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PERIOD V.

FROM GIDEON TO SAUL.

[B. C. 1252.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS, AND DISCOVERIES.

B.C.

1252 The city of Tyre built,

1250 Jephthah defeats the Ammonites.

1233 Carthage founded by the Tyrians.

1225 The Argonautic expedition.

1193 The Trojan war begins.

1184 The destruction of Troy.

1176 Salamis in Cyprus built by Tencer.

1117 Samson exerts his extraordinary strength, and dies.

In this period the Greeks begin to make other nations feel the effects of that enterprising and martial spirit, for which they were so remarkable, and which they had undoubtedly exercised upon one another long before. Their first enterprise was an invasion of Colchis, for the sake of the golden fleece. Whatever was the nature of this expedition, it is probable they succeeded in it; and that this specimen of the produce and riches of Asia inclined them to Asiatic expeditions ever after.

At this time Greece was divided into a number of small principalities, most of which seem to have been in subjection to Agamemnon, king of Mycæna.

In this period, after the first class, which is still miscellaneous, we have placed five other classes, viz. Philosophy, Poetry and Music, Literature, History, and Medicine.

GIDEON, the son of Joash, of the tribe of Manasseh. He dwelt in the city of Ophrah, and had a very extraordinary call, to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. After the deaths of Barak and Deborah, Judges vi. 1, 2. the Midianites so distressed the Hebrews, that they were forced to flee into caves, from B. C. 1252, to B. C. 1245. Israel, overwhelmed with misfortunes, cried to the Lord, who deputed a prophet to them, who reproached them sharply with their ingratitude. At the same time, God sent his angel to Gideon,

who was threshing out his corn privately, near a wine-press, under an oak, to conceal from the Midianites what he was doing, and be able to flee away immediately with his corn, as soon as they appeared. The angel saluted Gideon, and said, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. Gideon hesitated; but the angel answered, Go, in this thy might, thou shalt save Israel from the Midianites. Gideon excused himself; but the Lord said to him, " I will be with thee, and thou shalt beat the Midianites, as if they were but one man." Gideon asked a sign of him, that he might be convinced it was no delusion; he made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes, which he brought and presented to him. The angel said, "put them on this rock, and pour out the broth." Then the angel, with the end of his staff that was in his hand, touched the flesh and unleavened cakes; fire issued out of the rock and consumed them. The angel disappeared. Gideon exclaimed, " alas! O Lord God, for I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." The Lord said to him, "Fear not, thou shalt not die." In that same place he erected an altar to the Lord, which he called the place of the Lord. The night following, God commanded him to cut down the grove, and the altar of Baal, to build an altar to the Lord upon the top of the rock, where he had lately offered, and to make a burnt sacrifice of one of his father's two bullocks. Gideon obeyed. The next day the inhabitants of Ophrah told Joash, that Gideon must be slain, for this affront offered to Baal. Joash answered, are ye to defend Baal? If Baal be God, let him avenge himself. From that time, Gideon was called Jero-baal, that is, let Baal see, or let Baal contest with him, who has thrown down his altar.

The Midianites came and encamped in the valley of Jezreel; and Gideon assembled the Israelites of the house of Abiezer, who dwelt nearest him; also Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. Gideon, to assure them that God intended their deliverance, prayed for a sign, that God would let the dew fall on a piece of wool, spread on the ground, while all around was dry. After this, he desired another sign, quite the contrary, that the fleece of wool should remain dry, while all the earth about it abounded with dew.

Gideon ordered three hundred men to hold themselves in readiness and gave to each a trumpet, a lamp, or light, and an empty pitcher to conceal that light. Stealing over to the enemy's camp, he heard a Midianite relating his dream, of a cake of barley bread, which rolling into the camp of Midian, overset the general's tent. The hearer replied, "This is the sword of Gideon." Gideon returned to his people, encouraged them, and bid them take their lamps, their pitchers, and their trumpets, and do as they should see him do. He divided them into three companies, of one hundred men each; which advanced

three different ways towards the camp of the Midianites. At the beginning of the second, or middle-watch, at midnight, on a signal given by Gideon, the three companies blew their trumpets, broke their pitchers, showed their lights, and shouted "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon," and stood every man in his place; as if they were the advanced guard of the whole army of Israel, whom they were lighting to attack the camp. All the host of the enemy," ran, and cried, and fled" through the openings between the three companies, and in their panic of terror, put each other to the sword. The neighbouring tribes of Manasseh, and Naphtali, came in and pursued them; Gideon, with his three hundred warriors, passed the Jordan, followed the Midianites to Succoth and Penuel, Judges viii. 1-3, &c., defeated them, took their two kings, Zeba and Zalmunna, and returned towards Succoth and Penuel before sun-set. As these two cities had refused to supply him with provisions and refreshments, when he passed them in the pursuit of the enemy, at his return he took a terrible vengeance on them. He put Zeba and Zalmunna to death, and took away the golden ornaments, (crescents,) which were about their camels' necks, and which were probably consecrated to the moon, who was worshipped in that neighbourhood, before the time of Abraham, under the title of Ashtaroth Kamaim, "the shining cow twohorned." Gen. xiv. 5.

After this victory, Israel said to Gideon, "Rule thou over us." Gideon answered, "I will not rule over you, nor my son shall not rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you :" but, "give me, every man, the ear-rings of his prey;" for the Midianites were accustomed to wear gold pendants at their ears. Of these Gideon made an ephod, and placed it in the city of Ophrah. This ephod seems to have included not only the priest's dress, but also a sacerdotal establishment in his own town; and this establishment infringing on that at Shiloh, Judg. xviii. 1. proved a "snare to Gideon and his family," or a seduction to idolatry, in worshipping the true God in an improper manner.

