upon the two peoples who had

refused to give him bread, and having thus fulfilled his vow, he began

to question his prisoners, the two chiefs: “What manner of men were they

whom ye slew at Tabor?” “As thou art, so were they; each one resembled

the children of a king.” “And he said, They were my brethren, the sons

of my mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would

not slay you. And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them.

But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a

youth.” True Bedawins as they were, the chiefs’ pride revolted at the

idea of their being handed over for execution to a child, and they cried

to Jerubbaal: “Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is

his strength.” From this victory rose the first monarchy among the

Israelites. The Midianites, owing to their marauding habits and the

amount of tribute which they were accustomed to secure for escorting

caravans, were possessed of a considerable quantity of gold, which they

lavished on the decoration of their persons: their chiefs were clad in

purple mantles, their warriors were loaded with necklaces, bracelets,

rings, and ear-rings, and their camels also were not behind their

masters in the brilliance of their caparison. The booty which Gideon

secured was, therefore, considerable, and, as we learn from the

narrative, excited the envy of the Ephraimites, who said: “Why hast thou

served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight

with Midian?” *

* Judges viii. 1-3.

The spoil from the golden ear-rings alone amounted to one thousand seven

hundred shekels, as we learn from the narrative, and this treasure in

the hands of Jerubbaal was not left unemployed, but was made, doubtless,

to contribute something to the prestige he had already acquired: the

men of Israel, whom he had just saved from their foes, expressed their

gratitude by offering the crown to him and his successors. The mode of

life of the Hebrews had been much changed after they had taken up their

abode in the mountains of Canaan. The tent had given place to the house,

and, like their Canaanite neighbours, they had given themselves up

to agricultural pursuits. This change of habits, in bringing about

a greater abundance of the necessaries of life than they had been

accustomed to, had begotten aspirations which threw into relief the

inadequacy of the social organisation, and of the form of government

with which they had previously been content. In the case of a horde

of nomads, defeat or exile would be of little moment. Should they be

obliged by a turn in their affairs to leave their usual haunts, a few

days or often a few hours would suffice to enable them to collect

their effects together, and set out without trouble, and almost

without regret, in search of a new and more favoured home. But with

a cultivator of the ground the case would be different: the farm,

clearings, and homestead upon which he had spent such arduous and

continued labour; the olive trees and vines which had supplied him

with oil and wine--everything, in fact, upon which he depended for a

livelihood, or which was dependent upon him, would bind him to the soil,

and expose his property to disasters likely to be as keenly felt as

wounds inflicted on his person. He would feel the need, therefore,

of laws to secure to him in time of peace the quiet possession of his

wealth, of an army to protect it in time of war, and of a ruler to

cause, on the one hand, the laws to be respected, and to become the

leader, on the other, of the military forces. Jerubbaal is said to have,

in the first instance, refused the crown, but everything goes to prove

that he afterwards virtually accepted it. He became, it is true, only

a petty king, whose sovereignty was limited to Manasseh, a part of

Ephraim, and a few towns, such as Succoth and Penuel, beyond the Jordan.

The Canaanite city of Shechem also paid him homage. Like all great

chiefs, he had also numerous wives, and he recognised as the national

Deity the God to whom he owed his victories.

Out of the spoil taken from the Midianites he formed and set up at

Ophrah an ephod, which became, as we learn, “a snare unto him and unto

his house,” but he had also erected under a terebinth tree a stone altar

to Jahveh-Shalom (“Jehovah is peace”).* This sanctuary, with its altar

and ephod, soon acquired great celebrity, and centuries after its

foundation it was the object of many pilgrimages from a distance.

Jerubbaal was the father by his Israelite wives of seventy children,

and, by a Canaanite woman whom he had taken as a concubine at Shechem,

of one son, called Abimelech.**

* The _Book of Judges_ separates the altar from the ephod,

placing the erection of the former at the time of the

vocation of Gideon (vi. 11-31) and that of the ephod after

the victory (viii. 24-27). The sanctuary of Ophrah was

possibly in existence before the time of Jerubbaal, and the

sanctity of the place may have determined his selection of

the spot for placing the altar and ephod there.

** Judges viii. 30, 31.

The succession to the throne would naturally have fallen to one of the

seventy, but before this could be arranged, Abimelech “went to Shechem

unto his mother’s brethren, and spake with them, and with all the family

of the house of his mother’s father, saying, Speak, I pray you, in the

ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the

sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, rule over you,

or that one rule over you? remember also that I am your bone and your

flesh.” This advice was well received; it flattered the vanity of the

people to think that the new king was to be one of themselves; “their

hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.

And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house

of Baal-berith (the Lord of the Covenant), wherewith Abimelech hired

vain and light fellows, which followed him.... He slew his brethren the

sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone.”

The massacre having been effected, “all the men of Shechem assembled

themselves together, and all the house of Millo,* and made Abimelech

king, by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem.” ** He dwelt at

Ophrah, in the residence, and near the sanctuary, of his father, and

from thence governed the territories constituting the little kingdom

of Manasseh, levying tribute upon the vassal villages, and exacting

probably tolls from caravans passing through his domain.

* The word “Millo” is a generic term, meaning citadel or

stronghold of the city: there was a Millo in every important

town, Jerusalem included.

** The “oak of the pillar” was a sacred tree overshadowing

probably a _cippus_: it may have been the tree mentioned in

Gen. xxxv. 4, under which Jacob buried the strange gods; or

that referred to in Josh. xxiv. 26, under which Joshua set

up a stone commemorative of the establishment of the law.

Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, escaped the massacre. As

soon as he heard of the election of Abimelech, he ascended

Mount Gerizim, and gave out from there the fable of the

trees, applying it to the circumstances of the time, and

then fled. Some critics think that this fable--which is

confessedly old--was inserted in the text at a time when

prophetical ideas prevailed and monarchy was not yet

accepted.

