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Cornell University Library 
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 Book of Judges : with Introduction and n 
 
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 CAYLORD 
 
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The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029286072 
 
Western Asia in the Second Millennium B.C. 
 
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THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 THE REV. C. F. BURNEY, D.Litt. 
 
 ORIEL PROFESSOR OF THE INTERPRETATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 
 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 CANON OF ROCHESTER, 
 
 AND FELLOW OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 RIVINGTONS 
 
 34 KING STREET, CO VENT GARDEN 
 
 LONDON 
 
 1918 
 
/3oC . 
 
 Under the General Editorship of 
 THE REV. C. F. BURNEY, D.LITT. 
 
 The Book of Wisdom. With Introduction and Notes. 
 
 Edited by the Rev. A. T. S. GooDRicK, M.A., Late Rector of 
 
 Winterbourne, Bristol, ms. dd. net. 
 
 ' Mr. Goodrick's Preface at once arrests attention. Here is evidently a scholar 
 taking his task seriously. He knows the literature, writes in terse, trenchant 
 style, and has reached original conclusions. The expectation roused is not 
 disappointed in the rest of the book.' — Guardian. 
 
 Under the General Editorship of 
 
 The Rev. LEIGHTON PULLAN, M.A., 
 Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College, Oxford. 
 
 St. Mark's Gospel. With Introduction and Notes. 
 
 Edited by the Ven. W. C. Allen, M.A., Rector of Chorley, 
 and Archdeacon of Blackburn. 7^- (><i- »"'. 
 
 'Archdeacon Allen has succeeded in writing another exposition of the earliest 
 Gospel on entirely independent lines, and it will take high rank as one of those 
 Commentaries that the keen student of the Gospels cannot afford to do withouV 
 ^Methodist Recorder. 
 
 LONDON: RIVINGTONS 
 
 C-X-tw,.^ ^^'^-K.^.^ 
 
 ^ t . '^ty^A'U 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
TO MY WIFE 
 
PREFACE 
 
 A NEW commentary upon one of the books of the Old 
 Testament seems to call for a few words in justification 
 of its appearance, and for an indication of the special 
 features which it aims at offering. The Book of Judges 
 is not a book which has suffered from neglect on the part 
 of scholars in the past : indeed, the last thirty years have 
 witnessed the accession of much valuable work devoted 
 to its elucidation. The Commentary by Professor Moore 
 (189s) — to cite but a single example — is, by general 
 consent, one of the most thorough and scholarly volumes 
 even of so eminent a series as the International Critical 
 Commentary. Biblical science, however, does not stand 
 still. We are — or should be — daily widening the basis 
 of our research. Fresh knowledge of the languages, 
 literature, and antiquities of the peoples who were kindred 
 to Israel, by race or by environment, is constantly being 
 brought within reach ; and the Old Testament scholar 
 who would keep abreast of the possibilities of Biblical 
 interpretation must spread his nets wide if he is to gather 
 in the available material for his studies. 
 
 For myself, I can say with truth that such first-hand 
 acquaintance with the Babylonian and Assyrian language 
 and literature as I have been able to acquire during the 
 past fourteen years or so, has revolutionized my outlook 
 upon Old Testament studies. The possibilities for fresh 
 investigation offered within this sphere, together with an 
 instinctive preference for study of the Biblical sources 
 themselves, prior to consultation of that which has been 
 written about them by other scholars, have, I hope, im- 
 parted some measure of originality to my work ; though 
 
vi THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 originality, as an end in itself, was not what I was 
 striving after. I have, so far as I was able, made myself 
 acquainted with the work of my predecessors in the same 
 field ; and I trust that I have regularly discharged the 
 duty incumbent upon every scholar by making due 
 acknowledgment to them whenever I have cited their 
 opinion. An apparent exception to this rule may be 
 found in the introductory discussions on the composition, 
 and sources of the various narratives contained in the 
 book; but here I have always worked out my own con- 
 clusions and argued them in detail, and anything like 
 a I regular citation of my agreement with, or divergency 
 from, other scholars must have led to undue prolixity, 
 and would only have tended to confuse the reader. 
 
 I trust that the somewhat lengthy § 6 of iny Intror 
 duction, on ' External information bearing on the period- 
 of Judges,' may not be deemed superfluous to the pur- 
 pose of the commentary. The Book of Judges occupies, 
 a, position on the borderland between history and legend- 
 In order to place our feet on firm ground, and gain as 
 much as may be for veritable history, it is most important 
 to .examine the external sources, so far as they are acces- 
 sible, which bear upon the condition of Cana'an and its 
 inhabitants at and before the period covered by the book. 
 It is, important also — in view of the frequent reference 
 nria,de iq the commentary to Babylonian influence and 
 analogy — to understand how it was that such influence 
 had permeated Cana'an to so large an extent at this early 
 period. Throughout my work I have had in view, not, 
 merely the elucidation of the text of Judges, but as 
 thorough an investigation as I could make of the early 
 period of Israel's residence in Cana'an for which Judges 
 forms our principal text-book. My volume, therefore 
 may perhaps be described as a collection of rnaterial for 
 this early history rather than as a commentary pure and 
 simple ; and if this view is taken of it I shall be content. 
 
 Since the basis of correct exegesis of the Old Testa- 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 ment consists in a sound philological knowledge ofi 
 Hebrew, and such knowledge is mainly advanced through 
 comparative study of the cognate Semitic languages, con- 
 siderable attention is devoted in the notes to questions of 
 comparative philology. In discussions which fall under 
 this head I have adopted the plan of transliterating both 
 the Hebrew words and those from cognate languages 
 which are brought into comparison with them, in order 
 that the Hebrew student who is unacquainted with , the 
 cognate languages may be able, to some extent at least, 
 to appreciate the argument. A table explaining the 
 method of transliteration is given on pp. xxxi f , and an 
 index of the transliterated forms will be found at the endi 
 of the volume. The use of Hebrew and other Semitic 
 types has been minimized as far as possible, in the hope 
 that the commentary may prove useful, not merely to 
 Hebrew scholars, but to the larger class of Biblical 
 students who are ignorant of the language. Whenever a 
 quotation is made in the original it is accompanied by a 
 translation. ,a 
 
 Among the notes on the text there will be found some 
 which are of very considerable length, e.g. those on the 
 Ashera (p. 195), the Ephod (p. 236), the representation 
 of Samson as a Nazirite (p. 343), the Hne of the Midian- 
 ites' flight, and the site of Abel-meholah (p. 219), as 
 well as some of the other geographical notes, and many 
 of the textual notes upon the Song of Deborah. Notes 
 such as these have been expanded without compunc- 
 tion, because I believed that I had new light to throw 
 upon very difficult problems ; and readers who are really 
 desirous of getting to the bottom of such problems will 
 not, I think, quarrel with me upon this score. 
 
 It is possible that one of the Additional Notes — that, 
 on the use of writing in the time of the Judges, and the 
 antiquity of the Alphabetic Script (p. 253)— may be 
 thought to hang upon rather a slight peg in the reference 
 to writing in ch. 8", so far as the necessities of the com- 
 
viii THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 mentary are concerned ; but the many-sided interest of the 
 subject and the manner in which it has entered into recent 
 discussions (some of them not untinged with controversial 
 bias) seemed to call for an explicit statement of the 
 facts, and of such deductions from them as appear to be 
 justified. The notes on ' Yahweh or Yahu originally an 
 Amorite Deity' (p. 243), and 'Early identification of 
 Yahweh with the Moon-god ' (p. 249), form integral parts 
 of my theory as to the Ashera ; and I am unaware of 
 any source of information which brings together the facts 
 which I was desirous of marshalling. 
 
 Among those to whom I owe thanks for assistance 
 rendered in the preparation of this commentary, there 
 are two whose help has been of a very special character. 
 Dr. • Driver read through the whole of my new transla- 
 tion of the text of Judges (which I completed before 
 beginning to write the notes upon it), and made many 
 suggestions which materially improved it. He also saw, 
 in one form or another, all or most of what I have written 
 on chs. 1-8 ; and since he was without stint accessible 
 to all who desired to consult him, I was accustomed 
 constantly to discuss points of difficulty with him, and " 
 many of my conclusions and theories embodied in the 
 commentary have, needless to say, much profited through 
 his advice and revision. Dr. C. J. Ball has undertaken 
 the heavy task of reading the whole of my proof-sheets 
 and discussing them personally with me. All that my 
 book owes to him it is impossible for me adequately to 
 estimate ; a small part of it may be seen in the number 
 of fresh suggestions which he has allowed me to include 
 in my notes.* 
 
 When all has been said, however, my debt to these 
 two scholars for actual co-operation in the work put into 
 my book is but a tithe of what I and the book owe 
 to them in a wider sense. Enjoying as I did the close 
 friendship of Dr. Driver from the year that I came up 
 * Cf. pp. 114, 119, 122, 129, 144, 148, 250, 325, 421, 476 f. 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 to Oxford as an undergraduate until the year of his 
 death, I cannot but feel that most of what I have learned 
 in method and thoroughness of scholarship is due to 
 his teaching and example. Under Dr. Ball I began as 
 a schoolboy to study the elements of Hebrew ; under 
 him some twenty years later I began to grapple with 
 Assyriology, and the marvellous gifts which he possesses 
 as a teacher caused the early stages of a study which 
 might otherwise have seemed tedious and repellent to 
 appear in the light of an easy and fascinating pastime. 
 
 I have also to express my grateful thanks to Professor 
 L. W. King for much advice upon matters connected 
 with Babylonian studies. He has read, in particular, 
 § 6 of my Introduction and all my Additional Notes 
 which deal with the influence of Babylonian civilization 
 upon Cana'an ; and my confidence in the lines which 
 I have taken in dealing with this side of my subject has 
 been greatly strengthened by his approval and support. 
 Professor R. W. Rogers of Drew Theological Seminary, 
 Madison, New Jersey, whose regular visits for research 
 in the Bodleian Library have made him as much a son 
 of Oxford cis of the United States, was in residence here 
 during the greater part of the years 1913-14. During 
 our long friendship we have grown accustomed to discuss 
 the Biblical questions in which our common interests lie ; 
 and I owe much to his judicial mind and expert know- 
 ledge of Assyriology. 
 
 With my wife I have talked over many of the points, 
 both small and great, which have arisen in the course of 
 my researches ; and the book owes not a little to her 
 quick apprehension, sound common sense, and unerring 
 feeling for style and lucidity. 
 
 Finally, I must thank the Trustees of the British 
 Museum for • permission to reproduce the seal-cylinder 
 impressions figured in Plate III., and the two reliefs 
 from the Report on excavations at Carchemish, edited 
 by Dr. D. G. Hogarth, which appear in Plate V. ; 
 
X THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 M. Leroux, the publisher of Delaporte's Catalogue des 
 Cylindres orientaux . . . de la Bibliotheque Nationale, tor 
 a similar permission in the case of the seal-cyhnder 
 impressions given in Elate II.; the Committee of the 
 Palestine Exploration Fund for kindly allowing me to 
 make the sketch-map of the district round Gibe'ah 
 (opposite p. 465) upon the basis of their large survey- 
 map ; and the British Academy for permission to make 
 use of the map of Western Asia which has been prepared 
 for my Schweich Lectures. 
 
 C. F. B. 
 
 Oxford, 
 Easter 1918. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ADDENDA, ....... 
 
 PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED, . 
 TRANSLITERATION OF SEMITIC WORDS, . 
 INTRODUCTION :— 
 
 § I. Title, Scope, and Place in the Canon, 
 
 § 2. Structure, ..... 
 
 § 3. The Old Narratives, .... 
 
 § 4. The Editors, ..... 
 
 § 5. Chronology, . . . . ' . 
 
 § 6. External Information bearing on the Period of 
 Judges, ...... 
 
 § 7. The Permanent Religious Value of Judges, 
 
 § 8. Hebrew Text and Ancient Versions, 
 
 TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY, 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES :— 
 
 External Evidence for the Use of the Terms 
 'Cana'an' and 'The Land of the Amorite,' 
 
 Sedek as a Divine Name, .... 
 
 The Meaning of the Name Kiriath-Arba', 
 
 The Conquest of the Negeb, 
 
 The original Form of J's Account of the Settlement 
 OF the Tribes of Israel in Cana'an, . 
 
 A Detailed Examination of the Rhythm of the Song 
 OF Deborah,; ..... 
 
 The Climactic Parallelism of the Song of Deborah, 
 
 • The Language of the Song of Deborah, 
 
 Yahweh or Yahu originally an Amorite Deity, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 xiii 
 
 XXXIU 
 
 xxxiv 
 
 xxxvii 
 
 xli 
 
 1 
 
 Iv 
 cxviii 
 cxxii 
 
 41 
 41 
 
 43 
 44 
 
 47 
 
 158 
 169 
 171 
 243 
 
THE ^OOK OF JUDGES 
 
 V 
 
 PAGE 
 249 
 
 Early Identification of Yahwbh with the Moon-God 
 The Use of Writing among the Israelites at the Time 
 
 of the Judges, . . . . • • ^53 
 
 Human Sacrifice among the Israelites, . • ■ 3^9 
 
 The Women's Festival of Judges ii", . • • 33^ 
 
 The Mythical Elements in the Story of Samson, . 391 
 The Origin of the Levites, . . . • ■ 43^ 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES, . . . -495 
 
 NOTE ON THE MAPS OF PALESTINE, . . -498 
 
 INDICES :— 
 
 I. General Index, ...... 503 
 
 II. Index of Grammatical and Philological Observa- 
 tions, . , . . . . .520 
 
 III. Index of Foreign Terms: — 
 
 Hebrew (including Cana'anite), . . .522 
 
 Babylonian and Assyrian (including Sumerian), 524 
 Aramaic (including Syriac), . . . .525 
 
 Arabic, ....... 526 
 
 Greek, ....... 527 
 
 Latin, •■..... 527 
 
 IV. Index of Passages from other Books discussed, . 527 
 MAPS :— 
 
 Western Asia in the Second. Millennium B.C., . Frontispiece 
 The District round Gibe'ah, . . . to face p. 465 
 
 Palestine (>. ^a/.), .... End of Volume 
 
 PLATES, 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 p. 17. C4. i". Against the identification of Sephath with Sebai 
 (Esbeita), cf. Lawrence in PEF. Annual, iii. (1914-15), p. 91, wl 
 »«;«»« out that the site Esbeita cannot have existed before t; 
 
 p. 6g. Footnote oh TDK." ' '■"I'lre" common ointerai eicnicm j^ru 
 TAR, etc., underlying a series of triliteral roots has been noted ar 
 further illustrated by Ball, Semitic and Sumerian {^Hilprecht Ann 
 versary Volume, pp. 41 £). 
 
 p. 88. Ch. 4'. The root-meaning of Heb. ndhalxs stated by BD] 
 to be unknown. It seems obvious that the root ?T\i must be allie 
 to ??n in the sense 'to pierce,' and that ndhal therefore proper 
 denotes a cutting or boring : cf. especially Job 28 *, if ndhal is thei 
 rightly understood as meaning a mine-shaft. Other instances 1 
 allied J"S and J? doubled verbs {i.e. of the same biliteral different 
 triliteralized) are ^ItiJ 'to drip,' and New Heb. f)SD whence riB 
 
 'drop'; 1D3 'to weave' and pD 'to intertwine'; J'SJ and J'SS '1 
 break in pieces'; nVJ and nnS ' to shine, be brilliant'; 3pJ and 33 
 'to curse.' Similarly, 3"S and Vy, nSJ and niS 'to breathe'; \\ 
 'to break in pieces,' and pS 'to be dispersed' (by breaking); f- 
 and px 'to shine, blossom' ; 1p3 and "lip 'to bore, dig.' 
 
xiv THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 p. 95. Add to the list of authorities, P. Haupt, Die Schlacht von 
 Taanach, pp. 193-225 oi Studien zur semit. Philol. u. Religionsgesch. 
 Julius Wellhausen . . . gewidmet, 1914. (He treats the text of Judg. 5 
 with the greatest freedom, subjecting it to a drastic rearrangement.) 
 
 p. 95. On the analogy to Hebrew poetry offered by the old Anglo- 
 Saxon poetry, and by Piers Ploughman, cf. Gray, Forms of Hebrew 
 Poetry (1915), pp. 128 ff. 
 
 p. 158. The extreme variation in the number of unstressed syllables 
 which may accompany a stressed syllable in Hebrew poetry, accord- 
 ing to our theory, is well illustrated by the passage from Piers 
 Ploughman quoted by Gray, Forms of Hebrew Poetry, p. 130 :— 
 
 ' On Good Friday I fynde | a felon was y-saved, 
 That had lyved al his life | with lesynges and with thefte ; 
 And for he beknede to the cros, | and to Christ shrof him. 
 He was sonner y-saved | than seint Johan the Baptist; 
 And or Adam Or Ysaye | or any of the prophetes, 
 That hadde y-leyen with Lucifer | many longe yeres, 
 A robbere was y-raunsoned | rather than thei alle, 
 Withouten any penaunce of purgatorie | to perpetual bUsse.' 
 
 Here we find not merely ^^^1.^ ('atld for he beknede,' 'that 
 hadde y-ldyen '), but even ii ^ >=: ^ ^ j1 i£ ( ' withouten any ■ penaunce '). 
 The resemblance is rather striking between the line 
 
 'Withouten any pdnaunce of piifgatorie | to perpetual blfsse' 
 
 and vy° of the Song of Deborah, 
 
 hammitknaddabkim bddni \ barrakhu Yahwdh. 
 
 p. 210. Ch.'j^-^. Mez, ZATW.yx\^. (1901), pp. 198-200, notes the 
 fact that Ar. karda, which is formally identical with Heb. kard 'bend 
 down ' (used in our passage in the description of one form of drink- 
 ing), has the meaning 'drink with the muzzle in the water,' i.e.hy 
 sucking the water in, as is done by ruminants, and animals such as 
 the horse and ass, in contrast to Ar. walaga 'lap with the tongue' 
 (equivalent in meaning to Heb. ldkak\ the method of drinking prac- 
 tised by the dog, as well as by the wolf and other beasts of prey. 
 His conclusion is that 'those that bent down CiyiO) upon their knees 
 to drink water' put their mouths into the water like cattle ; whereas 
 the lappers (D^ppisDH) were those who flung the water into their 
 mouths with their hands— this being (in his opinion) the nearest 
 approach to lapping, the actual practice of which is impossible for 
 a human being. These latter, he thinks, were chosen on accblint of 
 this dog-like or wolf-like characteristic as betokening their fitness for- 
 the enterprise ; and he seeks to fortify this inference by quotation of 
 two Ar. proverbs which compare a razzia with the licking of a wolf 
 i.e. in respect of its lightning-rapidity, as appears from another 
 
ADDENDA xv 
 
 proverb, 'more swiftly than a dog licks its nose.' Mez's arguments 
 are reproduced, with additional remarks, by M°Pherson, y^05. xxii. 
 (1901), pp. 70-75; and the two articles are cited as authoritative in 
 Gesenius-Buhl, Handworterbuch^^ (1915) j.t/. J)"13. BDB., s.v. V13, 
 compares the Ar. verb, and offers (with a query) the suggestion that 
 it may bear a derivative sense, the ground-meaning being ' kneel to 
 drink.' 
 
 Objection may be made to the identification of Heb. kard in our 
 passage with Ar. kard a on several grounds. 
 
 1. The phrase niriB'^ V3ia ijJJ VTO-' Itys 'who bendeth down upon 
 his knees to drink ' is very different from the Ar. usage of kard a, in 
 
 which the verb is always followed by the prep. J ' in ' — ' drink with 
 
 the muzzle in the water, or, z« a vessel' (cf. the Dictionaries of 
 Freytag, Lane, Kazimirski). M^Pherson, who perceives this difficulty, 
 thinks that V313 ?y may be a later scribal expansion, VS' "HJ'i< 
 D'D niflB'P meaning 'who drinks putting his mouth to the water.' 
 Such an English rendering would seem to require an original 
 y"13 HFIB'' IB'N "the Heb. sentence as given by M^Pherson meaning 
 
 rather ' who puts his mouth in the water as regards drinking.' But, 
 if J>"I3 really has the meaning of the Ar. verb, T\\TW7 is obviously 
 redundant ; whereas, on the other hand, the omission of D'OD, which 
 
 is demanded on the analogy of the Ar. 'UJl ^, appears to be fatal 
 to the theory. It cannot be doubted that the expression V3"13 ^P Va'' 
 is original, and has the meaning which it possesses elsewhere 
 (I Kgs. 8" 2 Kgs. 1^3, Ezr. 9S). 
 
 2. The philological analogue of Heb. kard appears to be the Ar. 
 raka'a (as rightly recognized by Ges., Thes., Ges.-Buhl, though not 
 by BDB.), with transposition of radicals (cf , probably, the converse 
 transposition in Ar. kard a, which is surely to be compared with 
 Heb. rdkd, and not with kard as in. BDB.). If, however, kard a 
 bears a derived sense ' kneel to drink,' we are faced by the pheno- 
 menon that the root with more primitive meaning has undergone 
 transposition, whereas the presumably later derived form has not. 
 Again, if the point of connexion between Heb. kard and Ar. kard a 
 is that the latter properly means 'kneel to drink' (BDB.), such a 
 posture is true of the camel only, but not of the ox, sheep, goat, 
 horse, ass, or of the wild ruminants. We must suppose, therefore, 
 that karda got its specialized sense through observation of the 
 camel only ; but of this there seems to be no trace' in Ar. Such a 
 sense as 'bow the head or neck' (true for the other animals 
 mentioned) would be expressed by another verb. 
 
 3. Mez's theory, in postulating that Heb. kard denotes the putting 
 the mouth into the water, is obliged to assume that the lappers, in 
 contrast, put their hands to their mouths (retaining, therefore, 
 
xvi THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 DiTiQ ?N DTia in the position which it occupies in !§)• But 
 amount of special pleading can make it appear that the scooping 
 water into the mouth with the hand has any resemblance to lappi 
 ' as the dog lappeth.' 
 
 If these arguments are sound, the resemblance between Heb. ka 
 and Ar. karda is probably merely fortuitous ; and the comparis 
 with karda should be expunged from Heb. Lexicons, or at any ri 
 marked as highly precarious. 
 
 p. 214. Note on ch. 7''. In explaining Heb. sibhr6, 'its elucic 
 
 tion,' by comparison of Bab. sabrA, Sabrdiu, it is of course not : 
 
 tended to affirm that s^bher is actually the formal equivalent 
 
 sabrA, i.e. a Shaph'el from a so-called triliteral form (^^3), since su 
 
 a form would naturally exhibit a TV'? nominal termination. What 
 
 affirmed is that there are in Heb. originally-biliteral forms whi 
 
 have been triliteralized by prefixed ^ in the sense 'make,' which 
 
 the preformative employed in this sense in the Shaph'el. This h 
 
 already been pointed out by Ball in his article Semitic and Sumeric 
 
 '\n.'Cas> Hilprecht Anniversary Volume, pp. 54 f. "sl-^ '■to make ^ 
 
 action of seeing' is precisely on the analogy of 3D"t^ ' to make tl 
 
 action oi reclining,' from root KAB = S3 in 5)23 'to bend, bow dowi 
 
 (c£ also 33J, fl&J) ; isp-B* 'to weigh,' properly 'to make light' (cf. hhl 
 
 i.e. 'to heave, lift.' We may add the ordinary Heb. in^CJ' (ni 
 
 included in Ball's list) ' to make the action of breaking' {ci. Ar. bat 
 
 ' to fashion by cutting,' Heb. TIS, Bab. pardru ' to break or shatter' 
 
 The distinction between -\'Z^, properly ' make + see' or 'make- 
 
 bright' (cf. Tin 'to make bright,' Bab. bardru 'to be bright' 
 
 na-tJ' 'to make bright,' or, internally, 'to show brightness'),* and th 
 
 ordinary Heb. 13tj', properly ' make + break,' is the same as exisi 
 
 between Bab. ka-pdru 'to be bright or brighten,' Pi'el kuppun 
 
 Heb. -123 properly 'to make bright, purge,' so 'to atone' (c£ th 
 
 evidence adduced by the present writer in ET. xxii. pp. 325 ff.) ani 
 Bab. ka-pdru 'to cut.' The identity in form combined with diversit 
 in meaning is explained by the fact that there is a Sumerian BAB 
 PAK with the idea of 'brightness' (standing in syllabaries for ban 
 'to see,' bardru 'to shme,' namdru 'to be bright,' nAru 'light' etc ' 
 and another Sumerian BAR, PAR which is distinct (at least as knowi 
 tons) m meanmg, and carries the idea of 'breaking, splitting ' etc 
 (standmg m syllabaries as the equivalent of pardru 'to break 
 
 kapAru 'to caX,' paldku 'to divide' jhatdr^j 't-r, ~v ^ . 
 
 J- -J ^ J. X! w J -J , "'viuc, na^asu to cogitate — animati 
 dtvidere, pardsu to ae.c\&&,' ^tc.). 
 
 * For the o-onnexion between seeing and brightness, cf. Heb. "IIX • ,0 be bright 
 
 :^rX^'^z.'t When™ t/:™f ; r '^"^^^" «^^- ^" ^^' 
 
 eyes are said to W...U: cr/saTH^- ^s -^aTf^".,^''" '^■"'""=' ""' 
 
ADDENDA xvii 
 
 p. 221. Discussion of i Kgs. 4 'l The writer, having independently 
 suggested that the words ' which is in proximity to Sarethan ' have 
 been accidentally transposed and should properly refer to 'Abel- 
 meholah,' now notices that the same conjecture has been put forward 
 with a query by Prof. Moore mJBL. xiii. (1894), 5. 79, «». 
 
 pp. 253 ff. Since the printing of Addit. note on ' The use of writing, 
 etc.' there has appeared a valuable article by J. H. Breasted entitled 
 The Physical Processes of Writing in the Early Orient and their 
 Relation to the Origin of the Alphabet, in AJSL. xxxii. (July 1916), 
 pp. 230-249. Breasted deals, on pp. 241 ff., with Assyrian Reliefs 
 depicting scribes writing cuneiform on a clay tablet (cf our Addit. 
 note, p. 255), and he regards the second scribe, who is occasionally 
 present, using pen, ink, and scroll, as an Aramaean (cf. our Addit. 
 note, p. ^efi, footnote ; Description of the Plates, p. 495). 
 
 p. 255. Footnote*. The form of the stylus used for writing cunei- 
 form, and the method of using it, have been discussed by P. Zehnpfund, 
 Ueber babylonisch-assyrische Tafelschreibung, in Actes du 8« Congris 
 International des Orientalistes ienu en 1889 a Stockholm et d. Chris- 
 iiania (1893), pp. 265-272 ; J. de Morgan, Note sur Procedks techniques ' 
 en Usage chez les Scribes babyloniens in Recueil de Travaux, xxvii. 
 (1905)) PP- 240 f ; A. T. Clay, Documents from the Temple Archives 
 of Nippur (1906), pp. 17-20; L. Messerschmidt, Zur Technik des 
 Tontafelschreibens in OLZ. (1906), cols. 185-196, 304-312, 372-380. 
 The fact that the wedges were made by impression merely, without 
 drawing, which is emphasized by the present writer, is confirmed by 
 Clay : ' To produce long horizontal wedges for the purpose of filling 
 out lines, as was frequently done, it is not necessary to draw the stylus 
 over the soft clay. By simply lowering the handle it is possible to 
 make a wedge as long as the stylus ' (p. 20). 
 
 p. 332. Addendum, to Additional Note on the Women's Festival of 
 Judg. 11*". The conclusion that the myth of Demeter and Kore is 
 to be connected, in its origin, with the myth of IStar and Tammuz 
 may be substantiated by the following facts : — 
 
 (l) The brilliant discovery of Ball {PSBA. xvi., 1894, pp. 195 ff.) 
 that the Sumerian name of Tammuz, DUMU.ZI* (Bab. Du'iizu, 
 DHzuX) is identical with the Turkish ddmuz 'pig,' and that there is , 
 thus an ' original identity of the god with the wild boar that slays him 
 in the developed legend,' is confirmed, quite independently and along 
 
 * Usually explained to mean ' Son of life,' or as an abbreviation of DUMU.- 
 ZI.ABZU, 'True son of the deep water.' It is possible that one or the other of 
 these meanings may have been read into the name after its original signification 
 had been forgotten. 
 
 X On the evolution of the name-forms in Sumerian and Semitic, cf. Zimmern, 
 Der Bab. Gott TamUz, pp. 703 f. 
 
xviii THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 totally different lines, by Robertson Smith's scarcely less bnlliai 
 conjecture that the pig was originally regarded as the theriomorph: 
 representative of the deity. ' My own belief,' says this latter write 
 ' is that the piacular sacrifice of swine at Cyprus on April 2 repri 
 sents the death of the god himself, not an act of vengeance for h 
 death. . . . Adonis, in short, is the Swine-god, and in this, as i 
 many other cases, the sacred victim has been changed by false inte 
 pretation into the enemy of the god' {Religion of the Semites^ p, 39: 
 n^; id J p. 411, n*). Among the Greeks ' the pig is the victim spec 
 ally consecrated to the powers of the lower world ' (Farnell, Tke Cul 
 of the Greek States, iii. p. 32). The ceremonial of the Thesmophori; 
 celebrated by women in the cult oi Demeter and Persephone, 
 especially noteworthy in this connexion. Lucian's scholiast statf 
 that ' At the Thesmophoria it is the fashion to throw living pigs inl 
 the underground sanctuaries . . . and certain women called avrKrjTpL 
 descend and bring up the decaying remnants and place them on tl: 
 altars : and people believe that the man who takes (part of them) an 
 mixfes them up with his grain for sowing will have an abundant harves 
 And they say that there are serpents down below about the vault 
 which eat the greater part of the food thrown down ' (quoted froi 
 Farnell, op. at. p. 89 ; cf also Miss Harrison, Prolegomena to ti 
 Study of Greek Religion^ ch. iv.). Here it is questioned whether tl 
 swine were regarded merely as gifts to the earth-goddess, or as inca 
 nations of the divinities themselves. The former view is taken b 
 Frazer {Spirits of the Corn, ii. pp. 16 ff.) ; while Farnell regards tl 
 evidence as insufficient to establish it, and supposes that 'as thes 
 goddesses rhay be supposed to have partaken of the swine's flesh th: 
 was thrown down to them, the remnant would be regarded as ch'arge 
 with part of their divinity, and would be valuable objects to she 
 '(? strew) over the fields. But no Greek legend or ritual reveals ar 
 sense of the identity between Demeter and the pig' {op. cit. pp. 90 f. 
 We may remark, however, that, at any rate from the Semitic sid 
 the method of sacrifice— the throwing down of the /zV/«^ animal— 
 wholly in favour of the theriomorphic conception. The slaying of tl 
 victim by a method which avoided bloodshed, or which might I 
 interpreted as an act of self-immolation, suggests that it was a toten 
 animal too sacred to be slaughtered by any individual worshippi 
 (cf. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites,^ pp. 418 ff.).* Tl 
 term i^yapov, or /idyapov, which is used to describe the undergrour 
 caves (™ ^eyapa) into which the pigs were thrown, and also tl 
 adytum of the temple at Delphi where the oracular responses we: 
 
 • The reference in Isa. 65 4, 661? to the eating of swine's flesh by the renega. 
 Palestinian Jews or Samaritans, probably in early post-exilio times, reprobat 
 the practice not simply because the animal was regarded as unclean upon arl 
 trary or sanitary grounds, but as a definite act of idolatry; and there can be l.tl 
 doubt that the allusion is to the ceremonial partaking of the flesh of the totei 
 animal in Tammuz-ritual. Cf. Cheyne, Profhecies of Isaiah, ad loc 
 
ADDENDA xii 
 
 feCeived, seenis to be distinct from the Homeric term fiiyapov, which 
 denotes a large chamber, hall, or palace, and has been supposed with 
 considerable probability to be the Phoen. and Heb. m''drd, Ar. 
 mugdra, 'cave,' with y for rough V in transliteration, as in rafa=ntj;, 
 etc.* ; and, if this is so, the Semitic connexions of the rites of which 
 we are speaking receive further substantiation. 
 
 (2) One of the titles most frequently applied to Tammuz in 
 Sumerian dirges is AMA.USUMGAL.ANNA. This means lit. 
 ' Moth,er, great serpent, heaven,' i.e. ' the divine Mother who is the 
 great serpent.' J Tammuz is also occasionally equated with the 
 goddess KA.DI. Now KA.DI (as has been noted by Jensen, AT^S. 
 vi. I, p. 565) is stated in iv.^ R. 30, No. 2, Obv. 18 and Rev. 6 to be a 
 deity of the Underworld ; according to v. R. 31, 30 she is identical 
 with the divine Serpent {ilu siru) ; from a text published by Scheil 
 {Textes Elam.-Semit., 1" s^rie, p. 91, 1. 23) we gather that the Serpent 
 is the 'child' (miru), or, it maybe, the 'messenger' [siprti) of KA.DI; 
 while, according to v. R. 46, 29, the constellation of the Serpent repre- 
 sents the goddess Ereskigal, the counterpart of the Greek Persephone 
 as mistress of the Underworld. For the Greeks also, however, the 
 serpent is the incarnation of the earth-goddess Ge, the prototype of 
 Demeter (cf. Farnell, op. cit. pp. 9 f.) ; and, as is clear from the 
 passage relating to the Thesmophoria which we have already quoted, 
 'this animal that was once the incarnation of the earth-spirit remains 
 the familiar representative of the chthonian goddesses of the Olympian 
 period' (Farnell, op. cit. p. 91). Further comment is needless. 
 
 p. 340. Note on Sor ah. The city Sa-ar-ha, mentioned in the T.A. 
 Letters, together with A-ia-lu-na, i.e. Aijalon (Kn. 273), can hardly be 
 other than the Biblical Sor ah. It may be questioned, in view of the 
 concurrence of the vocalization of Sa-ar-ha with the modern Sar'ah, 
 whether the Biblical form ought not likewise to be vocalized not 
 nViS but nynv Sarah. Cf. (5c lapaa. 
 
 p. 351. Note on ch. 14 ^ To the parallels adduced for the method 
 employed by Samson in rending the lion, add the duplicated figure 
 rending a lion on the seal-cylinder impression figured in Revue 
 dAssyriologie, xxx. (1916), Plate I, fig. 6. 
 
 p. 359. Since the footnote dealing with the (3ouyovia-myth was 
 written, there has appeared an article on the subject by A. E. Shipley 
 '\a Journal of Philology, xxxiv. (1915), pp. 97-ioS- 
 
 p. 408. J. Hal^vy, Rij. xxi. (1890), pp. 207-217, treats the narrative 
 
 * Cf. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites? p. 200 ; Lagarde, Symmicta, 
 ii. p. 91 ; Muss-Arnolt, Semitic Words in Greek and Latin, in Trans, of the 
 American Philol. Assoc, xxiii. (1892), p. 73; Boisacq, Diet. Atym. de la Langue 
 Grecque, p. 617. 
 
 J Cf. Zimmern, Der Bab. Goit Tamuz, p. 7, re^ ; Langdon, Tammuz and 
 
 Ishtar, pp. 114 ff. 
 
tt tllE Sooit OP jU&GSg 
 
 of Judg. 17, 18 as a single document, and regards it as probably tl 
 work of a Judaean patriot and convinced partisan of the Temple ; 
 Jerusalem, who aimed at defaming the rival Israelite sanctuaries i 
 Bethel (Micah's temple) and Dan by imputing to them a discreditabl 
 origin-^both of them owed their origin to a theft ; whereas the sit 
 of the Temple at Jerusalem was honestly purchased by David at 
 high price (2 Sam. 24 ^). Hal^vys arguments are ingenious but n( 
 convincing. 
 
 J. A. Bewer {The Composition of Judges, Chaps. 17, 18, in AJSl 
 xxix. (1913-14), pp. 261-283) attacks the critical theories of cOmpili 
 tion or of interpolation in this narrative, maintaining that ' the stoi 
 is a unity throughout with very few redactional touches (17", i8'*''i 
 and possibly 18 ^^''^■*'). His arguments do not lead the present editc 
 to modify his conclusions, a$ expressed in pp. 442 ff., in any respect. 
 
 The credit must, however, be given to Bewer of recognizing th 
 Levite's name in DB' "IJ Kini of 17', which he emends ti&')i']'i KV 
 'and he was a son of Gershom'— thus anticipating the suggestio 
 made independently by the present writer in his note ad loc. Bew< 
 also favours the emendation piKTI for l'■l^'f^, which has been adopte 
 in 1 8 39. 
 
 p. 430. Footnote X on Nephtoah = Lift4. Another instance of th 
 change of « to /in a modem Ar. name as compared with its anciei 
 equivalent is seen in Shunem = S61em. On the loss of the final 
 after a long vowel cf. Kampffmeyer, ZDP V. xv. p. 26, who cites ti 
 similar disappearance of the V in nbflB'K (Josh. 13™) by the side ( 
 the normal ybriE'N. 
 
 p. 442. Chs. 19^-21'^ To the authorities named add J. A. Bewe 
 The Composition of Judges, Chap. 19, in AJSL. xxx. (19.14-15), pp. 8: 
 93 ; The Composition of Judges 20, 21, id. pp. 149-1,65. The narrativ 
 is regarded as ' derived from one old, in the main reliable, souro 
 which was worked over by a late theocratic editor. It is not impn 
 bable that a still later annotator, imbued with the same spirit as tl 
 editor, inserted a few characteristic interpolations.' 
 
 p. 462. Ch. 19° note on 'the day hath waned, etc' The connexic 
 of Heb. riDI with Bab. rabii or rapii ' to sink ' (of the sun settinj 
 has been affirmed (since the printing of our note) by Haupt in AJSl 
 xxxiii. (Oct. 1916), p. 48. Haupt also connects r^pha'tm with rap 
 as meaning 'those who have "sunk" into their unseen abode' (j 
 is done by the present writer in note on 'Teraphim,' p. 421, after tl 
 suggestion of Ball), though he denies connexion between' i-'phSi, 
 and T'raphlm. Since Haupt makes no reference to Ball's remari 
 in Proc. Brit. Acad vii. p. 16 (a paper read before the Briti« 
 Academy on June 3, 1915, and published shortly afterwards), we mu 
 assume that the two scholars have independently reached simil: 
 conclusions. 
 
ADDENDA xxi 
 
 p. 486. Ch. 20''°. Note on ' the crag of Rimmon.' The ordinary 
 identification with Ramm&n, three and a half miles east of Bethel, is 
 opposed by W. F. Birch {PEF. Qy. St., 1879, PP- 127-129), who makes 
 a strong point of the use ais^la' 'crag' or 'cliff' as denoting 'a rock' 
 more or less perpendicular' (cf. 2 Chr. 25 ^\ Jer. 51 ^^, Ps. 141 *). He 
 states that there is no such cliff at Rammon, which Stanley {Sinai 
 and Pukstine, p." 214) describes as 'a white chalky height,' and Rob. 
 (BR.^\. p. 440) as 'a conical chalky hill'; and maintains that this 
 want is a fatal defect in the identification of this site with ' the crag 
 of R.immon.' All that is left, therefore, in favour of the identification 
 is the identity of name : but modern place-names indicating the 
 presence of a pomegranate trt&{Rummdneh) or group of such trees 
 {Rummdri), happen to be extremely common in Palestine (the pre- 
 sent writer has counted eighteen such in S WP. Great Map) ; thus 
 by itself identity of name argfues nothing. 
 
 The claims of Rammon to be the site mentioned in our narrative 
 were investigated by Finn {Byeways in Palestine, 1868, pp. 2058".), 
 who visited the spot in order to inquire for a cavern which might be 
 capable of containing six hundred men for four months. He saw 
 four (not large) caverns, and was told of two others ; and his con- 
 clusion was that 'all the refugees might sleep in these places if 
 there was no village at the time, which seems probable.' On Finn's 
 return from Ramm6n, the guide told him of a vast cavern in the 
 Widy Suw^nit capable of holding many hundred men, near which 
 there is a watercourse half-way down the precipice (cf p. 208). This 
 cave, which is known as Mugiret del-a'y, has been carefully investi- 
 gated and described by H. B. Rawnsley {PEF. Qy. St., 1879, pp. 
 118-126). It occupies a precipitous position on the south-west side 
 of the W4dy Suwenit, and is near a spring which affords an adequate 
 supply of water. There is a current tradition in Geba' that the cave 
 will hold six hundred men, and the main entrance-cave is said to 
 afford shelter for sixteen flocks of one hundred sheep each. Rawnsley 
 thought that six hundred men might hide there in case of emergency ; 
 while three hundred could find ample lodging. 
 
 This, is the site which Birch (in the article above mentioned) 
 advocates as the real ' crag of Rimmon.' If he is correct, we have 
 an explanation of the question raised by ch. 20 ''2, why the pursuit 
 of the Benjaminites ceased when they had reached a point to the 
 east of Geba', viz. the fact that at this point they would disappear 
 over the side of the W4dy Suwenit, and reach their refiige. It cer- 
 tainly seems improbable that, when the fugitives could reach such a 
 stronghold as this at a comparatively short distance (four or five 
 miles) from Gibe'ah, and were at any rate in its immediate neigh- 
 bourhood when they came ' east of Geba',' they should have travelled 
 double the distance in order to reach Ramm6n, which can in no way 
 be compared as a defensive position. 
 
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED 
 
 I. Texts and Versions 
 
 ?^ . . The Hebrew consonantal text, as represented by all 
 MSS. and printed editions. 
 
 iWl . . The same as supplied with vowels and accents by 
 the Massoretes. Ordinarily, ?§ represents the 
 Massoretic text, unless the reading in question 
 depends upon vowels or accents, when ffl, is 
 employed. 
 Variation in reading between ^ and ifR is represented 
 in the usual way, viz. by 
 
 Kt. . . K'thtbk, the 'written,' i.e. consonantal, text. 
 
 JC'ri . . The ' read ' text, i.e. the emendation of the Massoretes. 
 
 <& . . The Greek (Septuagint) version (ed. Swete, 1887). 
 Different MSS. are represented by (!&* (Alejt- 
 andrinus, edd. Brooke and McLean, 1897); ffi" 
 (Vaticanus), etc. ffi'' = the recension of Lucian as 
 edited by Lagarde (cf. p. cxxvi.). 
 
 'A. . . The Greek version of Aquila ; ' 
 
 S. . . „ „ Symmachus ; 
 
 0. . . „ „ Theodotion ; 
 
 cited from Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae 
 supersunt (1875). 
 
 H . . The Old Latin (pre-Hieronymian) version, fragments of 
 which have been collected and edited by Sabatier 
 {Bibliorum . . . Latinae Versiones, vol. i. 1751), 
 and Vercellone ( Variae Lectiones Vulg. Lat. Bibl, 
 vol. ii. 1864). 3L'- = Codex Lugdunensis (ed. Ul. 
 Robert, 1881-1900), as cited by Kit. BH. 
 
 Si^ . . The Syi-o-hexaplar version (ed. Lagarde, Bibliothecm 
 Syriacae, 1892). I 
 
 S'' . . The Syriac (Peshitta) version. 
 
 a: . . The Targum of Jonathan on the Prophets (ed. Lagarde, 
 Prophetae Chaldaice, 1872; Praetorius, Das Targum,' 
 sum Buck der Richter, 1900). This Targum is 
 sometimes cited as W. %° = the Targum of Onkelos' 
 on the Pentateuch. 
 
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED xxiii 
 
 "E . . The Latin version of Jerome (Vulgate). 
 
 Ar. . . The Arabic version (based on S""). 
 
 Copt . . The Coptic version. 
 
 A.V. . . The Authorized version. 
 
 R.V. . . The Revised version. 
 
 O.T. . . Old Testament. 
 
 2. Sources. 
 
 D . . The Deuteronomist. 
 
 D^ . .A later hand influenced by the former. 
 
 E . . The Elohistic narrative in the Hexateuch, Judg., and 
 I Sam. 
 
 E^ . . Later work by a member (or members) of the Elohistic 
 school. 
 
 H . . The Law of Holiness in Leviticus. 
 
 J . . The Jehovistic {or Yahwistic) narrative in the Hexa- 
 teuch, Judg. and i Sam. 
 
 JE . . The combined narrative of J and E — a symbol used 
 when it is not possible, or not necessary, to dis- 
 tinguish the sources. 
 
 R" . . The Deuteronomic redactors of Kgs. and of JE in 
 Josh. 
 
 R^2 . . Redactor of the school of E^, the principal editor of 
 Judg. (cf pp. xli ff.). 
 
 RJ^ . . Redactor of J and E in the Hexateuch, Judg., and 
 I Sam. 
 
 R"" . . Redactors of the Priestly school (influenced by the 
 Hexateuchal document P) of Judg. and Kgs. 
 
 P . . The Priestly document in the Hexateuch. 
 
 X . .An unknown source in Judg. 20, 21 (cf. p. 457 £). 
 
 3. Authorities. 
 
 [See also the literature cited at the head of the various sections of the Com- 
 mentary. The works there mentioned are cited, within the section to which 
 they refer, by the authors' names only.] 
 
 AJSL.—The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Litera- 
 tures (vols i.-xL, entitled Hebraica, 1884-95). 
 
 AJTh.— American Journal of Theology (1897 ff.). 
 
 Bach. — J. Bachmann, Das Buck der Richter (18 
 Vol. i. on chs. 1-5 is all that ever appeared. 
 
 Baethgen, Beitrdge.—7. Baethgen, Beitrdge zur Semitischen Reli- 
 gionsgeschichte (1888). 
 
 BDB.— F. Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and 
 English Lexicon of the Old Testament (i 891-1906). 
 
 Ber.— E. Bertheau, Das Buck der Richter und Ruth (2nd ed., 
 1883) : Kurzgef. Exeget. Handbuch zum A.T. 
 
xxiv THE BOOK OF JUDGES . 
 
 Black— J. S. BLACK, The Book of Judges (1892)/ The Small 
 
 Cambridge Bible for Schools. Containing- suggestions by ^V 
 
 Robertson Smith (RSm). 
 Bochart, Hierozoicon.—S. BOCHARTUS, Hierozoicon; sive Bipertitu 
 
 Opus de Animalibus Sacrae Scripturae, cum notis E. F. C. Rosei 
 
 miiller (1793-6). 
 Bohl, KH.—Y. BOHL, Kanaander und Hehrder: Untersuchungi 
 
 zur Vorgeschichte des Volkstums und der Religion Israels ai 
 
 dem Boden Kanaans (191 1 ). 
 Br.— R. E. Brunnow, a Classified List of all Simple and Compom 
 
 Cuneiform Ideograms (1887-9). 
 Breasted, AR.—^. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (5 vols 
 
 1906-7). 
 Hist. Eg.— A History of Egypt (1906). 
 
 Bu., \Comm?[. — K. BuDDE, Das Buch der Richter (1897).- Kurzi 
 Hand-Commentar zum A.T. herausg. von K. Marti. 
 
 RS. — Die Biicher Richter und Samuel, ihre Quell^n und ih 
 
 Aufbau {l%C)o). 
 
 Buhl, Geogr. — F. BuHL, Geogrdphie des Alien Paldsiina (1896). 
 
 Burch. — M. Burchardt, Die Altkanaandischen Fremdworte un 
 Eigennamen in Aegyptischen (1909-10). 
 
 Ca7nb. Bib. — The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. 
 
 CH. — J. EsTLiN Carpenter and G. Harford-Battersby, Th 
 Hexateuch according to the Revised Version ... with Introdm 
 tion, Notes, etc. (1900). 
 
 CH.-f, CH."^, etc., refer to the lists of Words and Phrase 
 characteristic of J, E, etc., as contained in vol. i. pp. 185 ff. I 
 such references the number following is the number in the list 
 
 CIS. — Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum (1881 ff.). 
 
 Le Clerc — J. Clericus, Veteris Tesiamenti Libri Historici {lyo^i). 
 
 Cooke — G. A. CoOKE, The Book of Judges {i')i2,): Cambridge Bibl 
 Often cited as Cooke, Comm. in the notes on chs. 4 and 5, whe: 
 supplementary to, or divergent from, the monograph noticed 
 p. 78. 
 
 ^ NSI. — A Texirbook of North-Semitic Inscriptions (1903). 
 
 Cor. — C. CORNILL, Introduction to the Canonical Books of the 01 
 Testament, trans, by G. H. Box (1907). 
 
 COT. — E. ScHRADER, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and. the 01 
 Testament, 2nd ed,, trans, by O. C. Whitehouse (1885-88). 
 
 CT. — Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the Britis 
 Museum'(i8g6 ff.). 
 
 Davidson, Syntax. — A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax (1894). 
 
 DB. — A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. bv I. Hastinp-s l^s^c^9.■,r^^\ 
 
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED xxv 
 
 .Delitzsch, Paradies.—Y-R.lED. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Parodies? 
 
 Eine Biblisch-Assyriologische Studie (1881). 
 Prolegomena. — Prolegomena eines Neuen Hebr.-Aram. Worter- 
 
 buchs zum AT. {\%Zb\ 
 
 HWB. — Assyrisches Handworterbuch (1896). 
 
 Doom.— A. VAN DoORNiNCK, Bijdrage tot de Tekstkritiek van 
 
 Richteren, i.-xvi. (1879). 
 Dozy — R. Dozy, Supplement aux Dictionnaires Arabes ly\Z%\). 
 Driver, Tenses.^ — S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Hebrew 
 
 Tettses (3rd ed., 1892). 
 LOT.^ — An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament 
 
 (9tli ed., 1914). 
 NHTS.^ — Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the 
 
 Books of Samuel {7.Tidi e.^., iqi'^). 
 Schweich Lectures.- — Modern Research as illustrating the Bible 
 
 (Schweich Lectures, 1908). 
 EB. — Encyclopaedia Biblica, ed. by T. K. Cheyne and J. Sutherland 
 
 Black (1899-1903). 
 Ehr.— A. B. Ehrlich, Randglossen zur Hebrdischen Bibel (vol. 3, 
 
 1910). 
 ET.— Expository Times (1889 ff.). 
 Ew., HI. — H. EWALD, The History of Israel (Eng. trans, of vols. 
 
 L-v., 1869-74)- 
 
 DAB.— Die Dichter des Alien Bundes (2nd ed., 1854-67). 
 
 Field, Hex. — F. Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt (1875). 
 Frankenberg— W. Frankenberg, Die Composition des Deuieronom. 
 
 Richterbuches {Richter ii. 6 — xvi.) nebst einer Kritik von Richter 
 
 xvii.-xxi. (1895). 
 Garstang, Hittites. — J. Garstang, 'The Land of the Hittites (19 10). 
 Ges., Thes. — ^W. Gesenius, Thesaurus Philologicus Criticus Ling. 
 
 Hebr. et Chald. Veteris Testamenti (1826-58). 
 G.-K. — Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar as edited and enlarged by the late 
 
 E. Kautzsch, 2nd English ed. revised in accordance with the 
 
 28th German ed. (1909) by A. E. Cowley (1910). 
 Gra. — H. Gratz, Emendationes in Plerosque Sacrae Scripturae 
 
 Veteris Testamenti Libros, ed. G. Bacher : (fasc. tert 1894). 
 Gress. — H. Gressmann, Die Anfdnge Israels (1912-14), Part I. 2 of 
 
 Die Schriften des Alien Testaments, edited by various scholars. 
 HaIl,iV^.E'.— H. R. Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East {icjli). 
 Holzinger— H. HOLZINGER, Richter 2 "-16'! untersucht, as quoted 
 
 from the manuscript by Budde in his Commentary. 
 Hommel, AHT.—F. HOMMEL, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition as 
 
 illustrated by the Monuments, trans, by E. M'^Clure and L. 
 
 Crossle (1897). 
 
'"'^' THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 ^OTxaat\,'Grunclriss.— Grundriss der Geographic und Geschichte des 
 
 Alien Orients (1904). 
 , Houb. — C. F. HouBiGANTlus, Notae Criticae in Universes Veteris 
 
 Testamenti Libros {ijj'j). 
 HP. — R. Holmes and J. Parsons, Vetus Testamentum Graecum 
 
 cum Variis Lectionibus (1798-1827). 
 ICC. — The International Critical Commentary. 
 JAOS.^ournal of the American Oriental Society (1851 ff.). 
 Jastrow, RBA. — M. Jastrow, jr., Die Religion Babyloniens und 
 
 Assyrians (1905-12). 
 RBBA. — Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia 
 
 and Assyria (191 1). 
 JBL.— Journal of Biblical Literature and Exegesis {iZcpS.). . 
 
 Jensen, Kosmologie. — P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier 
 
 (1890). 
 Jos. — Flavius JOSEPHUS {Opera td. Niese, 1888-94). 
 
 Ant. — Antiguitates Judaicae. ,i. 
 
 BJ. — De Bello Judaico. 
 
 C.Ap. — Contra Apionem. ' 
 
 JQR.^Jewish Quarterly Review (1888 ff.). 
 
 JTS. — Journal of Theological Studies (1900 fF.). 
 
 KAT.^ — H. ZiMMERN and H. WiNCKLER, Die Keilinschriften und 
 
 dc^ Alte Testament {iqo'i). 
 
 Published as the 3rd ed. of E. Schrader's work which bears 
 
 the same title (see under COT), though really an entirely new 
 
 work in plan and contents. 
 KB. — Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek : Sammlung von Assyrischen und 
 
 Babylonischen Texten in Umschrift und Ubersetzung, ed. E. 
 
 Schrader in collaboration with various scholars (vols, i.-vi. 2 (i), 
 
 1889-1915). 
 Ke. — C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the 
 
 Old Testament — vol. iv., Joshua, Judges, Ruth, ed. by Keil, trans. 
 
 by J. Martin (1865). 
 Kennicott — B. Kennicott, Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum cum 
 
 Variis Lectionibus, 2 \o\s. {1TJ6-Z0). 
 Kent — C. F. Kent, Narratives of the Beginnings of Hebrew History 
 
 (1904). 
 
 Kimchi— Rabbi David Kimchi (a.d. i 160-1235), Commentary on 
 Judges as printed in Buxtorf's Rabbinic Bible. 
 
 King, Hammurabi.— I.. W. King, Letters and Inscriptions of Ham- 
 murabi {\%(^Z-\<)oo). 
 
 Chron. — Chronicles concerning Early Babylonian Kings {i<y:>i) 
 
 Sum. and Akk.—A History of Sumer and Akkad {i()io). 
 
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED xxvii 
 
 Kit. — R. KiTTEL, Das Buck Richter {Die Heilige Schrift des A. T., 
 
 ed. E. Kautzsch, 3rd ed. 1909, pp. 340-377). 
 
 Bff. — Biblia Hebraica {Liber Judicum, 1905). 
 
 HH. — A History of the Hebrews, trans, by J. Taylor (1895-6). 
 
 GVI? — Geschichte des Volkes Israel {znd ed., 1909-12). 
 
 Kn[udtzon] — Die el-Amarna-Tafeln, init Einleitung und Erldute- 
 
 ra«^«», herausgegeben von J. A. Knudtzon : Anmerkungeri und 
 
 Register, bearbeitet von O. Weber und E. Ebeling (1907-15). 
 Konig, Syntax. — F. E. Konig, Historisch-comparative Syntax der 
 
 Hebrdischen Sprache : Schlusstheil des Historisch-kritischen 
 
 Lehrgebdudes des Hebrdischen (1897). 
 Kue., Ond. — A. Kuenen, Historisch-kritisch Onderzoek naar het 
 
 Ontstaan en de Verzatneling van de Boeken des Ouden Verbonds 
 
 (2nd ed., 1885-89); German Trans. (1890-92). 
 La. — M. J. Lagrange, Le Livre des Juges (1903). 
 
 ERS? — Etudes sur les Religions S^mitigues (2nd ed. 1905). 
 
 Lane — E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (1863-93). 
 
 Xevi ben-Gershon — Rabbi Levi the son of Gershon (a.d. 1288-1344), 
 
 Commentary on Judges as printed in Buxtorf s Rabbinic Bible. 
 Maspero, MeUes. — G. Maspero, Les Premieres MH6es des Peuples 
 
 (Part II. of Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de POrient Classigue), 
 
 1897. - 
 MDOG. — Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (1898 ff.). 
 
 Meyer, IN. — E. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstdmme 
 
 (1906). 
 
 GA.''' — Geschichte des Altertums (2nd ed., vol. i., 1907-9). 
 
 Mo., [Comm.^. — G. F. MoORE, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary 
 
 on Judges {International Ctitical Commentary), 2nd ed., 1903. 
 SBOT. — The Book of Judges; Critical Edition of the Hebrew 
 
 Text, i9ooy A New English Translation, 1898 {The Sacred 
 
 Books of the Old Testament). 
 Miiller, AE. — W. Max Muller, Asien und Europa nach Altdgyp- 
 
 tischen Denkmdlern (1893). 
 Muss-Arnolt, Diet. — W. Muss-Arnolt, A Concise Dictionary of the 
 
 Assyrian Language (1894- 1905). 
 MVAG. — Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft (1896 ff.). 
 NHTK. — C. F. BuRNEY, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of 
 
 Kings (1903). 
 NHTS.'^—See under Driver. 
 No. — W. NOWACK, Richter, Ruth u. Biicher Samuelis (1902) .• Hand- 
 
 kommentar zum A. T. herausg. von W. Nowack. 
 Oet. — S. Oettli, Das Deuteronomium und die Biicher Josua und 
 
 Richter {\%q'i) : Kurzgefasster Kommentar, edd. H. Strack and 
 
 O. Zockler. 
 
xxviii THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 OLZ.—OrientalisUscheLitteratur-Zeitung (1878 ff.)- 
 
 Oax\.—Textus Hebraici Emendationes quibus in Vetere Testamenm 
 
 Neerlandice vertendo usi sunt A. Kuenen, I. Hooykaas, W. H. 
 
 Rosters, H. Oort, ed. H. OORT (1900). 
 OS.—Onomastica Sacra, ed. P. de Lagarde (1887). This contains 
 
 the ' Name-lists ' of Eusebius and Jerome. 
 OTLAE.—K. JEREMIAS, The Old Testament in the Light of the 
 
 Ancient East, trans, by C. L. Beaumont, ed. by C. H. W. Johns 
 
 (1911). 
 PEF. — Palestine Exploration i^a»i/ (founded 1865). 
 
 Qy. St.— Quarterly Statement (1869 fE). 
 
 Petrie, Hist. Eg.—W. M. Flinders Petrie, A History of Egypt. 
 
 Vol. I. Dynasties i-xvi (1894) ; Vol. 2. Dynasties xvii-xviii 
 
 (1896) ; Vol. 3. Dynasties xix-xxx {\^'^). 
 
 PSBA. — Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (1878 ff.). : 
 i.-v. R. — H. C. Rawlinson, The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western 
 
 Asia, i.-v. (1861-84, iv.^ 1891). 
 Rashi — Rabbi Shelomo Yishaki (a.D. 1040-1105), Commentary 
 
 on Judges as printed in Buxtorfs Rabbinic Bible. 
 RE. — Revue Biblique (1892 if.). 
 Rikj. — Revue des Etudes Juives (1880 ff.). 
 Reuss — E. Reuss, La Bible : Traduction Nouvelle avec Introductions 
 
 et Coinmentaires (1874). . 
 Riehm, HWB.^—'K. K. RiEHM, Handworterbuch des Biblischen 
 
 Alterihums (2nd ed. 1893-4). 
 Rob., BR.^ — E. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine and the 
 
 Adjacent Regio7is : a Journal of Travels in the Years 1838 and 
 
 1852 (3rd ed., 1867). 
 Rogers, CP. — R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testa- 
 ment {igii). 
 '- HBA.^ — A History of Babylonia and Assyria (6th ed., 
 
 1915). 
 Ros.— E. F. C. ROSENMULLER, Scholia in Vetus Testamentum— 
 
 Judices et Ruth (1835). 
 de Rossi — J. B. de Rossi, Variae Lectiones Veteris Testamenti. 
 
 4 vols. (1784-8). 
 
 RSm.— W. Robertson Smith, as cited by Black, q.v. 
 
 Sayce, HCM.—A. H. Sayce, The 'Higher Criticism' and the Verdict 
 of the Monuments {ii()/^). 
 
 Archaeology.— The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions 
 
 (1907). 
 SBOT. — The Sacred Books of the Old Testament, edited by various 
 
 scholars, under the editorial direction of P. Haunt. 
 
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIOJSS EMPLOYED xxi* 
 
 Smith, HG. — G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy 
 Z,a«rf( 1 3th ed., 1906). 
 
 Smith, DB? — A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by Sir W. Smith 
 and J. M. Fuller (2nd ed. of vol. i., 1893). 
 
 Stade, GVI? — B. Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel (2nd ed., 
 1888-9). 
 
 Stu. — G. L. Studer, Das Buch der Richter grammatisch und his- 
 torisch erkldrt (2nd ed., 1842). 
 
 6' WP. — Survey of Western Palestine. 
 
 Great Map. — Map of Western Palestine in 26 Sheets, from 
 
 Survey conducted for the Palestine Exploration Fund by Lieu- 
 tenants C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener, R.E., during the 
 Years 1872-77. Scale One Inch to a Mile (1897). 
 
 Name Lists. — Arabic and English Name Lists to above (1881). 
 
 Mem. — Memoirs to above in 3 vols. (188 1 -3). 
 
 T.A. Letters. — The letters in cuneiform discovered at Tell el- 
 Amama. 
 
 TB. — Altorientalische Texte und Bilder sum- Alien Testaments, 
 ed. H. Gressmann in collaboration with A. Ungnad and H. Ranke 
 C1909). 
 
 Thomson, LB. — W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book (ed. , of 
 1861). 
 
 Vincent, Canaan. — H. Vincent, Canaan daprh VExploration 
 Recente (1907). 
 
 Wellh., Comp.^ — J. Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs 
 und der Historischen Biicher des Alien Testaments (3rd ed., 
 
 1899)- 
 
 ^ TBS.— Der Text der Biicher Samuelis (1871). 
 
 Prolegomena. — Prolegomena to the History of Israel {ix^-aa. by 
 
 J. S. Black and A Menzies, 1885). 
 Westm. Comm. — Westminster Commentaries. 
 Winckler, (?/.— H. Winckler, Geschichte Israels (1895-1900). 
 
 KT.—KeilinschriftlichesTextbuch zum A.T. (1892). 
 
 AF. — Altorientalische Forschungen (1893-1906). 
 
 When cited for the T.A. Letters the reference is to KB. vol. v. 
 ZA.—ZeitschriftfUr Assyriologie und Verwandte Gebiete (1886 ff.). 
 ZATW.—Zeitschrift fiir die Alttestainentliche Wissenschaft {1S81 fl.). 
 ZDMG.—Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschaft 
 
 (1846 flf.). 
 ZDPV.—Zeitschtift des Deutschen Paldstina- Vereins (1878 ff.). 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 4, Other Abbreviations and Signs. 
 
 Ar, . . 
 
 . Arabic. 
 
 Aram., 
 
 . Aramaic. 
 
 Assyr.,' . 
 
 . Assyrian. 
 
 Bab., 
 
 . Babylonian. 
 
 Eg., . . 
 
 . Egyptian. 
 
 Heb., 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 New Heb., 
 
 . New Hebrew, the language of the Mishna, etc. 
 
 Syr., . 
 
 . Syriac. 
 
 al, ., . 
 
 . et aliter or et alii. 
 
 'J1 . 
 
 ■ IDIJI 'and the rest' ; used when a Heb. quota 
 
 
 tion is incomplete. 
 
 ' 
 
 . Sign of abbreviation in Heb. words. 
 
 The sign t after a series of Biblical references means that all 
 occurrences in the O.T. of the word or phrase in question have been 
 cited. 
 
 Biblical references are given in accordance with the numeration of 
 chapter and verse in the English versions. When this varies in the 
 Hebrew, the variation is usually noted : thus, Hos. 14^, |§'. 
 
 The first and second halves of a verse are specified as, e.g., w.'*, 
 t/.'*', the guide to such division being the Heb. accent Athnah, which 
 halves the verse. When it is necessary to refer to quarter-verses, 
 these are specified as, e.g. t/.'"", w.'^^, w"'", w."'^, the dividing factor 
 being usually the accent Zdkeph, which commonly halves the Athnah- 
 and SiUuk-clsiUses. 
 
 In the translation of the Hebrew text the following signs are 
 employed as indications of correction : — 
 
 Emendations are placed between ^ i. 
 Additions are placed between / \. 
 Excisions are indicated by [ ]. 
 
 Italics are used in the ordinary way to mark emphasis ; and not, 
 as in A. v., R.V., as an indication that the words so marked are not 
 represented in the original. 
 
 A small superlinear figure attached to the title of a work {e.g. 
 Driver, Tenses^) denotes the edition to which reference is made. 
 
TRANSLITERATION OF SEMITIC WORDS 
 
 Consonants. 
 Arabic. Hebrew and Aramaic. 
 
 h ^ k i g, i gh 
 
 t ,^1 7, -^ d, 1 dh 
 
 t 
 6 
 
 J 
 
 r 
 
 J ^ 
 W s 
 
 L 9 
 
 J 
 
 k 
 
 cj 
 
 h 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 m, 
 
 u 
 
 n 
 
 i 
 
 h 
 
 i 
 
 u, w 
 
 ^ 
 
 i y 
 
 n h 
 
 1 w, V Babylonian. 
 
 f Z Non-gutturals 
 
 r ■ n h as in Hebrew 
 
 a TO/ ^ 
 
 3 n . 
 
 D s 
 
 A y 
 
 (J~ S y ' 
 
 ij' ? Si p, a ph 
 
 J> d V s 
 
 \, t P ^ 
 
 1 r 
 
 b s 
 
 n ^, n th 
 
xxxi! tME feOOlt OF JUDGES 
 
 Vowels 
 
 
 Long. 
 
 Short. Half-vowe!i. 
 
 W^Trlaic^^.^'^-.^'^'^.^ 
 
 a,e,iiO,u &, g, d or "•'■'> 
 
 Syriao . -. d, % 4 
 
 a, e 
 
 Arabic . . d, i, 4 
 
 a, i, u, and modifications to 
 
 e and o where usual. 
 Babylonian d, i, t, 4 a, e, i, u 
 
 In Hebrew place- and personal names the familiar forms of 
 A.V. and R.V. are usually retained ; except that V is always repre- 
 sented by s and not z, certain letters are marked by diacritic points 
 (thus n = h, tO = t, D = s, p=k), and 3? is regularly marked by ', except 
 where it already stands as g {i.e. g = i) through the influence of ffi, as 
 in n-tV = Ta^a, Gaza). X is occasionally represented by '. The divine 
 name nilT' is regularly represented by Yahweh. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 § 1. Title, Scope, and Place in the Canon. 
 
 The title of the Book is in f^ D^DSCr, SophHim, whence comes 
 our English title 'Judges.' The principal versions render 
 ©KPITAI; V Liber Judicum, Heh-aice Sophetim; S** |j_,j . c^m 
 
 l4iL« A^l^i^:^ l^rjAkjj . ^1^£d_.1 . . in> 'The book of the 
 Judges of the children of Israel, which is called in Hebrew 
 SophHlm.'' 
 
 The title SophHim is doubtless derived from ch. 2 1^ f'-, which is 
 due to the main editor (R'^^ ; of. § 4), who employs the term ' Judges,' 
 not in the sense in which we are accustomed to use it in English of 
 officials who decide legal cases and act as arbitrators between man 
 and man, but with the meaning ' Vindicators,' or ' JDeliverers ' hom. 
 the power of foreign oppressors.* There exist, however, passages 
 in the Book, not due to this editor, in which the term is used in 
 the more general sense of ' Arbitrators ' or ' Magistrates ' (cf . further, 
 on this distinction in usage, p. 1, footnote). In this latter sense, the 
 Carthaginian title sufes (suffes), plur. sufetes (i.e. DSitJ' D'p^^E^') 
 as cited by Livy and other Latin writers, has been aptly compared. 
 On the occurrence of the term in Phoenician inscriptions, cf. Cooke, 
 iV5/. pp. 115f.t 
 
 The Book of Judges deals with the period during which the 
 tribes of Israel were still struggling to maintain their footing in 
 Cana'an, before they had attained such an amount of cohesion among 
 themselves as entitled them to rank as a nation rather than as a 
 collection of separate units, and enabled them to establish their 
 independence against the foreign races by whom they were sur- 
 rounded. During this period we repeatedly find one or more of 
 the tribes falling under the foreign yoke for a time, until the upris- 
 ing of some one of sufficient personality to revive and unite the 
 
 * In some passages Heb. MdHa' ' Saviour ' is used by the editor as an alternative 
 title (of. eh. 3 '■^) ; and we also find the verb hdsta! ' to save ' similarly used as a 
 synonym of ' to j udge. ' 
 
 J Jensen (ZA. iv., 1889, pp. 278 ff.) quotes evidence in proof that in Asayr. fdpilu 
 was used to denote the commander of a host. Cf. KA T.''> pp. 647, 660, 
 
xxxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 scattered energy of the clans, and thus to enable them to sha 
 themselves free. Such leaders (the SophHim, ' Judges '), after t 
 success of their efforts, seem generally to have continued to hole 
 position of authority which, though doubtless merely local a: 
 uninvested with the prerogatives of the kingship of later times, y 
 represents a stage of development preparatory to the monarch; 
 just as their partial success in uniting the tribes to take comm( 
 action against the foe is a stage towards the later unity which ma( 
 possible the ideal of a nation organically combined under the rule 
 one king. 
 
 Of the three divisions of the Hebrew Canon — the Law, tl 
 Prophets, and the KHh'dhMm, ' Writings ' (Hagiographa) — the Boc 
 of Judges finds its place among the Prophets. This second di-v 
 sion is sub-divided into two parts, each of which is reckoned i 
 containing four books — ' the Former Prophets, 'consisting of Joshui 
 Judges, Samuel, and Kings ; and ' the Latter Prophets,' comprisin 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and ' the Twelve.' 
 
 The justification of this inclusion of Judges among the Prophet 
 is found, as in the case of the other books assigned to ' the Forme 
 Prophets,' in the fact that the mere compilation of an historic! 
 record was not the purpose with which the book was put int 
 shape, but rather the inculcation of the religious truths which wer 
 to be deduced from Israel's past history. It is abundantly evidsD 
 that the ancient narratives (for the most part) which form the basi 
 of the history, and also — and especially — the editorial framewofc 
 into which these older narratives have been fitted, are the work ii 
 the Prophetical schools or guilds of Israel which, in pre-exilic time's 
 were the chief literary conservators of' the records of nationa 
 history. The lines along which the religious bearing of Israel' 
 past history is worked out in Judges are indicated in the section 
 which follow. 
 
 § 2. Structure. 
 
 The Book of Judges opens with a section extending from ch. 1 
 to 2 5, which describes the settlement of the tribes of Israel in thi 
 promised land, and pictures this settlement as very gradual anc 
 partial, and as effected, in the main, through the independen 
 efforts of individual tribes. The facts which are thus narrated an 
 stated in v.i to have taken place ' after the death of Joshua'; bu 
 it is clear that the standpoint of «).i is not the standpoint of thi 
 main part of the narrative, which pictures the tribes as startin; 
 their movements from 'the City of Palms,' i.e. Jericho (.j).!"), or fron 
 Gilgal in the near neighbourhood (2^); i.e. from the position ii 
 which they were stationed after their first crossing of the Jordan 
 and which formed their headquarters during their invasion of thi 
 hill-country, as narrated in Josh. 4^^ P, 9^ i0 6-r-9.]6 jj; jqis 
 
STRUCTURE xxxv 
 
 4 " R°. It is obvious, moreover, that the narrative of ch. 1 cannot 
 le correlated with the narrative of the conquest of Canaan under 
 oshua', as this now stands in the Book of Josh. ; since this latter 
 lictures the conquest as the work of the tribes of Israel as a whole, 
 ,nd as much more complete and far-reaching than is pictured in 
 ludg. 1. Clearly, therefore, Judg. l^ to 2* cannot originally have 
 tood as the proper sequel of the closing chapter of Josh., which 
 lictures the death of Joshua" as taking place subsequently to the 
 lispersion and settlement of the tribes throughout the land of 
 kna'an ; but is out of place in its present connexion, and really 
 iffers another account of the original settlement in the land, in 
 aany respects diflFerent from that which is found in Josh, as that 
 5ook now stands. 
 
 Looking, however, at the next section of the Book, which runs 
 rom ch. 2 •" to 3 ^, we seem at once to discern the true sequel to 
 Tosh. 24 ; this section opening, in w.^^, with an actual repetition of 
 he words of Josh. 24 ^s-si^ -nrith one slight variation in order. That 
 hese w.^^ are not a later insertion from Josh., but stand in proper 
 lonnexion with the narrative which immediately follows them in 
 Fudg. 2, requires no proof. While v.^ reiterates the mention of 
 roshua"s dismissal of the people to their homes after his final 
 ixhortation to them at Shechem, as narrated in Josh. 24 1 ^''•, vj 
 tates that they remained faithful to his injunctions during his 
 ifetime, and the lives of the elders who survived him, and w.*-^ 
 ;ive a summary account of his death and burial. The narrative is 
 mmediately taken up by v}^, which states that, after the death 
 •f the surviving elders mentioned in vy, there arose a new genera- 
 ion that did not know Yahweh nor the work which He had done 
 or Israel, and thus were guilty of defection from His service, as 
 elated in mi}^ "■ 
 
 In these latter verses the narrator propounds his philosophy of 
 srael's history in general terms. We are told that defection from 
 fahweh and the worship of the deities of Cana'an (the Ba'als and 
 ^.shtarts) led to divine punishment which took the form of 
 leliverance into the hand of foreign oppressors; punishment was 
 ollowed by repentance and appeal to Yahweh for deliverance ; 
 Tahweh thereupon raised up a 'Judge,' i.e. a saviour or vindicator 
 cf. § 1), who effected deliverance by the help of Yahweh ; but, 
 rhen the Judge died, defection from Yahweh again ensued, and 
 he same cycle of punishment, repentance, and deliverance was 
 B-enacted. 
 
 If we examine the narratives which follow after this introductory 
 ection, forming the main body of the Book, we find that this 
 pragmatic' scheme of history (as it has been styled),* which has 
 een stated in general terms in the introduction 2 " ''■, is applied 
 
 * The term 'pragmatic' is used as defined in The Concise Oxford Dictionary 
 ' Cwmnt English : ' treating facts of history with reference to their practical 
 ssons.' 
 
xxxvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 to particular cases as they occur, the striking phraseology of tl 
 general introduction being, for the most part, repeated practicall 
 verbatim in the introductions to particular narratives (cf. pp. 54 f 
 of the notes). Of such a character are the introductions to th 
 narratives of 'Othniel, S^"-, Ehud, S^^ff-, Deborah and Barak, i^a 
 Gideon, 6^"-, Jephthah, 10 8«- (perhaps originally intended as a 
 introduction to the judgeship of Samuel; cf. note ad loc), an 
 Samson, 13 1. Corresponding to these introductions to the narn 
 tives, we find that more or less stereotyped formulae are employe 
 at their close, referring to the subjugation of the foreign oppressoi 
 and the length of the period during which 'the land had rest' 
 so, after the victories of 'Othniel, 3^1, 'Ehud, 3^", Deborah am 
 Barak, 4 2', 5 s^^, Gide'on, 8 ^^. Elsewhere, as a variation, th 
 length is given of the period during which the Judge 'judgei 
 Israel': so of Jephthah, 12'^% Samson, 15-", repeated in 16'^' 
 the so-called ' minor ' Judges, 10 ^^■^, 12 sn-i* ; cf., in 1 Sam., 'Eli 4ii 
 Samuel .7 i^. 
 
 It will readily be noticed that the religious pragmatism of th 
 main introduction and the special headings is not characteristic c 
 the histories as a whole. In these the religious motive, in so fa 
 as it is put forward, is of a much more ingenuous and primitiv 
 character. Yahweh commissions men to act as deliverers, and Hi 
 Spirit incites them to deeds of valour; but, if we except certai 
 special sections, such as 6^"^° and 10 ^-^^ (this latter a mud 
 expanded form of the ordinary introduction to a narrative), w 
 find that the conceptions of sin, punishment, and repentance, s 
 far from being prominently brought forward, are altogether ignora 
 and unmentioned. In the history of Samson, in particular, th 
 conception of the hero as a divinely appointed deliverer of hi 
 people seems little suited to the narrative ; since his actions, s 
 far as his personal volition is concerned, are wholly dictated h; 
 his own wayward inclinations, and he does not in any way effec 
 deliverance or even respite from the foreign yoke. 
 
 We observe also that, whereas the stereotyped introduction t 
 the various narratives speaks as though the apostasy of Israel froi 
 time to time, and their ensuing punishment, were natioTial an 
 general, the actual illustrations adduced in the narratives then 
 selves are, at any rate in most cases, merely local, some particula 
 tribe or group of tribes falling temporarily under the dominion ( 
 a foreign oppressor, but Israel as a whole {i.e. the, entity of tweh 
 tribes, which is clearly intended by ' the children of Israel ' of tl 
 introductory formula) being unaffected. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that the main narratives of the Judg( 
 and their exploits cannot emanate from the author who wi 
 responsible for the framework in which they are set, which enforci 
 the lesson already sketched in a preliminary way in chs. 2 ^-3*, co: 
 taining (as we have noticed above) the original introduction to tl 
 Book. Clearly, the main narratives represent older material, whi( 
 
THE OLD NARRATIVES xxxvii 
 
 las been utilized by a later editor for the working out of the 
 eligious philosophy which he reads into Israel's past history. 
 
 The work of the editor who was responsible for the pragmatic 
 titroduction, 2 8-3^ and the framework of the narratives follow- 
 ng, extends no further than the history of Samson, the last of the 
 Tudges. The final narratives of the Book, viz. the story of Micah 
 .nd the Danites, chs. 17, 18, and the story of the outrage at Gibeah 
 nth its consequences, chs. 19-21, though in the main of the same 
 iterary character as the other old narratives, do not serve to 
 Uustrate this editor's scheme as laid down in his general intro- 
 luction, and altogether lack traces of his hand as seen in the 
 tereotyped introductions and conclusions to the stories of the 
 Fudges. We must conclude, therefore, that these two stories, 
 hough derived ultimately from the same history-book {or books) 
 18 the other old narratives, were not embraced within the main 
 iditor's Book of Judges. There is reason for supposing that this 
 sditor also omitted, as alien to his purpose, the story of Abimelech, 
 h. 9 (substituting in its place the brief summary which is found 
 n ch. S^*"^^; cf. p. 266), and such exploits of Samson as are now 
 elated ia ch. 16 (cf. p. 338). These stories must have been 
 e-inserted into Judg. at a later period — very possibly by the 
 iditor who added the later Introduction to the Book which we now 
 ind in chs. 1 ^-2 *. This later editor appears also to have been 
 esponsible for the brief notices of the ' minor ' Judges contained 
 n lO''^, 12 '-1* (the reasons for supposing that the 'minor' Judges 
 lid not belong to the main editor's scheme are given on pp. 289 f.). 
 The notice of Shamgar, ch. 3 ^^, seems to have been inserted at a 
 till later period (cf. p. 76). 
 
 § 3. The Old Narratives. 
 From examination of the old narratives which form the basis of 
 he history of Judg. the fact at once emerges that the main 
 ditor is dependent, not upon a single source, but upon two main 
 ources, sections from which have been pieced together without any 
 horoughgoing attempt to harmonize existing inconsistencies in 
 letail; much as different documents have been combined into a 
 ingle history in the Pentateuch and Josh., and in 1 Sam. The 
 iroof of this fact has been sufficiently established in the special Intro- 
 luctions to the various sections of the Book which follow in the 
 I^otes. The most noteworthy illustration is the history of Gide'on, 
 hs. 6 1-8 28 ; but a similar combination of two different narratives 
 lay also be traced in the stories of Ehud, ch. 3 ^-3", Abimelech, ch. 
 , Jephthah, chs. 10i'-12', and (in the Appendix to Judges) in the 
 arratives of chs. 17, 18, and 19-21.* 
 
 * The prose-history of Deborah and Barak, ch. 4, likewise exhibits combination 
 ith elements derived from another narrative, relating probably to different events, 
 i is not unlikely, however, that this combination was effected when the story was 
 ill in the oral stage : of. pp. 81 ff. 
 
xxxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is generally recognized that the main characteristics of the ol 
 narratives thus combined in Judges are similar to those of the ol 
 ' Prophetical ' narrative which runs through the Pentateuch an 
 Josh, (the Hexateuch) ; and which is formed, likewise, by combini 
 tion of two main documents, one of which must be supposed t 
 have emanated from the Kingdom of Judah, and probably tod 
 shape as a written document dr. B.C. 850 (the reign of Kin 
 Jehoshaphat) ; while the other is doubtless the work of the pr( 
 phetic schools of the Northern Kingdom, and should probably 1 
 dated, in the main,, somewhat later, i.e. dr. B.C. 750 (the reign ( 
 king Jerobo am II. and the period of the writing prophets, 'Amc 
 and Hosea'). The former of these two narratives, owing to W 
 predilection for the divine name Jehovah or Yahweh, is common) 
 known as the Jehovistic or Yahwistic narrative, and cited undf 
 the symbol J ; while the latter, which exhibits a preference for tli 
 divine title Elohtm ('God'), is termed the Elohistic narrative, an 
 is cited as E.* 
 
 Since J and E carry the history of Israel from the earliest tirw 
 down to the death of Joshua', and were certainly not put int 
 writing until some centuries after the latter event, there is no 
 priori reason why they should be supposed each to have terminate 
 with the narrative of Joshua"s death : but, on the contrary, whe 
 we find in Judg. and 1 Sam. a similar combination of two ol 
 narratives possessing much the same characteristics as J and E, tl 
 question is at once raised whether these narratives should not 1 
 regarded as the proper continuation of J and E in Josh, ; J and 
 thus representing, in their original forms, continuous prophet 
 histories of the nation of Israel down to the foundation of tl 
 monarchy, if not further. J Observing, moreover, that the closir 
 verses of Josh., ch. 24 ^^■^'■E, are repeated practically wrtoim i 
 Judg. 2 ^"^, the point at which the main editor opens his histor; 
 and that these verses point both backwards and forwards — Isra 
 served Yahweh in accordance with the injunctions of Joshua 
 speech, which is detailed at length in Josh. 24 ^ ff. E, during tl 
 lifetimes of Joshua' and the elders who survived him; but tl 
 setting of a period to this service immediately raises the questi( 
 
 * For the evidence upon which these approximate dates are assigned to J and 
 cf. CH. i. pp. 107f.,n7ff. 
 
 X The purpose of the present argument being merely to suggest that the old nar 
 tives of Judg. are essentially of a piece with J and B in the Hexateuch, We are i 
 here concerned to inquire whether these same two narratives continue later tl 
 1 Sam. 12, which forms the close of the history of the circumstances which led to 
 institution of the monarchy in Israel. 1 Sam. 1-12 stands in essential connex 
 with the history of Judg., and examination of the old narrative of Judg. cannot 
 carried out apart from some consideration of these earlier chapters of 1 Sam. TV 
 regard to 1 Sam. 13 ff. it will be sufficient here to remark that a similar combinat 
 of two narratives runs on to the end of the book; whereas 2 Sam., on the contrf 
 consists, in the main, of a single very early source narrating the court-histor; 
 David. 
 
THE OLD NARRATIVES xxxix 
 
 what happened after the elders were dead, which forms the subject 
 of the book of Judg. as a whole (of. the direct transition from 
 Judg. 2^-^ to v}'^, on which see p. 52) — we may fairly claim that 
 the fact that the document E of the Hexateuch continues beyond 
 the end of Josh., and provides material for the history of Judg., 
 seems to be placed beyond the range of controversy. 
 
 A similar conclusion must be drawn with regard to the com- 
 panion-document J. The fact is generally admitted that the old 
 document which forms the basis of the later introduction tcJ Judg., 
 chs. 11-2^ is derived from J (cf. pp. If., 47 if.), and that the con- 
 cluding portion of this old account of the settlement of the tribes 
 of Israel in Cana'an has been utilized by the main editor in his own 
 introduction, ch. 2 ^s", 3 2a.5a.6 ^gf pp 52^ 55^. These concluding 
 verses, however, tell us that, as the result of the survival of some 
 of the races of Cana'an, ' the children of Israel dwelt in the midst of 
 the Cana'anites ; and they took their daughters to themselves for 
 wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons ; and they 
 served their gods ' ; and this seems to indicate that some account of 
 Israel's defection from Yahweh, and the consequences thereby 
 entailed, must have followed in J. Since, therefore, the main editor 
 knew and employed the J document thus far, the inference is that 
 he also made use of its material for his subsequent history. 
 
 The fact that the main editor thus appears to have utilized both 
 J and E in his introduction to Judg. does not, however, amount to 
 a demonstration that the old narratives which follow must neces- 
 sarily be derived from the same documents. Such a conclusion can 
 only be based upon detailed examination of each separate story, 
 and this has been attempted in the Introductions prefixed to each 
 section of the book in the Notes. It may be freely acknowledged 
 that the evidence which can be adduced in proof of it is not of 
 equal cogency throughout. Close connexion with J is undeniable 
 in 6 "-2* (p. 177), 132-25 (pp_ 3361), the main narrative in 
 19 (pp. 443 ff.), and parts of 20 (pp. 455 ff.) ; and the same is true of 
 E in the main thread of 2 6-3« (pp. 52 ff.), 6^i°(p. 177), 8 22-2s.27apb 
 (pp. 183 f.), 106-16 in the main (p. 294), 11 12-28 (pp. 303, 310-317). 
 In other parts of the composite narrative the criteria are frequently 
 very slight; while occasionally they are practically non-existent, 
 and the only ground which we have for assigning a narrative to J 
 is the fact that the parallel narrative seems to emanate from E, or 
 vice-versA. This, however, is a state of affairs which we find also in 
 the Hexateuch, where it frequently happens that, while the fact is 
 clear that we are dealing with a narrative composed of elements 
 derived from the two Prophetical sources, yet criteria for accurate 
 distinction of these sources are hardly to be discovered.* 
 
 * This is especially the case with the JE narrative contained in Josh. 1-12. 
 Cf. CH. ii. pp. 305 ff. ; Driver, LOT." pp. 104 ff. (who with characteristic caution does 
 not attempt to separate the two sources). 
 
xl INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to emphasize the fact that when we refer 
 to J and E we must think, in each case, rather of a school of 
 historians than of a single historian. Clearly, neither J nor E in 
 the Hexateuch is homogeneous throughout; both of them must 
 have made use of pre-existing material, written as well as oral, the 
 product of very various ages, and embodying divergent and some- 
 times conflicting traditions.* 
 
 Illustrations from Judg. of the use of earlier material in J are 
 seen in the Samson-stories, chs. 14-16, which have been edited and 
 fitted with a strongly characteristic introduction, ch. 13 (pp. 337 f.), 
 and in one of the narratives in chs. 19-21, which appears to be con- 
 structed throughout upon a basis of earlier J narratives (p. 456). 
 Similarly, the Song of Deborah, ch. 5, is obviously much older 
 than the accompanying prose-narrative, ch. 4, though both appear 
 to belong to E (p. 83); and the inference that the former was 
 excerpted from an ancient written source (probably a collection of 
 poems such as ' the Book of the Wars of Yahweh ' mentioned in 
 Num. 21 '*), is confirmed by the fact that the prefixed statement as 
 to the occasion on which the song was composed, seems to have 
 been excerpted with it from the old source (cf. note on v.^). Again, 
 the E^ element v^hich is so clearly marked both in Judg. and in 
 1 Sam. 1-12 (originally a part of the history of the Judges; cf. p. 294), 
 can never have formed an independent document, but presupposes 
 the earlier history of E, to which it forms a religious expansion 
 and interpretation. This incorporation of earlier material and the 
 existence of more than one hand in J and E are sufficient to 
 explain the unequal distribution of characteristic phraseology, and 
 also the occurrence in certain sections of striking words and phrases 
 which are not found elsewhere in the histories. | 
 
 While, however, J and E undoubtedly embody the work of Im 
 schools of prophetic historians, it is natural to suppose that the 
 work of these schools has survived through being gathered together 
 into two continuous prophetic histories ; and that it was these two 
 
 * Cf. CH. i. pp. 108 if., 119 if. Skinner (Genesis (ICC), pp. 181 f.) points outtliat 
 J seems to embody a tradition which knew nothing of the Flood, and also (of. pp. 
 418, 450, 670) one which ignored the sojourn in Egypt and the Exodus. The discus- 
 sion in Addit. note, pp. 44 ff. leads us to the conclusion that J has embodied an 
 ancient Calibblte tradition narrating the conquest of the Negeb by a northward 
 movement from Kadesh-Barnea', and that this has been modified in J as we know it 
 by later inlinences. Such examples of composite authorship might be multiplied. 
 
 X Such are not frequent; but we may notice that the Divine title 'Yahweh 
 S^bha'Sth,' which occurs in 1 Sam. l^.ii, ii, 152, 17«, as also in 2 Sam., is not 
 found at all in the Hexateuch and Judg. ; and 'Belial,' which occurs in Judg. 19^2, 
 2013; 1 Sam. lie, 212, 10 2', 2517-25, 30=2, is only found in the Hexateuch in 
 Deut. 13 iJ, 15 ^. The instances from Judg. of words not found in JE in the Hexa- 
 teuch which are cited by Kit., Studien und Eriiiken, 1892, pp. 57, 61; Konig in 
 DB. ii. pp. 811b-812b, would not be significant enough to tell against our theory 
 even if that theory involved the supposition that J and E were respectively the com- 
 position of a single hand throughout. 
 
THE EDITORS xli 
 
 ocuments, and not two collections of disconnected narratives, which 
 'ere wrought into one by the redactor W'^. There is thus a sense 
 1 which it is perfectly legitimate to speak of ' the J writer ' and 
 the E writer,' i.e. the actual individuals who were responsible for 
 lie composition of the continuous history-books ; and since, as we 
 ave seen, evidence points to an original uninterrupted sequence 
 etween the Hexateuch narratives of J and E, and the narratives of 
 and E in Judg., we may without excessive boldness maintain 
 bat, when we use the symbols J and E in Judg., they have for 
 s no less definite meaning than they possess for us as titles of 
 ocuments in the Hexateuch.* 
 
 § 4. The Editors. 
 
 The portions of Judg. which we assign to the main editor, who, 
 ,s we have seen (§ 2), is responsible for the pragmatic setting of the 
 look, are as follows : — 
 
 Introduction : ch. 2 «'' (" part).lla.l4aba.l6.1T_ 
 
 Framework : chs. 3 ^"i^, 3 1^"!"" (working up extracts from the 
 
 old narrative), 3 ^o, 4 1* (working up old extracts), 4 22-2*, 
 
 531b, 61-6 (working' up old extracts), 8 2«-38-36, lO^""!, 11 ^^b^ 
 
 131, 1520. 
 
 Modern critical scholars unanimously regard this editor as a 
 
 Qember of the Deuteronomic School, i.e. as influenced by the stand- 
 
 )oint and phraseology of Deuteronomy : thus the signature which 
 
 s generally adopted for him is E,° (Deuteronomic Redactor). The 
 
 )resent writer has, however, convinced himself that this view is 
 
 lot correct. Deuteronomy was (in his opinion) unknown to our 
 
 * That we have in Judg. the continuation of the documents contained in the 
 lexatench was maintained by J. J. Stahelin, Specielle Einleitung in die kanon. 
 'iucherdes A.T. (1862), pp. 66 tf., and by E. Schrader in de Wette's Einleitung in 
 lie Bibel, A.u. N. T. (1869), pp. 337 ff. The subject was first .systematically worked 
 lut for different parts of Judg. by Ed. Meyer, Stade, and Bdhnie in articles in 
 ^ATW. (cf. references in the present Commentary, pp. 1, 176, 293, 335). The merit 
 if attempting to distinguish J and E throughout the book belongs, however, to 
 Judde in his Richter und Samuel (1890) ; and Budde's view has been accepted in the 
 nain by Comill, Moore, Nowack, and Lagrange. Kue. (Ond. § 19 13) speaks with 
 ome scepticism of the theory, and it is opposed by Kittel in Theol. Studien und 
 KrUiktn, 1892, pp. 44 ff. ; EH. ii. pp. 14 ff. ; (?rA ii. pp. 15 ff., and by Kdnig, 
 VAnLeUung in das A.T., pp. 252 ff.; DB. ii. pp. 811b-812b. The arguments 
 dvanced by these two latter scholars, however, would for the most part only be 
 alid if J and E were to be regarded as each the work of a single individual— a view 
 fhich i« maintained by no one. Cf. e.g. Kittel's argument that the history of 
 Lbimelech cannot be from E, because in it Sheohem is a Cana'anite city, whereas in 
 osh. 24 E2 it is Israelite ; or, again, that in view of Gen. 22 E, the story of 
 ephthah's sacrifice of his daughter can hardly belong to the same source. 
 
 t It is 'impossible in 10«-i' to be sure how much is due to the main editor and how 
 auoh to his source, E^ : cf. p. 294. Most scholars assign a larger portion of the 
 action to the editor. 
 
xlii INTRODUCTION 
 
 editor. The influence which really moulded his thought am 
 diction was the influence of the later Ephraimitic school of pre 
 phetic teachers, whose work is generally marked as E^. Thus th 
 signature which is adopted in the present commentary to mark th 
 work of the main editor is R^^ (Redactor of the late Ephrairaiti 
 School). The grounds upon which this view is based have now ti 
 be stated. 
 
 The passages in Judg., 1 Sam. 1-12, which are characteristicall' 
 the work of W are as follows :-Judg: 2 s P" p^'^')-"-i''-i^'2»-21, 6"i 
 
 8 22.23.27a/3b ;[ Q ^-^^ (m the main) I gam. 7 l"!*, 8^'^^, lO'^-'^'^''^ 121-25. 
 
 These passages are united together by a common phraseology am 
 theological outlook, the characteristics of which, so far as the; 
 distinguish the passages in Judg., are noticed on pp. 55, 177, 183 i 
 294 ; of. further Bu., BS. pp. 180 if., Driver, LOTl p. 177. Thei 
 connexion with Joshua"s last address, as related in Josh. 2 
 (generally assigned, except for a few minor details, to the late 
 stratum of E, i.e. E^) is very close ; and more especially is this th 
 case with 1 Sam. 12, which relates Samuel's last address before hi 
 retirement from the ofiice of judge after the election of Saul a 
 king. The following comparison illustrates the closeness of cor 
 nexion between the two chapters : — 
 
 Josh. 24 1 And they took their stand before Yahweh. 
 1 Sam. 12 ^ And now take your stand, that I may plead with yo 
 before God. 
 
 Josh.' And I sent Moses and Aaron. 
 
 Sam.^ And Yahweh sent Moses and Aaron. (Cf.^^ And Yahwe 
 sent Jerubba'al, etc.). 
 
 Josh. 8 And I brought forth your fathers out of Egypt. 
 Sam.^ And they brought forth your fathers out of Egypt. 
 
 Josh.'' And they cried unto Yahweh. 
 Sam.i" And they cried unto Yahweh. 
 
 Josh.^ And they fought with you. '* And he fought with Israe 
 Sam.**" And they fought with them. 
 
 Josh.i'"' And I delivered you from his hand. 
 
 Sam.!!*" And he delivered you from the hand of your enemies. 
 
 Josh.i* And now fear Yahweh, and serve him in integrity and i 
 
 truth. 
 Sam.2^* Only serve Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all yon 
 
 heart, i*. If ye will fear Yahweh and will serve him. 
 Josh.i^ Far be it from us to forsake Yahweh. 
 Sam.2^ Far be it from us to sin against Yahweh. 
 
 * Omitting, in Judg., e^s'^, S5b^ 7 2.7_ passages which, though assigned to E^ up( 
 adequate grounds, have not the same special characteristics as the passages abo' 
 cited. 
 
THE EDITORS xliii 
 
 Josh.i" For Yahweh our God, he it is that brought up us and our 
 fathers from the land of Egypt, from the house of 
 bondmen. 
 
 Sam.^ Yahweh . . . that brought up your fathers 
 from the land of Egypt. 
 
 Josh.i'' And who did these great signs before our eyes. 
 
 Sam.i^ Behold the great thing which Yahweh is about to do before 
 
 your eyes. 
 Josh.22. And Joshua' said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against 
 
 yourselves. And they said. We are witnesses. 
 Sam.*. And he said unto them, Yahweh is a witness against you, 
 
 and his anointed is a witness . . . And ^they^ said. 
 
 He is a witness. 
 
 This correspondence between the phraseology. of the two addresses 
 — which is so close as to make it obvious that they must both 
 have assumed their present form at the hands of the same author, 
 or else that 1 Sam. 12 must have been modelled upon Josh. 24 — 
 is of the first importance in proof that 1 Sam. 12, and the sections 
 in Judg. and 1 Sam. which are similar to it, are rightly to be 
 regarded as pre-Deuteronorn.ic.* The fact is familiar that JE in 
 Josh, has been edited by a redactor of the Deuteronomic School 
 (K°), and the portions of Josh, which are the work of this redactor 
 bear unmistakably the impress of the thought and phraseology of 
 D. Now though there already existed in his source the farewell- 
 address of Joshua' which belongs to E^ {ch. 24), R° was so little 
 satisfied with this as an adequate expression of the Deuteronomic 
 ideal that he inserted side by side with it (ch. 23) another address 
 of his own composition in which he enforces that ideal in language 
 which repeats and echoes the language of D almost sentence by 
 sentence. It is worth while to give a full summary of the D phrases 
 in this address in order to exhibit what is properly to be understood 
 as the influence of D upon the members of its ' school ' : — 
 
 Josh. 233. 'Ye have seen all that Yahweh your God did.' Of. 
 Deut. 292 (f^i), 321, 48; 'That which Yahweh thy God did,' 
 Deut. 7 18, 249, cf. ll*-5. 
 
 ».3. 'For Yahweh your God, He it is that fighteth for you.' So 
 tf.io, Deut. 322t. 
 
 ».5. ' As Yahweh your God spake unto you.' So v.i". Cf. Deut. 
 1 21^ 2 1, 6 3-19, 9 3 10 9, 11 25, 12 20, 15 6, 18 2, 26 isi^, 27 ^ 29 i^ (f^i2), 
 313; Josh. 131*33, 1412^ 22*, all W ; Judg. 2i5D2, 1 Kgs. 5 "2 
 (^19-26), 8 20; 2 Kgs. 2413, allR".! 
 
 * That the presentation of Samuel as we have it in this narrative in 1 Sam. was 
 familiar to Jeremiah and his hearers is clear from Jer. 15 1, where Samuel is coupled 
 with Moses as a typical iniercesaor on behalf of Israel ; for he only appears in this 
 light in 1 Sam. 7 8 "., 12 "-^s, and not in the older narrative with which this is com- 
 bined. Cf. Comill as cited by Bu., RS. p. 178 ; Driver, LOT.^ p. 178. 
 
 t In several of these passages R.V. renders ' promised ' for 'spake' ; but the verb 
 is in every case the same in the Hebrew. 
 
xliv INTRODUCTION 
 
 !).«. 'All that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses '(a 
 direct reference to the Deuteronomic Code). Of. Josh. 1 ''■8, 8 ^i-si R"; 
 
 1 Kgs. 2 3; 2Kgs, 14eR°. 
 
 V.6. ' So as not to turn aside therefrom to the right hand or to the 
 left.' Cf. Deut. IT^O; also 5^2 {W% 17", 28"; Josh. PR"; 
 
 2 Kgs. 22 2E°. 
 
 t).8. 'Cleave to' (3 pm, of adherence to the worship of Yahweh). 
 Cf. Deut. 4*, 1020, 1122^ 134 (||6)^ 3020. Josh. 225R°; 2 Kgs. 
 18 8E°. Of adherence- to idolatry, or to the representatives of it, 
 v}^; 1 Kgs. 112;-2 Kgs. 3SE°. 
 
 ■W.9. ' And Yahweh hath dispossessed from before you nations great 
 and mighty.' Cf. Deut. 4=8, 9 i, 11 ^\* 
 
 «.ii. 'And ye shall take great heed to yourselves.' Cf. Deut. 
 
 2*t. 
 vP-. 'To love Yahweh your God.' Cf. Deut. 10^2, 11 ".22^ 199, 
 
 30 6.16.20. Josh. 22 5E°. 
 
 t>.i-l ' Until ye perish.' ,Cf. Deut. 28 20-22. 
 
 v}^. 'Which Yahweh your God hath given you.' Cf. w.^^-'^^; 
 Josh. 18 2 E° ; with ' about to give you ' {or ' thee,' ' us,' ' them '), con- 
 stantly in Deut. 
 
 D.i*. ' With all your heart and with all your soul.' Cf. Deut. 11 1', 
 13 3(1^*); Josh. 22 6R°; 'with all thy heart, etc.,' Deut. 4 29, gs, 
 10 12, 26 16, 30 2-610 ; ' with all his heart, etc.,' 2 Kgs. 23 26 E'' ; ' with 
 all their heart, etc.,' 1 Kgs. 2*, 8*^ ( = 2 Chr. B^s) SF ■ 2 Chr. 15^2; 
 'with all the heart, etc.,' 2 Kgs. 23 3 ( = 2 Chr. 343i)E°. 
 
 v?'^. ' There hath not fallen one word out of all the good words, 
 etc' Cf . Josh. 21 « (f^«) R'' ; 1 Kgs. 8 ^s E°. 
 
 «).i^ 'Until He destroy you.' Cf. Deut. 28 «; 'to destroy you' 
 (Yahweh as subj.), Deut. 9 8-i9-25^ 28 «3. 
 
 ».i*. 'Shall go and serve other gods, and worship them.' So 
 1 Kgs. 9 " ( = 2 Chr. 7 w) E° ; cf . Deut. 1 1 16, 1 7 ^ : ' serve other gods,' 
 Josh. 24 216 E; Judg. IQisES; 1 Sam. S^, 26"; Deut. 1\ IS^-i^ 
 (l^'-w), 28 3'5««; Jer. 16i3, 44^; 'other gods,' with 'serve' closely 
 following with suffix of reference, Deut. 8i9, 13 2 (^s)^ 28 1*, 30", 
 3120; Judg. 219 D2; 1 Kgs. 99 ( = 2 Chr. 7^2) R°; 2 Kgs. 17^5 R"; 
 Jer. 1110, 1310, 16", 229, 256, 35 iS; 'other gods,' without 'serve,' 
 Ex. 20 3 E, 2313E; 2 Kgs. 51' (Ephraimitic) ; Hos. 3I; Judg. 
 2i^E==2; Deut. 57, 61*, 1128, 18 20, 3118; j^dg. 212 D^; 1 Kgs. 
 ll*-i», 149; 2Kgs. 177-37.88^ 22 ^ ( = 2 Chr. 34 25) all E° f. 
 
 v}^. 'A4d the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you.' Cf. 
 Deut. 1\ 1117. 
 
 «.i6. 'And ye perish quickly from off the good land which He 
 hath given you.' Cf . Deut. 1 1 1^ ' The good land,' Deut. 1 36, 3 25, 
 
 4 21-22, 6 18, 8 10, 9 «. 
 
 The close and constant echo of the phraseology of D as seen 
 in this address — which is equally characteristic of other portions of 
 
 * Heb. hdrl^, translated 'hath dispossessed,' is rendered by R.V., sometimes 
 ' possess,' sometimes ' drive out.' Cf. note on 1 'i. 
 
THE EDITORS xlv 
 
 Josh, belonging to this redactor, and also of the handiwork of the 
 Deuterdnomic redactor of Kgs.* — sufficiently illustrates what is 
 properly to be taken as the work of ' the Deuteronomic School.' It 
 is evident at a glance that it is to the pre-Deuteronomic address 
 Josh. 24 E2, and not to Josh. 23 R°, that the address in 1 Sam. 12 
 and the kindred sections in Judg. and 1 Sam. exhibit a close 
 affinity ; and that therefore we have not erred in marking them as 
 E^, and in regarding them as dating from a period prior to the pro- 
 mulgation of Deuteronomy. It is true that the religious ideas of E^ 
 and D are in many points closely kindred, and that there are a certain 
 number of phrases which are common to them (such e.g. as ' Yahweh 
 your God,' 'other gods,' 'forget Yahweh,' etc.) ; but the explana- 
 tion of this surely is that the thought and phraseology of E^ have 
 exercised a well-marked influence upon D. Had the opposite been 
 the case — i.e. had our so-called E^ been modelled under the influence 
 of D, it would be difficult to explain why only a limited number of 
 characteristic D phrases were employed, whereas the most striking 
 ones (as seen in R° in Josh, and Kgs.) are wholly absent. As a 
 matter of fact, a large number of the ideas and phrases which char- 
 acterize E^ are already to be found in Hosea' X ; and it is doubtless 
 to the influence of Hosea' and his school that we owe the presenta- 
 
 * Cf. the long list of phrases characteristic of E'' in Kgs. which is given by the 
 present writer in his article 'Kings I. and II.' in BB. ii. pp. 859 ff. 
 
 { The following is a rough list of phrases and thoughts contained in Hosea' which 
 have influenced E^, as well as somewhat later thought (D and Jeremiah) : — 
 
 Defection from Yahweh characterized as whoredom, 1", 22= (R ■'•'■), 4i3i5i8, 5s.4^ 
 610,91. 
 
 'The Ba'als,' 2 is" (S is'S), 11 2 ; ' the Ba'al,' 13 1. 
 
 'Go after,' of adherence to false worship, 2 = 13{K '•!'>) ; of following Yahweh, 
 
 1110. 
 
 Verb 'love ' (anx) applied to Yahweh's feeling for Israel, 3 1, 9 «, H >, 14* (S^) ; 
 cf. subs. ' love,' 11 *. 
 
 'Yahweh, their God,' 36, T" ; 'Yahweh, thy God,' 12^ (38 1"), 134, 14i(|§2). 
 
 'Forget,' of defection from Yahweh,' 2 is (Ris, 'Me she forgat'), 46 ('Thou hast 
 forgotten the tt/ra of thy God'), 8" ('Israel forgat his maker'), 13« ('they have 
 forgotten Me '). 
 
 'Practices' (D'PPVa) '"itli ««^ connotation, 4 9, 5^ 7--=, 9", 122 (18 3) ; of. Judg. 
 2 19 E2 ; Deut. 28 20 ; eighteen occurrences in Jer. 
 
 ' They have forsaken to observe Yahweh,' 410. 
 
 ' Return unto Yahweh,' of repentance, 61, 710, 141-2 (5U2.3) ; <unto God,' 5*. 
 
 • I desire mercy (IDn) and not sacriflce ; 
 
 And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings,' 6» ; cf. 1 Sam. I522E2. 
 
 Verb 'cry,' of supplication to Yahweh, 7 ", 82. 
 
 ' Transgress covenant,' 6', 81. 
 
 ' Provoke ' (D'yaD, obj. ' Yahweh ' understood) 12 " ; characteristic of D. 
 
 Reference to the deliverance from Egypt, 2 " (S!"), 11 1, 12 9 (IS lO), 13 \ 
 
 Depreciatory reference to the paraphernalia of onltxis, 3 *, 10 1-2. 
 
 Depreciatory reference to the existing form of kingship as opposed to the Theo- 
 cratic ideal, 84-10 (as emended ; cf. p, 184), 103, 1310.11 (cf. Judg. 822-2SE2; 1 Sam. 
 80.7, 1019, 12 "19 Be). 
 
 Antipathy to bull- worship of Northern Kingdom, 8 '-o, 10 », 132 (cf. rd jn Kgs.). 
 
xlvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 tion of Israel's early history as it appears in E^, and (it may well 
 be) ultimately the Deuteronomic revival itself.* 
 
 Now, even a cursory examination of the phraseology of the main 
 editor of Judg. makes it clear that this is modelled upon the E^ 
 sections which we have been discussing. The address of 1 Sam. 12 
 especially, which properly rounds off the history of the Judges 
 with the final address of Samuel, the last of their number, after the 
 election of the first king, seems to have been used by our editor as 
 the type to which he sought to conform his pragmatic setting of 
 Judg. Examination of his phraseology in detail yields the following 
 results : — 
 
 1. 'Did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh,' Judg. 2", 
 3 712, 4 1, 6 1, 10 8, 13 1, all E'^^. Elsewhere, Num. 32 is JE ? ; 1 Sam, 
 1519E2; 2 Sam. 129; Deut. 4^5, 9 1^ 17 2, 3129; twenty-two occur- 
 rences in E°'s framework to Kgs., and parallel passages in 2 Chr. 
 Jer. 32 3'', 52 2; Isa. 65 12, 66*; Ps. 51*(|^8). 
 
 2. 'And they forsook Yahweh, and served the Ba'als and the 
 'Ashtarts,' Judg. 2i3E2 (worked in by E'^^). Of. 1 Sam. 12 "E^, 
 ' We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh, and have 
 served the Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts ' ; so very similarly (exc. cm. 
 'and the 'Ashtarts'), Judg. IQi^E^; with inverted order, 'and 
 they served the Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts . . . and forsook Yahweh,' 
 
 * The present writer is of the opinion that the origin of Deuteronomy is tp be 
 sought in the prophetic school, not of the Southern, hut of the Northern Kingdom, 
 and that we have a gradually developing stream of thought represented by B, Hosea', 
 E'' and finally D. If this view is correct, the composition of D must have taken 
 place some time svbsequently to the fall of Samaria and the end of the Northern 
 Kingdom. Sargon only claims to have carried captive 27,290 of the inhabitants of 
 Samaria, and definitely states that he allowed the remainder to retain their posses- 
 sions (? inuSunu, of doubtful meaning), set his officers as prefects over them, and laid 
 upon them the tribute of the former kings (of. Winckler, Sargon, p. 101 ; Rogers, CP. 
 p. 331). Doubtless (as was the case with Nebuchadnessar's first deportation from 
 Jerusalem ; 2 Kgs. 24 '^-ii) those whom he removed were the politically influential 
 and the skilled artificers ; and he would have no reason for interfering with the 
 members of the prophetic order, who belonged to the poorer classes, and would hardly 
 have been clustered in and about the capital city. During the period after B.C. 722, 
 Samaria remained the centre of an Assyrian province, with a population to some 
 extent leavened by foreign settlers (cf. Winckler, /Sargon, pp. 5, 21 ; Rogers, CP, 
 p. 326). The mainly late narrative of 2 Kgs. 17 ^^■"j which reads almost as though 
 the foreign element were in sole possession and the religion of Yahweh had died 
 out, is without doubt coloured by bitter antipathy to the Samaritans of later times. 
 But, in fact, a not inconsiderable body of Israelites had survived the conquest; 
 amongst whom the prophets of the north may be supposed to have continued their 
 literary labours quietly and unobtrusively, setting their hopes upon a future when 
 the whole of Israel (both of the north and of the south) should be united in faithful 
 worship of Yahweh at one common centre. The grounds upon which this theory is 
 based have not yet been published by the writer, but he hopes to produce them in 
 the near future in a work entitled The Prophetic School of Northern Israel and the 
 Mosaic Tradition. 
 
THE EDITORS xlvii 
 
 Judg. 10«E2; 'served the Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts' coupled with 
 'forgat Yahweh' (of. No. 3), Judg. 3 7R"=2 
 
 (a) ' Forsook Yahweh ' occurs elsewhere in Judg. 2 1" D^ (based 
 onE2 v.^% Josh. 2416E2; jga. 1*; l Kgs. 9^; 2 Kgs. 2122, both 
 R°; Jer. Si^-'S; 2 Chr. 722, 21 1», 24 2o.24_ 286; of. 'forsakers of 
 Yahweh,' Isa. 1 28, 65 " ; ' forsook Him ' (Yahweh as obj.), 2 Chr. 13 10, 
 24 25 ; ' shall forsake Him,' 1 Chr. 28 » ; 2 Chr. 15 2; < Hjg forsakers,' 
 Ezr. 8 22; 'Thy forsakers,' Jer. 17 »s (both referring to Yahweh); 
 'ye (they) have forsaken Me ' (Yahweh as speaker), Judg. lO^^ E2 • 
 
 1 Kgs. 1133; 2 Kgs. 22" both R° ; Jer. 1^% 5 "9, 16"** 19 *• 
 
 2 Chr. 12 5, 34 25; 'hast forsaken Me,' Deut. 28 20; 'shall forsake 
 Me,' Deut. 31 1^ (source ?). 
 
 Similar phrases are 'forsook to observe Yahweh,' Hos. i^"; 
 'forsook the covenant of Yahweh,' Deut. 29 25 (|^24) . jer. 22 »; 
 'forsook the commandments of Yahweh,' 1 Kgs. 18i3R°; 'forsook 
 my tara,' Jer. 9 is (f^i2). 
 
 (b) 'The Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts,' 1 Sam. 7*E2 (obj. of 'put 
 away '). 
 
 'And the 'Ashtarts,' coupled with 'put away the foreign gods 
 from your midst,' 1 Sam. 7 ^ W. 
 
 ' The Ba'als ' alone, Judg. 8 33 li'=2 (obj. of ' went a whoring after '), 
 Hos. 21317(1^16.19)^ 112 (obj. of 'sacrificed to'), 1 Kgs. 18i3; Jer. 
 2 23, gu 1^13 (in each case obj. of 'went after'); 2 Chr. 17 3, 24 f, 
 28 2, 333, 34*. 
 
 3. 'And they forgat Yahweh their God,' Judg. 3''R'^2, based on 
 1 Sam. 1-2 »W. 
 
 ' Forget Yahweh ' occurs elsewhere, Deut. 6 12, 8iii*i9; Jer. 32I; 
 [sa. 5113; 'forgat (or forgattest) Me' (Yahweh as speaker), Hos. 
 213(^15), 13 6; Jer. 2 32, 1325, 1815. Ezek. 22 12, 23 35; 'forgotten 
 Thee' (Yahweh as obj.), Ps. 44 1^ (^^»). 
 
 4. 'And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel,' Judg. 
 2", 38, 10 7R^2, based on 220E2. Elsewhere, Num. 25 3 E or J, 
 J213JE?; 2 Kgs. 13 3R°. 
 
 'The anger of Yahweh was kindled' occurs again in Num. 
 lli»J?,12 9E, 32i»JE?; Deut. 29 27 (1^26) . Josh.7iR^ 2Sam.67 
 = 1 Chr. 13 10; 2 Chr. 25i5; pg. 106«; cf. 'and Yahweh heard, 
 md His anger was kindled,' Num. 11 lE; 'and the anger of God 
 vas kindled,' Num. 22 22 J revised ; 'and the anger of Yahweh (or 
 ny anger) shall be kindled,' Deut. 7\ 11 17, 31 17; Josh. 23 le K°. 
 
 5. 'And He gave them into the hand of spoilers, and they spoiled 
 hem,' Judg. 2i*R^2* cf. 2 Kgs. 17 20R°, 'and He gave them 
 nto the hand of spoilers.' 
 
 ' Give into the hand ' (of delivering up enemies ; Yahweh as 
 ubj.) is found again in R''^, Judg. 61 (of Midian), 13 1 (of Philis- 
 tnes), and is frequent elsewhere both in pre- and post-Deut. 
 terature. 
 
 * It is doubtful whether this phrase belongs to R"2. it may be later : cf. p. 55. 
 
xlviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 6. 'He sold them into the hand of,' Judg. 2", 3\ i^R'^a, based 
 on Judg. 107E2, 1 Sam. 12 ^E^; cf. Judg. 4 9E. 'Sold them' 
 {sc. ' to their enemies ' ; subj. ' their Eock,' = ' Yahweh '), Deut.32 m. 
 
 7. 'Their enemies round about,' Judg. 2", S^^R^^, based on 
 1 Sam. 1211E2; cf. 2 Sam. 7^; Deut. 12 i», 25 «; Josh. 23 iR". 
 
 8. 'And the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh,' Judg. (2"),* 
 39.U 43j^ 6 8R''2, based on Judg. 10 "E^; 'and your fathers 
 cried unto Yahweh,' 1 Sam. 12 » E^ ; ' and they cried unto Yahweh,' 
 1 Sam. 12i''E2; Josh. 24 ^ | E, Ex. 14*" E (source of preceding). 
 Elsewhere, with Israel as subj., Ps. 107« J -is-i^-^s | ; cf. 2 Chr. 
 131* + ; Hos. 82; Mic. 3*. 
 
 9. 'Yahweh raised up judges,' Judg. 2"E''^ 2i8 D^ (based on 
 «).i6); 'Yahweh raised up a saviour,' Judg. S^ieR^^. No close 
 parallel. O'^pn is used, with Yahweh as subj., of raising up men to 
 fill particular positions in Deut. IS^^is (a prophet). Josh. 5''W (the 
 sons of those who died in the wilderness), § 1 Sam. 2^^ (a faithful 
 priest), 2 Sam. 71^=1 Chr. 17" (thy seed as king), 1 Kgs. lP*-23 
 (an adversary), 1 Kgs. 14i* (a king), Am. 2" (prophets and 
 Nazirites), Jer. 6 '^^ (watchmen), 23 * (shepherds), 23 ^ (a righteous 
 sprout), 29 15 (prophets), 30 ^ (a king), Ezek. 34 23 (a shepherd), 
 Zech. lli«(«(i.). 
 
 10. 'Went a whoring after' (of intercourse with deities other 
 than Yahweh), Judg. 2", S^sR-^a, S^m\ Ex. 34i6-i6J, Deut. 31 « 
 (source?), Lev. 17 ^ 2056" (both H), Ezek. 6 9, 20 8", 1 Chr. S^Ml 
 
 11. 'They turned aside quickly from the way,' Judg. 2"E'^l 
 Cf. Ex. 32 8 E 1, source of Deut. 9 i^-ie.f 
 
 12 (a) 'Was (were) subdued,' Judg. 3^o (Moab), 8 ^s (Midian), 
 1133 (the children of 'Ammon), all R''^, based on 1 Sam. 7^^ W 
 'and the Philistines were subdued.' 'The verb (W33 Niph'al) is 
 used elsewhere in a passive sense in 1 Chr. 20*, 2 Chr. 13 1^, Ps. 
 106*2. In other occurrences the sense is reflexive ('humble one- 
 self). 
 
 (b) 'God subdued' (JJ'ian Hiph'il) Judg. 4 2SR'^2 (Jabin, king of 
 Canaan). Cf. Deut. 9s, 1 Chr. 17 1°, 2 Chr. 28 « P^. 81 " 0St^^}; 
 with David as subj., 2 Sam. 8^=1 Chr. I81. 
 
 13. 'And the land had rest' (psn tipBTil), Judg. SH-^o, 5>\ 
 8 28R=2. Cf. Josh. 1123, 14i6R° (niorhoD riDpB' psni), Isa. 14', 
 Zech. 1", 1 Chr. 4*», 2 Chr. 14i-6 {^ 13 23, 14 s). 
 
 As the result of these statistics, it appears that phrases Nos. 2, 3, 
 6, 8, 10, 12 appear definitely to be modelled upon 1 Sam. 12 or 
 other sections of E2, or at least to be drawn from a similar source 
 
 * Eestored here upon the analogy of parallel passages. 
 
 X With the variant spelling Ipy^il for Ipyt'V 
 
 § Here, however, the context seems to demand D''Dpn 'that arose,' in place of 
 
 O'lpn. 
 
 i[ Cf. the characteristics of Hosea" given in Footnote J, p. xlv. 
 
THE EDITORS xUx 
 
 of inspiration; and Nos. 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, while too general to form 
 the basis of any inference, at the same time fully fit in with the 
 theory of E^ influence. There remain Nos. 1 and 5, which, taken 
 by themselves, may seem to support the theory of D influence. We 
 observe, however, that No. 1, while frequent in Deut. and E° in 
 Kgs., is by no meaijs the creation of the D school, as the occurrences 
 in 1 Sam. and 2 Sam. show ; while No. 5, which is doubtfully 
 assigned to W'^, is paralleled merely by the single occurrence from 
 R° in Kgs., and no weight can be laid upon the connexion. 
 Evidence thus surely indicates that the main editor of Judg. did 
 his work under the influence of E^ prior to the promulgation of D ; 
 such connexion with D as he exhibits being due to the fact that he 
 contributes to the stream of prophetic thought which resulted 
 ultimately in the latter work. Some traces of the work of a genuine 
 Deuteronomic hand are to be found in the introductory section to 
 Judg. (cf. 2 I2.i4b^.i6.i8.i9^ 3 ia,.3^ marked as D^) ; but these are clearly 
 distinct from, and later than, the work of W^ (cf. p. 55). 
 
 It is clear that R"^^, though the principal editor of Judg. as we 
 know the book, was not the first editor who brought together the old 
 narratives of J and E and combined them into a continuous whole. 
 The story of Abimelech, ch. 9 1-*^, which was known to R^^ and 
 omitted by him from his work as alien to his purpose, was already 
 a composite narrative, containing elements from the two ancient 
 sources (cf. pp. 267 f.) ; and the same is true at any rate of the 
 story of Micah and the Danites, chs. 17-18, which undoubtedly 
 belonged to the original history of the period of the Judges, though 
 it was not utilized by R^2_ Wg must conclude, therefore, that there 
 existed a composite history of the Judges prior to the work of E"^^ ; 
 and since we have found reason to believe that the double strand of 
 ancient narrative in Judg. is of a piece with JE in the Hexateuch 
 (cf. § 3), it is natural to assume that J and E in Judg. were first 
 brought together as part of a continuous history of the origins of 
 Israel by the redactor of the same sources in the Hexateuch, R^"^. 
 The handiwork of this redactor is also to be traced in the combina- 
 tion of the two strands in 1 Sam. 1-12, which doubtless originally 
 formed the concluding part of the history of the period of the 
 Judges. 
 
 Traces of R-"^, as we find them in Judg., are for the most part 
 harmonistic merely,* and he does not seem to have been dominated 
 by any definite pragmatic purpose akin to that of R'^^. Whether 
 he set the narratives of individual Judges in a stereotyped frame- 
 work is doubtful. It may be noticed, however, that the closing 
 formula in the narratives of Jephthah (12''') and Samson (16 ^i''), 
 ' And he judged Israel x years,' occurs in the same form at the close 
 of the judgeship of 'Eli, 1 Sam. 4 1^*" (cf. also of Samuel, 1 Sam. 7 1^), 
 and is therefore presumably prior to R''^ (whose regular concluding 
 formula is 'and the land had rest x years'); while, on the other 
 
 * Cf. references in Index to K^e under ' Redactors of Judges,' 
 d 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 land, the fact that the statement generalizes the scope of tEe 
 Tudges' influence (oter Israel, and not merely over one or more 
 ribes) is an indication that it is later than the old narratives them- 
 elves, and therefore in all probability redactional.* 
 
 The date of the redaction of Judg. can only be approximately 
 letermined. E^ which exhibits strongly the influence of Hosea', 
 nust be subsequent to that prophet, who flourished cir. B.C. 750-735, 
 )Ut not necessarily very long subsequent. It is reasonable to 
 luppose that R'"^ may have done his work of combining J and E 
 including E^) dr. B.C. 700 or a little later. R^^ may then be 
 Dlaced CM-. B.C. 650. The book took its final form at the hands of 
 ;he editor (or school of editors) imbued with the priestly concep- 
 iions of post-exilic times, for whose work we use the symbol R"". 
 The extent of R'''s work has been sufficiently indicated in the final 
 paragraph of § 2. Of. also references in the Index under ' Redactors 
 3f Judges.' 
 
 § 5. Chronology. 
 
 In attempting to estimate the length of the period covered by 
 iihe Book of Judg. we turn naturally to examine the chronological 
 lata supplied by the editors, which may seem at first sight to afford 
 as an exact basis for our calculations. Unfortunately, however, 
 this is not the case. 
 
 In 1 Kgs. 6 1 we find a statement from the hand of the priestly 
 reviser of the book \ that the period from the Exodus until the 
 building of the Temple in the fourth year of Solomon was 480 
 years. Addition of the data which we possess for this period gives 
 the following result : — 
 
 Wanderings in the wilderness, ... 40 years. 
 
 Conquest under Joshua", .... Not stated. 
 Oppression of Cushan-rish'athaim (3 ^), . . 8 years. 
 
 Interval after deliverance by ' Othniel (3 "), . 40 „ 
 
 Oppression of 'Eglon (3 1*), . . . . 18 „ 
 
 * A difference is to be discerned in tlie use' of mphat. 'to judge,' mphet 'judge' by 
 EESandRJE. For RE2 a 'judge' is so termed as a vindicator or deliverer (cf.cJi. 
 2 I6.i7.i8j 3 10) ; but in tlie passages above noticed whicli we assign to RJ^ ' to judge ' 
 means simply to exercise the judicial functions of a magistrate or ruler. This latter 
 usage is also found in the mention of the periods covered by the minor Judges 
 {ch. 102-3, 129.11.14), -where Rp seems to have copied the formula of RJE, since it is 
 scarcely possible that the brief notices of these Judges, the whole conception of which 
 belongs to the .post-exilic school of thought, should have existed in R™'s Book of 
 Judges (cf. pp. 289 f.). We assign to RE2 the notice of ch. 1520, which states that 
 Samson 'judged Israel . . . twenty years ' ; but this simply means that RBS, when he 
 deliberately rejected the Samson-stories which now stand in ch. 16, concluded his 
 narrative with W^'s formula which we find in ch. 1631''. 
 
 J Evidence is conclusive that the verse in question belongs to the latest addition! 
 to Kings. Gt NHTK. pp. 5Si. . 
 
80 
 
 years. 
 
 20 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 Not stated 
 
 
 jj 
 
 40 
 
 years. 
 
 4 
 
 i) 
 
 CHRONOLOGY 
 
 Interval after deliverance by Ehud (3 ^o), 
 
 Oppression of Jabin (4 ^), . 
 
 Interval after deliverance by Deborah (5 ^i), 
 
 Oppression of Midian (6 ^), . 
 
 Interval after deliverance by Gide'on (8 ^s), 
 
 Reign of Abimelech (9 22), . 
 
 Tola's judgeship (10 2), . 
 
 Ja'ir's judgeship (10 ^), . 
 
 Oppression of 'Ammon (10 ^), 
 
 Jephthah's judgeship (12^), . 
 
 Ibsan's judgeship (12 '), 
 
 Elon's judgeship (12"), 
 
 'Abdon's judgeship (12"), 
 
 Oppression of the Philistines (13 ^), 
 
 Samson's judgeship (15 «», 16 s'), . 
 
 'Eli's judgeship (1 Sam. 4^^), 
 
 Samuel's judgeship. 
 
 Reign of Saul, .... 
 
 Reign of David (1 Kgs. 2 "), 
 
 Portion of Solomon's reign (1 Kgs. 6 i), 
 
 Here we have a total of 534 years, exclusive of three periods of 
 unstated length, representing the domination of Joshua', Samuel, 
 and Saul. 
 
 As regards the first of these indefinite periods — we find that, at 
 the beginning of the wilderness-wanderings, Joshua' first appears 
 in the old narrative of E, Ex. 17*'^-, as the leader of Israel in the 
 battle with the 'Amalekites at Rephidim, and subsequently, in 
 the same E narrative, as Moses' attendant (cf. Ex. 24 ^^, 32 i', 33 "), 
 being described in 33 1^ by the Hebrew term na'ar which can 
 hardly denote more than a youth approaching man's estate. If we 
 are justified in combining these two representations — a warrior, 
 and yet a very young man — we may picture him as about 20 years 
 old at the time of the Exodus ; and adding to this the 40 years of 
 the wanderings,- we get an approximate 60 years; which, sub- 
 tracted from his age at his death, 110 years (Josh. 24 2'' = Judg. 28E), 
 gives 50 years as the period of his leadership in the conquest of 
 Cana'an. According to ch. 2 'i", however, a further period of 
 indefinite length has to be assumed between the death of Joshua' 
 and the oppression of Cushan-rish'athaim ; since we are here 
 informed that Israel remained faithful all the days of the elders 
 that outlived Joshua', and apostasy only began after the death of 
 the latter. 
 
 The length of Samuel's judgeship must have been considerable. 
 According to 1 Sam. 7 ^^, ' he judged Israel all the days of his life ' ; 
 and it was not until he was an old man that he appointed his sons 
 in his place, and their mismanagement of aflTairs led to the demand 
 for a king (1 Sam. 8^^'-, probably E'^). We have no data, however, 
 
i! iNtRODOCtlON 
 
 or forming an approximate estimate of the duration of this judge- 
 hip ; and, similarly, we are unable to arrive at the length of Saul's 
 eign by any reference, direct or indirect, in the 0. T. Such a 
 lote of time was desiderated by the scribe who added the gloss 
 rhich stands in 1 Sam. 13i, framed upon the analogy of the 
 ecurring formula in Kgs. : — 'Saul was x years old when he began 
 o reign, and he reigned y years over Israel.'* 
 
 If we add 50 years for Joshua"s judgeship to the 534 years, the 
 esult is 584 years, without reckoning the two (or, if we take 
 ,ccount of dh. 2 'i", thre,e) periods of undetermined length, which, 
 ipoft the lowest computation, can scarcely have amounted together 
 o much less than 50 or 60 years. J This is far too long to have 
 ormed the basis for the calculation of 480 years for the period 
 ;iven in 1 Kgs. 6 ^ Yet it is probable that the author of this late 
 .ddition to Kgs. had precisely the same data as we now possess. 
 
 'Y:\\k^WQ\A&.%(U'nteriudhungenzurKntikAe&A. T., 1869, pp. 173 ff,) 
 upposes that the calculator followed the oriental practice of ignor- 
 ng periods of oppression and usurpation, and so cut out of his 
 eckoning the periods during which Israel is said to have served 
 ;!ushan-rish athaim, 'Eglon, Jabin, Midian, 'Ammon, the Philistines, 
 ,nd the reign of Abimelech — in all a total of 114 years. § Sub- 
 racting this from the 534, and allowing 40 years (evenly or 
 inevenly divided) for Joshua' and Saul, and 20 for Samuel, Noldeke 
 eaches the total of 480 years. 
 
 Moore [Gomm. xli. f.) agrees with Noldeke in his omissions ; but 
 [iffers in thinking that, for the Judaean author of the chronology, 
 he rule of Saul, like that of Abimelech, was regarded as illegiti- 
 aate and so not reckoned ; and that for 'Eli's judgeship we should 
 ollow ffi rather than J^, and read 20 years and not 40 years. 
 ?hen, upon the supposition that Joshua"s life fell into three periods 
 
 * The formula as it stands in K is simply a slf eleton, both of the requisite numhers 
 eing omitted, as in the rendering given above. The word TlB'l is probably corrupt 
 ittography of the following D''3{}' ' years ' ; and we are scarcely justified in render- 
 ag 'a and two years,' since this would require njtj' D'PlB'-l 
 
 t The history of "Eli's family during the periods of Samuel and Saul requires a 
 onsiderable lapse of time. The death of 'Eli synchronizes with the death of his son 
 'hinehas in the battle of Aphek (1 Sam. 4). Since Phinehas.was still an able-bodied 
 aan, his son Ahitub must have been a young man at most at this date. Yet aocord- 
 Qg to 1 Sam. 143, it jg Ahitub's son Ahijah (apparently=Ahimelech of ch. 22") who 
 5 priest in the early or middle part of Saul's reign ; and at the slaughter of the priests 
 f Nob, Abiathar, the son of Abimelech and grandson of Ahitub, escapes to David 
 arrying the Ephod with him, and is old enough to exercise the priestly office on 
 )avid's behalf by manipulation of the sacred lot. 
 
 § Wellh. (Prolegomena, p. 230) has noted the striking fact that, after making the 
 ecessary assumption that the 40 years of Philistine domination coincide with the 
 udgeship of -Eli, and include that of Samson, the total of the remaining foreign 
 lominations, viz. , 71 years, nearly coincides with the total assigned to the miflor 
 fudges, viz. , 70 years ; and he infers that the latter were intended to take the place of 
 he former in the scheme of reckoning. 
 
CHRONOLOGY liii 
 
 of 30 + 40 + 40 years, he assigns 40 years for the conquest of Carta'an 
 under Joshua' ; and gives 40 years for Samuel's judgeship on the 
 ground of the importance of his -work, and the fact that he is 
 represented as an old man when he died, and is said to have 
 'judged Israel all the days of his life.' This produces the required 
 total of 480 years. 
 
 These and similar calculations can only, however, possess a 
 relative importance ; since it is evident that the author of the 
 statement in 1 Kgs. 6 1 must have been employing an artificial 
 method of reckoning. We know that the Exodus probably took 
 place under Mineptah, the successor of Ea'messe II. (cf. p. civ) ; 
 and, on the other hand, we are able, .by aid of Assyrian 
 chronology, to determine approximately the date of Solomon's 
 accession.* These data force upon us the conclusion that the 
 period which we are considering cannot really have occupied much 
 more than 250 years; or possibly, if the Exodus took place not 
 under Mineptah, but subsequently to his death, an even shorter 
 space of time. 
 
 Evidence also leads us to conclude that the instances of the oppres- 
 sion of the Israelites by various foreign races, and of deliverance and 
 respite effected by the Judges, were in most, if not in all, cases, 
 local rather than general. Thus, supposing that the terms of years 
 mentioned are based upon accurate information, it is highly probable 
 that they not infrequently coincide with or overlap one another. 
 Thus, e.g., the south Palestinian tribes may have been suffering 
 from the oppression of the Philistines while the east Jordan tribes 
 were exposed to the encroachments of the "Ammonites. The period 
 
 * Mineptah's reign is dated by Petrie B.C. 1234-1214, and by Breasted B.C. 1225- 
 1215. Solomon's accession must be placed cir. B.C. 970. This latter date is obtained 
 by back -reckoning from the earliest O.T. date fixed by Assyrian chronology, viz. 
 B.C. 834, the date of Ahab's presence at the battle of Karkar in alliance with Bir-idri 
 of Damascus, the Biblical Ben-Hadad ii. Ahab is most likely to have been allied 
 with Ben-Hadad at the end of his reign, when, as we are informed by 1 Kgs. 22', 
 after the treaty concluded between the two kings as related in 1 Kgs. 20S3-34, 'there 
 continued three years without war between Aram and Israel.' It may be plausibly 
 assumed that this period of three years was really less. 1 Kgs. 22 2 states that ' in the 
 third year' Ahab determined to recover by force of arms from Ben-Hadad the city of 
 Ramah of Gile'ad which he had failed to cede in accordance with his compact. It 
 is not unlikely that the first of the three years as reckoned was really the remnant of 
 the year which elapsed after the treaty of 20 33'-, so that there remains only one full 
 year for the working of the alliance in the form of a combined resistance to Assyria. 
 Now Ahab reigned 22 years according to the Biblical reckoning ; therefore 854 must 
 have been his 2l8t year, 853 according to the predating method (i.e. the reckoning of 
 the still unexpired portion of the year in which a king came to the throne as his first 
 reigning year) being his 22nd year and also the 1st year of Ahaziah. Back-reckoning 
 from B.C. 854 according to the chronology of 1 Kgs., with reduction of the length of 
 each reign by one year to allow for predating (which comparison of the synchronisms 
 of the reigns of the two kingdoms proves to have been the historian's method of 
 reckoning) gives B.C. 931 for the accession of Jerobo'am and Eehobo'am, and B.C. 970 
 for the accession of Solomon whose reign is given as lasting 40 years. 
 
iv INTRODUCTION 
 
 )f the Philistine oppression extended not merely over the judgeship 
 )f Samson, but also over that of 'Eli; and, at any rate partially, 
 nto the periods of Samuel and Saul. Possibly Samson and 'Eli 
 nay have been contemporaries. This is a consideration which by 
 tself suggests to us the futility of any attempt to construct a 
 ihronology of the period upon the evidence which we possess.' 
 
 But are the data given in the Biblical sources to be relied upon 
 ts defining with accuracy the various periods to which they are 
 •eferred 1 The fact can scarcely escape notice that the number 40 
 )r its multiple occurs with singular frequency. Thus, 40 years 
 ■epresents the length of the wilderness-wanderings, of the peace 
 mjoyed after the victories of 'Othniel, Deborah, and Gide'on, of the 
 Philistine oppression, of 'Eli's judgeship, and of the reigns of David 
 md Solomon. Ehud's judgeship occupies twice 40 years, and that 
 )f Samson half 40. This fact suggests to us that 40 years may be 
 jmployed as a round number, representing approximately the 
 ength of a generation. Bearing this in mind, we notice that the 
 t80 years of 1 Kgs. B^ is also a multiple of 40, viz. 40x12, i.«. 
 ;welve generations. That twelve generations were supposed, as a 
 natter of fact, to cover the period in question appears from the 
 genealogy of Aaron and his successors in 1 Chr. 6^"^° (^ 5^^-^'), 
 ivhere twelve names are given between Ele'azar the son of Aaron 
 md 'Azariah, who is specified as ' he that executed the priest's 
 )ffice in the House that Solomon built in Jerusalem.' These twelve 
 generations might naturally be reckoned as follows : (1) Moses, 
 '2) Joshua, (3) 'Othniel, (4) Ehud, (5) Barak, (6) Gide'on, (7) Jeph- 
 ihah, (8) Samson, (9) "Eli, (10) Samuel, (11) Saul, (12) David, these 
 jeing the twelve national leaders who were specifically divinely- 
 ippointed ; and that this scheme — or something like it — was in the 
 nind of the chronologist is suggested by the facts that six of these 
 generations (viz. 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12) are actually reckoned as 40 years, 
 md a seventh, viz. Joshua', may also have been so reckoned if we 
 iuppose that his 110 years fell into periods of 30 + 40 + 40 years. 
 5uch a scheme, however, if it was ever fully worked out, may have 
 seen subsequently vitiated by various influences, e.g. the desire to 
 sxclude Saul as illegitimate, and the raising of the number of 
 ludges within the Book of Judges to twelve by the addition of the 
 ninor Judges in an attempt to find representatives for each of the 
 iwelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 This discussion may suffice to illustrate the hopelessness of any 
 ittempt to construct a chronology of our period from the Biblical 
 sources available. We can only, as we have already noticed, 
 conjecture that the total length of the period from the Exodus to 
 }he fourth year of Solomon was approximately 250 years ; but for 
 the formation of a chronological scheme within this period, or even 
 for a conjectural estimate of the length of that portion of it which 
 is covered by the Book of Judges, we are absolutely without data. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Iv 
 
 § 6. External infonnation bearing on the period of Judges. 
 
 Our knowledge of the history of Canaan at this period, as 
 derived from extra-Biblical sources, is for the most part such as 
 can be drawn by inference from evidence which properly concerns 
 an earlier period. 
 
 We possess no certain evidence as to the earliest settlement of 
 Semitic peoples in Canaan. The earliest Semites of whom we have 
 authentic knowledge in Babylonia were settled in Akkad in the 
 north. The recently published dynastic lists from Nippur prove 
 the existence of an early tradition relating to a succession of 
 dynasties in Babylonia from post-diluvial times, which had their 
 seats at Kis, Erech, Ur, Awan, and other cities.* There is obvi- 
 ously a large element of myth in the tradition ; { but, if we may 
 judge from the royal names that are preserved, it would seem that 
 the earliest rulers of Ki§, Erech, and IJr were non-Semitic. Unfor- 
 tunately, the Ksts are too fragmentary to admit of any estimate of 
 the date at which Semites made their appearance in Babylonia. 
 We first find them enjoying full political power in the north, under 
 the famous Semitic dynasty of Akkad, which was founded by 
 §arru-kin or Sargon i.,§ around whose name a number of traditions 
 clustered in later times. It is related that ' he subdued the country 
 of the West (sun-setting) in its full extent,' || i.e. the Mediterranean 
 sea-board including Cana'an ; and this tradition has now been 
 proved to have an authentic basis. H Other famous rulers of the 
 
 * Cf. Poebel, Historical Texts {Univ. of Pennsylvania Mus. Publ., Vol. iv. No. 1, 
 1914), pp. 73 ff. 
 
 . X Id addition to the occurrence of the names of gods and demigods among the early 
 rulers, the chronological calculations of the early scribes of Nisin, who compiled the 
 lists in the twenty-second century B.C. , present a striking resemblance to the chrono- 
 logical system of Berossus with its mythical and semi-mythical dynasties : cf. King, 
 Bai. p. 114, ml; pp. 116 f., n^. 
 
 § The name Sargon is the Biblical form (used in Isa. 20 » of the Assyrian king of 
 the 8tb century B.C.) of the Babylonian name Sarru-ukin or Sarru-kin. A not quite 
 complete list of the early Semitic rulers of Akkad (and of other Babylonian dynasties) 
 was published by Scheil, Comptes rendus de I' Acad, des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres, 
 1911 (Oct.), pp. 606 ff., and Revue d'Assyr., ix. p. 69. This document proves the 
 correctness of the Neo-Babylonian tradition that Sarru-kin, or Sargon, was the 
 founder of the Dynasty of Akkad. It used to be assumed that he and two other 
 early Semitic rulers were kings of Ki5, on the strength of the title for KIS which 
 they bear in their inscriptions ; but it is now clear that this should always be read 
 iarkiUati, 'king of the world,' a title to which they laid claim in virtue of their 
 power as kings of the dynasty of Akkad (cf. King, Britannica Year-Booh, 1913, pp. 
 256 ff.). The powerful king Sar-Gani-garri (or Sar-Gali-Sarri), with whom Sargon I. 
 used to be identified, was not the founder, but a later ruler, of the Dynasty of Akkad. 
 
 II For the inscription, cf. King, Ghron. ii. pp. 3 ff. ; Rogers, GP. pp. 203 ff. ; TB. i. 
 pp. 105 ff, 
 
 IT Cf. the highly important series of inscriptions of kings of .Agade (Akkad) recently 
 published by Poebel (np. cit. ch. vi.). In one of these Sargon, in ascribing his con- 
 quests to the god Enlil, says, ' and he gave him the upper land, Mari, Yarmuti, and 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 same dynasty were NarAm-Sin,* and Sar-Gani-Sarri, who was pro- 
 Dably his grandson. We have contemporary evidence of the activity 
 3f the latter in Amurru or the West-land. I 
 
 While Akkad in the north of Babylonia was thus dominated by 
 Semites, Sumer in the south was still occupied by the people who 
 ire known to us, from their habitat, as Sumerians ; a non-Semitic 
 ■ace possessing an advanced civilization, to which the Semites who 
 succeeded them owed an incalculable debt. The date at which the 
 Semites gained the ascendancy in Akkad is a matter of uncertainty. 
 [t may have been at some time in the fourth millennium B.C. ; and 
 vas at any rate not later than the earlier decades of the third 
 nillennium.§ 
 
 The early common home of the Semites, prior to their dispersion 
 iroughout western Asia, was probably central Arabia ;|| and the 
 act that the iirst Semites who are known to us as occupying Baby- 
 onia are found to be settled in the north and not in the south, 
 ends colour to the theory that they may represent a wave of 
 Semitic immigration into Babylonia which first entered the country 
 lot from the south but from the north-west. H If this was so, these 
 Semites, after quitting their early home, may have first traversed 
 ]ana'an and northern Syria, leaving in all probability settlements 
 
 bla, as far as the cedar-forest and the silver mountains. Unto Sarru-kin, the king, 
 lulil did not give an adversary' (pp. 177 S.]. Here 'the upper laud' is the West- 
 md, so-called, apparently, as reached by going up the Euphrates. Poebel adduces 
 sasons for taking ' the cedar-forest ' to he the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and ' the 
 Iver mountains ' the Taurus (cf . pp. 222 fl. ). 
 
