yards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of A.C. 1187. Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances and she was his only child; *+ beside her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. 36 And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. Or, he had not of his own either son or daughter. Heb. of him self. 37 And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and Heb. go and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. 38 And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was § a custom in Israel, 40 That the daughters of Israel went || yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. JUDGES XII. VER. 1-8. 1 The Ephraimites, quarrelling with Jephthah, and discerned by Shibboleth, are slain by the Gileadites. 7 Jephthah dieth. go down. Or, ordi nance. Heb. from year to year. with. 1 And the men of Ephraim + gathered themselves toge- + Heb. were ther, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Where- called. fore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine house upon thee with fire. 2 And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. 3 And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me? 4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manas sites. 5 And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; 6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. 7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead. SECTION X. Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Judges. JUDGES XII. VER. 8, TO THE END. 8 ¶ And after him + Ibzan of Beth-lehem judged Israel. 9 And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad, and took in thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. 10 Then died Ibzan, and was buried at Beth-lehem. 11 And after him ‡ Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. 12 And Elon the Zebulonite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulon. 13¶ And after him § Abdon the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel. 14 And he had forty sons and thirty || nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years. 15 And Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites. SECTION XI 17. The Government of Eli.-The Philistines oppress Israel. JUDGES XIII. 1 And the children of Israel *°did evil again in the sight 17 The arrangement of the contents of this section is made on the united autho of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand A.C. 1156. of the Philistines forty years. *This seems tivity. 2¶ And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family a partial capof the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not. 3 18 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and barest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and Pdrink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: 5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no Num. vi. 2, vi. 5. ¶ razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Na- Num. zarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. 6¶Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: 7 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. rities of the Bible Chronology, and Calmet. The events therein related seem to have taken place in the following order: Samson and Samuel are born in the same year, at the commencement of the servitude of the Israelites to the Philistines mentioned in (Judges xiii. 1.) the year in which Abdon dies, and the forty years' administration of Eli (1 Sam. iv. 18.) begin. 1155. Samuel is called, aged twelve years, according to Josephus. (Samuel continued to prophesy till his death.) 1143. Samson, having arrived at years of maturity, revenges the cause of his country upon the Philistines from 1136 to 1117: in which last year he was killed. He is said to have judged Israel these twenty years. (Judg. xv. 20.) 1117. In the year of Samson's death a prophet is sent to Eli to warn him of the impending fate of his house. And the prediction is fulfilled within two years after Samson's death; when the Philistines began to recover from the loss occasioned by Samson; and revenged that loss by the capture of the ark-the defeat of the Israelites-and the slaughter of the sons of Eli. 1116. On the death of Eli the sole administration of Samuel commences, and continues twenty-one years, till the ark is recovered, and brought from Kirjath-jearim to the house of Abinadab. 1096. The people demand a king, and the forty years' government of Saul commences, and continues till 1055. The administration of Samuel lasted either solely, or in conjunction with Eli and Saul eighty years. 18 The appearance of the angel Jehovah to Manoah, and his wife, was the last open vision; the last miraculous interposition till the voice which called Samuel. A.C. 1156. 8 ¶ Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my LORD, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. 9 And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. 11 And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. 12 And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do manner of the, unto him? Heb. What shall be the &c. + Or, what shall he do? Heb, what shall be his work? 13 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. 14 She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe. 15 ¶ And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready Heb. before a kid § for thee. thee. jul. 16 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the Lord. 17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? 18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest Or, wonder- thou thus after my name, seeing it is || secret? r Ex. xxxiii. 20. ch, vi. 22, 19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wonderously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. 21 But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. 22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23 But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed A.C. 1156, us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these. 24 And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. The Birth of Samuel. 1 SAMUEL 1, 1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite: 2 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. *Heb. Maha- 16. 3 And this man went up out of his city+ yearly to wor- s Deut. xvi. ship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And + Heb. from the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the year to year. LORD, were there. 4 ¶ And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: 5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. 6 And her adversary also § provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. 7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. 8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons? 9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. Or, a double portion. Heb. anger ed her. Or, from she, &c. the time that * Heb. from her going up. 10 And she was + in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto +Heb. bitter the LORD, and wept sore. 11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall not razor come upon his head. 12 And it came to pass, as she § continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. of soul. Heb. seed of Num. vi. 5. men. Judg. xiii. 5. Heb. multi plied to pray. |