A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C.1222. JUD. i. To the end OF RUTH. being considered as a chief among the Israelites, (whom | miraculous gift, not, perhaps always inherent in him, God had raised up to annoy the Philistines, and in such but only dispensed at certain times, when the Spirit of methods as this, rather than open war, to weaken them God came upon him. It depended indeed on the by his personal valour and strength,) may be admitted in covenant made between God and him, the sign of which justification of what he did. But to proceed. covenant was his hair; and therefore when, in compliance to his harlot, he suffered his hair to be cut off, he broke the covenant with God, and forfeiting the spirit of strength and courage, was left to his own natural weakness, and so became an easy prey to his enemies. But having been now a considerable time in prison, wherein he was cruelly used, he began to repent no doubt of his folly; and therefore making fervent supplications to God for pardon of the violation of his Nazaratism, he renewed his vow, and so, being restored to the condition he was in before he lost the favour of God, his strength began to grow and increase, in proportion as his hair did. Whether Samson's hair was the physical, or only moral cause of his strength, needs not, I think, be made any question. For though plenty of hair may be some indication of bodily strength, yet since he that is naturally strong becomes not less so by having his hair cut off, though this was certainly the case of Samson, it must necessarily follow, that his hair was no natural cause of his strength, but that it was a supernatural and 'Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Samson. it was the jackal that Samson employed. Dr Shaw is of this opinion, and observes, that "as these are creatures by far the most common and familiar, as well as the most numerous of any in the eastern countries, we may well perceive the great possibility there was for Samson to take, or cause to be taken, three hundred of them. The for properly so called, he adds is rarely to be met with, neither is it gregarious." So Hasselquist remarks: "Jackals are found in great numbers about Gaza; and, from their gregarious nature, it is much more probable that Samson should have caught three hundred of them, than of the solitary quadruped, the fox." Allowing this to be the animal, the story is easily admissible to belief, without the supposition of a miracle. For it is not said, that Samson caught so many foxes in one hour, or one day; or, that he caught them all with his own hands. Being then judge of Israel, he might employ many hands, and yet be said, according to the common use of language, to do it himself. Add to this, that the season, the days of wheat harvest, was extremely favourable for hunting these animals; and, as they were gregarious, many might be surrounded or entrapped at once. "I shall conclude with an argument more in favour of the justness of our translation, in rendering the word w, shuol, 'a fox,' not a sheaf. It has been esteemed by some persons of extensive literature to be a demonstrative argument. I shall mention it, and leave it to stand on its own bottom. At the feast of Ceres, the goddess of corn, celebrated annually at Rome about the middle of April, there was the observance of this custom,-to fix burning torches to the tails of a number of foxes, and to let them run through the circus till they were burnt to death. This was done in revenge upon that species of animals, for having once burned up the fields of corn. The reason, indeed, assigned by Ovid, is too frivolous an origin for so solemn a rite; and the time of its celebration, the 17th of April, it seems, was not harvest time, when the fields were covered with corn,—' vestitos_messibus agros;' for the middle of April was ared-time in Italy, as appears from Virgil's Georgics. Hence we must infer that this rite must have taken its rise from some other event than that by which Ovid accounted for it; and Samson's foxes are a probable origin of it. The time agrees exactly, as may be collected from several passages of Scripture. For instance, from the book of Exodus we learn, that before the Passthat is, before the fourteenth day of the month Abib, or March, barley in Egypt was in the ear; (xii. 18; xiii. 4.) And in ch. ix. 31, 32, it is said, that the wheat at that time was not grown up. Barley harvest, then, in Egypt, and so in the country of the Philistines which bordered upon it, must have fallen about the middle of March. Wheat harvest, according to Pliny, N. H. lib. viii. c. 7, was a month later. In Egypt barley is reaped on the sixth month after sowing, corn on the seventh.' Therefore, wheat harvest happened about the middle of April; the very time in which the burning of foxes was observed at Rome. over, "It is certain that the Romans borrowed many of their rites and ceremonies, both serious and ludicrous, from foreign nations: and Egypt and Phoenicia furnished them with more, perhaps, than any other country. From one of these, the Romans might either receive this rite immediately, or through the hands of their neighbours the Carthaginians, who were a colony of Phonicians; and so its true