MURDER OF GIDEON'S SONS--JEPHTHAH'S VICTORY--SAMSON

MURDER OF GIDEON'S SONS--JEPHTHAH'S VICTORY--SAMSON
GIDEON'S SEVENTY SONS
Gideon left no less than seventy sons by his numerous wives, besides one spurious son called Abimelech, by a concubine (whom Josephus calls Drumah) who belonged to Shechem. A bastard among seventy legitimate sons was not likely to be pleasantly circumstanced when his father was dead, and it is not surprising that he soon withdrew from among them to his mother's relations at Shechem. They seem to have been persons of some consideration in that place.
ABIMELECH KILLS HIS BROTHERS
After the death of Gideon, the history, without stating the fact, seems to require us to suppose that his sons had been invited to take the government, or to share it among them; and that they, actuated by the same noble, because disinterested regard for the principles of the theocracy which had influenced their father, had declined the offer. But Abimelech, “a bold, bad man,” was of a different spirit. He soon saw the advantage which he might take of the existing posture of affairs. Prompted by him, his uncles and other maternal connections suggested to the chief people of Shechem his willingness to undertake the charge which the people generally were anxious to see in the hands of a son, or some of the sons, of Gideon. They suggested whether it were not much better that one man should reign over them, than that they should be subject to all the sons of Gideon, seventy persons in number; and if the government of one man was to be desired, who had so strong a claim to their preference and attachment as one so closely connected with them as Abimelech? These suggestions had their weight upon the leading men of Shechem, particularly the consideration that he was “their brother.” They supplied him with money out of the treasury of Baal-berith, whose worship seems to have been that to which the Israelites were at this time the most inclined. The sum was not large,[242] but it served him to hire a set of unprincipled men, prepared for any undertaking he might propose. And, with the usual short-sightedness of wicked men, thinking to concentrate in his own person the attachment of the Israelites to the house of Gideon, as well as to extinguish that which was likely to be the most active opposition he would have to encounter, Abimelech marched his troop to Ophrah, where he put to death all his brethren, the sons of Gideon, with the exception of the youngest, named Jotham, who managed to escape. This is the first example of a stroke of barbarous policy which has since been very common in the history of the East. In the first instance it had the effect he intended; for on his return to Shechem, the people of that place assembled and anointed Abimelech king, close to a pillar of stone that stood near that town--perhaps the same which Joshua had set up there as a memorial of the covenant with God.
[242] Seventy shekels of silver, about equal to forty dollars of our money. But proper allowance must be made for a great difference in the real value of money, although the precise amount of that difference can not be stated.
JOTHAM'S PARABLE
When Jotham was made acquainted with this, he repaired secretly to the neighborhood of Shechem; and, taking advantage of some festival which brought the inhabitants together outside the town, he appeared suddenly on a cliff overlooking the valley in which they were assembled, and, in a loud voice, called their attention to his words. He then delivered that earliest and very fine parable which represents the trees as making choice of a king: The olive refused to leave its oil, the fig-tree its sweetness, and the vine-tree its wine, to reign over the trees (thus intimating the refusal of Gideon's sons); but the upstart bramble (representing Abimelech) accepts, with great dignity, the offered honor, and even proposes the conditions of its acceptance. These are exquisitely satirical, both in their terms and in their application--“If ye truly intend to anoint me king over you, come, take shelter under my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.” That they might be at no loss to understand his meaning, Jotham gave the obvious “moral,” in which he included a bitter rebuke of the ingratitude of the people to their deliverer, all whose sons, save himself, they had slain; together with an intimation, which proved prophetic, of the probable result. He then fled with all haste, in fear of Abimelech; and ultimately settled beyond his reach, at Beer, in the tribe of Benjamin.
