to another mountain, to the top of Pisgah, and there built seven altars and offered on every altar a bullock and a ram; and Balaam prayed in the midst of the altars, and again he cried aloud and blessed the Children of Israel. And so a third time, on a third mountain, from the top of Peor.
Then Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together. And Balak said, “I called thee to curse my enemies, and thou hast blessed them these three times!” And Balaam answered, “That is what I told you before I came, what the Lord saith that will I speak.” And he blessed them a fourth time. And Balaam rose up and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way.
THE Promised Land, toward which the Children of Israel were marching through King Balak’s country, was bordered on that side by the river Jordan. The Jordan flows through a very deep valley from a large lake in the north to a large lake in the south: the northern lake is called the Sea of Galilee, and the southern is called the Dead Sea. King Balak’s land was beside the Dead Sea; so when they had passed through that country they came to the river, and thus to the first place where they could cross over into the Promised Land. And on the other side of the river was a city, called Jericho. The first thing to do was to attack Jericho.
Moses was now dead, and in his place Joshua was the leader and general of Israel. Moses had climbed one day to the top of Mount Pisgah, to the high place where Balaam had stood with Balak, and there had looked over into the Promised Land. It lay before him, full of hills and valleys, a good land and a large, with vineyards and olive trees, and streams of water, and walled cities. There Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had fed their flocks. Moses had done his great work; he had brought his people out of Egypt, and had given them the laws of God, and had made them a nation and an army, and had led them to the very entrance of the Promised Land. Below were the people waiting and waiting; as they had waited at the foot of Mount Sinai for Moses to come down. But this time he did not come. On the mountain top, in sight of the Promised Land, he died. And Joshua took his place.
So General Joshua sent two men to go as spies to Jericho. They were to enter very quietly into the city, without letting anybody know who they were, and, having found out all they could, they were to come back and report. So they went to Jericho and found a lodging place, and began to look about. They saw that the town had a wall around it, and that the gate was shut every evening as the sun went down. And they could see at a glance that the people were rich. But the men of Jericho discovered the spies and told the king, and the king sent to their lodging place to take them.
But the woman of the house, whose name was Rahab, was very good to the spies. Her house was by the city wall, and on the flat roof there were stalks of flax drying in the sun. So when the pursuers came knocking at the door, Rahab hid the spies under the flax, and sent off the pursuers on a vain search. And when they were gone she took a stout rope and let down the spies out of her window down the wall, and while the pursuers ran one way toward the river, the spies ran another way toward the hills, and so escaped.
And Rahab said, “We have all heard about you here. We know how you came over the Red Sea, and how the Lord is with you; and we are all afraid. When you take the town, have pity on me and on my father and mother and on my brothers and sisters, and save us alive.”
And the spies said, “Bind a scarlet line in this window by which we escape, and when we come back with the army of Israel we will spare all who are in this house.”
Then they climbed down the rope, and away they went to the hills, where they stayed three days till the pursuit was over. And they returned to Joshua, and said, “The Lord has delivered the city into our hands. They are all afraid of us.”
Then Joshua sent his captains among the people to tell them what to do. “The priests,” he said, “shall go down first into the river, and the people shall follow.” So the priests went, carrying the Ark of the Covenant; that is, the great chest in which were the Ten Commandments cut in stone, as Moses brought them down from Sinai. And as they went, it was like the Red Sea over again. They marched across as if the river had been a sandy road. And in the middle of the river stood the priests with the Ark till all the people were gone over. And they took twelve stones out of the river where the priests had stood, and built an altar with them on the other side, and thanked God that He had brought them at last into the good land which He had promised to their fathers.
The next thing to do was to take Jericho. At first, the men of Jericho came out to fight, but they soon ran back and hid behind their walls and locked their gate. And the Children of Israel made a camp around the city so that nobody went out or came in.
And Joshua said, “Form a procession: first the armed men, then seven priests with trumpets, then the Ark, and then the people. And march around the city. Let the priests blow their trumpets, but let all the rest of you keep silence. Let nobody speak a word, until I tell you to shout. Then shall ye shout!” So they marched around the city, and the people of Jericho looked on from the walls in great amazement. And the next day, they did it a second time; and the third day a third time, and so on for six days.
At last, on the seventh day, the Children of Israel rose up very early, just as the sun came up over Mount Pisgah. And that day they went around and around the city seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets a longer and louder blast than ever, Joshua cried to the people, “Shout! for the Lord hath given you the city.” And all the people shouted with a great shout. And the walls fell flat, and the armed men marched straight in and took the city.
Indeed, the walls were already falling that day when the spies climbed down over them hand under hand on Rahab’s rope. For the true walls of a city are the stout hearts of its citizens, and these had failed for fear. Thus the Children of Israel began the conquest of the Promised Land. But they spared the people who were in the house which had a line of scarlet bound in the window on the broken wall.
THERE was a soldier in the army of Joshua whose name was Achan. He had taken part in the siege of Jericho. He had marched before the Ark around the city; he had joined in with all his might when the army shouted with a great shout; and he had rushed with the others into the streets when the walls fell flat.
Now Joshua had given strict orders that no man should take anything for himself. All the gold and silver and whatever else was of value was to be saved for the Lord: it was to be put into the common treasury. But Achan had stolen something.
The citizens of Jericho were neither strong nor brave to fight, but they were rich. The sun beat down upon the town, and the mist came drifting in from the river, and it was very hot there, and the heat made the people weak; but they lived in handsome houses, and wore fine clothes every day, and had money to spend. To Achan, who had been born in the wilderness, and had never known any other roof than the top of a tent, and had never seen a city in all his life, the houses of Jericho seemed like the magic treasure houses of the fairy stories.
