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After the death of Deborah and Barak, the Israelites fell again into their old impiety, and were again given up into the hand of their enemies. The Midianites were a people situated on the east side of the river Jordan, whom the children of Israel, in their passage to the land of Canaan, 1 had almost totally destroyed; but it is not improbable, that some of that nation, saving themselves by flight into other countries, and after the Israelites were settled in Canaan returning thither again, might, in the space of 200 years, repossess the land where they dwelt before, and still retain the name of Midian- | ites. These people, together with their neighbours, the Amalekites, and some other eastern nations, for seven years, kept the Israelites in such subjection, that they were forced to betake themselves to the mountains, and to dwell in dens and caves, and fortified places, from whence, as the spring came on, they stole out to cultivate and sow their land; but all to no purpose: for towards the time of harvest, these enemies made inroads into the country, and having destroyed the increase of the earth, and killed all the cattle which fell into their hands, they then returned home, and left the poor Israelites nothing to support themselves withal. Upon this sore calamity, the people began to be sensible of their apostasy, and to humble themselves under the afflicting hand of God; whereupon God sent them a prophet who reproached them sharply with their base ingratitude; but at the same time, e sent his angel to

Num. xxxi. 7, &c.

a Though the Midianites were the principal people concerned in these invasions and inroads, yet, besides the Amalekites, they had other confederate nations, who are called the children of the east, (Judges vi. 3, 33,) by whom we may understand the Ammonites and Moabites, as lying east of the land of Israel, if not the Ishmaelites, and others that inhabited the parts of Arabia. The children or people of the east, in Gen. xxix. 1. denote the inhabitants of Mesopotamia; but these seem to be too far distant to have any part in these incursions; and therefore since we read, (Gen. xxv. 6.) that Abraham sent away the sons of his concubines, particularly the sons of Keturah, one whereof was Midian, the father of the Midianites, eastward, into the east country, it may not improbably be inferred, that by the children of the east,' in this history of Gideon, are denoted the descendants of the other sons of Keturah, and of the other brothers of Midian, who had settled themselves in the eastern parts adjoining to Midian.-Wells' Geography of the Old Testament.

6 Who this prophet was, we have no manner of intimation given us. The Jews generally fancy that he was Phinehas; but Phinehas must by this time have been above five hundred years old, which far exceeded the stated period of human life then. St Austin is of opinion, that he was the same with the angel which soon after appeared to Gideon; but it is far more likely, that God still continued other prophets among the Israelites, besides the high priest, to put them in mind of their duty, and to call them to repentance, when they forsook him: for, from the case of Deborah, who is said to have had the spirit of prophecy, it appears, that at least in extraordinary cases, God failed not to raise up such persons among them. It is remarked, however, of this prophet, be he who he will, that he gave the Israelites no hopes of the divine assistance, but only upbraided them with their sins. However, when he tells them, that their calamities were occasioned by their idolatry, he plainly intimates, that if they would return to the true worship of God, he would again look graciously upon them and deliver them; and accordingly we find, that the history of their deliverance immediately follows. Patrick's and Le Clerc's Commentaries.

That he was not a mere created angel, is plain from the incommunicable name, Jehovah, which he assumes, and whereby he suffers himself so frequently to be called, (Judges, vi. 14, 16, 23, 24, 25, 27.) And therefore the Jews, according to their Targum, which styles him the Word of the Lord,' look

Gideon, the son of Joash, who dwelt at d Ophrah, and was then thrashing out his corn, in a private and unsuspected place, the better to conceal it from the depredation of the enemy.

To him the angel signified the purport of his message, which was to acquaint him, that the Lord had made choice of him for the deliverance of his people. Gideon at first excused himself upon account of the obscurity of his family and fortune; and when the angel urged the thing, he desired of him some token of the divine mission, and at the same time, requested him to accept of a small entertainment from his hands. The angel seemed not to refuse the invitation, whereupon Gideon hastened, and having boiled a kid, and made some unleavened cakes, he spread a table, and set them before him; but the angel ordered him to take them hence, and place them upon a rock hard by, and so pour the broth upon them, which, though it might seem a little strange, Gideon did; and, as soon as the angel had touched them with the staff that was in his hand, immediately there issued fire out of the rock, which consumed them, whilst himself, at the same time, vanished out of sight.