 * According to the Neo-Babylonian tradition, Narlm-Sin was the son of Sargon. 
 his is possible ; but it may be noted that two other members of the house probably 
 Gcupied the throne between Sargon and Naram-Sin ; and if so, eighty or ninety years 
 iparated Nar^m-Sin's accession from that of his father. 
 
 J A tablet of accounts from Tello is dated ' in the year in which Sar-Gani-Sarri 
 Dnquered Amurru in Basar. ' Cf. King, Sum. and Akk. p. 225. 
 
 § The date which was formerly accepted by scholars is that which is given by 
 Tabonidus, the last king of Babylon (B.C. 550), who states that, when digging in the 
 )undations of the temple of the sun-god at Sippar, he discovered the foundation- 
 lemorial which had been laid by Nar^m-Sin 3200 years previously (for the inscrip- 
 on, cf. KB. iii. 2, pp. 102 ff.). This would place NarSm-Sin's date B.C. 3750. 
 [odern investigation, however, has tended to discredit Nabonidus' statement ; and 
 longh the redaction of a thousand years or more which at one time was suggested 
 
 doubtless too drastic (cf. the discussion in Rogers, HBA.^ i. pp. 494 ff.), it is quite 
 ossible that Nabonidus' calculation is a good deal too high (resulting, it may be, in 
 art from the reckoning of early contemporaneous dynasties as though they were 
 jnsecutive). Indeed, the evidence of the recently-discovered dynastic lists has been 
 iterpreted by King as supporting the view which would place Sargon's accession not 
 ) very much before the end of the fourth millennium B.C. But, in the present very 
 artial state of excavation in Babylonia, it is possible that we may still be totally 
 ninformed with regard to a period of considerable length in these early times. 
 
 II For a summary of the views which have been put forward on this subject, and 
 le authorities who support them, cf. Barton, Semitic Origins, pp 1 S. ; Rogers, 
 tBA.^i. pp. 462 f. 
 
 H Cf. King, Siian. and Akk. p. 65. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ivii 
 
 in these districts in their wake ; or they may have come up from 
 Arabia along the western bank of the Euphrates, where in later 
 times we find settlements of Aramaeans, and may have left the 
 further west, including Cana "an, wholly untouched.* 
 
 Be this as it may, we cannot point to a period, within the range 
 of our historical knowledge, when Canaan was unoccupied by a 
 Semitic population. Excavation of ancient sites in Palestine has 
 revealed the fact that the earliest inhabitants were neolithic cave- 
 dwellers who burned their dead, and who were therefore probably 
 non-Semitic ; I but how long this race continued to occupy the 
 country cannot be estimated with any approach to certainty. § 
 
 We stand on surer ground in speaking of a later wave of Semitic 
 migration northwards and westwards from Arabia, which founded 
 
 * Evidence is lacking in justification of any definite theory as to the approximate 
 date of the earliest migrations of the Semites northward and westward. The use of 
 the Semitic Babylonian language in the inscriptions of the early rulers of Akkad 
 implies the lapse of a period of indefinite length (probably many centuries) since the 
 first departure of their ancestors from Arabia, to allow for the development of this 
 language. We may contrast, in this respect, the later immigration into Babylonia of 
 the 'Amorites' who founded the First Dynasty of Babylon (cf. pp. Iviii fi".); the West 
 Semitic language spoken by these immigrants (as evidenced by their proper names), 
 with its Arabian affinities, implying a much less remote separation from the parent- 
 stock. An interesting point in connexion with the earliest settlement of Semites in 
 Babylonia, is the fact that the closely shaven Sumerians always represent their 
 deities as bearded, and therefore, apparently, as Semites (cf. figures in King, Sum. 
 ondAkk. pp. 47 f. ; Hall, NE. plate xiv. p. '204). The significance of this fact is 
 as yet unelucidated ; but the theory (put forward by Ed. Meyer, Semiten und 
 Swmerier ; Abhandl. d. k. p. Akad., 1906) is somewhat plausible that these Sumerian 
 deities may have been Semitic in origin, and that there may therefore have been a 
 Semitic population in Babylonia even prior to the coming of the Sumerians. This 
 theory is criticized by King, Sum. and Akk. pp. 47 ff. ; and favoured by Jastrow, 
 Heb. and Bab. Traditions, pp. 8 f . A further fact which admits of no doubt is the 
 ultimate linguistic connexion between Sumerian and many of the primitive biliterals 
 which can be proved to underlie Semitic triliteral roots (cf. Ball, Semitic and Sumerian 
 in HUprecht Anniversary Volume ; Shumer and Shem in Proceedings of the British 
 Academy, 1915). This must carry back the connexion between Sumerians and 
 Semites to a hoary antiquity ; but the study of the subject is not at present suffi- 
 ciently advanced to admit of any theory in explanation. 
 
 X Cf. Vincent, Canaan, pp. 73 ff., 208 ff. 
 
 § The primitive inhabitants of the hill-country of Se'ir, to the south of Cana'an, 
 who were dispossessed by the children of 'Esau, are called SSrim in Deut. 2 '^ 22 
 (of. Gen. 14 ', 26 ^o-*)) ; and the view has frequently been advocated that this name is 
 connected with Heb. Mr 'hole,' and denotes 'Troglodytes' or 'cave-dwellers' ; but 
 this is highly precarious. Jilore probably HMm is to be connected with the name 
 garu, which was a designation applied by the Egyptians to a portion of southern 
 Palestine. Cf. Mtiller, AE. pp. 137, 148 if,, 240 ; Jensen, ZA. x. pp. 332 f., 346 f.; 
 Hommel, AHT. p. 264, n^; Paton, Syria and Palestine, p. 37; Meyer, IJY. pp. 
 330 f. ; GA.' I. 2, p. 600 ; Kit, GVI.^ i. p. 36 ; Lehmann-Haupt, Israel, p. 37, al. 
 Connexion of UMm and flaru with garri= Aryans, proposed by Winckler, MDOO. 
 XXXV. pp. 49 ft'., and adopted by GemoU, Orundsteine zur Oeschichte Israels, p. 17, is 
 very improbable. Cf. Meyer, OA.^ I. 2, p. 601 ; Kit., OF/.2 i. pp. 37 f. The Horite 
 genealogies in Gen. 36 ^o-so consist of Semitic names. 
 
Iviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 a dynasty at Babylon, and was also responsible for peopling the 
 region to the west of the Euphrates, including the Mediterranean 
 sea-board, with a race who were doubtless the ancestors of the 
 Amorites of Biblical times.* 
 
 The First Babylonian Dynasty, which probably lasted from ck. 
 B.C. 2225 to 1926, t consisted of eleven kings. The fourth and fifth 
 of these kings bear good Semitic Babylonian names, Apil-Sin ('son 
 of Sin,' the moon-god) and Sin-muballit (' Sin gives life ') ; but the 
 remaining names are foreign, and present close analogies to Arabic 
 and Hebrew. Thus three of them, Hammurabi or Ammurahi, 
 Ammiditana, and Ammizaduga, contain the element Ammu or Ammi 
 which is familiar to us from its occurrence in Arabic and Hebrew. 
 Cases of its occurrence in Hebrew proper names are 'Ammi'el, 
 'Ammihud, 'Ammizabad, 'Amminadab, 'Ammishaddai, and perhaps 
 'Amram. The meaning of this 'amm in Arabic is 'paternal uncle'; 
 in Hebrew perhaps more generally 'kinsman' (on the father's 
 side), since the term is used in the plural in the expression 
 Vsy'liX *lpS'|1 'and he was gathered to his kinsmen,' Gen. 25*, oZ.§ 
 
 If proof were needed that these ^TO7?i«-names were foreign to the 
 Babylonians, it would be found in the fact that a list exists in 
 which a Babylonian scribe has explained the names Hammurabi and 
 Ammizaduga by what seemed to him to be their Babylonian equi- 
 valents ; the former by Kimta rapastum, ' a widely-extended kindred,' 
 
 * We say 'Amorites' because they are thus described ('men of the land of 
 Amurru ') by the Babylonians (of. p. lix) ; but the use of this term does not imply 
 the holding of any theory as to a racial distinction between 'Amorites' and 
 'Cana'anites ' (such e.g. as that the Cana'anites were in origin the earliest Semitic 
 settlers in Syria-Palestine, prior to the coming of the Amorites). Since the name 
 Amurru applied to Syria-Palestine is certainly older than the flowing into this region 
 of the Semitic wave of which we are speaking (cf. Bohl, KJff. p. 33), the name 
 ' Amorite ' would be equally suitable to the (assumed) earlier Semitic population 
 inhabiting it. We are wholly in the dark as to the original racial distinction (if such 
 existed) between Cana'anite and Amorite ; and speculations on the subject are of the 
 nature of guess-work pure and simple. On the geographical and literary distinctions 
 in the usage of the two terms, cf. p. 3 (O.T. ), p. 41 (extra-Biblical). 
 
 J This reckoning results from King's discovery that the so-called ' Second ' Bahy- 
 lonian Dynasty (of ' the Country of the Sea,' i.e. Lower Babylonia), which lasted three 
 hundred and sixty-eight years, was partly contemporary with the First Dynasty and 
 partly with the Third (KagSite) Dynasty : of. Ohron. i. pp. 93-113. Previously, the 
 three dynasties had been assumed to have been successive, and the beginning of the 
 First Dynasty was placed dr. B.C. 2440. In view of this new evidence, King assumed, 
 as the most probable conclusion, that the Third Dynasty immediately succeeded the 
 First (cf. op. cii. pp. 136 f. ; followed by Meyer, GA.^ I. ii. pp. 341 ff. ; Hall, NM. 
 pp. 28, 192 S.), and so dated the First Dynasty B.C. 2060 to 1761. Now, however, 
 in the light of further evidence, he concludes (as already conjectured by Ungnad, 
 ZDMG. Ixi. pp. 714 ff., and Thureau-Dangin, ZA. xxi. pp. 176 ff.) that the Second 
 Dynasty, though partly contemporary with the First and the Third, yet dominated 
 Babylonia for a period of about one hundred and sixty years. Cf. the full chrono- 
 logical discussion in Bab. ch. iii. 
 
 § 0n'4mmi-names in Semitic, cf. Gray, EB. 138 ff. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD lix 
 
 and the latter by Kimium Tcettum 'a just kindred.'* More pro- 
 bably the names really contain a predicative statement : — Hammur- 
 abi, 'the (divine) kinsman is great,' AmmizadUga, ' the^(divine) 
 kinsman is just.' Both names, so far as the form is concerned, 
 might have occurred in Hebrew, the former as 'Ammirab or 'Amrab, 
 the later as 'Ammisadok. X 
 
 Space forbids our examining in detail the remaining names of 
 this dynasty ; but we may notice in passing that Abi-eshu' (the 
 name of the eighth king) is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew 
 Abishua', and that in the seventh name Samsu-iluna, ' Samsu is our 
 god,' we have the Arabic form of the suffix of the 1st plural in 
 ihina, the Babylonian form being iluni. The second name Sumu- 
 la-ilu, is only satisfactorily to be explained from Arabic, the la, as 
 in Arabic, giving emphasis to the predicative statement — ' The 
 Name (Kar' i^oxqv) indeed is god.' 
 
 In addition to the evidence afforded by these king-names, we 
 have abundant evidence in the proper names contained in the 
 documents belonging to this dynastic period, which proves the 
 influx into Babylonia of a very large foreign element. § Many of 
 these display the same characteristics as we have found in the king- 
 names — a close resemblance to Hebrew, and more particularly to 
 Arabic; especially to the forms of southern Arabic which are 
 known to us from inscriptions (Minaean and Sabaean). || 
 
 The question which we now have to ask is. Who were these 
 foreign immigrants, and from what region did they enter Babylonia % 
 There exists a tablet belonging to the reign of Zabum (the third 
 king of the dynasty) which deals with a dispute between two con- 
 tending parties about a certain piece of property. In this docu- 
 ment the names are of the characteristically foreign type of which 
 we have been speaking, and they are described as ' men as well as 
 women, children of Amurru ' {istu zikarim adi sinnistum m&ri A-mur- 
 ru-um).^ The Babylonian name Amurru ( = Sumerian MAE.TU, 
 ' West-land ') was applied by the Babylonians to the whole region 
 west of the Euphrates including Syria and Palestine, and bounded 
 on the west by the Mediterranean (cf. Addit. note, p. 41). We 
 infer, therefore, that the First Babylonian Dynasty was founded by 
 foreign conquerors from Amurru, the country to the west of the 
 Euphrates, who entered Babylonia probably from the north-west, 
 just as the earlier wave of 'Semitic immigration appears to have 
 
 * Cf. V. E. 44, col. 1, 11. 21, 22. 
 
 t pTSDJ? is known as a South Arabian name : cf. Ranke, Early Bab. Personal 
 Names, p. 27. According to Weber, the name 31DJJ occurs in a South Arabian 
 inscription: cf. OLZ. x. (1907), 146 ff. ; MVAG., 1907, 2, pp. 95 ff. 
 
 § Cf. Ranke, Marly Bab. Personal Names ; Thureau-Dangin, Leitres et Oontrats de 
 I'Epoque de la Premiire Dynastie Bahylonienne. 
 
 II Cf. Hommel, AHT. ch. iii ; Grundriss, pp. 129 ff. ; Ranke, Early Bab. Personal 
 Names, pp. 27 ff. 
 
 If Cf. Ranke, Early Bab. Personal Names, p. 33. 
 
Ix INTRODUCTION 
 
 done. The presence of two Babylonian names among the foreign 
 names of the other kings is no doubt due to the fact that the 
 immigrant settlers gradually tended to assimilate their language 
 and civilization to the superior civilization into the midst of which 
 they entered. * 
 
 The language spoken by these immigrants, which we have seen 
 to be illustrated by their proper names, has been variously described 
 
 * It is worth while here to call attention to the later prevalence and persistency of 
 the Semitic Babylonian language as proof of the deep-seated influence of the ^rs( 
 Semitic settlement ; just as we have already (p. Ivii, footnote *) called attention to the 
 development of this language as we first know it (in the inscriptions of the early 
 rulers of Akkad), as proof of the long-prior antiquity of the separation of this branch 
 of Semites from the parent-stock. Neither of these facts, it may be thought, has 
 received sufficient attention ; and they are most strikingly overlooked by Myres in 
 The Dawn of History— a. little book which, for all its imaginative power and grace of 
 style, is somewhat superficial and unreliable when dealing with /acis as they concern 
 Sumerians and Semites [chaps. 4 and 6). It is not ' possible to discover with certainty 
 the period of emigration ' from Arabia (p, 106) of the first Semitic wave which 
 entered Babylonia ; such records as we possess of the dynasty of Akkad do not 
 suggest a recent occupation of the country, nor does it appear that Sargon of 
 Akkad was leader of a horde of ' Mesopotamian nomads' (p. 111). The remarks 
 (p. 106) as to the modifications which produced the different Semitic languages are 
 somewhat obscure, but they certainly seem to suggest that these modifications took 
 place in the course of ages at the fountainhcad, i.e. ex hypothesi in central Arabia (it 
 is difBcult to attach any other meaning to the statements that ' the intervals between ' 
 the successive Semitic migrations from Arabia * have been sufficient to ensure that 
 the characteristics of "Semitic" speech, which is common to all emigrants from 
 Arabia, should have had time to alter slightly,' and that 'these successive groups of 
 dialects retained their peculiarities — and if anything added to them — after their 
 separation from the parent language '), while each offshoot from the parent-stock as it 
 were registered and retained the particular stage of linguistic development which 
 had been reached at the date of its breaking ofi', with such later modifications as 
 are implied by the parenthesis, 'and, if anything, added to them.' If this statement 
 were at all true to fact, then Arabic (whether we call it the latest offshoot or the 
 residuary representative of the parent-language) ought to exhibit the most advanced 
 condition of phonetic decay — whereas it is a commonplace that the reverse is true, 
 and that in many respects this language exhibits the most primitive formations. 
 Clearly the truth is that the parent-stock, owing to its comparative immunity from 
 outside influences ensured by the monotony of the desert, remained in a relatively 
 unmodified condition through incalculable ages ; whereas the offshoots, so soon as 
 through migration they became subject to such influences, underwent a more or less 
 rapid modification. This is the reason why (as already noted, p. Ivii, footnote *) we 
 must conclude that the Semitic Babylonian of the dynasty of Akkad, which is sub- 
 stantially the Semitic Babylonian of later times, indicates that the users of the 
 language, when we first meet with them, had long been separated from the parent- 
 stock ; whereas the language of the Western Semites who founded the First Dynasty 
 of Babylon (as evidenced by their proper names; of. pp. Iviiif.), which exhibits 
 striking resemblances to South Arabian, as known to us some 1500 years and more 
 later, indicates that this branch of Semites, when they come into the light of history, 
 must have left the common home comparatively recently. The influence of environ- 
 ment upon a Semitic language is most strikingly illustrated by Aramaic, which from 
 the accident of its position has experienced the most rapid development (or decay), 
 and has been most receptive of external influences. Lastly, Myres' statement that 
 
EXTERNAL iNFORMAtlON BEARING ON THE t-ERtOD Ixi 
 
 as South Arabian, Cana'anite, Amorite, or West Semitic. Of these 
 titles, the two latter are no doubt the most suitable.* 
 
 It cannot be doubted that this Amorite or West Semitic tongue 
 was the ancestor of the Hebrew language of later times, which, as 
 is well known, was not the speech of the Israelites only, nor shared 
 by them only with other ' Hebrew ' races, which are represented in 
 Genesis as closely related to them — e.g. the Moabites, whom we 
 know from Mesha"s inscription (dr. B.C. 850), to have spoken a 
 language which only differed dialectically from the Hebrew of the 
 Old Testament ; but, as is apparent from the ' Cana'anite glosses ' 
 of the Tell el-Amarna Letters to which we shall shortly refer, 
 and from the Phoenician inscriptions of much later times, was but 
 one form of the common language of at least the southern portion 
 of the Mediterranean sea-board. J This is a fact which seems to be 
 recognized in Isa. 19 ^^, where the Hebrew language is designated 
 as 'the language (lit. "lip") of Canaan.' 
 
 There is evidence which suggests— if it does not certainly prove 
 — that from the time of IJammurabi onwards the First Babylonian 
 Dynasty ruled not only over Babylonia, but also over Amurru.§ 
 The whole of Sin-muballit's reign and a great part of that of 
 Qammurabi were occupied with a long struggle with the Elamites 
 ' for the possession of southern Babylonia.|i Kudur-Mabuk, king of 
 western Elam (Emutbal), having conquered the city of Larsa, 
 installed his sons, Warad-Sin and Eim-Sin, successively as its rulers ; 
 and the power of Elam was gradually extended over the neighbour- 
 ing city-states until it embraced eventually the whole of southern 
 and central Babylonia. It was not until g^ammurabi's thirtieth 
 year that he was able to effect a turn in the tide ; but his success 
 was then so decisive that he not only captured Larsa but even 
 invaded the land of Emutbal and defeated the Elamites upon their 
 own ground. Now we know that the Elamite Kudur-Mabuk styled 
 himself ADDA of Amurru, H just as he styled himself ADDA of 
 Emutbal. Precisely how much the claim to this title implied we 
 are unable to afl&rm ; but, however much or little of an historical 
 element we may find in the much-debated ch. 14 of Gen., it can 
 
 ' the second wave of emigration . . . overflowed and washed out, as it were, what- 
 ever was left of the first ' (p. 113) is seen to be very wide of the truth when we oon- 
 sider that the language of the first wave (Semitic Babylonian) became the dominant 
 language of Babylon and Assyria as long as these kingdoms lasted. 
 
 * ' Amorite ' (or more correctly ' Amnrrite ' : of. p. 168) is a proper designation of 
 the language of Amurru, as also of its people. 
 
 X That Aramaic, which, as known to us from the close of the ninth century B.C. 
 and onwards, -was the speech of the Semitic races inhabiting the more northerly 
 portion of the Mediterranean sea-board (north and north-east of the Lebauons) was 
 also at an earlier period merely a dialectical form of the language of Amurru, Is 
 suggested in the discussion of Addit. Note, pp. 173 ff". 
 
 § Of., on this question, Winckler, AF. i. pp. 143-152. 
 
 II Cf. the detailed account given by King, Bab. pp. 160 fl'. 
 
 IT Cf. i. R, 2, No, 3 ; CT. xxi. 33 ; Rogers, CP. pp. 247 f. 
 
Ixii INTRODUCTION 
 
 hardly be denied that it affords ground for the assumption that 
 Amurru, even as far south as south-eastern Canaan, was at one 
 time under the suzerainty of Elam and subject to a yearly tribute.* 
 After gammurabi's successes and the consolidation of his power, we 
 find him claiming a like suzerainty over Amurru. The Diarbekir- 
 stele, which bears a portrait of him, describes him as ' King of 
 Amurru ' without any further title. Ammiditana, a subsequent 
 king of the same dynasty, is likewise termed ' King of the land of 
 Amurru.' J Hammurabi was not merely a conqueror, but in the 
 best sense an organizer and ruler ; and it is probable that any region 
 over which he claimed the title of ' king ' was not a mere sphere 
 for occasional razzias aimed at the collection of booty and tribute, § 
 but would experience, at least to some extent, the benefits of his 
 good government and civilizing influence. || 
 
 * The name of Chedorla'omar (Kudur-Lagamar), who is represented as leader of 
 the confederation, is genuinely Elamite in formation, though the bearer of it is other- 
 wise unknown (on the supposed discovery of the name, of. King, HammMrahi, i. 
 pp. livf.). The name of the goddess Lagamal occurs fairly frequently in proper 
 names on contract-tablets of the First Dynasty period (so several times on tablets in 
 the library of St. John's College, Oxford ; cf. also Ungnad, Babylonische Briefe, 
 No. 249 ; Beitrage zur Assyr. vi. 5, p. 95). ' Amraphel, King of Shin' ar' is generally 
 accepted as Hammurabi. 'Arioch, King of BUasar' may be Warad-Sin of Larsa, 
 since Warad-Sin might be represented in Sumerian form by ERI.AGU (cf., however, 
 King, Hammurabi, i. pp. xlix ff.). 'Tid'al, king of peoples' (Heb. goyim), may 
 have been a Hittite chieftain. His name has been plausibly connected with Dud- 
 Jialia, a name which is borne in later times by one of the last rulers of the Hittite 
 empire (cf. Sayce's note in Garstang, Hittites, p. 324, re*). The term gSyimnay 
 represent the Bab. umman Manda, i.e. semi-barbarian hordes from the north. On 
 the historical probability of such an alliance as is pictured, cf. King, Bah. p. 159 ; 
 Rogers, HBA.^ ii. pp. 83 f. ; Skinner, Genesis (IGG.), pp. 257 ff. The Larsa 
 Dynastic list recently published by Clay (Miscellaneous Inscriptions in the Yale 
 Babylonian Collection, 1916, pp. 30 ff.), seems to prove that Warad-Sin was con- 
 siderably anterior to gammurabi. 
 
 X Cf. Winckler, AF. i. pp. 144-146 ; King, Hammurabii^'g. 195 f., 207 f. ; Jeremias, 
 OTLAE. i. p. 322 ; Bohl, KH. p. 35. 
 
 § Against the view of Hogarth, The Ancient East, pp. 24 f. 
 
 II The list of cities mentioned in the prologue lo Hammurabi's Code enables us to 
 form an estimate of tlie extent of his empire during the latter years of his reign. It 
 includes the principal religious centres not only of Akkad and of Sumer as far south 
 as Eridu, but stretches northward to Aggur and Nineveh and westward to Aleppo— 
 if, as is generally supposed, this city is to be understood bygallabim (Kl). Both 
 Aleppo and also, probably, 'the settlements on the Euphrates,' which he claims to 
 have subdued, wonld be reckoned as part of Amurru. ' The fact that no more 
 southerly cities of Amurru are enumerated is, it must be confessed, a point which 
 may be advanced against the view which is advocated above. May we, however, 
 explain the omission by the fact that in Amurru, which, as contrasted with Sumer 
 and Akkad, was a comparatively new and uncivilized country, there existed no 
 ancient and celebrated centres of culture, the deities of which Hammurabi was 
 coacerned to propitiate? At any rate ho specially distinguishes the west Semitic 
 deity Dagan as 'his creator' (baniSil). 
 
 A striking example of the influence of the Semitic Babylonian language upon the 
 language of Caua'an (Hebrew), which it is difficult to assign to any other period than 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixiii 
 
 We have, then (it may be assumed), in the First Dynasty of 
 Babylon a dynasty of ' Amorite ' origin, bearing sway both over 
 Babylonia and (from the time of IJammurabi) over Amurru to the 
 west as far as the Mediterranean sea-board. This dynasty, as facts 
 abundantly prove, must have fallen rapidly under the influence of 
 Babylonian civilization. It will be sufficient, in this regard, to 
 allude to the legal Code of Qammurabi, in which the far-reaching 
 and highly-detailed character of the legislation proves (as indeed 
 we know from extraneous evidence) that the great king was not 
 the initiator of the whole system, but embodied earlier elements, 
 many, if not most, of which were doubtless due to Sumerian 
 civilization.* These facts help us to understand two phenomena 
 
 that of the First Babylonian Dynasty, is seen in the uses of the Bab. Permansive (in 
 form identical with the Heb. Perfect) and Praeterite (in form identical with the Heb. 
 Imperfect), as compared respectively with the uses of the Heb. Perfect and Imiiei- 
 fect -mth lodw consecutive. The Bab. Permansive, like* the Heb. Perfect, essentially 
 regards an action as existing apart from any idea of time-relations ; whereas the Bab. 
 Praeterite, like the Heb. Imperfect with wdw consecutive, comes into use as soon as 
 an action can be brought into a time-relation, i. e. can be regarded as springing out 
 of a defined point in time. A good illustration of the two usages in Bab. may be 
 seen in the opening lines of the Creation-epic, where Permansives describe the con- 
 dition of things prior to creation {la nab-Q., la zakrat, la kissura, la Se\ la ^upH, etc.), 
 but Praeterites are employed so soon as the actions of creation begin to take their 
 start out of conditions as defined by the Permansives (so ihikH-ma, ibban<l-ma, etc. ). 
 Since the mode of thought thus defined in language is peculiar to Babylonian and to 
 Hebrew (with which we may group the inscriptions of Mesha' and of Zakir : of. 
 p. 174), and is otherwise unknown in Semitic, it is reasonable to explain the con- 
 nexion as due to the influence of the older civilization upon the younger at a specially 
 formative period in the history of the latter. 
 
 * Cf. e.g. what is known as to the reforms of Urukagina, Sumerian ^a<esi of Lagag, 
 dr. B.C. 2800; King, Sum. and Akk. pp. 178 fl^. The fragment of a Sumerian' code 
 of laws (published by Clay, Miscellaneous Inscriplioiis in the Yale Bab. Coll., 1915, 
 pp. 18 ff. ) also contains instructive evidence upon this point. The fragment preserves 
 nine laws. Two of these, which fix compensation for injury resulting in miscarriage, 
 are condensed in gamraurabi's Code ; the latter also adds other laws on the subject 
 to suit the peculiar conditions of Babylonian society under the First Dynasty. 
 Another law, dealing with compensation for the loss of a hired boat, is amplified to 
 form four laws in the Code. Two of the newly-recovered Sumerian laws, relating 
 to the loss of a hired ox, are practically reproduced in the Code ; while others on 
 unfilial conduct, elopement, and seduction find Semitic Babylonian parallels in 
 certain features, but no precise equivalents. One law, which provides for the pay- 
 ment of his portion to a son who renounces his sonship, and which enacts his sub- 
 sequent legal separation from his parents, is not paralleled in the Code, but, as Clay 
 points out, is strikingly illustrated by the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 16 ". 
 The Samerian Code bears the title 'the law of Nisaba and gani.' Nisaba was 
 patroness of writing, and gani in later periods is described as 'lord of the seal' and 
 ' god of the scribes ' : they may well have been patrons of law under the Sumerians. 
 It is noteworthy that Nisaba is here mentioned before her consort, a fact which 
 suggests that he was a deity of less consideration. The divine name gani occurs 
 in proper names of the Dynasty of Ur and the First Dynasty of Babylon ; and we 
 know of a West Semitic kingdom of gana (later gani) on the middle Euphrates not 
 far from the mouth of the gabfir (cf. King, Bai>. pp. 129 ff.). If the Sumerian god 
 
lx!v INTROGDCflON 
 
 which, in later, times, are very striking : (i) the influence of Babylonian 
 civilization upon Cana an, and, eventually, upon Israel, both in regard 
 to legislation and also to legends and early traditions ; * and (ii) the 
 use of the Babylonian language and the cuneiform script in Syria 
 and Cana'an as a medium of communication in the fourteenth 
 century B.C. (as witnessed by the T.A. Letters), and probably also 
 in later times. | 
 
 The empire of Hammurabi was maintained, on the whole, un- 
 impaired under his son and successor Samsu-iluna. This king, 
 however, experienced considerable trouble in the south, both from 
 the Elamites and also from the people of the Sea-country on the 
 borders of the Persian Gulf, where a ruler named Iluma-ilu appears 
 as the founder of an independent dynasty. After Samsu-iluna 
 the power of the First Dynasty gradually declined. Its fall was 
 hastened, if not actually brought about, by a raid of the Hittites, § 
 an Anatolian people from beyond the Taurus, who now for the 
 first time appear upon the arena of western Asia. || The reins of 
 government in Babylon seem then to have been seized by the 
 dynasty of the Sea-country to which we have already alluded 
 (reckoned as the Second Babylonian Dynasty in the Kings' list ; 
 cf. Footnote \, p. Iviii). This dynasty may be inferred to have been, 
 in the main, Sumerian, perhaps with a certain Semitic admixture. H 
 
 After a lapse of some 160 years the Sea-country rulers were 
 
 gani was ultimately of West Semitic origin— a possibility which these facts seem to 
 suggest, we have recovered a very noteworthy result of Sumerian contact with the 
 west prior to the age of Hammurabi. It should be added that, though the Sumerian 
 Code is undated, both script and contents suggest a rather earlier date than that of 
 the First Dynasty. 
 
 * It does not of course follow that the 'Amorites' were in all respects debtors to 
 the earlier Babylonian civilization, and contributed nothing of their own. Certain 
 elements, both in their civilization and in their traditions, may be, so far as we Icnow, 
 distinctively Amorite in origin. If it were possible to analyse the sources of the 
 traditions which are unmistakeably common in origin to the Babylonians on the one 
 hand and to the Cana'anites and Hebrews on the other, we should, in all probability, 
 distinguish three successive sources from which, in turn, material ha.s been drawn ;— 
 (i) Sumerian, (ii) Semitic Babylonian, (iii) Amorite. Clay, in his book Amwru, the 
 Home of the Northern Semites (1909), seeks to prove that Amurru was the cultural 
 centre of the Northern Semites, and that ' the influence of Babylonian culture upon 
 the peoples of Canaan was almost nil ' (p. 91) ; but this is a paradox. 
 
 t Cf. Hommel, ART. pp. 45 f. 
 
 § A chronicle published by King states that ' against Samsu-ditana the men of the 
 land of gatti < marched >, against the land of Akkad.' King connects this state- 
 ment with the fact that in later years the KaSSite king Agum-Kakrime brought 
 back the images of the god Marduk and his consort Sarpanitum from the Hittite 
 state of gani in northern Syria, and installed them again in the temple of Esagila at 
 Babylon. Cf. Ohron. i. pp. 148 f. ; ii. p, 22. 
 
 II For possibly older references to the Hittites (time of gammurabi) cf. Footnote * 
 on Gen. 14, p. Ixii, and Garstang, Hittites, -p. 323. 
 
 ^\ The names of the first three kings and of the last king are Semitic. While the 
 remaining seven are Sumerian. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixv 
 
 driven out of Babylon by KagSite invaders from the east who 
 founded a new dynasty (the Third Dynasty) which lasted for the 
 long period of 576 years, and is to be dated cir. B.C. 1760-1185. 
 The latter pa,rt of this period is therefore coincident with part of 
 the period covered by the Book of Judg. ; and it is possible that 
 in Judg. 3 ''-ii we may have the echo of a KasSite raid upon the 
 west in which the name of the raiding chieftain has been per- 
 verted by late Jewish ingenuity (cf. p. 64). The fact seems to be 
 established that the Ka§§ites were, in origin, Indo-Germanic ; * 
 but they speedily adapted themselves to the Semitic Babylonian 
 civilization, though their king-names remain, with few exceptions, 
 Kassite throughout the dynastic period. The KaSSite success in 
 conquering Babylon was probably due in large measure to their 
 possession of horses and chariots ;• and the foundation of their 
 dynasty marks the introduction of the horse into Babylonia, and 
 thence very speedily into Syria and Egypt. J 
 
 The domination of Egypt by the Hyksos, and their subsequent 
 expulsion, have an important bearing upon the history of Cana'an 
 at the period of Babylonian history with which we have been 
 dealing. That the Hyksos were Asiatic Semites may be regarded 
 as certain ; but that they were uncivilized nomads pouring into 
 Egypt directly from Arabia is unlikely. If Manetho's explanation 
 of the name Hyksos as 'shepherd-king' (from IIyk='kmg' and 
 «os=' shepherd ') § be approximately correct, || it was probably 
 applied by the Egyptians to the invaders in contempt and derision. 
 The fact that, according to Manetho, the first Hyksos king, Salitis, 
 rebuilt and fortified the city of Avaris in the Delta (probably the 
 modern Tell el-Yahudiyyeh in the WS,dy Tlimilat^) because he 
 
 * Cf. Hall, N£. p. 201. 
 
 t Bab. sisH 'horse,' is regularly written ideographically ANSU. KURRA ; and the 
 accepted conclusion is that this Sumerian equivalent means 'ass of the mountain,' 
 and preserves record of the fact that the horse was introduced into Babylonia from 
 the high-lying steppes of central Asia, across the eastern mountains. Though it is, 
 of course, an elementary fact that ANSU means ' ass,' and that KURRA may mean 
 'mountain,' the analogy of parallel cases in which ANSU is prefixed as a deter- 
 minative before the names of other beasts of burden (the mule and camel) serves to 
 cast doubt upon this explanation, and to suggest that ANSU.KUREA is properly to 
 be understood as 'ass-like animal (i.«. beast of burden) called KURRA.' KUREA 
 is then, in all probability, a foreign name for the horse, introduced into Babylonia 
 together with the animal which bore it. It is tempting to associate the name with 
 Persian ghour, Hindi ghor-khur, Baluchi ghur or ghuran, Kirghi koulan — names 
 which are applied to the onager. The transference of a name from one animal to 
 another of kindred (or even of diverse) species is not without analogy. 
 
 § Cf Jos., 0. Ap. I. 14. 
 
 II On this interpretation sos is probably the Egyptian l^asu, a term applied to the 
 Asiatic Bedawin. Breasted (Hist. Kg. p. 217) objects to this explanation, and 
 suggests that the real meaning of Hyksos is ' ruler of countries ' — a title which Hyan, 
 one of the Hyksos kings, often gives himself on his monuments. Cf. Griffith in 
 PSBA. xix. (1897), pp. 296 f ; W. M. Muller in M VAG., 1898, 3, pp. i «F. 
 
 H Cf. Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite Cities, pp. 9 f. 
 
 e 
 
Uvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 feared the incursion of 'the Assyrians' (a term loosely used to 
 denote the dominant power in Babylonia at the time) * seems 
 to be an indication that the Hyksos had connexions beyond the 
 borders of Egypt in a north-easterly direction, i.e. throughout 
 Oana'an and northern Syria ; and inasmuch as we find them, after 
 the reduction of Avaris by Ahmosi I., next making a stand in 
 Sharuhen {i.e. no doubt the city of that name mentioned in 
 Josh. 19" as assigned to Sime'on in southern Judah) where they 
 are besieged for three years, and finally defeated by Ahmosi in 
 northern Syria, J we have good ground for concluding that they 
 were, in- origin, the more or less civilized people of Amurru, and 
 that their line of retreat lay, as was natural, into the land occupied 
 by their kindred. § This conclusion is strengthened by the fact 
 (accepted by Egyptologists) that it was they who introduced horses 
 and chariots into Egypt, and that Ahmosi succeeded in expelling 
 _ them by turning this powerful engine of warfare against them. As 
 we have already noticed, it was the KaSSites who introduced the 
 horse into western Asia, and the peoples of Amurru must speedily 
 have obtained it through their Mesopotamian connexion. The name 
 of the most important Hyksos king known to us, Hyan, is certainly 
 Semitic, || and among the scarab-names of kings or autonomous 
 chieftains collected by Petrie H there occurs Ypk-hr or Y kh-hr which 
 may represent a Semitic Ja' cob-el — a name which raises speculation 
 on account of its Israelite connexions. Another name, 'nt-hr, seems 
 to represent 'Anath-el.** 
 
 The length of the period covered by the Hyksos invasion and 
 domination of Egypt is most uncertain. Petrie J J accepts and 
 defends Manetho's statement that five hundred and eleven years 
 elapsed from their first invasion to their ultimate expulsion; but 
 
 * Of. Hall, iV"£. p, 215, m 3. 
 
 X Cf. the autobiographies of the two Egyptian officers named Ahmosi, who took 
 part in this war; Breasted, AR. ii. §§ 1 if . 
 
 § The cause originally conducing to the invasion of Egypt by the Western Semites 
 can only be conjectured. Hall may be correct in supposing that the almost con- 
 temporary incursion of the KaSgites from Iran and the Hittites from Asia Minor into 
 Mesopotamia and northern Syria 'must have caused at first a considerable displace- 
 ment of the Semitic population, which was pressed south-westwards into southern 
 Syria and Palestine,' with the result that it 'burst the ancient barrier of Egypt": 
 NE. p. 212. Cf. also Luckenbill, AJTh. xviii. (1914), p. 32. 
 
 II The name is borne by an Aramaean king of Ya'di in northern Syria in the ninth 
 century B.C., and is written ga-ia-ni in the annals of Shahnaneser in. (cf. KB. i. 
 p. 170), and X*n in the inscription of Kalumu, the succeeding king of Ya'di 
 (on which cf. p. 174). 
 
 IT Cf. Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite Cities, pp. 68 f. and PI. LI. ; Hall, NE. p. 217. 
 
 ** Cf. Spiegelberg in OLZ. vii. (1904), 131 ; Hall, NE. p. 217. There seems to be 
 no justification for Spiegelberg's proposal to interpret the Hyksos name Smkn as 
 Sime'on (loc. cit.; Aegypt. Randglossen zum A.T. p. 12), since the equivalent '*=); 
 appears to be unproven (on the equivalents of Eg. k, cf. Burch. §§ 113 f.) 
 
 tX Cf. Hist. Eg. pp. 204, 228 ; Historical Studies, p, 14. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixvii 
 
 Ed. Meyer and his followers * allow conjecturally no more than a 
 hundred years. Hall J seems to have good sense on his side in 
 arguing for a figure between these two extremes— perhaps about 
 two hundred years. The accession of Ahmosi i., who expelled them 
 from Egypt, is 'dated dr. B.C. 1580. § 
 
 Invasion of Palestine and Syria, thus begun by Ahmosi I., was 
 carried further by subsequent kings of the Eighteenth Egyptian 
 Dynasty. It is a moot point whether Amenhotp i. {dr. B.C. 1559), 
 the successor of Ahmosi, undertook a Syrian campaign; but his 
 successor, Thutmosi i. {dr. B.C. 1539), advanced victoriously 
 through Syria as far as Naharin, i.e. the district between the 
 Orontes and the Euphrates (cf . note on ' Aram-naharaim,' ch. 3 ''), 
 and set up a boundary -tablet on the bank of the Euphrates to mark 
 the northern limit of his kingdom. || Such incursions of Egyptian 
 kings into Syria, though productive of booty, failed to bring the 
 Western Semites permanently under the Egyptian yoke or to ensure 
 payment of a regular tribute. 
 
 It was Thutmosi III. {dr. B.C. 1501), the most famous king Egypt 
 ever had, who, after a long period of inaction enforced upon him by 
 the powerful Queen Hatlepsut, with whom he was associated as 
 ruler, began on her death a series of seventeen campaigns in Syria 
 {dr. B.C. 1479-1459), resulting in its thorough conquest and con- 
 solidation as a part of the Egyptian Empire.H In the first of these 
 he met a confederation of north Palestinian kinglets, under the 
 leadership of the Prince of Kadesh — possibly an immigrant Hittite 
 from the north ; a combination which reminds us of the league of 
 the kings of northern Canaan under Sisera, as recorded in Judg. 
 A battle at Megiddo, graphically described, resulted in his complete 
 success, and Megiddo was invested and soon fell into his hands. 
 The list (on the walls of the Temple of Amon, at Karnak) of ' the 
 people of Upper Retenu [southern Syria, including Palestine] whom 
 his majesty shut up in wretched Megiddo ' contains a hundred 
 and nineteen names, and is of great geographical interest. ** 
 Among the names occur Y-'-k-b-'d-ra and Y-s-p-'6rrq, (Nos. 102 
 
 * Cf. Meyer, G4.2 I. ii. p. 293 ; Breasted, Hist. Eg. p. 221. 
 
 t Cf. Hall, NE. pp. 23 ff., 216 f., 218. 
 
 § The accession-dates given for Egyptian kings are those of Breasted, whose chrono- 
 logical table at the end of his History of the Ancient Egyptians, 1908 (an abbrevia- 
 tion of the History of Egypt, 1906) may usefully be consulted. The only deviation 
 is in the dates given for Amenhotp i. and Thutmosi i., where a complicated question 
 of succession arises, involving the reign of Thutmosi ii. (who for our purpose is a 
 nonentity) in relation to that of Thutmosi III. Cf. Hall, A'E. pp. 286 if., whose 
 conclusions are assumed, and whose dates, as given in the Table, p. 228, have been 
 adopted. 
 
 II Cf. Breasted, AR. ii. §§ 79, 81, 85. 
 
 IT Ibid. ii. §§ 391 ff. 
 
 •* Cf. Mtlller, AE. pp. 157 ff. ; Die PalOstinaliste Thutmosis HI., M VA&., 1907, 
 1. Petrie, Hist. Eg. ii. pp. 320 ff., attempts to iind a system-atic arrangement in the 
 list, and offers identifications, many of which must be deemed highly precarious. 
 
Ixviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 and 78), which have been read respectively as Jacob-el and 
 Joseph-el.* The remainder of this campaign was occupied with 
 the reduction of three cities on the southern slopes of the 
 Lebanon. 
 
 The second, third, and fourth campaigns seem to -have been fully 
 spent in consolidating the conquests of the first. During the 
 course of the second campaign it is interesting to note that Thut- 
 mosi received a present (which he describes as ' tribute ') from the 
 far-off kingdom of Assyria, which at this period was beginning to 
 rise into prominence. Northern Syria, however, with Kadesh on 
 the Orontes as a centre of disaffection, still remained untouched; 
 but the fifth campaign made substantial progress towards this objec- 
 tive through the reduction of the coast-cities of Phoenicia. The 
 sixth campaign is highly important as marking the first transport 
 of thfi Egyptian army by sea to Syria. The establishment of a 
 base in the Phoenician harbours meant that thenceforward Thut- 
 mosi could get within striking distance of northern Syria after a 
 few days' sail; and the hold of Egypt upon the coast-land of 
 western Asia was thus materially strengthened. In the sixth 
 campaign Kadesh was captured after a long siege. The account of 
 this campaign is interesting as preserving record of Thutmosi's 
 policy for securing the future allegiance of Syria. The sons of the 
 conquered chieftains were carried back to Egypt to be educated, in 
 order that, imbued, as it was hoped, with Egyptian ideals and 
 sympathies, they might in time succeed their fathers as faithful 
 vassals of their suzerain. 
 
 After a seventh campaign directed against Arvad and Simyra, 
 Thutmosi reached, in his eighth campaign, the climax of his suc- 
 cesses. Advancing into Naharin, he met and defeated ' that foe of 
 wretched Naharin,' i.e., probably, the king of Mitanni,t captured 
 Carchemish, and crossing the Euphrates, set up his boundary-tablet 
 upon its eastern bank beside that of Thutmosi I. ' Heta the Great,' 
 i.e. the Hittites of Cappadocia, now sent him presents; and it is 
 even possible that he may have received them from Babylon.§ 
 'Tliutmosi's remaining campaigns in Syria were occupied in quelling 
 revolts and generally consolidating the broad territory which he 
 had won. 
 
 Egypt's Asiatic Empire was maintained unimpaired under the 
 
 * The latter equivalence is very doubtful, since the sibilants do not correspond. 
 Nos. 35 and 18, which have been read S-m-'-n and understood as Sime'on, appear to 
 lack the " (j;). W. M. Mtiller (Die Palastinaliste Thutmosis III.) transcribes both 
 as Sa-ma-na. Cf. his remarks on p. 15. 
 
 t Cf. Breasted, AR. §§ 476,' 479 ; Hall, NE. p. 241. W. M. Miiller regards the 
 view that the king of Mitanni was overlord of the whole of Naharin as questionable ; 
 cf. Afl. p. 251. 
 
 § It is a diiputed question whether we should find allusion to ' tribute of the chief 
 of Shin' ar,' or whether the reference is to Singara, i.e. the modern (Jebel Sin^ar, 
 north-west of Nineveh. Cf. Breasted, AR. ii. § 484 (footnote) ; Hall, NB. p. 242. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixix 
 
 next two Pharaohs, Amenliotp II. (dr. B.C. 1448) and Thutmosi IV. 
 (dr. B.C. 1420), though both these monarchs had to quell rebellions 
 which broke out in northern Syria and Naharin at or shortly after 
 their accessions.* The authority of Egypt was, however, effectively 
 maintained by official representatives and garrisons in the larger 
 towns ; and the system of allowing the Syrian cities a large measure 
 of autonomy under their petty chieftains proved, on the whole, to 
 be justified. The marriage of Thutmosi IV. with the daughter of 
 Artatama, king of Mitanni in northern Mesopotamia, J was a 
 judicious measure which gained for Egypt an ally upon the north- 
 eastern limit of her Asiatic kingdom ; and it was probably owing 
 to this that Amenhotp lii., the son of Thutmosi by his Mitannian 
 queen, succeeded to the empire without having to meet any in- 
 surrection on the part of the turbulent elements in Naharin. 
 
 For the reigns of Amenhotp in. (dr. B.C. 1411) and his successor 
 Amenhotp IV. (dr. B.C. 1375), we possess the evidence of the corre- 
 spondence discovered at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt in 1887,§ which is 
 of unique importance for the history of Syria and of the surround- 
 ing countries of western Asia in their relation with Egypt. At 
 this period (as the T.A. Letters first proved to us ||) the language 
 of diplomacy and commerce in western Asia was Babylonian, and 
 correspondence was carried on in the cuneiform script, written 
 upon clay tablets. Many of these letters are addressed to the king 
 of Egypt by the independent rulers of the neighbouring kingdoms 
 of western Asia — Babylonia or Kardunias (to give the kingdom its 
 Kaisite name), Assyria, Mitanni, etc. — who were naturally con- 
 cerned to preserve good diplomatic relations with Egypt. These, 
 
 * Cf. Breasted, AR. §§ 780 ff. ; 816 ff. 
 
 J Cf. T.A. Letters, Knudtzon, No. 29, 11. 16 ff. 
 
 § The most recent edition of the T.A. Letters is that of J. A. Knudtzon, Die el- 
 Amarna Tafeln (1908-15), which takes the place of H. Winckler's edition {KB. v, 
 1896) as the standard edition for scholars. The cuneiform text of the Berlin collec- 
 tion of tablets has been published by Abel and Winckler, Der Thontafelfund von 
 El-Amarna (1889)^ and that of the British Museum collection of tablets by Bezold in 
 Budge and Bezold, Td el-Amarna Tablets in the Brit. Mus. (1892). All the original 
 tablets were exhau.stively collated by Knudtzon forhis transliteration and translation of 
 the texts. Bdhl, Die Sprache der Amarnabriefe (1909) is important for philology. 
 
 II Since the discoTery of the T.A. Letters a few cuneiform tablets have been found 
 at various Palestinian sites which have undergone excavation (cf., for the more im- 
 portant ones, Rogers, CP. pp. 278 ff.). The most important evidence for the wide- 
 spread use of cuneiform Babylonian is found in the great store of tablets discovered 
 by Winckler in his excavation of the site of the ancient Hittite capital (gatti) 
 at Boghaz Keui east of the river Halys in Asia Minor. The first instalment of 
 autographs of these documents has been published very recently (H. H. Figulla 
 and E. P. Weidner, Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi, parts 1 and 2, Oct. 1916) ; 
 but prior to this we possessed only Winckler's account of them in MDOO. xxxv. 
 (Dec. 1907), containing extracts from some few which appeared to the discoverer 
 to be among the more important. A fairly full abstract of this account has been 
 translated into English in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1908 
 (some misprints in proper names). 
 
Ixx INTRODUCTION 
 
 though of first importance for the history of the times, do not here 
 concern us, except incidentally. It is interesting, however, to 
 notice the way in which such constant correspondence could be 
 conveyed backwards and forwards through Syria, together with the 
 valuable presents with which the letters were often accompanied, 
 apparently without great risk of miscarriage* There exists a pass- 
 port-letter, addressed by an unnamed king— very possibly the 
 king of MitanniJ— 'to the kings of Canaan, the servants of my 
 brother ' (i.e. the king of Egypt), exhorting them to see that his 
 messenger, Akiya, receives no hindrance, but is safely and speedily 
 forwarded on his way to the Egyptian court (cf. Kn. 30). 
 
 It is the correspondence of the subject-kinglets which brings most 
 vividly before us the condition of Syria at the time, and the causes 
 which were leading to the gradual weakening of Egypt's hold upon 
 her Asiatic possessions. In the reign of Amenhotp III. the Egyptian 
 empire was at its zenith, and the luxury and magnificence of the 
 kingdom had never been surpassed. This, however, was due to 
 the continuous efforts of the Pharaoh's warlike ancestors : he seems 
 himself to have been content to enjoy the fruits of past achieve- 
 ment, and not to have been greatly concerned with the maintenance 
 of the tradition of empire-building. Thus already in his reign we 
 discern the beginning of movements which were destined ultimately 
 to bring about the decline of Egypt's suzerainty over Syria. 
 
 It was under Amenhotp IV., however, that the crisis became 
 acute. This king is remarkable as the introducer into Egypt 
 of a new form of religion, a kind of philosophic monotheism which 
 centred in the worship of the solar disc (called in Egyptian Aton). 
 Repudiating his own name, he adopted the name A^naton (' Spirit 
 of Aton ') ; and having removed his capital from Thebes, where the 
 power and influence of the old religion were naturally at their 
 strongest, he founded a new capital, some three hundred miles lower 
 down the Nile and about one hundred and sixty miles above the 
 Delta, to which he gave the name Ahetaton ('Horizon of Aton'), 
 This is the modern Tell el-Amarna. Wholly absorbed in his religious 
 speculations and in domestic life, the king cared little about the fate 
 of his Asiatic provinces ; and letters from the native princes and 
 governors of Syria speak again and again of the growing spirit of 
 disafiection towards Egypt, or beg for assistance in the face of 
 open revolt. 
 
 * There are, as might he expected, some complaints of molestation and rohhery. 
 Thus we find that the caravan of Salmu, the messenger of BurnahuriaS, king of 
 EarduniaS, was twice plundered on the way to Egypt in Egyptian territory (Syria- 
 Palestine), and compensation is demanded of the Egyptian king (Kn. 7). On a later 
 occasion (during the unsettled period of the north Syrian revolt) the merchants 
 of BurnaburiaS were robbed and murdered (Kn. 8). A§ur-uballit, king of Assyria, 
 says that Egyptian messengers have been waylaid by the Sutfl, a nomad people 
 (Kn. 16). Some of the Syrian chieftains express their willingness to provide pro- 
 visions and safe escort for caravans (cf. Kn. 226, 255). 
 
 X Cf. Weber's discussion in Knudtzon, pp. 1072 ff. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxi 
 
 The trouble arose principally from the encroachments of the 
 Hittites upon northern Syria. As we have already remarked, in 
 alluding to an incursion of this people into Babylonia some five 
 hundred years earlier (cf. p, Ixiv), the Hittites were an Anatolian 
 race whose principal centre lay west of the Taurus, in the region 
 which is known to us later on as Cappadocia. Our knowledge of 
 them has been placed on a new footing in recent times (1907) 
 through the excavations of Winckler at an ancient site near the 
 modern village of Boghaz Keui, which proved to have borne the 
 name of Hatti, and to have been the capital of the Hittite king- 
 dom.* We are still, however, at a loss as to the racial origin of 
 the Hittites. Their physiognomy, as depicted on their own and 
 on Egyptian monuments — a prominent nose, high cheek-bones, and 
 a retreating forehead and chin — are closely reproduced at' the 
 present day among the Armenians. They were certainly non- 
 Semitic; and it does not seem probable (as has been variously 
 suggested) that they were of Iranian or Mongolian origin. The 
 inscriptions upon rock and stone, which are assumed (with practical 
 certainty) to be Hittite work, are written in a peculiar picto- 
 graphic script, and are still undeciphered. Attempts at decipher- 
 ment have been made by several scholars upon different lines ; J 
 but they have not met with general acceptance or yielded results 
 which are capable of utilization. The Hittite language, as written 
 in cuneiform on tablets found at Boghaz Keui, and in the Arzawa 
 letters which were found among the T.A. correspondence, cannot 
 be connected with any known language.§ Fortunately, a large 
 number of the documents from Boghaz Keui are written in 
 Babylonian; and it is these which have so largely extended our 
 knowledge.il 
 
 • Cf. MDOG. XXXV. pp. 12 ff. 
 
 J Cf. especially the articles by Sayce in PSBA. xxv.-xxvii. (1903-5). 
 
 § Knudtzon has argued from the Arzawa letters that the language is Indo- 
 Germanic {Die zwei Arzawa-Brie/e, die dltesten Urkunden in indogermanischm 
 Sprache, mit Bemerhangen von S. Bugge und A. Torp, 1902) ; but the theory has 
 failed to gain acceptance (cf. e.g. the criticism of Bloomfield in American Journax 
 of Philology, xxv. pp. 12 ff.), and, according to Weber (Kn. p. 1074), the authoi 
 of it himself had some misgivings with regard to it. F. Hrozn^ (MDOG. Ivi.; 
 December 1916, pp. 17-50) maintains the same conclusions upon the evidence of thj 
 Hittite documents from Boghaz Keui, which he is engaged in transcribing ; but until 
 some part at least of the rich material from Boghaz Keui has become the commoi 
 property of scholars, it is impossible to pass judgment upon the theory. Hrozny 
 has been criticized by Bork, OLZ., Okt. 1916, 289 ff., and by Cowley in a paper read 
 before the Royal Asiatic Society in December 1916, which is as yet unpublished : cf, 
 brief abstract in JRAS. for January 1917, pp. 202 f. The important Sumerian- 
 Akkadian-Hittite vocabularies from Boghaz Keui, published in transcription by 
 Delitzsch for the Berlin Academy {Abhandl. k. p. Akad., 1914, 3), though of the 
 greatest value for our interpretation of Hittite words, have not thrown any further 
 light upon the linguistic affinities of the Hittite language. 
 
 II The fullest and most recent book on Hittite excavation and history is Garstang, 
 The Land of tU Hittites (1910). See also King, Bab. pp. 225-41 ; Hall, NE. ch. 
 
Ixxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Of the early history of the Hittites we know nothing. Probably 
 they formed at first a collection of semi-independent tribes, loosely 
 united by the bond of a common extraction, and only temporarily 
 acting together under one leader on such occasions as the raid on 
 northern Syria and Babylonia which brought about the downfall of 
 t,he First Babylonian Dynasty, mV. B.C. 1926 (of. p. Ixiv). gattuSilii., 
 who was king of the city of KuSsar* {dr. B.C. 1400), was succeeded 
 by his son Subbiluliuma, who bound.the Hittite clans into a strong 
 confederation, and whose reign of probably some forty years {dr. 
 B.C. 1385-1345) was a career of conquest resulting in the creation 
 of an empire which lasted under one dynasty for nearly two 
 hundred years. 
 
 In the latter years of Amenliotp III. we find SubbiluUuma 
 crossing the Taurus, and leading his forces to the attack of northern 
 Syria. The safe retention of Naharin as an Egyptian province 
 depended, as we have noticed (p. Ixix), largely upon the goodwill of 
 the king of Mitanni ; and the alliance which had been contracted 
 through the marriage of Tliutmosi IV. with a Mitannian princess 
 had been further cemented by the union of Amenliotp III. with 
 Grilu-Hipa, sister of Tusratta, the reigning king of Mitanni, and 
 subsequently with Tadu-Hipa, Tusratta's daughter, who, after the 
 death of Amenhotp ill., became a wife of his successor, Ahnaton.J 
 Tusratta, however, had succeeded to a kingdom weakened by 
 internal intrigues, his brother, Artassumara, who reigned before 
 him, having been assassinated. He was strong enough to repel the 
 Hittites from Mitanni for the time being,§ but could not prevent 
 Subbiluliuma from invading Naharin, where the projects of the 
 Hittite king were furthered by another brother of TuSratta, named 
 (like his grandfather) Artatama. This prince, having very possibly 
 been implicated in the murder of Artassumara.^had been obliged to 
 fly from Mitanni to Naharin, and, with his son Sutatarra, and grand- 
 son Itakama, of whom we 'hear later on as prince of Kinza or Kid§a 
 {i.e. the district of which the principal city was Kadesh on the Orontes) 
 welcomed the opportunity of intriguing with the Hittites against 
 Tu§ratta. Further .south, in the district of the Lebanons, Abd- 
 
 viii. ; Hogarth, article 'Hittites' in Encyc. Britann.^^ vol. xiii. ; Weber in Kn., 
 pp. 108 ff. ; Ed. Meyer, Reich und Kultur der Ghetiter (1914) ; Luokenbill, AJTh. 
 xviii. (1914), pp. 24 ff. For the Boghaz Keui documents, cf. Wiiickler, MDOG. xxxv. ; 
 OLZ. xiii. (1910), 289 if. For an account of the excavations at Boghaz Keui, of. 
 Puchstein, Boghazkiji: die Bauwerke {WT.2). 
 
 * The site of this city is unknown. 
 
 } Unlike the Mitannian wife of Tliutmosi i v., who was the mother of Amenhotp m., 
 both Gilu-Hipa and Tadu-gipa occupied the position of inferior wives only. The 
 influential Tii, who was chief wife of Amenhotp iii. and mother of AJjnaton, seems 
 to have been of Semitic origin on her father's side. Nefertiti, the queen of A^naton, 
 is now known to have been his full sister (the daughter of Tii) ; and Petrie's view 
 {Hist. Eg. ii. p. 207) that she is identical with Tadu-gipa is thus disproved; cf. 
 Hall, NE. pp. 255 f., 258, m^. 
 
 § Cf. Kn. 17. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxiii 
 
 ASirta, who was chieftain of Amurru,* perceived that his own 
 interests would best be served by making common cause with the 
 Hittites, and attacking the rulers of the Phoenician coast-cities, who 
 were loyal to Egypt. For a time this Amorite prince and his son 
 Aziru managed with amazing astuteness to pass themselves off as 
 faithful vassals of Egypt, in spite of the urgent representations of 
 Rib- Adda, the governor of Gebal, who displayed the utmost energy 
 in the Egyptian cause. Amenhotp iii. seems at length to have 
 been convinced of the true state of affairs and to have despatched 
 an army ; and the tension was temporarily relieved. J Under 
 Ahnaton, however, no such help was forthcoming ; and the 
 Phoenician cities fell one after another into the hands of the 
 Amorites.§ 
 
 Meanwhile in the south afiairs were little better ; local dissensions 
 were rife among, the petty Cana'anite princes, and we find them 
 engaged in active intrigue against their suzerain, and at the same 
 time sending letters to the Pharaoh full of protestations of loyalty 
 and accusations against their neighbours. So far as we can judge, 
 ARAD-Hiba, the governor of Jerusalem, stood faithfully for the 
 interests of the Egyptian king ; but he seems to have stood 
 almost alone. His letters make urgent and repeated requests for 
 the despatch of Egyptian troops, and state that unless they can 
 speedily be sent the whole country will be lost to Egypt. The part 
 played by the Hittites and Amorites in the north is filled in the 
 south by a people called Habiru.|| 
 
 The Habiru are mentioned under this name in the letters of 
 ARAD-Hiba only.H He states that they have plundered all the 
 king's territory and occupied his cities ; unless the king can send 
 troops before the end of the year, the whole of his territory will 
 certainly fall away to them. Certain of the vassals, notably one 
 Milkili and the sons of Labaya, are accused of conspiring with the 
 gabiru and allowing them to occupy the king's territory ; and the 
 district of Shechem ** seems to be specified as having thus passed 
 into their hands. The cities of Gezer, Ashkelon, and Lachish 
 
 * On the sense in which the term Amurru is used in the T.A. Letters, cf. p. 41. 
 
 X Cf. Kn. 117, 11.21 ff. 
 
 § For a fully detailed account of the movements of Subbiliiliuma, and the north 
 Syrian rebellion, cf. the admirable section in Hall, NE. pp. 341 ff., whose view of 
 the relation of Artatama and his descendants to the reigning king of Mitanni is 
 followed above. 
 
 II Most writers refer to this people as JJabiri ; but, as Knudtzon points out (cf. 
 p. 45, «), out of the seven (or eight) passages in which they are mentioned the form is 
 Habiru in the two cases in which the name stands as a Nominative, gabiri (with the 
 Genitive termination) being in all occurrences an oblique form. So Dhorme, RB., 
 1909, p. 67, nK 
 
 IT This series of letters has been translated into English by Ball, Light from the 
 East, pp. 89-93, and by Rogers, CP. pp. 268-278. 
 
 •* (MUu) Sa-ak-mi, according to Knudtzon's reading (289, 1. 23). Winckler (185) 
 fails to make satisfactory sense of the passage. 
 
Ixxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 appear to have been implicated in assisting them.* Indeed, 
 ARAD-Hiba states that he has been obliged to tax the king's own 
 high commissioner with playing into their hands, and that on this 
 account he has been slandered to the king. In this last reference 
 (Kn. 286, 11. 16ff.) the question addressed to the commissioner— 
 ' Wherefore lovest thou the Habiru, and hatest the city-governors V 
 — sets them in contrast to the latter, f who represented the dele- 
 gated authority of Egypt. 
 
 The question of the identity of the Habiru has aroused greater 
 interest and keener discussion than any other point raised by the 
 T.A. Letters. Were they, as has often been alleged, identical with 
 the Hebrews, i.e. with the clans which are pictured in Gen. as the 
 descendants of Abraham the Hebrew, who may very well have been 
 pressing into Canaan at about this period 1 Were they even (as 
 has been more boldly suggested §) the tribes of Israel engaged under 
 Joshua' in the invasion and conquest of the Promised Land 1. The 
 acceptance of this latter view involves the abandonment of the 
 commonly received conclusion as to the date of the Exodus, and the 
 placing of this event at least some two hundred years earlier (cf. 
 pp. cxvif.). 
 
 The philological equivalence of {amUMu) Ha-hvruW with 'nnil 
 '«JW, ' Hebrew ' — or rather, since the form is not a gentilic, with 
 W, 'Ebher, ffi E/3ep (Gen. 10 21, 11 ", al.)—\s perfect. About this 
 there can be doubt at all.^ 
 
 * This is an inference only ; though a fairly certain one. In the letter in question 
 (Kn. 287) there conies a break of about eight lines, after which ARAD-Qiba con- 
 tinues, 'let the King know that all the states are leagued in hostility against me. 
 Behold, the land of Gezer, the land of Ashkelon, and Lachish gave unto them food, 
 oil, and everything that they needed ; so let the King have a care for his territory, 
 and despatch bowmen against the men who have done evil against the King my lord.' 
 Here it can scarcely be doubted that the object implied in 'gave unto them* is the 
 Habiru, who must have been mentioned in the missing passage. So Weber in Kn. 
 p. 1337. 
 
 X The term ^azan(n)u^ kazianu, plur. JtazctnUtu, is doubtless the same as New 
 Heb. hazzan, which means inspector or overseer. Cf. the reference to Ja'cob as a 
 ' city-overseer ' (hazzan inatha) under Laban, quoted by Buxtorf, Lexicon, s.v. from 
 Baba mesia. The ordinary New Heb. usage of hazzan to denote a synagogue-overseer 
 or minister is technical and secondary. Besides the title liazanu, the ordinary title by' 
 which the Syrian and Palestinian vassal-chieftains describe themselves to the Egyptian 
 king, and are described by him (cf. Kn. 99), is amilu, ' man ' of such and such a city. 
 To outsiders they are Sarrdni ■ kings ' (cf. Kn. 30), a title which is familiar to us as 
 applied to them in the O.T. , and which was doubtless always claimed by them when 
 independent of the suzerainty of Egypt. 
 
 § So, most recently. Hall, NK pp. 409 ff. 
 
 II AmelMu 'men,' or sing, amllu, 'man,' are used as Determinatives before the 
 names of tribes or classes. 
 
 IT Handcock (The Latest Light on Bible-lands, pp. 79-81) is mistaken in supposing 
 that ' the crucial point ' in the identification is whether the Heb. J? can be equated 
 with the Bab. H, and in concluding that such an equation 'is totally at variance' 
 with ' the ordinary rules of philological transmutation ' ; and his pronouncement— 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxv 
 
 Discussion of the identity of the Habiru with the Hebrews is 
 closely bound up with another question of identification. As we 
 have observed, the (ameMtu) ffa-bi-ru (or -ri) are only mentioned in 
 this form (i.e., their name only occurs spelt out syllabically) in the 
 letters of ARAD-Qiba. Many other letters, however, mention a 
 people whose name is written ideographically (ameMtu) SA.GAZ, 
 who occupy a position as freebooters and aggressors against con- 
 stituted authority identical with that occupied by the Habiru. 
 The question is whether SA.GAZ is merely the ideographic method 
 of writing Habiru, and the reading Habiru to be assumed wherever 
 the ideogram occurs. The importance of this is to be found in the 
 widespread character of the aggressions of the SA.GAZ. If the 
 Habiru are identical with them, they must have permeated not 
 merely southern and central Cana'an, but also Phoenicia and 
 northern Syria ; for the SA.(tAZ are mentioned, e.g., with especial 
 frequency in the letters of Rib-Adda of Gebal as employed by 
 
 coming as it does in a popular work — is liable to mislead. Granted that the y in 
 *13!J is probably soft (as may be assumed from the dS form 'B/Spaios), we have, in 
 
 addition to Kinahlii=]yi3 (rightly cited by Handcook) the following examples of 
 Bab. J=Heb. soft ]} among the Cana'anite 'glosses' in the T.A. Letters :—ii-?ta-ia= 
 »yy; ha-pa-ru (also a-pa-ru)=^SlV ; 5a-«i-Ti=>1Vy (TW) ; 2»-™-m6= Vnt 
 (cf. references in Bohl, Die Sprache der Amarnabrie/e, p. 15). Cf. also ba-ali-lum= 
 ^V3 in the proper names Pu-ba-ab-la (Kn. 104, 1. 7), and Mit-v,t-ba-a>}-lum. (Kn. 
 255,1. 3); and the place names {dlu) Sa-ar-jia (Kn. 273,1. 21)=nyny, US Sapaa; 
 {dlw) ffi-ni-a-na-bi (Kn. 256, 1, 26)=2:V PV, the 33J? of Josh. 11 21, 15™; {Mu) 
 §a-am-liu-na (Kn. 225, 1. 4) perhaps=|iy»B', Jos. (Vita, 24) T^i/iavids, modern 
 Semftniyyeh, five miles west of Nazareth, perhaps the Biblical fnpB', Josh. 11', 
 12 M 1915^ which appears in (E» as Su/ioui/ (cf. Buhl, Geogr. p. 215); {dlu) Ta-ah,- 
 [n-u-ka] (Kn. 208, 1. 14)=Ta'anakh (Tell Ta'annuk). Were it necessary to go outside 
 the T.A. Letters, we might add to this list by such Amorite proper names in First 
 Dynasty tablets as gammurabi, where the first element in the West Semitic >\1S)V 
 (cf. ga-mu-ni-ri by the side of Am-mu-ni^a in the T.A. Letters) ; A-bi-e-Su^h (by 
 thesideof ^-6i-e-fo-')=V-1B'»3X. ; ra-di-ili-el='?t^yp,\ (cf. 1 Chr. 76"., 11 « 12", 
 262); ra-aS-ma-abr{Uu)-Da-gan=\i'^W\i>\, etc. 
 
 • As for the vowels— they offer no difficulty. Dhorme's statement ( RB. , 1909, p. 72) 
 that gabiru is a participial form is unwarranted (we never find it written ga-a-bi-ru, 
 i.e. gdMru). gabiru is of course not a gentilic form like Heb. sing. 'ibhH, plur. 
 •»Artm(the Bab. gentilic form would hegaiird ; cf. p. Ixxxi), but a substantive form 
 like nay 'Ibker (the eponym of 'ibhrt) with the nominative case-ending. The short i 
 vowel in gabiru might very well vary; cf. Armu, Aramu, Arimu, Armnu='aeh. 
 DIK 'ArAm. A 'good analogy for gabiru=-\2)l may be seen in Bit Advni= 
 IlV"n'3, Beth- 'Eden (probably [IV should be ]'\V, but is differentiated by iW 
 from the pV of Gen. 2: cf. Miiller, AE. p, 291, n*). 
 
Ixxv! INTRODUCTION 
 
 Abd-Asirta and Aziru in the reduction of the Phoenician cities.* 
 The view that SA.GAZ is to be read as ffabiru, which has always 
 been regarded with favour by the majority of scholars, is now 
 generally supposed to have been placed beyond question by 
 Winckler's discovery of the interchange of the two terms in docu- 
 ments from Boghaz Keui. This scholar states | that, besides 
 mention of the SA.GAZ-people, there is also allusion to the 
 SA.GAZ-gods, and that as a variant of this latter there exists the 
 reading ildni Ha-bi-ri, i.e. ' Habiru-gods.' This discovery, while 
 certainly proving a general equivalence of the Habiru with the 
 SA.GAZ, does not, however, necessarily involve the conclusion that 
 SA.GAZ in the T.A. correspondence was always and everywhere 
 understood and pronounced as Habiru : indeed, the contrary can be 
 shown to be the case. 
 
 In a syllabary given in ii. E. 26, 13 g-h, (amilu) SA.GAZ is 
 explained by hab-b[a4um], 'robber' or 'plunderer.' In another 
 tablet the ideogram is glossed by hab-ba-chte. § No doubt the 
 common Bab. verb sagdsu, which means to destroy, slay, and the like, 
 is a Semiticization of the Sumerian ideogram ; and the element 
 GAZ, which in its pictographic form clearly represents a cutting or 
 striking weapon, has by itself the values ddlcu, ' to kill, fight, strike,' 
 maM.su, ' to smite, wound ' (Heb. J'HD), etc. || Possibly the root 
 habdtu, from which habbatum is derived, though it regularly means 
 ' to plunder,' may have an original connexion with the root hbt 
 which runs through Heb., Aram., and Ar., with the sense 'to strikg 
 or beat,' in which case the root-sense of habbatum would be ' cut- 
 throat ' rather than ' thief ' (the two actions are commonly united 
 among the nomad tribes of the Arabian desert). That (am^lu) 
 SA.GAZ has its normal value in the T.A. Letters is placed beyond 
 a doubt by the occurrence in a letter from Yapahi of Gezer (Kn. 
 299, 1. 26) of the form (amUu) SA.GAZ. MES(-i!Mm).11 B.ere-tim 
 is a Phonetic Complement,** pointing to a Bab. equivalent which 
 ends with this syllable, a fact which indicates habbatum and excludes 
 Habiru (or -ri). In view of this we may infer that in a passage in 
 
 * A summary of all allusions to the SA.GAZ is given by Weber in Kn. p. 1147. 
 
 J Of. MDOGZ. XXXV. p. 25, n. For the former, cf. Figalla and Weidner, Keilschrift- 
 texte 1, No. 1, Eev. 1. 50 ; No. 3, Rev. 1. 5 ; for the latter, No. 4, Rev. col. iv. 1. 29. 
 
 § Cf. R. C. Thompson, The Reports of Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and 
 Babylon, i. No. 103, Obv. 7. 
 II Cf. Br. 4714 ff. 
 
 If MBS, which means ' multitude,' is used as the sign of the plural. 
 
 ** A Phonetic Complement is often used in cuneiform in order to obviate doubt as 
 to the precise Bab. word or form denoted by an ideogram. Thus, e.g., the name 
 Uta-napi§tim, which is commonly written ideographically UD.ZI, often has the 
 syllable -tim added to indicate that ZI has the value napiUim. MXJ, which means 
 ' to speak ' in Sumerian, and so can be used for the Bab. zak&ru with the same mean- 
 ing, may be written MU (-ar), MU (-ra) to indicate the precise form of the verb 
 izakkar, izakkara. Thus perfect clearness is gained without the labour of writing 
 the forms syllabically i-za/c-kar, i-zak-ka-ra. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxvii 
 
 a letter from Dagan-takala (Kn. 318) in which he begs help of the 
 King of Egypt — 'Deliver me from^the mighty foes, from the hand 
 of the (ameMtu) SA.GA.AZ.MES, the robber-people (amMiu 
 horba-ti), the SutA (amiMtu Su-ii-i) '—we have, iiot the specification 
 of three distinct classes of foes, but of two only, amUutu Jia-baM 
 being simply an explanatory gloss on (ameMtu) SA.GA.AZ.MES.* 
 
 We conclude, then, that wherever the ideogram SA.GAZ stands 
 in the T. A. Letters, the equivalent that was understood and read was 
 not Habiru but habbatum, 'the robber-people' or 'brigands.' It is a 
 different question whether the Habiru were included among the 
 people who could be classed as habbatum. That this is to be affirmed 
 appears to be certain from the equivalent ' SA.GAZ-gods '= 'Habiru- 
 gods ' discovered by Winckler in the documents from Boghaz Keui 
 (cf. p. Ixxvi). When, further, while ARAD-Hiba refers exclusively 
 to the encroachments of the Habiru and does not mention the 
 SA.GAZ, other princes in the south refer in a similar connexion 
 and in similar terms to the encroachments of the SA.GAZ and 
 make no allusion to the Habiru, the inference is inevitable that the 
 terms Ffabiru and SA.GAZ refer in these letters to one and the 
 same people. I 
 
 We must notice next that SA.GAZ, though meaning habbatum, 
 'robbers,' is not, as used in the T.A. Letters, a mere class-term 
 (i.e. applicable to any body of people, of whatever race, who might 
 
 * It is true that am^liUu /la-ba-ti is not preceded by the diagonal wedge which as a 
 rnle marks a gloss ; but this is sometimes omitted (cf. Kn. 148, 1. 31 ; 288, 1. 34. In 
 288, 1. 52, the wedge follows the gloss at the beginning of the next line). The fact 
 that Dagan-takala (or his scribe) did not know the ideogram GAZ, and so was obliged 
 to write GA. AZ (which only occurs in this passage), favours the view that he may have 
 glossed the ideogram in order to avoid misunderstanding. Dhorme {RB. , 1909, p. 69) 
 compares Kn. 195, 11. 24 ff., where Namyawaza offers to place his SA.GAZ and his 
 Sutfi at the disposal of the Pharaoh. ' These in fact are the two designations which 
 describe the soldiers of the irregular and rebel army. There is no ground for regard- 
 ing the ffa-ba-ti as a third group. Everything thus favours reading GAZ or SA. GAZ 
 as Mabbatu.' In Kn. 207, 1. 21, we actually find {amelu) GAZ-MES followed by the 
 diagonal wedge and then the syllable ha-, after which the tablet is broken and 
 illegible. 
 
 t Cf. especially ARAD-giba's statement, ' Behold, this deed is the deed of Milkili 
 and the sons of Labaya, who have given up the King's territory to the gabiru' (Kn. 
 287, 11. 29 ff.), with the statement of Biridiya of Megiddo, 'Behold, two sons of 
 Labaya have gi[ven] their money to the SA.GAZ' (Kn. 246, 11. 5 ff.). Cf. also the 
 words of Labaya, 'I do not know whether Dumuya has gone with the SA.GAZ' 
 (Kn. 254, 11. 32 ff.) ; and of Milkili, ' Let the King my lord know that hostility is 
 mighty against me and Suwardata ; and let the King deliver hisjand out of the hand 
 of the SA.GAZ' (Kn. 271, 11. 9ff.); and of B51it-DR.MAII.MES (Ba'alath-Leba'oth? 
 Cf. Josh. 15S2, 196. UB.MAg.MES means 'lions'), 'the SA.GAZ have.sentto 
 Aijalon and Soi'ah, and the two sons of Milkili were nearly slain' (Kn. 273, 11. 18 ff.). 
 The fact that Labaya and Milkili should themselves represent their relations with the 
 SA.GAZ somewhat differently from ABAD-giba and Biridiya is only to be expected. 
 The statements of ARAD-Qiba— ' Let the King hearken unto ARAD-giba thy ser- 
 vant, and send bowmen, and bring back the King's territory to the King. But if 
 there he no bowmen, the King's territory will certainly fall away to the Habiru' 
 
Ixxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 adopt a bandit-life), but is definitely employed of a tribe or tribes 
 from a particular locality, and united by racial aflBnity. This is clear 
 from tbe fact that the ideogram is followed in two of its occurrences 
 by the affix KI, 'country or place,'* which is used both with the 
 names of countries and districts and with the names of tribes eman- 
 ating from such districts. In one occurrence of Habiru we likewise 
 find KI added, | marking the term similarly as racial and not merely 
 appellative. We may assume, then, with confidence that the con- 
 nexion between the Qabiru and the SA.GAZ was a racial one; 
 though it does not necessarily follow that all the SA.GAZ were 
 Habiru — since, on the evidence which we have reviewed, there is 
 nothing to forbid the theory that the Jlabiru may have been but a 
 single clan of a larger body of people called SA.GAZ.§ 
 
 Is it probable, then, that the Habiru were merely the southern 
 branch of the racial movement into western Syria represented by 
 the aggressions of the SA.GAZ ? That they had gained a footing 
 not only in the extreme south (the district round Jerusalem) but 
 also in central Cana'an is clear from the facts that they are men- 
 tioned as in occupation of Shechem (cf. p. Ixxiii), and that the prince 
 of Megiddo expresses anxiety as to their movements (cf. p. Ixxvii, 
 footnote). But there is another reference in one of ARAD-Hiba's 
 letters which seems to identify them with the SA.GAZ still further 
 north. ' When there was a ship {or a fleet ?) at sea,' he writfes, 
 ' the king's strong arm held the land of Naferima and the land of 
 Kapasi {1) ; but now the Habiru hold all the king's cities ' (Kn. 288, 
 11. 33 ff.).|| Here the allusion undoubtedly is to the Egyptian fleet 
 which, since the victorious campaigns of Thutmosi III. had possessed 
 a base in the Phoenician harbours (cf. p. Ixviii), and enabled the 
 Pharaoh to reach Naharln (Nalirima) with little delay and suppress 
 any inclination to revolt in the extreme northern part of his Asiatic 
 empire. Now, however, in the absence of this fleet, the Habiru are 
 in the ascendant, and are holding either the cities of Na^rTma in the 
 north, or (more probably) the Phoenician cities which it was neces- 
 sary for Egypt to hold in order to maintain her footing in the ports. 
 Adopting this latter hypothesis, we see at once that the SA.GAZ 
 to whom Rib-Adda of Gebal so constantly alludes as employed by 
 the Amorite chieftains Abd-Alirta and Aziru for the reduction of 
 
 (Kn. 290, 11. 19 £f.) ; ' Should there be no bowmen this year, the King my lord's terri- 
 tories are lost' (Kn. 288, 11. 51 ff.)— are strikingly similar to the statement of 
 Bayawa, 'Unless Yanljamu [the Egyptian plenipotentiary] arrives this year, the 
 entire territories are lost to the SA.GAZ' (Kn. 215, 11. 9 if.); and it can hardly be 
 doubted that the reference in each case is to the same peril ' 
 
 * Kn. 215, 1. 15 ; 298, 1. 27. 
 
 X Kn. 289, 1. 24. 
 
 § So Dhorme, RB., 1909, p. 69. 
 
 II The rendering here adopted is that which is generally accepted (of. Winckler, 
 Ball, Rogers, etc. ), from which there seems no reason to depart. It is difficult to 
 believe that Knadtzon's rendering is correct ; still less that of Ungnad in TB i. 
 p. 133. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxix 
 
 the Phoenician cities were gabiru, as well as the southern aggressors. 
 This is a point of the first importance for the elucidation of the 
 Habiru-question. 
 
 The close connexion of the SA.GAZ-Qabiru with the people 
 called Sutfi is evident. Both peoples are in the service of Namya- 
 waza as mercenaries (Kn. 195, 11. 27 ff.); both commit aggressions 
 upon Dagan-takala (Kn. 318), and, apparently, upon Yapahi of 
 Grezer (Kn. 297-99). Rib-Adda of Gebal, who complains repeatedly 
 of the aggressions of the SA.GAZ, also states that one Pahura has 
 sent Sutfi who have killed his erdanu mercenaries (Kn. 122, 11. 
 31 £f). Concerning the Sutii we happen to be fairly well informed. 
 We learn from a chronicle that the KaSSite king Kada§man-Harbe i. 
 {cir. end of the fifteenth century B.C.) 'eflfected the conquest of the 
 marauding Sutti from east to west, and destroyed their power, built 
 fortresses in Amurru,' etc.* Adad-Nirari I. of Assyria (dr. B.C. 1325) 
 states that his father Arik-den-ili ' conquered the whole of the wide- 
 spreading Kutfl, the Ahlamii, and Sutfl.' J The AhlamA are known 
 to have been an Aramaean nomadic or semi-nomadic people. The 
 Hittite king HattuSili ii. makes ' the Ahlamd-peril ' his excuse for 
 having ceased diplomatic relations with the' king of KarduniaS 
 (KadaSman Enlil ii.§). Tiglath-Pileser i. (dr. B.C. 1100) tells us 
 that he defeated ' the Aramaean Ahlamft ' who inhabited the district 
 in the neighbourhood of Carchemish. || It is clear from these 
 references that the Sutti must have been a nomad tribe inhabiting 
 the northern part of the Syrian desert to the west of the upper 
 Euphrates H ; and with this agrees the statement of A§ur-uballit 
 that the Sutti have detained the messengers of Ahnaton (Kn. 16, 11. 
 37 if.), since the Egyptian envoys would have to cross the desert on 
 their way to Assyria. 
 
 Now the Egyptian term for the Semitic nomads of the Asiatic 
 desert is sasu, a word which seems to be foreign to the language, 
 and which has been plausibly connected with the West Semitic root 
 HDE' Sasa, 'to plunder.'** The Sasu, then, are simply 'the plun- 
 
 * Cf. Winckler, AF. i. p. 115. Winokler makes Kadagman-garbe the second king 
 of that name {cir. B.C. 1252) ; hut cf. King, Bab. p. 243, »'. 
 
 t Cf. Tablet, 11. 19 f. in KB. i. p. 4 ; Budge aud King, Annals of the Kings of 
 Assyria, p. 6 ; and, for the reading Arik-den-ili and not Pudl-ilu, King and Hall, 
 Egypt and Western Asia, p. 396. 
 
 § MDOO. xxxT. p. 22. Text in FiguUa and Weidner, Keilschrifttexte ^, No. 10, 
 Obv, 11. 36 f. 
 
 II Cf. Annals, v. U. 44 ff. in KB. i. p. 32 ; Budge and King, op. cit. supra. 
 
 IT It is generally supposed the Shoa' and Koa' of Ezek. 23 ^s are the Sutfl and Kutli. 
 On the Sutft in relation to the Aramaeans, cf. Streok, Ueher die tUteste Geschichte 
 der AramOer, in KHo, vi. (1906), pp. 209 ff. 
 
 ** Cf. Miiller, AK p. 131 ; Meyer, IN. p. 324. The Semitic root is only known 
 to occur in Heb. where it is fairly frequent. Meyer {loc. cit., «J) notices the 
 interesting fact that it i.s used in 1 Sam. 14 <8, which relates Saul's conquest of the 
 Amalekite Bedawin on the border of Egypt :— ' he smote 'Amalek, and delivered 
 Israel from the hand of his plunderer ' (•inpB'). 
 
sxx INTRODUCTION 
 
 lerers or brigands ' ; and the agreement of this designation with the 
 Bab. hahbatum, which, as we have seen, is the equivalent of the 
 deogram SA.GAZ, can hardly be merely accidental (of. p. Ixxxviii). 
 While, therefore, the meaning of SA.GAZ favours the conclusion 
 ;hat the appellation belongs to a nomad people, the connexion of 
 )he SA.GAZ with the Sutft suggests that, like these latter, they 
 belonged to the north Syrian desert, the region which both cunei- 
 'orm and Biblical records associate with the Aramaeans. These 
 'acts should be taken in connexion with the further facts that the 
 5A.GAZ are principally mentioned as employed by Abd-ASirta 
 md his sons, and that the land of Amurru, over which these 
 jhieftains held sway, extended (as Winckler has proved from the 
 Boghaz Keui documents *) from the Lebanon eastward across the 
 Syrian desert to the Euphrates, thus embracing precisely the 
 dorthern part of the desert inhabited by Aramaean nomads. Thus 
 bhe conclusion that the SA.GAZ — and therefore the Habiru — were 
 A.ramaean nomads seems to be raised to a practical certainty. | 
 
 Now the 0. T. definitely connects the ancestors of the Hebrews 
 n^ith the Aramaeans. Abraham is not himself termed an Ara- 
 nnaean, but he has Aramaean cohnexions. Eebekah, the wife of his 
 3on Isaac, is brought from Aram-naharaim, and is the daughter 
 of Bethuel, the son of Nalior, his brother (Gen. 24 J.). Bethuel is 
 termed ' the Aramaean ' (Gen. 25 ^o P, 28 ^ P), and so is his son 
 Laban, the brother of Eebekah (Gen. 31 ^''-^^ E). Ja'cob's wives are 
 Aramaeans (the daughters of Laban), and he himself is called 'a 
 vagabond Aramaean' (^^'^? 'B'lX, Deut. 26^). On his return from 
 Paddan-Aram he re-enters Cana'an bearing the new name Israel 
 (Gen. 32 ^s J, 35 i** P) together with his many sons (or clans), and 
 takes up his abode at or near Shechem, concerning his relations 
 with which city variant traditions are extant.§ The mere fact, 
 then, that the situation pictured in the T.A. Letters is that 
 Aramaean nomads are flocking into Syria-Palestine and taking 
 
 * MDOO. XXXV. pp. 24 f. Of. also King, Bah. pp. 237 f. 
 
 J That Ahd-Agirta and his sons were aspiring to raise Amurru to the status of an 
 independent liingdom like the powerful kingdoms on its borders was the opinion of 
 Rib-Adda, as appears from Knudtzon's reading of three passages in his letters, as 
 interpreted by Weber (cf. Kn. p. 1101 ; so Dhorme, RB., 1909, p. 69). In Kn. 76, 
 11. 11 S. , Rib- Adda says, ' Who is Abd-ASirta, the dog, that he should seek to take for 
 himself all the cities of the King, the Sun ? Is he the king of Mitanni, or the king of 
 Ka§§u [Karduniag] that he should seek to take the King's land for himself? ' In Kn. 
 104, 11. 17 ff. ; 116, 11 67 ff. , we find similar rhetorical questions with regard to the sons 
 jf Abd-A5irta, the last passage adding comparison with ' the king of gata,' i.e. the 
 Hittites. Comparison of these three passages one with another proves that this in- 
 terpretation is correct, rather than that offered by Winckler, which suggests that 
 Abd-ASirta and his sons were acting in the interests of the king of Mitanni, etc. The 
 passages, then, indicate the wide scope of Abd-Agirta's schemes, and also suggest that 
 he and his sons were largely responsible for organizing the flow of the Aramaean 
 l;ribesmen westward into Syria-Palestine. 
 
 § Cf. note on 'Shechem,' pp. 269 f. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxxi 
 
 forcible possession of many of its cities might by itself lead us 
 plausibly to infer that the southern wing of this immigration pro- 
 bably included the ancestors of Israel — more especially since ARAD- 
 Hiba states that they (the Habiru) are in possession of the land of 
 Shechem (cf . p. Ixxiii). When, moreover, we add to this the fact that 
 the equivalence between the names ' Qabiru ' and ' Hebrew ' is perfect 
 (p. Ixxiv f.), the inference is surely raised to a high degree of 
 probability. 
 
 The only fact which should make us hesitate in assuming the 
 identity of the Habiru with the Hebrews as proved beyond the 
 possibility of a doubt is the occurrence of the term ffa-hir-a-a, i.e. 
 a gentilic form ' Habiraean,' in two Babylonian documents ; in each 
 case in application to men who bear Kassite names — Harbi§ihu* 
 and Kudurra. J If, as it is reasonable to suppose, ffa-Ur-a-a is the 
 gentilic of Habiru,^ the fact that the only two names of Habiru- 
 people that are known to us should be KasSite is certainly re- 
 markable ; and the conclusion that the Habiru were KasSites has 
 been adopted by several scholars. || Recently, Scheil has published 
 a tablet bearing a brief memorandum which mentions the Jlabiru 
 (amelu Ha-bi-ri exactly as in the T.A. Letters) at Larsa in the reign 
 of Rim-Sin, six centuries earlier than the T.A. Letters. H This 
 scholar's conclusion (based on this occurrence and on the KasSite 
 names above-mentioned) is as follows : — 'The §[abiru were in origin 
 an Elamite, KasSite, or Lower Mesopotamian people. ... In any 
 case they served among the forces of the Elamite dynasty at Larsa. 
 Without doubt they were also employed in the far countries to 
 the west, where the supremacy of Kudur-Mabuk, Hammurabi, 
 Ammiditana, etc., maintained itself with more or less authority, 
 thanks to the presence of armed troops.' The proof that KaSSite 
 troops were stationed by these monarchs in Amurru (Syria- 
 Palestine) is, however, non-existent ; and still less (apart from the 
 
 * Cf. iv.2 E. 3-t, 2 ; and, for a. transliteration and translation of the document, 
 Winckler, AF. i. pp. 389-396. The letter, written by an unnamed Bahylonian king, 
 mentions a king of Assyria named Ninib-Tukulti-ASur, who seems to have reigned 
 towards the end of the thirteenth century B.C. (cf. Johns, Ancient Assyria, 
 pp. 66 ff.), i.e. during the latter part of the KaSgite period in Babylon. 
 
 J Cf. Scheil, Recueil de Travaux, xvi. (1894), pp. 32 f. The name occurs on a 
 boundary-stone of the time of Marduk-a^i-erba of the Fourth Babylonian Dynasty 
 (B.C. 1073). 
 
 § Hommel, however, regards the similarity between gabiru and HabirS, as purely 
 fortuitous, taking the latter to mean an inhabitant of the land of gapir or Apir, i.e. 
 that part of Elam which lay over against eastern Arabia. Cf. AHT. p. 236 ; 
 Orundrisa, p. 7. 
 
 II So Hal^vy in Jowrnal Asiatique (1891), p. 547 ; Scheil in Recueil de Travaux, 
 loc. cit. ; Hilprecht, Assyriaca (1894), p. 33, n. ; Reisiier in JBL. (1897), pp. 143 ff. ; 
 Lagrange in RB. (1899), pp. 127 ff. 
 
 IT Revue d' Assyriologie, xii. (1915), pp. 114 f. The memorandum runs: 'There are 
 4 (or 6 ?) garments for the officers of the gabiru^which Ibni-Adad . . . has received. 
 Levied (?) on the property of the temple of SamaS by Ili-ippalzam, [Month of] 
 Nisan, nth day, [year of] Rim-Sin, King.' 
 
 / 
 
Ixxxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 assumption that the Habiru were Kai^ites) can the presence of such 
 troops in the west be"proved for six centuries later.* 
 
 * It is true that ARAD-Hiba speaks of the outrages committed by the Kagi people, 
 who seem on one occasion nearly to have killed him in his own house (Kn. 287, 
 11. 32 f., 71 ff,); and Biridiya of Megiddo apparently couples them with the 
 SA.GAZ'as in the pay of the sons of Labaya (Kn. 246, 11. 5 ff. : the reading is 
 uncertain, as the tablet is broken ; but traces of Ka- can be seen after amiM m&t). 
 Since, however, Eib-Adda of Gebal more than once begs the Pharaoh to send him 
 Kagi troops to protect Egyptian interests in Phoenicia (Kn. 131, 1. 13 ; 133, 1. 17; 
 conjecturally restored in 127, 1. 22), and in one of these passages (133, 1. 17) -ffa-[fi] 
 is a gloss upon [Me-lu-]!ia, i.e. Btbiopia (Heb. B'-13 Kus), it can scarcely be doubted 
 that the people of identical name mentioned by ARAD-giba and Biridiya were like- 
 wise Sudanese mercenaries at the disposal of the Egyptian high-comnjissioner, who 
 may well have proved themselves hostile and troublesome to the governors of 
 Jerusalem and Megiddo. It must be recollected that ARAD-^iba actually charged 
 the high-commissioner with favouring the Qabiru and hating the city-governors 
 (Kn. 286, 11. 16 ff.). The identity of the Kagi with the Sudanese mercenaries in all 
 these passages is assumed by Weber (Kn. pp. 1100 f,). There is the same ambiguity 
 in regard to the term (Kushite or KalSlte) in cuneiform as exists in the case of the 
 Heb. B'-13 (cf. p. 6i, footnote). 
 
 Sayce {ET. xv., 1903, pp. 282 f.) bases his theory that the Habiru were 'Hittite 
 condottieri ' upon a discovery which he claims as the result of his attempted decipher- 
 ment of the Hittite inscriptions, viz. that the name Kas was used throughout the 
 Hittite region, the kings of Carchemish, for example, calling themselves 'kings of 
 the country of Kas.' He takes references in the T. A. Letters to the land of Kaggu 
 (KaSSi in oblique forms) to refer to the land of the Hittites, alleging that reference 
 to Babylonia (ordinarily assumed) is out of the question, since this is called Karduniag 
 — in answer to which it is sufBcieut to remark that the full title claimed by the 
 kings of the Third Babylonian Dynasty, as appears from a short inscription of 
 Kara-indaS i. {cir. B.C. 1425) is ' King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, King 
 of Kaggu [Ka-as-Su-w), King of Karduniag' (cf. iv.2 R, 36 [38], No. 3; Delitzsch, 
 Paradies, p. 128). Sayce then claims that the Kagi people of ARAD-giba's letter 
 are identified with the gabiru in the passage in which the writer, having accused 
 Milkili and the sons of Labaya of giving the king's land to the gabiru, then goes on 
 to say, ' Behold, King my Lord, I am righteous as regards the Kagi people : let the 
 King ask the high-commissioner whether [or no] they have dealt very violently and 
 brought serious evil to pass' (Kn. 287). Most readers, however, must surely infer 
 that the passage, on the contrary, distinguishes between the two peoples. Why 
 should the writer apply different appellations to one people in successive sentences? 
 Obviously ARAD-IJiba, having made his owii accusation against his enemies, then 
 proceeds to deal with an accusation which tliey have made against him — probablj 
 resistance to the Sudanese troops of Egypt involving bloodshed, as we may infer from 
 his later statement that they had nearly killed him in his own house. The letters 
 from the Cana'anite princes are full of such mutual recriminations. Equally ground- 
 less is the statement that the sons of Arzawa — who must certainly have been Hittites 
 (cf. pp. Ixxxiiif. )— mentioned in one letter (Kn. 289= Winckler 182 -1-185) take the place 
 of the Habiru in other letters. The passage in question says, ' Behold, Milkili, does 
 he not revolt with the sons of Labaya and the sons of Arzawa to give up the King's 
 territory to them ' ? Here, if the sons of Arzawa are JJabiru, we should surely draw 
 the same inference with regard to the sons of Labaya. In two of the three other 
 passages in question, however (Kn. 287, 290, 289, 11. 21 ff.= Winckler, 180, 183,185), 
 the sons of Labaya are distinguished from the Habiru, for the former are associated 
 with Milkili in giving up the King's territory to tke latter. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD ixxxiii 
 
 There is no reason, so far as we can say, why Rlm-Sin should not 
 have employed Aramaean (Hebrew) tribesmen as mercenaries dr. 
 B.C. 2100. Abraham 'the Hebrew,' who is assigned to this period 
 in Gen. 14, is earliest associated with the city of Ur (Gen. 
 1128.31^ 157^ on i-jgii^ i3a,nk of the Euphrates and bordering on 
 the Syrian desert, with which Larsa on the left of the river was 
 closely connected.* There were SA.GAZ in Babylonia in Ham- 
 murabi's reign, and their overseer bore a Semitic Babylonian name, 
 Anum-pl-Sin. I If such tribesmen came later on into the regular 
 employ of the KasSite kings, it would not be strange if some of 
 them adopted Kassite names. § We find, then, in this last mentioned 
 evidence, no insuperable objection to the identification of the Habiru 
 with the Hebrews in the widest sense of the term.|| ^ 
 
 Another fact which we have learned from the T.A. Letters, and 
 which is of high interest for the history of Canaan in the period 
 prior to the Israelite settlement, is that a large and influential 
 portion of the population of Syria-Palestine at this time was non- 
 Semitic. That part of this foreign element was Hittite is now 
 placed beyond a doubt. We have already alluded to ' the sons of 
 Arzawa ' and ' the sons of Labaya ' as leagued with the Habiru in 
 rebellion against the constituted authority of Egypt. There exists 
 among the T.A. correspondence the copy of a letter addressed by 
 Amenhotp III. to Tarhundaraba, king of Arzawa (Kn. 31). This 
 letter is written for the most part in a language which we must 
 infer to be the language of the addressee ; and the fact that this is 
 Hittite has now been certainly proved by the discovery of a number 
 
 Lastly, Sayee's statement that ffabiru (-W) cannot be a proper name because it is 
 not Habird (a gentilic form) is directly contradicted by the fact that we have 
 StUO. {-ti), AhlamU {-mi) which are certainly tribal names and yet are not gentilics 
 (on these people, cf. p. Ixxix) ; his explanation of the name as meaning 'confederates' 
 (like Heb. haJbher, plur. hflbherim, the ordinary philological equivalent for which in 
 Bab. is ibru, which occurs in the T.A. Letters, Kn. 126, 1. 16) is ruled out by 
 the occurrence of the gentilic ffabird with the two KaSSite names which we have 
 already noticed (p. Ixxxi), since such a gentilic can only be formed from a proper name, 
 and is excluded no less by the occurrence once of {amUMu) ^a-hi-ri (Kl) which 
 marks the name as racial (a tribe from a particular district : cf p. Ixxviii) ; and his 
 finding in this last-mentioned method of writing the name an indication of the 
 association of the ' confederates ' with the city of Hebron (assumed to mean ' con- 
 federate-city ') takes no account of the fact that we cannot dissociate Hdbi/i'i (KI) 
 from the two occurrences of SA.GAZ (KI) which we have discussed with it. 
 
 * A regular part of the title claimed by Rim-Sin is 'he that cared for Ur.' Cf. 
 Thureau-Dangin, Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen Kljnigsinschriften, pp 216 fl'. 
 
 % Cf. King, Hammwrdbi, no. 35 ; Ungnad, Bdbylonische Brief e, no. 26, with note^. 
 
 § Cf. Winckler, KAT.' p. 197, »'. Knudtzon (p. 47, m*) maintains (against 
 Scheil) that the name of Kudurra's father, which is read as Ba-si-is, seems not to be 
 Kaffiite. 
 
 II Discussions of the Habiru and SA.GAZ which take fullest account of available 
 evidence are Winckler, 1}1. i, (1895), pp. 16-21 ; AF. iii. (1902), pp. 90-94; EAT.' 
 (1903), pp. 196 f. ; Knudtzon, pp. 45-53 ; Weber in Knudtzon, pp. 1146-1148, 1336 ; 
 Dhormein RB., 1909, pp. 67-73 ; Bohl, KH. (1911), pp. 83-96. 
 
IxxxW iNTRODl)CflOiJ 
 
 of documents in the same language among the Boghaz Keui clocU' 
 ments. The precise position of Arzawa is at present unascertained ; 
 but it seems to have been a subordinate Hittite kingdom in Asia 
 Minor.* 'The sons of Arzawa' can hardly mean anything else 
 than 'men from the land of Arzawa.' J Labaya, on the other 
 hand, seems to be a personal name. There are three letters from 
 Labaya (Kn. 252-254); and the first of these, though mainly 
 written, like the others, in Babylonian, is so much coloured by a 
 curious foreign jargon that in places it is incomprehensible: An- 
 other letter, written wholly in the Arzawa language and unde- 
 ciphered (Kn. 32), mentions the name of Labaya three times; and 
 the position of the earliest occurrence of the name in the first 
 line leaves little doubt that the writer was Labaya himself. 
 
 Other non-Semitic names in the Syrian and Palestinian letters— 
 Suwardata, Yasdata, Zirdamyasda, Artaman;^a, Rusmanya, Manya, 
 Biridaswa, Biridiya, Namyawaza, Teuwatti, Subandu, Sutarna, etc. 
 — appear to be Aryan ; and some of them have certainly been 
 identified as such.§ They are found throughout Oana'an as well as 
 to the north of the Lebanons. Suwardata, who was in antagonism 
 to ARAD-Hiba of Jerusalem, was chieftain of Kelti, i.e. in all 
 probability the Biblical Ke'ilah (1 Sam. 23 1, al.) some eight miles 
 north-west of Hebron. Biridiya and his brother (?) Yasdata were 
 princes of Megiddo. Rusmanya was prince of the city of Saruna, 
 a name which is identical with the Biblical Sharon, the maritime 
 plain north of Joppa. The presence of this Aryan element in Syria 
 and Palestine is doubtless to be connected with the fact that the 
 kingdom of Mitanni was at this period dominated by an aristocracy 
 who described themselves as Harri, i.e. Aryans, bore Aryan-sound- 
 ing names, and venerated the Aryan deities Mitra, Varuna, Indta, 
 and the Nisatya-twins. || The bulk of the Mitannian population 
 appears, however, to have been related to the Hittites, and very 
 possibly owed its origin to the Hittite invasion of western Asia in 
 
 * Cf. Winckler in OLZ. ix. p. 628 ; MDOG. xxxv. p. 40 ; and especially the 
 detailed discussion of Knudtzon, Die xioei Arzawa-Briefe (1902), pp. 16 ff. 
 
 J Similarly the appellation Armmya applied to the chieftain of Rujjizzi (probably 
 in central Syria) seems to mean ' the Arzawan ' (cf. Kn. 53, 54, aZ. ). 
 
 §^Hall (PSBA. xxxi., 1909, p. 234; cf. also NE. p. 410, mS) identifies Suwardata 
 or Suyardata with the Aryan Surya-data, i. e. 'Sun-given' fHXioSSpos). Bohl(^ff. 
 p. 17, «.!) quotes G. J. Thierry as comparing Biridagwa with Sanskrit Brhad-ahoa 
 ' (He who owns a) great horse.' Biridiya appears to contain the same first element, 
 The element Arta in Artamanya is seen in the names Artaggumara and Artatama 
 of the Aryan dynasty of Mitanni : cf. the Old Persian Artakhgatra (Artaxerxes) from 
 arta 'great' and kMalrd 'kingdom.' The second element appears in Manya and 
 Busmanya. Sutarna, the father of Namyawaza, hears a name which is also borne by 
 a member of the Mitannian dynasty. Namyawaza may be compared with Mattiuaza 
 of the Mitannian dynasty. Cf. Hommel, SUzungsberichte der k. bohm. Gesdlseh., 1898, 
 vi. ; E. Meyer, Zeitschr. f. vergl. Sprachforsckunffen, xlii (1909), pp. 18 ff. ; Weber in 
 Kn. passim. 
 
 11 Cf. Winckler, MDOG.'xxxv. pp. 37 ff., 51 : OLZ. xiii. 289 ff. The names occur 
 in FiguUa and Weiduer, Keilschriftkxte 1, No. 1, Rev. II. 55 f. ; No. 3, Rev. 1. 24, 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxxv 
 
 the 20tli century B.C., which, as we have seen (p. Ixiv), brought 
 about the end of the First Babylonian Dynasty ; * or, it may be, to 
 a still earlier settlement of Hittites, superimposed upon an older 
 population. This Hittite population was governed, but not ab- 
 sorbed, by its Aryan conquerors, just as the Semitic population of 
 Babylonia was governed by the KaSSite aristocracy who doubtless 
 belonged to the same wave of Indo-European invasion that founded 
 the AJyan Dynasty of Mitanni. * The language of Mitanni appears 
 to be neither Hittite nor Indo-European, but is said to have con- 
 nexion with the Vannic or Caucasian type.:!: 
 
 Now it seems to be clear that prior to the conquests of Thut- 
 mosi I. and Thutmosi HI. the kingdom of Mitanni extended south- 
 west of the Euphrates, and included Naharln, if not some portion of 
 Syria still further south. We have noticed, in speaking of the 
 campaigns of Thutmosi III., that the leader of the forces of Naharln 
 was probably the king of Mitanni (cf. p. Ixviii). The glosses which 
 occur in the letter from the inhabitants of Tunip prove that 
 Mitannian was the language which was ordinarily spoken in this 
 Syrian city.§ The inference is plausible that the cessation of the 
 West Semitic Babylonian predominance in Amurru, which is marked 
 by the fall of the First Babylonian Dynasty dr. B.C. 1926, laid this 
 region open to Mitannian (i.e. Hittite-Aryan) influence and occu- 
 pation, the permeation of this strain in the population extending 
 ultimately up to the frontier of Egypt. The campaigns of the 
 Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty curtailed and eventually 
 destroyed Mitannian claims to suzerainty in Amurru, confining the 
 Mitannian kingdom to the eastern side of the Euphrates. The 
 Hittite-Aryan strain still, however, formed a well-marked element 
 in the population of Syria and Cana'an ; and there should be no 
 doubt that it is this strain which is denoted in the O.T. by the 
 term 'Hittites,' when this term is used in enumeration of 'the 
 seven races ' inhabiting Cana an at the time of the Israelite occu- 
 pation (cf. ch. 3 ' note).\\ 
 
 * The Hittite state of HaDi on the middle Euphrates was apparently the outcome 
 of this invasion. Cf. King, Bab., p. 210, n'. 
 
 X Cf. Jensen, ZA. v. (1890), pp. 166-208 ; vi. pp. 34-72 ; Bitinnow, ZA. v. pp. 209- 
 259; Sayce, ZA. v. pp. 260-274; PSBA. xxii. (1900), pp. 171-225; Messersohmidt, 
 UVAG., 1899, 4 ; Bork, MY AG., 1909, 1 and 2. 
 
 § Cf. Messerschmidt, MVAO., 1899, 4, pp. 119 if. Tunip has been placed as far 
 south as Ba'albek in the Lebanon-district, and as far north as Tinnab, some 25 miles 
 to the north of Aleppo. The largest consensus of opinion would locate it in the 
 neighbourhood of Kadesh on the Orontes. Cf. Weber's discussion in Kn. pp. 1123 ff. ; 
 and, for Egyptian evidence, Miiller, AE. pp. 257 f. 
 
 II The proved existence of Hittites in southern Cana'an in the 14th century B.C. is 
 not, of course, a proof that they were there 700 years earlier in the time of Abraham 
 (assuming this to have been the period of ^d-mmiaM), as is pictured in Gen. 23 P 
 where they appear as inhabitants of Hebron ; nor can this be regarded as proved until 
 it can be shown that there is good ground for believing Gen. 23 to be based on con- 
 iemporary information, or until external contemporary information has been brough t to 
 light. For if (as there is reason to believe) Gen. 23 owes its composition (or even its 
 
Ixxxvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 The existence of this Hittite-Mitannian element in Cana'an 
 seems to throw light upon the origin of another people enumerated 
 among 'the seven races,' viz., the Jebusites of Jerusalem. The fact 
 that AEAD-E[iba the governor of Jerusalem bears a name of this 
 class seems to be clear. The Sumerian ideogram ARAD ' servant,' 
 which forms the first element in his name, proves that the second 
 element Hiba (also written |Ieba) is a divine name. There can be 
 little doubt that this is the'^Hittite-Mitannian goddess Hipa or 
 IJepa, who figures in the names of the Mitannian princesses Gilu- 
 Hipa and Tadu-Hipa (cf. p. Ixxii), and in that of Pudu-Hipa, the 
 wife of the Hittite king HattuSili n. ; and who is enumerated 
 among the great deities in the Boghaz Keui documents.* The name 
 of the Jebusite of David's time, njnx Arawna (2 Sam. 24 20.22.23.24) 
 or iTJ-iN Aranya {Kt., 2 Sam. 24 1^), which is certainly non-Semitic, 
 is Hittite in appearance : we may perhaps compare the Hittite 
 king-names ArandaS and Arnuanta. for the first element in the 
 name. J On the other hand, Adoni-sedek of Josh. 10 (cf. Judg. 1 s-T) 
 
 present form only) to an age much later than the time to which it refers, the possibility 
 that the author or editor may have assumed the conditions of a later age for the more 
 or less remote period of which he is writing has obviously to be taken into account. 
 Cf. the way in which the Philistines are represented in Gen. 26 (J in the main) as 
 inhabitants of the maritime plain in the Patriarchal period, although evidence leads us 
 to conclude that they did not settle in Palestine until a much later date (cf. pp. xciiff.). 
 "While making this criticism of Prof. Sayce's contention that the historical fact 
 that there were Hittites at Hebron in Abraham's time can now be proved (cf. ET. 
 .xviii. pp. 418 ff. ; HOM. pp. 143 f. ; and elsewhere), the fact should be noted that, 
 while the historical existence of Hittites in southern Palestine at any period has been 
 called in question by many scholars, Prof. Sayce has the merit of having all along 
 maintained its truth upon evidence which might have been patent to all at least since 
 the discovery of the Boghaz Keui documents (which certified the fact that the Arzawa 
 language was a Hittite dialect), if not since that of the T.A. Letters. There is no 
 a priori reason (so far as we know) why there should not have been Hittite clans in 
 southern Cana'an before 2000 B.C. ; and evidence that such was the case may yet come 
 to light. Sayce's evidence (Biblical World, Feb. 1905, pp. 130 ff. ; of. Archaeology, 
 p. 206) in proof that the Hittites were already settled in southern Palestine at least 
 as early as the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty (dr. 2000-1788 B.C.) breaks down under the 
 criticism of Breasted, AJSL. xxi. (1905), pp. 163-158. Cf. also W. M. Miiller, OLE. 
 xii. (1909), 427 f. 
 
 * Cf. MDOO. XXXV. p. 48. The reason why we transcribe the first element of 
 AEAD-giba's name according to its value as a Sumerian ideogram is that if, as the 
 honorific mention of Hipa implies, he was a Hittite-Mitannian, the ideogram pro- 
 bably stands for the Hittite or Mitannian word for ' servant, ' which is unknown to 
 us. Hommel (Sitzungsherichte der k. bohm. Oesellsch., 1898, vi, p. 10) and Dhorme 
 {RB., 1909, p. 72) propose the form Arta-^epa (cf. ArtaSSumara, Artatama, 
 Artamanya); while Gustavs {OLZ., 1911, 341 ff.) offers the form Put-i-Pepa, the 
 Mitannian root, put being interpreted by Bork (M VAO., 1909, 1, p. 126) in the sense 
 'to serve.' Cf. Weber in Kn. pp. 1333 f. The ordinarily -accepted form Abdi-Hiba 
 is based upon the assumption that the man was a Semite, which is very improbable. 
 
 X It is likely that the termination in Aran-ya may be hypocoristic, the name 
 bearing the same relation to a fuller form such as Aran-dag as Aki-ya does to Aki- 
 TeSub, Aki-izzi, Gili;ya to Gilu-gepa, and Biridi-ya to Birid-aSwa. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxxvii 
 
 is good Semitic, and so is Malki-sedek (Gen. 14 1^), if this can be 
 accepted as the genuine name of a king of Jerusalem. 
 
 Now Ezekiel, in characterizing figuratively Jerusalem's idolatrous 
 career from the earliest times, states at the opening of his descrip- 
 tion, ' Thy father was the Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite ' 
 (Ezek. 16^ ; cf. v.*^). This statement has been often understood to 
 be merely metaphorical — morally considered, Jerusalem may be said 
 to have affinity with the early heathen races of Cana an. In the 
 light, however, of the facts which we have just noticed, viz. : the 
 mixture of Hittite and Semitic names among the pre-Israelite 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem as known to us, it becomes highly probable 
 that Ezekiel's words preserve an ethnographical fact, and that the 
 Jebusites of Jerusalem actually derived their origin from the 
 amalgamation of two strains, Amorite and Hittite.* 
 
 By the end of Ahnaton's reign Egypt had practically lost her 
 hold upon the whole of her Asiatic dominions. North of the 
 Lebanons Subbiluliuma had thoroughly consolidated the Hittite 
 domination. Aziru's duplicity in posing as the supporter both of 
 Egyptian and of Hittite interests had at length proved disastrous 
 to him, and the Hittite king had attacked and defeated him and 
 reduced Amurru to vassalage. J The murder of Tu&atta in a 
 court-conspiracy, producing anarchy in Mitanni, gave Subbiluliuma 
 the opportunity of intervening in the affairs of that kingdom ; and 
 having placed Mattiuaza, an exiled son of the late king, upon the 
 throne, he married him to his daughter and assumed to himself the 
 r61e of suzerain. § Subbiluliuma seems not to have attempted to 
 extend his domination to Canaan; and here the Habiru and other 
 turbulent elements in the population were left to work their will 
 unchecked by any effective control by Egypt. The death of 
 Ainaton was speedily followed by the sweeping away of the new 
 religion which he had endeavoured to impose upon Egypt, and the 
 restoration of the andent cultus. The reigns of the succeeding 
 Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Sakere, Tut'anhaton, and Ay, 
 cover in all a period of not more than eight years {dr. B.C. 1358- 
 1350), during which the power was really in the hands of the 
 Amon-priesthood at Thebes, and the reigning monarchs themselves 
 were little more than figureheads. Tut'anb.aton (the change of 
 whose name to Tut'anbamon marks the re-establishment of Thebes 
 as the seat of government and the triumph of the god Amon), may 
 possibly have attempted an expedition into Cana'an as well as into 
 Nubia ; for under him envoys from Syria are represented, together 
 
 * Cf. Sayce, Archaeology, p. 205 ; Hommel, Qrundriss, p. 55 ; Jeremias, OTLAE. i. 
 p. 340 ; Bohl, KH. p. 26 ; Luckenbill, AJTh. xviii. pp 57 f. 
 
 X Cf., for the circumstances, MDOG. xxxv. p. 43 ; Weber in Kn. pp. 1134 f. ; 
 Hall, N£. p. 350 ; Bohl in Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1916, pp. 206 if. Text in FiguUa 
 and Weidner, KeihchrifUexte 1, No. 8. 
 
 § Cf. MDOG. xxxv. p. 36 ; Bohl in Theologisch Tijdschrift, 1916, pp. 170 ff. Text 
 in FiguUa and Weidner, Keilschriftiexte 1, Obv. 11. 48 ff. 
 
Ixxxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 with Ethiopians from the south, as bringing tribute,* and Haremheli 
 is described, when eommander-in-chief of the Egyptian - forces, as 
 'king's follower on his expeditions to the south and north 
 
 country.' J ,11, 
 
 It is doubtful, again, whether Haremheb, § who succeeded Ay 
 (dr. 1350), attempted to wage war in Syria. The name of geta (the 
 Hittites) appears in a list of names belonging to his reign, and the 
 captives whom he is represented as presenting to the gods of Egypt 
 may include some Asiatics.|| It was probably Haremheb who con- 
 cluded the treaty with Subbiluliuma (written S'-p'-r.w-rw in Egyptian) 
 to which reference is made in the treaty of Eamesse 11. with 
 HattuSili (of. p. xci). 
 
 Ea'messe i., the founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, must have 
 been an old man at his accession {dr. B.C. 1315), and his reign of 
 two years or less was uneventful. His son and successor, Sety i. 
 {dr. B.C. 1313), early turned his attention to the recovery of 
 Egypt's Asiatic dominions. At the beginning of his reign he 
 received a report of the condition of affairs in Cana'an : — ' The 
 vanquished Sasu, they plan rebellion, rising against the Asiatics of 
 Haru. They have taken to cursing and quarrelling, each of them 
 slaying his neighbour, and they disregard the laws of the palace.' H 
 This report, which summarizes the situation in Cana'an as we have 
 it in the T.A. Letters, is of high interest as indicating that the 
 SA.GAZ-Habiru of the latter were identical with the people whom 
 the Egyptians called §asu, i.e. Asiatic Bedawin.** 
 
 Pushing through the desert without delay, Sety easily routed 
 the outposts of the Sasu, and then marched through the whole 
 length of Cana'an, conquering or receiving the submission of 
 various fortified cities on his route. A boundary-stone discovered 
 by G-. A. Smith, at Tell eS-Sihib, 22 miles due east of the southern 
 end of the sea of Galilee, proves that he must have extended his 
 arms east of Jordan to the Haur^n.:]:J His main object, however, 
 was to regain possession of the Phoenician coast-cities, in order that, 
 
 * Cf, Breasted, AR. ii. §§ 1027 ff. The fact that the tribute of the north is repre- 
 sented as presented to the Pharaoh by the two viceroys of Nubia creates suspicion 
 that it may have beea added, in imitation of earlier representations, as the conven- 
 tional pendant of the tribute of the south. 
 
 X Cf. Breasted, AR. iii. § 20. 
 
 § Haremheb, who first rose to position as a general and administrator in the 
 reign of Ahnaton, seems to have been the real wielder of power during the reigns of 
 the weaklings who succeeded this monarch. On the death of Ay he succeeded to the 
 kingship as the nominee of the priesthood of Amou (to whose worship he seems 
 all along to have adhered), and his position was legitimized by marriage with a 
 princess of the royal line. Cf. Breasted, Hist, Eg. pp. 399 ff. ; Hall, NE. pp. 
 310 ff. 
 
 il Of. Breasted, AR. iii. § 34. T Cf. Breasted, AR. iii. § 101. 
 
 ** Cf. the remarks on p. Ixxix aa to the identity in meaning of Sasu with SA. GAZ= 
 J^hatum. 
 
 S Cf. PEF.Qy.St, 1901, pp. 347 £f. ; 1904, pp. 78 «F. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD Ixxxix 
 
 following the example of Thutmosi III., lie might obtain a naval 
 base for the provision of reinforcements in a future campaign 
 against the further north. This successfully accomplished, he 
 returned to Egypt with his captives and spoil. 
 
 Resolved in a second (undated) campaign to try conclusions with 
 the Hittites — whose king, MurSili (Eg. M-r'-s'-r"), the son of 
 SubbiluUuma, had succeeded to the throne after the brief reign of 
 his brother Arandas — Sety advanced between the Lebanons, and 
 for the first time Egyptian and Hittite forces met in conflict. Sety 
 claims to have reached Naharln ; but since he did not gain any 
 decisive success against the Hittites, we may suspect that this is an 
 exaggeration. After this campaign Sety concluded a treaty with 
 MurSili,* the terms of which probably left Cana'an and Phoenicia 
 to Egypt, and the whole of Syria north of the Lebanons to the 
 Hittites. During the remainder of Sety's reign (which lasted some 
 21 years in all) we hear of no further campaign in Syria. It is in- 
 teresting to note that Sety (like Ea'messe ii.) mentions a district 
 called 'A-sorru, corresponding to the hinterland of southern 
 Phoenicia J — precisely the position assigned in the Old Testament 
 to the Israelite tribe of Asher (cf. ch. P^ note). 
 
 His successor, Ea'messe ii. (dr. B.C. 1292), was fired with the 
 ambition of recovering Egypt's Asiatic empire as it had existed at 
 the end of the reign of the great conqueror Thutmosi iii. This was 
 a task more difficult than ever before. The Hittite king Murgili, 
 and his son and successor Muwattalli (Eg. Mw-t-n-r'), profiting by 
 the long period of peace, had occupied Kadesh on the Orontes as a 
 frontier-fortress, and rendered it a very formidable obstacle to be 
 overcome by an Egyptian army advancing northward between the 
 Lebanons. Of Ea'messe's earliest moves we know no more than 
 the fact that a limestone stele, cut in the rock at the mouth of the 
 Nahr el-Kelb near B§rfit, bears the Pharaoh's name, and is dated 
 the fourth year of his reign. § This shows that, like his father Sety, 
 his initial move was to follow the policy of Thutmosi III. and to 
 make sure of his hold upon the Phoenician cities; but whether 
 this cost him any fighting we have no means of determining. In 
 any case, his ulterior object was sufficiently obvious to forewarn 
 the Hittite king ; and when next year he advanced against northern 
 Syria in order to try conclusions with the Hittites, Muwattalli || had 
 
 * Mentioned in the treaty of Ba'messe II. with |[attuSili. This speaks of a treaty 
 with Muwattalli ; but there can be no doubt that the name is an error for Murgili ; 
 cf. Breasted, AR. iii. § 377, note c. 
 
 t Cf. MuUer, ^£. pp. 2.36ff. 
 
 § Another stele in the same place has been thought to be dated ' year 2 ' (so Petrie, 
 Bist. Eg. iii. p. 46), but the date should more probably be read ' year 10.' There was 
 but one campaign before that against Kadesh in ' year 5. ' Cf. Breasted, AR.% 297. 
 
 II Hall makes Murgili the Hittite king whom Ea'messe met at Kadesh, and 
 supposes that he died shortly after, ' crushed by the disaster that had befallen his 
 armies' (NE. p. 361) ; but the treaty of QattuSili with Ra'messe certainly speaks aa 
 
xc INTRODUCTION 
 
 mustered an army of some 20,000 including his north S 
 dependants and allies from Asia Minor, among whom we reco 
 Dardanians (Dardeny), Lycians (Luka), Mysians (Mesa), Katao 
 (Katawaden), and Cilicians (KelekeS). The bad strategy disp 
 by Ramesse nearly involved him in defeat, his first and si 
 divisions (the first led by the king himself) encountering a sur 
 attack from behind the city of Kadesh, wlailst the third and f 
 divisions were still straggling some miles in the rear. The s 
 division appears to have been cut to pieces in the first onset c 
 Hittites, while the first division (already in camp) was large! 
 to flight ; but the personal bravery of Ea'messe (rallying no 
 his own bodyguard and some part of the first division) succ 
 in holding the foe at bay until reinforcements arrived, whe 
 aspect of affairs was changed and the Hittites were beaten off 
 heavy losses. Next day both armies seem to have been t( 
 hausted to renew the combat ; and Ea'messe had to be cont( 
 return to Egypt without attempting to reduce the fortn 
 Kadesh.* 
 
 It is easy to see that this campaign, though much magnifi 
 Ramesse on account of the personal part which he played 
 trieving the issue of the battle, must have been somewhat disa 
 to the prestige of Egypt in Syria. We are not surprised, the 
 to find that within the next year or so the whole of Cana'an, i 
 up doubtless by Hittite influence, was in revolt ; and in his 
 year Ea'messe had to undertake a campaign for its reconquef 
 was obliged to lay siege to and reduce even a city so far so 
 Ashkelon. 
 
 Pushing northward, he then captured a number of cities 
 district of Galilee, among which we recognize the name of 
 'Anath (cf. ch. P^ note), and seems also to have extended hi 
 into the Lebanon-district, for he records the conquest of 
 named Dapur ' in the land of Amor ' ( Amurru), which was gari 
 by Hittites. J Possibly the stele discovered by Schumac 
 
 though peace had been broken in the time of Muwattalli (Breasted, AR. ii 
 and this is the view which is taken by Breasted (Hist. Eg. pp. 423 if.), 
 (HUtites, p. 343), Luckenbill (AJTli. xviii. p. 49), and King (Bah. p. 235). 
 
 * The fullest accounts of this battle (with plans and Egyptian reliefs 
 found in Breasted, AR. iii. §§ 298 if. ; The Battle of Kadtsh (Decennial Publi 
 the University of Chicago, 1904) ; Hist. Eg. pp. 425 ff . ; Petrie, Hist. Eg. iii. 
 
 J The view commonly held (cf. Petrie, Hist. Eg. iii. p. 61 ; Breasted, 
 §§ 356 f. ; Hist. Eg. p. 436; Hall, NE. p. 362) that Dapur is the Biblical 
 the plain of Esdraelon is not very probable. Heb. n is not usually reprei 
 Eg. d (no instances cited by Burch.), nor 3 by Eg. j7 (very rare ; cf. Bui 
 and the fact that this city alone is distinguished as ' in the land of Ami 
 dissociates it from the group in which it occurs. No Hittite remains have 
 covered further south than Restan, north of the Lebanons. Elsewhere 
 associated with Kadesh: cf. Mtiller, AE. p. 221. We iind Tabor norm 
 among the Asiatic names in the great list of Ra'messe in. at Medinet ] 
 W. M. MuUer, Egypt. Researches (1904) PI. 65, No. 27 ; Burch. No. 1083. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD xci 
 
 Seh Sa d in the Hauran,* about three miles north o.f Tell 'AStar^, 
 may have been set up during this campaign. 
 
 The records for the following years are scanty, but it is clear 
 that they witnessed a long and arduous struggle to recover northern 
 Syria from the Hittites. Ra'messe must have advanced into 
 Naharln as far as Tunip, conquered this city, and then lost it 
 again ; for in a subsequent campaign we find him once more cap- 
 turing it, together with Katna and Arvad, and claiming to have 
 subdued the whole of northern Syria and Naharin. J It is unlikely 
 that he retained possession of his conquests for any length of time. 
 Muwattalli, though he might be temporarily worsted, was by no 
 means beaten, and probably wrested back most if not all of the 
 captured territory as often as Ra'messe returned with his army to 
 Egypt. At length, in or shortly before the twenty-first year of 
 Ra'messe's reign, Muwattalli died and was succeeded by his brother 
 gattuSili II. (Eg. ff-t'-s'-r'), who immediately proposed a treaty 
 of peace which the Egyptian king was not loath to accept. The 
 Egyptian text of this treaty is engraved on the walls of Karnak 
 and the Ramesseum, and has long been known §; and parts of a 
 copy in cuneiform Babylonian were discovered among the Hittite 
 archives at Boghaz Keui.|| It is a diplomatic document of the 
 highest interest, dealing in legally phrased clauses with obligations 
 of alliance and the mutual right of extradition of emigrants and 
 political refugees. Both parties are placed upon a footing of exact 
 equality — a fact which proves that neither had any permanent 
 advantage to claim as the result of many years of conflict. There 
 is no definition of the boundary-line between the two kingdoms ; 
 and our inference must be that it remained as defined or recognized 
 in the earlier treaties of Subbiluliuma (cf. p. Ixxxviii) and MurSili (cf. 
 p. Ixxxix), to which the present treaty refers. Thirteen years later 
 Ra'messe married the eldest daughter of HattuSili, and the 
 Hittite king actually accompanied his daughter to Egypt for the 
 ceremony. H 
 
 During the remainder of Ra'messe's long reign of sixty-seven 
 years he was never again obliged to take the field in Syria.** His 
 son Mineptah was an elderly man when he succeeded him (dr. B.C. 
 1225), and his accession seems to have been the signal for a revolt 
 in Cana'an, which he quelled in his third year. Mineptah's reference 
 
 ♦ Ct.ZDPr.xiv.'p-p. 142 ff. 
 
 + Cf. Breasted, AR. iii. §§ 363 ff. 
 
 § Cf. Brea.sted, AR. iii. §§ 367 ff. ; Petrie, Hist. Eg. iii. pp. 63 ff. 
 
 II Cf. MDOG. XXXV. pp. 12 f. 
 
 IT Cf. Breasi^d, A R. iii. §§ 416 ff. 
 
 ** To the reign of Ra'messe li. is assigned the composition of the document con- 
 tained in Papyrus Anastasi I., which gives an imaginative and satirical description 
 of the perils and difficulties attendant upon travel in Palestine. This document, 
 which is of the highest interest on account of the typographical and descriptive in- 
 formation which it offers, has been most recently edited by A. H. Gardiner, Egyptian 
 Bieratic Texts, Series I. Part I. (1911). 
 
xcii INTRODUCTION 
 
 to this campaign is, from the Biblical point of view, of the highest 
 interest, for in it we find Israel mentioned among Palestinian 
 localities— Pe-kanan (i.e. ' the Cana'an '), Ashkelon, Gezer, Yeno'am, 
 Haru {i.e. southern Palestine)— as plundered and subdued.* Minep- 
 tah's statement is ' Israel (y-s-r-'-r) is desolated, his seed is not,' | 
 and the name Israel is marked by the Determinative which means 
 'mfen,' showing that it denotes a people and not a country. 
 
 The next event which is of interest for Biblical history is the 
 settlement of the Philistines in Cana'an. Already in the reign of 
 Mineptah we can trace the beginning of a migratory movement 
 among the peoples of the north-eastern Mediterranean. Mineptah 
 was obliged, in his fifth year, to repel an extensive invasion into 
 the western Delta on the part of the Libyans, together with various 
 peoples who came by sea to assist in the raid, those who are named 
 being the 'Akay waSa, TuruSa, Luka, Sardina, and SakaluSa.§ After 
 a lapse of nearly thirty years we find that history repeats itself, 
 and the Libyans, profiting by the period of confusion and weakness 
 which ensued in Egypt after the death of Mineptah (eir. B.C. 1215), 
 again invaded the western Delta in force in the fifth year of 
 Ea'messe lii. of the Twentieth Dynasty {dr. B.C. 1193), assisted by 
 sea-rovers called Pulasati and Takkara,|| some of whom joined the 
 land forces of the Libyans, whilst others entered the Nile-mouths 
 in their ships. Ea'messe claims a decisive victory against these 
 
 * The inscription in which this reference occurs was discovered by Petrie in 1896, 
 and a full account of it was given by him in the Contemporary Review for May of the 
 same year. Cf. also Petrie, Hist. Eg. iii. p. 114 ; Breasted, AR. lii. §§ 602 ff. 
 
 X In the expression ' his seed is not,' seed seems to me&n posterity ; and the phrase 
 does not mean 'their crops are destroyed,' as explained by Petrie and many scholars 
 after him. This is clear from the fact that the same expression is used five times 
 elsewhere of other .conquered foes (cf. Breasted, AR. iii. § 604), e.g. of the sea- 
 peoples who endeavoured to invade Egypt in the reign of Ea'messe iii., of whom this 
 king says, 'Those who reached my border are desolated, their seed is not.' Here 
 reference to ' crops ' is obviously out of the question. 
 
 § Cf. Breasted, AR. iii. §§ 569 ff. The 'AkaywaSa are probably the 'AxaiFol, 
 Achim, or proto-Greeks ; the TuruSa may be the tvparival or Tyrrhenians, whose 
 migration from Asia Minor to Italy probably took place at about this period ; the 
 Luka, as we have already noticed (p. xc), are certainly the Lycians ; the Sardina 
 were perhaps originally from" Sardis in Asia Minor, and subsequently gave their name 
 to Sardinia (some of them had been in the employ of Egypt as mercenaries since the 
 days of Afenaton : they appear in the T.A. Letters as amilu Serdani; cf. Kn. 122, 
 1. 35) ; the Sakaluga were probably from Sagalassos in Asia Minor (Sagalassian met- 
 cenaries are perhaps intended by sdM dlu Sehlali, 'soldiers of the city of Seblal'), 
 mentioned by Abd-ASirta in one of his letters.^Kn. 62 ; so Hall in PSBA. xxxi. p. 
 231, »86). Of. Miiller, AB. pp. 357 f., 372 ff. ; Hall, NJS. pp. 68 ff., 377. On the 
 -& and -na terminations of many of these names as nominal suiHxes in Asia Minor 
 (illustrated by the Lycian -cfei, -am, etc.), cf. Hall, Oldest Givilization of Greece, 
 pp. 178 f, 
 
 II Or Zakkala, if Hommel (PSBA. xvii., 1895, p. 205 ; Orundriss, pp. 28, 32, n*) 
 is right in connecting with the city-name Zakkalfl, mentioned in a Babylonian 
 inscription of the KaSSite period (the same that has already been cited for the name 
 garbiSihu : cf. p. Ixxxi). 
 
SkTtiRNAL INFORkAtlON BfeARliJG ON tHfe PEfetOb xciii 
 
 combined forces.* But a greater peril awaited him. In his eighth 
 year he had to meet a threatened invasion of the sea-peoples, which 
 was clearly no casual raid, but a migration on a large scale. The 
 invaders came both by land, moving down the coast of Syria, and 
 also by sea, the land-contingent bringing their families and posses- 
 sions in heavy two-wheeled ox-carts. ' The isles were disturbed,' 
 Ra'messe tells us, and ' no one stood before their hands,' even the 
 Hittites being mentioned as wasted before their advance. 'They 
 set up a camp in one place in the land of Amor [Amurru]. They 
 desolated his people and his land like^ that which is not. Their 
 main support was Pulasati, Takkara, Sakalusa, Danauna, Wa§aga. 
 These lands were united, and they laid their hands upon the land 
 as far as the Circle of the Earth. Their hearts were confident, full 
 of their plans.' J Ra'messe equipped a fleet to meet the invaders, 
 and marched into Cana'an himself at the head of his land-army, 
 which was composed partly of Egyptians and partly of Sardina 
 mercenaries. Somewhere upon the coast of Phoenicia a battle was 
 fought in which Ra'messe was victorious; and his army, having 
 accounted for their foes by land, turned their arrows to the assist- 
 ance of the Egyptian ships which were engaged in a naval battle 
 inshore in one of the harbours. § Ra'niesse thus succeeded for the 
 time in checking the southern progress of the tide of invasion ; but 
 it cannot have been long afterwards — whether later in this Pharaoh's 
 reign or in the period of national decay which supervened at his 
 death — that the immigrant tribes pressed on and occupied the 
 whole of the maritime plain of Cana'an from Carmel to the border 
 of Egypt, extending ultimately, as it seems, across the plain of 
 Esdraelon to Beth-she'an (cf. p. 24). 
 
 However much doubt may attach to the identification of the 
 other invading tribes, || it is certain that the Pulasati (written 
 Pw-r'-s'-t or Pw-i'-s'-ty) are the PHiStim of the O.T. The Philistines 
 were recognized by the Israelites as immigrant settlers, and their 
 earlier home is said to have been ninS3 Kaphtor (Deut. 2^3, Am. 9'''), 
 
 * Cf. Breasted, AR. iv. §§ 35 ff. J Cf. Breasted, AR. iv. § 64. 
 
 § Cf, the Egyptian relief as figured by Rosellini, Monumenti dell' Egitto, i. PI. 
 cxxxi..; Maspero, Milees, p. 469 ; Macalister, Schweich Lectv/res, p. 119. 
 
 II The name Takkara has been connected by Petrie (Hist. Eg. iii. p. 151) with the 
 place-name Zakro in eastern Crete, and this view is favoured by Hall (NE. p. 71). 
 The older identification with the TevKpol of the Troad, adopted by Lauth, Chabas, 
 Lenormant, and ultimately by Brugsch (cf. references in Maspero, MeUes, p. 464, n^) 
 may also connect this people originally with Crete, whence the Trojan Teucer is said 
 to have come (Virgil, Aen. iii. 11. 102 ff.): of. Hall, Oldest Civilization of Oreece, 
 p. 176. Maspero (Revue Gritique, 1880, p. 110) and Breasted (Eist. Eg. p. 477) think 
 of the pre-Greek Sikeli or Sicilians. The Danauna may have been the i^avaol, as is 
 commonly thought, in spite of the fact that there was a settleinent of them in Cana'an 
 some two hundred years before this date (cf. p. xcv). On the Sakaluga as the Sagalas- 
 sians, cf. p. xoii. Most difficult of all to identify are the Wagaga, who Hall thinks 
 may be ' the people of fa|6s (Waxos), the 'Oa{6s of Herodotus and 'A|6s of later days, 
 a prominent city of Crete' (cf. op. cit. p. 177). 
 
xcW iNtRODUCTION 
 
 which is defined iu Jer. 47 * by the term 'N 'i, always applied to the 
 islands and coast-lands of the Mediterranean. The identity of 
 Kaphtor with the Egyptian Keftiu/ and of both with the island of 
 Crete, admits of no reasonable doubt ; but it is not unlikely that the 
 ancestors of the Philistines had at one time or another connexion 
 with the mainland of Asia Minor, especially with Lycia and Caria 
 (which may, indeed, be included under the term Keftiu, if, as Hall 
 states, it is derived from an Egyptian word meaning 'behind,' and 
 so denotes somewhat vaguely 'the back of beyond'). J The term 
 ''n'13 K^ritM, which is often applied in the O.T. to a section of the 
 Philistines (especially David's foreign bodyguard), bears a close 
 
 * The absence of the final r in Keftiu as compared with Kaphtor is explained by 
 Spiegelberg (OLZ. xi. 426 f.) as due to elision ; and this seems more probable than 
 the rival explanation offered by Wiedemann {OLZ. xiii. 63) that Kaphtor is the 
 Egyptian Kaft-hor ' Upper Kefti' (like Retenu-hor ' Upper Retenu'), since it is more 
 liliely that the Israelites learned the name directly from the Philistines themselves 
 than through an Egyptian medium. W. M. Mtlller {MVAG., 1900, p. 6) cites the 
 Ptolemaic form Kpfr with retention of r. 
 
 J The men of Keftiu figured on Egyptian tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty period 
 bear striking resemblance to the Minoans, the remains of whose civilization have 
 been excavated at Knossos and other sites in Crete, and the vases which they carry 
 are identical in workmanship. It is impossible, however, to regard the Philistines as 
 identical with these Keftians. The former, as represented in Egyptian reliefs, are 
 quite unlike the latter, and always wear a high feathered headdress, such as, accord- 
 ing to Herodotus (vii. 92) was worn at the battle of Salamis by the Lycians (ire/ji Si 
 TJjcrt /ce0aX]?(ri ■jri\ovs irrepoicn irepLeaTe^aviafievovs), whom the same writer believes to 
 have come originally from Crete (i. 173). Cf. the feathered headdress worn by the 
 figures depicted on an Assyrian relief from Kuyunjik of the seventh century B.C. : 
 Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd Series, Plate 44. Herodotus also states that the 
 Carians came to the mainland from the islands, and were originally subjects of King 
 Minos (i. 171 ; cf. also Strabo, xiv. 2, 27), and he ascribes to them, among other 
 inventions borrowed by the Greeks, the fastening of crests on helmets — which, how- 
 ever, were clearly quite different from the feathered skull-caps of the Lycians and 
 Philistines. A head with feathered headdress, identical with that of the Philistines, 
 forms one of the piotographs upon the clay disk discovered by Pernier in the palace 
 of Phaestos in Crete. The human figures included among the piotographs on this 
 disk are non-Minoan in outline and costume, and the signs as a whole differ consider- 
 ably from those of the Minoan signary. Whether the disk should ' be regarded as a 
 record of a peaceful connexion between the Minoan lords of Phaestos and some neigh- 
 bouring race enjoying a parallel form of civilization,' or as 'the record of an invading 
 swarm, the destroyers perhaps of Phaestos itself,' is a question which cannot at 
 present be settled. Cf. Evans, Scripta Minoa, i. pp. 22-28, with Plates xii. and xiii. 
 The Aegean pottery which has been discovered at sites in Palestine which come 
 within the Philistine sphere (Tell es-S^fiyyeh, Gezer, 'Ain-gems) is of the inferior 
 style called ' Late Minoan rn.' i.e. belonging to the period subsequent to the destruc- 
 tion of Knossos which marks the end of 'Late Minoan ii.' cir. B.C. 1400. Late 
 Minoan in. style, which follows immediately on Late Minoan II. , was very possibly 
 the inferior imitation of Minoan art already developed in south-western Asia Minor 
 by the invaders of Crete, who may have been the ancestors of the Philistines. 
 
 On the Keftian and Philistine questions, cf. Hall in Anniml of the Brit. School at 
 Athens, viii. (1901-2), pp. 157-188 ; NJS. pp. 68-74 ; Macalister, The Philistines ; their 
 History and Qivilimtion (Schweich Lectures, 1911, published 1914), chap. i. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE I>EkIOt) xcv 
 
 resemblance to ' Cretan,' and is so rendered by ffi in Ezek. 25 ^^, 
 Zeph. 2* ; and an allied tribe, also employed as mercenaries by the 
 Judaean kings, bore the name *"I3 Kdri (2 Sam. 20 ^^ Kt., 2 Kgs. 
 11*-'^), i.e. Carians. 
 
 ~ The O.T. tells us nothing as to the other sea-peoples allied with 
 the Philistines ; but we gather from the narrative of the Egyptian 
 Wenamon (of. p. xcvi), that there was a Takkara settlement at Dor 
 a little south of Carmel about eighty years after the invasion. It is 
 possible that the Danauna may have settled on the sea-coast to the 
 north of Phoenicia, where, as we learn from a letter of Abimilki of 
 Tyre to Ahnaton, there was a settlement of them some 200 years 
 earlier.* So late as the latter half of the 9th century B.C. Kalumu 
 king of Ya'di in northern Syria was harassed by the king of the 
 Danonim (D'3n l^o), and was obliged to hire the assistance of the 
 king of Assyria | — a fact which favours the inference that this 
 people is to be looked for somewhere upon the north Syrian littoral. 
 
 After having successfully repulsed another invasion of the Libyans 
 (this time in alliance with the MaSawaSa, a north African people 
 dwelling to the west of the Libyans), which took place in his 
 eleventh year, Ea'messe ill. undertook (probably within the next 
 year or two) a second campaign in Syria concerning which our very 
 scanty information is derived solely from pictorial reliefs. § He 
 seems to have stormed and captured several fortified cities, one of 
 which is described as 'in the land of Amor,' whilst another, which 
 is represented as surrounded by water, is probably Kadesh. Two 
 others are pictured as defended by Hittite troops, and one of these 
 bears the name Eret. 
 