This condition of things lasted for three years, and then the

Shechemites, who had shown themselves so pleased at the idea of having

“one of their brethren” as sovereign, found it irksome to pay the taxes

levied upon them by him, as if they were in no way related to him. The

presence among them of a certain Zebul, the officer and representative

of Abimelech, restrained them at first from breaking out into rebellion,

but they returned soon to their ancient predatory ways, and demanded

ransom for the travellers they might capture even when the latter were

in possession of the king’s safe conduct. This was not only an insult to

their lord, but a serious blow to his treasury: the merchants who found

themselves no longer protected by his guarantee employed elsewhere the

sums which would have come into his hands. The king concealed his anger,

however; he was not inclined to adopt premature measures, for the place

was a strong one, and defeat would seriously weaken his prestige. The

people of Shechem, on their part, did not risk an open rupture for fear

of the consequences. Gaal, son of Ebed,* a soldier of fortune and of

Israelitish blood, arrived upon the scene, attended by his followers: he

managed to gain the confidence of the people of Shechem, who celebrated

under his protection the feast of the Vintage.

* The name Ebed (“slave,” “servant”) is assumed to have been

substituted in the Massorotic text for the original name

Jobaal, because of the element Baal in the latter word,

which was regarded as that of the strange god, and would

thus have the sacrilegious meaning “Jahveh is Baal.” The term

of contempt, Ebed, was, according to this view, thus used to

replace it.

On this occasion their merrymaking was disturbed by the presence among

them of the officer charged with collecting the tithes, and Gaal did not

lose the opportunity of stimulating their ire by his ironical speeches:

“Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is

not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve ye the men of

Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him? And would to

God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And

he said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.” Zebul promptly

gave information of this to his master, and invited him to come by night

and lie in ambush in the vicinity of the town, “that in the morning,

as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and set upon the city:

and, behold, when he and the people that is with him come out against

thee, thou mayest do to them as thou shalt find occasion.” It turned out

as he foresaw; the inhabitants of Shechem went out in order to take part

in the gathering in of the vintage, while Gaal posted his men at the

entering in of the gate of the city. As he looked towards the hills he

thought he saw an unusual movement among the trees, and, turning round,

said to Zebul, who was close by, “Behold, there come people down from

the tops of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the

shadow of the mountains as if they were men.” A moment after he looked

in another direction, “and spake again and said, See, there come people

down by the middle of the land, and one company cometh by the way of

the terebinth of the augurs.” Zebul, seeing the affair turn out so well,

threw off the mask, and replied railingly, “Where is now thy mouth,

wherewith thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is

not this the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray, now, and

fight with him.” The King of Manasseh had no difficulty in defeating

his adversary, but arresting the pursuit at the gates of the city, he

withdrew to the neighbouring village of Arumah.*

* This is now el-Ormeh, i.e.Kharbet el-Eurmah, to the south-

west of Nablus.

He trusted that the inhabitants, who had taken no part in the affair,

would believe that his wrath had been appeased by the defeat of Gaal;

and so, in fact, it turned out: they dismissed their unfortunate

champion, and on the morrow returned to their labours as if nothing had

occurred.

[Illustration: 288.jpg MOUNT GERIZIM, WITH A VIEW OF NABLUS]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph reproduced by the Duc de

Luynes.

Abimelech had arranged his Abiezerites in three divisions: one of

which made for the gates, while the other two fell upon the scattered

labourers in the vineyards. Abimelech then fought against the city and

took it, but the chief citizens had taken refuge in “the hold of the

house of El-berith.” “Abimelech gat him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all

the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand,

and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his

shoulder: and he said unto the people that were with him, What ye

have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. And all the people

likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put

them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the

men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.”

[Illustration: 289.jpg THE TOWN OF ASCALON]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Ramesseum.

This is a portion of the picture representing the capture of

Ascalon by Ramses II.

This summary vengeance did not, however, prevent other rebellions.

Thebez imitated Shechem, and came nigh suffering the same penalty.* The

king besieged the city and took it, and was about to burn with fire the

tower in which all the people of the city had taken refuge, when a woman

threw a millstone down upon his head “and brake his skull.”

* Thebez, now Tubas, the north-east of Nablus.

The narrative tells us that, feeling himself mortally wounded, he called

his armour-bearer to him, and said, “Draw thy sword, and kill me, that

men say not of me, A woman slew him.” His monarchy ceased with him, and

the ancient chronicler recognises in the catastrophe a just punishment

for the atrocious crime he had committed in slaying his half-brothers,

the seventy children of Jerubbaal.* His fall may be regarded also as

the natural issue of his peculiar position: the resources upon which he

relied were inadequate to secure to him a supremacy in Israel. Manasseh,

now deprived of a chief, and given up to internal dissensions, became

still further enfeebled, and an easy prey to its rivals. The divine

writings record in several places the success attained by the central

tribes in their conflict with their enemies. They describe how a certain

Jephthah distinguished himself in freeing Gilead from the Ammonites.**

* Judges ix. 23, 24. “And God sent an evil spirit between

Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem

dealt treacherously with Abimelech: that the violence done

to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and

that their blood might be laid upon Abimelech their brother,

which slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, which

strengthened his hands to slay his brethren.”

** The story of Jephthah is contained in chaps, xi., xii. 1-

7, of the _Book of Judges_. The passage (xi. 12-29) is

regarded by some, owing to its faint echo of certain

portions of Numb, xx., xxi., to be an interpolation.

