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But God, upon their recurring to him, raised them up a deliverer, a Benjaminite, named Ehud; who, being appointed by his countrymen to carry a present to Eglon, refolved to lay hold of that opportunity, to deliver his people from the oppreffion they had fo long groaned under. Accordingly, having delivered the prefent to the king, and accompanied thofe that had brought it as far as the quarries near Gilgal (K), on their way home, he returned from thence, pretending he had fomething to impart to Eglon in private. Being admitted to the king's prefence, and the reft ordered to withdraw, he told him, that he had a meffage to him from God; which Eglon rifing from his feat to receive, Ehud ftabbed him in the belly with a dagger, which he had prepared, and concealed under his garment, for that purpose (L). The wound was given with fuch violence, that the haft went in after the blade; fo that the fat clofing upon it (for Eglon was very corpulent), Ehud was obliged to leave the dagger in his body. The fervants after Ehud was gone, having waited a long time at the door, which they found locked, opened it laft, and faw their mafter lying breathlefs on the floor. Ehud, in the mean time, efcaped beyond Jordan; and assembling a body of forces, attacked the Moabites that were garrifoned on the weft of the river within the land of Canaan, and flew ten thousand of their best men; a calamity which utterly broke the power of Moab, and freed the Ifraelites from the yoke

of that nation.

fays, that Eglon removed his court to this city; but he feems to have been mistaken; for, after it had been burnt by Jofhua, who curfed the perfon that should rebuild it, it lay in ruins till the days of Ahab. However, the place might ferve for a garrifon to keep the country in awe, for which ufe it was very well fituated.

(K) The word pefilim, which, in our verfion, is rendered the quarries, is, by the Septuagint, tranflated rayu, and, in the Vulgate, the idols,

τα

the fculptures, which fome fup-
pofe to have been fet
up there
by Eglon.

(L) This action of Ehud fome juftify, by fuppofing he had God's exprefs command for it (1). But, as the Scripture intimates no fuch thing, others think he might lawfully rid his country of a tyrant, who had unjustly enflaved it (2); a pofition which may encourage affaffinations in every cafe, where the actor judges the caufe he engages in to be righteous.

(1) Patrick's Commentary, in loc.

(2) Cleric. in loc.

We

Yr. of Fl. 1451.

897.

We hear no more of the Moabites after this difafter, till the time of Saul, who warred against them them with fuccefs. The enmity, which fubfifted between him and this nation, probably induced David, when perfecuted by that prince, to ask the king of Moab's protection for his parents, till his affairs fhould be in a better posture; which the Moabite readily granted, and treated them with great hofpitality, while David lay in the cave of Adullam. However, when he came to the crown, the Moabites entered into a confederacy against him with feveral of the neighbouring nations: whereupon he declared war against them; and, having obtained a fignal victory, put two thirds of them to the fword (M), and made the reft his vaffals and tributaries ".

From this time they continued fubject to Solomon and Rehoboam, till the revolt of the ten tribes; upon which, Ante Chr. it feems, they became tributaries to the kings of Ifrael, though they had all along kings of their own, who were little better than viceroys. Mefha, one of them, paid Ahab a yearly tribute of one hundred thousand lambs, and as many wethers, with the wool; his riches consisting chiefly in theep. But, when Ahab was dead, Mesha rebelled against his fon Ahaziah, whofe fhort reign not permitting any attempt to reduce him, his brother and fucceffor Jehoram, affifted by Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and the king of Edom his tributary, made an expedition for that purpose, and took a compafs of feven days march through the defert, of Edom, in order to furprise the enemy. Having reached the land of Moab, the army was diftreffed for want of water, and must have perished, had not the prophet Elifha obtained a fudden and large supply for them by a land flood. The Moabites, being by this time alarmed, affembled all that were able to bear arms. Early in the morning, feeing the water to the weftward look red, like blood, by reafon of the reflexion of the fun, and never fufpecting it to be water in that dry desert, and

u 2 Sam. viii. 2. 1 Chron. xviii. 2. Jofeph. Antiq. lib. vii.

cap. 5.

(M) This is the meaning of the facred hiftorian, when he fays, That David measured them with a line, cafting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he, to put to death; and with one full

line to keep alive." It seems to have been a custom in the Eaft to order the prifoners of war to lie down, and to meafure by a line fuch of them as they defigned to put to death.

in fo great a quantity, they immediately took it to be blood; and, fuppofing the confederated princes had fallen out, and turned their arms against each other, concluded, they had no more to do than to take the fpoil. In this imagination, they ran in confufion to the camp of Ifrael, but foon found their mistake: for, not being able to fuftain the first attack of the Ifraelites, they prefently turned their backs, and great numbers of them were flain by the enemy, who purfued them into the very heart of their country, wafted their lands and demolished their cities, except Kir-Harefeth, where the king of Moab fhut himfelf up. Mefha, being befieged, and closely preffed, made a fally with seven hundred chofen men, and endeavoured to escape, by breaking through the quarters of the Edomites, which were the weakeft; but failing in his attempt, in the height of defpair, he took his eldest fon, who fhould have fucceeded him in the throne, and offered him for a burnt-facrifice on the wall (N): which barbarous act raised such horror and indignation in his enemies, that they immediately raised the fiege, and returned home.