Gaza

GAAL'S BRIEF TERM
Abimelech reigned three years in Shechem, during which he so disgusted the men by whom he had been raised to that bad eminence on which he stood, that they expelled him from their city. In return, he, with the aid of the desperate fellows who remained with him, did his utmost to distress the inhabitants, so that at the season of vintage they were afraid to go out into their vineyards to collect their fruits. Hearing of these transactions, one Gaal went over to Shechem with his armed followers and kinsmen, to see how they might be turned to his advantage. We know not precisely who this person was; or whence he came; but there are circumstances in the original narrative which would suggest that he was a Canaanite, descended from the former rulers of Shechem, and that his people also were a remnant of the original Shechemites. He came so opportunely, that the people very gladly accepted his protection during the vintage. In the feats which followed the joyful labors of that season, Gaal, who seems to have been a cowardly, boasting fellow, spoke contemptuously of Abimelech, and talked largely of what he could and would do, if authority were vested in him. This was heard with much indignation by Zebul, one of the principal magistrates of the city, who lost no time in secretly sending to apprize Abimelech how matters stood, and advised him to show himself suddenly before the city, when he would undertake to induce Gaal to march out against him. Accordingly, one morning, when Zebul and other principal persons were with Gaal at the gate of the city, armed men were seen descending the hills. Zebul amused Gaal tilI they came nearer, and then, by reminding him of his recent boastings, compelled him to draw out his men to repel the advance of Abimelech. They met, and no sooner did Gaal see a few of his men fall, than, with the rest, he fled hastily into the city. Zebul availed himself of this palpable exhibition of impotence, if not cowardice, to induce the people of Shechem to expel Gaal and his troop from the town. Abimelech, who was staying at Arumah, a place not far off, was informed of this the next morning, as well as that the inhabitants, although no longer guarded by Gaal, went out daily to the labors of the field. He therefore laid ambushes in the neighborhood; and when the men were come forth to their work in the vineyards, two of the ambushed parties rose to destroy them, while a third hastened to the gates to prevent their return to the town. The city itself was then taken, and Abimelech caused all the buildings to be destroyed, and the ground to be strewn with salt, as a symbol of the desolation to which his intention consigned it. The fortress, however, still remained, and a thousand men were in it. But they, fancying that it was not tenable, withdrew to “the strong-hold of the temple of Baal-berith,” which had the advantage of standing in a more elevated and commanding position. This, it will be noted, is the first temple which we read of in scripture. On perceiving this, Abimelech cut down the bough of a tree with his battle-axe, and bore it upon his shoulder, directing all his men to do the same. The wood was deposited against the entrance and walls of the strong-hold, and, when kindled, made a tremendous fire, in which the building and the thousand men it contained were destroyed.
ABIMELECH KILLED
To follow up this victory, Abimelech marched against Thebez, another revolted town. As before, he took the town itself with little difficulty, but all the people had shut themselves up in the tower or fortress, which offered a more serious obstacle. However, Abimelech advanced to the door with the intention of burning it down, when a woman threw a large stone from the battlements above. It fell upon him, and broke his scull; and mindful, even in that bitter moment, of that principle of military honor which counts death from a woman's hands disgraceful, he hastily called to his armor-bearer to thrust him through with his sword, that it might not be said a woman slew him. But the disgrace which he desired to avoid attached for ever to his name; for it was always remembered to his dishonor that a woman slew him.
TOLA
After Abimelech, Tola, of the tribe of Issachar, but dwelling in Mount Ephraim, governed the people for twenty-three years.
JAIR'S OPULENCE
He was succeeded by Jair, a Gileadite (of eastern Manasseh), who judged Israel twenty-two years. His opulence is indicated by his being the owner of thirty villages, which collectively bore the name of Havoth-Jair (Jair's villages), and that he had thirty sons, all of whom he could afford to mount on young asses. In those days horses and mules were not in use among the Hebrews. Their place was not unworthily substituted by the fine breed of asses which the country afforded; and to possess as many as thirty of these, young and vigorous, and fit for the saddle (implying the possession of many more, older and of inferior condition), was no questionable sign of wealth.
AMMONITES CONQUER ISRAEL
As the administration of these two judges was peaceable, the notice of them is confined to a few lines; the chief design of the sacred historian being to record the calamities which the Israelites drew upon themselves by their apostasies to the idolatries of the surrounding nations, and their providential deliverances upon their repentance and return to their God and king. After the calm of these administrations, they multiplied their idolatries; and in punishment for this, they were brought under a servitude to the Ammonites, which continued for eighteen years, and was particularly severe upon the tribes beyond Jordan, although the southern and central tribes on this side the river--Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim--were also subdued.
ISRAEL CRIES TO GOD
Corrected by calamity, the Israelites put away their idols, and cried to God for pardon and deliverance. In reply to their suit, they were reminded of the deliverances which they had already experienced, notwithstanding which they had repeatedly turned to serve other gods. Their prayer was therefore refused, and they were told, “Go and cry to the gods that ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.” Their reply to this was very proper: “We have sinned: do thou to us whatever seemeth good unto thee; only deliver us, we pray thee, this time.” And forthwith they rooted out the remains of idolatry from among them, and worshipped Jehovah with such singleness and zeal that “his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.”