 After the death of Ra'messe ill. the Twentieth Dynasty was con- 
 tinued by a series of nine rulers, all of whom bore the name 
 Ra'messe (iv-xil). The total period covered by their reign was 
 under 80 years (B.C. 1167-1090) ; and since in the whole line there 
 was not one monarch possessing the slightest vigour or initiative, 
 the power of the empire suffered a swift and irretrievable decline. 
 Early in Ra'messe xii.'s reign we find that a Tanite noble named 
 Nesubenebded has made himself ruler of the whole Delta-region, 
 
 * Cf. Kn. 151. 11. 49 ff. Abimilki's words are, ' The King my lord has written to 
 me, " What news ha.st thou of Cana'au ? Send me word. " The king of the land of 
 Danuna is dead, and his brother has become king in succession, and the land is at 
 rest.' It is generally assumed that the O.T. references to the Philistines as occupying 
 the maritime plain of southern Cana'an in Patriarchal times (Gen. 21S2M E, 26 J ; 
 cf. also Ex. 13 18 E, 15 1* J) are necessarily anachronistic ; but the fact that there were 
 Danauna in Syria some two hundred years before the days of Ra'messe ill. should 
 give us pause before we assert this categorically, since for aught we know there may 
 have been an earlier Philistine settlement just as there was an earlier Danauna settle- 
 ment. The existence of such an earlier Philistine settlement has been argued by 
 Noordzij {De FUistijnen, p. 59), mainly on the ground that by the time of Samson 
 and Saul the Philistines were already largely Semitized. 
 
 t Inscription of Kalumu, 11. 7 f. Cf. references p. 11 i, footnote *. 
 
 § Cf. Breasted, AR. iv. §§ 115-135. 
 
stcvl INTRODUCTION 
 
 while at Thebes the supreme power is in the hands of tke higii- 
 priest of Amon, Hrihor by name. 
 
 A document dated' in the fifth year of this reign {dr. B.C. 1114) is 
 of the highest interest to us as illustrating Egypt's total loss of 
 power and prestige in Syria.* This is the report of a certain 
 Wenamon, an official despatched by Hrihor to Phoenicia in order 
 to procure timber from the Lebanon for the sacred barge of Amon. 
 The report, which is a chapter of misfortunes, is undoubtedly 
 authentic, and was apparently drawn up to explain the emissary's 
 waste of time and ill-success in accomplishing his errand. 
 
 Starting from Thebes in charge of an image of the god named 
 ' Amon-of-the-Way,' Wenamon goes to Tanis, and on eAibition of 
 his credentials Nesubenebded and his wife T'entamon give him a 
 passage on board a trading-vessel commanded by a Syrian in order 
 that he may reach Gebal and obtain the timber from Zakar-baal 
 (Eg. T'-k'-r'-b--r), the Phoenician prince of that city. In the course 
 of the voyage the ship touches at Dor, which belongs to a settle- 
 ment of the Takkara under a prince named Badyra, or, it may be, 
 Bod'el (Eg. B'-dy-r). \ "Whilst the ship is in harbour one of the 
 crew steals Wenamon's money, amounting to 5 dehen of gold and 31 
 dehen of silver, § and decamps. Wenamon interviews Badyra and 
 endeavours to make him responsible for the robbery, on the ground 
 that it took place in his harbour ; but the Takkara prince not 
 unnaturally disclaims all obligation to make good the money, while 
 politely promising to search for the thief. After waiting in harbour 
 nine days without result, Wenamon is obliged to continue his 
 journey. Unfortunately at this point there comes a lacuna in the 
 MS. ; but we are able to gather from what remains || that the ship 
 put in at Tyre, and that either here or at some other port Wenamon 
 met some Takkara travellers bearing a bag of silver amounting to 
 30 deben, and incontinently seized it as surety for his own money. 
 
 Arrived at Gebal, Zakar-ba'al refuses to see him, and sends a 
 message, ' Begone from my harbour ! ' Wenamon waits patiently 
 for nineteen days, in spite of daily orders to depart ; then one of 
 the youths in the prince's retinue falls into a prophetic frenzy, and 
 demands that the god, and the messenger of Amon who has him in 
 
 * The Golenisoheff papyrus, discovered in 1891 at Bl-gibeh in Upper Egypt. For 
 translation and discussion, of. W. M. Miiller in MVAG., 1900, 1, pp. 14-2^; ErmaE in 
 Zeitschr. filr aegypl. Sprache, xxxyiii (1900), pp. 1-14 ; Breasted, AB. iv. §§ 557 ff. ; 
 Maspero, Contes populaires de I'Egypte (4" 6d. 1911), pp. 214-230; Popular Stories 
 of Ancient Egypt (trans, of preceding by Mrs. Johns, revised by Maspero, 1915), 
 pp. 202-216. 
 
 X In favour of taking the name as Semitic PKT3 we may compare the Phoenician 
 names niDB'yna Bod-'AStart, mp^D12 Bod-Melkart, n^mi Bod-Tanith. 13 
 is probably a shortened form of 1DS> ' servant of ' : of. Cooke, NSl. p. 41 . 
 
 § That is (according to Petrie, Hist. Eg. iii. p. 197) about £60 in gold and £12 in 
 silver. 
 
 II Maspero (op. -cit.) offers a conjectural restoration of the missing section. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD xcvii 
 
 his care, shall be brought into the presence of Zakar-ba'al. Thus 
 Wenamon, who, having abandoned hope of accomplishing his 
 mission, is loading his belongings on to a ship bound for Egypt, is 
 stopped by the harbour-master and ordered to remain until the 
 morning. He is then granted an interview with Zakar-ba'al, who, 
 in spite of the prophecy, is by no means disposed to receive him 
 with open arms, but demands his credentials which he has foolishly 
 left in the hands of Nesubenebded and Tentamon, and asks why he 
 and his god have been sent, not in a special ship, but in a mere 
 merchant-vessel, in which he might easily have been wrecked and 
 have lost the image of the god.* On Zakar-ba'al's inquiring his 
 business, he replies, ' I have come after the timber for the great and 
 august barge of Amon-Re, king of gods. Thy father did it, thy 
 grandfather did it, and thou wilt also do it.' Zakar-baal admits 
 that this is true, and professes himself quite willing to do business 
 at a price ; then sending for the journal of his fathers he proves 
 from it that they were paid in full for all the timber which they 
 supplied, and were under no obligation to supply anything freely to 
 Egypt as overlord.}; This documentary evidence is clinched by an 
 argument which is very noteworthy as proving how utterly the 
 Phoenician cities had shaken off the Egyptian suzerainty. 'If,' 
 says Zakar-ba'al, 'the ruler of Egypt were the owner of my 
 property, and I were also his servant, he would not send silver and 
 gold, saying, "Do the command of Amon." It was not the pay- 
 ment of '"tribute"' which they exacted of my father. As for me, I 
 am myself neither thy servant nor am I the servant of him that 
 sent thee. If I cry out to the Lebanon, the heavens open, and the 
 logs lie here on the shore of the sea.' § 
 
 Wenamon blusters in vain ; even the production of the image of 
 Amon, and the solemn assurance that the life and health which the 
 god is able to bestow is of far greater value than a mere money- 
 payment, are without effect. He agrees, therefore, to send his 
 scribe back to Egypt with a request to Nesubenebded and Tentamon 
 to despatch various goods in payment for the timber ; and, as an 
 earnest that he is ready to perform his side of the bargain, Zakar- 
 ba'al embarks a small part of the timber on the ship by which the 
 messenger sails. The goods arrive from Egypt in due course, and 
 Zakar-ba'al immediately gives orders that the timber shall be felled 
 and dragged down to the shore. When all is ready for embarka- 
 
 * The precise meaning of Zakar-ba'al's remarks atont the ship seems to be open to 
 doubt. The interpretation adopted above is based on the rendering of Breasted. 
 
 J The keeping of this journal by Zakar-ba'al and his ancestors, coupled with the 
 fact that among the goods supplied him from Egypt in payment for the timber are 
 500 rolls of papyrus, is of the first importance in proof of the high antiquity of the 
 use in Cana'an of an alphabetic script written upon papyrus or leather, alongside of 
 the use of cuneiform Babylonian written upon clay tablets. Cf Addit, Note on 
 'The use of writing in Cana'an at the time of the Judges,' p. 258. 
 
 § The actual quotations here given are derived from Breasted's translation. 
 
xcviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 tion he sends for Wenamon, and points out that he himse 
 done as his fathers did, whereas the Egyptian can scarcely 
 the same claim. Then somewhat sarcastically he congrat 
 Wenamon on being more fortunate than his predecessors — c 
 messengers of Hamwese (probably Ea'messe ix.) who were de 
 in the land seventeen years until their deaths : and he suggest 
 Wenamon should go and see their tomb ! 
 
 Wenamon, however, having secured his timber, is only be 
 embarking it as soon as possible and setting sail ; but, unfortui 
 for him, before he can accomplish this, eleven ships of the Ta 
 appear outside the harbour with the object of stopping his depi 
 and arresting him — doubtless on account of his seizure of the 
 belonging to the Takkara travellers.* Wenamon is in despair 
 Zakar-ba'al manages to enable him to embark and slip th 
 their fingers. His ship is then driven by a contrary wind t 
 land of Alasa (probably Cyprus) ; and here he is (or fancies tl 
 is) in imminent danger of death at the hands of the islanderi 
 only escapes through finding some one who understands Egy 
 and who interprets his words to the queen of the country 
 this point, unfortunately, the MS. breaks off; and we do not 
 what further adventures Wenamon encountered before he mai 
 to reach Egypt. 
 
 This narrative of Wenamon — lengthy as it is even when rec 
 to a mere summary — has seemed worthy of inclusion hot 
 account of its intrinsic interest as exemplifying Egypt's loss of 
 the shadow of authority in her former Asiatic dominion, anc 
 because, illustrating as it does most vividly the conditic 
 civilization in Canaan, it falls into the middle of the period co 
 by the Book of Judges, and happens to be the solitary pie 
 extra-Biblical evidence known to us which belongs to that pi 
 The reason why — whilst earlier centuries have proved comparal 
 rich in extra-Biblical material bearing on the history of Syri 
 Palestine — the period of the Judges of Israel is thus so bar: 
 not far to seek. We have arrived at an age in which no ext 
 great power was strong enough or free enough to interfere i: 
 afiairs of Cana'an. This period extends from the early middle 
 of the twelfth century B.C. (end of the reign of Ea'messe III.) 
 to the middle of the ninth century B.C. when the co-operati 
 Ahab of Israel in the league against Shalmaneser ill. of As 
 (b.c 854) foreshadows the speedy interference of this great { 
 in the affairs of the small kingdoms of Cana'an. J 
 
 * The narrative here suggests that a previous attempt to arrest Wenanion hs 
 made by the Takkara, and that the account of this has disappeared in the lai 
 the middle of the MS. 
 
 X The incursion into southern Cana'an of the Pharaoh of whom it is recor 
 1 Kgs. 9 16 that he captured Gezer and presented it as a dowry to his dangl 
 her marriage with Solomon (early middle part of the tenth century B.C.), a 
 invasion of Judah and Israel by Shishak (Sheshonk i. ) in the reign of Kehobo 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD xcix 
 
 The decline of Egyptian power we have outlined. The Hittite 
 empire, shaken to its fonndations by the irresistible movement of the 
 sea-peoples of which we have already spoken (cf . p. xciii), appears to 
 have been wipea oqi, perhaps some two decades later {dr. B.C. 1170) 
 through the invasion of a people whom the Assyrians called 
 Muskaya,* the Meshech of the Old Testament (Gen. 10 2, al), and 
 the Moo-xoi of Herodotus (iii. 94 ; vii. 78), who were probably akin 
 to the Phrygians of later times. Thenceforward Carchemish be- 
 came the chief centre of Hittite civilization ; but there were other 
 independent or semi-independent principalities throughout northern 
 Syria, extending apparently as far south as Kadesh on the Orontes, 
 the former frontier-city of the great Hittite empire. J The rulers 
 
 Judah (latter half of the same century), as recorded in 1 Kgs. 14 ^^ and upon the 
 walls of the temple of Amon at Karnak, are isolated incidents merely, and do not 
 mark a recrudescence of Egyptian power in Palestine. 
 
 * Tiglath- Pileser I. tells us that in the first year of his reign {cir. B.C. 1120) he 
 attacked and defeated 20.000 Mugkaya and their five kings who fifty years previously 
 had held the lands of Alzi and Purukuzzi, and after a course of unbroken victory had 
 'come down' and seized the land of KumnjuJ) (Conimagene, south of the Taurus 
 and north of Mesopotamia) : cf. Budge and King, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, 
 pp. 35 f. ; KB. i. p. 18. In later times their land, to the north-we.«t of Kummu^ on 
 the borders of Cappadocia, is known as MuSku or Musku : cf. for collected references 
 Uelitzsch, Paradies, pp. 250 f. It is on Tiglath-Pileser's information as to this 
 MuSkaya-movement — coupled with the facts that Amuanta, who must have reigned 
 dr. B.C. 1200 or a little earlier, is the last Hittite king whose archives have been found 
 at Boghaz Keui, and that both Boghaz Keui and Carchemish exhibit signs of destruction 
 and subsequent reconstruction at a period not much later than Armianta — that the 
 conclusion is based that the Mu8kaya were the destroyers of the Hittite enipiie. 
 Cf. Hogarth, The Ancient East, p. 38 ; Garstang, Hittites, p. 63 ; King, Bab. 
 p. 241. 
 
 t This conclusion depends on the emendation of 2 Sam. "i^, according to which 
 the northern limit of David's kingdom extended 'to the land of the Hittites, unto 
 Kadesh' (reading TVff'\\> D^Rnn yw. after ffiL in place of the unintelligible 
 'B'"7n D'nnn J'nX 'land of Tahtlm Hodshi" of iffl). There is no reason for 
 doubting the restoration 'unto Kadesh '—with Driver (yETS.^ ad loc. ) and others — 
 on the ground that David's kingdom could not have extended so far north, the 
 ordinary northern limit of the kingdom of Israel being Dan (probably Tell el-Kady, 
 south of Hermon ; cf. notes on 'Laish,' eh. 18', and on 'from Dan, etc.," ch. 20'), 
 whichis one hundred miles south of Kadesh, if, as is probable, the latter city is to 
 be located on the Orontes at a point a little south of the lake of Horns (of. Maspero, 
 MSlees, pp. 140 f.). The ideal northern limit of the kingdom, which was realized in 
 the reigns of David and Solomon and again in that of Jerobo'am II., was 'the entry 
 of Hamath ' (cf. cA. 3' note), which is clearly proved by ch. 3^, Josh. 13 ^ to have 
 been the northern and not the southern end of the pass (el-BukI') between the 
 Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. The attempt to identify ' the entry of Hamath ' 
 with Merg'Ayyfin, the southern mouth of el-Buki' (so e.g. van Kasteren, HB. 1695, 
 pp. 28-36 ; cf. Buhl, Oeogr. p. 66), produces the ridiculous result that the terminus 
 aquoin these two passages ('mount Ba'al-Hermon," ch. 3 3='Ba'al-Gad,' Josh. IS^) 
 and the terminus ad quem are in the same locality, or at most separated by five 
 or six miles only ; and how ' all Lebanon ' can be said to lie between these two points, 
 or, 80 situated, to be ' eastward ' of ' the land of the Gebalites, ' passes comprehension. 
 
c INTRODUCTION 
 
 of these principalities are 'the kings of the Hittites,' mentio 
 1 Kgs. 10 2«, 2 Kgs. 7«. 
 
 Lastly, Babylon and Assyria were, during the period ( 
 Judges as also two centuries earlier, so much engaged in i 
 suspicions or open hostilities, that they had no scope for ri 
 conquest in the west. The Synchronistic History of _ Babylon 
 Assyria* is a record of boundary-treaties and their violati 
 invasions and counter-invasions, suflSciently preoccupying to 
 the main output of each kingdom's energy so long as their 
 remained, upon the whole, fairly evenly balanced. Taking i 
 prebensive survey of the four centuries from B.C. 1400 t 
 1000,1 we observe that the tendency of Babylon is towards c 
 of power, whereas the tendency of Assyria is towards the gat 
 of strength and energy, which gives promise of the predoi 
 position which she was to attain in western Asia from the 
 until nearly the close of the seventh century B.C. This m 
 largely explained by difference of temperament, the strong in 
 of Sumerian and KasSite strains in the Semitic blood ( 
 Babylonians apparently tending towards a peace-loving and ii 
 tile disposition; whereas such infusion as entered into the 
 purely Semitic blood of the Assyrians seems to have been fun 
 at the beginning of their national history, by an Anatolian 
 which has been plausibly supposed to account for the lust ( 
 and ruthlessness which distinguished them so markedly in co 
 son with their southern kinsmen. § 
 
 With the rejection of the southern end of el-Buka' as ' the entry of Hama 
 acoeptance of tlie northern end, van Kasteren's attempt to trace a line soul 
 Lebanons for the ideal description of Israel's northern houndai'y in Num. i 
 Ezek. 47i5ff. breaks down entirely. Furrer's attempt (ZBPV. viii., 1885, p] 
 to find the line north of the Lebanon-region and including it is probably i 
 mately correct, except that he goes too far north in placing 'the entry of I 
 at er-Restan (Arethusa), nearly fourteen miles north of Homs {which wou 
 Kadesh — if it is to be sought at the site above indicated — nearly thirty mile 
 the border), and in identifying Ziphron of Num. 34 ^ with SafrSneh, by the e; 
 of placing it before and not after Sedad of v.^, i.e. the modern Sadad. I 
 the boundary crossed the Oroutes near Riblah (modern Ribleh) some twen 
 south of Horns (cf. Ezek. fii^, reading nnp3"l "I3TI3DV ran east-south 
 Sadad, and then to the modern Zifr4n, described by Wetzstein {Reiseber\ 
 Haur&n und Trachonen, p. 88) as an extensive ruined site fourteen hours n( 
 of Damascus. That such a northern extension of territory could be and was 
 by David as the result of his successful wars with the Aramaeans and his tre 
 To"i, king of Hamath (2 Sam. 8, 10) is extremely probable —more especial! 
 territory of Aram-Sobah is to be placed approximately in the neighbour 
 Horns (cf Ndldeke in jEB. 280). 
 * This chronicle has been edited by Peiser and Winckler in EB. i. pp. 194 
 J Cf., on this period of Assyrian and Babylonian history, Budge and King 
 of the Kings of Assyria, pp. xxiv-1 vi ; King, Mecords of the reign of Tukulti-l 
 Bab., chaps, vii., viii. ; Rogers, HBA.^ pp. 109-132, 144-179; Johns, 
 Babylonia, pp. 94-106; Ancient Assyria, pp. 50-78; Hall, NE. pp. 368-S 
 3S9, 398 f. § Cf. King, Bab. pp. 139 ff. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD ci 
 
 la the first half of the thirteenth century B.C. the rise of Assyrian 
 power was remarkably rapid, culminating in the reign of Tukulti- 
 Ninib i. {dr. B.C. 1275), who actually conquered Babylon and held 
 it for seven years. This monarch's reign, however, terminated in 
 rebellion and civil war which brought about a period of retrogres- 
 sion, during which Assyria had to suffer at least one serious 
 invasion by the Babylonians.* In the reign of ASur-din i. (dr. 
 B.C. 1167) the power of Assyria began to revive, j and reached a 
 height never before attained in the reign of Tiglath-Pileser i. (dr. 
 B.C. 1120), the first really great empire-builder of this kingdom. 
 Tiglath-Pileser's conquests, however, extensive as they were (includ- 
 ing Babylon, and great tracts of country to the north and north- 
 west of Assyria, even as far as the land of Kumani in the Taurus 
 region), did not reach so far south-west as the land of Canaan, 
 where at this perio4 the tribes of Israel were slowly gaining their 
 footing under the Judges ; though he came into conflict with 
 Aramaean tribes in the neighbourhood of Carchemish and drove 
 them westward across the Euphrates, and the fact that he claims to 
 have set sail on the Mediterranean in ships of Arvad, and to have 
 slain a great dolphin or whale, § indicates some extent of penetra- 
 tion into northern Syria. After Tiglath-Pileser I. we possess 
 practically no knowledge of the course of Assyrian history for a 
 hundred and thirty years ; and the silence of the Synchronistic 
 History as to Assyrian victories is a sure indication that the king- 
 dom must have undergone a long period of decline. || 
 
 Failing thus the interference of any great power in Syria and 
 Palestine for a period of some three centuries, a unique opportunity 
 was afforded to the smaller peoples of the country to settle down 
 and consolidate their power. In the north the Aramaeans, whose 
 gathering force and westward migratory movements came into 
 evidence in the period of the T.A. Letters, now spread both east- 
 ward across the Euphrates into the district of Harran and south- 
 westward into Syria, north and east of the Lebanons, founding in 
 northern and central Syria a number of small principalities inter- 
 spersed among the principalities which, as we have seen, were the 
 survivals of the great Hittite Empire.il South of the Lebanons 
 
 * According to the Synchronistic History, Adad-Sum-nasir of Babylon slew Enlil- 
 kudur-usur of Assyria in battle, and besieged the city of ASSur (cir. B.C. 1213). It 
 is probable that this reassertion of Babylonian power was continued under his 
 immediate successors: cf. King, Bab. p. 244; Rogers, HBA.^ p. 125; Hall, iV.fi. 
 p. 385. 
 
 t He attacked Babylonia and captured several cities from Zamama-Sum-iddin, the 
 last king of the KaSSite Dynasty. This defeat of Babylon was doubtless contribu- 
 tory to the fall of the Third Dynasty, which took place shortly after at the hands of 
 the Elamites. 
 
 § Cf. 'Broken Obelisk,' col. iv. 11. 2f. (Budge and King, op. cit., p. 188.) 
 
 II Cf. Budge and King, op. cit. p. Ivi. 
 
 IF Our knowledge of north Syrian history is far too scanty to enable us even to 
 draw inferences as to the n^lative strength and persistency of the Hittite and 
 
opportunity favoured the southern branch of the Aramaean stocli 
 which is known as the Hebrews, among whom the tribes of Israel 
 formed an important element. It is a fact worthy of notice that the 
 Book of Judges, in recording the experiences of Israel in theii 
 struggle to obtain a footing in Cana'an, makes no sort of allusion tc 
 any collision with, or aggression at the hands of, a great power sucl 
 as Egypt or Assyria — as might well have happened had the infer 
 mation embodied in the book been merely vague and anachronistic, 
 The absence of such allusion — which, as we have seen, is in strict 
 accord with the historical circumstances of the period — should con- 
 siderably strengthen our confidence that the course of_ history as 
 described is in the main based upon a trustworthy tradition. The 
 historical value of this tradition is discussed in the special introdue 
 tions to the various sections of the book.* 
 
 Aramaean elements. Even the evidence of proper names is fallacious, since it ii 
 likely that, where Aramaean influence was strong, the Hittites may eventually havi 
 undergone Semitioization and hare adopted Semitic names, just as we know that th: 
 Philistines did. It is at any rate a fair conjecture that it was in the far nortl 
 (neighbourhood of Carchemish) that the Hittites longest retained their individuality 
 while further south Aramaean influence more speedily prevailed, as much by peacefu 
 penetration as by conquest. Hamath, which — until the recent discovery of a Hittit 
 inscription at er-Restan (of. Garstang, Hitlites, p. 85, rfi] — was the most souther]; 
 site at which Hittite remains were known, is a state concerning which it is possibl 
 to bring together a few facts bearing on this question. Originally an importan' 
 Hittite centre (on the Hittite remains, cf. Garstang, Hittites, pp. 93 ff.), it was pro 
 bably still purely Hittite in David's time (B.C. 1000), since its king To'i or To'u wa 
 anxious to secure David's support against the encroachments of the Aramaeani 
 (2 Sam. 8^'=1 Chr. 18"). Thename To'i may well be identical with the name whicl 
 appears in the T. A. Letters as Tu^i, and is borne by the regent of Mitanni during thi 
 minority of Tugratta (Kn. 17, 1. 12) ; cf. Luckenbill, AJTh. xviii. p. 57. The ner 
 king known to us is IrJjulSni, mentioned by Shalmaneseriii. as allied against him wit] 
 Bir-idri (Ben-Hadad ii.), Ahab, etc., at the battle of Karkar (B.C. 854). His nanii 
 is not convincingly Semitic, though we cannot aiErm it to be Hittite. Zakir, King o 
 Hamath (a little before B.C. 800), whose inscription we possess (cf. p. 173), bears 
 Semitic name and writes in Aramaic, though some at any rate of the seven kiig 
 with whom he is at war are also Aramaeans (' Bar-Hadad the son of Hazaer=Bei] 
 Hadad iii. of 2 Kgs. 132*; ^513 = ' Bar-Gus, probably = ' Arami the son of Gus 
 mentioned by Shalmaneser iii., KB. i. p. 170 — a fact not hitherto noticed; am 
 ' the King of Sam'al '). Later Kings of Hamath are Eniel (who paid tribute t 
 Tigiath-Pileser iv., B.C. 738), and llu-bi'di or Ya'u-bi'di (subdued by Sargon, B.c 
 720), both of whom bear Semitic names. Here, then, from the time of Zaki 
 onwards, we have evidence for the Senjiticization of Hamath ; but whether tiii 
 implies an Aramaean conquest or merely a gradual assimilation it is impossible t 
 determine. 
 
 * Taking a comprehensive and summary survey of Judges as a whole, we may era 
 fideutly conclude that the figures of Deborah and Barak, Gide'on-Jerubbaal, 'Abimf 
 lech, and ]VIicah are historical, and that the narratives concerning them contain 
 very solid substratum of fact. The same may be affirmed with considerable prohabilit 
 of Ehud and Jephthali ; though in the case of the narrative of the latter it remain 
 ambiguous whether the enemy was "Ammon or JVIoab. Balance of probability in 
 clines (in the opinion of the present writer) against the historical character o 
 Samson ; though in any case the picture which is drawn of relations betwee; 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD ciii 
 
 Thus we conclude our survey of the conditiou of affairs in 
 Gana'an and the surrounding countries prior to and during the 
 period of the Judges of Israel. It is probable that the reader may 
 notice a seeming omission : viz. that throughout we have advanced 
 no theory as to the relation of Israel's early traditions to the course 
 of history with which we have been dealing. This has been inten- 
 tional. Throughout the section our aim has been to bring together 
 relevant information derived from sources contemporary with the 
 events to which they refer. The early traditions of the O.T. 
 (and here we are speaking of the traditions of Gen. to Josh.) 
 are embodied in sources which, in their written form, are certainly 
 many centuries later than the events which they narrate. Opinions 
 vary greatly as to their historical value; but, whatever view be 
 held upon this question, it can hardly be disputed that, for our 
 present purpose, the wiser course is not to mix contemporary 
 historical evidence with other evidence into the interpretation of 
 which the theoretical element is bound to enter in a greater or less 
 degree. 
 
 This principle, however, calls for a certain qualification. External 
 history of Cana'an, though unfortunately very barren of informa- 
 tion bearing directly upon the early movements of the tribes of 
 Israel, does offer a few facts which call for correlation with the 
 O.T. traditions : and the interpretations of these facts — especially 
 in their chronological relation to the Exodus and the settlement 
 in Gana'an — has its bearing upon the historical period covered by 
 the Book of Judges. The facts in question have been mentioned 
 as they occur. It may be convenient here- to tabulate them : — 
 
 Ja'cob-el, the name of a Hyksos chieftain, before B.C. 1580 (cf. 
 p. Ixvi). 
 
 Israelites and Philistines possesses a real historical interest. 'Othniel and the five 
 minor Judges, Tola', Ja'ir, Ibsan, Elon, and'Abdon, are undoubtedly not individuals 
 but personified clans. Shamgar, the son of 'Anath, is proved to be an historical 
 name by the allusion in ch. 5* ; though, since this bare allusion is probably all that 
 the author of the late insertion in 3 3i bad to go upon, it is at least as likely that he 
 was a foreign oppressor as a deliverer (cf. p. 113). Comparison of the contempor- 
 ary Song of Deborah with the parallel prose-narrative in ch. 4 affords incontrovertible 
 evidence of the large amount of genuine history which may be found in the old 
 prose-sources (cf. p. 82), even though (as we must probably assume) they were 
 handed down orally for many generations before being committed to writing ; and 
 it is a fair inference that other old narratives whinh contain intrinsic evidence of 
 their appropriateness to the circumstances of the period {e.g. the J narrative of 
 Gide'on, and the stories of Abimelech and Micah) are no less historical. The only 
 narrative which appears not to possess any historical value is the story of the outrage 
 at Gibe'ah and the ensuing vengeance taken by Israel on the tribe of Benjamin ; since 
 the oldest form of the story (which we assign to J) is clearly constructed in close 
 imitation of earlier J narratives, and appears to offer marked evidence of a special 
 motive, viz. animosity to the memory of Saul. Even here, however, it would be bold 
 to assert categorically (especially in view of the Sbiloh-story in 21'9"') that no histor- 
 ical elements at all have entered into the narrative. 
 
civ INTRODUCTION 
 
 Jaeob-el and Joseph-el (1), place-names in Canaan, cir. B.C. 147£ 
 
 (cf. pp. Ixvii f.). 
 IJabiru pressing into Syria-Palestine, cir. B.C. 1375 (cf. pp. IxxnifF.) 
 Samhuna, a place-name in Canaan, cir. B.C. 1375, possibly = 
 
 Sime'on (cf . p. Ixxv, footnote). 
 The name Asher occurs in western Galilee, cir. B.C. 1313 (cf. 
 
 p. Ixxxix). 
 Mineptah defeats a people called Israel in Canaan, cir. B.C. 1223 
 
 (cf. p. xcii). 
 
 The question of prime importance to us here is the terminus a qm 
 which we are to assign to the period of the Judges. This depends 
 upon the date at which the Exodus is placed ; and on this point, 
 fortunately, we possess reliable information. Ex. P^ J states that 
 the Israelites, under the system of forced labour imposed upon 
 them, ' built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Ra amses ' ; and 
 Naville has proved that the site of Pithom (called in Egyptian 
 P-et6m, i.e. ' the abode of Et6m,' a form of the Sun-god) was the 
 modern Tell el-MasMta, in the east of the Wady Tumtlat, near the 
 ancient frontier of Egypt, and that the founder of the city was 
 Ra'raesse II.* Thus, granted the historical truth of the Israelite 
 tradition (and in such a matter there is no reason to suspect it), it 
 follows that Ramesse ii. {cir. B.C. 1292-1225) was the Pharaoh of 
 the oppression, and his successor Mineptah {cir. B.C. 1225-1215), 
 probably the Pharaoh of the Exodus. J 
 
 If this is so, however, we observe at once that the external 
 allusions above noted, which seem to refer to the presence of 
 Israelite tribes in Cana'an, are all prior to the Exodus ; and that 
 at any rate the last two appear to postulate the existence there of 
 Israelite elements which must have been distinct from those that 
 made their escape from Egypt under Mineptah. Asher is occupy- 
 ing in the reigns of Sety I. and Ra'messe II. the precise position in 
 Galilee which, according to later Biblical tradition, was allotted to 
 him after the settlement in Cana'an effected through the conquests 
 of Joshua' ; and a people named Israel forms a tribal element in 
 Cana'an (as is implied by its mention in the midst of Cana'anite 
 
 * Cf. Naville, The Store Oity of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus (ed. 1, 1885 ; 
 ed. 4, 1903) ; W. M. Miiller in EB. 3782 ff. ; Sayce in DB. iii. pp. 886 f. ; M^NeilSi 
 Exodus (Westm. Ooimn.), p. xciii ; Driver, Exodus {Camb. Bib.], pp. xxx, 4. 
 
 t So at least we infer from Ex. 225^419 J, which indicate that, in the view of the 
 narrator, the Pharaoh of the Exodus was the next after the great oppressor. Ob- 
 viously, however, we cannot postulate the same degree of accuracy for this conclusion 
 as for the statement of Ex. 1 ' i. Mineptah's reign was not very long (about ten years) ; 
 and supposing that the Exodus took place not under him but in the period of weak- 
 ness and anarchy which immediately followed his reign, we cannot be sure that the 
 J writer would have known of this, or, knowing it, would have thought it necessary 
 to make the point clear. In any case, however, it is obvious from the Hebrew narra- 
 tive that the Exodus followed at no long interval after the death of the PharaOh of 
 the oppression. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD cv 
 
 place-names*) at a date nearly coincident with (or rather earlier 
 than) the Biblical Exodus. 
 
 The conclusion that the historical Exodus from Egypt did not 
 include the whole of the tribes which were subsequently known 
 as ' Israel ' is not, however, to be drawn from these external refer- 
 ences merely, but is inherent in the earliest traditions of the 
 O.T. itself, if they be read between the lines. It is clear that 
 the conception of Israel as a unity of twelve tribes, effecting the 
 conquest of Cana'an in a body under the leadership of Joshua', can 
 only have arisen long after these twelve tribes had been welded 
 into a political whole under the monarchy. Indeed, we can trace, 
 in the different strata of the Biblical narrative, the growth and 
 hardening of this conception. 
 
 The oldest account of Israel's settlement in Cana'an, as we have 
 it in Judg. 1 '-2 ^ from the narrative of J, representing as it does 
 Israel's occupation as very gradual and partial, effected largely by 
 the individual efforts of each of the tribes rather than by a great 
 united movement, differs widely from the impression produced by 
 E° in Josh., according to which the whole of Cana'an, except the 
 maritime plain and the Lebanon district (cf. Josh. 1 3 ^"^), was con- 
 quered by the combined tribes under the leadership of Joshua' ; and 
 the impression produced by the theory of R° has been heightened 
 and stereotyped in the document which forms the main part of 
 Josh. 13 i'-21 *^, in which a post-exilic priestly writer (P) represents 
 the detailed allocation of the whole of Cana'an among the tribes as 
 the work of Joshua' subsequent to the conquest (cf. pp. 1 f.). In 
 choosing between these differing conceptions of the conquest of 
 Cana'an, we cannot hesitate for an instant in selecting the presenta- 
 tion of J as nearer to the truth, and in explaining that of 11° and 
 P as coloured by the circumstances of later times. It is true that 
 even J, as we have the historian's work in Judg. 1 (cf. the original 
 form of the narrative as reconstructed in Addit. note, p. 47), seems 
 to represent the tribes as assembled at Gilgal (2 1) or at Jericho 
 (1 1"), and as starting their individual efforts from this point largely 
 under the direction of Joshua' (cf . ch. 1 ^, note) ; but that this con- 
 ception sits very lightly upon the narrative is clear. Careful 
 examination of the movements of separate tribes in the light of 
 all available Biblical information proves e.g. that Judah must have 
 conquered his inheritance, not by moving southward from Jericho, 
 but by moving northward from Kadesh-Barnea' into the Negeb, and 
 subsequently into the district of Hebron (cf. Addit. note, p. 44) — 
 therefore independently of Joshua'. The settlement of half- 
 Manasseh east of Jordan, in northern Gile'ad, which the later 
 
 * In view of the grouping in which the reference to Israel occurs, the alternative 
 explanation which suggests itself— viz. that we may have here Mineptah's version of 
 the Exodus, the disappearance of Israel in the waterless desert being, from the 
 Egyptian point of view, regarded as equivalent to their extinction— may be dismissed 
 as out of the qiiestion. 
 
cvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 sources in the Biblical narrative assume to have been decided 
 upon by Moses and confirmed by Joshua (cf. Deut. 3 i^ Num. 
 32 38 K"",* Josh. 13 29-31 p), is shown by the J narrative of the settle- 
 ment (if Josh. 17i"Sa,s slightly modified, and, in sequence, Num. 
 32 89.41.42^ Josh. 1313, are rightly assigned to it: cf. pp. 49 S.) to 
 have been really an overflow-movement from the west of Jordan 
 owing to want of room in the latter district; and though the J 
 narrator himself assumes that the movement was made at the 
 advice of Joshua, the reference to the Machir-clan of Manasseh 
 in Judg. 51* as still west-Jordanic in the time of Deborah leads 
 us to infer that it did not take place until some time after Joshua"s 
 death (cf. note on ' Machir,' pp. 134 f.). 
 
 Concluding, therefore, as we seem bound to do, that the repre- 
 sentation of Joshua' as the head of a united body of twelve tribes, 
 their leader in the conquest of the main part of Cana'an, and the 
 subsequent arbiter as to the precise extent of their heritages, is a 
 comparatively late conception,, finding little or no support in the 
 earliest information which we possess, the way is prepared for the 
 further inference that the tribes which he did lead across Jordan 
 to the conquest of a footing in Cana'an were probably a part merely 
 and not the whole of the elements which went to form united Israel 
 in later times ; and, since tradition is doubtless correct in making 
 him the successor of Moses in the leadership of Israel, that there- 
 fore the Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt at the Exodus 
 were not the whole of Israel, as the term was subsequently under- 
 stood ; but that certain elements which eventually formed part of 
 the nation must have gained their heritages in Cana'an by other 
 means and at other periods. 
 
 This inference, which, as we have seen, is pressed upon us by the 
 extra-Biblical evidence which seems to postulate the existence of 
 Israelite tribes already settled in Cana'an at the period when the 
 tribes eventually delivered from bondage by Moses must have 
 been still in Egypt, is further borne out by the evidence of the 
 O.T. The tribe Asher, which appears from Egyptian evidence to 
 have been settled in its permanent heritage by the reign of Sety i., 
 i.e. about one hundred years before the Exodus, belongs to the group 
 of tribes which Israelite tradition represents as descended from the 
 sons of handmaids and not full wives — a tradition which can hardly 
 mean anything else than that these tribes were regarded in later 
 times as holding an inferior position in the Israelite confederacy, 
 perhaps because they were not purely Israelite by race. The terms 
 in which Dan — another member of the same tribal group — is men- 
 tioned in the old poem called 'The Blessing of Ja'cob,' G-en. 49 1", 
 are best explained as meaning that full tribal rights in the con 
 
 * Num. 32, whicli appears to be a mixed narrative formed by combination of JI 
 and P (cf. Driver, LOT.^ pp. 68 f. ; Gray, Numbers {ICO.), pp. 425 fiF.) deals through 
 out with the negotiations of Gad and Ee'uben alone. It is only in v^' that half 
 Manasseh is introduced — evidently by a very late hand. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD cvii 
 
 federacy, though eventually won, were not won until some little 
 time at least had elapsed after the final settlement of all the tribes 
 in Cana'an (cf. p. 392). Other facts which make in the same direc- 
 tion are the detachment of the handmaid-tribes Gad, Dan, and 
 Asher from the common interests of Israel in the time of Deborah, 
 as evinced by their failure to respond to the call to arms (Judg. 
 5 1^ *) ; and the names of these same three tribes, which point to 
 their primitive adhesion to forms of cultus other than pure Yah weh- 
 worship (cf. pp. 197, 392).t In J's account of the settlement, 
 Asher, Naphtali, and Dan are very far from appearing in the light 
 of recent and successful invaders. The two former ' dwelt in the 
 midst of the Cana'anites,' i.e. it is the Cana'anites who hold the 
 predominance, both in numbers and in power §; while the last- 
 named is actually ousted from his territory and driven up into the 
 hills (ch. 1 'i-3*).|| Gad is unmentioned. 
 
 * Naphtali, the remamiug handmaid-tribe, forms an exception — probably because, 
 owing to his geographical position, his interests were directly concerned. 
 
 t If there was a god Asher who was a form of the Moon-god (as is suggested by the 
 evidence brought together on pp. 196 ff.), he may also have been regarded as a par- 
 ticular aspect of the God Yahweh (cf. p. 197, footnote * ; Addit. note, p. 249) by the 
 Cana'anite worshippers of that Deity ; and this may explain why the symbol of his 
 (assumed) consort Ashera was so often set up by the side of Yahweh's altar, and also 
 the keen antipathy with which the Ashera was regarded by the exponents of the 
 ethical (Mosaic) form of Yahweh-religion. For the theory of two forms of Yahweh- 
 religion. one long indigenous in Cana'an and marked by naturalistic characteristics, 
 the other, highly ethical in character, owing its origin to Moses (or rather to the 
 revelation vouchsafed to him), and introduced into Cana'an by the Israelite tribes 
 who came under Moses' influence, cf. the present writer's article in JTS. ix. (1908), 
 pp. 321 ff. If Dan, however, is a title of the Sun-god (cf. p. 392), then here we can 
 trace no connexion with Yahweh, however remote ; and it is open to conjecture that 
 this tribe may not have embraced the worship of Yahweh until their migration to the 
 north and forcible appropriation of Micah's sacra and his Yahweh-priest, whose worth 
 had been proved for them by the oracle indicating the success of their undertaking. 
 If the interpretation of ch. 18 ' suggested in the note ad loc, is correct, the Danite 
 spies do not ask for an oracle from Yahweh in the first place, but from the Teraphim 
 ('!Sldhim) ; and it is the latter which returns the answer as from Yahweh. As to Gad, 
 the god of Fortune, iu relation to Yahweh we can affirm nothing. 
 
 § Contrast the statement with regard to Ephraim (ch. 1 ^O), from which we learn 
 that, though this tribe 'did not dispossess the Cana'anites that dwelt in Gezer,' yet 
 ' the Cana'anites dwelt in the midst of Ephraim,' and not vice-versA. 
 
 II Steuernagel {Die Einwanderung der israelitischen Stdmme in Kanaan, pp. 28 f.) 
 has suggested with some plausibility that, since Naphtali and Dan were originally one 
 tribe (Bilhah), and Dan at first dwelt south-west of Ephraim, Naphtali's earliest 
 home was probably in the same neighbourhood, and he, like Dan, eventually had to 
 seek a new home further north. Thus, in the statement of Judg. 1 33 that 'Naphtali 
 did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-'anath,' the reference 
 may be to the southern Beth-shemesh ('Ain-gems). The mention of these two cities 
 in the north in Josh. 19^8 P ia then a later assumption based on the fact that 
 Naphtali later on occupied a northern position. This view gains some support from^ 
 the blessing of Naphtali in Deut. 33 23—' Possess thou the Sea and the South 
 (riK'n* DIITl D'). Here Naphtali (according to Steuernagel) appears, like Dan, to 
 
cviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Not merely the four handmaid-tribes, however, but probably alsi 
 some of the tribes which were reckoned as full members of thi 
 Israelite confederacy, may be conjectured to have taken no part ii 
 the historical Exodus. The northern tribe Zebulun stands in J'l 
 narrative (cA. 1 ^°) on much the same footing as the handmaid-tribei 
 Asher, Naphtali, and Dan ; i.e. so far as the information offered ui 
 is concerned, he is there in Cana'an maintaining a precarious footing 
 among the Oana'anites, and nothing is told us as to how he came tt 
 be there. Another northern tribe, Issachar, is unmentioned in th( 
 document as we know it ; and the same is true of the trans-Jordani( 
 Ee'uben. In fact, the only tribes of which the J writer records 
 conquests fall into two groups : (1) Judah and Sime'on, and (2) th( 
 house of Joseph. We have found reason to believe that the con 
 quests of the first group took place not under Joshua' from the east 
 of Jordan, but by a northward move from Kadesh-Barnea'. The 
 house of Joseph, on the other hand, is explicitly connected witl 
 Joshua' in the part of the narrative which now stands in Josh, 
 151*-'^; and there are indications which suggest that the southern 
 campaign as described by JE in Josh. — viz. the conquest of Jericho. 
 ' Ai, and Bethel, and the defeat of the Amorite league at the descent 
 of Beth-horon — was really carried out by these Joseph-tribes under 
 Joshua''s leadership, and not by united Israel (cf. 1 ^2 notes). 
 
 It is clear that the tradition which connects the Joseph-tribes 
 with Egypt is primitive and authentic. Whether they were the 
 only tribes which suffered under Egyptian bondage and were 
 delivered by Moses is a further question. We find in early times 
 certain Israelite or related clans dwelling in the south of the Negeb 
 close to the borders of Egypt. These are the north Arabian 
 clans which ultimately went to form the tribe of Judah (Kenites, 
 Jerahme'elites, etc. ; cf. p. 45) ; the remnant of Sime'on which, 
 after a tribal disaster in central Cana'an, appears to have sought 
 a home in the extreme south, in the neighbourhood of the Judah- 
 clans (cf. ch. 1 ^ note) ; and probably the remnant of Levi — as we 
 may conjecture from the early association of this tribe with 
 Sime'on in the raid on Shechem with its disastrous results, and 
 from its subsequent association chiefly with the tribe of Judah 
 (cf. Addit. note, pp. 436 ff.). Whether any of these Israelite clans 
 crossed the frontier into Egypt we cannot say for certain ; but 
 considering the comparatively hard conditions of existence'in the 
 region south of the Negeb, and the readiness with which permission 
 
 be hard-pressed by foes, and the wish is expressed for him that he may exert his 
 power and conquer the Philistine maritime plain (yam) and the darfim, i.e. the Sheph- 
 elah, which is so designated in late Jewish usage (cf. Neubauer. GSographie dU 
 ■ Talmud, pp. 62 f. ; Buhl., Oeogr. p. 85, and references to Daroma in OS., where we 
 find cities such as Bleutheropolis, 'Anab, Eshtemoa', and Siklag assigned to the 
 region). On the ordinary assumption that Naphtali is here pictured as occupying his 
 final northern position, 'sea' is explained as the sea of Galilee ; but no coramentator 
 has succeeded in offering a plausible explanation of dar6m. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD cix 
 
 to pass into the region of Goshen (the Wady Tftmllat) was granted 
 by Egyptian kings of the Empire-period to similar tribes when 
 impelled by stress of famine,* it is highly probable that they may 
 have crossed and recrossed on more than one occasion — as often in 
 fact as the pinch of hunger compelled them to seek a more fertile 
 pasture-land, or the return of favourable seasons lured them back 
 to the nomadic life to which they were accustomed. Evidence that 
 Sime'on was in Egypt at the period of the oppression may per- 
 haps be found in the Joseph-story, according to which Sime'on 
 is the brother selected to be bound and retained as a hostage 
 (Gen. 42 ^i-ss j;^. That Levi, at least in part, was also there, seems 
 to follow with the acceptance of the traditional view of the identity 
 of the earlier secular tribe with the later priestly body (the view 
 maintained in Addit. note, p. 436), since Moses was a Levite, and 
 the Egyptian names borne by him and by Phinehas offer valid 
 evidence both for the historical existence of the bearers and for 
 their Egyptian connexions (cf . ch. 20 ^s note, and footnote). Tradition 
 is clear that some of the elements which subsequently went to 
 form the tribe of Judah {e.g. the Kenites) were not in Egypt but 
 in the wilderness (Midian) ; though it is conceivable that other 
 elements of the tribe may have taken part in the Exodus. In any 
 case there is good reason to believe that the Joseph- and Judah- 
 groups were associated at Kadesh-Barnea' for a considerable period, 
 and together came under the influence and teaching of Moses 
 (cf. Addit. note, pp. 439 f.). 
 
 Another point, which for our purpose it is important to notice, 
 is the fact that the O.T. traditions represent the migration of 
 Israel's ancestors from their early home in the east westward into 
 Cana'an, not as a single movement completed in a short space of 
 time, but as a series of movements extending over a very con- 
 siderable period. Assuming (as we are bound to do) that these 
 early traditions deal in the main with the movements of tribes 
 under the guise of individuals,! the earliest of these tribal move- 
 
 Cf. the inscriptions mentioned on p. 439, footnote *. 
 1 The explanation of individuals as personified trihes, and of their doings as tribal 
 movements, which is in fact forced upon us in regard to much that is related in the 
 patriarchal narratives (cf . , as typical instances, the accounts of Abraham's descend- 
 ants by his second wife, Keturah, Gen. 25 "'■, and of the relations of Ja'cob's ' sons ' 
 with Shechem, Gen. 34), must of course not be pressed to account for every detail in 
 the stories ; since some elements may possibly be due to the admixture of remi- 
 niscences as to actual individuals (tribal leaders, etc.), and a good deal in the setting 
 of the stories (especially of those which are most picturesque andlifelike) undoubtedly 
 belongs to the art of the story-teller. The literature which deals with this subject 
 is endless. It is sufficient here to refer to the Introduction to Skinner's Genesis {ICC), 
 pp. iii-xxxii, and to Kittel, OVI.^ i. pp. 386-455, as offering markedly sane and 
 judicious estimates of the character of the Genesis-narratives. Guthe (Oesch. des 
 Volkes Isr. pp. 1-6) lays down canons for the interpretation of the narratives in their 
 historical reference to tribal movements which are helpful so long as the qualifications 
 above suggested are borne in mind. 
 
ex INTRODUCTION 
 
 ments is represented by the journey of Abraham (Abram).and his 
 nephew Lot from Harran into southern Canaan- a movement 
 which tradition regarded as responsible for the formation of the 
 different divisions of the 'Hebrew' race, Jacob, Edom, Moab, and 
 'Ammon, not to mention various Arabian tribal groups to whom 
 Israel acknowledged a relation more or less remote. Now the 
 tradition embodied in Gen. 14 makes Abraham contemporary with 
 Qammurabi (Amraphel), dating him therefore dr. B.C. 2100. The 
 traces of lunar worship in early Hebrew religion centre primarily 
 round the Abraham-tradition, and undoubtedly connect Abraham 
 with Ur and Harran, and with the First Dynasty period (cf. the 
 facts cited in "Addit. -note, pp. 249 ff.). Whether, therefore, we 
 regard Abraham as an historical clan-chieftain or as the ideal per- 
 sonification of the clan itself, there is good ground for believing in 
 the historical truth of a Semitic clan-movement at this period from 
 Ur to Harran, and thence to southern Cana'an (Be'er-sheba'). And 
 since, as we have seen (pp. Ixxxi, Ixxxiii), there were Habiru in 
 Babylonia as early as the time of gammurabi and Elm-Sin, it is 
 reasonable to conclude that this migration was (as the O.T. tradition 
 represents it) the beginning of the Hebrew westward movement— 
 itself but a part of the larger Aramaean movement which indisput- 
 ably continued during a period of many centuries. 
 
 A subsequent accession from the east seems to be represented by 
 the arrival of the Aramaean tribe Rebekah, who, by union with 
 Isaac, Abraham's 'son,' produces the two tribal groups. 'Esau-Edom 
 and Ja'cob. These for a while dwell together in southern Canaan, 
 until the hostile pressure of the former compels the latter to cross 
 the Jordan in the direction of his ancestral home, where, in course 
 of time, he unites with fresh Aramaean elements (Ja'cob's wives). 
 Ultimately the whole tribal body thus formed moves once more 
 towards Cana'an, impelled as it appears by the westward pressure 
 of other Aramaeans (the pursuit of Laban), with whom eventually 
 a friendly treaty is formed, fixing the tribal boundary at or near 
 Mispah in Gile'ad.* When this Hebrew group, thus modified by 
 fresh accessions, once more enters Cana'an, it no longer bears the 
 common name of Ja'cob, but is known as Israel. J 
 
 We may now observe that this tribal interpretation of early 
 Israelite traditions — taken in broad outline as they stand, and with- 
 
 * Cf., for the interpretation of early tradition emljodied in this paragraph, 
 Steuemagel, Die Einwanderung der israelitischen Stamme in Kanaan (1901), 
 §§ 6 ff. Steuernagel's book is a far-seeing and suggestive examination of early 
 Israelite tradition which merits careful study. 
 
 X It is possible, as Steuernagel assumes, that the Le'ah- and Zilpah-tribes may 
 have been in Cana'an earlier than the Bilhah- and Ja'cob-Rachel-tribes, and, coming 
 subsequently to be regarded as ' brothers ' of the latter, were not unnaturally traced 
 back to a common 'father.' Thus, owing to priority of settlement, Le'ah comes to 
 be regarded as the earlier wife, while Rachel is the more closely united and better- 
 loved wife. Cf. op. cit. p. 54. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD cxi 
 
 out any shuffling or rearrangement to fit in with a preconceived 
 theory — offers us a chronological solution of most of the facts 
 derived from extra-Biblical evidence (pp. ciii f.) which seem to have 
 a bearing upon the history of Israel's ancestors. If the Hebrew 
 immigration into Cana'an represented by Abraham really took 
 place as early as dr. B.C. 2100, it is natural that a tribe called 
 Ja'cob, descended from Abraham, should have given its name to 
 a site Ja'cob-el in southern or central Cana'an by B.C. 1479.* 
 And if the Ja'cob-tribe, having again crossed the Jordan eastward, 
 returned to Cana'an at a later period increased by fresh Aramaean 
 accessions, this may well have been in process of happening, dr. B.C. 
 1375, when, as we know from the T.A. Letters, an Aramaean people 
 called Habiru were pressing into Cana'an, and gradually gaining 
 a footing there upon a semi-nomadic basis {i.e. transitional between 
 the nomadic and the settled stage), much as Ja'cob-Israel and his 
 'sons' are represented in Gen. as doing. | The fact that Ja'cob, in 
 making his westward migration, is pressed by the Aramaean Laban 
 agrees with the T.A. presentation of the !H.abiru-movement as of 
 a part with a widespread Aramaean movement as represented by 
 the SA.GAZ and the Sutd ; and the seizure of the district of 
 Shechem by the Habiru (cf . p. Ixxiii) may well be identified with the 
 events of which we have an echo in Gen. 34, 48 ^^■^^. Indeed, the 
 latter passage can hardly be explained except upon the assumption 
 that the Shechem-district, which eventually came in post-Exodus 
 times to form part of the possession of the Joseph-tribes, had been 
 captured at an earlier period by another section of Israel. Finally, 
 the allusion to Israel as a people in Cana'an in the reign of Mineptah, 
 dr. B.C. 1223, agrees with the Biblical tradition that Ja'cob on his 
 second entry into Cana'an assumed the new name Israel. If it be 
 merely a coincidence that prior to the Habiru-invasion we have 
 external evidence for Ja'cob in Cana'an, while subsequently to it 
 we have like evidence for Israel, it is certainly a remarkable one. 
 
 A further question upon which we have not yet touched con- 
 cerns the period at which the Joseph-tribes broke off from the 
 rest of Israel and migrated to Egypt. It has commonly been 
 
 * The name Ja'cob [Ya'^kob), like Isaac {Yishdk), Joseph, etc., is a verbal form 
 implying the elision of -'el, ' God,' as subject of the verb. Cf. the personal and place- 
 name TipMdh (Judg. 11 iff., Josh. 15") with the place-name Yiphtah'el (Josh. 
 19^*-^), and the place-name Yabneh (2 Chr. 26<')=Yabw'el (Josh. 15"). Other 
 examples of tribal-names thus formed are Yisra'el and Yi&mSel (but probably not 
 Y'rahm''el ; cf. p. 252). Other place-names so formed are Yizr^el, Y'kabs''el (Neh, 
 \\^=Kab8''el, Josh. 152', 2 Sam. 232«) Yokthf'el (Josh. 15 38, 2 Kgs. 14''), Yirp''el 
 (Josh, is 27). On the transference of tribal names to places or districts, cf. Burch. 
 ii. p. 84. The West Semitic names Yajikub-el, Yakub-el (without expression of y, 
 which is represented in the first example by h), Yalcubum (hypocoristic, exactly like 
 Ja'cob) occur In early Bab. documents ; though we cannot be quite sure of their 
 equivalence to Ja'cob, since the syllable kub may also stand for kup, hub, kup. Cf. 
 Ranke as cited by Gressmann, ZATW. xxx. (1910), p. 6. 
 
 X Cf. Kit. G r/.2 i. p. 410. 
 
cxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 assumed that this must have taken place during the Hj 
 domination. This conclusion is based partly upon the assum 
 that the entry of Semitic tribes into Egypt would have been 
 likely to have occurred under the Hyksos, who were themseh 
 all probability Asiatic Semites; partly upon the fact that 
 duration of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, as given in Ex. 12*" P 
 430 years, if reckoned backward from the probable date oi 
 Exodus in the reign of Mineptah — say, from B.C. 1220, 
 B.C. 1650 as the date of entry, which falls well within the Hy 
 period, whether we adopt the long or the short scheme of reckc 
 that period (cf. p. Ixvi). If, however, we are correct in identi; 
 the immigration of Israel and his 'sons' into Cana'an witl 
 invasion of the Habiru, dr. B.C. 1400, and if, again, it is 
 fact that the O.T. traditions preserve a substantially cc 
 recollection of the order of events (as we gathered from oui 
 ceding discussion), then it appears that Joseph did not brea 
 from his brethren and go down into Egypt until after the He 
 invasion, i.e. perhaps two centuries after the expulsion ol 
 Hyksos by Ahmosi I., the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty 
 is remarkable, indeed,' that if the Pharaoh under whom Jose 
 represented as rising to power was a member of the Hj 
 dynasty, the ' new king, who knew not Joseph ' (Ex. 1^), 
 instituted an era of oppressive measures in order to checl 
 increase of Israel, is found, not in Ahmosi I., who expellee 
 hated Semitic invaders, but in Ea'messe II. of the Ninet 
 Dynasty, nearly 300 years later. The Biblical estimate oi 
 years for the duration of the sojourn in Egypt belongs ti 
 latest stratum of the narrative, and is clearly bound up ys 
 purely artificial system of calculation (cf. p. cxvi). A dif 
 tradition is preserved in the ffi text of the passage, wher 
 addition of the words Kai ev yfi Xavaav makes the 430 years in 
 the whole patriarchal period as well as the sojourn in Egypt 
 since on the Biblical reckoning the former lasted 215 year 
 latter is therefore reduced to a like period. This reckoning ■ 
 give us B.C. 1435 as the date of the entry, i.e. during the re 
 Amenhotp II. 
 
 Increasing knowledge of the history of Egypt during the E 
 proves beyond a doubt that the period of the Eighteenth Dy: 
 from the reign of Thutmosi lii. onwards, when Cana'an i 
 province of Egypt and the intercourse between the two cou 
 was (as we learn from the T.A. Letters) close and constant, is 
 respects suited to the condition of affairs which, according 1 
 Genesis-tradition, brought about the entry of Israel's ancestoi 
 Egypt- The Egyptian inscription noticed on p. 439 footn 
 which Asiatic refugees crave, and receive, admission into Ej 
 belongs either to the reign of Haremlieb or to that of one 
 successors of Ahnaton under whom Haremlieb held the posit 
 * Cf. Breasted, AH. iii. §§ 10 ff, 
 
EXTERNAL iNFORMAtlON BEARING ON THE PERIOD cxiii 
 
 general. Here the Asiatics beg the Pharaoh to grant them a home 
 within the border of Egypt 'after the manner of your fathers' 
 fathers since the beginning' — a statement which indicates that it 
 had long been customary for the Pharaohs to grant such admission. 
 Under Amenhotp III., when the power and luxury of the Empire 
 were at their height, the development of trade between Syria and 
 Egypt left its mark upon the Egyptian language through the 
 introduction of a large Semitic vocabulary.* The Semitic popula- 
 tion of Egypt must have been considerable, partly drawn thither 
 by trade and partly as slaves, the captives of Asiatic campaigns. 
 ' As this host of foreigners intermarried with the natives, the large 
 infusion of strange blood made itself felt in a new and composite 
 type of face, if we may trust the artists of the day.' J Some of 
 these Semitic foreigners rose to important positions of trust and 
 authority in the state. Such were Diidu and Yanhamu, two high 
 officials bearing Semitic names who are often mentioned in the 
 T.A. Letters. § Indeed, the position of the latter, who was high 
 commissioner over Yarimuta, a great corn-growing district,|| offers 
 several points of analogy to the position of Joseph as pictured in 
 Gen., and he has been thought with some plausibility to be the 
 historical figure round whom the story of Joseph's rise to power in 
 
 * Of. Breasted, Hist. Eg. p. 337. 
 
 t Cf. Breasted, Eist. Eg. p. 339. 
 
 § On the name DMu, cf. p. 291. Yanjjamu may stand for DJ)3', wliioh is known 
 as a Sabean proper name : cf. Weber in Kn. p. 1171. 
 
 II Yarimuta was reached by sea from Gebal, and thence the Gebalites imported the 
 necessities of life, especially corn, for which, when reduced to straits, they were 
 obliged to barter their sons and daughters, and the furniture of their houses (a fact 
 which reminds us of Gen. 47'*"): cf. references given by Weber in Kn. p. 1153. 
 The view that Yarimuta lay in the Delta, and was possibly identical with the land 
 of Goshen, is favoured by Niebuhr in MVAQ., 1896, 4, pp. 34-36 ; W. M. Miiller in 
 MVAa., 1897, 3, pp. 27 f. ; Weber in Kn. p. 1153; Dhorme, RB., 1909, p. 370; 
 Hall, JV£. p. 346. If, however, it is the same as Yarmuti in 'the upper land' to 
 which Sargon of Akkad lays claim in the inscription recently published by Poebel 
 (cf. p. Iv, footnote*![), it can hardly have lain in the Nile-Delta, but must be sought 
 upon the Syrian seaboard. Poebel suggests ' the plain of Antiooh, along the lower 
 course and at the mouth of the Orontes river ' (op. cit. pp. 225 f. ). The resemblance 
 of the Biblical name JIIDT Yarmuth is striking; and so is that of the Benjamiuite 
 clan-name niC")'' Y»rim6th or Y^remoth. The former was a Cana'anite city of 
 some importance (associated with Jerusalem, Hebron, etc., in Josh. IOs-^zsje), and 
 situated in the Shephelah (Josh. 15 ^ P) — a fact which would seem to exclude com- 
 parison with the maritime Yarimuta, unless (as is not impossible) the name was 
 extended to denote not merely the city but the southern maritime plain which after- 
 wards belonged to the Philistines, and which was, and still is, an excellent corn-grow- 
 ing country : of. the description of it by Eshmun'azar, king of Sidon (quoted on p. 387, 
 footnote*), which suggests that Sidon was dependent upon the district for its corn- 
 supply. Whether, however, Yarimuta actually lay within the borders of Egypt or 
 not, the fact that Yanhamu was constantly in Egypt and in close touch with the 
 Pharaoh as a high official of the court remains undoubted : of. the conspectus of 
 allusions to him given by Weber in Kn. pp. 1169 if. 
 
 h 
 
cxiv INTRODUCTION ' 
 
 Egypt was constructed. * If, then, we may assume that the entry 
 of the Joseph-tribes into Egypt took place during the flourishing 
 period of the Empire, J it is likely that the change of policy under 
 Eamesse ii., which led him to take measures to oppress and to 
 check the increase of the Hebrews, may have been dictated by the 
 fact that the loss of Egypt's hold upon her Asiatic empire, which 
 resulted from the weakness of Ahnaton and his successors, tended 
 to make the presence of a considerable body of Semitic aliens 
 upon the north-east border of Egypt a menace to the safety of 
 the state.§ 
 
 While, however, our theory places the entry of the Joseph-tribe 
 into Egypt considerably later than the Hyksos-period, this does not 
 forbid the view that earlier ancestors of Israel may have been in 
 Egypt with the Hyksos. If Abraham represents a Hebrew migra- 
 tion to Oana an some centuries before the Hyksos-invasion of Egypt, 
 and if this invasion was a southward movement of the people of 
 Amurru (of. p. Ixvi), it seems not at all unlikely that some of Israel's 
 ancestors, who (as tradition informs us) occupied southern Canaan, 
 
 * Cf. J. Marquart, Ghronologische UrUersuchungen [Philologies Zeitschr. fur das 
 class. AUerthum : Siipidementband vii. 1899), pp. 677-680 ; Winckler, Abraham ale 
 Babylonier, Joseph cds Agypter (1903), p. 31 ; Cheyne in EB. 2593 ; Jeremias, 
 OTLAE. ii. pp. 72 ff. ; Weber in Kn. p. '1171. 
 
 X Evidence does not allow of our fixing a more exact date. We natuvally infer 
 that it was after the invasion of Cana'an by the Habiru had begun, if this is rightly 
 identified with the entry of the tribes of Israel into that country ; but the T.A. Letters, 
 though they show us this invasion in full flow, afford no evidence as to the date at 
 which it began. The theory that the people (marked as foreigners by a Determinative) 
 called 'Apuriu or' Apriu in Egyptian inscriptions were the Hebrews, which was first 
 advanced by Chabas [MHanges Egyptologiques, i. Ser., 1862, pp. 42-55; ii. Ser., 
 1864, pp. 108-165), accepted by Ebers (Aegypten und die Biicher Mose's, 1868, p. 316 ; 
 Durch Gosen zum Sinai'^, 1881, pp. 505 f.), and then generally contested and rejected 
 by Egyptologists, has been revived by Hommel (AHT. p. 259), and supported with 
 strong arguments by Heyes (Bihel und Agypten, 1904, pp. 146-158), and is regarded as 
 plausible by Skinner ( Genesis (ICG. ), pp. 218 f. ). Driver, Exodus (Canib. Bib. ) pp. xli f ), 
 and other Biblical scholars; though among modern Egyptologists Maspero (il/^Kes, 
 p. 443, n' ; Qontes populaires , p. 119, n.'^) and Breasted (AR. iv. § 281, »") definitely 
 reject it, while W. M. Miiller (EB. 1243) more guardedly refuses to decide either for 
 or against it. The chief objection to the identification seems to be found in the 
 representation of Heb. b by Eg. p ; but that this interchange, though rare, does 
 actually occur is proved by Heyes (cf. np. cit. p. 148 ; his best instance is Eg. hurpu= 
 Heb. hirehh, 'sword'): cf. also Buroh. §50. The 'Apuriu find mention in inscrip- 
 tions ranging from the reign of Tliutmosi III. to that of Ra'messe iv. (dr. B.C. 1167): 
 thus, if they were really the Hebrews, the inference must be that some Hebrews 
 (not necessarily Israelites] remained behind in Egypt after the Exodus. Cf, the 
 discussion by Kit. (ff F/.2 i, p. 453, «2), who concludes that, though they may have 
 been Hebrews in the wider sense, they can hardly have been Israelites. The in- 
 scriptions picture them as performing (like the Hebrews of Ex. 1 ""■) heavy manual 
 labour in connexion with the building operations of the Pharaohs, especially the 
 quarrying and transportation of stone. Driver (op. cit. ) gives a convenient conspectus 
 of the passages in which they are mentioned. 
 § Cf. Spiegelberg, Der Aufenthalt Israels in Aegypten (1904), pp. 35 ff. 
 
lEXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD cxV 
 
 may have been implicated in it. The tradition of Gen. 12 10-20 J, 
 which brings Abraham and his wife and followers to Egypt in time 
 of famine, looks not unlike an echo of the Hyksos-period ; and the 
 way in which the patriarch is represented as escorted out of the 
 land may not impossibly amount to the placing of the best inter- 
 pretation upon a dismissal which may really have been an expulsion 
 — possibly based on a vague recollection of the actual expulsion of 
 the Hyksos by Ahmosi i. If this is so, it is not impossible that the 
 Hyksos-chieftain Ja'cob-el may have been a representative of the 
 Jacob-tribe. 
 
 Thus the only extra-Biblical allusion to Israel's ancestors for 
 which, on our interpretation of the Biblical tradition, we fail to find, 
 an explanation is the supposed occurrence of Joseph-el as a place- 
 name in Cana'an, dr. B.C. 1479 ; since, on our theory, the Joseph- 
 tribe can scarcely have been in Cana'an at this date. The 
 interpretation of Y-s-p-'d-ra as Joseph-el is, however, as we have 
 noticed (p. Ixviii), of very doubtful validity. 
 
 The view which makes Ra'messe 11. the Pharaoh of the oppres- 
 sion, and Mineptah, or one of his immediate successors, the Pharaoh 
 of the Exodus, though favoured by the majority of scholars, is not 
 universally accepted. The fact is certainly remarkable that, if we 
 take the Biblical scheme of computation as it stands, and adding 
 480 years to B.C. 967 (which is fixed with approximate certainty 
 for the fourth year of Solomon : of. p. liii, footnote), in accordance 
 with the statement of 1 Kgs. 6^ W, obtain B.C. 1447 (in the reign 
 of Amenhotp II.) as the date of the Exodus; then add 430 years 
 for Israel's residence in Egypt (cf. Ex. 12*op)j and obtain B.C. 
 1877 (in the Hyksos-period according to Petrie's longer scheme of 
 chronology, though earlier according to Breasted and Hall) for the 
 entry into Egypt; then add 21.5 years for the Patriarchal period 
 (according to Gen. 12 ^^ 216, 2528b^ 479a ^H p*), and obtain B.C. 
 2092 for Abraham's departure from Harran ; this last date falls 
 within the reign of Hammurabi {dr. B.C. 2123-2081) in accordance 
 with the tradition of Gen. 14. Thus Hommel J adopts the reign 
 of Amenhotp 11. for the Exodus. 
 
 It should not, however, escape our notice that the one fact which 
 makes this computation remarkable is the approximate correctness 
 of the exterior dates, viz. that 1125 years appear accurately to 
 represent the period from a date in Hammurabi's reign to a date 
 in Solomon's reign. This is probably not the result of accident, 
 but may well be due to the fact that a Jewish chronologist living 
 in Babylon during the exile may easily have obtained from Baby- 
 
 * According to this scheme Abraham is seventy-five on his departure from garran, 
 and one hundred at the birth of Isaac ; Isaac is sixty at the birth of Ja'cob, and 
 Ja'cob ii one hundred and thirty when he enters Egypt with his sons, 
 
 + ST. X. (1899), pp. 210 ff. Hommel assigns in each case a date nine years later 
 than those given above. Orr, Problem of the Old Testament (1908), pp. 422-424, 
 adopts the conclusions of Hommel. 
 
fcxvi INTRODtJCttOM 
 
 Ionian sources the figure which represented the period irofA. 
 Qammurabi to his own day.* This, however, argues nothing for 
 the correctness of the sectional periods within the external limits. 
 The back-reckoning to Solomon is of course based upon the 
 (approximately correct) chronology of Kgs. ; but the Babylonians 
 could supply no information as to the date of the Exodus, or of 
 Israel's entry into Egypt, or of the lives of the patriarchs. As we 
 have seen (§ 5) in discussing the period assigned in 1 Kgs. 6 1 for 
 the Exodus to the fourth year of Solomon, 480 years is a purely 
 artificial computation, based on the theory of twelve generations of 
 forty years each, and worked out within the period by the use of 
 suspiciously recurrent periods of forty years. If, however, we cannot 
 find even an approximately historical basis for the Biblical chrono- 
 logy of this period, why should we pin our faith to the correctness 
 of the earlier periods given for Israel's sojourn in Egypt (based, 
 apparently, on the assumption of four generations of one hundred 
 years each! J), and for the lives of the patriarchs'! The reign of 
 Amenhotp II., when Egypt's hold upon her Asiatic empire was at 
 its strongest immediately after the victorious reign of Thutmosi iii,, 
 may well be thought to be the least probable period for the Exodus 
 and settlement in Cana'an by force of arms. 
 
 Another view as to the date of the Exodus is represented by 
 Hall (NE., pp. 403 flf'.), who attempts to revive the theory of 
 Josephus (C. Ap. i. 14) by connecting the Exodus with the expul- 
 sion of the Hyksos ; and further supposes that the aggressions of 
 the Habiru, as we read of them in the T.A. Letters, are identical 
 with the invasion of Cana'an by the Israelites under the leadership 
 of Joshua'. This theory is obliged to do great violence to the 
 Biblical tradition ; for not only are the circumstances of Ahmosi's 
 expulsion of the Hyksos widely different from the Biblical account 
 of the Exodus, but, in order to dispose of the inference (based on 
 Ex. 1 11) that Ea'messe ii. was the Pharaoh of the oppression, the 
 names Pithom and Ra'amses have to be explained as ' the interpreta- 
 tions of a scribe who knew their names as those of Egyptian cities 
 which existed in his time in and near the land of Goshen ' (p. 405), 
 and, to bridge the interval between Ahmosi I. and Amenhotp ill., 
 the ' forty ' years in the wilderness (probably intended to represent 
 the length of a generation §) have to be expanded to nearly two 
 hundred years (p. 408), and thus the possibility of a real historical 
 connexion between Joshua' and Moses is necessarily excluded. 
 On the identification of Joshua"s conquests with the Habiru- 
 invasion we cannot, as Hall confesses (p. 410), identify any^of the 
 persons mentioned in the one source with those who are mentioned 
 
 * The care and accuracy with which the Babylonians preserved their chronological 
 data, even back to the earliest period of their history, are familiar facts. Cf. Kogers, 
 >?B4.6i. pp. 470ff. 
 
 J Cf. Driver, Exodus (Camb. Bib.), p. xlv, and notes on 6^7 12 «. 
 
 § Cf Num. 14 26-35 JEP. 32 is P, Deut. 2 1 J, and the remarks on p. liv. 
 
EXTERNAL INFORMATION BEARING ON THE PERIOD cxvii 
 
 in the other.* The question whether the character of the Habiru- 
 aggressions closely resembles the Biblical narrative of Israel'sdoings 
 as depicted in Josh, must be largely a matter of individual opinion. 
 In the view of the present writer the position of Habiru and 
 SA.GAZ in Cana'an is more nearly analogous to that of the floating, 
 semi-nomadic population which has at all times formed a feature 
 of Palestine — a population living at peace with the settled inhabi- 
 tants of cities and villages when the country is under a strong 
 government, though even then ever ready to seize the opportunity 
 for blackmail and petty aggression ; but a really dangerous element 
 when afifairs are unsettled and the government is weak or non- 
 existent, and without scruple as regards selling their services for 
 warfare and intrigue to the highest bidder. Such a relation 
 towards the Cana'anites — normally peaceful, but sometimes aggres- 
 
 * Orr {T?te Problem of tJte Old Testament, pp. 423 f.) likewise holds that the invasion 
 of the gabim ' synchronises very closely with the conquest of Cana'an by the 
 Israelites,' and finds in this 'a coincidence of much importance.' It is curious 
 that this writer, whose book is a defence of the historical character of the O.T. 
 against the attacks of criticism (cf. especially ch. iii.), and who rightly (in the 
 opinion of the present writer) objects to the sweeping statement of Kuenen that ' the 
 description of the Exodus from Egypt, the wandering in the desert, and partition of 
 Canaan ... to put it in a word, are utterly unhistorieal' (cf. p. 57), should fail to 
 observe that the identification of the ^abim-invasion with that of Israel at once cuts 
 at the roots of the historical character of the old narratives in Josh. Comparison 
 of the names of Cana'anite kings in Josh, and the T. A. Letters, where we have infor- 
 mation from both sources, yields the following result : — 
 
 Book 0/ Josh. T.A. Letters. 
 
 Jerusalem Adoni-sedek (103) AEAD-giba (Kn. 285 ff. ). 
 
 YaphiaUloi, Q^S:^ 
 
 Gezer Horam (10»3) Tapahi (Kn. 297 ff. ). 
 
 Hasor Tabin (11') Abdi-TirBi (Kn. 228). 
 
 Here, since the T.A. names, as derived from actual contemporary letters, must 
 necessarily be correct, the Biblical names, if referred to identically the same period, 
 are ijato/acto declared to be lalse ; and if this is the fact with every name which can 
 be tested, what ground have we left for holding that any names, or indeed any facts, 
 mentioned in the Biblical account of the conquest of Cana'an are of the slightest 
 historical value? The only supposed historical gain arising from identification of 
 the gabiru-invasion with the conquests of Joshua', is that it fits in well enough with 
 the late Biblical scheme of chronology which we have already discussed (p. cxv) ; yet, 
 while we can attach a real historical value to an ancient narrative in which the main 
 outline (i.e. as concerns names, scenes, and actions) appears to be approximately 
 true to fact, even though chronological data are lacking (as in J and E upon the view 
 which we maintain), it is difficult to see what importance can be attached to the 
 maintenance of a chronological scheme which (on the test of external evidence) at 
 once wrecks the historical character of the narratives to which it is applied. To do 
 Dr. Orr justice, it is probable that he did not realize the further implications of his 
 argument as they are here pointed out ; yet, if this is so, what is the value of an 
 argument which, basing itself upon the suppostd identity bet»ten two sets of cir- 
 cumstances as pictured in Biblical and extra-Biblical soureec, neglects to obvious a 
 precaution as the comparison of the names of some of the principal actors ! 
 
cxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 sive — appears more nearly to correspond to the position of Israel 
 in Cana'an in patriarchal times (c£. for the aggressive side, Gen. 34), 
 than to the invasion of the Joseph-tribes under Joshua' which, 
 when wo have made all allowance for the exaggerations of R", was 
 still a definitely organized campaign of conquest. In any case, 
 since, as we have seen (cf. pp. Ixxv fF.), it is impossible to separate the 
 Qabiru from the SA.GAZ, or to deny that the former were, at 
 least to a large extent, identical with the latter, the Ilabiru- 
 invasion must have extended over a far wider (more northerly) area 
 than did Israel's career of conquest even as interpreted by the 
 later editors of the old narratives in Josh. 
 
 The outstanding advantage which seems to accrue from Hall's 
 theory of the Exodus, as also from that of Hommel, is that we 
 gain a far longer period for the course of events from the Exodus 
 to the fourth year of Solomon, for which, as we have seen, the late 
 author of 1 Kgs. 6' assigns 480 years, but which, if we place the 
 Exodus under Mineptali, cannot really have covered much more 
 than 250 years (cf. p. liii). Considering, however, the facts 
 noticed on pp liii f., no valid reason can be advanced in proof that 
 a longer period thari 250 years is required. On the other hand, 
 supposing that we identify Joshua' 's conquest of Cana'an with the 
 IJabiru-invasion, we are faced by the very real difficulty that 
 the Syrian campaigns of Sety I. (which dealt primarily with the 
 IJabiru-aggressions ; cf. p. Ixxxviii), Ra'messe li., Mineptah (who 
 actually defeated Israel), and Ra'messe in. all fall within the period 
 of the Judges ; yet, while much is told us in Judg. of the aggres- 
 sions of comparatively petty antagonists, not a word is said as to 
 any collision with the great power of Egypt. Such an omission, 
 which, on the theory of the Exodus which we adopt, is an argument 
 from silence which may be taken to favour the general authenticity 
 of the narratives of Judg. (cf. p. cii), must surely be deemed very 
 strange if we are to throw Israel's occupation of Cana'an under 
 Joshua' back to the period of the T.A. Letters. 
 
 § 7. The Permanent Beliglous Value of Judges. 
 
 The religious value of any O.T. Book may be considered under 
 a twofold aspect — (1) its place in the record of Revelation, i.e. the 
 historical evidence which it aflfords as to the evolutionary process ■ 
 through which the religion of Israel attained its full growth ; and 
 (2) the extent to which its teaching is fitted to awaken a response 
 in the human conscience of to-day. The value of the first aspect 
 may be defined as evidential ; that of the second as spiritual. Both 
 these aspects are to be discerned in most of the O.T. writings; 
 though it goes without saying that each aspect is not equally pro- 
 minent in all. Without doubt the Prophetic writings exhibit the 
 fullest combination of the two aspects, invaluable aa they are, both 
 
THE PERMANENT RELIGIOUS VALUE OF JUDGES cxk 
 
 as marking stages in the development of Israel's religion, an^ also 
 as making a direct appeal, whether it be to the collective or to the 
 individual conscience, which can never become obsolete. 
 
 It should not, however, escape our notice that here there exists 
 some amount of interaction between the two aspects. The spiritual 
 value of the teaching of the Prophets has (as the outcome of modern 
 critical study of the O.T. Scriptures) been greatly enhanced through 
 the understanding of the circumstances of the times which called it 
 forth, and of the relation which it bears to earlier thought. 
 
 In other parts of the O.T. literature we observe the one aspect 
 greatly predominating over the other. Thus, e.g. a very large 
 number of the Psalms, owing to an entire absence of historical 
 allusions or any similar criteria of datie, are difficult to place in 
 their historical, or even in their logical, position in the line of 
 religious development; yet at the same time their abiding spiritual 
 worth, as evidenced by the manner in which they touch men's souls 
 to-day, causing them to vibrate in spiritual sympathy, and voicing 
 their highest and deepest aspirations in relation to God, is as 
 great as that of any part of the O.T. • Conversely, some portions 
 of the historical literature — and perhaps most markedly the Book 
 of Judges— are insignificant in their direct spiritual value as com- 
 pared with the Prophets and the Psalms ; yet their importance for 
 the understanding of the historical evolution of Israel is unique. 
 
 Taking the O.T. as a whole, however, we notice, in part as com- 
 pared with part, the same kind of interaction between the two 
 aspects of religious value as we observed especially in the Prophetic 
 writings when considered by themselves. The Psalm which voices 
 the most inward feelings of Christian faith, invaluable as it is in 
 itself, attains an enhanced value when the fact is clearly recognized 
 that it is the product of a stage in a long line of religious develop- 
 ment, for the tracing of which the historical books, as analysed and 
 understood by modern critical methods, are of prime importance. 
 For the question is at once raised how, out of beginnings exhibiting 
 elements that are crude, primitive, and it may be even repulsive, 
 there can have sprung to being thoughts and aspirations which, as 
 the expression of all that we understand by Beligion, have never 
 been surpassed; and the only possible answer is found in the 
 recognition of an inward Principle of Divine Inspiration, guiding 
 and determining the course of Israel's religious evolution. Con- 
 versely, such a record of Israel's early history as the Book of 
 Judges, which, taken by itself, might (so far as its religious aspect 
 is concerned) be deemed to possess a value not much deeper than 
 that represented by the interests of the anthropologist or student 
 of comparative mythology, becomes, in the light of that which 
 O.T. Beligion taken as a whole has produced (e.g. the level of faith 
 and practice represented by the Prophets and Psalms), of deep, 
 if not of vital, importance for the study of the antecedents of 
 historical and practical Christianity, 
 
cxx INTRODUCTION 
 
 (1) The .value of Judg. for the history of Israel's social and 
 religious evolution is obvious. The Book cover^ a period of transi- 
 tion from the unsettled and disintegrated tribal life to the more or 
 less organized federation of tribes on the way to be moulded into 
 a nation. The extent of the disintegration of the tribal units 
 which afterwards went to form the nation can only bo gathered 
 from Judg., and would hardly be realized by us if we only 
 possessed the records contained in the Pentateuch and Josh, in 
 the form in which they have come down to us. We see the tribes 
 acting to a large extent independently of their fellows, settling 
 down as best they could in the midst of an alien population, which 
 for the most part they seem to have been unable to subdue, 
 adopting forms of religious cultus which were coloured by the 
 beliefs and practices of their heathen neighbours, if not identical 
 with them. When, however, a period of oppression at the hands 
 of a foreign foe and of desperate misfortune supervenes, the man 
 whom the crisis produces as leader and deliverer, and who at 
 least in some cases (witness the Song of Deborah) succeeds in 
 rousing the scattered tribes to such a measure of common action 
 as foreshadows the later unity of Israel as a nation, acts in the 
 name and at the instigation, not of some local Cana'anite or 
 Israelite Ba'al, but of Yahweh, the warrior-God whose ancient 
 seat was found, not within Cana'an, but at Mount Sinai in the 
 desert-region of Se'ir, external to the land of Israel's settlement 
 {ci.ch.5*). 
 
 Here, then, are raised problems which press for solution before 
 we can attain any really satisfactory grasp of the development of 
 the early religion of Israel. How did Yahweh, whose earlier sphere 
 of influence appears to have been conceived as extraneous to the 
 land of Cana'an, come to be regarded as asserting and maintaining 
 His influence over Israel, and in IsraePs favour, when the tribes 
 were settled in the land of their inheritance] What was there 
 in Yahweh's character and claim which enabled Him at times of 
 special crisis to exercise a tmifying influence over the scattered and 
 somewhat heterogeneous elements out of which the nation of Israel 
 was eventually produced t How was it that, when evidence points 
 to the recognition of 'gods many and lords many,' and that not 
 merely among the earlier Cana'anite inhabitants, but among the 
 tribes of Israel themselves, in spite of all, the worship of Yahweh, 
 fostered apparently by crisis and misfortune, emerged as the 
 dominant religion, and came (amid such unpromising surround- 
 ings) to be of the lofty spiritual and ethical character which we 
 find exemplified in the Prophetical writings of the eighth century 
 B.C. and onwards] Biblical history, as we know it, claims to 
 supply answers to these questions. A special Providence, a chosen 
 people, a unique Revelation made at an early period in the history 
 of the race to a leader and teacher endowed with exceptional 
 qualifications for his office— these arc factors which tradition 
 
THE PERMANENT RELIGIOUS VALUE OF JUDGES cxxi 
 
 pictures as guiding and determining the evolution; and however 
 much modern scientific study may modify our conceptions of the 
 process, it will be found that, apart from the recognition of such 
 factors, the history of Israel's religious development remains an 
 insoluble enigma. 
 
 (2) While, however, it is true that there is nothing in Judg. 
 which makes a direct spiritual appeal to men's consciences at the 
 present day at all comparable to that which is made by the teaching 
 of the later Prophets, the fact must not be overlooked that the 
 book is placed in the Hebrew Canon among * the Former Prophets,' 
 and occupies this position because it is history written with a 
 purpose, and that purpose a religious one (cf. § 1). This religious 
 purpose stands out very prominently in the main redactor's phil- 
 osophy of history, according to which neglect of Yahweh's ordin- 
 ances and the worship of strange gods lead to punishment, but 
 |true repentance is followed by a renewal of the Divine favour. 
 The fact that God deals with nations in accordance with their 
 regard or disregard for His moral laws offers a lesson the empha- 
 sizing of which can never become superftaous, especially at such 
 a crisis as that through which the world is passing at the present 
 time (1918). If it be objected that the editor of Judg. is reading 
 into past history the standpoint of his own much later time, and 
 drawing conclusions as to Yahweh's moral government which could 
 not have been drawn by Israel in the time of the Judges, it may 
 be replied, firstly, that the lesson as deduced by the editor would 
 remain for the instruction of subsequent ages, fortified by the 
 teaching of the later Prophets and of our Lord Himself, as well 
 as by the experience of history, even if the historical data upon 
 which it is based were only susceptible of such an interpretation 
 in the light of more developed experience of Yahweh's moral 
 dealings with His people; but, secondly, that it is by no means 
 certain (in view of what has bfeen said above on the personality of 
 Moses and his inculcation of ethical Yahwism as of the nature of 
 historical postulates in the evolution of Israel's religion) that at any 
 rate some part of Israel {e.g. those, such as the Jo.seph-tribes, who 
 had incontestably come under the influence of Moses) were uncon- 
 scious that, in rejecting Yahweh and following the Ba'als and the 
 'Ashtarts, they were lapsing from a higher form of religion to a 
 lower, and infringing the covenant into which Israel had entered 
 with Yahweh as the outcome of the signal deliverance from Egypt, 
 i,nd the events which immediately followed it. It should be 
 noticed that the doctrine of sin, chastisement, repentance, and 
 salvation is not confined to the main redactor's pragmatic setting, 
 but is worked out and emphasized by the lessons of past history in 
 portions of the book which belong to the later school of E — ch. 6 "*, 
 10«-i«, and in parts of 1 Sam. which seem to emanate from the 
 same hand, and doubtless originally belonged to the same con- 
 nected work— 1 Sam. 72-", 8 '-8, 10".in«, I2i2r.. Those passages, 
 
cxxii INTRODUCTION , ' 
 
 as we have already noticed (§ 4), are closely connected in thought 
 with the formulaB of R*", and seem to have supplied their model. 
 
 If we go back to the most ancient parts of the narrative, we find 
 the utmost emphasis laid upon the fact that the Judges act in the 
 Divine strength which inspires and supports them, enabling them 
 to gain the victory against odds which, from the human point of 
 view, might seem to be insuperable. It is Yahweh who com- 
 missions them either by a prophetic message (4*) or by a Self- 
 manifestation (61"'-, 13 8'f), who promises His presence and 
 support (6i*-i*), and vouchsafes special signs in confirmation of 
 Hia promise (6"«-38«., 13 1"'). His Spirit 'comes upon' them 
 (11 »; cf. 310 R''), or 'clothes itself in' them (6W), or 'rushes 
 upon ' them (14 ''•^'', 15 "), or strengthens them in answer to prayer 
 (1518-19, 16 28ff). He goes forth before His host in the visible 
 manifestations of nature (5^-*; cf. 4"), discomfits (4^') and gives 
 into their hands their foes {3^», 6»i», 88', 11 so, 12 »; with 'before 
 me' in place of 'into my hand,' 11 *), and gives them victory (15 1*). 
 
 It is this fact that the achievements of the Judges were wrought 
 in reliance upon the Divine guidance and power which impresses 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and enables him to regard 
 them as the heroes of Faith: — 'the time will fail me if I tell of 
 Gide'on, Baral^, Samson, JephthaL; . . . who through faith sub- 
 dued kingdoms, . . . from weakness were made strong, waxed 
 mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens' (Heb. 11^^-^*). 
 Without inquiring too closely into the ethical character of this 
 ' faith ' as viewed from the Christian standpoint, it is sufficient for 
 us to reflect that it fulfilled, in relation to the age which produced 
 it, the function which is fulfilled by the quality as we understand 
 it at the present in the full light of Revelation ; and thus we are 
 still able to number these ancient heroes among the ' great cloud of 
 witnesses' whose example -*",nd inspiration may -help us to 'run with 
 patience the race that is set before us.' 
 
 § 8. Hebrew Text and Ancient Versions. 
 
 Hebrew Text. If we except the Song of Deborah, the Heb. Text 
 (f^) of Judg. may be said to be well preserved, being comparable 
 in this respect with the narrative-portions of Josh, and Kgs., 
 and superior to Sara. Such corruptions as occur are due to the 
 ordinary causes which have affected the Heb. Text of the O.T. as 
 a whole, and a rough classification of them may be not without 
 value for the purposes of textual criticism ; though the fact miist 
 be borne in mind that, from the nature of the subject, anything 
 like an exhaustive and well-defined classification is out of the 
 question. Reference is made throughout to the pages of the 
 Commentary where the points in question are discussed. 
 
HEBREW TEXT AND ANCIENT VERSIONS cxi 
 
 1. AUmation. 
 
 Confusion of letters: — 3 for aj, pp. 122, 136; a for o, p. 11 
 ■1 for a* pp. 123, 149, 486; T for D, p. 231 ; T for 1* pp. 39, 11 
 225, 428, 434; n for »», pp. 212, 383, 461; n for V|, pp. 47 
 485 ; n for C, p. 366 ; 1 for 3*, p. 157 ; \ for n, p. 62 ; for c 
 p. 112; * for IJ, pp. 122, 123, 131, 186, 273; a for 1* p. 3f 
 483; f> for 3, p. 156; f» for o, p. 122; h for n, p. 226; D for 
 p. 364 ; o for 3, p. 390 ; D for f), p. 123 ; 3 for 1, p. 419 ; 3 for \ 
 p. 328 ; 3 for n, p. 115 ; D for Dj, p. 232 ; D for n, p. 365 ; y for 
 p. 233 ; & for 3*, p; 112 ; S for a, p. 212 ; V for 3 (or y for p 
 p. 435; V for J?|, p. 282 (cf. p. 207); V for D, p. 366; V for 
 p. 128 ; T for 1,* pp. 33, 219, 365 (of. pp. 65, 122) ; T for p, p. 21 
 n for K*, p. 281 (cf. p. 325) ; n for h, p. 319. 
 
 Here the examples marked * are most likely to have arisen 
 the ancient script, and those marked % iu the square script. Ma 
 examples, however, can hardly be explained as due to similari 
 and may have arisen from such an accident as the obliteration 
 illegibility of a letter, combined with the influence of the cont( 
 in determining what the original word in which it occurs may hs 
 been. Such a case is no doubt to be seen in the substitution 
 Tfor original D in innn for onnn, ch. 8 if. 
 
 Transposition of letters :—]^Tp. 33, 119, 120, 128, 129, 133, 225, 3 
 326, 491 (cf. p. 208). 
 
 Transposition o/ dawses .-—pp. 102, 120, 124, 210, 387, 417. 
 
 Confusion of similar words and forms: — pp. 65, 74, 119, 129, 1 
 227, 228, 277, 279, 280, 323, 361, 429, 459, 463, 471, 474, 4 
 479, 480, 484, 485. 
 
 Substitution through propinquity : — pp. 137 (laE'B'' for <^nB3), £ 
 
 (niopa for nne'3), 376 (nyhn for avn), 474 (^taac for DaB*). 
 
 Wrmg division (a) of words:— ^^. 119 f., 136, 150, 230, 474, 4! 
 (b) of sentences : — p. 130. 
 
 Eiror due to the use of abbreviation in writing : — pp. 119 f., 12i 
 129, 149, 150, 307, 466. 
 
 Errw in vocalization :—Tp^. 90, 93, 114, 120, 130, 147, 152 f., 1 
 230, 278, 287, 316, 317, 326, 334, 372, 488, 492, 493. 
 
 Grammatical solecisms: — Masc. for Pern., pp. 93, 321, 493 
 p. 129); Fem. for Masc, p. 383 bis, 463; Sing, for Plur., pp. 2 
 229, 463, 474, 492 ; Plur. for Sing., pp. 61, 68, 285, 287, 310, 3 
 348, 480, 483; False Tense, pp. 73, 214, 383, 483. 
 
 Intentional perversion .-—pp. 5, 58, 64, 65 f ., 228, 434, 461 
 p. 32). 
 
 2. Insertion, 
 
 Dittography {a) of words:— ^^. 61, 225, 475, 482 (cf. p. 68); (6 
 fe«ers.— pp. 90, 114, 316, 470, 482 (cf. p. 35). 
 
 DoMfcfefo.-— pp. 57, 130, 139, 232, 327, 350, 3511, 415, 42 
 474,485. 
 
cxxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 Other marginal notes inserted in the text: — pp. 113, 350, 382, 415, 
 428 (of. p. 484). 
 
 Insertions explicative of an already corrupt text; — pp. 148, 151, 327, 
 366,470. 
 
 Unclassified .—pp. 142, 152, 273. 
 3. Omission. 
 
 Homoeoteleidon : — pp. 380, 470. 
 
 Haplography of letters : — pp. 282, 472. 
 
 Unclassified omissions (a) of single words or parts of words: — pp. 17, 
 205, 319, 326, 369, 427 f., 473 ; (b) of sentences or parts of sentences .— 
 pp. 22, 38, 140, 209, 490. 
 
 Hie Septuagint. The fact has long been remarked that in the 
 €c version of Judg. the uncial MSS. A and B exhibit a divergency 
 which is without parallel in any other part of the O.T., and which 
 raises the question whether they should not be ranked as two 
 distinct translations from the Hebrew. The learned Septuagint 
 scholar J. E. Grabe, writing in 1705 to Dr. John Mill, Principal of 
 St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, deals with the subject of this divergency, 
 remarMng 'Omnibus mediocriter tantum Graecae linguae peritis 
 primo intuitu patet Yaticano et Alexandiino codice duas diversas 
 diet! libri versiones, vel saltern duas editiones saepissime ac multum 
 inter se discrepantes contineri.' This Epistola ad Millium, which 
 runs to 56 quarto pages, aims at establishing the fact that Cod. A 
 represents the genuine <& text ; while Cod. B offers the recension 
 of Hesychius, which, as we know from the often-quoted statement 
 of Jerome, was current in Egypt at the time when he wrote. 
 "Whatever view be taken as to Grabe's conclusions, the fact can 
 hardly be disputed that he raised a very genuine problem when he 
 emphasized the divergency of A and B in Judg. — a problem which 
 calls for serious onsideration before (& can satisfactorily be em- 
 ployed for the elucidation of the text of the book. 
 
 The divergency 'between the two (5 versions of Judg. was most 
 thoroughly exemplified by P. de Lagarde in his Septuaginta Studien, 
 Erster Theil, 1891, in which he printed the two texts of chs. 1-5 on 
 opposite pages, thus exhibiting their variation in as striking a 
 manner as possible. Lagarde did not rest content with reproducing 
 merely the texts of the two uncials A and B. Together with A he 
 grouped the Aldine and Complutensian editions, the five cursive 
 MSS. which appear in the notation of HP. as 108, 19, 54, 118, and 
 29, and the Armenian (Arm.), Old Latin (IL), and Syro-hexaplaric 
 (S**) versions. With B he associated the text of the Sixtine edition, 
 the Codex Musei Britannici Add. 20,002, the Catena Nicephori, and 
 the short extant fragments of the Sahidic and Bohairic versions. 
 Lagarde printed the texts of A and B in extenso, and recorded in 
 footnotes the variants which are found in his other authorities for 
 each respective version of the ffi text. 
 
 Professor Moore, in the course of his studies in preparation for his 
 Commentary on Judg., had reached independently the same con- 
 
MifiBREW TEXT AlSTD ANCilfil^T VERSIONS c*StV 
 
 elusions as Lagavde in a paper read before the Society of Biblical 
 Literature in May 1890; and when his Commentary appeared in 
 1895 he offered an enriched conspectus of the MS. and other 
 authorities which represent each version respectively. His sum- 
 mary conclusion as to the ffi versions is as follows : — ' I say versions; 
 for Lagarde has demonstrated in the most conclusive way, by 
 printing them face to face through five chapters, that we have two 
 Greek translations of Judges. It would probably be going too 
 far to say that they are independent ; the author of the younger 
 of them may have known and used the older ; but it is certain that 
 his work is not a recension or revision of his predecessor's, but 
 a new translation.' * 
 
 The editors of the Larger Edition of the Cambridge Septuagint, 
 Messrs. Brooke and M'Lean, have decided that it would be impos- 
 sible to present the textual evidence for the ffi text of Judg. clearly 
 if the text of B alone were taken as a standard, the readings of 
 MSS. which contain the A recension being treated as variants. 
 They are therefore proposing to follow the plan inaugurated by 
 Lagarde, and to print the text of A and B on opposite pages. J 
 Pending the preparation of this edition, they have published 
 (1897) a trustworthy edition of the text of A in Judg. which 
 forms the most available source for purposes of collation. The 
 primd facie conclusion of these scholars as to the relationship of 
 the two versions is as follows : — ' No final verdict can as yet be 
 pronounced, but a preliminary investigation of the earlier chapters 
 leads to the surmise that the true text of the Septuagint is probably 
 contained neither in the one nor in the other exclusively, but must 
 
 * Moore's notation is as follows : — 
 
 1. Older <S version : Uncials : 
 
 ^^—CoA. Alexandrinus. 
 
 C (or m<:' in SBOT.)= Cod. Coislianus ='HP. X. 
 IB'' (or ffiS' in SBOT.)=Cod. BasUiano-Vaticanus—'B.V. XI. 
 (5s (ffisrin SBOT.{ = Cod. Sarraviami^='iiP. IV, V. 
 Cursives in three groups : 
 
 (S'=HP. 19, 108, 118, the Complutensian Polyglot, and Lagarde'a 
 
 Libr. V. T. GaTwn. pars prior, 1883 (cf. p. cxxvi). 
 (EM (or (S'p in SBOr.)= HP. 54, 59, 75, 82, and the fragments of a 
 
 Leipzig uncial palimpsest. 
 E" (or E^" in SBOT.)=B.V. 120, 121, and the Aldine edition (Venice, 
 
 1518). 
 
 2. Younger G version ; Uncials : 
 
 ©"(or G'in.S;B07'.)=(7o'i. Vaticanua. 
 m" (or ffi"" in SBOT.)=Cod. Mus. Brit. 20, 002. 
 Cursives : 
 G-'=HP, 16, 30, 52, 53, 58, 63, 77, 85, 131, 144, 209, 236, 237, and the 
 text printed in the Catena Nicepkori (Leipzig, 1773). 
 i Since the ahove was written, the part containing Judges has appeared (1917). 
 The editors have not carried out their original intention, but have printed the text 
 of B in full, and have given prominence to the variant readings of the A-text by the 
 use of Clarendon type. 
 
cxxvi tNtRODUCttON 
 
 be sought for by comparing in detail, verse by verse, and word by 
 word, the two recensions, in the light of all other available evidence, 
 and especially of the extant remains of the Hexapla.' 
 
 So- much may suffice to illustrate the stage at which the question 
 of the two (£ texts of Judg. has arrived at the present time. We 
 may now proceed to statement of the main results which seem to 
 accrue from examination of the two texts. 
 
 The outstanding fact is that the text of Cod. A, together with 
 other members of the same family as noted by Lagarde and Moore, 
 is really identical with that text of ffi which Lagarde has, with 
 high probability, argued to be the recension which was the work 
 of Lucian, the presbyter and martyr of Antioch — a recension which 
 Jerome states to have been current in Constantinople and Asia 
 Minor, as far west as Antioch. 
 
 The stages by which the recovery of Lucian's recension was 
 effected were as follows. Vercellone, in his Variae Lectiones Vulgatae 
 Latinae Bibliorum Editionis, Tom. ii. (1864), p. 436, had remarked 
 that the four ffi MSS. which appear in HP. notation as 19, 82, 93, 
 and 108 exhibited a text which very frequently coincided with the 
 extant remains of IB ; and that this is also the case with the ffi text 
 of the Complutensian Polyglot, which has been shown to be based 
 substantially upon HP. 108. When Wellhausen published his 
 Text der BUcher Samuelis (1871), he commented on the fact that 
 the same four MSS. frequently offered readings which are intrin- 
 sically more probable than those contained in Cod. B. Ceriani in 
 1863 had suggested {Hexapla, p. Ixxxvii) that the recension of 
 Lucian was contained in these MSS. ; but it was not till 1883 that 
 Lagarde published his lAbrorwm Veteris Tesiamenti Canonicorum, pars 
 prior, containing the ffi text of the O.T. from Genesis to Esther 
 based upon these four MSS. with the addition of HP. 118. In his 
 preface to this work the editor pointed to the numerous agreements 
 between the readings of these five MSS. and the Biblical quotations 
 of St. Chrysostom, who, since he was a priest of Antioch and bishop 
 of Constantinople, may be presumed to have made use of that 
 recension of ffi which was current in Antioch and Constantinople, 
 viz., as Jerome informs us, the recension of Lucian. 
 
 Of the five MSS. upon which Lagarde bases his text of Lucian, 
 118 is complete for Judg., while 19 and 108 exhibit considerable 
 lacunae. 82, which is also available for Judg., is placed by Moore 
 in another group of the A version family, which he distinguishes by 
 the signature dSi^. We have already noticed that the three Codd. 
 19, 108, and 118 are cited by Lagarde for his A group in Septuaginta 
 Stwdien, together with the Complutensian (based upon 108), and 1,, 
 the correspondence of which with Lucian's recension in the other 
 historical books has been noted.* 
 
 * Cf. .the examples cited by Driver for Samuel in NHTSfi pp. Ixxvii-lxxx and bj 
 the present writer for Kings in NHTK. pp. xxxvi-xl. 
 
Hebrew text and ancient versions cxxvil 
 
 Adequate discussion of the characteristics of the two (5 versions 
 and their relation one to the other demands a separate treatise. 
 It is only possible here to state summarily the conclusions which 
 seem to result from comparison of the two texts. 
 
 1. They are distinct translations, in the sense that each pre- 
 supposes the independent use of a Heb. original. 
 
 2. The two Heb. originals, while possessing much in common 
 which differentiated them from 5^, yet varied in many important 
 particulars. That used by ffi* was the nearer to J^. That used 
 by ffl-^^ exhibited many readings which possess the stamp of 
 originality.* 
 
 3. Though the two (5 texts may be classed as distinct translations 
 in the sense above specified, they exhibit identities in rendering 
 which cannot be the result of chance, and which indicate that the 
 younger translation (whichever that may have been) was made by 
 the aid of reference to the older. 
 
 4. Both translations, and perhaps especially that represented 
 by iG*'", have been extensively worked over, and contain many 
 doublets. 
 
 The Vulgate (F), Peshittd {&^), and Targum (C) are of but slight 
 critical value as compared with the two ffi texts, since all represent 
 recensions of the original Heb. much more closely akin to f^ ; and 
 their main importance lies in the early traditions of interpretation 
 which they embody. The principal characteristics of these versions 
 may be gathered from modern works and articles (such as those of 
 DB.) which deal with the textual criticism of the O.T., and need 
 not be noticed here. It is worth while, however, in the case of 
 S*" — a version of which we possess no authoritative critical text, 
 and of the origin of which little is known— to point out certain 
 affinities with other versions which are apparent in the text of 
 Judges. 
 
 1. Affinities with <& are fairly frequent, especially with the version 
 represented by (G'^^.+ 
 21. 'J1 rhv»- S'' prefixes "U;^ j^j] \xD(y\. Cf. <&." raSe Xeyu 
 
 5 8. DnVB- Dn^ TK S'' VA^O? ]S£LkA ^jfjCnO. Cf. (&''^ is apTov 
 
 KpidLvov, £ 'velut panem hordeaceum,' S*' lpi.£Dj liCLwAXj ^1. 
 
 * This version (as represented by C*'-, S^ 31.) preserves superior readings to Wt and 
 to (SB in the following passages in Judg. :-5i », 7'-^ 8\ 10", ll»-34, 1223, 1323, 
 1411.19 156 1619-24, 173, 192.3.30, 20i=-'3. In 5'2, 1126.35^ igis, 1620, 189 the readings of 
 the version have claims to consideration, though they are not actually adopted in the 
 present commentary Cf. notes ad loc. 
 
 t The same phenomenon has been noted in the &" text of Sam. by Driver, JSTHTS. 2 
 p. Ixxi, and in that of Kgs. by the present writer in NHTK. p. xxxii. In citations 
 from Sf the text of Walton's Polyglot has been collated with that of Ceriam's fac- 
 simile of the Codex Ambrosianus. 
 
exxviii iNtRObuGxtoM ' 
 
 5 ". Uins. ^'" ^j-^os]? ' which he multiplied.' Cf. (tSc^ av 
 7 5. At end of verse S"" adds 1r>-»-2l - >rn . Vn . o] (^^^ ^^^^j^ 
 
 So ffi^^ &\ 
 
 7 22. n:nDn bai. &"" omits i, with ffi'', IB^ 
 
 9 «. niDTipn. S'' l^^j (DTipn). So ffi*^ S^ U. 
 
 10 1. nn p. S"" Oljj ^ri (understanding nn to mear 
 uncle'). Cf. ffi t)t5s irarpaSeX^ou auTov, U 'patrui Abimelech 
 
 10". S^ agrees with ffi^^, S^ 3L^ U in omitting )D and 
 list of nations as subj. of Vivh- 
 
 10 3*. ,3oj3. S,^ crUiD t£il (njDD). Soffi^^ S^ 
 11 35. ^i" sides with ffi=, F (cf. wi!^ ad loc). 
 
 12 3. j,^5^,a ^3,j5 ,3_ a^ . .\ ^joj, O3 /LiA> (J'''E'1» px •': 
 
 148. ^DV. S^ .^.V^S (IDV). So ffi^ 
 
 14''. ■laT'l TTil. S"" nWV^O oA*>JO, So ffi /<ai Karl 
 KOI kXaX.rjaa.v . 
 
 1415. ,y,3t^n. S^ ] I s . n3 (^rmn). So ffi•^^ l,^ 
 
 15 8. Qoy. ^p ^nnvns (D3DV). So ffi^MJ. 
 
 15 6. n^DK nxv S'' CTioo] ZU-rAo (n''3s rriD nxi). So 
 
 20 IS*. Si^ omits iina . . . Dvn iiao with ffi, F. 
 
 2. There are clear instances of affinity with C — and t 
 a character which is not to be explained merely by the fac 
 both versions are Aramaic, or by the probability that hot! 
 have been influenced by a similar Jewish tradition of ex 
 but which suggests actual connexion between the two.* 
 
 38, al. 1J-ID. S"" ]jo-i^. ^ ijilta^^ 
 
 3 19. i>Xin yh\n 'h ino im. &^ j ^ .^A A^] l5A£Dj \L 
 
 3 2B. K>u ij; ii5''n^i. S^ - ■ ,. 1^ oJAso. a: ijd nj; isnisi. 
 
 5 25. Dnns ^sD3. S^ ];m ,.? Imn^. a: xnnj 'i^an. 
 52s. nan. S"" .-.r^? oiAria^k). a: nn nid''DT 'nia^m. 
 
 6 28. nanvoa. S^ l5j.mi3. 21 N-noa. 
 
 7 18. imai'i nin^is. s^ ^cll^ Ao Ur^^ \^^- C Dip f 
 
 18 6. D33-n"in33. S^ ,a2jojo1 ^Li Ur^- Cpmis*' 
 
 * Cf. for Sam. NUTS.'' pp. Ixxi f. and for Kgs. NHTK. pp. xxxiv f. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 I. 1-2. S- Survey of IsraeFs settlement in Canaan. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc., cited throughout the book, cf. Eduard 
 Meyer, Kritik der Berichte iiber die Eroberung Palaestinas, ZATW. i. (i88i), 
 pp. 117-146; L. B. Paton, Israel's Conquest of Canaan, JBL. .xxxii. (1913), 
 PP- 1-53- 
 
 This section was added by a post-exilic editor of the Priestly 
 school of thought (R'') as a fresh introduction to his new edition of 
 the history of the Judges. The introduction is composed in the main 
 of extracts culled from the old Judaean document (J) of the ninth 
 century B.C. J's narrative originally gave an account of the first 
 settlement of the tribes of Israel in Canaan, describing the gradual 
 and partial manner in which it was effected. Extracts from the same 
 narrative are found in the Book of Joshua', several of them being 
 parallel to passages in Judg. i, and, where not identical in wording, 
 appearing in a more original form. Thus Josh. 15'"' = Judg. 
 
 I 20.10b (in part). 11-15 . Jog^. I563 = Judg. I 2' ; Josh. l61'' = Judg. I 23 ; 
 
 Josh. 1 7"" = Judg. iF-28. Further extracts from the same narrative, 
 not contained in Judg. i, are found in Josh. 13", ly"*', 19*', and 
 probably in Num. 32 39.4i.42 -pj^g original form of J's narrative of the 
 settlement in Cana'an has been very skilfully reconstructed by Bu. : 
 cf Additional note, p. 47. 
 
 The reason why the old narrative of J did not appear in full in Josh, 
 doubtless was that, as picturing the settlement in Cana'an as the work 
 of individual tribes, and as only very partially effected, it conflicted 
 with the view taken by the Deuteronomic editor (R°) of JE in Josh., 
 according to which practically the whole of the promised land, with 
 the exception of the maritime plain, was summarily conquered by all 
 Israel in a series of campaigns under the leadership of Joshua'; and 
 was even more sharply opposed to the presentation of affairs as given 
 by the Priestly writer (P) in Josh., which makes the accurate delimi- 
 tation of the conquered territory among the twelve tribes to have 
 been settled by Joshua' after the conquest. Cf further Introd. 
 pp. xxxiv f. 
 
 In utilizing J's matter for his introduction to Judges, R"" regards it 
 as referring, not to the first settlement in Cana'an, but to the outcome 
 of events ' after the death of Joshua' ' {v. ^). Thus, in order to illustrate 
 (from his point of view) the slackness of Israel in failing to carry out 
 
 A 
 
S THE; BOOK OF JUDGES [1. !. 
 
 what they might have accomplished in obedience to Yahweh's com- 
 mand, he alters in several passages J's statement that they ' could not 
 dispossess ' the Cana'anites into ' did not dispossess.' So in vv. 2'-2' as 
 compared with the parallel passages in Josh. ; and doubtless also in 
 V. ^^ (cf. note). R"" also adds statements with regard to the conquest 
 of Jerusalem l^v.^) and the Philistine cities (w.") which actually con- 
 flict with statements from J which he incorporates (z/z/.^iw). Cf. 
 further notes following. 
 
 The standpoint of ch. 2 ^'^ is clearly that of R''. The severe censure 
 of Israel as a whole on the ground that they have ■wilfully neglected 
 Yahweh's command by failure to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan 
 is of a piece (Bu. RS. p. 20) with the deliberate alteration of ' could 
 not dispossess' into 'did not dispossess' noticed above. The 
 representation of the tribes of Israel as apparently assembled in one 
 body at Bethel (cf. note on 2 ') is at variance with the narrative of J in 
 ch. I, which represents them as scattered throughout the land, and 
 each making its own settlement as best it could. The speech which 
 is put into the mouth of the Angel of Yahweh appears to be a free 
 composition by R"", based upon reminiscence of passages in the 
 Pentateuch and Josh. (cf. notes ad loc). Wellh., however, is doubtless 
 correct in recognizing (Co;«/.^ p. 210) that in ■z/z/.'^-^'' we have genuine 
 fragments of the old narrative of J, describing the removal of the 
 rehgious centre of Israel from Gilgal to Bethel after the conquest of 
 the latter city by the house of Joseph, as narrated in i ^^ ff. 
 
 The purpose of R"''s introduction is to explain the unsettled con- 
 dition of affairs as related in the narrative of Judges, by the addition 
 of details known to him which had not been incorporated by the main 
 editor (R'^'') in his introduction, ch. 2^-3^. 
 
 The following words and phrases are to be noticed as characteristic 
 of J : — 'the Cana'anites,' as a general term for the inhabitants of 
 Palestine, i ' (see note) ; 'the Cana'anites and the Perizzites' coupled, 
 1 5 {note); 'at the first' (H^nnD), ii; 'deal kindly with' (lit. 'do 
 kindness with,' DIJ non rws\ i^*; 'dependencies' (lit. 'daughters,' 
 11133), 1 27, five times ; 'and it came to pass, when' ('3 Tl"!!), i ^s ; 'dwelt 
 in the midst of ' (3np3 yO\ 129.30.32.33. 'prevailed' (lit. 'was heavy,' 
 
 133), 1 36 ; ' the Angel of Yahweh ' (niH'' y^'O), 2 1-(4). Cf. CHJ. 
 
 I. I. R"" Now after the death of Joshua', J the children of 
 
 I, I. after the death offoshud. As related in Josh. 24 ^o-^" (E). R"" 
 assumes that he is taking up the history from the point reached in 
 the closing chapter of Josh. The proper continuation of Josh. 24 is 
 found, however, in R'="s introduction to Judg., contained in ch. 2"'-, 
 where vv.^-^ are nearly verbally identical with Josh. 24 28-3'-2'"'. So 
 far from dealing with events which happened subsequently to Joshua's 
 death, the old narrative of J pictures Israel as still at Gilgal (2'), or 
 
i- 3-] tltE BOOK OF JUDGES ^ 
 
 Israel enquired of Yahweh, saying, ' Who shall go up for us first 
 against the Cana'anites to flight against them?' 2. And Yahweh" 
 said, ' Judah shall go up : behold, I have given the land into 
 his hand.' 3. And Judah said to Sime'on his brother, 'Go up 
 with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Cana'anites, 
 
 close by at Jericho (i "), shortly after the passage of the Jordan and 
 before the tribes had entered upon their inheritances. 
 
 the children of Israel enquired, etc. Literally translated, v. ' runs, 
 'And it came to pass, after the death of Joshua', and the children of 
 Israel enquired, etc.', the use of 'and' to introduce the sentence to 
 which the time-determination refers being idiomatic in Hebrew. 
 Thus, apart from R'"s note of time, the sentence is to be rendered, 
 'And the children, etc' This may have formed the commencement 
 of J's narrative of the tribal conquests : cf. Additional note, p. 47. 
 
 enquired of Yahweh. The reference doubtless is to consultation 
 of the oracle by means of the sacred lot ; cf. the use of the phrase 
 in I Sam. li,^, 221", 23==, 308, etc. This lot was cast by means of 
 Urim and Tummim, as appears from the undoubtedly original form 
 of I Sam. 14 *', preserved by <&. Here Saul's address to Yahweh runs, 
 'O Yahweh, God of Israel, wherefore hast thou not answered thy 
 servant to-day? If this iniquity be in me, or in Jonathan my son, 
 O Yahweh, God of Israel, give Urim ; but if it be in thy people Israel, 
 give Tummim.' Cf also i Sam. 28 ^. Thus Urim and Tummim were 
 apparently two concrete objects employed in connexion with the 
 Ephod. Cf. I Sam. 14'*, where (K""- preserves the true reading 
 'Ephod' in place of 'Ark of God' in ?§. On the nature of the 
 Ephod, cf. note on ch. 8 ^^ 
 
 Who shall go up. From the Jordan valley, which is the point of 
 departure in v.^^, into the hill-country to the west. The expression 
 ala 'go up ' is used, however, in a general way of a military expedi- 
 tion. Cf ch. 12', 1 8 9, I Sam. 7', Isa. 36"", al 
 
 against the Cana'anites. The use of ' Cana'anite ' as a general term 
 to describe the inhabitants of the country west of Jordan is char- 
 acteristic of J ; while E uses ' Amorite ' in the same general sense. 
 When greater accuracy is deemed desirable, the Cana'anites are de- 
 fined as the dwellers in the lowlands, i.e. the maritime plain and the 
 Jordan valley, and the Amorites as inhabitants of the hill-country 
 which lies between. So in Num. 13 ^^ (prob. R^'^), Josh. 11' (R°) ; 
 cf. Deut. I'loso, Josh. 5", 13 ^^ (both R°). The inhabitants of the 
 mountain-range east of Jordan and north of the Arnon are described 
 as Amorites by E and by writers influenced by this source (R^^ and 
 school of D). Upon the evidence as to the use of the terms from 
 extraneous sources, cf. Additional note, p. 41. 
 
 3. into my lot. J, like E and R° and P in Josh., doubtless repre- 
 sented the partition of Cana'an among the tribes of Israel as decided 
 
4 tliE BOOK OF JUDGfeS [L 4. J. 
 
 and I also will go up with thee into thy lot.' So Sime'on went 
 ■with him. 4. R^ And Judah went up ; and Yahweh gave the 
 Cana'anites and the Perizzites into their hand ; and they smote 
 them in Bezel? — ten thousand men. 5. J And they came upon 
 
 by lot under the direction of Joshua'. Cf. Introd. p. cv. The position 
 and (ideal) extent of Judah's 'lot' is described in Josh. 151-12 p. it 
 was bounded on the east by the Dead Sea and on the west by the 
 Mediterranean, while the northern border ran from the Jordan near 
 its junction with the Dead Sea, and passing close to the south of 
 Jerusalem (which fell within the territory of Benjamin), terminated at 
 the Mediterranean near Jabne'el (Yebna). The southern border is 
 noticed under v.^^ 'from the Crag.' 
 
 So Simeo7t went with him. The cities assigned to Sime'on in 
 Josh, igi'* (P) fall within the territory of Judah ; and most, if not all, 
 of them are reckoned to Judah in Josh. 1526-32.42 ^p^_ ■pj^g ^^^ ^f 
 Sime'on seems to have been very small. The story of Gen. 34 (J 
 and P combined) probably reflects an early attempt made by this tribe 
 and the tribe of Levi {Additional note, p. 437) to settle in central 
 Palestine ; when an attack made upon the Cana'anite city of Shechem, 
 in violation of friendly treaty, provoked (as we may infer from 
 Gen. 49^ J) such reprisals on the part of the Cana'anites as decimated 
 the aggressors and caused the dispersion of the remnant of their 
 clans to seek a settlement in other parts of the land. As to when this 
 Shechem-incident may have occurred, cf. Additional note, pp. 437 ff. 
 In the so-called ' Blessing of Moses,' Deut. 33 (E), dated by Driver 
 {Deut., ICC, p. 387) either shortly after the rupture under Jeroboam I., 
 or during the middle and prosperous part of the reign of Jerobo'am II. 
 {c. 780 B.C.), Sime'on is not mentioned at all; unless we follow the 
 suggestion of ffi*i- in v.^'^, and read, 'and let Sime'on be few in 
 number ' (pyDC for ITID. The rendering n-oXis iv apid^ia rests on a 
 false interpretation of "IDDD as implying a large number). 
 
 4. The verse seems to be a summary statement by R** of the result 
 of the campaign, based upon the information afforded by J in the 
 following verses. 
 
 5. And they came upon Adoni-besek in Bezek. The name Adoni- 
 bezek is open to grave suspicion, since nowhere else do we find a 
 Hebrew proper name which describes a man as ' lord ' of his city or 
 country. The form of name which we should expect as a compound 
 of Adoni is 'such and such a deity is lord' : cf Adonijah, 'Yah of 
 Yahweh is lord,' Adoniram, ' the High one is lord,' and in Phoenician 
 Adoni-eshmun, ' Eshmun is lord,' etc. It is conceivable that Bezek 
 may have been the name of a local Cana'anite deity; but such a 
 deity is otherwise quite unknown', and it is scarcely possible that the 
 city should bear the name of the deity, without some such prefix as 
 Beth, 'house of (cf Beth-'anath, Beth-dagon). Moreover, no city 
 
1. 5-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 5 
 
 Adoni-bezek in Bezek, and they fought against him, and smote 
 
 named Bezek in southern Palestine is mentioned elsewhere in the O. T. ; 
 and the Bezek of i Sam. 1 1 ^ (the modern fjirbet Ibzik, seventeen miles 
 N.N.E. of Nablus on the road to Besan) cannot be the place 
 intended, since Judah and Sime'on are represented as moving in 
 a westerly or south-westerly direction from Jericho (^z."), into the 
 territory allotted to Judah. A site Hirbet Bezkeh, six miles S.E. of 
 Lydda, has been advocated by Conder {SIVP. Mem. iii. 36), but 
 this seems too far to the west to have been the scene of action. 
 
 The mention of Jerusalem in v. ', as the city to which the king was 
 taken, apparently by his own followers (cf. note), after his mutilation 
 by the Judaeans, makes it probable that we have here to do with 
 Adoni-sedek, king of Jerusalem, who is named in Josh. 10 ^ (E) as the 
 head of the confederacy against Joshua'in southern Palestine ; in which 
 case we would seem to have an account of his fate different from that 
 given by E in Josh. 10 ^^ ff. The view that, in Adoni-sedek, Sedek is 
 the name of a Cana'anite deity is plausible, but the evidence is in- 
 conclusive. Cf. Additional note, p. 41. Adoni-sedek may denote 'my 
 lord is righteous ' (lit. ' is righteousness ' ; in accordance with the 
 common substitution of substantive for adjective in Heb.), or ' lord of 
 righteousness.' 
 
 If Adoni-sedek be the original form of the name in our passage, 
 the form Adoni-bezek, unless merely due to accidental corruption, is 
 probably an intentional perversion made by a late scribe in order to 
 cast ridicule upon the name of a heathen deity. Sedek, either the 
 deity's name, or ascribing ' righteousness ' to the heathen divine ' lord,' 
 is changed into bezek, a word unknown to us in Heb., but very likely 
 existing with the meaning ' pebble ' or small ' fragment ' of stone, as 
 in Syr. bezkd, Aram, bizkd, perhaps in jesting allusion to the material 
 and helpless idol : cf. Hab. 2 ■^, where the idol is described as a 
 'dumb stone.' Such perversion of the title of a heathen deity is 
 most probably seen in Baal-zebub, 'lord of flies,' 2 Kgs. i z-S-sib^ for 
 an original Baal-zebul (cf BftXff/SouX, Mk. 3 ^^ and parallels. Matt. 
 10^), 'lord of the mansion' (temple, or heavenly abode ; apphed to 
 Yahweh's abode in i Kgs. 8 ", Isa. 63 " : cf. Cheyne in EB. col. 407 f.) ; 
 and in the substitution of boseth, 'shameful thing,' for Ba'al where 
 it occurs in proper names, as in Ishbosheth in 2 Sam. 2 *, etc., for 
 Eshba'al, i Chr. S'^, 9^^ and in other cases : cf. the present editor's 
 Outlines of O. T. Theology, pp. 27 f. Similar instances of the 
 perversion of names in jest are noticed in ch. 3 * note. The form 
 A8(»l/l^effK has been adopted by ffi in Josh. 10 (2 codd. ASa)wff^€K ; 
 so Josephus and other writers : cf Mo., Comm., p. 17). 
 
 Upon this view of the origin of the name Adoni-bezek, it is 
 probable that the words 'in Bezek' were added still later as an 
 explanatory gloss, when the proper name had come to be under- 
 stood as 'lord of Bezek.' The statement 'they came upon Adoni- 
 
5 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 6. 7. 8. 
 
 the Cana'anites and the Perizzites. 6. And Adoni-bezek fled; 
 and they pursued after him, and captured him, and cut off his 
 thumbs and his great toes. 7. And Adoni-bezek said, 'Seventy 
 kings, with their thumbs and their great toes cut off, used to 
 pick up food under my table : as I did, so hath God requited 
 me.' And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 
 
 8. R"" And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and 
 
 Sedek ' does not necessarily postulate mention of the locality where 
 the encounter took place, though this may have existed in the full 
 narrative of J. Bu. would supply ' the king of Jerusalem ' after the 
 proper name. 
 
 The Candanites and the Perizzites. The two terms are so coupled 
 only in J, Gen. 13', 34 ^°t : the occurrence in ^'.* (R'') being adopted 
 directly from J in v.^. 
 
 The view that the Perizzites were a remnant of the pre-Cana'anitish 
 inhabitants of Palestine (cf Kautzsch in Riehm, HWB.'^ ii. p. 121 1) 
 is based upon insufficient grounds. More probably the term, like 
 f^razi in i Sam. 6^', Deut. 3^, denotes the dwellers in unwalled 
 hamlets ; just as the term Hivvites appears to denote communities 
 of tent-dwellers (cf note on ch. 10 *). 
 
 6. cut off his thumbs and his great toes. Le Clerc and commen- 
 tators after him compare the statement of Aelian ( Var. Hist. 11. 9) 
 that the Athenians voted to cut off the thumb of the right hand of 
 every one of the Aeginetans, that they might be unable to carry a 
 spear, but able to propel an oar. Similar mutilations of prisoners of 
 war are noticed by Mo. ad loc. Probably, however, La. is correct in 
 concluding, with Calmet, that the mutilation was intended to degrade 
 the captive to the position of a punished slave, rather than to prevent 
 the bearing of arms ; though the latter motive may also have been 
 operative. 
 
 7. Seventy kings. A large round number. Cf note on ch. 8 ^. 
 
 as I did, etc. There is perhaps an etiological connexion between 
 the tradition of Adoni-sedek's speech and the name which he bears ; 
 the idea of ' measure for measure ' being suggested by ' the Lord is 
 righteous' {i.e. Just; cf use of term in Deut. 25 ^% al). 
 
 they brought him to Jerusalem. The subject of the verb must be 
 Adoni-sedek's own followers ; since J, the author of the narrative 
 tells us in i'.2' = Josh. 15 ^^ that the Judaeans were unable to conquer 
 Jerusalem. It is likely, however, that R"" referred the verb to the 
 victorious Judaeans, and so introduced his statement as to the 
 conquest of Jerusalem in the verse following. 
 
 8. And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, etc. This 
 statement by R"" is obviously incorrect. So far from the city having 
 been captured and set on fire, we are told by J in Josh. 15 ^^ that the 
 
1.9-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 7 
 
 took it, and smote it at the edge of the sword, and the city they 
 set on fire. 9. And afterward the children of Judah went down 
 to fight against the Cana'anites dwelling in the hill-country and 
 the Negeb and the Shephelah. 10. And Judah went against 
 
 sons of Judah were unable to dispossess the Jebusites dwelling in 
 Jerusalem (so ■z'.^S with the variation 'did not dispossess' noticed 
 in the opening section). With this failure to capture Jerusalem agree 
 the facts of history as otherwise known to us. In the old story of 
 Judg. 19 Jerusalem or Jebus is a ' city of the Jebusites, . . . the city of 
 foreigners who are not of the children of Israel ' {vv. '"'2). And in 2 Sam. 
 5 ^"- the capture of the city from its Jebusite inhabitants is related as 
 one of the great achievements of David. Even R° in Josh., who 
 relates in 10 ^s"- the capture and destruction of the cities of three of 
 the kings who took part in the southern confederacy (10^ E), viz. 
 Lachish, 'Eglon, and Hebron, makes no statement as to the capture 
 of Jerusalem ; though it is true that the king of Jerusalem is included 
 (w."") in the list of vanquished kings given in Josh. 12. 
 
 at the edge of the sword. Lit. ' according to the mouth of the 
 sword' (7 of norm in ^DP as in 173 X iQ? lit. 'according to the mouth 
 of his eating,' Ex. 16 •'), i.e. 'as the sword devours,' viz. without quarter. 
 
 9. the children of Judah went down. Jerusalem is 2593 feet above 
 the Mediterranean sea-level, Hebron (■z'."') 3040 feet ; and the inter- 
 vening country rises slightly on the whole rather than falls. Thus 
 the expression ' went down ' would be in this respect inappropriate. 
 The writer, however, is thinking, not merely of the much lower Negeb 
 and Shephelah, but also of the fall in the hill-country from the 
 central plateau on which Jerusalem stands, both westward towards 
 the Shephelah, and towards the wilderness of Judah in the direction 
 of the Dead Sea. 
 
 the Negeb. The arid steppe-region extending from a little south of 
 Hebron, where the hill-country gradually sinks, to Kadesh-Barnea 
 about fifty miles south of Be'er-sheba on the border of the desert. 
 The root 3J3 in New Heb. and Aram, means 'to be dry or parched'; 
 and Negeb accordingly must denote ' the dry region ' : cf. v. "• where 
 springs of water are named as a desideratum. From the standpoint 
 of Palestine 'the Negeb,' or, 'towards the Negeb,' is a common 
 designation of the south. Negeb is in R.V. always rendered 'the 
 South' (with capital S) ; but its application to a particular region 
 of southern Palestine requires the retention of the Hebrew term. 
 
 the Shephelah. A term meaning 'lowland,' and, according to 
 Smith l^HG. pp. 201 ff.), property applied to the low hills or downs 
 lying between the Judaean hill-country to the east and the maritime 
 plain (called 'emek, 'the Vale,' by J in t/.'») to the west— a region 
 which, as distinct both from hill-country and plain, was constantly 
 debatable ground between the Israelites and Philistines. Smith 
 
8 THE BOOK Ul' JUUUtS LI. 10. 
 
 the Cana'anites who dwelt in Hebron : (now the name of Hebron 
 
 clearly proves the distinct character of this region, as separated 
 from the hill-country of Judah by a series of valleys running south- 
 ward from Aijalon, a distinction which does not exist north of Aijalon, 
 where the hill-country slopes down directly into the maritime plain. 
 Yet there are indications that the use of the term Shephelah was not 
 always or at all times thus limited in its application. As Buhl ifieogr. 
 p. 104, n '^*) remarks, the specification of the cities in the Shephelah 
 in Josh, ijssff. points to a wider application, especially 'Z/^/. ^^-^ which 
 include the Philistine cities with their neighbouring villages as far 
 west as the sea and as far south as the wady of Egypt (wady el-'Aris) ; 
 these latter verses indicating the linguistic usage of the term at the 
 period at which they were penned, even if they be regarded as a later 
 interpolation. The same inference may be drawn from the ffi render- 
 ing TTihiov or 17 ireStvTj, and from Eusebius' statement {OS. 296 ^°) that 
 the term includes all the low country {nebLvr)) lying about Eleuther- 
 opolis (BSt-Gibrin) to the north and west* On the other hand, the 
 fact must not be overlooked that Ob. '^, 2 Chr. 28 '^ appear expressly 
 to distinguish the Shephelah from the territory of the Philistines (the 
 maritime plain) ; and the same seems to be true of Zech. 7 '', which 
 refers to the period when the Shephelah was inhabited by Judah. 
 The usage of the term thus appears to have fluctuated between a 
 wider and narrower application, the wider and looser usage probably 
 being relatively later. 
 
 10. And Judah went, etc. J's account of the conquest of Hebron 
 and Debir is found in Josh. 15'"'. There, after a statement by a 
 late Priestly writer {v. '^) that Caleb was given Hebron or Kiriath- 
 arba' as his portion, we read: — ''*• And Caleb dispossessed from 
 thence the three sons of "Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. 
 '^- And he went up thence against the inhabitants of Debir, etc.,' -vv. 
 16-19 being verbally identical with Judg. i 'i-^^, except for the variation 
 n?'1 'and he went,' Judg. i", for PVl 'and he went up,' Josh. 15'*, 
 and the addition 13DD ttDpn, ' who was younger than he,' in Judg. i '^ 
 after the words ' the brother of Caleb.' The parallel to v. '* of Josh, 
 is found in Judg. i^""" and the names of the sons of 'Anak at the end 
 of^/.i". 
 
 Judg. 1 2°", 'And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said,' 
 is J's statement upon which Josh. 15" is based by a late redactor 
 who inserted the narrative of J into the midst of the P document in 
 Josh. The original form of J's narrative is found if we place Judg.i^"' 
 before Josh. 15 '^■i'': cf Additional note, p. 48. The dislocation in 
 Judg. I by which v. 2" comes later on instead of prior to w.i»™ii is due 
 to R"", who, by his insertion, of z/w."!" down to 'and they smote,' 
 
 * Buhl's further objections to Smith's view appear to be satisfactorily met by 
 the latter writer in Expositor, 1S96, pp. 404 ff. 
 
1. IO.J THE BOOK OF JUDGES 9 
 
 formerly was Kiriath-arba' :) and they smote J Sheshai and Ahiman, 
 
 doubtless intended to represent the whole tribe of Judah as acting in 
 concert. 
 
 Hebron. The modern el-Halil, i.e. 'the Friend,' an abbreviation 
 of 'Town of the Friend of God ' (the Mohammedan title for Abraham), 
 about eighteen miles a little west of due south of Jerusalem. 
 
 now the name of Hebron formerly, etc: So exactly Josh. 14'^ (in 
 a section 14"'= R°, but probably a later note). The statement that 
 Kiriath-arba' was the same as Hebron is also found in Gen. 23 2, 35 2r 
 Josh. 15 1^-^*, 20^, 21 11 (all P), and the name appears in a list of cities 
 inhabited by the children of Judah in Nehemiah's time, Neh. 1 1 ^^ t. 
 
 Kiriath-arba. The name means 'City of Four'; and there can 
 be little doubt that 'Four,' like 'Seven' in Be'er-sheba', 'Well of 
 Seven,' is a divine title. Probably both ' Four ' and ' Seven ' repre- 
 sent aspects of the Moon-god, the former referring to the four phases 
 of the moon, the latter to one quarter, or the seven-day week. For the 
 evidence upon which this view is based, cf Additional note, p. 43. 
 The view generally adopted that 'City of Four' means Tetrapolis, 
 fourfold city or city of four federated tribes, is based merely upon 
 conjecture ; and no evidence can be adduced in support of it, unless it 
 be found in the fact that the name Hebron may possibly be explained 
 as 'association' or 'federation.' The Priestly writer in Josh.- 15^', 
 21" S would appear to suppose Arba' to have been the ancestor of 
 the'Anakite clans originally inhabiting Hebron ; and in Josh. 14 ''' |§ 
 Arba' is stated to have been 'the greatest man among the 'Anakites.' 
 In all these passages, however, (K reads 'the metropoHs of 'Anak,' 
 or 'of the 'Anakites ' (/ii)rpo77oXif = DX 'mother,' i.e. 'mother-city,' as 
 in 2 Sam. 20 '°) ; and Mo. argues with reason that this was the original 
 reading, and that the alteration in 1§ is due to a scribe who mis- 
 understood the sense in which the term ' mother ' is used. 
 
 Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. Described in v.^ as ' the 
 three sons of 'Anak ' — a statement with which the three proper names 
 were originally connected in J's account. Cf. the first note on z/.'". 
 The reference is to three 'Anakite clans rather than to three indivi- 
 duals. In Num. 13 22 (JE) the spies, and notably Caleb (cf. note on 
 f.'^), come across the same three in their reconnaissance of Hebron 
 —a fact which perhaps has its bearing upon the question of Caleb's 
 conquest of Hebron (cf Additional note, p. 46). Mo. speaks of the 
 'Anakite names as ' of distinctively Aramaic type ' ; but it is more to 
 the point to observe that they seem to exhibit the influence of North 
 Arabia. It should be noticed that names with the termination -ai, as 
 in Talmai and Sheshai, appear to have been specially numerous 
 among the Judaeans, and not least among the Calibbite and Jerah- 
 me'elite elements of this mixed tribe. Cf the genealogy of i Chr. 2, 
 and notice besides Hushai, 2 Sam. 15^^ al., and the Gittite Ittai, 
 2 Sam. 151", a/. The name Talmai occurs in 2 Sam. 3^ 13" as 
 
10 THU; iSUUJS. Uf juuiin-a Li- i». 
 
 and Talmai. ii. TAnd they went up"" thence against the in- 
 habitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir formerly was 
 
 borne by a king of the Aramaean state Geshur (probably north of 
 Gile ad), and Talmi has been found in inscriptions from el-'Oli near 
 T^msl as the name of two kings of Libhyin (D. H. Muller, £^: 
 graphische Denkmdler aus .Arabien, p. 5, quoted by Sayce, HCM. 
 p. 189 «.)• The Nabatean form is Talmu or Talimu : cf. CIS. ii. 
 321, 344, 348. The name is closely akin to Bab. talimu, Sam. 
 Htm, ' uterine brother ' ; cf. Aram. Bar-tulmai (Bartholomew). 
 Sheshai PE'E', ffi'' Sfo-ft, "Sco-o-ft. Josh, isi^ffi""- ^ovan, * 2ovo-ai. 
 Num. 1322 ffi"- 2ecr€i, "Sfo-o-ci. Cf. Shashai, iw, Ezr. 10 « ffi^^Seo-fi, 
 identical with ffi" Sfo-etr, ^ Seo-o-ftf of I Esdr. 9 ^) is apparently a 
 variation of the name Shisha or Shavsha (N^'B'^ ^fW) borne by a 
 Judaean of the time of David and Solomon (i Kgs. 4^ i Chr. l8"); 
 and names with this termination -a (with final N) are likewise charac- 
 teristic of Judah (cf I Chr. 2), and point to North Arabian influence, 
 which may thus be supposed to have been operative in southern 
 Cana'an as early as the time of the' Anakites. Shavsha (more original 
 than Shisha : cf. NHTK. p. 38) undoubtedly stands for Shamsha, 
 i.e. 'the Sun'; cf Aram. Ki-Savas (B'IB'ia) for Bab. Ki-SamaS in 
 an inscription of B.C. 504 : CIS. ii. 65 (cited by Cheyne in EB. 
 4433). Sheshai, which, as the ffi variants indicate, may have been 
 originally Shavshai, Shashshai, or Shishshai ('B'lB', ''E'B', ^W\ 
 
 may be compared with the late Bab. "iassu for laimu, ' sun.' It is 
 worth noticing that the Heb. Samson (properly Shimsh6n ; Bab. 
 Sam^^nu, BDB. s.v.') perhaps ' Sun-man,' and the place-name 
 Beth-shemesh, ' House of the Sun,' also belong to southern Palestine. 
 In Ahiman the element man is probably the name or title of a 
 deity, perhaps Meni, the god oifate or destiny mentioned in Isa. 65". 
 Cf. the goddess Manothu in the Nabatean inscriptions ; Ar. Manat, 
 Kuran 53 2". The name belongs to the familiar class which claims 
 relationship to a deity : — ' Brother of Man,' or ' Man is my brother.' 
 The occurrence of the name (IDTINV) in the list of Levites in i Chn 
 
 9" is probably an erroneous dittography of the following DrTTINI, 
 ' and their brethren.' 
 
 II. And they 'we?tt up. Reading isy'l with ffi" and || Josh. 15'^ in 
 
 place of |§ ?17>1. The singular verb is taken by R"" to refer, as a 
 
 collective, to the tribe of Judah mentioned by him in v.^" ; but in the 
 original narrative of J it referred to Caleb. Cf the first note on 
 
 Debir. The site commonly accepted for Debir is ez-Zahariyyeh, 
 which lies about eleven miles south-west of Hebron, and which ' may 
 
!• II-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES n 
 
 Kiriath-sepher.) 12. And Caleb said, ' He that smiteth Kiriath- 
 
 be regarded as the frontier town between the hill-country and the 
 Negeb ' (Smith, HG. p. 279 ; cf. Trumbull, Kadesh-Barnea, pp. 104 f.). 
 This identification depends merely upon conjecture. It suits the 
 connexion in which Debir stands in Josh. i5«" ^\^^ Socoh (the 
 modem Suwekeh), 'Anab CAn4b), and Eshtemoh (elsewhere Esh- 
 temoa, probably the modern es-Semu), which are all in close 
 proximity, and the narrative of z/w.""- (cf. note on z/.'^); but is 
 opposed by the fact noticed by Sayce {DB. i. p. 5 78a) that Petrie found 
 no traces at ez-Zihariyyeh of anything older than the Roman period.* 
 
 It may also be observed that, while Hebron stands 3040 feet above 
 the sea, the elevation of ez-Z4hariyyeh (2150 feet) is nearly goo feet 
 lower, and the descent from the former site to the latter appears, in 
 the main, to be gradual and continuous. J Thus, if the reading ' And 
 ihey went upfront thence {i.e. from Hebron) to Debir' is correct, the 
 identification of Debir with ez-Zahariyyeh would seem to be excluded, 
 unless we regard the expression 'went up' as used in the general 
 sense of making a campaign (cf note on v}), an explanation which 
 the precise 'from thence' (DtJ'D) may be thought to render somewhat 
 improbable. The only site south of Hebron which seems to stand 
 on a higher elevation is Yutta (3747 feet) ; but this corresponds in 
 name at least with the Biblical Juttah, Josh. 15 ^^, 21 '°. 
 
 Kifiath-sepher. As vocalized, the name appears to mean 'book- 
 city' : (IK*'' TToXiy ypa/ifidrmv (and SO ffi"'^'' in Josh, is"'", and in 
 15*^, where |§ reads Kiriath-sannah, probably a textual error); 
 % 'civitas litterarum' ; S*" 'city of writings' ; 5C 'archive-city.' Upon 
 this slight basis, merely, Sayce builds the theory that the city 'must have 
 been the seat of a library like those of the great cities of Babylonia 
 and Assyria, — a library which doubtless consisted in large measure 
 
 * Conder's statement {Tent Work, p. 245) that the name Debir ' has the same 
 meaning ' as ez-Zahariyyeh is wholly incorrect. It may be true that the name of 
 the modern village is ' derived from its situation on the ' ' back " of a long ridge. ' 
 Zahr means ' back,' and zah&r is applied to ' the exterior and elevated part of a 
 stony tract' (so Lane), both words being derived from a verb zahara, 'to be 
 outward, exterior, apparent.' But Debir, on the contrary, can only be explained 
 from Ar. dahara, 'to be behind,' whence dabr and dnbr, 'hindmost or back 
 part,' and is the same, apparently, as the Heb. word used in i Kgs. 6 is a/, as 
 the older name of the most holy place in Solomon's temple, which, upon this 
 etymology, maybe rendered 'shrine.' The contrast in sense between the two 
 roots is clearly seen if we compare z6.hir, 'exterior' (commonly opposed to 
 bcttin, ' interior ') with dabr, ' the location or quarter that is behind a thing ' 
 (so Lane). 
 
 J Cf. SWP. Great Map, xxi. Smith (loc. cit.), though regarding the identi- 
 fication of ez-Zahariyyeh with Debir as probable, describes the journey from 
 Hebron as a descent ' over moors and through wheat-fields, arranged in the 
 narrower wadies in careful terraces, but lavishly spread over many of the 
 broader valleys. ' 
 
12 THE BOOK OF J-UDGES [1. 12. 13. 
 
 sepher, and taketh it, I will give him ' Achsah my daughter as 
 wife.' 13. And 'Othniel, the son of Kenaz, the R"" younger 
 
 of books on clay which may yet be brought to light ' {HCM. p. 54). 
 If the name really meant 'city of books,' or rather ' records,' we should 
 expect the form D''nSD ri'lp (Kiriath-s^pharim : cf. Kiriath-y^'arim) ; 
 and it is possible that the plur. D^DD may have been written in the 
 abbreviated form '^^D, which came to be mistaken for the singular 
 (ef footnote § on p. 124). <&^ in this passage reads Yiapiaao-axliap, 
 i.e., apparently, Kiriath-sopher, 'city of the scribe' ; a name which 
 W. M. MuUer would recognize in the Egyptian Bai-ti-tu-pa-ira, 
 'house of the scribe' {AE. p. 174). This vocalization of the Heb. 
 name is in itself more probable. 
 
