of the Danites, which has been already mentioned, and to which we shall have to recur. The Amorites also kept pos session of the "Pass of Scorpions" (Akrabbim), from " Selah" (the cliff, Petra ?) upward, south of the Dead Sea." 66 These fitful efforts were reproved by a prophet,18 who went forth from Gilgal to some solemn assembly of the people in its neighborhood; and told them that, as they had failed to keep God's covenant, He would not drive out the people be fore them. They kept a great act of public humiliation, with sacrifices to Jehovah; and from their cries of repentance the place received the name of Bochim (the weepers)." 20 § 4. After this introduction we have the general summary of the vicissitudes of idolatry and repentance, servitude and deliverance, which we have already noticed. It ends with the enumeration of the heathen nations who were still left, to prove Israel by them:" a trial in which they failed, intermarrying with them, worshiping their gods, doing evil in the sight of Jehovah, forgetting their own God, and serving "Baalim and the groves. 9921 These statements are illustrated by the dark records of idolatry, vice, and cruelty, which occupy the closing chapters of the book, and which may be most fitly noticed here, especially as they seem to belong to the earlier part of the period of the judges." They are expressly mentioned as examples of the disorder of those days when "there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 9923 24 i. The Story of Micah and the Danites. A man of Mount Ephraim, named Micah, had stolen from his mother 1100 shekels of silver. She cursed the unknown thief, and devoted the silver to Jehovah, to make a graven and a molten image; a sign of that first step in idolatry, when forbidden symbols were intruded into the worship of the true God. Micah confessed the theft, and restored the silver to his mother, who dedicated 200 shekels of it to the fulfillment of her vow. The two images were set up in the house of Micah, who made also 25 an ephod (the garment of a priest) and teraphim (minor household gods), and consecrated one of his sons as priest; thus making a complete patriarchal establishment for the worship of Jehovah, but with the addition of idolatrous symbols." He soon obtained for his priest a young Levite who had removed from Bethlehem-judah, and who was no less a person than the grandson of Moses (see below). Micah hired him for ten shekels a year, besides garments and food; and, though the law forbade a Levite to intrude into the priests' office, Micah felt sure that Jehovah would bless him, now he had a Levite for his priest. 27 28 About this time the Danites sent out five spies, to prepare for their great expedition against Laish. În passing the In house of Micah, the spies recognized the voice of the Levite, who received them, inquired of Jehovah respecting the issue of their journey, and gave them a favorable response. The spies having accomplished their mission, 600 men of war started from the Danite cities of Zorah and Eshtaol, and, after a halt at Kirjath-jearim in Judah, they entered Mount Ephraim; and as they passed by the house of Micah, they stole his carved image," ephod, and teraphim, and enticed his priest to go with them. Having taken the city of Laish by surprise, and called it by the new name of DAN,30 they set up there the graven image, and established a sanctuary for themselves, and probably for others of the northern tribes, all the time that the tabernacle remained at Shiloh. The family of the Levite, whose name was Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, continued to be priests to the tribe of Dan down to the Captivity. The circumstance of the priest's being the grandson of Moses helps to fix the time of 31 25 This was, no doubt, an imitation | vention of the hireling. The Levite of the sacred ephod of the high-priest, is supposed to have been recognized with the "breastplate of judgment' ;" from being as the grandson of and the Urim and Thummim, the Moses-a well-known person. use of which for divination is referred to in Judg. xviii. 5, 6. Gideon made a similar ephod (Judg. viii. 27). 26 The phrase Micah had a house of idols" (xvii. 5) may refer either to his own house, or to a separate chapel for the idol figures. 27 Micah's devout belief in Jehovah forms a striking contrast to the Danites' mere acknowledgment of a God (Elohim). 28 It can not be supposed that this response was any thing but the in 29 The molten image seems to have been left behind. 30 The city of Dan is identified with Tell el-Kadi, a mound from which gushed out one of the main sources of the Jordan. 31 Judg. xviii. 30, 31. The Masoretic text, followed by our version, has changed the name of Moses to Manasseh; inventing an absurd genealogy to cover the disgrace of a grandson of Moses! See Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii. p. 225. 32 the transaction to the earlier part of the period of the judg es. The whole narrative affords a lively picture of the frightful state of anarchy into which the nation had fallen while it presents us, in the case of Micah, with a specimen of the family life of the Israelites in the country districts. 33 34 ; ii. The Extermination of the Benjamites. A certain Le vite of Mount Ephraim had taken a concubine from Bethle hem-judah. Having proved unfaithful to him, she returned to her father's house at Bethlehem, and remained there four months. At length the Levite went to propose a reconciliation and to fetch her home. He was gladly welcomed by his father-in-law; and we are presented with another interesting picture of Hebrew interior life. After three days' feasting together, and another two days' prolongation of the visit at the pressing instance of the host, the Levite at length resisted his entreaties to remain another night, and departed toward the evening of the fifth day. He travelled with his concubine, his servant, and two saddled asses; and as night came on, they found themselves over against Jebus. Refusing the proposal of his servant to ask hospitality from the natives, the man entered Gibeah" at sunset, to meet with worse treatment than he could have feared from the most licentious heathen. It would seem that the tribes had already begun to regard each other with the mutual jealousy of foreigners. Proverbial as is the hospitality of those countries and races, the little party sat down in the street or open square of the city, without being offered a lodging (which was all they needed, for they had food and provender with them) by any of the Benjamites. At length an old fellowcountryman from Mount Ephraim, who lived in the city, as he was returning from his work in the field, found the way. farers in the street, and learning who they were, took them home and showed them all the duties of hospitality. Now 32 The mention of Mahaneh-dan and the Levite are called father-in(Judg. xviii. 