JEPHTHAH
There was a man called Jephthah, who was, like Abimelech, the spurious son of a man who had a large family of legitimate children. When the father died, the other sons expelled Jephthah from among them, saying, “Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman.” As this last phrase generally denotes a foreigner, or one not of Israel, this treatment, although very harsh, was less unjust, under the peculiar circumstances of the Hebrew constitution, than might at the first view appear; for it was a strong point of the Mosaic policy to discourage all connection with foreigners (necessarily idolaters); and nothing was better calculated to this end, for a people like the Hebrews, than the disqualification of the progeny of such connections from receiving a share in the inheritance.
RAIDER JEPHTHAH MADE GENERAL
On this Jephthah withdrew into “the land of Tob,” toward the borders of the desert: and as he had before this found opportunities of establishing a character for spirit and courage, he was soon joined by a number of destitute, and idle young men, who were led by inclination, or more imperative inducements, to prefer the free life he led to the sober habits which a settling community requires. Besides, from pastoral societies, such as those beyond Jordan, the step into the free life of the desert is much shorter than it would be among a more agricultural people. It is really useless to attempt to consider Jephthah's troop otherwise than as a set of daring, careless fellows, acting as men do at the present day act in the east under similar circumstances, and brought together. Being without any other means of subsistence, they unquestionably lived by a sort of robbery, as we should call it now, examples of which are found in all rude states of society, and to which, in such states of society, no one dreams of attaching disgrace. They lived doubtless by raids, or plundering excursions, into the neighboring small states, driving off the cattle, and faking whatever came to their hands; and we may from analogy conclude that they waylaid and levied black-mail upon caravans, when composed of parties which they had no reason to treat with favor. Their point of honor probably was, to abstain from any acts against their own countrymen; and this exception existing, the body of the Israelites must have regarded the performances of Jephthah and his troop with favor, especially if, as is likely, they were thorns in the sides of the Ammonites, and took pleasure to annoy, in their own quarters, the enemies of Israel. However this may be, the courage and conduct of Jephthah became so well known by his successful enterprises, that when, after their repentance, the tribes beyond Jordan determined to make a stand against the Ammonites, but felt the want of a leader, they agreed that there was no known person so fit as Jephthah to lead them to battle. The chiefs of Gilead, his native district, therefore went in person to the land of Tob, to solicit this already celebrated person to undertake the conduct of the expedition. They were rather harshly received. “Did ye not hate me,” said the hero, “and expel me from my father's house? and why do ye come to me now, when ye are in distress?” They, however, continued to press him, and intimated that, as had been usual in such cases, the government of, at least, the land of Gilead, would be, the reward, of his success. This was very agreeable to Jephthah, who forthwith accompanied them to Mizpeh, where this agreement was solemnly ratified, and all things necessary for conducting the war were regulated.
JEPHTHAH FIGHTS AMMONITES
By the time Jephthah had organized his forces in Mizpeh, the Ammonites, taking alarm, had assembled a numerous army in Gilead. Although, from his previous habits of life, we should hardly have expected it from him, we find the Hebrew general commencing the war with much more than usual attention to those formalities which are judged necessary to render the grounds of quarrel manifest. He sent ambassadors to the king of the Ammonites, requiring to know why he had come to fight against the Hebrews in their own land. The king, in reply, alleged that he came to recover the land taken from his ancestors by the Israelites, on their way from Egypt, and of which he, therefore, required peaceable restitution. Jephthah in his reply gave a fair and clear recital of the whole transaction which had put these lands into the possession of the Hebrews, and he refused to surrender them on the following grounds: 1. He denied that the Ammonites had any existing title to the lands, for they had been driven out of these lands by the Amorites before the Hebrews appeared; and that they (the Hebrews) to overcoming and driving out the Amorites, without any assistance from or friendly understanding with, the Ammonites, became entitled to the territory which the conquered people occupied; 2, that the title of the Israelites was confirmed by a prescription of above three hundred years, during which none of Ammon or of Moab had ever reclaimed these lands; and--3, as an argumentum ad hominem, he alleged that the God of Israel was as well entitled to grant his people the lands which they held as was their own god Chemosh, according to their opinion, to grant to the Ammonites the lands which they now occupied. This admirable and well-reasoned statement concluded with an appeal to Heaven to decide the justice of the cause by the event of the battle which was now inevitable.
JEPHTHAH'S DECISIVE VICTORY
The result was such as might be expected. Jephthah defeated the Ammonites with great slaughter, and reduced the nation to subjection.