origin may be referred back to the story which we have been considering." When his hair was thus grown, and his strength returned, it is made a question, whether the house, as it is called in Scripture, which he pulled down, was the temple of Dagon, for whose honour this festival was appointed, or some other edifice? That it was not a common house, is evident from the multitude of the people which it contained; and though the temples of the Philistines are supposed by some to have been of the same figure and make with those in Egypt, that is a kind of rotunda, flat-roofed, with a large portico without, and pillars within to sustain the building; yet this seems to be no more than a fiction, devoid of all authority, and accommodated to the purpose of solving this difficulty. It is not certain, that the Egyptian temples were built in this manner, and much more probable it is that this house of their famous god Dagon was made of stone; and though it wanted no proper supports, yet it is scarce supposable, that in a structure of this kind, the whole weight should be supported by two pillars only, and these so very contiguous, that Samson could lay hold on them both at one time. The most general opinion, therefore, is, that this was a structure which the Philistines made use of, upon such occasions as this, built all of wood, and supported by wooden pillars, in the form of the theatres which in after-times were in great request among the Romans. Towards the middle of this building, we may suppose that there were two large beams, upon which the weight of the whole structure lay; and that these beams were supported by two pillars, which stood in a manner contiguous to each other. So that, as soon as Samson had moved and unsettled these, down must the principals, and with them the whole building, come. The only remaining difficulty is, how a building made of wood, and supported by two pillars only, should be able to contain such a multitude of men and women? But whoever reads a Pliny's Natural History, will therein find a Patrick's Commentary. a The words of Pliny upon this occasion are so very remarkable, that I thought it not improper to quote them. 'He erected two vast wooden theatres, suspended each on a hinge that rested on a moveable pillar: while the forenoon spectacle of the games was exhibiting, they were opposite to one another, lest the noise of exhibition should disturb their mutual attention; but no sooner was the exhibition over, than by a sudden impulse they were forced round again, so that they stood in juxtaposition; and in the evening by the taking down of the scenery, and by combining A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4089. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF Ruth. description of two theatres, built by Curio, capable of| containing a much greater number of people than the Philistines are here said to be, and yet what was a wonder much greater than the two pillars here, whenever they were turned round, as they frequently were, to meet and make one amphitheatre, they both rested upon one hinge only, which, had it happened to slip, must have occasioned, as our author tells us, a much greater slaughter than what was at the battle of Canna; as, by the actual fall of an amphitheatre, built by Atilius, no fewer than fifty thousand persons as a Tacitus relates the story, were killed, wounded, and maimed: which is enough, one would think, to silence the cavils of those who are apt to fancy that a building of such capacity could not be so contrived as to rely only on two supporters. And indeed all the other exceptions, which are usually made to Samson's character and conduct, are in effect no more than mere cavils, which arise in a great measure from an unacquaintedness with the idiom of the Hebrew tongue. For as, when in Jotham's parable, 'wine' is said to cheer both God and man: the words Elohim, and Anashim, may signify as well high and low, princes and peasants, that is, all conditions of men do find themselves cheered and refreshed with wine; so when it is said, that the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Samson,' we are not to understand thereby, that he had any grace extraordinary, or sanctifying influences of the Blessed Spirit communicated to him, but only that he was endued with wonderful courage and fortitude, an undaunted mind, and a supernatural strength of body at such and such times, which enabled him to do great acts, And in like the two wings, an amphitheatre was formed, and the gladiatorial but made no alteration in his manners. spectacles were exhibited, it was capable of enclosing the whole manner, when he is said to have judged Israel twenty of the Roman freemen who had become gladiators for hire. But years,' we need not infer, that he was the supreme in this erection what can we most admire? the inventor or the magistrate in the republic, for that very probably was invention? the workman or the planner? that any one should dare to plan or execute it ? should act as servant or master in it? Eli, but only that he was the chief man of war, whose Besides all these there was added the madness of the people, valour was renowned, and who did many great and who dared to sit on a foundation so imperfect and unstable, signal exploits, in order to rescue his countrymen from the ready every moment to be overwhelmed in ruin.”