In the interim fotham, the only furviving fon of Gideon took that opportunity to get upon mount Gerizzim, whic was near the place of this tumultuous affembly; and, bein within their hearing, and out of their reach, made ufe o the following pathetic apologue, to diffuade them from their rash and unjuft enterprizei: The trees, once upon a time, affembled to make choice of a king: they offered tha dignity to the olive-tree; which answered, that it could by no means divest itself of its oil and fatnefs, fo acceptable to GOD and men, to reign over them. They then invited the fig-tree; which alfo refufed them, on account of its fweetnefs. The vine, being applied to, preferred her juice, which affords gladness to gods and men, to the empire over them. At length, the bramble, being invited to accept of that dignity, answered, that, if they really meant to make him king over them, they should come and fhelter themselves under its fbadow; if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. His defign was plainly to infinuate, that the happiness of a private life was fo far preferable to the cares that attend on the fupreme authority, that the perfon, who exchanged the one for the other, muft either do it from a generous defire of ferving his country, or from a bafe one to enflave it. Some interpreters fuppofe, that, by the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, he alluded to Othniel, Deborah, and Gideon, who were with difficulty prevailed apon to accept of the dignity of judge, and refufed to have it entailed on their pofterity ; but, whether it be fo or not, it is plain, from his own application, that the bramble alluded to the traitor Abimelech, who was so far from being able to protect the Shechemites, that he must k N. DE LYR. & al. i Judg. ix. 7. to 21. place (1); fo that the ftory feems to be thus circumftan. tially recorded, to aggravate the crime of the Shechemites, in choofing fo remarkable and facred a spot of ground to be the scene of their treacherous affembly, and unlawful elec tion. As for the houfe of Millo, which joined with the Sheche (1) Josh. xxiv, 20. k unavoidably prove the occafion of a bloody war, which, like a confuming fire, would end in their utter ruin: For, added he, I appeal to you, whether your choice of Abimelech, preferably to any of the fons of Gideon, your late benefactor and deliverer, be either grateful or juft; or rather, indeed, whether the murdering of all his children, for the fake of the fon of a flave, be not an inftance of the blackeft cruelty and ingratitude? If you think it is not, I wish you joy of your new king, and him of his new dignity; but, if it is, may be prove a curfe to Shechem and Millo, and you to him (L). AFTER this bold and fevere fpeech, Jotham fled to Beer, a city in the tribe of Judah, not far from Jebus, or Jerufalem, where he continued all the time of his reign, which, according to his prediction, proved both thorny and fhort-lived; for, befides his mortification, in not being acknowleged by any of the tribes, the text fays, that God caused a spirit of jealousy to be fown be (L) We cannot forbear obferving here, that this is the first instance we have of this way of fpeaking by parables. We do not, indeed, take upon us to attribute the invention of it to the Hebrews, because we do not know how far they might have been used by other nations, fince Mases takes notice of those who recorded the overthrow of Sibon, and of his metropolis, in proverbs, and Balaam uttering his prophecies in fome fuch proverbial fpeeches (22). But if we may judge of them by the fhort fpecimen he has given us of them, they will appear vaftly inferior in elegance and energy to this of Jotham, and others, which were used by the Jews; fo that these may be juftly faid, at least, to have been the improvers of this parabolic way. But, be that as it will, nothing is more palpable than the vanity of the Greeks, who boast themselves the authors of it, when it was in a greater perfection among the Jews, before they were civilized from the lowest degree of ignorance and barbarity, than ever they raised it to, after they had arrived to the greatest pitch of polite learning; an evident proof of which we have not only in this fpeech of Jotham, but in that excellent one, by which the prophet Nathan made David pronounce a severe fentence against himself, for a crime, which it would have been dangerous so much as to have mentioned in any other way (23). We find it also frequently ufed, not by prophets only, but by courtiers, politicians, and foldiers (24), in the Old Teftament, and by our SAVIOUR in the New. (22) Vide Num. xxii. 27, & feq. xxiii. 7, & feq. 1, & feq. 19, & alib. (23) 2 Sam. xii. (24) Ibid. xiv. 1, & feq. 1 Kings xx. 38, & seq. xxii. C 2 tween 1112. Bef. Chr. Abimetween the Shechemites and him, which ended in a f lech, fifth refolution to expiate their folly by his death. But G judge. fuffered him to efcape for the prefent, that he mig Year of fhortly become the inftrument of a more fevere chafti the flood ment against them. Gaal, informed of the hatred whi they had conceived against their new-made king, came Shechem, with a full defign to blow it into an open ru 1236. ture; but Zebul, whom Abimelech had intrufted with th government of that city, a fit fervant for fuch a maste failed not to acquaint him with it, whilft, in outwar appearance, he fided with Gaal and his party. At length after several bickerings on both fides, upon Abimelech entering the town, the frighted inhabitants retired int the temple of Baal-berith, as into a fanctuary, wher they were foon made fenfible, to their coft, what a go they had preferred to that