A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. terms, that they were come to seize, and deliver him up to the Philistines. At length a more fatal adventure than any of these befell him for falling in love with a beautiful woman, Samson submitted to have himself bound, which was named Delilah, who lived in the vale of Sorek, which done with new strong cords, upon condition that they lay in the tribe of Judah, he was so infatuated to her, themselves would not side with the enemy against him; that he lost all regard to his own safety. The princes and so being brought to the place where the Philistines of the Philistines, observing his passion for this woman, were encamped, they now thought they had him secure, came and promised her d a round sum of money, if she and therefore ran out with joy to receive him. But as would learn of him, and discover to them what might be they came near him, he snapped the cords asunder, and the cause of this his wonderful strength, and how he happening to espy a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, he made | might be deprived of it. This she undertook to do; and use of that for want of a better weapon, and therewith failed not to employ all her art and solicitation to get slew no less than a thousand men; from which achieve the important secret from him. For some time he amused ment, the place was afterwards called, either simply Lehi, her with fictions, and made her believe, that his strength that is, the jaw-bone, or Ramah-Lehi, the lifting of the consisted sometimes in one thing, and sometimes in jaw-bone. Fatigued with this fight, and being now ex- another; first, that binding him with bands made of cessively thirsty, in a place where no water was to be had, green withes, then, that tying him with ropes that had he made his supplication to God, and God immediately never been used, and again, ƒ weaving his hair into caused a fountain of delicious water to issue from a hollow rock adjacent to Lehi, wherewith Samson allayed his thirst, and was revived; and from this event, the place was called En-hakkor, the well of him that prayed, ever after. After this action Samson made nothing of the Philistines, but went openly into a one of their cities called Gaza, and took up his lodging in a public house of entertainment. The governor of the place had soon intelligence of him, and sent guards to beset the house, and to watch the gates of the city for his going out next morning; but Samson, being informed of this, rose in the midnight, and taking the two gates of the city, posts, bars, bolts, chain and all, he laid them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of an hill, that looks towards Hebron, and there left them. top of a hill, that is before Hebron,' (Judges xvi. 3.); but the word which we render before,' does equally signify in the Gaza and Hebron is no less than twenty miles, it is more proba sight of Hebron;' and therefore, since the distance between ble, that the hill where Samson left these gates, lay between the two cities, and in view of both, that the inhabitants of one city might behold them to their confusion, and they of the other, to their encouragement to hope for a future deliverance.-Patrick's Commentary. c It is certain that Sorek was a place in the land of Judea, famous for choice wines, as may be gathered from Gen. xlvi. 11.; Isaiah v. 12.; and Jer. ii. 21., and lay not above a mile and a half from Eshcol, from whence the spies brought a gate-but whether Delilah, who is said to live here, was a woman of bunch of grapes for a sample of the fruitfulness of the country; Israel, or one of the daughters of the Philistines, (who at this time were rulers in the country of Judah,) or whether she was his wife, or an harlot only, is not expressed in her story. St Chrysostom, and others, are of opinion that he was married to her; but if so, some mention, one would think, there should have been of the marriage ceremonies in this, as well as in his former wife's case. Nor can we think that the Philistines would have been so bold as to attempt to draw her into their party, and to bribe her to betray him into their hands, had she been his lawful wife. It appears, indeed, by her whole behaviour, that she was a mercenary woman, who would do any thing to get money; and accordingly, Josephus, (Antiquities, b. 5. c. 1.,) calls her a common prostitute of the Philistines.