—B. 36. c. 15. oppression of their enemies, and to restore them to their a The fall of this amphitheatre Tacitus relates in these words: former liberty: I say, in order to this, for he did not "In the consulship of Marcus Licinus and Lucius Calpurnius, the horror of an unforeseen calamity equalled the havock of mighty perfect their deliverance: only, by the several defeats conflicting armies. Its beginning and termination were simul- which he gave them, and the great damages he did them, taneous. A certain freedman, named Atilius, erected an amphi-he infused into the Israelites such a spirit and resolutheatre at Fidence for the exhibition of gladiatorial combats; but its wooden texture was utterly devoid of all solidity and safety, for he was urged to its erection by no superfluity of riches nor desire of municipal honours, but by the base love of money. At the command of the emperor Tiberius, vast crowds of both sexes and of every age and class, were seen eagerly rushing to Fidenæ, and as the distance from Rome to Fidena was but small, (only five miles) so on that account the misfortune was rendered the greater; no sooner was the building crammed with the multitude, than all at once it gave way, some parts of it falling in, dragging headlong, and burying the spectators, while the other parts of it falling outwards, overwhelmed the crowded masses of people around its walls. By this disaster, 50,000 beings are said to have been killed or mutilated."-Annal, iv. 62. The sentiments of Sir Christopher Wren on this subject, will doubtless be considered as important. "In considering molished, I conceive it was an oval amphitheatre, the scene in the middle, where a vast roof of cedar beams resting round upon the walls centered all upon one short architrave, that united two cedar pillars in the middle. The pillars would not be sufficient to unite the ends of at least one hundred beams, that tended to the centre; wherefore, I say, there must be a short architrave resting upon two pillars, upon which all the beams tending to the centre of the amphitheatre, might be supported. Now if Samson by his miraculous strength pressing upon one of these pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall."-Parentalia, p. 359. "The eastern method of building may assist us in accounting for the particular structure of the temple or house of Dagon, (Judg. xvi.) and the great number of people that were buried in the ruins of it, by pulling down the two principal pillars. We read (v. 27.) that about three thousand persons were upon the roof to behold while Samson made sport. Samson must therefore have been in a court or area below them, and consequently the temple will be of the same kind with the ancient sacred enclosures, surrounded only in part or altogether with some plan or cloistered buildings. Several palaces and dua-wanas, as they call the courts of justice in these countries, are built in this fashion; where upon their festivals and rejoicings a great quantity of sand is strewed upon the area for the wrestlers to fall upon, whilst the roof of the cloisters round about is crowded with spectators of their strength and agility. I have often seen hundreds of people diverted in this manner upon the roof of the dey's palace at Algiers; which, like many more of the same quality and denomination, hath an advanced what this fabric must have been, that could at one pull be de tion, that not many years after, they took up arms, and appearing in the field against them, defeated, and subdued them; so that, in all the days of Samuel, we hear of no farther molestation from that quarter. 46 The Scripture, however, furnishes us with a reason why idolatry was not abolished, and a thorough reformation of religion established, during this period: for it tells us, that in those days,' namely, between the death of Joshua, and the first institution of the judges, there was no king,' that is, no chief ruler or magistrate, for the regal authority did not as yet begin, in Israel, but every one did that which was right in his own eyes;' so that considering the natural propensity of the people to idolatry, and the want of a supreme power lodged in some one's hand to control them, we need not wonder, that before the institution of judges, they fell into the like practices with the nations among whom they lived. The judges indeed were invested with authority to suppress these practices; but then we are to consider, that few or none of them had a jurisdiction over the whole land of Israel, but were only rulers of some particular cantons, which they undertook to deliver from imminent danger; and therefore how zealous soever they 'Judg. ix. 13. 3 Judg. xvi. 31. 4 'Judg. xiv. 6. * Judg. xvii, 6. cloister over against the gate of the palace, (Esth. v. 1.) made in the fashion of a large pent-house, supported only by one or two contiguous pillars in the front, or else in the centre. In such open structures as these, in the midst of their guards and counsellors, are the bashas, kadees, and other great officers, assembled to distribute justice, and transact the public affairs of their provinces. Here likewise they have their public entertainments, as the lords and others of the Philistines had in the house of Dagon. Upon a supposition therefore, that in the house of Dagon, there was a cloistered structure of this kind, the pulling down of the front, or centre pillars only, which supported would be attended with the like catastrophe that happened to the Philistines."