So when Achan came with the other soldiers, running though the Jericho streets, and breaking into the houses, he looked about him with great surprise. And when, at last, in one house he found a wedge of gold, it blazed in his eyes like the sun shining in the clear sky at noon. Beside the gold was a glittering pile of two hundred pieces of silver, and a splendid cloak made in Babylon, stiff with embroidery and colored like a jewel. And Achan was so dazzled by these riches that he did not see the difference between right and wrong. He took them for his own. Under his gown he hid them, and back he hurried to his tent, and then he dug a hole in the earth in the middle of the tent and buried them.
The next day, Joshua sent two spies to visit the next city, which was called Ai. And they came back and reported that Ai was only a small town, and that there was no need to send the whole army to take it. Three thousand men, they said, would be enough. Now Ai was built upon a hill. So up the soldiers climbed, expecting a quick and easy victory, but the men of Ai came out to meet them like a pack of bears and tigers, and the men of Israel turned their backs like scared sheep, and ran away down the hill as fast as they could go, and the men of Ai after them. So it was a great defeat.
And Joshua was troubled exceedingly, and he and all his captains tore their clothes and threw dust upon their heads, and lay down on the ground before the Ark all day; for that was the custom when men were in great distress of mind.
And as the night came on, Joshua cried, “O Lord God, why hast thou brought us into this land to give us into the hands of our enemies to destroy us? O Lord, what shall I say when the men of Israel turn their backs before their enemies?”
And God said, “Get up, Joshua. Why do you lie upon the ground? There is a thief in the camp. One of your soldiers has disobeyed your orders. Find him, and punish him; then shall you have victory instead of defeat.”
So the first thing the next morning, Joshua made the army pass before him in a long procession, tribe after tribe, and he chose the tribe of Judah. Then he made the tribe of Judah pass before him, family by family, and he chose the family of Zerah. Then he made the family of Zerah pass before him, household by household, and he chose the household of Carmi. Then he made the household of Carmi pass before him, man by man, and he chose Achan. And there was Achan discovered before all the people.
And Joshua said, “My son, tell me what you have done. Do not hide anything from me.”
And Achan answered, “I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. When we took Jericho, I saw a shining wedge of gold, and a goodly garment, and a pile of silver pieces, and I coveted them and carried them away and hid them in my tent. There they are, buried in the earth.”
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to Achan’s tent, and there they found even as Achan had said. And they took the gold and silver and the garment and brought them to Joshua. And Joshua led Achan apart into a valley, and said, “Why hast thou troubled Israel? The Lord shall trouble thee this day.” And Joshua commanded, and the soldiers stoned Achan with stones until he died, and a great heap of stones was piled upon his body.
Then Joshua attacked Ai again. But this time he was more careful. He sent a great company of soldiers by night into an ambush behind the town. And in the morning he marched up the hill, and when the men of Ai came out again, very bold and fierce, he pretended to be frightened and made his soldiers run away, so that the men of Ai ran after them. All the men of Ai ran out of the town
after the men of Israel. Then suddenly Joshua stopped and lifted up his spear, and the soldiers in the ambush saw it and they ran into Ai and began to burn the town. And the men of Ai looked back, and there was the whole town on fire. So they were between two armies. The army of the ambush was at the top of the hill, and the army which had pretended to run away was at the bottom. Thus the men of Ai were defeated with a great defeat.
HIGH among the hills of the Promised Land lay a town called Gibeon. Men who ran away from the defeat at Ai came straggling into Gibeon, and told the news. “The Children of Israel,” they said, “are coming with a great army. They have destroyed Jericho and Ai, and are on the march for Gibeon.” Then the Gibeonites held a council and considered what to do. And they took men and dressed them in the oldest clothes which they could find, all rags and tatters, and put upon their feet the oldest shoes, all holes and patches, and gave them baskets in which were loaves of dry and mouldy bread. And they said, “Go down now to the camp of Israel and find Joshua and tell him thus and so.”
So down they went, and came into the camp, walking very slowly, as if their feet were sore after a long journey, and as if they were too tired to go another step.
And they said, “We come from a far country to ask you to make a league of peace with us.”
And the men of Israel said, “How do we know that you are telling us the truth? It may be that you are our neighbors.” And they brought them to Joshua, and Joshua said, “Who are you, and from whence do you come?”
And the men of Gibeon answered, “From a very far country. Why, these shoes we put on new the day we came away; and see them now. These clothes we had made for this journey, and we have worn them out on the way. This bread was fresh baked; it was taken hot out of the oven as we started; and now it is all dry and mouldy. The land where we live is over the hills and far away, but even there we have heard about you, and we have come to ask you to give us a promise of peace.”
Then Joshua believed that what they said was true, and he made them a solemn promise that there should be peace between the men of Israel and the men of Gibeon. So they journeyed on together and after three days they came to a town among the hills, and Joshua said, “What town is this?” And the men of Gibeon answered, “This is Gibeon, where we live. But you have promised that you will be at peace with us. You must not destroy Gibeon as you destroyed Jericho and Ai.” And the Children of Israel were very angry, and they said, “Come, let us kill them, and let us burn their city, for they lied to us.” But Joshua answered, “No, we have given them our promise, and we must do as we said.” So they let them live; but they made them their servants, to cut wood and draw water.
Now the kings of five neighboring cities, when they heard that the men of Gibeon had made peace with the men of Israel, were much displeased. And they gathered their armies together and came up against Gibeon. And the Gibeonites sent messengers to Joshua, saying, “Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for now that we have become your friends all of our neighbors have become our enemies.” So Joshua gathered together all the people of war and all the mighty men of valor to fight with the kings who were encamped about the walls of Gibeon. All night they climbed the hills, and came upon the kings suddenly in the early morning, while all the camp was sleeping. And the kings and all their men waked up in a great fright when they heard the trumpets blowing and the men of Israel shouting, and they ran away, and the men of Israel ran after them. And there was a great storm that day of rain and hail, and the hailstones beat in the faces of the kings’ men. As for the five kings, they hid themselves in a cave.
