Q. What expedients were adopted?

A. They smote Jabesh Gilead, because the inhabitants did not join them in the war, and thus procured four hundred virgins, who were tendered to the Benjamites. Those who still lacked wives, by the recommendation of the elders, laid wait in the vineyards, near Shiloh, during the celebration of an annual festival, and carried off the young women as they came out in dances.*

Q. Did the Israelites succeed in obtaining possession of all the places allotted to them?

A. No: they disobeyed the Lord in making alliances with the Cananites,† and tolerating their abominable idolatry; wherefore he did not drive out the inhabitants before them.‡ Consequently, as was predicted by Moses, they "were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood,—

* Romulus, the founder of Rome, procured wives for his banditti in a similar way.

+ Judges iii. 5.—7. ́

The decree for their extirpation was revoked, Judg. ii. 3. and consequently the Israelites shared the land with the original possessors. iii. 5, 6. Araunah and Uriah were Canaanites, 2 Sam. xi. 3. xxiv. 18.

The word Shaidim, here rendered devils, seems to refer to the prolific powers of Nature, personified and worshipped by the Canaanites. The Egyptian Isis, and the Grecian Diana, were of this class, as their symbols indicate.

Our translators have interpreted Sheirim, Levit. xvii. 7. in like manner. The word signifies something horrible, and probably refers to Mendes, or some such filthy deity of the

the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan."*

Q. How were they governed after the days of the elders ?

A. By judges: but their authority did not always extend over the whole land, nor was their administration of justice always strict. In many parts of the country "every man did what was right in his own eyes.Ӡ Q. What was the consequence of their apostacy?

A. "Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance, and he gave them into the hand of the heathen. Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity."

A. M. 2599. Q. By whom were they first punished? B. C. 1405. A. By Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia, who subdued and oppressed them eight years. Q. Did their affliction bring them to repentance?

:

A. Yes they "remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer ;" and when A. M. 2607. they sought him, he raised them up a B. C. 1397. deliverer in the person of Othniel, who defeated Cushan-rishathaim.

Egyptian superstition, to whom they sacrificed in private. To guard against this, it was decreed that every animal should be slaughtered at the sanctuary. Lev. xvii. 1.-9.'

*Ps. cvi. 35.-39.

+ The idolatrous practices perpetually resorted to by the Israelites, demonstrate in the strongest manner, either the imbecility or corruption of the government. Judg. ii. 16, 19.--xvii. 6.

Q. How long did they enjoy tranquillity?

A. "The land had rest forty years," when the IsA. M. 2647. raelites again relapsing into idolatry, B. C. 1357. the Lord gave them into the hands of Eglon king of Moab, who, with the Amalekites and Amorites, oppressed them eighteen years.

A. M. 2665. Q. How were they delivered?

B. C. 1339. A. Having sought the Lord, he raised up a deliverer in the person of Ehud, a Benjamite, who slew Eglon in a private conference; and, escaping to his own land, raised an army, and defeated the Moabites at the fords of Jordan.

Q. What was the result of this victory?

A. "The land had rest four-score years." During this period, Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad: “and he also delivered Israel."¶

A. M. 2745. Q. How did this rest terminate? B. C. 1259. 4. The Israelites, forsaking the Lord, were given into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he oppressed them twenty years.

The expression, "The Lord raised them up a deliverer," Judg. iii. 15. "does not necessarily imply that the act which Providence made subservient to the deliverance of the people, was morally right; for the orientals ascribe to the Deity even what is evil. I will, therefore, by no means justify the conduct of Ehud, in murdering the king of Moab, while, in token of their subjection, he presented him with a gift from the Israelites."-MICHAELIS'S Comment, vol 1. Art. 54.

¶ Judg. iii. 31. v. 6. Shamgar's deliverance of Israel appears to have been, like Samson's, partial, and restricted to western Israel.-See Notes to Chron. Tab. No. 3.

A. M. 2765. Q. By whose instrumentality were they B. C. 1239. delivered?

A. They cried to the Lord, and he delivered them by Deborah the prophetess, wife of Lapidoth, and Barak, who, with ten thousand men, defeated Sisera, Jabin's captain, on the plain of Megiddo. This victory they celebrated in a triumphal song.

Q. What became of Sisera?

A. He was treacherously murdered by Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, the ally of Jabin.

Q. What tribes chiefly distinguished themselves in this battle?

A. Zebulon, Napthali, and Issachar.

Q. What was the state of things in Israel immediately previous?

The city of Acco, the Ptolemais of the Greeks, and the Acre of modern times, which, with other maritime places, was left in the hands of the Canaanites, Judg. i. 31. is so decisive of the fate of Palestine, that whoever possesses it, may easily become master of the whole country. From this port, a vast and fertile plain extends all the way to the river Jordan, dividing Palestine into two halves. This is the Megiddo and Armageddon of holy writ; and is otherwise known as "the great plain," "the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon," and “the Galilean plain." In this plain have been fonght most of those battles which have consigned the country to new masters. Here Barak defeated Sisera; Judg. v. 19. Saul was defeated by the Philistines; 1 Sam. xxix. 1. 11. xxxi. 1.-6. and Josiah was slain by Necho; 2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30. It was precisely the same during the crusades, the chief scene of which was this vale, and the city of Acco itself.-See MICHAELIS'S Comment. vol. 1. Art. xix. CLARKE'S Travels vol. iv.

A. The Danites had already embarked; the tribe of Asher remained on the coast, and in creeks, apparently with design to escape to other lands; great fears were entertained by the patriotic band for the fidelity of the Reubenites, who, with the other Gileadites, kept aloof from the battle.

Q. What curse was pronounced on this occasion on the inhabitants of Meroz?

A. "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty."§

Q. How long did the land enjoy repose after this victory?

A. Forty years.

A. M. 2805. Q. What interrupted this peace?

B. C. 1199. A. The Israelites again relapsing into idolatry, the Lord gave them into the hands of the Midianites, who oppressed them seven years. In this period, the Israelites betook themselves to dens, caves, and strong holds, suffering greatly for want of food; their enemies, the Midianites and Amalekites, destroying, in the most wanton manner, all the increase of the earth.

A. M. 2812. Q. Whence did the Israelites look for B. C. 1192. help?

A. Being impoverished by their enemies, they cried unto the Lord, who, after reminding them by one of his

Judg. v. 15.-18. 23.