-Shaw's Travels, p. 283.-Ev. A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. might be for a reformation, yet since their authority was not of sufficient extension, the wonder is not great, that 1 idolatry should still be practised in some dark corners of the land, and that in the tribe of Dan, which was so far distant, there should be set up Micah's graven image which he made, at the time that the ark of the Lord was at Shiloh.' Shiloh indeed was so far distant from several parts of the land of Canaan, that people began to account it too much trouble to go up thither to pay their vows and oblations, and therefore bethought themselves of setting up private chapels, wherein, as they supposed, they might serve God as well; and in the institution of these, being left to their own fancies, they generally intermixed some idolatrous practices, and, partly in imitation of the cherubim at Shiloh, and the teraphim among their heathen neighbours, chose to worship God through some visible representation, which, by one means or other, was carried on in time to direct idolatry. 2 The Moabites, we know, even when the Israelites were in a state of independency, and had reason sufficient to have a jealous eye over them, by their arts and contri- | vances drew them into the worship of their god Baalpeor; and much more might the nations, to whom they were now in subjection, succeed in their attempts, either of recommending, or, if need required it, of forcing their religion upon them: so that it was not to be wondered at, if things ran into such disorder, when there was, if not a total dissolution, at least a grievous relaxation of government; when some of the governors themselves were far from being the best of men; and through inclination, entreaty, or compulsion, the people were so liable, upon many occasions, to relapse into idolatry. What Micah's intention might be in setting up a teraphim, and other kind of images in his house, commentators are not so well agreed. Those that are willing to > apologize for the thing, are ready to say, that as he lived in a time of great trouble and confusion, wherein the public worship of God was much neglected, if not totally disused, his design was to erect a kind of domestie tabernacle, wherein he might serve God in private, since he could not, without much difficulty, do it in public; and that the sacred habiliments he made, his ephod, his teraphim, &c. were no more than what he had seen at Shiloh but since the laws of God condemn 3 the making images of any kind, as objects of adoration; the setting up any religious worship, different from what he had established; the offering sacrifices, or perform ing any public service any where but in the tabernacle; and the employing any priests in his worship but such as were of the race of Aaron; it is certain that Micah was guilty of a violation of all these prohibitions, and in the matter of these graven and molten images, cannot be excused from the crime of idolatry. And indeed, unless he intended to patronize that, what reasons could he have to make any innovations in =religion, since, according as we date this action, either Phinehas or Eli were then in the high priest's office at Shiloh, where the public worship was performed in all its formality, and from whence Micah, who lived in the mountains of Ephraim, was not so very distant, but that he might have gone thither upon all solemn occasions. The Spirit of God therefore, in repeating the admonition, that in those days there was no king in Israel,' &c. before it begins to relate this story of Micah, seems to insinuate, that this was a wicked and enormous practice of his; that the worship he instituted was idolatrous, and the priest he had procured to officiate, a renegado: and if so, the answer this priest received in behalf of the Danites, and wherein he promised them the success they met with, must have proceeded from no good principle, unless we suppose, what seems indeed most reasonable, that the Levite promised them success, because he was minded to please them, merely out of his own head, though, to give it a better sanction, he might pretend to receive it from this fictitious oracle. In this case, there was no occasion of having recourse to any oracle whatever; because any man of a moderate foresight, considering the undaunted courage and valour of the Danites, and the supine negligence and cowardice of the people of Laish, if once they came to action, might, without the spirit of prophecy, foretell the event. 