 12. And Caleb said. The statement evidently points back to an 
 earlier mention of Caleb in J's original narrative. Cf the first note 
 on v.'^". Caleb is called 'the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite' in 
 Num. 32 '2 (P), Josh. 14^" (R°). In JE's narrative of the mission of 
 the spies to explore the Negeb (Num. 13, 14) he is the only spy men- 
 tioned by name, and the only one among the number who maintains 
 the possibility of the conquest of the 'Anakites inhabiting the region 
 (Num. 13'"). In the later narrative of P, which is interwoven with 
 that of JE in these two chapters, and in which the twelve spies (one 
 for every tribe, and all named) explore the whole of Cana'an, Joshua' 
 is associated with Caleb (the representative of Judah) in urging the 
 immediate conquest of the land. Cf. for the analysis of the narra- 
 tive. Gray, Numbers {ICC), pp. 128 fif. In Josh. 145-15 (R° based on 
 JE) Joshua' grants Hebron to Caleb in response to his request, and 
 in remembrance of the promise of Moses made to Caleb after the 
 return of the spies. 
 
 Caleb's clan of the Kenizzites appears from Gen. 36*1 to have 
 belonged to the Edomites, and, like the allied clan of the Jerahme'el- 
 ites (i Chr. 2 sw-^)^ still remained distinct from Judah in the early days 
 of David : cf i Sam. 27 '", 30 ■''. Evidence seems to indicate that 
 the Kenizzites, like other elements which went to form the mixed 
 tribe of Judah, really entered and settled in the Negeb by advancing 
 northward from the neighbourhood of Kadesh-Barnea', and that the 
 tradition which makes the granting of Hebron and Debir to Caleb 
 subsequent to and dependent upon the invasion and conquest of 
 Cana'an under Joshua', represents a later adjustment of facts. Cf 
 Additional note, p. 44. 
 
 13. ' Othniel, the son of Kenaz. The reference is probably, as in 
 the case of Caleb, to a Kenizzite family rather than an individual. 
 ' Othniel is named in ch. 3 ^ as the deliverer of Israel from a foreign 
 oppressor. 
 
 the younger brother of Caleb. The sentence may be construed 
 grammatically as referring either to Kenaz (so ffi) or to 'Othniel 
 
1. 14. IS-] *IlE SOOK OF JUDGES i% 
 
 J brother of Caleb, took it : and he gave him'Achsah his daughter 
 as wife, 14. And when she came, f^he"" incited fher^ to ask of 
 her father a field : and she lighted down from off the ass ; and 
 Caleb said to her, 'What wouldest thou?' 15. And she said to 
 him, ' Grant me a present ; for thou hast set me in the land of 
 the Negeb ; so give me springs of water.' And Caleb gave her 
 the upper spring^ and the nether spring^. 
 
 (so 1') ; but, since Caleb is himself called ' the Kenizzite ' (cf. noi£ 
 above), it seems clear that he too is regarded as a descendant or 
 ' son ' of Kenaz, and that Caleb and ' Othniel are ranked as brothers. 
 This was the view of R'', who added, after ' the brother of Caleb,' the 
 words ' who was younger than he ' (so ck. 3 ^), in order to explain how 
 the fact that ' Othniel married his own niece did not imply a great 
 disparity in age. R'''s addition is not found in the parallel narrative 
 of J in Josh. Cf. the first note on v.^". 
 
 he gave him ' Achsah, etc. Probably the story implies the union of 
 two families of the Kenizzites. 
 
 14. "when she came. Apparently, as Mo. suggests, 'Achsah is pic- 
 tured as arriving to meet her father and her future husband from 
 some place of safety, such as Hebron, where she had been left during 
 the attack on Debir. 
 
 he incited her. Reading niTD^I with (E, IL, S*", U here, and "S and 
 
 some MSS. of (E in || Josh. 15 '*, in place of H 'she incited him.' The 
 correction is necessary in view of the fact that the request, as nar- 
 rated, comes from 'Achsah. 
 
 15. a present. Lit. 'a blessing,' in the tangible form of a gift. 
 The expression is so used in Gen. 33" (E), i Sam. 25 2', 30^8, 
 2 Kgs. 5 >'. 
 
 thou hast set me., etc. The character of the district (Negeb, 'the 
 dry region ' ; cf. ■w." note) justifies the request. 
 
 springs of water. The Heb. -word, gulloth, here rendered 'springs,' 
 is otherwise unknown, and the meaning can only be inferred from 
 the context* It may perhaps be an old Cana'anite word which 
 dropped into disuse in later Hebrew ; or, as Mo. thinks, ' a proper 
 name of alien origin' (so Bu.). 
 
 the upper spring and the lower spring. Reading np3 sing, with 
 
 the old fem. termination, as is demanded by the sing, adjectives 
 Tih^ and riTinn. This old termination, as seen in gullath, is frequent, 
 
 * Cf., however, i)3 in Cant. 412b, which, if not merely a corruption of J3, 
 'garden,' which occurs in the first half of the verse (as presupposed by ffi, IT, &■?), 
 probably means 'spring': ^!|V3 ^3 parallel to DinH (JVD 
 
14 tUE BOOK 6t JUDGES [i. li 
 
 i6. And THobab the! Kenite, the father-in-law of Moses, 
 
 as Bu. remarks, in Cana'anite place-names, e.£^. Sephath, Ba'alath, 
 Sarephath: cf. NHTK. p. 42 f- II Josh. IS''' has the plur. 'the 
 upper springs, etc' The springs in question have been plausibly 
 identified with the springs of Sell ed-Dilbeh between Hebron and 
 ez-Zahariyyeh, 'on the north, the 'Ain Hegireh with a shadoof for 
 irrigation, and on the south the 'Ain Dilbeh, a square pool covered 
 with weeds ' (Smith, HG. p. 279, n ^). Cf. 5 WP. Mem. iii. p. 302. 
 Mo. notices the fact that these springs are somewhat nearer to Hebron 
 than to ez-Zahariyyeh, and appositely remarks that the story 'is 
 told to explain or establish the claim of 'Achsah, a branch of the 
 Kenizzite clan'Othniel of Debir, to wp-ters which by their situation 
 seemed naturally to belong to the older branch, the Calebites of 
 Hebron.' 
 
 16. And Hobab the Kenite. Reading '■rpn 33ni with Mo., Bu., 
 
 No. (cf ch. 4 "), in place of |§ 'lyp iJ31, ' And the children of Kenite,' 
 
 which cannot be original, since the gentilic adjective ' Kenite' cannot 
 be used of an individual without the Article, which is tacitly inserted 
 in R.V. The words, ' the father-in-law of Moses,' which follow, seem 
 to demand mention of the proper name. <&''-^, S*" read, 'And the 
 children of Hobab the Kenite,' a text which suits the pi. verb x>^ 
 'went up,' in w.^^", but not the sing. Hb'"! T|?>1 'and he went and 
 
 dwelt,' in w.™. fflc" reads 'Jethro' in place of 'Hobab.' These 
 variations suggest that the original of ffi- already lacked the proper 
 name, and that the lacuna was diffjerently supplied in different MSS. 
 (Stu., Meyer); though it is possible that the reading 'Jethro' repre- 
 sents the substitution of the better known name of Moses' father-in- 
 law, in place of Hobab (Mo., La.). The reading of ffi*'' is adopted 
 by La., Kit., and may be original : but the sing, verbal forms in v.^'^ 
 favour the reading adopted above ; and it is easy to suppose that the 
 pi. verb in w.^^" has been altered from sing, rhv to suit the subject 
 as it stands in |§. Meyer {IN. p. 90) emends ppl simply, and thus 
 
 reads, 'And Kain, the father-in-law of Moses, went up, etc.'; but, as 
 Mo. notices, the mention of ' Hobab the Kenite ' in ch. 4 ", whether 
 it be original or a later gloss, depends upon and substantiates the 
 reading in our passage, Moses' father-in-law being elsewhere 
 described not as a Kenite but as a Midianite. 
 
 Kain occurs as the tribal name of the Kenites in ch. 4", Num. 24^^ 
 (JE). The name may denote a worker in metal, and perhaps indi- 
 cates that this form of industry was characteristic of the tribe. For 
 the theory that the story of Cain (Kain) and his descendants (Gen. 4 J) 
 was intended to explain the nomadic life of the Kenites and their skill 
 as artificers, cf Cheyne, EB. 621 f. ; Skinner, Genesis {ICC), pp. 11 1 ff. 
 
1. i6.i THE feOOK Of JUDGES ij 
 
 Hwent up from the City of Palms with the children of Judah 
 into the wilderness of Judah which is in the Negeb of 'Arad ; and 
 
 the father-in-law of Moses. Moses' father-in-law, when first intro- 
 duced in Ex. 2 '8 (j)^ is called Re'uel. The document E, which takes 
 up the narrative in Ex. 3, speaks of "him by the name Jethro ; and 
 this name is uniformly employed elsewhere in E. Num. 10'"' (J) 
 mentions 'Hobab, the son of Re'uel, the father-in-law of Moses.' 
 Here it is ambiguous whether the title 'father-in-law' refers to 
 Hobab or Re'uel ; and, if this passage stood alone in mentioning 
 Hobab, we should naturally refer the title to Re'uel in agreement with 
 Ex. 2 ", and regard Hobab as brother to Sipporah, Moses' wife, and 
 brother-in-law to Moses. But from Judg. 4 " the title 'father-in-law' 
 is clearly seen to refer to Hobab. It is true that R.V. text, in order 
 to solve the difficulty, renders 'brother-in-law'; but this is quite 
 unwarrantable. The Heb. term employed, hothen, is the same as 
 the Ar. Itdtin, properly ' circumciser,' the original reference being to 
 the nomadic custom by which the father-in-law performed the rite of 
 circumcision upon the bridegroom (Heb. hatkan, 'the circumcised') 
 shortly before marriage. Probably Hobab is the true name of Moses' 
 father-in-law according to J, and Re'uel is a remoter ancestor — per- 
 haps the clan-name. 
 
 went up. Cf. note on v. ', ' who shall go up.' The 3rd sing, npy 
 is read in place of pi. "KyS in 1§. Cf the first note on this verse. 
 
 the City of Palms. Mentioned again in ch. 3'^, Deut. 34', 
 2 Chr. 28 '^ t, the two latter passages showing the reference to be to 
 Jericho. Jos. {BJ. IV. viii. 3) alludes to the ' many kinds of date- 
 palms, differing from each other in flavour and name,' which flourished 
 in his day in the neighbourhood of Jericho, owing to the fertilizing 
 influence of Elisha's fountain. Other references are collected by 
 Smith, HG. p. 266, n *. At the present day the palms have entirely 
 disappeared. The site of Jericho is undoubtedly the modern Tell 
 es-Sultin, a large mound which lies in the Jordan valley five miles 
 east of Jordan, and at the foot of the central range of hills, close to 
 the mouth of the Wady el-Kelt, which affords a passage into the hill- 
 country of Ephraim, and is thought to be the ancient valley of ' Achor. 
 Just below Tell es-Sultan lies the 'Ain es-Sultan, which must be 
 identified as Elisha's fountain. The modern Jericho (Erihi) is a 
 squalid village lying one and a half miles to the south. 
 
 with the children of fudah. Num. 10 ^o"- (J) records Moses' 
 invitation to Hobab to throw in his lot with Israel, and join in the 
 occupation of Cana'an. 
 
 into the wilderness of fudah which is in the Negeb of 'Arad. The 
 description is somewhat obscure, and the text may be suspected ; but 
 the case for its rejection is not convincing. Mo. regards the state- 
 ment as 'self-contradictory,' because 'the wilderness of Judah, the 
 
i6 THE fiOOK Of JUDGES ti. t6. 
 
 he went and dwelt with Tthe 'Amalelj.ites''. 1 7. And Judah went 
 
 barren steeps in which the mountains break down to the Dead Sea, 
 and the Negeb are distinct regions.' The fact that in Josh. 15 21-62 (p)^ 
 the territory of Judah is divided into 'the Negeb' (z/w.^-^s), 'the 
 Shephelah' (vv.^^-"), 'the Hill-country' (w.""™), and 'the Wilder- 
 ness ' (vv. ^'-62), would seem at first sight to draw such a distinction ; 
 but the precise term, 'the wilderness of Judah,' only occurs once 
 again in the O. T. in the heading of Ps. 63, and is there applied to 
 the scene of David's wanderings during his outlaw life, including 
 doubtless ' the wilderness of Ziph' (i Sam. 23", 26 ^5 Tell Zif), 'the 
 wilderness of Ma' on,' in the ''Arabah south of Jeshimon' (i Sam. 23^4, 
 25 1 ffi* ; Tell Main), close to Carmel (i Sam. 25 ^ ; el-Kurmul, about 
 one mile north of Main), 'the wilderness of 'En-gedi' (l Sam. 24I; 
 'Ain didi). Ziph, Ma'on, and Carmel are assigned in Josh. 15^5 not 
 to 'the Wilderness' but to 'the Hill-country.' The wilderness of Ziph 
 and of Ma'on may be thought of, then, as the region immediately 
 eastward of these cities breaking down towards the Dead Sea; but, 
 if this part of the Wilderness actually took its name from two cities in 
 the Hill-country, it might be said to extend into the Hill-country, and 
 (conceivably) to be 'the Wilderness of Judah which is in the Hill- 
 country.' 'Arad is to be identified with Tell 'Arid, 'a barren-looking 
 eminence rising above the country around' (Rob. BR^. ii. p. loi), 
 which lies seventeen miles nearly due south of Hebron, and about half 
 that distance due south of Ma'on. Some eight miles south-west of Tell 
 'Arad is el-Milh, which is probably the City of Salt (Heb. 'ir ham- 
 indah) mentioned in Josh. 15^^ as one of the six cities in 'the Wilder- 
 ness.' "En-gedi, the only other one of these six cities which can be 
 identified, lies approximately twenty miles north-east of Tell 'Arad, 
 and the three sites are so placed that a line drawn from 'En-gedi to 
 el-Milh would fall upon Tell 'Arad (cf Map iv). Thus it would seem 
 that 'Arad (though assigned to the Negeb in the possibly composite 
 passage. Num. 21' JE) might have been included in 'the Wilderness' 
 if it had been enumerated among the cities of Judah in Josh. 15. 
 Just as the wilderness of Ziph and Ma'on appears to denote not 
 precisely the region in which these cities were situated, but the barren 
 country to the east which bordered upon them, so the Negeb of 'Arad 
 may denote that part of the Negeb bordering upon 'Arad to the south, 
 into which the wilderness of Judah might be said to extend (cf. 'the 
 Negeb of the Kenites,' i Sam. 27 ">). 
 
 All suggested emendations of the passage base themselves, to some 
 extent, upon (!K. ffi^ reads «'j r^v (prjfiov Tr)v oSa-av iv ra j/ora lotiSa, 
 ^ cVni' eVi Kara/3a(rea)s ApaS. ffi'^^, S*" (besides omitting 17 ianv) 
 transpose louSa and place it after i'prjfwv as in |§ ; but the word is 
 marked with an asterisk in S*", and it seems clear that fflc" represents 
 the more original form of ffi. Hence La. reads 3j:a -\f^n na"1B3 
 W "T^iO? n'Tin\ 'into the wilderness which is in'the' Negeb' of 
 
1. I7-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 17 
 
 with Sime'on his brother, and they smote the Canaanites who 
 inhabited Sephath, and devoted it to destruction. And the name 
 
 Judah at the descent of'Arad'; van Doorninck {Theol. Literatur- 
 zeitung, 1884, p. 211), followed by Bu. {RS. p. 10) iB'K miini -|31D 
 ^^V n^iD3, ' into the wilderness of Judah which is at the descent of 
 'Arad.' It is not clear, however, considering the site of Tell 'Arid, 
 to what ' the descent of 'Arad ' could refer. The Heb. term rendered 
 'descent' is used in Josh. 10", Jer. 48°, and probably also in Josh. 7^, 
 of a steep pass between mountains. La.'s contention that 'if Tell 
 'Arid is on a plain, the plateau descends not far off from it, towards 
 the east,' is not very convincing as to the appropriateness of the 
 expression in this connexion. Examination of the rendering of ffi" 
 can scarcely fail to suggest that the words tijv ola-av iv t<m votw and 
 rj i<m.v itrl Kara^aireas represent a double rendering of a single phrase 
 in the Hebrew ; in which case ^^1D3 or n03 (fVi Kwra^aa-eais) is 
 simply a corruption of 3333 {iv rif i/otm), the resemblance between the 
 two words in the ancient character being not remote. Mo. regards 
 ^^1D3 as an old error for "I31D3, ' into the wilderness,' as in Josh. 8^* ffi. 
 In his view T\]! 13103 'into the wilderness of'Arad' represents the 
 
 original text; 3333 "IB'K, 'which is in the Negeb,' is a gloss to 'Arad 
 from Num. 21' introduced into the text in the wrong place {i.e. before 
 instead of a/if^r ''Arad'); and 13103, 'into the wilderness (of),' being 
 thus left without a genitive, has finally been explained by the addition 
 of min'', 'into the wilderness of Judah.' Mo.'s view is adopted by 
 No., Kit., and approved by Bu. in his Comm., except that Bu. favours 
 retention of the words 3333 ICK after TlJ?, thus reading, 'into the 
 wilderness of 'Arad which is in the Negeb.' 
 
 with the ' Amalekites. Reading ip^DVn-ns with all recent com- 
 mentators. The reading occurs as a doublet {fUTo. tov \aov A/xaXTjic) 
 in ffi", iL'-, Copt. The Kenites are found among the 'Amalekites in 
 1 Sam. 15 ^ and are associated with them in Balaam's prophecy 
 (Num. 24™'''^ JE). f§, 'and he went and dwelt with the people,' 
 gives no intelligible sense. Heb. hd-'dm, 'the people,' is doubtless 
 a remnant of the original reading ha- dmalskl. 
 
 17. Sephath. Only mentioned here. The ruined site Sebaita, 
 nearly thirty miles south of Be'er-sheba, is favoured by many; but 
 there is no philological connexion between this name and the Heb. 
 SSphath. In this respect nothing can be alleged against Rob.'s 
 finding of the name {BR^. ii. p. 181) in nakb es-Safi ('pass of the 
 smooth rock'), a steep pass upon the route from Petra to Hebron, 
 east-north-east of the gebel el-Maderah ; though no trace has been 
 discovered of a city bearing the name. 
 
 and devoted it to destruction. The Heb. verb is the Hiphll 
 (causative) modification of a root haram which does not occur in 
 
 B 
 
i8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 17. 
 
 of the city was called IJormah. 18. R"" And Judah took Gaza 
 
 Heb. in the simple stem, but the sense of which may be illustrated 
 from Ar. In Ar. haruma means 'to be forbidden, prohibited, un- 
 lawful,' then ' to be sacred or inviolable.' Hence, in the first sense, 
 harim denotes the forbidden or private part of a house, i.e. the 
 women's apartments ; mahram is a female relation who comes 
 within the prohibited degrees, and whom therefore it is unlawful 
 to marry ; el-Muharram is the first month of the Mohammedan 
 year, during which fighting is prohibited. In the second sense we 
 may notice haram, the sacred territory of Mecca, el-mesgid el-hardm, 
 the sacred mosque. In Heb. the causative helfrim means to make 
 a thing unlawful or taboo., by devoting it to God, and is commonly 
 applied, as in this passage, to Israel's action in their religious wars, 
 when the foes and their cities were devoted to wholesale destruction, 
 and sometimes the cattle also (cf Josh. 6 ^\ i Sam. 1 5 \ though not 
 always (cf Deut. 2^''-^°, s^'^). Inanimate objects coming under the 
 sacred ban were destroyed by fire ; or, as in the case of gold and 
 silver, and utensils of metal, dedicated to Yahweh's sanctuary (Josh. 
 6 ^^ : the latter half of the verse appears, however, to be an addition by 
 R° to the older narrative). Everything so devoted was called hirem., 
 ' devoted thing ' ; and appropriation of any such hSrem was thought 
 to incur Yahweh's dire displeasure, and could only be expiated by 
 death, as in the case of 'Achan (Josh. 7^"). The verb is used in 
 a precisely similar sense by Mesha', king of Moab, when relating his 
 treatment of a captured Israelitish city : — 'And Chemosh said to me, 
 "Go, take Nebo against Israel"; and I went by night, and fought 
 against it from break of dawn until noon, and I took it and slew the 
 whole of it, 7000 men, and . . ., and women, and . . ., and damsels ; 
 for to 'Ashtar-Chemosh had I devoted it (nriDinn, heh'ramtiha) ; 
 and I took thence the vessels of Yahweh, and dragged them before 
 Chemosh' {Moabite Stone., 11. 14-18). 
 
 And the name of the city was called Hor7nah. Tradition connects 
 the name with the root haram in the sense ' devoted to destruction.' 
 Possibly the original meaning of the name may have been ' sanctuary ' 
 or ' sacred area.' Cf Ar. haram noticed above. The site of Hormah 
 has not been identified. This narrative seems to be a duplicate of 
 Num. 21 ^'^ (JE), which is probably the immediate sequel of Num. 
 J ^40-45 (JE), and which places the conquest and extermination of the 
 Cana'anites inhabiting a district of the Negeb, and hence the origin 
 of the name Hormah, immediately after the mission of the spies, who, 
 according to JE, were sent out from Kadesh-Barnea'. Probably the 
 position of the narrative in Num. is the more original, and points to 
 the capture and settlement of a portion of the Negeb by Judaeans 
 (Calibbites) who advanced northwards from Kadesh at some time 
 prior to the occupation of Cana'an by the Israelite tribes who entered 
 from the east under Joshua'. Cf further Additional note, p. 44. 
 
1. i8. 19.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 19 
 
 and the border thereof, and Ashkelon and the border thereof, 
 and'Ekron and the border thereof 19. J And Yahweh was with 
 Judah, and he gained possession of the hill-country ; for <(he was)> 
 not <able> to dispossess the inhabitants of the Vale, because they 
 
 18. And Judah took Gaza, etc. The three Philistine cities here 
 specified (the modern Gazzeh, 'Askalan, and 'Akir) are all situated 
 in the maritime plain, i.e. ' the Vale,' the inhabitants of which v. i' tells 
 us Judah could not dispossess. Josh. 13 ^ (R°) informs us that these 
 three cities, together with Ashdod and Gath, remained uncaptured by 
 Joshua ; and in Judg. 3 ' 'the five lords of the Philistines ' are in- 
 cluded among 'the nations which Yahweh left to test Israel by them' 
 (3'). There is no suggestion that Judah first captured the cities 
 and then failed to hold them ; and it thus seems probable that v. '^, 
 like the statement as to the capture of Jerusalem in t/.*, is a mis- 
 taken editorial insertion. <& corrects to koI ovk iRKr^povofirja-ev. 
 
 'Ekron. The (E form is AKKapmv, while the name appears in the 
 Assyr. inscriptions as Amkaruna ; and these two facts taken together 
 suggest that the Heb. vocalization should be 'Akkaron for'Amkaron, 
 the double k representing assimilated m, or the m arising through 
 dissimilation of double A 
 
 19. he gained possession. The Heb. verb horti (causative oi yaras) 
 means 'to cause to inherit or possess,' with the collateral idea of 
 causing succession to the inheritance of the previous owner, and so 
 disinheriting or dispossessing him. This double sense is illustrated 
 by the present -verse, where ' gained possession of and ' to dispossess ' 
 are both represented by the same verb in the Heb. In v.'^"' a single 
 occurrence of the verb is applied, by a kind of zeugma, both to cities 
 (Beth-she'an, Ta'anach), for which the rendering 'gain possession of 
 would be the more suitable, and to the inhabitants of cities (Dor, 
 Ible'am, Megiddo), with regard to whom this rendering is impossible, 
 and the sense postulated is ' dispossess.' 
 
 he was not able to dispossess, f^ has simply 'not ... to dis- 
 possess,' the governing verb ^b'', 'was able,' being absent. It is 
 
 theoretically possible to translate the Heb. as it stands ' was not for 
 dispossessing,' i.e. 'could or did not dispossess' (cf Driver, Tenses, 
 § 204) ; but since we know, from the parallel narrative in Josh., that in 
 j,j, 21.27 an original ' could not dispossess ' has been altered by R'' into 
 ' did not dispossess ' for dogmatic reasons (cf introd. note to section), 
 it is reasonable to conclude that such an alteration was intended by R' 
 in this case also, and that he has carried it out imperfectly by simple 
 excision of the verb ^b' (we should have expected emendation to a 
 perfect {ynin z.%\nvv. '"■■''■'). 
 the Vale. The Heb. 'emek, lit. ' depression,' is applied to a wide and 
 
20 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 20. 2 
 
 had chariots of iron. 20. And they gave Hebron to Caleb, i 
 Moses had said : and he dispossessed from thence the three sot 
 of 'Anak. 21. But the Jebusites dwelling in Jerusalem th 
 
 open vale or lowland country, and here denotes the maritime plain t 
 the west of the hill-country of Judah, or, more accurately, to the we: 
 of the low foothills which lie between the Hill-country and the Val 
 (cf. note on ' the Shephelah,' vfi). Cf. further, p. 203, footnote. 
 
 chariots of iron. These are also mentioned as forming the mo: 
 effective part of the military equipment of the Cana'anites inhabitin 
 the vale (emek) of Jezreel : Josh. 17 ^^ (J) ; cf. Judg. 4 '. Among th 
 steep and narrow passes of the Judaean hill-country they would hav 
 been useless : though in i Sam. 13^ the Philistines are described a 
 bringing them up into the central hill-country as far as Michmasl 
 doubtless through the pass of Aijalon. Here the incredibly larg 
 number of 30,000 chariots given by |§, appears in (S'', S"" as 3oo< 
 The Aramaeans in later times found chariots ineffective among th 
 hills surrounding Samaria : I Kgs. 20 ^''■^^ 
 
 20. And they gave Hebron to Caleb. Cf Josh. i4^-^5 (R° based 
 JE). 
 
 as Moses had said. Referring back to Num. 14 2* (JE) : cf. Deu' 
 i'", Josh. 14". 
 
 the three sons of'Anak. Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, mentionei 
 in V. '" ™'', which is the proper sequel to v. 2" in the original form c 
 J's narrative (cf the first note on 7/.'°). Heb. "anak njeans 'neck' 
 and it may be inferred that Ifni "anak properly denoted ' long-neckei 
 {i.e. tall) men.' Cf the spies' description of their size and stature ii 
 Num. 13^^ (JE), and the rendering of® vlov^ yiya.vTav"\T\ Deut. i^^ 
 
 21. the Jebusites. Nothing is known of this people beyond the fac 
 that they appear as the inhabitants of Jerusalem here and in || Josl 
 15°', and in the narrative of David's capture of the city, 2 Sam. 5°' 
 ' Araunah the Jebusite ' still Kved at or just outside of Jerusalem afte 
 David had captured it and made it his capital (2 Sam. 24'^"); ani 
 very possibly the Jebusites, after their expulsion from the stronghol 
 of Sion (the south-east hill), which became the city of David, war 
 still allowed to dwell upon the (presumably unwalled) south-west hil 
 which is styled 'the chff (Ht. "shoulder") of the Jebusites' in Josl 
 15^ i8i«(P). In Judg. igi"-", i Chr. 1 1 " the name Jehus is given t 
 Jerusalem as an earlier name of the city. In the Tell el-Amarn 
 tablets, however, we find the name UrusaHm regularly employed s 
 early as cir. B.C. 1400. Cf. further, on the Jebusites, Introd. pp. Ixxxvi' 
 
 the children of Judah. Reading 'Judah' in place of 'Benjamin 
 with II Josh. 15 ^'. The alteration in |§ has been made in accordanc 
 with Josh. 18 '" (P), which, in describing the lot of the children c 
 Benjamin, makes the border run south of Jerusalem so as to includ 
 the city, and mentions it among the cities belonging to the trib 
 in z/.^'. 
 
1. 22.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 2i 
 
 children of fjudah"' did not dispossess : and the Jebusites dwelt 
 with the children of TJudah^ in Jerusalem, unto this day. 
 
 2 2. And the house of Joseph also went up to Bethel: and 
 
 did not dispossess. An alteration of ]|Josh. 15^' 'were not able to 
 dispossess.' Cf. introd. note to section. 
 
 dwelt . . . unto this day. To what period does this note of time 
 refer? We can scarcely imagine Jebusites and Judaeans dwelling 
 side by side in Jerusalem prior to the capture of the ancient strong- 
 hold by David ; and in fact in the old narrative of Judg. 19 "'^ Jehus 
 is described as ' the city of foreigners who are not of the children of 
 Israel,' and so likely to prove inhospitable to the Levite in need of a 
 night's lodging. On the other hand, the fact that Jebusites remained 
 at Jerusalem after the capture of the city by David (cf note on ' the 
 Jebusites' above) appears to have been due rather to David's 
 clemency than to the inability of the Judaeans to dispossess them. 
 This consideration, however, may have been overlooked by the writer 
 of J ; and it seems the more probable view that the note refers to a 
 period subsequent to David's capture of the city. 
 
 22. the house of Joseph. So v.^^ Josh. 17 '^ (J), 2 Sam. 19^", i Kgs. 
 11^, Am. 5 '. The reading of ffi, 01 v\o\ laa-jjcj), is probably an 
 alteration under the influence of the plural verb 'went up' (I^V'1). 
 The term may be used to include not merely Ephraim and Manasseh, 
 but also Benjamin. Cf 2 Sam. 19^°, where Shime'i, the Benjaminite 
 (16"), speaks of himself as belonging to the house of Joseph. 
 
 went up to Bethel. Sc. from Gilgal : cf v. ' note ; ch. 2 '. Bethel 
 is the modem Betin,* about ten miles north of Jerusalem ; and 'Ai, 
 the first city captured in the hill-country, according to Josh., lay im- 
 mediately to the east of Bethel (Josh. 72, S^'^ JE; cf Gen. 128 J). 
 The narrative seems to picture an independent attack made by the 
 Joseph-tribes upon the hill-country ; and it is not improbable that it 
 originally formed part of a longer account in which this section of 
 Israel carried out its campaign under the leadership of Joshua'. This 
 is the view of Bu., who suggests that J's narrative originally ran 
 ' went up to ' Ai,' and then followed on with an account of the capture 
 of 'Ai, as in Josh. 8, before mentioning the reconnaissance and capture 
 of Bethel {v. 2^). Cf RS. pp. 57 f , and see further Additional note, p. 48. 
 The mention of the men of Bethel in Josh. 8 " as joining with the 
 men of 'Ai in repelling Israel's attack upon the latter city is clearly a 
 late gloss, which finds no place in (5, and is out of harmony with the 
 context. We have no account in Josh, of the capture of Bethel, but 
 Josh. 12 w (R") mentions the king of Bethel in the list of kings 
 smitten by Joshua'. 
 
 * For the modification of the final -el to -in, cf. Zer'in for Jezre'el, Isra'in for 
 Isra'el (in Birket Isr4'in at Jerusalem), Bgt Gibrin, 'House of Gabriel,' and 
 Wady Isma'in (Ishma'el). 
 
22 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 23, 24. 25. 
 
 Yahweh was with them. 23. And the house of Joseph made a 
 reconnaissance at Bethel. (Now the name of the city formerly 
 was Luz.) 24. And the watchers saw a man coming out, of the 
 city, <(and they laid hold on him^ and said to him, ' Show us, 
 we pray thee, the way to enter the city, and we will deal kindly 
 with thee.' 25. So he showed them the way to enter the city, and 
 they smote the city at the edge of the sword ; but the man and 
 
 and Yahweh was with them. Cf. v. '', 'and Yahweh was with Judah ' 
 (with riK = ' with ' in place of DDJ? v. ^^). (£*'' fcai louSas fteT* avrav. 
 Bu. {RS. pp. 58 f. ; Comm. p. 11, followed by Kit. HH. i. p. 269; 
 GVI.^ i. p. 570) makes out a good case for the suggestion that under 
 both readings, 'Yahweh' and 'Judah,' there lies an original 'Joshua'.' 
 If, as is generally acknowledged. Josh. 17 '"* belongs to this narra- 
 tive, some mention of Joshua is to be expected. A sufficient reason 
 for the excision of the name of Joshua', and the substitution of the 
 reading of our text, is furnished by the fact that R"" professes to be 
 giving an account of events which happened 'after the death of 
 Joshua' ' (cf. introd. note to section). ' 
 
 23. made a reconnaissance. The same Heb. verb tiir is used of the 
 exploration of Cana'an by the spies {hat-tdrim. Num. 14') in the parts 
 of Num. 13, 14 which belong to P. In this passage we have the 
 Hiph'il (causative) modification of the verb, which, if not merely an 
 error for thf simple stem (IITT'I for nifT'l), may mean ' caused a recon- 
 naissance to be made.' (S^ xai napeve^akov (so <&^^ with doublet koi 
 Karea-Ki'^avro), U 'cum obsiderent,' suggest a reading 'J1 !|3n*1 'and 
 
 the house of Joseph encamped against Bethel.' Cf. the rendering of 
 (K in ch. 9 ™. 
 
 now the name of the city fortnerly was Luz. Cf Gen. 28 '', 35 ', 
 48', Josh. 18^^, all P, or redactional notes based on P — a fact which 
 has led Mo. {SBOT.\ No. to mark the statement here as due to R'. 
 The reference to Luz, however, in w.^' J clearly points back to an 
 earlier mention of the name in the same document. For conjectures 
 as to the meaning of the name Luz, cf EB. 2834. 
 
 24. and they laid hold on him. So ffi xai Tka^ov airov, i.e. 13 ITPIS'I 
 
 or initnX'l (cf v."), which, as Bu. remarks, may easily have fallen 
 
 out before iilDN'l ' and they said.' 
 
 the way to enter. So Mo. The Heb. m^bhd (lit. ' place or act of 
 entry') might mean 'entrance' (so R.V.), as in 2 Kgs. 11 '^, 16^* al. ; 
 but, as the position of the city-gate must have been obvious to the 
 spies, the expression probably means, as Mo. remarks, 'the most 
 advantageous point for an assault or surprise.' 
 
 25. at the edge of the sword. Cf. v.^ note. 
 
1, 26. 27.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 23 
 
 all his clan they let go. 26. And the man went to the land of 
 the Hittites, and built a city, and called its name Luz : that is 
 its name unto this day. 
 
 27. And Manasseh did not dispossess Beth-she'an and its 
 
 26. the land of the I^ittites. The Hittite principalities (relics of the 
 eariier mighty empire which embraced a great part of Asia Minor 
 and northern Syria) extended as far south as Kadesh, near the sources 
 of the Orontes in the Anti-Lebanon. The northern limit' of the king- 
 dom of Israel in David's time seems to have extended ' to the land 
 of the Hittites unto Kadesh' (2 Sam. 24*, reading ntJ'lp DTinn px 
 
 after <&^ in place of the unintelligible text of |§). On the Hittites, 
 cf. further Introd. pp. Ixxi f., Ixxxiv if., xcix i. 
 
 called its name Luz. The site of this northern Luz is unascertained. 
 As Mo. notices, modem names compounded with the Ar. lauz, 
 'almond,' are not infrequent, and any attempt at identification must 
 therefore be wholly unreliable. 
 
 27. And Manasseh did not dispossess, etc. Upon the use of the 
 verb horis, here rendered ' dispossess,' cf note on v. ''. Beth-she'an, 
 which received the Greek name Scythopolis in Macedonian times 
 (cf fiffs gloss T) €iTTLv SKvduv TToXis), Is thc modem Besin, situated 
 above the Jordan valley at the mouth of the Wady (Saiud, which 
 descends south-east from the plain of Esdraelon ; Ta'anach, now called 
 Ta'annuk, lies some seventeen miles a little north of due west of BSsin, 
 upon the southern edge of Esdraelon, and about eight miles north- 
 north-west of the W4dy Bel'ameh, which probably preserves the 
 name of the ancient Ible'am ; * Megiddo, coupled with Ta'anach in 
 ch. s'=, Josh. 1221, 17 11, I Kgs. 4 12, is now identified with Tell el- 
 Mutesellim ('the mound of the governor'), five miles north-west of 
 Ta'annuk, an important site commanding the pass from the plain of 
 Sharon to the plain of Esdraelon, which the recent excavations of the 
 German Palestine Exploration Society (vol. i. of the Report 1908) 
 have shown to have been a fortified city of the Cana'anites many 
 centuries before the Israelite occupation of Palestine. The statement 
 of Josephus that Dor was situated on the Mediterranean seacoast, 
 near Carmel (Ant. viii. ii. 3 ; c£ C. Ap. ii. 1 16), is confirmed by the 
 Egyptian narrative of Wenamon, the envoy of Hrihor of Thebes 
 {dr. B.C. 1 1 14), who in his voyage from Egypt to Phoenicia puts in at 
 the harbour of Dor (Breasted, AR. iv. § 565 ; cf Introd. p. xcvi). 
 
 * The modern Yebla, north-west of B^sin, proposed by Conder (SWP. 
 Mem. ii. p. 98) as the site of Ible'am, is philologically less probable. The drop- 
 ping of the final syllable with its guttural J? might be paralleled, however, by the 
 modern el-dib for Gibe'on. For the dropping of the preformative ' of 0^73' 
 in Bel'ameh, cf. the form DV^S Bile'am i Chr. 6'» (HS^e), and Zet'ln for 7KV"lt\ 
 
24 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 27. 
 
 dependencies, and Taanach and its dependencies, and the 
 inhabitants of Dor and its dependencies, and the inhabitants of 
 
 OS. places the site eight Roman miles from Caesarea (283 ^), and this 
 tradition is preserved in the identification with the modern Tanturah, 
 which Ues north of Caesarea at a httle less than eight Enghsh miles. 
 The term Naphath {Naph6th) Dor (Josh. 11 2, 12 23, i Kgs. 4"), if 
 rightly explained to mean 'the heights of Dor,' is difficult to account 
 for upon this identification, unless it is applied to the outlying flanks 
 of the Carmel-range some distance inland from Tanturah. 
 
 As the text stands, it is rather strange that Dor, lying in the 
 extreme west, should be interposed between the two cities Taanach 
 and Ible'am, which occupy a central position in near neighbourhood 
 to one another. Thus it is probable (as Mo. suggests) that the 
 mention of Dor originally stood last, as in i Chr. 7 2', which is prob- 
 ably based upon this passage. With this change, the cities are 
 mentioned approximately in their geographical order from east to 
 west ; and it is noticeable that they must have formed, with their 
 dependencies, a strong belt of fortresses separating the central tribes 
 of Israel from the tribes in the north. We learn from the narrative 
 of Wenamon that the inhabitants of Dor at this period were not 
 Cana'anites but Takkara, a western people who invaded Cana'an at the 
 same time as the Philistines, and who were probably allied to them 
 (cf. Introd. pp. xcii f ). This fact, coupled with the fact that we find 
 Beth-she'an in the hands of the Philistines at the end of Saul's reign 
 (i Sam. 31'"), suggests the possibility that the whole series of cities 
 extending from Sharon across the plain of Esdraelon may have 
 belonged to these western invaders in the times of the Judges. 
 
 The account of the inheritance of West Manasseh, as given in 
 Josh. 17 (J and P combined), is somewhat perplexing. This much, 
 however, is clear, as stated by P {w.^-^"). It was bounded on the 
 west by the Mediterranean ; on the north by the territory of Asher, 
 which, we are told in Josh. 19 -^P, extended as far as Carmel ; on the 
 south by the territory of Ephraim, the boundary line being the Wady 
 Kana, i.e. it need not be doubted, the modern W4dy Kina* running 
 into the Nahr el-'Auga, which reaches the sea a few miles north of 
 Joppa. The eastern boundary is stated to have been the territory of 
 Issachar ; and it is here that our information is too slight and per- 
 plexing to allow of any certain inferences as to the delimitation. 
 According to J in Josh. 17 ", the towns along the southern edge of the 
 plain of Esdraelon which Manasseh was unable to conquer were 
 (though rightly belonging to Manasseh) 'in Issachar and in Asher.' 
 
 dependencies. Lit. ' daughters,' a term applied to smaller cities or 
 hamlets dependent upon the larger fortified cities. The use of the 
 expression is characteristic of J. Cf. CH.^ 88. 
 
 * The Ar. name is spelt with K, but it seems likely that this is a transcrip- 
 tional error for K, which is found in the Heb. name. 
 
1. 28. 29.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 25 
 
 Ibleam and its dependencies, and the inhabitants of Megiddo 
 and its dependencies ; but the Cana'anites persisted in dwelling 
 in this land. 28. And when Israel was waxen strong, they 
 impressed the Canaanites for labour-gangs, and did not dis- 
 possess them at all. 
 
 29. And Ephraim did not dispossess the Cana'anites who 
 
 persisted. The Heb. verb (ij'Kin) is used in this special sense in 
 llJosh. 17 '2 and in v.'^^\ of this chapter. Elsewhere, when used of 
 an action undertaken of one's own accord, it has the sense to resolve : 
 cf Gen. i8 2r3i(R.v. ' I have taken upon me '), Deut. i^CR.V. 'began'); 
 and we may infer therefore for the special usage with which we are 
 dealing the sense to carry out one's resolution, so persist. When the 
 verb is employed of an action undertaken at the instance of some one 
 else, to consent is the appropriate rendering: cf. ch. 17", '19", 
 2 Sam. 7 29, 2 Kgs. 5 ^', 6 ^ (R. V. ' be content ' in all passages except 
 2 Sam. ' let it please thee '). 
 
 28. labour-gangs. The Heb. term mas denotes a levy of men 
 impressed for task-work, rather than the task-work itself (as in 
 R.V.) : cf especially the phrase mas 'obhedh, ' toiling labour-gang,' 
 Gen. 49 '^ Josh. 16'", i Kgs. g^^ Such a levy was imposed upon the 
 Israelites in Egypt (cf Ex. i ", where, as Mo. points out, the term 
 WBV 'IB* should be rendered 'gang-foremen' rather than 'task- 
 masters' R.V.), and by Solomon not merely upon the Cana'anites (as 
 stated in i Kgs. 9 1'-^^) but also upon the Israelites for the purposes of 
 his extensive building operations : cf i Kgs. 5 " (^^ ?§). 
 
 and did not dispossess them at all. The Heb. construction 
 (i6^'''"li^ N? Kiilini infinitive Absolute emphasizing the finite verb) 
 
 lays stress upon the fact that the expulsion of the Cana'anites was 
 left absolutely unaccomplished. R.V., by its rendering 'and did not 
 utterly drive them out,' suggests that the expulsion was partially but 
 not completely accomplished, a sense which is directly at variance 
 with the meaning of the Heb. 
 
 29. Ephraim. The account of Ephraim's heritage as given in 
 Josh. 16 ^"- P is somewhat confused and perplexing : cf Hogg in £'.5. 
 13 19. Here we need only notice that the tribe occupied the central 
 part of Cana'an,its northern boundary marching with that of Manasseh 
 along by the Widy Kana (cf note on Manasseh, v."^') to the sea, 
 while the southern boundary, starting from the Jordan near Jericho, 
 met the territory of Benjamin and Dan, apparently turning north or 
 north-west at Gezer. Cf further p. 222. 
 
 Gezer. The modern Tell (Sezer, situated in a commanding position 
 to the east of the maritime plain of Philistia, upon an outlying spur of 
 the low hills of the Shephelah, about eighteen miles west-north-west 
 
26 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [I. 30. 
 
 dwelt in Gezer ; but the Canaanites dwelt in the midst of them 
 in Gezer. 
 
 30. Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron, nor 
 
 of Jerusalem. The identity of the site with the ancient Gezer, inferred 
 from the identity of the modern Ar. with the ancient Heb. name, was 
 placed beyond doubt by the discovery in 1871 by Clermont-Ganneau 
 of the inscription 'the boundary of Gezer,' cut in ancient Heb. char- 
 acters upon several of the rocks at a short distance from the site : 
 cf Macalister, Bible Sidelights fro7n the Mound of Gezer, pp. 22 ff. ; 
 Driver, Schweich Lectures, p. 46. The site of Gezer has been 
 excavated by Mr. Macalister under the auspices of the Palestine 
 Exploration Fund (1903-1905, 1907-1909), and a detailed Memoir has 
 recently (191 2) appeared. For a convenient summary of the dis- 
 coveries, cf Driver, op. cit. 
 
 The excavations have shown that Gezer was inhabited by a race 
 of cave-dwellers as early as cir. B.C. 3000. It is first mentioned in 
 history as captured by Thutmosi in. {dr. B.C. 1 501 -1447). Among 
 the Tell el-Amarna letters [cir. B.C. 1400) there are several from 
 Yapahi, king or governor of Gezer, who appeals for help against a 
 people whose name is written ideographically SA.GAZ, and who are 
 generally supposed to be identical with the Habiru (cf. Introd. pp. 
 Ixxv if.). Mineptah claims to have captured Gezer upon the celebrated 
 ' Israel' stele : cf Breasted, AR. iii. § 617. This must have been cir. 
 B.C. 1223, a few decades before the Israelite invasion of Cana'an under 
 Joshua'. The failure of the Ephraimites to capture Gezer is con- 
 firmed by I Kgs. 9 '^, where we learn that the city was still in the 
 hands of the Cana'anites in the days of Solomon, when it was taken 
 and burnt by the Phara' oh who was king of Egypt at that time, and 
 given as a dowry to his daughter on the occasion of her marriage 
 with Solomon. These facts are for us difficult to reconcile with the 
 statement of R" in Josh. 10^^ that, when Horam king of Gezer came 
 to the assistance of Lachish, ' Joshua' smote him and his people until 
 he had left him none remaining.' 
 
 but the Canaanites . . . Gezer. <& adds koI eytVero (airrji) tls 
 (popov. II Josh. 16'"'', 'but the Cana'anites dwelt in the midst of 
 Ephraim unto this day, and became toiling labour-gangs ' : probably 
 the more original form of J's statement. The words 'unto this day,' 
 if they ' do not necessarily imply a time prior to the destruction of 
 the city by the Egyptians' (Mo.), at any rate seem to point to the 
 earlier monarchic period. Cf note on the same expression in v. 2'. 
 
 30. Zebulun. The description of Zebulun's territory given in Josh. 
 19 loff- p is obscure. The southern boundary was contiguous with the 
 territory of Issachar along a line which ran east and west across the 
 plain of Esdraelon in the neighbourhood of Mount Tabor ; while on 
 the south-west the boundary marched with the territory of Manasseh, 
 
1. 3I-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 27 
 
 the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt in the 
 midst of them, and became labour-gangs. 
 
 31. Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of 'Acco, nor the 
 
 north-west with the territory of Asher, and north, and apparently east, 
 with that of Naphtali. Jos., however, states {Ant. v. i. 22) that their 
 inheritance included the land which reached as far as Gennesaret, 
 as well as that which lay about Carmel and the sea (cf. Gen. 49 "). 
 
 Kitron . . . Nahalol. Neither site has been identified. Nahalol 
 (perhaps meaning 'watering-place' of flocks; cf. plural D^S^nj, 
 Isa. 7") appears in Josh. 19 1=, 21^ as Nahalal. G" Am/iava in the 
 present passage must have read Dimnah, which is coupled with Nahalal 
 in Josh. 21 3«. In Josh. 19 '^ Kattath seems to stand in place of Kitron ; 
 but neither name occurs elsewhere. The Jerusalem Talmud {Megil- 
 lak, i. i) identifies Nahalal with Mahlul ; and for this the modern 
 Ma'liil, 3^ miles west of Nazareth, has been advocated by Schwarz 
 and others,* and ' Ain Mihil, about the same distance north-east of 
 Nazareth, by Conder. 
 
 In the same passage in the Talmud Kattath is said to be Ketinith 
 or Ketonith J (cf. ffi^ Karavad in Josh. 19 "), a site which may be the 
 modem girbet Kuteineh to the west of the plain of Esdraelon § : 
 cf Neubauer, Geographic du Talmud, p. 189. The view put forward 
 in the Babylonian Talmud {Megillah, 6^) that Kitron is the same as 
 Sippori (Sepphoris), i.e. the modern Seffuriyyeh, 3^ miles north of 
 Nazareth, is opposed by Neubauer {op. cit. pp. 191 i.) upon the ground 
 of a tradition (preserved in the same passage in the Talmud) that the 
 tribe of Zebulun complained that, while Naphtali had been granted 
 fields and vineyards, they had only been granted mountains and hills. 
 Sippori, however, was famed for its fertility ; and hence Neubauer 
 argues that it must have belonged not to Zebulun but to Naphtali. 
 
 31. Asher. The tribe is mentioned as inhabiting western Galilee 
 in the lists of the Egyptian kings, Sety I. and Ra'messe 11., prior to 
 
 * The substitution of Ar. ' for Heb. h requires substantiation ; and this is also 
 needed as regards the interchange of n and m in Nahalal, Mahldl, if the two 
 forms are to be regarded as philologically connected. 
 
 t Editions vary as to the form. Ketonith (or Ketunith) is given by Neubauer 
 loc. cit., and by Mo. and Cheyne (EB. 2654) following him. The Krotoschin 
 edition (1866) has TTJIDp, Ketonith, but the Jitomir {1866) and Petrokov (1899) 
 editions read JT^'lip, Ketinith. The reference given by Neubauer from the 
 Tosefta (5o/<z/S, ch. 15) to D'JIBp t^'N, 'a man of Ketonith,' should be, as a 
 matter of fact (Pazewalk edition, 1881), H'JD'p )3, 'a son of Kitnith,' with 
 var. led. rCJIDp, Kitnith or Katnith. 
 
 § The Heb. Kgtlnith corresponds exactly to the Ar. Kuteineh if this latter is 
 to be regarded as a diminutive. Cf. for the vowel change modern Ar. kefifah 
 ior kufeifah. ' little basket ' : Wright, Comparative Grammar, p. 89. 
 
 Kattath may very likely have arisen from an original Kattant or Kattint : cf. 
 batli from bint, and, for the lengthening of the a, 'am for 'amm. 
 
28 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 3i- 
 
 inhabitants of Sidon, nor Ahlab, nor Achzib, nor Helbah, nor 
 
 the Israelite invasion under Joshua ; cf. Introd. p. Ixxxix. The posi- 
 tion of Asher's inheritance is described in Josh, ig^"*- P. It seems to 
 have been a strip of country reaching southward to Carmel, where it 
 joined the territory of Manasseh, and apparently bordering the sea 
 as far north as Achzib and Mahaleb (cf. note following on Ahlab). 
 Farther north the western boundary must have been formed by the 
 territory of the Sidonians, while the east and south-east boundary-line 
 was formed by the territory of Naphtali and Zebulun. Probably the 
 limits thus defined are largely ideal, a considerable portion of the 
 territory which they include belonging properly to the Phoenicians; 
 cf. note on v. ^^. 
 
 'Acco. The modern 'Akki, situated on a rocky promontory at the 
 northern extremity of the bay of 'Akka, the south side of which is 
 formed by the promontory of Carmel. The town received the name 
 Ptolemais during the Greek period; cf OS. 224 '5. The Acre of 
 the Crusaders is a modification of the modern Ar. name ; cf Smith's 
 article in EB. 3967 ff. 'Acco is wanting in the text of ?§ in 
 Josh. 192^-3^ but should probably be restored in place of 'Umma 
 in v.^'^. 
 
 Sidon. The modern Saida, about twenty-five miles south of 
 Beirut. 
 
 Ahlab . . . Helbah. The two names are so similar that they look 
 like variations of the same name. Schrader {COT. \. p. 161) and 
 Delitzsch {Paradies, pp. 283 f ) compare the name Mahalliba mentioned 
 by Sennacherib in a list of Phoenician cities which capitulated to 
 him in his third campaign : Taylor Cylinder, Col. ii. 1. 38 ; cf KB. 
 ii. p. 90. Sennacherib names ' Great Sidunnu (cf n3"l )in^V Josh. 19 -') 
 
 little Sidunnu, Bit-zitti, Sariptu (Sarephath, i Kgs. ly"-^", Ob. 2°, 
 SapeTTTo Lu. 426; the modern Sarafand), Mahalliba, USu, Akzibi, 
 Akku'; and the order running from north to south should place 
 Maljalliba somewhere between Sarafand, which lies eight miles south 
 of Sidon, and Achzib (cf note following), some thirty miles farther 
 south. Mo. hazards the conjecture that the name may have been 
 ' the old name of the Promontorium album of Pliny, the modern Ras 
 el-Abyad, midway between Tyre and Achzib,' a suitable site for an 
 important town. The name may be connected with Heb. haldbh, 
 ' milk,' in allusion to the whiteness of the headland. 
 
 The strange ^JariD of Josh. 192" {mehebel^ R.V. 'by the region'; 
 marg. 'from Hebel') is almost certainly a corruption of 3?nD, 
 
 Mahaleb (cf, in support of the transposition, ffi" awh Ac(3); and this 
 fact lends support to the view of Miiller {AE. p. 194, «*), La. that the 
 name should be so read in our passage, as against that of Mo. that 
 Mahalliba, Ahlab, Helbah were existing variations of the same name. 
 
1. 32. 33-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 29 
 
 Aphik, nor Rehob: 32. but the Asherites dwelt in the midst of 
 the Canaanites inhabiting the land ; for they did not dispossess 
 them. 
 
 33. Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth- 
 
 Achzib. The EkSitttto of OS. iii,'''', a form in which the 8 seems 
 to preserve the Aram, pronunciation. The modern identification is 
 ez-Zib, eight and a half miles north of Accho.* 
 
 Aphik. Mentioned (in the form Aphek) with Rehob among the 
 cities of Asher in Josh. 19 3". That the Aphek of i Sam. 29 ' is the 
 same (as suggested by Bu., La.) is scarcely likely, as this latter is 
 probably to be sought in northern Sharon t (Smith, HG. p. 350), and 
 would therefore lie too far to the south. On the other hand, as Mo. 
 points out, the modern Afki, north of Berut (probably the Aphek of 
 Josh. 13*), 'is much too far north for the present context and that of 
 Josh. 19^.' The name Aphek appears to have been by no means 
 uncommon. 
 
 Rehob. The site is unknown. Miiller cites the occurrence of 
 the name in Egyptian lists; AE. p. 153. That the Beth-rehob of 
 ch. 18^, 2 Sam. 10°, inhabited by Aramaeans (probably the Rehob 
 of Num. 13^'), cannot be the same as the Asherite Rehob is perhaps 
 too positively asserted by Mo. The identity is assumed by Noldeke 
 in EB. 279. 
 
 32. the Asherites dwelt, etc. In the case of Asher it is not claimed 
 that the Cana'anites eventually became a subject people. The 
 maritime cities mentioned in v. ^^ belonged to Phoenicia throughout 
 the period covered by the history of the kingdom of Israel. In the 
 Song of Deborah (ch. 5) the reference to Asher in v.^'' ('Asher sat still 
 by the shore of the seas, dwelling beside his creeks') seems to indicate 
 that the Asherites dwelt among the Phoenician Cana'anites in a con- 
 dition of dependence ; and being thus unmolested by the central 
 Cana'anites, refiased to make common cause against them with the 
 other Israelite tribes. 
 
 33. Naphtali. The territory of Naphtali is described by P in 
 Josh. 1932-39 j( jg^y (Q fjje north of Zebulun, and was bounded by 
 the territory of Asher on the west and by the Jordan on the east. 
 The predominance of the foreign element in the region of Naphtali 
 and Zebulun, as in that of Asher, is indicated by the title O'ltl 
 hag-goyim, 'the District (circuit) of the Nations' applied to it in 
 
 * If the name comes from the Heb. root 313, Aram. yVZ^ as is suggested 
 
 by the form EfcSirrTra (cf. the word-play of Mic. i " in the case of the southern 
 Achzib), we should expect ed-Dlb. The substitution of z for d in modern Ar. is, 
 however, not unparalleled. 
 
 % Probably Josh, izi* ought to read nriK \rwh pBK '^'O^ 'The king of 
 Aphek pertaining to Sharon, one ' ; cf. Buhl, Geogr. p. 213, n ^ 
 
30 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 34. 
 
 shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-'anath ; but they dwelt in 
 the midst of the Cana'anites. inhabiting the land; and the 
 inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-'anath became labour- 
 gangs for them. 
 
 34. And the Amorites pressed the children of Dan into the 
 
 Isa. 9 Ml§ 8 2'), or, in short form, kag-Gdltl, Josh. 20 '', 2 1 ^^ ; i Kgs. 9 " ; 
 I Chr. 6 ""^ (?§ ''), whence the name Galilee. Cf. also ' Harosheth 
 of the nations,' ch. 4 ^"-'^ probably in Zebulun ; cf. note ad loc. 
 
 Beth-shemesh . . . Beth-an.ath. Both sites are unidentified (cf., how- 
 ever, Introd. p. cvii, footnote ||). Beth-'anath occurs in the Egyptian 
 lists of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties ; cf. Miiller, AE. pp. 
 193, 195, 220. 'Anath is the name of a goddess, possibly the same as 
 the Babylonian Antum or Anatum, consort of Anu, the god of heaven, 
 and chief of the first triad of gods (Anu, Enlil, and Ea) ; cf. Jastrow 
 in DB. V. p. 538 b, and RBA. i. p. 143. Further traces of the cult 
 of this goddess in Cana'an are preserved in the southern 'Anath6th 
 (' An^ta, two and a half miles north-north-east of Jerusalem), and in the 
 proper name Shamgar ben-Anath, ch. 3 5', 5 ^ She was worshipped in 
 the fifth century B.C. by the Jewish garrison stationed at Elephantine 
 on the southern border of Egypt. We meet with the compound name 
 'Anath-bethel, in which the deities 'Anath and Bethel (treated as a 
 divine name) are probably equated ; * and 'Anath-yahu also occurs. 
 Probably she was 'the queen of heaven,' who, according to 
 Jer. 44 '^ "■, was worshipped by the Jews who dwelt in Pathros, i.e. in 
 Upper Egypt, where Elephantind was situated. Our information 
 as to this Jewish garrison and its religious cultus is derived from 
 recently discovered Aram, papyri which were edited in 1911 by 
 Sachau under the title Aramdische Papyrus und Ostraker aus einer 
 jUdischen Militdr-Kolonie zu Elephantine. Cf. the present editor's 
 article in Church Q,uart. Rev., July 1912. 
 
 but they dwelt, ffi**", Si^ kox KarmKria-fv la-parjX, very possibly the 
 original text ; cf note on Josh. 13 ", which belongs to the same 
 narrative, in Additional note, p. 51. 
 
 34. the Amorites. The term is used, here and in v.^, as a general 
 name for the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Palestine, who elsewhere in 
 this section (7/7/.i-3.6.i7.27.28.29.32,33 . (-f ^jg^ yyi.i from the editor R'') are 
 described as Cana'anites, in accordance with the regular practice of J. 
 Such a use of 'Amorites,' on the contrary, is characteristic of E 
 (cf note on v. ^) ; and the difficulty of accounting for this deviation 
 in usage on the part of J has led Meyer {ZATW. i. p. 126) to conclude 
 that vv.^'^^ are the work of a later hand. So Stade, G VI. i. p. 138 n. 
 Against this view Bu.'s arguments {RS. pp. ij ff.) are cogent; notice 
 
 * Such a compound deity is seen in 'Ashtar-Chemosh, mentioned on the 
 Moabite Stone, 1. 17. 
 
1. 34-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 31 
 
 hill-country ; for they did not suffer them to. come down into 
 
 J's phrases in vJ" — 'persisted in dwelling,' as in w. ^', Josh. 17 '2, 
 'became labour-gangs,' as in wz/.^'-''. Josh. 16 ^^j and the fact that 
 7/.^* clearly forms the lowest grade in a descending scale — in vv.^''''^ 
 the Cana'anites remain in the midst of Israel, and eventually become 
 subject ; in z/z/.^i-^s Asher and Naphtali dwell in the midst of the 
 Cana'anites, the inference being that these latter retained the pre- 
 dominance, whether in power or in numbers (cf. notes on vv.'^^-'^^); 
 in v^^ the ' Amorites' actually oust the Danites from their territory. 
 It is probable that J originally wrote ' Cana' anites ' in these two verses * 
 (Xaraxaios is the reading of HP. 55 in v.^% and that the substitution 
 of ' Amorites ' is due to a later hand, under the influence, it may be 
 conjectured, of the textual corruption 'Amorites' for 'Edomites' 
 in v.'^. 
 
 pressed the children of Dan, etc. Josh. 19 "-^^ P assigns sixteen or 
 seventeen (|§) cities to Dan, all of which, so far as they can be 
 identified, lie in the Shephelah and vale-country to the east of the 
 territories of Benjamin and northern Judah. Out of this list, however, 
 Sor'ah, Eshta'ol, 'Ekron, and Timnah are assigned by P to Judah in 
 Josh. 15 33.45.67 j^ (hg narrative of Samson the Danites appear to be 
 confined to a small district about Sor'ah and Eshta'ol, immediately 
 contiguous to the hill-country, while Timnah is occupied by Philistines 
 just as 'Ekron is elsewhere. We may infer that the Amorites or 
 Cana'anites who, as our narrative informs us, forced the Danites into 
 the hills, were themselves suffering from the encroachments of the 
 Philistines on the west. The Philistines, who entered Cana' an about 
 the same time as, or a very short time before, the Israelite invasion 
 under Joshua' (cf Introd. pp. xcii ff.), must naturally have driven such 
 of the original Cana'anite inhabitants of their territory as escaped 
 extirpation (cf Deut. 2 ''3) eastward towards the hill-country, where 
 they would come into conflict with the Danites, who may have made 
 their settlement prior to Joshua''s invasion (cf Introd. pp. cvi {.). Josh, 
 ig", which originally formed part of J's narrative, informs us that finally 
 a large portion of the tribe of Dan, if not the main portion, finding 
 their district too narrow (read DHD • . • "IV'I, 'was too strait for 
 them,' in place of ?§ DilD . . . KV'I, R-V. 'went out beyond them'), 
 migrated to the extreme north of Palestine, conquered the city of 
 Leshem (or perhaps Lesham : cf ch. 18' note), and established them- 
 selves in and about the city, which they renamed Dan. This migration 
 is further related in ch. 18, where the conquered city is called Laish 
 (yv. ^■^), and seems already to have taken place at the period to which 
 the Song of Deborah relates (cf note on ch. 5'^). Thenceforward 
 Dan figures in the common phrase ' from Dan to Beersheba ' as the 
 northernmost limit of Palestine. 
 
 * Meyer appears now to incline to this view : cf. IN. p. 525, n 1. ^ 
 
32 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [1. 35. 
 
 the Vale. 35. And the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har- 
 heres, in Aijalon, and in Sha'albim : yet the hand of the house 
 
 the Vale. Cf. v.'^^ note. 
 
 35. persistedin dwelling. Cf. w.^' note. 
 
 Har-heres. The name means 'hill of the Sun,' and the fact that 
 heres = ^eine'i has led Stu. and others after him to identify the site 
 with Beth-shemesh ('house or temple of the Sun'), i.e. the modern 
 ' Ain-sems (' spring of the Sun ') which occupies an elevated site to 
 the south of the Widy Sardr (vale of Sorek), where it opens out upon 
 the Shephelah. This identification is favoured by the fact that 
 Beth-shemesh is mentioned with Sha'albim in i Kgs. 4^, and 'Ir- 
 shemesh (' city of the Sun,' doubtless the same as Beth-shemesh) with 
 Sha'albim and Aijalon in Josh. 19*'*^, just as Har-heres is in our 
 passage. 
 
 ffi'*-'- represents Din in3 by iv ra opet tov Mvlpja-iv&vos (so S*"), 
 ffi" by ev ra opet t^j oorpaKmSet * (with the doublet ev rm Mvpirii'Sm), 
 i.e., in the first case Din h'^das, 'myrtle,' in the second E»nn heres, 
 ' potsherd ' in place of Din keres ; both variations being possibly 
 attempts to get rid of the reference to the Sun with its idolatrous 
 implications (so La.). Why such a reference should have been found 
 more objectionable in the case of herei than in that of denies is not 
 obvious : but it cannot be merely accidental that Timnath-heres of 
 Judg. 2^ appears in || Josh. 24^" and in Josh. 19^" as Timnath-serah 
 (niD a transposition of the consonants of Din). J 
 
 Aijalon. The identification of Rob. {BR ^. ii. pp. 253 f , iii. pp. 144 f.) 
 with the modern Yilo, seven miles north-north-east of ' Ain-§ems and 
 in the south of the ' vale ' into which the pass of Beth-horon opens out 
 ('the vale of Aijalon,' Josh. 10'^) is universally accepted. The name 
 'Ayyalon perhaps means 'haunt of deer' {^ayyat). How ffi arrived at 
 the rendering al apsoi is obscure, unless this may be regarded as a 
 corruption of 01 SdpKoi § (for the normal aj SopxaSef). (S, however, 
 
 * Cf. the gloss ' quod interpretatur testaceo,' which appears in "S. 
 
 X It must be considered doubtful whether '?/: Aa-A<r«j, 'city of destruction,' 
 in Isa. 19 18 fg is also to be considered as an alteration of an originsd'tr ia-Aerei, 
 ' city of the Sun,' i.e. Heliopolis. The phrase ' one shall be called ' implies that 
 one of the five cities mentioned is to be distinguished by a name which denotes 
 its special character as representative of the worship of Yahweh ; and this con- 
 sideration weighs in favour of the view that the reading of fflr, irSXis ajedeK, i.e. 
 p'y^J} "T'J', ' city of righteousness ' (as it were ' the Egyptian Jerusalem ' ; cf 
 Isa. I 26), is likely to be the original reading. Cf. Gray's acute discussion of the 
 passage in Isaiah (ICC.) ad loc. This, however, may have been afterwards 
 altered to 'tr ha-hercs in allusion to Heliopolis, and the reading of H, 'tr ha-here's, 
 may represent a still later stage. 
 
 § 6 56p/cos is found in Nicolaus of Damascus (B.C. 16), 46, 47; Dioscorides 
 (cir. A.D. 60), 2, 8s; Testamenta XII. Patriarcharum 1121 D: cf. Sophocles, 
 Greek Lexicon s.v. 
 
1. 36.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 33 
 
 of Joseph prevailed, and they became labour-gangs. 36. And 
 the border of the TEdomites^ was from the ascent of 'Akrabbim, 
 
 confines SopKas to the Heb. s"6t, 'gazelle,' with which the 'ayyal is 
 often coupled, but never confused. 
 
 Shdalbim. Site 'unknown. The name appears in Josh. 19*^ as 
 Sha'alabbin, and probably means ' foxes ' : cf. Assyr. "selibu, Ar. 
 ia'lab, and the rendering of & ai oKimtKes. Apart from this place- 
 name, the fact that the word was used in Heb. would be unknown to 
 us, the ordinary Heb. word for 'fox' being "Mai. 
 
 prevailed. Lit. 'became heavy.' 
 
 36. the border of the Edomites. Reading ''Dlsn in place of 
 ?§ nbsn 'the Amorites' with Bu., Kit. {HH. i. p. 268), Buhl 
 
 {Edomiier, p. 25), No., La., etc. The reading to opiov tov 'A/ioppaiov 
 6 'iSoviioios is found in ffi*'-, the group of MSS. cited by Mo. as ffi", 
 Arm., Eth., &'' (with obelus before 6 16.), and this is adopted by 
 Hollenberg, ZATW. i. p. 103. But the writer's interest is centred 
 upon the footing gained by the tribes of Israel in Palestine, and the 
 frontier between Amorites and Edomites would scarcely concern 
 him in this connexion ; while such a use of the term ' Amorite ' is 
 contrary to the practice of J : cf v.^ note. It cannot be doubted 
 that he is indicating the line along which the frontier of the southern- 
 most tribe (Judah) marched with the frontier of Edam. '"IDNn is an 
 easy corruption of 'DlNn, and the versions as cited above present 
 a doublet." A similar conflision occurs between DIN 'Edom' and 
 Dns 'Aram': 2 Sam. 8 1^" (cf z/. ", i Chr. 18""^ Ps. 60 heading), 
 
 2 Chr. 2o2, 2 Kgs. i6«. 
 
 from the ascent of 'Akrabbim. Usually identified with the Nakb 
 es-Safi, a steep pass which runs up northward out of the Wady 
 el-Fikrah : cf. note on Sephath z/.". An obvious objection to this 
 identification hes in the fact that the frontier of Edom cannot be said 
 to commence /rowz this point, since this would leave out of account 
 the twenty-five miles or so which intervene between the mouth of the 
 Nakb es-Saf4 and the southern extremity of the Dead Sea at which 
 the frontier is stated to begin in Num. 34', Josh. 15 2 P. The same 
 objection applies, in an enhanced degree, to the more westerly 
 Nakb el-Yemen, advocated by Trumbull {Kadesh-Barnea, p. in). 
 More probably we should find the ascent in the Wady el-Fikrah, 
 which Trumbull {op. cit. pp. 94 f ) describes as 'a wady which ascends 
 south-westerly from the 'Arabah, from a point not far south of the ■ 
 Dead Sea, and which separates Palestine proper from the 'Azazimeh 
 mountain tract, or Jebel Mukrih group. The northern wall of this 
 wady is a bare and bold rampart of rock, forming a natural boundary.' 
 Scorpions (^akrabbim) are said to abound in this district, 
 
 C 
 
34 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 11. 36 
 
 from the Crag and upwards. 
 
 from the Crag. Here we seem to have a second starting-point foi 
 the frontier-line between Judah and Edom, i.e. upon the most natura 
 hypothesis, the other extremity of the frontier, farthest removed frojj; 
 the ascent of 'Akrabbim. The identification oihas-seld, 'the Crag, 
 has caused difficulty. Clearly the reference cannot be to the city 0; 
 Petra,* which was the capital of the Nabataeans from dr. B.C. yx. 
 until the second century A.D. ; for Petra lies some fifty miles a little 
 east of due south of the southern end of the Dead Sea, among the 
 mountains of Se'ir to the east of the 'Arabah ; whereas the researches 
 of Trumbull in connexion with his identification of the site of Kadesh- 
 Barnea' at 'Ain-ICudes, nearly fifty miles south-south-west of Be'er 
 sheba' (generally accepted), have proved beyond a doubt that the terri- 
 tory of Edom must have extended for a considerable distance west 01 
 the'Arabah : cf. Trumbull, Kadesk-Barnea, pp. 106 fif.; Buhl, Edomiter. 
 pp. 23 ff. The course of the southern boundary of Judah is described it 
 detail in Num. 34 ^■*, Josh. i'5 '"'' P. From these passages we gathei 
 that its eastern extremity was the southern 'tongue' of the Salt Sea, and 
 that thence it took its start (XV''1 Josh. 15 ') to the south of the ascenl 
 
 of 'Akrabbim {i.e. upon the identification of the ascent proposed above 
 upon the south side of the W4dy el-Fikrah ; the wjidy, or at least it; 
 north side, being claimed by Judah : cf. the analogy of Deut. 3 '°- 
 'the middle of the wady being also a boundary'), made a turn 
 (ap31 Num. 34*^ south-of-this ascent and passed on to Sin (an 
 unknown site), and reached its extremity in this direction (VnkXir 
 Num. 34^) south of Kadesh-Barnea. It then took a new starl 
 (KS^I Num. 34*^, presumably to the west or north-west, and passing 
 on by a number of unidentified sites, took a turn (3031) to the 'Wad) 
 of Egypt,' i.e. the Wady el-' Arts, and found its end (rriNVin) at the 
 sea (the Mediterranean ; Num. 34 ^). Here the line along which the 
 frontier of Judah marched with that of Edom was, it must be assumed, in 
 its course west-south-west from the Dead Sea along the Widy el-Fikrat 
 and then south-south-west to a point just south of Kadesh'-Barnea' ; anc 
 it is noteworthy that, in the narrative of Moses' embassy to the 
 king of Edom (Num. 20" ff. JE), he states that the Israelites are 'ir 
 ICadesh, a city in the extremity of thy border.' The natural inference 
 
 * Whether Sela- (without the article) in Isa. 16 1, 42". is the name of a city ii 
 very doubtful. Cheyne [EB. 4344) takes the word as a collective term, referrinj 
 to the country as a whole—' the rocks.' In 2 Kgs. 14', which relates Amazialj' 
 defeat of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt and the capture of has-Sela', th( 
 reference, if it stood alone, might most naturally be explained as referring to : 
 city ; but || 2 Chr. 25 12 takes has-Sela' to be ' the crag ' from the top of whiol 
 the captured Edomites were cast headlong. 
 
2. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 35 
 
 2. I. And the Angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal unto 
 
 is that has-seld, 'the Crag' of our passage, which formed one ex- 
 tremity of the frontier-line between Judah and Edom, is the same as 
 has-seld 'the Crag' at or close to Kadesh, which tradition regarded 
 as the crag which was smitten by Moses (Num. 20 ^•■"■'i JEP). This 
 conclusion, reached independently by the present editor, is also that 
 of Buhl (pp. cit. 25) and La. 
 
 Bu., Mo. regard the » in }??DnD as due to dittography of 
 the preceding D in D''3"lpy, and emend yjjDn 'to Sela'.' Mo. con- 
 jectures that the site of has-Sela' may have been the modern 
 es-Sifiyyeh, near the southern end of the Dead Sea ; but his descrip- 
 tion of this as 'a bare and dazzling white sandstone promontory 
 a thousand feet high ' (derived from Buhl, op. cit. p. 20) is stated by 
 La. to be incorrect ; and moreover, if, as he supposes, the ascent of 
 'Akrabbim is the Nakb es-Safa, the boundary-line between the two 
 points as specified extends for not more than twenty-five miles, and 
 the description must be regarded as merely fragmentary. 
 
 and upwards. Upwards towards the first point of departure, the 
 ascent of ' Akrabbim. As La. remarks, ' On indique deux points de 
 depart, c'est-k-dire les deux extr^mit^s de la fronti^re . nord, et npPD 
 marque tout le reste d'une fagon inddterminde.' 
 
 If the emendation 'to Sela' ' noticed above be adopted, the sense 
 in which n^iVDI is used is inexplicable, since Mo.'s rendering 'and 
 beyond ' cannot be justified. Bu. emends ns?ni in this sense. 
 
 2, 1-5. Upon the relation of these verses to the preceding narrative 
 cf. introductory note to 1 "*. 
 
 I. the Angel of Yahweh. The expression is characteristic of J. 
 E's phrase being ' the Angel of God.' So used, it is always definite 
 (not '■an angel of Y.' ; still less a human messenger — 5C 'the prophet 
 of Y.'), and denotes Yahweh Himself in manifestation to man. That 
 this is so appears from a number of passages, both in J and E. 
 Thus in ch. 6 'the Angel of Y.' of w."".2i-22 ('the Angel of God, 
 t/.2«) = ' Yahweh' of i/t/. '■'•I'-^s ; in Ex. 3 'the Angel of Y' of f.2 = 
 'Yahweh' oiw.^'', and 'God' of E's narrative, T/^/.^t'-^"'- ; in Gen. 16 
 ' the Angel of Y.' of vv. '•'"', who appears to Hagar speaks as Yahweh 
 in the ist person ('I will greatly multiply thy seed,' w.'"), and is 
 referred to as 'Yahweh' int/."; and in E's narrative of Hagar in 
 Gen. 21, 'the Angel of God,' v.^''., makes a similar promise in his own 
 name, w.'' ; in Gen. 22, 'the Angel of Y.' of 7/." speaks as Yahweh in 
 7/. '2; in Gen. 31"", 'the Angel of God' says 'I am the God of 
 Bethel ' ; in Gen. 48 ^'-'^ E, Jacob's reference to ' the Angel who 
 delivered me from all evil ' is parallel to ' the God before whom my 
 fathers walked,' etc. To these passages we may add the a,ccount of 
 
36 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [2. i. 
 
 the appearance of the Angel of Y. to Manoah in ch. 13, if it be 
 assumed that R.V. is right in rendering in v.^^ 'We must surely die, 
 for we have seen God.' Possibly, however, "elokhn may here denote 
 no more than ' a god ' ' or divine being ' : cf. note ad loc. and 
 
 There are, however, a few passages in which a distinction appears 
 to be drawn between Yahweh and His Angel. So in Gen. 24, 
 Yahweh sends His Angel before Abraham's servant vv.''-'^ (yet in 
 vv^''-^^ the servant acknowledges that it is Yahweh who has Jed him) ; 
 in Num. 22" Yahweh uncovers Bala'am's eyes so that he sees the 
 Angel of Y. In Ex. 23 ^^ Yahweh promises to send His Angel before 
 
 Israel, who is described in 23^" as 'an Angel' (TIX^D indef; but, 
 
 according to ffi, U, Sam., ' mine Angel ' as in v. ^^ 3^). Similarly ' mine 
 Angel' of Ex. 328-' is described as 'an Angel' in 33 ^ {<& 'mine 
 Angel '), and appears to be something less than Yahweh's full mani- 
 festation; since Yahweh says in ■z/.^ 'If I go up into the midst of thee 
 for one moment, I shall consume thee,' and it is only as the result of 
 importunate intercession on the part of Moses that Yahweh promises 
 ' My Face shall go ' (33 ^*), i.e., clearly, Yahweh Himself as distinct 
 from His Angel.* 
 
 It must be observed, however, that both in Ex. 23 and 32, 33, the 
 narrative largely consists of redactional matter which is relatively late 
 as compared with J and E (cf the analysis of CH. ad loc); and probably 
 at the period to which this redaction belongs, the tendency to modify 
 reference to Yahweh's self-revelation to Israel by the introduction of 
 an intermediary was already operative. It is not unlikely, indeed (as 
 suggested by the alternation of ' the Angel of Y.' with ' Yahweh ' in the 
 passages first noticed), that the original conception of the Angel 
 represents an early attempt (imperfectly carried out) to interpose such 
 an intermediary, where the primitive narratives simply spoke of 
 Yahweh Himself as appearing and holding direct intercourse with men. 
 If this is so, we may trace a very early anticipation of the far more 
 drastic introduction in the Targums of the 'Memra' ('Word') of 
 Yahweh in passages where reference to Yahweh's direct communica- 
 tion with man was offensive to the taste of later times. 
 
 from Gilgal. Gilgal was the headquarters of Joshua' and the 
 Israelites during the invasion of the hill-country, and before the tribe: 
 
 * If Isa. 639, as the passage stands in %, could be relied upon as original, i 
 might be argued that the Angel of Yahweh has the same meaning as His Face 
 since ' the Angel of His Face ' can scarcely mean anything but ' the Angel who ii 
 His Face,' i.e. His manifestation (so Davidson in DB. i. p. 94b : ' One in whon 
 His face (presence) is reflected and seen'). The rhythmical structure of thesectioi 
 in which this passage occurs, however, confirms the text of ffi oii Trpia^vs oi)5 
 S.yye\os, iW airbs iaaa^v airoiis, i.e. DVE'in VJS <'''3'> '^JkI'D? TiV N? 
 ' It was not an envoy or angel, but His Face that saved them.' Thus ' His Face 
 is contrasted with any other form of manifestation, such as that of an angel. 
 
2. 1.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 37 
 
 rBethell R*" And he said, ' <I visited you indeed, and) brought 
 
 had effected a settlement in the land: cf. Josh. 4" P, 9", 106MI6 
 JE, 10*3, 146 RD ^j^g name is preserved in the modern Birket 
 (' pool ') dilguliyyeh, three miles east-south-east of the ancient site of 
 Jericho, and about the same distance west of the Jordan. Several other 
 places in Palestine bore the same name : cf. EB. s.v. Gilgal, which 
 in Heb. always has the definite article prefixed, ' tke Gilgal,' doubtless 
 denotes ' circle ' (cf. Heb. galgal, ' wheel '), and seems to refer to a 
 circle of stones of a primitive religious character. The Gilgal of our 
 passage was probably so named from the stones which tradition 
 related to have been set up by Joshua' at the first ' lodging place ' 
 (Josh. 43-8 J) after the passage of the Jordan, which is stated (4''' P) 
 to have been Gilgal. The explanation of Josh. 5 ^ J, which connects 
 the name with the ' rolling away ' of the reproach of uncircumcision 
 (Heb. gallothi, ' I have rolled away,' from root galal), is merely a play 
 of words, such as is frequent in J's narrative. 
 
 . unto Bethel. % 'unto hab-Bochim': but (i) it is unnatural that 
 the name should be given before the occasion which was its cause is 
 related, and (2) <& preserves the name Bethel in the doublet eVi tov 
 HXavBiuiva Kol fVi BmfiijX, and since there can have been no reason 
 for the introduction of this latter if eVi rov K: {i.e. the reading of |§) 
 already stood in the text, we may infer (with most moderns) that 
 ' unto Bethel ' was the reading of SPs original. Adopting this reading, 
 the passage comes into connexion with the narrative of ch. 1 '' "■, 
 which relates the capture of Bethel by the house of Joseph. The Ark, 
 which was the visible symbol of Yahweh's presence, was carried up 
 from Gilgal and found a resting-place at Bethel, where sacrifices were 
 offered to Yahweh (v.^^). The Ark is still at Bethel in the narrative of 
 ch. 20 ''^ : cf. also 20'*, 21 2. Of the circumstances which led to its 
 removal to the Ephraimite sanctuary of Shiloh, where it appears in 
 I Sam. 3 3, we have no information. 
 
 After eVi BaidijX ffi has the addition ko.). eVi t6v oIkov IcrparfK. It is 
 probable that this is merely an accidental doublet of ?K r)'3 (so Mo.), 
 the 7S in an imperfectly legible MS. being mistaken for a contraction 
 of 7K1B" such as zV A similar process has taken place in Deut. 32* f§, 
 where PKIt}'^ ^32 ISDD? 'according to the number of the children 
 of Israel,' appears in (& as Kara dpiBfiov iyyiXav 6cov (?X 'ia), which 
 probably represents the original text.* Bu., regarding the addition 
 
 as genuine, would restore ^VTW'' n'S'^Kl ; and so Kit., La. If this 
 is correct, it is likely, as Bu., No. suggest, that hvr\\0\ is an alteration 
 
 * If the passage pictures the ' Sons of God,' or subordinate angelic powers, as 
 guardians of the foreign nations, the contrast offered by the following clause, 
 ' But Yahweh's portion is his people,' becomes more pointed and effective. 
 
38 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [2. i 
 
 you up from Egypt, and brought you in unto the land \vliich ] 
 
 of an original ejDi'' and the passage notes the fact that it was 'untc 
 the house of Joseph ' that the Angel of Yahweh went up, i.e. they had 
 the charge of the sacred Ark. 
 
 I visited . . . up. Reading Dans nisyNI^ D3nN inijJS lips in 
 place of ^ DOriK npyx. The restoration is purely conjectural ; bu( 
 
 the use of the Heb. Imperfect in |§ is inexplicable, since a future 
 signification ' I will bring you up ' is impossible ; nor is it natural to 
 explain the tense here as used pictorially to describe the event as still 
 in progress — a usage which is not uncommon 'in the languag'e oi 
 poetry and prophecy' (cf Driver, Tenses, § 27), but is scarcely suited to 
 a plain statement of fact such as the present. That an omission in 
 the text was suspected by the Massoretes is perhaps indicated by the 
 
 NpDD or lacuna in fH before n?ys.* It is natural to suppose that 1 
 consecutive originally stood before the Imperfect, in continuation oi 
 some event of which the statement has fallen out of the text of 3§. 
 This missing statement was supplied by Bottcher {Neue exeget. Krit. 
 Aehrenlese) from Ex. 3'^, Gen. 50^*, his restoration running lipB 
 n^yx IDNI D3nK 'nips, 'I visited you indeed and said, "I will 
 
 bring you up, etc." ' ; % and this suggestion has the advantage 0! 
 accounting for the omission by homoeoteleuton, the scribe's eye 
 passing from yCKf,''^ to 1DXV The text adopted above is that of 
 Doom, (who followed Bottcher in part), and is favoured by Bu., Oott. 
 It makes, with its continuation, a statement in ne'arly identical terms 
 of the fulfilment of the promise of Gen. 50 ^4 E : ' God will indeed 
 visit you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which he 
 sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.' Cf. Ex. 13" E. 
 
 Other suggestions have been made as to the text. Stu. simplj 
 inserts ''nnps ' I said, "I will bring you up,"' and cites in favour oi 
 
 this 7/. V And furthermore I said.' So also Ber. La. substitutes the 
 Perf for the Imperf, reading ifli^yn i3iN ' It was I who broughl 
 
 you up'— a cutting of the knot. Mo. thinks that, since the speech ol 
 the Angel is ' a cento of quotations and reminiscences,' it is possibk 
 that the author copied Ex. 3 "% ' I will bring you up,' without correct' 
 
 * iffiB supplies this lacuna by the words TdSe X^7ei Ki5/)ios, and the same wordi 
 are found in =,■", Ar. This, however, does not solve the difficulty of the Heb 
 tense, ffl*!-, fl>> Kiipios dve^l^aa-ev k.t.X. turn the verbs into the 3rd person,, bu 
 inconsistently preserve 1st person Kal iyib elwa in v. '—a fact which tells agains 
 the originaUty of the preceding variations from % 
 
 ■J Bottcher offers the alternative H^IVK "IDKI D33 Tinna ■ I made choio 
 of you and said, etc' 
 
2. 2. 3-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 39 
 
 sware unto your fathers; and I said, "I will never break my 
 covenant with you. 2. And ye — ye shall not make a covenant 
 with the inhabitants of this land; their altars ye shall break 
 down." But ye have not hearkened to my voice : what have ye 
 done ? 3. And furthermore I said, " I will not drive them out 
 from before you, but they shall be radversariesT to you, and 
 their gods shall be a trap to you.'" 4. And it came to pass, 
 
 ing the tense : but we have no reason to suspect R^ of such gross 
 carelessness. 
 
 the land which I sware unto your father. Cf. Ex. 33' JE, Num. 
 li,"^ JE, 32" P, Deut. 1 35, 10", 31 20-21-23, 34* JE, Josh, i " JE. 
 
 / will never breaks etc. For the expression, cf. Lev. 26 ^ H. The 
 precise reference, however, is not to H, but to the covenant of Ex. 
 34 " J : ' for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant 
 with thee and with Israel.' Cf. note following. 
 
 2. And ye, etc. A quotation from Ex. 34 '^i'* : ' Take heed to thy- 
 self, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land 
 whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee : but 
 their altars ye shall break down.' 
 
 3. ATid furthermore I said. The reference is to Josh. 23'' R°, 
 Num. 33 *' P. 
 
 adversaries. Reading Di-iX^ with (!5, IL, "S, ffi, i!H"», Stu., Ber., 
 
 Doom., Mo. (in SBOT.\ No.j Kit., Ehr., in place of |§ Dnsls. Cf. 
 
 Num. 33 ^^ P DariK mVI ' and they shall act as your adversaries.' 
 
 According to the regular meaning of D''1S in Heb., the statement of 
 
 f^ can only be rendered ' they shall be to you as sides.' R. V. expands 
 this into ' they shall be [as thorns] in your sides,' with marg. ref. to 
 Num. 33 *°. Such a sense cannot possibly be inherent in |^ as the 
 text stands, though it is legitimate to suppose, with Mo. (Comm.), 
 Bu., La., that D^S^ may be the remnant of an original reading 
 D3'''nV3 D^J'JS^ as in Num. 33^°": cf. Josh. 23" R" . . . vn\ 
 Uy^'i^ DDB'i' ' and they shall be ... as a scourge on your sides.' 
 Delitzsch (Prolegomena, p. 75) compares DnV with Assyr. saddu, ' net, 
 snare, trap' ; but this word is not elsewhere found in Heb., and the 
 improbability of its occurrence here is enhanced by the fact that we 
 expect to find in this passage (as elsewhere in the speech) a reference 
 to an earlier warning. Gratz emends D^:''3y7 'as thorns.' 
 
 a trap. The metaphor is that of bird-catching, and the Heb. term 
 mSkes, lit. 'fowling instrument,' is commonly parallel to pah, i.e. 
 probably a form of clap-net still employed in Palestine, and bearing 
 
40 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [2. 5. 
 
 as the Angel of Yahweh spake these words unto all the children 
 of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 5. So 
 they called the name of that place Bochim. J And they sacri- 
 ficed there to Yahweh. 
 
 the same name fah in Ar. : of. Baldensperger in PEF. Qy. St. 1905, 
 p. 38. BDB. and Driver on Am. 3 * explain mdkis as the lure or bait, 
 a rendering suggested by Am. 3^ ?§ (where the text, however, is 
 almost certainly at fault*), but impossible in Job 40^, 'pierce his 
 nose with mdk'sim^ and in Ps. 64 ^ 'they tell of hiding mdkf'itm (a 
 bait or lure is to be displayed not hidden), and inappropriate (to say 
 the least) in Ps. 18°, where the mdk'M maweth (|| 'nooses of She'd') 
 are a terror and not an attraction. Since the root yakdi is evidently 
 connected with nakas ' strike,' the two verbs being variant triliterals 
 of the biliteral B>p it is probable that mSie^ denotes some form of 
 
 trap in which the release of a spring or support caused the striking 
 (knocking down or piercing) of the victim.J 
 
 5. Bochim. Meaning ' weepers.' Stu. is probably correct in sug- 
 gesting connexion with the 'AllSn bakhuth, 'oak of weeping,' which 
 is stated in Gen. 35 ^ E to have been 'below Bethel.' 
 
 And they sacrificed, etc. Cf. note on Bethel, v. ^ 
 
 * As the text stands in |g, the passage runs — 
 
 Shall a bird fall into z.fah upon the ground, 
 
 When there is no mdkis for it ? 
 Shall a,pah spring up from the ground, 
 
 Without surely capturing ? 
 
 It is impossible, however, to think that Amos could have written anything so 
 awkward as the repeated /a/i ; and as a matter of fact the word is omitted- by ffi 
 in the first clause : d irtauTai Apveov iirl ttjv yiji' &vev l^evroO. With this omission 
 there disappears the necessity of explaining mokes as something in the nature of a 
 lure. 
 
 J Dr. Driver has privately communicated the following note: — 'AsiomlklS, 
 the last words of my note in Am. p. 158 leave, I fear, an incorrect impression on 
 the reader : but I have corrected it in Exodus (Camb. Bib.) on 10'. It seems to 
 me to be something like what we should call a trigger, with a bait upon it, which, 
 whether touched by the bird, or pulled by the fowler, caused the trap, or net, to 
 close upon the bird (cf. the illustration. Am. p. 157). The mokes certainly was 
 destructive ; but it seems certainly to have acted as a lure to entice to disaster 
 (Ex. 10', 233s, 1 Sam. 18 21) ; and it is this double aspect of it which suggests to 
 me that it was the trigger properly, but often spoken of as including the bait upon 
 it as well. Job. 40 ^ suggests that it had a sharp point — possibly it struck the 
 bird with this : it was sufficient to be the means of catching a bird, but not to 
 pierce the nostril of the hippopotamus. n'/iaS in Aram, is to strike ; and hence 
 the idea that it was a boomerang : cf. BDB. s. v. {J'p3 : but the view in this article 
 seems to me doubtful. I see that BDB. under mSkeS do say "prop, a bait or 
 lure"; but "prop." seems to me to be wrong ; this is only a secondary idea.' 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 41 
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE FOR THE USE OF THE TERMS 
 
 'CANA'AN' AND 'THE LAND OF THE AMORITE' 
 
 (cf. ch. I ' note) 
 
 For the Egyptians Pe-kanan, i.e. 'the Canaan,' denoted 'the entire 
 west of Syria- Palestine ' (Breasted, AR. iii. § 87), while the corre- 
 sponding ethnographical term seems to have been extended beyond 
 the low-lying maritime region to the population of Western Syria as 
 a whole, as in the usage of J. The Egyptian term Amor was applied 
 to the mountainous district of Lebanon. 
 
 The early Babylonians, as far back as the time of Sargon of Akkad 
 (about the end of the fourth millennium B.C. : cf Introd. p. Wi, footnote 
 §), knew Syria and Palestine generally as Amurru.* In theT. A. Letters 
 {cir. B.C. 1400) the term Kinah{)i, or Kinahna, Kina^ni {i.e. Cana'an), 
 is applied to the Phoenician coast-land, while Amurru (the land of the 
 Amorites) is not applied to Palestine as a whole, but denotes the 
 ' Hinterland ' of the northern Phoenicians, i.e. the mountainous district 
 of the Lebanons, and also, as now appears from the cuneiform 
 documents recently discovered at Boghaz Keui, the region still 
 farther east, i.e. the Syrian desert and its surrounding districts, as far 
 as the border of Babylonia : cf Winckler in MDOG. xxxv., Dec. 1907, 
 pp. 25 f Possibly these facts may have a bearing on the distinction 
 of usage between J and E ; the former embodying the tradition of 
 the south which lay outside the sphere of the Amorites, while the 
 latter presents the tradition of the northern tribes : cf Winckler, 
 GI. i. pp. 52 ff. See further, on the extra-Biblical evidence as to the 
 usage of the two terms, Jastrow in EB. 638 ff. ; Meyer, GA.'^'x. §§ 354, 
 396; Bohl, KH. pp. 2 ff., 31 ff. ; MuUer, AE. pp. 177, 205 ff., 218 ff., 
 229 ff. ; Weber in Kn. pp. 1132 fif. 
 
 SEDEK AS A DIVINE NAME (cf ch. i'' note) 
 
 The view that, in pnx 'JIN Adoni-sedek, pnv 'aiio Malki-sedek, 
 Sedek is the proper name of a Cana'anite deity is commonly held, but 
 the evidence cannot be said to be conclusive. The following occurrences 
 of Sidk or Sedek in compound proper names may be noticed : 
 l^DplV Sidki-milk on a Phoenician coin, cir. B.C. 449-420, Cooke, 
 NSI. p. 349 ; Sabaean ^xpns Sidki-el, Hommel, Siid-ar. Chrestom. 
 quoted by Cooke, loc. cit. ; Aram. p'\pl)i Sidki-Ramman, CIS. ii. 73 
 
 * The name Amurru is commonly represented by the Sumerian MAR.TU, 
 'west land'; but evidence shows that from the earliest times MAR.TU was 
 read and pronounced as Amurru among the Semitic Babylonians : cf. Bohl, 
 X^B. pp. 32, 33. 
 
42 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 (letters pT not quite certain), cf. EB. 'Names,' § 36; Phoenician 
 laipIV Sidki-dakar, quoted by Baethgen, Beitrage zur Sem. Religions- 
 gesch. p. 128 (without ref. to source) ; and the following instances from 
 cuneiform literature; quoted by Zimmern in KA T? p. 474 : SidkS, 
 king of Ashkelon, a contemporary of Hezekiah, KB. ii. 91 ; Rab-Sidki 
 in T.A. Letters, Knudtzon, no. 170 (given as Ben-Sidki by Winckler, 
 no. 125 in KB. v.) ; Sidki-ilu as the name of an eponym, B.c. 764, 
 cf. winckler, KT. p. 59 ; Subi-sidki, Johns, Deeds, no. 6, rev. 3. 
 From these we can scarcely separate the Israelite in''pns Sidki- 
 .Yahii or n*p1V Sidki-Yah. 
 
 The conclusion that Sedek is the proper name of a deity is based 
 upon a statement of Philo of Byblos that the Phoenicians had a deity 
 ■named SuStix. This writer (quoted by Eusebius, Praep.- Evan. i. 10), 
 in the course of a lengthy account of the Phoenician Pantheon, based 
 upon information derived professedly from Sanchuniaton, remarks 
 that 'Ajro tovtcov ]^A.fivvos Koi Mayor] yevia-dai Mi&top Koi SuSuk, 
 tovriiTTiv ev\vTov Ka\ SiKaiov. OSroi rifV tov &\os xPW^^ evpov. Herfi 
 2u8uK and Mio-iup are shown to correspond to the Heb. words sedek 
 •justice,' and OT^/flr 'uprightness.' The statement that these deities 
 ' discovered the use of salt ' * seems to indicate no very profound 
 acquaintance with their origin and characteristics ; and definite 
 information thus failing us, it is natural to suspect the influence of 
 Babylonian thought, in view of the fact that for the later Babylonians 
 kettuX 'justice,' and misdru 'uprightness' appear as the 'sons' of 
 §amag the Sun-god (cf KAT.^ pp. 224 «i, 370), a theory Which would 
 seem to imply hardly more than that these attributes were charac- 
 teristic 'of Sama§, or at most that they might be venerated in con- 
 nexion with his worship : cf the manner in which JJammurabi 
 pictures himself as deriving his legal code, the embodiment of 
 Justice, directly from Samas. Not very dissimilar are certain state- 
 ments in the Psalms with regard to Yahweh : ' Righteousness (or Justice, 
 sedek) shall walk before him,' 85"; 'Righteousness {sedek) and 
 Judgment are the foundation of thy throne,' 89 ■■•, cf. 97 ^ ; ' Righteous- 
 ness (sedek) and Peace have kissed,' 85 '°. 
 
 But, granted the existence of a W. Semitic deity Sedek § = Bab. 
 Kettu, the inference by no means follows that, where Sedek occurs 
 
 * Possibly we may trace connexion with the n?D n''"l3 'covenant of salt' 
 (Num. i8i9P, 2 Chr. 13 5), in which sedek 'righteousness,' and miUr 'upright- 
 ness ' would naturally be involved. Cf. La. , ^RS.^ p. 421. Upon the ceremonial 
 use of salt in covenants, cf. Gray's note on Numbers loc. cii. 
 
 X Kettu for kentu, V kdnu = Heh. |13e, /Cet/u is the Bab. equivalent of the 
 W. Semitic sedek. 
 
 § 'p^V, i.e. Sedek or Siddik, occurs as a masc. proper name in Sabaean 
 (cf. CIS. iv. no. 287, 11. 2, II, IS, etc.) ; and this is perhaps to be explained as 
 contracted from PSplVi a form which we have noticed above as occurring in 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 43 
 
 in compound proper names either predicatively or in the genitival 
 relation, it must refer to this deity. 'Justice' or 'Righteousness' 
 cannot have been pictured as the exclusive possession of the son of 
 Samas, and it is reasonable to assume that the attribute may have 
 been predicated of other deities. Thus few would dispute that 
 Sidki-Yahu means, not ' Yahu is the god Sedek,' but simply ' Yahu is 
 righteousness' {i.e. righteous), the name corresponding in form 
 precisely to Hizki-Yahu, 'Uzzi-Yahu, 'Yahu is strength' (strong). 
 Analogously it may be inferred that Sidki-Ramman denotes ' Ramman 
 is righteousness.' It would seem to follow, therefore, that where 
 Sedek is coupled, not with a proper name, but with an honorific 
 title such as 'adoni, melekh, or 'el, it is at least as probable that the 
 meaning intended is ' the (unnamed) Lord, King, or God is righteous ' 
 as that we are to find reference to (the god) Sedek described as 
 Lord, etc. 
 
 THE MEANING OF THE NAME KIRIATH-ARBA' 
 
 (cf. ch. I '» note) 
 
 The evidence which goes to prove that in Kiriath-arba, i.e. ' City of 
 Four,' 'Four' is a divine title is as follows. The name naturally 
 suggests comparison of the Assyrian Arbela between the Upper and 
 the Lower Zab. The name of this city is written in cuneiform (dlu) 
 Arbd ilu, ' (city) Number Four God.' Here it is beyond doubt that 
 the numeral Four is employed as a divine name or title. The 
 inference that Kiriath-arba' is to be explained similarly is strengthened 
 by comparison of the place-name 7K^^X n''3 'Beth-Arbel' of 
 
 Hos. 10 " (perhaps situated near Pella on the east of Jordan), where 
 we find the name Arba-ilu apparently taken directly from the 
 Assyrian or Babylonian, since the V of the Hebrew VaiN is wanting.* 
 Winckler {GI. ii. pp. 39 ff.), who adopts this explanation of Kiriath- 
 arba, further explains Be'er-sheba' in like manner as ' Well of Number 
 Seven God.' Thus fresh light is thrown upon the subject. . A god 
 Stbiiti, i.e. ' Number Seven,' was known to the Babylonians at the 
 period of the First Dynasty. Thus, for example, we find such names 
 
 Sabaean. It is worthy of observation that, in the inscription cited, the name 
 plX stands in close conjunction with DDtS'SlD. i-c- according to Derenbourg, 
 
 'Vir Solis' (Ar. j_.,*ji*JU _^1 Imru-es-sems), to be explained as ' vir Solis 
 
 cultor ' : cf. discussion in CIS. loc. cit. 
 
 * Cf. 73, Isa. 46 1, Jer. 50^, 51", taken directly from Bab. bi!u=hTa.m. 
 hV^. Heb. i)P3. 
 
44 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 as Warad (ilu) Sibittim, i.e. 'servant of (God) Sibitti': Thureau- 
 Dangin, Lettres et Contrats de Fepoque de la premiire dynastie 
 Babylonienne, p. 50 : cf. further references in Jastrow, RBA. i. p. 173, 
 The meaning of Four and Seven as divine titles is elucidated by 
 the well-known fact that the name of Sin, the Moon-god, is co^imonly 
 written in cuneiform as ' (God) Number Thirty,' thirty days being the 
 conventional length of the lunar month. It is probable that, as 
 Winckler thinks (pp. cit. p. 48), Four and Seven represent different 
 phases of the Moon-god, the former the four phases of the moon, the 
 latter the seven-day week as a lunar quarter. Evidence that the 
 worship of Sibitti extended to the West is to be found in the fact that, 
 in the list of kings of the West whom Tiglath-Pileser iv. mentions as 
 paying tribute, the king of Gebal bears the name Sibittibi'li, i.e. 
 ' Number Seven is lord ' : cf Rost, Tiglath-Pileser., p. 26. The 
 evidence here brought together is based upon the present editor's 
 note mJTS. xii. pp. 118 f. 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE NEGEB. (cf ch. i "•" notes) 
 
 The account of the conquest of 'Arad in the Negeb which is given in 
 Judg. I '^-1' cannot be considered apart from the very similar account 
 which is found in Num. 21 ^-^ (J). This latter narrative states that, 
 during the period of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness, the king of 
 ' Arad advanced against them, apparently because they were encroach- 
 ing upon his territory, fought against them, and took some of them 
 prisoners. Israel thereupon vowed a vow that, if Yahweh would 
 deliver up the Cana'anites into their hand, they would place their 
 cities under a ban {herein)., and utterly destroy every inhabitant. 
 Success attended their arms ; the vow was carried out ; and the name 
 of the district was thenceforth known as Hormah, a name id which 
 there is an assumed connexion with herem. 
 
 This narrative, which implies a northward advance of Israel from 
 Kadesh-Barnea' into the Negeb, is at variance with the preceding 
 narrative (Num. 20 "-^i JE), which apparently pictures the whole of 
 the Israelites as turning southwards from Kadesh, in order to compass 
 and avoid the land of Edom. It is also difficult to understand why 
 an imrriediate settlement in the conquered territory was not effected 
 by at least a portion of the Israelites, when the whole of the Cana'anites 
 inhabiting it had been put to the sword. 
 
 The author of the introduction to Deut., who apparently bases his 
 information upon E, gives, in i *'-*^, an account of a disorganized 
 attempt made by the Israelites to conquer the Negeb, after the 
 failure of the mission of the spies, and against the express command 
 of Moses. This was repulsed by 'the Amorite who inhabited that 
 hill-country,' Israel being put to the tout, and beaten down 'in Se'ir 
 as far as Hormah.' This narrative corresponds with Num. 14*"°, 
 which apparently combines elements from J as well as from E, and 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 45 
 
 in which the foe appears not as ' the Amorite,' but as ' the ' Amalekite 
 and the Cana'anite' {v. ^^'^). No mention is made in Deut. of 
 Israel's subsequent success, and their extirpation of the inhabitants 
 of the district ; and we are probably correct in inferring that these 
 details were not contained in the E source. 
 
 The question is further complicated by the account of the conquest 
 of 'Arad which occurs in Judg. i '^■". Here it is the tribes of Judah 
 and Simeon, together with the Kenites, who are related to have 
 effected the conquest, moving southwards from the City of Palms 
 {j.e. Jericho) subsequently to the passage of the Jordan under Joshua . 
 As in the narrative of Num., however, the origin of the name Hormah 
 is explained by the fact that the Cana'anites inhabiting a city 
 (previously named Sephath) were smitten, and the city placed under 
 the ban and utterly destroyed. 
 
 The narratives of Num. 21 and Judg. are obviously parallel, and 
 cannot, as they stand, be reconciled. It is easy to supply a reason 
 for the occurrence of the narrative in Judg. as a dupHcate to that in 
 Num., viz., the view that the conquest of Cana'an under Joshua was 
 the first settlement in the land of any of the tribes of Israel : but, if 
 the narrative of Judg. be taken to be correct in its present position, 
 it is not easy to divine why the narrative of Num. should have come 
 in at that particular place. 
 
 Adopting, then, the view that the conquest of 'Arad in the Negeb 
 took place through a tribal movement northward from the neighbour- 
 hood of Kadesh, the inference becomes plausible that this movement 
 was effected, as related in Judg., by the tribes of Judah and Simeon 
 in alliance with the Kenites. It is a well-known fact that the tribe of 
 Judah consisted of mixed elements : the genealogy of 1 Chr. 2 
 includes among the descendants of Judah the North Arabian tribes 
 of the Kenites and Jerahme'elites, and the Clan of Caleb which was of 
 Kenizzite, i.e. of Edomite, origin (cf. Gen. 36^^). Whether or not 
 these clans originally formed an integral part of the tribe of Judah, it 
 is clear that so early as the days of David they were regarded as 
 standing in a very intimate relation to the tribe. In i Sam. 27^"-, 
 which relates David's stay as an outlaw with Achish king of Gath, we 
 read that David made pretence to Achish that his occasional raids 
 were directed ' against the Negeb of Judah, and against the Negeb of 
 the Jerahme'elites, and against the Negeb of the Kenites ' ; and 
 Achish remarks to himself with satisfaction, 'He hath made his 
 people Israel utterly to abhor him ; therefore he shall be my servant 
 for ever.' Again, in i Sam. '30 ^f^'', David sends presents 'of the 
 spoil of the enemies of Yahweh' to the Judaeans of the Negeb, 
 including the Jerahme'elites and the Kenites. 
 
 If, then, clans which originally inhabited the region south of the 
 Negeb are subsequently found occupying the Negeb and forming 
 part of the tribe of Judah, what is more probable than that this 
 change of locality was effected through conquests gained in the 
 
46 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Negeb in a movement directly northwards, as is suggested by the 
 narrative of Num. 21 ? 
 
 We seem, in fact, to be upon the track of a Calibbite tradition, 
 embodied in the Judaean document J, which originally narrated the 
 way in which this northward movement was effected by the clan of 
 Caleb, and probably other kindred clans. It may be conjectured 
 that this tradition lies at the bottom of the older (JE) narrative of the 
 spies which is combined with the P narrative in Num. 13 and 14.* 
 In this older narrative (in contrast to that of P) it is the Negeb only 
 which is explored ; Caleb is the only spy who^ is mentioned by name ; 
 and it is Caleb only who maintains, against the opinion of the other 
 spies, that the conquest of the district is quite a feasible undertaking, 
 in spite of the race of giants — the sons of 'Anak— inhabiting it:— 
 ' We can easily go up and possess it, for we are well able to over- 
 come it' (Num. 13^°). 
 
 As a matter of fact, the conquest of these sons or clans of 'Anak 
 and their cities is directly ascribed to Caleb in Josh. 15 "'"■= 
 Judg. I *-^'"' (" p»'')"-'5 from the narrative of J. Is it not, then, at 
 least a plausibte' theory that the original Calibbite story related that 
 Cale>b, after first spying out the Negeb, then proceeded to go up and 
 conquer it ? 
 
 It seems probable that the present form of the combined JE narra- 
 tive of the spies, which makes the project of conquest fail in spite of 
 Caleb's protests, is due to the theory that the conquest of any part of 
 Canaan did not take place until the country as a whole was invaded 
 by a combined movement from the east made by the whole of the 
 tribes under the leadership of Joshua'. This theory, as we have seenj 
 accounts for the present form of Judg. i^"-^', which makes the con- 
 quest of the Negeb to have been effected through a movement which 
 took its start from Jericho. 
 
 It is the Judaean document J which embodies the Calibbite tradition 
 in Num. 21 : cf. 'the Cana'anite' in v.\ The Ephraimite E, on the 
 other hand (which is naturally the principal repository of the Joshua - 
 tradition), from which is drawn the narrative which is found in 
 Deut. l*^'*° (cf. 'the Amorite' in w**), while mentioning the defeat 
 of the Israelites, knows nothing, or at any rate will have nothing, of 
 the subsequent victory as narrated by J. 
 
 Our inference, then, is that clans which went to form, the tribe of 
 Judah (including North Arabian clans then or subsequently embodied 
 in the tribe) advanced northward from Kadesh-Barnea ; and, in com- 
 bination with the remnant of the tribe of Sime'on (which, after a 
 disastrous attempt to effect a settlement in Central Palestine, appears 
 to have moved southward : cf. note on i ^), conquered the territory- oi 
 'Arad, and settled down in it, afterwards advancing their conquests 
 
 * In Gray's Numbers {ICC), pp. 130 ff., the two narratives of the spie 
 are arranged in parallel columns, and will be found each to read nearly cob 
 linuously. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 47 
 
 still farther north, into the country which is known to us later on as 
 the hill-country of Judah. 
 
 If this inference be true, it will help to explain to us a very striking 
 fact in the later history, viz. the isolation of Judah and Simeon from 
 the rest of the tribes. From the Song of Deborah, which celebrates 
 the great victory over the forces of Sisera, it is clear that an organized 
 attempt was made on that occasion to unite the tribes of Israel against 
 the Cana'anites. Ten tribes, including the tribes from the eastern side 
 of Jordan, are mentioned, either for praise as having taken part in the 
 contest, or for blame as having held aloof: Judah and Simeon alone 
 remain unnoticed. We must infer, therefore, that at that period they 
 were so far isolated from the rest of the tribes that they were not even 
 expected to take part in the common interests of Israel, and therefore 
 received no call to arms. 
 
 This single instance is in itself so striking, that we need do no more 
 than allude briefly in passing to the fierce rivalry which is pictured as 
 existing between the men of Israel and the men of Judah in the days 
 of David (2 Sam. 19*'*'), and to the fact that the superficial union 
 between Judah and the rest of the tribes which was eflfected under 
 Saul, David, and Solomon, was readily dissolved at the commence- 
 ment of Rehobo'am's reign. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL FORM OF J'S ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLE- 
 MENT OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL IN CANAAN 
 
 Bu. has displayed great skill and critical insight in reconstructing 
 J's narrative in the form in which it may be supposed originally to 
 have stood : cf. RS. pp. 84 ff. The following reconstruction is 
 indebted to him throughout, but exhibits in detail such variations as 
 have been adopted in the notes on the text, with citation of Bu.'s 
 readings in the footnotes. 
 Judg. I'^P*" And the children of Israel enquired of Yahweh, 
 
 saying, 'Who shall. go up for us first against the 
 
 1 2 Cana'anites to fight against them?' And Yahweh 
 said, 'Judah shall go up: behold, I have given the 
 
 1 3 land into his hand.' And Judah said to Sime'on his 
 brother, ' Go up with me into my lot, that we may 
 fight with the Cana'anites, and I also will go up with 
 
 {16 thee into thy lot.' So Sime'on went with him. And 
 
 emended after they came upon Adoni-sedek," the king of Jerusalem, 
 Josh. 10' and they fought against him, and smote the Cana'an- 
 ,6 ites and the Perizzites. And Adoni-sedek" fled ; and 
 
 they pursued after him, and captured him, and cut 
 1 7 off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni-sedek° 
 
 " Bu. ' Adoni-bezek.' 
 
48 THK BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 said, 'Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their 
 great toes cut off, used to pick up food under my 
 table : as I did, so hath God requited me.' And 
 they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 
 I w And Yahweh was with Judah, and he gained posses- 
 
 sion of the hill-country; for he was not able to 
 dispossess the inhabitants of the Vale, because they 
 ri^' after had chariots of iron. But the Jebusites dwelling in 
 
 \ Josh. 15^^ Jerusalem the children of Judah could not dispossess ; 
 and the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Judah in 
 Jerusalem, unto this day. 
 I J ao.iobfi h y^ji(j tiiey gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had 
 
 \|| Josh. 15 ^^ bidden' : and he dispossessed from thence the three 
 sons of 'Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. 
 f I " after And he went up thence against the inhabitants of 
 
 \Josh. 15'^ Debir. (Now the name of Debir formerly was 
 fi^^ Kiriath-sepher.) And Caleb said, 'He that smiteth 
 
 \|| Josh. 15 " Kiriath-sepher, and taketh it, I will give him 'Achsah 
 J I '5 my daughter as wife.' And ' Othniel, the son of 
 
 \\\ Josh. 15" Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it : and he gave 
 
 {i^* him 'Achsah his daughter as wife. And when she 
 
 II Josh. 15 ^^ came, he incited her to ask of her father a field : and 
 she lighted down from off the ass ; and Caleb said 
 J I '^ to her, ' What wouldest thou ? ' And she said to him, 
 
 \|| Josh. 15 '^ ' Give me a present ; for thou hast set me in the'land 
 of the Negeb ; so give me springs of water.' And 
 Caleb gave her the upper spring and the lower spring. 
 
 1 '° And Hobab the Kenite, the father-in-law of Moses, 
 
 went up from the City of Palms with the children 
 of Judah into the wilderness of Judah which is "in 
 the Negeb of ' Arad" ; and he went and dwelt with 
 
 i'^ the Amalekites. And the border of the Edomites 
 
 was from the ascent of 'Akrabbim,* from the Crag 
 and upwards.'' _ 
 
 i^' And Judah went with Sime'on his brother, and 
 
 smote the Cana'anites who inhabited Sephath, and 
 devoted it to destruction. And the name of the city 
 was called Hormah. 
 
 I ^^ And the house of Joseph also went up to ' Ai : and 
 
 i^^" Joshua' was with them. . . .' And the house of 
 
 Joseph made a reconnaissance at Bethel. (Now the 
 
 *— * Bu. ' And to Caleb, the son of Kenaz, there was given an inheritance 
 among the children of Judah, namely Hebron.' 
 
 '-' Bu. ' at the descent of 'Arad.' 
 
 *=^-^ Bu. 'to Petra and beyond.' 
 
 ' Here Bu. is probably right in supposing that the document originally related 
 the conquest of 'Ai, as in Josh. 8. 
 
THE BOOK OP JUDGES 49 
 
 name of the city formerly was Luz.) And the 
 watchers saw a man coming out of the city/ and 
 they laid hold on him, ^ and said to him, ' Show us, 
 we pray thee, the way to enter the city, and we will 
 deal kindly with thee.' So he showed them the way to 
 enter the city, and they smote the city at the edge of 
 the sword ; but the man and all his clan they let go. 
 And the man went to the land of the Hittites, and 
 built a city, and called its name Luz : that is its 
 name unto this day. 
 
 "And the Angel of Yahweh went up from Gilgal 
 unto Bethel : and they sacrificed there to Yahweh." 
 
 And Manasseh could not dispossess Beth-she'an and 
 its dependencies, and Ta'anach and its dependencies, 
 and the inhabitants of Ible'am and its dependencies, 
 and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependencies, 
 * and the inhabitants of Dor and its dependencies '' ; 
 but the Cana'anites persisted in dwelling in this land, 
 fl^^ And when Israel was waxen strong, they impressed 
 
 \|| Josh. 171^ the Cana'anites for labour-gangs, and did not dis- 
 possess them at all. 
 f i^ And Ephraim did not dispossess the Cana'anites 
 
 til Josh. 16'° who dwelt in Gezer: but the Cana'anites dwelt in the 
 midst of Ephraim ' unto this day,' and became toiling 
 labour-gangs. 
 Josh. 17" 'And the house of Joseph spake unto Joshua', 
 
 saying, 'Why hast thou given me but one lot and 
 one territory for an inheritance, seeing that I am 
 
 f—-f Not adopted by Bu. The passage is supplied from E : cf. note ad loc, 
 
 e-e This is placed by Bu. at the close of the narrative, after mention of the 
 settlement of the other tribes. 
 
 *-* Bu. follows the order of ®. For the reasons for the transposition, cf. 
 note ad loc. 
 
 M Omitted by Bu. 
 
 * The fact that Josh. 1714-18 was originally derived from the J narrative is 
 clearly shown by the phraseology ; cf. Bu. if 5. p. 32. That the subject in i/."» 
 should be ' the house of Joseph ' and not ' ihe children of Joseph ' appears from 
 w." and from the singulars '? 'to me,' iJXI 'and I,' etc., in ■vA*' and else- 
 where. It is impossible, however, to derive any consistent sense from the 
 section as it stands in Jg. The house of Joseph complain that they have only 
 received one lot, which is insufficient for their numbers, the extent of this lot 
 being further diminished owing to the fact that part of it falls in the vale, where 
 the Cana'anites are too strong to be ousted by them owing to their possession 
 of iron chariots (cf. Judg. i !», 4'). Joshua' , in acknowledging the justice of their 
 protest, recommends them to 'go up ' into the forest and cut down for them- 
 selves (».15), this forest being further described as in 'hill-country' in i-.is. 
 That the reference, however, cannot be to any part of the hill-country west of 
 Jordan appears to be clear. The situation presupposed is that the west Jordan 
 
 D 
 
so THE BOOK OP JUDGES 
 
 a great people, forasmuch as hitherto Yahweh hath 
 
 Josh. 17" blessed me? The hill-country doth not suffice for 
 
 me : and all the Cana'anites that dwell in the land of 
 
 the vale have chariots of iron, both they that are in 
 
 Beth-she'an and its dependencies, and they that are 
 
 Josh. 17" in the vale of Jezre'el.' And Joshua' said unto the 
 
 house of Joseph, ' Thou art a great people, and hast 
 
 Josh. i7i8aa great power : thou shalt not have one lot only. For 
 
 Josh. 17 '^"/Sb the hill-country of Gile'ad shall be thine : get thee up 
 
 into the forest and cut down for thyself there ; since 
 
 the hill-country of Ephrairri is too narrow for thee.' 
 
 Num. 32 30 i Then Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gile'ad, 
 
 and took it,' and dispossessed the Amorites that were' 
 
 country has already been allotted among the tribes, and the. house of Joseph 
 have not found the difficulties of gaining a footing in the portion of hill-country 
 (in contrast to the vale) allotted to them to be insuperable. Thus Bu. suggests, 
 with great plausibility, that the hill-country which Joshua' invites them to conquer 
 is the hill-country of GiUad, which is appropriately described as IJJ' forest or 
 
 jungle-land: cf. 2 Sam. 18 ^-s-". As the result of Joshua"s suggestion there 
 follows the conquest of districts in Gile'ad by different clans of Manasseh, as 
 described in the passages from Num. given above, which may plausibly be taken 
 as the continuation of our narrative. If Bu. 's view of the situation be correct, 
 ' Gile'ad ' in Josh. lyisa may be supposed to have been excised by the priestly 
 redactor of this section of Josh., to whom is due the general dislocation of 
 the J passage in question. Marks of his hand are to be seen in the plurals ».", 
 ' And the children of Joseph spake ' (an alteration, noticed above), v. 1*', ' And' 
 the children of Joseph said' (addition necessitated by the dislocation of j/.is), 
 
 !13P ' to us ' (alteration of 'p 'to me'), in the explanatory 'to Ephraim and to 
 
 Manasseh,' z;. ", and in the P phrase ITlXXri 'its goings out,' v.'^. The 
 
 main part of this final verse, with its five times repeated 13 and its apparent 
 ascription of iron chariots to the Cana'anites inhabiting the hill-country, appears 
 in its present form to be due to this editor as a weak summary of his view of the 
 situation, viz. that what is contemplated is a further extended conquest west of 
 Jordan. The words of k." D''SEnm '•nsn pS3 ' in the land of the Perizzites 
 and the Rephaim,' which are wanting in ffi, are probably merely a corrupt 
 
 doublet of the following D''naS in ~{> }»« 13, 'since the hill-country of 
 Ephraim is too narrow for thee. ' 
 
 Bu. , to whom is due the merit of this reconstruction, varies in the following 
 details. In v. iH' he retains X^ ' to us ' of !§, and reconstructs v. i«i> by the help 
 
 of w. isb: — 'And the Cana'anites which dwell in the vale I cannot dispossess, since 
 they are too strong for me. For they have chariots of iron, both they that are 
 in Beth-she'an,' etc. After v. i6i> he adds the words of v. i8a, ■ and its goings out 
 shall be thine. ' 
 
 t-t m n'13p*1 . . . "|i3D ''33 IS^si. m, however, Kal eTOpeiBn vibs Mo>:«() 
 . . . Kal l\a/3«' airrii', points to the text adopted above, which is favoured by 
 the singular verb B'ni'l in K, and by the parallelism of kw. ''1'*2. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGJES Jt 
 
 Num. 32 *' therein. And Ja'ir the son of Manasseh went and 
 
 took the tent-villages thereof, and called them the 
 Num. 32" tent-villages of Ja'ir. And Nobah went and took 
 
 Kenath and its dependencies, and called it Nobah 
 Josh. 13I' after his own name. But the children of Israel™ did 
 
 not dispossess the Geshurites and the Ma'acathites; 
 
 but Geshur and Ma'acath dwelt in the midst of 
 
 Israel, unto this day. 
 
 n 
 J 30 ...... 
 
 Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of 
 
 Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol ; but the 
 
 Cana'anites dwelt in the midst of them, and became 
 
 labour-gangs. 
 
 ' Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of 'Acco, 
 
 nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor Mahaleb," nor 
 32 • ' . • ' 
 
 ' Achzib, nor Aphik, nor Rehob : but the Asherites 
 
 dwelt in the midst of the Cana'anites inhabiting the 
 land ; for they did not dispossess them. 
 
 ' Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth- 
 
 shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-'anath ; but they 
 dwelt in the midst of the Cana'anites inhabiting the 
 land ; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth- 
 'anath became labour-gangs for them. 
 
 ' And the Cana'anites'' pressed the children of Dan 
 
 into the hill-country ; for they did not suffer them to 
 
 Josh. ig come down into the vale. 'So the border of the 
 
 children of Dan was too strait for them'; and the 
 children of Dan went up, and fought with Lesham, 
 and took it, and smote it at the edge of the sword, 
 and took possession of it, and dwelt therein ; and 
 they called Lesham, Dan, after the name of Dan 
 
 1^ their father. But the Cana'anites" persisted in 
 
 dwelling in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Sha'albim: 
 
 "■ Possibly the original may here have read ' the children of Manasseh.' The 
 reading 'in the midst of Israel' {with reference to the clans of Manasseh) in the 
 latter half of the verse is favoured by the analogy of ffi'- in Judg. 1 33 which reads, 
 with reference to Naphtali, xal Kari^K-riffev la-parfX, in place of 5S nty*! simply. 
 Cf. SS. p. 39. 
 
 » Here Bu. supposes a lacuna for the account of the settlements of Benjamin 
 and then Issachar. 
 
 ' Bu. reads Aljlab, and adds Helbah after Achzib, as in IS- 
 
 f Bu. ' Amorites, ' as in IS- 
 
 ?-? Reading IV'1 in place of Vt KV'I Bu., following ffi, reads DHD Ip'V'l 
 
 Qn^nj ^33 ' so they made the border of their inheritance too strait for them. ' 
 
S2 The Booic OF JUDGES 
 
 yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed/ and 
 
 they became labour-gangs.' 
 
 2 ^^^ So Yahweh left these nations, not expelling them 
 
 3 ^^ quickly, only on account of the generations of the 
 3*" children of Israel, to teach them war.' And the 
 
 children of Israel dwelt in the midst of the Cana'an- 
 3 ° ites ; and they took their daughters to themselves 
 
 for wives, and their own daughters they gave to 
 their sons ; and they served their gods. 
 
 2. 6-3. 6. Introduction to the History of the Judges. 
 
 This section forms the introduction to the Book of Judges as it 
 left the hand of the main editor (R^^^) : cf Introd. p. xxxv. That it is 
 not homogeneous is clear even from a cursory examination ; but the 
 analysis is difficult, and scholars are not agreed upon points of detail. 
 
 The narrative of the Book of Joshua' is resumed in 2 ^^ by repeti- 
 tion of Josh. 2428S1. The two passages are identical except for small 
 verbal variations, and for the different order in which the verse occurs 
 which states that the people (Josh. 'Israel') served Yahweh during 
 the lifetime of Joshua' and the elders who survived him (in Josh. 24'' 
 after the mention of Joshua 's death, in Judg. 2 ' before it). Critics 
 are agreed in assigning this section to E, with the exception of 
 Judg. 2' = Josh. 24^', which is regarded as editorial. That this verse 
 should belong to E is demanded, however, by the E narrative in 
 Josh. 24 '"-2*: cf especially ^/i/. i8b.19.21.22.24_ if^ according to E, the 
 people, in response to Joshua''s last appeal, pledged themselves to 
 serve Yahweh, the narrative of E (upon the assumption that it went 
 on to relate the history of the Judges : cf Introd. p. xxxviii) must 
 have stated that this promise was carried out up to a certain point. 
 Such a statement is found in Judg. 2 '. 
 
 The same conclusion as to the origin of this verse appears to be 
 demanded by what follows. Judg. 2'", which forms the natural 
 continuation of v.'^ in the E narrative, certainly presupposes w.'; 
 cf especially v. '', ' who had seen (Josh. ' known ') all the great work of 
 Yahweh which he had wrought for Israel,' with v.^", 'who knew not 
 Yahweh nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel.' To assign 
 w.i° as well as v.'' to the main editor (whether we call him R°, or, 
 according to our theory, R^'') seems to be forbidden by the fact that 
 V. '" is a necessary link in the introduction to E's narrative of the 
 Judges, which, as appears below, can be traced in the verses which 
 follow, and which may be expected to read continuously, since there 
 is no reason to suppose that R"^ " felt the need of excising any portion 
 of it. Moreover, if z/.' be editorial and not part of E, it is not clear 
 
 <' Bu. adds 'against the AmoHtes.' 
 
 -t Here Bu. adds the list of nations given in 3 ', which we assign to R". 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 53 
 
 how it came to be incorporated both in Josh, and Judg.; for in each 
 case the editor was presumably drawing directly from the pre- 
 Deuteronomic work of R'^.* 
 
 The small variations between the two recensions of these verses 
 may be dismissed in a few words. It is clear from the narrative of 
 Josh. 24 that 1/.^' was originally intended by E to round off and 
 conclude the account of Joshua's last words which precedes; and 
 for this purpose the statement that 'Joshua' dismissed the people 
 every man to his inheritance,' is obviously sufficient. In Judg. 2°) 
 however, this sentence, which concludes a section of E, is taken by 
 R^^ to introduce what he has to narrate about the events which 
 followed the settlement. It may be assumed, therefore, that the 
 expanded form of v.^ represents an adaptation due to R^^. The 
 disappearance from v. ^ of the E phrase, ' and it came to pass after 
 these things,' which occurs in the corresponding v.'"^ of Josh. 24, is 
 of course due to the fact that the ' things ' referred to have no place 
 in Judg. If Judg. 2 1° be rightly regarded as forming part of E, it 
 follows that 2 ^ is in its original position with regard to its context, 
 since the connexion between 2 '" and 2 ' cannot be broken. The posi- 
 tion of Josh. 24 '' must therefore have been altered by the redactor.^ 
 
 In the verses which follow, a difference in the point of view is 
 evident In z/j/.^'-'" Israel's punishment for idolatry is that they are 
 delivered into the hands of the surrounding nations ; as we find, in 
 fact, to be the case in the narrative of the Judges which follows. In 
 T/i*. *'•'', however, the punishment consists in Yahweh's refusal to inter- 
 pose any further in order ' to dispossess any from before them of the 
 nations which Joshua' left when he died ' ; obviously meaning the races 
 still remaining within the land after the settlement of the tribes and 
 their merely partial conquest. This aspect, then, of Yahweh's relation 
 to Israel is not strictly apposite to what follows in Judg., in so far as 
 it cannot have been specially framed in order to introduce the events 
 which follow in the book ; these events, as we have noticed above, 
 serving rather to illustrate the former point of view. 
 
 Moreover, the purpose for which the nations still remaining after 
 Joshua''s death are here stated to have been left by Yahweh is not 
 that of 2 "'', where the surrounding nations are employed in order 
 Xo punish idolatrous Israel. It is stated in 2 2', 3'* to be 'in order 
 
 * The only solution, upon the assumption of the Deuteronomic origin of the 
 verse, would seem to be that it may have been inserted in Josh, by a later hand 
 in order to make Josh. 24^81 square exactly with Judg. 2^^. The converse 
 process (insertion from Josh, into Judg.) is excluded by the facts noticed above. 
 
 The only reason for the assigning of ».' to the editor appears to be the occur- 
 rence of the D phrase ' who had prolonged days ' ; but there is no reason why 
 this phrase should not have been adopted by the D school from E (just as other 
 phrases, e.g. D''"inS DTl^X 'other gods,' have been), and in fact it cannot be 
 proved that the similar phrase 'that thy days may prolong themselves' in 
 Ex. Z0I2 did not originally belong to E. 
 
 X In ffiB of Josh, the verse stands in the same position as in Judg. 
 
54 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 to prove Israel by them.' The method of ' proof,' however, is explained 
 in two different ways. In 2 ^2, 3 ' it is- a religious probation— to test 
 theadhesion of Israel to Yahweh's precepts ('the ways or commaiids 
 of Yahweh'); but in 3'-^ it is explained simply as directeci towards 
 keeping the successive generations of the children of Israel exercised 
 in the use of arms, and is therefore, it may be inferred, devoid of any 
 strictly religious purpose. , These remaining nations, again, which 
 form Yahweh's instrument of probation, appear, as mentioned in 3^ 
 to be (with the exception of 'all the Cana'anites') surrounding ra.'am\% 
 inconsistently with 2 *^', but in accordance with 2 ''", where it is 
 these nations that form Yahweh's instrument of punishment. Once 
 more, 3^ harks back to the point of view of a^''-^', and it is the races 
 within Canaan with whom the writer is concerned. 
 
 Looking once more at 2 "-'^j the existence in these verses of a duplica- 
 tion of statement can hardly escape notice. Thus ^/.'^ repeats z/. '2, 
 and 1^1/. 1*-'^ are in substance the same as wz/.'*". If, however, we 
 remove one set of duplicates, viz. wz/.'^iS-Wj it will be found that the 
 remainder, with the exception of wz'."''^-'*, is nearly identical in 
 wording with the pragmatic framework of the book as seen in the 
 introductions to the histories of the various judges. The closeness 
 of the parallel may best be seen by a comparison with 3 ^:° : — 
 
 2 " And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight 
 
 3 '* And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight 
 
 2 '^ of Yahweh, and they forsook Yahweh and served the 
 
 3 "" of Yahweh, and they forgat Yahweh their God, and served the 
 
 2^^^ Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts. And the anger of Yahweh was 
 3^ Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts. And the anger of Yahweh was 
 
 2'*" kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand 
 3' kindled against Israel, 
 
 2 Ha Qf spoilers and they spoiled them, and he sold them into 
 3* and he sold them into 
 
 2 ^''^ the hand of their enemies round about. 
 
 3 ^ the hand of Cushari-rish'athaitn, king of Aram-naharaim : and 
 
 3' the children of Israel served Cushan-rish'athaim eight years. 
 
 2 '^ < And the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh,> and Yahweh 
 
 3 ^ And the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh, and Yahweh 
 2 '* raised up judges, and they saved 
 3^ raised up a saviour for the children of Israel, and he saved 
 
 2 '' them from the hand of their spoilers. 
 
 3' thfem ... ' 
 
 • ' ■■■ I 
 
 This framework is due to the main editor, who appears (as has 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 55 
 
 been argued in the Introd. pp. xli ff.) to have been a representative of 
 the later school of E. 
 
 The words in a""-'", which find no parallel in 3'-^ ('and he delivered 
 them into the hand of the spoilers and they spoiled them ' ; ' from 
 the hand of their spoilers '), may be by a later hand (D^ ; cf. 2 Kgs. 
 17"°) ; but it is more likely that they belong to R"^", who in referring 
 to Israel's enemies generally at the commencement of his history, 
 may be expected to use some emphasis and even repetition (2 "»). 
 The clause missing in |^, 'And the children of Israel cried unto 
 Yahweh,' seems necessary to complete the nexus, and has been 
 supplied in accordance with 3°-'^, 4^ 6°, 10'°. 
 
 The verses, however, which appear not to have originally formed 
 part of this writer's scheme, viz. ■jyz/.i^.Hb^.is.is.ig^ ^j.g j^gj- ^j^g verses 
 which exhibit very markedly the phraseology of Deuteronomy* ; and 
 we can hardly err therefore in regarding them as additions made in 
 later times by a member of the Deuteronomic school (D^). 
 
 220-3' is very difficult to analyse with any certainty. If, as seems 
 probable, E's narrative in 2^"^° is continued by v.^^ (notice E's 
 expression 'the Ba'als and the 'Ashtarts'), vv?"'^^ form the appropriate 
 sequence. Notice the opening phrase, ' So the anger of Yahweh was 
 kindled against Israel,' which has formed the text of the editorial 
 expansion of R"^^ in ^/^/"^•l=■". 
 
 Of the two methods of probation noticed above, that which 
 consists in religious proving (3 *) may be regarded as due to E (nsp in 
 this sense is characteristic : cf CH.-''^ 192 a). The somewhat awk- 
 wardly inserted interpolation 2 "^ which also refers to this reUgious pro- 
 bation, is marked by its phraseology as Deuteronomic. The alternative 
 method of probation (' to teach them war,' 3 2') as devoid of religious 
 purpose, may be judged to be older than the other, and is therefore 
 probably to be assigned to J. This seems to connect on to 2^3'; 
 which may very well be the sequel to the J narrative in 1 1-2 ^, which 
 gives a detailed account of the foreign races within Palestine which 
 the different tribes were unable to expel. Notice the expression 
 ' these nations,' clearly referring to nations just previously mentioned. 
 The immediate sequel to ■^'^ is s^*", which relates how Israel settled 
 down among the Cana'anites, intermarrying with them and adopting 
 their religious practices ('Cana'anites,' J's general term for the 
 inhabitants of Palestine : cf i = note. Notice also the J phrase 
 'dwelt in the midst of). ■2.''-^'° (back-reference to 221"), and 3^" (list 
 of races) exhibit the hand of the redactor of J and E. 
 
 The summary of nations 'which Yahweh left to prove Israel by 
 them,' 3^»', must be due to D^: cf the similar Deuteronomic 
 summary in Josh. 13^ ff. Finally, the awkwardly placed explanatory 
 glosses in 3 >''•"' seem to be due to the latest hand of all (R""). 
 
 * Cf. especially the phrases ' go after other gods,' i/i/."i«, ' vex Yahweh,' v. ", 
 'as Yahweh had spoken and as Yahweh had sworn to them,' i/."». Cf. CH.d 85, 
 91, loji- ; phrases of Rd in Kings in DB. ii. pp. 860 f., nos. 32, 39. 
 
56 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [2. 6. 7. 8. 9. 
 
 6. E So Joshua' dismissed the people, R^' and the children 
 of Israel went E every man to his inheritance ^^' to possess the 
 land. 7. E And the people served Yahweh all the days of 
 Joshua', and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, 
 who had seen all the great work of Yahweh which he had wrought 
 for Israel. 8. And Joshua' the son of Nun, the servant of 
 Yahweh, died, aged one hundred and ten years. 9. And they 
 buried him within the boundary of his inheritance, in Timnath- 
 heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of mount 
 
 2, 6. dismissed the- people. From Shechem ; where, according to 
 . Josh. 24 '-8 E, they had been assembled by Joshua' to receive his final 
 charge. 
 
 7. the elders. The sheikhs of the various tribal clans who were the 
 representatives of permanent official authority in matters social and 
 religious. They appear from the earliest times, both in J (Ex. 3 '°i', 
 12 21) and E (Ex. 17", 18 12, 19 7, 24 ■•S"). 
 
 outlived. Lit. 'prolonged days after.' Upon the use of the 
 phrase in this passage, ci. footnote, p. 53. 
 
 ■who had seen, etc. || Josh. 24^' 'who had known, etc' So in our 
 passage ffi i'yvaxrav, U 'noverant.' The expression 'all the great 
 work of Yahweh' probably includes (as Mo. notices) not merely the 
 conquest of Cana' an, but also the wonderful events of the Exodus and 
 wilderness-wanderings. Cf. Deut. n', where the same phrase is 
 employed with regard to these latter. 
 
 8. tAe servant of Yahweh. This title, which is only applied to 
 Joshua' here and in {| Josh. 24 ^9, is very frequently used with reference 
 to Moses: so in Deut. 34°, Josh, i^ (both E), Josh. i"'5, S^'-^', 
 1 1 12, 128, 138, 14?, 18'', 22 2-4-5 (all R°), 2 Kgs. 18 12 (R°), 2 Chr. 
 i», 248 (cf. 'servant of God,' 2 Chr. 24 s, Neh. 10 2^, %^, Dan. 9"). 
 It is apphed to David in the headings of Pss. 18 and 36, and to the 
 nation of Israel in Isa. 42 '^f- Similarly, 'my servant' or 'my 
 servants ' (in Yahweh's mouth), ' his servants ' are employed as a 
 description of the outstanding figures of Israel's history, especially 
 the prophets, and the idealized representative of Israel in Isa. 40 IF. ; 
 the idea embodied being that of vocation to a special mission : cf 
 the editor's Outlines of O. T. Theology, pp. 112 ff. 
 
 9. Timnath-heres. || Josh. 24^" and 19°" Timnath-serah, doubtless 
 an intentional metathesis made by a later scribe : cf. note on Har- 
 heres, ch. i'^ The same alteration appears in a few MSS. of ?§, and 
 in U, S^ in our passage. 
 
 The site of this city is uncertain. Christian tradition, as repre- 
 sented by Eusebius and Jerome, identifies it with the Timnah of 
 Gen. 38 " (05. 261 ^^ Ba^iva), i.e. the modern Tibneh, ten miles north- 
 west of Bethel. About three miles to the east of Tibneh is Kefr Isfla', 
 
2. lo. II. 12. 13.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 57 
 
 Ga'ash. 10. And also all that generation were gathered unto their 
 fathers ; and there arose another generation after them who knew 
 not Yahweh, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel. 
 
 II. ^^' And the children of Israel did that which was evil in 
 the sight of Yahweh, [ ] 12. D» and forsook Yahweh the God of 
 their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt ; 
 and they went after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who 
 were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them j 
 and they vexed Yahweh. 13. E And they forsook Yahweh, and 
 
 i.e. 'Joshua''s village.' Samaritan tradition, however, claims as the 
 site the modern Kefr Haris, some nine miles south-south-west of 
 Nablus, which is said to have been the burial-place of both Joshua' 
 and Caleb. Cf. Buhl, Geogr. p. 170. 
 
 mount Gdash. The site is unknown. ' The wadys of Ga'ash ' are 
 mentioned in 2 Sam. 23'"=! Chr. li''; and these Buhl conjectures 
 to be the valleys close to Tibneh on the west : Geogr. p. loi. 
 
 10. were gathered unto their fathers. Elsewhere the expression 
 used (in every case in P) is 'gathered unto his kindred' (VBy) • 
 so Gen. 258", 3529^ 4933^ Num. 20^4, Deut. 32 6°; cf. Num. 27", 312. 
 
 11. At the end of the verse, % (with the Versions) adds 'and they 
 served the Ba'als,' a statement which is redundant by the side of 
 z*.", and probably represents an early accidental repetition. 
 
 12. went after . . . round about them. A reminiscence of Deut. 6 ". 
 
 13. the Baals. Reading plur. D''i'j;3^ (cf. w"'' |§) in place of the 
 
 sing. ?V3?.* The title Ba'al signifies ' owner ' or ' possessor,' and was 
 
 applied by the Western Semites to a deity as owner of a special 
 sphere of influence, whether in the heavens, e.g. Ba'al-zebul, ' owner 
 of the (heavenly) mansion ' (cf. i ^ note), and, among the Phoenicians 
 and Aramaeans, Ba'al-shamgm, ' owner of the heavens ' ; or of a 
 special locality or city where his worship was practised, e.g. Ba'al- 
 Hermon, and Phoenician Ba'al-Sidon, Baal-Lebanon, etc. ; or of a 
 special property, e.g. Ba'al-berith, 'owner of a covenant' worshipped 
 at Shechem, ch. 8 ^3, 9 ♦ ; Baal-Gad, the name of a locality where the 
 Ba'al was worshipped as the god of fortune, Josh. 11", 12', 13 ^ 
 The plur. 'the Baals' refers to the different local Baals among the 
 Cana'anites. Upon the use of the title as applied to Yahweh in early 
 times, cf. the present editor's Outlines of O. T. Theology, pp. 27 ff. 
 
 * Mo. emends 'served the Ba'als, etc.,' into 'burned incense (l"lDp"'l) 
 
 to the Ba'als, etc.,' on the ground that 'p ISy for "I3V with accus. is un- 
 exampled.' But, as Bu. rightly remarks, even if the occurrence of the verb with 
 this constr. in Jer. 44' be regarded as a gloss (as by Mo.), the constr. is found 
 
 twice over in I Sam. 4 9 (probably E): DSij n3V ItJ'W Cl^j;!' naj/fl p- 
 
S8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [2. 13. 
 
 served the Ba'airs^ and the "Ashtarts. 14. ^^' So the anger ol 
 Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he gave them into the 
 hand of spoilers, and they spoiled them, and he sold them into 
 the hand of their enemies round about, D* and they were not 
 
 Baal being thus not the proper name of a deity, but a title applied 
 to many local Cana'anite deities, it is impossible to define any special 
 characteristic which may have been common to all. We can only 
 infer from such passages as Hos. a^-^-'^ (7.io,i4 1^^ tJJJ^^ (-jig ga'als were 
 commonly regarded as the givers of agricultural fertility, and were 
 therefore worshipped in a round of agricultural festivals : cf cA. 9 '\ 
 This view is confirmed by the common connexion of the Ba'als with 
 the 'Ashtarts, on which see noU following. 
 
 i/ie 'Ashtarts. The local forms of the goddess 'Ashtart. The 
 vocalization Ashtoreth, which meets us everywhere in JH, ig an 
 intentional alteration made by the introduction of the vowels oi 
 boieth, ' shame ' or ' shameful thing,' in order to indicate that this 
 word is to be substituted in reading, ffi, however, always renders 
 f) Aa-TapTT], which doubtless nearly preserves the true pronunciation.* 
 The same substitution of the vowels of boseth has been made in 
 Molech for Melech, 'king,' the god in whose worship the Israelites 
 made their children to pass through the fire ; and the word boht^i is 
 substituted for Baal in Hos. 9 '", Jer. 3 ^*, 11 ■', and in the proper 
 names Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth, Jerubbesheth : cf note on 'Jerub- 
 ba'al, ch. 6'^. 
 
