LECTURE XXVIII. TIME OF THE JUDGES. JUDGES 1. 1.-RUTH IV. 22. SUBJECT AND NAME OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES. ITS CONTENTS. CONDUCT OF THE TRIBES TOWARDS THE CANAANITES, AFTER THE DEATH OF JOSHUA. ANNUNCIATION TO THEM OF THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE. - GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE COURSE OF OFFENCES, PUNISHMENTS, AND DELIVERANCES. MESOPOTAMIAN CAPTIVITY, AND JUDGESHIP OF OTHNIEL.MOABITISH CAPTIVITY, - AND EMANCIPATION UNDER EHUD. SLAUGHTER OF PHILISTINES THE seventh book in the Old Testament collection, that denominated the book of Judges, - professes to treat of the history of the Jewish people during the period which elapsed between the conquest and settlement of Canaan under Joshua, and the time of Eli and Samuel, which immediately preceded that of the establishment of the monarchy. The book takes its name from the office of those eminent persons, whose deeds it records. Our translation of the name, however, is liable to convey an erroneous impression of the character which they sustained. They were not judges, according to our acceptation of the term ; — that is, they were not administrators of law, or, at all events, that was not their distinctive trust. According to the representation in the history, they were military leaders, raised up by Providence, from time to time, to rescue the nation from the yoke of foreign oppressors. The book opens with an account of the course pursued, by several of the tribes, towards the native inhabitants, after the death of Joshua. Of the tribes west of the river, eight are specified, which did not expel the Canaanites from their territory.* The result of this mistaken clemency is related to have been predicted by "an angel of the Lord" to a convocation of the Israelites, at a place which took the name Bochim [weeping], from the distress occasioned by his communication. The event, after the death of the generation contemporary with Joshua, fulfilled the angel's words. "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger; and they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth." The consequence was, that Jehovah, as he had foretold through Moses, proceeded to punish them by the hand of foreign tyrants. "He delivered them into the hand of spoilers that spoiled them, ..... so that they could not any longer stand before their ene ** Judges i. 1-36. VOL. II. fii. 1-5. ii. 6-13. 24 ... mies." Compassionating, however, their distressed condition, the Lord, from time to time, "raised them up judges, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judges." At last, indignant at seeing how constantly, after a succession of punishment and relief, they fell back into their former course of apostasy, he is said to have declared, "I will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died, that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, to walk therein."* The writer appears to have thus announced the theme, which the chief part of his book was intended to illustrate. At least, the contents of the first sixteen chapters principally relate to subjugations of the Jews by foreign powers in consequence of their desertions of Jehovah, and to his successive interpositions in their behalf. First, their country, it is said, was overrun by Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. He oppressed them for a term of eight years, at the end of which God listened to their prayers, and raised them up a deliverer in the person of Othniel, brother of Caleb.† Forty years of quiet succeeded. A similar offence then provoked a similar retribution, of which Eglon, king of Moab, was made the instrument. His sway continued eighteen years, at the end of which time he was assassinated by one Ehud of the tribe of Benjamin, who, placing himself at the head of the people, again secured their freedom, and "the land had rest fourscore years. ‡ Judges ii. 14-23; comp. Ex. xxiii. 20-33; Lev. xxvi. 14-39; Deut. xxviii. 15-68. The record of the next revolution is more brief. After Ehud "was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad; and he also delivered Israel." * "The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor. ..... He had nine hundred chariots of iron, and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel." Deborah, "the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time." She summoned Barak, of the tribe of Naphtali, to meet her at Mount Tabor with ten thousand men. Sisera, Jabin's commander, encountering this force with his master's nine hundred. chariots and "all the people that were with him,” suffered a signal defeat, and, betaking himself to flight, and hiding himself in the tent of "Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite," was put to death by her, while asleep, by means of a nail driven through his temples. "So God subdued, on that day, Jabin the king of Canaan, before the children of Israel;" "and the land had rest forty years." A triumphal ode, sung by Deborah and Barak on the day of their great exploit, is incorporated into the narrative. † The history of Gideon, the people's champion against the Midianites, who are said to have grievously oppressed them seven years, is much more extended, and contains matter irrelevant to the subject proposed at the beginning of the book, proceeding even to some statements no otherwise relating to Gideon, than as the persons introduced in them were members of his family. While threshing wheat in a winepress, for the sake of concealment, he is related to have been accost * Judges iii. 31. † iv. 1-v. 31. ed by "the angel of the Lord," who summoned him to undertake the deliverance of his nation, giving him proof of his supernatural commission, by causing fire to issue from a rock, to consume an offering which Gideon had laid upon it. Next he received and obeyed a divine direction, to overthrow his father's altar, erected in honor of Baal, and, building another in its place, to sacrifice thereupon to Jehovah. "The spirit of the Lord" then coming upon him, "he blew a trumpet," which gathered about him a force composed of his immediate kindred, at the same time sending messengers to rouse the northern tribes. He asked and obtained further satisfaction respecting his being under a peculiar divine protection; a fleece of wool, which he exposed to the dew through two successive nights, being, according to his proposal, saturated with moisture on the first, while all around was dry, and on the second night continuing dry, while "there was dew on all the ground."* Still Proceeding against the Midianites with the force he had collected by such exertions, he is related, under another divine direction, to have proposed to as many as were "fearful and afraid " to return to their homes; upon which no less than twenty-two thousand men retired, leaving ten thousand under his command. "the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many," and directed him to lead them to a river's side to drink, and then to reserve for the war only those who should raise the water to their lips in the hollow of the hand. These proved to be three hundred in number, and the rest of the army were dismissed to their homes. With his little band, he passed towards the Midianitish host, which "lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude." Here, along with "Phu * Judges vi. 1 - 40. |