-Patrick's Commentary, and Poole's Annotations. a This city was, by Joshua, made part of the tribe of Judah, but, after him, it fell into the hands of the Philistines, and was one of their five principalities, situated between Raphia and Askelon, towards the southern extremity of the promised land. The advantageous situation of this place was the cause of the many revolutions to which it became subject. At first of all it belonged to the Philistines, but in Joshua's time, was conquered by the Hebrews. In the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz, it recovered its liberty, but was conquered by Hezekiah. It was made subject to the Chaldeans, when they reduced Syria and Phoenicia; and afterwards fell into the hands of the Persians. They were masters of it when Alexander besieged, took, and demolished it. It afterwards rose again, but not nearly of the same magnitude, under the name of Majuma, which underwent as many vicissitudes as the former. The kings of Egypt had it for some time in possession: Antiochus the Great took and sacked it; the Asmoneans, or Maccabees, took it several times from the Syrians; Alexander Jannæus, king of the Hebrews, destroyed it; Gabinius repaired it. Augustus gave it to Herod the Great; Constantine gave it the name of Constantia, with many independent privileges, in honour of his son; but the emperor Julian destroyed and deprived it of all.-Calmet's Dictionary.-Gaza lies 44 miles south-west of Jerusalem, and about one mile from the Mediterranean sea, in long. 34° 40′ E., and lat. 31° 25′ N., and has a population of about 5000. The environs are exceedingly fertile, and produce pomegranates, oranges, dates, and flowers, in great request even at Constantinople. The manufacture of cotton employs 500 looms in the town and neighbourhood. There are likewise great quantities of ashes made by the Arabs, and used in the manufacture of soap; this manufacture has lately declined. Gaza is at present divided into two parts, called the upper and lower. Both of these parts taken together are now called Gazara; and the upper part where the castle is situated has the same name, but the lower part is, by the Arabs, distinguished under the name of Harel el Segiage.— ED. 6 The words in the text are, that he carried them up to the d The princes of the Philistines, from their five chief cities, Accaron, Askalon, Gaza, Azoth, and Gath, (1 Sam. vi. 17.,). are supposed to be five in number, so that, if they made her a common purse, as we say, of five times 1100 pieces, or 5,500 shekels of silver, it would amount to about 343 pounds fifteen shillings.-Howell's History, in the notes. e There is a good deal of probability in Josephus's manner of telling this story, namely, That while they were eating and drinking together, and he was caressing her, she fell into an admiration of his wonderful deeds; and having highly extolled them, desired him to tell her how he came so much to excel all other men in strength. For we cannot suppose, that she came bluntly upon him all at once, and desired to know, as it is in the text, wherewith he might be bound and afflicted.' This had been discovering her wicked design against him at once, and defeating herself of an opportunity of betraying him; and therefore, we must conclude that the sacred history in this place, as it frequently does elsewhere, gives only the sum and substance of what Delilah said to her paramour, without taking notice of all the cunning and artful speeches wherewith she dressed it up. -Le Clerc's Commentary. f We have followed in this passage, which indeed is a very obscure one, the notion of the learned Spencer, (On the Law of Moses' Rites, b. 3. c. 6. Dissert. 1.,) concerning the hair of the Nazarite; but a learned commentator is of another opinion, namely, that Samson's hair, being very long, was interwoven with the threads and warp of a web of cloth. And to this purpose he supposes, that in the room where he sometimes slept A. M. 2561. A. C. 1222; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1443. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. tresses, and so filleting them up, would bereave him of his strength. But these were no more than mock stories, for, upon trial, she found that all these signified nothing; and therefore, betaking herself to all her arts and wiles, she complained of his falseness, and upbraided him with his want of love, since he withheld a thing from her which she was so impatient to know: and thus, by daily teazing and importuning him, she prevailed with him at length to tell her the secret, namely, that in the preservation of his hair (for he was a Nazarite from his birth) his strength and security lay.' : There was something in his manner of telling her this, that made Delilah believe she had now got the true secret from him; and therefore, she sent word thereof to some of the chiefs of the Philistines, who came and paid her the money they had covenanted to give her and when she had cut off his hair, as he lay sleeping in her lap, they fell upon him, bound him, and put out his eyes; and having carried him to Gaza, they shut him up in prison, and made him a grind in the mill like a slave. In process of time, however, his hair grew again, and with it his former strength returned: so that, when several of the princes and nobility of the Philistines were met in a general assembly, to return thanks to their godDagon, for having delivered their worst and sorest upon a couch, there might stand very near a loom, wherewith Delilah, as the custom then was, at her leisure hours, might work and divert herself; and that now, by his permission and connivance, she might take the locks of his hair, work it into the web, and, to hinder it from being pulled out, secure it with an iron pin thrust into the beam, but that Samson, when he awoke, took the loom along with him at his hair. And, indeed, without some such supposition as this, we cannot very well tell what to make of his going away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.' (Jud. xvi. 14.)