Gideon had seventy sons, born of many wives, whom he had married; and besides these, he had another, Abimelech, the son of a concubine, who reigned three years at Shechem, It has been observed that the spirit of the Lord, by which Gideon was animated to undertake the deliverance of his country, was a spirit of fortitude and of prudence, and of all the virtues requisite in a commander. Judg. vi. 7-40. Gideon was a consummate judge; he possessed all the qualifications requisite for that arduous station among a contumacious, a divided, and a rebellious people.

ABIMELECH, the natural son of Gideon by Druma, his concubine. His barbarous murder of his brethren, with his

attempt to convert the republic of Israel, into a monarchy, in his own person, together with the civil war that followed, and his deserved death, in the third year of his usurpation, are recorded in the book of Judges, chap. ix.

JOTHAM, Gideon's youngest son, escaped the slaughter which the inhabitants of Ophrah made of his seventy brethren, killed in the presence, and by the order of Abimelech, Gideon's natural son, Judges ix. 5, 6, &c. The people of Shechem created this same Abimelech king, because he was their countryman. Jotham, therefore, went up to Mount Gerizim, and thence addressed himself to the inhabitants of Shechem, in the famous fable of the trees, who offered their kingdom, which the valuable trees declined, and at length they elected the bramble. He then fled to Beer. We know not what became of him after this, but his prediction against Shechem and Abimelech was soon accomplished, Judg. ix. 5, &c.

JAIR, of Manasseh, possessed beyond Jordan the whole country of Argob to the borders of Geshur and Maachati. Judg. x. 3. He succeeded Tola in the government of Israel, and was succeeded by Jephthah. His government continued twenty-two years, from B. C. 1209, to B. C. 1187.

JEPHTHAH, one of the Judges of Israel, was a son of Gilead, his mother being one of Gilead's concubines. In consequence of Gilead's marriage, Jephthah was expelled from the house; and retiring into the land of Tob, became captain of a band of rovers. The Israelites, who inhabited beyond Jordan, being pressed by the Ammonites, applied to Jephthah for assistance, and offered to place themselves under his command; accordingly he consented to succour them on condition that at the end of the war they would acknowledge him for their prince. B. C. 1187. Jephthah, having been invested with the chief command, remonstrated with the king of the Ammonites on the injustice of the war in which he was engaged, and obtaining no satisfactory reply, he levied a powerful army, and marched against him to battle. But before he engaged, he made a vow to the Lord, that he would sacrifice, or consecrate to him, the first living creature that should come out of his house to meet him on his return. The contest was soon decided by a complete victory; and the conqueror, as he approached his house at Mizpeh, perceived his daughter, an only child, advancing to congratulate him on his success, with music and dancing, and other tokens of filial affection. Recollecting his vow, the interview occasioned the most poignant distress; but when he communicated it to his daughter, she received the intelligence with a firm and submissive mind; and determining to acquiesce in the accomplishment of her father's vow, she merely requested a delay of two months, that she might retire with her companions to lament her infelicity. At the expira

tion of the stipulated interval, she returned to her father, "who did with her according to the vow which he had vowed."

With respect to Jephthah's vow, some believe that his daughter was really offered up to him for a burnt-sacrifice; whilst others are of opinion, that she was devoted to celibacy, or dedicated to the service of God. This matter depends on the acceptance of a single particle which is taken for either AND or OR; for the same Hebrew particle vau may signify either. The passage may be thus rendered: "Whatever comes to meet me, I will devote to the Lord, or, I will offer it up a burnt-sacrifice." Otherwise, "Whatever comes to meet me, I will devote to the Lord; AND, that is ALSO, I will offer up to him a burnt-sacrifice:" or, AND I will offer up to him that which comes out of my house. It ought likewise to be observed, that Jephthah's rashness had time to cool, as his daughter went two months to bewail her virginity, that is, her consecration to God, which obliged her to remain single without posterity, &c. It is said, that she went to bewail her virginity, not her sacrifice. Besides, the Israelite women went yearly four times to mourn for-rather wITH-the daughter of Jephthah; to lament her seclusion from the world, and the hardship of her situation, as cut off from domestic life and enjoyment. Now, if in the course of two months no person could have suggested to Jephthah a ransom for his daughter, yet surely she must have been alive, though dead to him and his family, as his only child, and to the world by her seclusion, if the Israelite women went to condole with her. We may also observe, that it is not said afterwards that he sacrificed her, but," He did with her according to his vow." It is added, she knew no man; if she was sacrificed, this remark is frivolous, but if she was consecrated to perpetual virginity, this idea coincides with the visits of the Israelitish women. On the whole, we may safely conclude, that Jephthah's daughter was not sacrificed, but devoted to a state of celibacy; and if there were at that time women attendants at the tabernacle, she might, probably, join them.

ELON, the twelfth judge of Israel, and the second after Jephthah, succeeded Ibzan, B. C. 1174, or, according to Alstidus, B. C. 1233. He was of the tribe of Zebulon, and after governing the republic ten years, died about B. C. 1167.

NAOMI, was the wife of Elimelech, who retired into the land of Moab on occasion of a famine in Judea; where Elimelech dying, Naomi settled her two sons in marriage, Mahlon to Ruth, and Chilon to Orpah. These two young men dying also without children, Naomi resolved to return into Judea. Her two daughters-in-law were desirous of returning with her; but she dissuaded them. Orpah remained behind, but Ruth would accompany Naomi to Bethlehem, Ruth i. 1, 2, 3, &c. When

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