with the appellation of Abimelech. In the days of Moses this monarchy was changed into an aristocracy of five lords; but the supreme authority was again vested in the hands of a king, though it is uncertain by what means this change was effected. The second race of kings was distinguished by the appellation of Achish. During their best times, the royal residence was at Gath, whence it was removed, first to Askelon, and then to Gaza.

The Philistines appear to have been a warlike and industrious people, and in the days of Abraham were justly famed for the purity and simplicity of their manners; but they gradually degenerated into all the vices of other idolatrous nations, and became the most irreconcileable enemies of the Israelites. They were greatly addicted to trade; entertained a very fond veneration for their deities; and performed their religious ceremonies with much pomp and magnificence. Their language appears to have been easily understood by the Hebrews; and they had, doubtless, the arts and sciences in common with the most ingenious of their contemporaries. The invention of the bow and arrow is ascribed to this people.

Abimelech their king, in Abraham's B. C. time, was a wise and equitable person, 1897. and seems to have had some intercourse

with God. He resided at Gerar, where he be came enamoured of Abraham's wife, and, understanding she was a single woman, resolved to take her to his bed; but being warned by the Almighty, in a dream, to restore the object of his love to her concealed husband, he called Abraham into his presence, rebuked him for his dupli city and want of confidence, and presented him

with a considerable number of sheep, oxen, and servants, giving him free permission at the same time to settle in any part of his dominions.

Abimelech the second reigned also at Gerar, and had almost the same transaction with Isaac and Rebecca, as his father had with Abraham and Sarah. He seems to have been actuated by the very same principles as his righteous predecessor, and certainly merited the epithet of a just and righteous prince. Isaac continued without molestation in the land till his increasing power began to give umbrage to the Philistines, who gave him no small disturbance, by filling up his wells as fast as his servants dug them, and by va→ rious other ill offices. He was then compelled to remove from place to place, till at length Abimelech renewed the covenant, that had subsisted between his father and Abraham,

Nothing further worthy of notice is recorded of these people, till after the decease of Joshua, when they were dispossessed of Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron, by the united tribes of Simeon and Judah, which however they soon recovered, but whether by gift or conquest is uncertain.

B. C.

About one hundred and twenty years 1305. after the reduction of these cities, the Philistines oppressed the children of Is rael, and retained them in subjection till their delivery was effected by the valour of Shamgar, who is said to have killed six hundred men with an ox goad. A second time they oppressed the Israelites, in conjunction with the Ammonites, in the days of Jepthah: and a third time they reduced them, by the permission of God, and held them in subjection for the space of forty years.

B. C.

1137.

In this interval, Samson was born to check the pride of the Philistines. He fell in love with a damsel who resided at Timnath, and, at the celebration of his marriage, proposed a riddle to thirty young Philistines, promising to give a suit of apparel to each man, if within seven days they should explain it. For three successive days they puzzled themselves with the solution of his enigma; but finding themselves totally at a loss, and knowing that Samson would demand thirty changes of apparel from them, if they could not resolve it, they threatened their countrywoman, Samson's bride, with the most dreadful effects of their fury, if she did not extricate them from their trouble. She accordingly wearied her husband by continual entreaties, till at length she prevailed on him to disclose the ambiguity, which she communicated to her guests. This transaction proved a misfortune to Askelon, as Samson went thither and slew thirty men, whose garments he carried home to fulfil his engagement. This marriage was productive of many B. C. misfortunes to the Philistines; for Samson's father-in-law, apprehending that his daughter was not possessed of the Israelite's heart, gave her to another, and denied Samson, who had been absent a twelvemonth, all access to his wife; but at the same time offered him another daughter, whom he highly extolled for her youth and personal accomplishments. But this proposal did not pacify Samson, who, in revenge, sent three hundred foxes with fire-brands at their tails into the fields, so that the standing corn was consumed, together with all the other fruits of the earth. The Philistines, confounded at so unexpected a disaster, and understanding the cause of Samson's VOL. II.

C

1136.

anger, looked on his father-in-law as the chief incendiary, and therefore burnt him, together with his daughter.

Many of them were afterward smitten by Samson, whom they pursued to the rock Etam, and received, bound, from the men of Judah. The Philistines shouted aloud at sight of their enemy, but their joy was soon converted into mourning, for Samson, breaking his bonds, found the jaw-bone of an ass, and with that weapon killed a thousand of his adversaries.

At the expiration of twenty years the Gazites thought they had this formidable enemy within their power, and fastened their gates, with an intention to put him to death in the morning. But their precaution was frustrated by Samson, who, quitting his lodging at midnight, took the city gates, with their posts and bars, and carried them away to Hebron. He was however at length subdued through the treachery of his mistress Delilah, who consented to deliver him to the lords of the Philistines for a considerable sum of money.

Samson, thus betrayed through his own folly and incontinence, was deprived of his sight, bound in fetters of brass, and compelled to grind in the prison at Gaza: but, in consequence of his repentance and earnest prayer to God, he was finally enabled to revenge himself in the most ample manner, by overturning the temple of Dagon, and crushing three thousand persons beneath the ruins.

Soon after this extraordinary event the Philistines obtained a signal victory over Israel, and took the ark of God, after having slain the two priests who attended it: but experiencing some severe afflictions while they retained it in their

possession, they sent it back again to the Israelites, and appear to have been thoroughly sensible of the hand that chastised them. They soon, however, forgot this manifestation of the divine anger; for about twenty years after, they marched against the chosen people who were assembled at Mizpeh, but they were dispersed by so dreadful a storm of thunder and lightning, that the Israelites pursued them with great slaughter as far as BethCar, and emancipated themselves from their tyrannical yoke.

The Philistines soon recovered this loss, B. C. and in a few years became more powerful 1096. than ever; for being informed that one

of their fortresses had been surprised by Jonathan the son of Saul, they assembled thirty thousand chariots of war, six thousand horse, and an incredible number of foot soldiers, to fight with the Israelites, who were at this time destitute of arms, through the political precautions of their tyrannical oppressors.

In the midst of their cruel depredations B. C. they received a check from Jonathan, 1095. who, inspired by a divine impulse, and

accompanied by his armour-bearer, made a considerable slaughter of one of their out guards; the noise of which spreading to the whole body, occasioned so universal a tumult, that they fell upon each other with great fury, and the earth is expressly said to have shaken beneath them. The Israelites perceiving this confusion, sallied out against them under the command of Saul, and pursued them with unremitting slaughter from Michmash to Ajalon.

Notwithstanding this misfortune, visibly effected by the hand of Heaven, they recovered