-Le Clerc's Commentary. a Before the invention of wind and water mills, men made use of hand mills, wherewith to grind their corn; and as this was a very laborious work, we find masters, especially in most comic authors, threatened their servants with it, in case of any delinquency. It was the work, indeed, of malefactors, as well as slaves; and therefore, it seems very probable, that in this prison, where Samson was put, there was a public mill, as Socrates (Hist. Eccles. b. 5. c. 18.) tells us there were several afterwards in Rome, in the time of Theodosius. So that from this and some other circumstances, we may learn, that the Philistines' purpose was not to put Samson to death, even as they had promised Delilah they would not, but to punish him in a manner, namely, with blindness, hard labour, and insults, much worse, and more intolerable than death itself.-Le Clerc's Commentary. 6 The word Dagon is taken from the Phoenician root Dag, which signifies a fish; and accordingly the idol is usually represented, as the heathens do Tritons and Syrens, in the shape of a woman, with the lower parts of a fish,—desinit in piscem, mulier formosa superne.—For this reason learned men have imagined, that Dagon was the same with Derceto, which the people of Askelon worshipped, and near which place there was a great pond full of fish, consecrated to this goddess, from which the inhabitants superstitiously abstained, out of a fond belief that Venus, having heretofore cast herself into this pond, was metamorphosed into a fish. The learned Jurieu is of another opinion, namely, That Dagon whose termination is masculine, both in sacred and profane writings, is always represented as a male deity, and may therefore very properly be thought to be the Neptune of the ancients. The Phoenicians in particular, from whom both the Greeks and Romans borrowed their gods, living upon the sea coast, and by their navigation and commerce, gaining great advantages from that element can hardly be supposed to want a deity to preside over it. Saturn, and his three sons, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were their principal idols: and as Saturn was their Moloch, Jupiter their Baal, and Pluto their Baal-zebub; so have we reason to presume, that Neptune was their Dagon. This however will not hinder us from sup enemy into their hands; and after they had feasted a while, and were now grown merry, they ordered that this same Samson should be sent for, that they might have pleasure in ridiculing his misery, and making sport with his blindness, and accordingly Samson was brought. A large number of people was upon this occasion met together, and the building where the feast was celebrated had only two large pillars to support the roof. After the Philistines therefore had insulted Samson as long as they thought fit, he desired the boy, that led him, to guide him to one of those pillars that he might rest himself a little against it. The boy did so: and Samson, by this means, having laid hold of the two main supporters, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left, after a short ejaculation to God for the restoration of his former strength, he gave them such a terrible shake, that down came the house, and crushed no less than three thousand persons to death under its ruins, and Samson among the rest. c Thus died this hero, in the midst of his enemies, as he desired; and when his relations heard of his death, they sent, and took away his body, and buried it honourably in the sepulchre of his fathers. posing that there might be two deities, a male and a female, worshipped in the same country, and under the same figure or form: and that as the pagan theology gives Jupiter a Juno, to be his consort in heaven; and Pluto a Proserpine, to keep him company in hell; so Neptune had his Amphitrite, to be the partner of his liquid empire in the sea. According to this supposition, the Dagon of Gaza or Ashdod must be Neptune and the Derceto of Askelon, a few leagues distant, Amphitrite, the daughter of Doris and Oceanus. Nor can it be thought incongruous to suppose farther, that the universal god of the sea might, in one place be represented as a male, as at Ashdod, and in another, as at Askelon, as a female, to signify the fecundity of that element, which produces