Jephthah is said to have had Gilead for his father and a

harlot for his mother. Various views have been put forward

as to the account of his victories over the Midianites, some

seeing in it, as well as in the origin of the four

days’feast in honour of Jephthah’s daughter, insertions of a

later date.

But his triumph led to the loss of his daughter, whom he sacrificed in

order to fulfil a vow he had made to Jahveh before the battle.* These

were, however, comparatively unimportant episodes in the general history

of the Hebrew race. Bedawins from the East, sheikhs of the Midianites,

Moabites, and Ammonites--all these marauding peoples of the frontier

whose incursions are put on record--gave them continual trouble, and

rendered their existence so miserable that they were unable to develop

their institutions and attain the permanent freedom after which they

aimed. But their real dangers--the risk of perishing altogether, or of

falling back into a condition of servitude--did not arise from any of

these quarters, but from the Philistines.

* There are two views as to the nature of the sacrifice of

Jephthah’s daughter. Some think she was vowed to perpetual

virginity, while others consider that she was actually

sacrificed.

By a decree of Pharaoh, a new country had been assigned to the remnants

of each of the maritime peoples: the towns nearest to Egypt, lying

between Raphia and Joppa, were given over to the Philistines, and the

forest region and the coast to the north of the Philistines, as far as

the Phoenician stations of Dor and Carmel,* were appropriated to the

Zakkala. The latter was a military colony, and was chiefly distributed

among the five fortresses which commanded the Shephelah.

* We are indebted to the _Papyrus Golenischeff_ for the

mention of the position of the Zakkala at the beginning of

the XXIst dynasty.

[Illustration: 292.jpg A ZAKKALA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a “squeeze.”

Gaza and Ashdod were separated from the Mediterranean by a line of

sand-dunes, and had nothing in the nature of a sheltered port--nothing,

in fact, but a “maiuma,” or open roadstead, with a few dwellings and

storehouses arranged along the beach on which their boats were drawn

up. Ascalon was built on the sea, and its harbour, although well enough

suited for the small craft of the ancients, could not have been entered

by the most insignificant of our modern ships. The Philistines had here

their naval arsenal, where their fleets were fitted out for scouring

the Egyptian waters as a marine police, or for piratical expeditions

on their own account, when the occasion served, along the coasts of

Phoenicia. Ekron and Gath kept watch over the eastern side of the plain

at the points where it was most exposed to the attacks of the people

of the hills--the Canaanites in the first instance, and afterwards

the Hebrews. These foreign warriors soon changed their mode of life in

contact with the indigenous inhabitants; daily intercourse, followed up

by marriages with the daughters of the land, led to the substitution of

the language, manners, and religion of the environing race for those of

their mother country. The Zakkala, who were not numerous, it is true,

lost everything, even to their name, and it was all that the Philistines

could do to preserve their own. At the end of one or two generations,

the “colts” of Palestine could only speak the Canaanite tongue, in which

a few words of the old Hellenic _patois_ still continued to survive.

Their gods were henceforward those of the towns in which they resided,

such as Marna and Dagon and Gaza,* Dagon at Ashdod,** Baalzebub at

Ekron,*** and Derketô in Ascalon;**** and their mode of worship, with

its mingled bloody and obscene rites, followed that of the country.

* Marna, “our lord,” is mentioned alongside Baalzephon in a

list of strange gods worshipped at Memphis in the XIXth

dynasty. The worship of Dagon at Gaza is mentioned in the

story of Samson (Judges xvi. 21-30).

** The temple and statue of Dagon are mentioned in the

account of the events following the taking of the ark in 1

Sam. v. 1-7. It is, perhaps, to him that 1 Chron. x. 10

refers, in relating how the Philistines hung up Saul’s arms

in the house of their gods, although 1 Sam. xxxi. 10 calls

the place the “house of the Ashtoreth.”

*** Baalzebub was the god of Ekron (2 Kings i. 2-6), and his

name was doubtfully translated “Lord of Flies.” The

discovery of the name of the town Zebub on the Tell el-

Amarna tablets shows that it means the “Baal of Zebub.”

Zebub was situated in the Philistine plains, not far from

Ekron. Halévy thinks it may have been a suburb of that town.

**** The worship of Derketô or Atergatis at Ascalon is

witnessed to by the classical writers.

[Illustration: 294.jpg A PROCESSION OF PHILISTINE CAPTIVES AT

MEDINET-HABU]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger.

Two things belonging to their past history they still retained--a clear

remembrance of their far-off origin, and that warlike temperament which

had enabled them to fight their way through many obstacles from the

shores of the Ægean to the frontiers of Egypt. They could recall

their island of Caphtor,* and their neighbours in their new home were

accustomed to bestow upon them the designation of Cretans, of which they

themselves were not a little proud.**

* Jer. xlvii. 4 calls them “the remnant of the isle of

Caphtor;” Amos (ix. 7) knew that the Lord had brought “the

Philistines from Caphtor;” and in Dent. ii. 23 it is related

how “the Caphtorim which came forth out of Caphtor destroyed

the Avvim, which dwelt in villages as far as Gaza, and dwelt

in their stead.” Classical tradition falls in with the sacred

record, and ascribes a Cretan origin to the Philistines; it

is suggested, therefore, that in Gen. x. 14 the names

Casluhim and Caphtorim should be transposed, to bring the

verse into harmony with history and other parts of

Scripture.

** In an episode in the life of David (1 Sam. xxx. 14),

there is mention of the “south of the Cherethites,” which

some have made to mean Cretans--that is to say, the region

to the south of the Philistines, alongside the territory of

Judah, and to the “south of Caleb.” Ezelc. xx. 16 also

mentions in juxtaposition with the Philistines the

Cherethites, and “the remnant of the sea-coast,” as objects

of God’s vengeance for the many evils they had inflicted on

Israel. By the Cherethims here, and the Cherethites in Zoph.

ii. 5, the Cretans are by some thought to be meant, which

would account for their association with the Philistines.