 There can be no doubt that a principal (if not the principal) con- 
 ception embodied in the Cana'anite 'Ashtart was that of the mother- 
 goddess, to whom was due the fecundity of nature. This may be 
 inferred from the expression 'dif-roth son^khd, i.e. either the ' breeding 
 ewes' or 'the offspring of thy flock,' Deut. 7", 28*"-^'t; and also 
 from the special characteristics of the numerous small figurines, 
 apparently of this goddess, which have been unearthed in the excava- 
 tion of city-sites in Palestine : cf Driver, Schweich Lectures, pp. 56 ff. ; 
 Vincent, Ca«afl«, (T^ iii. ; T^. ii. pp. 81 ff. Whether the i«rf',4#/fwz and 
 k'dhesdth, i.e. the temple-prostitutes of both sexes belonging to the 
 Cana'anite religion, were specially devoted to the service of 'Ashtarl 
 is not certain. The Bab. I§tar, however, had her female prostitutes, 
 who bore the title kadiMu or ^arimtu : cf KA T.^ p. 423. 
 
 Old Testament writers seem to regard 'Ashtart as specially £ 
 Phoenician deity: so i Kgs. 11^'', ''Ashtart the goddess of thf 
 Sidonians' : cf 2 Kgs. 23 ". Her worship was, however, very widelj 
 diffused among the Semites. She is the Bab. IStar, the one gpddesi 
 
 * An original "Ashtart may have come to be pronounced 'Ashtirath 0: 
 •Ashtoreth. n'lWE'ya B&eshtSra for iTnPlB'J? n''a Beth-'Eshtgra in Josh. 2i» 
 probably preserves one original form of the name. 
 
2. IS- i6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 59 
 
 able any more to stand before their enemies. 15. Whitherso- 
 ever they went out the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, 
 as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them ; and 
 they were in sore straits. 16. ^^' <(And the children of Israel 
 cried unto Yahweh,^ and Yahweh raised up judges, and they saved 
 
 who holds her position as it were in her own right, and not merely as 
 the somewhat shadowy consort of a god. Different localities in 
 Babylonia were famous for the worship of IStar, who thus appeared, 
 under various localized forms, as the Istar of Erech, of Nineveh, of 
 Arbela, etc. The principal aspects under which she was regarded 
 were as the goddess of war (she is spoken of as i^ltt ia^dzi, ' mistress 
 of battle,' and her chief epithet is kariitu, ' warrior ' : see references in 
 Muss Amolt's Diet, and, for a representation of the goddess under this 
 aspect, TB. ii. p. 80) and goddess of love or mother-goddess (cf. Hero- 
 dotus' statement (i. 131. 199) that the Assyrians called her MwXiTra, 
 i.e. muallidat, 'she who causes to bear'). This latter aspect of the 
 Cana'anite 'Ashtart we have already noticed : of the existence of the 
 former in Cana'an we have no evidence; though it maybe noticed 
 that the Philistines, after their victory over Israel and the death of 
 Saul, hung Saul's armour in the temple of Ashtart (i Sam. 31'°). 
 
 The plur. istardti came to be used in Babylonian in the general sense 
 'goddesses' (a point of resemblance to the Heb. plur. 'Astdroth); 
 and even the sing. I Star is sometimes employed to denote 'goddess,' 
 alongside of ilu, ' god,' especially in the penitential psalms : cf ilsu 
 u istarsu zenii ittisu, 'his god and his goddess are angry with him' : 
 Muss Arnolt, s.v. istaru. 
 
 The same deity is seen in the Sabaean Athtar, the Aram. 'Attar, 
 and in the Moabite compound form'Ashtar-Chemosh. With regard to 
 Athtar, Barton {Semitic Origins, pp. 123 ff.) has made out a plausible 
 case in proof that the mother-goddess came to be transformed into a 
 male deity ; but his argument that the same phenomenon is to be 
 observed in the Moabite deity (only mentioned once in Mesha's 
 inscription, 1. 17) is not equally convincing : cf. op. cit. pp. 141 ff. 
 
 15. Whithersoever they went forth. Sc. to battle. So Le Clerc 
 'quamcumque expeditionem aggrederentur ' ; Mo. 'in every cam- 
 paign,' and similarly Stu., Bach., Bu., La. For N^ 'go forth' in this 
 miUtary sense, cf ch. sS 2 Kgs. 18', Deut. 28^5. 
 
 asYahweh had spoken, etc. Qi. Deut. 28 ^5, and, generally, the whole 
 tenour of that chapter. 
 
 16. And the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh. This clause is 
 not found in |§ or Verss., but forms elsewhere a regular element in 
 the pragmatic scheme of R^', and can scarcely be dispensed with in 
 the present connexion. Cf. introd. to the section. 
 
 judges. The two verbs Mphat 'judge,' and hdhd 'save,' are used 
 interchangeably by R^' with reference to Israel's deliverers. 
 
6o THE BOOK OF JUDGES [2. 17. 18. 20. 21 
 
 them from the hand of their spoilers. 17. But even unto thei 
 judges did they not hearken ; for they went a whoring after othe 
 gods, and bowed themselves down to them : they turned asidi 
 quickly from the way wherein their fathers had walked, obeyiti! 
 the commandment of Yahweh : they did not do so. 18. D'' Anc 
 when Yahweh had raised up judges for them, Yahweh would bi 
 with the judge, and would save them from the hand of thei; 
 enemies all the days of the judge : for Yahweh would be movec 
 to pity because of their groaning by reason of them that crushec 
 and oppressed them. 1 9. But when the judge died they would 
 turn back, and deal more corruptly than their fathers, in going 
 after other gods to serve them and to bow themselves* down tc 
 them : they did not let fall any of their practices or of theii 
 stubborn way. 20. E So the anger of Yahweh was kindled againsi 
 Israel, and he said, ' Because this nation have transgressed my 
 covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not 
 hearkened to my voice, 21. I also will no more expel any from 
 before them of the nations which Joshua' left when he died ' ; 
 
 and they saved them, ffi koI ea-axrev avrovs Kvpios. Possibly 
 original (so La.) ; cf. v. ^^, where Yahweh is similarly subject of the 
 verb. 
 
 17. went a whoring. A frequent metaphor for intercourse with 
 other deities and unfaithfulness to Yahweh. So again in ch. 8 ^''■'^. 
 
 they turned aside quickly, etc. For the phrase, cf. Ex. 32 ' (E ?), 
 Deut. 9 '2 16. 
 
 18. would be with, etc. The verbal sequence in the Heb., in this 
 , and the following verse, describes what happened on repeated 
 ' occasions. 
 
 would be moved to pity. R.V. 'for it repented the Lord' does not 
 adequately express the sense of the verb. Cf. the use of the same 
 verb (Dnj) in ch. 21 '■", Jer. 15 ^, Ps. 90 '3. 
 
 20. have transgressed my covenant. I.e. the divine constitution 
 given to Israel by Yahweh at Horeb or Sinai, upon the basis of which 
 {i.e. upon condition of the faithful performance by Israel of the 
 ordinances of the constitution) Yahweh undertook to make Israel his 
 peculiar people. The two sides of the covenant are tersely summar- 
 ized in Deut. 26"''. 
 
 21. left when he died. Lit. 'left and died.' The Heb. constr. is 
 very peculiar. <&, in place of flD'''! ' and died,' reads iv tj 73- Koi 
 a^r]Kiv (in connexion with the verse following tov ireipda-ai k.t.\.). 
 Here ev rrj yfj is most likely only an insertion explanatory of the 
 
2. 22, S. 2.] tiiE BOOK OF jObGfeS 6t 
 
 2 2. D' in order to prove Israel by them, whether they would 
 keep the way of Yahweh to walk rtherein"!, as their fathers kept it, 
 or not. 23. J So Yahweh left these nations, not expelling them 
 quickly, R-'^ and did not give them into the hand of Joshua'. 
 
 3. r. D= Now these are the nations which Yahweh left to prove 
 Israel by them, R'' even all who had not experienced all the wars 
 of Cana'an ; 2. J only on account of [ ] the generations of the 
 
 preceding KarfXiwev : but xal d0ijKE>' = n3'l i-6. the opening word of 
 
 7/.^' 'and [Yahweh] left,' which must have stood in immediate connex- 
 ion with 7/. ^^ before D^'s insertion {v."^) was made. It is possible, 
 therefore, that D^ took up this word to introduce his insertion 
 (meaning perhaps to write DfT'S'l)^ and explained ' So he left them 
 
 in order to prove Israel,' etc. This may then be supposed to have 
 become subsequently corrupted into riD'1 in |^. Such a repetition by 
 an editor of the words of the older source as the text of his expansive 
 comment is seen in R^': 'So the anger of Yahweh was kindled 
 against Israel'; a statement which introduces 7/7/.^*'^" prior to the 
 occurrence of the same phrase in v. ^ E. 
 
 La, emends ns'l for nb'1, and connects the verb closely with the 
 
 preceding sentence : 'que Joshue a laiss^ subsister "en repos"' ; but 
 this is scarcely possible. 
 
 22. therein. Reading sing, na with some MSS. and 85, 3L, U, %, 
 in place of ?§ plur. Da_ 
 
 3, 2. on account of the generations, etc. I.e. the generations succes- 
 sive to the one which had been responsible for gaining the first 
 footing in Cana'an ; as is explained by R'''s gloss, 'such namely as 
 formerly knew nothing thereof The text adopted is that of (!If, ■nXr^v 
 
 8ia TtK ytveas vlav lo-parfK ic.r.X. So 3L. ?§ inserts DVI after [JJD^^ 
 
 and this can only be rendered with &'', %, R. V. ' only that the genera- 
 tions of the children of Israel might know' ; what they were to know 
 being left to be understood inferentially from the context, viz., the art 
 of war, as the following sentence states. But the constr. ' that they 
 might know {sc. war) to teach them war' is impossibly harsh, and 
 the fact that nVT 'to know' is omitted by ffi points to its being 
 merely an erroneous dittography of niil 'generations' (so Oort, No., 
 Kit, Ehr.). 
 
 Mo. (and so Bu.) would prefer to read njfn instead of nii'l, and 
 to regard UIKhh as a gloss on the former word, thus obtaining the 
 text n»ni5» i'XIB''' '53 nyi IVD^ pi 'merely in order that the chil- 
 dren of Israel might have experience of war.' This of course 
 
62 THE feOOtC OP JUDGES [31 3. 
 
 children of Israel, to teach them war, R' such namely' as formerly 
 knew nothing thereof: — 3. D= the five lords of the Philistines, 
 and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Tljittitesi 
 dwelling in mount Lebanon, from mount Ba'al-Hermon unto the 
 
 simplifies the passage, and says all that is required to convey the 
 writer's meaning; but it may be doubted whether we are justified in 
 so far altering the text against the evidence of ffi, which gives us a 
 quite comprehensible construction. 
 
 knew nothing thereof. Lit. 'had not known them.' The 'them' 
 refers to R^'s previous 'all the wars of Canaan' in z/.' ; and he uses 
 the plur., regardless of the fact that the sing. ' war ' intervenes in the 
 old source (■z'.^"). 
 
 3. the five lords of the Philistines. The rulers of the five principal 
 Philistine cities are always distinguished by the title se'ren^z title 
 never used in any other connexion. The word is not, so far as we 
 know, susceptible of a Semitic derivation ; the old view (cf. Gas. 
 Thes.) that it is the same as the Heb. s^ren, 'axle' of a wheel 
 (l Kgs. 7 *, and in the cognate languages), and that the princes are 
 so called as being, as it were, the axles or pivots of the state, being 
 both unlikely in itself, and also (presumably) precluded by the fact 
 that we do not find the title used elsewhere among the Hebrews or 
 other Semitic peoples. 
 
 This being so, it is likely that the title may be of native Philistine 
 origin. S' P0r4) ® '^""2 render rvpavvoi, and it is thus a plausible 
 conjecture that s^ren is simply rvpawos reproduced in a Hebraized 
 form. <& renders a-aTpiwat, o-aTpaTreim, apxovres (most usual in ffi^), 
 and a-rparriyoi (once) ; U, satrapae, reguli, principes. 
 
 Upon the Philistines and their origin, cf. Introd. xcii ff. 
 
 the Hittites dwelling in 7nount Lebanon. 3§ and all Verss. 'the 
 Hivvites.' In Josh, ii^ we find mention of 'the Hiwites under 
 Hermon in the land of Mispah.' In this latter passage ffi^ reads 
 ' Hittites,' making the opposite change (Hivvites for Hittites) in the 
 list of races dwelling in the central hill-country of Palestine which 
 immediately precedes. In other passages in which the Hiwites are 
 mentioned in such a way that they can be more or less definitely 
 localized, they appear as inhabitants of Central Palestine : so in 
 Gen. 34 2 (P) the term is used of the Shechemites, and in Josh. 9' (J) 
 of the Gibe'onites. Thus, in both passages where Hivvites are 
 mentioned in ?§ as dwelling in the neighbourhood of Lebanon aiid 
 Hermon,* modern scholars take the view that the true reading should 
 be Hittites ("Tinn may easily have been confused with ^inn ; cf. (G^ 
 . . • . , . . ■ . f 
 
 * 'The land of Mispah' in Josh. 11 s seems to be the same as 'the valley 
 (Heb. hi^S) of Mispeh' in v.^; i.e. probably the southern portion of the great 
 plain between the two Lebanons now called el-Buki' in Ar.: cf. Warren in 
 DB. iii. p. 403. 
 
3. S.] trtE feOOk O? JUDGES 63 
 
 entry of IJamath. 4. E And they served to prove Israel by them, 
 to know whether they would hearken to the commandment of 
 Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of 
 Moses. 5. J And the children of Israel dwelt in the midst of 
 the Cana'anites, ^'^ the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the 
 Perizzites, and the Hivvites, and the Jebusites. 6. J And they 
 took their daughters to themselves for wives, and their own 
 daughters they gave to their sons ; and they served their gods. 
 
 in Josh. 11'). The Hittite principalities extended as far south as 
 Kadesh in the neighbourhood of the Anti-Lebanon (cf. Introd. p. xcix) ; 
 and it is likely that Hittite clans may have penetrated into the Lebanon- 
 district, which is ideally reckoned as part of the promised land. 
 
 from mount Baal-Hermon . . . Hantath. The northern extremity 
 of Israel's inheritance, which still remained unconquered after the 
 campaigns of Joshua', is described in Josh. 13^ (R°) as 'all Lebanon 
 eastward \sc. of the land of the Gebalites], from Ba'al-Gad under 
 mount Harmon unto the entry of Hamath.' Josh. 11", 12' (R°) 
 mentions Ba'al-Gad as the extreme northern limit of the territory 
 subdued by Joshua'. Here Ba'al-Gad is probably the same as Ba'al- 
 Hermon, and this is supposed to be the modern Binyis (Greek Paneas, 
 OS., 217*° ; in N. T., Caesarea Philippi), a grotto near the sources of 
 the Jordan where the ancient worship of Gad was superseded in later 
 times by the worship of Pan; cf Rob. BR? iii. pp. 409 ff. Hamath, 
 frequently mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions as Amattu or 
 Qammatu, is the modern Ham4, situated on the Orontes about 1 1 5 
 miles north of Damascus. 'The entry of Hamath' is mentioned 
 several times as the ideal northern limit of the kingdom of Israel 
 (Num. 13", 348; Josh. I3«, i Kgs. 8'» = 2 Chr. 78, 2 Kgs. 14^5, i 
 Chr. 13 *, Am. 6 ", Ezek. 47 ^'', 48 ^ f) 5 probably because it represented 
 the actual northern limit of the kingdom as Solomon inherited it 
 after the conquests of David (i Kgs. 8"°), and as it was regained in 
 later times through the victories of Jerobo'am 11. (2 Kgs. 14^). It is 
 doubtless (as Rob. BR? iii. p. 568, points out) the northern extremity 
 of the pass between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. The 
 descriptions here and in Josh. 13* are obviously intended to cover 
 all the Lebanon-district from south to north. Cf. Introd. p. xcix, 
 footnote \. 
 
 5. the Candanites, etc. To the term 'Cana'anites' used by J as a 
 general designation of the inhabitants of Cana'an (cf i^ note) R-'"^ 
 adds the catalogue of races which, when complete, enumerates the 
 'seven nations' of Cana'an : cf Deut. 7 S Josh. 3 1", 24 ".* Here the 
 Girgashites are missing. On the races mentioned, cf references in 
 Index. 
 
 * Driver, on Deut. 7' (ICC), gives a conspectus of all the passages in which 
 the enumeration occurs, noticing the order and omissions. 
 
6.4 THE BOOK OP JUDGES 
 
 3. i-\i.''Othniel. 
 
 This narrative exhibits throughout the characteristic phraseology 
 of R'^^'s pragmatic scheme. Indeed, R"^^ appears to have possessed 
 no further information than the names of the oppressor and deliverer, 
 and the length of the periods of oppression and subsequent peace. 
 The name Cushan-rish'athaim, signifying 'Cushan of double wicked- 
 ness,' or, as vi'e might say, 'the double-dyed barbarian,' excites 
 suspicion ; and, if genuine, can scarcely be preserved in its original 
 form. The subjugation of Cana'an by a kingdom so remote as that 
 of Mesopotamia might have been expected to have left further traces 
 than we here possess : and it is strange that the deliverer from this 
 foe from the north-east should have been found in a Kenizzite from 
 the extreme south ; a member of a clan whose connexion with the 
 northern and central tribes of Israel appears at this time to have been 
 of the slightest (cf. pp. 44 ff.). Hence many critics have supposed 
 that the editor was altogether without authentic information, and, in 
 order to fill up a blank in his scheme of history, chose the name of 
 ' Othniel, which had the advantage of being well known, and, at the 
 same time, of giving a Judge to Judah. Such an hypothesis does not 
 explain the origin of Cushan-rish'athaim, a name which can scarcely 
 be the product of mere invention. 
 
 Of the attempted explanations of this name which have been put 
 forward, the most plausible is that suggested by Ball {ET. xxi. Jan. 
 1910, p. 192), who compares the Kassite name Kashsha-rishat (cf. 
 Ranke, Early Babylonian Personal Names, p. 244, n.''). The KaSsites 
 were foreign invaders of Babylonia, probably from Elam and the 
 farther East, who founded the Third Babylonian Dynasty, which 
 lasted from cir. B.C. 1760 to cir. 1185 : cf Ititrod. p. Ixv. Their name 
 appears i.n cuneiform as Kassu; and there can be little doubt that 
 this is the Heb. tJ'13 KHs (Cush) mentioned in Gen. 10' as the 
 'father' of Nimrod, whom the writer regards as the founder of 
 civilization in Babylonia.* The name Kashsha-rishat happens, in 
 the occurrence cited, to belong to a woman ; but both elements in 
 the name are familiar in other names, both masc. and fem. Thus 
 the element Kash is seen in Kash-tiliash, which occurs twice among 
 the king-names of the dynasty. Such a name would have been 
 represented in Heb. as ntJ''''~l~B'3 or ntJ'''"l-E'il3 and would thus 
 readily have lent itself to the jesting modification which is found 
 in ?§. As Ball remarks, 'on any computation, the period of the 
 
 * The passage belongs to J ; and it is probable that this writer's Kfis is uncon- 
 nected with the Hamitic K(i5 of P in vfi. Cf. Skinner ( G««e«'j, /CC, p. zoSj.who , 
 remarks that ' it is conceivable that in consequence Of so prolonged a supremacy, 
 Ka^ might have become a name for Babylonia, and that J's knowledge of its 
 history did^not extend farther back than the Ka^ite dynasty. Since there is no 
 reason to suppose that J regarded Ka^ as Hamitic, it is quite possible that the 
 name belonged to his list of Japhetic peoples.' 
 
3. 7] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 65 
 
 7. R^^ And the children of Israel did that which was evil 
 in the sight of Yahweh, and forgat Yahweh their God, and served 
 the Ba'als, and the T'Ashtartsl 8. And the anger of Yahweh was 
 kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of 
 Cushan-rish'athaim, king of Aram-nahairaim : and the children of 
 
 Judges, that is to say, the period of the settlement of Israel in 
 Canaan, falls within that of the Cassite or "Cushite" domination in 
 Babylonia. Although nothing is known at present of any expedition 
 \wstward on the part of these Babylonian Cushites, it is quite possible 
 that the story of Cushan-rish'athaim's oppression of Israel may pre- 
 serve an indistinct memory of such an historical episode.' * 
 
 The only other suggestion as to Cushan-rish'athaim which needs 
 be noticed is that proposed by Klostermann ( G VI. p. 1 1 9), who, working 
 upon the suggestion of Gra. that Aram should be Edom (confusion 
 of D-IS and mS as in 2 Sam. S'^", 2 Chr. lo\ 2 Kgs. 16 1= : in this 
 case 'naharaim' must be regarded as a later gloss ; notice its omis- 
 sion in vy\ supposes that there may have been an Edomite king 
 named Cushan,J and that risKathaim may represent an original rosh 
 hat-Umani, i.e. 'chieftain of the Temanites' (D*nj?6J'"i from 'JD^nncn). 
 This king, he thinks, may be identical with ' Husham (DE'n) of the 
 
 land of the Temanites' mentioned in Gen. 36^. This view is 
 favoured by Marquart, Fundamente israelitischer und jiidischer Ge- 
 schichte, p. 1 1 ; Cheyne, EB. 969 ; and (as regards the emendation 
 'Edom') by La. Granted that the emendations based upon the 
 proper name are highly precarious, it is at any rate possible that an 
 encroachment upon southern Palestine by the Edomites may have 
 occurred at this period ; and, if so, the deliverer might naturally be 
 found in a clan (the Kenizzites) which was allied to or incorporated 
 with the tribe of Judah. 
 
 3. 7. the' Ashtarts. Reading nnnE'yri with two MSS. and Y ('the 
 Ashtarts ' are regularly mentioned elsewhere by E or R^^ in connexion 
 with 'the Ba'als' : cf. 2", 10 », i Sam. 7^ 121") in place of 1^ nnB-Nn 
 'the 'AsheroM The plur. of 'Ashera (on which cf. ch. 6^ note) is 
 usually 'Asherim (nineteen occurrences) ; while 'Asheroth is only 
 found twice besides : 2 Chr. 19 ^ 33^- 
 
 8. Cushan-rish'athaim. See introduction to the section. A similar 
 distortion of the name of an enemy in order to cast ridicule upon him 
 
 * In the passage cited by Ball from the T. A. Letters which appears to connect 
 A'a/with Najirima (i.e. the Biblical Aram-naharaim), ' as by rights belonging to 
 the Pharaoh's empire ' (according to Winckler's reading in KB. v. 181, 1. 35 : 
 di.aSs.oKAT.'^ 195), the mention of .ATir/ cannot be substantiated, since the actual 
 reading is Ka-pa-si : cf. Knudtzon, Die el-Amarna Tafeln, 288, 1. 36. 
 
 X Cf. the use of Cushan as a tribal name parallel to ' the land of Midian ' in 
 Hab.3'. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [3. 9. 10. 11. 
 
 Israel served Cushan-rish'athaim eight years. 9. And the children 
 of Israel cried unto Yahweh, and Yahweh raised up a saviour for 
 the children of Israel, and he saved them, to wit 'Othniel the son 
 of Kenaz, Caleb's R"" younger R"' brother. 10. And the spirit of 
 Yahweh came upon him,' and he judged Israel ; and he went 
 forth to war, and Yahweh gave into his hand Cushan-rish'athaim, 
 king of Aram; and his hand prevailed against Cushan-rish'athaim. 
 1 1. And the land had rest forty years. And 'Othniel the son of 
 Kenaz died. % 
 
 is probably to be seen in the Aram, name 7N3t3, Isa. 7% properly 
 Tab'el, i.e. ' 'El is wise ' (cf. Tabrimmon, ' Rimmon is wise,' i Kgs. 
 15"), but vocalized hy M as Tab'al in order to suggest to Jewish 
 readers the Heb. meaning 'good for nothing.' Other instances of a 
 like perversion are perhaps to be seen in Zebah and Salmunna 
 {ck. 8 ^ note), and Adoni-bezek {c/i. i ° note). 
 
 Aram-naharaim. 'Aram of the two rivers,' mentioned elsewhere, 
 Gen. 24 w (J), Deut. 23* (^11), i Chr. 19 «, Ps. 60 titlef. The two 
 rivers (if the dual form be correct) are the Euphrates and possibly the 
 Chaboras (Heb. Habor, 2 Kgs. 17 ^ 18"). The land of Najjrima or 
 Narima is repeatedly mentioned in the T.A. Letters, and the same 
 designation is found in the Egyptian Naharin, which seems to have 
 been used of the district both east of the Euphrates and west as far as 
 the valley of the Orontes : cf. Miiller, AE. pp. 249 ff. Possibly, as Mo. 
 suggests, the dual form in Heb. may be a later artificiality (cf. DPE'IT 
 for D^OTT'') and the original form may have been a plur. N^harim, 
 
 ' Aram of the rivers,' i.e. the upper watershed of the Euphrates.* 
 R. V. ' Mesopotamia ' (as ffi*"", U) is too wide, since this term appears 
 to have been used by the Greeks to cover the whole vast district 
 between the Euphrates and Tigris : cf references cited by Mo. 
 9. ' Othniel, etc. Cf. i ^^ notes. 
 
 10. And the spirit of Yahweh came upon him. The divine incentive 
 to deeds of superhuman valour. The same expression is used of 
 Jephthah in ch. 1 1 ^', and, with emphatic and pictorial description of 
 the force of the divine access, of Gideon, 6 ^ (it ' clothed itself in 
 him'), and Samson, 13 ^^ (it 'began to impel or smite him'), 14"', ij " 
 (it ' rushed upon him ' : the same verb salah is used of the rapid 
 onslaught of fire in Am. 5 ^). 
 
 judged Israel. Avenged and vindicated them, as the verse goes 
 on to relate. 
 
 11. forty years. I.e. for a whole generation : cf Introd. p. liv. 
 
 * The reason adduced by Mo. (followed by Cooke), viz. that there is no trace 
 of a dual form in the Egyptian Naharin, is based on the argument of W. M. 
 Miiller, AE. pp. 251 i. In EB. 287, however, the same authority states that 
 the form might equally well be read as Nahargn, i.e. a dual form. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 67 
 
 3. 12-30. Ehud. 
 
 An ancient narrative is introduced by R'^'' in t/r/.i^'^'', in which 
 we find the editor's characteristic phraseologry combined with 
 material derived from his source. R^' also closes the narrative 
 in his usual manner in 7/.'». That the old narrative is not a unity, 
 but combines elements derived from two sources, was first recognized 
 by Winckler {Alttest. Untersuchungen, pp. 55 ff.) ; and this view is also 
 taken by Mo., Bu. (_Comin.\ No. The most striking evidence for 
 this is found in t/t/."-2o. in 7,.i9b 'ggion jg surrounded by his retinue, 
 and Ehud manages to gain a private interview by stating that he has 
 a secret communication pHD 131) to make to the king, thus securing 
 the dismissal of the bystanders. In z/.^", however, Ehud comes in 
 unto him (V7X S3), apparently from outside, and finds him sitting 
 alone in his roof-chamber ; whereupon he announces that he is the 
 bearer of a divine communication (DTIPK "I3T). Having noticed 
 this indication of a double narrative, we can scarcely fail to observe 
 that 7/.1*' interrupts the connexion between z/.^and v.^^'^. Clearly 
 Ehud, after dismissing his own retinue {v. ^\ at once takes steps to 
 secure a private audience iv.^^'^). If 7/.'^^ were really part of this 
 narrative, we should expect v. ""^ to be introduced by the statement 
 that he re-entered the king's presence. As the narrative stands, the 
 sequence is somewhat abrupt. The natural sequence to v.^'^^ is ■z/.^". 
 This, when directly connected with vy^"-, may have run ^PD^ 7X KS'I 
 'And he came in unto the king.' 
 
 Other traces of a double source may be seen in v. ^^i' by the side of 
 z/.^ and in t/.^ following upon w.^'. In v."" Ehud musters his forces, 
 and we are told that ' they went down with him from the hill-country ' 
 into the Jordan valley. In ^'.^ he invites them to come down, only 
 then explaining the purpose of the muster; and we are again told 
 that 'they went down after him.' Traces of two accounts of Ehud's 
 escape have been supposed to exist in v. ''■^ ; but these are not so 
 obvious. 
 
 Beyond these points, it is difficult to discover further indications 
 which might aid in discrimination of the sources ; and phrases pecu- 
 liarly characteristic of either J or E do not happen to occur in the 
 narrative. Bu. {_RS.) notices that the verb ilDnonn 'tarry' in ■z'.^' is 
 confined to J when it occurs in the Pentateuch (Gen. 19'°, 43'°; 
 Ex. 12^). Rather more significant as a mark of J is the expression 
 in 7/.^ which relates the holding of the fords of the Jordan against 
 Moab, as compared with ch. \i^'^ : 
 
 3KiDi> ^^^^ nnnyo ns nai^i 
 
 Cf also ch. y^ (also J), as emended in our text, flX Dn? 11371 
 pITl ni"l3VD. Here the use of the ? as a kind of dativus incommodi 
 
68 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [3. 12. 
 
 12. R^" And the children of Israel again did that which 
 was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened 'Eglon 
 king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which 
 was evil in the sight of Yahweh. 13. And he gathered unto him 
 the children of 'Ammon and 'Amalek ; and went and smote 
 Israel; and ntook possession of the City of Palms. 14. And the 
 
 ('against' or 'to the detriment of) is rather striking. It must be 
 acknowledged, however, that criteria upon which to base a detailed 
 analysis are wanting ; and nothing can be affirmed with even ap- 
 proximate certainty as to the composition of the narrative beyond 
 the fact of the existence of a few fairly clear indications that two 
 sources have been employed. The old narrative as a whole is there- 
 fore marked in the text as j£. 
 
 3, 12. Yahweh strengthened 'Eglon. The same verb {hizzek) is 
 used in Ezek. 30 ^* of Yahweh's ' strengthening ' the arms of the king 
 of Babylon as an instrument of punishment. 
 
 13. 'Amalek. A marauding Bedawi people dwelling in the south of 
 the Negeb (Num. 1329, 14 2^ rJe. 13.45 jg^^ ;„ jjjg neighbourhood of the 
 Kenites {ch. i '^ note, i Sam. 15") and the tribe of Sime' on ( i Chr. 4 ''). 
 Israel is related (Ex. ly^^'E, Deut. 25 i"') to have first come into 
 conflict with them soon after the Exodus upon arriving at Rephidim, 
 which must have been close to Horeb or Sinai — a fact which tells in 
 favour of the location of the holy mountain somewhere in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Kadesh-Barnea' in the south of the Negeb : cf note on 
 ch. 5 ''. David, whilst dwelling at Siklag in the Philistine country, 
 made forays against the ' Amalekites ( I Sam. 27 *), and suffered reprisals 
 in his turn (i Sam. 30). |^ in ch. 5 ", 12 '^ suggests that 'Amalekites 
 may at one time have been found in Central Palestine ; but cf note 
 on the former passage. The "Amalekites are again mentioned as 
 invading Israelite territory during the period of the Judges in 
 ch. 6 '■^', 7 '2, where they appear in conjunction with the Midianites 
 and ' all the children of the East,' nomadic peoples like themselves 
 with whom it is natural to find them associated. In the present 
 narrative there is no further allusion to 'Ammon or 'Amalek ; and it is 
 possible that R"^^ may have amplified the account of the invasion by 
 the addition of the names of these peoples. Noldeke {£B. 128) 
 suggests that 'Amalek in this passage may have arisen from an 
 ancient dittograph of 'Ammon (p?DJ)1 POJ?). 
 
 and took possession 0/. Reading sing. B^n'^s'i with ffi, IF, in place of 
 |§ (and so 3E) plur. !|E'-|i«l. &^ has plur. verbs throughout w."*, 'they 
 went and smote, etc' 
 
3. IS-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 69 
 
 children of Israel served 'Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. 
 15. And the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh, and Yahweh 
 raised up for them a saviour, to wit Ehud the son of Gera, the 
 Benjaminite, a left-handed man : JE and the children of Israel 
 
 the City of Palms. Jericho, as in ch. i '^ (cf. note). The mention 
 of Jericho in this connexion suggests that the city can scarcely 
 have remained unbuilt and unfortified after its destruction by Joshua' 
 until the days of Ahab, as might be inferred from i Kgs. 16'* taken 
 in connexion with Joshua''s curse in Josh. 6^^ (JE) ; for the allusion 
 to its capture by 'Eglon seems to imply that it was a fortified city, 
 the possession of which was employed as a vantage-ground for the 
 oppression of the surrounding country. 
 
 15. Ehud the son of Gera. Gera appears as a son (z>. clan) of 
 Benjamin in Gen. 46^1 (P), and as a grandson in i Chr. 8^; while 
 Ehud himself is found in the obscure genealogical lists of i Chr. 7 "", 
 3 6 (7 10 woui(j make him the great grandson of Benjamin, but here the 
 name is probably due to an erroneous marginal gloss : cf Curtis, 
 ICC. ad loc). These facts need not be weighed against the 
 historical truth of our narrative, as though Ehud were simply a clan- 
 name of Benjamin round which the narrator had woven his story ; 
 since it is much more probable either that the name has been intro- 
 duced by the Chronicler into his genealogy directly from Judg., or 
 that a clan in subsequent ages traced its descent from the individual 
 Ehud (so Bu. RS. p. 100 ; Mo.). The fact, however, that Ehud is called 
 ' son ' of Gera very likely means that he was member of a clan of 
 that name, and not that Gera was actually the name of his father. 
 Similarly, in David's time, Shime'i the Benjaminite was a 'son of 
 Gera,' 2 Sam. 16*, 19 '^-i*, i Kgs. 2". 
 
 left-harided. Lit. ' bound {i.e. restricted) as to his right hand.' The 
 adj. 'itter* ' bound,' is used by itself in New Heb. in the sense ' left- 
 handed ' or ' lame ' (restricted in the use of a foot), and belongs in 
 form to the class of words descriptive of bodily defects, e.g. 'iwwer 
 
 * The verbal form ^t3N is not, as stated by Mo., cognate with DDX, but 
 rather belongs to a series of triliteral roots from an original DAR, TAR, TAR, 
 SAR, SAR, ZAR, with the sense 'go round,' 'surround,' and hence, in some 
 instances, ' bind ' (a form of surrounding). So in (Ar. dara and its derivatives, 
 e.g. ddr, 'dwelling,' or properly circle of buildings round a court; Bab. diiru, 
 'wall' as encircling; Heb. dSr 'generation' as periodic, d^r 'ball' as being 
 round), probably T— n (whence d'ror 'swallow,' perhaps as flying round in 
 
 circles), iTn, iTj ; TiD, iD'K. "iD-y. -\i:i-p (Ezek. 4622); -iiri, nn-3 ; 
 
 11V, l-IS, -IX-K, -VrV, IV-n, IV-p (bind harvest); ID-N ; Tit (compress), 
 "II"N> irn (Aram.). Notice, especially in the SAR series, the ascending scale 
 of initial gutturals employed to differentiate the modifications of the original 
 sense of the biliteral root. 
 
70 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [3. i6. i8. 
 
 sent by his hand tribute to'Eglon king of Moab. i6. And Ehud 
 made himself a sword with two edges, a cubit longj and he 
 girded it under his raiment on his right thigh. 17. And he 
 presented the tribute to 'Eglon king of Moab: now'Eglonwas 
 a very fat man. 18. And when he had finished presenting the 
 tribute, he sent away the people who were carrying the tribute. 
 
 ' blind,' 'illem ' dumb,' pisse°'h ' lame,' etc. ; but that the peculiarity 
 did not involve any defect in skill appears from the reference to the 
 700 left-handed Benjaminites in ch. 20 1^. (E renders a.\s4>orepabi^iov 
 ( — Seitot), ' ambidextrous,' in both passages ; and similarly U here 
 ' qui utraque manu pro dextera utebatur,' but in 20 >' ' sinistra ut 
 dextra proeliantes.' Cf. the description of the Benjaminites in 
 
 1 Chr. 122. 
 
 tribute. The Heb. minhd is used elsewhere in this sense in 
 
 2 Sam. 8^-^, I Kgs. 4^' (|§ 5 i), 2 Kgs. 17^. In other passages the 
 word has the meaning of a present offered voluntarily in order to gain 
 the favour of the recipient : cf. Gen. 32'', |[§", 2 Kgs. 8', 20 ^l In 
 the sacrificial terminology of the Priestly Code minha denotes the 
 meal-offering. 
 
 16. two edges. Lit. 'two mouths': cf. the expression ' a sword of 
 mouths,' Prov. 5 *, Ps. 149 ^, and the phrase noticed in ch. i '. 
 
 a cubit long. The Heb. term gomedh (only here in O.T.) is 
 explained by the Jewish interpreters as a short cubit, i.e. the length 
 from the elbow to the knuckles of the closed fist : cf. Mo. in JBL. 
 xii. p. 104. The measure thus corresponds to the Greek jruyju^, 
 approximately 13J inches, ffi renders o-7rt5ayx^s rh /i^xof air^s, 
 'a span long' ; but, as Mo. (following Stu.) appositely points out, 
 'the description of 'Eglon's corpulence (w. i') is pertinent only in 
 relation to the fact that a long dirk was buried, hilt and all, in his belly.' 
 3J offers a curious and obscure paraphrase, intended to explain the 
 character of the sword : ' gladium ancipitem, habentem in medio 
 capulum longitudinis palmae manus,' interpreting gomedh as a hand- 
 breadth and referring it to the hilt. S^ Olo3o1 .mtyi n is interesting 
 as reading gdmadh (cf. Ar. gamada, ' cut off' ; Aram, g'madh, 
 ' contract ') in place of gomedh : ' he curtailed its length.' Such a 
 proceeding on the part of Ehud, for the purpose of more effectively 
 concealing the weapon under his raiment, would be perfecdy in- 
 telligible : still, the consideration noticed above seems to demand a 
 precise mention of the length of the sword, as in ?§. 
 
 under his raiment. Heb. maddim is the loose outer garment, 
 outside of which the sword was usually worn : cf. i Sam. 17^'. 
 
 18. he sent away the people, etc. The tribute was doubdess paid in 
 kind (most probably in farm-produce) and would require a number of 
 bearers. In later times, when Moab was subject to Israel, the 
 tribute consisted in the wool of one hundred thousand rams and one 
 
3. ig. 20.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 7! 
 
 19. But he himself returned from the graven images which are 
 near Gilgal ; and he said, ' I have a secret communication for 
 thee, O king.' And he said, ' Silence ! ' And there went out 
 from him all who stood by him. 20. And Ehud came in unto 
 him : now he was sitting by himself in his cool roof-chamber. 
 
 hundred thousand lambs : 2 Kgs. 3 ^. A representation of a train of 
 envoys of Jehu, king of Israel, bearing tribute to the Assyrian king, 
 is to be seen upon the black obelisk of Shalmaneser lii. (of Driver, 
 Schweich Lectures, p. 17), and in this case the tribute is very costly 
 (consisting largely in vessels of gold : cf NHTK. p. 377), in accord- 
 ance with the resources of the kingdom of Israel in Jehu's time. 
 
 ig. graven images. This is the meaning which is regularly borne 
 by the Heb. ^stliffz elsewhere (twenty-one occurrences). In itself the 
 term simply denotes 'carved things,' and might refer to figures in 
 low relief carved upon standing stones, possibly some of the stones 
 from which Gilgal derived its name (cf note on cA. 2'). The con- 
 nexion in which the p'sUim are mentioned is, however, rather 
 striking : it is when Ehud reaches this point that he dismisses his 
 retinue; and later on {v.^) when he has passed it he gets clear 
 away, and so escapes. Both references, especially when taken 
 together, can scarcely fail to suggest a comparison with the 
 sculptured boundary-stones which have been found in Babylonia (cf 
 OTLAE. i. p. u ; Jastrow, RBBA. pp. 230, 385 f), and to raise the 
 possibility that the p'siltm may have marked the limit of the sphere 
 of Moab's influence, beyond which comparative safety was attained. 
 Such a theory could not hold if the narrative were a unity ; since, 
 according to v. ", Jericho, three miles west-north-west of Gilgal, was 
 in the possession of Moab. But, as we have noticed, the story clearly 
 seems to have been derived from two sources, and the source to 
 which the references to the p'stlhn belong may have differed as to 
 this point ; or the words ' which are near Gilgal ' may be a later and 
 erroneous identification of the site of the p'silim. 
 
 A. v., R.V. render 'quarries,' apparently following 3E K^^VHD. 
 (If dn-o Tdv yKvTTTwv, TS ' ubi erant idola,' support the ordinary mean- 
 ing of the word. S"" . \ . mo, employs the same word as J§. 
 a secret communication. Lit. ' a word of secrecy.' 
 Silence.' The command (Heb. kds, onomatopoetic, like English 
 ' hush ! ' or ' ssh ! ') is addressed by 'Eglon to his retinue. 
 
 20. roof-chamber. The Heb. 'dliyyd is explained by the same term 
 'uUiyya, 'illiyya in Ar., in which it denotes a room built on the top of 
 the flat roof of a house, with windows on every side for the free 
 passage of air. Cf Mo., who quotes authorities for the use of such 
 roof-chambers in the modern east. The purpose of this 'dliyya is 
 
72 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [3. 21. 22. 
 
 And Ehud said, ' I have a communication from God for thee.' 
 And he rose up from his seat. 21. And Ehud put forth his left 
 hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into 
 his belly. 22. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the 
 fat closed over the blade ; for he drew not the sword out of his 
 belly. And he went out into the vestibule. 23. And Ehud 
 
 further defined by the term ham-m''kerd (nnfJBn mV), lit. 'roof- 
 chamber of coolness.' The size and character of the windows in 
 such a chamber is indicated by 2 Kgs. i^, where we are told that 
 king Ahaziah accidentally fell through the lattice-window (naatSTI) 
 in his ' aliyya. 
 
 a communication from God. Lit. ' a word of God.' 
 he rose up, etc. The action seems to have been intended as a mark 
 of reverence for the divine oracle. 
 
 21. put forth, etc. The movement of the left hand to the right side 
 was unlikely to arouse suspicion. 
 
 22. the hilt also went in. As Mo. remarks, ' the dirk was doubtless 
 without either guard or cross-piece.' 
 
 into the vestibule. Heb. hap-pars^dhdnd only here. The precise 
 rendering ' vestibule ' is conjectural, but there is no reason for doubt- 
 ing the originality of the Heb. word. There is an Assyr. word 
 parasdinnu, the exact meaning of which is similarly unknown ; but 
 (according to Delitzsch, HWB. p. 546) we have the equivalents pa-ra- 
 a/-rf'z«-;^z/=KIRRUD.DA in Sumerian, z'.«. some form of cavity or 
 opening. Pars^dhona may therefore be assumed to denote a means 
 of exit ; though exactly what we cannot say. La., adopting this 
 explanation, assumes that the term denotes the window. But the 
 form of the Heb. word (with n locative) implies that it was something 
 into which and not simply through which Ehud passed ; and, more- 
 over, there seems no reason why the writer should not have used the 
 ordinary word hallon, ' window,' if this had been his meaning. 
 
 The rendering which we have adopted is given by ffi, t^i* Trpoo-raSa 
 (from which apparently R.V. marg. 'the ante-chamber'), 'A. napaaTaia, 
 S. els TO. Trpodvpa. We cannot, however, certainly assume that the 
 meaning of the word was familiar to the translators, since it is not 
 unlikely that the rendering may have been dictated by the accidental 
 resemblance of the Greek word to the Heb.* 
 
 * This is a consideration which appears not infrequently to have influenced the 
 E translators. Driver (NHTS.^ p. 270) notices icrxa-ph-qv for "IBB'N probably 
 
 read as "l3E'f< 2 Sam. 619, Spiiravov for t3"l'n i Sam. 1321, t6kos for '^il 
 Ps. 72" al. ; to which we may add mri^cov for TQ Ex. 28" at. ; (rKT]vovv for 
 pB' Jiidg. s", 611. 
 
3. 23.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 73 
 
 went out into the colonnade, and shut the doors of the roof- 
 chamber upon him, and lockredT them. 24. Now when he had 
 gone out, his servants came ; and they looked, and, behold, the 
 
 Y, iC * seem to have read or understood hap-pdre^ (Ex. 29 ^* ; 
 Lev. 4", 8", 16^' ; Num. 19*, Mai. 2't) in place oi hap-par^dhond : 
 'and \hf:. faeces came out' sc. from the anus, as is said to be the 
 ordinary consequence of a wound in the abdomen (cf. Mo.). This 
 emendation is adopted by Noldeke, Mo., Bu., Kent ; but the objections 
 advanced against it by No. are valid; J and in any case it can scarcely 
 stand in view of the support given to ?^ by the Assyr. parallel. 
 
 Si' 'and he went out hastily'' (Aj|d Ol ^XQId) is a bad guess. 
 R.V. 'and it came out behind' depends upon a mere conjecture made 
 by a number of the older commentators (cf. Mo.'s enumeration), and 
 involves a violation of grammar (2"inn 'the sword' is fem., and can 
 
 scarcely be the subject of the masc. XS'1 ' and it came out '). 
 
 23. into the colonnade. Or 'portico.' Heb.,4aOT-;«zjWVo«a only here. 
 The meaning of the term is almost as obscure as the meaning of that 
 last discussed, to which it probably corresponds in the parallel narra- 
 tive. The Heb. root sadhar means 'to arrange in order or in a rank,' 
 and is so used in New Heb., Assyr., and Aram. We have cognate 
 substantives in all these languages meaning 'arrangement,' 'rank,' 
 or 'row' (in Assyr. 'line of battle') ; and it may thus be inferred that 
 misd'rSn, in accordance with its form (substantives with preformative 
 D commonly denote the place of the action implied by the verbal form), 
 may mean 'place of rows' {sc. of pillars), i.e. 'colonnade.' This is 
 the rendering of S"" ksitsfrSn, i.e. ^vo-tos. <& tovs SiareTayfiipovs 
 recognizes the meaning of the root, but is at a loss for an intelligible 
 rendering. Y 'per posticum' (perhaps an error for 'per porticum'). 
 Z KIlDaKii, i.e. i^ibpa. R.V. ' into the porch.' 
 
 and locked them. The Heb. construction (^JJJl, Perfect with Weak 
 waw) is irregular. We should expect ^j;^'! ■ but it is quite possible 
 that the form intended is the infinitive absolute ^j)3) in continuation 
 
 * C's rendering, however, "['fitj' Hv^K ' cibus ejus ejectus,' is merely an 
 illustration of the Rabbinic method of explaining an incomprehensible word by 
 analysis (tS'lQ 'dung' and mC 'to cast out'), as is rightly noticed byStu., 
 
 Ber., No. The translator therefore had the same reading before him as that 
 of 1§. 
 
 X ' Schon Hokinger hat darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass diese Aenderung 
 In Bnsn nicht ohne Bedenken ist, insofern {fnsn gewbhnlich den Thiermist, 
 nicht aber den Menschenkoth bezeichnet, man wurde auch ein 13DD oder doch 
 das Suff. am Subj. erwarten ; endlich ist es auch nicht leicht zu verstehen, wie 
 unter dem Einfluss von njllDDn das urspr. K'nSn in njnB'nQn verderbt 
 werden konnte.' No. offers no explanation of the difficult word. 
 
74 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [3. 24. 25. 26. 28. 
 
 doors of the roof-chamber were locked : and they said, ' Surely 
 he is covering his feet in the closet of the cool apartment.' 
 25. And they waited till they were ashamed ; and,, behold, he 
 opened not the doors of the roof-chamber : so they took the key 
 and opened them, and, behold, their lord was fallen down on 
 the ground dead. 26. But Ehud had escaped while they tarried, 
 and had passed the graven images, and escaped to Se'irah. 
 27. And when he arrived, he blew the trumpet in the hill- 
 country of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with 
 him from the hill-country, and he before them. 28. And he 
 said unto them, ' rCome down"! after me, for Yahweh hath given 
 
 of the preceding imperfect with waw consecutive : lit. ' and locking,' 
 for 'and locked.' For this idiomatic construction, cf. Davidson, 
 Hebrew Syntax, % 88; G-K. § 113^. A precisely similar construc- 
 tion is found in f/i. 7'^, D''"n3n 1*1331 nilSitJ'a Wi^n^l, 'and they blew 
 
 the trumpets and brake (lit. "and breaking") the pitchers.' Adopting 
 this slight change of one vowel-point, there is no reason to suppose, 
 with Mo., that the words ' are, as the false tense proves, the addition 
 of a scribe, who, observing that the doors were locked (z/w.^-^^), 
 missed an explicit statement here that Ehud locked them.' 
 
 24. he is covering his feet. The same euphemism is found in 
 1 Sam. 24^. 
 
 25. till they were ashamed. Or, 'to the point of confusion': 
 Heb. EJ'i3"li;. The expression here implies the perplexity and 
 
 apprehension caused by an occurrence which is inexplicable. As 
 we might say, they were at their wit's end. There are two other 
 occurrences : — 2 Kgs. 2 '', ' they urged him till he was ashamed ' 
 (such was the importunity of the disciples that Elisha' had no longer 
 the face to refuse their request) ; 2 Kgs. 8 '\ ' And he steadied his 
 countenance, and set (it on him) till he was ashamed' (Elisha' looked 
 Hazael out of coiintenajice). 
 
 the key. A flat piece of wood with projecting pins corresponding 
 to holes in the wooden cross-bolt into which the pins of the socket 
 fall when the door is locked. When the key is inserted into a hollow 
 in the bolt and pushed upwards, the pins of the key push up the pins 
 of the socket, and the bolt is released. For a full description and 
 illustrations, cf. DB. ii. p. 836. 
 
 26. had passed, etc. Cf. note on z'.'". 
 Seirah. The site is unidentified. 
 
 28. come down after me. Reading i")nx ITI with ffi KaTajSijrt 
 
 ottiVq) fiov (cf. the following, 'and they came down after him'), in 
 place of 1§ nns ISII, which can only mean 'pursue after me.' 
 
3. 29. 3o.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 75 
 
 your enemies, even Moab, into your hand.' So they went down 
 after him, and took the fords of the Jordan against Moab, and 
 suffered no man to pass over. 29. And they smote of Moab at 
 that time about ten thousand men, every stout and every valiant 
 man; and there escaped not a man. 30. R""' So Moab was 
 subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had 
 rest eighty years. 
 
 R.V. renders ' Follow me ' ; but such a meaning for the verb cannot 
 be paralleled. 
 
 took the fords, etc. Cf. ch. 7 24 {jiote\ 12 5. The coup was designed 
 to prevent the escape of the Moabites who occupied Israelite territory 
 west of Jordan (cf. z'."''), and at the same time to prevent the despatch 
 of assistance to them from the land of Moab. 
 
 29. And they smote, etc. The statement implies that the army of 
 occupation west of Jordan was cut to pieces, but scarcely (as R^'' 
 seems to imply in 7/.™) that the land of Moab was invaded and 
 subdued. 
 
 30. eighty years. A round number representing, approximately, 
 two generations. 
 
 3. 31. Shamgar. 
 
 It is quite clear that this brief notice formed no part of the Book 
 of Judges as it left the hand of R'^'. The story of Ehud must have 
 been directly connected by R"^" with ch. 4": 'And the children of 
 Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, when 
 Ehud was dead.' We miss, moreover, R^^'s pragmatic introduction 
 and conclusion, and no hint is given as to the length of the period 
 of oppression or of the subsequent period of tranquillity. 
 
 The name of Shamgar the son of 'Anath is, however, certified as 
 historical by its occurrence in the Song of Deborah, which alludes to 
 the desolate condition of the country 'in the days of Shamgar the 
 son of 'Anath ' {ch. 5 ^) ; though, for all this passage tells us, Shamgar 
 may have been a foreign oppressor (see below as to his name) and 
 not an Israelite judge. The exploit recorded of Shamgar bears 
 striking resemblance to that of one of David's heroes, Shammah the 
 son of Agee (2 Sam. 23""), and also to Samson's feat with the jaw- 
 bone at Ramath-lehi (ch. 15 '^w). In all three cases the success is 
 recorded to have been gained against the Philistines. It should be 
 noticed, also, that the Song of Deborah, though mentioning Shamgar, 
 says nothing about any encroachment of the Philistines, who seem at 
 this point to appear too early in the narrative. It may be added that, 
 since the Song deals with the Cana'anite aggressions in N. Palestine, 
 it is the less natural to connect Shamgar with the Philistines in the 
 south. 
 
76 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 The name Shamgar is certainly non-Israelite. It bears close 
 resemblance to the Hittite Sangara or Sangar {KB. i. pp. 107, 159), 
 which we find as the name of a king of Carchemish in the reigns of 
 Ashurnasirpal and Shalmaneser III. (ninth century B.C.). It is per- 
 haps worth noticing that some codd. of U read Sangar; and so Jos. 
 •Ant, V. iv. 3 lavayapoi. 'Anath as the name of a goddess has been 
 noticed under ch. i ^^ The use of the name as a masc. proper name, 
 without such a prefix as 'ibhedh ('servant of 'A.' : cf Baethgen, Beitrage, 
 pp. 52, 141), may seem strange to us, but is certainly not unusual (as 
 stated by Mo.), since Anatum occurs several times among the names 
 of the period of the first Babylonian dynasty : three occurrences are 
 cited by Ranke, Early Babylonian Personal Names, p. 66, and three 
 (one probably the name of a woman) by Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et 
 Contrats de I'dpoque de la premiere dynastie Babylonienne, p. 1 5.* The 
 name also occurs at the close of one of the T.A. Letters; ana Anati 
 sulma kibi, 'To Anatu speak salutation' (No. 125 in Winckler's ed, 
 KB. V. p. 236; No. 170 in Knudtzon's ed.). 
 
 Granted that ch. 3 2' forms no part of R"^^'s history, it is a further 
 question whether this allusion to Shamgar as a judge of Israel is due 
 to the same hand as introduced the five ' minor ' judges in ch. 10 '*, 
 J2816 (RP. cf note on lo'-^). It is noteworthy that, according to 
 R^'s scheme, the number of judges is twelve (the tribal number) 
 without Shamgar; since R'', who reintroduced the story of Abimelech 
 into the book (pp. 263, 266, 268), clearly intended him to rank as a 
 judge: cf ch. 10', 'And there arose after Abimelech to judge Israel, 
 etc' Moreover, as Mo. remarks, the verse which tells ShamgaHs 
 brief story exhibits 'none of the distinctive formulas of the list lo''*, 
 12*'^; and what is more conclusive, Shamgar is not embraced with 
 them in the final chronological scheme of the book ; neither the 
 period in which he wrought deliverance for Israel nor its duration 
 is given.' % Thus it seems likely that the verse is an insertion made 
 subsequently to the work of R''; possibly, as Bu. suggests {RS. p. 166, 
 and Comm.), by a scribe who wished to dispense with the reckoning 
 of the wicked Abimelech among the twelve judges. Notice, as a 
 mark of the later hand, the XW'DJ 'he also saved Israel.' This 
 interpolator probably extracted the name Shamgar the son of 'Anath 
 from the Song of Deborah, upon the supposition that he was an 
 Israelite hero, and may have based his exploit upon the similar 
 
 * If the termination -atum is really an hypocoristic affix, as is supposed by 
 Ranke (op. cit. pp. 14 f.), it is possible that 'Anath, Anatum, used as a personal 
 name, may be not really the name of the goddess, but an hypocoristic abbrevia- 
 tion of a personal name compounded with the name of the^oii Anu, e.g. Anum- 
 malik, ' Anu counsels,' Anum-gamil, ' Ann spares,' etc. Cf. Sinatum, Sinnatum 
 (Ranke, op. cit. pp. 153, 162), by the side of Sin-malik, Sin-gamil, etc. 
 
 % Jos. {Ant., V. iv. 3) states that he died within a year of his election as judge, 
 an assertion which is clearly intended to explain the absence of the usual chrono- 
 logical note. 
 
3. 3I-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 77 
 
 31. Gi And after him came Shamgar, son of Anath, who smote 
 of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad. And he also 
 saved Israel. 
 
 exploit of Shammah the son of Agee which we have already 
 noticed. 
 
 Mo. {Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1898, p. 159) notices 
 that certain recensions of ffir (codd. 44, 54, 56, 59, 75, 76, 82, 106, 134 
 HP. ; sub obel. 121), together with S^ Arm., Slav., have the account of 
 Shamgar's exploit a second time after 16 ^1. Here it appears with the 
 introductory formula kox avian] fiera top 2a/i^|'Cl)l/ Sf^eyap vio? 'Evav, 
 which corresponds closely to the formula of ck. 10 ', ' And there arose 
 after Ahimelech to save Israel,' etc. Comparing this with 'the awk- 
 ward and unparalleled' VlPiK Tl'l {!& dvearri) of 3^', Mo. infers that 
 the position and form of the reference to Shamgar, as it stands in 152' 
 in the authorities cited, is the more original : — ' There is thus good 
 reason to think that the verse at first stood after the story of Samson, 
 and was subsequently, for some reason, removed to a place between 
 Ehud and Barak.' More probably the notice, as it stands in 3 ^' p? 
 (depending, as we have seen, upon the allusion in 5 *), was subse- 
 quently moved to a position after 16 '^ because it seemed to refer to 
 the period of the Philistine domination ; and the introductory formula 
 was at the same time squared with that which is found in 10 1-^. 
 
 Nestle iJTS. xiii. pp. 424 f.) cites a chronicle (published by Lagarde, 
 Septuaginia Studien, ii. pp. 21 ff.) which originated in the Vandalian 
 Church of Africa in A.D. 463, as stating both that Shamgar of 3 ^^ was 
 an oppressor of I srael, and that Shamgar the Judge succeeded Samson.* 
 These statements are (according to Nestle) of much greater antiquity 
 than A.D. 463, that which places the judge Shamgar after Samson 
 being at least as old as Julius Africanus {dr. 140 A.D.). 
 
 ox-goad. Heb. milmadh hab-bakar. The word malmedh (assumed 
 Absolute form) occurs only here, and must be supposed to denote 
 literally 'instrument of instruction or training.' In Hos. 10" the 
 verb from which it is derived, lijnmedh, is used of training a heifer 
 to the yoke. Elsewhere the word for 'goad' is dorbkan, i Sam. 13 2' 
 (also used in New Heb.), dorbhona, Eccles. 12". The modern 
 Palestinian ox-goad is a wooden pole eight or nine feet long, shod 
 at one end with a metal point and at the other with a metal blade 
 for cleaning the ploughshare. Cf., for figures, EB. p. 78 ; DB. i. 49. 
 
 <&"-, Urhs liofTxov {t5>v) ^oGiv, S)\ H, read 13^0 for 1B7D3. 
 
 * After allusion to Ehud, the chronicle states, ' deinde servierunt regi Semegar 
 annis xx. hie occidit ex alienigenis in aratro bourn octingentos viros at defendit 
 filios Israel,' The reference to Samson is followed by a second allusion to 
 Shamgar, this time as Judge;— 'Deinde Sampson filius Manoe ... qui plus 
 occidit in morte sua quam quod in vita sua. deinde Samera iudicavit eos anno 
 uno, hie percussit ex AUophylis sescentos viros praeter iumenta et salvum fecit 
 et ipse Israel, deinde pacem habuerunt annis xxx.' 
 
78 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 4. 1-5. 31. Deborah and Barak. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc., quoted throughout the book, of. Cooke, The 
 History and Song of Deborah, 1892 ; Driver, in Exfositor, 1912, pp. 24 ff., 120 ff. 
 
 R^"s hand is seen in the introduction, 4 ''', which contains certain 
 facts derived from the old narrative, and in the conclusion, ^''■'^■'"^ 
 
 r 31b 
 
 In the material employed by R"^^ we are fortunate in possessing 
 not merely a prose-narrative of presumably the same date as the other 
 lengthy narratives relating to the exploits of the Judges {ch. 4), but 
 also a poetical description which is generally accepted as a con- 
 temporary document {ch. 5),* and which must therefore be regarded 
 as a peculiarly valuable picture of the condition of affairs during the 
 period which followed the settlement in Canaan. - 
 
 In both accounts the main facts are the same. Each opens with 
 reference to a drastic oppression of Israel on the part of the Cana'anites. 
 Deborah, the 'mother in Israel' of the poem, is clearly the instigator 
 of the effort to shake off the foreign yoke, just as Deborah the 
 ' prophetess ' is in the prose-narrative. In both Barak is leader of the 
 Israelite troops against Sisera the leader of the Cana'anites. In both, 
 again, the battle and the rout of the Cana'anites takes place in the 
 plain of Megiddo, Sisera subsequently meets his death at the hand 
 of a woman named Ja'el, and a period of pastoral prosperity follows 
 upon Israel's victory. 
 
 There exist, however, a certain number of somewhat remarkable 
 discrepancies between the two narratives, which we must proceed to 
 notice. According to the prose-narrative, the principal oppressor of 
 Israel was Jabin, king of Hasor in North Palestine, a city probably 
 situated near the lake Huleh (doubtfully identified with the waters of 
 Merom), and about three and a half miles south-south-west of Kedesh 
 of Naphtali. This narrative states that the captain of Jabin's army 
 was Sisera 'who dwelt at Harosheth of the nations,' i.e. probably el- 
 Haritiyyeh on the right bank of the lower Kishon, and north-west of 
 Megiddo. The fact is remarkable, however, that no mention of Jabin 
 occurs in the poem, in which Sisera only is named. It is clear, too, 
 that Sisera is there regarded not merely as the captain of the 
 Cana'anite array and the viceregent of a higher power, but as him- 
 self of kingly rank. His mother, when she is pictured as anxiously 
 
 * Cf.Wellh. CoOT/.Sp. 218, K. : ' In proof that the Song is a contemporary com- 
 position, we may cite in the first place 58, where the whole number of the fighting 
 men of Israel is given as 40,000 (in the Pentateuch 600,000), and also the fierce- 
 ness of the passion 525-27, and the exultation over the disappointed expectation 
 of the mother, 528ff. "Only some one actually concerned, who had experienced 
 the effrontery of an insolent oppressor directed against himself, could express 
 himself with this glowing hatred over a dead foe ; not a poet living some 
 centuries later" (Studer, p. 166).' Such arguments as have been advanced 
 against. the contemporary character of the poem are insignificant: cf. Mo. pp. 
 I2g f. ; La. p. 114. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 79 
 
 awaiting his return after the battle, is attended by princesses (5 ^) ; 
 and, if the emendation which is adopted in the last clause of v. ^° may 
 be regarded as correct, it is stated that he will bring back with him 
 ' two dyed embroideries for the neck of Me gueen,' i.e. for his mother 
 or wife. Kings of Cana'an are represented as taking part in the 
 battle {v. ") ; but they only receive brief mention, and are obviously 
 subordinate to Sisera, whose fate occupies nearly a third of the whole 
 poem. 
 
 There is also a striking difference in the two narratives as to the 
 tribal connexions of Deborah and Barak. According to the prose- 
 narrative, Deborah dwells between Ramah and Bethel in the hill- 
 country of Ephraim, far to the south of the scene of action ; while 
 Barak belongs to Kedesh of Naphtali, west-north-west of lake Huleh 
 and not far from Hasor. In the poem, however, z/.", though admit- 
 tedly somewhat obscure, at any rate seems to indicate that both 
 Deborah and Barak belonged to the tribe of Issachar, which, as 
 occupying a region which extended southward from the plain of 
 Megiddo (Josh. 19 "-^^X was naturally a principal sufferer from the 
 aggressions of the Cana'anites. 
 
 Again, there is a difference as to the Israelite tribes which are said 
 to have taken part in the battle. According to the prose-narrative, 
 Barak is enjoined to take with him 10,000 men of the tribes of 
 Naphtali and Zebulun only (v.^) ; but from the poem we gather that 
 a grand muster of all the tribes was attempted, with the exception of 
 Judah and Sime'on in the south, which were probably at this time 
 remote from the interests of the other tribes (cf p. 47). Those which 
 responded to the summons, and bore their part in the combat, were 
 the tribes surrounding the great plain, viz. Ephraim with Benjamin, 
 Machir (z.e. West Manasseh), Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali 
 
 (r 14.16.18)_ 
 
 It is also supposed by some scholars that there is a slight differ- 
 ence as to the scene of the battle. In the prose-account Baral? 
 sweeps down from Mount Tabor to the north of the plain, and the 
 battle takes place on the right bank of the Kishon {vv. '*'^). Accord- 
 ing to the poem, the scene is ' at Ta'anach by the waters of Megiddo ' 
 [v. "), i.e., if regarded as a precise definition, on the left bank. This, 
 however, if really a discrepancy, is a very minor point, and need not 
 be taken seriously into account. 
 
 Lastly, a point which Wellh. {Comp.^ P- 217) regards as ' die Haupt- 
 differenz' between the two narratives, and which has been made 
 much of by a large number of scholars, is probably no discrepancy 
 at all. According to the prose-narrative, when Sisera after his flight 
 arrives at the tent of Heber the Kenite, Ja'el, Heber's wife, welcomes 
 him with protestations of friendship, his request for a drink of water 
 is met by the offer of curdled milk, and Ja'el allows him to lie down 
 and sleep in the tent, undertaking herself to stand at the tent-door 
 and put any chance pursuer off the track of the fugitive. As soon, 
 
8o THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 however, as Sisera is fast asleep, Ja el takes a tent-peg and mallet, 
 and going softly to him so as not to wake him, hammers the peg 
 through his temples so forcibly as to pin his head to the ground. 
 Most modern critics think that we have in the poem a different 
 description of the death of Sisera. Here it is supposed that Ja'el is 
 pictured as approaching him from behind as he is eagerly drinking, 
 felling him with a blow from a mallet, and then beating his head to 
 pieces. This view is based principally upon the line rendered in 
 R. V. ' at her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay,' where the three verbs 
 would accurately describe Sisera's coming down on his knees under 
 the blow, falling forward on his face, and lying prone. It necessitates,, 
 however, a very forced explanation of the peg, IIT' (a point rightly 
 emphasized by Kue., La., and Kit, GVI.'^ ii. 79 «i), making it to 
 denote the wooden handle of 'the workman's mallet ' (if that be the 
 meaning of the Heb. expression). The statement 'She smote 
 Sisera, crushed his head, shattered and struck through his temples' 
 {v. ^^ ; see note) agrees well with the prose-account as describing 
 the effects of driving a wooden peg through her victim's temples ; 
 whilst, had Sisera been struck down from behind, he would natur- 
 ally have fallen on his face, in which case the smashing and piercing 
 of his temples is not so easily explained. It may be added that 
 
 the Heb. Tv^Ti f^ scarcely admits of the rendering 'at her feet.' 
 It properly means' 'between her feet' {or 'legs' : cf. the only other 
 sense in which the expression is used, Deut. 28 ^'), and rather describes 
 Ja'el's straddling over Sisera's recumbent body in order to deliver the 
 fatal blow than the idea that he fell prone ' at (i.e. before) her feet.' 
 Probably the expression is intended to emphasize the indignity of his 
 death. Thus it appears that it is unnecessary to find variation 
 between the prose and poetical accounts as regards this event,! 
 beyond that which may naturally be referred to the hcence of ' 
 poetry. 
 
 Looking now at the prose-narrative alone, we cannot fail to notice 
 that it contains serious internal discrepancies. Sisera, the captain of 
 , the host of Jabin, lives at a great distance from him (assuming that 
 Harosheth and Hasor are rightly identified), thirty-four miles in a 
 direct line without taking account of the detours which are necessary 
 in traversing a rugged and difficult country. Deborah, living between 
 Ramah and Bethel (the former five miles, the latter ten miles, north 
 of Jerusalem), sends to Barak at Kedesh of Naphtali, more than 
 ninety miles to the north. Barak musters his troops at Kedesh in 
 the heart of the enemy's country, and must have marched them 
 unmolested close past the gates of Hasor in order to reach Moupt 
 Tabor, thirty miles to the south. After the rout of the Cana'anites, 
 Barak pursued the fugitives up to (IV) Harosheth, twelve miles or 
 more west-north-west. Sisera meanwhile flees north-north-east 
 towards Hasor, thirty miles distant ; but instead of seeking safety in 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 8i 
 
 the fortified city of his sovereign Jabin, he prefers to find it in the 
 tent of a stranger, although this is quite close to Kedesh {v. "), and 
 he must therefore have passed by Hasor in his flight. Here he 
 meets his death ; and Barak, in spite of the delay which his pursuit 
 of Sisera's army in a different direction might have been expected to 
 cause, seems all the time to have been close on his heels ; for the 
 narrative apparently pictures him as arriving at Ja'el's tent shortly 
 after the murder. 
 
 These difficulties for the most part disappear with recognition of 
 the fact that Jabin king of Hasor has really no place in our narrative, 
 but belongs to quite a different narrative which has been erroneously 
 interwoven with it. The shadowy figure of Jabin plays no real part 
 in the story. His position was plainly something of a puzzle to 
 R^^ ; for whereas the old narrative makes him ' king of Hasor ' 
 according to the theory of R^^ he was 'the king of Canaan, who 
 reigned in Hasor' {v.^), i.e., apparently, a kind of superior monarch 
 who was overlord of the many petty kings of the Cana'anite cities. 
 Yet we never hear elsewhere of Canaan as a political unit. Kings of 
 separate cities such as Jerusalem, Jericho, 'Ai, etc., are constantly 
 mentioned, but never a king of Cana'an. 
 
 We meet with Jabin king of Hasor in Josh. 1 1 1', where he appears 
 as head of a coalition of Cana'anite kings in North Palestine which 
 was defeated by Joshua' near the waters of Merom. This narrative 
 is derived in the main from JE (whether J or E is doubtful), but has 
 been amplified by R° in his usual manner {vv. ^ ''■'^^ ^\ in order to 
 intensify the magnitude of the coalition and the thoroughness of 
 Joshua''s conquest. It seems probable that the references to Jabin in 
 Judg. 4 are reminiscent of the victory recorded in Josh. ii. Possibly 
 the original form of this narrative may have made Zebulun and 
 Naphtali the chief actors in the defeat of Jabin, i.e. it may have 
 related a separate tribal movement akin to those which are 
 recorded in the J document in Judg. i, and possibly originally 
 forming part of it. If this is so, a parallel may be found in the 
 account of the conquest of Adoni-sedek in Josh. lo"'- as compared 
 with that of Judg. i"^- (cf note on v.% 
 
 We have already noticed the discrepancy between the prose and 
 poetical narratives as to the homes of Deborah and Barak. It is not 
 unlikely that in ch. 4'' we may have a gloss introduced by a late hand 
 confusing Deborah with another Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, who is 
 recorded in Gen. 35* to have been buried under an oak below Bethel. 
 There was a city named Daberath belonging to Issachar, Josh. 21 2', 
 I Chr. 6''^ (|§ v."), one of the boundary-points between Issachar and 
 Zebulun, Josh. 19 12, and this is identified with the modern Deburiyyeh 
 at the west foot of mount Tabor. Possibly there may have been a 
 connexion between the name of this city and the name of the pro- 
 phetess. The fact that the name Kedesh ('sanctuary') was applied 
 to several different places has led some scholars to suppose that, 
 
 F 
 
§2 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 while Barak's city is rightly named Kedesh, an error has arisen as 
 to the particular Kedesh in question. Thus Wellh., Reuss, Cooke 
 think that the reference is properly to Kedesh of Issachar (Josh. 12^2^ 
 I Chr. 6''\ |§ v."), i.e. the modern Tell Abu Kudis, two and a half 
 miles south-east of Tell el-Mutesellim (Megiddo), and about the same 
 distance north of Ta'anach, Smith's objection {HG. p. 396 n.) that 
 this Kedesh ' was too near the battle and too much under the hills of 
 Manasseh for Sisera to flee there' is not very weighty; but a con- 
 sideration which appears to be fatal to this theory is the strong 
 improbability that Barak could have ventured with impunity to 
 muster a large force of poorly armed Israelites (ch. 5 *'') within so 
 short a distance of Ta'anach and Megiddo, two of the most important 
 of the Cana'anite fortified cities {ch. i^''; cf. ch. 5 '^), and could then 
 have marched his army across the open plain to Tabor thirteen miles 
 to the north-east ; this too at a time when travel was beset with the 
 utmost danger and difficulty even for the peaceful and inoffensive 
 wayfarer [ch. 5 "). Conder {Tent Work, p. 69), mainly on the ground 
 of a highly precarious identification of Bas'annim with the modern 
 Bessum (cf. note on ch. 4"), suggests that 'the Kedesh of the narra- 
 tive where Barak assembled his troops' is the modern Kadi§* 'on 
 the shore of the sea of Galilee, only twelve miles from Tabor ' ; and 
 this view is favourably regarded by Smith {loc. cit). But, taking 
 into consideration the proximity of Kedesh of Naphtali to Hasor, 
 the conclusion which most commends itself is that Kedesh properly 
 belongs to the history of the Jabin-campaign which took place in the 
 farther north (cf. Josh. 11'"), and is therefore unconnected with our 
 narrative. Indeed, the character of Barak's force of mountaineers, 
 and the fact that they 'deployed' upon mount Tabor (cf note on 
 ch. 4 8), make the supposition probable that this mountain (or possibly 
 Daberath at its foot) was their first mustering place, and that they 
 arrived at it in their tribal detachments, and (as mountaineers 
 would naturally do) in open skirmishing order under cover of the 
 night. 
 
 Supposing the view taken above to be the true explanation of the 
 discrepancfes between the prose and poetical narratives, the course 
 of events appears to become reasonably clear. As Driver remarks, 
 ' this view of the relation of Judg. 4 to Josh. 1 1 does not materially 
 modify the picture which we form from Judg. 4 and 5 respecting 
 Deborah and Barak, and their victory over Sisera ; it leaves the 
 general representation untouched, and merely bids us disregard a 
 few elements in ch. 4 which have properly no connexion with Sisera.' 
 There is no essential difference between the two accounts. The 
 scene of action is laid in and about the plain of Megiddo. The 
 Cana'anites with their strong cities in and bordering on the plain 
 {ch. 1 27) oppress the surrounding Israelite tribes. A deliverer is 
 
 LT-; 
 
 -r'.'^ ^.J^ (^''^) I cf- -S WP. Name Lists, p. 128. 
 
4. I.] THB BOOK Of jDiDGES 83 
 
 found in the tribe which, owing to its situation, had been the greatest 
 sufferer. Possibly Barak had at one time been a captive in the 
 hands of the Cana anites (cf c/i. 5 12b ^o^«), and therefore his call to 
 action and readiness to obey the summons are the more easily to be 
 understood. 
 
 As 'to the source from which the prose-narrative was derived— the 
 indications of phraseology, so far as they go, seem to point to E. 
 Thus we may notice v.* ns^3J ntJ^K, lit; 'a woman, a prophetess'; 
 cf N''33 E^'X ' a man, a prophet ' in ck. 6^ : ■v. ^, ' for into the hand of 
 a woman j^a// Yahweh sell ^\%txz.' (the phrase is generally charac- 
 teristic of R=% but is found in i Sam. 12^ E^ with which R^"s 
 connexion is very close : cf. Introd. xli ff.): '' Dn'1 'and Yahweh dis- 
 comfited'; cf. I Sam. 7!", Ex. 1421, Josh. 10 1" (all E), Ex. 23^7 
 (JE or E), Deut. 2 '^ Cf. also the phrase, ' and all the people that 
 were with him ' with the same phrase in ch. 7 '''« (apparently charac- 
 teristic of the E narrator; cf also 7 2aw g4^ j^ should further be 
 noticed that i Sam. 12 (E^) presupposes a narrative of the oppression 
 of Sisera (7/. ^), and also probably alludes to the deliverance effected 
 by Barak (if we follow (!It, S"" in reading Barak in v^^ in place of the 
 unknown Bedan). In v?^ the allusion to Hobab (J's name) is doubt- 
 less a gloss derived from ch. i '^. 
 
 The fragments of the Jabin-narrative may be derived from J 
 (as noticed above) ; but it is at least as probable that the combina- 
 tion of reminiscences of this campaign with the account of the victory 
 of Deborah and Barak was effected when the story was still in the 
 oral stage — in which case the narrative as a whole must be assigned 
 to E.* We may notice that in i Sam. 12° (E^) Sisera is already 
 described as 'captain of the host of Hasor'; but the assumption is 
 open that these words may be a later gloss. Ps. 83 " combines Jabin 
 with Sisera, but is probably not earlier than the post-exilic period.! 
 
 The poetical narrative, which was probably at first preserved in 
 written form in a collection of poems compiled in the northern 
 kingdom, may be reasonably supposed to have been subsequently 
 incorporated in E. 
 
 4. I. R^'' And the children of Israel again did that which was 
 evil in the sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead. 2. And 
 
 4, I. when Ehud was dead. R^"s narrative connects immediately 
 on to the end of the story of Ehud, 3 ^. Cf note on 3 ^'. 
 
 * An attempt at analysis has been made by Bruston, ' Les deux J^hovistes,' 
 Revue de Thiol, et Philos. 1886, pp. 35 ff., but has not met with acceptance: 
 cf. Bu. RS. 70, n 2. 
 
 X Similarly 'Oreb and Ze'eb are combined with Zebah andSalmunnain».", as 
 in the present form of the Gideon-narrative. The Psalm is plausibly regarded 
 by Cheyne as referring to the events narrated in i Mace. 5 : cf. Origin of the 
 Psalter, pp. 97 f 
 
§4 tttlE BOOK or- JUDGES [4. i. 
 
 Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin the king of Cana'an, 
 who ruled in Hasor ; and the captain of his host was Sisera, and 
 he dwelt in Harosheth of the nations. 3. And the children of 
 
 2. Jaiin the king of Canaan, etc. R^^ states his view that Jabin 
 was not simply 'king of Hasor,' as might be inferred frorri w." 
 (cf. Josh. 11"'), but 'king of Canaan,' z.£. overlord of the various 
 city-kings of northern Cana'an, whose royal city was Hasor. This 
 statement is intended to explain the perplexing relationship of Jabin 
 to Sisera : cf introd. to the narrative, p. 81. 
 
 Hasor. This city is named in Josh. 19 ^^ among the cities assigned 
 to Naphtali, and immediately precedes Kedesh in the list. The name 
 is very possibly preserved in the modern name of the valley Merg 
 ('meadow') el-Hadireh, south-south-west of Kedesh on the northern 
 side of the Widy 'Auba which runs into the lake of Hfileh, and in 
 debel ('hill') Hadireh immediately to the east of the 'meadow.' 
 There are no traces of an ancient city upon this hill, and it is there- 
 fore supposed that Hasor may have been one of the ruined sites upon 
 the hills still further east : cf. Buhl, Geogr. p. 236. 
 
 and the captain of his host, etc. The statement gives the narrator's 
 view of the relationship of 'Sisera' of the one narrative to 'Jabin' of 
 the other. 
 
 Sisera. The name has the appearance of being Hittite in origin. 
 Cf, with the same termination, Sangara (noticed under c^. 3^'), and 
 Tarljulara, the name of a king of Gurgum in northern Syria who was 
 a contemporary of Tiglath-pileser iv. : Rost, Tiglath-pileser, p. 13, 
 al. ; KB. ii. p. 21.* The resemblance of the name to Bab. seserv, 
 sisseru, ' child (?r youth,' is rather striking (DeUtzsch, Prolegomena, 
 p. 199, Rem. 3), but may be merely accidental. The riame Sisera 
 occurs again in Ezr. 2^^ = Neh. 7*^ in a list of Nethmim (foreign 
 Temple-slaves) who returned to the land of Judah after the Exile. 
 
 Harosheth of the nations. Probably el-Haritiyyeh, a large double 
 mound on the northern bank of the Kishon, commanding the narrow 
 passage between Carmel to the south and the hills of Galilee to the 
 north, which connects the plain of Esdraelon with the plain of Acre ; 
 cf. Thomson, LB. pp. 436 f . Buhl's objection to this identification 
 ( Geogr. p. 2 1 4), on the ground that according to 4 ^^ the city cannot have 
 been situated near the Kishon, hardly seems to carry weight ; and the 
 circumstances of Sisera's rout as depicted in 5 ^' are entirely in favour 
 of such a site : cf note ad loc. The name Harosheth is probably 
 connected with Heb. hores (i Sam. 23 '^i^-^*'^', 2 Chr. 27*), Assyr. 
 
 , * We cannot follow Mo. and Cooke in adding the Hittite names cited by 
 Miiller [AB, 332) from Egyptian sources which appear to end in -sin, 
 Q-ti-si-ra, May-ra-si-ra, etc., since we now know from the cuneiform tablets 
 discovered at Boghaz Keui (cf. MDOG. Dec. 1907) that the natae which 
 app^rs in Egyptian as Q-ti-si-ra is really {Jattusili, and Maij-ra-sl-ra 
 Mursili. 
 
4. 3- 4-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 85 
 
 Israel cried unto Yahweh : for he had nine hundred chariots 
 of iron ; and he oppressed the children of Israel with rigour 
 twenty years. 
 
 4. And Deborah a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth— she was 
 
 iurhi or ^ursu, ' wooded (?) mountain-ridge ' (cf. Delitzsch, Prole- 
 gmnena, p. 180)— an appropriate description of the wooded hills of 
 Galilee below which el-Haritiyyeh is situated.* 
 
 The city was doubtless called Harosheth of the nations, as a 
 Cana'anite city which formed, as it were, the gateway into the 
 maritime plain which remained in the possession of the Phoenicians 
 {ch. 1 2'-32). Cf. the name ' district of the nations ' noticed in note on 
 ch. 1 33. 
 
 3. chariots of iron. Cf. ch. i '' note. 
 
 twenty years. Approximately half a generation. 
 
 4. Deborah. The name means 'bee.' Mo. compares the Greek 
 name MeXio-o-o, which was applied to the priestesses of Delphi, and 
 to those of Demeter, Artemis, and Cybele : cf. references in Liddell 
 and Scott s.v. On the possible connexion of Deborah with the city 
 of Daberath, cf introd. to section, p. 81. 
 
 the wife of Lappidoth. The fact that Lappidoth means 'torches,' 
 or possibly 'lightning-flashes' (cf Ex. 20''), while Barak is the 
 ordinary term for 'lightning,' led Hilliger (Z^oj' Deborah-lied, Giessen, 
 1867) to make the precarious suggestion that Lappidoth and Barak 
 are one and the same man, and that in the original form of the 
 tradition Barak was the husband of Deborah. This view is favoured 
 by Wellh. {Comp.^ p. 218), Bu. {RS. p. 69), Cooke. 
 
 she was judging. The verb saphat is here used (as commonly else- 
 where in Heb.) in the sense in which we normally speak of 'judging,' 
 i.e. (as explained in v. *) of deciding cases between man and man. 
 Since, however, R"^^ regularly uses the verb in the sense ' vindicate,' 
 or 'save' from a foreign oppressor (cf notes on 2 '°, 3 '"), Mo. believes 
 that this must have been the original sense in this passage ; and 
 since the participle riDBE' (expressing continued action — 'was 
 
 judging') would be inappropriate in this sense, he proposes to 
 vocalize as a perfect, ntOSE' — 'it was she that judged {i.e. saved) 
 
 Israel at that time.' But if this sense had been intended, R^S who 
 does not unnecessarily vary his phraseology, might naturally have 
 
 * The modern name Haritiyyehappears to mean 'ploughed or cultivated land,' 
 the Heb. and Assyr. word noticed above being apparently unknown in Arabic. 
 This fact, however, is no obstacle to the explanation of the,Heb. name which is 
 given in the note, or to the identification with el-Haritiyyeh ; since the substitu- 
 tion of a similarly sounding name for an old name of unknown meaning may 
 very easily occur : cf. note on ' the rills of Megiddo,' ch. 5 1'. 
 
86 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [4. 5. 
 
 judging Israel at that time. 5. Gi. And she used to sit under 
 the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the 
 hill-country of Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up unto 
 
 been expected to have written ntSS't^ '^ Dp*1 'And Yahweh raised 
 up a judge ' : cf. ch. 2 1^, 3 '-'^ 
 
 5. she used to sit. The verb yasabh is used in the sense of presid- 
 ing as judge. Cf. i Kgs. 21*, 'who presided (lit. Ja^) with Naboth' 
 (so V. ") ; Isa. 28*, 'for him that presides {sits) over the judgment'; 
 Ps. 9 ' (31 z/. ^), ' Yahweh sitteth for ever ' (cf. the parallel clause, ' He 
 hath prepared his seat for the judgment ') ; Am. 6 ', ' the seat of 
 violence' {i.e. of unjust judgment). R.V.'s rendering, 'she dwelt 
 under the palm-tree ' is therefore inadequate and misleading. The 
 tree was doubtless a sacred tree under which the oracle of Yahweh 
 might be expected to be ascertained. Such a tree is seen in the 
 Hon mdrd, ' terebinth of the oracle(/ora)-giver ' near Shechem, 
 Gen. 1 2 "J, which is perhaps the same as the SlSn m^'Sn'fitm, 
 'terebinth of the soothsayers' mentioned in Judg. 9'^. 
 
 the palm-tree of Deborah. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, is stated in 
 Gen. 35 'E to have been buried under an oak (Heb. 'allSn) below 
 Bethel ; and hence the tree became known in later times as 'all6n 
 bdkhAth, 'the oak of weeping' (cf. 2^ note). This tree, as Ewald 
 points out {HI. iii. p. 21, «*), appears to be alluded to again in 
 I Sam. 10' as 'the terebinth (Heb. 'eldn) of Tabor'; since it can 
 scarcely be doubted that 'Tabor' (1130) is an error for 'Deborah' 
 (mm). The context shows that the tree was on the way to Bethel 
 and not far from Ramah ; whereas Tabor lies more than fifty miles 
 to the north. The difference between 'all6n and 'Sldn is one of 
 vowel-points merely. 
 
 We have already noticed that the allusion in our passage to ' the 
 palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel ' seems to be based 
 upon a late confusion between the two Deborahs (cf introd. to section). 
 Whether the palm-tree (Heb. tomer) of Deborah can be the same as 
 the famous tree of the two other passages is somewhat more doubtful. 
 Evidence seems to show that, throughout the O.T., the words 'allbn^ 
 'alls, are generally used to denote the oak (of various species), and 
 'eldn, 'Ua, the terebinth (cf. EB. 4975) ; but it is not impossible that 
 these terms may have been used at times to describe other kinds of 
 tall and conspicuous trees. In favour of such a possibility it may be 
 noticed (l.) that the Aram, 'liana (the equivalent of Heb. 'Htn) 
 denotes 'tree' in general ; and (2.) that the name 'Uhn (the plur. of 
 'ela\ which occurs as a place-name in the narrative of the wilderness- 
 wanderings (Ex. 1 5 2'), is apparently so-called because there were 
 s^vtniy palm-trees there. Cf. Wellh., Prolegomena, p. 234 n. 
 
 Ramah. The modern er-Rim, five miles due north of Jerusalem. 
 
 Bethel. Cf note on ch. 1^. 
 
4. 6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 87 
 
 her for judgment. 6. E And she sent and called Barak the son 
 of Abino'am from Kedesh of Naphtali, and said unto him, ' Hath 
 not Yahweh the God of Israel commanded, " Go, and open out 
 upon mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the 
 
 6. Barak. Cf. note on Lappidoth, v.^. The Punic Barcas, the 
 surname of Hamilcar, has been compared ; and also the Sabaean Dp"13 
 and Palmyrene pia. Cf. references in BDB. p. 140. 
 
 Kedesh of Naphtali. The modem Kadis, four miles west-north- 
 west of the lake of Huleh, and about three miles north-east of Merg 
 el-Hadireh (cf note on Hasor, i*.^). 
 
 open out. The Hebrew verb masak means to draw out or extend^ 
 and is used both intransitively and transitively. The passages in 
 which the verb is intransitive are Job 21'', R.V., 'and all men shall 
 draw after him,' where the idea seems to be that of a long-extended 
 or never-ending line (cf. Shakespeare, Macbeth., iv. i, ' What ! will 
 the line stretch out till the crack of doom ? ') ; and the present passage 
 and ch. 20'", where the expression is used in a military sense. In 
 the latter passage the meaning can scarcely be mistaken, for here the 
 verb is used of the manner in which the ambush advanced against 
 the city of Gibe' ah in order to capture it. Extension into column 
 would be out of place as a fighting formation ; therefore extension 
 or opening out into line must be what is intended ; i.e. into loose 
 skirmishing order such as would be best adapted for the attack of 
 light-armed mountain troops. The modern military term is deploy, 
 from the French deploy er='h2L\\a. displicare. The verb masak in 
 this sense has been conjecturally restored in ch. 5 '*\ 
 
 The same verb is used in its transitive sense in w.', 'And I will 
 draw out unto thee, etc' Here the sense may be ' cause to advance 
 in a similar extended order,' or, more probably, 'draw forth' or 
 'attract.' 
 
 upon Mount Tabor. The rendering ' open out upon, etc' preserves 
 the ambiguity of the preposition 3 in the Hebrew ; the sense being 
 either 'advance in open order (so as to come) upon mount Tabor' 
 (prep, of rest after verb of motion), i.e. mount Tabor is the objective 
 of the movement described by the verb : or ' when upon mount 
 Tabor, open out ' ; i.e. mount Tabor is the point from which this 
 strategic movement preparatory to advancing into the vale is to 
 commence. 
 
 Mount Tabor is doubtless the modern Gebel et-T6r ('mountain') 
 on the north-east side of the plain of Esdraelon. Its altitude is only 
 1843 feet, and it rises 13 12 feet above the plain ; but it forms a very 
 conspicuous object owing to its isolation and its peculiar domed 
 shape which is noted by Jerome {OS., 156"); 'est autem mons 
 in medio Galilaeae campo mira rotunditate.' As Smith remarks 
 HG. p. 394), ' It is not necessary to suppose that Barak arranged his 
 
88 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 1:4. 7. 
 
 sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun? 7. And I will 
 draw out unto thee unto the w^dy Kishon Sisera, the captain of 
 Jabin's host, with his chariots and his multitude, and I will give 
 him unto thine hand." ' 8. And Barak said unto her, ' If thou 
 
 men high up Tabor; though Tabor, an immemorial fortress, was 
 there to fall back upon in case of defeat. The headquarters of the 
 muster were probably in the glen, at Tabor's foot, in the village 
 DebOriyyeh.' 
 
 of the sons of Naphtali, etc. The poem, ch. 5, differs in describing a 
 general muster of the tribes. Cf introd. to the present narrative, p. 79. 
 
 7. the wddy Kishon. The Hebrew term which is here represented 
 by the Ar. wddy is nAhal. Both the Arabic and Hebrew terms denote 
 a winter-stream or torrent ((He ^f'/^appoi't), or the valley-bed of such a 
 stream, which may vary from an insignificant depression to a pre- 
 cipitous ravine (such as is seen, e.g., in the w4dy Kelt), which marks 
 the action of water at a period when the rainfall of Palestine was 
 much heavier than it is at present. 
 
 It is only the larger streams of this character {e.g. the Yarmuk, 
 Jabbok, and Arnon) which constantly contain an abundant flow of 
 water. Many of them fail in the summer-months, leaving the valley- 
 bed dry, or nearly so ; but in winter they may possess considerable 
 volume, and are liable after storms or lengthy rains to swell suddenly 
 to the dimensions of swift and dangerous torrents. Many widys, 
 again {e.g. the Kidron), though of considerable depth, are now quite 
 dry, or only occasionally contain a little water. A.V., R.V., render 
 ndhal variously by ' brook,' ' stream,' ' river,' ' flood,' ' valley.' The 
 Ar. term wddy is here adopted as preserving the same ambiguity as 
 is possessed by the Hebrew term. Cf. further. Addenda, p. xiii. 
 
 The character of the wady Kishon is described by Thomson 
 {LB. p. 435). Its higher reaches are fed by the winter-streams which 
 descend from the hill-country to the south of the great plain ; but the 
 most important source is the perennial spring of (5enin ('En-Gannim), 
 which, however, is insufficient to provide a constant flow during 
 summer and autumn. 'I have crossed,' says Thomson, 'the bed of 
 the Kishon (even after it enters the plain of Acre) in the early part 
 of April, when it was quite dry. The truth is, that the strictly per- 
 manent Kishon is one of the shortest rivers in the world. You will 
 find the source in the vast fountains called Sa'adiyeh, not more than 
 three miles east of Haifa. They flow out from the very roots of 
 Carmel, almost on a level with the sea, and the water is brackish. 
 They form a deep, broad stream at once, which creeps sluggishly 
 through an impracticable marsh to the sea ; and it is this stream 
 which the traveller crosses on the shore. Of course, it is largely 
 swollen during the great rains of winter by the longer river from 
 the interior.' 
 
4. 8. 9- 10.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 89 
 
 wilt go with me, I will go ; but if thou wilt not go with me, I will 
 not go.' 9. And she said, ' I will go with thee : howbeit, glory 
 shall not accrue to thee upon the course which thou art taking ; 
 for into the hand of a woman shall Yahweh sell Sisera.' So 
 Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10. And Barak 
 summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and there went 
 up after him ten thousand men: and Deborah went up with 
 
 8. ' If thou wilt go, etc' ' The presence of the prophetess will not 
 only ensure to him divine guidance {v. "), but give confidence to him 
 and his followers' (Mo.). <& makes Barak add a reason for his 
 demand ; on ovk oiba rrjv rj^epav ev ^ euoSoT tov ayyeXov Kvpios 
 /ier' ifiov. 
 
 The fact that this sentence is clearly an incorrect * translation of 
 •'flK mn;; ^^ho ni()yn Di''-nK ''nj;T' t6 ''3 ' for I know not the day 
 
 whereon the Angel of Yahweh shall prosper me,' proves that the 
 translator must have had a Hebrew original before him ; but Bu., 
 Mo. {SBOT.), No. are probably right in regarding this as an early 
 gloss, intended to obviate an unfavourable interpretation of Barak's 
 demand. ST's paraphrase of v. "*^ is very similar : ninn SOKPD Ni>n 
 
 HDlp KHPSS? pS3 ' Hath not the angel of Yahweh gone forth to make 
 [thy way] prosperous before thee ? ' The phrase, ' the Angel of 
 Yahweh' (a J phrase) is somewhat unexpected, if the narrative is 
 rightly assigned to E ; and seems, moreover, to presuppose 5 ''■\ where 
 metrical reasons compel us to regard it as due to textual alteration. 
 The passage is accepted by Houbigant, Gratz, Stu., Franken- 
 berg. La. 
 
 9. howbeit, glory, etc. In spite of Mo.'s contention that the context 
 betrays no sign of disapproval, it is difficult to escape the common 
 impression that the unpalatable information is produced by the 
 prophetess at this juncture in consequence of Barak's want of alacrity 
 in accepting the divine mandate. As La. paraphrases, 'You wish 
 for a woman's help, and it is a woman (though a different one) who 
 shall have the honour.' 
 
 to Kedesh. Upon the view that the Kedesh here referred to is not 
 Kedesh of Naphtali, but another Kedesh nearer to the scene of the 
 battle, cf. introd. to chapter, p. 82. 
 
 ID. after him. Lit. 'at his feet,' i.e., as we might say, 'at his heel.' 
 Sosw, 85, a/. 
 
 * The translator reads TJXPD [St. Absol.) and treats it as object of the verb, 
 making nilT' the subject; while regarding TIK (accus. 'me') as the prep. 
 ' with me. ' 
 
90 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [4. ii. i 
 
 him. II. Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself fro 
 Kain, GI. from the sons of Hobab, Moses' father-in-law, E ar 
 had pitched his tent as far away as the terebinth of rBas'annir 
 which is near Kedesh. 12. And they told Sisera that Barak tl 
 son of Abino'am had gone up to Mount Tabor. 13. And Sise 
 summoned all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iro 
 and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of tl 
 nations unto the widy Kishon. 14. And Deborah said un' 
 Barak, ' Arise ; for this is the day whereon Yahweh hath give 
 Sisera into thine hand: hath not Yahweh gone forth befo; 
 
 1 1, had separated himself from Kain. The statement explaii 
 how a member of a clan which normally inhabited the Negeb (cf. i ' 
 came to be found in northern Cana'an. 
 
 Hobab, Hoses' father-in-law. R.V. text 'brother-in-law,' qui 
 unwarrantably : cf. note on i '^. 
 
 the terebinth of BaJannim. Vocalizing |§ D''31)S3 [ipK, in place ( 
 
 JIM D^ilJjJSa 'N (cf. Josh. 19^^), R.V. 'the oak {marg. terebinth) i 
 
 Za'anannim,' where 3 is regarded as the preposition. If this ha 
 
 been intended, however, we should have expected tipsn (with tl 
 
 article) 'the (well-known) terebinth';* not simply jipx which ca 
 
 only mean 'a terebinth.' The locality (otherwise unknown) is di 
 scribed in Josh. 19 '^ as on the border of Naphtah ; a fact whic 
 suggests, as Mo. remarks, that Heber the Kenite belonged original! 
 to the story of Jabin. 
 
 Conder {S WP. Mem. \. pp. 365 f. ; Tent Work., p. 69) identifie 
 Bas'annim with the modern Bessum, four miles west of the Kadii whic 
 is south-west of the sea of Galilee. There is not, however, any phik 
 logical connexion between the names ; and the proposed identificj 
 tion depends partly upon the view with regard to Kedesh which w 
 have noticed in the introd. to the chapter (viz. that it is not Kedes 
 in Naphtali, but another Kedesh nearer to the scene of the battle), an 
 partly upon the fact that A.V. renders '#/i^« 'terebinth' erroneous! 
 as ' plain,' and there is a plain ( Ar. sahel) called el-Ahm4 close to th 
 south of Bessiim.J; 
 
 14. hath not Yahweh gone forth before theef The scene gair 
 
 * Mo. compares HDIS ?JS'!<n 'the tamarisk in Ramah,' i Sam. 226, 31' 
 rriDVa -\W nPXn ■ the terebinth which is in 'Ophrah,' ch. 6", etc. 
 
 % Driver (Expositor, Jan. 1912, p. 32, n'^) exposes the manner in which tl 
 extraordinary error which identifies 'the plain (!) of Zaanaim' with the pla 
 called Sahel el-Ahm4 has penetrated into several modern maps. 
 
*. IS- i6-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 91 
 
 thee?' So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten 
 thousand men after him. 15. And Yahweh discomfited Sisera, 
 and all his chariots, and all his army, at the edge of the sword 
 before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot, and fled 
 away on foot. 16. And Barak pursued after the chariots and 
 after the army as far as Harosheth of the nations : and all Sisera's 
 
 much in vividness if we may suppose (with Thomson, LB. p. 436) that 
 Deborah, as she speaks, points to the gathering storm, which appears 
 to have burst in the face of the foe at the commencement of the 
 battle : cf. ck. 5 ^-S-so-^i {notes) ; Jos. Ant. v. v. 4. Yahweh's connexion 
 with the phenomena of the storm, especially when He goes forth to 
 battle before His people, is well marked in the O.T. : cf. Josh. 10", 
 
 1 Sam. /lo, Ps. iS^"-, etc., and the present editor's discussion m/TS. 
 ix, p. 326. 
 
 15. at the edge of the sword. The phrase 3"in ''D? (on which cf. 
 note on i *) may possibly here be a corrupt dittography of the follow- 
 ing p"l3 'JSP, 'before Barak' ; but Mo. goes too far when he states 
 that it 'appears incongruous with the verb' (DHil, 'discomfited').* 
 
 16. And Barak pursued, etc. The circumstances of the rout 
 appear to have been as described by Thomson {LB. p. 436) ; — 'The 
 army of Sisera naturally sought to regain the strongly fortified 
 Harosheth of the Gentiles, from which they had marched up to their 
 camping-ground a short time before. This place is at the lower end 
 of the narrow vale through which the Kishon passes out of Esdraelon 
 into the plain of Acre, and this was their only practicable line of 
 retreat. The victorious enemy was behind them ; on their left were 
 the hills of Samaria, in the hand of their enemies ; on their right was 
 the swollen river and the marshes of Thora ; they had no alternative 
 but to make for the narrow pass which led to Harosheth. The space, 
 however, becomes more and more narrow, until within the pass it is 
 only a few rods wide. There, horses, chariots, and men become 
 mixed in horrible confusion, jostling and treading down one another ; 
 and the river, here swifter and deeper than above, runs zigzag from 
 side to side of the vale, until, just before it reaches the castle of 
 Harosheth, it dashes sheer up against the perpendicular base of 
 
 * In the other occurrences of the phrase, it is used with the following verbs : — 
 nan 'smite,' Num. ai^^; Deut. ^^^^, 20"; Josh. 8Mb, 10 28.30.s2.s5.37.39, 
 iiVia.M, 1947; Judg. 18.25, 18 27, 2o3'.« 21 1»; i Sam. 22 19; 2 Sam. 15"; 
 
 2 Kings. io2«; Jer. 21'; Job i"-"; jnn 'slay,' Gen. 3426; r^x\ Q ^'hrm) 
 'render prostrate,' Ex. 17"; Qi-inn 'ban' or 'utterly destroy,' Deut. 131811; 
 Josh. 621; I Sam. 158; ^gj 'fall,' josh. 8 24'>, Judg. 4i8t- It therefore appears 
 
 - T 
 
 not inappropriate after DDH 'discomfit.' 
 
92 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [4. 17. 18. 
 
 army fell at the edge of the sword ; there was not left so much 
 as one. 17. But Sisera fled away on foot unto the tent of Jael, 
 the wife of Heber the Kenite : for there was peace between Jabin 
 king of IJasor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 18. And 
 Ja'el came out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, ' Turn in, my 
 lord, turn in unto me ; fear not.' So he turned in unto her into 
 
 Carmel. There is no longer any possibility of avoiding it. Rank 
 upon rank of the flying host plunge madly in, those behind crushing 
 those before deeper and deeper into the tenacious mud. They stick 
 fast, are overwhelmed, are swept away by thousands. Such are the 
 conditions of this battle and battle-field that we can follow it out to 
 the dire catastrophe.' Doubtless the storm (cf. note on v}^) was 
 responsible for the sudden swelling of the Kishon, and the reduction 
 of the plain surrounding it to a quagmire, in a manner which has 
 frequently been observed by travellers. Cf. also Smith HG. p. 395 ; 
 Ewing in DB. iii. p. 5a. 
 
 17. unto the tent of Jd el. Sisera's refuge cannot have been greatly 
 remote from the scene of the battle ; especially since v. ^^ represents 
 Barak as not far behind in pursuit, though having previously 
 accomplished the rout of the Cana'anite army before Harosheth. Cf. 
 the discussion in introd. to the chapter, pp. 80 f. 
 
 18. Turn in. Or, perhaps, more correctly, 'Turn aside.' Ja'el 
 persuades Sisera to desist in his flight, and take shelter in the tent, 
 without his previously having asked admission. 
 
 a fly-net. The Heb. word, s'mlkhd, is a aira^ Xsyo/ievov, and the 
 meaning adopted is based upon philological considerations, and 
 accords with the context. * A net to keep off the flies would be more 
 essential for the rest and comfort of a hot and weary man than any- 
 thing of the nature of a rug or coverlet. (E" cVijSoXoi'ia, ffi'^'' iv ttj 
 84ppec avrfjs ' with her leathern covering ' (a rendering commonly used 
 elsewhere to translate njJiT" tent-curtain'; so S'' m\ . ^ 'j Av ■• . o \ 
 iL 'in pelle sua,' F 'pallio,' &' 'JAXj^^iIkk^ 'with the coverlet,' 
 K tiri:M2, id., At. .Jij^Lislb id.; A.V. 'mantle,' mar£^. 'rug or blanket,' 
 R.V. 'rug.' All these appear to be guesses guided by the context. 
 Gra.'s emendation nD3l33; ' with a coverlet,' is unnecessary. 
 
 * An original biliteral "jDi "[iff 'interweave,' ' intertwine, ' appears both as the 
 1"J? form TID, ^^b'. and as the J/ doubled ^DD. "Jib- There can be no 
 doubt that the ij ■]3B'> whence 11336!' ' net-work ' (as interwoven) represents 
 the same root internally triliteralized by the labial 3 which is akin to 1 ; cf. 
 pW and 73CJ', both meaning 'skirts,' from an original biliteral ^(5'. i^^^P^, 
 
 from J IDK'! may exhibit the same root 'JtJ' internally triliteralized by D) 
 which is also close akin to 1 : cf., for the same internal triliteralization, Bab. 
 namdru by the side of Heb. 11 J^ both meaning ' shine.' 
 
4. ig. 20. -210 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 93 
 
 the tent, and she cavered him with a fly-net, 19. And he said 
 unto her, ' Give me, I pray thee, a little water, for I am thirsty' : 
 and she opened her bottle of milk, and gave him to drink, and 
 covered him. 20. And he said unto her, ' Stanrd^ at the door 
 of the tent, and it shall be, if any man come and ask thee, and 
 say, "Is there any man here?" that thou shalt say, "No."' 
 21. Then Ja'el the wife of Heber took a tent-peg, and took a 
 hammer in her hand, and approached him softly, and struck the 
 peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground ; for he 
 was fast asleep ^and exhausted^ : so he died. 22. And, behold, 
 
 19. a bottle of milk. The beverage is described in 5 ^*, in one 
 clause as milk, in the other as henHa. ' curds,' i.e. the leben which is the 
 choicest drink of the modem Bedawin, and is said to be most 
 delicious and refreshing, but to possess a strongly soporific effect : 
 cf. Conder, Tent Work, pp. 69 f. 
 
 20. Stand. Reading fern. 1^DJ; in place of masc. ^bV. Ehr.'s 
 proposal to point as Infin. Absol. nbj?, used, as occasionally elsewhere, 
 in place of the Imperative, is possible : cf. Davidson, § 88 i5 ; G-K. 
 § 113 bb. 
 
 21. Then Ja'el, etc. On this account of the death of Sisera, as 
 compared with that which is given in the poem, 5 ^^■^', cf. the discus- 
 sion in introd. to chapter, pp. 79 f. 
 
 a tent-peg. The peg would be made of wood, and the hammer 
 would be a heavy mallet, also of wood, as at the present day. 
 ' Among the Bedawin, pitching the tent is woman's business, and so 
 no doubt it was in ancient times ; the mallet and pin were accustomed 
 implements, and ready to hand' (Mo.). 
 
 for he was fast asleep. In place of this ©'*■'- renders xai avi-os 
 arreo-zcdpto-ei' ('made a convulsive movement') ava fida-ov rav yovarav 
 {&- no&Giv) avTTJs. This seems to represent a paraphrastic attempt 
 at interpretation of the somewhat uncommon DTI3 (ffi'^ (^ecrras) in 
 the light of ch. 5 ". 
 
 and exhausted. Vocalizing f]j;^1 with Mo., Bu,, No., in place 
 of fH e]3;>i or P)3;>1 which, in spite of the prevalent accentuation* 
 
 * According to Kit., BH., 4 MSS. place the pause upon mnj and connect 
 tiyi with nO'l. A. V, renders the sentence ' for he was fast asleep and weary. 
 So he died,' and similarly R.V. marg. (with the variation 'in a deep sleep'); but 
 it must be emphasized that, as fl^M is fainted in id, it cannot denote a state 
 
 existing coincidently with that which is described by the participle O'l'lJ ' fast 
 asleep ' ; but only some further resultant state, the 1 consec. having the force 
 ' and so. ' 
 
54 THE BOOK OF JtrbGES [4. 23. 24. 
 
 as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Ja'el came out to meet him, aiad 
 said to him, 'Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou 
 art seeking.' And he came in unto her ; and, behold, Sisera was 
 fallen down dead, and the peg was in his temple. 23. R"^^ So 
 God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Cana'an before the 
 children of Israel. 24. And the hand of the children of Israel 
 bore more and more severely upon Jabin the king of Canaan, 
 until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Cana'an. 
 
 (connecting with the preceding DT13 XI ni rather than with the 
 following nD''1), can only be understood (as by R.V. text) in connexion 
 with what follows : '■soke swooned and died.' But to speak of a man 
 whose head had been practically shattered by the tent-peg as swoon- 
 ing before death ensued, appears almost ludicrous. 
 
 23. So God subdued, etc. The concluding formula of R°^ In this 
 passage only we get the active verb with subject God (^elohtm a mark 
 of the E school ; but variants exist in ffi : cf. Kit., BH.) in place of 
 the passive, ' was (were) subdued,' ch. 3 ^°, 8 ^s, 1 1 33_ 
 
 24. until they had destroyed, etc. It can scarcely be doubted that 
 R^' (like R° in Josh.) tends to exaggerate the far-reaching effects of 
 the victory. So far as the old narrative is concerned, it does not even 
 mention the capture of the city of Harosheth. 
 
 5. 1-31. Deborah and Barak : the triumph-song. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc., quoted throughout the book, and the 
 authorities cited at the head of the introd. to 41-5*1, cf.* C. F. Schnurrer, 
 Disseriatio inauguralis philologica in Ca7iticum Deborae, 1775 ; republished in 
 Dissertationes phitologico-crititae, 1790, pp. 36-96 (his discussions are marked by 
 learning and good sense) : J. B. Kohler in Eichhorn's Repertorium fur Bihlische 
 und Morgenldndische Litteratur, vi. 1780, pp. 163-172 (a criticism of Schnurrer. 
 Translation and very brief notes) : J. G. von Herder, Briefe das Studium der 
 
 Theologie betreffend (\-jZa), 4" Ausg. 1816, i. pp. 65-75 (a literary appreciation); 
 
 Vom Geist der ebrdischen Poesie (1783), 3" Ausg. von K. W. Justi, 1825, 
 pp. 237-243 (translation with scanty notes) : G. H. Hollmann, Commentarim 
 
 * The compilation of a list of nineteenth-century authorities upon the Song 
 necessarily goes back to Schnurrer at the end of the eighteenth century ; since 
 this scholar's work is very outstanding, and has had considerable influence upon 
 his successors. For earlier writers, cf. Justi, as noticed above, and Bachmann, 
 pp. 298 f. Reuss, in his Geschichte der heil. Schrift. A.T., names a considerable 
 number of additional nineteenth-century writers on the Song ; but the present 
 editor has not been able to find their works, either in the Bodleian Library, or 
 in Dr. Pusey's hbrary, which Dr. Darwell Stone, Principal of Pusey House, has 
 kindly made accessible to him. The fact, however, that these writers are either 
 not cited at all, or only very occasionally cited, by subsequent scholars, may 
 perhaps justify the assumption that their contributions to the study of the Song 
 are of no special importance. 
 
tHE BOOK OF JUDGES ^5 
 
 pkilologico-crilicus in Carmen Deborai, 1818 (very scholarly and thorough): 
 K. W. Justi, Naiional-GesdngederHebrder^ ii. , 1820, pp. 210-312 (he gives, 
 pp. 117-225, a full list of earlier writers on the subject from the commencement 
 of the eighteenth century ; and his commentary offers a serviceable conspectus of 
 their opinions) : H. Ewald, Die Dichter des Alien Bundes (1839), neue Ausarb. 
 1866, pp. 178-190 (his translation often happily reproduces the original rhythm. 
 Very brief notes) ; G. Boettger, Commentarius exegetico-criticus in Deborae can- 
 ticum, in Kauffer's Biblische Studien, i. pp. 116-128, ii, pp. 81-100, iii. pp. 122-148 
 (down to V. 2S), 1842-4 (he adds little or nothing to the work of earlier scholars) ; 
 J, von Gumpach, Alttestamentliche Studien, 1852, pp. 1-138 (lengthy, but not 
 very discriminating): J. G. Donaldson, Jashar, 1854, pp. 237-240, 261-289 
 (comments of no special value) : E. Meier, Uebersetzung und Erkldrung des 
 Debora-Liedes, 1859 (his comments are often suggestive) : G, Hilliger, Das 
 Deborah-Lied Ubersetzt und erkldrt, 1867 (he makes no special contribution of his 
 own) : A, Miiller, Das Lied der Deborah ; eine fhilologische Studie, in Kbnigs- 
 berger Studien, 1887, pp, 1-21 (a protest against the attempt to extract a 
 rendering from a corrupt text at all costs — having mainly in view the second 
 edition of Bertheau's commentary on Judges, which appeared in 1883) ; M, 
 Vernes, Z< cantigue de Dibora, in KAJ. xxiv, 1892, pp, 52-67, 225-255 (he 
 regards the Song as a very late production — not earlier than the fourth or third 
 century B.C. — based upon the prose-narrative in ch. 4): C. Niebuhr, Versuch 
 einer Reconstellation des Deboraliedes , 1894 (highly fanciful*): H, Winckler, 
 AF. i, (1893-97), pp. 192 f., 291 f, ; GL ii,, 1900, pp. 127-135 (many original, but 
 not very convincing, emendations); P. Ruben, JQR. x. (1898), pp. 541-558 
 (emendations based on very rash philologizing) : K, L. Stephan, Das Debora- 
 Lied, 1900 (his original suggestions are not happy) : A. Segond, Le cantigue 
 de Dibora, 1900 (painstaking, but fails at crucial points) : V, Zapletal, Das 
 Deboralied, 1905 (he deals somewhat arbitrarily with the text in order to produce 
 a uniform scheme of three-beat stichoi ; and his Hebrew forms and construc- 
 tions are often very curious) : Ed. Meyer, IN. pp. 487-498. 
 
 On the metrical form of the poem, cf. J. Ley, Die metrischen Formen der 
 hebrdischen Poesie systematisch dargelegt, 1866, pp. 160-171 ; GrundzUge des 
 Rhythmus, des Vers- und Strophenbaues in der hebrdischen Poesie, 1875, pp. 
 214-219 : G. Bickell, Carmina Veteris Testamenti metrice, 1882, pp, 195-197 ; 
 Dichtungen der Hebrder, i., 1882, pp. 27-31 : C, J, Ball, The formal element in 
 the Hebrew Lyric, 1887: H. Grimme, Abriss der biblisch-hebrdischen Metrik, in 
 ZDMG. 1896, pp. 572-578 : J. Marquart, Fundamente israelitischer und jUdi- 
 scher Geschichte, 1896, pp. i-io : D, H. Miiller, Der Aufbau des Debora-Liedes, 
 in Actes du XI' Congrh Internal. d'Orientalistes, 1897 (1898), iv. pp. 261-272 : 
 E. Sievers, Studien zur hebrdischen Metrik (part i. of the writer's Metrische 
 Studien, 1901), pp. 418 ff. : J, W, Rothstein, Z.ur Kritik des Deboraliedes 2md 
 die nrspriingliche rhythmische Form desselben, in ZDMG., 1902, pp. 175-208 ; 
 
 * The poem, in its original form, is thrown back by Niebuhr into the fourteenth 
 century B.C. Sisera becomes a king of Egypt— Sesu-ra, the (supposed) last 
 representative of the Eighteenth Dynasty ; who revived Ahnaton's cult of the 
 Solar-disk, which had been abandoned for the old religion of Egypt under 
 Sesu-Ra's predecessors, Amen-tut-anh and Ay; and whose accession was 
 signalized by a combined attempt of the kings of Cana'an to throw off the 
 Egyptian yoke ('<Sisera, king of Egypt>, chose new gods ; then was there war 
 at the gates <of Egypt> '). Sesu-Ra is supposed to have quelled the Cana'anite 
 opposition ; but subsequently to have suffered defeat at the hands of the Hebrew 
 tribes under Barak. It goes without saying that the text of the poem has to undergo 
 somewhat violent treatment before this view of affairs can be extracted from it. 
 
96 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 437-485 : 697-728; 1903, pp. 81-106; 344-370; N. Sohlogl, Le ckapitre Vd 
 livre des Juges, in RB., 1903, pp. 387-394 (a common-sense! criticism of RoU 
 stein) : E. G. King, Early Religious Poetry of the Hebrews, 1911, pp. 8-14 : G. ^ 
 Smith, The early Poetry of Israel {Schweich Lectures, 1910), 1912, pp. 80-90. 
 
 The historical circumstances presupposed by the Song, as com 
 pared with the prose-narrative of ch. 4, have already been discussei 
 in the general introd. to 4 '-5 ''. It remains to say something abou 
 the metrical form of the poem. As a preliminary, we may notic 
 that, while v} and v.^^^ are obviously the work of editors, the forme 
 being due, in all probability, to R'"^, and the latter to R"^^, v^ alsc 
 which is usually regarded as the opening couplet of the poem, i 
 more probably an ancient introduction, extracted, together with th 
 poem itself, from the old song-book in which it was containei 
 (cf. note ad loc). The poem thus possesses two introductions of i 
 different date in v.'^ and w.^, and its true commencement is founi 
 in v.^. 
 
 The fact may now be regarded as well established that Hebre\ 
 poetry, besides such long-recognized characteristics as parallelism ii 
 thought, etc., possesses a definitely marked metrical or (perhaps mor 
 accurately) rhythmical system. Attempts which have been made ti 
 discover a strict form of scansion by feet may be said to have resultei 
 in failure : investigation has rather proved that ancient Hebrew pos 
 sessed no regularly quantitative system of metre, but rather a systen 
 in which so many ictus or rhythmical beats occur in each stichos 
 while the number of intervening unstressed syllables is governei 
 merely by the possibilities of pronunciation.* 
 
 The existence of such a system in the poetry of an ancient Semitii 
 
 * This system is exactly illustrated in English by Coleridge's Christabel, 01 
 the rhythm of which the poet writes: — 'I have only to add that the metre 
 Christabel is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from it 
 being founded on a new principle : namely, that of counting in each line th 
 accents, and not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve 
 yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four. Nevertheless, thi 
 occasional variation in number of syllables is not introduced wantonly, or for th 
 mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition, in th 
 nature of the imagery or passion.' In illustration of this system, as worked o« 
 in the poem , we may quote 
 
 ' They crossed the moat, and Christabel 
 
 Took the key that fitted well ; 
 
 A little door she opened straight. 
 
 All in the middle of the gate ; 
 
 The gate that was ironed within and without, 
 
 Where an army in battle array had passed out. 
 
 The lady sank, belike through pain. 
 
 And Christabel with might and main 
 
 Lifted her up, a weary weight. 
 
 Over the threshold of the gate : 
 
 Then the lady rose again. 
 
 And moved, as she were not in pain,' 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 97 
 
 language is well illustrated by the Babylonian epic poems, where the 
 regular rhythmical form appears to consist in four beats to the line,* 
 Thus, e.g., we may cite {Gilga?nes-epic, xi. 9. 10): 
 
 luptdka GUgames amdt nisirti 
 u pinsta sa ildni kdsa lukbika 
 
 ' I will unfold to thee, Gilgames, a w6rd of secrecy. 
 And a decision of the gods will I t611 thee — e'en thee.' 
 
 Or, with a fewer number of syllables to the line {j.d. xi. 21. 22): 
 
 kikkis kikkis {gar igar 
 kikkUu Hmima igaru j^issds 
 
 ' Reed-hut, reed-hut ! wdll, will ! 
 Redd-hut, Ifsten ! wdll, attend !' 
 
 This four-beat measure is well recognizable in Hebrew, and is 
 prominent in the Song of Deborah, about three-eighths of the poem 
 being so composed. The rhythm, as it appears in the original, may 
 be illustrated from v. ' : 
 
 harim na^lu mipp^nS Yahw^h 
 mipp'ne Yahwdh '"lohe Yisra'el 
 
 The measure appears to be especially characteristic of such 
 examples of Hebrew poetry as may be supposed (upon other 
 grounds) to be among the most ancient ; and the influence of the 
 Babylonian pattern may here be conjectured to have been operative, 
 or even a more remote tradition common to both peoples. As illus- 
 trations from other early poems we may cite Ex. 1 5 "^ : t 
 
 'asird fiYahw^h ki gd'o ga'd 
 stis w'rdkk'bho ramd bhayydm 
 
 ' I will sing to Yahwdh, for he hath triumphed, hath triumphed ; 
 The h6rse and his rider hath he whelmed in the sda'; 
 
 * CI. Zimmern, Bin vorldufiges Wort iiber babylonische Metrik, in ZA. 1893, 
 pp. 121-124; Weiteres zur habylonischm Metrik: in ZA. 1895, pp. 1-20. In the 
 latter article, the author publishes a neo- Babylonian text in which the stichoi are 
 divided by three vertical lines into four parts. This division can, in his opinion, 
 serve no other purpose than to indicate the four verse-members (feet) ; and thus 
 vire have an actual proof that the Babylonians consciously reckoned lines of four 
 beats in one species of their poetry. 
 
 X The major part of this poem is so composed. Sievers {op. cit. pp, 408 f.) 
 contrives to fit nearly the whole of it to this measure. 
 
 G 
 
gS THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 and 2 Sam. I ''■''■ from David's lament over Saul and Jonathan, whi 
 is mainly composed in this measure : 
 
 mtdddm Iflalhn mehelebh gibbdrim 
 kdseth Y'kSndthan Id nasdgh 'ahor 
 w^hdrebh Sa'^l Id thaMbk rikdm 
 
 ' From the blo6d of the slain, from the iiX of the strdng 
 The b6w of Jonathan turned not bdck. 
 And the sword of Saul retiirned not vofd.' 
 
 Together with the four-beat measure we also find, in the Song 
 Deborah, a three-beat measure into which about five-eighths of t 
 poem is cast. We may instance v.^: 
 
 YahivSh IfsHh^ka misseir 
 bfisadh^khd miss^dhe'^dhom 
 
 This is the most frequent form of Hebrew measure, the Book 
 Job and a great number of the Psalms being written in it. Couplets 
 this form may account for the term ' hexameter ' as used by Josephu: 
 
 The three-beat measure appears, like the four-beat measure, to 
 of considerable antiquity. We find it, for instance (combined wi 
 an ppening line of four beats), in the a-ncient ' Song of the Swor 
 which is ascribed to Lamech in Gen. 4 ^^"-j and evidently celebral 
 the invention or acquisition of weapons of bronze and iron by a peof 
 in the nomadic stage : 
 
 * Jos. applies the term (Ant. IV. viii. 44) to the 'Song' (Deut. 32) a 
 'Blessing' (Deut. 33) of Moses, in both of which the three-beat measure is » 
 marked. He also states {Ani. II. xvi. 4) that Ex. 15 is composed 'in hexame 
 verse,' a statement which is true only of a very minor portion of the poi 
 (cf. i;». zsbo.iecd)^ the greater part being composed, as we have already notici 
 in the four-beat measure. David is said (Ani. VII. xii. 3) to have compoi 
 ' songs and hymns to God of several sorts of metre : some of those which 
 made were trimeters, and some were pentameters.' Here the trimeter of cou 
 is the three-beat measure considered as a stichos and not as a couplet (hexamete 
 while the pentameter is the so-called £'ind (elegiac) measure which is well exe 
 plified, e.g. by Ps. 42-43 ; cf. v.^: 
 
 • Thfrsteth my s6ul for G6d, 
 
 For the G6d of my life, 
 Wh^n shall I c6me and behbld 
 The f Ace of G6d. ' 
 
 The former measure is reckoned either as trimeter or hexameter because ei 
 three-beat stichos is complete in itself, and the two lines of the couplet areusua 
 parallel in sense ; whereas in the pentameter (3+2) the second line completes' 
 sense of the first, 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 99 
 
 'Adha w'Silla ^md'an kdli 
 
 n'Se Lemekh hd'^zenna Hmrathi 
 ki 'Is hardghti fiphisi 
 itfyMedh I'hdbburathi 
 ki sibKathdyim yilkkam Kdyin 
 iWLdmekh sibKim w'UbRa 
 
 ' "Ada and Silla, hedr my voice ; 
 
 Wives of L^mech, give eir to my w6rd : 
 For a min have I sldin for my w6und, 
 And a boy for the sdke of my bruise : 
 If s^ven times Ciin be avenged, 
 Then Ldmech full seventy and sdven.' 
 
 Occasionally we find "couplets in the Song of Deborah com- 
 posed of a four-beat line followed by a three-beat line (4-^3); cf 
 .j;^_4b.i5b-i8.26b.27a_ Instances of the reverse order (3 + 4) occur in vv.^-'^. 
 Combination of these two forms of measure is found similarly in 
 Ex. 15. Other metrical forms employed in Hebrew poetry do not 
 come under consideration in the present connexion. 
 
 The fact that Hebrew vocalization, as known to us from fSl, repre- 
 sents a somewhat artificial system of pronunciation which is due to the 
 method of cantillation practised in the Synagogue from early times, 
 does not invalidate the conclusions above illustrated as to the metrical 
 form of Hebrew poetry; since there is no reason to suppose that the 
 number and position of the accentual beats were essentially altered to 
 suit the pronunciation of ffl. We are not altogether without evidence 
 as to the pronunciation of Hebrew as a spoken language, but can 
 draw well-founded inferences, partly from comparative philology, and 
 partly from evidence derived from the transliterations of Amorite and 
 Hebrew words which are found in Babylonian and Assyrian inscrip- 
 tions (Amorite proper names on Babylonian First Dynasty Tablets ; 
 ' Canaanite glosses ' on the T. A. Tablets ; Biblical names in Assyrian 
 Annals), and of proper names and place-names in ffi. Such evidence 
 indicates that the main difference between the original and the tradi- 
 tional pronunciations consisted in the occurrence of short vowels in 
 positions in which we now find either tone-long vowels or else vocal 
 sk'wa. Such a couplet as that quoted above from the Song of 
 Deborah, v.^, was probably pronounced in some such form as 
 
 ' harrim nazal-A mippandy Yahwdh 
 mippandy Yahwdh 'eldhdy Yisrddl 
 
 This, however, does not, for our purposes, vary essentially from the 
 pronunciation of fH. Cf. further, Additional note^ p. 158. 
 
100 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 The theory of Hebrew rhythm here exemplified is substantial! 
 that which has been expounded in detail by Sievers {op. cit), an 
 which is now very generally adapted by scholars.* Sievers give 
 (pp. 418 ff.) his view of the rhythmical form of the Song of Deboral 
 which agrees throughout with that which has been arrived at by th 
 present writer (prior to consultation of Sievers' version), except in 
 few minor particulars which depend upon individual views as to th 
 original form of certain passages. The translation which follow 
 aims at reproducing the rhythm of the original, in so far as this cai 
 be done consistently with a strictly accurate translation. Here am 
 there a faithful reproduction of the rhythm (which might have beei 
 
 * Ball's rendering of the Song (published nearly thirty years ago) proceed 
 upon the assumption of a more strictly metrical method, his lines falling inti 
 regular iambic feet, with an occasional anapaest or trochee. Such a theory mus 
 now give way in favour of that which is adopted above ; yet the writer's methoc 
 deserves notice, if only as a tribute to his exceptional command of English styli 
 in his reproduction of what he conceives to be the metrical form of the original 
 We may cite, by way of illustration, vv. ^"■, the account of Sisera's murder :— 
 
 Maim shA'al, ^Alab nathani ; 
 Basifl 'addirim hlqribi Jjem'ih : 
 Yaddh [sam61] layydthed tfshleh^nn 
 Wiminah Idlmuth 'dmillm ; 
 Wahilima Sls'ra md^aqd rosh6, 
 Umi^afi wahiiafa riqqath6. 
 
 Bein raglaihi kar4', nafdl, shakib ; 
 
 Bein raglaihd kar4', nafil : 
 
 Basher kara", shdmrmahl nafdl shadiid. 
 
 ' He asked but water, milk she gave ; 
 In lordly platter she presented curds. 
 Her left hand to the tent-pin soft she lays, 
 And to the workmen's maul her right ; 
 Then smote she Sisera and brake his head ; 
 She struck, and pierced withal his temples through. 
 
 ' Betwixt her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay ; 
 Betwixt her feet he bowed, he fell ; 
 E'en where he bowed, he fell, slain violently.' 
 
 A similar system of syllable-reckoning is found in the Syriac metres, the 
 invention of which is ascribed by tradition to Bardesanes (born 154 A.D. ). 
 
 Bickell counts syllables in the same way as Ball ; but his feet (in contrast) are 
 trochaic, and he takes great liberties with the Hebrew forms in order to fit them 
 into his system. Thus vv. ^"- run, according to this system, as follows : — 
 
 T^bordkh minndSim J4'el, 
 MinnaXim b'ohl t'b6rakh ! 
 
 Mdjm sail, chalib natina ; 
 B's^fl -ddir hiqr'ba ch^m'a. 
 
 JAdah, I'jdted tiXlachanna ; 
 Vimin4h lehdlmuti 'am^lim. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES loi 
 
 obtained through a paraphrase) has to give way in favour of a faithful 
 rendering into English. 
 
 That the poem was intended to exhibit a kind of strophic arrange- 
 ment is very probable. On examination of its contents, it appears to 
 fall into the following divisions : — 
 
 (i) V7/.^\ Introduction— Praise of Yahweh, who is pictured as 
 setting forth from His earthly seat to the help of His 
 people (9 stichoi). 
 
 (2) vv.^K Israel's oppression by the Canaanites prior to the 
 
 rising of the tribes (11 stichoi). 
 
 (3) vv."-^-^\ Summons to a retrospect of Yahweh's 'righteous 
 
 acts' in giving victory to His people (11 stichoi). 
 
 (4) z/z/.i3-i5a_ Muster of the clans — The patriotic tribes (9 stichoi). 
 
 (5) z/^/.'5bi8. Reproach of the recreant tribes, who are contrasted 
 
 with Zebulon and Naphtali, whose bravery was most con- 
 spicuous (10 stichoi). 
 
 (6) w. 19-21. The battle (9 stichoi). 
 
 (7) w.^-^\ Flight of the foe (6 stichoi). 
 
 (8) vv.^'-L Ja'el's deed extolled— The fate of Sisera (11 stichoi). 
 
 (9) ziv. ^^■^°. The poet gloats over the anxiety and vain expecta- 
 
 tion of Sisera's mother (11 stichoi). 
 vJ'^K A concluding couplet (supposed by some to have been 
 added to the poem in later times). 
 
 V'hal'ma Sfs'ra', mdch'qa t6So, 
 V'mich'fa v'chil'fa rdqq'to. 
 
 B^n raglaha k4ra*, n^fal, 
 Ki^-sakhdb ladref, 
 
 B6n raglaha kdira', nafal ; 
 BaaSdr kari', ?am ndfal sidud. 
 
 This typically German rhythm lends itself admirably to his translation : — 
 
 ' Jahel sei von Frau'n gepriesen, 
 Von den Frau'n im Zelte ! 
 
 Statt des Wassers gab sie Milch ihm, 
 Rahm in macht'ge Schale. 
 
 Ihre Hand griff nach dem Pflocke, 
 Und den Hammer fasste ihre Rechte. 
 
 ' Und sein Haupt zerschlug sie hammernd, 
 Quetschte seine Schlafe. 
 
 Sisara fiel, stiirzte nieder, 
 Lag zu ihren Filssen, 
 
 So vor ihr dahingestrecket, 
 Blieb er, wo er fiel, zerschmettert liegen.' 
 
 Marquart's system likewise takes such liberties with the position of the ictus 
 as would be capable (by the aid of emendation, where deemed necessary) of 
 producing almost any desired result from any Hebrew poem to which it might 
 be applied. 
 
102 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Here we notice that, out of the nine divisions or strophes int( 
 which the poem falls, four, viz. Nos. 2, 3, 8, and g, are of exactly thi 
 same length, viz. eleven stichoi. Every strophe, except Nos. 5 and 7 
 contains a single line; and in Nos. 4, 6, 8, and g these single line: 
 correspond with a break in subject, rounding off the strophe. Sucl 
 a measure of uniformity suggests that, in its original form, the poeii 
 may have been more completely uniform. Thus, e.g., it seems probable 
 that 1'.'^ in strophe 3 originally stood before w.^''^^ — an arrange' 
 ment which brings the single stichos v. "•= to the end of the strophe 
 This gives a very natural order : — Deborah, Barak, the military com- 
 manders, ' the people ' or rank and file of the fighting men, and then 
 typical representatives of the community in time of peace — the sheikhs, 
 the wayfarers, and the village-maidens. We must not, however, laj 
 tog great stress upon such an arrangement, since it seems fairly cleai 
 that it was not hard and fast throughout the poem. Few would doubt 
 that strophe i stands substantially in its original form. In this case 
 the strophe may be said to fall into two parts, la {v.'^) and ib (z/z/.*'); 
 and it is la, and not ib, that the poet has rounded off with the single 
 stichos. 
 
 The variation in length of strophes i, 4-7, and more especially the 
 very marked comparative brevity of No. 7, suggests that the poem 
 has undergone a certain amount of mutilation in transmission— a 
 conclusion which is also rendered highly probable by the very corrupt 
 condition of the text in the middle part of the poem (z/z/. '■'*), which 
 has been the despair of a multitude of commentators. 
 
 It is perhaps needless to remark that the emendations adopted in 
 the translation are not claimed as offering more than a reasonably 
 possible solution of textual difficulties which are in some cases so 
 considerable that they may well be regarded as beyond the reach of 
 remedy.* When confronted by difficulties of such a character there are 
 three courses which are open to the translator. He may endeavour 
 to force a meaning out of ilH as it stands, in defiance of the ordinary 
 rules which govern Hebrew philology; he may abandon the passage 
 as hopeless, and leave a lacuna in his translation ; or he may seek, 
 by aid of the ancient Versions, or (in default of such aid) by means of 
 reasonable conjecture, so to emend the text that it may satisfy at once 
 the demands of the Hebrew language and the requirements of the 
 context. The third course has been adopted as most appropriate to 
 a commentary of which the aim is the elucidation of the BibUcal text 
 by all the aids which modern research has placed within our reach. 
 
 * The very corrupt condition of portions of the poem may be taken as an 
 indication that it was derived by E, not from oral tradition, but from anancieni 
 written source which may already have been partially illegible when it was drawn 
 upon by the historian, Cf. the similar phenomenon in David's lament over Saul 
 and Jonathan, 2 Sam. 1 1'"-, and Solomon's words at the dedication of the 
 Temple, i Kgs. 8 12." — poems which we know to have been extracted from an 
 ancient song-book, viz. the Book of Jashar. 
 
5.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 103 
 
 5. I. R'^ Then sang Deborah and Bara^ the son of Abino'am 
 on that day, saying, 
 
 2. E (When long locks of hair were worn loose in Israel ; when 
 
 the people volunteered.) 
 
 Bless ye Yahweh ! 
 
 3. Attend, ye kings ; give ear, ye rulers : 
 I — to Yahweh I will sing, 
 
 Will make melody to Yahweh, the God of Israel. 
 
 4. Yahweh, in thy progress from Se'ir, 
 In thy march from the field of Edom, 
 
 Earth quaked, yea, heaven Trocked^, 
 Yea, the clouds dropped water. 
 
 5. The mountains ^shook^ before Yahweh, 
 [] Before Yahweh, the God of Israel. 
 
 6. rjTj-oin"' the days of Shamgar ben- Anath, 
 rPromT the days of '^old, caravans^ ceased. 
 
 And they that went along the ways used to walk [] by 
 crooked paths. 
 
 7. Villagres^ ceased in Israel ; 
 
 ceased ; 
 
 Till thou didst arise, Deborah, 
 Didst arise as a mother in Israel. 
 
 8. TArmourers had they none ;"• 
 TArmed men failed from the city :^ 
 
 Was there seen a shield or a lance 
 Among forty thousand in Israel ? 
 
 12. Awake, awake, Deborah! 
 Awake, awake, sing paean ! 
 Rise up, Barak, and lead captive 
 Thy captrors"", O son of Abino'am ! 
 
 9. rCome, ye"! commanders of Israel ! 
 
 Ye that volunteered among the people, bless ye Yahweh ! 
 
 10. TLet"! the riders on tawny she-asses [<review it,)>] 
 
 And let the wayfarers [<rrecall it to mind ! I)] 
 
 11. [] Hark to Tthe maidens laughing"! at the wells ! 
 
 There they recount the righteous acts of Yahweh, 
 The righteous acts of his rarm"! in Israel. [] 
 
I04 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 13. Then down ^to the gates gat^ the nobles ; 
 Yahweh's folk Tgat them^ down mid the heroes. 
 
 14. From Ephraim Tthey spread out on the vale^; 
 ' After thee, Benjamin ! ' mid thy clansmen. 
 From Machir came down the commanders, 
 
 And from Zebulun men wielding the truncheon []. 
 
 15. And TthyT princes, Issachar, were with Deborah; 
 And fNaphtali^ was leal <(to)> Barak : 
 
 To the vale he was loosed at his heel. 
 
 ^Utterly reft^ fintoi factions was Re'uben ; 
 Great were This searchings^ of heart. 
 
 16. Why sat'st thou still amid the folds, 
 
 To hear the pastoral pipings ? [] 
 
 17. Gile'ad beyond the Jordan dwelt, 
 
 And Dan [] abideth by the ships. 
 Asher sat still by the shore of the seas, 
 Dwelling beside his creeks. 
 
 18. Zebulun is the folk that scorned its life to the death, 
 
 And Naphtali on the heights of the field. 
 
 19. On came the kings, they fought ; 
 Then fought the kings of Cana'an ; 
 In Ta'anach, by the rills of Megiddo ; 
 The gain of money they took not. 
 
 20. From heaven fought the stars ; 
 
 From their highways they fought with Sisera. 
 
 21. The torrent Kishon swept them off ; 
 []rit faced themi, the torrent Kishon. 
 
 TBless thou"!, my soul, the might <of Yahweh !> 
 
 22. Then loud beat the hoofs of the horsers"! ; ■ 
 •"Off gallopHedi, ToffT gallopled"' his chargers. 
 
 23. Curse ye, fcurse ye"l Meroz ! [] 
 Curse ye, curse ye her towns-folk ! 
 
 For they came not to the help of Yahweh, 
 To the help of Yahweh mid the heroes. 
 
5. I. 2.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 105 
 
 24. Most blessed of women be Ja'el, [] 
 Of tent-dwelling women most blessed ! 
 
 25. Water he asked ; milk she gave ; 
 
 In a lordly dish she proffered curds. 
 
 26. Her hand to the peg she put forth, 
 
 And her right to the maul of the workmen ; 
 And she smote Sisera — destroyed his head, 
 Shattered and pierced through his temples. 
 
 27. 'Twixt her feet he bowed, he fell down, he lay prone ; 
 
 'Twixt her feet he bowed, he fell down. 
 Where he bowed, there he fell down undone. 
 
 28. Out through the window she leaned and exclaimed. 
 The mother of Sisera out through the lattice : 
 
 ' Wherefore delayeth his car to come ? 
 Wherefore tarrieth the clatter of his chariots ? ' 
 
 29. Her wisest princesses makTe^ answer, 
 Yea, she returneth her reply : [] 
 
 30. ' Are they not finding — dividing the spoil ? 
 A damsel — two damsels for every man : 
 
 A spoil of dyed stuffs for Sisera, 
 A spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered ; 
 Two dyed embroideries for the neck of fthe queen."" ' 
 
 31. So perish all thy foes, Yahweh : 
 
 But be Tthyl friends like the sun going forth in his might. 
 
 R^' And the land had rest forty years. 
 
 5, I. Then sang Deborah. That the poem was actually composed 
 by Deborah does not appear to be probable : of. note on v."^^. 
 
 2. When, etc. The view which is taken in the translation given above 
 is that this statement forms no part of the poem, but simply states the 
 occasion on which it was composed, viz. when the Israelites consecrated 
 themselves with unshorn locks (see below) to fight the battle of Yahweh, 
 and made spontaneous offering of their service. The form of the 
 sentence (Infinitive Construct with 3 in a temporal clause) is exactly like 
 that which is employed in stating the supposed occasions of several 
 of the Psalms in the 'David' collection. So Ps. 3, 'When he fled 
 from Absalom his son' ('J1 in")3a) ; Ps. 34, 'When he changed his 
 
 conduct before Abimelech, etc' ('J1 ini3B'3) : Ps. 51, 'When Nathan 
 
io6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 2. 
 
 the prophet came unto him, etc' ('J1 NU3) ; cf. also Pss. 52, 54, 57, 
 59, 60, 63.* 
 
 Bar'khA Yakwek, ' Bless ye Yahweh ! ' may then be regarded as 
 the lil/e of the poem, indicating that it is a song of thanksgiving \ 
 just as in certain Psalms we find a prefixed Hal'lA Yah, 'Praise 
 ye Yah ! ' which is not strictly part of the Psalm itself, but indicates 
 its contents, viz. a song of praise: cf Pss. 106, iii, 112, al. Title 
 and note of occasion appear to have been taken over by the E 
 writer from the old song-book (perhaps 'the Book of the wars of 
 Yahweh,' Num. 21") in which the poem was contained. The 
 ordinary view, which makes this verse the opening couplet of the 
 poem, is opposed by its somewhat abrupt character, in contrast 
 to v.^ which forms a natural opening (cf Ex. 15 ">, 'I will sing to 
 Yahweh, etc.') ; and also (and especially) by the difficulty of finding 
 a suitable rendering which does justice to the Hebrew construction. 
 It is very doubtful whether the rendering of R.V., ' For that, etc., 
 bless ye Yahweh' {i.e. Thank Yahweh that such spontaneous service 
 was rendered) can be justified, no parallel to the use of the Infinitive 
 Construct with 3 in such a sense seeming to exist.J The only 
 natural rendering of , '31 V"IS3 is that which makes it a temporal 
 clause: 'When, etc., bless ye Yahweh'; i.e. when Israel offers 
 spontaneous service, bless Yahweh as the true source of the noble 
 impulse, just as He is the true giver of victory ; and (implicitly) do 
 not ascribe the movement to human merit (cf ch. 7 ^). The impulse 
 described by the verb hithnaddebh, i.e. voluntary service in Yahweh's 
 
 * Since writing the above note, the present editor has discovered that a similar 
 view was put forward by William Green, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 
 1753 ( The Song of Deborah, reduced to metre). Green treats 1/.2 as a statement of 
 the occasion of the poem, and renders vv. '-2, 
 
 ' Then sang Deborah and Barak 
 The son of Abinoam, on that day, 
 When they set Israel free, (and) 
 The people willingly offered themselves, 
 saying, Bless ye Jehovah.' 
 
 His note on the passage runs as follows : — ' The second Period contains the 
 title and occasion of the Song, as may be seen by comparing it with the titles of 
 the Psalms, many of which run as this does. See titles of the 3rd, 34th, 51st, 
 and other Psalms. The Song plainly begins at Period the third.' 
 
 t We should expect hv with the Infin. Constr. (cf. Ex. 17'' '•'-DK □DiDri'JI 
 'on account of their trying Yahweh,' Am. i3 UW^'hv 'on account of their 
 threshing'), or "IB'S"^!?, or -|{J>X alone, with the finite verb (cf. Ex. 32* 
 WV ItS'X'i'j; 'because they had made,' Ps. 144 '2 D''i;''D33 ^33 ^W 
 ' For that our sons are like young plants'). Bu. asserts (against Mo.) that it is 
 permissible to render 3 ' on the ground that ' after 113 ; but he quotes no 
 illustration of such a usage. 
 
5. 2.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 107 
 
 cause, is ascribed to the influence of Yahweh in i Chr. 29". It 
 would be precarious, however, to argue from so late a passage to the 
 passage with which we are dealing; and, in any case, such an 
 explanation involves reading more into our verse than perhaps it 
 may reasonably be supposed to contain. Mo. suggests that the 
 pref. 2 might here be rendered 'with' :— ' with long streaming locks 
 in Israel, with free gifts of the people, praise ye Yahweh'— a render- 
 ing which, even if it be possible, does not commend itself as at all 
 probable. 
 
