mart of a the three fins and as ready imes, fo The text they fell +, railed in king army, aber of ection ce had hould ir fu ftru con dif -gth d of for t of ca zab m Midian or Amalek, when the angel of the LORD faluted him with the title of the valiant faviour of his people, and convinced him by repeated miracles, that Ifrael, whom he now looked upon as forfaken by Gon, fhould be speedily and miraculously reftored to their wished-for freedom, by his means. Gideon, on the one hand, was too ex- Gideon. perienced a warrior, and too well acquainted with the Year of dejected condition of his nation, to think that fuch a deli- the flood verance could be wrought by an arm of flesh; and, on the 1103. other, he was fo far from expecting fuch a fupernatural Bef. Chr. affiftance, that he seemed even to doubt of the truth of 1245. all thofe wonders, which God had wrought in favour of them ". At length, to confirm his wavering faith, he obtained leave of the heavenly meffenger to go and fetch a facrifice, and to offer it at his feet; which he had no fooner done, but, upon the angel's touching it with the end of his ftaff, a miraculous fire arofe out of the rock on which it was laid, and confumed the whole facrifice; immediately after which, the angel vanifhed out of his fight. Gideon was filled with furprize and dread at the thoughts of the Divine Prefence, which he had beheld but GoD was pleased to diffipate his fears; in memory of which, he reared an altar upon the place, and called it JehovahShalom b : On that very night, the LORD commanded him to begin his heaven-appointed task with the deftruction of the altar and grove of Baal, the fatal fource of Ifrael's defection and punishment; and to expiate their crime by the facrifice of a bullock of feven years, in the place where they had ferved that Midianitish deity. Gideon was not only eager to obey, but fet about it that very night, by the help of ten of his fervants, whom he called to the work, On the next morning the whole city came to Joah's houfe, and, in an infolent manner, demanded that he fhould deliver up his fon to be put to death, for his facrilege against Baal; but the grave old man foon made them fenfible of their abfurd zeal for an impotent deity, which could not defend his altar and honour against his fon, who got the furname of Ferubbaal by it, that is, Let Baal look to himself. He was foon after affured, by a repeated miracle, of gaining, with an handful of men, a complete victory over the combined armies of the enemy; for Gon, who defigned to take away all occafion, both from them, and the Judg. vi. 13. 2 b Ver. 24. ungrateful ungrateful Jews, to attribute the fuccefs to their number or valour, commanded Gideon to make a proclamation through his army, and to disband all that were faint-hearted; upon which, twenty-two thousand of his daftardly troops were immediately difmiffed. Gideon probably thought by this time, that his army was fufficiently reduced; when he was again commanded to lead it to the water-fide, and there feparate thofe, who went down upon their knees to drink, from those who lapped the water out of the hollow of their hand. There were found but three hundred of the latter; and GOD promised him the victory by them, and ordered the reft to be fent away. We have already given an account of his ftratagem and fuccefs against the confederate army, by which the Ifraelites gained, with their freedom, an immenfe quantity of the richeft fpoil; to which we refer our readers. GIDEON, refolving to make the best advantage of this victory, fummoned feveral tribes to purfue the enemy, and to fecure the fords of Beth-barah and Jordan; and the cowardly twenty-two thousand, who dared not look the enemy in the face, began now to take courage, when they faw them flying, and to pursue them one way, whilft himfelf, and his three hundred men, went after another party flying another way. Thefe laft paffed Jordan; and, by that time Gideon and his men were come to Succoth, they found themselves fo faint and tired, that he was forced to fend to demand fome refreshment out of that city, that he might continue his pursuit after the princes of Midian, Zeba and Zalmunna; but he had the mortification to be denied by the inhabitants, who fent him word, that it would be time enough for him to exact fuch a fupply of provifion, when he brought thofe two princes prifoners with him, Gideon contented himfelf, for the prefent, with threatening to punish the infolent Succothites in the feverest manner; and continued his journey with his men, faint as they were, till he came to Penuel, where he again fent the fame meffage, and received the fame repulfe that he had done at Succoth. Whether the defire of revenge, or his hearing that the two princes he was in purfuit of were in the neighbourhood of Korkor with fifteen thousand men, the poor remains of an hundred and twenty thoufand, inspired him with fresh vigour, he ftopped not his pace till he was come upon them unawares, and had fecured the two princes, and routed the reft of their men. See before, vol. ii. p. 159, & feq. IN their number proclamation Faint-hearted; ardly troops thought by uced; when er-fide, and eir knees to the hollow dred of the hem, and ady given e confe th their il; to e In the mean time, the Ephraimites had overtaken and flain Oreb and Zeb, two other princes of Midian, and brought their heads to Gideon, as he was returning from Korkor with his two royal prisoners; and, whether their fuccefs had made them arrogant, or whether they envied their judge's glory, they accofted him with an infolent demand, Why he had not fummoned their tribe to the war against Midian? Gideon, inftead of repreffing their illtimed arrogance, contented himself at present with extolling their atchievement above