Gaza enjoyed among them a kind of hegemony, alike on account of its

strategic position and its favourable situation for commerce, but this

supremacy was of very precarious character, and brought with it no

right whatever to meddle in the internal affairs of other members of the

confederacy. Each of the latter had a chief of its own, a Seren,* and

the office of this chief was hereditary in one case at least--Gath, for

instance, where there existed a larger Canaanite element than elsewhere,

and was there identified with that of “melek,” ** or king.

* The _sarnê plishtîm_ figure in the narrative of the last

Philistine campaign against Saul (1 Sam. xxix. 2-4, 7, 9).

Their number, five, is expressly mentioned in 1 Sam. vi. 4,

16-18, as well as the names of the towns over which they

ruled.

** Achish was King of Gath (1 Sam. xxi. 10, 12, xxvii. 2),

and probably Maoch before him.

The five Sarnîm assembled in council to deliberate upon common

interests, and to offer sacrifices in the name of the Pentapolis. These

chiefs were respectively free to make alliances, or to take the field

on their own account, but in matters of common importance they acted

together, and took their places each at the head of his own contingent.*

Their armies were made up of regiments of skilled archers and of

pikemen, to whom were added a body of charioteers made up of the princes

and the nobles of the nation. The armour for all alike was the coat

of scale mail and the helmet of brass; their weapons consisted of the

two-edged battle-axe, the bow, the lance, and a large and heavy sword of

bronze or iron.**

* Achish, for example, King of Gath, makes war alone against

the pillaging tribes, owing to the intervention of David and

his men, without being called to account by the other

princes (1 Sam. xxvii. 2-12, xxviii. 1, 2), but as soon as

an affair of moment is in contemplation--such as the war

against Saul--they demand the dismissal of David, and Achish

is obliged to submit to his colleagues acting together (1

Sam. xxix.).

** Philistine archers are mentioned in the battle of Gilboa

(1 Sam. xxxi. 3) as well as chariots (2 Sam. i. 6). The

horsemen mentioned in the same connexion are regarded by

some critics as an interpolation, because they cannot bring

themselves to think that the Philistines had cavalry corps

in the Xth century B.C. The Philistine arms are described at

length in the duel between David and Goliath (1 Sam. xvii. 5

-7, 38, 39). They are in some respects like those of the

Homeric heroes.

Their war tactics were probably similar to those of the Egyptians, who

were unrivalled in military operations at this period throughout the

whole East. Under able leadership, and in positions favourable for the

operations of their chariots, the Philistines had nothing to fear from

the forces which any of their foes could bring up against them. As to

their maritime history, it is certain that in the earliest period,

at least, of their sojourn in Syria, as well as in that before their

capture by Ramses III., they were successful in sea-fights, but the

memory of only one of their expeditions has come down to us: a squadron

of theirs having sailed forth from Ascalon somewhere towards the end

of the XIIth dynasty,* succeeded in destroying the Sidonian fleet, and

pillaging Sidon itself.

* _Justinus_, xviii. 3, § 5. The memory of this has been

preserved, owing to the disputes about precedence which

raged in the Greek period between the Phoenician towns. The

destruction of Sidon must have allowed Tyre to develop and

take the first place.

[Illustration: 297.jpg A PHILISTINE SHIP OF WAR]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

But however vigorously they may have plied the occupation of Corsairs at

the outset of their career, there was, it would appear, a rapid falling

off in their maritime prowess; it was on land, and as soldiers, that

they displayed their bravery and gained their fame. Their geographical

position, indeed, on the direct and almost only route for caravans

passing between Asia and Africa, must have contributed to their success.

The number of such caravans was considerable, for although Egypt had

ceased to be a conquering nation on account of her feebleness at home,

she was still one of the great centres of production, and the most

important market of the East. A very great part of her trade with

foreign countries was carried on through the mouths of the Nile, and of

this commerce the Phoenicians had made themselves masters; the remainder

followed the land-routes, and passed continually through the territory

of the Philistines. These people were in possession of the tract of land

which lay between the Mediterranean and the beginning of the southern

desert, forming as it were a narrow passage, into which all the roads

leading from the Nile to the Euphrates necessarily converged. The chief

of these routes was that which crossed Mount Carmel, near Megiddo, and

passed up the valleys of the Litâny and the Orontes. This was met

at intervals by other secondary roads, such as that which came from

Damascus by way of Tabor and the plain of Jezreel, or those which,

starting out from the highland of Gilead, led through the fords of the

Lower Jordan to Ekron and Gath respectively. The Philistines charged

themselves, after the example and at the instigation of the Egyptians,

with the maintenance of the great trunk road which was in their hands,

and also with securing safe transit along it, as far as they could

post their troops, for those who confided themselves to their care. In

exchange for these good offices they exacted the same tolls which had

been levied by the Canaanites before them.

In their efforts to put down brigandage, they had been brought into

contact with some of the Hebrew clans after the latter had taken

possession of Canaan. Judah, in its home among the mountains of the

Dead Sea, had become acquainted with the diverse races which were found

there, and consequently there had been frequent intermarriages between

the Hebrews and these peoples. Some critics have argued from this that

the chronicler had this fact in his mind when he assigned a Canaanite

wife, Shuah, to the father of the tribe himself. He relates how Judah,

having separated from his brethren, “turned in to a certain Adullamite,

whose name was Hiram,” and that here he became acquainted with Shuah,

by whom he had three sons. With Tamar, the widow of the eldest of the

latter, he had accidental intercourse, and two children, Perez and

Zerah, the ancestors of numerous families, were born of that union.*

* Gen. xxxviii., where there is a detailed account of

Judah’s unions.