 When long locks of hair were worn loose. Heb. biphrod p'raSth. 
 The construction is literally that of an impersonal active verb : 
 ' When one let loose long locks, etc' 
 
 Much discussion has taken place over the meaning of substantive 
 and cognate verb. The grounds upon which the rendering given 
 above is adopted are as follows. In Bab. pirtu {^\m. pirMu, pirttu) 
 means 'long- hair' (of the head): cf. Gilgames-epic I. col. ii. 36, 
 where it is said of the wild man Engidu that ' his long hair is arranged 
 like a woman's ' {uppms pirttu kima sinnisti ; lit. ' he is arranged as to 
 the long hair, etc.'). The same subs, is seen in the Ar. far ' long hair ' 
 of a woman, 'full or abundant hair' (Lane). In Heb. p^rd occurs in 
 Num. 6* with reference to the Nazirite : R.V. 'All the days of his 
 vow of separation no razor shall come upon his head : until the days 
 be fulfilled in which he separateth himself to the Lord, he shall be 
 holy, he shall let the locks {pe'rd) of the hair of his head grow long. 
 Similarly, Ezek. 44™ : R.V. 'Neither shall they (the priests the sons 
 of Sadok) shave their heads, nor suffer their locks ifidrd) to grow long ; 
 they shall only poll their heads.' In all these cases (Bab., Ar., and 
 Heb.) the meaning of the substantives is undisputed. 
 
 A plur. form paroth. Construct State oipf^rdoth in our passage with 
 fern, termination (cf. Bab. pirtu, plur. piritu), is found in Deut. 32 ^ ; 
 and the meaning has been held to be equally ambiguous in Deut. and 
 Judg. In the passage of Deut< (where Yahweh is the speaker) Driver 
 renders as follows : — 
 
 ' I will make mine arrows drunk with blood. 
 And my sword shall devour flesh. 
 With the blood of the slain and of the captives. 
 From the long-haired heads of the foe.' 
 
 The Heb. phrase in the last line is rSs paroth, lit. 'head of long 
 locks.' 
 
 There is no dispute that the verb pdrd has the meaning let loose, 
 unbind long hair in other passages: cf Lev. 10', 21'", 13^, 
 Num. 5 '*. It is also used metaphorically in the sense of letting 
 loose people by removing restraint from them, in Ex. 32^^ (twice). 
 Syr. pi'rd means 'to sprout,' and late Ar. farda is quoted in this 
 sense* (cf. references in BDB. s.v. jns II.). 
 
 * The roots J?13 and mS ' sprout ' may be ultimately connected. 
 
io8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. : 
 
 This is the case for the rendering which has been adopted in th 
 text with some confidence. As Black remarks (after W. Robertso 
 Smith), 'The expression . . . refers to the ancient and widesprea 
 practice of vowing to keep the head unshorn until certain condition 
 had been fulfilled (cf. Acts iS^^). The priests [cf. the passage frot 
 Ezek. already cited] were prohibited from making such vows becaus 
 they might interfere with the regular discharge of the priestl 
 functions ; but with warriors in primitive times the unshorn head wa 
 a usual mark of their consecration to the work which they had undei 
 taken, and their locks remained untouched till they had achievei 
 their enterprise or perished in the attempt (cf. Ps. 68^'). Waramon] 
 most primitive peoples is a sacred function, and this was special!; 
 the case in Israel where Jehovah was the God of Hosts.' 
 
 This interpretation, which was probably intended by 2. iv n 
 avandkii^atrBai Ke(j)aXds (cf. dS:^ 'Kn€KaKi<^6r) anoKaXv/iim), is alsi 
 adopted by Cassel, Wellh. (Isr. u. Jiid. Gesch^. p. 97), Vernes, No. 
 La., Cooke {Comm.\ Gress., and, on Deut. 32*' (according to Driver) 
 by Schultens, Knobel, Keil, and by R.V. marg. 2. 
 
 The principal rival interpretation is ' For that {or when) the leaden 
 led.' This appears in 45*% 0., eV to Sp^aa-dai apxiyovs, and is adoptee 
 by R.V., Schnurrer, Herder (1780), Hollmann, Ges., Ros., Donaldson 
 Meier, Ewald, Hilliger, Bach., Reuss, Ber., Get., Bu., Stephan 
 Kit., Zapletal, Kent, Smith, and apparently given the preference b) 
 Mo. on Judg. ; and in Deut. by R. V. (' From the head of the leaden 
 of the enemy'), Schultz, Kamphausen, Dillmann, Get., Steuernagel. Il 
 depends upon the fact that in Ar. the veTh/arda has the sense over- 
 top or surpass in height, and then becotne superior in eminence, nobility 
 etc. ; and hence is derived the subs, far, noble or man of eminena 
 (Lane).* 
 
 If this rendering is correct, it is at any rate remarkable that, where 
 so many occasions for mentioning leaders or chieftains occur in the 
 G.T., both in poetry and prose, this particular term should be found 
 only in the two passages specified, and should in both of them be 
 open to a considerable measure of ambiguity. 
 
 Other explanations may be dismissed in a few words. Kimchi, and 
 several older modern commentators (Kohler, Herder (1825), etc.), 
 
 * There can be little doubt that this root is the same as that from which the 
 subs. ' long hair ' is derived, the common idea being that of luxuriant growth. 
 
 Cooke makes a mistake in attempting (with some of the older commentators] 
 to connect the Aram. D''JJ?"lia which is used in ai;° Deut. 16 18 to translate the 
 
 Heb. D''^t3SJ' ' officers ' (in subordinate position) ; since the sense here intended 
 is vindices (from yiS 'to avenge'), alongside of Heb. D''t2DE' Aram. [O'^l 
 ■judges.' Cooke adds a reference to Ex. 20 » in JC-' ; but this is quite off the 
 point, |V"113 here having the sense 'vindictive,' in the phrase, 'a jealous and 
 vindictive God. ' 
 
5. 3- 4-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES log 
 
 following the rendering of S"", 'For the vengeance wherewith Israel 
 was avenged,' explain 'For the vengeance (lit. vengeances) which 
 was taken in Israel,' i.e. the avenging of their wrongs. Similarly, in 
 Deut. 32 ^ R.V. marg. offers the rendering, ' From the beginning of 
 revenges upon the enemy.' But this sense of the verb J?"IB, though 
 common in Aram., cannot be paralleled in Heb., in which nakam is 
 the regular term for 'avenge.' Lastly, Le Clerc, Michaelis, Justi, Stu., 
 von Gumpach, assuming the meaning of the root to be to loosen in a 
 general sense, would render ' For the freedom (freedoms) which was 
 wrought in Israel.' Such a sense, however, cannot be supported. 
 volunteered. The Heb. kitknaddebh, which is used, as here, in 
 
 2 Chr. 17'^, Neh. 11 2, in the sense of offering one's self willingly to 
 perform certain services, occurs in i Chr. 29 {passim), Ezr. i °, 2 ^', 
 
 3 ^ t with the meaning o^er freewill offerings {rfdhdbMth) for the 
 Temple. Cf also, in Bib. Aram., Ezr. 7 1=1° '« t. 
 
 3. ye rulers. Heb. rog'nim., which is connected with an Ar. root 
 meaning 'to be weighty, grave, firm in judgment,' is only employed 
 in the O.T. in poetical or elevated diction. It is parallel to ' kings ' 
 
 ■ (as here) in Hab. 1 1°, Ps. 2 2, Prov. 8'^ 31*, and to 'judges of the 
 earth' in Isa. 40 ^^t. Cf Bab. urzunu {ruzzunuT), russunu, 'mighty, 
 dignified,' cited by Dyneley Prince, /5Z., 1897, pp. 175 ff. ; Langdon, 
 A/SL., 1912, pp. 144 f 
 
 / — unto Yahweh I will sing. The first ' I ' is a nominativus 
 pendens. R.V., ' I, even I will sing, etc.,' is incorrect. 
 
 will make melody. Heb. zimmer is used of playing an instrument 
 (cf Ps. 33 2^ I44''^ 147 '^ «/.), as weU as of singing. Hence the 
 rendering adopted is preferable to the more specific rendering of R.V., 
 ' I will sing praise.' 
 
 4. Yahweh, when, etc. Yahweh is pictured as marching to the 
 assistance of Israel from His ancient seat in the south (as rightly 
 observed by HoUmann), which is placed by the poet in ' Se'ir ' or ' the 
 field of Edom.' That this seat can be no other than Sinai (of J and P) 
 or Horeb (of E and D), as is assumed by the author of the ancient 
 gloss 'This is Sinai' in v.^^, cannot be doubted. The old poem 
 called 'the Blessing of Moses,' Deut. 33, is very explicit. It opens 
 with the quatrain — 
 
 ' Yahweh came from Sinai, 
 And beamed forth unto them from Se'ir ; 
 He shone forth from mount Paran, 
 And came from ""Meribath-Kadesh.T ' 
 
 Here Sinai is grouped with Se'ir, i.e. the mountain-range of Edom 
 which runs north and south, from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of 
 'Akaba ; with a mountain (or mountain-range) belonging to Paran— 
 perhaps Gebel Firin, among the mountains to the south-east of 
 
no THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 
 
 Kadesh ; and with Meribah of Kadesh,* i.e. Kadesh-Barnea', whi( 
 was close to the border of Edom : cf Num. 20 1^'', and note on ' fro 
 the Crag,' J.udg. I ^^. 
 
 The evidence of the 'prayer' of Habakkuk is similar. This opei 
 with the statement — 
 
 ' God came from Teman, 
 And the holy one from mount Paran.' 
 
 Teman, which etymologically means ' the right hand side,' or Soul 
 country, from the standpoint of Canaan, is the name applied to 
 district of Edom, as appears from Ezek. 25 '^, Ob. ^. 
 
 If the site of Mount Sinai is to be sought among the mountains 1 
 Edom, not far from Kadesh — possibly in the Gebel el-Makrah grou 
 to the south-east of 'Ain Kudes (cf. Map V.), this is consonant wit 
 several other statements contained in the O.T. For instance, Mose 
 comes to Mount Horeb when feeding the flock of his father-in-lav 
 the priest of Midian (Ex. 3 ^ E) ; and Midian appears to have bee 
 situated north-east of the Gulf of 'Akaba, in the neighbourhood of th 
 hill-country of Se'ir.t Israel's first conflict with the 'Amalekites is < 
 Rephidim close to Sinai (Ex. i7*f*E); and the 'Amalekites ar 
 mentioned elsewhere as inhabiting the region immediately south ( 
 the Negeb, in the neighbourhood of the Kenites and Sime'onites 
 cf note on ' 'Amalek ' ch. 3 '^. The story of Moses striking the roc 
 at Kadesh is given as the origin of the name Meribah in Num. 20 '■ 
 (JEP), and is closely parallel to the story of his striking the rock a 
 Rephidim close to Sinai, Ex. 17 '*'■' (JE), where the name Meriba! 
 is similarly given ; and it is impossible to think otherwise than tha 
 the two narratives are duplicates of the same tradition. Cf furthe 
 Sayce, pp. HCM. ibT.-iTi. 
 
 The traditional site of Sinai is Gebel MusS. in the south of th 
 peninsula of Sinai, more than 150 miles south of Kadesh ('Ai 
 KudSs), and considerably over 100 miles from the southemmos 
 district of Edom, and from the land of Midian. The only evidenc 
 
 * iW reads CJ''1p flbniD, i.e. 'from ten thousands of holiness,' which i 
 
 paraphrased by R.V., 'from the ten thousands of holy ones.' ffi, howevei 
 renders cijv iuipii,tTw KaS^js, and it is clear that a place-name is required by th 
 parallelism with the three preceding stichoi. This can be scarcely other tha 
 K''lp na'i'lBp: cf. Deut. 32 61, Ezek. 47 is, 4828; Ps. 106 32. 
 
 } The statement of Ex . 3 1 that Moses ' led his flock to the back of the wildei 
 ness ' implies that the mountain of God lay to the west of Midian. The MoSioj 
 orMaSia/ta of Ptolemy (vi. 7), i.e. the Madyan of the Arabic geographers, lie 
 east of the gulf of 'Akaba and south of the mountain-range of Se'ir ; but the lani 
 of Midian may in all probability have extended further northwards along th 
 eastern side of Se'ir. Thus a mountain west of Midian might be situated in Se'i 
 to the east of the "Arabah : but the tradition which associates Sinai with Kades 
 and Paran, seems rather to favour the district of Edom which lay to the west ( 
 the 'Arabah. 
 
5. 4-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES in 
 
 in the O.T. which may be said to tell in its favour, in so far as it is 
 incompatible with the evidence given above associating Sinai with 
 Kadesh, is the statement of Deut. i^ that 'it is eleven days from 
 Horeb by way of the hill-country of Se ir to Kadesh-Barnea .' It may 
 be noticed also that P in Num. 33 ^^-^ places twenty stations between 
 Sinai and Kadesh ; but this is discounted by the fact that the old 
 narrative JE knows nothing of these stations, and only mentions 
 Tab'erah (Num. 11 3), Kibroth-hatta'avah (Num. ii^*), and Haseroth 
 (Num. 1 1 ^^), as intervening.* 
 
 The tradition which connects Sinai with 6ebel Musi cannot be 
 traced beyond the monastic period. It seems to have been in the 
 fourth century A.D. that Christian communities began to settle in the 
 Sinai peninsula, and monasteries were established in the neighbour- 
 hood of Gebel Musa, and also of Gebel Serbsll in the west of the 
 peninsula, which, in the opinion of many authorities, possesses the 
 earlier claim to have been considered the traditional Sinai. Upon 
 this question, cf. Driver, Exodus {Camb. Bib.), pp. 186 ff. J 
 
 the field of Edom. The phrase DiHX mtf (parallel to ' Seir,' a 
 
 mountain-district : cf preceding note) suggests an original connexion 
 between Heb. sddke', ordinarily rendered 'field,' and Bab. sadii, 
 ' mountain.' § Cf. also •z'.'*, ' on the heights of the field' ; Num. 23 1*, 
 'unto the field oi Xhe. watchmen' (Sophim), further explained by 'unto 
 the top of Pisgah,' mentioned as a point of view; Deut. 32'', 'produce 
 
 * Kadesh is not mentioned at the end of Num. 12 or the beginning of 13. 
 Num. 12 18 says that 'the people journeyed from Haseroth and pitched in the 
 wilderness of Paran,' and ch. 13 then at once commences to relate the mission of 
 the spies. But that it was Kadesh from which, according to the old narrative, 
 the spies were sent forth is clear from 1326, where they return to Kadesh, and 
 from 32 8, where they are definitely stated to have been sent forth from Kadesh- 
 Barnea'. 
 
 % An expansion in JH's paraphrase of v. ^ shows that the translator must have 
 supposed Sinai to be a very small mountain, and therefore could not have known 
 the tradition identifying it with Gebel Mljs& or Gebel Serbll. The passage runs, 
 ' Mount Tabor, Mount Hermon, and Mount Carmel were in a fury one with 
 another, and were saying one to another, the one of them, " Upon me shall His 
 Shikhina dwell; and me it becometh " ; and another, "Upon me shall His 
 SfUkhina dwell ; and me it becometh." He caused His ShSkhhid to dwell on 
 Mount Sinai, which is weaker and smaller than all the mountains.' 
 
 § Heb. {5'=Bab. /is seen also in '^'i^=hiA 'be sated', 'iW=su'u 'sheep', 
 ViW=situ 'rebel', y''^=Ubu 'hoary', rT'B' ' plant '=«(^te 'shoot' from 
 Uhu 'grow', h^'d'i)=^umUu 'left side', IVB' ' \^&\r' =Urtu 'hairy skin', 
 \k>=iakku 'sack', 9^^=MrApu 'burn', IE' ' prince '=/a?->-M 'king', and 
 in other cases in which the connexion is not so obvious. Cf. the way in which 
 loaft-words in Hebrew from Assyrian represent /by D ; e.g. |U"1D for Sarg&n-u, 
 etc. : cf. the present editor's note in JTS. xi. p. 440. 
 
112 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5.5. 
 
 of the fields parallel to 'the heights of the earth'; 2 Sam. l^"", where 
 we should perhaps read '■ye fields of fdeathl' (DIO '''IB'), parallel to 
 
 ' ye mountains of Gilboa' ' ; Jer. 18 ", ' Shall the snow of Lebanon fail 
 from the rock of the field f In all these cases the more original 
 meaning 'mountain' appears to be prominent. Cf. Barth, Etymo- 
 logische Studien, pp. 65 f. ; Winckler, AF. i. p. 192 ; Peters, JBL, 
 1893, pp. 54 ff. The reason why sadh^ came: to denote more generally 
 'field,' i.e. open country, usually uncultivated pasture or hunting- 
 ground, probably was that the usage sprang up in Palestine where 
 this type of country is found in the hills as opposed to the vale (emek), 
 which doubtless was then, as it is now; appropriated for arable pur- 
 poses. A parallel may be found in the fact that, for the Babylonians, 
 the same Sumerian ideogram KUR stands both for sadii, 'mountain,' 
 and mdtu (Aram, matha), ' country ' ; a fact which points the inference 
 that for the original users of the ideogram their 'country' was a 
 mountain-country. 
 
 Earth quaked. The reference is not to Yahweh's manifestation 
 in storm and earthquake at the giving of the Law on Sinai or Horeb 
 (Ex. 19 ^^''-j Deut 4"-^^ 5^"'), as has been supposed by many 
 scholars — a fact which would have no special significance in the 
 present connexion, but to his appearance in these natural phenomena 
 upon the occasion with which the poem deals. As we have already 
 noticed (4 '* note), the fact that a thunder-storm burst in the face of 
 the foes, and materially assisted in their discomfiture, may be inferred 
 both from the poetical and prose-narratives. The statement that 
 'the earth quaked' need not be taken more literally than the com- 
 panion-statement that 'the heaven rocked'; and may well be a 
 poetical description of the apparent effect produced by the rolling 
 peals of thunder. 
 
 rocked. Reading iiJiDJ with ffi^""' irapdxSv (cf. ffif'^ i^ecrTaSr)), 
 IL 'turbatum est,' Bu., Mo., Oort, No., in place of |^ 5SD3 which 
 means 'dropped' or ' dripped,' and is the word used in the following 
 stichos — a fact which doubtless accounts for its erroneous occurrence 
 in our passage. The Heb. root mugh, suggested by the Versions 
 above cited, is the same as the Ar. m&ga, which, as applied to the 
 sea, means ' be in a state of commotion,' ' be agitated with waves,' 'be 
 very tumultuous' (Lane). Marquart, Ehr. read ^DiDJ 'were shaken.' 
 
 5. shook. Vocalizing !|^f: (as in Isa. 63 ", 64 2) with ffic ia-aXevSiiaav, 
 gh ai>^^ JL 'commoti sunt,' S.' oXj, ffi lyt, Ar. iji^cVj, and most 
 moderns, in place of M- vT3 ' flowed down,' which has the support 
 of F 'fluxerunt.'* 
 
 * It is possible that 1PT3 as vocalized by JH may be intended as a weakened 
 form of ^))h ■ cf. ^aV for ItSf n^33 for rkhi in Gen. ii"; G-K.%67<l(i. 
 
 T ' :iT T» t;it t t 
 
5.6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 113 
 
 Before Yahwek, etc. ^ opens the clause with the words 131D Plf 
 i.e. if part of the original, ' Yon Sinai before Yahweh, etc' The use 
 of the pronoun nt deiktikos can be paralleled (cf. BDB. s.v. nt 2); 
 but, as Mo. remarks, ' would only be natural if Sinai were in sight.' 
 The chief objection, however, to the originality of the words is the 
 fact that they are metrically superfluous, since they make the stichos 
 to contain five beats ; * whereas, with their omission, the verse is 
 perfectly balanced. It can hardly be doubted that ''i''D PIT is simply 
 a scribe's marginal note which has crept into the text, and which is 
 to be understood predicatively, 'This is Sinai' (cf. 2. Tovrfo-n to 2iva). 
 i.e. 'This refers to Sinai,' viz. the mention of the mountains in the 
 first stichos of v. ^ The inclusion of this gloss in the text must have 
 happened fairly early, since it appears in the same position in all the 
 Versions, and also in Ps. 58 ', which is copied from our passage. J This 
 view is adopted by von Gumpach, Donaldson, Ball, Mo., Bu., Oort, 
 No., La., Kit, Cooke, Gress. Winckler and Marquart read *3^D Ml 
 'Sinai trembled,' and modify Yahweh's title in order otherwise to 
 shorten the stichos (Winck. 'before Yahweh' — tautologous with 
 parallel stichos ; Marq. 'before him' — three beats only in the stichos). 
 Kit, BH. proposes (after Gra.) to read J?t for ni — 'Sinai quivered,' 
 and to delete ninV 
 
 6. In the days of Skamgar, etc. Cf. note on 3 '\ where the fact is 
 remarked that the name Shamgar is non-Israelite, and may very 
 likely be Hittite in origin. We have also noticed (4^ note) that Sisera 
 may very possibly be a Hittite name ; and these two inferences, taken 
 together, lend colour to the theory, propounded by Marquart, and 
 afterwards worked out by Mo. (JAOS., 1898, pp. 159 f), that Shamgar 
 may have been a foreign oppressor, and Sisera his immediate suc- 
 cessor, if not his son : both being members of a Hittite dynasty ruling 
 in Cana'an, to which the Cana'anite city-kings, at least in the vicinity 
 of the great plain, were vassals. 
 
 From the days of old. |§ reads 'In the days of Ja'el'; but this 
 can scarcely represent the original text As Mo. appositely remarks, 
 'it is singular that the name of this Bedawi woman should be 
 coupled with that of Shamgar. And how can the period before 
 the rise of Deborah be called the days of J a el, when the deed which' 
 made her famous was only the last act in the deliverance which 
 Deborah had already achieved? The best that can be said is 
 that, although Shamgar and Ja'el, both of whom in different ways 
 wrought deliverance for their people, were living, they did nothing 
 to free Israel from the tyranny of the Cana'anites until Deborah 
 
 * 'VD ni would count as one beat only. 
 
 X Ps. 68 is probably not earlier than the Maccabaean period. Ball has made 
 out a strong case for finding its occasion in the events narrated in i Mace. 5*"-, 
 dr. B.C. 165 : cf, JTS. xi. (1910) pp. 415 ff. 
 
 H 
 
114 THE BOOK OF JUDGES t&J 
 
 appeared.' The difficulty is enhanced if Shamgar was not really a: 
 Israelite Judge, as supposed by the author of the gloss in 3^1, bu 
 (as is suggested by his name : cf. note) a foreign oppressor. Man 
 commentators would escape the difficulty by excising the word 
 'in the days of Ja'el' as a gloss suggested by vv.^*'. Here, how 
 ever, we find ourselves upon the horns of a dilemma. If we excisi 
 no more than these words, with Geddes, Bickell, Cooke, Marquarl 
 Bu., Mo. (Comm., but not SBOT.\ No., we then have a stichos con 
 sisting of two beats only, DirnN WH 'caravans ceased' — which i 
 scarcely possible. If, on the other hand, we also excise 'the son 
 'Anath' from stichos a (with Kit.), and then read a b zs, 2. singli 
 stichos, 'In the days of Shamgar caravans ceased' (rhythmicall; 
 correct), we are unable to point to the source whence 'the son 
 'Anath ' was derived by the late author of 3 ^^ 
 
 Assuming the correctness of the suggestion noticed above, tha 
 Shamgar was a foreign oppressor preceding Sisera, it is feasible 
 to regard the ■• of /T as due to dittography of the final letter of ''D'a 
 and to find in 7S the first two letters of DP^ 'old time' (so Ball 
 privately). Then, reading in both stichoi ''D''D for *D''3 (confusion 0; 
 D and 3 is frequent ; cf examples cited by Driver, NHTS? p. Ixvii.] 
 we obtain the text adopted above. It may be objected to this thai 
 DPV ''D'O suggests too remote an antiquity. Yet cf the expression 
 DP1J? main 'the desolations of old time,' Isa. 58 '^, 61 \ an expression 
 covering a period of not more than fifty to seventy years. It would 
 be natural for the poet, after the great victory, somewhat to exag- 
 gerate the duration of the oppression. 
 
 Suggested substitutions of another proper name for the name Ja'el 
 {e.g. 'Ja'ir,' Ewald, HI. ii. p. 365; ''Othniel,' Gra.) do not call for 
 comment. 
 
 caravans. Vocalizing nimx with most moderns, in place of 
 nims 'ways' or 'paths' of JH.* 'Or^ha (cf. Gen. 37 ^^ Isa. 21") is 
 the active participle fem. sing, of ^drah 'to journey,' and is used 
 collectively to denote a travelling company. The aggressions of the 
 Cana'anites put a stop to commercial intercourse in Israelite territory, 
 nims "hin of IH, i.e. 'the ways ceased,' is interpreted by R.V. 'the 
 highways were unoccupied' ; \ but to make 'ceased' to mean 'ceased 
 
 * The same change has to be made in Job 6i9, where XDFl nilTIN iW should 
 be 'n niniK. similarly, in Job 31 82 we must read fTlN? 'for the wayfarer' 
 (II "la ' a sojourner ') in place of fTIX? JW, which can only mean ' for the way.' 
 
 % R.V. murg. offers the rendering ' the caravans ceased ' ; but it should be 
 noted that this involves a tacit adoption of our emendation, and cannot be got 
 out of M as it stands. 
 
.6. 7-3 THE BOOK OF JUDGfiS 11.5 
 
 to be used' is a forced expedient which cannot be justified. Such an 
 idea would have been more naturally expressed by a different verb : 
 cf. Isa. 33 ^ 'The highways lie desolate (rii^DD ilBCyj)^ the wayfaring 
 man ceaseth.' ' ' 
 
 They that went, etc. Even the private wayfarer could only find 
 safety by taking ' crooked,' i.e. devious and roundabout, paths. 
 
 crooked paths. Lit. ' crooked ones,' ' paths ' being naturally inferred 
 from the context. So in Ps. 125 ^ Dh^p^py 'their crooked (ways).'" 
 
 ?§ inserts T\\r\-\». 'paths' before ni^pi'pV, but this spoils the rhythm 
 
 by introducing a fifth beat into the stichos. The omission is 
 favoured by Mo. (who quotes Briggs, Ley, Grimme), Bu., No., 
 La., Cooke. 
 
 7. Villages. Reading niTia with four MSS. of fH, &' V»-»-6^ 
 'open {i.e. unwalled) places,' ST X'nSfi 'lip 'village-towns,' and many 
 moderns. P'razoth (cf. Ezek. 38 ", Zech. 2 * (J§ «), Est. 9 1" t) are the 
 unwalled hamlets which the Israelites dwelling round about the plain 
 of Esdraelon were compelled to inhabit owing to their failure to 
 capture the fortified cities of the Cana'anites ; cf. ch. i"". Such 
 hamlets, being unprotected, were speedily swept out of existence by 
 the foe ; and we are left to infer that, as happened during other 
 periods of oppression (cf cA. 6^, i Sam. 13^), the Israelite inhabitants 
 must have been driven to take refuge in the caves and fastnesses of 
 the hills. 
 
 S litis which occurs again in the suffix-form iiiTia in v.^\ has 
 been explained as a collective ' peasantry,' ' rural population ' (hence 
 R.V. marg. 'villages'); but the coupling of the plur. verb ^bin^ 
 ' ceased ' with the sing, collective subject is extraordinarily harsh, and 
 can scarcely be justified.* Bu., who retains pflB, feels constrained 
 to aher the verb into the sing. ^in (cf (S*'' i^fKme (j)paCa)v). npIV 
 MltlB in V. " is likewise only susceptible of a very forced explanation : 
 —'the righteous acts of {i.e. pertaining to) his peasantry,' i.e. 'his 
 righteous acts towards the peasantry.' The rendering of ffi" dwaroi 
 ^'.', Y 'fortes' z/z/.^", Ber., La., and several of the older commen- 
 tators,! R.V. text, 'rulers' (or 'judges') v.'', 'his rule' w.", maybe 
 
 * A parallel may perhaps be found in I Kgs. 53 (g"), !|n33p IB'K nDnfupn 
 
 ' the state of warfare (sing.) which surrounded (plur.) him,' which can only be 
 explained upon the supposition that the writer, in speaking of warfare, had 
 implicitly in his mind the foes (plur. ) who were its cause, and so lapsed into the 
 plur. verb. Cf. NHTK. ad loc. 
 X This interpretation is given by Rabbi Isaiah (in Buxtorf, Rabbinic Bible) : 
 
 ni>E«BD hyh nvHD ■h-^rw rhvaa iw^ nnisi' tt"i ■ and u is possible 
 
 to interpret it in the sense of " rule," viz. that they ceased to have rule.' 
 
lig tHE BOOK; Oif JUDGfiS [I 
 
 compared with lf"iE3 in Hab. 3", where the meaning 'his chief m 
 ' rulers,' or ' warriors ' is given by ffi, TS, &^, % and is agreeable 
 the context. Such an explanation is not without philological suppc 
 (as stated by Mo.) ; yet if the root T"IS was really employed in H 
 in the sense ' decide ' or 'judge,' it is somewhat strange that no cl 
 occurrences of it are to be found. 
 
 . . . ceased. As ?§ stands, the word is connected with the prec 
 ing stichos : ' Villages ceased in Israel, they ceased' ; and the Versi: 
 all presuppose the same text. Since in •».''''; however, we haw 
 perfectly balanced distich, it seems obvious that w^" must origin; 
 have formed a similar distich, the first stichos beginning, and 
 second ending, with \>1X\ 'ceased' (cf. the similar structural arran 
 ment in the distichs z/i/.^'"-^"') ; though what the subject of the secc 
 vin was we have no means of conjecturing. 
 
 Till thou didst arise. iDDp is doubtless intended by JH for 
 pers. sing., as rendered by S"", ST, A.V., R.V., 'until I arose.' 1 
 objection that, inasmuch as the poet addresses Deborah in w.'^, il 
 scarcely possible that she can here be the speaker, is sufficien 
 answered in the words of Herder, who, writing of w'^, remarks, 'Ji 
 as Pindar so often arouses himself, his ' ^'Ckov rjTop,' just as David 
 often summons heart and soul, when both are preparing themseli 
 for the highest flights of their song ; so Deborah wakes herself as s 
 now commences the actual description of the battle, and as it wf 
 endeavours once more to fight the valiant fight.' A real objection 
 taking TlDp as the first pers. has, however, been advanced by Hou 
 viz. that, if this had been intended, we should have expected the ist pe 
 pronoun, mm 'JX, instead of mUT simply (cf Dan. lo'', 12*): a: 
 it is perhaps preferable, therefore, to take the verb jas the older form 
 the 2nd pers. fem. sing, (for riDp : cf. Jer. 2 ^'', where 'mat}' 'np 
 
 must be regarded as 2nd fem. sing. ; Mic. 4 '5, ipiOinni : G-K. § 44, 
 
 as is done by most moderns, ffi ems ov avea-TT) (^, according to Swe 
 dvaa-Tij), % 'donee surrexit,' U 'donee surgeret,' presuppose nop^ 
 possibly nop. If this is original, we must suppose that it was alter 
 into TlDp (intended as the ist pers. sing.) in |§ under the infi 
 ence of the heading in v.\ 'Then sang Deborah and Barak' ( 
 Wellh.). 
 
 * At. faraza means to separate, divide, and then, apparently, decide; cf. La 
 s.v. 2.8. Bab. pardsii (with which cf. Heb. fdras, 'divide') means to deer 
 judge, give decision ; and piristu= decision. Sum. GAR.ZA, MAR.ZA=Bi 
 parju, i.e. a divine decree or institute in Temple-worship: cf. Br. 5647, 58; 
 Muss-Arnolt, Diet, 'p. 836^. We thus have evidence that the sense diiii 
 and thence decide, runs through the differently modified Semitic root p'S (pi 
 prs, pre. 
 
5. 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 117 
 
 8. Armourers, etc. Reading 
 
 The text of |§ here offers perhaps the greatest crux in the poem. As 
 it stands, it can only be rendered, ' One chooses {or shall choose) new 
 gods {or God chooses new things) ; then battling (??) of gates.' The 
 rendering of A.V., R.V., ' They chose new gods ; then was war in the 
 gates,' proceeds upon the assumption that the verb ini'' is an imper- 
 sonal Imperfect used pictorially of a past event, and that Dfl? is 
 employed in place of the ordinary riDnPD in the sense ' war ' ; ' war 
 of gates' being interpreted as 'war in the gates.' If Dni5 or DnP* is 
 
 really intended to convey this sense, it is best to regard the form as 
 an Infinitive Pi'el, used in place of a substantive, in accordance with 
 the explanation of Schnurrer, 'tunc factum est to oppugnare urbes 
 (Israeliticas).' The meaning then is that apostasy from Yahweh to 
 the service of strange gods was punished by the siege of Israel's cities 
 by the Cana'anites ; a thought which is akin to the pragmatism of R^^. 
 It is true that the 'new gods' maybe paralleled by Deut. 32", 'They 
 sacrificed ... to gods whom they knew not, to new ones that came 
 up recently ' ; and the idea of choice of gods other than Yahweh is 
 found in ch. 10" (E^).| But, apart from the difficulty of construing 
 the Hebrew in this sense, the stage depicted as ' war in the gates ' 
 hardly suits the condition of abject submission already described in 
 w.^"', or the statement as to the absence of weapons among the 
 Israelites in vj^^. Still less probable is the explanation of Ewald 
 
 (and so Meier), who regards D'nPK as referring to judges, so called 
 
 as God's representatives § ('heilige Richter'), and somewhat prosaic- 
 
 * Tfie common reading is Dn?- but tfiirty-six Mss. read Dfl? or DDP 
 
 (Kit., BH.). We sliould expect the Infin. Pi'el to be DH? • but no otfier 
 instance of the Pi'el of this verb exists. 
 
 X Possibly a scribe may have endeavoured to restore an illegible text under the 
 influence of these two passages (Cooke, Mo.). 
 
 § Cf. the present writer's Outlines of O. T. Theology, pp. 15 f. The use of 
 'llahlm in the passages quoted from Ex. 216, 228-9 ('The Book of the Covenant'), 
 is susceptible, however, of a different and probably preferable explanation, viz. 
 the household-gods (Teraphim), which were possibly connected with the practice 
 of ancestor-worship, and whose cultus appears to have existed among the Israel- 
 ites in early times apart from any conception that the allegiance due to the 
 national God Yahweh was thereby contravened. Laying these passages aside, 
 the only certain instance of the employment of 'Hloktm to denote judges is 
 Ps. 826. 
 
ii8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [S. 
 
 ally makes the passage state that the outbreak of hostilities was ( 
 incident with the appointment of new judges (Deborah and Barak). 
 The evidence of the Versions is somewhat conflicting. (!K°, 5C st 
 port substantially the text of |§, and the interpretation of it given 
 A. v., R.V. ffi° renders i^eki^avro 6eovs Kmvovs, ore (jroXefiria-av ttoX 
 apxovTcov. Here ore is probably a corruption of toj-e (as in HP. 5 
 and TToXfis a corruption of nvXas. irv\as dp)(6vTaiv is mOst likely 
 be the result of a doublet (D''1i;B' 'gates'; QilE' 'princes'); t 
 
 second rendering coming into the text from the margin as ap^^ovn 
 and then being altered to the genitive to make sense.* eTroXe'/ijja- 
 
 may be a rendering of Dn? of iW, regarded as Infin. Constr. Pi'e 
 
 or it may represent an original iionf) (or 'DHP regarded as an abbi 
 
 viated plural) ; unless it be considered as a corruption of eVoXeyijm 
 as is suggested by V, ' et portas hostium ipse [Dominus] subverfi 
 where the translator had before him a text identical v/kh % b 
 
 treated DtlP as the Perfect Dn^. The lengthy paraphrase of 
 
 appears to have behind it a text in no way different from M :— ' Whf 
 the house of Israel desired to serve new errors [i.e. idols], which hi 
 lately been made, with which their fathers had not concerned ther 
 selves, the peoples came against them and drave them from the 
 cities, etc' Here the description of the idols clearly points to tl 
 fact that the paraphraser had Deut 32 " in his mind. The san 
 text and interpretation are offered in stichos a by ffi*"- fjpentrav 6eo 
 Kmvovs. The rendering of this stichos which makes 'God' tl 
 sudject of the verb is offered by S"" IZ^w loi^l 1^:1^, 'Gc 
 
 chooses a new thing,' U ' Nova bella elegit Dominus' ; and has bee 
 adopted by a few of the earlier commentators, who understand D''t!'1 
 ' new ones,' either as ' new judges,' or ' new things ' (properly niMf 
 cf. Isa. 42 ", 48 <* ; sing. Isa. 43 1^, Jer. 31 ^^)—t.e. a hew mode of actio: 
 viz. deliverance through the agency of a woman. | This renderin: 
 however, is opposed by the fact that 'Yahweh,' and not 'God,' 
 employed elsewhere throughout the poem with reference to the Gc 
 of Israel. 
 
 Another interpretation of the stichos 6 is offered by ffi*'' "'• as apn 
 KpWivov, IL 'velut panem hordeaceum ' (so Ss^) ; S"" ]LQjjA r-'r'''^ 
 ]j.v^DJ ; i.e. the last two words of "^ are vocalizedas D''"l5!tJ' Oni) 'barle; 
 bread.' This has led Bu. to propose the emendation Qi-i'yK' On^ h\ 
 
 * rip. cite four Codd. Arm. as reading ipxovTes TrSXewv. 
 
 t Kemink (as quoted by Donaldson) seeks to find the clue to the passage 
 this conception; but emends D^B'"in into D^tyari— 'God makes choice 
 women ' (Deborah and Ja'el). 
 
5. 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES iigi 
 
 ' The barley-bread was spent,' upon the view that the ? of ?TK has 
 been omitted through haplography. The verb PTN is employed in 
 this sense in r Sam. g'' ; and barley-bread is typical of the Israelite 
 peasantry in the Midianite's dream, ck. 7 '^, doubtless as forming 
 their staple sustenance. In harmony with this suggestion, Bu. con- 
 jectures that stichosa may have run !|^Tn DTl'^N Tiat 'The sacrifices 
 of God ceased,' i.e. through lack of the wherewithal to provide them. 
 Apart, however, from the objection to the use of 'God' instead of 
 ' Yahweh,' which we have already noticed, such a distich, though not 
 at variance with what follows in the next distich, yet stands in no 
 necessary connexion with it. Such a connexion has been sought 
 by Lambert {REJ. xxx. p. 115) in his emendation of stichos b 
 
 D''"lJ? E'en? IN ; according to which the sentence would run on into 
 
 the following distich : — ' Then unto five cities was there seen a shield, 
 etc.' But such an overrunning between distich and distich is con- 
 trary to analogy. La., Schldgl, Kent, in following Lambert, reject 
 stichos a altogether ; and combine stichos b with the following dis- 
 tich in such a way as to form a single distich of the whole : — 
 
 ' Then there was not seen a shield for five cities, 
 Or a lance among forty thousand in Israel.' 
 
 The emendation adopted above has been made at the suggestion 
 of Dr. Ball, who observes that the only guide which we possess 
 as to the original sense of the distich is found in the succeeding 
 distich, 'Was there seen a shield, etc' This immediately recalls 
 the similar account of the drastic disarmament effected by the 
 Philistines at the commencement of Saul's reign, as recorded in 
 I Sam. 13^°'^^, which relates that 'no armourer (0;^ smith, B'ln) was 
 found throughout all the land of Israel : for the Philistines said. Lest 
 the Hebrews make them swords or spears'; but all the Israelites 
 were obliged to go down to the Philistines in order to sharpen their 
 agricultural implements. ' So it came to pass in the day of battle 
 that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of 
 the people that were with Saul and Jonathan : but with Saul and with 
 Jonathan his son there was found.' The resemblance between D''{5'in 
 'new things' and CtJ'nn 'armourers' is patent ; "1113'' may have arisen 
 through transposition of the letters of IIDH, and DflPK from Dil? or 
 DnfiK As a parallel clause we have the statement that 'Armed 
 men failed from the city ' — a natural result of the absence of armourers 
 and the vigorous oppression exercised by the Cana'anites. D''l^pn is 
 the term employed of the armed warriors in the Midianite camp, ch. 
 7". Possibly D'tycri I^TX may have been written in abbreviated 
 
120 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. u 
 
 form 'E'en 'hia {zi. footnote, p. 124) ; while the letters of I'VD may b 
 supposed to have suffered transposition D'ly. 
 
 Marquart already has our D'C'in ;* but rearranges vv?'^^'- in i 
 
 manner which scarcely commends itself. Supposing vy° to be i 
 later gloss, he follows vJ'- (as in |§) by the first two words of stichos i 
 of v.^'^ in the form D''i>nK ^m3^ : ' Village-life ceased in Israel ; Thej 
 fled into tents . . .' His next distich then runs, ' The barley-bread 
 was spent ; Armourers ceased in the land ' / /pN3\ D''B'in l^in), 
 
 Here the first word is from v.''% the second from v.\ and the third 
 supplied by conjecture. Other suggested emendations need not here 
 be noticed. 
 
 Was there seen, etc. The Imperfect nsi* is frequentative — whenever 
 
 and wherever one might look, this condition of affairs existed. The 
 curious reading of ffi'' (occurring with variations in other recensions 
 of 85), o-KeVi; viavihav &v 6cj)6fj (cm a-ipofiaiTTrjs, has undoubtedly arisen 
 from an original text a-Kiirrjv iav 'lba> kcli (TipofiacrTT)v, reading ^X^K DK 
 
 ' Do I see,' for nXT' DN which may be original (so Marquart, Gress.). 
 
 In its present form ffi'' seems to have undergone the following process. 
 A scribe noted the variant &v dipdjj (the reading of ffi'^) upon the 
 margin of his MS. This was subsequently copied into the text ; and 
 since eav 'iSa was superfluous by the side of &v. o<f>6ri, a-Kinrjn iav iba 
 was corrupted into <riccvr) veaviSaiv, thus supplying a nominative to 
 6(J}6tj ; and, in accordance with this, (rtpofida-Triv became (npofiaaviis. 
 
 Among forty thousand. HoUmann comments upon the contrast 
 between the number of able-bodied men in Israel as here given, and 
 the large numbers of the Pentateuchal narrative: Ex. 12^"', Num. 
 11^^ (J) 600,000; Num. i*^ (P) 603,550. The modest assessment 
 of our passage is, as he remarks, a strong argument for the con- 
 temporaneousness of the poem with the events which it celebrates. 
 So Wellh. as already quoted (p. ^%, footnote). 
 
 12. This verse is placed before W'z/.^ii for the reasons noted on 
 p. 102. 
 
 Awake, awake, Deborah ! On the supposed incompatibility of this 
 address with Deborah's reputed authorship of the Song, cf note on 
 V.'', 'Till thou didst arise.' The variation of accent — here ilA AA, 
 but in the next stichos 4ri 4ri — is a rhythmical device ; c£ G-K 
 §72J-. 
 
 Thy captors. Vocalizing '^13^ with %', Michaelis, Wellji., Stade, 
 
 Black,Bu., Kit, No., Marquart, Segond, La., Ehr.,Smith,Cooke(Co;«»z.), 
 Gress.: cf. Isa. 14 ^ Dn\ntJ'1' Dnb" 1''ni ' and they shall be fcaptors to 
 their captors.' JE ?i*3t»', i.e. 'thy band of captives' rather than 'thy 
 
 * The same emendation was offered by von Gumpach in 1852. 
 
5. 12.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 121 
 
 captivity' (R.V.), offers a sense which is perfectly legitimate, and can 
 be paralleled elsewhere (cf. Num. 21', 2 Chr. 28"", Ps. 68", J^is); 
 but misses the fine paradox which is gained by the easy emendation. 
 It is by no means improbable that Barak, like Gideon (cf. ch. 8"«), 
 may have had his own private wrongs to avenge as well as those of 
 his people. 
 
 A number of interesting variants are offered in this verse by 
 ^AL ai.^ ^h Taking ffit"'- as typical, it runs e^fyeipov, i^eyeipov, Ae^^apa, 
 *f|eyfipou C" i^iy€ipov) fivpidSas /iera XaoO, i^eyetpov, i^eyetpov C^ adds 
 XaXei) fier' a&ijf' ivia^vmv * e^avdcrraa-o Bapa;^ C" i^aviiTTas 6 B.) Koi 
 €vi(r-)(y<rov C" naTia-xycrov) Ae^ficapa tov Bapa)(, <ai alxpoXaiTiie 
 alxp-aKaa-iav crov, vlos A^ivfep. Other noteworthy variants are the 
 addition of crov after iiera. XaoC, and eV l<rxvi in place of ivi<rxia>v. 
 Here we must eliminate the doublet of stichos 6, e|eyeipou, i^eyeipov, 
 \aKei /icr" ciSijs, which represents insertion of the J§ tradition (cf. ffi") ; 
 and, since La. is probably right in regarding evurxioiv, with variant 
 ev la-xyi, and evitrxva-ov as doublets of an original eV laxi'^ tov in 
 stichos c, we can scarcely err in also excising kqi ivia-xva-ov . . . 
 'Bapax, th^ addition of Aefi^mpa tov Bapax being an attempt to explain 
 the corrupt ivia-xva-ov. Thus, the original Heb. which lies behind 
 this recension of ffi may have run as follows : — 
 
 DVa nnan >yvn 
 pna nip ^wa 
 
 DlJ'r3K-t3 'HUB' r\2m 
 
 ' Awake, awake, Deborah ! 
 Arouse myriads among the people ! 
 In thy strength arise, Barak ! 
 Lead captive thy captive-band, son of Abino'am ! ' 
 
 So La., with the addition of 1<B?3 i^r' oJSiJf, at the end of stichos a. 
 Mo. {SBOT.) reads DV (? "^BJ?) for DJ?3, and prn 'Take courage' in 
 place of 1W3. 
 
 It is a moot point whether such a text is superior to % as Mo., 
 No., La., Zapletal, Cooke {Comm.) think. Mo. rests his argument 
 mainly upon the fact that ' Here Deborah is not summoned to sing a 
 song— whether of battle or of victory— but to arouse the myriads of 
 her countrymen, which certainly agrees better with the words 
 addressed to Barak.' This is true, if we suppose that the poet 
 pictures himself as addressing the chief actors prior to the battle ; but 
 the obvious inference to be drawn from % as it stands, is that he is 
 
122 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 9. 10. 
 
 rather addressing them as he voices his song, i.e. subsequently to the 
 victory, caUing upon Deborah to recount the main facts in poetic 
 strain, and upon Barak to fight his battles o'er again. Nor is it any 
 objection to this view that in such a case the verse should stand at 
 the commencement of the poem (where it is placed by Niebuhr) : cf. 
 the words of Herder already cited under v. '' note on ' Till thou didst 
 arise.' A point which should not escape notice is that it is somewhat 
 strange if the poet here alludes to ' myriads among the people,' even 
 in hyperbole, when previously {v. ") he has placed the whole available 
 fighting strength of Israel at the moderate assessment of forty 
 thousand. 01331 may quite easily have arisen as a corruption of 
 mm or of '^y^, and 0^3 (among the people) come in later in ex- 
 planation of the ' myriads.' It thus appears that there is no sound 
 ground for abandoning the lucid text of ^. 
 
 9. Come, ye commanders. Reading ipphD OP as privately sug- 
 gested by Ball. ?§ ''ppn? '3? 'My heart is to the commanders,' 
 i.e. (presumably) it turns or goes out towards them : cf. U ' Cor meum 
 diligit principes Israel.' The ellipse of the verb is illustrated by 
 Schnurrer from Ps. 141 » 'J'y mn'' yhvi. 'Unto Thee, Yahweh, (are) 
 mine eyes.' Such a use of 'heart,' as denoting sympathetic attrac- 
 tion, is perhaps not quite without parallel in Hebrew (cf 2 Kgs. 10'*), 
 though ' soul' (niphes) is more usual in such a sense (cf I Sam. 18 ^ 
 Gen. 34 ^•^, a/.) : but the invitation, ' Bless ye Yahweh ! ' of stichos b 
 favours the supposition that the commanders are addressed in 
 stichos a ; and the imperative 13? forms a natural and appropriate 
 opening to the invitation to thanksgiving. 
 
 commanders. M'hdk'ktm are the imposers of hukkhn, 'statutes' 
 or 'enactments.' 
 
 that volunteered. Cf v!^ note, ffi'^'- ol hwaarai reads DUHSn. 
 10. Let the riders, etc. Reading 
 
 in''{j'^ nhhy niins '■331 
 3^-^j? !i3''tJ'^ '^yrh'^ "la^ni 
 
 As the verse stands in ?^, it offends against parallehsm and rhythm. 
 The imperative !in''E> (rendered by R.V. 'Tell ofif) comes at the end 
 of stichos f of a tristich referring to three classes of people previously 
 mentioned; and the rhythmical form of the tristich is 3 + 2 -1- 3 beats. 
 Moreover, stichos b, |i10-^j; ''3B''' which affords the only instance of 
 a two-beat stichos in the poem, cannot, as it stands, be explained with 
 any approach to probabiUty. The substantive madh, to which the 
 plur. middhi must be referred, is derived from a verb mddhadh, 'to 
 measure,' and denotes 'measure' (Jer. 13^5, lit. 'the portion Qi thy 
 
5. 10.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 123 
 
 measures'), or more usually 'garment,' as in ch. 3'^ so-called as 
 lengthy or wide {ci. Ar. madda, 'to extend or stretch'). R.V. 'rich 
 carpets,' however, has no more basis than the mere supposition that 
 a word which usually means a spreading garment may also denote 
 any spreading piece of woven material, and that such a rendering is 
 suitable to the context. But even the appropriateness of this assump- 
 tion may be questioned. The two other classes mentioned are 
 travellers al6ng the roads, which, in contrast to their former con- 
 dition {v.\ may now be used with impunity. These classes appear 
 to cover all the population — the wealthy magnate who rides, and the 
 plain man who walks. Is it appropriate that between these two 
 classes there should be interposed reference to a third class of persons 
 who are vaguely defined as those who sit (presumably indoors) upon 
 carpets ? It is true that some have explained middin as ' saddle- 
 cloths ' or 'housings,' thus making the clause a further description of 
 the riders ; but this is excluded by the fact that the verb yaSabk, ' sit,' 
 is never used in Hebrew of riding an animal. 
 
 The Versions afford no help towards elucidation. I&^^ xa^^/icvoi 
 inl icpiTJipiov (so &^), Y 'et sedetis in judicio,' ffi SJn bv znoh p13nnD1, 
 'and are associated in order to preside over judgment,' read [HD which 
 may mean 'strife,' but scarcely 'judicial procedure.' <&'' represents 
 pHD by XafiTTTivayv, ' covered chariots,' iL ' in lecticis,' apparently a guess 
 
 influenced by the context ;* &'' jAiio wj-oZuO 'and ye who sit at 
 home ' — a guess. 
 
 The emendation offered above proceeds upon the assumption that 
 the strophe ^/t/.'*-^" contains an invitation to a retrospect of the past 
 deliverance; as is evident from w.^^^^. If, then, the word irT'b' 
 at the end of v. '" means ' review ' sc. the past deliverance, whether in 
 thought or in speech (see note below) ; and having regard to the fact 
 that so much of the remainder of the verse as can be translated con- 
 tains reference to two classes of persons which, as we have noticed, 
 appear to include the whole population ; it is reasonable to assume 
 that the complete verse was originally a distich, in which the two 
 classes are mentioned in parallel stichoi, and summoned to take part 
 in the retrospect. In other words, we may expect to find in the obscure 
 ]nD hv ''1^ a parallel to in''K' ' review.' The resemblance to the 
 phrase a^-^ij? IDB'' ' let them recall it to mind,' is obvious ; the only 
 real difference— that between 37 and fno— being accounted for by 
 the fact that the resemblance between 3 and T is very close in the old 
 character, and that between 7 and » not remote. 37 read as HD may 
 
 * Or possibly reading D''3V • cf. Isa. 66 2», Num. 78 iv \a.ii.T!i\vaix is the ffi 
 rendering of this word in the Isa. passage. 
 
124 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5, lo. 
 
 have been taken for 'ID, an abbreviated form of the plural {di. foot- 
 note § below). 
 
 If we have in !|3E»i a jussive, 'let them recall,' etc., it is probable 
 that in place of the imperative ^rTb we should likewise have a jussive 
 form in*B'^ 'let them review.' But if 3? 7^ 1355" belongs to stichos a 
 
 and IfT'tJ" to stichos b, the former contains five beats and the latter 
 three beats. We may assume therefore that an erroneous transposi- 
 tion has taken place, the rectification of which gives us four beats in 
 each stichos. That such errors of transposition have often occurred 
 in copying MSS. cannot be doubted. The explanation is that a scribe 
 erroneously copied the latter part of stichos b in place of the corre- 
 sponding part of stichos a ; and then, in order to avoid spoiling the 
 appearance of his MS., transposed the omitted part of stichos a to 
 stichos b. Such an erroneous transposition has clearly taken place in 
 Ps. 35 ^■*, where v. *% ' Let them be as the chaff before the wind,' should 
 be followed by •z'.*"', ' And the Angel of Yahweh pursuing them' ; and 
 V. ^% ' Let their way be dark and slippery,' by v. ^^, ' And the Angel of 
 Yahweh pushing them down.'* Similarly, in v.'' of the same Psalm, 
 'a pit' has been transposed from stichos i5, where ' digged ' now has 
 no object, to stichos a, where 'they have hid' already has its proper 
 object 'their net.' Cf also the transposition which is rectified in 
 Judg. 7 ^, with note ad lac. 
 
 tawny she-asses. A. V., R.V., 'white asses.' The adjective i*^^ri5//4 
 occurs only here in Heb., but comparison of the Ar. shows that it 
 denotes light reddish-grey, or white flea-speckled with red {sukra the 
 colour, sahfir a. she-ass so coloured). J Asses of this colour are rare 
 and highly prized at the present day in the East ; and their mention in 
 this passage implies that their owners are persons of rank and means, 
 travelling at their ease in a time of peace. The she-ass is preferred 
 for riding purposes as more tractable than the entire male. § 
 
 * nm always means to pusA or thrust for the purpose of casting down : 
 cf. BDB. s.v. R.V.'s rendering, ' driving them on,' is intended to give a suitable 
 meaning, as the half-verse now stands (clearly ' chaff before the wind ' cannot be 
 ' pushed down ') ; but is quite unwarranted by the usage of the verb elsewhere. 
 
 X Lette {quoted by HoUmann) cites Firuzabadius : k;^' u^'lj UV Ji^"" 
 
 ?/**^"J t/^ ' sahUr is used of a camel or she-ass in which there is white 
 and red.' 
 
 § The reading of ffi^ iivl 6vov BrfKtias fi,e(rrifi^pia9 is interesting as seeming to 
 6rove that ni'lPIX DIJIIN must have stood in the Heb. MS. used by the trans- 
 lator in the abbreviated form. "IDS 'JDK, which was read as 'IHS 'JflK and 
 ihen interpreted as D^TnS jhX. Similar abbreviations of plural terminations 
 ire presupposed in w.sa^ ('{j>]on ^tK), v.'^'^ (^ misread as ID, and then 
 xeated as shortened plur. '10)^ t/." ('pflXD), ■v.'^ {^"^xn "\T\'\), On the 
 ise of abbreviation in Heb. MSS., cf. Ginsburg, Introd. to Mass.-Crit. Bible, 
 :h. V. 
 
5. n.l THE BOOK OF JUDGES 12$ 
 
 review it. The verb nitJ' may mean to talk about anything or to 
 
 any one, as in Ps. 69 '^ ('^ ?§), ' They that sit in the gate talk about 
 me'; Job 12 8, ^ Speak to the earth, and it shall instruct thee'; or 
 to muse or meditate upon some topic, as in Ps. "j"]^ C?§), 'I will muse 
 \vith my heart ' ; Ps. 1 19 "^, ' I will muse upon thy precepts ' ; al. 
 Hence in our passage the verb may mean 'think about it' (S'' Qjj) 
 or 'talk about it' (ffi" St7;ycIo-l9f, "^ ipeey^aadm, ^ i<i>6eyka(T6e, "S 'loqui- 
 mini,' C fVnK'DI), and the rendering 'review it' is adopted as appli- 
 cable either to thought or speech, and therefore equally ambiguous. 
 
 The Heb. leaves the object of the verb to be understood from the 
 context, both here and in the corresponding expression in the parallel 
 stichos ; but English idiom obliges us to supply it as 'it.' Obviously 
 it is the recent deliverance, which is defined in v.^^ under the term 
 'the righteous acts of Yahweh.' There is not the slightest ground 
 for doubting the originality of the verb riots', as has been done by some 
 scholars. 
 
 recall it to mind. Lit. ' bring it back to {or upon) heart,' the heart 
 being regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of the intellectual or 
 
 reflective faculty. The same expression, with PJ? 'upon,' as here, 
 
 occurs in Isa. 46* ; but is more frequent with ?N 'unto' :* cf. DeuV 
 439 30 1, I Kgs. 8", Isa. 441°, Lam. 3". 
 
 II. Hark . . . wells . I Reading 
 
 As |§ stands, D'':fSnp ^ipD can only be explained upon the most 
 improbable assumptions. The difficulty is twofold. In the first 
 place, it seems impossible to assign a satisfactory sense to [D- The 
 
 suggestions which have been put forward may be grouped as follows : 
 \a has been explained as denoting (i) Separation; 'Away from or 
 
 Farfrom' (cf. for this usage, BDB. s.v. 1 b) ; (2) Substitution ; ' Instead 
 of (as though for nrnO; this is an explanation which is of very 
 doubtful justification, nnn being commonly used in such a sense) ; 
 (3) Comparison; 'More than' (BDB. 6); (4) Origin; 'By reason 
 of (BDB. 2 e) ; (5) Partition ; ' Something of (BDB. 3). 
 
 Secondly, we have no clue to the meaning of Diysnp, which can 
 only be conjectured. J The rendering of A.V., R.V., 'archers,' is that 
 which is adopted by Kimchi and Levi ben-Gershon, and by Luther, 
 
 * The prepositions ^y and ^K are frequently used interchangeably after a 
 verb of motion. Cf. cases cited in NHTK. p. lo. 
 
 X Several of the modem explanations of the word were already debated by the 
 medixvaV Jewish commentators. Cf. Tanchum, as cited by Ges., Thes. p. 511. 
 
126 THE BOOK OF JUDGES t5. it. 
 
 Ges., Justi, Ke., Ber., Oet., Cooke, etc. It appears to go back to the 
 interpretation of ®, pT'J 'SSnOj 'those who shoot arrows,' which, 
 
 though occurring in v.^ (or as a gloss to v.^ ; cf. note to Praetorius' 
 edit.), is doubtless based upon our passage, and interprets D''VSnD 
 as a denominative from yn ' arrow.' Adopting this explanation, the 
 
 rendering least open to objection is that of R. V., ' Far from the noise 
 of the archers.' Justi renders somewhat similarly, ' Instead of the 
 noise of the archers ' ; and, in favour of this, Hollmann cites Gen. 
 49 ^^-^^ — a passage which seems similarly to refer to the disturbance 
 of pastoral peace by the attacks of hostile archers (there described 
 as Qisn ''!'Va lit. 'owners of arrows'). Hollmann rightly objects, 
 however, to the use of jD in place of nnn. 
 
 Other interpretations of D''XSnD base themselves upon the root- 
 sense of the verb )'Sn, which is that of dividing. Among these, the 
 most widely adopted is 'those who divide the spoil' (Schnurrer, 
 Kohler, Hollmann, Hilliger, Stu., von Gumpach, Bach., Bickell, Kent). 
 All that can be said in favour of this interpretation has been said by 
 Hollmann, who compares the Ar. verb hassa, which means in Conj. in., 
 'share a portion with some one else, give to some one else'; Conj. iv., 
 ' give (to some one else) one's portion ' ; and the substantive hissah, 
 'portion.' As parallels for such a sense, Hollmann cites Isa. g', |^^ 
 (' as men exult when they divide spoil ' ; already cited by Ges.), Isa. 
 33 ^'^*, Ps. 68 '2, ?| '^ ; and giving fo a comparative meaning, he ren- 
 ders 'prae jubilo sortientium . . . ibidem canant laudes Dei.' An obvious 
 objection (noted by Meier) is that the crucial word 77E' ' spoil ' has to 
 be supplied by conjecture, and that the ordinary term for 'dividing' 
 spoil (occurring with object ppB*' in all the passages cited by Hollmann, 
 and also in w.™ of the Song) is p?n. 
 
 Some commentators, again (Menahem quoted by Rashi, Boettger, 
 La.), have been attracted by the use of the verb in Prov. so^'— R.V. 
 'The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands' 
 (^S'n^ lit. 'dividing [themselves] into companies or swarms,' BDB.). 
 
 Thus D'SSriD is thought to mean ' those who range themselves ' in 
 battle-array, or ' divide ' the army into companies. Whatever sense, 
 however, is attached to jp in this connexion, it remains an enigma 
 
 why these military operations should be carried out at the places of 
 drawing water. 
 
 From this point of view, the explanation of Ros., ' those who divide 
 (the flocks) at the watering places,' is more comprehensible. Vernes, 
 who also adopts this explanation, paraphrases the verse, ' " Chantez 
 par-dessus la voix des distributeurs aux auges," c'est-k-dire : chantez 
 
5. II.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES li^ 
 
 de tous vos poum.ons, plus fort encore que ne crient ceux qui distri- 
 buent et font ranger les troupeaux pr&s des auges oil ils vont s'abreuver 
 k la tombee du jour.' Having thus expressed his idea of the meaning 
 of the passage, Vernes refers to the rivalry existing between shepherds 
 in watering their flocks, which leads to frequent disputes. But such 
 a comparison of the singing of the praise of Yahweh with the angry 
 shouts of rival shepherds is altogether grotesque. 
 
 Herder thinks that D''VSnD may have the sense, ' those who appor- 
 tion,' sc. water to their flocks ; and having rendered liT'tJ' in the 
 preceding verse ' denkt auf ein Lied,' he gives to |D a partitive sense, 
 and makes the clause resumptive of in'B' : — 'Ein Lied zum Gesange 
 der Hirten die zwischen den Schopfebrunnen Wasser den Heerden 
 theilen aus.' A similar connexion with HT'B' (already suggested by 
 lE^ BiTfyeia-Be airn KJjcovrjs k.t.X., ffi^ i(f>Bey^aa'dc (fxovrjv k.t.\., S"^, Ar. as 
 noticed below) is sought by Meier, who quotes, as a parallel to such 
 a partitive usage of p, Ps. 137', ' Sing us one of the songs (T'tS'D) of 
 Zion.'* Such an overrunning from the one distich to the other is, 
 however, in the highest degree improbable : and, moreover, since 
 the words, 'There they recount, etc.,' in stichos 2 cf 7/." can only 
 refer to what goes on at the places of drawing water, the gist of the 
 passage (according to this interpretation) is that the classes of people 
 mentioned in v.^" are summoned to relate (HT'K') how another class 
 of people are relating (WrT"), etc. — a very awkward and unpoetical 
 conception. 
 
 Lastly, as probably based on the idea of division inherent in the 
 verb pfn, we may notice the rendering of 85, dvaKpovoiiivav, i.e., 
 apparently, ' singers ' or ' players ' (cf. the use of the verb elsewhere 
 in 85 ; 2 Sam. 6 "^^ i Chr. 25 2-*, Ezek. 23 *^) — an interpretation which 
 suggests that fSn may have had the sense of marking the intervals of 
 the musical scale : cf the use of the Lat. dividere by Horace, Odes 
 I. XV. 15, ' Imbelli cithara carmina divides'; and the 'septem dis- 
 crimina vocum ' of Virgil, Aen. vi. 646, i.e. probably the seven notes 
 of the scale. So also Shakespeare, /. Henry the Fourth, iii. i : 
 
 ' ditties highly penn'd. 
 Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower, 
 With ravishing division, to her lute.' 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5 : 
 
 ' Some say the lark makes sweet division ; 
 This doth not so, for she divideth us.' 
 
 Ewald, who adopts the rendering ' singers ' upon the authority of 
 
 * Meier does not, however, agree with Herder as to the meaning of D''VVnB ; 
 but he revocalizes the form as D''SSnp (a supposed derivative of JTID), and 
 renders ' Feindezerschmettrer ' 1 
 
128 THE BOOK OP JUDGES [5. it. 
 
 <&, offers a very improbable explanation of the ground-sense of the 
 verb, ihose who keep time or order, and hence rhythm ; quoting in 
 support of his view fsn of Prov. 30^'', which has already been noticed 
 
 above : cf HI. ii. p. 355 »^ ; DAB. i. p. 180. 
 
 The other Versions were evidently very puzzled by the stichos. 
 Fs rendering, 'ubi collisi sunt currus, et hostium suffocatus est exer- 
 
 citus,' is obscure. S'' (connecting with l/T'tJ') renders (lib ,J^ Qjj 
 
 ]i c>i\vn Ai . «-~i j ^o ^^5 ' Meditate upon the words of the 
 
 researchers, who are among the learned ' ; and this appears in Ar. 
 as ' Consider some of the words of those who investigate the books 
 of the learned.' Here the idea of dividing which is proper to fXn 
 appears to be understood as referring to investigation (as in Heb. 
 Ijja) ; and ' the places of drawing water ' seem to be metaphorically 
 
 explained as the founts of knowledge. The paraphrase of 2C clearly 
 understands the verse to mean that the scenes of former hostile 
 outrages are now consecrated to the praises of Yahweh ; but the 
 rendering is too vague and diffuse to admit of detailed elucidation.* 
 
 This survey of the interpretation of the sticho§ may serve to show 
 that every artifice has been employed by scholars, ancient and 
 modern, to extract a suitable meaning from 3§, and that the best sug- 
 gestions possess only the slightest of claims to serious consideration. 
 It is probable, therefore, that the text has suffered corruption. The 
 emendation offered above is based upon the acute suggestion of 
 
 Bu. (adopted by Marquart) D''pnVD bSp ' Hark ! the merry-makers.' 
 
 Here the change in the verbal form is but slight ; and the rejection 
 
 before ?1p has the support of ffi-^ (j^dey^aa-de (ffi"- i<j)6iy^aa-6e) ^avijv, 
 
 i.e. apparently Pip l/T'tJ'. 7lp, properly 'a sound of . . . ! ' is then 
 employed as in Gen. 4'°, Isa. 13*, 40^-^, 52'; Jer. 4'^ 10^^, 25'*, 50^; 
 Cant. 28, 52: cf. G-K. § 146^. 
 
 The reason why we have adopted the fem. form nipnSD 'laughing 
 
 maidens,' in preference to the masc, is because it appears more 
 natural to find the girls of the village {has-sff"'bh6th„ 'the maidens 
 who draw water' ; cf Gen. 24''-'^) at the mas'abbhn, 'places of 
 drawing water,' than representatives of the male portion of the com- 
 munity (unless it be supposed that the OV'^^^^ are the shepherds, 
 
 * It has not been deemed necessary to discuss the Rabbinic interpretation of 
 D^SVriD advocated by Schultens (as quoted by Ros., etc.), which, regarding 
 the word as a denominative from J^H^ explains it as meaning ' those who cast 
 lots with arrows ' ; nor the suggestion (also current in Rabbinic circles) which 
 surmises a connexion with J'Vn 'gravel,' in the sense ' gravel-treaders.' 
 
5. II.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 129 
 
 watering their flocks). A fem. form is as likely as a masc, if it may 
 be supposed that the plur. was written in abbreviated form 'pnXD (cf. 
 footnote §, p. 124) ; and the fact that the masc. plur. verbal form IJD'', 
 ' they recount,' follows in the next claiise, does not militate against 
 such a supposition, since there are many cases in which the 
 masc. form of the 3rd plur. Imperfect is employed in preference to 
 the fem. with reference to a fem. subject preceding (cf the cases 
 collected in G-K. § 145 u). Other suggested emendations need not 
 be noticed. 
 
 at the wells. Lit. 'between or among the places of drawing water.' 
 The subs, mas'abbim is a a7ra| XEyd/iei/oi', but there is no ground for 
 doubting its genuineness ; since it is a regularly formed derivative from 
 the verb s^abh, ' draw water,' which is of frequent occurrence. For 
 pa^ usually 'between,' in the more general sense 'among,' cf Hos. 13 '^, 
 Ezek. 192, 31 3, Cant. 2H 
 
 they recount. The verb tinna., which occurs again in a similar 
 sense in ch. 11 ** ('to comtnemorate the daughter of Jephthah') is 
 doubtless the same as the Syr. tannl, which corresponds to the Ar. 
 tanna, ' celebrate ' ; the root-idea being ' do a second time.' The 
 normal Heb. equivalent of the Syr. and Ar. should be Hnna ; and a 
 Heb. sand (the Kal or simple stem-form) does occur several times in 
 the sense 'repeat,' as the regular equivalent of the Ar. and Aram, 
 verb. The form ttfina must therefore be regarded as a pronounced 
 Aramaism ; but is not on that account necessarily to be condemned, 
 since it is reasonable to suppose that the North Israelite dialect was 
 to some extent tinged by Aramaic influence. Cf further Additional 
 note, p. 171. 
 
 • ffi Stixrovo-tj/, IL 'dabunt,' S"" ,aXAj, vocalize the form as 13^1^ 
 which is adopted by Marquart ; but this is very improbable. "S, ' ibi 
 narrentur justitiae Domini,' takes the form as a passive, and makes 
 "> nipns the subject. €, "T NnUT ^3? till', supports M- 
 
 the righteous acts of Yahweh. The acts by which Yahweh manifests 
 His covenant-faithfulness — in this case by vindicating His people 
 against the national foe. The meaning of the expression is best 
 illustrated by its occurrence in I Sam. 12'', with the description of 
 Yahweh's dealings with Israel which follows, in substance corre- 
 sponding with the pragmatism of R'^^ Cf also the use of the same 
 phrase in Mic. 6 ^ 
 
 his arm. Reading iyht as suggested privately by Ball, in place 
 of ?l iJins the difficulties of which have already been noticed under 
 
 v.'^ note on 'Villages.' The phrase the arm of Yahweh, as descriptive 
 of His might exhibited in the deliverance of His people, is familiar in 
 the O.T. Cf Ex. 15", 'By the greatness of thine arm they [Israel's 
 
 I 
 
130 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 12. 13. 
 
 foes] are as still as a stone' ; the characteristic phrase of Deut, 'with 
 a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm'; Isa. 51^, 'Awake, 
 awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh ' ; al. 
 
 At the end of the verse % adds an additional stichos, 
 niiri'Dl/ D''^J?E'i' ITI' TX 'Then down to the gates gat the people of 
 Yahweh.' This clearly belongs to the description of the tribal muster, 
 which commences with t/." ; and the similarity of the stichos to 
 stichos a of that verse, which, as it stands, is obviously somewhat 
 corrupt, proves it to be a marginal variation which has been subse- 
 quently copied into the text. We observe similar variants of a single 
 stichos in vv. isb-iet. 
 
 12. For the notes on this verse, cf. pp. 120 f. 
 
 13. Then down . . . heroes. Reading 
 
 d'''ii3a3 i^-" IT n'in;|-Dj; 
 
 It is not clear what IH intends by the vocalization of the twice 
 repeated "Ti\ Jewish interpreters explain the form as apocopated 
 
 Imperfect Pi' el of riTl 'to have dominion' (from full form ITn^)^ the 
 
 Pi'el, which does not occur elsewhere in Heb., being employed cau- 
 satively, ' cause to have dominion.' * That this was intended by ill 
 seems very probable, since we may thus explain the awkward and 
 ungrammatical connexion of DJ> with oms, as due to the necessity 
 of making Hin^ the subject of the verb in stichos b, just as He must 
 have been assumed to be in stichos a : — 
 
 ' Then may He cause a remnant to have dominion over the 
 
 nobles— the people ; 
 ' May Yahweh cause me to have dominion over the heroes.' 
 
 Or possibly it may have been supposed that the apocopated form 
 has the sense of a full Imperfect : 'Then He shall cause, etc' 
 
 The awkwardness and improbability of this need not be laboured. 
 It may suffice to remark that, since vv. i*'^ describe the advance of 
 the tribes in ordinary narrative-form, emplpying Perfect tenses, we 
 naturally expect to find the same method adopted in the present 
 passage. This is a consideration which sufficiently refutes the 
 alternative explanation of T|i as Imperative Kal of HT 'go down' 
 
 - : ' -T 
 
 * We should expect 'IT (apocopated Imperf. Hiph'il) in such a sense (cf. 
 Isa, 41^)— a form which is here adopted by von Gumpach. 
 
5. I3-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 131 
 
 (in place of the normal Imperative Ti), as adopted, e.g. by HoUmann, 
 
 who regards the verse as the words of Deborah prior to the battle : — 
 'Tunc ego: "Descendite residui nobilium populi, Jehova descende 
 mihi cum heroibus.'" A further difficulty is found in the use of the 
 word l^lty 'remnant,' a term ordinarily applied to a survivor (or 
 
 survivors) after a defeat in battle ; but here, it must be supposed, 
 employed to denote Israel's exiguous forces, implicitly contrasted 
 with what they might have been but for the long-continued aggres- 
 sions of the Cana'anites. 
 
 It need not.be doubted that the true text of the verse is indicated 
 by 7/."", which we have already noted as a marginal variation to v.^^. 
 This variation appears, in fact, to represent the combination of two 
 originally separate marginal notes ; viz. W\'\lw7 IIT" tK as a variant 
 of intJ' 11^ tX, and nilT' DV 'the people of Yahweh,' a variant of 
 the separated nilT' DS? which is found in 20 MSS. of ilH. ffi", though 
 agreeing with fH in reading Tnb', supports the vocalization of Tl' as 
 a Perfect, and the view that D5? goes with nilT' and forms the subject 
 of stichos b ; and further reads sh {i-e- the ' ethical ' dative, referring 
 to the subject of the verb — cf. BDB. s. ?. Bh — rather than 'for Him,' 
 i.e. Yahweh) in place of 'h in stichos b — a correction which is 
 obviously to be adopted : — 
 
 TOTi Kari^T] KaTaKrififia TOis layvpoi-S' 
 Xaos Kupi'ou Karefir] avT(f iv roir Kparaiols. 
 
 The restoration of the verse as given above is, as regards stichos b, 
 generally adopted by moderns, and is scarcely open to doubt. 
 Stichos a may perhaps be held to be open to criticism as regards 
 the sense which it yields. Since the verb My 'went down,' as 
 
 employed in v.^*, refers to Israel's downward onset from mount 
 Tabor (cf. cA. 4 '^''), the meaning must be the same in the present 
 passage ; and ' to the gates ' can therefore only refer to the gates of 
 the foe— it was down to the very gates of such Cana'anite cities 
 as Ta'anach and Megiddo (cf v.^^) that the IsraeHtes advanced in 
 their first spirited onslaught. If this interpretation be held to 
 be improbable, it is difficult to see how the text can otherwise be 
 explained. 
 
 Other conjectural emendations of stichos a have been made. Thus 
 Mo. (followed by Bu., No., Gress.) thinks that ? T'lK' represents an 
 original ^Knb'' and, supplying 3 before omK, he obtains the sense, 
 'Then Israel went down like the noble.' Kit., in B//., offers the 
 
132 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 14. 
 
 suggestion Dnn'li' TIE' IT' TK ' Then let a remnant dominate those 
 who dominated them.' 
 
 14. From Ephraim . . . vale. Reading 
 
 pDW WE'D D^nSK '30 
 
 f§, as it stands, is incredibly concise. The literal rendering is ' From 
 Ephraim their root in 'Amalek' ; which is explained, by inferring the 
 necessary verb from v. '', ' From Ephraim came down those whose 
 root is in 'Amalek.' The explanation of ' their root in 'Amalek ' is also 
 a grave stumbling-block. The Bedawi people called 'Amalek in the 
 O.T. appear elsewhere as inhabiting the desert-region south of the 
 Negeb (cf note on ch. 3 '^"■) ; and it is to this region that Saul marches 
 in order to carry out his commission to destroy 'Amalek, as recorded 
 in I Sam. I'J. In the present passage we seem to be told that the 
 ' root ' of the tribe of Ephraim (or a portion of it), which inhabited 
 central Palestine, was ' in 'Amalek,' i.e. we must infer that they dwelt 
 in the midst of the 'Amalekites. Yet elsewhere, in enumerations of 
 the foreign races inhabiting Canaan, we find no allusion to the 
 'Amalekites ; though, in view of the bitter hostility which existed 
 between Israel and them (cf. Ex. 17 '^'^ E ; i Sam. 15^-^), it is scarcely 
 possible that they should have been unmentioned if they had inhabited 
 Cana'an in any considerable numbers. It is true that they are pictured 
 in cA. 6 '■^', 7 ^^ as invading the land together with the Midianites and 
 ' children of the East ' ; but here they appear in their normal char- 
 acter as roving nomads, making periodical forays at the time when 
 the Israelites' crops were ready for reaping, and bringing their camels 
 and tents with them, as Bedawi tribes would naturally do. The only 
 passage which can be adduced as possibly supporting the allusion to 
 'Amalek in our passage, is the reference in ck. 12'^ to Pir'athon 
 (probably the modem Far'ata) as situated ' in the land of Ephraim, 
 in the hill of the 'Amalekite.' How this locality obtained its name is 
 unknown to us. It may have been so named as the scene of an 
 encounter with Amalekite clans which had entered Cana'an upon 
 such a foray as is described in the story of Gide'on. But even on the 
 supposition that it was so named as the settled abode of 'Amalekites, 
 the very nature of the reference compels us to regard it as a very 
 limited district in comparison with the whole territory occupied by 
 Ephraim ; and though, upon this view, it might be possible to speak 
 of 'Amalek as having his root in Ephraim, the converse statement, as 
 we find it in |§, seems to be out of the question. 
 
 In face of this difficulty, we may obtain help from ffi'^"', 6., which, 
 in place of p7Dj;3 DB'IB' 'their root in 'Amalek,' read eVi/itDp^o-oTo 
 (ffi'' eTificopfjcravTo) avToiis iv KoiXaSi, i.e. pDy3 DK'IB' infi.api]<TaTO 
 
5. 14] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 133 
 
 airovs being doubtless a somewhat free rendering of the verbal form 
 ' rooted them out,' * which is rendered more literally by ffit^ e^eptCaa-ev 
 avTovs. Here ppV3 'in the vale,' affords excellent sense (cf. v^^); 
 and though we can scarcely accept DB'IB'^ it can hardly be doubted 
 
 that the translator is right in assuming that a verbal form is here 
 needed. I DCIB' may easily have arisen as a corruption of WE'D 
 ' they spread out or deployed,' the verb which is actually used of the 
 skirmishing advance of the Israelite tribes upon this occasion in 
 ck 4^ (cf noie). Winckler (followed by Marquart, Bu., No., Kit., 
 Zapletal) proposes nB' 'they travelled or passed along,' from the 
 
 root liB', which is well known in Assyr. as sdru and in Ar. as sdra, 
 but only occurs once in Heb., viz. Isa. 57 ^, and there very doubtfully.§ 
 
 La.'s suggestion D''tJ'vB' 'captains' — 'From Ephraim (there were) 
 
 captains in the vale ' — is opposed by the facts that it fails to supply 
 
 the desiderated verb ; and that D^tyvB", so far as can be judged by 
 the occurrences of the term, appear to have been a class of officers 
 connected with chariots (cf NHTK. p. 139), of which the Israelites 
 possessed none at this period. 
 
 ^ After thee, Benjamin!' The words pD^JS ^'"iriN are viewed with 
 
 suspicion by many recent commentators ; but, as it seems, without 
 just cause. They occur again in Hos. 5 ', where the prophet is 
 describing the hasty preparations for battle, in face of the Assyrian 
 invasion : — 
 
 ' Blow the horn in Gibe' ah. 
 The trumpet in Ramah ; < 
 Raise the battle-cry, Beth-aven, 
 " After thee, Benjamin ! " ' 
 
 Here the sense which we attach to the verb ^iVin 'Raise the 
 battle-cry,' is that which it possesses in Josh. 6^"'"'-2», 1 Sam. 1720.62^ 
 Isa. 42'', 2 Chr. 13'*; cf Judg. 15"; and the natural inference is 
 that the words ' After thee, Benjamin ! ' which immediately follow, 
 represent the old Benjaminite battle-cry; both in Hosea, and also, 
 
 * It can scarcely represent DPSB' (sic for DPSB'), as La. supposes. 
 
 X DBHtJ' is similarly treated as a verbal form by F, ' delevit eos in Amalec ' ; 
 and apparently by the paraphrase of E, ' From the house of Ephraim arose 
 Joshua' the son of Nun at the first— he made war with the house of 'Amalek ; 
 after him arose king Saul of the house of Benjamin— he destroyed the house 
 of 'Amalek.' 
 
 § Cheyne, Marti, Box emend i3DWl ' And thou didst anoint thyself to 
 
 (the god) Melek with oil,' in place of I'lB'ni 'And thou didst journey.' 
 
134 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [S. 14. 
 
 by inference, in the Song of Deborah. So G. A. Smith, The Twelve 
 Prophets^ on Hos. 5 ^. If this be so, the meaning may be, ' Benjamin 
 (the tribe) takes the lead; let others follow !' or, ' After thee, Benjamin 
 (the eponymous ancestor), we (the tribesmen) follow!' For innx 
 'after' used of following a leader in battle, cf. ch. 4'*, i Sam. 11'. 
 As the battle-cry stands in the Song, the precise sense may be 
 '(The cry) "After thee, Benjamin!" (was) among thy clansmen'; 
 or, 'Those from Ephraim spread themselves in the vale "after thee, 
 Benjamin,'" i.e. the Benjaminites headed the Ephraimites, as their 
 war-cry would have them do. 
 
 Many scholars (Hollmann, Kohler, Justi, Ros., Stu., Kit., Ber.) 
 explain '3 T'lns ' After thee (Ephraim) came Benjamin ' ; but, apart 
 from the improbability that the same expression should occur here 
 and in Hosea' in different senses, it is unlikely that the poet should 
 address the tribe mentioned in the previous stichos (and there 
 alluded to in the 3rd pers.), and not the tribe with which the present 
 stichos deals. 
 
 In place of T'lnx ffi'^'' "'• offer the reading aSeX^oC o-ou (connected 
 
 with KotXaSi in the preceding line), i.e. ?iinK ' Thy brother, Benjamin, 
 among thy (Ephraim's) clansmen.' This is adopted by Bu., No., 
 La., Kent, Cooke {Comm.), but is in no way preferable to |§.* 
 
 thy clansmen. TiDDy. The plur. form regularly denotes ' kinsmen '; 
 as e.g. in the phrase 'he was gathered to his kinsmen' (VfiJ)), 
 Gen. 25 ', al. Upon the view that T'DDV (for TjiBV) is a mark of 
 Aram, influence, cf. Additional note, pp. 171 fif. 
 
 Machir. Mentioned in Josh. \'j'^^-^ R"" as the first-bOrn son of 
 Manasseh, and in Num. 26^° P as the only son — a description 
 which implies that Machir was the predominant clan of the tribe of 
 Manasseh. Both passages associate Machir with the land of Gile'ad 
 
 east of Jordan ; in Josh, he is 'thefather of Gile'ad' (IVpiin z.e. clearly 
 
 the district, and not a person), and is termed ' a man of war,' possess- 
 ing 'the Gile'ad and the Bashan'; in Num. the fact that Machir 
 inhabited this region is expressed by the statement that he 'begat 
 Gile'ad.' In the same passage of Num. (■z/w.'"") six grandsons (sons 
 of Gile'ad) a:re assigned to Machir, of whom at any rate ShechemJ 
 and I'ezer, i.e. Abi'ezer (cf Josh. 17 ^ R'') pertained to the territory of 
 the western division of Manasseh. In Josh. i7''>-2 we find that the 
 
 * Bu. supposes that "jTIK came to be altered into ^*^^K owing to the 
 influence of Hos. 5^. Winckler and Marquart reject "1 ■|''^^IK altogether 
 (as a gloss from Hos.), much to the detriment of the poetry. 
 
 % Vocalized D3B' whereas the city is always Dots' ; but the identity of the 
 two cannot be doubted. 
 
5. I4-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 135 
 
 six grandsons of Machir, according to P in Num., are set down as 
 his younger brothers. 
 
 Supposing that this late evidence were all the information which 
 we possessed with regard to Machir, we should naturally infer that 
 this predominant section of Manasseh settled first in Gile'ad, and that 
 it was only subsequently that some of its clans made their way into 
 central Canaan west of Jordan. If, however, the reconstruction of 
 the original J narrative of the tribal settlement in Cana an, which we 
 have adopted from Bu., is substantially correct, and Num. 32 ^^^^^ 
 forms the sequel of Josh. 17 i^«-, which certainly belongs to this 
 narrative ; then Manasseh first of all effected a settlement in the hill- 
 country west of Jordan, and it was only subsequently to this that 
 the clan of Machir, together with Ja'ir and Nobah, finding their 
 west Jordanic territory too exiguous, pushed their way to the 
 east of Jordan and made settlements there (cf. Additional note, 
 pp. 49 ff.). 
 
 In our passage in the Song, it can hardly be doubted that Machir 
 refers to west Manasseh. If this is not the case, there is no other 
 allusion to this part of Manasseh ; and supposing that a tribe so 
 intimately associated with the scene of battle had refused its aid, it 
 would certainly have been bitterly censured in the Song. On the 
 other hand, Gile'ad east of Jordan is mentioned, independently of 
 Machir, and is censured for holding aloof {v. '') ; the reference pro- 
 bably being to the tribe of Gad, which inhabited the southern portion 
 of Gile'ad. We seem therefore to have choice of two hypotheses : 
 either the term 'Machir' is used in the Song, by poetic licence, of 
 Manasseh as a whole, and here refers to west Manasseh to the 
 exclusion of Machir in Gile'ad ; or, the Manassite settlements at this 
 period were west of Jordan only ; and the migration of Manassite 
 clans (Machir, Ja'ir, Nobah) to the east of Jordan, which the J 
 document already referred to supposes to have been carried out 
 under the direction of Joshua', really only took place later than the 
 victory of Deborah. This latter hypothesis seems to be preferable; 
 since we have already noticed (p. 45) that the J document, as we 
 know it, adopts the view that the whole tribal settlement of the 
 Israelites took place under the direction of Joshua'. 
 
 Ultimately Machir was closely, and probably exclusively, associated 
 with the east of Jordan. According to the genealogy of i Chr. 7 •*i'=,* 
 Machir is the son of Manasseh by an Aramaean concubine ; and 
 Machir's son Gile'ad takes a wife named Ma'acah, i.e. the Aramaean 
 clan of the Ma'acathites, which, together with the Geshurites, the 
 children of Israel were unable to expel from Gile'ad (Josh. 13'' J). 
 This means, without a doubt, that ultimately the Machir-section of 
 Manasseh became closely fused by intermarriage with the Aramaeans 
 
 * The text of this passage, ai it stands in B, is somewhat confused and corrupt ; 
 but the solution is fairly transparent ; cf. Curtis, ICC. ad. loc. 
 
136 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6, 15. 
 
 who remained dwelling in the territory east of Jordan ; cf. the way in 
 which the genealogy of i Chr. 2 includes North Arabian clans, such 
 as Jerahme'el, among the descendants of Judah. 
 
 the commanders. Heb. mfhdk'ki.m, as in 7/.° {note). 
 
 men wielding. The Heb. verb mos'khim is here satisfactorily 
 explained from Ar. masaka., 'to grasp and hold,' which is in like 
 manner construed with the prep. 3, cf Ges., Thes. s.v. 2. The ex- 
 planation favoured by Mo., La., Smith, "■ drawing the truncheon' 
 (cf for constr. with 3, I Kgs. 22 2*, DK'pa ^E'D B'''N1 ' and a man drew 
 a bow') is hardly so natural; and still less so the interpretation 
 of Ges. (doubtfully), Cooke, No., Kit., ' inarching along with the 
 truncheon,' in supposed accordance with the use of masak noticed 
 under ch. 4 °. 
 
 the truncheon. Vocalizing t33B'3 and omitting "lab. Heb. sebhet 
 
 here denotes the wand of office — a term which, in two other poetical 
 passages (Gen. 49^°, Num. 21 '8), has for its parallel m^Mkek (the 
 word which, in the plur., is rendered ' commanders ' in the parallel 
 stichos), in the sense commander's staff. 
 
 PAt^T sebhet |§ adds sopher — ' the truncheon of the muster-7naster' 
 (lit. enumerator) — an addition which is correct as regards sense, but 
 spoils the rhythm by the introduction of one beat too many ; and 
 must therefore be regarded as a gloss. 
 
 15. And thy princes, Issachar. Reading 'tyi ^''"ibl : cf. IL ' Princi- 
 
 pales tui, Issachar.' Such a direct address to the tribe imparts 
 vigour and life to the description of the muster ; cf iiv. "V- ""• JB 
 'B'*3 'nbl ' And my princes in Issachar,' is an awkward expression, 
 
 and can scarcely be original. The force of ' my princes ' is obscure ; 
 since it is unlikely that the poet, who elsewhere sinks his individuality, 
 intends thus to identify himself specially with the tribe of Issachar. 
 Ew., Ros., in defence of JH, treat Deborah as speaking ; but in this 
 case the words 'with Deborah' which follow are superfluous ; since 
 it is impossible that the prophetess should, in one breath, allude to 
 herself both in the first and third persons. Ges. and HoUmann 
 follow Kimchi in taking inty as a poetical plur. form for the ordinary 
 
 Di-|{y ■ but the existence of such forms is more than doubtful, the 
 
 cases cited being otherwise explicable (cf G-K. § 87 g). ffi", mi 
 dpx^yol Iv la-a-axap, seems to presuppose the vocalization '(J'U ''"iti'l, 
 
 a variant which is found in soiiie Heb. MSS. teste Ginsburg. Such a 
 use of the Construct State before the prep. 3 may be illustrated by 
 y'3^33 nn 'Ye mountains in Gilboa',' 2 Sam. i ^i ; nispa nriDE' 'joy 
 
 in harvest,' Isa. 9 ^ : cf G-K. § 130 a. , This reading, which is 
 favoured by Rabbi Tanchum, has been adopted by the majority of 
 
5- IS-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 137 
 
 modems (Schnurrer, Justi, Stu., Ber., MuUer, Cooke, Get, No., La., 
 Kit., etc.). 
 
 Induces Issachar,' &' ;^m %]■> Ij-^VoJ, ^ natJ'B''' laimi seem 
 to have read 'b*^ nb'l simply, and this is adopted by MichaeHs and 
 Mo. ; but it is hardly likely that so simple and obvious a reading 
 should, if genuine, have suffered the alteration which we find in M- 
 Bu. connects 'fif^ ^IB'I with 1BD from the preceding stichos ; and 
 thus obtains the reading '&'<2 •'IE' IIQD, 'Count the princes of 
 
 Issachar' (sc. if you can !). This emendation (followed by Marquart) 
 of course necessitates the taking of the words mm DJ? into the next 
 stichos (see noie following). Such an emphasis upon the innumer- 
 able princes or leaders of Issachar (not to speak of their followers) is 
 scarcely, however, in accord with the poet's moderate assessment of 
 the whole fighting force of Israel in vj. Winckler's emendation of 
 'Itsn into Tif^h 'and they journey' is altogether improbable; cf >io/e 
 
 on the supposed occurrence of this verb in v. ", ' From Ephraim . . . 
 vale.' 
 
 wUA Deborah. Bu. reads Dj; in place of DV of fH— ' the people 
 (i.e. clansmen) of Deborah,' comparing the use of DJ? in z/. '*" So 
 Marquart. 
 
 and Naphtali was leal to Barak. Reading pn3^ |3 vRWI. 
 
 Naphtali is here conjecturally restored in place of Issachar. That 
 Naphtali, ' le nom le plus essentiel de cette histoire ' (Reuss : cf v. ^% 
 should be altogether unmentioned in the strophe which describes the 
 heroic response of the patriotic tribes, appears highly improbable ; 
 and it is equally unlikely that the poet should have been guilty of the 
 prosaic inelegancy which is occasioned by the repeated mention of 
 Issachar in the parallel stichoi. If the statement of the prose- 
 narrative that Barak belonged to Kedesh of Naphtali is part of the 
 original story, and not due merely to the combination of the Jabin- 
 tradition (cf p. 82), the mention of Naphtali in connexion with Barak 
 is what we should expect. The substitution of Naphtali for Issachar 
 is also favoured by Stu., A. Muller, Mo. {SBOT), D. H. Miiller, No., 
 Driver, Kent, Cooke {Comm.), Gress. 
 
 |3 in the sense ' steadfast,' and so ' reliable ' or ' honest,' is found 
 several times in Heb. : cf especially Gen. 42 "•W-3i.33.34^ where Joseph's 
 brethren say wnJX □''Ja 'we be honest' ; Prov. 15^, 'The heart of 
 a fool is not reliable' (p~^ ■ II 'The lips of the wise disperse 
 knowledge'); and the expression ]'2-^h nB'K Dnn^ 'things which 
 were not right,' 2 Kgs. 17°. The adj. kinu is also very frequent in 
 Assyr. in the sense 'reliable' or 'faithful,' and in Syr. kin has the 
 
138 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 15. 
 
 meaning 'steadfast,' 'just.' On this interpretation of |3 we obtain, 
 with no more serious alteration of the text than the addition of ? 
 before p'la, the sense ' leal to Barak ' as an excellent parallel to ' with 
 Deborah ' in stichos a. 
 The view that |3 is the substantive which elsewhere in the O.T. 
 
 has the meaning ' base ' or ' pedestal,' here used metaphorically in the 
 sense 'support' or 'reUance,' is as old as the Jewish commentators * ; 
 and has been adopted by many of the earlier modern commentators 
 (Kohler, Herder, Hollmann, Justi, Stu.,- etc.). Schnurrer Ukewise 
 regards j3 as a substantive ; but connects it with the Ar. verb 
 
 kanna, 'to cover or protect' (cf Heb. ganan), and so explains in the 
 sense 'bodyguard' or 'escort.' This root, however, is not otherwise 
 known in Heb. (Ps. 80 " is scarcely an instance). 
 
 The explanation of p as the adverb ' so ' or ' thus ' appears to be 
 
 impossible, as JH now stands. R.V. renders 'As was Issachar, so 
 was Barak ' ; but this meaning cannot be extracted from the Heb. 
 without the addition of 3 before latJ'tJ''' ; and even so it is, as Mo. 
 
 remarks, 'difficult to imagine a worse anticlimax.' Scarcely less 
 feeble is the sense which is gained by No. through the insertion of 
 DV before pl3 : ' and Naphtali was similarly with Barak.' (K" omits 
 
 13tJ'tJ"1 ; and connecting p"13 p with the following stichos, offers , 
 the rendering ovtojs BapaK iv KOiKda-iv dTretrreiXev ev iroatv avTOV. 
 Following this suggestion, von Gumpach, Gra., Grimme combine 
 the stichoi and read V^Jia rh^ pDV3 p"i3 p. Since, however, it 
 
 is difficult to believe that 1v3"l3 has here any other meaning than ' at 
 his heel ' (cf 4 '" note), we may in this consideration find evidence for 
 the view that the expression refers back to the mention of Barak in 
 the preceding stichos, as in fH. 
 
 ffi'', S>\ omitting all traces of stichos b, represent stichos c by 
 
 e^aTria-TeiXe Trcfouf airov els Tr]v KoiXaSa, i.e. VpJI n?t!' pDj?3. On 
 
 the supposition that this is original, the active verb and the suffix of 
 the object demand a subject, which might be found in pia p of M 
 
 (so La., but reading pna^l). Or it is conceivable that the letters 
 
 P"I333 might conceal an original vPiBJl • and stichos b would then 
 
 run, 'And Naphtali despatched his footmen to the vale.' Such a 
 
 * Cf. the statement of R. Tanchum {afud Schnurrer) ; ' Some think that p 
 signifies those upon whom Barak relied, and whom he had as his followers; 
 from that meaning of the word p which is found in Ex. 30^8 1331 11*3' 
 [' a laver and its base ']. 
 
5. IS-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 139 
 
 stichos, however, does not offer so good a parallel to stichos a as 
 that which we have adopted with but little alteration of ^ ; and 
 we may reasonably doubt a reconstruction which involves the 
 annihilation of the single stichos at the close of the strophe which 
 appears elsewhere to be characteristic of the poem (cf. p. 102). 
 
 he was loosed. The subject of the verb is the tribe mentioned in 
 the preceding stichos, which we have assumed to be Naphtali, 
 Barak's own contingent. The verb n?B' (used similarly in the 
 
 active, of releasing a bird. Gen. 8 '■', Deut. 22 ', or beast, Ex. 22 *, 
 Lev. 16^^; or pent up waters. Job 12'^) vividly describes the sudden 
 onrush of the tribe at the moment when Barak's word of command 
 unleashed it, as it were, from restraint. 
 
 at his heel. Lit. ' at his feet ' : cf 4 '" note. 
 
 Utterly reft into factions, etc. Reading 
 
 |§ offers an isolated four-beat stichos, which may be rendered 
 ' In the clans {or districts) of Re'uben great were the resolves of 
 heart.' As this stands, Heb. p'laggSth, lit. ' sections,' may be com- 
 pared with the use oi p'luggStk in 2 Chr. 35 * of the ' divisions ' of the 
 priestly families for the purpose of Temple-service. So C renders 
 n'y"lT3 ' in the family.' The cognate Bab. pulug[g'\u and pulukku 
 denote a ' division ' or ' district ' of a country ; Phoenician J?S id. 
 This seems to be the meaning intended by ffi" in v. '' eis tAj fieplSas 
 (v.^^ eir 8caipi(reit, 'A, id., ffi"" v.^^ iv rals Simpfo-ea-iv are ambiguous), S"" 
 
 'j2,Q_.,f.\£lul, Ar. Li^ i^y R.V.'s rendering of plaggoth by 
 
 ' water-courses ' depends on the use of the term in Job. 20 ", and the 
 meaning of the cognate p'ldghim, ' canals ' (lit. ' cuttings '), which is 
 fotmd in Isa. 30 ^*, Ps. i ', al. This meaning, however, is not so likely 
 in the present connexion as that given above, ipi^n (which occurs 
 
 again in this uncontracted form in Isa. 10' ; cf I'DDJ? for ^''BV ^."), 
 from an assumed sing, pn (Ar. hikk) = the normal ph ' statute,' i.e. 
 'action prescribed,' must here be taken to mean actiom prescribed for 
 oneself, i.e. resolves (so BDB.). Such a usage of the term is, however, 
 unparalleled elsewhere. The stichos recurs in 7/."°, where it is 
 clearly a marginal note offering two variations, which has crept into 
 the text. One of these variations is npn ' searchings ' or ' question- 
 ings,' in place of 'ppn ■ and this is probably correct, and has been 
 
140 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [S. 15. 
 
 adopted above. ' Searchings of heart ' must be taken to mean, not 
 (as we might use the phrase) anxious self-questionings, but the 
 ascertaining of the views of others, or, as we should express it, inter- 
 changes of opinion. The trait of indecision and ineffectuaUty is noted 
 
 as characteristic of Re'uben in Gen. 49 ■'". The other variation nUPS? 
 appears, as the text stands, to be less natural than flUPBH, though it 
 is possible to explain ? in the sense 'at' ; cf. D''D'' ^IHP, 'at the shore 
 of the seas,' in v. '"''«. 
 
 It may be regarded as certain that this single stichos cannot origin- 
 ally have stood by itself without a parallel, at the commencement of 
 the strophe which deals with the tribes which failed to respond to the 
 summons to arms : and if it was composed, as we now find it, as a 
 four-beat stichos, we must suppose that a similar corresponding 
 stichos, which originally preceded it, has wholly disappeared from 
 the poem. The possibility that the stichos represents the remains of 
 two parallel stichoi cannot, however, be overlooked : and since the 
 characteristic rhythm of the other couplets of the strophe is clearly 
 4 H- 3 beats, it may be inferred that this measure was also employed 
 
 in the opening couplet. 3? ''"Ipn (or 3? *ppn) forms a single beat ; 
 
 but, if we add a suffix to "2^, we obtain two beats — hikri libbo, lit. 
 'the searchings of his heart,' i.e. 'his searchings of heart.' Thus it is 
 reasonable to suppose that U? ''"Ipn Dvnj may represent the three- 
 beat stichos b ; and, if this is so, we have the last two beats of stichos 
 a in |31N"I niJPDz Now, 'Great were his questionings of heart' 
 suggests, as a parallel, divisions of counsel in regard to the summons 
 to arms on the part of the clansmen of Re'uben ; and this is just the 
 
 sense which may properly be attached to flUPB? ' into divisions,' i.e. 
 into divergent opinions, or into parties giving opposed counsels, or, 
 as we should say, factions (so TB renders 'diviso contra se Ruben') : 
 cf. Syr. pul&g& 'division,' which may mean hesitation., and also 
 
 What is desiderated, therefore, to supply the first part of the 
 stichos is some verb meaning was divided or was rent asunder ; and 
 this may very likely have been nnQj^ which may well have been 
 
 emphasized by a preceding Infinitive Absolute nhSJ. The emphatic 
 T]S2 InSJ supplies a suitable parallel to D''^in3 in stichos b; both 
 statements laying stress upon the extent of Re'uben's fruitless discus- 
 sions and differences of opinion. The use of the prep. ? 'into' after 
 a verb expressing division can be abundantly illustrated (cf h HSn 
 'divide into,' Gen. 328; ^ nriJ 'cut up into,' Judg. ig^"; i) yij? 
 'rend into,' 2 Kgs. 2!'; i) nan 'smite into,' Isa. 11"). T\\h^ may 
 therefore be regarded as the more original reading ; and ni3?B3 may 
 
5. i6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 141 
 
 be thought to be a correction— as more naturally expressing the sense 
 ' in ' or ' among,' which seems to be required by % 
 
 16. the folds. Heb. misp'thdyim. The meaning assigned to the 
 word is purely conjectural. It suits the context here (cf. the stichos 
 following), and in the one other occurrence. Gen. 49", where the 
 tribe of Issachar is compared to ' an ass of strength (lit. bone) lying 
 down amid the misp'thdyim. And he saw rest that it was good, and 
 the land that it was pleasant, etc' ■ In Ps. 68 1* (apparently based 
 upon our passage) a cognate term is used : — ' Will ye lie {or When ye 
 lie) among the ^phattdyimV Both forms are duals, and may refer 
 to some kind of double pen, with an inner and outer enclosure : 
 Roediger in Ges., Thes. 147 1, compares G'dherothdyim, used, as a 
 proper name in Josh. 15^°, and meaning 'two fences,' or 'double 
 fence.' &dherdth is a term employed of sheep-folds (cf. Num. 32 '^•^'', 
 I Sam. 24*, a/.) constructed for permanent use out of solid material 
 (cf. Num. 32^°, 'We will build sheep-folds') ; and it is possible, as 
 Roediger suggests, that misp^thdyim may have been the name appUed 
 to temporary folds made of hurdles. This explanation of the term, 
 which is as old as David Kimchi, is adopted by the majority of 
 modems. 
 
 The rival interpretation is ' ash-heaps,' such as are found in close 
 proximity to modem Palestinian villages. This is based on the fact 
 that there is a subs, 'aspoth, meaning 'ash-heap,' or 'refuse-heap,' 
 occurring in i Sam. 2*, Ps. 113', Lam. 4^, a/., which is supposed to 
 be cognate. The advocates of this interpretation do not seem, how- 
 ever, to have explained the connexion of the village ash-heap with 
 pastoral amenity and the tending of flocks ; nor the use of the dual, 
 which appears, upon this view, to be quite anomalous. Were there, 
 regularly, two ash-heaps to each village or encampment ? 
 
 The Versions were puzzled by misp'thdyim, and seem to have 
 guessed at its meaning. <!5° r^r Siyo/ilas ; fflr'' transliterates twv 
 u.ocr<pa6aiiJi {'^ fi.o<r<t)ai6afi) ; 'A. tCiv Kkripwv (so fflr in Gen. 49 ", Ps. 68 '* ; 
 Hj in the latter passage ' inter medios cleros ') ; 2. rCiv fuTaixiilav ; 
 
 "S ' inter duos terminos ' ; S>^ 1 1 V *~) • Aj_».S ' between the foot- 
 paths ' (so in Gen.) ; Ar. Jj^' i^:^ id ; C fDinn pa 'between the 
 boundaries ' (similarly in Gen.). 
 
 the pastoral pipings. Heb. ?rikdth 'adhdrim, lit. ' the hissings or 
 whistlings of (i.e. for) the flocks.' In Latin sibila, 'hissings' or 
 ' whistlings ' is used similarly of piping to flocks upon a mouth-organ 
 of reeds : so Ovid, Met. xiii. 784/ : 
 
 ' Sumptaque arundinibus compacta est fistula centum ; 
 Senserunt toti pastoria sibila montes.' 
 
 Cf also ' sibila cannae,' Statins, Thebais vi. 338. The Latin term is 
 
142 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 17. 
 
 also employed by Columella, De Re Rust., ii. cap. 3, of whistling to 
 oxen to induce them to drink more freely after work : — ' Quern 
 [cibum] cum absumpserint, ad aquam duci oportet, sibiloque allectari, 
 quo libentius bibant.' Cf. the way in which whistling or music will 
 cause cows which are difficult milkers to yield their milk more freely 
 (a fact noted e.g. by Hardy, Tess of the D^ Urbervilles, ch. 17). 
 
 These parallels suggest that Heb. s'rtkSth here refers to playing to 
 flocks upon a mouth-organ or pipe — probably the 'ieghdbh, which is 
 explained by 5C 'abbiibha, "S ' ouganon,' as a reed-pipe — the purpose 
 being to conduce, in one way or another, to their physical well-being 
 by the charm of the shrill music l^itghdbh probably gains its name 
 from its sensuous effect : cf. the meaning of the root in Heb. and An). 
 Thus the indolent Re'ubenite is pictured as charmed into inaction by 
 the music of the shepherd's pipe. 
 
 The Heb. root does not occur elsewhere in connexion with flocks ; 
 but the verb sdrak is used in Isa. 5 2", 7 '*, Zech. 10*, of the employ- 
 ment of hissing or whistling, as a signal. Hence some have thought 
 that the reference in our passage is to whistling {not piping) in order 
 to call the flocks together. But why should the sound of such 
 shepherd's calls be represented as keeping Re'uben at home ? 
 
 Heb. s'rikoth bears striking resemblance to the Greek a-Cpiy^, which 
 has been supposed by Lagarde and Lewy (cf. references in BDB.) 
 to be derived from the same Semitic root sr^ ; but it is more likely 
 that both words are independently onomatopoetic from the sound 
 which they describe. Cf the English word shriek. 
 
 17. Gile'ad. The reference appears to be to the tribe of Gad, and 
 not to East Manasseh (cf note on ' Machir,' z/. '*). The history of 
 Jephthah (10"- 1 2') shows us Gile'adites, who presumably were . 
 Gadites, inhabiting the southern portion of Gile'ad, in proximity to 
 the land of 'Ammon. On the use of the term ' Gile'ad,' cf ch. lo"" 
 note. Gad is read in place of Gile'ad by S"", Arm., Goth., and a few 
 codd. of® ; while Ar. interprets Gile'ad as referring to Re'uben. 
 
 And Dan abideth by the ships. Omitting ni37 before the verb with 
 two Heb. MSS., "S, 2C, Ar., and with S"" as it now stands.* IS, which 
 has the support of (!Ic, offers a fine and vigorous line with its rhetorical 
 query, 'And Dan — wherefore abideth he by the ships?' But else- 
 where throughout the strophe the scheme of rhythm in the couplet's 
 appears to be 4 + 3 beats ; and, if we adopt the reading of 1§, we 
 have here, exceptionally, a stichos b containing four beats instead of 
 three, which is improbable. 
 
 * SP reads ]l 1 -g^m 5Li lj]ioiJ^ OO ' And Dan to the harbour 
 
 draws ships ' ; but the resemblance of |j [^^ \ ' to the harbour ' to |'^ \ 
 ' wherefore ? ' suggests that this latter may have been the original reading, and 
 that the alteration may have been induced by the context. 
 
5. i8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 143 
 
 The reference to Dan in connexion with ships may be taken to 
 indicate that clans of this tribe had already made their migration to 
 the extreme north of Cana'an, as related in ch. 18, Josh. 19*^ J ; since, 
 if the tribe was still dwelling only in the south, it is difficult to under- 
 stand how they can have become seafarers (cf note on ch. 1 3*). 
 Even the supposition that the Danites carried on trading by sea from 
 their northern home (though supported, as Mo. notes, by the follow- 
 ing couplet with regard to Asher) is not without its difficulties ; since 
 ch. 18 '■^, informs us that Laish, which they conquered, was isolated, 
 not merely from Axam on the east, but from Sidon on the west ; 
 though it is true that 18 ' at the same time compares the habit of life 
 of the people of Laish with that of the Sidonians. It is reasonable, 
 however, to suppose that the Danites, living on friendly terms with 
 the Phoenicians, may shortly alter their settlement have entered 
 into close relationship with them, and taken service on board their 
 ships (so Stu.). It was probably the protection extended by the 
 Phoenicians to the tribes of Asher and Dan (in return, we may infer, 
 for service rendered) which made these tribes unconcerned to throw 
 in their lot with the central Israelite tribes, and respond to the 
 summons to battle. Bu., who formerly {RS. p. 16) proposed to emend 
 nV3S 'ships' into vniw 'his pastures,' now (Comrn.) adopts the 
 
 view which we have advocated, and retains the reading of |^. 
 Asher sat still, etc. Cf. note on ch. i ^^, ' the Asherites dwelt, etc' 
 his creeks. Heb. miphrSsaw, which only occurs here in Heb., is 
 elucidated by its philological connexion with Ar. furdah, ' a gap or 
 breach in the bank of a river, by which ships or boats ascend ' ; 
 firdd, 'the mouth of a river' (Lane). The \erh farada means 'to 
 make a notch or incision.' It is possible to explain the possessive 
 suffix of miphrdsdw as ' its creeks,' referring to ' the shore of the seas ' 
 in the preceding stichos (so Mo.). 
 
 18. that scorned its life, etc. The expression is unique, and must 
 be regarded with suspicion. The verb hereph elsewhere properly 
 denotes verbal taunting or reproach (cf BDB. : properly, 'to say 
 sharp things about ' ; connected with Aram, harreph, ' sharpen ') ; 
 though it is true that there are passages in which it is used meta- 
 phorically of insulting God by injustice to the poor (Prov. 14'', 17 '), 
 or idolatry (Isa. 65'). This latter usage, however, hardly supports 
 the conception implied in 'insulting' one's own life by exposing it to 
 risk of death. The Ar. parallels cited by Ros. are not very apposite 
 ('We count our lives of light value [lanurhisu) in the day of battle,' 
 Hamasa, p. 47, ed. Freytag ; tahdwana nafsahu, ' he held his life 
 of light worth ') ; since the expressions there used, so far from 
 appearing forced and strange, are familiar all the world over. 
 
 Phrases used elsewhere in O.T. of risking one's life are ' he cast 
 his life in front' p«p iE'SJ-"?' ^r!^!!!) '^^- 9 " .' 'I placed my life in 
 
144 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. it 
 
 my hand' (1333 ''B'S_3 np'B'Sl) ch. 12 3, cf. i .Sam. 19 ^ 2821 ; 'h 
 poured out his life unto death' (ityw niB^ nnv.n) Isa. 53 'l It i 
 conceivable that this latter phrase (VN^h WSJ nnj?n) may have beei 
 the original reading in our passage ; cf. the use of the Pi'el of tb 
 same verb in Ps. 141 ^ 'Pour not out my life' ('B'S: "iVri'i'N), ii 
 
 ' Give me not over unto death.' So Ball, who, as an alternative 
 suggests the emendation b^inn for e)"in — ''devoted his life to death 
 
 (on helfrim ' devote ' to a deity, usually by destruction, cf. note 01 
 ch. l'') — a striking and vigorous expression which may very wel 
 have been employed, though no close parallel can be cited. Cf. 
 however, the words of St. Paul in Rom. 9 ^ : rjvxofijjv 'yhp amSiiu 
 eJvai avTos eyo) airh tov Xpiaro^ vnep tS>v aSeXt^wi' /aou, kt'K. ^AvdOejit 
 is the regular rendering of ffi for Heb. herem 'devoted thing,' anc 
 dva6(fiaTi^etv for the verb heh'rim. 
 
 to the death. Lit. ' (so as) to die.' 
 
 on the heights of the field. Cf. note on ' the field of Edom,' v. \ 
 The use of the expression here is somewhat enigmatical, in view ol 
 the fact that the scene of the battle was the low-lying plain oi 
 Esdraelon (called 'hnek, ' vale,' lit. ' depression,' in vv. '*•■'). It can 
 hardly mean (Cooke, Comm.) that. 'the two tribes came fearlessly 
 down from their mountain-homes prepared to sacrifice all for the 
 cause,' because it was not on the heights of their mountain-homes that 
 they risked their lives. Mo. thinks that the phrase ' may perhaps be 
 employed here of the mounds and hillocks in the plain, which, 
 however inconsiderable, were positions of advantage in the battle, 
 especially as rallying points for the hard pressed Cana' anites before 
 the rout became complete. These elevations, where the enemy 
 fought with the ferocity of desperation, Zebulun and Naphtali with 
 reckless hardihood stormed and carried.' It may be doubted whether 
 any part of the plain itself would have been described as saihi 
 {v.^ note): yet it is quite likely that the battle may have raged round 
 about the cities of Ta' anach and Megiddo on the edge of the hill- 
 country ; or that many of the Cana' anites, finding their escape to 
 Harosheth barred by the flooded Kishon (cf. note on 4 '°), may have 
 been driven into the hills of Galilee, which come down to the right 
 bank of the river, and there made their last desperate stand. 
 
 19. the kings of Canaan. I.e. the petty chieftains of the fortified 
 Cana'anite cities such as Ta anach and Megiddo, who appear asarule 
 to have been mutually independent (cf. the condition of affairs in 
 earlier times as gathered from the T.A. Letters ; Introd. pp. Ixxff.); 
 but are here united for action under the leadership of Sisera, who 
 was, presumably, the king of Harosheth. Cf. the alliance among the 
 Amorite city-kings of the south against Joshua, as related in Josh, ro 
 
5. I9-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES ^ 
 
 The use of the term 'king of Cana an ' ag applied to Jabin in ck 4^ 
 by R^2 is different ; in that it pictures hinj as overlord of northern 
 Cana' an as a whole — a conception which gains no support from the 
 older narrative. Cf note adloc. 
 
 In Tdanach, etc. On the sites of these cities cf. ch. i ^^ note. 
 
 the rills of Megiddo. Lit. 'the waters of M.' The reference 
 doubtless is to the numerous small tributaries of the Ifishon which 
 flow down from the hills to the south-east of Megiddo. The modern 
 Ar. name for the Kishon is Nahr el-Mukatta", i.e. ' River of the ford 
 or shallow.' While there is no philological connexion between 
 Megiddo and Mukatta', we are probably right in inferring that the 
 modern name was bestowed owing to its assonance with the old city- 
 name of unknown meaning. So Smith, HG. p. 387, « '. A similar 
 phenomenon is noted as regards the Heb. name Harosheth compared 
 with the modem Ar. el-Hiritiyyeh {ch. 4 ^ note). 
 
 The gain of money they took not. Most commentators interpret 
 this statement as meaning that they were baulked in their expectation 
 of spoil. So Mo. : ' it was a most unprofitable campaign for them ; 
 a sarcastic meiosis. The gains of war were in the ancient world one 
 of the principal causes of war; cf. Ex. 15^.' This explanation is 
 described by La., not unjustly, as ' pensee trfes banale et qui devance 
 le cours des evenements ' ; and it may be added that, if the reference 
 is to hoped-for spoil, the description of this spoil as ' money ' or 
 'silver' simply is not very natural : contrast z/.^°. La. himself adopts 
 the explanation offered by Rashi and Levi ben-Gershon, that the 
 kings did not fight for payment like mercenaries, but with the whole- 
 heartedness of men who are protecting their own interests. This is 
 more probably correct. A third explanation, which is not impossible, 
 is given by Kimchi, viz. that they did not accept money as ransom 
 from the Israelites who fell into their hands, but slew them without 
 quarter — the statement thus emphasizing the fierceness of the combat. 
 Cf. the way in which Trojan combatants, when vanquished, are 
 pictured as offering the Greeks a price for the sparing of their lives. 
 Thus, in Iliad, vi. 46 ff., Adrestus addresses Menelaus : — 
 
 fa)yp€t, 'Arpeoff wte, (TV 8' a^ta Se^at a-jvoiva. 
 ntXKh. S' eV at^vtiov narpos (Cft/iijXta Kelrai, 
 voKkos Te ^pvaos re ttoXuk/xt^tos re (TtBrjpos' 
 tS>v Kev Toi ^apiaaiTO iraTrjp airepenTL anoiva, 
 €1 Kev ip.€ Caov ■n-eirvBoa-' eVi vrjvtrlv 'kxaiSiv. 
 
 II. X. 378 ff., xi. 131 ff. are similar. 
 
 Several commentators follow Tanchum in understanding bf'sd in 
 the sense 'fragment,' or, as we should say, 'bit' of money (cf. Ar. 
 bad'a, Aram, bissud) ; primitive money taking the form of uncoined 
 ingots, the value of which was tested by weight. Since, however, 
 
 K 
 
6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES \.5. 20. 21. 
 
 ere is no parallel for such a meaning elsewhere in the Heb. of the 
 .T., in which feW occurs with frequency in the sense ' gain made 
 ' violence, unjust gain, profit' (BDB.), it seems preferable to 
 quiesce in the ordinary meaning, which is quite suitable to the 
 mtext. 
 
 20. From heaven fought the stars, etc. The break between the 
 ichoi is obviously to be placed upon Di3313n, which gives 3 + 3 
 
 ;ats to the distich ; and not, as by JH, on IDPIPJ (so R. V., ' They 
 ught from heaven. The stars in their courses fought, etc.') ; since 
 is offends against rhythm by offering 2 + 4 beats. 
 
 From their highways. Winckler proposes to emend Dri^DtSD into 
 
 i^-tOD 'from their stations.' The term proposed, mazzalSth (cf 
 
 Kgs. 23*), is elucidated from Bab., in which manzazu denotes a 
 ilace of standing,' from nazdzu ' to stand ' ; and a fem. form 
 anzaltu { = manzaziu) is found, e.g. in iii. R. 59, 35a: 'The gods 
 heaven in their mansions (nianzaltisunu) set me.' These heavenly 
 ansions or stations are identified by Delitzsch {Prolegomena, p. 54) 
 ith the zodiacal stations ; while Jensen {Kosinologie, pp. 347 f ) thinks 
 at they denoted rather the stations of certain fixed stars and 
 anets, lists of which are found in the Bab. inscriptions. In Ar. 
 anzil denotes a ' lodging place ' or ' mansion ' ; and the plur. 
 '-mandzil is used of the twenty-eight mansions of the moon. Thus 
 
 e occurrence of Drip-ltSD in our passage would be appropriate to 
 
 e context ; and it is possible that the reading of ?§ may represent 
 e easy substitution of a common term for the more unusual word : 
 
 It since Dri?DI3D of J§ yields a good sense, the alteration is 
 
 mecessary. 
 
 21. The torrent Kishon, etc. Cf Thomson's description of the 
 :obable circumstances of the rout, as cited under ch. 4'^. A 
 :scription of the Kishon is given under ch. 4 ''. 
 
 swept thetn off. The Heb. verb garaph does not occur elsewhere ; 
 It the meaning which it bears is elucidated by the usage of the Ar. 
 
 00^^ ^ 
 
 '.xh iarafa. Thus Ar. says J.^^! i,lip~ ' the torrents jwe// zV 
 
 •vay' ; J.j.*u!i i_j^rsn,^ ^_;^l-»,ll i— J/*- '2'^ swept away men like 
 
 ■e sweeping away of a torrent' (Lane). The sense attached to 
 ram. g^raph (here employed by S"") is similar. ffi° e^iavpev airovs, 
 '''' e^e^aKev avrovs, U 'traxit cadavera eorum,' render with 
 jproximate accuracy. %, more freely, pjian ' shattered them.' 
 
5. 21.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES UJ 
 
 It faced ttum, the torrent Kishon. Reading jiE'ip isnj DDtp. As 
 ?§ stands, D''B11p ^nj is a source of great difficulty. The root kdm 
 in Semitic has the meaning ' to be in front or before.' Hence, in 
 Heb., the subst. k^dhein means, locatively, what is in front (opposed 
 to 'ahor, that which is behind), Ps. 139^ Job 23* ; and, especially, the 
 East, this being the region which (possibly as the direction from 
 which the sun rises) was regarded as in front in reckoning the 
 quarters of the compass * ; or, temporally, what is before, i.e. ' ancient 
 or former time' (Bab. kudmu is employed in both these senses). 
 From kedheni comes the denominative verb kiddem, which means 
 to be in front and also to confront in a hostile sense (cf. the Ar. 
 'akdama, 'cause to advance against the enemy'). 
 
 The substantival form kfdhiimint only occurs in our passage ; and, 
 in accordance with the sense of the root, the main explanations of 
 nahal IjfdMimim are two : (l) ''torrent of antiquity^ (lit. of ancient 
 times) is adopted by 85 " xe^iappovs dpxaiav (perhaps '"men of old 
 time'), C ('the torrent at which signs and mighty acts were wrought 
 for Israel from ancient times'), Kimchi ('the torrent that was there 
 from ancient times'), R.V. ('that ancient river'), Michaelis, Justi, 
 Boettger, Bach., Reuss, Get., Vernes, etc. ; (2) 'torrent of {hostile) 
 encounters' suggested by Abulwalid, and adopted by Schnurrer, Kohler, 
 Hollmann, Ros., von Gumpach, Donaldson, Ber., Kit., etc. 
 
 Why the Kishon, rather than any other stream, should be spoken 
 of as an ancient torrent is not clear. The only obvious explanation is 
 that in the mind of the poet it had a long history behind it ; and this 
 explanation is also demanded by the rival rendering 'torrent of 
 encounters,' which would seem to imply that many historical battles 
 had taken place in the neighbourhood of the Kishon. At the present 
 day such a title as ' torrent of battles ' would be appropriate to the 
 Kishon ; since we know that, as a matter of fact, the vale of Esdraelon 
 is the historical battle-field of Palestine : cf. Smith, HG. pp. 391 ff. 
 But the inference that the Hebrew poet knew of traditions of ancient 
 battles in this locality, such as that of Thutmosi ill. against the 
 prince of Kadesh and his allies (cf Introd. p. Ixvii), appears some- 
 what precarious. 
 
 Other explanations of nahal k'dhiimim have been offered. Thus 
 Meier, Cooke, Grimme, Driver render ' the onrushing torrent,' and, 
 similarly, Smith, Segond, 'the torrent of spates.' It is doubtful, 
 however, whether such a sense can be maintained. The verb kadama 
 in Ar. may mean ' to advance,' and ' to be bold in attack ' ; but always 
 with the implied idea of going in front of (leading), or coming in 
 front of (meeting), some one else ; and the transference of this idea tp 
 an onrushing stream is somewhat remote. Still less probable is the 
 
 * Similarly, mi'dhir, 'behind ' = '00 the west,' Isa. 9I2, 38ii; yamin, 'the 
 right • = ' the south, ' 'Ps. 89 '2, B 13, al. 
 
US Tttfi BOOIt 01^ JUDGES tS. 21 
 
 sense, 'winding {i.e. .'self-confronting torrent^ adopted by Herdei 
 The fact (noted by Mo.) is, however, worthy of observation that ii 
 Ar. kad&m (identical with our form) means a man who is first ii 
 attacking the foe, and so, brave, courageous. Thus the Heb. phrasi 
 would mean ' the torrent of heroes' if, as might be the case, th( 
 word was employed in Heb. in the Ar. sense.* 
 
 The Versions not already noticed are not helpful : 5J ' Cadumim' ; 
 S>^ . Vri; On (with 5 erroneously for j), Ar. id. ; die*-, 6. KaS-qa-eiii ; ffi' 
 KaSrjfieijj. ; 'A. Kavo-wvwv (connecting with DHp 'east wind'). 
 
 The emendation adopted above follows the private suggestion of 
 Ball; and has been independently adopted, as regards DD^p by Ehr.J 
 It assumes that it is natural to find in the stichos a verbal parallel 
 to DB13 of stichos a ; and that the first occurrence of pnj is an 
 erroneous insertion, made to explain the substantive D'DHp when 
 this latter had taken the place of the verbal form DD"lp. 'Xhe.form of 
 the distich, with its identical term and inverted order in the parallel 
 stichoi, may be compared with v. ^1 
 
 It is true that the sense obtained through the emendatichi involves 
 something of a hysteron-proteron ; since, strictly speaking, the torrent 
 ' came in front of the Cana'anites in their flight before it ' swept them 
 awa.y ' in their attempt to cross it : yfet we have no right to demand 
 an accurately logical sequence from the poet ; and it is legitimate to 
 explain the second verb as to some extent explanatory of the first— 
 the torrent swept them away because it confronted them in their flight. 
 
 The numerous other emendations which have been offered need 
 not be noticed. 
 
 Bless thou, my soul, the might of Yahweh ! Reading itysj 'aian 
 nin'_ rv. I§ r'y 'B'S; ^annn is barely intelligible. The Imperfect 
 ''3Tin has been taken as a pictorial description of past events (R.V. 
 
 marg. 'thou hast trodden down'; properly, 'thou treadest down': 
 cf the use of the Imperf in Ex. 15* !iD''D3'' nb'nn 'The deeps cover 
 them ' ! — where the tense, in describing a past event, emphasizes 
 'the process introducing it and preliminary to its 'complete execu- 
 tion' : Driver, Tenses, § 27a) ; or as a Jussive in place of the Im- 
 perative (so R. V. text ' March on '). f'y is taken either as the direct 
 
 * On nouns of this form used in Heb. in an active sense, cf. G-K. § 84' m. It 
 is worth while to remark that, in miphrds v. i', garafh v. 21, we have instances of 
 words of which the meaning would be obscure, were it not for the clear elucidation 
 offered by Ar. 
 
 X So also (since the writing of the above note) Gressmann in Die Anfimii 
 Israels, p. 186. Rothstein adopts the same verbal form in the plur. ; but 
 emends the remainder of the line beyond recognition— 003310 D'D IDlf; 
 ■ The waters confronted their chariots,' 
 
5. 22.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 149 
 
 accusative (R.V. marg.), and explained as abstract 'strength' for 
 concrete ' the strong ' (so U ' Conculca anima mea robustos ') ; or as 
 an adverbial accusative ' with strength ' (R. V. text, ST fjlpna : cf. G-K, 
 § 118$'). Upon either interpretation we have, if not 'simple bathos' 
 (Mo.), at any rate a very weak conclusion to the strophe; and, as Mo. 
 rightly remarks, 'most inappropriate as the conclusion of wz/.^"-^', 
 which tell how heaven and earth conspired to destroy Sisera.' On 
 the other hand, the sense offered by the stichos as restored above, 
 viz. an ejaculation of thanksgiving to Yahweh as the controller of the 
 powers of nature which assisted Israel, is very suitable to the context ; 
 and may be compared with Ex. 1 5 ^, where, after allusion to the over- 
 whelming of the Egyptian hosts by the Red Sea (as the Cana'anites 
 were overwhelmed by the Kishon), the poet exclaims — 
 
 ' Thy right hand, O Yahweh, is glorious in power ; 
 Thy right hand, O Yahweh, dasheth in pieces the enemy.' 
 
 The use oi ih& Jussive (^3"i3n) in place of the Imperative is scarcely 
 to be termed 'rare' (Mo., referring to ''3"nn) ; cf. ch. 7"% Hos. 14', W 
 (KCn Juss. coupled with the Imperat. Dp) ; Ps. 51^', J^'-'" (juss. three 
 times, alongside of the Imperat. four times in the two following 
 verses); Ps. 71^'' (Juss. twice; parallel to Imperat. twice in v^^) ; 
 7j2o.2i_ If ig possible, however, that the Imperative may have been 
 originally written : cf. i{J>D3 ''313 in Ps. 103 '•^. 
 
 The corruption of *3";3n into *3"nn is likely ; 3 and T being very 
 similar in the old character, nw TJ? may have been written '' VS, and 
 the '^ subsequently omitted through accident. That Hin'' was some- 
 times thus abbreviated into "' is proved by Jer. 6 ", where nilT' JIDh 
 of |§ is read as Tion by ffi ; and by Judg. 19 "*, where niiT' n^a is 
 clearly an error for Tl'D. Cf. Driver, NHTS.""- p. bcix. n^. 
 
 Mo.'s suggestion, combining part of the preceding stichos, 
 t'jl 'C'SJ ^Tn D'DITp irij (similarly La.) is condemned, if by nothing 
 else, by the monstrosity itysj * The emendation of Ruben (adopted 
 
 by Cheyne, JQR- x. p. 566 ; EB. 2652) is an example of how not to 
 use the Assyr. dictionary. 
 
 22. loud beat. Lit. ' hammered ' {sc. the ground). Cf. the English 
 expressions, 'the hammer of countless hoofs' ; 'to hammer along the 
 road,' used of pushing a horse to a fast pace on the hard road. R. V. 
 and most modems render 'did stamp.' The Versions treat ^D^il 
 either as passive (ffi^ iveiroSifrSricrav, ''^ aTreKoirrjaav, 9. dj/fKOirj/trav, 
 ffi KDPriB'K 'were drawn off,' i.e. possibly pulled or broken off) or 
 
 * The fem. subst. B'SJ occurs some forty-nine times in the O.T. in the plural 
 with the fem. termination, and never with the masc. termination ; theform D''B'S3 
 in Ezek. 1320 being clearly an error for D'E'SD 'free.' 
 
150 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 22. 
 
 intransitive (V ' ceciderunt,' S"" ^212, At. LjLj— all meaning 'fell,' 
 or, as we should say ' stumbled ' ; cf. the rendering of US:"). Similarly, 
 Kimchi explains that the form is 'a stative ; as though he said, the 
 
 horses' hoofs were battered (IDPriJ) through excessive galloping in 
 the battle.' The same view is taken by other Jewish interpreters, 
 and is adopted by A.V., 'Then were the horsehoofs broken, etc' 
 Mo., who favours this interpretation, vocalizes the verb as a passive 
 
 ID^n (Pu'al not elsewhere found). Against it, we may remark that 
 
 horses' /loqfs are not very likely to be injured by excessive galloping,* 
 more especially on a plain which must have been largely in the 
 condition of a swamp owing to the heavy rain-storm (cf. cA. 4 " note) ; 
 and further, if the poet meant that they were broken or bruised, he 
 would scarcely have expressed this by stating that they were hammered 
 through themselves striking the ground. 
 
 Probably a passive sense is given to 1D?n by the Versions and early 
 interpreters owing to the prep. ID 'from' or 'through' of the suc- 
 ceeding stichos as it stands in |§, which seems to denote the source 
 of the action denoted by "iDPil. Cf., however, the note following. 
 
 Smith, who adopts the vocalization as a passive !iD?n^ renders as 
 
 an active ' thudded ' ; but this term, which commonly denotes the 
 dull, dead fall of a heavy body, is not very happy. 
 
 the horses. Reading plur. DiQ^lD with Bu., Kit. BH., Gress., by 
 taking over the D from the commencement of the following stichos. 
 Cf <&"-, Si\ 
 
 off galloped., off galloped. Reading nni lin^J, as suggested by 
 Kit., BH. Cf. ffi" (jTtovhrj ((T7r€V(Tav. The verb "im occurs again of 
 a galloping horse in Nah. 3 2. 5g reads nnn^ nhn^D 'through the 
 
 galloping, galloping' (Suspended Construct State: cf. Gen. 14'°). 
 It seems likely, however, that the D belonging to D''D1D at the end of 
 the preceding stichos came erroneously to be prefixed to 1im nm, 
 and this was then treated as 'lim "limo, i.e. as an abbreviated plur. 
 substantive (on the use of such abbreviations, cf footnote §, p. 124). 
 Adopting our emendation, the couplet offers two stichoi parallel in 
 sense, and it may be noticed that such parallelism (either synonymous 
 or climactic : cf. Additional note, p. 1 69) is characteristic of the poem ; 
 
 * The modern Syrian horse has particularly good legs and feet, and is usually 
 shod with plates ; but in ancient times horses appear to have gone unshod. 
 Isa. 5 28 refers to the hardness of the hoofs of the Assyrian horses ( ' like flint '), as 
 a proof of their power to resist wear and tear ; but whether this implies that 
 trouble was common with the feet of ordinary horses is doubtful. 
 
5. 23.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 151 
 
 whereas the synthetic form of parallelism, which is offered by f§ in 
 this distich, is comparatively rare (of. T/z/.sb.ioa.wb) 
 
 The repeated daharii dakani is intended to represent the three- 
 fold beat of a horse's gallop ; and does so most accurately with the 
 main ictus on the third beat ; as in the final movement of the 
 overture to Rossini's Guillaume Tell. Virgil represents the gallop 
 by the familiar dactylic line, Aen. viii. 596, 
 
 ' Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum' ; 
 
 and this dactylic rhythm is adopted by Charles Kingsley in My 
 Hunting Song : 
 
 ' Hark to them, ride to them, beauties ! as on they go, 
 Leaping and sweeping away in the vale below ' ; 
 
 but the dactylic measure is not quite so true as the anapaestic. In 
 Ps. 68" ^" we find the measure ^—^; yiddodhun yiddodhun, 
 ' Kings of hosts are running, are running^ which is again intended 
 to represent the sound of a cavalcade galloping away in the distance. 
 This reminds us of the rhythm of Browning's How they brought the 
 Good News from Ghent to Aix : 
 
 ' I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ; 
 I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three.' 
 
 his chargers. Heb. 'abbiraw, lit. ' his strong ones.' The term is 
 used elsewhere of horses in Jer. 8'^, 47', 50". Horses at this 
 period were employed in chariots, and not (so far as we know) for 
 riding purposes ; but since the functions of chariotry in warfare were 
 akin to those of cavalry in later times, the rendering ' chargers ' may 
 be held to be justified. 
 
 23. Curse ye, curse ye Meroz ! Reading nilK tinp IliK, in place 
 of % nin'' TIK^iD IDS ti"ip IliX '"Curse ye Meroz"! said the 
 Angel of Yahweh,' which is plainly unrhythmical (five beats). Such 
 an allusion to the Angel of Yahweh in this ancient poem is also 
 somewhat unexpected (cf ch. 2 ^ note, end). Probably 111S became 
 corrupted into lOK ' he said ' ; and the natural query ' Who said ? ' 
 was answered by supplying a subject—' the Angel of Yahweh.' 
 
 Meroz is only mentioned here, and the site is unidentified. The 
 modem Murassas, four miles north of Bes^n, which is doubtfully 
 advocated by Buhl {Geogr. p. 217) after Gu^rin, is not philologically 
 connected with the Heb. name; and conjectures that Meroz is the 
 corruption of some better known name (cf the suggestions cited by 
 Mo. SBC T.) axe. necessarily futile, since we have no guide as to the 
 
152 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 24. 26. 
 
 locality of the city. It is highly probable that the curse took practical 
 effect, and the city with its inhabitants was destroyed by the Israelites, 
 and never subsequently rebuilt. Cf. the fate of Penuel {ch. 8 ^■^•^') and 
 Jabesh of Gile'ad {ch. 21 '-'2) in similar circumstances. 
 
 For they cavie not to the help of Yahweh. Possibly Meroz was 
 situated somewhere upon the line of the enemy's flight ; and, like 
 Succoth and Penuel on the occasion of Gide'on's rout of the Midianites 
 closed its gates when it might have aided by cutting off the fugitives, 
 or by supplying the pursuers with much needed refreshment. 
 
 mid the heroes. Heb. bag-gibborhn as in v}"^. ■ So R.V. marg^ 
 'among the mighty.' R.V. text 'against the mighty 'is less probable. 
 
 24. Most blessed of womeH be Jet el. |§'s addition of ' the wife of 
 Heber the Kenite,' which spoils the balance of the couplet, is a prosaic 
 gloss derived from ch. 4 '". 
 
 tent-dwelling women. Lit. ' women in the tent.' Cf the phrase ' the 
 tent-dwellers' applied to the Bedawin on the farther east of Jordan in 
 ch. 8". Mo. compares the Ar. expression 'ahlu-lwabar, 'the people 
 of the hair-cloth tents.' 
 
 a lordly dish. Lit. 'a dish of {i.e. fit for) nobles.' Heb. sephel 
 occurs once again in ch. 6 ^^ to denote the dish or basin into which 
 Gid'eon wrung the dew from the fleece. The word is used in the 
 cognate languages in a similar sense. Cheyne's emendation {EB. 
 2313) 'a bowl of bronze' (TlX deduced from Bab. urudu) is 
 uncalled-for. 
 
 curds. Cf ch. 4 '^ note. 
 
 26. Her hand to the peg., etc. Against the view that this descrip- 
 tion of Sisera's death is essentially different from that of ch. 4^'"-, cf. 
 pp. 79 f. Cooke's contention {Comm.) that 'according to the paral- 
 lelism of Hebrew poetry her hand and her right hand mean the same 
 thing ; and so should nail and workmen's hammer,' cannot be sub- 
 stantiated. Cf. Prov. 3 ^^ : 
 
 ' Length of days is in her right hand ; 
 In her left hand are riches and honour.' 
 
 So also Cant. 2 °, 8 '. The only difference in our passage is that the 
 poet has chosen to Ms&yadhah 'her hand' instead of s'molah 'her leit 
 hand.' ffi^'', IL, U, Ar. explain correctly as 'her left hand.' 
 
 she stretched forth. Heb. njn^tJ'M, apparently a plur. form, but 
 probably intended for a sing.* 
 
 * The view that in this and a few other cases we have the remains of an 
 efhphatic form of the Imperfect, akin to the Ar. modus energitm I, yaktulama 
 
5. 26.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 153 
 
 the maul of the workvien. Heb. halmfith 'dmeltm. The expression 
 has caused difficuhy. The term halmAth, from halam ' to hammer,' 
 should represent the implement described under the term makk^bheth 
 in ch. 4", i.e. a. hammer or heavy wooden mallet ; but elsewhere in 
 Heb. substantives ending in -ti/h are secondary formations denoting 
 abstract qualities * ; cf. G-K. § 86 i. The real existence of a concrete 
 derivative from hdlam is, however, a reasonable assumption ; and 
 possibly the true form of the subst. should be halmath. The Heb. 
 verb 'amal, from which 'dmelhn is derived, commonly means to toil 
 (i.e. to labour, with the accessory idea of weariness or painful 
 endeavour) ; and all its occurrences are, with possibly one exception 
 (see below), very late. The subst. 'djndl, which occurs both in early 
 and late literature, usually denotes, in its earlier occurrences, trouble ; 
 and the sense toil or labour is only found in the later literature, 
 especially Ecclesiastes. The subst. 'dmel (of which our form is the 
 plur.) means a labourer in Prov. i6^°, and is coupled with the cognate 
 verb : — 'The appetite of the labourer laboureth for him.' This 
 passage occurs in the central section of Prov., which many scholars 
 regard as pre-exilic ; though a considerable body of opinion views the 
 whole book as the product of post-exilic times. The word occurs 
 twice in Job in the sense sufferer ; and, in an adjectival sense, toiling, 
 five times in Ecclesiastes f. Hence the occurrence of 'dmeltm in our 
 passage is commonly regarded with grave suspicion. Mo. remarks, 
 
 'DvOy does not mean artisans (smiths, carpenters), but men who 
 are worn out, or wear themselves out, with toil and hardships ; 
 "hammer of hard-working (or weary) men" is a singular metonymy 
 for a heavy hammer ! ' 
 
 Such a statement overlooks the fact that the cognate languages 
 prove that the root can be used in the general sense of work, apart 
 from the connotations noticed above. Thus Ar. 'amila means 'to 
 
 for the ordinary yaktulu, is rejected by G-K. § 47 ^ ; yet seems, at least in our 
 passage, to be by no means improbable. Cf. the Phoenician form |DDJ)'> 
 occurring in the inscription on the sarcophagus of Eshmun'azar king of §idon 
 (CIS. I. i. no. 3, 11. ii.):—^VO 33CD rhv T 33^03 p^i;' ^N1 'and let 
 him not superimpose upon this resting-place the chamber of a second resting- 
 place.' tDDJJV which recurs in 11. 7.21, may be compared with the Ar. modus 
 energicus II. yaUulan. Cooke [NSI. pp. 34 f.) treats [DDV' as a suffix-form 
 'carry me'; an explanation which involves a highly forced and unnatural treat- 
 ment of the context. 
 
 If njnPtJTI be not an energetic form, the alternative is to vocalize it as a 
 
 suffix-form fljn^B'n and to treat HT &isn accusativus pendens: — •'he.T\i2,-a&, 
 
 to the peg she stretched it forth. ' 
 
 * The forms are mostly late. A complete list of them is given by Kbnig, 
 Lehrgehdude der hebrdischen Sfrache, ii. i, pp. 205 f. • 
 
154 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 27. 28. 
 
 work or make,' 'antal 'work or occupation,' 'amil 'artisan'; Aram. 
 'amal 'to labour'; Bab. nimelu* 'the produce of work,' i.e. 'gain 
 or possession.' There is no difficulty, therefore, in supposing that 
 'ameltm may denote ' workmen ' generally, without the connotation of 
 toil or weariness. 
 
 The meaning of the phrase is correctly elucidated by S'' jAsiljy 
 l^^^j 'to the carpenter's mallet,' Ar. z'^., ® pnaJT snaflK^'tothe 
 
 mallet of the smiths,' "S ' ad fabrorum malleos ' (treating niD?n as a 
 
 plur.). ffi", 'A. eif (r<pSpav KonirnvTaiv interpret CPDJ? in accordance 
 with customary Heb. usage, ffi'*'' fis dTroro^&s KaraKoirav C" Kara- 
 KOTTTav) misunderstands. 
 
 she smote. Lit. 'hammered.' 
 
 destroyed. Heb. malfka, which only occurs here in the O.T., is 
 explained from New Heb. and Aram. ' wipe out or erase,' Ar. mahaka 
 ' utterly destroy, annihilate.' 
 
 pierced through. The Heb. verb halaph commonly means to pass 
 on, ox pass away; but is here used transitively 'passed (\.t. pierced) 
 through.' This usage is substantiated by Job 20 ^, ' The bow of bronze 
 pierces him through ' {tahl'pheMi), where ' bow ' is used metonymically 
 for the arrow which is shot from it. Mo. explains ' demolishes,' lit. 
 
 'causes to pass away,' quoting Isa. 24^ ph 1fi?n in support of the 
 causative usage. This, however, probably means ' they have passed 
 by {i.e. overstepped) the ordinance' (cf. || ni^^n 1131? 'they have 
 
 transgressed the laws ') and not ' they have abolished ' it. 
 
