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1. After the death of Joshua and Eleazar, Phineas prophesied,
that according to God's will they should commit the
government to the tribe of Judah, and that this tribe should
destroy the race of the Canaanites; for then the people were
concerned to learn what was the will of God. They also took to
their assistance the tribe of Simeon; but upon this condition,
that when those that had been tributary to the tribe of Judah
should be slain, they should do the like for the tribe of Simeon.
2. But the affairs of the Canaanites were at this thee in a
flourishing condition, and they expected the Israelites with a
great army at the city Bezek, having put the government into the
hands of Adonibezek, which name denotes the Lord of Bezek, for
Adoni in the Hebrew tongue signifies Lord. Now they hoped to have
been too hard for the Israelites, because Joshua was dead; but
when the Israelites had joined battle with them, I mean the two
tribes before mentioned, they fought gloriously, and slew above
ten thousand of them, and put the rest to flight; and in the
pursuit they took Adonibezek, who, when his fingers and toes were
cut off by them, said, "Nay, indeed, I was not always to lie
concealed from God, as I find by what I now endure, while I have
not been ashamed to do the same to seventy-two kings." So
they carried him alive as far as Jerusalem; and when he was dead,
they buried him in the earth, and went on still in taking the
cities: and when they had taken the greatest part of them, they
besieged Jerusalem; and when they had taken the lower city, which
was not under a considerable time, they slew all the inhabitants;
but the upper city was not to be taken without great difficulty,
through the strength of its walls, and the nature of the place.
3. For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when
they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till
then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and
countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were
surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones
of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any
credible relations of other men. Now they gave this city to the
Levites as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs of two
thousand cities; but the land thereto belonging they gave as a
free gift to Caleb, according to the injunctions of Moses. This
Caleb was one of the spies which Moses sent into the land of
Canaan. They also gave land for habitation to the posterity of
Jethro, the Midianite, who was the father-in-law to Moses; for
they had left their own country, and followed them, and
accompanied them in the wilderness.
4. Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took the cities which were
in the mountainous part of Canaan, as also Askelon and Ashdod, of
those that lay near the sea; but Gaza and Ekron escaped them, for
they, lying in a flat country, and having a great number of
chariots, sorely galled those that attacked them. So these
tribes, when they were grown very rich by this war, retired to
their own cities, and laid aside their weapons of war.
5. But the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its
inhabitants to pay tribute. So they all left off, the one to
kill, and the other to expose themselves to danger, and had time
to cultivate the ground. The rest of the tribes imitated that of
Benjamin, and did the same; and, contenting themselves with the
tributes that were paid them, permitted the Canaanites to live in
peace.
6. However, the tribe of Ephraim, when they besieged Bethel, made
no advance, nor performed any thing worthy of the time they
spent, and of the pains they took about that siege; yet did they
persist in it, still sitting down before the city, though they
endured great trouble thereby: but, after some time, they caught
one of the citizens that came to them to get necessaries, and
they gave him some assurances that, if he would deliver up the
city to them, they would preserve him and his kindred; so he
aware that, upon those terms, he would put the city into their
hands. Accordingly, he that, thus betrayed the city was preserved
with his family; and the Israelites slew all the inhabitants, and
retained the city for themselves.
7. After this, the Israelites grew effeminate as to fighting any
more against their enemies, but applied themselves to the
cultivation of the land, which producing them great plenty and
riches, they neglected the regular disposition of their
settlement, and indulged themselves in luxury and pleasures; nor
were they any longer careful to hear the laws that belonged to
their political government: whereupon God was provoked to anger,
and put them in mind, first, how, contrary to his directions,
they had spared the Canaanites; and, after that, how those
Canaanites, as opportunity served, used them very barbarously.