Edomites, Arabs, and Midianites were associated with this semi-Canaanite

stock--for example, Kain, Caleb, Othniel, Kenaz, Shobal, Ephah, and

Jerahmeel, but the Kenites took the first place among them, and played

an important part in the history of the conquest of Canaan. It is

related how one of their subdivisions, of which Caleb was the eponymous

hero, had driven from Hebron the three sons of Anak--Sheshai, Ahiman,

and Talmai--and had then promised his daughter Achsah in marriage to

him who should capture Debir; this turned out to be his youngest brother

Othniel, who captured the city, and at the same time obtained a

wife. Hobab, another Kenite, who is represented to have been the

brother-in-law of Moses, occupied a position to the south of Arad, in

Idumsean territory.* These heterogeneous elements existed alongside each

other for a long time without intermingling; they combined, however, now

and again to act against a common foe, for we know that the people

of Judah aided the tribe of Simeon in the reduction of the city of

Zephath;** but they followed an independent course for the most part,

and their isolation prevented their obtaining, for a lengthened period,

any extension of territory.

* The father-in-law of Moses is called Jethro in Exod. iii.

1, iv. 19, but Raguel in Exod. ii. 18-22. Hobab is the son

of Raguel, Numb. x. 29.

** Judges i. 17, where Zephath is the better reading, and

not Arad, as has been suggested.

They failed, as at first, in their attempts to subjugate the province of

Arad, and in their efforts to capture the fortresses which guarded

the caravan routes between Ashdod and the mouth of the Jordan. It

is related, however, that they overthrew Adoni-bezek, King of the

Jebusites, and that they had dealt with him as he was accustomed to deal

with his prisoners. “And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings,

having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat

under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me.” Although

Adoni-bezek had been overthrown, Jerusalem still remained independent,

as did also Gibeon. Beeroth, Kirjath-Jearim, Ajalon, Gezer, and

the cities of the plain, for the Israelites could not drive out the

inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron, with which

the Hebrew foot-soldiers found it difficult to deal.* This independent

and isolated group was not at first, however, a subject of anxiety

to the masters of the coast, and there is but a bare reference to

the exploits of a certain Shamgar, son of Anath, who “smote of the

Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad.” **

* See Josh. ix. 3-27 for an explanation of how these people

were allowed afterwards to remain in a subordinate capacity

among the children of Israel.

** Judges iii. 31; cf. also Judges v. 6, in which Shamgar is

mentioned in the song of Deborah.

[Illustration: 301.jpg TELL ES-SAFIEH, THE GATH OF THE PHILISTINES]

Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 265 of the _Palestine

Exploration Fund._

These cities had also to reckon with Ephraim, and the tribes which had

thrown in their lot with her. Dan had cast his eyes upon the northern

districts of the Shephelah--which were dependent upon Ekron or Gath--and

also upon the semi-Phoenician port of Joppa; but these tribes did not

succeed in taking possession of those districts, although they had

harassed them from time to time by raids in which the children of Israel

did not always come off victorious. One of their chiefs--Samson--had a

great reputation among them for his bravery and bodily strength. But the

details of his real prowess had been forgotten at an early period.

The episodes which have been preserved deal with some of his exploits

against the Philistines, and there is a certain humour in the

chronicler’s account of the weapons which he employed: “with the jawbone

of an ass have I smitten a thousand men;” he burned up their harvest

also by letting go three hundred foxes, with torches attached to their

tails, among the standing corn of the Philistines. Various events in his

career are subsequently narrated; such as his adventure in the house

of the harlot at Gaza, when he carried off the gate of the city and

the gate-posts “to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.” By

Delilah’s treachery he was finally delivered over to his enemies, who,

having put out his eyes, condemned him to grind in the prison-house. On

the occasion of a great festival in honour of Dagon, he was brought into

the temple to amuse his captors, but while they were making merry at his

expense, he took hold of the two pillars against which he was resting,

and bowing “himself with all his might,” overturned them, “and the house

fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein.” *

* Some learned critics considered Samson to have been a sort

of solar deity.

The tribe of Dan at length became weary of these unprofitable

struggles, and determined to seek out another and more easily defensible

settlement. They sent out five emissaries, therefore, to look out for

a new home. While these were passing through the mountains they called

upon a certain Michah in the hill-country of Ephraim and lodged there.

Here they took counsel of a Levite whom Michah had made his priest, and,

in answer to the question whether their journey would be prosperous, he

told them to “Go in peace: before the Lord is the way wherein ye go.”

Their search turned out successful, for they discovered near the sources

of the Jordan the town of Laish, whose people, like the Zidonians, dwelt

in security, fearing no trouble. On the report of the emissaries, Dan

decided to emigrate: the warriors set out to the number of six hundred,

carried off by the way the ephod of Micah and the Levite who served

before it, and succeeded in capturing Laish, to which they gave the

name of their tribe. “They there set up for themselves the ephod: and

Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were

priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of

the land.” * The tribe of Dan displayed in this advanced post of peril

the bravery it had shown on the frontiers of the Shephelah, and showed

itself the most bellicose of the tribes of Israel.

* The history of this migration, which is given summarily in

Josh. xix. 47, is, as it now stands, a blending of two

accounts. The presence of a descendant of Moses as a priest

in this local sanctuary probably offended the religious

scruples of a copyist, who substituted Manasseh for Moses

(Judges xviii. 30), but the correction was not generally

accepted. [The R.V. reads “Moses” where the authorised text

has “Manasseh.”--Tr.]