JEPHTHAH'S VOW
But not joy to exalt and gladden his heart, but a bitter grief to rend it deeply, awaited the victor on his return to Mizpeh. Feeling, perhaps, that he had not, like former deliverers, been expressly and publicly called and appointed by God to the work he had undertaken, he had sought to propitiate Heaven by a vow, that if allowed to return to his home in peace, whatsoever first came forth to meet him should be offered as a burnt-offering to Jehovah.
Jephthah had no child, save one daughter, a virgin, beautiful and young. And she when the news came of his great victory, and of his return to triumph and peace went forth at the head of her fair companions to meet her glorious father, dancing joyously to their timbrels as he drew nigh. Here, then, was the object of his vow--his cherished daughter--the only object in the world which could call forth those kindly sympathies and tendernesses which lurk deep within even those natures which have been the most scarred and roughened in the storms of life. The desolated father rent his clothes, crying, “Alas! my daughter, thou hast brought me low indeed! ... for I have opened my mouth to Jehovah and I cannot reverse it.” Then, understanding the nature of his vow, that noble maiden, mindful only that Israel was delivered, and impressed with the solemn obligation which that vow imposed, sought not to turn her father from his purpose, or encouraged him to seek those evasions which others have since discovered for him. With unexampled magnanimity she cried, “My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth to Jehovah, do with me according to that which thou hast spoken for as much as Jehovah hath taken vengeance for thee upon thine enemies, upon the Ammonites.” All she desired was that she might be allowed for two months to wander among the mountains, with her companions, to bewail that it was not her lot to be a bride and mother in Israel. At the end of that time Jephthah “did with her according to his vow.”
DAUGHTER SACRIFICED
It is much to be regretted that the reluctance of the sacred writer to express in plain terms the dreadful immolation which we believe to be thus indicated, has left the whole matter open as a subject of dispute. The early Jewish and Christian writers (including Josephus) made no question that Jephthah, under a most mistaken notion of duty, did, after the manner of the heathen, really offer his daughter in sacrifice; but the ingenuity of modern criticism has discovered the alternative that she was not immolated on the altar, but was devoted to perpetual virginity in the service of the tabernacle. It must be confessed that the subject is one of such difficulty, as to render it hard to reach a positive conclusion. But on anxiously considering the question, we are sorry to feel constrained to adhere to the harsher alternative.
The Victor Greeted

There was no institution among the Jews under which practical effect could be given to the alternative which modern interpretation has provided; and even had not this been the case, there was at the time that this devotement to the tabernacle must have taken place, no access to the tabernacle from the east; for Jephthah was about that time waging a bitter war with the tribe of Ephraim, in whose territory, at Shiloh, the ark was situated. This posture of affairs would preclude him from receiving from the priests those instructions and remonstrances which would have prevented that piteous immolation which he deemed his vow to require. We are persuaded that the more thoroughly any one makes himself acquainted with the spirit of the time, the state of religion, the nature of the ideas which then prevailed, the peculiarities of the ecclesiastical polity among the Hebrews, and the character of Jephthah himself--the more strong will be his conviction that the infatuated hero really did offer his daughter in sacrifice, and the greater will the difficulty seem of providing any other alternative. The opinion of the Jews themselves is also entitled to some weight; and at a time when they abhorred the idea of human sacrifices, they not only state it as an unquestionable fact that this sacrifice did take place, but ascribe the deposition of the line of Eleazar from the high-priesthood, and the substitution of that of Ithamar, to the circumstance that the existing pontiff did not take measures to prevent this stain upon the annals of Israel.
We must consider how long the minds of the Israelites had been saturated with notions imbibed from the surrounding heathen, which implies the neglect, and consequent ignorance, of the divine law; and that among those ideas and practices that of the superior efficacy of human sacrifices occupied a prominent place. We may also reflect that a rough military adventurer, like Jephthah, had been even more than usually exposed to contaminating influences: such persons are also usually found to be superstitious, and are seldom capable of apprehending more than certain broad and hard features of such higher matters as are presented to their notice. Jephthah knew that human victims were generally regarded as in a peculiar degree acceptable to the gods; and as historical facts are in general more familiarly known than dogmas, it was probably unknown to him that human sacrifices were abhorrent to Jehovah, while he was certain to know that Abraham had been expressly commanded by God himself to offer his beloved Isaac upon the altar; and although the completion of this act was prevented, it would be remembered that the patriarch obtained high praise because he had not withheld even his only and well-loved son from God. That Jephthah made such a vow at all, corroborates the view we take of his character. It was superstitious; and it implies his imperfect knowledge of the law, which would have apprized him of various alternatives which would render the fulfillment of his vow incompatible with obedience to the law. But to such a mind the literal accomplishment of a vow--whatever its purport--will appear the first of duties; and in the fulfillment of such a vow as this, it would seem that the greater his own anguish, the more deeply the iron entered into his own soul, the more meritorious, and the more acceptable to God, the act of the offerer was deemed.