his own, telling them, that the gleanings of Ephraim's laurels vaftly outweighed the vintage of his own tribe ; and, having pacified them with this foothing answer, went to difcharge his refentment against those who had more richly deferved it, the cities of Succoth and Penuel. In his way to Succoth, he met with a youth of that place, who gave him the names of feventyfeven of its chief magiftrates and elders; and, when he was entered into the city, after having reproved the inhabitants for their brutish infolence, he caufed those seventyseven men to undergo a fevere correction, as a determent to the reft; and, at the fame time, he commanded those of Penuel to be all put to the fword, and their tower to be demolished to the ground f. He then examined his two prifoners, Zeba and Zalmunna, concerning fome men, whom they had flain at mount Tabor; and, understanding, by the description they gave of them, that they were his brethren, he fet afide all thoughts of mercy towards them, and put them to death on the fpot *. THE Ifraelites, being thus delivered from their cruel flavery, and loaden with the fpoils of their enemies, began to think they could not fhew their gratitude to their brave deliverer, nor fecure their new-gotten freedom, more effectually, than by offering to fettle the fupreme authority upon him and his pofterity; and Gideon, who had threefcore and ten fons by feveral wives, might eafily have been tempted to accept it, had he not been fo lately convinced, that their greateft fecurity chiefly depended upon their obedience to their Divine Protector. He therefore advised them not to put their confidence in their own ftrength, or in their general's valour, but in GoD, and to make fure of his protection, by a ftricter obedience to his laws. But he foon fullied his glory, by an action no ways answerable to that piety and modefty he had shewn 1 in his refufal, by asking of them, as an acknowlegement of his late fervices, what golden ear-rings they had got from their enemies; fo that a garment, being spread upon the ground, was prefently covered with those ornaments, amounting to 1700 fhekels, or 850 ounces of gold, befides collars, chains, and other ornaments of the fame metal (F), and fome purple and other coftly garments, of which they had ftripped the confederate princes. With thefe the Jewish general caufed an ephod, or, as most interpreters think, an idol, or perhaps rather a trophy, to be made, which he set up in his own city Ophrab; and the text adds, that it proved a fnare both to him, and to his houfe, because it became the occafion of a new kind of idolatry to the Ifraelites. As for Gideon, he returned to his own inheritance, and judged Ifrael forty years, during which none of their enemies dared to moleft them ; and, as to the Midianites, they received fo total an overthrow from him, that they never made any attempt against Ifrael from that time. Gideon died in a good old age, and was buried with his ancestors (H); but the Ifraelites, whom he left in a peaceful and flourishing condition, forgetting both God and him in a very little time, 1236. adopted Baalim, and other new gods, and repayed Gideon's fervices with the blackeft ingratitude. He had left, Year of the flood 1112. Bef. Chrift (F) We need not wonder at this great quantity of golden plunder, if we remember, that all thofe eastern nations were fond of fuch ornaments; and that the Midianites, in particular, not only wore them themselves, but decked the necks of their camels with them; of which they brought vaft droves into the field (6). (H) Gideon, being alfo furnamed Ferubbaal, is fuppofed to be the Ferombal, whom Sanchoniatho makes prieft of the god Jao. But that author's work is now fo universally exploded, as written on purpofe to difcredit the facred books of the Jews, that we fhall lay no other stress upoh this conjecture, than that it proves, that the author, whoever he was, had got fome knowlege of the Jewish writings, and intermixed their hiftory with the antiquities and fables of the Phenicians (7). Ferubbaal is likewife called Ferubbesheth (8); because, by that time, Baal's name was held in fuch horror by the Jews, that, to all the names that ended with it, they fubftituted that of Bobeth, which fignifies hame; as Ib-bobeth for Ishbaal, and the like. (6) Vid Jud. vii. 12. & fup. vol. ii. p. 159, & feq. (7) De Sanchon, vide Ant. Vandal. Dupin. bibl. ext. Dodwell differt. Fabric, bibl. Græc. Cumb. & journal de Trevoux, Jan. 1714. & al. (8) 2 Sam. xi. 21. befides wlegement y had got Dread upon rnaments, gold, be the fame garments, 5. With moft iny, to be and the to his of ido to his during them; over tempt dold e If con: ime, ide eft, befides his other children, a natural fon by a concubine h; His name was Abimelech, a man of a bafe and intrigue- Abime- b Judg. viii. ad fin. (I) We have formerly fpoken of this deity (1); and shall only add from the hiftory before us, that Baal-berith might fignify the god that prefided over contracts, covenants, and oaths, and punished the breakers of them. It is certain, that the binding the former by the latter was not only a very antient custom, but alfo the greateft fecurity that could be infifted upon by the parties; which could only be owing to the received notion, that the Deity, which was fo folemnly VOL. IV. IN called as a witness to them, was bound in justice to punish_the breach of them. Hence came the Jupiter the witness, or the faithful, of the Greeks and Ro mans. (K) The Hebrews tranflate the word alon, here used, a plain, instead of an oak; and we find, that there was both an oak, and a ftatue or monument; and that the latter was erected by Joshua, a little before his death, in memory of the new covenant, which the Ifraelites had made with GoD at that |