Convinced by this miracle, that it was a messenger from heaven who appeared to him, Gideon began to fear, as the notion then was, that he should not long survive it; but being assured by the angel, though then invisible, that no harm should befall him, he built a monument, which he called Jehovah-shalom, that is, the Lord of peace, in commemoration of this gracious interview; and being that night admonished in a dream to destroy the altar of Baal, and cut down the grove that surrounded it; to build an altar to God upon the top of this wonderful rock, and to offer a burnt-sacrifice to him with one of his father's bullocks, he readily obeyed: and taking ten of his father's servants with him, he demolished the one, and erected the other by next morning; choosing the night to do it in, that he might meet with no obstruc

upon this angel, not merely as an heavenly messenger sent from God, but as the Son of God himself, appearing in the form of an angel.-Patrick's Commentary.

d Gideon was of the family of Abiezer, of the tribe of Manasseh; and so the Ophrah where he dwelt must be understood to be situated in the half tribe of Manasseh, on the west side of Jordan: and for this reason it is styled Ophrah of the Abiezrites,' (Judges viii. 32.) to distinguish it from another Ophrah that lay in the tribe of Benjamin.-Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 3. c. 6. e Judges vi. 19. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.' There is one passage in Dr Shaw, that affords a perfect commentary on this text. It is in his preface, (p. 12.) "Besides a bowl of milk, and a basket of figs, raisins, or dates, which, upon our arrival, were presented to us to stay our appetites, the master of the tent where we lodged, fetched us from his flock, according to the number of our company, a kid, or a goat, a lamb, or a sheep; half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and served up with cuscasooe: the rest was cut into pieces and roasted; which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner next day.

May we not imagine that Gideon, presenting some slight refreshment to the supposed prophet, according to the present Arab mode, desired him to stay till he could provide something more substantial for him; that he immediately killed a kid, seethed part of it, cut into pieces and roasted another part of it, and when it was ready, brought out the stewed meat in a pet, with unleavened cakes of bread which he had baked; the roasted pieces in a basket for his carrying away with him for some after repast in his journey.-Harmer, vol. 1. p. 330.-Ed.

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tion. On the morrow, when the people understood that | ing a fleece of wool on the ground, the dew might be Gideon was the person who had put this affront upon upon the fleece only, and the earth round about it be dry, Baal, they came and demanded him of his father, that which accordingly happened; and then, inverting the they might put him to death; but, instead of complying former manner, he desired that the fleece might be dry, with their demand, his father's answer was, that if while the ground all around it was wet; which accordBaal was a god, it was his business, and not theirs, to ingly came to pass likewise. Confirmed by these avenge his own quarrel;' and from this answer, where- signs, that it was the will of God that he should enter with he appeased the tumult, Gideon ever after obtained upon action, Gideon marched directly to the camp of the name of Jerub-baal, that is, the opposer of Baal. the Midianites, who then lay in the plain of Jezreel; About this time the Midianites and their company, but before he came thither, God rightly foreseeing, that passing over the river Jordan, came and encamped in if this army conquered the Midianites, they would vainly the valley of Jezreel; upon which Gideon, being impute it to their own courage or numbers, and not to moved by a divine impulse, summoned all those of his his assistance, ordered Gideon to make proclamation in own family to take up arms first, and then sent messen- the camp, that whoever was diffident of the success of gers to several adjacent tribes, exhorting them to shake the undertaking, should have liberty to return home. off the yoke of the Midianites, and to join with him; Whereupon 22,000 quitted the field, so that 10,000 only which accordingly they did, and came in such numbers, remained with him. It might be thought possible, howthat, in a short time, his army amounted to two and ever, for these 10,000 to defeat the army of the Midianthirty thousand men, though small in comparison of the ites; and, therefore, God, resolving that the glory of enemy's forces, which consisted of no less than a hun- the whole victory should be accounted his own, ordered dred and thirty-five thousand.

e He supposed that the dew which was distilled from heaven, was a divine gift, as the Scripture after testifies, and therefore

As soon as each tribe's complement of men was arrived, Gideon, being willing to satisfy them that he did not act this on his own head, but was the person appointed by heaven to be their leader and deliverer, desired of God to give them some token of his commission; and the token which he made choice of was,—that upon his lay-hand, but the better to express how the land was shorn by the

a It is generally supposed that Gideon's father had been a worshipper if not a priest of Baal; and therefore it is not unlike ly, that he had by this time been convinced by his son, that God had given him a commission to recover his people, and to begin with this reformation; and this made him appear so boldly in his son's cause, because he knew it was the cause of God. Poole's Annotations, and Patrick's Commentary.