VIRGIN COMMEMORATION DAY
The virgins of Israel instituted an anniversary commemoration of four days, which they spent in celebrating the praises and bewailing the fate of Jephthah's daughter.
EPHRAIM DEFEATED
The misunderstanding with Ephraim, to which we have incidentally alluded, was similar to that which the tact of Gideon had averted on a former occasion. That haughty and overbearing tribe had been called to the war in the first instance, but refused to take part in the enterprise: but when that enterprise proved successful, they were astonished and mortified that Israel had been delivered by the Gileadites without their assistance. They then assembled tumultuously, and with many contemptuous and abusive expressions toward the Gileadites in general, and toward Jephthah in particular, they threatened to burn his house over his head, because he had not called them to the last derisive action. The conqueror stated the matter as it actually happened; for his rough nature would not permit him to smooth down their ruffled plumes, as Gideon had done on a similar occasion. And then, finding that they were still bent on mischief, he called out the Gileadites, who were highly exasperated at the reflections which had been cast upon them as “fugitives of Ephraim”--a base breed between Ephraim, and Manasseh. A battle took place, in which the Ephraimites were signally defeated. They had crossed over to the eastern side of the Jordan, and, after the victory, the Gileadites hastened to seize the fords of that river, to intercept those of the fugitives who attempted to return to their homes. But as Israelites of all the tribes were constantly passing the river, a test was necessary to distinguish the Ephraimites from the others. It is remarkable that the test chose was that of pronunciation. When any man approached to cross the river, he was asked, “Art thou an Ephraimite?” If he answered “No,” they said, “Then, say Shibboleth” (water-brooks); but if he were really an Ephraimite, he could not pronounce the sh, but gave the word as “.ibboleth;” and was slain on the spot. This incident is curious, as showing that lingual differences had already arisen by which particular tribes could be distinguished. In like manner a Galilean was, in the time of Christ, known at Jerusalem by his speech.
JEPHTHAH DIES
In this disastrous affair the loss of the Ephraimites amounted to forty-two thousand men. Such a success could be no matter of triumph to the unhappy Jephthah. His troubled life was not long protracted. He died after he had judged Israel six years, B.C. 1247.
THREE JUDGES
After Jephthah follow the names of three judges, the silence of the record concerning whose actions may be understood to indicate a period of tranquillity and ease. These were Ibzan, of Bethlehem in Ephraim; for seven years; Eton, a Zebulonite, for ten years; and Abdon, an Ephraimite, for eight years. Under the repose of these administrations, however, the Hebrews again insensibly relapsed into idolatry. For this they were brought under a rigorous servitude to their western foes, the Philistines, which (in its full rigor) lasted for forty years. This people had so recruited their strength since the days of Shamgar, that they now take a very conspicuous place in the Hebrew history, forming by far the most powerful and inveterate enemies the Israelites had yet encountered. They continued much longer than any other power had done to wield the weapon by which the iniquities of Israel were chastised; for it was not until the time of David that the deliverance was completed.
When we read of the corrupt state of the nation at large, it would be a grievous error to infer that all had departed from God. There are various intimations that, in the worst times, not a few families were to be found religious and well regulated, and which maintained among themselves the faith of the one only God, and followed with exactitude all the requirements of the law. Thus, at a later day, when the prophet deemed that he was himself the only one by whom Jehovah was acknowledged, God himself knew that there were in Israel seven thousand persons whose knees had not been bowed to Baal. (1 Kings 19:18.) But although these were the salt of Israel, they could not preserve the mass from such putrefaction as required that it should be cast forth and trodden under foot.
SAMSON BORN
And now, about the same time that the Israelites were cast forth to be trodden under foot by the Philistines, it pleased their offended King, while with the one hand he punished his revolted subjects, to provide with the other for the beginnings of their deliverance at a future day. For about that time the angel of Jehovah appeared to the wife of Manoah, a Danite, who had been barren, and promised her a son, who was to be a Nazarite (a person consecrated to God) from the womb, and that in time he should begin to deliver Israel from the yoke of the Philistines.