and nourishes so many living creatures. -Le Clerc's Commentary; Calmet's Dictionary; and Juries, History of Opinions and Religion, part 4. c. 6. c It is made a question among the casuists and divines, whe ther Samson ought to have died in this manner, with a spirit of revenge and self-murder? St Austin excuses him indeed, but it is upon the supposition that he was urged thereunto by the inward motions of him who is the great Arbiter of our life and death; and St Bernard affirms that if he had not a peculiar inspiration of the Holy Ghost to move him to this, he could not without sin have been the author of his own death; but others maintain, that without having recourse to this superna tural motive, this action of his might be vindicated from his office, as being the judge and defender of Israel, and that he might therefore devote his life to the public good, as some heathens have merited the commendation of posterity by so doing, without having any thing in view but the death of his enemies, and the deliverance of his own people.-Calmet's Dic tionary; and Saurin's Dissertation on the various feats of Samson. d How the people of Gaza came to permit Samson's relations to come and take away his body, is not so obvious to conceive. In all nations, there was formerly so much humanity, as not to prohibit enemies from interring their dead, nor did any of the Israelites join with Samson in his enterprises; he stood alone in what he did but this last slaughter which he had made among them, might have provoked them, one would think, to some acts of outrage even upon his dead body. It is to be observed, however, that instead of any acts of violence, they might perhaps be much humbled and mollified by this late disaster; and might fear, that if they denied him burial, the God of Israel, who had given him such extraordinary strength in his lifetime, would not fail to take vengeance of them. And therefore, dreading his very corpse, they were desirous to get quit of it, even as they were of the ark afterwards, and glad that any came to take such a formidable object out of their sight.—Patrick's and Le Clerc's Commentary. A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. CHAP. II.-Difficulties Obviated, and Objections Answered. their encounters with their enemies, attended them with JUDGES, which in Hebrew, are Shophetim, were a kind nation. To mention one for all, Samson, a person born for the castigation of the Philistines, and to be a pattern of valour to all succeeding heroes, forgot himself in the arms of a Delilah, and to the passion he had for a base perfidious woman, sacrificed those gifts which God had bestowed on him for the deliverance of his church, and so, to all ages, he became a sad example of the corruption and infirmities of human nature. The like perhaps, in other respects, may be said of the rest of the judges: but then we are to remember, that they were persons under a particular economy of providence; that their conduct therefore is no direction to us, though their passions the Almighty might make use of, and therefore tolerate, for the accomplishment of his wise ends: Howbeit, they meant not so, neither did their hearts think so,' as the prophet expresses himself upon the 46 Whether it be lawful, according to the right of nature Their right extended so far, as to arbitrate in all and nations, for subjects to rescue themselves from affairs of war and peace, and to determine all causes; tyranny by taking away the life of the tyrant, and to but then they had none at all to make any new laws, or recover their country, which has been unjustly taken lay any new taxes upon the people. Their dominion from them, by destroying the usurper, is a question that did seldom reach over all the land; but, as it often hap-has been much debated, and what, at present, we need pened, that the oppressions which occasioned a recourse not enter into, for the vindication of Ehud's fact. to their assistance, were felt in particular tribes or provinces only; so the judges which were either raised, or chosen to procure a deliverance from those grievances, did not extend their command over all the land in general, but over that district only which they were appointed to deliver. It is the observation of the learned Grotius, that the authority of the king of Moab was never legitimized by any convention of the Israelites, and consequently that they were at liberty to shake off his yoke whenever they found a convenient opportunity. The only difficulty is " whether a private man might make himself an instrument in effecting this, in the manner that Ehud did? But to this it is replied, that Ehud was no private man, but acted by warrant and authority from God; and to this purpose, the history acquaints us, that when Ehud had made an end of offering the present' which the Israelites sent to Eglon, he was upon his return home, and 'had gone as far as the quarries