Boothroyd renders this passage, (Judges vi. 31,) as follows: And Joash said to all that stood against him, will ye contend for Baal? Should ye preserve him who hath contended with him, he will die ere morning. If he be a god he will contend for himself, with him who hath broken down his altar.' And adds in a note; "I have adhered to the order of the text, and the sense given, I am satisfied, is that intended. The common version is contradictory; it makes Joash propose, that he who pleadeth for Baal, should be immediately put to death, and then assert that Baal would plead for himself." "I have followed Menochius, (see Poole) and consider the meaning to be, If Baal be really a god, ye need not avenge his quarrel, or desire the death of my son: Baal will speedily avenge himself; and you will see the demolisher of his altar die a sudden death.""ED.

e That is, the Amalekites and the children of the east.' (Jud. vi. 3.) This included the posterity of Abraham's sons by Keturah, of whom the Midianites were the principal nation, and appear to have taken the lead in the enterprise here recorded. (Jud. xxv. 6.) It also included the Ishmaelites, (Jud. viii. 24.) who had settled in the vicinity of the Midianites in the wilderness of Paran. (Gen. xxxvii. 28. xxi. 21.)—ED.

he desired that it might be directed by God, that though it might now water only his fleece. Some are apt to think, that he commonly falls everywhere, by his extraordinary providence, it chose a fleece for this purpose, not only because it was ready at

Midianites, even as the sheep had been by him; that when he begged the dew, as a sign of the divine favour, might fall upon the fleece, it was to represent the kindness of God to him; and when he begged it might fall upon the whole ground, to represent his favour to all the people. But there is farther reason why he might desire to have the miracle inverted for, as it is in the very nature of the wool to draw moisture to it, some might be apt to think, that there was no great matter in this; and, therefore, he requested of God a second miracle, which was contrary to the former.-Patrick's Commentary.

f Judges vi. 38. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water." It may seem a little improbable to us, who inhabit these northern climates, where the dews are inconsiderable, how Gideon's fleece, in one night, should contract such a quantity, that when he came to wring it, a bowl full of water was produced. Irwin, in his voyage up the Red Sea, when on the Arabian shores, says, "difficult as we find it to keep ourselves cool in the daytime, it is no easy matter to defend our bodies from the damps of the night, when the wind is loaded with the heaviest dews that ever fell; we lie exposed to the whole weight of the dews, and the cloaks in which we wrap ourselves, are as wet in the morning as if they had been immersed in the sea."-p. 87.

g The text reads, Whosoever is afraid let him return, and depart early from Mount Gilead.' Gideon, however, was certainly not at Mount Gilead at this time, but rather near Mount Gilboa. Gilead was on the other side of Jordan. Calmet thinks there must either have been two Gileads, which does not from Scripture appear to be the case, or that the Hebrew text is here corrupted, and that for Gilead, we should read Gilboa. This reading, though adopted by Houbigant and Le Clerc, whom Boothroyd follows, is not countenanced by any MS., nor by any of the versions. Dr Hales endeavours to reconcile the passage as it stands with the circumstances of the case, by the supposition that there were in Gideon's army many of the eastern Manassites, who came from Mount Gilead; and that these probably were more afraid of their neighbours, the Midianites, than the

d The city of Jezreel, which gave name to the valley, belonged to the half tribe of Manasseh, on the west of Jordan, and lay in the confines of that half tribe and the tribe of Issachar, as appears from Josh. xix. 18. In the history of the kings of Israel, this city is frequently made mention of, where, by reason of the pleasantness of its situation, some of them had a royal palace, though their capital was Samaria. The vale of Jezreel, which, as we said before, is now called the plain of Esdraelon, is, accord-western tribes were; and therefore proposes to read the text thus: ing to Mr Maundrell, of a vast extent, [It is estimated at thirty miles in length and twenty in breadth.] very fertile, but uncultivated, and only serving the Arabs for pasturage: but some have supposed, that the valley of Jezreel here mentioned, denotes some other lesser valley, lying between Mount Hermon and Mount Gilboa.-Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 2. c. 6.

Whosoever from Mount Gilead is fearful and afraid, let him return (home) and depart early. So there returned (home) 22,000 of the people.' Dr Adam Clarke thinks this perhaps, on the whole, the best method of solving the difficulty-the intelligent reader will form his own opinion.-See Clarke and Boothroyd on the passage, and Hales' Analysis, vol. 1. p. 424-425, and vol. 2. p. 281.-ED.