But the Israelites, though they were in heaviness at these
admonitions from God, yet were they still very unwilling to go to
war; and since they got large tributes from the Canaanites, and
were indisposed for taking pains by their luxury, they suffered
their aristocracy to be corrupted also, and did not ordain
themselves a senate, nor any other such magistrates as their laws
had formerly required, but they were very much given to
cultivating their fields, in order to get wealth; which great
indolence of theirs brought a terrible sedition upon them, and
they proceeded so far as to fight one against another, from the
following occasion: -
8. There was a Levite a man of a vulgar family, that
belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt therein: this man
married a wife from Bethlehem, which is a place belonging to the
tribe of Judah. Now he was very fond of his wife, and overcome
with her beauty; but he was unhappy in this, that he did not meet
with the like return of affection from her, for she was averse to
him, which did more inflame his passion for her, so that they
quarreled one with another perpetually; and at last the woman was
so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left her husband, and
went to her parents in the fourth month. The husband being very
uneasy at this her departure, and that out of his fondness for
her, came to his father and mother-in-law, and made up their
quarrels, and was reconciled to her, and lived with them there
four days, as being kindly treated by her parents. On the fifth
day he resolved to go home, and went away in the evening; for his
wife's parents were loath to part with their daughter, and
delayed the time till the day was gone. Now they had one servant
that followed them, and an ass on which the woman rode; and when
they were near Jerusalem, having gone already thirty furlongs,
the servant advised them to take up their lodgings some where,
lest some misfortune should befall them if they traveled in the
night, especially since they were not far off enemies, that
season often giving reason for suspicion of dangers from even
such as are friends; but the husband was not pleased with this
advice, nor was he willing to take up his lodging among
strangers, for the city belonged to the Canaanites, but desired
rather to go twenty furlongs farther, and so to take their
lodgings in some Israelite city. Accordingly, he obtained his
purpose, and came to Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin,
when it was just dark; and while no one that lived in the
market-place invited him to lodge with him, there came an old man
out of the field, one that was indeed of the tribe of Ephraim,
but resided in Gibeah, and met him, and asked him who he was, and
for what reason he came thither so late, and why he was looking
out for provisions for supper when it was dark? To which he
replied, that he was a Levite, and was bringing his wife from her
parents, and was going home; but he told him his habitation was
in the tribe of Ephraim: so the old man, as well because of their
kindred as because they lived in the same tribe, and also because
they had thus accidentally met together, took him in to lodge
with him. Now certain young men of the inhabitants of Gibeah,
having seen the woman in the market-place, and admiring her
beauty, when they understood that she lodged with the old man,
came to the doors, as contemning the weakness and fewness of the
old man's family; and when the old man desired them to go away,
and not to offer any violence or abuse there, they desired him to
yield them up the strange woman, and then he should have no harm
done to him: and when the old man alleged that the Levite was of
his kindred, and that they would be guilty of horrid wickedness
if they suffered themselves to be overcome by their pleasures,
and so offend against their laws, they despised his righteous
admonition, and laughed him to scorn. They also threatened to
kill him if he became an obstacle to their inclinations;
whereupon, when he found himself in great distress, and yet was
not willing to overlook his guests, and see them abused, he
produced his own daughter to them; and told them that it was a
smaller breach of the law to satisfy their lust upon her, than to
abuse his guests, supposing that he himself should by this means
prevent any injury to be done to those guests. When they no way
abated of their earnestness for the strange woman, but insisted
absolutely on their desires to have her, he entreated them not to
perpetrate any such act of injustice; but they proceeded to take
her away by force, and indulging still more the violence of their
inclinations, they took the woman away to their house, and when
they had satisfied their lust upon her the whole night, they let
her go about daybreak. So she came to the place where she had
been entertained, under great affliction at what had happened;
and was very sorrowful upon occasion of what she had suffered,
and durst not look her husband in the face for shame, for she
concluded that he would never forgive her for what she had done;
so she fell down, and gave up the ghost: but her husband supposed
that his wife was only fast asleep, and, thinking nothing of a
more melancholy nature had happened, endeavored to raise her up,
resolving to speak comfortably to her, since she did not
voluntarily expose herself to these men's lust, but was forced
away to their house; but as soon as he perceived she was dead, he
acted as prudently as the greatness of his misfortunes would
admit, and laid his dead wife upon the beast, and carried her
home; and cutting her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, he sent
them to every tribe, and gave it in charge to those that carried
them, to inform the tribes of those that were the causes of his
wife's death, and of the violence they had offered to her.
9. Upon this the people were greatly disturbed at what they saw,
and at what they heard, as never having had the experience of
such a thing before; so they gathered themselves to Shiloh, out
of a prodigious and a just anger, and assembling in a great
congregation before the tabernacle, they immediately resolved to
take arms, and to treat the inhabitants of Gibeah as enemies; but
the senate restrained them from doing so, and persuaded them,
that they ought not so hastily to make war upon people of the
same nation with them, before they discoursed them by words
concerning the accusation laid against them; it being part of
their law, that they should not bring an army against foreigners
themselves, when they appear to have been injurious, without
sending an ambassage first, and trying thereby whether they will
repent or not: and accordingly they exhorted them to do what they
ought to do in obedience to their laws, that is, to send to the
inhabitants of Gibeah, to know whether they would deliver up the
offenders to them, and if they deliver them up, to rest satisfied
with the punishment of those offenders; but if they despised the
message that was sent them, to punish them by taking, up arms
against them. Accordingly they sent to the inhabitants of Gibeah,
and accused the young men of the crimes committed in the affair
of the Levite's wife, and required of them those that had done
what was contrary to the law, that they might be punished, as
having justly deserved to die for what they had done; but the
inhabitants of Gibeah would not deliver up the young men, and
thought it too reproachful to them, out of fear of war, to submit
to other men's demands upon them; vaunting themselves to be no
way inferior to any in war, neither in their number nor in
courage. The rest of their tribe were also making great
preparation for war, for they were so insolently mad as also to
resolve to repel force by force.