SAMSON'S STRENGTH
Accordingly, the woman gave birth in due season to a son, on whom the name of Samson was bestowed. As the child grew, it became manifest that the most extraordinary bodily powers had been given to him: while, to prevent undue exaltation of spirit from the consciousness of superior powers, it was known to him that his gifts had no necessary dependence on the physical complication of his thews[244] Muscles or strength and sinews, but on his condition as a Nazarite, and on the unshorn hair which formed the sign and symbol of that condition.
It is from the twentieth year of his age, which was also the twentieth of the bondage to the Philistines, that we are to date the commencement of Samson's vindictive administration. He proved to be a man of ungovernable passions; but, through the influence of his destiny to begin the deliverance of Israel, it was so ordered that even his worst passions, and even the sorrows and calamities which these passions wrought upon himself, were made the instruments of distress and ruin to the Philistines.
SAMSON SEEKS MARRIAGE
The fact that the territory occupied by the tribe of Dan, to which Samson belonged, immediately adjoined the country of the Philistines, in consequence of which he became well-acquainted with that people, ministered occasion for most of his operations against them. And first--in the Philistine town of Timnath, Samson had seen a young woman with whom he was so well pleased, that he resolved to obtain her for his wife. But as such matters were always adjusted between the parents of the respective parties, he went home and desired his father and mother to secure this woman for him. His parents would much have preferred that his choice had fallen on one of the daughters of his own people; but, seeing his determination was fixed, they yielded, and went back with him to Timnath. It was on this journey that Samson gave the first recorded indication of the prodigious strength with which he was endowed, by slaying, without any weapon in his hands, a young and fierce lion by which he was assailed.
SAMSON'S RIDDLE
At Timnath the proposals of his parents were favorably received by the parents of the damsel Samson sought in marriage. It was necessary, by the customs of the time and country, that at least a month should pass between such a proposal and the celebration of the marriage. At the expiration of this time, Samson, again accompanied by his parents, went down to Timnath to claim his bride. On the way he turned aside to see what had become of the carcass of the lion he had slain on the former journey. In that climate the carcasses of animals left dead upon the ground are speedily devoured by jackals and vultures, and other beasts and birds which feed on carrion. Even insects contribute largely to this service. Accordingly, Samson found only the clean skeleton of the lion, partially covered with the undevoured hide. In the cavity thus formed a swarm of bees had lodged and deposited their honey. At wedding-feasts it was at that time usual for the young men then assembled together to amuse themselves by proposing riddles--those who were unable to solve the riddle incurring a forfeiture to him by whom it was proposed, who himself was liable to a similar forfeiture if his riddle were found out. The adventure with the lion suggested to Samson the riddle which he proposed--“Out of the eater came forth food, and out of the fierce came forth sweetness.” For three days they vainly tried to discover the meaning of this riddle; and at last, rather than incur the heavy forfeiture of “thirty shirts and thirty suits of raiment,” they applied to the bride, and threatened destruction to her family if she did not extract from her husband the required solution, and make it known to them. He was very unwilling to tell her, declaring that even his father and mother were ignorant of it. But she put in practice all the little arts by which women have ever carried their points with men usually weak--as Samson was, with all his corporal strength--and by her tears, and reproaches of his want of love and confidence, she so wearied him that he at length gave her the information she desired. The guests were consequently enabled, within the given time, to answer--“What is sweeter than honey? What is fiercer than a lion?” But Samson was well convinced that the wit of man could never have discovered the true solution without a knowledge of the circumstances, which they could only have obtained by tampering with his wife. He exclaimed indignantly--“If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle!” He did not, however, as he might have done, refuse the payment of the forfeiture he had thus unexpectedly incurred; but to obtain it he went and slew thirty of the Philistines near Askelon, and gave their raiment to the persons who had expounded his riddle. He then returned to his own home, without again seeing his wife, with whose conduct he was deeply disgusted.
SAMSON'S REVENGE
But after some time his resentment subsided, and he went down to Timnath to revisit his wife, with a present of a kid. But he found that in the mean time she had been given in marriage to a man among the Philistines, who in former times had been his most dear and familiar friend, and whom, in that character, he had chosen to set as his paranymph,[245] or brideman,[246] at the wedding. The incensed hero rejected with indignation the offer of the father to give him his youngest daughter in lieu of the woman he had married; and regarding, probably, the treatment he had received as in some degree resulting from the insolence of superiority, and from the contempt in which the Philistines held the people they had so long held in subjection, he considered himself justified in avenging his own injuries upon the Philistine nation, as part and parcel of the wrongs his nation suffered. This mode of taking his revenge was no less remarkable than effective. He obtained three hundred jackals, and tying them together, with a firebrand between their tails, let them loose. The affrighted animals, being so bound as to be obliged to run side by side, hastened for shelter to the fields of standing and ripened corn, which, at that dry season, when the corn was ripe, was easily kindled into a blaze. As the tortured jackals took different directions, the conflagration was very extensive; nor was it confined to the standing corn, but wrought much damage among the olive-grounds and vineyards, and consumed the corn which had been cut down and heaped for the thrashing-floor.