So Joshua and his soldiers chased the enemy down the long valley. And somebody told Joshua where the kings had gone, and he had his men block up the mouth of the cave and leave a guard there, while the rest of the army fought the battle. Now in the afternoon, as the sun began to go down and the moon began to shine with a faint light, like a dim ball of gray silver, Joshua wished that the day might last all night. For he knew that as soon as it became dark the battle would be over and the enemy would escape. So he cried aloud and said. “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” And it seemed as if the sun and moon stood still, that day was so long and the victory was so great. And long after, the soldiers sang about it in their war songs: how the stars in the sky fought on the side of Israel, and the sun and moon stood still to see the battle.
But at last the soldiers came back from following the enemy. And Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings unto me out of the cave.” So they took away the great stones and brought the five kings. And Joshua made the five kings lie upon the ground before all the army, and he called his captains and said, “Come near, and put your feet upon the necks of these kings.” And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said, “Fear not, be strong and of good courage; for thus shall the Lord do unto all your enemies against whom ye fight.”
RIGHT across the Promised Land, between the river and the sea, lay a great plain. Mountains stood about it on every side, and through the midst of it ran a winding river, called the Kishon. Some of the tribes of Israel had settled among the hills on the north; others had settled among the hills on the south. But the plain itself was held by the enemy. They had a king named Jabin, and a general named Sisera, and nine hundred chariots of iron. And for twenty years, they mightily oppressed the Children of Israel. They were so strong and cruel that the Children of Israel did not dare to show themselves, but went along the by-paths, or through the woods, keeping out of sight. And none of them had either shield or spear.
Now there was a woman in the land who was braver than any of the men, and her name was Deborah. She was not only brave, but wise, so that people used to come to her from all directions to ask her questions, and she told them what to do. Thus she sat every day under a palm tree, listening to the people and answering them. Many who came told Deborah how poor and miserable they were, and how King Jabin’s men, the Canaanites, troubled them, and stole all that they had, and were very bad to them. So Deborah knew how the land was filled with suffering.
At last, one day, she sent for a man named Barak. “Barak,” she said, as he came under the palm tree, “you know how the Canaanites are treating our people, day by day, and year by year, and how since Joshua died we have no leader. We must stop it. You must take the lead. God has spoken in my soul, and has told me that you are the man, and that this is the time. Go now, and get an army.”
But Barak said, “Deborah, we are all afraid, and we have no shields or spears, nothing but sticks out of the woods, and Sisera has nine hundred chariots of iron. Am I to do this thing alone, or will you go with me? If you will go with me, I will go: but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”
And Deborah answered, “I will surely go with you, but it will be a woman and not a man who shall have the honor of the victory.”
So Barak sent messengers to all the tribes who lived among the hills by the Great Plain. Some of the tribes said that they would not come, some said that they would think about it; but Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali sent soldiers, until Barak and Deborah had ten thousand men. In the meantime, Sisera gathered his great army, thousands upon thousands of footmen, and thousands upon thousands of prancing horses, and nine hundred chariots of iron. And Barak and his soldiers were on the side of Mount Tabor, and Sisera and his soldiers were in the Great Plain. And there came a storm out of the north, as if the clouds were an army in the sky pouring water out of great buckets. And Deborah cried, “Up, Barak; for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand.” And Barak rose up and his men with him, and down they charged over the side of the mountain. And the Great Plain was filled with mud by the beating of the rain, so that the wheels of the chariots sank like the wheels of Pharaoh’s chariots in the Red Sea. And the Kishon overflowed its banks. And the army of Sisera fled east and west, and the army of Barak followed them.
Now Sisera, when he saw that he was defeated and that his chariot was stuck fast in the mud, leaped down in great haste and ran for his life. And as he ran he came to a tent away off among the hills, where a man lived whose name was Heber and his wife’s name was Jael. Heber had no
part in the battle of the day. He lived by himself, and was neither on the side of Barak nor on the side of Sisera. While the others were fighting he was in the distant pastures tending his sheep, and his wife was at home alone. So Sisera came breathless and weary with running, and Barak was following him far behind. And Jael came out to meet Sisera, and she asked him to come in and hide. “Turn in, my lord,” she said, “turn in to me: fear not.” So he went in. And he said, “Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” And she opened a bottle and gave him milk to drink. And he lay down in the tent, and she covered him with a mantle, so that he was hid. And he said, “If anybody comes to the tent, and asks, ‘Is there any man here?’ you must say, ‘No.’ ” Then he went to sleep, for he was very tired.
Then Jael took one of the big wooden pins which held the ropes of the tent, and in her other hand a workman’s mallet, and when Sisera was sound asleep she went to him softly, and drove the pin straight through his head. And Barak and his men came running by in pursuit of Sisera: and Jael came to the tent door, and said, “Come here, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” And Barak came in, and there was Sisera dead. This, you understand, was a long, long time ago, when people did not know so much as we know now about the difference between right and wrong: and it was in the midst of war, when very dreadful things are done. Anyhow, Sisera was dead, and the Children of Israel were delivered from the Canaanites.
SOMETIMES the Children of Israel fought with the people who lived in the Promised Land, as Barak fought with Sisera in the Great Plain. Sometimes they made friends with them and learned their ways; and that was worse than war, because their ways were very bad. They called God Baal, and they thought that there were many Baals, one for each place. They believed that Baal sent the sun and the rain and made things grow in the fields, and they told the Children of Israel that if they wished the sun to shine and the rain to fall they must build altars to Baal and say their prayers to him. And some of the Children of Israel did so. They forgot God and served Baal. But the men who served Baal thought that Baal did not care whether they were good or bad, and so they did not care either.
Now, after the battle of the Great Plain there was peace for many years. And the Children of Israel had farms and pastures in the plain. There were wide fields of wheat and barley, and droves of sheep and oxen. Then the Midianites came.