A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443, OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3985. A. C. 1426. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. Gideon to lead the soldiers down to the water to drink, | soldier had directions to do as his general did, they where he would give him a signal what men were fit for all broke their pitchers, brandished their lamps, and his purpose, and what not; and the signal was this, sounded their trumpets together. That they who took up water in their hands, and lapped it, should go with him; but they who laid themselves down to drink, should be dismissed; which experiment reduced them to no more than 300.

These 300 men he ordered to hold themselves in readiness, and to have every one a trumpet, a lamp, and an empty pitcher to conceal the light which the lamp would otherwise give; and while they were providing themselves with these, he took his servant with him, and went down to the enemies' camp, where he heard a Midianite relating his dream to his companion, which the other interpreted in Gideon's favour; so that returning to the camp, he drew his men out, and dividing them into three companies of 100 men each, he came upon the enemy in the dead time of the night. The watchword was, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon;' and as every

The Midianites, hearing so many trumpets, and seeing so many lights at once, supposed themselves to be attacked by a formidable army; and so rising in a fright, and mistaking their friends for their enemies, d they fell upon one another, until they had put every thing into the utmost confusion. By this means, Gideon having obtained an easy victory, sent to the rest of the army, who, upon his proclamation, had withdrawn themselves, some to pursue the routed enemy, and others to secure the passes of the river Jordan, in order to prevent their retreat.

The passes, however, could not all be secured; so that some of the enemy's troops having made a shift to cross the river, Gideon, with his 300 men, pressed hard after them, while the other part of the army destroyed those who stayed behind; and having taken the two Midianitish princes, e Oreb and Zeeb, they cut off their heads, and sent them to Gideon.

a Mr Le Clerc is of opinion, that the sacred historian has omitted one circumstance, which, nevertheless, in the very Gideon, in the mean time, and his small party, were in nature of the thing is implied, namely, that Gideon, when he full chase of two other princes of Midian, Zeba, and Zalled his men down to the water, did forbid them to make use of munna; and when he came to Succoth and Penuel, two any cup or pot, or such like thing: for he thinks it incongruous towns on the other side of Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, (as well he may) that among such a number as 10,000 men, no one should be furnished with some drinking vessel or other. he desired of them some provision for his men, because But then, had any of these been permitted to be used upon this they were faint and weary; but instead of giving him occasion, the experiment could not have been made.-Comment. any refreshment, they ridiculed the smallness of his army; on Judges vii. 6. 6 Interpreters are at a sad puzzle to conceive, for what possible for which insolence he vowed to be revenged of them, reason God made a distinction between the soldiers who lapped upon his return. Continuing his pursuit, therefore, with water in their hands, and those that laid themselves down to his small fatigued party, he came up with the enemy at drink. Some of the Jewish doctors are of opinion, that all Karcor, where the two Midianitish kings, thinking that except 300 who lapped, had been accustomed to the worship they had now sufficiently escaped, were regardless of all of Baal, which they unwarily discovered by their kneeling to drink: but this is a groundless and far-fetched conceit. danger; but Gideon falling upon them unexpectedly, The notion of those who impute these 300 men's lapping, surprised and defeated them, and having taken them prisome to their sloth and laziness, and others to their timorousness, soners, carried them in triumph with him into Succoth, and the great fear they were in of being surprised by the enemy, where he executed the vengeance which he had threatened, is of no more validity: for though God, if he thought fit, might have employed the most dastardly among them upon this expedi- by crushing the princes of that place to death, under tion, that the glory of the victory might entirely redound to him- thorns and briars, killing the people of Penuel, and deself; yet, since we are told all the fearful persons were dismissed molishing its fortifications. Zeba and Zalmunna, in their before, and since it but badly befits the character of the courage-march, had laid all the country waste, and put many to ous to be lazy, this action of lapping is rather to be accounted a token of their temperance, and of the nobleness of their spirit, which made them so desirous to engage the enemy, that they would not stay to drink, but, though they were very thirsty, contented themselves to moisten their mouths, as we say, with a little water; whereas the rest indulged themselves so far, as to drink their bellyful. But, after all, the true reason and design of this method seems to be only this,-That God was minded to reduce Gideon's army to a very small number, which might very likely be done by this means. For, as the season of the year was hot, and the generality of the soldiers weary, thirsty, and faint, it was most probable, that they would lie down, as indeed they did, and refresh themselves plentifully, and scarce to be expected that any great number would deny themselves in this matter. Patrick's Commentary, and Saurin's Gideon's defeat of the Midianites.