It bore out well its character--“Dan is a lion’s whelp that leapeth

forth from Bashan” on the Hermon;* “a serpent in the way, an adder

in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider falleth

backward.” ** The new position they had taken up enabled them to protect

Galilee for centuries against the incursions of the Aramaeans.

* See the Blessing of Moses (Dent, xxxiii. 22).

** These are the words used in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen.

xlix. 17).

[Illustration: 304.jpg THE HILL OF SHILOH, SEEN FROM THE NORTH-EAST]

Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 100 of the _Palestine

Exploration Fund._

Their departure, however, left the descendants of Joseph unprotected,

with Benjamin as their only bulwark. Benjamin, like Dan, was one of

the tribes which contained scarcely more than two or three clans, but

compensated for the smallness of their numbers by their energy and

tenacity of character: lying to the south of Ephraim, they had developed

into a breed of hardy adventurers, skilled in handling the bow and

sling, accustomed from childhood to use both hands indifferently,

and always ready to set out on any expedition, not only against the

Canaanites, but, if need be, against their own kinsfolk.* They had

consequently aroused the hatred of both friend and foe, and we read that

the remaining tribes at length decreed their destruction; a massacre

ensued, from which six hundred Benjamites only escaped to continue the

race.** Their territory adjoined on the south that of Jerusalem, the

fortress of the Jebusites, and on the west the powerful confederation of

which Gibeon was the head. It comprised some half-dozen towns--Ramah,

Anathoth, Michmash, and Nob, and thus commanded both sides of the passes

leading from the Shephelah into the valley of the Jordan. The Benjamites

were in the habit of descending suddenly upon merchants who were making

their way to or returning from Gilead, and of robbing them of their

wares; sometimes they would make a raid upon the environs of Ekron and

Gath, “like a wolf that ravineth:” realising the prediction of Jacob,

“in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at even he shall divide

the spoil.” ***

* Benjamin signifies, properly speaking, “the Southern.”

** Story of the Lévite of Ephraim (Judges xix.-xxi.). The

groundwork of it contains only one historical element. The

story of the Lévite is considered by some critics to be of a

later date than the rest of the text.

*** He is thus characterised in the Blessing of Jacob (Gen.

xlix. 27). VOL. VI. X

The Philistines never failed to make reprisals after each raid, and the

Benjamites were no match for their heavily armed battalions; but the

labyrinth of ravines and narrow gorges into which the Philistines had

to penetrate to meet their enemy was a favourable region for guerilla

warfare, in which they were no match for their opponents. Peace was

never of long duration on this ill-defined borderland, and neither

intercourse between one village and another, alliances, nor

intermarriage between the two peoples had the effect of interrupting

hostilities; even when a truce was made at one locality, the feud would

be kept up at other points of contact. All details of this conflict have

been lost, and we merely know that it terminated in the defeat of the

house of Joseph, a number of whom were enslaved. The ancient sanctuary

of Shiloh still continued to be the sacred town of the Hebrews, as it

had been under the Canaanites, and the people of Ephraim kept there the

ark of Jahveh-Sabaoth, “the Lord of Hosts.” * It was a chest of wood,

similar in shape to the shrine which surmounted the sacred barks of the

Egyptian divinities, but instead of a prophesying statue, it contained

two stones on which, according to the belief of a later age, the law had

been engraved.** Yearly festivals were celebrated before it, and it was

consulted as an oracle by all the Israelites. Eli, the priest to whose

care it was at this time consigned, had earned universal respect by

the austerity of his life and by his skill in interpreting the divine

oracles.***

* At the very opening of the _First Book of Samuel_ (i. 3),

Shiloh is mentioned as being the sanctuary of _Jahveh-

Sabaoth_, Jahveh the Lord of hosts. The tradition preserved

in Josh, xviii. 1, removes the date of its establishment as

far back as the earliest times of the Israelite conquest.

** The idea that the Tables of the Law were enclosed in the

Ark is frequently expressed in Exodus and in subsequent

books of the Hexateuch.

*** The history of Eli extends over chaps, i.-iv. of the

_First Book of Samuel_; it is incorporated with that of

Samuel, and treats only of the events which accompanied the

destruction of the sanctuary of Shiloh by the Philistines.

His two sons, on the contrary, took advantage of his extreme age to

annoy those who came up to worship, and they were even accused of

improper behaviour towards the women who “served at the door of” the

tabernacle. They appropriated to themselves a larger portion of the

victims than they were entitled to, extracting from the caldron the

meat offerings of the faithful after the sacrifice was over by means of

flesh-hooks. Their misdeeds were such, that “men abhorred the offering

of the Lord,” and yet the reverence for the ark was so great in the

minds of the people, that they continued to have recourse to it on every

occasion of national danger.* The people of Ephraim and Benjamin having

been defeated once between Eben-ezer and Aphek, bore the ark in state to

the battle-field, that its presence might inspire them with confidence.

The Philistines were alarmed at its advent, and exclaimed, “God is come

into the camp. Woe unto us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand of

these mighty gods?... Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye

Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been

to you.” ** In response to this appeal, their troops fought so boldly

that they once more gained a victory. “And there ran a man of Benjamin

out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent,

and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon his

seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God.

And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried

out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth

the noise of this tumult? And the man hasted, and came and told Eli. Now

Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were set, that he could

not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army,

and I fled to-day out of the army. And he said, How went the matter, my

son? And he that brought the tidings answered and said, Israel is fled

before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among

the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, and the

ark of God is taken. And it came to pass, when he made mention of the

ark of God, that he fell from off his seat backward by the side of

the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and

heavy.” ***

* Sam. iv. 12-18.

** This is not mentioned in the sacred books; but certain

reasons for believing this destruction to have taken place

are given by Stade.