56 6 The directions which God gave Moses concerning Joshua's consulting the divine oracle, are conceived in these words: He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him, after the judgment of Urim, before the Lord; at his word shall they go out, and at his word shall they come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.' In all the book of Joshua indeed we do not find, that he had this constant recourse to the oracle, and from hence some Jewish doctors conclude, that he was bound to do this only at his first entrance upon his office, to demonstrate to the people that he was Moses' successor; but that afterwards the spirit of prophecy rested upon him, so that he knew how to conduct all public affairs, without having occasion for this oracular advice. Moses we know made no use of the Urim and Thummim, to consult God by the mediation of the high priest: he went immediately and directly to God himself: but we do not read that Joshua was admitted to such familiarity, nor had he such frequent revelations from God, as his predecessors had. And therefore, as God was pleased, in supplying that defect, to remit him to this method of consulting him; we cannot but think, that upon every momentous occasion, especially in the weighty affairs of war, he was always careful to pursue it: and therefore the words in the beginning of Judges, Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites?' do not import, that they never consulted God by way of Urim and Thummim, during the life of Joshua, but rather that after the death of so great a commander, they were at a stand what to do, nor would they adventure to proceed in the war of Canaan, without following the same directions which were given to Joshua, and which he had so long pursued with so good success. Nay, the consulting of the divine oracle, especially in matters of war, was accounted so very necessary, in order to obtain success, that some commentators have esteemed this the only reason why the Israelites, in so just a cause as punishing the Benjamites for their "See Patrick's Commentary in locum. 5 Num. xxvii, 21. A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END OF RUTH. 2 1 unheard of wickedness, were, in two several battles, the passions of men to his purposes, and to make one defeated; even because they did not previously apply wicked set of people the instruments of his punishing to God, as they should have done. They sent up another, even as he expresses himself in another case, indeed to the house of the Lord, and asked counsel of that in some measure is not incongruous to this: "Woe him, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle unto the Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff against the children of Benjamin?' that is, which of in their hand, is mine indignation:-against the people their tribes should have the honour or hazard of making of my wrath will I give him charge to take the spoil, the first attack: but it is observable, that they had and to take the prey, and to tread them down like mire in come to a full resolution of making war against the the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his Benjamites, and, to that purpose, had made draughts of heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to the men that were to be employed in it, without ever con- cut off nations not a few. Wherefore it shall come to sulting God, whether an enterprise of this nature, wherein pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work there was likely to be such an effusion of the blood of upon Mount Sion, and on Jerusalem, I will punish the their brethren, would be pleasing to him or no. 3 The fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the truth is, they never questioned his approbation of what glory of his high looks; and in like manner here, when they accounted so laudable: they presumed upon his by the hand of the Benjamites, he had chastised the rest protection and assistance; and the vast superiority of of the Israelites, by the hand of the Israelites he punished their forces made them confident of success. But now, the Benjamites for their gross impieties, making use of in a matter of such moment as this, to overlook the their respective passions, and furious resentments, to divine oracle, and be determined by their own counsels accomplish his will: albeit they meant it not so, neither only, and to march against one of their own tribes, with did their hearts think so; but it was only in their hearts a full purpose of destroying them utterly, before they to cut off one another.' knew any thing whether God had decreed their destruction or no, was not only an instance of their rashness and presumption, but an act likewise of rebellion against the majesty of God, who was the king of Israel, and upon that account alone, had right to declare whether they were to wage war against their brethren the Benjamites or no. But supposing that the grounds of the war were justifiable, and God consenting to it, yet why might not he take the opportunity of punishing the Israelites, by means of the Benjamites, for their tame permission of crimes more enormous than what they had now taken into their heads to chastise; for suffering spiritual adultery among them, even while they were so hot upon punishing carnal ? 