12) proves that it was law and son-in-law. at least earlier than the birth of Samson, when the place already had that name (Judg. xiii. 25); but it seems to have been much earlier still. See Notes and Illustrations (A.). 33 Judg. xix.-xxi. In this whole narrative it is important to remember how different the status of a concubine was among the Jews from what seems to resemble it among our selves. In this case, too, the concubine was not a slave; and her father 34 The citadel of Jerusalem, still held by the Jebusites. 35 This celebrated town, called more fully Gibeah of Benjamin, stood, as its name implies, on a height near the road from Jerusalem to Shechem. It seems to correspond with the height called Tuleil el-Fûl, four miles north of Jerusalem, and to the right of the high-road. Near the base of the hill is a cave, in which the ambuscade may have been concealed. 66 the men of the city were men of Belial," and had fallen into the worst vices which had brought down fire from heaven on the ancient cities of the land. When night came on, they beset the old man's house, and what followed may be best alluded to in the words in which Milton describes the power of Belial over his votaries : "In courts and palaces he also reigns, And in luxurious cities, where the noise 36 In the morning the Levite carried home his half-dead concu bine; and having cut her body into twelve pieces, he sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel, who cried with one voice that no such deed had been done or seen since the children of Israel came up out of Egypt. With a unanimity which recalls the spirit shown in resenting the supposed defection of the two and a half tribes, the whole congregation of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, gathered together at Mizpeh, where all the men of war, to the number of 400,000, present. ed themselves before Jehovah. Having called upon the Levite to recount his wrong, they bound themselves by a solemn vow of vengeance; resolved not to separate till it was fulfilled; and chose by lot one man in every ten to find provisions for the host. First, however, they sent messages through all the tribe of Benjamin, to demand the surrender of the culprits; but the Benjamites espoused the cause of the men of Gibeah with that fierceness and obstinacy which appear so often in their history, justifying the prophecy of Jacob," Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf." They drew to a head at Gibeah, to the number of 26,000 fighting-men, besides those of the city, who numbered 700. It is particularly recorded that there were 700 left-handed men, who could sling stones to a hair-breadth.37 The other tribes assembled at the sanctuary of Shiloh, where the ark then was, Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, being high-priest; and in reply to their inquiry of the oracle of 505. 38 36 Paradise Lost, book i. vs. 497-| 15), and of the brethren of Saulhimself, by the way, a man of Gibeah (1 Chron. xii. 2). 37 The skill of the Benjamites in the use of the left-hand is again mentioned in the case of Ehud (Judg. iii. 38 Judg. xx. 18, 23, 26-28. It is not clear whether Shiloh or Bethel God, Judah was directed to lead the attack on Benjamin, Then followed a struggle almost unexampled in the history of civil wars. The army of Israel having been arrayed against Gibeah, the Benjamites sallied out and defeated them, slaying 22,000 men. They rallied their forces in the same place, and spent the next day in weeping before God; while the tone of their inquiry," Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother?" seems to show some misgiving. But the oracle bade them renew the attack, and for the second time they were defeated, with the loss of 18,000 men. Again the whole congregation assembled at Shiloh to keep a solemn fast, with burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and again they consulted the oracle through Phinehas the high-priest. They were bidden to fight again, and assured of victory on the morrow. They arranged a stratagem, like that by which Joshua took Ai. An ambush was set near Gibeah, while the main army were drawn up as before. This time their flight was feigned. The Benjamites pursued them, slaying about thirty men, till they were drawn from the city, over which was now seen to rise the column of smoke, which first apprised them of the stratagem, and was the signal of its success. The Israelites turned upon their pursuers, who were stricken with a panic, and fled toward the wilderness. They were met by the other body, who had sacked Gibeah, and 18,000 of them were left dead upon the field. 5000 fell on the highways; and 2000 more were slain, apparently in a last rally at Gidom." The 600 men, who were all now left of the 25,700 warriors of the tribe, fled to the rock of Rimmon, in the wilderness, and remained there four months; while the Israelites burnt their cities, and put the inhabitants and the cattle to the sword. At length their anger began to turn to pity; and they assembled again at the sanctuary to mourn before God, because a tribe was cut off from Israel. Its total extinction seemed inevitable; for, when they made the league at Mizpeh, they had bound themselves by a curse not to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites. But a remedy was found in another curse which they had imprecated on any of the tribes who neglected to come up to the battle. On numbering the people, it was found that the men of Jabesh-gilead" were ab is meant. Phineas is mentioned in ceding narrative, there is no hint of two passages as being already priest a judge. in the time of Joshua (Josh. xxii. 13, xxiv. 33). It is to be observed that in the whole of this, as of the pre 39 These are round numbers: in v. 35 the total of the slain is 25, 100. 40 This is the city in Mount Gilead, |