*** The Philistine garrison at Geba (Gibeah) is mentioned in

1 Sam. xiii. 3, i.

The defeat of Eben-ezer completed, at least for a time, the overthrow of

the tribes of Central Canaan. The Philistines destroyed the sanctuary

of Shiloh, and placed a garrison at Gibeah to keep the Benjamites in

subjection, and to command the route of the Jordan;* it would even

appear that they pushed their advance-posts beyond Carmel in order to

keep in touch with the independent Canaanite cities such as Megiddo,

Taanach, and Bethshan, and to ensure a free use of the various routes

leading in the direction of Damascus, Tyre, and Coele-Syria.**

* After the victory at Gilboa, the Philistines exposed the

dead bodies of Saul and his sons upon the walls of Bethshan

(1 Sam. xxxi. 10, 12), which they would not have been able

to do had the inhabitants not been allies or vassals.

Friendly relations with Bethshan entailed almost as a matter

of course some similar understanding with the cities of the

plain of Jezreel.

** 1 Sam. vii. 16, 17. These verses represent, as a matter

of fact, all that we know of Samuel anterior to his

relations with Saul. This account seems to represent him as

exercising merely a restricted influence over the territory

of Benjamin and the south of Ephraim. It was not until the

prophetic period that, together with Eli, he was made to

figure as Judge of all Israel.

The Philistine power continued dominant for at least half a century. The

Hebrew chroniclers, scandalised at the prosperity of the heathen,

did their best to abridge the time of the Philistine dominion, and

interspersed it with Israelitish victories. Just at this time, however,

there lived a man who was able to inspire them with fresh hope. He was

a priest of Bamah, Samuel, the son of Elkanah, who had acquired the

reputation of being a just and wise judge in the towns of Bethel,

Gilgal, and Mizpah; “and he judged Israel in all those places, and his

return was to Bamah, for there was his house... and he built there an

altar unto the Lord.” To this man the whole Israelite nation attributed

with pride the deliverance of their race. The sacred writings relate how

his mother, the pious Hannah, had obtained his birth from Jahveh after

years of childlessness, and had forthwith devoted him to the service of

God. She had sent him to Shiloh at the age of three years, and there,

clothed in a linen tunic and in a little robe which his mother made for

him herself, he ministered before God in the presence of Eli. One night

it happened, when the latter was asleep in his place, “and the lamp

of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was laid down to sleep in the

temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, that the Lord called

Samuel: and he said, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here

am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called thee not; lie down

again.” Twice again the voice was heard, and at length Eli perceived

that it was God who had called the child, and he bade him reply: “Speak,

Lord; for Thy servant heareth.” From thenceforward Jahveh was “with him,

and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from

Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet

of the Lord.” Twenty years after the sad death of his master, Samuel

felt that the moment had come to throw off the Philistine yoke; he

exhorted the people to put away their false gods, and he assembled them

at Mizpah to absolve them from their sins. The Philistines, suspicious

of this concourse, which boded ill for the maintenance of their

authority, arose against him. “And when the children of Israel heard it,

they were afraid of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and

offered it for a whole burnt offering unto the Lord: and Samuel cried

unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.” The Philistines,

demoralised by the thunderstorm which ensued, were overcome on the very

spot where they had triumphed over the sons of Eli, and fled in disorder

to their own country. “Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between

Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer (the Stone of

Help), saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” He next attacked the

Tyrians and the Amorites, and won back from them all the territory they

had conquered.* One passage, in which Samuel is not mentioned, tells

us how heavily the Philistine yoke had weighed upon the people, and

explains their long patience by the fact that their enemies had taken

away all their weapons. “Now there was no smith found throughout all

the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them

swords or spears;” and whoever needed to buy or repair the most ordinary

agricultural implements was forced to address himself to the Philistine

blacksmiths.** The very extremity of the evil worked its own cure. The

fear of the Midian-ites had already been the occasion of the ephemeral

rule of Jerubbaal and Abimelech; the Philistine tyranny forced first the

tribes of Central and then those of Southern Canaan to unite under the

leadership of one man. In face of so redoubtable an enemy and so grave a

peril a greater effort was required, and the result was proportionate to

their increased activity.

* This manner of retaliating against the Philistines for the

disaster they had formerly inflicted on Israel, is supposed

by some critics to be an addition of a later date, either

belonging to the time of the prophets, or to the period when

the Jews, without any king or settled government, rallied at

Mizpah. According to these scholars, 1 Sam. vii. 2-14 forms

part of a biography, written at a time when the foundation

of the Benjamite monarchy had not as yet been attributed to

Saul.

** 1 Sam. xiii. 20, 21.

The Manassite rule extended at most over two or three clans, but that

of Saul and David embraced the Israelite nation.* Benjamin at that

time reckoned among its most powerful chiefs a man of ancient and

noble family--Saul, the son of Kish--who possessed extensive flocks and

considerable property, and was noted for his personal beauty, for “there

was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from

his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.” ** He had

already reached mature manhood, and had several children, the eldest

of whom, Jonathan, was well known as a skilful and brave soldier, while

Saul’s reputation was such that his kinsmen beyond Jordan had recourse

to his aid as to a hero whose presence would secure victory. The

Ammonites had laid siege to Jabesh-Gilead, and the town was on the point

of surrendering; Saul came to their help, forced the enemy to raise the

siege, and inflicted such a severe lesson upon them, that during the

whole of his lifetime they did not again attempt hostilities. He was

soon after proclaimed king by the Benjamites, as Jerubbaal had been

raised to authority by the Manassites on the morrow of his victory.***

* The beginning of Saul’s reign, up to his meeting with

David, will be found in 1 Sam. viii.-xv. We can distinguish

the remains of at least two ancient narratives, which the

writer of the Book of Samuel has put together in order to

form a complete and continuous account. As elsewhere in this

work, I have confined myself to accepting the results at

which criticism has arrived, without entering into detailed

discussions which do not come within the domain of history.