which were by Gilgal.' The word pesil, which is here rendered quarries, most commonly signifies, as indeed it is in the marginal note, as well as the Septuagint and Vulgate, graven images, which it is not improbable the Moabites had set up in this place rather than any other, in pure contempt of the A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. God of Israel, who had for so long a time made Gilgal only prophesy how and in what manner the Israelites famous by his presence in the tabernacle while it stood would be affected towards that woman, by whose means, though not in the most commendable way, they had been delivered from a very dangerous enemy. there. These images when Ehud beheld, his spirit was stirred with a just indignation within him; and therefore, proceeding no farther on his journey home, he dismissed his attendants, and went himself back with a resolution to revenge this affront to God, as well as the oppression of his people. It is natural for us, when at any time we are rescued from an adversary, by whom we have suffered much, and have reason to dread more; it is natural, I say, for us to wish well to the person by whose means he was taken off; nor are we apt to consider the action according to the measure of strict virtue, by reason of the benefit which accrues to us thereby. Deborah might, therefore, mean no more than what were the common notions of mankind in a case of this nature. But, even admitting her words to be a commendation of the fact, we might, very likely, perceive several reasons for it, if we had but a knowledge of some circumstances, which we may reasonably suppose, though the Scripture has not related them to us. a It is certain, that the Kenites, descended from Hobab, That this his return was directed by a divine impulse and instigation, is evident, I think, from the hazard of the enterprise he was going upon, and the many unfavourable occasions that accompanied the execution of it. For, how could any man, in his senses, think that a single person as he was, should ever be able to compass the death of a king, amidst the circle of his guards and attendants? How could he expect that an enemy, as he was, should be admitted to a private audience? or that, if he should prove so lucky, the king should be so far infatuated as to order all the company to quit the room? | the son of Jethro, father-in-law to Moses, were *at first The killing the king must have been a great difficulty under these circumstances; but then his making his escape had all the signs of an impossibility in it: and yet, without his escaping, the design of delivering his country must have been abortive. Upon the whole therefore it appears, that nothing but a divine instinct could have given him courage to set about the thing; and therefore it was not all fallacy, when he told Eglon, that he had a message from God unto him,' because God had sent and commissioned him to kill him : so that what he did in this case, he did not of himself, or from his own mere motion, but by virtue of an order which he had received from God, who had destinated this oppressor of his people to this untimely kind of death. This seems to be the only way whereby we can apologize for Ehud, in a fact which by no means is to be made a precedent, and, without a divine warrant, is in no case to be justified. But as for the Holy Scriptures, wherein this action is related simply, and without either dislike or approbation, why should they suffer in our esteem upon that account, any more than Livy, Thucydides, or any other heathen author, for recording the various transactions, and some of them full as base and barbarous as this, that happened in the ages whereof they treat? It is a mistake to think, that every person whom the Scripture mentions, nay, whom the Scripture commends in some respects, should, in all others, be faultless and unblamable; and it would be a much greater imputation upon the truth and authority of these sacred records, if the people of God were all made saints, and no black actions recorded of them; since it is the received character of a good historian, That as he should not dare to relate any thing that is false, so neither should he conceal any thing that is true.' There is something peculiar in relation to the fact of Jael, and that is the words of the prophetess, in her triumphant song : Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber, the Kenite, be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent;' which some look upon as a commendation of Jael, and consequently an approbation of the murder of Sisera: But Deborah herein might invited to go with the Israelites into the land of Canaan, and were all along kindly treated by them. They, indeed, had no share in the division of the land, nor were they permitted to dwell in their cities; yet they had the free use of their country, and were allowed to pitch their tents (as their