The expression in the text is, in the beginning of the middle watch:' for though the Romans, in after ages, divided the night into four watches, (Mat. xiv. 25.), yet, in the eastern parts, and in more ancient times, it consisted but of three, whereof the first began at six, and continued four hours. The second, therefore, is called the middle watch,' and began at ten; so that we may suppose, that it was some time after this, that Gideon alarmed the Midianitish camp; and the reasons why he chose this part of the night to do it in, are obvious, because the trumpets would then seem to sound louder, and the lights to shine brighter, and so both increase the consternation of the enemy, and conceal the smallness of his own army.-Poole's

Innotations.

the sword, otherwise Gideon was inclinable to have shown them some mercy; but understanding by their own confession, that they had slain his brethren at Tabor, he

d There might be several reasons for their doing this:Either because the night was so dark that they could not distinguish friends from foes; or because the thing was so sudden, that it struck them with horror and amazement; or because they suspected treachery, as they might easily do, since the army consisted of several nations, (Jud. vi. 3.), or because God had infatuated them, as he had many others on the like occasions.— Poole's Annotations.

e As the language of the Ishmaelites, the Midianites, and the Amalekites, who dwelt in Arabia, was originally the same, be cause they all descended from Abraham, their common father; so we may infer, that there was little or no difference in them at this time. Oreb, in the Hebrew, siguifies a crow, and Zeeb, a wolf; and these are no improper words to represent the sagaciousness and fierceness which should be in two such great com. manders. Nor was it an uncommon thing for great families, in ancient times, to derive their names from such like creatures, either as omens, or monuments of their undaunted courage and dexterity in military achievements. But after all, it seems every whit as probable, that these were only nicknames, which the Israelites gave these two princes of Midian, to denote their fierceness and rapaciousness of prey.-Bedford's Scripture Chronology, h. 5. c. 3; Le Clerc's Commentary.

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b

tampered with the people of Shechem, the place of his nativity, and where his mother's family had no small in

were inclinable to do it; and, that he might not want money to carry on his design, furnished him with some out of the treasury of e their god Baal-berith, wherewith

ordered his son Jether to fall upon them, but as he was but a youth, and seemed a little timorous, a he himself despatched them with his own hand, having first or-terest, to make him their king. They, by his persuasions, dered them to be stripped of their royal ornaments, and their camels of their rich trappings and furniture. These great and glorious actions, in defence of his country's liberty, raised Gideon's name to such a height | he hired a company of profligate fellows to attend him. that the people came, and voluntarily offered to settle the government upon him and his family; which he modestly and generously rejecting, and desiring only, as an acknowledgment of his services, to have the pendants or ear-rings taken in the plunder of the Midianites given him, the people readily consented, and, over and above these, threw in the costly ornaments, and the robes of the kings, together with the golden chains, which were about the camels' necks, the whole amounted to a prodigious value; and of these rich materials he made an ephod, and placed it in the city of Ophrah, as a monument only of his victory, though in after times, it came to be perverted to a bad use, gave occasion to a fresh apostasy, and proved the ruin of Gideon's family. Gideon, while he lived had several wives, by whom, in all, he had seventy sons, besides one by a concubine, d whom she named Abimelech. As soon as his father was dead, this Abimelech, who was a bold aspiring youth,

With these he repaired to his father's at Ophrah, and having seized all his brethren, except Jotham the youngest, who made his escape, he slew them all ƒ upon one stone, and when he returned to Shechem, instead of meeting with detestation for this unnatural murder, was in a general assembly of the people elected their king. When young Jotham heard of this, he went upon Mount Gerizim, which overlooks the city of Shechem, and from thence, in a parabolic speech, represented to 8 the people his father's modesty and self-denial, in refus