It was not long before the Moabites, entering into an alliance with the Ammonites, the Edomites of mount Seir, and other neighbouring nations, attempted to revenge the loffes they had fuftained in this invasion on Jehofhaphat king of Judah, by whofe affiftance, chiefly, Jehoram had been enabled to undertake it. But, though they had advanced within thirty miles of his capital, before he had any advice of their motions, their attempt proved unfuccefsful, and ended in their total ruin; for, upon Jehoshaphat's recurring to God, the enemy, seized with a kind of panic and phrenzy, fell upon each other,

(N) Several writers fuppofe Mesha did not facrifice his own fon, but the son of the king of Edom, whom, they fay, he took in the fally; and that this 'is the fame action with that mentioned by the prophet Amos, who threatened Moab, "because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into lime:" but they seem to be different

actions; for, not to infist on the strict acceptation of the two paffages, one fpeaking of a king of Edom, and the other of a king's fon, it was a known cuftom in ancient times, for princes, in extreme calamities of the public, to offer a belov ed child as an expiatory facrifice, to avert the impending vengeance of the gods (1).

(1) Vide Porphyr. de Abftin. lib. ii. Elian. Var. Hift. lib. xii. cap. 28. Justin. lib. xviii. cap. 6. Plut. in Pelopida, &c.

VOL. I.

A a

and

and continued the flaughter with incredible fury, till they were all cut offx.

After this period, we do not find, that the Moabites difturbed Ifrael for many years. However, between this, and the reign of Uzziah king of Judah, they had invaded their neighbours of Edom; and, having overcome them, inhumanly burnt their king, and reduced his bones to afhes for which cruelty God denounced fevere judgments against them by the prophet Amos ". On the declenfion of the kingdom of Ifrael, they also seem to have retaken from the tribes of Reuben and Gad, great part of the land which had formerly belonged to them, before the invafion of Sihon; for, in the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah against Moab, feveral cities in thofe territories are mentioned as then in the poffeffion of that nation, or of the Ammonites, who were probably their confederates in oppreffing the Ifraelites. Thefe fucceffes elated the Moabites fo much, that, for their pride and infolence, God threatened them with utter deftruction, by feveral of his prophets; and Ifaiah, in particular, foretold, that, within three years, Ar and Kir-Harafheth, two of their principal cities, fhould be deftroyed, and the reft of their country brought to contempt and defolation 2.

After the dreadful destruction of the army of Sennacherib the fon of Shalmenefer, the Moabites often revolted from his fucceffors, and were as often reduced, till they were entirely fubdued by Nebuchadnezzar, into whofe hands their king was given, according to a prediction of Jeremiah: for the Babylonish yoke fat fo uneafy on them, that though they took advantage of the low condition of Judah, and miffed few or no opportunities of haraffing that nation, yet, on Nebuchadnezzar's departure from Judæa and Syria, after his fecond expedition into those parts, they, with the other neighbouring nations, propofed to Zedekiah to enter into a league against the Chaldæans; which that prince, notwithstanding the remonftrances of Jeremiah to the contrary, confenting to, on the acceffion of the Egyptians to their confederacy, it became the occafion of his utter ruin: for his new allies deferted him in his diftrefs.

From this period, hiftory makes very little mention of the Moabites, who were henceforward fubject to the great empires, and, at length, became one people with the

x 2 Chron. XX. I-25. Jofeph. ubi fupra. J2, 3. z Ifa. xv. 1. xvi. 71.

y Amos ii.

neighbouring nations which inhabit the deferts of Syria: fo that though Jofephus mentions the Moabites as a diftinct nation long after, faying they were fubdued by Alexander Jannæus king of the Jews, and tells us, they were a numerous nation, even in his time; yet, in the third century after Chrift, they had loft their ancient name, and were comprehended under the more general denomi nation of Arabians 2.

SECT. II.

The Hiftory of Ammon.

THIS people were the pofterity of Ammon, otherwise called Ben Ammi, fignifying the fon of my people, our kindred; the offspring of Lot and his younger daughter.

They poffeffed themselves of the country, called after Of the countheir own name, Ammonitis, bordering on the northern try poffeffed part of Moabitis, after having driven out the Zamzum- by the Ammims, who were giants, and the ancient inhabitants of monites. the land. This country, as well as Moabitis, is, by fome, reckoned a part of Cole-Syria, and, by others, of Arabia.

We are almoft utterly unacquainted with the manners and cuftoms of this people. They had kings, and were circumcised, and feem to have been principally addicted to husbandry. They, as well as the Moabites, were among the nations, whofe peace or profperity the Ifraelites were not to difturb: neither the one nor the other were to be admitted into the congregation to the tenth generation, because they did not come out to relieve them in the wilderness; and were concerned in hiring Balaam to curse them. However, we find there was afterwards a very good understanding between their king Nahash and David.

Their chief and peculiar deity is, in Scripture, called Their reliMolech, or Moloch. He is alfo thought to be under- gion, stood under the names of Baal, Milcom, Melech, Adramelech, and Anamelech. These names, or titles, fignify no more than lord, or king; and fometimes have an epithet prefixed to them, as in the two laft, where he is ftyled the Mighty and Rich Melech, Moloch, or King: these two were the gods of the Sepharvites. We shall only

Jofeph. de Bello Jud, lib. i. cap. 4.
A a 2

a Orig. in Job. lib. i.
fpeak

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