 27. 'Twixt her feet, etc.- The passage is discussed on p. 80. 
 
 undone. Driver's rendering. Heb. sadhAdh means lit. 'treated 
 with violence.' 
 
 28. and exclaimed. Heb. 33*ni. The verb yibbebh, which only 
 
 occurs here in O.T., is explained from Aram., in vi\\v:i)a. yabbebh means 
 ' blow the trumpet,' and also ' raise a shout ' ; being used in this 
 atter sense by S^ to translate Heb. vnn in ch. 7^1, i Sam. 4'', 17^°; 
 
 Ps. 47 2, 66 >, al. In New Heb. the verb means 'to lament' over a 
 corpse. Thus U renders 'et ululabat,' S^ A^ICIjO, Ar. o,a1p-. 
 ffi*"-, however, renders koI K.a.Ti)i.av6av(v, Si^ ZoOl ].Q_i,iO, % SpHCl 
 
 * With 'nimelu with preformative « from xODV, cf, nimeku from vpDV' 
 nimedu from \/TDV. 
 
5. 29. 3o.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 155 
 
 'and looked attentively'; i.e., apparently, tiani or pianm. This 
 latter verb is adopted by Klostermann, Marquart, No., La., Zapletal, 
 and is favoured by Bu. and Cooke {Comm.). 
 
 the lattice. Heb. ha-esnabh. The precise meaning of the term is 
 uncertain. It occurs again in Prov. 7^ (|| halldn 'window,' as in our 
 passage) ; and in Ecclus. 42 '/ f, where it is mentioned as a means of 
 gazing on the street. The conventional rendering, which we have 
 adopted, is that which is given by ffi*'-, e., SjA t^j Siktucot^s (so, in 
 Prov., "S ' cancellos '). 3E KD^VK, apparently ' wood-work,' perhaps has 
 the same meaning, ffi^, however, renders exroj rov tq^ikov ' through 
 the loop-hole ' ; while ST ' de coenaculo,' S'" ^n. ( \mm^ Vj 
 think of an upper chamber or colonnade (lua-Tdr). 
 
 tarrieth. On the Heb. form nnx (for r\m or nns), cf. G-K. § 64 k. 
 
 the clatter. Heb. pa'-'^me, lit. ' strokes,' here no doubt refers to the 
 hoof-beats of the chariot-horses. 
 
 29. Her wisest princesses. As Mo. remarks, 'there is a fine irony 
 in the allusion to the wisdom of these ladies, whose prognostications 
 were so wide of the truth.' 
 
 make answer. Reading plur. n3''JJ?p; in place of fH r\lVXp\ 
 
 'answereth her' (sing, with suffix), which is impossible after the 
 plur. n^nilE' niD3n. An equally possible alternative is to emend 
 
 nD3n for nioan 'The wisest one of her princesses answereth her.' 
 
 .7 7 
 So Y ' Una sapientior ceteris uxoribus ejus ' ; S*" AVn . n > . 
 
 ]A\AV^Vr Ar. id. 
 
 Yea, she returneth her reply. She tries to quiet her anxiety by 
 making herself the most reassuring answer. ?§ adds 70 ' to herself,' 
 
 which destroys the balance of the couplet by adding a fourth beat to 
 the stichos. 
 
 30. A damsel, two damsels. Heb. rdham (which elsewhere in O.T. 
 means 'womb') occurs in plur. with the meaning 'girl-slaves' in the 
 inscription of the Moabite stone, 1. 17. 
 
 for every man. Lit. 'for the head of a man' ; i.e., as we might 
 say, ' per head.' 
 
 of dyed stuffs embroidered. Lit. ' of dyed stuffs, embroidery,' the 
 two substantives being in apposition. 
 
 Two dyed embroideries. Lit. ' a dyed piece of two embroideries.' 
 This may be understood as the dual of what would be in the sing. ' a 
 
156 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [5. 30. 
 
 dyed piece of embroidery ' (nopl vav), the dual termination of the 
 
 second (genitival) subst. sufficing to throw the whole compound 
 expression into the dual. Cf. sing. 3K JTia 'a father's house or 
 
 family,' plur. nUN 0*3 'famiHes': G-K. § 124 n R.V.'s rendering, 
 
 ' of divers colours of embroidery on both sides ' (the explanation of 
 Kimchi and Levi ben-Gershon), can hardly be correct. 
 
 The manner in which the terms meaning 'dyed stuff' and 'em- 
 broidery ' are repeated and combined in the three final stichoi of the 
 strophe is somewhat strange ; and various alterations and omissions 
 have been proposed. We need only notice the recotistruction sug- 
 gested by Bu., which reduces the three stichoi to two, each containing 
 three beats : — 
 
 ' Spoil of a piece or two of dyed stuff for Sisera ; 
 Spoil of a piece or two of embroidery for my neck.' 
 
 Here '3V '3V and 'p"l 'p"l are brought into exact analogy with 
 DTlom Qm 'a damsel or two.' It may be questioned, however, 
 whether this rearrangement is not too precise and formal to represent 
 the original. |^, as it stands, is susceptible of the rendering which 
 we have given in the text ; and in its repetition, which may be 
 paralleled by v. ''•', it exhibits affinity to the climactic parallelism which 
 is so marked elsewhere in the Song (cf. Additional note, pp. i6g f ). 
 It may be intended to represent the way in which the women's 
 thoughts run on in prospect of the spoil. Cf. the passage from 
 Virgil, Aen. xi. 782, cited by Ros. and others : — 
 
 ' Femineo praedae et spoliorum ardebat amore.' 
 
 for the neck of the queen. Reading hvs 'queen' (cf. Ps. 45', |§", 
 Neh. 2 ^), after the suggestion of Ewald, in place of JH i>^E' ' spoil.' 
 So Ber., Wellh., Stade, Get., Oort, Schlogl, Kit, Driver, Vtc. The 
 reading of ilM can only mean ' for the neck of the spoil,' which fails to 
 yield sense ; since it is impossible to follow Michaelis, Schnurrer, 
 Ros., and several of the older commentators in explaining ' the spoil ' 
 as referring to the beasts of burden captured from the foe, which are 
 to be led in triumph decked with the dyed raiment, etc. ; nor is it 
 likely that Justi is right in suggesting (after Mendelssohn) that ' the 
 spoil' refers to the captured damsels previously mentioned; Levi 
 ben Gershon explains as VT^ vV^ ' owners of spoil ' ; and similarly 
 Hollmann supposes an ellipse of K^N before TTif — 'man of spoil' 
 
5. 31-] THE BOOK OP JUDGES 157 
 
 (cf. A.V. ' meet for the necks of tkem that take the spoil ') : but such 
 an ellipse is impossible. It would be easier to follow W. Green (1753) 
 
 in vocalizing as an active participle yyo ' spoiler ' ; as is suggested 
 
 by the rendering S'' (lovibj I'Of ^^ (Ar. id.). Kimchi explains 
 
 ' for the necks of the spoil ' as equivalent to ' on the head of the spoil,' 
 the sense intended being that ' the garments are placed on the head 
 of the spoil to give them to the captain of the host.' He thus seems 
 to regard ' the spoil ' as referring to the captives generally ; an ex- 
 planation which is without analogy. R.V., 'on the necks of the 
 spoil,' apparently assumes that the passage means that the garments 
 are on the necks of the spoil (captives or slain ?) before they become 
 
 a booty ; but the explanation of ? as 'on' ('belonging to') is very 
 harsh and improbable. 
 
 (5^ ry TpaxrjXco avrov (^ nepl rpd^rjXov avToii) i7Kv\a ; IL ' circa 
 
 cervices ejus spolia' ; Z nmS hv t'J'W^ ''1''''^ "13; i.e. 
 
 hhe^ (V'MiVi'?) i"lK=iS^ 'for his {i.e. Sisera's) neck as a spoil'; and 
 
 this is adopted by Meier, Hilliger, Stu. ffi'' nepl rbv TpaxjqXov avrov, 
 
 i.e. S-\Vt.vh^ omitting hh^ ■ so No., La., Kent. The original of V, 
 
 ' supellex varia ad ornanda coUa congeritur,' is not clear. 
 
 Further, Donaldson, Reuss, Gra., Smith, etc., read hbf '"IXJV^ 'a 
 
 spofl for my neck ' ; while Bu., Cooke adopt the reading nKiiVp 'for 
 my neck ' simply. 
 
 31. So perish, etc. The couplet is regarded by Meier, Winter 
 {ZATW. ix. 223 ff.), Bu., etc., as an addition, in the style of the 
 Psalms, made to the poem in later times. It cannot be doubted, 
 however, that it forms a most effective conclusion. As Mo. remarks, 
 the single word ' So ' brings the whole course of events before our 
 eyes again, culminating in Sisera's ' death by a woman's hand, dis- 
 grace worse than death ; the anguish and dismay of those who loved 
 him,' which the poet, with consummate art, leaves to the imagination 
 of the reader. It is true that the idea embodied in the phrase 'thy 
 friends' (lit. 'those that love thee') first comes into prominence at a 
 later age (Ex. 20 », the explanatory extension of the Second Com- 
 mandment, probably E'' ; Hosea', and Deuteronomy) ; but it by no 
 means follows that it was wholly unthought of in much earlier times. 
 
 thy friends. Reading ■T'nnK with U, S^ in place of ilffl 1i3ni< 'his 
 
 friends.' 
 
 An echo of the couplet is probably to be found in the first three 
 verses .of Ps. 68, which later on (^7/. ''•*•") shows traces of the influence 
 of the poem. 
 
1S8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 A DETAILED EXAMINATION OF THE RHYTHM 
 OF THE SONG OF DEBORAH. 
 
 A more detailed presentation of the rhythmical scheme of the Song 
 of Deborah, and the extent to which this scheme is reproduced in 
 our English rendering, may be of interest, as illustrating the method 
 of early Hebrew poetical composition. As we have already re- 
 marked (p. 96), ancient Hebrew poetry, Hke English poetry, pos- 
 sesses no regularly quantitative system of metre ; but is characterized 
 by the occurrence of so many ictAs or rhythmical beats to the line, 
 the intervening unstressed syllables being governed by the possibilities 
 of pronunciation rather than by any strict rule. It is feasible, how- 
 ever, both in Hebrew and English, to divide the stichoi into 'feet,' 
 with a view to a more accurate observation of the correspondence 
 which may be obtained between the original and its translation ; and 
 an attempt has been made to do this in the comparison which is 
 offered below. 
 
 Such a division of the Hebrew original into 'feet' also serves to 
 illustrate the position of the ictus and its relationship to the accom- 
 panying unstressed syllables. It may be noticed that the Song 
 contains, in all, 298 ' feet.' Of these, by far the most frequent con- 
 catenation of stressed and unstressed syllables is i^ii-l, i.e. the 
 anapaest,* this 'foot' occuring 115 times. Closely similar to this is 
 the ' foot ' which contains an additional syllable as a weak (unstressed) 
 ending, i.e. >=!^.l^-, and this is found 13 times. Further, we find, 
 with an additional unstressed syllable before the ictus, ^iii^z, 31 
 times ; and, with a weak ending, M ^ ii -1 ;=;, twice. Rarely, four 
 unstressed syllables precede the ictus ; ^i^^^JL, 4 times ; but there 
 is no instance of such a 'foot' with an additional syllable as a weak 
 ending. Next to the 'anapaest,' the most frequent 'foot' is the 
 ' iambus,' ^ -^, this occurring 77 times ; and, corresponding to this 
 with a weak ending, ^±^,25 times. Not infrequently, a word of a 
 single syllable may bear the ictus, unaccompanied by any unstressed 
 syllable ; -i, 12 times. Such an ictus may be followed by a weak 
 ending, -^^ 19 times. J 
 
 It thus appears that, out of the 298 'feet' in the poem, 192, or 
 nearly two-thirds, are either ^^-L or ^- in form; and it will be 
 found that this proportionate relationship of stressed to unstressed 
 
 * The term ' anapaest ' is used loosely to denote two unstressed syllables 
 followed by the stress, and not necessarily two s/iort syllables followed by a 
 ton^: since it is possible in Hebrew for an unstressed syllable to be long 
 by nature. 
 
 X In this analysis, Furtive Paihah is not reckoned as a weak ending. Thus 
 maddi<^' is reckoned as ii^, not as ii^ ii. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 159 
 
 syllables is (speaking generally) characteristic of other examples of 
 Hebrew poetry. The reason why an anapaestic or iambic 'foot,' 
 with such variations as we have noted, is characteristic of Hebrew 
 rhythm, depends upon the fact that the Hebrew tonic syllable is 
 always either the ultimate or penultimate syllable of a word, the 
 accented ultimate being by far the most frequent (in the Song 239 
 instances, as against 59 instances of the accented penultimate) ; 
 while the throwing of the accent farther back than the penultimate 
 syllable is wholly unknown. It is thus impossible to find a dactylic 
 'foot,' -iiii^; while the trochaic 'foot,' -t^, is, as we have seen, 
 comparatively uncommon. In English, on the contrary, the accented 
 penultimate or antepenultimate syllable greatly prevails over the 
 accented ultimate ; and a dactylic or trochaic measure is therefore 
 natural, and indeed, at times, unavoidable. The comparative 
 prevalence of dactylic or trochaic ' feet ' in our English rendering of 
 the Song will be found to be the feature which most markedly 
 militates against close approximation to the Hebrew original. 
 Fortunately, however, the English language is rich in weighty mono- 
 syllables ; and the use of these enables us largely to reproduce the 
 effect of the Hebrew rhythm by bringing the ictus down to the final 
 syllable of the 'foot.'* 
 
 The fact is familiar to students that the system of Hebrew vocali- 
 zation, as known to us from fH, represents the artificial product of the 
 synagogue-system of cantillation ; and only preserves the original 
 pronunciation of living Hebrew in a very modified form. We are 
 able, however, partly by the help of comparative philology, and 
 partly by the aids to which reference has been made on p. 99, to 
 infer with a fair approximation to certainty what the spoken pro- 
 nunciation of the language must have been like ; and an attempt has 
 been made to reproduce this pronunciation in the transliteration of 
 the Hebrew original. It should be remarked that this transliteration 
 only claims substantial accuracy in so far as it substitutes full short 
 vowels in open syllables for the tone-long vowels and vocal sh'wa of 
 fH : but the evidence at our disposal is not sufficient to enable us to 
 dogmatize as to the precise vocalization of many word-forms at the 
 period represented by the Song ; and many of the forms which are 
 
 * The conclusions here adopted assume that the practice of spoken Hebrew, 
 as regards the position of the tone, is substantially preserved in ilH. We must 
 not, however, overlook the possibility that the synagogue-system of cantillation 
 may to some extent have affected the position of the tone-syllable, tending to 
 throw it forward to the end of the word ; and it is conceivable that, when 
 Hebrew was a spoken language, the practice with regard to the tone conformed 
 to that of Arabic, viz. that the accent was thrown forward till it met a long 
 syllable, and if no long syllable occurred in the word, the accent rested on the 
 first syllable. Such a system would to some extent modify our conclusions as to 
 the different types of ' feet ' represented in the Song ; and, leading as it would to 
 a multiplication of ' feet ' of the form S. -^ and even ^ ^ ii, would result in a closer 
 approximation of the Hebrew rhythm to the English rendering. 
 
i6o THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 given must be regarded as only approximately accurate (cf. tl 
 philological remarks which are added at the close of this note). 
 
 It is, however, the relationship of the unstressed syllables to tl 
 ictus-hea.nng syllable, and not the precise quality of the vowels > 
 such syllables, which is of importance to us in our presentation of tl 
 rhythmical form of the Song ; the latter question, though of supren: 
 importance to philology, being only of subordinate interest as regarc 
 our present subject. 
 
 Lastly, it may be observed that the short vowels which take tl: 
 place of tone-long vowels and vocal sh'wa in our transliteratioi 
 though represented as full vowels, may very likely have bee 
 pronounced in some cases with extreme brevity (as in Arabic), and i 
 others very possibly slurred together in utterance. The effect of sue 
 a slurring would be to diminish the number of unstressed syllable 
 (making e.g. ^^ii-S. sound as i^ i^ -), but would in no way essential) 
 alter the character of the rhythm. 
 
 It will be noticed that, in the four-beat stichoi, we have placed 
 double line of division, halving the stichos. This indicates th 
 caesura, which is characteristic of this form of rhythm ; and whic 
 ordinarily marks a break in sense, sometimes considerable, as i 
 ^^_3a.4ba^ where the first half of the stichos is parallel to the second 
 but at other times very slight, and amounting to little more than th 
 taking of breath at the half-way point. Stichoi also occur occasional) 
 in which the caesura is purely formal, sense requiring a connexio 
 rather than a break. So in z/.'"^ (caesura between subst. and adj. 
 ^^_i7aa.3ib (between Constr. St. and its following genitive). 
 
 Lest it should be thought that the fact that the caesura is purel 
 
 formal in 7/.'°% where we have re-arranged the text, is an argumer 
 
 against the arrangement, it may be remarked that the occurrenc 
 
 of such formal caesuras can be substantiated elsewhere. Thus w 
 
 have Ps. 4S^'- i 
 
 ITID laiD I DJ? ''31B'? 
 
 ' My tongue is the pen | of a reddy writer.' 
 
 3. sumu'u I malakhtm || hcCztnu \ rdzintm 
 'anokhi I lYahwdh || 'anokhi \ 'aUra 
 'azammir \ lYahwdh || 'elahdy \ Yisrdel 
 
 4. Yahwdh \ basethikhd \ misSe'ir 
 basddikhd \ missadhe \ 'Adhom 
 
 'dras I rdasa || gam-samem \ namoghii 
 gam-abhini \ nataphu \ indyhn 
 
 5. harrtm \ nazalu || mippandy \ Yahwdh 
 mippandy \ Yahwdh \\ ''elahdy \ Yisrddl 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES i6i 
 
 Ps. 8q"1': 
 
 ' Yahweh, in the light | of thy countenance shall they v/Hk.' 
 Ps. lo's^: 
 
 'Wherefore contemneth | the wicked, G6d?' 
 
 Similarly, Babylonian, which ordinarily marks the caesura very 
 clearly, offers occasional instances of a formal kind merely. Thus, 
 Gilgames-epic xi. 121 : 
 
 ki dkbi ina pi'ihur \ Hani litntiita 
 ' When I decreed in the assembly | of the gods an evil thing.' 
 
 Id. xi. 182: 
 
 dita abkdl \ Hani kurddu 
 
 ' Thou, O sdge | of the gods, thou warrior.' 
 
 Creation-epic iv. 1 1 : 
 
 zananutum irsat \ pardk ilAni-ma 
 'Abundance is the desire | of the sanctuary of the gods.' 
 
 Id. iv. 31 : 
 
 alik-ma sa Tidmat \ napsdius purii'ma 
 
 ' Go, and of Tidmat | her life cut off.' 
 
 It may be noted that, in the English rendering, the ordinary 
 English accentuation of proper names has been adopted, rather than 
 that of the Hebrew, in cases in which the latter would appear scarcely 
 tolerable in the conventionalized forms to which the English reader is 
 accustomed. In other cases, in which this difficulty is less acute or 
 non-existent, the Hebrew accentuation has been retained. 
 
 Attend, | ye kings ; || give edr, | ye rulers : 
 
 i— I to Yahwa II I I will sing, 
 
 Will make melody j to Yahweh, || the God | of Israel. 
 Yahwdh, I in thy pr6gress | from Se'fr, 
 In thy mdrch | from the field | of Ed6m, 
 
 Edrth I qudked, || yea, heaven | rocked. 
 Yea, the clouds j drdpped | wdter. 
 
 The mountains | sho6k || before | Yahw^, 
 
 Bef6re j Yahweh, || the God | of Israel. 
 L 
 
i62 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 6. mtyyamdy \ Samgdr \ ben-Andth 
 
 miyyamdy \ 'dldm \\ hadhalu \ 'orahoth 
 wholikhdy \ nathibhoth \\yelakhu | 'akalkalUth 
 
 hadhalu \ parazoth \ b YisrcCil 
 
 'ddh I sakkdmti \ Dabhord 
 sakkdmii ( V»z | bYisrd^l 
 8. hasaru \ lahlim \ harrastin 
 
 'azalu I hamustm \ me'ir 
 maghin \ ^im-yirrd^ \ warikmah 
 Varb&'im \ 'dlaph \ bYisrdd 
 
 12. 'uri I 'uri \ Dabhord 
 'un I 'an I dabbari-Ur 
 kuni I Bardk \ wasabhe 
 sobhdyka \ bM \ 'AbhiniXam 
 
 g. lakhu I muhokakdy \ YisrdSl 
 
 hammithnaddabhtm \ ba'dm \\ barrakhu \ Yahwdh 
 
 10. rokhibhdy \ 'athonotk || sahoroth \ yasthil 
 wholikhdy \ 'al-ddrakh \\yastbhu \ 'al-Ubh 
 
 1 1. 'kol I musahhakoth || beyn \ mas'abbtm 
 sdm \ yuiannu \\ sadhakoth \ Yahwdh 
 
 sadhakoth \ zurd'6 \ bYisrail 
 
 13. 'az-yaradhu \ lasdartm \ 'addirtm 
 'am- Yahwdh \ yaradh-l6 \ baggabbortin 
 
 14. minni-Ephrim \ masakhu \ ba'Smek 
 'ahardyka \ Binyamin \ bdamamdyka 
 minni-Makhir \ yaradhu \ muhohaktm 
 utnizZabhfilun \ mosikhim \ basShet 
 
 15. wasardyka \ Yissakhdr \ 'im- Dabhord 
 waNaphtdli \ kin \ laBhardk 
 bddmek \ sulldh \ baraghldw 
 
 naphrodh \ naphrddh \\ laphalaggoth \ Re^ubhin 
 gadholim \ hekerdy \ libbo 
 
 16. Idmnia \ yasdbhta \\ biyn \ hammaspatem 
 
 lasamo"' \ sarikoth \ 'adhartm 
 
 17. Gal' ddh \ bdebher\\ hayYarddn \ ^akhin 
 
 waDhdn \ yaghur \ 'oniyyoth 
 
 'Aser I yasdbh \\ lahdph \ yainmim 
 
 wddl I jnaphrasdw \ yaikiin 
 
 1 8. Zabhulun \ 'am-harrdph || naphso \ lamuth 
 
 waNaphtali \ ' al-maromdy \ sadhe 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 163 
 
 6. From the diys | of Shamgdr | ben-'And.th, 
 From the ddys | of 61d, || caravans | ceised 
 
 And they that wdnt | along the wdys || used to wilk | by 
 crooked piths. 
 
 7. Villages | cedsed | in Israel ; 
 
 cedsed ; 
 Till thou I didst arise | Debordh, 
 Didst arise | as a mother | in Israel. 
 
 8. Armourers | hid they | none ; 
 Armed men | failed from the | city : 
 Was there seen | a shield | or a Idnce 
 Among I forty thousand | in Israel? 
 
 12. Awike, I awdke, | Debordh ! 
 
 Awike, I awdke, | sing pa^an ! 
 Rise I Bardk, | and lead cdptive 
 Thy cdptors, | O son | of Abino'am ! 
 
 9. Come, I ye commanders | of Israel ! 
 
 Ye that volunteered | among the pdople,|| bless ye | Yahw^h! 
 
 10. Let the riders | on teiwny || she-dsses | review it, 
 And l^t I the wayfarers || recall it | to mind ! 
 
 11. Hdrk I to the maidens || laughing at | the w^Us! 
 Th^re | they recount || the righteous dots | of Yahwdh, 
 
 The righteous dcts | of his drm | in Israel. 
 
 13. Then d6wn | to the gdtes | gat the n6bles ; 
 Yahweh's folk | gat them down | mid the heroes. 
 
 14. From Ephrdim | they spread out | on the vdle ; 
 ' After thee, | Benjamin ! ' | mid thy cldnsmen. 
 From Machir | came d6wn | the commanders. 
 And from Zebuliin | men wielding | the truncheon. 
 
 15. And thy princes, | Issachdr, | were with Debordh ; 
 And Naphtdli | was ledl | to Bardk : 
 
 To the vdle | he was lo6sed | at his heel. 
 
 latterly | rdft into || fictions was | Re'iiben ; 
 Gredt were | his sedrchings | of heirt. 
 
 16. Why sdt'st I thou still || amid | the f61ds. 
 
 To heir | the pdstoral | pipings ? 
 
 17. Gile'id I bey6nd || the J6rdan | dw^lt. 
 
 And Ddn | abideth | by the ships. 
 Ashdr I sat still || by the sh6re | of the sdas, 
 Dwelling I beside | his creeks. 
 
 18. Zebuliin | is the f61k || that scorned its life | to the dedth, 
 
 And Naphtali | on the heights | of the fi^ld. 
 
i64 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 19. bd'il I malakhtm \ nalhdmil 
 
 ' az-nalhamu \ malakkdy \ Kand'an 
 baTdndkh \ 'al-mdy \ Magiddo 
 bdsd I kdsaph \ lo-lakahu 
 
 20. min-samem | nalhainu \ hakkokhabhtm, 
 mimmasilloikdm \ nalhamu | 'itn-Sisard 
 
 21. ndhal \ Kison \ garaphdin 
 kaddamdm \ ndhal \ KiSon 
 
 Tubarrakhi\ napkst\\'dz \ Yahwdh 
 
 22. 'az-halamu \ 'akibhdy \ sustm 
 daharu \ dakaru \ 'abbirdw 
 
 23. ^iirrii I Meroz \ ''aror 
 ^urru I ^aror \ yosibhdyha 
 ki-lo-bd'u I Idezrdth \ Yahwdh 
 Idezrdth \ Yahwdh \ baggabbortm 
 
 24. tuburrdkh \ minnastm. \ Ydel 
 minnastm \ bdithul \ tuburrdkh 
 
 25. mdyun \ sddl\\ haldbh \ nathdna 
 basephel \ 'addirzm \\ hakrtbha \ henid 
 
 z6.' yadhdh \ layathidh \ taslahdnna 
 
 wyamindh \ Ihahndth \ ' amtltm 
 whalamd \ Sisard || mahakd \ roso 
 umahasd \ wahalaphd \ rakkatho 
 
 27. beyn-raghldyha \ kard' || naphdl \ sakhdbk 
 
 beyn-raghldyha \ kard' \ naphdl 
 bdUr I kard' || sam-naphdl \ sadhudh 
 
 28. ba'ddh \ hahallon || naskaphd \ wattuyabbdbh 
 'im I Sisard || ba'ddh \ hdesndbh 
 
 maddu'^' \ bases \^ rakhabhi \ labho 
 
 maddu"-' \ ^ahharii \\pa'amdy | markabhothdw 
 
 29. hakhamoth \ sarrothdyha \ ta'ndyna 
 'aph-hi I tastbh \ '' amardyha 
 
 30. halo I yamsu'ii \\yuhallaku \ saldl 
 rdham \ rahmathem || laros \ gdbar* 
 
 Saldl I sabhdtm, \ la'Slsard 
 saldl I sabhdtm \ rikmd 
 sdbd I rikmathem || lasawwardy \ seghdl 
 
 31. k^n \ yobhadhu || kol-oyabhdyka \ Yahwdh 
 ■w'ohabhdyka \ kaseih \\ hassdmas \ baggaburatho 
 
 * Possibly this couplet should be regarded as consisting of trimeters rathe 
 than tetrameters : — 
 
 halo-yamsu' u \ y-uhallaku \ Saldl 
 rdham | rahmathem \ laros-gdbar. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 165 
 
 19- On came | the kings, | they fought ; 
 
 Then fought | the kings | of Cani'an ; 
 
 In Td'anach, | by the nils | of Megiddo ; 
 
 The gain | of money | they took not. 
 20. From hedven | fought | the stirs ; 
 
 From their highways | they fought | with Si'sera. 
 21- The torrent | Kishon | swept them off; 
 
 It ficed them, | the torrent | Kishon. 
 Bless thou, I my soul, || the might | of Yah w^ ! 
 
 22. Then loiid beat | the hoofs | of the horses ; 
 Off galloped, I off gdlloped | his chargers. 
 
 23. Ciirse ye, | curse ye | Merdz ! 
 Ciirse ye, | curse ye | her towns-folk ! 
 
 For they cime not | to the help | of Yahweh, 
 To the help | of Yahweh | mid the heroes. 
 
 24. Most blessed | of women | be Ji'el, 
 
 Of tent-dwelling | women | most blessed ! 
 
 25. Wdter I he dsked ; || milk | she give ; 
 
 In a lordly | dish |{ she prdffered | curds. 
 
 26. Her hdnd | to the peg | she put forth. 
 
 And her right | to the miul | of the workmen ; 
 And she smote | Sisera || — destroyed | his heid 
 Shattered | and pierced | through his temples. 
 
 27. 'Twixt her feet | he b6wed, || he fell down, | he lay prone ; 
 
 'Twixt her feet | he b6wed, | he fell down. 
 Wh^re I he bowed, || there he fell down | undone. 
 
 28. Out I through the window || she ledned | and exclaimed. 
 The mother | of Sisera || out | through the lattice : 
 'Wherefore | deliyeth || his cir | to come ? 
 Wherefore | tdrrieth || the clitter | of his chariots'? 
 
 29. Her wisest | princesses | make Answer, 
 Yea, sh^ | returneth | her reply : 
 
 30. 'Are they not I finding || — dividing | the spoil? 
 A deimsel — | two ddmsels || for every | mdn : 
 
 A spoil I of dyed stuffs | for Sisera, 
 A spoil I of dyed stuffs | embroidered ; 
 Tw6 dyed ] embroideries || for the ndck | of the quedn.' 
 
 31. So parish | ill || thy foes | Yahweh : 
 
 But be thy friends | like the siin || going forth | in his strength. 
 
i66 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 The following notes are oflfered in explanation of the Heb. forms 
 adopted in the transliteration. 
 
 3. sumufc, for JM HniA. Comparative philology points to such a 
 form : cf Bab. kutulA ; and Ar. ukiulA, where the need for the 
 prosthetic vowel was the direct result of the slurring away of the first 
 short u vowel. That Heb. k'tdl was once pronounced kutHl may also 
 be inferred from Origen's translit. of DHp, Ps. 35' by Xoo/i (0 in 
 translit. answering to it). 
 
 malakhim, with two a?s in open syllables, for M. mHdkhlm. So 
 throughout the poem, parazoih, hakhamoth, etc. 
 
 hdzinii ; or possibly ha'zanu. The origin of the i of the Hiph'll 
 is obscure. 
 
 rozinlm. The o of the Act . Particip. (from an original A ; cf Ar. 
 idtif) -was of early development in Heb. : cf. the T.A. 'glosses'* 
 z{ikini= pfa Mil= i)3X where the A is the nearest approach to the 
 representation of in cuneiform script. 
 
 'anokhi; perhaps originally accented 'anokki. Cf ^3N of the 
 Moabite stone and Phoenician inscriptions. 
 
 6. lYakwdh. It is here assumed that, before the weak letter ', 
 the short vowel of the preposition is merged by crasis with the 
 following short vowel. Cf T.A badiu=S'V'L (gloss on Bab. ina 
 kdtiSu). A similar crasis is assumed before the weak H in whoUkdy, 
 etc. Whether such a crasis took place before J? is perhaps more 
 doubtful. A possible instance is to be seen in the Precative Particle 
 '3 if this really stands for 13J3 ' supplication ' ; and, similarly, the 
 name nn is usually regarded as a contraction of niV"l (cf Syr. 
 
 * The so-called ' Cana'anite glosses ' in the T. A. Letters (which might preferably 
 be termed ' Amorite,' as relics of the language of Amurru ; cf. Introd. pp. Ix f.) 
 are words and phrases in the language which is the prototype of Hebrew, 
 occurring in the letters which were written in the cuneiform script and in the 
 Babylonian language by the petty kings and governors of Cana'anite cities to 
 their suzerain, the king of Egypt. We may infer that the scribes who were 
 responsible for the writing of these letters were themselves Cana'anites, to whom 
 the Babylonian was a foreign language, acquired (as evidence shows) not always 
 very perfectly. Thus, they often employ a Cana'anite word as an explanation or 
 gloss of the equivalent term in Babylonian which precedes it in the letter; or 
 even occasionally substitute a Cana'anite term for the Babylonian, for whicli 
 they were probably at a loss. These ' glosses ' are of great value, not only as 
 forming the earliest relics of the Hebrew language which are known to us, but 
 also because (inasmuch as they are written syllabically in the cuneiform script) 
 'they embody the vocalization as well as the consonants of the forms. A com- 
 plete list of the T.A. glosses will be found in Bohl, Die Sprache der Afnarna- 
 briefe, pp. 80 ff. ; cf. also KA T?, pp. 651 ff. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 16- 
 
 ZoAJ). The crasis is of regular occurrence in Bab., where e.g. bilu 
 stands for the West Semitic b''el, bd'al. 
 
 'azammir. The last vowel probably / or a. The « of the Pi'el in 
 iffi is a late and artificial development. So late as the time of Origen 
 this vowel is regularly represented in translit. by e and not by r\ (con- 
 trast the Act. Particip. Kal, where x) always appears : e.g. 'Naa-T^p). 
 
 'eldhdy, for iM "lohe. For d in place of ^, cf. Ar. ildk, Syr. 'eldhd. 
 That S was originally the diphthong ay is clear from comparative 
 philology. 
 
 4. basethikd, btzsa'dikhd. The connective vowel before the suffix is 
 given as i, the Genitive case-ending after the preposition, as in 
 Bab. and Ar. 
 
 niissadhe. That mt}' was originally ilB' might be conjectured 
 
 from the sporadic occurrence of the latter form in JH as a poetical 
 archaism. The early existence of the more familiar form is, how- 
 ever, witnessed by the T.A. sate= VTW as a gloss to the Bab. ugari. 
 
 'Adkom. For the initial short vowel, cf. Bab. Adujnu. 
 
 'dras, for JH Vres. It must be regarded as an open question whether 
 the segholate nouns were pronounced at this period with a helping 
 vowel after the second consonant (as in IS, and in the form which we 
 have adopted), or in the monosyllabic form (e.g. 'drs) which is assumed 
 to be the original (c£ Ar. 'ard, the philological equivalent of pS). 
 
 Origen uniformly represents this type of noun as monosyllabic : e.g. 
 aps=Y-\it Sepx=T]T'I etc.; the only exceptions being formed by 
 
 ■ words which have a guttural as second or third radical ; e.g. 
 laaS = in' ptyf = Wl etc. On the other hand, the much earlier 
 
 evidence of ffi exhibits a uniform representation of the helping vowel ; 
 e.g. Ia(^e5=nai Aafjiex= "^l^h etc. Among the T.A. glosses we find 
 6ainu=\Q7y su!ru=~\T\'i sahri=~\)i^ segholate forms with case- 
 ending, just like Ar. 'ard""^. Taking, however, a Hebrew proper 
 name of the classical period such as !in'pTn (meaning, apparently, 
 
 'Yahu is strength, or my strength'), where the first element hizki 
 must be assumed to be a segholate noun of the form hhek (for the 
 normal hozek ; cf. fem. hezkd, by the side of hozkd), we find that the 
 helping vowel after the z which appears in the ffi translit. Eft/tiay is 
 confirmed by the Assyr. translit. in Sennacherib's inscription,* where 
 the name is spelt out as Ifa-za-ki-ia-u or ffa-za-ki-a-u. In face of this 
 conflict of evidence, it appears preferable to retain the helping vowel in 
 
 * The Taylor Cylinder, col. ii. 1. 71 ; col- "'■ H' 'i. ^9 I of. JCB. ii. pp. 92, 94. 
 
i68 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 segholate forms,* vocalizing, as fflc suggests, form i as in ^dras ; form 
 2 as in siphel, vj^; form 3 as in 'li/iul, vj* (cf. (Sr forms Bapai, 
 Effp, Zoyop). 
 
 rddsa. The pausal form is retained, here and elsewhere {nalhamii, 
 laWni, V. " ; nathana, v. 2°), as probably characteristic of the original 
 pronunciation. Origen recognizes such pausal forms in his trans- 
 literations ; e.g. i8a^/3T;poii = nalV The existence of the pausal 
 accent in Bab., as indicated by the doubling of the succeeding 
 consonant, also seems to be clear ; cf. Delitzsch, Assyr. Gramm. 
 § 53 c. In Ar. the pause introduces certain formal modifications. 
 
 samim, in place of JH samAyim. For the dual termination 4m, 
 cf Phoenician DDC 
 
 nataphu, in place of &. nafphu, as in Ar. ; and so in similar verbal 
 forms throughout the song. Possibly such a form may sometimes 
 have been pronounced natphti : cf. T.A. gloss mahsu for mahasu 
 (IVriD). The Bab. Permansive form is similar. 
 
 mdytm ; or possibly jnlm : cf T.A. gloss mtma, mima (spelt out 
 jni-ma and mi-e-ma). Moabitic, however, represents the ■> in fO, a 
 fact which perhaps indicates a pronunciation such as we have 
 adopted {i.e. the pronunciation of fM). 
 
 5. harAm, for ilil hdrhn. Similarly, 1 is doubled in yirra'd, v.\ 
 barrakhA, v. ^, etc. It cannot be doubted that ancient Heb. found no 
 more difficulty about the pronunciation of double T than does Bab. 
 and Ar. Cf. the T.A. gloss ^arrz = ~in with Genitive case-ending; 
 
 and the ffi transliterations 'Afioppaiof = ^"ibN pronounced 'Amurri 
 
 (native of the land of Amurru) ; Xappav= pn cf. Bab. fiarrAnu. 
 
 7. 'em ; or possibly 'imm (Origen, f/i). Similarly, maghen, v. ', may 
 have been pronounced maghinn, 'oz, v. ^i, 'uzz (Origen, of), etc. 
 
 9 ff. muhdkakdy, musahhakSth, yutannfi. The short preformative 
 vowel of the Pi'el is represented by «, as in Ar. Cf the T.A. gloss 
 yukabid=- 133''. 
 
 II. zurd'6. For vowel of first syllable, cf T.A. gloss zur-tt}i. 
 
 13. baggabborim ; or possibly baggabbArim as in Ar. : but it is 
 probable that original a had already in rnost, if not in all, cases 
 become o ; as it certainly had in the case of the Act. Particip. Kal : 
 cf. note on rozimni, v. ^. The original a of the sharpened first 
 syllable of the subst. was probably not yet thinned to z, as in %. 
 
 * It is, as a matter of fact, difficult to conceive that a form like 'ars can ever 
 have been pronounced without a helping vowel under the r, supposing this r to 
 have been trilled ; and, in the same way, iiphl cannot be pronounced as a true 
 monosyllable, but naturally becomes Hphel. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 169 
 
 Many instances may be drawn from ffi showing that the thinning of 
 an original a in a toneless closed syllable into i is a late develop- 
 ment : cf. Ma/jta;i= D^-ID, Maxfias = tr03D, rnXaa8 = IJjiil^ etc. 
 
 15. naphrodh naphrddh. On the analogy of the fact noticed in the 
 preceding note with regard to substantives, it may be assumed that 
 the original a of the preformative of Niph'al was unthinned to i (so 
 nalhamic, v. ^^ ; naskaphd, v. ^s ; cf the T.^A. glosses naksapu, 
 \nd\aksapti) ; and the same inference may be drawn with regard to 
 the preformative vowel of the Perf. Hiph'll {hakrtbha, v. 2^), and the 
 sharpened first syllable of the Perf. Pi'el (harraph, v. '^ ; kaddamdm, 
 V. 2> ; 'ahharii, v. ^s). In the case of the preformative vowel of the 
 Imperf. Kal we have evidence from the T.A. glosses that the original 
 a of the preformative was, at that perioj? -preserved as in hx.,yazkur 
 standing for -)'2V, Hence, in v. " we y<;)CsX\ie. yaskiin for [bB''' of JH, 
 and in v. ^ yatnsu'd for !1NV»\ \^ 
 
 ■2(3. taslahanfta, vocalized upon the analogy of the Ar. modus 
 energicus I. Ci./oo(no/e, p. 1^2. 
 
 rosS. That an original rds (as presupposed by the Ar. ra's) had 
 already developed into ros in Heb. is proved by the T.A. gloss 
 rusunu ' our head,' where the u of the syllable ru represents 0. 
 
 THE CLIMACTIC PARALLELISM OF THE SONG 
 OF DEBORAH. 
 
 The purpose of this note is to call attention to a characteristic of 
 the Song which is somewhat infrequent in Hebrew poetry, viz. the 
 recurrence of a form of parallelism which has been not inaptly termed 
 Climactic. In this form, stichos b oia. distich does not offer a more 
 or less complete echo of stichos a in different words (Synonymous 
 parallelism) ; nor, on the other hand, is it merely formally parallel to 
 stichos a, while in matter it offers an advance in thought (Synthetic 
 parallelism). Instances of such forms of parallelism are to be found 
 in the Song ; but do not call for special comment.* In Climactic 
 parallelism, however, stichos b is partially parallel to stichos ij, but 
 adds something further which completes the sense of the distich, 
 thus forming, as it were, a climax. In the following examples this 
 principle is carried out to a varying extent, in a manner which adds 
 to the vigour and movement of the poetry. In order that the method 
 may be the more clearly observed, the stichoi are divided into sec- 
 tions upon the basis of parallel and non-parallel parts ; and the 
 
 * On the various forms of Hebrew parallelism, cf. Driver LOT.^ pp. 362 ff. 
 
170 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 « 
 
 parallel parts are placed one beneath the other, while the non-parallel 
 ' sections stand separately. It may thus be observed that the non- 
 parallel portion of stichos b is intended to round off and complete the 
 whole distich. 
 
 5. The mountains shook | before Yahweh, 
 
 Before Yahweh, | the God of Israel. 
 
 6. From the days of Shamgar ben-'Anath 
 
 From the days of old, I caravans ceased. 
 
 •jb. Till thou didst arise, I Deborah, 
 
 Didst arise I, | as a mother in Israel. 
 
 I 
 9. Come, I ye commanders of Israel, 
 
 Ye that volunt(;ered among the people, | bless ye Y. 
 
 1 1. There they recount | X\a righteous acts of Y., 
 
 T:he righteous acts of his arm | in Israel. 
 
 12a;. Awake, awake, | Deborah ; 
 
 Awake, awake, | sing paean ! 
 
 12(5. Rise up, Barak, I and lead captive 
 
 Osonof Abino'am, I ~ | thy captors! 
 
 18. Z. is the folk | that scorned its life to the death. 
 
 And N. 1 on the heights of 
 
 I the field. 
 
 19a. On came the kings, I they fought 
 
 the kings I Then fought | of Cana'an. 
 
 20. From heaven fought I the stars 
 
 From their highways they fought | | with Sisera. 
 
 23. For they came not | to the help of Y. 
 
 To the help of Y. | mid the heroes. 
 
 28. Out through the window i leaned and exclaimed 
 
 out through the lattice I 1 *e ™°*^'' 
 
 I of S. 
 
 30. A spoil of dyed stuffs 
 
 A spoil of dyed stuffs 
 
 Dyed stuff 
 
 for Sisera, 
 
 embroidery, 
 
 for the neck of the queen 
 
 two embroi- 
 deries. 
 
 Cf also V. 2', where the single word llIC ' undone ' in stichos c forms 
 the climax to the description of Sisera's death and humihation. 
 
 Driver {LOT? p. 363) remarks that 'this kind of rhythm is all but 
 peculiar to the most elevated poetry' ; and quotes, as instances oc- 
 curring elsewhere, Ps. 29'', 92" f^^", 93 ^ 94', 96 '2, 113^ 'There is 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 171 
 
 something analogous to it, though much less forcible and distinct, in 
 some of the "Songs of Ascents" (Ps. 121-134), where a somewhat 
 emphatic word is repeated from one verse (or line) in the next, as 
 
 Ps. 121 !''■=' (help); t/.3"; ^,.4b.6a. ^,.7.8a. 122 2»>-3a etc' 
 
 Observation of this structural device cannot fail to suggest that the 
 emendations and excisions proposed by some scholars, merely for the 
 sake of removing repetitions, should be received with the utmost 
 caution. Thus, e.g. when Rothstein emends lonpj in z/.i^w into 
 13"iy[1] ' [and] they set the battle in array,' on the ground that ' das 
 natiirliche rhythmische Empfinden straubt sich dagegen, in beiden 
 Halbversen das gleiche Verbum zu lesen,' he is proceeding upon 
 an assumption which belies the most salient characteristic in the 
 parallelism of the Song. 
 
 THE LANGUAGE OF THE SONG OF DEBORAH. 
 
 In considering the language of the Song, one broad general prin- 
 ciple has first to be laid -down ; viz. that, since Hebrew literature, 
 as known to us from the O.T., is extremely exiguous, the Hebrew 
 vocabulary which we possess doubtless represents only a somewhat 
 limited part of the vocabulary which must have been in regular, if 
 not in common, use in the written and spoken language. This is a 
 consideration which is substantiated by the large number of ana^ 
 Xeyojieva which occur throughout the O.T. ; and its importance is 
 enhanced when it is applied to one of the very few monuments of the 
 earliest period of the Hterature which happen to have survived. In 
 discussing the text of the Song, we have noticed a number of words, 
 the meaning of which can only be elucidated by recourse to the 
 evidence supplied by the cognate languages. Thus, IB'O 'grasp,' 
 7/.", D'Snao w.", fp: z/.^i, pna v.^^ and possibly CDIIp z/.^i, are 
 
 explained from the Arabic ; nWPS v. '^ possibly from Babylonian and 
 Phoenician usage, but more probably from Aramaic; D'7DJ? v.^' in 
 a sense common to Arabic, Aramaic, and Babylonian, but not to 
 early Hebrew as otherwise known to us; 22'' v.'^ from Aramaic and 
 New Hebrew; and Dm v.'^ from Moabitic. D''3N!J'D ?;'." is eluci- 
 dated only by our knowledge of the meaning of the verb in Hebrew ; 
 while the signification of D''nSCJ'D v. i" can only be vaguely guessed. 
 These facts do not, of course, imply that eg. the list of words which 
 are explained from the Arabjc are to be regarded as Arabisms, i.e. that 
 their use in the Song is due to the influence of Arabic; but simply that 
 Hebrew and Arabic being from a common stock, and our knowledge 
 of the Arabic vocabulary being much more extensive than our know- 
 ledge of the Hebrew, Arabic helps us to explain some of the otherwise 
 unknown Hebrew words, which may have been, and very likely were , 
 in common daily use at the early period represented by the Song. 
 
172 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Further, the fact urged by Vernes, in his argument for the I 
 date of the Song, that a number of the words employed in it oc 
 elsewhere, mainly or exclusively, in the third division of the Hebi 
 Canon — the -K'thiibhim, is really destitute of significance as beari 
 upon the date. Hebrew poetry, like the poetry of other languag 
 has its choice words and expressions which are not commo: 
 employed in prose ; the great bulk of the Hebrew poetry known 
 us in the O.T. is contained in the K'tkMMm (Pss., Job, Cant., Lan 
 and at least two-thirds of the words cited by Vernes in proof of 
 thesis are cited because they occur in these poetical books.* 
 
 There are, however, a few forms in the Song which are to 
 regarded as dialectical. Of those which have frequently been cit 
 by scholars in time past, the termination \i — in pID v. '", and t 
 
 supposed Absol. plur. termination i in I'ltJ' ■^. '^ have disappear 
 
 under our criticism of the text ; but there remain the Relative E' : 
 for the ordinary tb>x • ipiDp v. ', if rightly regarded as 2nd fem. sin 
 
 for the normal riDp • the form ^iDDj; ^." (cf Neh. 922-24) with d 
 similated D, for ']''By ; and, most remarkable of all, ^3n'' w.", whe 
 comparison of the cognate forms in Arabic and Aramaic, and t 
 actual occurrence of the normal form in Hebrew (rut}* 'to do a secoi 
 time'), lead us to expect iJty'i^ It should be observed that the Soi 
 
 is not the only example of pre-exilic literature in which these fori 
 occur. The Relative {$» is found again in ck. 6^', 7^'^, 8 2", in 2 Kgs. i 
 (if the text is sound), and throughout Cant, (which, however, may 1 
 post-exilic). Instances of forms resembhng ^riDp for PiOp have bei 
 
 quoted in jiote ad loc. from Mic. 4 1^, Jer. 2 20. Forms from verbs 
 doubled exhibiting dissimilation, like 'I'DDJJ are seen in ippn Isa. r 
 (as in the variant for *-|pn in the Song, v. ^^) ; ''"nn Num. 23', JE, a 
 n-jn Jer. 173, ^1-,-in Deut. 8^; '^^V Jer. 6*. '\IT\'' is substantial 
 by T\Mrh in ch. 1 1 *° (if original ; cf. note). 
 
 The claim that these forms are proofs of the late date of tl 
 
 * Most of the remainder occur in the prophets, who also naturally at tim 
 employ terms which would not be used in plain prose. In citation of 1 
 references to various books, Vernes frequently does not state all the facts, 
 states them incorrectly. Thus E'J)"1 which is assigned to Pss. and Ezek., occi 
 also in the pre-exilic prophets Am. 9I, Nah. i^, Jer. 42*, 816, iqIO, tpi^, 51^ 
 JJD^ assigned to Pss., Prov., Chron. , is, needless to say, very frequent also 
 
 the earliest literature; PQD^ assigned to Chron., Neh., Pss. (where it does « 
 occur), is only found again in Judg. 6^8 E ; and so on. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 173 
 
 Song (Vernes), and the assertion that they are late alterations of the 
 text, (Rothstein), are, therefore, equally unwarranted ; and scholars 
 generally recognize the fact that the Hebrew of northern Cana'an 
 must have exhibited certain dialectical pecuHarities — as indeed is 
 seen to be the case in the lengthy narratives in Kings which must 
 have emanated from the prophetic schools of the Northern Kingdom : 
 ci. JV/iriC. pp. 208 1 
 
 Many scholars, however, while admitting the existence of such 
 dialectical forms, express their doubts as to the possibihty of so 
 marked an Aramaism as ^liiri^ in an early poem, and are inclined to 
 
 regard it as a textual corruption; and it is somewhat surprising to 
 find so learned and judicious a scholar as Mo. asserting roundly 
 that 'as equivalent of Heb. njB' the word is not conceivable in 
 old Hebrew.' 
 
 Such a statement appears to imply a preconceived conclusion as to 
 the sharp differentiation between early Hebrew and early Aramaic 
 which, in default of evidence, we are scarcely justified in drawing. 
 Indeed, it may be claimed that such evidence as we do possess as to 
 the relationship between the two languages at a later period (and 
 therefore, a fortiori., at this period) tends all in the other direction ; 
 i.e. it is more likely that, if we possessed ample evidence as to the 
 character of the Hebrew or Cana'anite,* and the Aramaic, which were 
 spoken at this period, we should find that both languages existed in 
 dialectical forms exhibiting so many common characteristics that we 
 should (at any rate in some examples) find it difficult, if not impos- 
 sible, to draw a distinction between the two, and to say, 'This is 
 Hebrew (Cana'anite), and this Aramaic' 
 
 The discoveries of recent years have given us some insight into 
 the character of the language spoken, at about the eighth century 
 B.C., by some of the small Aramaean states which lay to the north 
 of Israel. Thus, we have the Hadad-inscription of Panammu, king 
 of Ya'di in northern Syria, dating from about the middle of the 
 eighth century B.C., and the two inscriptions of his son Bar-rekub 
 (towards the end of the same century), who seems to have been king 
 of Sam'al as well as of Ya'di (unless the two places are to be regarded 
 as identical). These were discovered near Zengiriy in the' years 
 1889-91.1 Next, an inscription of Zakir, king of Hamath and 
 La'ash, dr. 800 B.c. or a little eariier, was discovered in 1903 by 
 Pognon, and pubUshed by him in igoy.g And, most recently, an 
 
 * The fact is well recognized that Hebrew is ' the language of Can'aan ' 
 (cf. Isa. 19 18); and that Phoenician, Moabitic, etc., are examples of the same 
 language, with dialectical variations. 
 
 X Cf. E. Sachau in Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, 1893, D. H. MuUer, Die 
 altsemitischen Inschriftm von Sendschirli, 1893 ; Cooke, NSI. pp. 159-185. 
 
 § Pognon, Inscriptions Simitiques de la Syrie, de la Misofotamie, et de la 
 rigion de Mossoul, 1907, pp. 156-178 ; cf also Driver in Expositor. June 1908, 
 pp. 481-490; Lidsbarski, Bphemeris, iii. pp. i-ii. 
 
174 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 inscription of Kalumu, an earlier king of Ya'di of the latter half of t 
 ninth century B.C., has also been discovered in the neighbourhood 
 Zengirly.* 
 
 The language of the inscriptions of Panammu and Bar-reku 
 kings of Ya'di during the eighth century B.C., is clearly Aramaic of 
 kind, though distinguished by certain marked characteristics whii 
 connect it with Hebrew (Cana'anite) rather than with later Arama: 
 Into these characteristics we cannot here enter in detail ; but 
 may be noticed that, in the three ordinary equations, Ar. J = Arai 
 T = Heb. f; Ar. e_) = Aram. n = Heb. VJ ; Ar. l5=Aram. E5 = Heb. 
 it is to Hebrew and not to Aramaic that the Zengirly dialect conform 
 • The use of E* where Aramaic ordinarily employs n {e.g. 1^ for 3r 
 
 ?pE' for 7pn) is, we may observe, the converse of the employment 
 the form ^ijn'' in the Hebrew of the Song, where we should expe 
 
 13B'':. t 
 
 Turning, however, to the inscription of Kalumu, who may hai 
 preceded Panammu as king of Ya'di by nearly a century,§ we fii 
 that his language is Cana'anite throughout, closely resembling Pho' 
 nician as known to us from inscriptions of the fourth century B.C. ar 
 later, though marked by a few Aramaisms such as the use of 13 'soi 
 in place of t?. 
 
 The language of Zakir's inscription associates itself most close 
 with Aramaic, though offering points of contact with Cana'ani 
 similar to those which are found in the inscriptions of Panammu ar 
 Bar-rekub ; and in addition so remarkable a Hebraism as the use i 
 the Imperfect with 1 consecutive, a construction which is elsewhe: 
 only found in BibUcal Hebrew and in the inscription of Mesha , kin 
 of Moab. 
 
 These facts — and more especially the remarkable alteration in tl 
 
 * First edited by F. von Luschan in Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, 1911; 1 
 also E. Littmann, 'Die Inschriften des Konigs Kalumu,' in Sitzungsherichte d 
 Konigl, Preuss. /ikad. der IViss., 1911, pp. 976-985; M. Lidsbarski, 'Eii 
 phbnizische Inschrift aus Zendschirli,' in Ephemeris fiir Semit. Efigraphik,'\ 
 pp. 218-238 (he gives a list of other writers on the inscription, p. 220 n, 
 Kalumu is mentioned in the shorter inscription of Bar-rekub, in a passai 
 which, prior to the discovery of his inscription, was not unnaturally unintelligil 
 to editors. Bar-rekub says (11. 15 ff. ), ' And a good house my fathers, the kin] 
 of Sam'al, did not possess ; they had only the house of Kalumu, and it w: 
 their winter-house and their summer-house : so I built this house.' 
 
 J Cf. further on the dialect of these inscriptions, Cooke, NSJ. pp. 184 f 
 § Kalumu's father, 'Qa.ykn the son of Gabar, paid tribute to Shalmaneser i: 
 in B.C. 854 (cf. KB. i. pp. 170 f.) ; and seems to have been succeeded by his si 
 Sha'il, before the accession of Kalumu. Bar-rekub states that his fath 
 Panammu, as well as himself, was a contemporary of Tiglath-Pileser, wl 
 reigned from 745-727 B.C. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 175 
 
 anguage used by the kings of Ya'di in the course of a century or so 
 —are sufficient to make us surmise that, if the characteristics of so- 
 :alled Aramaic in the 8th and 9th centuries B.C. were such as we 
 lave noticed ; in the 12th century B.C. {i.e. at about the period of the 
 Song of Deborah) Aramaic may scarcely as yet have been differen- 
 iated from Hebrew as a separate language, but the two may have 
 ippeared as somewhat closely related dialectical forms of the one 
 anguage which was known to the Assyrians as 'the tongue of 
 \murru.' 
 
 Before, therefore, we pass an opinion as to the possibility or 
 impossibility of 'Aramaisms' in the Song of Deborah, we have to 
 take account of the following facts : — 
 
 (i) Evidence shows that even so much as three hundred years 
 later than the date of the Song, the 'Aramaic' spoken 
 by states in northern Syria was more nearly related to 
 Cana'anite or Hebrew than was the Aramaic of later times. 
 
 (2) The northern, or, more accurately, central, Palestinian Hebrew 
 
 of some three hundred years later, albeit that we know 
 it as the literary language of the prophetic schools (i Kgs. 
 17 — 2 Kgs. 10), offers certain dialectical peculiarities akin 
 to Aramaic. 
 
 (3) The Song is probably the only existing instance of a piece 
 
 of literature belonging to this early period which emanates 
 from the extreme north of Palestine, and was perhaps 
 composed by a member of a tribe (Issachar?) which may 
 have been in Canaan without a break from its earliest 
 settlement in the west ; and had not, like the Joseph- 
 tribes, undergone the segregation from external Semitic 
 influences involved in the sojourn in Egypt (cf Introd. 
 pp. cvi ff.). 
 
 (4) In any case, the northern tribes of Israel dwelt in close 
 
 association (cf. ch. i ^"O with the Cana'anites of the north, 
 who may have been considerably influenced linguistically 
 by their Aramaean neighbours, just as these latter were 
 doubtless influenced by them. 
 
 (5) There were Aramaean clans closely contiguous to Israel not 
 
 only on the north, but east of Jordan — the Geshurites and 
 Ma'acathites — clans which ultimately became united to 
 East Manasseh by intermarriage (cf note on ' Machir' 5 1* 
 at end). Some of these clans may already have used the 
 later Aram. for Heb. B* in cases in which the Ar. equi- 
 valent is tlJ, and may have passed on some of their 
 terms as loan-words to the Israelites. 
 
 (6) Judg. 12^ is actual proof that there existed dialectical pecu- 
 
 liarities among the Israelites in regard to the pronunciation 
 of the sibilant B' {sibbdleth for shibbdleth). 
 
176 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Bearing these facts in mind, we may recognize the existence 
 ' Aramaisms ' in the Song as a natural phenomenon, and may vi 
 pause before we condemn a form such as ^SD'' as impossible in a v( 
 early example of northern Israelite literature. 
 
 6. 1-8. 28. Gideon. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc. , quoted throughout the book, cf. W. Bohi 
 Die dlteste'DarsieUung in Richt. 61^-2^ nnd 13 ^'24, und ihre Verwandtschafi -, 
 der Jahveurkunde des Pentateuch, ZATW. v. (1885) pp. 251-274 ; H. Winclc! 
 Die Quellenzitsammensetzung der Gideonerzahlungen, AF. i, (1893) pp. 42-59. 
 
 The narrative of the oppression of Midian and the deliverar 
 effected by Gideon is highly composite throughout. In no otl; 
 section of Judges is the existence of two documents bearing t 
 characteristics of J and E more clearly evident, and the criteria i 
 determining the main lines of analysis are fairly decisive ; though 
 details there remains considerable Scope for difference of opinion. 
 
 6'"^. Here R'^'', whose regular introductory formulae occur 
 ■z/w. '■'"', opens the narrative with a statement of facts derived fro 
 his old sources. We notice certain similarities to the narrative of 
 in I Sam. 13 ^-^ to which ch. 7 '^ J ('like' the sand which is upon tl 
 sea-shore for multitude') is also related. The fact, however, th 
 there is some duplication of statement (cf. v. ' ' there would come t 
 Midian' with w.^, 'For they and their cattle used to come up 
 v.^, 'And they encamped against them, and destroyed the prodm 
 of the land' with t/.^, 'with their tents, . . . and they came into tl 
 land to destroy it'), and the somewhat curious combination of tens( 
 in the Heb.,* suggest that elements from more than one source hai 
 been combined ; and these it is useless to attempt to unraveLJ 
 
 * After ilflVI . . . n^J?1 . . . HTll in v. 3 we should expect !in''nB>ni . . . «l 
 
 in K. 4», more especially as these statements are continued by ITKE''' N 
 in v.'^. The frequentative construction continues the narrative in v, 
 1N3riT . . , IPJ'^ and this is followed in v. ^^ by an imperfect with 1 m 
 secutive ilNS'l 'and they came into the land, etc.', which, as summarizing; 
 brief the result of these repeated raids, might stand in the same narrative i 
 continuation of preceding frequentatives ; but at the same time is just as like! 
 to have been taken from another narrative which spoke of a single invasion, ( 
 viewed the repeated invasions as a single fact (cf. !|n"'nt5"'l , , , ^Un'! v.*). 
 
 J It is possible (cf. Bu. ES. p. 107) that the narrative may contain later glossa 
 Thus niiyon riNI ' and the caves ' may be explanatory of nnrUDH fli 
 'the crevices,' or erroneous dittography of it. In i/. 3i> it is not unlikely thi 
 
 the text originally ran VPJ? piO HPJJI ' then would come up Midian again! 
 them ' simply, and that later insertion of Dip ''331 pPDJJI necessitated tt 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 177 
 
 6'->''. The retrospect of Israel's past history and the polemic 
 against their idolatry are in the style of the later strata of E which 
 closely approximates to the style of R''^ and, indeed, appears to have 
 formed its model (cf. Introd. pp. xli ff.). We may compare generally 
 Josh. 24, I Sam. loi'J^', 12. Cf. especially the phraseology of 
 ^;^,.8ba.9a ^\^ j Sam. 10 1«. The phrases 'bring up ^r bring out from 
 Egypt,' 'from the house of bondmen,' 'oppressors,' 'Yahweh your 
 God,' ' Amorite ' used as a general designation of the inhabitants of 
 Cana'an, are characteristic of the school of Hosea'; cf Introd. p. xlv. 
 Possibly V.'' may be due to R^^; cf v.""^ with v.^'° : still, the phrase, 
 'cried unto Yahweh,' is originally due to E'' ; cf i Sam. 12'°, Josh. 24'. 
 
 Moreover, the expression nilS H)l 'on account of in v.'''° is charac- 
 teristic of E : cf CH.^ 1 1 1.* 
 
 gii-24_ This section clearly stands in no original relationship to 
 the foregoing. Contrast, in v.^^, Gideon's unconsciousness of any 
 apparent cause for Israel's misfortunes, with the unnamed prophet's 
 denunciation of Israel's idolatry as the crying cause of these mis- 
 fortunes. The narrative generally has close affinities with ch. 13 
 and Gen. 18 'ff., which belong to J. Special J phrases are 'the 
 Angel of Yahweh,' vv. "i-'i-Z^ (' the Angel of God ' in v. '" is pro- 
 bably an accidental variation : cf note ad toe); ' If now I have found 
 grace in thy sight,' v."; 'Oh, my lord' CJIS ''3), v^^: cf CH.' 4, 
 31a, 56b. 
 
 It is probable (as supposed by Bu., Mo., etc.) that this narrative 
 may have undergone some later modifications and additions, the 
 main purpose of which was to imply that the divine character of 
 Gideon's visitor was evident from the first, and was at once recog- 
 nized by Gide'on : cf. notes on the text. The precise extent of these 
 secondary additions being highly debatable, no attempt has been 
 made to indicate them in the text. Winckler's theory that two 
 distinct narratives are here combined throughout does not com- 
 mend itself 
 
 525-32 is clearly distinct in source from the foregoing. In 6^ 
 Gide'on builds an altar to Yahweh, which is still, when the narrator 
 writes, to be seen in 'Ophrah of the Abi'ezrites, and was, we may 
 certainly infer, the only altar to Yahweh there. In v.^% however, he 
 
 awkward resumption IPVl- Adoption of this conclusion does not, however, 
 oblige us to suppose that the similar detailed description of the foe in v. 33>, 7i2«« 
 is likewise due to later interpolation ; though it is possible that this may be so. 
 
 * Stade (Gr/. i. p. 182) remarks that the introduction of anonymous persons, 
 such as the prophet of this section, into the narrative, is always a mark of late 
 date. This consideration has weight as regards the lateness of the narrative in 
 comparison with the earUer parts of E ; but by no means compels us to regard 
 the section as later than E^, in face of the evidence connecting it with £« which 
 is noticed above. 
 
 M 
 
I7S THE BOOK OF fUDGES 
 
 is commanded to build an altar to Yahweh in place of the Ba'al-alt; 
 as though no other Yahweh-altar existed in the place, though 
 ^yibti. g^re really the sequel of 6"'^) he had only just previou; 
 built such an altar to Yahweh. Since 6'''^* belongs to J, we m 
 infer, therefore, that 6^'-'^ comes from E; and with this agrees t 
 polemic against Ba'al-worship which characterizes it, and which p( 
 haps justifies us in regarding the section as belonging to the sai 
 stratum of E as 6'"", i.e. E''. In addition to the phrase 'Yahw 
 thy God' in v."^^ (cf v.'"'), Bu.' notes as an E phrase, 'rose up eai 
 in the morning' (1p33 1D''3E'*1), w.^*. The name Jerubba'al, whi 
 first appears here, seems to belong to E : notice 7 ', 8 ^^ 9 i-2-5.io.w.24 
 I Sam. 12". R"^" combines Jerubba'al Gide'on 8^^": cf RJ^'s glo; 
 'that is, Gide'on' in 7^^. 
 
 6^^, describing the incursion of Midian, etc., as in v.^'^ {ctfootnot 
 7 '2", belongs in all probability to E : cf note on 7 ^ J's narratii 
 in 6 "■^'', presupposes that the Midianites are already on the spot, ai 
 ravaging the country, at the time of Gide'on's commission. 
 
 6'^, describing Gide'on's muster of his small force from the clan 
 Abi'ezer only, is to be assigned to J; while 
 
 6 ^^ which pictures the muster of a large force from all Manasse 
 Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, presupposes the narrative of 7 ^'^ (( 
 which see below), and must therefore, in its present form, be assigm 
 to E^. It seems likely, however, that the verse is composite (cf tl 
 
 repeated npE' D''3S^pi 'and he sent messengers'); and that tl 
 
 first half, which speaks of a muster from the tribe of Manasse 
 belongs to the original narrative of E, which may have been close 
 akin to J in assuming that Gide'on drew his force from purely loc 
 sources. The NliTDS 'it also' (the tribe of Manasseh) is R'^'s lii 
 
 with the preceding f.^*. 
 
 536-« which gives an account of a request by Gide'on for a sign 
 God's favour, can scarcely belong to the narrative 6 ^^'^ which co 
 tains the account of the Theophany. This latter also narrates tl 
 request for and the granting of a sign {vv. " «■) ; and in face of tl 
 the second sign appears less marvellous and also superfluous. Pr 
 bably it belongs to a narrative in which the call of Gide'on w; 
 related as taking place in a different manner, perhaps through tl 
 medium of a vision. Since 6 "-^^ belongs to J, we shall scarcely e 
 in assigning 6 ^^-'^ to E, especially in view of the fact that througho 
 it uses 'God' (Jia-'elohtm ■z/z'.^^-^", 'elohim v.^") and not 'Yahweh.' 
 may be observed, however, that Gide'on's words in w.^^" bear clo 
 resemblance to the words of Abraham in Gen. 18 ^"■'2, usually assigm 
 to J.* 
 
 * According to Bu. (JiS. p. iti) the words are probably a gloss derived frc 
 this passage. La. remarks that the words ' and I will speak only this once' a 
 more appropriate to the Genesis-passage where the conversation is prolonged. 
 
tHE BOOK OF JUDGES 1?^ 
 
 7 ' appears to belong to E. Notice the connexion with 6 ''. The 
 invaders arrive and make their encampment as specified; Gide'on 
 then musters his force, and they make their encampment : it then 
 remains to notice the relative positions of the two camps. ' The vale ' 
 of 7 "> is ' the vale of Jezre el ' of 6 ^^^. 
 
 7 ^"'. Looking at the account of the muster (6 ^% and the methods 
 employed to reduce the large force from 32,000 to 10,000, and finally 
 to 300, and reading it in the light of the narrative which follows, we 
 can scarcely fail to trace indications of discrepancy. Thus, in 7 ^' we 
 are informed that, on the flight of the Midianites, 'the men of Israel 
 were called to arms from Naphtali, and from Asher, and from all 
 Manasseh,' and joined in the pursuit. Yet these are the very tribes 
 which, according to 6^, had already been mustered by Gide'on, and 
 the great bulk of whose representatives must, according to 7 ^■', have 
 been dismissed, and scarcely have had time even to reach their 
 homes. It should be noticed, again, that in 8^, where Gide'on 
 contrasts the achievement of his own small force with that of the 
 Ephraimites, he speaks of his force as 'Abi'ezer.' It is of course 
 possible that under this title he may be simply referring to himself as 
 representative of the clan ; yet the allusion can scarcely fail to convey 
 the impression that his army as a whole was composed largely if not 
 solely of Abi'ezrites. Reading this in connexion with 6^* which 
 narrates the muster of the clan, the theory becomes plausible that 
 the original narrative may have made Gide'on draw his force 
 from his own clan only ; and that this may account for the smallness 
 of its numbers, until reinforced, when the pursuit was taking place, 
 by accessions from the other clans of Manasseh, as well as from the 
 other tribes mentioned (cf., however, note on 7 ^'). Thus, the passages 
 which narrate the first muster from Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and 
 Naphtali (6 ^), and the reduction of the large force to a very small 
 one, must, upon this view, be supposed to belong to another and a 
 later narrative. 
 
 We have assigned 6^ partly to the original E (the muster of 
 Manasseh), and partly to E ^ (the muster of the other tribes men- 
 tioned). The latter half of this verse, as narrating the muster of a 
 large force from several tribes, is obviously intended to pave the way 
 for the narrative of 7 2', which is to be assigned in like manner to 
 E I That the narrative of E ^ has been fitted into, and is to some 
 extent dependent upon, the older E, may be inferred from the echo 
 of the phrase of v. ', ' all the people that were with him,' in v. 2, ' the 
 people that are with thee.' 
 
 7*. The first part of this verse (down to 'their trumpets') is 
 obviously intended to explain how Gide'on came to have so many 
 trumpets and pitchers (if the emendation adopted in the text be 
 accepted) as are presupposed by 7 " ; and since, in the narrative of 
 the night-attack, there is good reason to believe that the trumpets 
 
1^0 tlHE BOOK OF llMDGfeg 
 
 belong to one account and the pitchers to the other, this portion of 
 must be regarded as due to the redactor of the two main- narrativ 
 i.e. RJ^ The rest of the verse is to be assigned to E 2; the latter h 
 being resumptive of the narrative of the older E which was broken 
 7 "' by insertion of the later intervening narrative. 
 
 7 °"'*. The older narrative of E, resumed, as we have noticed, 
 7 ''', is here continued. The relative positions of the two camps havi: 
 been defined, the Midianite camp as below that of Gide'on in the va 
 the way is paved for the narration of Yahweh's command, ' Go do\ 
 into the camp, etc' * Cf 6 ^* for the introductory formula of ^ 
 ' And it came to pass the same night, etc' 
 
 7 '5'^2. The account of the night-attack is very involved, and it 
 impossible to regard it as a unity. Bu. remarks, ' To carry a bumii 
 torch in a pitcher turned upside down over it requires two hands ; th 
 there is no hand left for the trumpet, or vice-versd. In the same wa 
 it is impossible at once to blow a horn and to raise the battle-cr 
 {Comm. p. 6o). These objections to the integrity of the narrative a 
 to some extent answered by La. ; % yet the fact remains that throug' 
 out the narrative there occur repetitions which can only be accounte 
 for by the supposition that two parallel accounts have been close 
 interwoven. Thus w.^''" is repeated by w.^^''^; ^/^/.wba.zoaa jjy ^zza, 
 j,_2ib gives an account of the effects of the night-alarm which diffe: 
 from that which is given by v. ^'"^ ; and v. '^-^ can scarcely be anythii 
 else than the combination of two variant accounts of the line of fligh 
 Probably, therefore, the view is correct which regards the pitchei 
 and torches as belonging to one account, and the trumpets to tl; 
 other. The ruse connected with the pitchers and torches has aboi 
 it an air of originality and verisimilitude, and Gideon's small fore 
 (3.ccording to J's account) would be more likely to find pitchers c 
 
 * The obvious transition from 7 1>>, as noticed above, seems to be the only sa 
 argument upon which this section Is assigned to E. Bu. (Comm.), who taki 
 the same view as to the source of the narrative, adduces as evidence the nigh 
 scene, the dream, and its interpretation ; though rightly remarking (againi 
 Winckler) that the use of ha-Bohim ' God ' (not Yahweh) in the mouth of 
 Midianite in v. i^ is destitute of significance as a criterion. Such evidence, hov 
 ever, is not very weighty. A night-scene from J immediately follows in one .1 
 the narratives of the night-attack ; and though, it is true that E in the Hexateuc 
 seems to display a fondness for the narration of revelations vouchsafed in nightl 
 visions, this fact by no means renders improbable the occurrence of a Uke inc 
 dent in J. The section is assigned to J by Mo., though the majority of schoki 
 appear to be of the opinion of Bu. 
 
 X La. suggests that, if the pitcher l^ad a hole in it, the torch could be passe 
 through the hole and held by the hand underneath the pitcher ; and moreovei 
 even if both hands were needed for this operation, the trumpet might at the sara 
 time be suspended from a bandolier. When the pitcher is brokeii, one hahdi 
 surely "sufBcient to'carry the tbrch, and it Is then that the trumpet is blowt 
 Further, it goes without saying that it is possible to desist from blowing ih 
 trumpet in order to raise the battle-cry (p. 136). 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES i8l 
 
 jars ready to their hand than a sufficient supply of trumpets (the 
 statement of v.^ must be regarded as the work of R^^): hence we 
 shall probably be right in assigning the pitchers and torches to J, 
 and the trumpets (perhaps under the influence of Josh. 6'2«) to the 
 later narrative of E. We may then make the following allocation. 
 To J belong z/.'^ with the exception of 'trumpets and' inserted by 
 R^^ in joining the two narratives (notice as a J phrase -'three bands,' 
 lit. 'heads' D^CKI, as in ch. c)^-^\ i Sam. ii", 131"-, all probably J) 
 J, i7a^ ^20 (g-om 'and they brake,' etc.) with the modification which 
 
 is due to the insight of Bu. (substituting anna for Vipn^ nilfiiB'n 
 
 and omitting ain after !|Knp>1 • cf. 7/."''^), 'and in their right hand 
 
 the sword ; and they cried, " For Yahweh and for Gide'on ! "' This 
 is directly continued by v. '■'' ; and, possibly with some small inter- 
 vening omission, by v. ^''■'^^ which recounts the direction of the enemy's 
 flight To E must be assigned v. '° (continuing the previous E narra- 
 tive), v.^'^, which is continued by ■z'.'* down to 'all the camp,' 7/." 
 down to 'the trumpets,' and v.^"^ down to ' Beth-shittah,' which relates 
 in due sequence how all the three hundred took up the trumpet-call 
 
 of Gide'on's band (read ninaitS'3 niKtsn tr^K' =ll?pri>1)_ and the effect 
 
 which the demonstration had upon the foe. All that remains over 
 appears to be the work of R'"^ in joining and harmonizing the two 
 narratives. Thus, mention of the trumpets had to be inserted in v.^^ 
 and in v.'^ ('the trumpets to blow,' leading to the alteration of J's 
 account above noticed) ; and mention of the battle-cry and the break- 
 ing of the pitchers from J needed to come into vv.'^^'^^, which are 
 otherwise derived from E ; just as mention of the trumpet-blowing 
 by the three bands had to be duphcated from E's account in w.^^", 
 and inserted at the beginning of v.^, which is derived from J, If 
 this scheme be adopted, it will be found that the two accounts run 
 parallel, and are each nearly continuous, as may be seen from the 
 connected narrative of each which is given in the notes ad he. This 
 view of the combination of J and E assumes, as we have already 
 noticed, that the statement of v.*, which (if the emendation adopted 
 in the text be correct) mentions both pitchers and trumpets, is the 
 work of RJ=. 
 
 7 23. This mention of the call to arms of the neighbouring Israelite 
 tribes is inconsistent with E's narrative in 6 '^ 7 "; since according to 
 this narrative these are the tribes whose representatives had been 
 summoned in the first place, and then, for the most part, dismissed 
 (cf. under 7 ^^). This objection does not hold against assigning the 
 verse to J ; though, as a matter of historical fact, it may be doubted 
 whether Gide on, who seems to have planned his attack in the first 
 instance with the aid of his own clan of Abi'ezer only, would have 
 been able, in the course of a hurried pursuit towards the south-east. 
 
i82 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 to have summoned the tribes of Naphtali and Asher who dwelt to tl 
 north of the scene of action. Possibly, therefore, the verse may 1: 
 a later gloss, or may have originally mentioned only ' all Manasseh.' 
 j,24_g3_ -pjjg difficulty noticed under the preceding verse does n( 
 apply to the summoning of Ephraim which is here narrated ; sine 
 the position occupied by this tribe would enable them to intercept tl 
 fugitives in time, as is related. The source of the narrative seems t 
 be indicated by Gideon's allusion in 8^ to his achievement as 'th 
 vintage of Abi'ezer,' from which we are justified in assuming that w 
 have the sequel of the account which pictures the rout of Midian a 
 in its inception, the unaided work of the clan of Abi'ezer; i.e. th 
 account of J.* It is clear, however, that 7 '^ is, in part at least, th 
 work of RJ^; the statement that the heads of 'Oreb and Ze'eb wer 
 brought to Gide'on beyond the Jordan being obviously an attempt t 
 harmonize the narrative with 8 *"• which comes from a different sourc( 
 Probably the statement ' and they pursued Midian ' is also due to th 
 same hand, with allusion to 8 ***. According to J's narrative, the tas 
 of Ephraim seems to have been simply to hold the fords ; and there i 
 no indication that the pursuit was pushed across the Jordan. On th 
 other hand, v.'^'°«; 'and the heads of 'Oreb and Ze'eb they brough 
 unto Gide'on,' appears to belong to J; more especially if the openinj 
 of 8 ', 'said unto him ' (with back-reference to Gide'on's name in 7^' 
 is in its original form. 
 
 8*"'*. The impression which 8''^ leaves upon us is that the rou 
 of Midian is completed and pursuit at an end. The capture am 
 execution of 'Oreb and Ze'eb may be said to constitute the chie 
 honours of the victory. A lull in the proceedings of victorious Israe 
 affords occasion for the recriminations of the Ephraimites. Yet ii 
 8* "-.we find Gide'on crossing Jordan, and in hot pursuit of tw( 
 Midianite kings, Zebah and Salmunna', previously unnamed. An( 
 not only so, but his chance of success appears so remote to the mei 
 of Succoth and Penuel, upon whom he calls for refreshment for hii 
 weary force, that they meet his request with a taunting refusal (v.^) 
 The cgnclusion is irresistible that the narrative of 8 *-^^ belongs to i 
 different account from that of 7 ^^-8 ', and that Zebah and Salmunna 
 in the one account take the place of 'Oreb and Ze'eb in the other 
 If 7 21-8 ' is rightly assigned to J, the assumption is that 8 *-^^ belong! 
 to E; and in favour of this conclusion there may be cited th( 
 incredibly large numbers in w.'", which accord with the narrative 
 of 7 2"^ where Gide'on's large force is reduced to 300 in order that hii 
 victory may partake of a miraculous character. J As a mark of E'l 
 
 * La. recognizes that this section belongs to J, but other scholars very strangel; 
 assign it to E, 
 
 J It is not unlikely that the older narrative of E has been amplified by E'ii 
 this section also, though evidence decisive of such amplification is lacking. Cf. 
 however, the E section vv. ^^^ which follows. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 183 
 
 narrative we may notice the phrasing of v."^, 'And the three hundred 
 men that were with him,' compared with 7 la^a-sa-is. xhe mention in 
 i".^' of 'the crescents that were upon the necks of their camels' is a 
 point of connexion with w.^°, which belongs to a section which 
 undoubtedly comes from E. 
 
 As we read this section, we can scarcely fail to notice that it pre- 
 supposes the prior narration of incidents which have disappeared 
 altogether from the Gide' on-narrative as known to us. Gide'on's 
 inquiry of the Midianite kings as to the fate of his brethren {v.^^) 
 demands that some account of their murder must originally have 
 existed in this narrative, and supplies a new motive for Gide'on's 
 taking action against the Midianites, viz. the prosecution of the blood- 
 feud which naturally devolved upon him. Such a motive, however, 
 is by no means inconsistent with his role as the divinely appointed 
 deliverer of Israel. Similar personal considerations enter into the 
 actions of Samson which are ascribed to him as ' Judge ' or vindicator 
 of Israel ; and may possibly have also influenced Barak, if, as seems 
 likely, he was at one time a captive in the hands of the Cana'anites 
 (cf. 5 '2, note). We have already noticed (cf under 6 ^^■*'') that in E 
 the account of Gide'on's call is missing, that which is derived from J 
 (6 1'-2*) having taken its place. Probably E's account of the call was 
 closely combined with the account of the personal outrage which is 
 presupposed by 8^*ff. This is a further point which connects our 
 narrative with E rather than J ; since, if it belonged to the latter, 
 we might reasonably expect to find some reference to the family-feud 
 in J's account of Gide'on's call in 6"'^*; and Gide' on would scarcely 
 have professed to regard himself as the man least suited for the task 
 entrusted to him {v.^% It may be added that the obviously sincere 
 description of Gide'on's kingly bearing given by the Midianite kings 
 in 8 '* is hardly consonant with his position as we gather it from J's 
 narrative in 6 ''■^. 
 
 g22-27_ Tjiis section seems clearly to exhibit the hand of E^ in 
 ^^_22.23.27apb_ !„ ^22^ jhe fact that 'the men of Israel' {i.e. the tribes 
 as a whole ; cf. note ad loc.) join in requesting Gide' on to become 
 their king, invests his victory with a wider importance than it seems 
 to have possessed in either of the older accounts. Cf , as a mark of 
 £2, the use of the verb ^unytrin 'thou hast saved us.' In z/.^', the 
 idea that the appointment of a human ruler is inconsistent with the 
 true conception of the Theocracy, is characteristic : cf i Sam. 8 " ^* 
 
 * The view put forward in this passage, that Israel's request for a king amounts 
 to a definite rejection of Vahweh' s kingship— "^^ej have not rejected thee, but 
 they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them '—stands in striking 
 contrast to the standpoint of the parallel and older narrative from J, where 
 Yahweh Himself grants a king as a mark of favour and pity: cf. 9I8, where 
 Samuel is instructed with regard to Saul, ' Thou shalt anoint him to be leader 
 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 over my people Israel, and he shall save my people out of the hand of the Philis- 
 ■.•.•••.w tines : for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me.' 
 
l84 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 
 
 lo^^, 12 " (all E'') ; and passages in Hosea' in which the appointme: 
 of a king appears to be regarded as a wilful act, closely bound i 
 with Israel's defection from Yahweh — Hos. 8*-^°,* lo^, 13"". As 
 matter of fact, Gide'on's sons do seem to have become heredita: 
 sheikhs of Shechem, by virtue of the office transmitted by their fathe 
 c£ ch. 9 '\ where the verb mdsal, ' rule,' is the same as is employed : 
 8 ^', 'I will not rule over you, etc' The polemic against the Ephc 
 in v.^'', with the special term employed to describe defection fro 
 Yahweh, !i3I»l 'and they went a whoring,' is also characteristic 
 
 E^ : cf. Introd. p. xlv. 
 
 There is no reason, however, to doubt that the main part of wz/.^^ 
 belongs to an older narrative : and since the verses which we assig 
 to E^ are based upon this older narrative, the inference is clear th; 
 the latter must be assigned to the older stratum of E. The connexic 
 between z/.'''^* and z/.^i^^ has already been remarked. 
 
 8 ^'. The concluding summary of R^", couched in his usual sty 
 and phraseology. 
 
 6. I. R^" (JE) And the children of Israel did that which wi 
 evil in the sight of Yahweh : and Yahweh gave them into th 
 hand of Midian seven years. 2. And the hand of Midian pr 
 
 6. I. Midian. On the situation of the land of Midian, as lyir 
 to the east or north-east of the gulf of 'Akaba, in the northern part 1 
 the modern Hi^iz, cf footnote., p. 1 10. The nomadic Arabian clai 
 of Midian were regarded by the Israelites as related to themselve 
 though somewhat remotely. Midian is reckoned in Gen. 25 !■' J ; 
 one of the sons of Abraham by his second wife, or concubine {y. 
 I Chr. i^^), Keturah; just as Ishma'el is also Abraham's son byth 
 concubine Hagar. The Midianites of our narrative are classed i 
 Ishma' elites in ch. 8^*; and similarly, in the story of Joseph and h 
 brethren, Gen. 37 ^''"■, while the J narrative relates that Joseph w< 
 sold, at Judah's suggestion, to Ishma' elite traders, the E narrati\ 
 makes him to have been kidnapped by passing Midiamites. It thi 
 appears that some amount of vagueness existed in the minds 1 
 Israelite historians in their definition of these Arab tribes; and wit 
 this inference agrees the fact that, whereas the land of Midian whic 
 formed the home of Moses during his exile from Egypt lay far to tl: 
 south of Cana'an (cf. also i Kgs. 11'^), Gen. 25° describes Abrahai 
 as sending away the sons of the concubines (including Midian) ' eas 
 ward, into the land of the east'; and similarly, one of the Bala an 
 
 * Hos. 810 should almost certainly be emended (after ffi) tjJJo ■tfpX 
 D'ltJ'1 'i]?D ntJ'SD ' 'hat they may cease for a little from anointing a Itii 
 and princes. ' 
 
6. 2. 3. 4.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES . 185 
 
 vailed against Israel : because of Midian the children of Israel 
 made themselves the crevices which are in the mountains, and 
 the caves, and the strongholds. 3. Now it used to be that, when 
 Israel had sown, there would come up Midian, and 'Amalek, and 
 the children of the East; they would come up against them. 
 4. And they encamped against them, and destroyed the produce 
 of the land as far as Gaza ; and they would leave no means of 
 sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. 5. For they 
 
 narratives embodied in Num. 22-24 ( J E) pictures 'elders of Midian' 
 as forming the retinue of Balak, king of Moab (22 " ; of also the late 
 narrative of P in Num. 31 '"^2). See further, on this point. Skinner, 
 Genesis {ICC), p. 349. 
 
 2. because of Midian, etc. The limestone-hills of Palestine are full 
 of caves of various shapes and sizes, which are partly natural and 
 partly artificial. The writer of our narrative traces the origin of these 
 caves to the Israelite refugees, for whom they formed welcome hiding- ♦ 
 places. Cf. I Sam. 13° J. 
 
 crevices. Heb. tninharoth, a otto^ Xeyo/if vov, is explained from the 
 At. minhara or minhar, lit. a place hollowed out by water. 
 
 3. Now it used to be, etc. The Heb. tenses employed in vv.^-^ for 
 the most part denote recurrence ; but there are some exceptions 
 which probably point to a combination of two originally separate 
 narratives. Ci. footnote * p. 176. 
 
 there would come up Midian, etc. The Arab tribes from the east 
 of Jordan commit similar depredations upon the peasant-proprietors 
 west of Jordan at the present day, pitching their tents in the W^dy 
 of Jezre'el and the Widy Serrar a little further north, as is described 
 in our narrative, 7 '^^. Cf Thomson, LB. pp. 447 f 
 
 and'Amalek, and the children of the East. Possibly a later inser- 
 tion in the narrative : oi. footnote % p. 176. On 'Amalek, cf ch. 3 '^ note. 
 The expression ' children of the East ' is used again in i Kgs. 4 ^ 
 |§ 5 '" (cited for their proverbial wisdom), Isa. 1 1 ", Jer. 49 "^ (|| Kedar), 
 Ezek. 25 ''•"', Job i ', as a general description of the Arab tribes to the 
 east of Jordan, extending as far as the Euphrates ; but in Gen. 29 ' E 
 ' the land of the children of the East ' is appUed to the district of 
 N. Mesopotamia in which Haran was situated. 
 
 4. as far as Gaza. I.e., as far as the south-western extremity of 
 the Philistine territory. According to this statement, the Midianite 
 incursions must have extended over the greater part of Palestine. 
 The remainder of the narrative, however, appears to confine them to 
 central Palestine ; and Gide'on's exertions rid the country of them at 
 one blow. Possibly, therefore, the reference may be due to a later 
 editor, who was thinking of incursions of Arab tribes from the south 
 ('Araalekites ?) ; and it may have been this hand which was responsible 
 
i86 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 5. 8. n 
 
 and their cattle used to come up, with their tents, Tand"! wouli 
 come in hke locusts for multitude; and both they and thei 
 camels were without number : and they came into the land ti 
 destroy it. 6. And Israel was brought very low by reason 
 Midian ; and the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh. 
 
 7. E^ And when the children of Israel cried unto Yahweh h 
 reason of Midian, 8, Yahweh sent a prophet unto the childrei 
 of Israel: and he said to them, 'Thus saith Yahweh, the Go( 
 of Israel, " / brought you up from Egypt, and I brought yoi 
 forth from the house of bondmen, 9. and I rescued you from thi 
 hand of Egypt, and from the hand of all your oppressors ; an( 
 
 1 drave them out from before you, and gave you their land 
 10. And I said to you, ' I am Yahweh your God ; ye shall no 
 fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye are dwelling' 
 but ye have not hearkened to my voice." ' 
 
 II. J And the Angel of Yahweh came, and sat under th( 
 
 for the allusion to ''Amalek and the children of the East,' in additior 
 to Midian, in the earlier part of the verse. 
 
 5. wz/A their tents. Lit. 'and their tents.' In the verbal forn 
 which follows, ' and would come in,' we adopt the reading of K'n 
 
 ^IKDI. fflc*% S", e., IL presuppose ^X3\ which would govern Dn>SlN 
 
 ' and their tents they would bring in, etc' Since this reading, how 
 ever, seems to make the following ' like locusts for multitude ' refer t( 
 the tents and not to the Midianites (as in 7 ^^ it must be regardec 
 as inferior to that which is adopted above. It is possible, however 
 that Kt. may indicate the Kal ix^i 'they used to come in,' the 
 
 asyndeton being due to careless piecing together of the paralle 
 narratives. 
 
 8. a prophet. Lit. 'a man, a prophet' or 'a prophet-man.' Cf. 'a 
 prophetess-woman,' ch. 4 *. 
 
 / brought you up, etc. It is characteristic of E ^ to base admonitior 
 and rebuke upon a retrospect of God's mercies as vouchsafed tc 
 Israel in their past history. Cf. Josh, li,™-, Judg. lo'"-, i Sam 
 
 2 27.28* ioi7ft.^ i2 7ff. xhis method is further developed in Deute- 
 ronomy ; probably owing to the influence of the school of though! 
 represented by E^. Cf Introd. p. xlv. 
 
 II. the Angel of Yahweh. Upon the conception involved in this 
 title, and its alternation with 'Yahweh' simply in wz;."-"-^', cf. «o/< 
 on ch. 2 '. 
 
 * I Sam. 2 27-36 is commonly regarded as later than E2, though withoff 
 adequate reason. 
 
6. 13.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 187 
 
 terebinth which was in 'Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the 
 Abi'ezrite ; and Gide'on his son was beating out wheat in the 
 wine-press, to save it from Midian. 12. And the Angel of 
 Yahweh appeared unto him, and said unto him, 'Yahweh is 
 with thee, thou mighty man of valour.' 13. And Gide'on said 
 unto him, ' Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why, then, hath 
 
 i^e terebinth. Heb. hd-Us. ; possibly ' the (sacred) tree,' without 
 specification of its species : cf. note on 'the palm-tree of Deborah,' 
 ch. 4^ The terebinth or turpentine-tree (Pistacia terebinthus, L.) is 
 frequent in Palestine, where it often grows to a large size ; and, since 
 it usually stands in isolation, it forms a prominent landmark. Many 
 of these trees are regarded as objects of veneration at the present 
 day. C£ Tristram, Nat. Hist. pp. 400 f. 
 
 'Ophrah. The site is unknown. It maybe inferred from c^. 9'-^ 
 that it was not far from Shechem. Neither Far ata, six miles west- 
 south-west of Shechem (5 WP. Mem. ii. p. 162), nor Far'ah as preserved 
 in the name of the widy to the east of Shechem (Bu.), are philo- 
 logically probable ; the former name accurately corresponding to the 
 Biblical Pir'athon. The designation ''Ophrah of the Abi'ezrites' 
 (t/.^, 8'^) is perhaps intended to distinguish the city from the Benja- 
 minite 'Ophrah mentioned in Josh. 18^' P (so Kimchi). 
 
 which belonged., etc. The reference is to the terebinth, and not to 
 the city of 'Ophrah. 
 
 the Abtezrite. Abi'ezer is named in Josh. 17 ^ as a clan of 
 Manasseh — a fact which also appears from v.^^ of our narrative. 
 The clan is referred to the Machir-division of Manasseh in Num. 
 26*" P, I Chr. 7 '« : cf note on ' Machir,' ch. 5 ". 
 
 was beating, etc. The Heb. habhat 'beat out' (with a stick) is 
 similarly used of threshing grain in a small quantity in Ru. 2 ". The 
 ancient wine-press (Heb. gath) was a trough hewn out of the solid 
 rock, in which the grapes were trodden by the foot ; the expressed 
 juice flowing down a channel into another trough at a slightly lower 
 level, the wine-vat (Heb. yekebh). The use of a wine-press in a 
 sheltered situation for the beating out of wheat was less likely to 
 attract the attention of marauding Midianites than the ordinary pro- 
 cess of threshing with a wain drawn by oxen (or an ox and an ass), 
 upon a threshing-floor in an exposed situation open to the wind. 
 
 13. If Yahweh is with us. Heb. WBJ? '^ tf'^1. The use of 1 before 
 {}'•— lit. '■And is Y. with us'— imparts a touch of sarcasm to 
 Gideon's response which it is difficult adequately to reproduce in 
 English. Cf. i Kgs. 2^2, 'Why, pray, askest thou Abishag the 
 Shunammite for Adonijah?' (nDi51, lit. '^«^why'); 2 Kgs. 7'°, 
 ' Pray, if Yahweh were to make windows in heaven, could this thing 
 
i88 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 14. ) 
 
 all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous wor 
 which our fathers recounted to us, saying, "Did not Yahwi 
 bring us up from Egypt?" But now Yahweh hath cast us 
 and given us into the hand of Midian.' 14. And Yahweh turn( 
 unto him, and said, 'Go in this thy strength, and save Isra 
 from the hand of Midian; have not I sent thee?' 15. And 1 
 said unto him, ' Oh, my rpord, whereby can I save Israe 
 
 come to pass ? ' (iuni, lit. ' And lo ')• Other instances are cited 
 NHTK. p. 20. 
 
 which our fathers recounted to us. Cf., for the phrase, Ps. 4, 
 (1^ \ 78 ^ The injunction is laid upon Israelite fathers to recount 
 their children the facts of the deliverance from Egypt in Ex. 12^- 
 128.14.16 (RJE?)^ Deut. 6™«. It. is possible that Gideon's speech, as 
 stood originally in J, may have been expanded by a later hand 
 v. '^*. 
 
 14. Yahweh. ffi^'^'' 6 ay-yeXof Kupi'ou. Cf. ■z'.^^ note. 
 
 have not I sent thee ? Since these words embody a direct cor 
 mission from Yahweh, it is supposed by many scholars that Gide't 
 must at once have recognized that he was being addressed 1 
 Yahweh or His Angel ; and that the passage is therefore inconsiste: 
 with v.''^, where it is stated that it was only after the miracle of v. 
 that Gide'on recognized who his visitor was. The whole sectio 
 z/t/.i''^*, having clearly undergone some amount of re-editing (cf not 
 following), it is quite likely that this passage may be due to the lat 
 hand ; as also the words ' I will be with thee ' in v. '*, which reca 
 Ex. 3 ^2 E. While, however, the narrative assumes that Yahweh, ; 
 order to appear visibly to Gide'on, clothes Himself in human form, 
 does not necessarily follow from this that He should dissemble H 
 presence by couching His commission in the form in which it wou! 
 be delivered by an intermediary, such as a prophet ('Hath ni 
 Yahweh sent thee ? '). On the other hand, even though Yahwe 
 should give His commission directly., as He is represented as doin: 
 here and in v. '°, by the narrative as it now stands, it would obvious! 
 require something more surprising than this direct commission (vi 
 the portent of v.^^) to convince Gide'on that he was actually tl 
 spectator of a Theophany. 
 
 While, therefore, we may suspect conflation of the narrative in tl 
 passages under discussion, it is a mistake to speak dogmatically an 
 to say that they cannot originally have stood alongside oiv.'^. 
 
 15. my lord. VocaUzing ''jns^ in place of ijns of JK, i.e. 'n 
 
 (divine) Lord.' The vocalization of fK is intended to indicate th 
 Gide' on by this time recognized that his visitor was Yahweh Himsel 
 but it is clear from v.^''' that this was not the case until the occurreni 
 of the events narrated in z/.^'. The form which we have adopted 
 
&. i6.1 THE BOOK Of JUDGES 1S9 
 
 behold my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the 
 least in my father's house.' 16. And Yahweh said unto him, 
 ' I will be with thee, and thou shall smite Midian as one man.' 
 
 the ordinary title of respect (like our ' sir '), and is so vocalized by 
 
 behold, my family, etc. Mo. compares i Sam. 9^' ; and remarks 
 that ' the protestation is, no more than that of Saul, to be taken too 
 literally. Both the following narratives imply that the hero's family 
 was one of rank and influence in the clan.' The word rendered 
 'family' properly means 'thousand' (Heb. 'eleph); and occurs in con- 
 nexion with tribal organization in i Sam. 10'" ('by your tribes and 
 by your thousands'), the following z/z/.^o-^i showing it to be synony- 
 mous with mispahd, the ordinary term for a clan ox family within the 
 tribe. C£ also the use of the word in Mic. 5 ^ (' the thousands of 
 Judah,' amoiig which Bethlehem is a small 'thousand' or 'clan'). 
 
 the weakest. Heb. ?in which R.V. renders ' the poorest.' The 
 adj., however, suggests not merely poverty, but also paucity of 
 numbers and lack of influence in the affairs of the tribe as a whole. 
 
 16. And Yahweh . . . ' I will be with thee- ffi"'^ kcu. dwfv npos avrbv 
 6 ayyekos Kvpi'ov, Kupios ecTTai fiera (rov. If this had originally stood in 
 the Heb. text, it is very unlikely that it would have been altered into 
 the reading of |§ ; and we should rather regard the readings of ffi, 
 here and in v. ", as due to the harmonizing tendency which is else- 
 where frequently manifested in this Version, ffi'' &'' agree with ?§ in 
 the present passage. As we have already remarked {ch. 2 ' note), it 
 is not unlikely that the original narrative spoke throughout of 
 Yahweh Himself as appearing to Gide'on and holding intercourse 
 with him ; and that the introduction of ' the Angel ' represents an 
 early attempt to modify the text which has not been thoroughly 
 carried out in |§. 
 
 '/ will be with thee.' Cf note on 'have not I sent thee?' w.". 
 The precise words IDJ? n^ns 13 are found in Ex. 3 1^, E's narrative 
 of the Theophany to Moses at Mount Horeb : cf also Josh, i ^ R". 
 In each of these passages, the writers, in using the verbal form 'ehyeh 
 'I will be,' probably have in view the significance of the name 
 Yahweh as dA-noiv^z progressive revelation, as is explained in Ex. 3'* 
 in the formula 'ehyeh 'dser 'ehyeh ' I will be {or become) what I will 
 be.' While, however, the latter formula refers to the revelation as a 
 whole, as it is to be unfolded throughout the history of the chosen 
 people, and the course of this revelation is intentionally left unde- 
 fined,* in the former expression we have a particular phase of the 
 
 * Cf. the similar phrase 'I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy," 
 Ex. as'i' J, which implies that God refuses to define beforehand a course of 
 action which will be determined by his sovereign will. Similarly, 'ehyeh 'user 
 
196 tHE BOOK OF JOdGES [t. t 
 
 17. And he said unto him, 'Prithee, if I have found grace i 
 thy sight, make me a sign that thou art speaking with mi 
 
 18. Depart not hence, prithee, until I come unto thee, an 
 
 revelation clearly stated — Yahweh promises that He ■zc/z'// 3e with eac 
 of three chosen servants, Moses, Joshua, and Gide'on. 
 
 R.V. renders ' Surely I will be with thee' (so in Ex. 3 1^, ' Certain! 
 etc ') ; but it is preferable to regard the 13 as simply introducing th 
 direct narration, like mi recitativum in Greek. Such a use of <3 i 
 frequent: cf examples collected in NHTK. p. 6; BDB. s.v. ib. 
 
 as one man. For the expression, cf ch. 20 '■^■", Num. 14' 
 I Sam. ii\ 2 Sam. 19 1«, W^, Ezr. 3I, Neh. 8>t- 
 
 17. Prithee, if I have found, etc. Here 'prithee' represents th 
 Heb. precative particle nd, which comes in the protasis of the sentenc 
 after the conjunction ' if,' and is rendered ' now ' by A.V., R.V. — ' 1 
 now I have found grace, etc' Such a rendering, however, cai 
 scarcely be held adequately to represent the precative force of thi 
 particle * ; and the rendering ' prithee ' has therefore been adopted 
 the fuller ' I pray thee,' sometimes employed as a rendering by A.V. 
 R.V., (cf V. ^^, 8 ^, al. X) being less suitable as making too much 
 the monosyllabic particle. It is obvious that, so far as the particli 
 expresses entreaty, it properly refers to the request which is formu 
 lated in the apodosis ; but its use at the commencement of th( 
 protasis is probably intended to place the speaker in the attitude of ; 
 suppliant from the moment that he opens his mouth. 
 
 make me a sign that thou, etc. As the narrative stands, the reques 
 seems to indicate Gide'on's dawning consciousness that his visitor ii 
 a supernatural being, and his inability (owing to his uncertainty) t( 
 
 'ehyeh implies that God is absolutely self-determined, and that what He will i 
 is to be revealed at His own good pleasure. Cf. the present editor's criticism 
 Dr. Davidson's interpretation of the two phrases ( Theology of the O. T., p. 56), ii 
 JTS. vi. p. 466. 
 
 * For the use of 'now' in the rendering of A.V., R.V., cf. the illustration 
 collected in the Oxford New Eng. Diet., vi. s.v. II. 9, where the adverb is usei 
 ' In sentences expressing a command or request, with the purely temporal sensi 
 weakened or effaced' : e.^. Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, II. i. 124, 'Nov 
 faire befall your maske ' ; Tempest, in. i. 15, 'Alas, now pray you worke not si 
 hard . . . pray now rest yourselfe.' The usage is similar in modern colloquia 
 speech, in such a form of request as ' Now, don't forget ! ' 
 
 } In 2/. 39 A. V. , R.V. the rendering ' I pray thee ' stands side by side with thi 
 rendering ' now '— ' Let me prove, I fray thee, but this once with the fleece ; le 
 it now be dry only upon the fleece.' In 73A.V., R.V. rei is rendered 'Goto, 
 as in Isa. s ', Jer. 18" (on the use of this obsolete expression, cf. DB. ii. 19412) 
 apparently because the rendering ' I pray thee ' was felt to be unsuitable in th^ 
 mouth of Yahweh. There is no reason, however, why ' prithee ' should not b 
 employed in these passages also as the conventional introduction of a reques 
 (or a command couched as such), which is what nd amounts to in Heb. 
 
6. i8. 19.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES t^t 
 
 bring my present, and set it before thee.' And he said, ' I will 
 abide until thou returnest.' 19. And Gide'on went in, and made 
 ready a kid of the goats, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of 
 
 express himself clearly through fear of giving offence. He desires 
 confirmation of his surmise, but does not quite know how to phrase 
 his request, or what kind of sign to expect, because he is not yet clear 
 as to the character of the stranger. 
 
 In what follows, however, in v^^ there is no reference to a. sign, 
 the sign of v.^^ being clearly unexpected by Gide'on ; and the act of 
 grace which is asked of the stranger is to stay while a meal is pre- 
 pared for him, the conversion of which into a sacrifice does not seem 
 to be anticipated. It is likely, therefore, that, as Mo., Bu., etc., think, 
 vS^ may be an editorial addition,* and that originally z/.^'^ was 
 directly connected with w.^^" — an arrangement which would make 
 the passage closely parallel to Gen. 18' J, ' Prithee, if I have found 
 grace in thy sight, prithee pass not away from thy servant.' 
 
 1 8. tny present. The Heb. minhd frequently denotes a gift volun- 
 tarily offered (c£ note on ' tribute,' ch. 3 ■") ; but it is somewhat strange 
 to ffnd it applied to hospitality offered in the form of a meal. It is 
 possible, therefore, that the term is intended to denote {sacrificiaT) 
 offering (so ffi tt]V dva-iav, F ' sacrificium '), and that its employ- 
 ment is due to editorial alteration in view of the fact that the 
 meal actually did become a sacrifice : cf note preceding. Bu. con- 
 jectures that, in place of ' and bring my min/ia,' the original narrative 
 may have used the words ' and bring unto thee a morsel of bread ' : 
 cf Gen 186. 
 
 ig. made ready, etc. If we regard this description as referring to 
 the preparation of an ordinary meal, we must suppose that the cakes 
 are unleavened as necessarily prepared in haste ; and that the broth 
 is probably the liquid in which the meat was boiled (Kimchi), which, 
 as containing much of its nutritiousness, would not be wasted. Bohme, 
 however, finds in the ingredients of the meal the three forms of 
 sacrificial offering— flesh-offering, meal-offering, and drink-offering,— 
 and therefore regards ■z/.'°^P ('the flesh . . . pot') and v.^ as a later 
 addition to the narrative, inserted for the purpose of giving to the 
 meal the character of a religious offering. This view is also favoured 
 by Bu. Against it, Mo. remarks, 'if the object was to convert 
 Gide'on's hospitahty into a sacrifice, it would have^been done unmis- 
 takably. In no ritual that we know was meat presented in a basket 
 (as unleavened cakes were) or a libation made of broth. It is con- 
 ceivable that such rites existed in this eariy time ; but not that such 
 a description proceeds from a later edition. I find in the words, how- 
 
 * The unusual relative particle tJ'. as in 8 28, is thought to mark the passage 
 as a gloss. 
 
1^4 THE BOOIt OF JUDGES t6. 20. 21 
 
 meal : the flesh he put in a basket, and the broth he put in ; 
 pot ; and he brought it out unto him under the terebinth, an( 
 presented it. 20. And the Angel of God said unto him, 'Taki 
 the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and set them on yonde 
 crag, and pour out the broth': and he did so. 21. And thi 
 Angel of Yahweh stretched forth the end of the staff which wa 
 in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes 
 and fire went up from the rock, and devoured the flesh and thi 
 
 ever, no certain evidence of a sacrificial intention; even tJ'3»1 ['am 
 presented it'] is properly used of bringing food to one, putting i 
 within his reach (Gen. 27 2*).' The question must be held to bi 
 doubtful ; cf. note following. 
 
 an ephah. A dry measure, corresponding to the liquid measun 
 called bath, each containing the tenth part of a homer : cf. Ezek. 45 " 
 Its content was probably about a bushel. Such a quantity of flour- 
 weighing some 45 lb., and sufficient to make about twenty-three 
 our ordinary loaves — is hugely in excess of the needs of the occasion 
 and possibly this consideration should be held to weigh in favour 
 the opinion that the writer has in view a religious offering rather thai 
 an ordinary meal prepared for a single individual. 
 
 20. The Angel of God. The expression is that which is commonly 
 employed by E (cf ch. 2 '^ note) ; J's phrase, which is elsewhere em 
 ployed throughout this narrative, being ' the Angel of Yahweh ' (st 
 here ffi'^^, Si^, H''). Probably the present variation is merely due tc 
 transcriptional accident (Mo.), and does not indicate a differencf 
 of source. 
 
 ' Take the flesh, etc.'' This ritual as here prescribed can scarcely 
 fail to suggest to us the ancient rock-altar with cup-marks on its sur 
 face for receiving libations, such as have been discovered in the 
 excavations of various ancient sites in Palestine ; cf. Driver, Sckwdd 
 Lectures, pp. 66 f; Vincent, Canaan, pp. 94 ff.; TB. ii. pp. 2f 
 Possibly, therefore, the origin of the legend should be traced to the 
 fact that such a rock-altar existed at 'Ophrah in liter times, and thai 
 its consecration as such was popularly ascribed to the occasion herf 
 related. If this is so, however, why are we told in v.^ that Gide'or 
 subsequently built an altar to Yahweh on the site? Perhaps wf 
 should find in these facts (as Wellh. thinks) an indication of the com' 
 posite character of the narrative. 
 
 21. stretched forth . . . in his hatid. We may note the verba 
 similarity to i Sam. 14^" — also J. 
 
 and fire went up, etc. The supernatural fire is a token of thf 
 Divine acceptance of the offering as well as of the power of thf 
 Deity: cf. i Kgs. iS^'"-, Lev. 9 2*, 2 Chr. 7I. In the similar nana 
 tive of ch. i3W-2» it seems that Manoah kindles his sacrifice in th( 
 ordinary way. 
 
6. 22. 23. 24.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 193 
 
 unleavened cakes : and the Angel of Yahweh departed from his 
 sight. 22. And Gide'on perceived that he was the Angel of 
 Yahweh ; and Gide'on said, ' Alas, Lord Yahweh ! forasmuch as 
 I have seen the Angel of Yahweh face to face.' 23. And Yahweh 
 said to him, ' Peace be to thee ; fear not. Thou shalt not die.' 
 24. So Gide'on built there an altar to Yahweh, and called it 
 Yahweh shdlom. Unto this day it is still in 'Ophrah of the 
 Abfezrites. 
 
 from the rock. The fact that 'the crag' iJias-Uld) of z".^" is here 
 called ' the rock ' {has-sur) is noted by several commentators ; but it 
 scarcely seems necessary to infer diversity of source from this small 
 variation. 
 
 and the Angel of Yahweh departed, etc. Cf. ch. 13^", where the 
 Angel ascends in the flame from the altar, and disappears. 
 
 22. And Gide'on perceived, etc. Here we have a clear indication 
 that it is only after the portent related in z/.^* that Gide'on recognizes 
 the supernatural character of his guest. Cf. note on ' my lord,' v. '^. 
 
 '■Alas, etc' For the idea that no human being can see God and 
 survive, unless through an exceptional manifestation of the Divine 
 favour, cf. ch. 13 '2'-, Gen. 16" J* 3230 5|§3i j^ Ex. 248-" J, 3318-23 J. 
 E in Ex. 20 '^ extends the danger of death to the hearing of the voice 
 of God : cf. Deut. 4 '^, 5 ^■^^. We may notice also the words of Isa'iah 
 in Isa, 6^ On the other hand, Ex. 33" E states that 'Yahweh used 
 to speak unto Moses face to face (D'^a'^sK D''JB, as in our passage), 
 as a man speaketh unto his friend,' 
 
 23. And Yahweh said, etc. It is rather strange to find Yahweh 
 again speaking after the departure of His visible representative 
 (i/.2ibp). and there is no indication that the voice is to be understood 
 as coming from heaven, as inferred by Kimchi and Levi ben-Gershon. 
 It seems likely, therefore, that t/w.^^-^i may be due to a later hand, 
 in explanation of the name of the altar, Yahweh shalom. Cf. the 
 inference already drawn, in the note on 'Take the flesh, etc' v.'^", as 
 to vv.'^'''^ in relation to z/t/.^^-^''. 
 
 24. Yahweh shdlom. The meaning is 'Yahweh is peace,' i.e. 
 ^\% peaceful' or 'well-disposed: For this use of Mdm (substantive 
 in place of adjective), cf. Ps. 120'', 
 
 ' I am peace ; but when I speak. 
 They are for war.' 
 
 * In this passage we ought probably to follow Wellh. in emending Hagar's 
 words, "XI nriK TIKI '■n'KT D^l'^X 0^0 ' ^^^^ ' actually seen God and 
 lived after my vision ? ' 
 
 N 
 
194 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6.2 
 
 25. E^ And it came to pass the same night, that Yahweh sa: 
 to him, ' Take Tten men of thy servants'!, and a bull [] of sevc 
 
 25. And it came to pass the same night. Cf., for the exact phras 
 ch. 7 ^, 2 Sam. 7 *, 2 Kgs. 19 ^. ' The same night,' if the expressic 
 is an integral part of the source (E^ ; cf. the same phrase in v.'^" E 
 probably refers to the night following the day on which the unname 
 prophet uttered his denunciation {vvJ-^'^). It is possible, howeve 
 that the phrase may be the redactional formula of RJ"^, and may refi 
 to the Theophany which immediately precedes in the narrative as 
 at present stands. 
 
 ' Ten men . . . years old. The text of f^ is here incomprehensibl 
 and can only be naturally rendered ' the bull of the ox which belongel 
 to thy father, and the second bull of seven years old.' Only one bui 
 however, is mentioned in vv.^^''^ ; and apart from the difficulty involve 
 in the expression 'the bull of the ox,'* it is impossible to divine wh 
 Gide'on should be ordered to take this first mentioned animal, seeiii 
 that it is not utilized in any way in the narrative which follows. R.1 
 (in agreement with Ew., Stu., Ke., etc.) explains the conjunction 
 'and' in the sense 'even,' thus making the reference to be to or 
 animal only ; but it is more than doubtful whether such a renderin 
 is legitimate. J 
 
 Clearly the text of % must have suffered corruption ; but tl: 
 Versions seem to have had practically the same text before then 
 and thus afford us little or no help.. 
 
 (S", Tov ixoiTXOV rbv ravpov Ss itrriv T(f ■jrarpl crov Kal fi6<T-)(0v Seirepi 
 iTTTaerij, agrees in all respects with |§. The only important variatioi 
 offered by ffi'^'' are rbv fioa-xov tov (nrevrov in place of tov p.6(rxov ti 
 ravpov, and the omission of Kal before the second p.6(rxov. This 1 
 any rate yields an intelligible sense ; ' the second bull of seven yeai 
 old' being taken ^s a further definition of 'thy father's fatted bul 
 and the reference thus being to one animal only ; though why tl 
 
 * A somewhat similar collocation is seen in Ps. 6981, fgss, 1Q ^itS'D 'mo 
 than an ox-bull.' Here, however, parallelism and rhythm compel us to divi( 
 the stichoi at litS'lO and, probably, to read 1E3D in place of "IS ; 
 
 ' And it shall please Yahweh more than an ox ; 
 <More than> a bull that hath horns and parted hoofs.' 
 
 J A few cases can be cited in which the conjunction 1 appears to have su( 
 an explicative force ; but they are rare, and in most cases the text is open 
 suspicion. Cf. i Sam. ly*", 'and he put them into the shepherd's bagwhi 
 
 he had, even into the scrip' (D1pp*3>l) • i Sam. 28', 'and they buried him 
 
 Ramah, even in his city' (ITW^) See further BDB. s.v. 1, lb; G-! 
 § 154, n i^ 
 
6, 25.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 195 
 
 years old, and pull down the altar of Ba'al which belongeth to 
 thy father, and cut down the Ashera which is by it. 26. And 
 
 animal in question should be described as ' the second,' with assumed 
 reference to an unnamed ' first ' bull, remains obscure. It should be 
 noticed, however, that t-oi' fiocrxov tov o-ltcvtov simply represents the 
 rendering of ffi'^'' in w^, i.e. iJE'n "IBH 'the second bull' read as 
 
 jDB'n "lan 'the fatted bull.' It seems obvious, therefore, that the 
 
 text of ffi*'' has suffered correction after w.^', and that we have no 
 real elucidation of |§'s lie^n-ns 'the bull of the ox.' Some MSS. 
 
 of ® represent '31 ^JtJT! 1S1 by xai noa-xov iirraeTri with omission of 
 Sevrepov ; and this word is marked with an asterisk in Z^. 
 
 Y 'taurum patris tui,' S'" ^C^S:!]^ ]yoL 'the bull of thy father,' 
 omitting either "IS or "licn ; or possibly rendering the difficult com- 
 pound expression by a single term, just as is done by R.V., 'thy 
 father's bullock,' cutting the difficulty. ST simply represents the text 
 ofl. 
 
 In face of this difficulty, the most satisfactory course seems to be 
 to follow Kue. (in Doom., p. 70 n.) and to restore the text after ■v.^''^, 
 QijB? yatr -\S^ •qnaUD D'-B'JN miyj; np, omitting ''JtJ'n 'the second' 
 
 as an insertion made subsequently to the textual corruption which 
 introduced apparent mention of iwo bulls : cf for this latter point, 
 the evidence from the Versions above cited. Gide'on is commanded 
 to take ten men of his servants, and in v. ^ it is stated, with no more 
 than the necessary variation in wording, that he took them. Such 
 detailed repetition is characteristic of Heb. story-telling, as of Baby- 
 lonian ; and is a feature which, so far from appearing tautologous, 
 adds a certain vivid picturesqueness to the narrative. It will be 
 sufficient here to compare ck. 7Wt>»i=: '"Go down, thou and Purah 
 thy lad, unto the camp" ... So he went down, he and Purah 
 his lad, etc' 
 
 Kue.'s emendation is favoured by Bu., Oort, Mo. (Comm.), Kit., 
 Cress. ; but Mo. (SBOT.), La. prefer to read simply ]afn narrriN n|5 
 'Take the fatted bull.' 
 
 i^e Ashera. The 'ashera (plur. usually 'dsherim ; in two late 
 passages, 2 Chr. 19 ^ 33' 'asherdth; Judg. 3^ probably a textual 
 error for 'ashtaroth ; cf note ad loc.) was an idolatrous object, the 
 precise character of which is very doubtful. The most lucid refer- 
 ence is Deut. 16 2', where it is enjoined, 'Thou shalt not plant an 
 Ashera— any kind of tree {or wood) beside the altar of Yahweh.' 
 We thus gather that the Ashera was a wooden object (cf v.^'^ of the 
 present context), possibly a tree-trunk or pole, which was 'planted,' 
 or, as 2 Chr. 33 1° has it, 'set on end' in the ground beside an altar 
 (cf. the present passage). This inference is borne out by the various 
 
196 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 2 
 
 verbs which are employed to describe the destruction of the Asher 
 e.g. it might be 'cut down' {v.'^, 2 Kgs. 18*, 23 1*), 'chopped dowi 
 (Deut. ^^ 2 Chr. 14 ^ W, 31'), 'plucked up' (Mic. 5", l§"), 'puUe 
 down' (2 Chr. 34'), or 'burnt' (Deut. 12 3, 2 Kgs. 23 1^). it is con 
 monly supposed, upon this evidence, that the Ashera was a symbi 
 of, or substitute for, the sacred tree which lyas regarded by the earl 
 Semites as the abode of a deity ; much as the massebha or standin 
 stone preserved the idea that the deity was accustomed to inhab 
 stones or rocks. Upon the unsatisfactory character of this inferenc 
 cf. Mo. in EB. 331. 
 
 There are passages in the O.T. in which Ashera seems to be use 
 as the name of a Cana'anite goddess. Thus, in 2 Kgs. 21 ' mention : 
 made of 'the graven image of the Ashera' placed by Manasseh i 
 the Temple. 2 Kgs. 23 ^ perhaps speaks of women weaving 'shrines 
 {battim, lit. 'houses') for the Ashera ; and the Ba'al and the Ashei 
 are coupled together as the objects of idolatrous worship : i Kgs. 18 ' 
 2 Kgs. 23 *. 
 
 We find the name ASirtu or ASratu in Babylonian as the name ( 
 a goddess, who was doubtless of Amorite origin. In an inscriptio 
 dedicated to ASratum on behalf of Qammurabi, in which this kin 
 is specially designated as king of Amurru (the west land), the goddes 
 appears as 'bride of the king of heaven' (fiallat sar same), and a 
 ' mistress of sexual vigour and rejoicing ' {belit kuzbi u ulsi) : c 
 Hommel, Aufsatze und Abhandlungen, ii. p. 211. The name Abe 
 ASirta =' servant of Ashera' is borne by the chieftain of Amur: 
 who figures prominently in the T. A. Letters (cf. Introd. p. Ixxii ff.) ; an 
 the name (ilu) ASratum-ummi = ' (the goddess) ASratum is my mothei 
 is found three times as a feminine name on contract-tablets of th 
 First Babylonian dynasty : cf. Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et Contrats a 
 Vepoque de la;preniiire dynastie Babylonienne, p. 16. Special interei 
 attaches to a passage in one of the Bab. tablets discovered a 
 Ta'anach, which runs, ' If the finger ( = omen) of ASirat point, then le 
 one mark and follow' : cf Rogers, CP. p. 282 ; TB. i. p. 128. The 5 
 Arabian goddess Atirat is doubtless the same as Ashera, and appear 
 according to Hommel, to have been consort of the moon-god (cf oj 
 cit. pp. 207 ff.). In an Aram, inscription from the N. Arabian Tto 
 her name is ASira (Cooke, NSI. pp. 195 ff. ; La., ARS.^ pp. 12: 
 502 £). 
 
 The relation of the Ashera-cult to Yahweh-worship, and the cor 
 nexion of the Ashera as a wooden symbol (pole or tree-trunk) wit 
 the goddess of this name are very obscure questions ; but the follow 
 ing theory may be advanced. Evidence goes to prove that the Go' 
 Yahweh was known and worshipped by the 'Amorite' immigrant 
 into W. Syria (Amurru), whose original home was probably S. Ajabi; 
 and who founded the First Dynasty at Babylon (cf. Additional noli 
 p. 243). The presumption is at any rate very strong that Yahweh wa 
 
6. 25.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 197 
 
 identified with the moon-god Sin, whose predominance at this period 
 is attested by the preponderance of proper names compounded with 
 Sin in the First Dynasty tablets (cf. Additional note, p. 249). But, 
 as we have just observed, Atirat seems to have been the consort 
 of the moon-god in S. Arabia ; and the same conclusion may be 
 drawn as to A§ratum from her title 'bride of the king of heaven' in 
 the inscription of Qammurabi above quoted. Quite possibly, there- 
 fore, Ashera may have been worshipped among the Amorites in- 
 habiting Canaan as the consort of Yahweh ; and this fact would 
 account both for the setting up of her symbol beside the altar of 
 Yahweh, and also for the bitter hostility with which her cult was 
 regarded by the prophets as exponents of the true (Mosaic) Yahwism. 
 
 The use of the normal expression mBlKn 'the Ashera' in O.T. is 
 strange as applied to a goddess ; but the explanation probably is that 
 it was employed to designate the symbol of the goddess (the pole or 
 tree-trunk), which was perhaps not usually carved to represent her 
 features ; though this may occasionally have been the case (cf. ' the 
 graven image of the Ashera,' 2 Kgs. 21 ', noticed above), as with the 
 stone pillars of Hathor at Serabit (cf Petrie, Researches in Sinai, 
 plates 95, loi, 102, 103, III), and the totem-poles of certain savage 
 tribes at the present day. * Possibly the 'horrible object (Heb. jniph- 
 le'seth) for an Ashera' erected by the queen- mother in the reign of Asa 
 (i Kgs. 15'') was a pole carved with certain features which were more 
 than usually revolting to the exponents of the purer form of Yahwism. 
 
 Whether the Amorite mCN 'Ashera stood in any connexion with 
 the originally Babylonian mntJ'J? 'Ashtart (IStar), or was quite distinct 
 from her, is a question which cannot at present be settled. The two 
 names are unconnected. | The name Ashera probably designates the 
 goddess as the giver oi good fortune : cf. the sense attaching to the 
 root ^t5'K in Heb. In this connexion it is worth while to recall 
 the passage above cited from the Ta'anach tablet, where the finger of 
 Ashera points the way to the right or prosperous course. 
 
 There can be little doubt that, as has often been remarked, the 
 tribal name Asher was originally connected with the deity of good 
 fortune (a masc. form of Ashera ?), just as the name Gad is derived 
 from a similar deity. Indeed, it seems highly probable that, just as 
 the latter name is explained by 123 ' with (the help of) Gad ! ' in 
 Gen. 30" J, so the somewhat strange expression nB'Xa 'in my good 
 luck ! ' {i.e. by somewhat forced inference, ' I am in luck ! '), Gen. 30'' J, 
 
 * The reason why no example of an Ashera has been unearthed in excavation, 
 whereas the occurrence of massebhoth, or standing stones, has proved very 
 frequent, doubtless is that the former was always made of wood, which necessarily 
 perishes in the damp climate of Palestine. 
 
 X Haupt's attempt to connect the two names (JAOS. xxviii. pp. 112 ff.) does 
 not commend itself. Cf. the criticisms of Barton [JAOS. xxxi. pp. 355 ff.). 
 
igS THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 26 
 
 build an altar to Yahweh thy God upon the top of this stronghold 
 in due form, and take the bull [], and offer it up as a burni 
 offering with the wood of the Ashera which thou shalt cut down. 
 27. So Gide'on took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh 
 had spoken unto him ; and, because he feared his father's house- 
 hold and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, 
 he did it by night. 28. And the men of the city rose up early 
 in the morning, and, behold, the, altar of Ba'al was broken down, 
 and the Ashera which was by it was cut down, and the bull [] 
 was offered up upon the altar which had been built. 29. And 
 they said one to another, ' Who hath done this thing ? ' And 
 when they had enquired and searched, they said, 'Gide'on the 
 
 is an intentional alteration of an original niK'N3 ' with (the help of) 
 
 Ashera ! ' * : cf. Ball ad loc, SBOT. p. 84. This passage, then, would 
 suggest that part of the ' good fortune ' brought by Ashera was con- 
 nected with success in child-bearing ; a characteristic which connects 
 the goddess, at least in function, with I star under the aspect of 
 Mylitta, i.e. muallidat : cf. p. 59 note. \ 
 
 26. this stronghold. The Heb. ma6z (from the root 'Az ' to take 
 or seek refuge') seems here to denote a natural fastness, i.e. an 
 inaccessible crag, rather than a fortification. Cf. sAr maoz, ' rock of 
 fastness,' Isa. 17 1°, Ps. 31 2, 5§3 
 
 in due form. Heb. bam-md'^rdkha, i.e., apparently, lit. ' in the 
 (proper) arrangement.' The verb 'arakh, from which the substantive 
 is derived, when used in a sacrificial connexion, may mean to arrange 
 the logs of wood upon an altar (Gen. 22 \ or the portions of the 
 sacrificial victim upon the wood (Lev. i ^-^^ 6*). The altar-pyre thus 
 
 * Or possibly "iB'Xa ' With (the help of) Asher!' 2.«. the masc. form of Ashera. 
 
 Hommel (op. cit. p. 209) is inclined to think that traces may be found in O.T. of 
 Asher as a surname of Yahweh in several old poetical passages, especially in 
 Deut. 33 29, which he renders, 
 
 '[Yahweh] is the shield of thine help. 
 And Asher the sword of thine excellency.' 
 
 Such an explanation certainly relieves the difficulty of 'jniXa T\T\ ir'Sl, 
 where "IB'N^ as vocalized in iW, is taken for the relative pronoun ; R.V. 'And 
 that is the sword, etc.'— a very awkward and unpoetical construction. 
 
 X The view that the name Ashera is connected with Bab. aHrtu 'temple,' 
 perhaps so called as a 'place of favour,' and that the Ashera was simply a pole 
 which marked the precincts of such a sanctuary, does not seem to be probable. 
 If this was the only significance which the Ashera possessed, why should it have 
 excited so much animosity upon the part of the adherents of the purer form of 
 Yahwism ? 
 
6. 30.] ^ THE BOOK OF JUDGES 199 
 
 son of Joash hath done this thing.' 30. And the men of the 
 city said unto Joash, 'Bring forth thy son, that he may die; 
 because he hath broken down the altar of Ba'al, and because he 
 hath cut down the Ashera which was by it.' 31. And Joash 
 
 arranged is termed md'^rakha in Ecclus. 50 '2*'-, where, in speaking of 
 Simon the son of Onias, the writer says : 
 
 ' When he received the pieces from the hand of his brethren, 
 
 While himself standing by the pyres ; 
 
 Round about him a crown of sons, 
 
 Like cedar-plants in Lebanon ; 
 
 And they encompassed him like poplars of the widy, 
 
 All the sons of Aaron in their glory. 
 
 With the fire-offerings of Yahweh in their hand, 
 
 Before all the assembly of Israel ; 
 
 Until he finished serving the altar, 
 
 And setting in order the pyres of the Most High. 
 
 Here the first phrase italicized is ni3"lVD 73, and the second 
 
 In Num. 23 *, ' The seven altars have I arranged^ the verb may 
 be used as in the cases noticed above, of setting in order the altar- 
 pyres ; but it is possible that it refers to the arranging of the stones 
 of the altars, i.e. to the building of them. 
 
 In our passage, the context forbids us to interpret md'^rakha of the 
 altar or pyre as duly arranged ; but it is natural and legitimate to 
 understand the word as denoting the act of arrangement (whether of 
 the altar-stones or the pyre), as prescribed by custom. 
 
 The explanation of bam-md'^rdkha here adopted is that which is 
 offered by !L 'in ordinadone,' S>' 'ji ,m«-^ ^ % K"nD3 'in order' ; and 
 is probably intended by <&. iv tj waparaiei. U paraphrases ' super 
 quepi ante sacrificium posuisti ' — a rendering which seems to accord 
 with the view put forward by Kimchi, who, having explained the niddz 
 as the crag upon which Gide'on offered the flesh and the unleavened 
 cakes, then goes on to interpret md"-rdkhd as the level place on the 
 top of the crag upon which it was possible to arrange the stones of 
 the altar. Levi ben-Gershon explains similarly. 
 
 take the bull. Omitting ^VBT\ 'the second'; here and in ^/.^^ as 
 
 a later gloss. Cf note preceding. 
 
 30. '■ Bring forth, etc.^ The voluntary surrender of Gide'on by his 
 father would have obviated the blood-feud which must have been 
 entailed if the townsmen had slain him without such consent (Mo., 
 Cooke). Mo. quotes a parallel from the life of Mohammed :— ' So 
 the Qoreish at Mecca tried to persuade Mohammed's uncle, Abu 
 Jalib, to withdraw from him his protection, that they might kill the 
 
200 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 31 
 
 said to all who stood by him, ' Will ye contend for Ba'al ? or wil 
 ye save him? Whosoever will contend for him shall 'be put t( 
 death at morning : if he be a god, let him contend for himself 
 because he hath broken down his altar.' 32. So they called bin 
 
 pestilent agitator without incurring the vengeance of his family 
 (Ibn Hisham, ed. Wiistenfeld, pp. 167-169). 
 
 31. ' Will ye, etc' The pronoun is very emphatic in the original, 
 the contrast being between the assumed power of the god as con- 
 trasted with his would-be avengers. Mo. appositely cites 'deorum 
 injuriae dis curae,' Tacitus, Annals i. 73. 
 
 Whosoever . . . at morning. These words interrupt the connexion 
 between the first and last parts of the verse (cf. note preceding) ; and 
 are probably, as Bu. thinks, the insertion of a zealot for Yahweh who, 
 not satisfied with so mild a method of procedure as is suggested by 
 Joash (the leaving of the god to take care of himself if he can), puts 
 into his mouth the statement that the service of a false god deserves 
 the death-penalty (cf Deut. 13). 
 
 at morning. I.e., we may infer, the morning of the next day. The 
 outrage perpetrated upon Ba'al's altar was discovered in the early 
 morning (v.'^\ but the investigations implied by v.^ must have 
 taken some time ; and it was possibly not until the evening that the 
 deed was brought home to Gide'on. 
 
 The phrase npan — IJ) commonly means 'until the morning' [ch. 19^', 
 
 Ex. 16 ^'•2*, 29'*, al.); but since this sense is here unsuitable, we 
 must take the force of the pref IV to be at (lit. up to) the time indi- 
 cated—much as we speak of arriving up to time in the sense at the 
 
 fixed time. Cf, in a spatial connexion, the use of the prep. PK 'unto' 
 where we should expect 'at' ; i Kgs. 6'^ 2 Kgs. 10'^, Ezek. 31', 47' 
 (cf note in NHTK. on i Kgs. 6 '*). This explanation of "IJ? seems 
 more probable than the view that it should be taken in the sense 
 ' w/^zYe the morning (lasts)'; cf DilDnprin IV 'whilst they delayed,' 
 
 If, however, such passages as ch. 16^ ''i?.3i7 liX'lJf, i Sam. i 
 
 IWn ?D3'"1V, really imply an ellipse of some such word as ' wait,' and 
 
 should be rendered ' Till the morning dawns ! ' ' Till the lad be 
 weaned ! ' (cf note on the former passage) ; it would be possible 
 in the present passage to treat "IpDH IJ? similarly as an independent 
 sentence, placing a break on flOV preceding : — ' Whosoever will 
 contend for him shall be put to death. (Wait) till the morning! 
 If he be a god, etc' : i.e. if Ba'al is really a god, he will at any 
 rate have taken action to avenge himself by the next morning; 
 therefore it is reasonable to ask for a suspense of judgment until 
 that time. 
 
6. 32.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 201 
 
 Jerubbaal on that day, saying, ' Let Baal contend with him, 
 because he hath broken down his altar.' 
 
 32. Jerubbaal. The meaning, as explained by the narrator, is 
 ' Let Ba'al contend,' an Imperf. ani /Jussive ah')* being employed 
 
 for the normal 311' /Jussive 3Ti\ which would yield the form 
 ^yaT Jeribba'al. Why, in face of the explicit statement oiv.^^. Mo. 
 
 should say that 'by an ingenious etymology the name is made to 
 signify. Adversary of Ba'al,' is not clear. 
 
 It is probable that, while the meaning of the name may really be 
 ' Let Ba'al contend,' or ' Ba'al contends,' Ba'al is here, as often elsewhere 
 (see below), a title of Yahweh ; and the original purpose of the name 
 was to place the bearer of it under the guardianship of the Deity :— - 
 'Let Ba'al contend,' sc. for the bearer of the name, i.e. be his 
 advocate. Such a meaning appears to attach to the name Merib- 
 ba'al (i Chr. 8''', 9*°), which is compounded with the participial form 
 of the verb : — ' Ba'al is an advocate,' sc. of his nominee ; and, 
 similarly, we have the name Jeho-yarib, i.e. ' Yahweh contendeth,' 
 I Chr. 9^°, ai. Cf, passages in which the verb ribA is used of 
 Yahweh's taking sides on behalf of His servants, or pleading their 
 cause : so in I Sam. 25 3", David, on hearing of the death of Nabal, 
 says, ' Blessed be Yahweh, who hath pleaded the cause of my 
 reproach ('nsin ^''TflN 3n nCN) from the hand of Nabal' ; Mic. 7", 
 'Till He (Yahweh) shall plead my cause' (lan anj) ; Jer. 50 3*, 
 ' Their Avenger is strong ; Yahweh Sebha'oth is His name ; He shall 
 surely plead their cause ' (Din-riK an'' an). 
 
 Wellh. {TBS. p. 31) suggests that the name should properly be 
 i>W^T Jeriiba'al, which is supposed to mean 'Founded by Ba'al,' or 
 ' Foundation of Ba'al ' (the first element from the root m'' : for form, 
 cf. fjKWS Penuel, 'Face of God') ; and with this he compares jJKn' 
 Jeruel, 2 Chr. 20"; ^Nn« Jeriel, i Chr. 7==. This suggestion has 
 been favoured by several scholars (Mo., Bu., No., etc), but is in no 
 way superior to the explanation adopted above. | 
 
 That the title Baal, i.e. ' Master' or ' Owner,' was actually applied 
 to Yahweh in early times cannot be doubted. Thus we have the 
 name Esh-ba'al or Ish-ba'al, i.e. 'man of Ba'al,' a son of Saul, who 
 always appears as a loyal worshipper of Yahweh (i Chr. 8 '3, 939); 
 Merib-ba'al, son of Jonathan, noticed above ; Ba'al-yadha, i.e. 'Ba'al 
 knows or takes notice ' {sc. of the bearer of the name ; i Chr. 14 '), a 
 
 » Cf., for this form, Prov. a'" Kt.. and Infin. Constr. 311 Judg. ^z^ayr/. 
 + As a matter of fact, the sense to be attached to the element ^'''J m y'r^el- 
 is highly uncertain. 
 
202 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 33. 
 
 33. E And all Midian and'Amalek and the children of the East 
 assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and 
 encamped in the vale of Jezre'el. 34. J And the spirit of Yahweh 
 
 name borne by one of David's heroes; Ba'al-hanan, i.e. 'Ba'al is 
 gracious' (i Chr. 27^'), one of David's officers; and — most striking 
 instance of all — Ba'al-ya, i.e. ' Ya or Yahweh is Ba'al' (i Chr. 12*, %\ 
 one of David's heroes. These names, where they occur in Sam., 
 have been disguised by a later hand in order to remove the reference 
 to Ba'al which was (wrongly) taken to refer to a false god. Thus 
 we find, in Ish-bosheth for Esh-ba'al, Mephib6sheth for Meribba'al, 
 the substitution of boseth = ' shame ' or ' shameful thing ' ; cf., Hos. 
 9 '°, Jer. 3 24, II 13, where allusions to the Ba'al have been similarly 
 disguised. Ba'al-yadha' appears in 2 Sam. 5 ^^ as El-yadha', i.e. 'God 
 takes notice.' Hos. 2 '^-i', '% '*-i^, is a passage which witnesses to 
 such an application of the title Ba'al to Yahweh ; and also to a dislike 
 of it on the part of the prophets of the higher form of Yahwism, which 
 was doubtless ultimately instrumental in bringing about a discon- 
 tinuance of the usage : — 'And it shall be in that day, saith Yahweh, 
 that thou shalt call me 'isi (my husband) ; and shalt call me no more 
 bcC^li (my Ba'al or Master). For I will take away the names of the 
 Ba'als out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by 
 their name.' 
 
 The reason why the name Jerubba'al was not similarly disguised by 
 later scribes doubtless was because it is essential to the point of the 
 narrative, which is polemical to idolatry. In 2 Sam. 1 1 2', however, 
 we find the altered form Jerub-besheth. Of. further the present 
 editor's Outlines of O. T. Theology^ pp. 27 ff. 
 
 33. And all Midian, etc. Cf. v. ^ note. 
 
 passed over. I.e. crossed the Jordan. 
 
 the vale of Jezre el. The name of Jezre'el is preserved in the 
 modern Zer'tn, situated upon an outlying spur of the Gilboa -range 
 overlooking the plain (for the termination -in for -el, ci. footnote p. 21). 
 According to Macalister, however, the modern site cannot actually 
 represent the ancient city, since the strata do not exhibit an antiquity 
 so remote as O.T. times (cf. PEF. Qy. St. 1909, p. 175). 
 
 'The vale {'emek) of Jezre'el' here denotes (as is clear from 
 ch. 7i-8('.i2) tjie part of the great plain immediately to the north of 
 Gilboa', where it begins to narrow down before its descent into the 
 Jordan valley. There are two other occurrences of the term in O.T. : 
 Josh. 17^" Jj where the children of Joseph state that the Cana'anites 
 inhabiting the vale of Jezre'el are too strong for them, owing to their 
 possession of iron chariots ; and Hos. i ^, where the vale is mentioned 
 as a battle-field : ' I will break the bow of Israel in the vale of 
 Jezre'el.' In these passages 'the vale of Jezre'el' seems to mean the 
 whole extent of the modern Merg ibn 'Amir, just as 'the great plain 
 
6. 34.3S-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 203 
 
 clothed itself in Gide'on, and he blew a trumpet ; and Abi'ezer 
 was called to arms after him. 35. E And he sent messengers 
 
 of Esdraelon ' * does in Judith i * ; cf. also 3 ^ 4 ^ 7 '. ' The valley 
 of Megiddo ' {bik'ath M'giddo) is a different designation for the same 
 plain in 2 Chr. 35 ^2, Zech. 12". \ 
 
 34. clothed itself in Gide'on. The same striking phrase occurs in 
 I Chr. 12 '*, |§ '", 2 Chr. 24 2°. The meaning seems to be that the divine 
 spirit took complete possession of Gide'on, so that he became, as it 
 were, its incarnation, and was thus employed as its instrument. 
 For the different terms used in this book to describe the access Of 
 the spirit of Yahweh upon a ' Judge,' cf. ch. 3 '" note. 
 
 and AbCezer. Gide'on's own clan, 'the weakest in Manasseh' 
 {v. '^), musters the three hundred who form his sole force, according 
 to the earlier and more authentic tradition preserved in J : cf. p. 1 79. 
 
 was called to arms. Heb. pWI. The passive (Niph'al) form of 
 
 the verb pyt or PJJV, meaning ' to cry out or call,' always denotes a 
 summons to battle or armed resistance ; the original reference of 
 the verb probably being to the loud, excited shout of a messenger 
 who has litde time to spare. R.V.'s rendering, ' was gathered to- 
 gether,' is weak and inexpressive. 
 
 35. And he sent messengers, etc. On the summoning of the tribes 
 here mentioned, cf. pp. 178 f. 
 
 * Esdraelon, the Graecized form of Jezre'el, is written EtrSpaT^Xwj', E(r5/)?/Xwj/, 
 Ytd^ijKuiv, with other variants which are doubtless due to textual corruption. Cf. 
 the full list in EB. 1391, n 1. 
 
 X Smith {HG. pp. 384 ff.) would restrict the O.T. usage of ' the vale of Jezre'el ' 
 to the south-eastern portion of the plain denoted in our passage (see above) ; while 
 supposing that the whole wide open plain was properly termed if^a, as in the 
 phrase bikaik M''giddo. This view is based upon the assumption that, while 
 tik'd (which he renders 'Plain or Opening') may denote a broad open valley 
 surrounded by hills, 'emek (rendered ' Vale or Deepening ') is ' never applied to 
 any extensive plain away from hills, but always to wide avenues running up into 
 a mountainous country like the Vale of Elah, the Vale of Hebron, and the Vale 
 of Aijalon.' Such a conclusion as regards 'emek (though quoted with approval 
 by many scholars, e.g. Cooke here ; Gray on Num. 1426, ICC. ; Driver in i)5. 
 iv. 846a) can scarcely be maintained. In ch. 1 19 (cf. note) 'emek denotes the 
 whole of the maritime plain to the west of the hill-country of Judah ; and the 
 usage in t'-* is similar, and can scarcely be restricted to the vale of Sorek or the 
 vale of Aijalon. In the Song of Deborah, ch. 5I50 (and ». "« as emended), 
 'mek denotes the widest and most open part of the great plain, through which 
 the kishon flows. The words of the servants of the king of Aram, i Kgs. 20 23, 
 ' Their gods are gods of hills ; therefore were they stronger than we : but let us 
 fight against them in the plain (Heb. tam-miUr, lit. 'upon the level ground') ; 
 surely we shall be stronger than they ' (cf. also v. 25), are paraphrased by the 
 man of God (J/.28), 'Because the Aramaeans said "A god of hills is Yahweh, 
 and not a god of vales " ' {imaktm). Here it would be .absurd to say that the 
 reference is to the valleys running up into the hills, and not to the low-lying and 
 level country generally. Similarly, the'««4 in which the horses are pictured as 
 
204 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [6. 36. 37. 39. 
 
 throughout all Manasseh, and they R'"^ also E were called tc 
 arms after him ; E^ and he sent messengers throughout Ashei 
 and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them. 
 36. E And Gide'on said unto God, ' If thou art about to save 
 Israel by my hand, as thou hast spoken, 37. behold, I am setting 
 a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor : if there be dew upon the 
 fleece alone, and it be dry upon all the ground, then I shall 
 know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast spoken.' 
 