The Midianites were wild people who lived in the deserts beyond the Jordan. They had no cities to dwell in, but wandered about from place to place, riding on swift camels, sleeping in tents, and stealing cattle. And some of them came over and saw the Great Plain, how it lay shining in the sun, with the river winding in and out between the pleasant farms. And they went back and told the others, and pretty soon, when the harvest was ripe, there came a great army of Midianites. They had two kings, named Zebah and Zalmunna, and two princes, named Oreb, “the Raven,” and Zeeb, “the Wolf.” The kings and the princes wore red cloaks, and had gold chains around their camels’ necks; and all the dark-faced men who rode behind them had great rings of gold hung in their ears.
Over the Jordan they came, like swarms of locusts, and settled down upon the Great Plain. They trampled upon the farms, and stole the wheat, and drove away the sheep and oxen. Before they came the land looked like the Garden of Eden, but after they went away it was like a desolate wilderness. And the Children of Israel were poor and hungry and miserable. And the next year, when they planted the fields again and the barley and the wheat were ripe and ready for the harvest, over came the Midianites and destroyed the farms as they had done before. And so on, year after year, until the Children of Israel hid themselves in dens among the mountains and in caves among the rocks. And it seemed as if God had forgotten them.
But in a village beside the Great Plain there was an altar of Baal. It was made of large stones piled together, and was on the top of a cliff, and a grove of trees stood around it. And one morning the people of the village waked as usual and looked up towards the altar of Baal, and, behold, it was broken down. Not one stone lay upon another. And all the trees of the grove were cut down. And in the place of the old altar was a new one, made like an altar of God, and on it burned a great fire made of the wood of the sacred trees. So they asked who had done this thing, and they found that a young man named Gideon had done it. And they laid hold upon Gideon, intending to put him to death because he had destroyed the altar of Baal.
But Gideon said, “I have had a message from the Lord. Yesterday I was threshing wheat, in a secret place among the rocks to hide it from the Midianites. And behold, there was a man, like an angel, sitting under an oak, who said to me, ‘The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.’
“And I said, ‘How can the Lord be with me when He has forgotten us all? Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? The Lord has cast us off and has delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’
“And the man said to me, ‘Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the Midianites.’
“And I answered, ‘O Lord, how shall I save Israel? My family is the poorest in my tribe, and I am the least in my family.’
“But he said again, ‘Go and save Israel. I will be with thee.’
“And even then I could not believe that the Lord had chosen me. I hardly knew whether I was awake or dreaming. And I said, ‘Wait here,’ and I ran and fetched meat and bread in a basket and broth in a pot, and gave them to the man to eat, and he told me to put them on the rock. And so I did, and he put forth the end of the staff which he had in his hand and touched them, and, behold, the rock blazed with fire and the bread and the meat and the broth were consumed, and in the smoke the angel disappeared.
“Then I knew that I had seen a vision from the Lord. This is why I went last night and pulled down Baal’s altar, and built the Lord’s altar in the place of it.” And Gideon’s father said, “Let Baal look out for himself.”
So the people of the village, and of the country round about, knew that the Lord had called Gideon, and that he would save them from the Midianites. And they turned away from serving Baal and served God, and waited to see what would happen next.
ONE day the word was brought to Gideon that the Midianites were coming. King Zebah and King Zalmunna, and Oreb the Raven and Zeeb the Wolf, with thousands of fierce men on camels, were on the march. On they came across the Jordan, and like locusts they began to spread over the Great Plain.
And Gideon said to himself, “Did I dream about the angel, or was it true? Did he sit beneath the oak, and tell me that God wished me to fight the Midianites? did he strike fire out of the rock and go up in the smoke?” And Gideon said, “I will make sure. To-night I will spread out a fleece of wool and ask God for a sign. If in the morning the fleece is wet with dew while the earth around it is dry, then I will know that the Lord has sent me.” So he spread the fleece upon the ground, and when he rose up early the next morning, the ground was dry and the fleece was so wet that he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.
But still he was not satisfied. “Perhaps,” he said, “it only happened so.” And he asked for another sign. “To-night let the fleece be dry and all the ground be wet.” And in the morning so it was. The ground was wet with dew, but not a drop had fallen on the fleece.
Then Gideon blew a trumpet and called the people together, and sent messengers all about the country to call the fighting men, and there was a great army. But when Gideon came to see the army he did not like the soldiers’ looks: it seemed to him that they were frightened. He was afraid that when they saw the Midianites they would run away. And he made a speech. “To-morrow,” he said, “there will be a hard battle. The Midianites are many in number and very fierce. Perhaps you would like to go home. If you are afraid, if your knees are trembling, that is the best thing to do. Go straight home to-day.” And twenty-two thousand men, with trembling knees and pale faces, drew a long breath of relief and went home as fast as their legs could carry them. And there were left ten thousand.
But Gideon did not like the looks of the ten thousand. Now there was a spring in that place. The water came clear and cold out of Mount Gilboa and became a river. And across the river were the Midianites in their tents as far as the eye could see. And very early in the morning Gideon brought the ten thousand to the river and the spring and bade them drink; and as they drank he watched them. Most of them threw themselves upon the ground beside the water and put their lips to the stream and drank; and if there had been any Midianites hidden in the bushes they could have shot the drinkers with arrows, for they were off their guard. But three hundred took up water in their hands and drank, with their other hands holding their weapons and their eyes wide open. These three hundred Gideon chose, and sent the others home.
So the three hundred waited with Gideon for the going down of the sun. And when it was dark, and the lights were out in the camp of the Midianites, Gideon took his armor-bearer, and they two went alone, very softly, and crept about among the tents of Midian. The Midianites lay in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number, like the sand by the seaside. And as Gideon and his armor-bearer passed a tent, they heard men talking.
One man said, “I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the army of Midian, and came into a tent and struck it so that it fell and was overturned and lay upon the ground.”
And the other man said, “That means the sword of Gideon, for into his hands has God delivered all of us this night.”
Then Gideon knew that the soldiers were afraid, and he went back to his own camp and called his three hundred men together.