manner of life was) wherever they thought fit for the convenience of their cattle, though generally they chose to continue in the tribe of Judah. By this means a strict friendship interfered, and a firm alliance was always subsisting between the Israelites and these people; whereas, between the Kenites and Jabin, there was no more than a bare cessation of hostilities; and though Heber and they continued neutral in this war, yet it was not without wishing well to their ancient friends the Israelites, among whom they lived. Now, it is a received maxim among all civilians, That where two compacts stand in competition, and cannot be both observed, the stronger should always have the • Num. x. 29. a One of our annotators has another way of accounting for the commendation which is given to Jael in Deborah's song, and that is, by giving up the divine inspiration of it." It is not to be denied," says he, "but that there are some words, passages, and discourses recorded in Scripture, which are not divinely in spired, because some of them were uttered by the devil, and others by the holy men of God, but mistaken: such is the discourse of Nathan to David, (2 Sam. vii. 3.) which God presently contradicted, (ver. 4, 5.) and several discourses in Job, which the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath,' (Job xlii. 7.) God himself declares to be unsound: Ye have not spoken of me This being so,' continues he, "the worst that any malicious man can infer from this place is, That this song, though indicted by a good man or woman, was not divinely inspired, but only composed by a person piously minded, and transported with joy for the deliverance of God's people, but subject to mistake; who, therefore, out of zeal to commend the happy instrument of so great a deliverance, might easily overlook the indirectness of the means by which it was accomplished, and commend that which by Deborah, a prophetess, and must, consequently, be divinely should be disliked. If it be urged, that the song was composed inspired, the answer is, 1st. That it is not certain what kind of prophetess Deborah was, whether extraordinary and infallible, or ordinary, and so liable to mistake. But, 2dly, That every expression, even of a true and extraordinary prophet, was not divinely inspired, as is evident from Nathan's mistake above mentioned, and from Samuel's error concerning Eliab, whom, from his outward stature and comeliness, he took to be the Lord's anointed." (1 Sam. xvi. 6.)—Poole's Annotations. A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. preference. An agreement, for instance, says Puffen- | dorf, that is made with an oath, should always supersede that which is made without one. It is but supposing then, that the two depending treaties were of these different kinds, and this will be a circumstance in favour of Jael; but then, if we may suppose farther, that Jabin was a grievous tyrant, and Sisera the chief instrument of his tyranny; this, according to the opinion of some, will supply us with a full apology for what she did. "For there are certain monsters in nature," say they, "in whose destruction all civil society is concerned. To do any thing to preserve them, nay to slip a proper opportunity of ridding the world of them, whatever terms we happen to be under with them, is to be false to what we owe to the whole community, under the pretence of fidelity to a base ally. When matters are come to such an extremity, that we must fight with men, as we do with wild beasts, fallacy of any kind, which at other times is justly detested, may, in some measure, be then excused; nor have they, who, in their dealings with others, are regardless of all laws, both human and divine, any reason to complain, if, upon some occasions, they meet with a retaliation." Jael, when she took the hammer and nail in her hand, | might have this, perhaps, and much more, to say in her own vindication: but what absolves her most effectually with us is, the declaration which God had made in favour of the Israelites, by the wonderful defeat of Jabin's army, and the direction and impulse wherewith he excited her to despatch his vanquished general. Had she been left to herself, she would have been contented, one would think, to have let him lain still, until Barak, who was in pursuit of him, had come up, and surprised him. To fall upon him herself was an enterprise exceeding bold and hazardous, and above the courage of her sex; and therefore, we may conclude, that if it was God who inspired her with this extraordinary resolution, she was not to be blamed, notwithstanding the peace between Jabin and her family, for being obedient to the heavenly impulse; because all obligations to man must necessarily cease, when brought in competition with our higher obligations towards God, a On the Law of Nature and Nations, b. 4. c. 2. 'See Le Clerc's Commentary, and Saurin's Dissertation on the defeat of Jabin. 