[245] A man that goes with the groom to fetch the bride to the groom's house.
[246] Bestman
PHILISTINE REACTION
When the Philistines understood the immediate cause of this act of hostility on the part of Samson, they went and burned his wife and her father's house with fire; thus punishing them for that breach of faith to which they were first led by the fear of this very punishment. If this act was intended to appease Samson, it had not that effect; for it did not prevent him from taking an opportunity which offered of discomfiting, with much slaughter, a considerable number of men belonging to that nation. He then withdrew to a strong rock called Etam, in the tribe of Judah. To that place he was pursued by a large body of Philistines, whose presence occasioned great alarm to the Judaites. But when they understood that Samson individually was the sole object of this incursion, they most shamefully undertook of themselves to deliver him up to his enemies. Accordingly, three thousand of them went up to him, feeling assured that he would not act against his own people. They told him they were come to bind him, and to put him into the hands of the Philistines. It strikingly illustrates the opinion Samson had of his own countrymen--an opinion which the circumstances justified--that before he consented to be bound, he obliged them to swear that they would not kill him themselves. He then allowed them to bind him securely with two new ropes, and to take him down to the Philistines. When he was led to their camp they raised a triumphant shout against him. As he heard that shout, “the Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him;” he burst his strong bands asunder as easily as if they had been tow burnt with fire, and seizing the jawbone of an ass which lay at hand, he flew upon the Philistines, and, with no other weapon, routed the whole thousands which had come against him, slaying many of their number. They only lived who fled. As Milton makes the hero observe--
“Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole tribe,
They had by this possess'd the towers of Gath,
And lorded over them whom now they serve;
But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect,
Whom God hath of his special favor raised
As their deliverer? If he aught begin,
How frequent to desert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds”--Samson Agonistes.
SAMSON CARRIES GAZA GATES
Proudly confident in his strength, Samson was not deterred from going again among the Philistines, as soon as a motive occurred in the indulgence of that blind passion which had already brought him into much trouble, and which was destined to be his ruin. He went to Gaza, to visit a harlot of that place. His arrival was soon known, and although this was a different state from that which had been the scene of his former exploits, the authorities of the place were too sensible of the importance of destroying this implacable enemy of their nation, to neglect the advantage which his folly had placed in their hands. The city gates were closed to prevent his escape; and a strong guard was placed there to surprise and kill him in the morning. Samson, however, anticipated their plan; and, rising at midnight, he went boldly to the gate, forced it from its place, and, by way of bravado, carried it off entire, posts, bars, and all, to the top of a hill on the way to Hebron. The guards were too much astonished and terrified to molest or pursue him.
DELILAH
After this Samson did not again venture into the territory of the Philistines, but sought at home the indulgence of those blinding passions which make the strongest weak. “He loved a woman in the vale of Sorek,” so celebrated for its vines. Her name was Delilah, and she was probably of Israel, although Josephus, to save the credit of his countrywomen, makes her a Philistine. The Philistines themselves took an anxious interest in all the movements of Samson, and were soon acquainted with this new besotment,[247] Infatuation of which they prepared to take advantage. A deputation, consisting of a principal person from each of the five Philistine states, went up the valley to the place where he was. And now, we observe, it was not their object to get possession of his person while he retained all his strength, but to ascertain how that strength might be taken from him. They were well persuaded that a strength so greatly exceeding all they knew or had ever heard of, and to which that possessed by the few descendants of Anak who lived among them could not for an instant be compared, must be supernatural--the result of some condition which might be neutralized, or of some charm which might be broken. They therefore offered Delilah the heavy bribe of eleven hundred shekels of silver from each of their number (amounting altogether to 687 ..) to discover the secret of his great strength, and to betray him into their hands, that they might bind and afflict him. Samson amused her by telling her of certain processes whereby the weakness of other men would be brought upon him; but each time the imposition was detected, by her putting the process to the proof. Then she continued to worry him by such trite but always effective reproaches as, “How canst thou say 'I love thee,' when thy heart is not with me? for thou hast deceived me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.” Thus day by day she pressed him and urged him, until his soul was vexed unto death,” and at last he told the whole truth to her--that he was a Nazarite from his birth, and that if he left that state by cutting off his hair, which had never yet been shorn or shaven, his extraordinary strength would depart from him. Delilah saw by his earnestness that he had this time told her the truth. Accordingly, she sent for a man, who, while the hero slept with his head upon her lap, shaved off the luxuriant tresses of his hair. His strength departed from him: but he knew it not; and when aroused from his sleep by the approach of the Philistines to seize him, he thought to put forth his wonted power and destroy them all; but his listless arms refused to render him their wonted service, and he knew, too late, that “Jehovah had departed from him.”