And Gideon divided the three hundred into three companies, a hundred in each company; and to every man he gave a trumpet and an empty pitcher and a lamp; but the lamp was what we call a torch, a burning stick. And Gideon said, “Watch me, and do as you see me do. When I blow my trumpet, you all blow yours, and shout with all your might, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ”
So they all crept softly toward the enemy, every man with his lamp and pitcher in his left hand and his trumpet in his right. And the Midianites were fast asleep, for it was almost midnight. And suddenly Gideon gave the signal; he blew a great blast upon his trumpet, then with the trumpet he broke the pitcher, and the torch he waved about his head, shouting, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” And all the others did the same, and there was a great blowing of trumpets and a great crashing of pitchers and a great shining of flaring torches, and a great sound of shouting. And the Midianites waked up in terrible alarm, and nobody knew what was the matter; and they looked this way and that, and in every direction there were shouting men and flames of fire. And they ran like frightened sheep, some on foot and some on camels, down the valley and over the Jordan, and out of the country; and they never came back again.
That was the end of Zebah and Zalmunna, and of Oreb the Raven and Zeeb the Wolf, and their fierce soldiers with them.
THE Children of Israel were divided into thirteen tribes, as the American people before the Revolution were divided into thirteen colonies. For each of the twelve sons of Jacob became the founder of a tribe, except Joseph, who became the founder of two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. The Promised Land was divided among these thirteen tribes or colonies. But the tribe of Dan was not satisfied. They thought that the land which was given them was not large enough.
So the tribe of Dan sent five men to find another place for them to live in, and away they went into the north to find it; as if, in the early days, the colony of Rhode Island had sent men to find them a new country in the woods of Maine. And on the way, they came to the house of a man named Micah.
Now Micah had stolen some money which belonged to his mother. He had taken eleven hundred pieces of silver. But afterwards he was very sorry for the wrong thing which he had done, and he brought back the silver. And his mother took some of the silver and had it made into two images, to look like God: though nobody knows how God looks. And they built a little church, which they called the House of God, and in the church they put the images so that they might look at them while they said their prayers. And the neighbors used to come to Micah’s church; and Micah’s son conducted the service till they could get a regular minister.
One day, there came walking along the road by Micah’s house a young man named Jonathan, who was out in the world in search of his fortune. And he stopped to speak to Micah. He told Micah that his name was Jonathan, and that he was a grandson of Moses, and that he was a regular minister.
And Micah said, “Where are you going, Jonathan?”
And Jonathan said, “Oh, I am just wandering around looking for a good place in which to stay.”
And Micah said, “Stay here with me, and take the service in my little church, and be a father and a priest to me and my family, and I will give you a salary. Every year you shall have ten pieces of silver and your board and clothes.” That satisfied Jonathan, and he became the minister of Micah’s church.
Now Jonathan, in his wanderings, had become acquainted with the tribe of Dan, so that the five men who were looking for a new country knew him well. And they came to the house of Micah just at church time, and heard the priest saying the service. And they said one to another, “That is a familiar voice. It sounds like the voice of Jonathan.” So they went in and found Jonathan. And they said, “Jonathan, who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? How much wages do you get?” And Jonathan answered all their questions. And the spies said, “Pray for us, that we may have a prosperous journey.”
Then on they went, and presently they came to a little town called Laish. It stood beside the sources of the Jordan, and all around was a fair and fertile country. Moreover, the people were so far away from any neighbors that they had no walls, but lived quiet and secure, and never thought of danger. The five spies agreed that this was the very spot for which they were looking. So they went back to the tribe of Dan and said, “We have found the very place. It is a wide and beautiful land, with woods and water, and the people know nothing about war. Come, let us go, and take the place away from them.” For this, you remember, was so long ago that people thought that some things were right which we now know to be wrong.
So six hundred bold men of the tribe of Dan took weapons of war in their hands and started on the march for Laish. And as they went, they passed the house of Micah. And the five spies said, “Do you know what is here? This man has images of gods, made of gold and silver. Might they not be useful for us?” So the six hundred stood at Micah’s gate, and the five went quietly into Micah’s church, and brought the images.
But Jonathan saw them, and he cried out and said, “What are you doing?”
And they said, “Hold your peace, lay your hand upon your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it not better to be the minister of a tribe than the minister of one man?”
And Jonathan, when he heard that, was very glad. He let the spies steal Micah’s images, and he himself went with them. So they all went upon the way to Laish.
Now when they had gone a good way, they heard a noise of shouting; and they looked back, and who should come running along the road but Micah and his neighbors. And they turned and said to Micah, “What is the matter with you? Why do you follow us and make all this noise?”
And Micah cried, “You have stolen both my priest and my gods, and away you go. And you say, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ”
And the men of Dan said, “Micah, take our advice: don’t talk so loud. Some of us might possibly get mad and hurt you!” So they went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too many for him, he turned and went back to his house. Then the men of Dan took Laish and settled in that country; and they built a church for Micah’s images, and Jonathan became their priest.
ON the side of a green hill, in the midst of the Promised Land, lived a man named Manoah and his wife. They belonged to the tribe of Dan, but had stayed behind when the six hundred went out to settle in the land of Laish. In the distance, along the edge of the sky, lay the sea; and between the hill and the sea were miles and miles of yellow cornfields, with vineyards here and there, and groves of olive trees. But all of this fair country belonged to the Philistines. And the Philistines and the Children of Israel were enemies; and after the six hundred boldest men of Dan had gone, the Philistines were very bad to those who were left. Indeed, all of the Children of Israel were afraid of them.
Now as Manoah and his wife looked out from their hillside over the Philistine country, they said often one to another, “Oh, that we had a good stout son to defend us against our enemies in our old age!” And one day when Manoah came home from work, his wife said, “What do you suppose happened to-day? A strange man stopped and spoke to me, and said that we would have a son. I was so frightened that I forgot to ask him whence he came, and he did not tell his name. Indeed, I didn’t know whether he was a man or an angel. But he said that our prayer would be answered and that God would send us a son.”
The next day, the strange man came by again, and Manoah’s wife was in the field, and she saw him and called her husband.