of Ifrael. Abimelech com manded a party of men to follow his fteps into the nex wood, where every one, after his example, cut down a bough of a tree, and, having piled them round the temple, and fet fire to them, they were all fmothered to death, being about a thousand men and women. He then caufed the city and tower to be rafed to the ground, and to be ftrewed with falt; and thus was the first part of Jotham's prophecy fulfilled, and the fire from the bramble burnt up the cedars of Lebanon. THE next part followed foon after, and Abimelech, flushed with his fuccefs, marched againft Thebez, a city of Judah, which had alfo taken up arms against him, and there met with an ignominious death, where he expected a new conqueft. The citizens, repulfed by his victorious troops, retired into a tower, where he thought to have burnt them alive, when a woman flung down a ftone, which, lighting upon his head, delivered her people from his fury. Abimelech, finding death approaching, and being more afhamed of the hand that gave it, than of his own parricides and tyranny, chofe rather to die another way, than to fall by the hands of a woman, and commanded his fervant Zebul to dispatch him, which he immediately did. Abimelech was the only one that ufurped and abused that dignity, which he held about three years; after which GOD made choice of a more worthy one to fucceed him. ! Judg. ix. per tot. TOLA, TOLA, the fon of Puah, the fon of Dodo of the Tola, tribe of Ifachar. The text mentions nothing particularly fixth of him, except that he dwelt at Shamir upon mount judge. Ephraim, where he was buried, after he had judged Ifrael twenty-three years m. 1210. HE was fucceeded by Fair, a wealthy man, of that part Year of of the tribe of Manaffeh which dwelt on the other fide the flood Fordan; and poffeffed a vaft territory in the land of Gilead, 1138. in which were thirty cities, which he gave to his thirty Bef. Chr. fons; whence they were called Havoth, or hamlets of Fair. He judged Ifrael twenty-two years, and was buried in the city of Camon in the fame land. The text adds, as a then mark of their wealth and greatness, that they all rode upon affes colts; which is likewise observed of feveral others in the fame book ". THE ungrateful Ifraelites returned, foon after, to their idolatry, and even multiplied the number of their gods, which brought a fifth thraldom upon them of eighteen years, under the Philistines and Ammonites. Here they had recourse again to prayer and repentance; but they were bid to go and cry to thofe deities they had adopted, for deliverance. This anfwer, and the preffing danger they were in from the Ammonites, who had already paffed the Jordan, and were going to fall upon Judah and Benjamin P, obliged them to put away all their ftrange gods, and to ferve the LORD in earneft; upon which GOD was pleased to give them a promife, that they fhould be fpeedily delivered. They affembled at Mizpeh, to ftop the career of the children of Ammon; but as GOD had not now nominated a judge or general, as at other times, they were forced to fend an invitation to the valiant Jephthah to accept of the command, and with it, of the place of judge or general during his life. JEPHTHAH was the fon of Gilead, but by a concubine, Jephthah, for which reason he had been thruft out by his other brethren, and, forced to retire into the land of Tob (N), wow. where he became chief of a band of fugitives and idl perfons, and fignalized himself more by his valour thai by his honefty he therefore received their meffage with fome miftruft, and did not accept of their offered dignity Year of till it was confirmed to him by an oath, As foon as h the flood had put himself at their head, he fent an expoftulatory 1160. meffage to the Ammonites; but, finding them more bent Bef.Chrift upon conqueft than parcly, he ran over the land of Gi1188. lead and Manasseh; and, having got a fufficient army, marched directly against them. Before he ventured to engage them, either his fear or fuperftition put a ftrange His rafh expedient into his head, to make a vow, that, if GOD would but blefs him with an intire victory, he would facrifice to him the firft living creature that came out of his house to meet him at his return; and this inconfiderate promife robbed him at once of the glory and pleasure of the enfuing action. The Ammonites were indeed totally defeated, and the Ifraelites laden with their spoil; but his daughter, a virgin, and his only child, and, if we may credit the Jews, a perfon of exquifite beauty and virtue, proved the unhappy victim of his rafh vow. The welcome news of her father's fuccefs had brought her out, at the head of a company of maidens, to congratulate him, with timbrels, and dances, and other expreffions of filial joy; fo that the proved the unhappy object upon which he caft his eyes, and which he had vowed to deftruction, As foon as he faw her, he rent his cloaths, and difclofed the fecret to her with moft lively expreffions of grief. She heard it with a conftancy, which one would hardly have expected in a person of her tender years; and only begged for a refpite of two months, during which The would retire with fome of her companions into the mountains, to bewail her virginity. Her request being granted, fhe abfented herself during that fhort fpace, and, at the end of it, returned to her father, who did to her according to his vows; that is, according to the gene Ibid, ix. 10. r Vid. fup. vol. ii. p. 143. Judg. xi. per tot. ving him out of the inherit- fince Abraham's time, and was founded on the command which God gave him, to caft out the fon of the concubine (5). (5) Gen. xxi. 10, & feq. |