CHAP. II.

OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE ISRAELITES AFTER THE DEATH OF JOSHUA ; THEIR TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAWS OF THEIR COUNTRY; AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN, EXCEPTING ONLY SIX HUNDRED MEN.

AFTER the death of Joshua and Eleazar, Phineas prophesied that, according to God's will, they should commit the government to the tribe of Judah, and that this tribe should destroy the race of the Canaanites; for then the people were concerned to learn what was the will of God. They also took to their assistance the tribe of Simeon; but upon this condition, that when those that had been tributary to the tribe of Judah should be slain, they should do the like for the tribe of Simeon.

But the affairs of the Canaanites were at this time in a flourishing condition; and they expected the Israelites with a great army at the city Bezek; having put the government into the hands of Adonibezek; which name denotes the lord of Bezek, for Adoni in the Hebrew tongue is called Lord. Now they hoped to have been too hard for the Israelites, because Joshua was dead; but when the Israelites had joined battle with them, I mean the two tribes before-mentioned, they fought valiantly, and slew above ten thousand of them, and put the rest to flight; and in the pursuit they took Adonibezek; who, when his fingers and toes were cut off by them, said, "Nay,

By prophesying, when spoken of a high-priest, Josephus, both here and frequently elsewhere, means no more than consulting God by Urim; which the rea der is still to bear in mind upon al! occasions. And if St. John, who was contemporary with Josephus, and of the same country, made use of his style, when he eays that Caiaphas, being high-priest that year, prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God, that were scattered abroad, xi. 51, 52, he may possibly mean, that this was revealed to the high-priest by an extraordinary voice from between the cherubim, when he had his breast plate, or Urim and Thummim on, before or in the most holy place of the temple; which was no other than the oracle of Urim and Thummim. Of which above, in the note on Antiq. III. 8

indeed, I was not always to lie concealed from God, as I find by what I now endure; while I have not been ashamed to do the same to seventy-two kings."t So they carried him alive as far as Jerusalem; and when he was dead they buried him in the earth, and went on still in taking the cities; and when they had taken the greatest part of them, they besieged Jerusalem; and when they had taken the lower city, which was not under a considerable time, they slew all the inhabitants.-But the upper city was not to be taken without great difficulty, through the strength of its walls and the nature of the place.

who had bodies so

For this reason they removed their camp to Hebron; aud when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants; large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hear

"This great number of Reguli, or small kings over whom Adonibezek had tyranized, and for which he was punished according to the Lex Talionis ; as well as the thirty-one kings of Canaan, subdued by Joshua, and named in one chapter, Josh. xii, and thirty-two kings, or royal auxiliaries, to Benhadad king of Syria, 1 Kings xx. 1. Antiq. VIII. 14, intimate to us, what was the ancient form of government among several nations, before the monarchies began; viz. That every city or large town, with its neighbouring villages, was a distinct government by itself. Which is the more remarkable, because this was certainly the form of ecclesiastical government that was settled by the apostles, and preserved throughout the Christian church, in the first age of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion, that it would be for the good of mankind, to have all the mighty empires and monarchies of the world cantoned out into petty states and principalities; that, like so many large families, might lie under the observation of their proper governors; so that the care of the prince might extend itself to every individual person under his protection; though he despairs of such a scheme being brought about; and thinks that if it were, it would quickly be destroyed. Remarks on Italy, 4to p. 151. Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Armenian records, though they give us the history of thirty-nine of their ancientest heroes or governors, after the flood, before the days of Sardanapalus, had no proper king till the fortieth Pararus. See More's Chorenensis, p. 55, and the note there. And the Almighty God does not approve of such absolute or tyrannical monarchies, and one may learn, that reads Deut. xvii. 14-20, and 1 Sam. viii. 1-22, xii. 1-26. Although if such kings are set up, as own him for their supreme King; and aim to govern according to his laws, he hath admitted of them, and protected them, and their subjects in all generations.

+ Judg. i. 7.

Of the old giants, their several species, statures, and remaining bones, see Authent. Rec. Part I. p. 260–293, and Part II. 872–938, at large.

ing. The bones of these men are shewn to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men. Now they gave this city to the Levites, as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs of two thousand cubits. But the land thereto belonging they gave as a free gift to Caleb, according to the injunctions of Moses. This Caleb was one of the spies which Moses sent into the land of Canaan; they also gave land for habitation to the posterity of Jethro, the Midianite, who was the father-in-law to Moses. For they had left their own country and followed them, and accompanied them in the wilderness.

Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took the cities which were in the mountainous part of Canaan, as also Ascalon and Ashdod, of those that lay near the sea. But Gaza and Ekron escaped them; for they, lying in a flat country, and having a great number of chariots, sorely galled those that attacked them. So these tribes when they were grown very rich by this war, retired to their own cities, and laid aside their weapons of war.