And Manoah said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife yesterday?” And he said, “I am.”
And Manoah said, “Let thy words come to pass. Only tell us how to bring up the child that he may be strong and sturdy.”
And the angel answered, “Let neither the mother nor the child taste either grapes or wine, and never let his hair be cut.”
Then Manoah brought out bread and meat and laid them on a rock, and there was a fire burning by the rock, and somehow,—whether the flame dazzled their eyes or the smoke was blown in their faces so that they could not see,—when they looked, the man had disappeared.
Then days passed and days passed, and God sent the child, as the man had said, and his hair was so yellow and his face was so bright that they named him Samson; that is, “The Little Sun.” He grew up a stout lad, the strongest in the neighborhood. He never tasted either grapes or wine, and every year his hair grew longer and longer, till they braided it in seven big braids hanging down his back. But if the boys with whom he played ever said anything about the length of Samson’s hair, they said it when Samson could not hear them; for they were very careful not to make him angry. Nobody could throw so high, or jump so far, or run so fast as Samson.
At last, it became time for Samson to be married, and he fell in love with a Philistine girl who lived in a place called Timnath. And Samson went down one day, with his father and mother, to call upon the father and mother of the girl, and there came out a young lion from a vineyard and roared against Samson. And Samson caught the lion and killed him with his hands. Then, after a while, as the wedding day drew near, Samson and his father and mother went again to Timnath to the marriage. And as they went, they passed the place where Samson had killed the lion, and behold, among the dry bones of the lion there was a swarm of bees; and Samson took some of the
honey and gave it to his father and mother, and they went along the way eating it.
Now it was the custom in those days, at weddings, to tell riddles. And Samson told a riddle. And his riddle was this: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” And the wedding guests tried to guess the riddle: one said this, and another said that, but none was right. The game was that if any of the thirty guests could find out the riddle within seven days, Samson was to give every man a shirt and a suit of clothes; but if they could not guess it, they were to give him thirty shirts and thirty suits of clothes. So the seventh day came, and nobody had guessed the riddle. Now the guests had gone to Samson’s wife and said, “If you don’t make your husband tell you the answer to the riddle and then tell us, we will burn down your house.” So Samson’s wife came to him every day, and cried and cried, and said, “You don’t love me. If you loved me you would tell me the answer to the riddle.” But he said, “I have not told even my father or my mother.” At last, however, on the seventh day, she begged so hard that Samson told her: and straight she went and told the wedding guests. So just as the sun was going down on the evening of the seventh day, they came to Samson, boasting and laughing, and they said, “What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?” Thus they guessed the riddle, and Samson paid the forfeit of thirty shirts and thirty suits of clothes.
SAMSON was not the captain of an army, like Joshua and Barak and Gideon. He fought the Philistines alone. He used to go out by himself, when they were not looking for him, and surprise them. The favorite stories of the Israelites were the adventures of Samson, as the favorite stories of the Greeks were the adventures of Hercules.
One time, they said, he caught three hundred foxes and tied their tails together, and in each knot he put a lighted torch, and away went the foxes with the firebrands into the standing corn, and burned it down.
Another time, the Philistines were after him, and he let his neighbors tie him with ropes and leave him on a rock. And three thousand Philistines were in pursuit, and when they saw him they gave a great shout and rushed upon him; and he burst the ropes, and picked up a dry bone, the jawbone of an ass, and fought the Philistines with it so that they fled like frightened sheep.
Once he was in the town of Gaza, which had stout walls around it. And they thought that they had him fast. But in the night, he took the great gates of the city, and picked them up, and the posts with them, and carried them off. And when the Philistines awoke in the morning, Samson was gone, and there were the gates away up on the side of a hill.
But at last, after Samson’s wife was dead, he fell in love with another Philistine woman, whose name was Delilah. And she was a false friend. For the Philistines said to Delilah, “Come now, get Samson to tell you the secret of his strength, that we may have the mastery of him, and we will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” And she promised to do it.
So Delilah said, “Tell me, Samson, what is the secret of your strength? What is the way to bind you so that you cannot get loose?”
And Samson answered, “If I were bound with seven new bowstrings I should be as weak as any other man.”
And Delilah said, “Oh, Samson, let me try; let me see if I can tie you so that you cannot get free.”
And Samson held out his arms, and she tied seven new bowstrings tight about him with hard knots. And the lords of the Philistines were in the next room, waiting.
And Delilah cried, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And he started up, and broke the bowstrings as if they were strings which had been scorched in the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
But the next day, Delilah teased Samson again to tell the secret. “You mocked me, yesterday,” she said, “and told me lies. Now, truly, Samson, how may you be bound so that you must stay bound?”
And Samson said, “If I were to be tied with new ropes which have never been used, then I should be as weak as any other man.”
So Delilah took new ropes and tied him fast. And the lords of the Philistines were in the next room, waiting.
And Delilah cried, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And he broke the ropes as if they had been thread.
Again, the next day, she asked him the same question. And Samson said, “If the seven locks of my hair were woven into a web, I could not get away.” And Delilah was weaving cloth upon a loom, and while Samson was asleep she wove his long hair into the web and cried again, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And straight he waked, and stood up, and pulled away the web and the loom together.
Then Delilah said, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when every day you mock me and lie to me! Tell me true, what is the secret of your mighty strength?”
And Samson told her true. “If they cut off my hair,” he said, “then I shall have no strength at all.”
And Delilah knew that this time he had told the truth, and she called for the lords of the Philistines. “Come only this once,” she said, “and you shall have him.” And they came, and brought the silver pieces with them.
And Samson slept, in the heat of the day, with his head upon Delilah’s knees. And the men came in softly and cut off the seven locks of his hair. Then Delilah cried, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” And he awoke, and saw the Philistines coming, and he stretched forth his great arms, and they were like the arms of any other man. And the Philistines laid hold upon him, and put out both his eyes.