10. When it was related to the Israelites what the inhabitants of
Gibeah had resolved upon, they took their oath that no one of
them would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite, but make
war with greater fury against them than we have learned our
forefathers made war against the Canaanites; and sent out
presently an army of four hundred thousand against them, while
the Benjamites' army-was twenty-five thousand and six hundred;
five hundred of whom were excellent at slinging stones with their
left hands, insomuch that when the battle was joined at Gibeah
the Benjamites beat the Israelites, and of them there fell two
thousand men; and probably more had been destroyed had not the
night came on and prevented it, and broken off the fight; so the
Benjamites returned to the city with joy, and the Israelites
returned to their camp in a great fright at what had happened. On
the next day, when they fought again, the Benjamites beat them;
and eighteen thousand of the Israelites were slain, and the rest
deserted their camp out of fear of a greater slaughter. So they
came to Bethel, a city that was near their camp, and fasted
on the next day; and besought God, by Phineas the high priest,
that his wrath against them might cease, and that he would be
satisfied with these two defeats, and give them the victory and
power over their enemies. Accordingly God promised them so to do,
by the prophesying of Phineas.
11. When therefore they had divided the army into two parts, they
laid the one half of them in ambush about the city Gibeah by
night, while the other half attacked the Benjamites, who retiring
upon the assault, the Benjamites pursued them, while the Hebrews
retired by slow degrees, as very desirous to draw them entirely
from the city; and the other followed them as they retired, till
both the old men and the young men that were left in the city, as
too weak to fight, came running out together with them, as
willing to bring their enemies under. However, when they were a
great way from the city the Hebrews ran away no longer, but
turned back to fight them, and lifted up the signal they had
agreed on to those that lay in ambush, who rose up, and with a
great noise fell upon the enemy. Now, as soon as ever they
perceived themselves to be deceived, they knew not what to do;
and when they were driven into a certain hollow place which was
in a valley, they were shot at by those that encompassed them,
till they were all destroyed, excepting six hundred, which formed
themselves into a close body of men, and forced their passage
through the midst of their enemies, and fled to the neighboring
mountains, and, seizing upon them, remained there; but the rest
of them, being about twenty-five thousand, were slain. Then did
the Israelites burn Gibeah, and slew the women, and the males
that were under age; and did the same also to the other cities of
the Benjamites; and, indeed, they were enraged to that degree,
that they sent twelve thousand men out of the army, and gave them
orders to destroy Jabesh Gilead, because it did not join with
them in fighting against the Benjamites. Accordingly, those that
were sent slew the men of war, with their children and wives,
excepting four hundred virgins. To such a degree had they
proceeded in their anger, because they not only had the suffering
of the Levite's wife to avenge, but the slaughter of their own
soldiers.
12. However, they afterward were sorry for the calamity they had
brought upon the Benjamites, and appointed a fast on that
account, although they supposed those men had suffered justly for
their offense against the laws; so they recalled by their
ambassadors those six hundred which had escaped. These had seated
themselves on a certain rock called Rimmon, which was in the
wilderness. So the ambassadors lamented not only the disaster
that had befallen the Benjamites, but themselves also, by this
destruction of their kindred; and persuaded them to take it
patiently; and to come and unite with them, and not, so far as in
them lay, to give their suffrage to the utter destruction of the
tribe of Benjamin; and said to them, "We give you leave to take
the whole land of Benjamin to yourselves, and as much prey as you
are able to carry away with you." So these men with sorrow
confessed, that what had been done was according to the decree of
God, and had happened for their own wickedness; and assented to
those that invited them, and came down to their own tribe. The
Israelites also gave them the four hundred virgins of Jabesh
Gilead for wives; but as to the remaining two hundred, they
deliberated about it how they might compass wives enough for
them, and that they might have children by them; and whereas they
had, before the war began, taken an oath, that no one would give
his daughter to wife to a Benjamite, some advised them to have no
regard to what they had sworn, because the oath had not been
taken advisedly and judiciously, but in a passion, and thought
that they should do nothing against God, if they were able to
save a whole tribe which was in danger of perishing; and that
perjury was then a sad and dangerous thing, not when it is done
out of necessity, but when it is done with a wicked intention.
But when the senate were affrighted at the very name of perjury,
a certain person told them that he could show them a way whereby
they might procure the Benjamites wives enough, and yet keep
their oath. They asked him what his proposal was. He said, "That
three times in a year, when we meet in Shiloh, our wives and our
daughters accompany us: let then the Benjamites be allowed to
steal away, and marry such women as they can catch, while we will
neither incite them nor forbid them; and when their parents take
it ill, and desire us to inflict punishment upon them, we will
tell them, that they were themselves the cause of what had
happened, by neglecting to guard their daughters, and that they
ought not to be over angry at the Benjamites, since that anger
was permitted to rise too high already." So the Israelites were
persuaded to follow this advice, and decreed, That the Benjamites
should be allowed thus to steal themselves wives. So when the
festival was coming on, these two hundred Benjamites lay in
ambush before the city, by two and three together, and waited for
the coming of the virgins, in the vineyards and other places
where they could lie concealed. Accordingly the virgins came
along playing, and suspected nothing of what was coming upon
them, and walked after an unguarded manner, so those that laid
scattered in the road, rose up, and caught hold of them: by this
means these Benjamites got them wives, and fell to agriculture,
and took good care to recover their former happy state. And thus
was this tribe of the Benjamites, after they had been in danger
of entirely perishing, saved in the manner forementioned, by the
wisdom of the Israelites; and accordingly it presently
flourished, and soon increased to be a multitude, and came to
enjoy all other degrees of happiness. And such was the conclusion
of this war.
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