making Abimelech king, Joatham hearing of it, came and stood upon Mount Garizim, and cried out saying: "Hear me, ye men of Sichem, so may God hear you.

JOATHAM'S FABLE AND SPEECH.

And it answered: Can I leave my fatness, which both gods and men make use of, to come to be promoted among the trees?

And the trees said to the fig tree: Come thou and reign over us.

And it answered them: Can I leave my sweetness, and my delicious fruits, and go to be promoted among the other trees?

And the trees said to the vine: Come thou and reign over us.

And it answered them: Can I forsake my wine, that cheereth God and men, and be promoted among the other trees?

And all the trees said to the bramble: Come thou and reign over us.

And it answered them: If indeed you mean to make me king, come ye and rest under my shadow but if you mean it not, let fire come out from the bramble, and devour the cedars of Libanus.

:

Now therefore if you have done well, and without sin in appointing Abimelech king over you, and have dealt well with Gedeon, and with his house, and have made a suitable return for the benefits of him who fought for you,

And exposed his life to dangers, to deliver you from the hands of Madian,

And you are now risen up against my father's house, and have killed his sons seventy men upon one stone, and have made Abimelech the son of his handmaid king over the inhabitants of Sichem, because he is your brother:

If therefore you have dealt well, and without fault with Gedeon and his house, rejoice ye this day in Abimelech, and may he rejoice in

And when he had said this he fled, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

The murderer and usurper did not prosper. The Lord sent a very evil spirit between Abimelech and the inhabitants of Sichem, who began to detest him. A conspiracy was formed against him, which however Abimelech overcame, and put the men of Sichem to the sword, but as he proceeded from thence to attack the town of Thebes, and was going to set fire to the gate of a certain high tower, a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from above and broke his skull. He called hastily to his armour-bearer and said: "Draw thy sword and kill me, lest it should be said I was killed by a woman." The armour-bearer did as he

was commanded. Thus God repaid the evil that Abimelech had done against his father, killing his seventy brethren. The Sichemites also were rewarded

The children of Ammon were now the enemies. and oppressors of Israel, and there was at that time a valiant warrior of the name of Jephte, of Galaad, whom his brethren had thrust out, saying: "Thou canst not inherit in the house of our father, for thou art born of another mother." The elders of the city, pressed by fear of the Ammonites, came to Jephte, and said to him: "Come thou and be our prince, and fight against the children of Ammon." He answered them: "Are not you the men that hated me, and cast me out of my father's house? and now you are come to me constrained by necessity." Jephte however seeing that they were in earnest, at length agreed; and he was placed in command by the princes of Galaad. Before however having recourse to arms, he sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, and in a wise and temperate manner called upon him to desist from an unjust war against Israel. The king refused to listen, and the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephte, and he made a vow to the Lord, saying: "If Thou wilt deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, whosoever shall first come forth out of the doors of my house, and shall meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, the same will I offer a holocaust to the Lord."

He gained a complete victory: and as he was returning to his house in Maspha, his only daughter met him with timbrels and with dances: for he had no other children. And when he saw her, he rent

his garments, and said: "Alas! my daughter, thou hast. deceived me, and thou thyself art deceived: for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I can do no other thing." And she answered him: "My father, if thou

hast opened thy mouth to the Lord, do unto me whatsoever thou hast promised, since the victory hath been granted to thee, and revenge of thy enemies." She asked her father's leave to retire with her companions

for two months to the mountains, and after her return she lived for the rest of her life as a virgin and a recluse in Israel, dedicated to God, as numbers of Christian ladies have since done. From thence came a fashion in Israel, and a custom that from year to year the daughters of Israel assemble together, and lament the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite for four days. Virginity was not at that time held in honour, as it is now under the new covenant.*

§ 53. Samson.

While the tribes of Zabulon and Nepthali were fighting the battles of the Lord in the valley of the Jordan, God raised up another deliverer for His people in the west of Israel, in the person of Samson, a man of the tribe of Dan. His birth was foretold to Manue his father by an angel, and his son was to be a Nazarite to the Lord from his birth. The child was born and grew, and the Spirit of the Lord was with him in the camp at Dan. As the Jews were a stiffnecked people, always faithless and rebellious, and still were chosen by God as His instruments, Samson in the same way was an instrument in the hand of God, though his own conduct was often very bad, and in the end, as we shall see, brought about his death.

His first act was to form acquaintance with a young Philistine maiden, and, contrary to the law of Moses

*There is nothing whatever in the Scripture narrative to support the notion that Jephte's daughter was offered in sacrifice. Such a barbarity could have only befitted the worship of Moloch. God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac to try Abraham's obedience, but He did not suffer him to slay him. The Scripture merely says that on her return she remained a virgin.