So the Philistines brought Samson down to Gaza, and bound him with brass fetters, and put him in prison, and made him grind their corn. But his hair began to grow again. And at last, one day, the Philistines made a great feast in the temple of Dagon, their god. And there were crowds and crowds of people, and all the lords of the Philistines; there were people even on the roof. And they brought Samson from the prison that they might look at him, and laugh at him. And a lad led him by the hand. And by and by Samson said to the lad, “Lead me to a pillar.” Now the temple roof rested on two huge pillars, quite near together. And Samson cried to God and said, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes.” And he thrust out his great arms where he stood between the pillars, and pushed them hard with all his might, and they fell, and the roof fell with them upon the Philistines, and upon their lords, and upon Samson. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
ABIMELECH was a king’s son. His father was the brave Gideon who fought the battle of the Lamps and Pitchers. But he had seventy brothers. So when Gideon died the question at once arose, “Which of all the princes shall be the king?” This question was promptly answered by Abimelech. He went to the men of a town called Shechem, and said, “No nation can have seventy kings. The right number is one. Now make me king, and I will be your friend.” And that pleased the men of Shechem. They gave Abimelech seventy pieces of silver, and he hired seventy bad men, and one black night they set out from Shechem, every man with a piece of silver in one pocket and a sharp knife in the other, and when they came back in the early morning all of Abimelech’s seventy brothers had been killed but one. One brother, Jotham, the youngest of them all, escaped.
Now the town of Shechem lay amidst the mountains. On one side was a mountain called Ebal, and on the other side was a mountain called Gerizim. And that day, the men of Shechem heard the voice of some one calling, and here they looked and there they looked to find where the voice came from, and at last on Mount Gerizim they saw a boy. And there was Abimelech’s youngest brother, Jotham. And Jotham lifted up his voice and cried to the men of Shechem, and they came out of their houses and stood in the street to hear him.
“Hearken unto me,” he said, “ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. One time the trees resolved to choose a king, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Come thou and reign over us.’ But the olive tree said unto them, ‘Shall I leave my oil which honors God and man, and go to be king over the trees?’ Then they said to the fig tree, ‘Come thou and reign over us,’ But the fig tree said, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to be king over the trees?’ Then they said to the vine, ‘Come thou and reign over us,’ But the vine said, ‘Shall I leave my wine which gladdens God and man and go to be king over the trees?’ Thus the olive and the fig and the vine refused. Then said all the trees unto the bramble, ‘Come thou and reign over us,’ And the bramble consented. ‘Come,’ said the bramble, ‘and get under my shadow. But if you play me false, out of me shall fire come till even the cedars of Lebanon are burned.’ ”
Thus did Jotham speak, and lest anybody should fail to understand his fable, he told the men of Shechem what it meant.
“My brother Abimelech,” he said, “is good for nothing. He is like a bramble in the field. And you have made him your king. Now look out for fire.” So saying, he climbed down from the rock on which he stood, and disappeared in the woods and ran away.
And by and by the fire came. For after three years there was a quarrel between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. The men of Shechem began to rob the caravans as they went to and fro over the great roads through Abimelech’s land. And in the autumn, when the grapes were ripe, and the men of Shechem were all in the vineyards making wine and drinking it, they defied Abimelech. They said that they were not afraid of him. And they had for leader a man named Gaal, who wished to be king in Abimelech’s place. “Who is Abimelech?” he said; “why should we serve him? Make me your captain, and I will look after Abimelech.” And this they agreed to do. But Zebul, the mayor of the city, sent word and told Abimelech.
And Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him, by night, and marched toward Shechem. Now early in the morning Gaal the rebel and Zebul the mayor stood together in the gate of the city and looked out.
And Gaal said, “See, there are people coming down from the top of the mountains.”
But Zebul laughed and said, “Oh, you see the shadows of the passing clouds.”
And Gaal spoke again and said, “See! see! there are people coming over Midland Hill, and there are others gathering under the Magician’s Tree.”
And Zebul said, “Where is your mouth with which you said, ‘Who is Abimelech?’ These are the people whom you have despised. Go out now and fight.”
So Gaal went out and fought, and Abimelech beat him and chased him and all his followers into the town. And the men of Shechem fled into their strong tower. And Abimelech and his men took axes in their hands and went off into the woods; and Abimelech said, “Watch me, and do as you see me do, quickly.” And he cut off a big branch of a tree and put it over his shoulder, and all the soldiers did the same. And down they came against the tower of Shechem, like a marching forest, like Birnam Wood on its famous march to Dunsinane. The boughs they piled about the tower and set them on fire, and burned the tower and the men of Shechem with it.
But the next day, when Abimelech tried in the same way to burn the tower of Thebez, suddenly the end came. For a woman on the top of the tower had a piece of a millstone in her hand, and as Abimelech came near she threw the stone with all her might, and it hit him in the head. And that he might die a soldier’s death, he called his armor-bearer to come and kill him with his sword. Thus he died. And thus the evil both of the men of Shechem and of Abimelech was punished.
HER father was an outlaw, like Robin Hood. For no fault of his he had been driven from his home, and had gone to live in the wild forest. There he had been joined by other men, some bad and some good, who had been driven out like himself or had run away in fear of being punished. And they went on forays, stealing sheep and oxen. And people who had money in their purses were afraid to go by that way, lest Jephthah and his merry men should fall upon them and send them back with empty pockets, and sore heads into the bargain. Though I hope that Jephthah, like Robin Hood, troubled only those who cheated their neighbors or were cruel to the poor. Anyhow, his fame spread through all the land of Gilead, in which he lived, and everybody knew that Jephthah was a bold outlaw, and that he had with him a band of stout companions. In the greenwood, with these wild men, lived a little girl; and she was Jephthah’s only child.