e The learned Bochart is of opinion, that the Baal here mentioned was the same with Beroe, the daughter of Venus and Adonis, desired in marriage by Neptune, but given to Bacchus: and that she gave her name to Berith in Phoenicia, where she was much worshipped, and thence translated a goddess into other parts. But though the word Baal, as he maintains, be frequently used in a feminine sense, yet it can hardly be imagined, but that the sacred historian, if he had been minded to express a goddess, might have found out some way of distinguishing her; might have called her, for instance, Bahalaha In ancient times, it was as much a custom for great men to berith, the lady, or goddess of Berith, without making both the do execution upon offenders, as it is now a usual thing for them words of a masculine termination. And therefore the most simto pronounce sentence upon them. They had not then, as we ple and natural manner of explaining the name, is to take it in have now, such persons as the Romans called carnifices, or public general for the god who presides over covenants and contracts, to executioners; and therefore Saul bade such as waited on him whom it belongs to maintain them, and to punish all those that kill the priests; and Doeg, one of his chief officers, did it, (violate them. For it is to be observed, that the most barbarous Sam. xxii. 17, 18.) But the reason why Gideon would have had as well as the most knowing, the most religious as well as the his son do this execution, was that he might be early animated most superstitious nations, have always looked upon God as the against the enemies of Israel, even as Hannibal is reported, when witness, as well as the vindicator of oaths and covenants; that the he was a boy, to have been incensed against the Romans. (Pa-Greeks had their Zeus Horkios, as well as the Latins their Jupitrick's Commentary.) In these ages it would be thought barba-ter Pistius, or Deus Fidius, or Fecialis, whom they looked upon rous for a king to command his son to perform an execution like as a god of honesty and uprightness, always superintending in that mentioned in this passage: but anciently it was thought no treaties and alliances. And for this reason not improbably, the dishonour. Homer (Odyss. b. xxii.) represents Ulysses as en-house of their god Berith was the citadel, the arsenal, and the treajoining such a task upon his son, which was instantly performed.sury of the Shechemites, even as Plutarch informs us, that in the See also Virgil, Æn. xi. 15.-ED.

6 Judges viii. 26.

And purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian.' Purple seems anciently to have been appropriated to kings, and to them only on whom they bestowed it It is here mentioned by the sacred historian as being found on the Midianitish kings. A garment of fine linen and purple is given to a favourite by king Ahasuerus, (Esther viii. 15.) The Jews made a decree that Simon should wear purple and gold, and that none of the people should wear purple, or a buckle of gold, without his permission, in token that he was the chief magistrate of the Jews, (1 Maccab. xlii.) Thus also Homer describes a king:

Odyss. xix. 261. Pope.

e The word which we render chains, is in the original, little moons, which the Midianites might wear strung together about their camels' necks, either by way of ornament or superstition, because they, as well as all other people of Arabia, were very zealous worshippers of the moon.-Le Clerc's Commentary.

d What the name of his other sons were, we have no mention made in sacred writ; but the name of this one is particularly set down, because the following story depends upon it: and not only so, but his mother perhaps might give him this name, which signifies, my father a king, out of pride and arrogance, that she might be looked upon as the wife of one who was thought to deserve a kingdom, though he did not accept it: and it is not improbable, that the very sense of this might be one means to inflame the mind of her son afterwards, to affect the royal dignity. -Patrick's Commentary.

temple of Saturn the Romans reposited both their archives and public wealth.-Bochart, Canaan, b. 2. c. 17.; Poole's Annotations in locum; Calmet's Dictionary under the word Baal-berith; and Jurieu's History of Dogmas and Religions, part 4. c. 1.

This stone some will have to be an altar, which Abimelech dedicated to the idol Berith, and erected in the same place where his father Gideon had destroyed his altar before; and so they account that this slaughter of his sons was designed for an expiatory sacrifice of their father's crime in demolishing the altar and grove dedicated to that idol. But this is a little too far-fetched, though there is hardly any other reason to be given, why they should all be murdered upon one and the same stone.-Patrick's Commentary, and Poole's Annotations.

g This is the first fable that we find any where upon record; and from hence it appears, that such fictions as these, wherein the most serious truths are represented, were in use among the Jews, as they are still in the eastern countries, long before the time of Esop, or any other author that we know of. Various are the reasons that may be assigned for the first invention of them; but these two seem to be the principal: 1. Because men would suffer themselves to be reprehended in this guise, when they would not endure plain words; and, 2. Because they heard them with delight and pleasure, and remembered them better than any grave or rational discourses.

The trees went forth on a time, to anoint a king over them,' (so that anointing was in use 200 years before the first kings of Israel;) and they said unto the olive-tree, Reign over us. But the olive-tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man,' (because oil was offered in sacrifice to God, and fed the lamps of his house, besides all the other uses wherein it was serviceable to man,) and go to be pro