4 The laws which God gave the Israelites against the sin of idolatry, were so very severe, that whoever did but so much as entice another to the commission of it, was to lose all title to pity and compassion, though he was ever so dear a friend, ever so near a relation: *Thine eyes shall not pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.' But now in the case of Micah, and the whole tribe of Dan, who had notoriously fallen into idolatry, the rulers of Israel were so far from putting this law in execution, that they connived at their apostasy: and therefore God took occasion, from this quarrel between the other tribes and that of Benjamin, to make use of the latter as scourges to punish this base connivance of the former; and after he had twice employed them to this purpose, he inverted the fate of the war, and in so doing, made the confederate army of Israel the instruments of that terrible vengeance which he took upon the Benjamites, in the punishment of their execrable lewdness. For this is the wonderful wisdom of God's providence, to employ When the heat of their fury, however, was abated, and the Israelites began to look back with a little coolness upon what they had done; how they had almost totally destroyed one tribe of their brethren, and bound themselves by an oath never to marry their daughters to any of the poor remains of it, which could not but prove the extirpation of the whole, the joy and triumph of their late victory was turned into mourning and bitter lamentation. 7 Whether this oath against contracting any affinity with the Benjamites, was in itself lawful and obligatory, or no, some interpreters, without any manner of reason, as I think, have disputed. For, whatever was attended with such pernicious consequences, as to oblige their brethren either to live unmarried, which would prove the extinction of their tribe, or to marry the daughters of the heathens, which was contrary to their divine law, or to take to themselves wives wherever they could find them by force and violence, which was contrary to the universal law of nations; whatever, I say, was attended with such evil consequences as these, could not be lawful in itself, nor of any obligation to the consciences of those that made it; and therefore it is somewhat wonderful, how the Israelites, when they found themselves involved in such difficulties, as they themselves testify, that for the preservation of this their oath, they were forced to have recourse to acts of the utmost cruelty and violence, did not perceive the illegality of it, and themselves, consequently, absolved from its observation. 8 It is not the intent of the sacred historian to relate matters otherwise than they happened; nor is it any part of our business to apologize for actions that in themselves are abominable, and will admit of no excuse. The massacre of the people of Jabesh-gilead, without ever sending to know the reason of their absenting themselves from the war, was a cruel expedient to extricate the Israelites from a difficulty in which their superstitious observance of an unlawful oath had involved them; and a sad instance it is of the iniquity and barbarity of these times for how severe soever the laws of military dis A. M. 2561. A. C. 1443; OR, ACCORDING TO HALE3, A. M. 4189. A. C. 1222. JUD. i. TO THE END of Ruth. cipline may be, or with what justice soever recusants, | ment of his dominions, not only lawful, but glorious, and as well as deserters in war may be deemed guilty, and that every thing ceased to be a crime, when once it bethe Jabeshites be called public enemies, because they came necessary for reasons of state: but the rulers of did not obey the order of the whole congregation, and Israel either had, or should have had, different notions. by refusing to join with them against the Benjamites, They were governed by God, whose throne is estabmade themselves partakers of their crimes: yet certainly | lished in righteousness,' and should therefore, one would to slay the innocent with the guilty, and to put women think, have contrived some other means for re-establishing and children to death, who were never made to bear a diminished tribe than those violent ways of rapes and arms, was the very height of injustice and barbarity. If forced marriages. But the sacred historian has assigned it be said, that the cherem, or the sentence of utter exe- a reason for these unrighteous proceedings, when, in cration was passed upon them, I do not see with what four different places in the book of Judges, he tells us, justice the virgins could be spared, as we find they were that in those days there was no king in Israel :' and ' by a public decree, unless we suppose that God, from for want of such a supreme authority, every tribe, and the tabernacle at Shiloh, before which the Israelites were every city, nay, which is more, every private man comnow assembled, signified his intentions of dispensing mitted many horrid things, which were not publicly with the full execution of the sentence, by reason of the allowed. This ' was the cause of Micah's idolatry, as public necessity. we noted before; of the Benjamites' filthiness and abominable lusts; and of all the enormous things done by the main body of the Israelites; their killing all the Benjamites without distinction; their binding themselves by rash and unlawful oaths; their killing all the women of Jabesh-gilead who were not virgins; and here, their permitting, nay, their ordering this rape, for the preservation of a rash and unjustifiable