'Scripture Vindicated, part 3. a This is very inconclusive reasoning. When our duty to God, and to any individual man become inconsistent with each other, no one ever supposed that the latter is not to be superseded by the former; but I am not aware that any duty, either to God or to the Israelites, made it necessary for Jael to violate the laws of hospitality to Sisera the captain of the host of Hazor. The house of Heber her husband was equally at peace with Israel and with Jaban king of Canaan. The Kenites had indeed been much more indebted to the Israelites than to the Canaanites. Jael might therefore have refused to receive Sisera under her roof, because she could not protect him from his enemies should they come in pursuit of him, without violating an obligation much stronger than any under which she was either to him or to his master; but when he came under her roof she was surely to protect him as far as that superior obligation would permit. He was not her personal enemy; and granting himself and his master, to have been such tyrants as our author supposes, neither Jael nor any other private individual had a right to rid the world either of the sovereign or of his servant, by treachery! She might, without the breach of any duty, have received Sísera into her tent; but when she had received him, she could not, without incurring guilt of the deepest dye, murder him with her own Whoever looks into the catalogue of the worthies whom the author of the Hebrews enumerates, will soon perceive, that, as he is far from being exact in the order wherein he places them; so, by the faith for which he commends them, he means no more than a belief of what God told them, and ready obedience to his commands, whenever they were signified to them by a proper authority. Deborah was, at this time, a very remarkable woman, famous for the administration of justice, and determination of controversies among the people; but notwithstanding this, it would have been rashness in Barak to have gone upon so hazardous an undertaking without any farther assurance than this. He did not absolutely refuse to go, nay, he offered to go upon the first notice, and for this his faith is commended in Scripture; but then he was minded to have some farther conviction that this notice was from God, and of this he could not have a better proof, than if the prophetess herself would go and share with him the fate of the battle. The enemy was as formidable a one as ever the Israelites had to encounter. Nine hundred chariots of iron, when, in times of greater military preparation, Mithridates had but 100, and Darius no more than 200 in their armies, was enough to inject terror into any commander, whose forces consisted all of foot, and had no proper defence against these destructive engines. Good reason had he, therefore, to apprehend, that the people would not so readily have enlisted themselves into the public service, had there not been a person of her character to appear at the head of it. She was a prophetess, and had received frequent revelations from God; and therefore, when the people saw her personally engaged in it, they would be the apter to be persuaded, that the expedition was by God's appointment, and therefore, without all peradventure, would be attended with success. And as Deborah's joining with Barak in the expedition might be thought a good expedient to raise a sufficient number of forces; so might it equally be thought a means effectual, both to prevent their desertion, and to animate them to the fight: and accordingly Josephus tell us, "that when the two armies lay encamped, one within the sight of the other, the Israelites were struck with such a terror at the infinite odds of the enemy in numbers, that both general and soldiers were once upon the very point of shifting for themselves, without so much as striking a blow; but upon Deborah's assurance, that it was the cause of God, and that he himself would assist and bring them off, they were prevailed upon to stand the shock of the battle." 5 5 'Le Clerc's Commentary. Antiq. lib. 5. c. 6. hands! She could not indeed, with innocence, have gone to the tent door, and voluntarily betrayed him to Barak; but had she remained quietly within, and Barak had come to demand if he was there, she could not, without a breach of the higher duty which she owed to Israel, have preserved Sisera at the expense of a lie. It is perfectly in vain to attempt a vindication of her conduct; for God can never have authorized falsehood and treachery in such a case as hers with Sisera; nor do the words of Deborah at all imply an approbation of Jael's moral conduct. They are merely a wish or prayer that she might be rendered happy in this world, for the services that she had rendered to Israel; and perhaps it is not possible for the most upright mind, in such circumstances, to avoid the forming of such a wish.— Bishop Gleig. За |