PHILISTINES CAPTURE SAMSON
The Philistines took and bound him; and, to complete his disablement, put out both his eyes--a mode of rendering a public enemy or offender incapable of further offence, of which this is the first historical instance, but which has ever since been much resorted to in the kingdoms of the East.[248] They then took him down to Gath, and binding him with fetters of brass, employed him to grind in the prison-house.
[248] This barbarous infliction is however, now--under the operation of those humanizing influences which are insensibly pervading the East--the course of being discontinued. It was formerly more common in Persia than in any other country; but it became comparatively rare under the late king; and we believe that no instance has yet occurred in which the present monarch has resorted to it
SAMSON'S STRENGTH RETURNS
Nothing could more clearly than this deprivation evince the miraculous nature of the superhuman strength with which Samson had been for special purposes invested. Samson himself had known this before; but now, weak, blind, bound, “disglorified,” and degraded to a woman's service,[249] he had occasion and leisure to feel it; and in his “prison-house” he probably learned more of himself than he had known in all his previous life. Nor was this knowledge unprofitable. He felt that although he had begun to deliver Israel, this employment of the gifts confided to him had rather been the incidental effect of his own insensate passions, than the result of those stern and steady purposes which became one who had so solemnly been set apart, even before his birth, to the salvation of his country. Such thoughts as these brought repentance to his soul; and as by this repentance his condition of Nazariteship was in some sort renewed, it pleased God that, along with the growth of his hair, his strength should gradually return to him.
[249] Grinding is almost invariably performed by women in the East.
PHILISTINES PRAISE DAGON
Fatally for the Philistines, they took the view that, since the strength of Samson had been the gift of the God of Israel, their triumph over him, evinced that their own god, Dagon, was more powerful than Jehovah. This raised the matter from being a case between Samson and the Philistines, to one between Jehovah and Dagon; and it thus became necessary that the divine honor should be vindicated. An occasion for this was soon offered under aggravated circumstances.
The Philistines held a feast to Dagon, their god, who, as they supposed, had delivered their enemy into their hands. In the height, of their festivity they thought of ordering Samson himself to be produced, that the people might feed their eyes with the sight of the degraded condition of one who had not long since been their dread. The assembled multitude greeted his appearance with shouts of triumph, and praised their god who had reduced “the destroyer of their country” to be their bond-slave. After having been for some time exposed to their mockeries and insults, the blind hero desired the lad who led and held him by the hand, to let him rest himself against the pillars which sustained the chief weight of the roof of the temple, upon which no less than three thousand persons had assembled to view the spectacle, and celebrate Dagon's sacrifices. Thus placed, Samson breathed the prayer--
Supporting Pillars of Eastern Buildings

SAMSON'S PRAYER
“O Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” Saying this, he grasped the pillars with his mighty arms, and crying, “Let me die with the Philistines!” he bowed himself with such prodigious force that the pillars gave way, and then the roof fell in, destroying with one tremendous crash all who were above it and below it. Thus those whom Samson slew at his death were more in number than those he slew in his life.
SAMSON WORKS ALONE
“It is remarkable that the exploits of Samson against the Philistines were performed singly, and without any co-operation from his countrymen to vindicate heir liberties: whether it was that the arm of the Lord might be the more visibly revealed in him, or that his countrymen were too much depressed by the severity of their servitude to be animated by his example. They seem also to have feared him almost as much as they did the Philistines. Else why should three thousand armed men of Judah have gone to persuade him to surrender himself to the Philistines, when, with such a leader, they might naturally expect to have been invincible? or why, when he destroyed [routed?] a thousand Philistines with so simple a weapon, did he not join in pursuit of the rest? So true was the prediction of the angel to his mother, that he should only begin to deliver Israel.”[250] Hales. ii 108.
SAMSON DIES
It scarcely appears that Samson exercised any authority in the tribes; but to carry on the historical time, he is counted as one of the judges, and his administration is computed at forty years, ending by his death, in the year 1222 B.C.