oath and this should teach us to be very thankful for the authority that is set over us, in order to preserve us from the commission of such like enormities; for which end the custom was, among the ancient Persians, as our learned Usher observes, to let the people loose to do even what they listed, for five days after their king died; that by the disorders which were then committed, they might see the necessity of having a king to govern them, and when one was settled in the throne, the great reason of being obedient to him. And, indeed, the public necessity is the only good reason that can be given for that other act of violence, the rape of the virgins at Shiloh. For whatever may be said in vindication of the Benjamites, namely, that what they put in execution was by order and advice of their superiors, and that their intent in doing it was just and honest, and devoid of that brutal lust which is incident to common ravishers; whatever may be said in excuse of these, the elders of Israel, who gave them this counsel and authority, had certainly no right to dispose of other people's children without their parents' consent and approbation. a • The rape of the Sabine virgins is usually produced as a piece of history parallel to this; but Romulus, in whose reign it happened, was one of those princes who accounted every point that contributed to the establish 1 Judg. xxi. 6, &c. 2 Saurin's Dissertation 18. vol. 4. Thus we have endeavoured to clear up most of the passages in the book of Judges, which seem to imply any inconsistency or incredibility, during this period: and if any heathen testimonies may be thought a farther confirmation of their truth, we may say, that the seeming with an ox-goad is mightily abated, by what is told of Lycurgus, namely, that he overthrew the forces of Bacchus with the self-same weapon; that from Deborah's being a prophetess, a governess, and dwelling upon a mount, the story of the Theban sphinx, as some learned men imagine, was invented by the Greeks; that their Hercules was certainly the Samson of sacred writ, his Omphale and Delilah the same, and that his pillars at Cales were of near affinity with those of Gaza; that a This piece of history we find thus related: "Romulus, perceiving that his new city was surrounded by several very powerful and warlike nations, who bore them no very good will, formed a design to make them his friends, by contracting marriages with them: but considering with himself, that these neighbouring na-incongruity of Shamgar's slaying so many Philistines tions would hardly enter into that affinity with a people, as yet famous neither for their riches nor great exploits, without being in some measure compelled into it, he was resolved to put in practice the stratagem of his uncle Numitor, and to enter into this alliance with them by carrying off their daughters. This design he communicated to the senate, and having obtained their approbation of it, he proclaimed a public feast to be celebrated in honour of Neptune, and invited all the neighbouring cities to the many diversions and spectacles which he then intended to exhibit. Crowds of people, with their wives and children, flocked to the feast; but on the last day, when it began to draw | to a conclusion, Romulus ordered all the young men, that upon a signal given, they should seize and carry off every one a virgin, keep them all night, without offering any rudeness to them, and bring them the next morning before him. The young men took care to execute his orders: for dispersing themselves into small The story is thus told by Ovid. Nisus was besieged by companies, as soon as they saw the sign, they seized on the Minos in his capital city Megara. The fate of that city, which damsels, who, upon this occasion, made a hideous outcry, as was the strength of his kingdom, depended upon a certain lock expecting much worse usage than they met with. The next of red hair, which was concealed under the rest. The siege day, when they were brought before Romulus, he spoke very had now been continued for six months, when the daughter of courteously to them, and told them, That it was to do them no Nisus, who had frequent opportunities of beholding her father's dishonour, but merely to procure them husbands, that he ordered enemy Minos from a tower that looked into his camp, was so that rape, which was an ancient custom derived from the Greeks, taken with his goodly mien and deportment, that she fell desperand the most noble and gallant manner of contracting marriage. ately in love with him. Her love, and the occasion of it, the poet He therefore entreated them to be well affected towards those has thus related. "In her opinion Minos appeared beautiful when husbands which fortune had given them; and so, distributing the he concealed his head in a helmet with dangling plumes, and young women, which were 683, among an equal number of un-alike so when he assumed his shield all glittering with gold, &c. married men, he dismissed them."-Dionys. Halicarn. Antiq., b. 2. c. 21: Judg. xvii. 6. xviii. 1. xix. 1. and xxi. 25. 4 Patrick's Commentary. $ Ibid. but when by taking off the armour he displayed his animated countenance, and when in a purple dress he gracefully strode his |