The land of Gilead was bounded by three rivers and a desert. In the north a river ran into the Jordan, and in the south a river ran into the Jordan, and the desert lay along the east. And in the desert was a wild tribe called the men of Ammon. And the men of Ammon sent word to the men of Gilead and said, “The country in which you live belongs to us. That was where our fathers lived. Come now, move out and let us in.” And when the men of Gilead heard that, they were sore distressed, for the men of Ammon were mighty men. “Where is a man,” they said, “who can be the captain of our army? If he can lead us into battle and gain the victory, he shall be the king of Gilead.” And they sent to Jephthah and asked him.
“Come,” they said, “and be our captain, that we may fight with the men of Ammon.”
But Jephthah said, “Did you not hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? Why are you come to me now when you are in distress?”
And the men of Gilead said, “If you will be our captain so that we may defeat our enemies, you shall be our king.”
So Jephthah and his merry men and his little daughter came out of the woods with the messengers of Gilead. And they all stopped at a church beside the road and said their prayers. And there they told God what they had promised. And Jephthah stood up and made a vow. “O Lord,” he said, “if thou shalt without fail deliver the men of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whosoever comes first out of my doors to meet me when I return in peace, I will sacrifice to thee.” For Jephthah thought that if he made a vow like that, the Lord would be more likely to give him victory. This, you understand, was a long time ago, when people were very ignorant about God. Of this vow, Jephthah’s daughter knew nothing.
Thus Jephthah became the captain. And he sent messengers to the king of Ammon and said, “Why are you come to fight me in my own land?” And the king of Ammon answered, “Your land is my land. Your fathers took it from my fathers. Come now, give it up again peaceably.” But Jephthah said, “When our fathers came into these parts out of Egypt, your fathers were not living here. They had been driven out by Sihon, king of the Amorites. And our fathers fought with Sihon and beat him in battle and took his land, from one river to the other. It was not your land. And anyhow, all this happened three hundred years ago. The Lord be judge this day between the men of Gilead and the men of Ammon.” So they fell to fighting. And the men of Gilead gained a great victory.
And Jephthah came home in triumph to his house, and all the women came out to meet him, who had stayed behind while the men went to battle. Out they came, singing and dancing and playing on tambourines. And who should be at the head of the procession but Jephthah’s little daughter! So she was the first person who came out to meet him when he returned in peace. She was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And when her father saw her he cried with a great cry, and said, “Alas, my daughter! you have dealt me a worse blow than any that was struck this day in battle: you have brought me down to the ground. For I have vowed a vow to God, and I must keep it, and here you come to meet me.”
Then Jephthah’s daughter understood what the vow was, and that it meant her death. And she said, “My father, you have gained the victory: that is the great thing. Do to me according to what you have promised to the Lord.” It was all terribly wrong, though Jephthah did not know it. But his daughter, like Iphigenia in another story, showed herself a martyr and a heroine. For the sake of her country, as she believed, she gave her life.
So they made Jephthah their king, but his happiness was gone. He fought a battle with the men of Ephraim and drove them back over the river, and stationed his soldiers on the bank where they must cross. And when anybody came running, the soldiers said, “Are you a man of Ephraim?” and if he said “No,” they said, “Say ‘Shibboleth.’ ” And if he said “Sibboleth” they knew that he belonged to Ephraim, for the men of Ephraim were not able to say sh. But every year the women of Israel spent four days in the mountain weeping and lamenting in remembrance of the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter.
ALL the great-grandmothers were once as young as we are. So, when this story begins, King David’s great-grandmother was just about at the age when girls are graduated from the grammar school. She lived in Moab, in the country of Balaam and Balak, and her name was Ruth. And at that time a new family moved into that neighborhood from the land of Judah, from the town of Bethlehem. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi, and they had two sons. And by and by one of the sons married a girl named Orpah, and the other married Ruth. Then ten years passed, and Elimelech and his two sons died, and Naomi and Ruth and Orpah were left alone.
Then Naomi took her two daughters-in-law each by the hand, and with tears in her eyes kissed them, and told them that she was going back to Bethlehem. And at first they both said that they would go with her. But she told them that they would better go home. “I have no more sons,” she said, “and no good house for you to live in.” And Orpah went home, crying as she went. But Ruth stayed with Naomi. “Intreat me not,” she said, “to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” So they gathered their things together and set out upon their journey. Over they went across the river Jordan, and climbed the hills, and came at last to Bethlehem. And there they arrived at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Now the next morning Ruth said to her mother, “I must help to support myself and you, so that we may not starve. Let me go into the fields and gather the barley which the reapers leave behind them.” For they had a good law in that country which said that the farmers must not gather up all of the wheat or the barley or the fruit, but must leave some for the poor. So Ruth went to glean the barley. The field in which she gleaned belonged to a rich farmer whose name was Boaz. And pretty soon out came Boaz to see how the work was getting on, and he noticed Ruth and asked about her. And the head reaper told him who she was. And Boaz was very kind to her.
“My daughter,” he said, “stay with my maidens in my field. Nobody shall harm you. Gather as much as you can carry. When you are thirsty, go and drink out of the men’s bucket, and at noon when you are hungry come and eat your lunch with us.”
And Ruth said, “How is it that you are so good to me, a stranger?”
And Boaz answered, “I have heard about you, how you have left your own land and your own people to be a good daughter to my old friend Naomi.”
So Ruth gleaned all day behind the reapers in the field of Boaz, and when she was thirsty she drank from their bucket, and when it was time for lunch, she dipped her bread in the vinegar with the others, and Boaz himself passed her the parched corn. And Boaz told the reapers to drop some handfuls in her way; so that at night she had more than a bushel of barley to take home.
And Naomi said, “My daughter, where have you gleaned to-day?” And Ruth said, “In the field of Boaz, and he was very kind to me.”
“Why,” cried Naomi, “he is a near kinsman. Your husband’s father was his cousin.” So every day, through barley harvest and through wheat harvest, Ruth gleaned from morning till night in the fields of Boaz.
By and by, good Naomi said to herself, “Boaz has no wife, and Ruth has no husband. How pleasant it would be if they should marry!” And so she planned and planned