** 1 Sam. ix. 2. In one account he is represented as quite a

young man, whose father is still in the prime of life (1

Sam. ix.), but this cannot refer to the time of the

Philistine war, where we find him accompanied, at the very

outset of his reign, by his son, who is already skilled in

the use of weapons.

*** 1 Sam. xi. According to the text of the Septuagint, the

war against the Ammonites broke out a month after Saul had

been secretly anointed by Samuel; his popular proclamation

did not take place till after the return from the campaign.

We learn from the sacred writings that Samuel’s influence had helped to

bring about these events. It had been shown him by the divine voice that

Saul was to be the chosen ruler, and he had anointed him and set him

before the people as their appointed lord; the scene of this must have

been either Mizpah or Gilgal.*

* One narrative appears to represent him as being only the

priest or local prophet of Hamah, and depicts him as

favourable to the establishment of the monarchy (1 Sam. ix.

1-27, x. 1-16); the other, however, admits that he was

“judge” of all Israel, and implies that he was hostile to the

choice of a king (1 Sam. viii. 1-22, x. 17, 27, xii. 1-25)

The accession of a sovereign who possessed the allegiance of all Israel

could not fail to arouse the vigilance of their Philistine oppressors;

Jonathan, however, anticipated their attack and captured Gibeah. The

five kings at once despatched an army to revenge this loss; the main

body occupied Michmash, almost opposite to the stronghold taken from

them, while three bands of soldiers were dispersed over the country,

ravaging as they went, with orders to attack Saul in the rear. The

latter had only six hundred men, with whom he scarcely dared to face

so large a force; besides which, he was separated from the enemy by the

Wady Suweinît, here narrowed almost into a gorge between two precipitous

rocks, and through which no body of troops could penetrate without

running the risk of exposing themselves in single file to the enemy.

Jonathan, however, resolved to attempt a surprise in broad daylight,

accompanied only by his armour-bearer. “There was a rocky crag on the

one side, and a rooky crag on the other side: and the name of the one

was Bozez (the Shining), and the name of the other Seneh (the Acacia).

The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on

the south in front of Geba (Gribeah).” The two descended the side of the

gorge, on the top of which they were encamped, and prepared openly to

climb the opposite side. The Philistine sentries imagined they were

deserters, and said as they approached: “Behold, the Hebrews come forth

out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of the

garrison answered Jonathan and his armour-bearer, and said, Come up

to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his

armour-bearer, Come up after me: for the Lord hath delivered them into

the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his

feet, and his armour-bearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan;

and his armour-bearer slew them after him. And that first slaughter that

Jonathan and his armour-bearer made, was about twenty men, within as

it were half a furrow’s length in an acre of land.” From Gribeah, where

Saul’s troops were in ignorance of what was passing, the Benjamite

sentinels could distinguish a tumult. Saul guessed that a surprise had

taken place, and marched upon the enemy.

[Illustration: 314.jpg THE WADY SUWEINIT]

Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 402 of the _Palestine

Exploration Fund_.

The Philistines were ousted from their position, and pursued hotly

beyond Bethel as far as Ajalon.* This constituted the actual birthday of

the Israelite monarchy.

* The account of these events, separated by the parts

relating to the biography of Samuel (1 Sam. xiii. 76-15a,

thought by some to be of a later date), and of the breaking

by Jonathan of the fast enjoined by Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 23-

45), covers 1 Sam. xiii. 3-7a, 156-23, xiv. 1-22, 46. The

details appear to be strictly historical; the number of the

Philistines, however, seems to be exaggerated; “30,000

chariots, and 6000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is

on the sea-shore in multitude “(1 Sam. xiii. 5).

Gilead, the whole house of Joseph--Ephraim and Manasseh--and Benjamin

formed its nucleus, and were Saul’s strongest supporters. We do not know

how far his influence extended northwards; it probably stopped short at

the neighbourhood of Mount Tabor, and the Galileans either refused to

submit to his authority, or acknowledged it merely in theory. In the

south the clans of Judah and Simeon were not long in rallying round

him, and their neighbours the Kenites, with Caleb and Jerahmeel, soon

followed their example. These southerners, however, appear to have been

somewhat half-hearted in their allegiance to the Benjamite king: it was

not enough to have gained their adhesion--a stronger tie was needed to

attach them to the rest of the nation. Saul endeavoured to get rid of

the line of Canaanite cities which isolated them from Ephraim, but

he failed in the effort, we know not from what cause, and his attempt

produced no other result than to arouse against him the hatred of the

Gibeonite inhabitants.* He did his best to watch over the security of

his new subjects, and protected them against the Amalekites, who were

constantly harassing them.

* The fact is made known to us by an accidental mention of

it in 2 Sam. xxi. 1-11. The motive which induced Saul to

take arms against the Gibeonites is immediately apparent

when we realise the position occupied by Gideon between

Judah and the tribes of Central Canaan.

Their king, Agag, happening to fall into his hands, he killed him, and

destroyed several of their nomad bands, thus inspiring the remainder

with a salutary terror.* Subsequent tradition credited him with

victories gained over all the enemies of Israel--over Moab, Edom, and

even the Aramaeans of Zobah--it endowed him even with the projects

and conquests of David. At any rate, the constant incursions of the

Philistines could not have left him much time for fighting in the

north and east of his domains. Their defeat at Gibeah was by no means

a decisive one, and they quickly recovered from the blow; the conflict

with them lasted to the end of Saul’s lifetime, and during the whole of

this period he never lost an opportunity of increasing his army.**