But the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its inhabitants to pay tribute; so they all left off, the one to kill, and the other to expose themselves to danger, and had time to cultivate the ground. The rest of the tribes imitated that of Benjamin, and did the same; and contenting themselves with the tributes that were paid them, permitted the Canaanites to live in peace.

However, the tribe of Ephraim, when they besieged Bethel, made no advance; nor performed any thing worthy of the time they spent, and of the pains they took about that siege. Yet did they persist in it, still sitting down before the city; though they endured great trouble thereby. But, after some time they caught one of the citizens, that came to them to get necessaries; and they gave him some assurances, that if he would deliver up the city they would preserve him and his kindred. So he sware that, upon those terms, he would put the place into their hands. Accordingly, he was preserved with his family, while the Israelites slew all the other inhabitants, and retained the city for themselves.

After this the Israelites grew effeminate as to fighting any more against their enemies; but applied themselves to the cultivation of the land; which producing great plenty and riches,

they neglected the regular disposition of their settlement, and indulged themselves in luxury and pleasures. Nor were they any longer careful to hear the laws that belonged to their political government. Whereupon God was provoked to anger, and put them in mind, first how contrary to his directions they had spared the Canaanites; and, after that, how those Canaanites, as opportunity served, used them very barbarously. But the Israelites, though they were in heaviness at these admonitions from God, yet were they still very unwilling to go to war. And since they got large tributes from the Canaanites, and were indisposed for taking pains by their luxury, they suffered their aristocracy to be corrupted also, and did not ordain themselves a senate, nor any such magistrates as their laws had formerly required. But they were very much given to cultivating their fields, in order to get wealth; which great indolence of theirs brought a terrible sedition upon them; and they proceeded so far as to fight one against another, from the following occasion.

There was a Levite,† a man of a vulgar family, that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt therein. This man married a wife from Bethlehem, which is a place belonging to the tribe of Judah. Now he was very fond of his wife, and overcome with her beauty; but he did not meet with a return of affection, for she was averse to him; which did more inflame his passion for her. So they quarrelled one with another perpetually; and at last the woman was so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left her husband, and went to her parents, in the fourth month. The husband being very uneasy at her departure, went to his father and mother-in-law, made up their quarrels, and lived with them there four days, as being kindly treated. On the fifth day he resolved to go home, and went away

Josephus's early date of this history, before the beginning of the Judges, or when there was no king in Israel, Judges xix 1. is strongly confirmed by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat; 2 Chron. xiv. 8. and xvi. 17. who yet were here reduced to 600 men. Nor can those numbers be at all supposed genuine, if they were reduced so late as the end of the Judges, where our other copies place this reduction.

About An. 1460, B. C.

in the evening; for his wife's parents were loth to part with
their daughter, and delayed the time till the day was gone.-
Now they had one servant that followed them, and an ass on
which the woman rode; and when they were near Jerusalem,
having gone already* thirty furlongs, the servant advised them
to take up their lodgings somewhere, lest some misfortune
should befal them, if they travelled in the night, especially since
they were not far off enemies; that season often giving r、
for suspicion of dangers from even such as are friends. But the
husband was not pleased with this advice, nor was he willing
to take up his lodging among strangers; for the city belonged
to the Canaanites; but desired rather to go twenty furlongs
farther, and so take their lodgings in some Israelite city. Ac-
cordingly he came to Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin,
when it was just dark; and while no one that lived in the mar-
ket-place invited him to lodge with him, there came an old man
out of the field; one that was indeed of the tribe of Ephraim,
but resided in Gibeah, and asked him, who he was? for what
reason he came thither so late? and why he was looking out for
provisions for supper when it was dark? to which he replied
that he was a Levite, and was bringing his wife from her pa-
rents, and was going home; but he told him his habitation was
in the tribe of Ephraim. So the old man, as well because of
their kindred, as because they lived in the same tribe; and al-
so because they had thus accidentally met together, took him
to lodge with him. Now certain young men, of the inhabitants
of Gibeah, having seen the woman in the market-place, and ad-
miring her beauty, when they understood that she lodged with
the old man, came to the doors, as contemning the weakness
and fewness of the old man's family. And when the old man

* Reland, in his Palestina, tom. II. p. 810. finds a contradiction in Josephus, as to the distance of Gibeah of Saul in the tribe of Benjamin, from Jerusalem, 30 furlongs here; but of the War, V. 2. 20 furlongs, and no more. Yet is there no necessity of making these two places to contradict each other. These 20 furlongs only they had now to go to Gibeah indeed; but it was not from Jerusalem, but from the place where they now were; which might easily be eight or ten furlongs from Jerusalem in the way to Gibeah. So that here does not appear any real contradiction at all.

11

an

old they selre their l ed him

an obsta himself) his gues ier to the law to sa posing t

ing done

earnestn their des any such by force; nations, th they had a day-break. tained, und not look b ded that he So she fell supposed h of a more n raise her up, not voluntari ced away to t was dead, hea tune would ad carried her bon

* See Gen. xix. 8 Interpreters say action; they merely against the authors good and regular.