 38. And it was so : he rose up on the morrow, and wrung the 
 fleece, and squeezed the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 
 
 39. And Gide'on said unto God, ' Let not thine anger be kindled 
 against me, and I will speak only this once : let me make proof, 
 prithee, but this once with the fleece ; let it, prithee, be dry 
 upon the fleece alone, and upon all the ground let there be dew.' 
 
 40. And God did so that night : for it was dry upon the fleece 
 alone, and upon all the ground there was dew. 
 
 36. '' If thou art about to save, etc' The emphasis on ths^art' 
 {i.e. ' really art, etc.') is expressed in Heb. by the use of the substantival 
 form '^iff'i with the Participle used as a ' Futurum instans.' Cf. 
 
 Gen. 24^2 1,3^^ rT'i'VD WI{}'''"DN 'Prithee, if thou art indeed about 
 to prosper my way, etc' Where such emphasis is absent, the 
 Participle alone suffices: cf. ch. 11^, 'J1 <nix DDK D''3''B'D DK 'If 
 ye are going to bring me back.' 
 
 37. a fleece of wool. Heb. gizzath has-semer denotes a shorn 
 fleece ; therefore Cooke's suggestion that it was ' perhaps his sheep- 
 skin cloak with the wool on it ' is excluded. 
 
 39. ''Let not thine anger, etc' On the resemblance of this passage 
 to Gen. 18 3i)-32 j^ cf. p. 17Z footnote. 
 
 let me make proof, etc. The threshing-floor, in all probability a 
 flat rocky hill-top or prominence, would not collect much dew, and 
 what little there was would soon evaporate ; whereas the fleece 
 would naturally collect and hold the moisture. It thus occurs to 
 Gideon {after his first test) that the phenomenon may after all be 
 nothing in the nature of a portent. The reversed condition of things 
 — a dry fleece upon the wet rock — will be much more unexpected;' 
 and therefore more reliable as a sign of supernatural intervention. 
 
 pawing the ground, as they stand drawn up in line of battle (Job 39 21) is clearly 
 to be regarded as an open plain, like the great Merg ibn 'Amir. 
 
 While, therefore, it may be true that 'emek (lit. ' depression ') ' is a highlander's 
 word for a valley as he looks down upon it,' the further conclusion that the term 
 is ' never applied to any extensive plain away from hills, but always to wide 
 avenues running up into a mountainous country,' is, as the facts quoted above go 
 to show, entirely unwarranted. 
 
7. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 205 
 
 7. I. And Jerubba'al (R^^ that is, Gideon), E and all the people 
 who were with him, rose up early in the morning, and encamped 
 beside the spring of IJarod : and the camp of Midian was to the 
 north of him, •^eneath^ the hill of the Oracle-giver in the vale. 
 
 7. I. JerubbcCal if hat is, Gideon). The original narrative, E, here 
 employs the name Jerubba'al ; while the insertion of the hero's other 
 name is due to the redactor of J and E. Cf. p. 178. 
 
 the spring of Harod. Assuming that the description of the position 
 of the two forces is from the same source as 6 ^^ E, which describes 
 the encampment of Midian in the vale of Jezre'el (or that, if 7'"?'' is 
 from J, both narratives describe the same scene of action), then we 
 must look for the spring of Harod upon the southern edge of the 
 vale, and somewhat above it. These conditions are satisfied by the 
 'Ain Galud, which Rob. {BR?\\. p. 323) describes as 'a very large 
 fountain, flowing out firom under a sort of cavern in the wall of 
 conglomerate rock, which here forms the base of Gilboa'. The 
 water is excellent ; and issuing from crevices in the rocks, it spreads 
 out at once into a fine limpid pool, forty or fifty feet in diameter. . . . 
 From the reservoir, a stream sufficient to turn a mill flows off eastwards 
 down the valley.' Smith states that the spring 'bursts some fifteen 
 feet broad and two deep from the very foot of Gilboa', and mainly out 
 of it, but fed also by the other two springs, flows [in] a stream con- 
 siderable enough to work six or seven mills. The deep bed and soft 
 banks of this stream constitute a formidable ditch in front of the 
 position on Gilboa', and render it possible for the defenders of the 
 latter to hold the spring at their feet in face of an enemy on the 
 plain' {HG. pp. 397 f ). The name HdrSdh is susceptible of the inter- 
 pretation 'trembling'; and there is thus no doubt a play upon the 
 meaning in the narrative which follows: cf. v.'^, 'Whosoever is 
 fearful and trembling {haredh).' 
 
 was to the norih . . . in the vale. Reading nnriD jiSSp '^'^''J) 
 pDW miisn nV3J^. The text of % cannot be original, it being 
 impossible to attach any sense to n-litsn nvaSO. R-V. text, 'by the 
 hill of Moreh' is an unjustifiable perversion of the sense of JD 'from'; 
 nor does the gratuitous addition of 'onwards' by R.V. marg.—"- horn 
 the hill of Moreh onwards in the valley' — commend itself as at all 
 probable. The emendation adopted supposes simply that nvaJO 
 is a scribe's error for myh mvm ; and the reason for its adoption 
 is connected with the probable site of 'the hill of the Oracle-giver,' on 
 which see below. , 
 
 Bu. emends pova nnitsn nMJi' tiayp nnriD ib-n;n 'was beneath 
 
 him, north of the kll of the oracle-giver in the vale' (so Kit., No.). 
 Mo., who supposes that combination with z/.^Ms responsible for the 
 
2o6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [7. : 
 
 2. E" And Yahweh said unto Gide on, ' The people who ai 
 with thee are too many for me to give Midian into their hand 
 lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying " My hand hat 
 
 disorder of the passage, prefers to read pDJJa nnian nV32^ p^SD ni 
 
 ' was north of the hill of the oracle-giver in the vale.' This sense i 
 given by U (with omission of pDJ?3), ' Erant autem castra Madian i: 
 valle ad Septentrionalem plagam collis excelsi ' ; and by S'" (wit 
 
 retention of 1^) Ai.^1? i*-^'-W 'T^ °^ ^°'^ rr'r^i 1^^ -r «V 
 ^OiDOiJI) lAloi ffi, W- offer the same text as f^. 
 
 'The hill of the Oracle-giver'* is generally supposed to be th 
 6ebel Neby Dahy or Little Hermon, to the north of mount Gilboj 
 across the vale of Jezre'el. If this location is correct, the name ma 
 be connected with the fact that 'En-dor, which in the time of Sau 
 was the seat of a witch or woman with a familiar spirit (i Sam. 28'] 
 lies in close proximity to the north of Neby Dahy. Assuming thi 
 correctness of the reading either of Bu. or Mo. (as noticed above), ai 
 objection to this identification may be found in the fact that we havi 
 already been informed in 6 ^^ that the Midianites were encamped ii 
 the vale of Jezre'el, i.e. if the ordinary assumption is correct (cf not, 
 ad loc), in the Nahr Galud to the south of Gebel Neby Dahy; wherea; 
 the present passage would place the encampment to the north of thi 
 hill, perhaps not far from Nain or ' En-dor. This difficulty is not mucl 
 helped by Mo.'s alternative emendation of our passage (followed b; 
 Cooke), which substitutes nj?3J3 for nj;33D and omits pDV3 thu- 
 
 obtaining the reading, ' was on his north, on the hill of the oracle 
 giver ' ; since it is clear from vv. ^''■^^ that the Midianites were no 
 encamped upon a hill, but below the Israelites in the vale. Th( 
 desiderated sense (making the reference to be to Neby Dahy am 
 placing the encampment of Midian in the Nahr GMud) can only bf 
 obtained by the emendation offered in our text. Adopting this con 
 elusion, the positions of Gide'on and the Midianites exactly corresponc 
 to those of the two hosts in i Sam. 28 * — Saul's army on Gilboa', anc 
 the Philistines at Shunem close under Neby Dahy. 
 
 If, however, the present passage comes from J, it is conceivable, as 
 Mo. points out, that the author of this narrative may have placed the 
 scene of action, not in the vale of Jezre'el, but somewhere in the neai 
 neighbourhood of 'Ophrah, i.e. not far from Shechem. The name Morel 
 is elsewhere found only in the neighbourhood of Shechem (Gen. 12^, 
 Deut. n ™, 'the terebinth or sacred tree or trees of Moreh') ; though 
 this is a point which does not carry great weight, since there were 
 doubtless such 'oracle-givers' in other localities. It is, however, 
 
 * ffam-mor^=: ' the giver of /ord,* i.e. decision or counsel purporting to be 
 dictated by divine or supernatural agency. 
 
7. 3-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 207 
 
 wrought deliverance for me." 3. Now, therefore, prithee pro- 
 claim in the ears of the people, saying, " Whosoever is fearful 
 and trembUng, let him return, and decamp from mount fGalud^" ' 
 
 worthy of note that the introductory narrative of J presupposes (6 ") 
 that marauding Midianites were in very close proximity to ' Ophrah 
 (to which, all the same, they may have come up from their main 
 encampment in the vale of Jezre'el) ; and that in ch. 7^^ two different 
 accounts of the line of flight appear to be combined, one of which 
 may have been down the Wady Far'ah from the neighbourhood of 
 Shechem — though, in our ignorance of the localities mentioned, this 
 cannot be affirmed. Cf. note ad loc. 
 
 3. ' Whosoever is fearful, etc' For the terms of the proclamation, 
 cf Deut. 20*. 
 
 and decamp from mount Galud. Reading "yhiT^ "lilD "ISVI. The 
 
 difficulty connected with % nU^an iriD ";S3S''1 is twofold. 
 
 In the first place, if ~;as''1 is original, it stands alone in Heb. as 
 used in the present connexion ; and scholars have exhausted their 
 ingenuity in attempting to assign the verb a suitable meaning under 
 some one of the different roots "IDX which are known in Semitic. 
 R.V. text, 'and depart,' seems to be guided by the rendering of 
 <& Km lKxa>f>i'iTo. R.V. marg. 'go round about' follows the ex- 
 planation of Abulwalid, Tanchum, Kimchi (second alternative), etc., 
 who connect the verb with the subst. ni'Sy 'chaplet' or 'fillet' 
 
 (Isa. 28*), upon the incorrect* assumption that this is so-called as 
 going round the head. A.V., 'depart early,' goes back to Rashi, 
 Kimchi (first alternative), and Levi ben-Gershon, who, connecting with 
 the Aram, saphrd ' morning,' explain the verb as meaning ' to depart 
 in the early morning.' The only really philological explanation is that 
 offered by Siegfried and Stade {.Hebr. Worterbuch, s.v.\ who make the 
 verb the equivalent of the Ar. dafara, which may mean 'to go quickly, 
 spring,leap in running' % (Lane). This is plausible, and has been adopted 
 in our rendering 'decamp'; since the context seems to offer scope 
 for an unusual word— perhaps a colloquialism which was calculated 
 to cast ridicule upon the cowards (like our ' cut and run '). Failing 
 this explanation, it is possible that "lay^l may be a corruption of nh;>;;i 
 'and pass on' (Gra.) : cf ffi Koi e<x'^P''™' ^J 'et recesserunt.' 
 
 Secondly, the reference to 'mount Gile'ad ' as the spot upon which 
 Gide on's army was stationed is quite inexplicable. The name ly^jri 
 'the Gile'ad' is elsewhere confined to the well-known district east of 
 
 * The root-meaning of HTiBV is seen in the Ar. dafara= ' to plait or braid. ' 
 t/^ is given as a synonym of I Jo^ and ^^ by the Arabic lexicographists. 
 
2o8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [7. 
 
 And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand, ar 
 ten thousand were left. 
 
 4. And Yahweh said unto Gide'on, 'The people are st 
 
 Jordan ; and though it is perhaps too bold to say that the same nan 
 could not have been applied to a mountain on the western side 
 the river, yet such a coincidence in nomenclature is at any ra 
 highly improbable. Le Clerc suggests the substitution of jJapjn in 
 
 ' from mount Gilboa' ' ; but against this Stu. (who quotes Dathe) ai 
 Mo. argue with some reason that, since Gide'on's army was actual 
 encamped upon Gilboa', the naming of the mountain by Gide'on : 
 his command to depart would be extremely superfluous. Michaeli 
 by vocalizing nriD 'quickly' (cf ch. a"'^^) instead of iriD and unde 
 
 standing IVPjn as an accusative of direction, seeks to obtain tl 
 
 meaning of 'flee quickly to Gile'ad,' i.e. escape across the Jordar 
 but this is directly opposed by vv. ''■^ (Mo.), where it is stated that tl 
 people were sent back to their own homes. 
 
 In face of these difficulties. Mo. proposes to conclude Gide'on 
 proclamation with 3't^'' and to emend the words under discussic 
 
 pjnS DS"1S»1. The passage thus runs ' " Whosoever is fearful ar 
 
 trembling, let him return." So Gideon tested them! In support' 
 DQ"IS*1 Mo. compares v. ^^ ' Bring them down unto the water, that 
 
 may test them A3Q1VK1) for thee there.'* This suggestion 
 
 adopted by Bu. {Cojnm.), No., La., Kit, Kent, Gress. Ingenious at 
 attractive as it is, however, it can hardly be accepted as satisfactor 
 For, firstly, if the name of Gide'on had originally stood in tl 
 sentence, it is incredible that it should have become so illegible as i 
 be mistaken for ' Mount Gile'ad ' ; and, secondly, though the vei 
 n"lV 'test' is appropriate to the method adopted in vv.'"-, whei 
 the men are selected and segregated in accordance with the 
 different methods of drinking, the effect produced by Gide'on 
 proclamation can scarcely be termed a 'testing' in the same sens 
 and it is very doubtful whether the verb fl"lS could be applif 
 to it. 
 
 The close resemblance between 1J?73n ' the Gile'ad' and the model 
 
 Ar. name of the spring of Harod, 'Ain daidd, together with tl 
 stream which is fed by it — the Nahr dilfid — can scarcely esca; 
 
 * It may be noticed that Rabbi Isaiah states that "IDV'I is a metathesis 
 fjlVI [i.e. apparently, the Niph'al f)1Si1 ' and so be tested'), just as we g 
 the alternative forms '^22^ ^to. The view that the verb is a metatbei 
 appears to explain the rendering of C in3n\ 
 
7. 4- 5-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 209 
 
 many : bring them down unto the water, that I may test them 
 for thee there : and it shall be, of whomsoever I shall say unto 
 thee, " This one shall go with thee," the same shall go with thee, 
 and all of whom I shall say unto thee, " This one shall not go 
 with thee," the same shall not go.' 5. So he brought the people 
 down to the water : and Yahweh said unto Gide'on, ' Everyone 
 who lappeth of the water with his tongue, as the dog lappeth, 
 thou shalt set him apart ; and everyone who bendeth down upon 
 
 notice ; and suggests that Galud may be an ancient name, and may 
 have been applied, not only to the spring and stream, but also to the 
 mountain-spur from which the spring issues. If this is so, however, 
 it is natural to inquire into the etymology of the name. According 
 to Smith {HG. pp. 397 f. »^), Boha-ed-Din {Vit. Salad, ch. xxiv.) 
 gives the name as 'Ain el-Galut or 'well of Goliath,' with whose 
 slaughter by David the Jerusalem Itinerary connects Jezre'el. This is 
 obviously mere guess-work, and cannot be regarded as a serious 
 explanation. 
 
 Now it is worthy of notice that in Bab. the verb galddu means ' to 
 be afraid' ;* and, in default of other explanation of the Ar. Galftd, it 
 is by no means improbable that this preserves an old Heb. or 
 Amorite name, the root-meaning of which was identical with the 
 Babylonian. Thus 'Ain GcLlud may have some such meaning as ' the 
 Coward's Spring'; and 'the Spring of Harod or Trembling' may 
 have been a variant name with similar meaning. It is not too bold 
 to assume that the mountain-spur from which the spring issues may 
 
 also have borne the name ni^jn in 'the Coward's Mount,' and that 
 
 the story may kave been woven round this name ; an archaic and 
 possibly obsolete root being explained by the learned writer in the 
 sentence Tim KI'^'D 'Whoso is fearful and afraid.' If this is so, it 
 
 supplies adequate reason for the mention of the name of the mountain, 
 viz. the play upon the meaning of Galud in the terms of the pro- 
 clamation. 
 
 4. that I may test them. Heb. lasnyNI may be rendered as by 
 Mo., 'and let me separate them.' The verb saraph is used of the 
 smelting process which separates the fine metals from the dross. 
 
 5. At the end of the verse, 13^ iniK TSn 'thou shalt set him 
 apart,' is supplied upon the authority of ffi'^^, S>^ iieTaa-Trja-eis avrov Kai' 
 avTov. So S"". Cf. also the rendering of i', ' qui autem curvatis genibus 
 biberint, in altera parte erunt.' The words are necessary to complete 
 the sense of the final sentence, the ' likewise ' of R. V., inserted before 
 
 * The cognnte galdtu has a similar meaning. 
 O 
 
210 THE BOOK OP JUDGES [7. 
 
 his knees to drink <thou shalt set him apart).' 6. And tl 
 number of those that lapped [] was three hundred men ; but i 
 the rest of the people bent down upon their knees to drir 
 water, <jputting their hand to their mouth)>. 
 
 ' every one that boweth down, etc.,' being unwarranted by the He 
 text. 
 
 6. And the number of those that lapped, etc. |§ makes 'puttin 
 their hand to their mouth ' to refer to ' those that lapped ' ; but sine 
 the lapping is stated in the previous verse to have been ' as the dc 
 lappeth,' it is clear that the words are out of place, since the do 
 laps by putting his tongue to the stream. The words are not found i 
 
 ffi'^'-, S*", IL, which read instead DJiB'^3, 'with their tongue'; an 
 
 this may be original : cf. v. ^. Bu. {RS. p. 112, n^) was the first t 
 point out that the words 'putting their hand, etc.,' are out of place i 
 |§, and should properly apply to those ' who bowed down upon thei 
 knees to drink.' He referred them to the end of v.^; but Mo. i 
 more probably right in placing them at the end of v. ^. Very pos 
 sibly the statement was not part of the original narrative, but a late 
 gloss, written upon the margin of a MS., which crept into ^ in thi 
 wrong place. 
 
 Stade illustrates the posture adopted by those who lapped watei 
 from the spring by a quotation from K. v. d. Steinen : Unter dei 
 Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens, p. 73. Here the writer remarks 
 'It was a comic sight to see how the rising generation and theii 
 sisters drank from the Kulisehu : their mouth in the water ; sup- 
 ported upon both hands ; one leg in the air ; not unlike young 
 monkeys' {ZATW., 1896, p. 186). On the other hand, the descrip- 
 tion given by Moody Stuart {PEF. Qy. St., 1895, p. 345) of the man 
 whom he observed drinking in Madeira, though he terms the method 
 ' lapping ' (misled by the misplacement in 7/. * which has just been 
 noticed), really illustrates the method of those who knelt down and 
 scooped up the water in the palm of the hand : — ' One afternoon, in 
 riding leisurely out of Funchal, there came toward the town a man in 
 the light garb of a courier from the mountains running at the top of 
 his speed ; as he approached me he stopped to quench his thirst at a 
 fountain, in a way that at once suggested the lapping of Gideon's 
 men, and I drew up my pony to observe his action more exactly, but 
 he was already away as on the wings of the wind, leaving me to 
 wonder and admire. With one knee bent before him, and the other 
 limb stretched out in the same attitude as he ran, and with his face 
 upward toward heaven, he threw the water apparently with his 
 fingers in a continuous stream through his open lips, without bringing 
 his hand nearer his mouth than perhaps a foot and a half, and so 
 satisfied his thirst in a few moments.' Cf. further. Addenda, pp. xivff. 
 
?. 7-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 2tt 
 
 7. And Yahweh said unto Gideon, 'By the three hundred 
 men who lapped I will deliver you, and will give Midian into 
 thy hand; but let all the people go, every man unto his place.' 
 
 7. By the three hundred . . . I will deliver you. The grounds upon 
 which the three hundred were retained and the great bulk of the host 
 rejected, have formed a puzzle for interpreters since the time of 
 Josephus. It would be a fruitless task to tabulate the different 
 suggestions which have been offered ; but, speaking generally, it 
 may be said that the m.ajority of explanations are vitiated (a) by the 
 misplacement in v. ^ f§, which has led to a misapprehension of the 
 two forms of drinking ; and {fi) by the presupposition that those chosen 
 must have adopted a method which marked them out as more ready 
 and alert, and therefore more suitable for Gideon's undertaking.* 
 
 Granted, however, that the two forms of drinking are correctly 
 explained in the preceding note, it is obvious that (in so far as the 
 test was a test of attitude) the main part of the army who knelt to 
 drink, and raised the water in their hands, were the better suited for 
 the enterprise, as adopting a method in the practice of which they 
 were the less likely to be taken by surprise by a lurking foe than 
 
 * A striking exception, as regards this latter point, is offered by Josephus, who 
 explains that those who were chosen were marked out by their conduct as the 
 greatest cowards, whom it would have been natural to reject : ' And so, in 
 order that they might learn that the matter was one for His assistance, He 
 advised him to bring his army about noon, in the violence of the heat, to the 
 river, and to esteem those who bent down on their knees, and so drank, to be men 
 of courage, but to esteem all those who drank hastily and tumultuously to be 
 cowards and in dread of the enemy. And when Gide'on had done as God 
 suggested to him, there were found three hundred men who took water in their 
 hands with fear in an agitated manner ; and God bade him take these men and 
 attack the enemy ' {Ant. V. vi. 3). This explanation, in so far as it assumes that 
 God made what was, from the human point of view, an unexpected choice, is in 
 harmony with the explanation which is offered above. 
 
 The way in which the two factors (a and b) noted above have operated in 
 concert in leading an interpreter astray is illustrated by the explanation offered by 
 Smith (^G. pp. 398 f.): 'Those Israelites therefore viho bowed themselves down 
 on their knees, drinking headlong, did not appreciate their position or the foe ; 
 whereas those who merely crouched, lapping up the water with one hand, while 
 they held their weapons in the other and kept their face to the enemy, were aware 
 of their danger, and had hearts ready against all surprise. The test in fact was 
 a test of attitude, which, after all, both in physical and moral warfare, has proved 
 of greater value than strength or skill — attitude towards the foe and appreciation 
 of his presence. In this case it was particularly suitable. What Gide'on had in 
 view was a night march and the sudden surprise of a great host. . . . Soldiers who 
 behaved at the water as did the three hundred, showed just the common sense 
 and vigilance to render such tactics successful.' It will be obvious at once that 
 this explanation exactly reverses the methods employed by the three hundred and 
 the main body of the army, as stated in the narrative. Those ' who bowed them- 
 selves down on their knees ' were Qot ' drinking headlong ' ; whereas ' those who 
 merely crouched ' obviously could not lap ' as the dog lappeth.' 
 
&t4 tHfi BOoit 6f judges t?. 
 
 8. R'^ And they took hhe pitchers'! of the people in their han 
 and their trumpets ; ^' and all the men of Israel he sent eve 
 man to his home, but the three hundred men he retained. Ar 
 the camp of Midian was beneath him in the vale. 
 
 those who rested on their hands or lay prone upon the ground so i 
 to lap like a dog by placing their mouths to the water. But if v 
 take into account the fact that the whole narrative is obviously i 
 tended to emphasize the lesson that victory results from Divii 
 assistance and not from the numbers or tactics of the human instr 
 ments employed (cf. v.^), it seems likely that the lapping metho 
 which, from the purely human point of view, might seem to amoui 
 to criminal carelessness in presence of the enemy, may have bee 
 taken by the narrator as exhibiting trust in the protection and assis 
 ance of Yahweh, as opposed to the anxious alertness of those wli 
 believed that their hope of success depended upon themselves, 
 this is so, a commentary on the narrative may be found in I San 
 16': man looks at the outward appearance of fitness; but Go 
 looks at the heart. 
 
 8. And they took the pitchers of the people. Reading "ilSTIX inp 
 
 DVn after Mo. f§ DDH HTS-ns inip'l is rendered by R.V., ' So th 
 
 people took victuals.' If this meaning were intended, however, w 
 should expect HTiV Oyn ^inp'l* ffi, ® offer the rendering 'And the 
 
 took the victuals of the people ' {i.e. D5?n HTSTIX or DVn Ti^'JIK) 
 
 i.e. the three hundred took the victuals of the nine thousand, save 
 hundred, who were returning home. It is obvious, however, tha 
 Gide'on's little force, which was bent upon a hasty night-attack upo 
 the Midianite camp, would not encumber itself with so large a quar 
 tity of useless provisions ; and it need not be doubted that Mo.' 
 suggestion, '"''13 ' pitchers ' for PIT'S, is correct. The statement is du 
 
 to R^"^, who explains how Gide'on's army came to have a sufficien 
 number of pitchers (J) and trumpets (E) for the ruse which is to b 
 described in vvy^^^- Bu. suggests the further emendations njJM 'Am 
 
 he (Gide'on) took' for !inp*l in agreement with the sing. n?E' 'he sent 
 which follows ; and DTO ' from their hand ' in place of DTS. 
 
 T T • tt: ' 
 
 to his home. Lit. 'to his tents,' Ci., ch. i<)^ note. 
 
 and the CMtip of Midian, etc. Resumptive of z/."', after thi 
 insertion of the narrative relating the reduction of Gide'on's army 
 Cf. p. 180. 
 
 * The order verb, object, subject, though rare, is occasionally found ; cf. case 
 cited by Driver, Tenses, § 208, (4). flTV flS, however (DN before the indefi 
 nite object), cannot be original. 
 
7. 10. II. 13.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 213 
 
 9. E And it came to pass the same night that Yahweh said 
 unto him, ' Arise, go down against the camp ; for I have given 
 it into thine hand. 10. But, if thou fearest to go down, go 
 down, thou and Purah thy lad, unto the camp, 11. and hear 
 what they say ; and afterward thine hands shall be strengthened, 
 and thou shalt go down against the camp.' So he went down, 
 he and Purah his lad, unto the outskirts of the armed men who 
 were in the camp. 12. And Midian and 'Amalek and all the 
 children of the East were lying along in the vale like locusts for 
 multitude ; and their camels were without number, like the sand 
 which is upon the sea-shore for multitude. 13. And when 
 Gide on came, behold a man was recounting a dream to his 
 comrade : and he said, ' Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, behold, 
 a cake of barley-bread was rolling into the camp of Midian ; 
 and when it came to a tent, it smote it so that it fell, and it 
 
 10. But, if thou fearest, etc. Ros. appositely compares the passage 
 from Iliad x. 220 fF. in which Diomedes, in offering to go down to the 
 enemy's camp, says that he will do so with, more confidence and 
 boldness if he can have a companion : — 
 
 NeoTo/), k\j^ OTpvvei Kpadlrj Kal 3vfJ.6s dyrjvwp 
 dvdpuv Sv(Tfiev4aiv dvvai arparop iyyi/s eovra, 
 Tpaiaiv' aW e'l tIs pot, dvrjp a/i' eirovro Kal tiJO\,os' 
 pJaKKov OaKTroiprj Kal dapa-akeoiTepov earai. 
 
 1 1. t/iine hands shall be strengthened. I.e. ' thou shalt gain courage 
 and confidence' : cf. 2 Sam. 2', 16", al. 
 
 the armed men. Heb. ha-lf-iniiHm occurs again in Ex. 13'* E, 
 Josh. I '^ 4 12, R° (Num. 32 " <&, U), and has been restored in ch. 5 ^. 
 The root-meaning of the word is obscure ; but Ar. Ijamis 'army' is 
 possibly connected : cf. BDB. s.-u. Whether the term Ifm-Asim refers 
 to the Midianite warriors as a whole, or only to a special class among 
 them, is not clear. Mo. thinks it ' natural to imagine that in such a 
 raid a part of the invaders, better armed and perhaps better disci- 
 plined than the rest, lay along the front of the camp to cover it from 
 attack.' 
 
 13. a cake. The Heb. term, flAl Kt., or flil K'rl, only occurs 
 here, and the precise meaning is uncertain ; but the context demands 
 a flat circular cake or round loaf. 
 
 was rolling. The Participle mithhappekh describes the action as 
 the speaker sees it going on. 
 
 when it came to a tent. Heb. idiom says ' the tent,' i.e. the parti- 
 cular tent which actually appeared to be knocked down, and so is 
 
214 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [7. 14. 15. 162 
 
 turned it upside down [].' 14. And his comrade answered an 
 said, ' This is nothing else than [] the men of Israel : God hat 
 given into their hand Midian and all the camp.' 
 
 15. And when Gide'on heard the telling of the dream, and i 
 elucidation, he bowed himself down ; and he returned unto th 
 camp of Israel, and said, ' Arise ! for Yahweh hath given int 
 
 vividly marked by the Definite Article. On this idiomatic usage, c 
 NHTK. on i Kgs. is'*; G-K. § 126 r ; Davidson, Syntax, § 21 e. 
 it smote it . . . upside down. At the end of the verse |§ adc 
 irixn ^SJ\ ' and the tent fell ' (R. V. ' and the tent lay along '), whic 
 
 is redundant after the preceding ' so that {lit. and) it fell, etc.,' and ; 
 marked as a gloss by the false tense (Perfect with weak 1). The wore 
 are omitted by some MSS. of ffi (cf Mo., Kit., BH.\ and apparent! 
 by "S, which renders the whole sentence 'percussit illud, atque subvert 
 (• 7Q'1 ) et terrae funditus coaequavit.' So Mo., Bu., No., Kit., Gresi 
 
 ph'l 'and it fell' might also be dispensed with before nPVD? IHiSn 
 
 ' and it turned it upside down,' which is all that sense requires. It i 
 omitted by ffi'', Mo., Bu., La., No., Cooke. S>^ omits in3''1 as we 
 as ^2^1. 
 
 14. the men of Israel. f§, 'the sword of Gide'on the son of Joasl 
 a man of Israel'; and so all the Versions. It is unlikely, howevei 
 that the original narrator would picture the Midianite as knowin 
 the name of the Israelite leader (Mo.) ; and elsewhere the expressio: 
 PXIB'^ E^^X is regularly used in a collective sense, and not of 
 
 particular Israelite. The cake of barley-bread clearly represents th 
 Israelite peasantry as a whole, just as the tent denotes the Midianite 
 collectively. 3"in ' the sword of may have been introduced fromw.* 
 
 15. its elucidation. Heb. sibhro, only here. We may compar 
 Bab. sabru, fem. sabr&tu, 'seer' or 'interpreter,' which seems to b 
 formed from subrit 'to cause to see,' the Shaph'el (Causative) modi£ 
 cation of baric 'to see,' whence barft 'seer.'* So Haupt, SB01 
 ad loc. Cf. further, Addenda, p. xvi. 
 
 16-22. The reasons for the detailed analysis of these verses, whic 
 divides the narrative between J, E, and R^"^, have been fully set fort 
 in the introd. pp. 1 80 i. We here give the narratives of J and E i 
 parallel columns, in order that it may be seen how far each narrativ 
 forms an independent whole. Naturally, in the piecing together c 
 
 * Kimchi explains linC from the ordinary Heb. verb ^3tJ' 'brealt' as 
 literally, 'its breaking,' — 'for the dream is like a thing which is sealed am 
 closed up, and the interpretation breaks it and reveals it.' This explanation i 
 adopted by several modern commentators who are unaware of the Bab, 
 
7. i6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 215 
 
 your hand the camp of Midian.' 16. J And he divided the 
 three hundred men into three bands ; and placed in the hand of 
 all of them R^"^ trumpets and J empty pitchers, and torches inside 
 
 two narratives which are nearly parallel throughout, some portions of 
 each may be expected to have been omitted ; but it is remarkable 
 how very nearly each narrative, as reconstructed, appears to run 
 continuously, without a break of any importance. 
 
 J E 
 
 '^ And he divided the three 
 
 hundred men into three bands ; 
 
 and placed in the hand of all of 
 
 them empty pitchers, and torches 
 
 inside the pitchers. ''* And he "^ And behold, when I come 
 
 said unto them, 'Ye shall see into the extremity of the camp, 
 
 what I do, and shall do likewise. it shall be that, as I do, so shall 
 
 ... ye do. '^ When I blow the 
 
 trumpet, even I and all that are 
 with me, then shall ye also blow 
 the trumpets round about all the 
 camp.' '^* And Gide'on and the 
 hundred men that were with him 
 came into the outskirts of the 
 camp at the beginning of the 
 middle watch ; they had only 
 just stationed the guards ; •''"' and 
 =» And they brake the pitchers, they blew the trumpets. 
 
 and held fast the torches in their 
 
 left hand, and in their right hand 
 
 the sword ; and they cried, ' For 
 
 Yahweh, and for Gide on ! ' ^i And 
 
 they stood every man in his place 
 
 round about the camp : and all 
 
 the camp awoke, and gave a 
 
 shout, and fled ^^^^ toward Sere- 
 
 dah, as far as the edge of Abel- 
 
 meholah, by Tabbath. 
 
 22 And the three hundred blew 
 the trumpets ; and Yahweh set 
 every man's sword against his 
 comrade throughout all the camp ; 
 and the host fled as far as Beth- 
 shittah. 
 
 16. trumpets. Heb. sopharoth, properly 'horns.' The sopfiar 
 seems to have been the curved horn of a cow or ram ; while the 
 h'sofra was a long straight trumpet made of metal. Of illustrations 
 of both in Driver, Amos {Camb. Bib.), p. 145. 
 
 RJ^ has already indicated his view in v.^^ as to the source of so 
 large a number of trumpets and pitchers. 
 
 pitchers. Heb. kaddim, earthenware-jars used as water-pitchers 
 (Gen. 24'*«-, i Kgs. 18^, Eccles. I2«), and also for containing meal 
 
2i6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [7. 17. 18. i( 
 
 the pitchers. 17. And he said unto them, 'Ye shall see what 
 do, and shall do likewise : E and behold, when I come into th 
 outskirts of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye dc 
 18. When I blow the trumpet, even I and all that are with me 
 then shall ye also blow the trumpets round about all the camp 
 R'^ and ye shall say, "For Yahweh and for Gide'on ! '" 
 
 19. E And Gide'on and the hundred men that were with hin 
 came into the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of th( 
 middle watch : they had only just stationed the guards ; anc 
 
 (i Kgs. 17 '2"). It is possible that each man may have had his jai 
 with him as a receptacle for provisions. 
 
 torches inside the pitchers. The pitcher would serve to hide the 
 glowing end of the torch from observation, and at the same time to 
 preserve it from the wind. Lane {Modern Egyptians, p. 120) quotes 
 a practice which was in vogue among the police at Cairo about the 
 time at which he wrote (5th edit, i860), which throws remarkable 
 light on our passage : — ' The Zdbit, or Aghk of the police, used 
 frequently to go about the metropolis at night, often accompanied by 
 the executioner and the " shealegee," or bearer of a kind of tordi 
 called " shealeh," which is still in use. This torch burns, soon after 
 it is lighted, without a flame, except when it is waved through the 
 air, when it suddenly blazes forth : it therefore answers the same 
 purpose as our dark lantern. The burning end is sometimes con- 
 cealed in a small pot or jar, or covered with something else, when 
 not required to give light.' 
 
 17. Ye shall see what I do. Lit. ' Ye shall see from me,' i.e., as we 
 might say, ' Ye shall take your time from me.' 
 
 18. ''For Yahweh and for Gide'on!' Nine Codd. (de Rossi) of |§, 
 some MSS. of (S (cf Kit., BH.\ &'', % read 'A sword for Yahweh, 
 etc' — doubtless a harmonistic addition in agreement with v. ™ as it 
 Stands in ?§. 
 
 19. the outskirts of the camp. He reserves for himself and his own 
 contingent the most hazardous task of working across the open plain 
 to the far side of the Midianite encampment (under Neby Dahy? cf. 
 note on v. '). The object of the whole stratagem ' was, of course, to 
 make the Midianltes believe that their camp was surrounded on all 
 sides by an overwhelming hostile force. 
 
 the middle watch. The passage implies that the night was com- 
 monly divided into three watches. These watches were probably 
 each of about four hours' duration, throughout the dark hours ; and 
 the middle watch would therefore have commenced about 10 P.M. 
 'The morning-watch' is mentioned in Ex. 14^* J, 1 Sam 11". In 
 Roman times the Jews seem to have adopted the Roman system of 
 
7. 20. 21.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 217 
 
 they blew the trumpets, R'^ and dashed in pieces the pitchers 
 that were in their hand. 20. And the three bands blew the 
 trumpets ; J and they brake the pitchers ; and they held fast the 
 torches in their left hand, and in their right hand R-"" the 
 trumpets to blow ; J and they cried R^^ ' A sword J for Yahweh 
 and for Gide'on ! ' 21. And they stood every man in his place 
 round about the camp : and all the camp fawoke"!, and gave a 
 
 four watches ; of. Matt. 14 2^ = Mark 6'^\ ' In the fourth watch of the 
 night he came unto them, walking upon the sea.' This fourfold 
 division is referred to by our Lord in Mark 13^* — oyjf€, fxea-owKTiov, 
 a\eKTpo<pavias, ■n-piot The Talmud (^Berachoth 3b) discusses the 
 question whether the night should properly be divided into three 
 watches, on the authority of our passage, or into four. 
 
 20. and in their right hand, etc. The passage has clearly been 
 adapted by R'"^ in his endeavour to combine the pitchers of J with 
 the trumpets of E. If, according to J, the men held the pitchers in 
 their left hand, it was natural for R^"^ (on the assumption that the 
 two narratives are complementary) to assign the trumpets to the 
 right hand. This he has done without regard to the fact that idiom 
 requires nilSitS'3 after ipitn>1 (cf. D'T3ji3)^ and not the accusative 
 niiaitS'n. But granted the inference that the trumpets do not belong 
 
 to J's account at all, and taking note of the fact that the battle-cry 
 of f.'**" is simply 'For Yahweh, etc.', and not 'A sword for Yahweh, 
 etc.,' as in the present verse, Bu.'s suggestion seems very plausible 
 that the word 3^^ ' a sword ' really gives us the clue to the true 
 
 form of J's original narrative, which may have read 3"in3 in place 
 of 3;ipn^ DhDitS'n — ' and in their right hand the sword.' This emend- 
 ation could not be adopted in our text without essentially modifying 
 the composite narrative of R'^ ; but has been embodied in the 
 narrative of J as given above in parallelism to that of E (p. 215). 
 
 ^ A sword for Yahweh, etc' Originally, 'For Yahweh and for 
 Gide'on ! ' as in i/.". The present form of the battle-cry in this verse 
 results from R-'^'s attempt to combine the narratives of J and E. Cf. 
 the preceding note. 
 
 21. all the camp awoke. Reading fpisi^ as suggested by Mo., in 
 place of J'-|si 'all the camp ran.' The verb yin is not elsewhere 
 used in the sense 'run away' ; and is in any case superfluous beside 
 IDW'1 ' and fled ' (the regular verb in such a connexion) at the end of 
 the verse. The order of 1^— ran, shouted, fled— is very strange, and 
 can barely be explained by the supposition that ' ran ' means ' rushed 
 
2i8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [7. 2; 
 
 shout, and fled. 22. E And Tthel three hundred blew ^t\ 
 trumpets ; and Yahweh set every man's sword against his con 
 rade [] throughout all the carrip; and the host fled as far £ 
 
 hither and thither'— for which there is no justification. On the othf 
 hand, if we adopt Mo.'s emendation, the description of the awakeninj 
 followed by a wild cry of alarm and precipitate flight, is very effectivi 
 So No., La., Cooke. 
 
 and gave a shout and fled. The shout is rightly explained b 
 Kimchi as a cry of panic. (£, koX ia-fmavav appears to understan 
 ^jj'nsi in the sense ' gave the signal,' or, as we should say, ' sounde 
 
 the retreat.' So Rashi nD'':l J?DD nyiin ' an alarm (outcry) for breali 
 ing camp and flight.' In rendering 'and fled,' we follow A'^r^ ^Q^y 
 
 Adopting K't. !|D''3'1 (Hiph'll), we should have to understand this vef 
 
 and the preceding in the sense 'and they [the Israelites] raised th 
 battle-cry, and put [them] to flight.' Cf. R.V. The Hiph'Tl of Di; 
 without expression of object, as here, is used in ch. 6 " in a differen 
 sense {'to save [it] from Midian') ; but in the present passage omis 
 sion of the object is not very natural. For ^lyiTI in the sense 'raiso 
 
 the battle-cry ' cf. noie on ' After thee, Benjamin,' cA. 5 **. 
 
 22. And the three hundred blew the trumpets. Reading Si^Ti- 
 nnSitS'a niNan-tS'^E', with F, 'Et niWlominus insistebant trecenti vii 
 buccinis personantes.' ?§, nilSitS'n niKD-tyPty IVpfl'l^ can only meai 
 
 'And they blew the three hundred trumpets' — though here agaii 
 (cf. 7/. 2" note) we note the use of the Accusative after J?pn, in place 
 the customary 3 : cf wi/. is'>™a. This 3 is supplied in the renderinj 
 of ffi^, Kai. eaaKvifTav iv rais TpiaKoa-lais Kiparivais, which would seen 
 to suggest 'J1 E'PtJ'n Ijfpn'l • but may very possibly point to a tex 
 niNlSn-E'i'B' ninaitS'a IVpn'l in which niNOn B'^tt' was really intendei 
 as the subject of the verb, in accordance with our emendation. 
 
 and Yahweh set, etc. This verse, as contrasted with v. ^' ^ offer 
 perhaps the most obvious mark of divergency between the tw( 
 narratives. The' camp having fled in a panic {v. 2' •>), it is clear tha 
 the same narrative cannot have gone on to state that the Midianitei 
 began to fight friend in mistake for foe 'throughout all the camp' 
 and we are not justified in explaining (with Cooke) that they 'tried ti 
 fly,' and then, 'believing themselves to be completely surrounded, 
 turned their arms against one another prior to the flight becominj 
 general. 
 
 throughout all the camp. Reading n3nBn~i533 with omission 
 the conjunction 1, as in ffi", E"-, S>^. The 1 is probably to be explainec 
 
7. 22.] THE BOOK or JUDGES 219 
 
 Beth-shittah J toward Serel"d"lah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, 
 
 (with Mo.) as due to dittography of the last letter of the preceding 
 word injnn. a. v. renders n:non ^331 ' even throughout all the host ' ; 
 but such an explicative use of 1 is highly questionable : cf ch. 6 ^^ 
 footnote %. R.V. ' and against all the host ' requires no refutation. 
 
 The Heb. term mak'n^ (from the verb hand 'encamp') is used 
 both to denote the camp of an armed host, and also the same body 
 of soldiers in action, which we should designate a host or army. 
 Thus it is impossible to employ a single uniform rendering for the 
 term ; ' camp ' being in some connexions the more suitable rendering, 
 and in others 'host.' Cf the similar usage of the Greek trrpaTomhov . 
 
 as far as Beth-shittah, etc. None of the places mentioned can be 
 identified with any certainty. Rob. {BH.^ ii. p. 356, «') was the first 
 to suggest identification of Beth-shittah with the modern Satti, which 
 lies on the north side of the Nahr Galud in the line of flight towards 
 the fords of the Jordan. An objection to this, however, may be found 
 in the fact that (supposing the Midianites to have been encamped 
 south of ed-Dahy in the neighbourhood of Shune.m) Satta is barely 
 seven miles south-east of Shunem, and the nearest fords of the Jordan 
 (east of Besan), for which the Midianites may have been making, are 
 some eight miles further east-south-east : whereas the preposition TS 
 can scarcely denote ' in the direction of Beth-shittah ' (which would 
 suit Satti), but must rather mean ''up to,' i.e. (as rendered above) ^ as 
 far as,' as though Beth-shittah were in some degree the destination 
 of the Midianite host — as it might be considered if it were at or near 
 a ford of the Jordan ; or as far as the fugitives got before they were 
 intercepted by the Ephraimites {v. ^). The name Beth-shittah means 
 ' Place of Acacias ' ; and since the acacia is common in the Jordan 
 valley (cf. the name Shittim ' Acacias ' east of Jordan opposite Jericho, 
 Josh. 2 ', ai., and the modern Gor es-Sesaban ' Vale of the Acacias ' 
 in the same locality), there are many sites, east or west of Jordan, to 
 which such a name may have been applied in ancient times. 
 
 We read nmiS with 20 MSS. of % in place of the common 
 
 reading nJTnX 'toward Sererah.' This further description of the 
 hne of flight 'toward Seredah, as far as etc.,' can scarcely have 
 originally stood beside 'as far as Beth-shittah'; and is probably to 
 be assigned to the other source. Seredah, which is mentioned in 
 2 Chr. 4" in connexion with Succoth east of Jordan (i.e. probably 
 opposite to it on the western side of the river), is the same as 
 Sarethan in the parallel passage, i Kgs. 7 ^^ A Sarethan is named 
 in I Kgs. 4 '^ which speaks of ' all Beth-she'an which is in proximity 
 to Sarethan, beneath Jezre'el'— a position which would suit the line 
 of flight of the Midianite host down the Nahr dalud, as we gather it 
 from our narrative. In Josh. 3'", however, the city of Adam, the 
 name of which is probably preserved in the modern ford ed-Damiy- 
 
220 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [7, 2; 
 
 yeh, is said to be 'beside Sarethan'; and ed-D4iniyyeh' is som 
 twenty-seven miles to the south of Beth-she'an — a position which suil 
 the allusion to Seredah, 2 Chr. 4 ^' = SarSthan, i Kgs. 7 « sine 
 evidence seems to indicate that Succoth must have been close to th 
 Jabbok, perhaps a little to the south of it in the Jordan valley : c 
 'DTiwe.x, Jacob's Route from Haran to Skechem, in Expos. Times,m 
 pp. 457-460 ; more briefly in Genesis, Westm. Comm., pp. 300-30; 
 Indeed,' it is likely, as Mo. suggests, that i Kgs. 7 " originally mer 
 tioned the ford ed-Damiyyeh ; the obscure HDIKn n3J?D3 (R.V. 'i: 
 
 the clay ground') being probably a corruption of HDIK maVa: 
 ' at the crossing of Adamah.' 
 
 It is questionable whether the Seredah of i Kgs. ii^^ which wa 
 the native city of the Ephraimite Jerobo'am, can be the same as thi 
 site above discussed, ffi states in i Kgs. 11*', 122*'" (according ti 
 the numeration of Swete's edition), that Jerobo'am's city was h t< 
 opei 'Ecjipaifi ; whereas the Seredah-Sarethan of the other passage 
 must certainly have been in or near the Jordan valley. Van di 
 Velde's proposed identification of Sarethan with Karn Sartabel 
 (the N3D1D of the Mishna) — on a spur of the hill-country which rum 
 into the Jordan valley south of the Wady Far'ah and due west of ed 
 Dimiyyeh, forming a prominent landmark — though unsuitable s( 
 far as identification of the ancient and modern names is concerned 
 yet suits geographically all allusions to Seredah-Sarethan, excepi 
 that in i Kgs. 4'^ : cf. Cheyne in EB. 5383. 
 
 Abel-meholah (the native city of Elisha', i Kgs. 19^^) is mentionec 
 in I Kgs. 4'^ as marking one limit of an overseer's district, the othei 
 limit being Beth-she'an. It was evidently south of Beth-she'an ; and 
 is identified by Eusebius {OS. 227 2^) with Btj^/iqicXo, ten miles from 
 Scythopolis (Beth-she'an). This is conjectured by Conder [SWP, 
 Mem. ii. p. 231) to be the modern 'Ain el-Helweh in the Widy el- 
 MJllih, which is about that distance south of Besin. 
 
 There is, needless to say, no philological connexion between 
 Helweh and Meholah (as Conder seems to suppose *) ; the 'Ain 
 el-Helweh, ' spring of sweet water,' being so called in contrast to the 
 generality of the springs in the Widy el-Malih, ' wady of the salt 
 water,' which are salt or brackish. J The only argument which can 
 really be advanced in favour of this site is the very slender one that 
 it suits the distance from Beth-she'an as given by Eusebius. But 
 here the resemblance between -/laieXa and M&lih creates a suspicion 
 that Eusebius may have fallen into error ; and that the only ground for 
 his identification was the supposition that some site called Beth-Malih 
 in his day, in the Wady el-Mlllih, preserved the old name Meholah. 
 
 No theory as to the site of Abel-meholah deserves consideration 
 unless it does justice to the striking expression 'the edge (lit. 'lip,' 
 
 * His words are, ' Ain Helweh, the name of which contains the proper radicals 
 [of Abel Meholah].' 
 X Cf. Conder, Tent Work, p. 227. 
 
7. 22.1 THE BOOK OF JUDGES iiX 
 
 riBE') of Abel-meholah,' which is employed in our passage.* This 
 expression is used elsewhere geographically of the sAore (lip) of the 
 sea, the 6anA (lip) of a river, and the edg-e (lip) of a wady. It is this 
 latter usage which here concerns us. It occurs in Deut. 2 ^\ 4 ^^ ; 
 Josh. 12 2, 13"" ; Ezek. 47^'. All these occurrences, except those in 
 Ezek., refer to the site of ' 'Aro'er, which is upon the edge (lip) of the 
 wady Amon,' i.e. the modern 'Ari'ir, which is described by Tristram 
 {Moai, p. 129) as a desolate heap of ruins, on the northern edge of 
 the precipitous ravine. | Such a 'lip,' overhanging a widy, appears 
 then to be what our writer has in mind in speaking of ' the lip of 
 ■ Abel-meholah.' Conder, in advocating the site 'Ain el-Helweh, 
 makes no mention of any such lip or edg^e in its vicinity ; and this 
 question, which does not seem to have entered into his consideration, 
 should form a subject for future topographical investigation, if this site 
 is to be maintained. 
 
 Another theory as to the site of Abel-meholah may be put forward 
 as not unworthy of consideration. We have observed above that 
 I Kgs. 4^2 mentions both Sarethan (Seredah) and Abel-meholah; 
 and we have also seen that the statement in this passage that Beth- 
 she'an was ' in proximity to Sarethan ' causes great difficulty ; since 
 other allusions to Seredah-Sarethan seem to place it much further 
 south, in the vicinity of the ford ed-Damiyyeh. The supposition that 
 the words 'which is in proximity to Sarethan' (njms PVN l^H) 
 have been accidentally transposed, and should properly follow 
 ' Abel-meholah,' § has the double merit of dissociating Sarethan from 
 
 * The importance of the investigation of this expression was first pointed out 
 to the present writer by Dr. Driver, who, however, advanced no theory as to the 
 site of Abel-meholah. 
 
 X The ravine and its northern edge (in contrast to the southern) are thus 
 described by Tristram. * The ravine of the Arnon does not show till we are close 
 upon it. . , . The rolliiig slopes come close down to the precipitous descent, 
 the plain being perfectly level on either side, breaking away in limestone preci- 
 pices to a great depth. No idea of the rift can be formed till the very edge is 
 reached. As far as we could calculate, the width is about three miles from crest 
 to crest; the depth by our barometers 2150 feet from the south side, which runs 
 for some distance nearly 200 feet higher than the northern edge. . . . We were 
 much struck by the contrast between the two sides, and this impression was con- 
 firmed when, next day, we viewed the southern from the northern edge. The 
 protrusion of the basaltic dyke has been subsequent to the formation of the wady, 
 and the continued detaching of its fragments has made the slope less precipitous, 
 giving a variety to the colouring and the vegetation, wanting on the other side. 
 The northern bank, on the contrary, looked an almost unbroken precipice of 
 marly limestone, faintly tinged with the green hue of a very sparse vegetation, 
 and occasionally protruding cliffs and needles, shining pink in the sunbeams ' 
 {op. cit. pp. 125 f.). 
 
 § Notice that Beth-she'anis already defined as ' beneath Jezre'el.' It is reason- 
 able, therefore, to suppose that the words 'in proximity to SarSthan,' instead of 
 being a second definition of the position of Beth-she'an, should refer to Abel- 
 rae^olah, the position of which is otherwise unspecified. 
 
224 THE BOOK OP JUDGES [7.2! 
 
 Beth-she'an, and bringing it into connexion with Abel-meholali 
 as in Judg. 7^^. The verse then runs, 'Ba'ana the son of Ahilud 
 Ta'anach and Megiddo, and all Beth-she'an beneath Jezre'el ; fron 
 Beth-she'an to Abel-meholah which is in proximity to Sarethan ; a 
 far as the other side of Jokme'am.' 
 
 Now we have already noticed, in speaking of the site of Seredah 
 Sarethan, that identification with the modern Karn-Sartabeh woul( 
 suit all Biblical allusions except that of i Kgs. 4 '^ as |§ now stands 
 where it is brought into connexion with Beth-she'an. This difficulty 
 as we have seen, is removed, if by our transposition we bring it int( 
 connexion with Abel-meholah, as in Judg. 7 ^^. 
 
 Rob. {BR^. iii. p. 317), in speaking of the view of the northern Go 
 (Jordan valley) from a point east of Jordan near Kefr Abil, above tb 
 Wady YS.bis, mentions the opening of the Widy Far'ah between thi 
 ridge of Karn-Sartabeh to the south, and 'the opposite lower bluf 
 el-Makhrud' to the north. This el-Makhrud is the el-Mahruk of thf 
 ^ IVP. Great Map and Name List : cf Map in. in this commentary 
 The term bluff seems exactly to answer to what the O.T. writer! 
 mean by a Up or edge above a wady. 
 
 Looking again at 1 Kgs. 4, which describes the respective spheres 
 of Solomon's twelve commissariat officers, we notice that, in w.', the 
 hill-country of Ephraim is assigned to Ben-Hur. All immediately 
 north of this, bounded on the south by the line along which the 
 territory of Manasseh marched with that of Ephraim, seems to have 
 fallen within the sphere of Ba'ana the son of Ahilud, whose sphere of 
 action {v. '2) immediately concerns us. 
 
 Now P's account of the boundary between Ephraim and Manasseh 
 in Josh. 16, 17 is admittedly obscure : but at any rate it seems clear 
 that the eastern part * of this boundary was practically marked by 
 the great Wady Far'ah, which forms an important dividing factor 
 (notice the allusions in 16^ to Ta'anath-Shiloh and Janoah — perhaps 
 the modern Ta'na and Yanun ; and the mention in 17' of 'Mlchme- 
 thath which is in front of Shechem'). Ba' ana's district, then, seems 
 to have embraced the hill-country bounded on the north by the plain 
 of Esdraelon (Ta'anach and Megiddo : cf ch. i ^^ note\ eastward to 
 and including Beth-she'an where the vale falls to the Jordan valley 
 'below Jezre'el'; and then southward to Abel-meholah, the 'lip 'of 
 which, if it corresponded to the south-eastern limit of Manasseh, must 
 have been the 'bluff' of el-Mahruk. 
 
 If then, the ' lip ' of Abel-meholah is el-Mahruk (the city itself 
 perhaps lying above this 'lip' to the north, on some part of the 
 headland Ras 'Umm el-Qarrubeh), while Seredah-Sarethan is Karn- 
 Sartabeh — the northern and southern ramparts of the Wady Far'ah, 
 where it opens out into the Jordan valley ; we then perceive why the 
 
 * On the western part of the boundary between the two tribes, cf. notes on 
 ' Manasseh ' and ' Ephrainj, ' ch. 1 2', 29. 
 
7. 22.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 243 
 
 edge of Abel-meholah should be mentioned together with Seredah in 
 the narrative of the flight of the Midianites : and also why (if our 
 transposition is correct) Abel-meholah should be described as 'in 
 proximity to' (^"iii 'beside') Sarethan in i Kgs. 4^^. 
 
 The site of Tabbath cannot be conjectured. 
 
 It now remains to inquire whether any inference can be drawn 
 from this verse as to the line of flight which is presupposed. It is 
 clear that the Biblical indications noticed above as to the positions of 
 the places mentioned may furnish some guide upon this point, even 
 though the actual sites defy identification. 
 
 We have seen that, according to E, the field of action is laid in the 
 vale of Jezre'el ; with Gideon's army upon a spur of Mount Gilboa' to 
 the south, and the Midianites encamped in the vale — probably below 
 Neby Dahy (cf. 6^, 7 ^ notes). As regards J this is not so clear ; the 
 conjecture being open that this narrative may have laid the scene of 
 the night-attack near ' Ophrah (close to Shechem), and pictured the 
 flight as taking place down the Wady Far'ah towards the ford ed- 
 Dimiyyeh (cf. the last paragraph to note on v}, ' was to the north 
 ... in the vale'). Laying aside the allusions to Beth-Shittah and 
 Tabbath (about which we know nothing), we have such information 
 as we have gleaned with regard to Seredah and Abel-meholah to 
 guide our inquiry. 
 
 The allusion to Seredah-Sarethan in i Kgs. 4 ", as |§ stands, suits 
 the vale of Jezre'el and excludes the Wady Far'ah. On the other hand, 
 2 Chr. 4^' = ! Kgs. 7'"', Josh. 3'^, and i Kgs. 4'^ according to our 
 re-arrangement, imply proximity to ed-Damiyyeh, and so may seem 
 to favour the Widy Far'ah as the scene of flight. That ed-Damiyyeh 
 was, as a matter of fact, used as a crossing by Midian (at least 
 according to J) is almost necessarily to be inferred from c^. 7 ^'^ 
 where the Ephraimites are invited by Gide'on to hold the fords of the 
 Jordan against Midian : since it is clear that Ephraim could scarcely 
 have been summoned to hold a position north of this point ; and, had 
 the Midianites been making for the fords due east of Beth-she'an, 
 such a summons would be out of the question, since the foe would 
 have gained and crossed them before Gide'on's messenger had even 
 reached the Ephraimite territory. 
 
 There remains, however, the possibility that E, like J, may have 
 represented the Midianites as making for the ford ed-Damiyyeh ; i.e. 
 as turning southwards down the Jordan valley from the Nahr Galud, 
 and so leaving the fords east of Beth-she'an unattempted, either 
 through their haste or through ignorance of them. It is significant 
 that E in cA.S*"- seems to picture Gide'on as arriving at Succoth and 
 Penuel * directly he has crossed the Jordan ; and the inference there- 
 
 * Reference has been made earlier in this note to the site of Succoth. With 
 regard to Penuel, Driver's conclusion is :— ' A site, S. of the Jabbok near where 
 
S24 THE BOOR OF JUDGES ff. 
 
 fore is that he crossed at ed-Dimiyyeh, after which he struck eastwa 
 ' in the direction of the track of the tent-dwellers,' east of Jogbeh 
 (Agbehit) — a further fact which lends colour to the same conclusio 
 
 The question then is — supposing the sites of Seredah and the Mi 
 of Abel-meholah to have been as we have conjectured (the former 
 Karn-Sartabeh, and the latter at el-Mahrftk), does the form in whi 
 these sites are referred to give us any clue as to whether the line 
 flight was down the Wady Far'ah from 'Ophrah, or down the Jord 
 valley from the Nahr Galud — in either case with the ford ed-Dimiyy 
 as the goal ? 
 
 It is probably significant that H locale is used with Seredah, wh: 
 the preposition IJ? is employed in the reference to the ' lip ' of Abi 
 meholah ; i.e. while the line of flight was in the direction o/'Sereda 
 it was actually tip to or as far as the ' lip ' of Abel-meholah that tl 
 fugitives reached.* Here is a point which seems to favour the vie 
 that this narrative pictures the flight as down the Jordan valley fro 
 the Nahr GsHild ; since this would involve taking the direction 
 Karn-Sartabeh, but at the same time turning off some miles short 
 it at el-Mahruk in order to make for the ford ed-Damiyyeh.| C 
 the other hand, had the course of the fugitives been down the W4c 
 Far'ah, it is difiicult to see why the distinction should be drawn : 
 the form of reference to the two localities. 
 
 Evidence is insufficient to guide us to a decision as to whether tl 
 description which we have been considering belongs to J or E. 1 
 any case, however, we are probably justified in concluding that tl 
 
 the Ghor route crosses the route from es-Salt to the ford ed-Damiyeh, though 
 can only be assigned conjecturally, would satisfy the conditions of the Biblic 
 narrative. ' Cf. references cited, and Genesis ( Westm. CQmjn. ), p. 296. 
 
 * The same distinction in usage between T\ locale and the prep. IJ/ is to 1 
 observed in Gen. lo^^ J, where it is stated that ' the border of the Cana'anite wi 
 from Sidon as thou goest in the direction of Gerax (mij) as far as Gx 
 
 (rHJJ'TV) ■ as thou goest in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Adms 
 
 and Seboiim ('J1 HDTDV asfaras'Le.syai (J?B'?"1V).' Gerar is some distani 
 
 south-east of Gaza ; so if Gaza marks the south-west point of the Cana'ani 
 territory, the distinction indicated by the use of H locaU with Gerar— furlhi 
 on beyond the boundary — is perfectly correct. The whole definition is, howeye 
 somewhat strange; and, as Skinner remarks [ICC. ad loc. p. 217), ' would on 
 be intelligible, if Gerar were a better known locality than Gaza.' Hence son 
 scholars think that n-TV~nJ' is a later gloss. With regard to the places whii 
 
 are named on the south-east we can draw no conclusions, since we are ignorai 
 of their precise positions. 
 
 X It is actually at el-Mahrdk that the road down the Jordan valley from tl 
 north intersects the road which, coming from the hill-country to the west, ente 
 the wady Far'ah and runs down to the ford ed-Dfimiyyeh : cf. Maf m. ; SWl 
 Great Map, sheet XV. ; Smith, HG. Plate V. The name el-Ma^rflk signifies 'tl 
 perforated,' i.e. a rock-cutting through which a road passes. 
 
7. 23- 24. 25-] .THE BOOK OF JUDGES 225 
 
 by Tabbath. 23. And the men of Israel were called to arms 
 Gi? from Naphtali and from Asher, and J from all Manasseh, 
 and they pursued after Midian. 24. And Gideon sent mes- 
 sengers throughout all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying, 
 'Come down to meet Midian, and take Tthe fords'! of the Jordan 
 against them ' : so all the men of Ephraim were called to arms, 
 and took Tthe fordsT of the Jordan. 25. And they took the 
 two princes of Midian, 'Oreb and Ze'eb ; and they slew 'Oreb at 
 
 variation between the two narratives, as regards topography, was 
 by no means so great as some scholars have assumed. 
 
 23. were called to arms. Cf. ch. 6 ^ note. 
 
 from Naphtali and Asher. Upon the summoning of these tribes, 
 cf. p. 181. 
 
 24. the fords of the Jordan. Reading |T|sn nil3VD"riN as in 
 ch. 328, 12 5-6, in place of f^ !?!'?!['■"?<'! '1"13 n''3 njf D^sn-ns 'the 
 waters as far as Beth-barah, and the Jordan,' the meaning of which 
 has proved a puzzle to commentators. No such site as Beth-barah 
 is known ; and Mo.'s suggestion that ' the waters ' are the perennial 
 stream of the Widy Far'ah, between which and the Jordan ' the Midi- 
 anites would be in a cul de sac,' is vitiated by the fact that the lower 
 part of the Wady Far'ah, which is known as the Wady e^-G6zeleh, flows 
 into the Jordan some five miles south of the ford ed-Dimiyyeh ; and 
 therefore, if the Midianites were aiming at ed-Damiyyeh, they would 
 not need to cross the Wady Far'ah stream at all. Even apart, how- 
 ever, from the difficulty of identifying Beth-barah, the whole descrip- 
 tion is curiously vague and unintelligible. Why are ' waters ' men- 
 tioned instead of nahal, w3.dy (if any particular w4dy is meant). ; and 
 what is the force of ~iV ' unto ' or ' as far as,' which suggests that the 
 Ephraimites are expected to line ' the waters ' for an indefinite dis- 
 tance, as far as the locality specified? Is it, again, possible that 'and 
 the Jordan ' can be original, without reference to any particular ford 
 or fords ? 
 
 Our emendation supposes that the letters nKimanaiyODn are 
 simply corrupt dittography of nh3V0, which can be recognized once 
 in letters 3 to 7 with transposition of 3 and 1 and corruption of the 
 latter letter to 1(031^0). Letters 2, 8, 9, 13 preserve genuine letters 
 of the doublet ; this time with 13 in the right order. 
 
 25. 'Oreb and Z^eb. The names mean 'Raven' and 'Wolf.' It 
 has been thought that the use of such animal-names presupposes a 
 primitive totemistic stage of society; and evidence quoted from 
 Arabian sources is somewhat striking : cf. Robertson Smith, Animal 
 worship and animal tribes among the Arabs and in the Old Testa- 
 
226 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. i. 
 
 the rock of 'Oreb, and Ze'eb they slew at the wine-vat of Ze'eb ; 
 R'^ and they pursued r 1 Midian ; J and the headrs"" of 'Oreb and 
 Ze'eb they brought unto Gide on R^" beyond the Jordan. 
 
 8. I. J And the men of Ephraim said unto him, 'What is 
 this thing that thou hast done unto us, not to call us when 
 thou didst go to fight with Midian ? ' and they chode with him 
 
 ment; Journal of Philology, ix. pp. 75 fif. Among examples of tribal 
 animal-names collected from Suyvlti's dictionary of gentile names, we 
 find Zib, ' wolf,' son of ' Amr, a sub-tribe of the Azd ; and Gurib, 
 ' raven,' a sub-tribe of the Faz^ra : cf. op. cit. p. 79. On animal- 
 names in the O.T., ct Gray, Hebrew Proper Names, pp. 86 ff. 
 
 the rock of 'Oreb . . . the wine-vat of Z^eb. Conder {SWP. Mem. 
 iii. p. 177) tentatively suggests as possible sites the modern 'USS 
 el-Gurab, ' the nest of the raven,' a sharp conical peak some 2^ miles 
 north of the modern Jericho (Eriha) ; and TuwSl ez-Ziyib, ' the ridge 
 of the wolves ' (apparently a clan bearing the name ez-Ziy4b), nearly 
 5 miles north-west of the same point. These sites are probably much 
 too far south of the scene of action ; and in any case we cannot 
 attach importance to designations embodying animal-names which 
 (at any rate in the case of Zib, plur. Ziyib) appear to be elsewhere 
 in frequent use.* 
 
 they pursued Midian. Reading 'O'JIN in place of 'd"PN, ?§■ 
 the heads. Reading *^KT in place of the sing. B^Ni^ ?^. 
 
 beyond the Jordan. On the manner in which this verse has been 
 glossed by R^^ in order to make it fit in with the narrative of 8 *"■, 
 cf. p. 182. 
 
 8. I. And the men of Ephraim said, etc. The conduct of the 
 Ephraimites towards Jephthah, ch. 12 "'•, is very similar; and the 
 grounds alleged for the quarrel, viz. failure to summon them to 
 the battle in the first instance, are the same. There is no reason, 
 however, to assume, with some scholars, that one of the narratives is 
 therefore secondary to the other. Cf Mo. ad loc, who remarks that 
 in the two stories ' the sequel is as different as can be imagined, and 
 in each is in entire conformity with the situation.' 
 
 * Other instances of the name ' wolf in place-names in or near the Jordan 
 valley, as noted in the S WP. Great Map, are : — a second Tuw61 ez-Ziysh, s^ miles 
 due north of Ras 'Umm el-garrflbeh (sheet xii.) ; Metil ez-Zib, ' the peak of the 
 wolf,' in the Jordan valley, 3J miles south-west from ed-D4miyyeh (sheet xv.); 
 Wady Unkfir ez Zib, ' wftdy of the water-holes of the wolf, ' running from the hill 
 country into the Jordan valley about 8 miles south-west of ed-D4miyyeh ; and 
 Wady Mekflr ez-Zib (with the same meaning), 3 miles further south (sheet xv.). 
 
8. 2. 3. 4-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 227 
 
 violently. 2. And he said unto them, ' What have I done now 
 in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim 
 better than the vintage of Abi'ezer ? 3. Into your hand hath 
 rVahweh"" given the princes of Midian, even 'Oreb and Ze'eb : 
 and what was I able to do in comparison with you ? ' Then was 
 their anger against him abated, when he had spoken this word. 
 4. E And Gide'on came to the Jordan, Tand he"l passed over, 
 
 2. Is not the gleaning, etc. The Heb. term '6lel6th is confined 
 to the gleaning of grapes (Mic. 7\ Jer. 49 ^ Ob. ^, Isa. 24") and 
 olives (Isa. 17^), and is never used of the gleaning of grain, for which 
 another term, leket, is employed. The point of Gide'on's words is that, 
 though not called to lend their aid until the rout of Midian was an 
 accomplished fact, yet the Ephraimites might be said actually to have 
 secured the greater honour, through the capture of the two princes of 
 the enemy. The fact has already been noted (p. 182) that Gide'on's 
 allusion to his own small force as ' Abi'ezer' seems to indicate that 
 this narrative (J) pictured the muster as consisting of Abi'ezrites only 
 {ch. 6^), and knew nothing of the gathering and subsequent dispersion 
 of a very large force from several tribes (E 2). 
 
 3. Yahweh. So ffi, U, % in place of % ' God.' 
 
 their anger. Lit. ' spirit,' or, as we might say, ' temper.' For this 
 use of Heb. ricah, cf Prov. 16^^, 25 ^^, Job 15 i', Zech. 6', Eccles. 10*. 
 
 4. and he passed over. Reading ibV'l which seems to be pre- 
 supposed by ffi, F, S'', with Gra., Bu., Gort, No., La., Cooke ; in place 
 of the Participle 131? in ^. The use of this latter, though grouped 
 
 by Driver [Tenses, § 161, (2)) under clauses 'with a participial deter- 
 mination of the subject as the secondary predicate,' is difScult to 
 justify syntactically ; the Participle here expressing not an action 
 <:o»:oOTz7a«< wzV/4 the action expressed by the main verb (xb'l 'And 
 
 he came'), but resulting from it.* The Imperfect with 1 consecutive 
 is the regular construction to express such a sense. 
 
 * Thus such an instance as Jer. 17^5 D'3p1 . . . ■1^?3•1 'shall enter riding' 
 
 is evidently different, since here the participle describes the manner of entry; and 
 Judg. i', Isa. 36^2, Jer. 2'^, al. , axe similar to this. Perhaps the case most like our 
 passage is Num. 16^' D'3'V3 'INS' 'they came forth stationed (or 'so as to be 
 stationed,') where D'3-V3 expresses the «jk// of -INS' : but, in order to make 
 our passage really parallel to this, we should have to alter the 'Athnah from 
 
 njTTn to nnV .• came to the Jordan, crossing over' {i.e. ' so as to cross over ') ; 
 
 and then what is to happen to the latter half of the verse which also exhibits its 
 
228 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [] 
 
 he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhaui 
 and Tfamishedl 5. And he said to the men of Succoth, ' Prit! 
 give loaves of bread to the men who are following me, for t 
 are exhausted ; and I am pursuing after Zebah and Salmun 
 
 exhausted and famished. Reading D''Dy"l-l with ffi*"", 9i^, 1L^ 
 
 Houb., Bu., Gra., Frankenberg, Kit., Oort, No., La. This correc 
 seems almost to be postulated by v. ^, where the request for breai 
 made of the men of Succoth. In order to justify the reading of |§, 
 have to treat the conjunction 1 as adversative, as is done by A.V., R 
 'faint yet pursuing.' Possibly the alteration of D'3V"I into D'; 
 may have been due to the fact that in v. ^ dH D''S''3?"*3 ' for they 
 exhausted,' is followed by t]Yi laiiKl, 'and I am pursuing.' 
 
 5. Succoth. The actual sites of Succoth and Penuel have not b' 
 discovered ; but evidence goes to show that they must have been 
 far south of the Jabbok : cf. note on ' as far as Beth-shittah, e 
 ch. 722. ' " ■ 
 
 loaves of bread. Heb. kikk^rdth lehem means lit. '■rounds' 
 '■circles of bread,' i.e. probably, round, flat cakes. 
 
 who are following me. Lit. ' who are at my feet.' Cf. 4 '" note. 
 
 Zebah and Salmunnd . The names n3T and ysDPS mean 
 
 spectively 'sacrifice' ('sacrificial victim') and 'shelter withheli 
 It is obvious that these forms cannot be original, but must be la 
 
 participial determination of the subject, 'J1 D'S'J? 'exhausted, etc.'? We she 
 have to treat it as a circumstantial clause : ' He and the three hundr 
 etc., were exhausted, etc' As the verse is accented, however (with break 
 ^3''I■1^'^^ we can only render, ' he and the three hundred men that were v 
 him were crossing over, exhausted and famished ' ; the use of the Participle ' 
 being apparently intended to indicate that, at the tiTne when they were crossi 
 they were in the condition described by 'J1 D'S''5?. This, however, is v 
 unnatural. Mo. suggests that ")25/ the Perfect, ' he crossed over,' was origin! 
 a marginal gloss, which, when transferred to the text, was forced into constr 
 tion by pronouncing 131?. 
 
 * For ViOD ?V. PV 'shadow' occurs in the sense 'shelter' injer. 4! 
 Num. 149, Ps. 91 1, at. For the vocalization PS, cf. PKPV3 B6sal'el, 'In 
 shelter of God.' On the Pu'al Participle Vip, with dropping of preformal 
 D, cf. G-K. § 52 J. 
 
8. 6. 7.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 229 
 
 the kings of Midian.' 6. And the officers of Succoth said n, 'Are 
 the hands of Zebah and Salmunna' now in thine hand, that we 
 should give bread to thy host?' 7. And Gide'on said, 'Well 
 then, when Yahweh hath given Zebah and Salmunna" into mine 
 hand, I will thresh your flesh together with thorns of the desert and 
 
 modifications in jesting allusion to the fate of the kings as related in 
 vv. '' "• Cf., for similar perversions, notes on Adoni-bezek, ch. i °, and 
 Cushan-rish'athaim, ck. 3'. The original forms of the names can 
 hardly be conjectured. It is likely, however, that the first three 
 consonants of Salmunna, D?S, embody the name of the god Salm, 
 who is known to us through inscriptions from Tema in North Arabia : 
 cf. Noldeke, Berichte d. Berl. Akad., 1884, pp. 813 ff. ; Baethgen, 
 Beitrdge, pp. 80 f. ; KAT? pp. 475 f. ; Cooke, NSI. pp. 195 ff. ; La., 
 ERS? pp. 502 f. 
 
 6. Atid the officers of Succoth said. We must, of course, read 
 plur. .nDN'l instead of the sing. IDK'I in S. 
 
 7. Well then. Lit. ' Therefore ' ; i.e. ' Since you choose to adopt 
 such an attitude.' 
 
 / will thresh your flesh together with., etc. The Heb. verb di'is., 
 which is here used, means to tread in threshing; the operation of 
 threshing being performed either by the feet of cattle, or by the 
 threshing-drag (jndrdgh) shod beneath with stone or basalt (cf. Isa. 
 41 '^, Am. I '), which was weighted and dragged round the threshing- 
 floor by oxen (cf. 2 Sam. 24 22, Hos. 10 1'), thus separating the grain 
 and grinding the straw into chaff.* The equivalent Ar. verb ddsa 
 is used generally in the sense to trample with ihe foot {e.g. of horses 
 trampling on the slain), and also specifically of threshing grain, either 
 by the feet of beasts, or by repeatedly drawing over it the midwas or 
 threshing-drag (Lane). Bab. ddsu means to tread down or crush. 
 
 The preposition rendered 'together with' is DN, which is always 
 used of accompaniment, and never of the instrument. So F renders 
 
 correctly 'cum spinis tribulisque deserti'; S'' | ;n , SD > jiDds \ii> 
 \'-\ / Vn o \\v n ' upon thorns of the desert and upon briars ' ; 
 C 'J1 K-iaiD ''313 iiV, id. 
 
 Thus Gide on threatens that he will lay the men of Succoth 'naked 
 upon a bed of thorns' (Mo.), and treat them as corn is treated in 
 threshing, either by trampling them down or by drawing threshing- 
 wains over them (cf. Am. i '). 
 
 R.V. text, in rendering ' I will tear your flesh with the thorns, etc.,' 
 commits the double error of giving to dAs a sense which (so far 
 
 ♦ For illustration and description of the threshing-board as used at the present 
 day in Syria and Palestine, cf. Driver, Joel and Amos [Camb. Bit.), pp. 227 f- 
 
230 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. lo. i 
 
 thistles.' 8. And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake unl 
 them on this wise ; and the men of Penuel answered him as tl 
 men of Succoth had answered, g. And he spake also unto tl 
 men of Penuel, saying, 'When I return in safety, I will brea 
 down this tower.' 
 
 lo. Now Zebah and Salmunna' were in Karkor, and their hoi 
 was with them, about fifteen thousand men, even all that wei 
 left out of all the host of the children of the East : for they thi 
 had fallen were an hundred and twenty thousand men wh 
 drew sword, ii. And Gide'on went up Ttowards^ the track ( 
 
 as we know) it never possesses, either in Heb. or in the cognal 
 languages ; and of rendering JIN ' with ' in an instrumental sense, ; 
 is done by ffi cV rair oKavBais k.tX. In V. '*, which relates the carr 
 ing out of Gideon's threat, the words used are Dn3 ''E'''T'1 (on th 
 emended verb, cf. noie ad loc); and here the 3 might have a 
 instrumental sense {<& iv avTols) if it were possible to explain th 
 verb d&s ' thresh ' in the sense ' thrash ' or ' flog,' the briars and thorr 
 being used in place of a stick or flail. As we have seen, howeve 
 this form of threshing is never denoted by dies; the verb whic 
 denotes the beating out of corn with a stick being habat : cf. ch. 6 
 note. We must explain 3, therefore, as meaning (like nx) ' togethf 
 with,' a sense which this prep, possesses : cf. BDB. sv. 3, III. i. a. 
 
 thistles. The precise meaning of Heb. barkdmm is unknown ; bi 
 the close connexion with kds^ kam-midhbdr, 'thorns of the deserl 
 demands that the word should denote some kind of prickly plan 
 The explanation advocated by J. D. Michaelis, Ges., Thes., etc 
 threshing-sledges shod with fire-ston&s, is simple guess-work, depenc 
 ing upon a supposed connexion of the word with barak, 'lightning.' 
 
 10. Karkor. The site is unknown. Eusebius {OS. 272'-) identifie 
 with KapKapta, one day's journey distant from Petra ; but this seeir 
 too far to the south. On the other hand, the Karkar at whic 
 Shalmaneser in. met and defeated Bir-idri of Damascus and hi 
 allies {J^B. i. pp. 172 f. ; Rogers, CF. pp. 295 f.) must have been i 
 the neighbourhood of Hamath, and would thus be much too far t 
 the north. 
 
 tkejy that had fallen, etc. The huge number is clearly the exagger; 
 tion of a late writer. The expression soleph herebh, ' that drew sword 
 is a favourite one in the part of the narrative of ch. 20 which is du 
 to R', and where similar high figures are given : cf. vv. ^'S'''** 
 Possibly, as Mo. suggests, the latter part of the verse may have bee 
 added by a redactor to harmonize 8 '"* with 7 ^"*. 
 
 1 1, towards the track of the tent-dwellers. Reading ^JDB' nsi 
 D^^nX3, with Bu., in place of ?§ D''i'nx3 ''M3B'n 'nTI which offei 
 
 ■ T t: IT ' ^ - T t: IT •• : ~ 'v V ' 
 
J. 12.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 231 
 
 ;he tent-rdwellers"!, east of Nobah and Jogbehah ; and he smote 
 the host, whilst the host was careless. 12. And Zebah and 
 Salmunna' fled; and he pursued after them, and captured the 
 two kings of Midian, even Zebah and Salmunna', but all the host 
 The devoted to destruction''. 13. And Gide'on the son of Joash 
 
 the grammatical solecisms of the Article with the Construct State, 
 and the Passive Participle of the Stative verb which is elsewhere 
 unknown. The track of the tent-dwellers was doubtless the beaten 
 track running north and south by which the nomads were accus- 
 tomed to travel — much like the modern hag£-rovi\.e. which runs from 
 Damascus to Mecca. Gide'on, guessing that the fugitives would 
 make for this track in order to escape southward, struck south- 
 eastward from the Jordan valley until he reached it. 
 
 Nobah. According to Num. 32*^ J (cf p. 51), Nobah, a clan of 
 Manasseh, conquered Kenath and its dependencies, and called its 
 name Nobah. Eusebius {OS. 269'^) says of Kenath that it is eis fVi 
 Kavada Xcyo/xevij, . . . Keirai 6e Kal en kol vvv €v Tpax^atvi ttXtjclov 
 Boarpav. He refers to the modern el-Kanaw4t in the Hauran ; but 
 this seems much too remote to be the site intended in our passage : 
 cf. note following. 
 
 Jogbehah. The name is preserved in the modern A^behat, twenty 
 miles east-south-east from the ford ed-Damiyyeh at which Gide'on 
 seems to have crossed the Jordan. 
 
 careless. Heb. betah., lit. ' confidence,' and so ' confident ' of safety, 
 the substantive being used, as often, in place of an adjective. Cf. 
 note on Yahweh shalom, ch. 6 ^. 
 
 12. he devoted to destruction. Reading onnn, as conjectured by 
 
 Scharfenberg {apud Mo.), Ewald, etc., for |^ l»"inn, which can only 
 
 mean (as rendered by R.V. marg.), 'he terrified,' and in illustration of 
 which 2 Sam. 17\ Ezek. 30^ are cited by Stu., and Zech. 2« by Mo. 
 This, however, is a very weak conclusion to the campaign. The mere 
 throwing into a panic of Israel's mortal foes (for the second i\me: in the 
 course of the rout : cf 721.22) cannot have been intended by the narrator : 
 contrast the late narrative of Num. 31 " P, where every male of Midian 
 is put to the sword. The corruption of g is an ancient one, being 
 found in the Versions: ffi" eleo-Tiyo-ev, V 'turbato omni exercitu 
 eorum,' Si"" M^ll, T ^tK. ffi" e^irpiyp-tv, (&'' i^itTTpe^ev, and 
 similarly Si^ ^aSJOI, seem to be corrections of the reading of fflt" in 
 order to produce a sense more consonant with the context. Jos., 
 however {Ant. v. vi. 5), must have read or understood the passage 
 in accordance with our emendation ; for his paraphrase is inavras 
 bU<f)d€ip€ Tovs ■jToXep.iovs. 
 
 The correctness of onnn (rather than imn, Ex. 2323, Ps. 83 ^ 
 
232 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. 13. 
 
 returned from the battle, [] 14. and captured a lad of the ir 
 of Succoth, and questioned him ; and he wrote down for him I 
 officers of Succoth and the elders thereof, even seventy-se\ 
 men. 15. And he came unto the nien of Succoth, and sa 
 ' Behold Zebah and Salmunna', concerning whom ye did tai 
 me, saying, "Are the hands of Zebah and Salmunna' now in t 
 hand, that we should give bread to thy men that are exhausted 
 16. And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the des 
 
 as suggested by Mo., ' if an emendation is necessary ') is attested 
 the doublet which is noted in v.^^. 
 
 13. returned from the battle. |^ adds Dnnn n^yp^D^ R.V. 'frc 
 
 the ascent of Heres.' These words have formed a puzzle to int( 
 preters in all ages. The Versions treat the allusion either as top 
 graphical (ffi, S""), or as a note of time, understanding Din as t 
 
 rare word for ' sun ' (IT, ' ante solis ortu ' ; St, NB'DSJ' i'PD ^ nj?, 'befo 
 the sun had set '). Modern commentators suppose that the passai 
 is intended to indicate that Gide'on returned from battle by a differe 
 route ; and thus (it is assumed) took the town of Succoth by surpri; 
 It is astonishing that no one should have perceived that the won 
 are simply a variant of v. '^''^, which has come into the text from tl 
 margin. This may at once be seen if we write them below tl 
 original form of v. '^''^ : 
 
 Dinnn^lfD iiD 
 
 It will be noticed that the last four letters of the doublet, Dinn, ter 
 to confirm the emendation D'lnn which is adopted in v. '^''^. 
 
 14. he wrote down for hitn, etc. A boy or youth captured t 
 chance, and therefore (we may infer) without any exceptional qualifici 
 tions as a scholar, writes down the names of the elders of Succoth 
 probably scratching them with a sharp-pointed implement such as 
 pin or knife, in the alphabetic (so-called Phoenician) script, upo 
 a fragment of shale or similar material. This may seem to us 1 
 be surprising, but need not be regarded as incredible. Cf. furth( 
 Additional note, p. 253. The rendering of R.V. text., 'he describe 
 for him,' which seems to be intended to obviate the conclusion thi 
 the names were written, is absolutely unwarranted. 
 
 the officers of Succoth, and the elders thereof. The distinctio 
 between the officers, sartm (mentioned alone in v. *), and the eldei 
 fkenim (mentioned alone in v. ^^) is somewhat obscure. The z'kerdi 
 were the heads of families in whose authority the government of th 
 city was vested. In distinction from these, the sartm were probabl 
 concerned, not with civil government, but with military organization. 
 
8. i6. 17.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 233 
 
 and thistles; and Tthreshed^ therewith the men of Succoth. 
 17. And the tower of Penuel he brake down, and slew the men 
 
 16. and threshed therewith. Reading Dn3 VS'V\ in place of ?§ 
 
 Dna J)lh 'and taught therewith,' a somewhat strange expression 
 
 in Heb.* The emendation is supported by the parallelism of v. ' 
 'HB'ni ' I will thresh ' ; and by ffi" xai rj\6ricrev (v. ^ d\ori(r<o), fflt* koI 
 
 Kare^avev, 'and he carded' {v. ' Kara^ai/S). 3J ' et contrivit cum eis, 
 atque comminuit ' {■v.'' ' conteram ') may also have read tJ*!*! • but the 
 double rendering of the verb suggests the possibility of a para- 
 phrastic explanation of the curious VT'1 of |§. In the same way, 
 S'' ,aJLD jJA^Io 'and he tortured therewith' (but v.'' >-»o{\ 
 ' I will thresh') ; Z \^T^''7y 13ni 'and upon them he broke' (var. lect. 
 prripV TIJI 'and upon them he dragged') the men, etc. (but v.'' 
 W\^ ' I will thresh '), may perhaps be paraphrases of |^. 
 
 We cannot, however, be sure that by this simple emendation we 
 have arrived at the original form of the verse, ffi offers evidence of 
 another original considerably different from J§. Thus the verse 
 runs in &', xai eXa/3e \tovs apxovras Kai] Toiis 7rpeo-/3uTe'povs rijs noXeas 
 Ka'i KareSia^ev avTovs kv raXs aKavBais rrjs eprfjiov km. rais ^apKrjveifi, 
 [xai KareSia^av iv avTois avSpas Sokx""^]- So ffi*, with Kare^avev in 
 place of Karc8i(fl|Ei/. &\ %^ are similar. Here we have bracketed 
 Tois apxovras Kol as a harmonistic addition (cf. v "), and the last six 
 words as a doublet embodying the % tradition. The remainder 
 seems to represent a Heb. original 
 
 ' And he took the elders of the city, and threshed them together with 
 thorns of the desert and thistles.' This has strong claims to con- 
 sideration as the original text. % ' And he took the elders of the 
 city, and thorns,' etc., is certainly suspicious ; and it is possible that 
 the verb DtTT'l may have fallen out before '31 ''SIp HK, and that v. !«•' 
 may have been added subsequently as an explanatory gloss. 
 
 17. the tower of Penuel. It may be inferred that the city was 
 unwalled, and the tower was intended as a refuge in case of danger. 
 Cf. ch. 9«M"«- 
 
 * Perhaps the nearest parallel to the usage of the verb VT >1 in ?§ is i Sara. 14 12, 
 where the Philistines, on espying Jonathan and his armour-bearer, say, ' Come 
 up unto us, that we may teach you a thing' ("I3T D3nK nyTlJI); if it is 
 legitimate to explain this somewhat obscure expression as used with a touch of 
 irony, 'give you a lesson,' or 'give you something to think about.' Here, 
 however, we have the addition of the object nm ; whereas a similar object is 
 lacking in our passage. 
 
!34 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. i8. 20. 21. 
 
 oi the city. 18. Then he said unto Zebah and unto Salmunna", 
 ' Where are the men whom ye slew at Tabor ? ' And they said, 
 ' As thou art so were they : i^e^ach resembled the children of a 
 king.' 19. And he said, 'They were my brethren, my mother's 
 sons : as Yahweh liveth, if ye had kept them alive, I would not 
 have slain you.' 20. And he said to Jether his first-born, 'Arise, 
 slay them ! ' But the lad drew not his sword, for he was afraid, 
 because he was still a lad. 21. And Zebah and Salmunna' said, 
 ' Arise tkou and fall upon us, for a man hath a man's strength.' 
 
 18. ' Where are the men, etc' Gide' on knows that the Midianite kings 
 are responsible for his brothers' death ; and he thus challenges them 
 to produce them alive in order to save their own lives (cf. i/. " : 
 so Bu.). The Midianites are aware that they are doomed, and, with 
 the true savage instinct, glory in acknowledging the murders. 
 Question and answer thus do not formally correspond ; but U, S'', 
 R.V. 'What manner of men, etc.,' is both impossible as a rendering 
 of |§ D'lK'JXn nb''X • and also very much weaker than the legitimate 
 rendering. This latter consideration also tells against the emenda- 
 tion adopted by Mo. (SBOT.), La. D'B'JKn NiSX 'D 'Who, then, 
 were the men, etc' ? 
 
 in Tabor. Mount Tabor, north of the plain of "Esdraelon, is some 
 thirty miles or more to the north of Shechem ; near which, as we have 
 seen (cf. note on '' Ophrah,' ch. 6.*), the clan of Abi'ezer must have been 
 situated. Bu. suggests an original j'api Tebes : cf ch. 9 *. 
 
 each. Reading '^r\ifh for ?| iriN. Cf. Ex. 22^2, Num. 15 '2. ' 
 
 20. he said to Jether, etc. Robertson Smith {Religion of the Semites!!' 
 p. 417, «') cites Nilus as stating that the Saracens charged lads with 
 the execution of their captives. 
 
 but the lad drew ttot his sword, etc. It does not necessarily follow 
 that Jether had taken part in the battle ; for it is very probable that 
 the captives were taken back in triumph to 'Ophrah before their 
 execution. The arming of the lad with a sword may have been 
 simply in view of the task assigned to him, which he had not the 
 heart to perform when called upon to act. 
 
 21. Arise thou. The pronoun is emphatic ; and the request of the 
 Midianites, like their answer in v '^, is a tribute to Gide en's prowess 
 and noble bearing. 
 
 a man has a man's strength. The rendering of Mo.; lit. 'as the 
 man, (so) his strength.' |3 'so,' or 3 is exceptionally omitted. 
 There is no doubt that Gide' on will slay them at a blow; whereas a 
 mere lad might make a bungling attempt, ffi" reads on ms hhpoi ij 
 
!. 22. 23. 24.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 235 
 
 30 Gide on arose and slew Zebah and Salmunna'. And he took 
 he crescents which were upon the necks of their camels. 
 
 22. E^ 'And the men of Israel said unto Gide'on, 'Rule over us, 
 30th thou, and thy son, and thy son's son ; for thou hast saved 
 js out of the hand of Midian.' 23. And Gide'on said unto 
 ;hem, ' / will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over 
 jrou; Yahweh shall rule over you.' 24. E And Gide'on said 
 iinto them, ' Let me make a request of you : give me every man 
 the ear-rings of his spoil.' For they had golden ear-rings, because 
 
 Suva/ii'y a-ov, i.e. "^tyVfJi B'''K3 *3^ which may possibly be original. 
 
 Bu. emends nriN n'UJI B^'N *3 'for thou art a mighty man.' This, 
 
 though involving no great change of f^, hardly seems necessary. 
 
 crescents. Heb. sak'rSnim occurs once besides (Isa. 3 1*) in a list 
 of feminine ornaments. On the form, cf. G-K. § ?:6g. In Ar. Sahr 
 denotes the new moon ; and Aram, sik'^rd, Syr. sahrh mean jnoon. 
 The crescents were doubtless threaded on necklaces, and worn as 
 amulets. Similar strings of amulets are placed upon Bedawi camels 
 and horses at the present day. 
 
 22. the men of Israel. The reference is to the tribes of Israel as a 
 whole — or at least the central and northern west-Jordanic tribes, most 
 of whom, according to the later narrative (E^), had borne a share in 
 the campaign, and were benefited by its outcome. This, however, 
 as we have seen, is not the conception of the old narrative J, which 
 pictures Gide'on's coup de main as carried out with the assistance of 
 his own clan merely, and invests its outcome with a local, rather than 
 a general, importance. It is difficult to picture the haughty Ephraim- 
 ites of J, ch. 8 '', who turn upon the victor in the hour of his triumph, 
 and whose aggressive indignation has to be calmed by a diplomatic 
 rejoinder, as taking part in a request to Gide'on to become their king 
 because he had 'saved' them out of the hand of Midian. The older 
 narrative of E seems to have agreed with J in making Gide'on's 
 influence local rather than general. Cf. introd. to the story of 
 Abimelech, p. 267. 
 
 23. ' / will not rule over you, etc' The conception of Theocracy 
 here put forward belongs to the later eighth century stage of prophetic 
 thought. Cf. the discussion on pp. 183 f. 
 
 24. ear-rings. Heb. nJzem may denote an ear-ring (Gen. 35 * E, 
 Ex. 3223 E, Prov. 25 12), or a nose-ring (Gen. 24" J, Isa. 3^1, Ezek. 
 l6'2). Here, as worn by men, the former is the more probable 
 meaning, since (as Mo. notices) nose-rings appear in the O.T. only as 
 the ornaments of women. Pliny {Hist. Nat. xi. 50) refers to the 
 wearing of ear-rings by men in the East. The custom does not exist 
 
236 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. 26. 
 
 they were Ishma'elites. 25. And they said, ' We will surely g 
 them.' And they spread out a mantle, and cast therein ev( 
 man the ear-rings of his spoil. 26. And the weight of t 
 golden ear-rings which he requested was one thousand a 
 seven hundred shekels of gold ; beside the crescents, and t 
 pendants, and the purple garments which were upon the kir 
 of Midian, and beside the necklaces which were upon the nee 
 of their camels. 27. And Gide'on used it for an Ephod, ai 
 
 generally among the Bedawin at the present day ; though Mad 
 states that, ' in the case of an only son, the ear-ring is sometimes wo 
 as an amulet in the form of a large silver ring suspended round t 
 outer ear, with discs or balls attached to the lower half of the' ric 
 hanging visible below the lobe of the ear ' : DB. i. p. 633^. 
 
 they were Ishmdelites. Upon the interchange between the terr 
 ' Midianite' and ' Ishma' elite,' cf. note on ' Midian,' ch. 6^ 
 
 25. they spread out. ffi, H'', 'he spread out.' So Kit, No., Li 
 Gress. 
 
 26. one thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold. Taking tl 
 weight of the heavy shekel at 252.5 grs. troy (cf. G. F. Hill in Ei 
 4444), the total weight of the golden ear-rings would be nearly 75 lb 
 If reckoned by the light shekel, it would be about half as much. 
 
 beside the crescents., etc. Mo. regards the whole of this half-verse, 
 an editorial addition, on the ground that ' this catalogue of thinj 
 which were not used in making the ephod is quite superfluous, an 
 only interrupts the narrative.' A similar view is taken by Wellh. an 
 Sta., who, taking w^^''^ as part of the original narrative, find in it th 
 origin of the later addition s'.^^''. On the other hand, Bu. takes th 
 last quarter of the verse, 'beside the necklaces, etc.,' to be genuin 
 supposing it to be the origin of w.^'''^, which he regards as a later glosi 
 
 It is. unsafe to express a definite opinion on such a point. Th 
 narrative of E in vv.^'^'''^ has, as we have seen, been worked over b 
 E^ ; but it is difficult to divine any purpose in such an editoriJ 
 addition as this (whether by E^ or some later hand), beyond the desir 
 to glorify Gideon's exploit, which may equally have been present i: 
 the mind of the original narrator. The half-verse may seem to us t 
 interrupt the proper sequence between ■z/.^^" and v.^ ; but would thi 
 fact have counted for much in the mind of a narrator who wa 
 fascinated by the richness and variety of the spoil, as reported b 
 tradition ? 
 
 27. an Ephod. As regards the nature of the Ephod, evidence i 
 extremely vague ; and it is even doubtful whether it was everywher 
 and at all times the same thing. The Ephod of the Priestly Cod 
 (i.e. of post-exilic, though probably also of earlier, times) is describe! 
 (Ex. 28 P) as a decorated vestment, apparently of the nature of ai 
 
8. 27.J THE BOOK OF JUDGES 237 
 
 apron * fastened partly by a band at the top round the body 
 {vbv n^N injSK aC'n ' the band of its attachment which is above 
 it,' t 1/.^), and partly by two shoulder-straps (nisna, v.''). These 
 latter were probably intended to keep the band of the Ephod in a 
 position round the wearer's middle well above the loins, and thus to 
 obviate the possibility of its becoming contaminated with sweat.g 
 The shoulder-straps appear to have been joined to the apron at its 
 two upper corners ;|] and their upper ends may have been fastened 
 to the shoulders of the m^'tl (see below) by the two onyx-stones in 
 filigree settings (z/z/.^-'^), which very likely served the purpose of 
 brooches. It is possible, however, that the stones were merely 
 ornamental and symbolical ; and, if so, the shoulder-pieces may have 
 
 * The older view regarded the Ephod of P as a kind of waistcoat ; but this 
 
 seems to be excluded by the position of the band of its attachment 1*7$? ' adove it ' 
 
 {v. S), rather than ' 2/pon it ' ; and hkewise by the position of the pouch adove 
 
 (pV) the band (v.^) — scarcely u^on it. The position of the rings which fastened 
 
 the pouch to the Ephod — the two upper ones attached to the shoulder-straps, and 
 the two lower ones above the band of the Ephod — favours the same conclusion. 
 
 The view that the Ephod was of the nature of an apron rather than a kilt, i.e. 
 that it covered the front of the trunk below the waist and did not extend round 
 the body and join at the back, depends upon the emendation noticed \a footnote ||. 
 
 X This rendering assumes the view that hesebh is a metathesis of hebheS from 
 hdbhas ' io 'bind on' ; so, 'band.* Cf. Driver's note ad loc. in Camb. Bib. The 
 sense 'attachment' given to 'dphuddd makes the term a secondary derivative 
 from the denominative verb ^dphadh 'to attach the Ephod,' which is used in 
 Ex^295, Lev. 8' (1| hdghar 'gird on '). 
 
 § The very curiously phrased injunction in Ezek. 44 1" VP3 njin'' NP 
 
 i.e., apparently, 'they shall not gird themselves with {or in) sweat,' which is 
 understood by R.V. to mean 'with that which causeth sweat' (i.e. with woollen 
 materials in distinction from linen), was understood by the Jewish interpreters to 
 mean that they were prohibited from girding themselves as high as the arm-pits 
 or as low as the loins — either position being conducive to sweating — but were 
 to adopt an intermediate position. So Rashi and Kimchi. This interpretation 
 
 is as old as ffiJ, which paraphrases the passage pn^N [IIT'Sin ^JJ ptir'' xfil 
 tnO" Iin''337 ?y ' and they shall not gird themselves about their loins, but 
 shall bind themselves about their hearts.' It may well be doubted whether the 
 passage (the genuineness of which is open to suspicion) is capable of such an 
 explanation ; yet it is quite likely that the interpretation depends upon a true 
 tradition as to the ritual position of girding, and the reason by which it was 
 dictated. 
 
 II In Ex. 28 ''we should read plural verbs VH^^ 'llSn', referring to the two 
 shoulder-straps, in place of the singulars ITTl^j "ISn'. °'^ ®- Cf. ffi 5i5o iirw/j,lde! 
 awixovaai. liroyrac airif iripa t7}v iripav, iirl toIs Sval nipeaiv i^rfprifffihai. 
 On the use of the masc. form of the 3rd plur. Imperfect, in place of the fem., 
 with reference to a fem. subject preceding, cf. G-K. § 145 u. 
 
238 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. 2 
 
 been joined together at the back of the neck so as to form a yoke ; 1 
 else they may have joined the band of the Ephod at the back, ar 
 held it up like braces. 
 
 The Ephod is mentioned in connexion with the pouch ([tJ'l 
 A. v., R.V. 'breast-plate,' v.^^), which contained the objects know 
 as Urim and Tummim. This latter was fastened by rings at its foi 
 corners, the two upper rings to the shoulder-straps (vv. ^^'^), and tl 
 two lower to the band of the Ephod {vv.^-"^). The dimensions: 
 the pouch were a span, i.e. about nine inches, square {v. ") ; an 
 when the Ephod was in place, the Urim and Tummim within tl 
 pouch lay upon the heart of the high priest (■z/.'^")— a fact which maki 
 it clear that the band of the Ephod must have been well above tl 
 loins, as has already been indicated. 
 
 The material of Ephod, band, and pouch alike, and doubtless als 
 of the shoulder-straps, was of ' blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fir 
 
 twined linen,' interwoven with gold thread or wire (D^^'HS), whic 
 was cut from a plate of beaten gold {,ck. 39 '). The pouch was furth( 
 adorned by twelve precious stones, set in gold (z/z/."'^'). The Epho 
 was girded on over the m''U, a long garment with sleeves, of bk 
 material (z/w. ^i"). 
 
 Probably similar to this Ephod in form, though doubtless 1 
 simpler workmanship, and (so far as we know) unconnected with ar 
 special means of obtaining an oracle,* was the 'ephddh badh ' Ephc 
 of linen,' J with which the child Samuel was 'girt' ("lljn) when 1; 
 
 ministered as a temple-servant (i Sam. 2^^); and with which Kin 
 David was similarly ' girt,' when he danced ceremonially before tl 
 Ark, whilst it was being brought up from/the house of ' Obed-edom ( 
 the sanctuary at Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6'*). On this occasion Davi 
 excited the outspoken contempt of his wife Michal, for exposing h 
 
 * There must, no doubt, have been some ultimate connexion between t] 
 'ephodh badh and the oracular Ephod noticed above in the next paragraph ; and 
 is possible that the former may have been a kind of ' dummy ' Ephod, typical 
 the relationship in which those who exercised priestly service stood towards tl 
 Deity, though actually unequipped with the means of casting lots (Urim ai 
 Tummim). Foote recalls the fact that the oracular lots in the temple of Fortu] 
 at Praeneste were mingled and drawn by a child ( ' quid igitur in his [sortibu 
 potest esse certi, quae Fortunae monitu pueri manu miscentur atque ducuntur 
 Cicero, De Divinatione, ii. 41, 86 : a similar practice is observed in the mode 
 State-lotteries of Italy and France), and thinks that the child Samuel may ha 
 been entrusted with a similar office. There is, however, absolutely no eviden 
 of any such practice among the Israelites. 
 
 X The derivation of badh is unknown ; but the view that it denotes the maieri 
 of which the Ephod was made, and that this was some form of linen, is probat 
 correct. Foote's theory that badh means ' member,' and so membrum virii 
 which the Ephod (the primitive loin-cloth) was designed to cover, is sufEcieat 
 refuted by Lev. iS^^, where the word is applied to the various parts of the priesi 
 attire, turban included, and evidently describes their material. 
 
i. 27.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 239 
 
 person 'like one of the lewd fellows ' ; and the inference is that he 
 ivore nothing but the Ephod, and that this was of scanty dimensions * 
 — perhaps not unlike the apron which the Egyptian priest Pe-nhesi 
 is represented as wearing, when performing an act of ceremonial 
 worship; cf. Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de VArt dans PAntiguiU, 
 i. p. 253.:!: Sellin and Mo. {EB. 1306) suppose that the assumption 
 of this scanty attire may have been a return to a primitive costume 
 rendered sacred by its antiquity ; much as Mohammedan pilgrims, 
 so soon as they approach Mecca, are obliged to adopt the simple 
 loin-cloth which was the primitive dress of the Arabs. § 
 
 More doubt has been expressed as to the precise nature of the 
 Ephod which, in the days of 'Eli, Saul, and David, was regularly 
 employed in the cultus of Yahweh. The priest is never said to 
 wear or to be girt with this, but always to bear it (Ktj;3 • 1 Sam. 2 ^', 
 14 ^ 22'* II). Abiathar, when he escapes from the slaughter of the 
 priests at Nob, comes down to David with an Ephod ' in his hand ' 
 (i Sam. 23°). IT Here 'in his hand' refers to the carrying of the 
 Ephod when not in use ; but the verb ' bear ' is clearly used cere- 
 monially, and is most naturally to be explained from the use of the 
 same verb in Ex. 28'^, where it is said that Aaron 'shall bear' 
 ('N NB'JI) the names of the children of Israel before Yahweh engraved 
 upon the stones of the two shoulder-straps of the Ephod ; and simi- 
 larly (z/. 28) that he 'shall bear' their names upon the pouch. We 
 learn from i Sam. 23 ^ that the Ephod was used in consulting the 
 oracle, or 'enquiring of Yahweh' ; and from i Sam. 14 it seems, as 
 in later times, to have been employed in connexion with Urim and 
 Tummim (in v. " (!&'"' preserves the true reading ' Ephod ' in place of 
 
 * The Chronicler (who was evidently somewhat scandalized by the narrative as 
 it stands in 2 Sam. ) clothes David in a rnfil Ms ' robe of byssus,' in addition to 
 the Ephod of linen, and omits all allusion to the episode in which Michal plays 
 a part (i Chr. 15 ^]. 
 
 J It is worthy of note that Pe-nhesi's apron is loosely girt well above the loins, 
 being apparently supported in that position by a band from the shoulders. 
 
 § In the description given, by the Roman lawyer Gains (iii. 192-193) of the 
 house-search for stolen articles— ' furtum licio et lance conceptum '— the leather 
 apron, 'licium' ('consuti genus quo necessariae partes tegerentur') is explained 
 by Ihering as a relic of antiquity— the usual dress of the ancient Aryans- 
 preserved in a ceremonial institution dating from hoary antiquity. Cf. The 
 Evolution of the Aryan, pp. 2 ff. 
 
 II This last passage, as it stands in 19, speaks of ' bearing the Ephod of linen ' ; 
 but it is not improbable that the word badh, which is omitted by ffiB, is an erroneous 
 insertion. 
 
 1[ The passage is in some slight disorder. As it stands in 19, 'n*3 IT lifiX 
 seems to mean 'an Ephod came down in his hand.' ffiB however, after the 
 words 'unto David,' presupposes a text nj^ niSN] T]J nWp IH DV N-IHI 
 •he went down with David to Ke'ilah, havinR an Ephod in his hand.' This is 
 very possibly the original text : cf. Driver, NHTS."^ ad loc. 
 
240 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8 
 
 f^ 'Ark of God')- When asked to consult the oracle, the priei 
 told to bring it near (nB^'an, 14 '^ 23', 30') ; and, when ordered 
 desist, the command is ' withdraw thine hand ' (?|"i» f)fa[<t 14 w), w! 
 
 seems to presuppose some form of manipulation in connexion 
 the sacred lot. The locus classicus for the use of this latter (t 
 and Tummim) is i Sam. 14*' ffi, which has already been not 
 under ch. i ' npte on ' enquired of Yahweh.' Thus, if we ar 
 explain the Ephod of i Sam. by the Ephod of P, it may have I 
 the receptacle in which the sacred lot was preserved — possib! 
 pouch and apron or girdle combined — the prototype of the 1 
 priestly vestment. 
 
 The character of Gide'on's Ephod has formed subject for ir 
 discussion. It is commonly supposed that the description of v. ^ 
 only be satisfied by the supposition that here the Ephod den 
 some kind of idol, and not simply a vestment and pouch employe 
 consulting the oracle. In favour of this view the following pc 
 have been alleged. 
 
 If the words IISN^ 'J iniX W^l mean that Gide' on Marf« the 1 
 shekels of gold into an Ephod, it seems to follow that the Ep 
 must have been something of the character of an idol, or possibh 
 non-eikonic symbol (foavoj/) of considerable size ; since so grei 
 weight of metal cannot have been employed in the manufacture 1 
 mere belt and apron, with pouch attached, even if we suppose thes 
 have been heavily overlaid with gold. The verb Vi>\, again, rende 
 ' and he set it up,' suggests an idol rather than an instrumen 
 divination which, when in use, was girt on to the body of the pri 
 Further, the strong terms of reprobation employed by the wrih 
 'and all Israel went a whoring after it, etc' — though appropriat( 
 application to the worship of an idol, seem rather strange if they 
 to be understood of an object which is mentioned, without a won 
 . blame, as commonly employed in ascertaining the oracle of Yah' 
 in the days of Samuel and David, and the continued use of whicl 
 post-exilic times is specifically provided for in the ritual enactrai 
 of the Priestly Code. 
 
 Added to the arguments based upon the reference to Gide'( 
 Ephod, there are other references which have been thought to pi 
 in the same direction. The story of Micah and his private sanctu; 
 Judg. 17.18, is clearly composite in origin; and the Ephod 
 Teraphim of the one narrative are parallel to the graven image 
 molten image of the other — or rather to the graven image only, 
 molten image being a later addition. In i Sam. 21^° the sw 
 of Goliath is preserved in the sanctuary of Nob ' wrapped in a cl 
 behind the Ephod' — a reference which may be taken to mean t 
 the Ephod stood by itself, clear of the wall, as an image would! 
 Lastly, the obscure phrase of Isa. 30 ^^ (probably a late passai 
 fianr ri3Dp n'^ax, R.V. 'the plating of thy molten images of go 
 
8. 27.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 84! 
 
 is parallel to ''ISpD *^*DB ''■ISV 'the overlaying of thy graven images 
 
 of silver ' ; the term 'aphuddd (cognate to 'ephSdk) being interpreted 
 by R. V. as ' plating ' owing to its parallelism with sippAy ' overlaying ' 
 (for which cf Ex. 38"">, Num. i;,^*). If, then, 'aphuddd means the 
 ' plating ' of an idol, it is inferred that 'epkddk denotes such a plated 
 idol, i.e. a wooden idol overlaid with metal. 
 Taking these points in order — it should be observed that, while the 
 
 phrase ? HCV may be used in the sense ^ke made into' (cf especially 
 
 Isa. 44 1" rwV Wh in'"INB'-1 'and the remnant thereof he made into 
 
 a god'; so 7/.'^; cf. also Deut. 9**, Ezek. 4°), it may' equally well 
 have the sense '■he used for.' This is the sense of the phrase in 
 I Sam. 8'*, 'Your servants, etc., shall he take and use them /or his 
 work ' ; Ex. 38 ^*, ' All the gold that was used for the work ' ; Ezek. 1 5 ^, 
 'It (the wood of the vine) cannot be used for work.' Similarly, in 
 
 Hos. 2' d^i"), {jVa^ •ib'V 3nr is more naturally to be rendered 'the 
 
 gold which they used for the Ba'al' (i.e. in his service) than 'the gold 
 
 which ihey made into the Ba'al' ; pyan by itself being nowhere else 
 
 used of the image of the false god. Thus, the rendering of the 
 phrase which is adopted in our translation is at any rate quite legiti- 
 mate ; the statement being understood to mean that Gide'on used the 
 gold not merely in the manufacture of the Ephod, but also in the 
 provision of such accessories as were necessary for its proper 
 maintenance as a cultus-object, i.e. a sanctuary and priestly care- 
 taker, etc. 
 
 The verb JS'1, whether rendered ' he set it up,' or, as above, ' he 
 established it' (cf. Am. 51= tDSiK'p IVB'a •15''-sn 'establish judgment in , 
 
 the gate'), need not imply that the Ephod was an image; since, upon 
 the alternative assumption that it was, here as elsewhere, a vestment 
 employed in ascertaining the will of the oracle, it is not clear what 
 other verb could have been more suitably employed to describe the 
 fact that it was kept and used in divination at 'Ophrah. What the 
 writer wishes to express is that it was there that the Ephod-cult was 
 'estabhshed' ; and any alternative expression, such as ''he placed' or 
 ^kept it at 'Ophrah,' would scarcely have been possible. 
 
 The strong reprobation of the Ephod-cult is explained by the fact 
 that the passage comes from E^ ; whereas the passages in i Sam. 
 which seem to regard the Ephod as the natural and appropriate 
 means of ascertaining the will of Yahweh, belong to the much older 
 narrative of J. The difference in point of view is no greater here 
 than in the two accounts of the institution of the kingship ; where, 
 while J regards the granting of a king as a mark of Yahweh's favour 
 :o Israel (i Sam. 9 '"•■"), E^, on the other hand, stigmatizes Israel's 
 
 Q 
 
442 THE BOOK OP JUDGES [8. ; 
 
 demand for a king as a definite act of rejection of Yahweh (l Sam. 8 
 It is at least probable, if not certain, that the prophetic school repi 
 sented by E^ grouped the Ephod with other conventional forms 
 divination, and regarded it with disfavour ; and Hosea', whose i 
 fluence is to be traced in E^ (cf. Introd. p. xlv), makes disparagr 
 reference to Ephod together with Teraphim (Hos. 3 *). It is genera 
 acknowledged that in i Sam. 14 '^ the original form of the passage 
 preserved in ffi : — koi ilTTiv SaouX tm A;(eia TLpotrayay^ to e(j)ovb' 1 
 avTos rjpiv TO f(f>ovS ev Trj rjfiepa eKfivrj ivaiTLov lirparfK. In f§, howevi 
 D*n$S<n I'nN ' the Ark of God ' has taken the place of ' the Ephod' 
 
 an alteration which must have been purposely made, and th 
 most probably in order to avoid reference to the consultation of tl 
 will of Yahweh by a form of divination which the corrector of the te 
 regarded with some disfavour. The fact that, in post-exilic timf 
 the Priestly Code lays down detailed regulations for the manufactu 
 and use of the Ephod is not an argument to prove that in late pr 
 exilic times the school of E^ could not have disapproved of its us 
 Rather, we may argue that, if P had supposed that the term Eph( 
 had at any time been used of a definitely idolatrous symbol, such 
 term would not have been perpetuated by the Code in reference to 
 legitimate instrument of divination. The evidence of the Priestly Cod 
 therefore, tells in favour of the .inference that the codifiers of th 
 body of legislation were unaware that the term ' Ephod ' had bef 
 applied in early times to an idol. 
 
 The fact that, in Judg. 17.18, one narrative equips Micah's sanctua: 
 with Ephod and Teraphim, while the parallel narrative speaks of 
 graven image merely, is no argument to prove that the graven ima; 
 was the same as the Ephod. Nor would the case really 1 
 strengthened if the second narrative had originally mentioned (as 
 does now) both graven image and molten image ; since there is r 
 reason whatever for supposing that the two traditions were so absi 
 lutely at one that graven image and molten image must denote ti 
 same things as Ephod and Teraphim. As Mo. has shown, howeve 
 the molten image is a late addition to the narrative. 
 
 In I Sam. 21 '° the statement that the sword of Goliath at tl 
 sanctuary of Nob was 'wrapped in a cloth behind the Ephod' m< 
 very well mean that both sword and Ephod were hanging on a larj 
 peg fixed in the wall (Lotz, Foote, Sellin), the Ephod, as beir 
 constantly in use, hanging outermost. 
 
 Lastly, the interpretation of Tjant naSD iTjiaN in Isa. 30^^ is vei 
 
 obscure : but on any interpretation the phrase can scarcely can 
 much weight in proof that the term Ephod was ever applied to ; 
 idol. Foote argues that n^DD never means 'molten image' whei 
 
 as here, it is a genitive. It means a 'casting' ; and as a genitive 
 means that the nomen regens is not carved, nor beaten, but ca; 
 
8. 28.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 443 
 
 established it in his city, even in 'Ophrah ; E=^ and all Israel went 
 a whoring after it there, and it became a snare to Gide'on and to 
 his house. 28. R^' So Midian was subdued before the sons of 
 Israel, and they hfted up their head no more. And the land 
 had rest forty years in the days of Gide'on. 
 
 This conclusion is supported by such phrases as nSDD biV lit. 'bull 
 of casting,' i.e. 'cast or molten bull' ; riDDD *n^N 'gods of casting,' 
 i.e. 'molten gods.' Thus, ^int n3Dp ITIBN might mean 'thy cast 
 band of gold,' lit. ' the band (attachment) of the casting of thy gold.' 
 It may be considered doubtful whether the parallelism of ^ap3 'fi'DS 
 
 'thy graven images of silver,'. does not tell against Foote's conclusion, 
 and compel us to explain ?i3nr n3DD as ' thy molten image of gold.' 
 
 But even so, it is likely that niBX has the same meaning here as in 
 
 Ex. 28*, viz. 'attachment' or 'band,' and thus refers to the priestly 
 band or vestment which was in this case worn by the idol, and not to 
 an actual part of the idol, such as a metal sheathing — a sense which 
 is purely hypothetical. 
 
 We conclude then that, while the reference to Gide'on's Ephod is 
 involved in considerable difficulty, there is nothing in the statement, 
 nor in other statements which we have noticed, to compel us to 
 believe that it was an idol, or anything else but the ordinary priestly 
 vestment which was employed in obtaining an oracle. 
 • The explanation of the Ephod here adopted follows, in the main, 
 the lines laid down by Lotz, Realencyklopddie fUr protestantische 
 Theologie und Kirche., 1898, v. pp. 402-406; Yoote, J BL., 1902, 
 pp. 1-47 ; Sellin, Das israelitische Ephod (Orient. Studien T. Noldeke 
 gewidmet, 1906, pp. 699-717) : cf also the brief summary given by 
 Benzinger, Hebrdische Archdologie,^ pp. 347 f. 
 
 went a whoring. Cf. ch. 2 ^'^ note. 
 
 a snare. Heb. mdkes. Cf ch. 2 ' note. 
 
 28. On the characteristic phraseology of R^', cf Introd. p. xlviii. 
 
 YAHWEH OR YAHU ORIGINALLY AN AMORITE DEITY 
 
 (Cf note on 'the Ashera,' ch. 6^6.) 
 
 Sayce was the first to call attention {ET. ix. p. 522) to the existence 
 of the name Ya-u-um-ilu on a Babylonian text of the First Dynasty 
 period (published in CT. iv. 27). This can scarcely mean anything 
 else than 'Ya-u is god'; and is thus idendcal in form and meaning 
 
S44 TUB feOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 with the Hebrew ^Nh* Jo'el. Sayce^s conclusion was accepted 1 
 Hommel, who further cited the name Ha-li-pi-um, i.e., probabl 
 fla-li-ya-um* ' Ya-u is maternal uncle ' ( Ar. Ml)., as occurring in 
 document of the same period {ET. x. p. 42 : the list" in which Harli-ya-u 
 occurs is published in CT. iv. 27). Ya-u-um-ilu was subsequent 
 cited by Delitzsch, together with the two forms Ya-d-we-ilu, Ya-we-i 
 (which he explained as meaning ' Yahweh is God ') in proof of tl 
 recognition and worship of the God Yahweh in Babylonia in ear 
 times {Babel und Bibel, pp. 46 f.). Upon this evidence Delitzs< 
 based much too far-reaching assumptions as to the derivation 
 Hebrew monotheism from Babylonian sources ; and his conclusioi 
 excited a keen and voluminous controversy.! In particular, h 
 reading of the' names Ya-^a-we-ilu, Ya-we-ilu was hotly dispute 
 upon the ground that the syllable which he read as WE might I 
 interpreted as PI, and that the first element of the names Ya-a-pi 1 
 Ya-pi was probably a verbal form. Early Babylonian usage favou: 
 the reading WE or WA for the disputed syllable rather than PI 
 yet, even so, it is by no means certain that the element Ya-a-it) 
 Ya-we in the names in question is a divine name and not a verbi 
 form. Thus Ranke, who transcribes Ya-'ak-wi-ilu, takes tl 
 meaning to be '(The) god lives' (assuming an Amorite verb ni 
 = Heb. rrri 'to live'); while Hilprecht, reading Ka-'-ww/a, unde 
 stands as 'God has spoken' (Bab. awA or anii^ 'to speak'; but i 
 this case the normal Babylonian form would be iwi, hni, not ya'iui) 
 More recently, the publication by Thureau-Dangin of the Fir 
 Dynasty tablets preserved in the Louvre 1 1 reveals the existence 1 
 the name Ya-wi {we, wa, pi?)-{ilu)-Dagan'i ; and associatic 
 with the name of the deity Dagan greatly strengthens the case fi 
 regarding the disputed form as a verb — the only alternative being 1 
 suppose that the name identifies a deity Ya-wi with the deity Dagat. 
 cf the compounds Hadad-Rimmon, Zech. 12", and the Moabr 
 'Ashtar-Chemosh {Moabite Stojie, 1. 17). It is thus evident that tl 
 names Ya-a-we-ilu, Ya-we-ilu cannot be cited with any probabilii 
 as instances of compounds containing the divine name Yahweh. 
 
 Clay's publication of Personal Names of the Cassite Period {l<)ii 
 i.e. the period subsequent to the First Dynasty period, ranging froi 
 cir. B.C. 1760 to 1 185, throws further Hght upon the use of the divit 
 
 * The cuneiform sign-group, wtiich has the syllabic value PI in Assyrii 
 documents of a later period, is commonly used with the value WE, WA, ai 
 YA in Babylonian documents of the First Dynasty period, and later still into t 
 period of the T.A. Letters (cir. B.C. 1400). For Ha-li-ya-um with the commi 
 sign for YA, cf. p. 245 (from Thureau-Dangin, op. cit. infra, p. 22). 
 
 X For the literature of this controversy, cf. Rogers, Relig. Bab. and Assyr. p. c 
 
 § Cf. Ranke, Early Bah. Personal Names of the Hammurabi Dynasty, 1905. 
 
 II Lettres et contrats de Vipoque de la Premiere Dynasiie Babylonienne, -1910. 
 
 IT Op. cit. p. 23. The occurrence of this name and its bearing on the conti 
 versy were first brought to the notice of the present writer by Dr. R. W. Rogei 
 
The book of judges 245 
 
 name Ya-u in Babylonia. He chronicles the forms Va-a-u, Ya-u- 
 ba-ni, Ya-u-gu, and the apparently feminine forms Ya-{a-)u-tum, 
 Ya-a-i-tum. Ya-u-ba-ni can only mean ' Ya-u is creator,' the form 
 being precisely analogous to Ilii-ba-ni, ' The god is creator,' Ellil- 
 ba-ni, ' EUil is creator,' etc. The form Ya-u-ba-ni recalls the familiar 
 name of the king of Hamath who was contemporary with Sargon 
 (B.C. 721-705), {ilu) Ya-u-bi-'-di (Winckler, Sargon, pp. 102, 178), 
 Ya-u-bi-'-di {id. p. 170), which alternates with I-lu-bi-'-di {id. p. 6), just 
 as in Hebrew we find both \T\p\\ and inj^S. Here Ya-u is marked 
 by the determinative prefix ilu, 'god,' which proves beyond a doubt 
 that it is a divine name. The element Ya-u, as the first element of a 
 proper name, appears in Ya-u-ha-zi, the Assyr. equivalent of the 
 Heb. Jeho'ahaz, i.e. the Judaean king 'Ahaz, in an inscription of 
 Tiglath-pileser iv. (cf. Rost, Tiglath-pileser, p. 72). Cf The form 
 Ya-u-a which occurs as the representation of the name of the 
 Israelite king Jehu, in the inscriptions of Shalmaneser iii. (cf KB. i. 
 pp. 140, «', 150). The shortening of Ya-u into Ya as the first 
 element of a proper name is seen in Ya-ma-e-ra-ah, i.e. ' Ya indeed 
 is the moon,' CT. viii. 17. 
 
 In face of this evidence, it is impossible to doubt that Ya-u or 
 Ya-um (with mimation) is a divine name, and corresponds to the 
 Heb. — in'' or — v the shorter form of the divine name Yahweh, 
 
 which regularly occurs as the first element in Israelite proper names. 
 On the form Ya-u-tum, cf. p. 248. 
 
 We find, moreover, a large class of proper names occurring in 
 Babylonian documents of the First Dynasty and KaSSite periods in 
 which the second element of the name is Ya, Ya-u-a (once), Ya-tum, 
 Ya-u-tum, Ya-u-ti ; the names themselves being precisely parallel in 
 form to other names in which the second element is indisputably the 
 name or title of a deity. 
 
 Thus, where the relation is that of a genitive following a Construct 
 State, we may notice A-pil-ya, A-pil-ya-tum, apparently 'son of Ya 
 or Yatum,' like A-pil-i-li-su, ' son of his god.' 
 
 Ardi-ya, Ardi-ya-um, apparently 'servant of Ya or Ya-um,' like 
 Ardi-ildni, 'servant of the gods'; Ardi-{ilu)-Marduk, 'servant of 
 (god) Marduk ' ; Ardi-Samas, ' servant of §ama§,' etc. 
 
 NUr-ya-u-ti, apparently ' light of Ya-u-tu,' like NAr-Ellil, ' light of 
 EUil ' ; N&r-IHar, NAr-Marduk, etc. 
 
 Cases in which the relation to a preceding substantive is predica- 
 tive, the copula being understood, are : — 
 
 A-bi-ya, A-bi-ya-tum, A-bi-ya-u-ti, apparently 'Ya or Ya-tum or 
 Ya-u-tu is father,' X^at A-bi-ilu, '(the) god is father'; A-bi-i-li, 'my 
 god is father'; A-bi-i-li-Su, 'his god is father'; A-bi-e-ra-ah, 'the 
 moon is father,' etc. 
 
 ya-li-ya-um, /fa-li-ya-tum, apparently 'Ya-um or Ya-tum is 
 maternal uncle.' 
 
246 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Be-li-ya, Be-li-ya-tutn, Be-li-ya-u-tum, apparently ' Ya or Ya-tum 
 or Ya-u-tum is lord,' like Be-li-a-bi, ' my father is lord.' 
 
 Sili-ya, Sili-ya-u-tum, apparently ' Ya or Ya-u-tum is my protec- 
 tion' (lit. 'shadow'; cf. Heb. fjSjiijVa 'In the shadow of God'), like 
 
 Sili-Addu, ' Addu is my protection ' ; SiK-{ilu)-Amurru, SiU-{ilu)- 
 Dagan, Sili-Marduk, Sili-Samas, Sili-Isiar, etc. 
 
 Tukulii-ya-u-ii, apparently ' Ya-u-tu is my help,' like Tukulti-Ellil^ 
 ' Ellil is my help,' etc. 
 
 It is doubtful whether A-ht-ya, A-hi-ya-u-a, Ah-i-ya-tum, A-hi-ya- 
 u-ti, like A-hi-ilu (or -Hi), should fall into the first or second of these 
 classes. A-hi-ya might mean 'Ya is brother,' or 'brother of Ya,' 
 just as A-hi-ilu might mean ' (the) god is brother,' or (taking the 
 ideogram for 'god' as the genitive Hi), 'brother of (the) god.' In 
 favour of the latter supposition we may cite the fem. name A-ha-ti-ya, 
 presumably ' sister of Ya ' ; scarcely ' Ya is sister.' Cf masc. 
 E-ri-H-ya, ' bridegroom of Ya,' beside the fem. names E-ri-is-ti-{ilu)- 
 A-a, 'bride of (god) A-a'; E-ri-is-ti-Addu, 'bride of Addu'; and 
 
 Phoenician iptin 'brother of Milk,' 1^»nns ' sister of Milk,' mp^JOnn 
 ' sister of Melkart.' 
 
 A third class, in which the first element of the name is a verbal 
 form, is represented by I-din-ya, I-din-ya-tum, apparently 'Ya or 
 Ya-tum has given,' like I-din-ili-su, 'his god has given'; I-din- 
 Marduk, 'Marduk has given' ; I-din-(ilu)-Amurru, I-din-Sin, etc. 
 
 It must be admitted that the explanation of -ya, -ya-tum, etc., as 
 divine names is not generally accepted, some scholars {e.g. Ranke 
 and Clay) explaining them as hypocoristic terminations in substitu- 
 tion for some fuller and more definite form {Ardi-ya thus conceivably 
 implying Ardi-{j.lu)- Marduk, or ~{ilu)-Sin, etc.). Against this view, 
 and in favour of that which is here advocated, the following points 
 may be made : — 
 
 (i) In cases in which Ya-u, Ya-u-um occur as the first element in 
 a proper name (as in Ya-u-ba-ni, {ilu) Ya-u-bi-'-di, Ya-u-um-ilu 
 above cited), the hypocoristic explanation breaks down ; it being 
 impossible to explain Ya-u as anything else than a divine name or 
 title. If, then, as has been shown, names ending in -ya, etc., are 
 identical in formation with names containing as their second element 
 the name of a god such as Marduk, Sin, Samas, etc., it is reasonable 
 to infer that -ya as the second element of these names denotes the 
 same deity as Ya-u when occurring as the first element in other 
 names. In fact, as we have seen, the full form A-hi-ya-u-a occurs 
 side by side with A-hi-ya. That Ya-u, when occurring as the second 
 element in a proper name, should normally be shortened to -ya is 
 precisely analogous to the usage of Hebrew proper names containing 
 the divine name n» (as well as -in* ) as the second element,' 
 
 answering to — in< 'V as the first element. And further, an 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 247 
 
 instance of such shortening when Va is the ^rsi element is seen in 
 Ya-ma-e-ra-ah, assuming this to mean ' Ya indeed is the moon.' 
 
 (2) The forms A-bi-ya, A-hi-ya, Be-li-ya are identical in all re- 
 spects with the Hebrew njax, n>nx, H'^Va. nj3X, n'nx are 
 variations of the fuller forms -in'nx -in'riN • and the fact that in 
 
 these Hebrew names the element Ya or Yahu is a divine name 
 corresponding to the fuller form Yahweh is generally admitted.* It 
 is difficult, therefore, to believe that the identity in form of the Baby- 
 lonian names is accidental, and does not involve identity of meaning. 
 
 (3) The name A-hi-ya-mi occurs in a Babylonian letter from 
 Ta'anach of dr. B.C. 1450 (cf. Rogers, CP. p. 282 ; TB. i. p. 129), 
 borne by the Amorite writer of the letter. Here the element -mi 
 is probably not to be understood as equivalent to -wi., as has been 
 supposed, Ya-wi thus answering to Yahweh ; but more probably -mi 
 is the Babylonian enclitic particle which is regularly employed in 
 letters of this period from Cana'an in place of the normal enclitic -ma. 
 The purpose of the enclitic, thus used, is to predicate a fact with some 
 emphasis. Thus A-hi-ya-mi would denote ' Ya indeed is brother,' or 
 'brother of Ya (emphatic)'; cf Ya-ma-e-ra-ah, 'Ya indeed is the 
 moon' above noticed. Ihc-ma-ilu, '(The) god indeed is god'; 
 I-li-ma-a-bu-um, ' My god indeed is father ' ; I-li-ma-a-hi, ' My god 
 indeed is my brother', and the S. Arabian ^XO'DN 'Abi-ma-'el 
 (Gen. 10^, I fhr. i ^\ 'God is father indeed,' side by side with the 
 normal {iN^aN 'Abi-'el, 'God is father.' But, if emphasis is thus 
 
 thrown upon Ya, it seems clear that the sense intended is ' Ya and 
 no one else'' ; and it is out of the question that Ya thus emphasized 
 should be simply a hypocoristic termination, and not a genuine 
 divine name or title. 
 
 A further important fact (noticed by the present writer in JTS. ix. 
 p. 341) is that a Babylonian syllabary {CT. xii. 4) which gives a 
 large number of equivalents of the star-ideogram which is the 
 ordinary symbol for ibc, ' god,' offers as the first of these equivalents 
 the word Ya--u, a form which would appear in Hebrew as -inj 
 
 Yah^, the light breathing in Bab. here answering to the Heb. n. 
 The second equivalent on the list is Ya-a-ti, which recalls Ya-tum 
 in the names which we have been examining ; but which Sayce is 
 perhaps right in regarding as an etymology offered by the Babylonian 
 scribe for the (to him) unintelligible Ya-'-u, viz. Bab: ydti, ' myself 
 {ET. xviii. p. 27 ; xix. p. 525). 
 
 The relationship of the apparently fem. forms Ya-tum, Ya-u-tum 
 to Ya-u or Ya-'-u is obscure. The following attractive explanation 
 
 * Cf., however, Jastrow, JBL. xiii. (1899), pp. no ff., who takes -ya, -yahu as 
 afFormatives. 
 
248 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 has been offered by Sayce ;— ' By the side of the masculine Yau i 
 have the feminine Yautum, corresponding with a Hebrew nin\ Ai 
 just as miT' is used in Hebrew for the masculine, so we find Yafltu 
 used not only as a feminine but also as a masculine name. That 
 to say, the absorption of the feminine Yautum, nin^ by the masculii 
 in\ n'', )\ which is fully carried out in Hebrew, is in process of beir 
 carried out in the Babylonian of the Cassite age. How the goddes 
 who in so many cases possessed after all only a grammatical exis 
 ence, came to be identified with the god, I have explained in n; 
 Lectures on the Religion of the Babylonians ; a well-known examp 
 of the fact is the Ashtar-Chemosh of the Moabite Stone. While tli 
 Latin races, like the natives of Asia Minor, seemed to have crave 
 for a female divinity, the Semites resembled the Teutonic populatior 
 in their tendency to believe only in a male deity' {ET. xviii. p. 27 
 The transformation of an originally female deity into a male deity i 
 the case of the Sabaean 'Athtar has already been noticed in note 
 ' the 'Ashtarts,' p. 59.* ■ 
 
 Babylonian evidence for the worship of the deity Va-u, Ya-u-tm. 
 ( Ya, Ya-tum) appears, then, to be abundant during the First Dynast 
 period, and onward into the Ka§site period, though not earlier J ; am 
 this fact lends high probability to the view of Sayce and Hommel tha 
 this deity was first introduced into Babylonia by the 'Amorite 
 immigrants, to whom the foundation of the First Dynasty seems ti 
 have been due : cf. hitrod. pp. Ivii ff § 
 
 • 
 * Identification of Ya-u-ium, Ya-tum at one time with a female deity (Istai 
 and at another with a male deity (Sin) is perhaps to be seen in IStar-ya-ui-tur, 
 (Clay, op. czt.), Sin-ya-tutn (Ranke and Thureau-Dangin, opp. citt.). 
 
 X The view put forward by the present writer in JTS. ix. p. 342, that tb 
 divine name Ya-um is to be found so far back as dr. B.C. 2700 in Lipus-I-a-uv 
 (or E~a-um), the name of the daughter of Narim-Sin, a priestess of Sin, nov 
 appears to him to be too doubtful to be cited as evidence : cf. Rogers, Religion 0^ 
 Babylonia and Assyria, p. 94 n'^. On Ball's plausible explanation of Ya-u amUi 
 in Gilgames-Epic, Tab. x. Col. iv. 1. 17, as ' god-man,' cf JTS. ix. pp. 341 f 
 
 § It is difficult to escape the impression that the reluctance of some scholars- 
 especially Jewish scholars — to recognize the existence of the divine name Yahu Oi 
 Yahweh in Babylonian documents of an early period is due to the feeling tha 
 such a fact, if true, must tend to derogate from the uniqueness of Israel's privilegi 
 as the sole recipient of the revelation implied by the name which has always beer 
 regarded as peculiarly the proper name of the God of IsraeL In view of thi: 
 tendency, and to guard against the misunderstanding of bis own position, th( 
 present writer hastens to affirm that the views which he puts forward in thii 
 Addit. note as regards .the use of the name in very early times among the people 
 of Amurru, from whom Israel sprang, and in the following Addit. note as to thf 
 early identification of Yahweh with the moon-god Sin, do not, in his opinion, 
 derogate in any respect from the uniquely new significance in which the name ii 
 related in Ex. 3 to have been revealed to Moses at Horeb. That revelation, will 
 its new exposition of the name Yahweh as ' He who will become' {i.e. the God 
 of progressive Revelation — 'I will become what I will become'; cf. note w 
 ch. 6 18, 'I will be with thee '), no less than the fulness of moral and spiritual 
 meaning which Israel's prophets and psalmists were inspired to draw from the 
 name in later ages, stands unparalleled in the history of Semitic religions ; and is 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 249 
 
 EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF YAHWEH 
 
 WITH THE MOON-GOD 
 
 (Cf. note on ' the Ashera,' ch. 6 ^^) 
 
 We have seen, in the preceding note, how the name Yahu, Yahweh 
 ( Ya-u or Ya--u, Ya-u-tum) comes into prominence at the period of 
 the First Babylonian Dynasty ; and evidence appeared to indicate 
 that the knowledge and worship of this deity in Babylonia was due 
 to the ' Amorite ' immigrants, who may be supposed to have been the 
 founders of the First Dynasty. It is a noteworthy fact that, while 
 proper names compounded with the names of various Babylonian 
 deities such as Samag, Marduk, Igtar, etc., are frequent at this period, 
 by far the largest number of such theophoric names are framed in 
 honour of the Moon-god Sin. Among these, we have already noticed 
 Sin-ya-tum, which appears to equate or identify Sin with Yatum or 
 Yahweh. The occurrence has also been cited of the name Ya-ma- 
 e-ra-ak, ' Ya indeed is the moon,' i.e. the moon-god Sin. 
 
 Now the fact. is significant that Gen. 14 makes Abraham, the 
 traditional ancestor of Israel, a contemporary of Hammurabi 
 ('Amraphel), the most celebrated king of the First Babylonian 
 Dynasty. Biblical records, again, associate Abraham with Ur, the 
 southern seat of the worship of Sin ; and depict him as moving 
 thence to Qarran, the northern seat of the worship of the same deity, 
 before his migration westward to the land of Canaan. Abraham's 
 movements are represented in the O.T. as dictated by the influence 
 of a higher form of religion than was current at the time in Babylonia. 
 His immediate ancestors are stated to have been polytheists, the 
 worshippers of deities other than Yahweh (Josh. 24 ^ E). 
 
 Harran* (Bab. Qarrdnu, 'way or road') appears to have been so 
 named as the road from east to west, the gateway by which Babylonian 
 trade and culture penetrated into and permeated the coast-land of 
 Syria, including Canaan. It possessed a celebrated temple of Sin, 
 called E. HUL. HUL, the antiquity of which is vouched for by 
 Nabonidus, when he tells us that ' since ancient days Sin, the great 
 lord, had dwelt therein as the abode of his heart's delight.' % Included 
 
 wholly unaffected by the fact that the name itself appears to have been known 
 and used in earlier times, and among a wider circle of peoples. Cf. on this point, 
 Rogers, Relig. of Bab. and Assyr., p. 97; Driver, Genesis {Westm. Comm.), 
 p. 409, Exodus (Camd. Bid.), p. li. The document J (as distinct from E) regards 
 the use of ihe name Yahweh as primeval ; since it states, in Gen. 4^6, that in the 
 days of Enosh, the grandson of Adam, ' men began to call with the name of 
 Yahweh,' i.e.. to use the name in invocations. Yet J by no means implies that 
 the name was used in these early times with anything like the fulness of meaning 
 which it attained when it became the covenant-name of Israel's God. 
 * The Hebrew vocalization pH Haran is due to the objection which was felt, 
 
 at the time of the creation of the Massoretic vowel-system, to the doubling of "1 ; 
 but the as form Xappav makes it certain that, at the time when Hebrew was a 
 spoken language, the Hebrew and Babylonian forms of the name were identical. 
 Cf. noie on harrini, p. 168. 
 X Cf. KB. iii. 2, p. 96 ; Ball, Light from the East, p. 208. 
 
250 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 in the pantheon of Harran were Sarratu ('the Queen'), wife of f 
 moon-god Sin, and Malkatu ('the Princess'), a title of the godde 
 IStar. The names Sarratu and Malkatu are identical in form wi 
 the Hebrew Sarah and Milcah, who are related to have been respe 
 tively the wife and sister-in-law of Abraham, and to have joined 
 the migration from Ur to Qarran (Gen. II ^'"■). * 
 
 The two forms Abram, Abraham, point to Babylonian origina 
 the former to Abu-rAmu, the latter to Abu-ra'imu (the Bab. -'- beii 
 represented in Heb. by H ; cf. Fa-'-a = -in*). But rdmu, ra'imu & 
 variant participial forms of the verb rdmu (Heb. raham), 'to love < 
 show pity.' Abram, Abraham may therefore mean ' loving (mercifi 
 father,' or 'the father is loving (merciful).' | It is at least very pr 
 bable that the father here originally intended was the moon-god Si 
 The attribute of love or mercy (denoted by this verb) is very chara 
 teristic of Sin. We may notice such proper names as Sin-ra-im-u-i 
 ' Sin loves Ur (?) ' ; Sin-ra-im- Uruk {KI\ ' Sin loves (the city) Uruk 
 Sin-ra--z7n-zir, ' Sin loves the seed (offspring) ' ; {ilu) Sin-ri-me-t 
 ' (the god) Sin, is merciful.' The title ' Father' was especially appr 
 priate to Sin. He was regarded as the father of the gods, ti 
 ' merciful, gracious father (a-bu rim-mc-u ta-a~a-ru), in whose han 
 the life of the whole world rests.' § 
 
 Thus, without asserting that the origin of the figure of Israel 
 great ancestor is to be found in a personification of the Moon-go 
 (which indeed it would be rash to do, in view of the fact that tli 
 name was known as a personal name at the period to which Abrahai 
 is assigned by the Biblical narrative ; cf. footnote J), it may at leai 
 be maintained with some reason that the narrative of the movemei 
 which brought the ancestors of the Hebrews from Ur to Harran an 
 finally to Cana'an, appears to be bound up with the worship of Sin 
 just as it is manifestly bound up with definite adhesion to the worshi 
 of Yahweh, involving the repudiation of the 'other gods' which tl 
 ancestors of Abraham are traditionally recorded to have worshipped 
 
 * Cf. Jensen, ZA. xi. pp. 299 f. ; Zimmern, KA T.^ p. 364. 
 
 J This solution of the meaning of the two forms Abram, Abraham was fir 
 suggested to the present writer many years ago by Dr. Ball. More recent 
 Ungnad has discovered the name Aba-rdma, Abam-rdma in Bab. contrac 
 tablets from Dilbat of the reign of Ammizaduga (cf. Beitrdge zur Assyr. vi. 
 1909, p. 60) ; and here, since the first element is an Accusative, it is probab 
 that the meaning is ' he loves the father,' the name belonging to a series of Ba 
 names thus formed: cf. Ranke quoted by Gressmann, ZATW. xxx. (191 
 pp. 2 f. Thus Ball's conclusion as to the pure Bab. origin of the name Abrai 
 Abraham, and his connexion of the second element with the verb rdmu, a: 
 confirmed ; but the possibility (though not the necessity) is opened that the Hd 
 name may be precisely equivalent to the Bab., and should be so interpreto 
 Langdon has also noted (on the basis of Ungnad's discovery) that the varian 
 ■ram, -rdhdm are explicable through the Bab. variants rdmu, ra'imu : cf E'' 
 xxi. (1909), p. 90. 
 
 § Cf. the hymn to Sin in iv.2 R. 9, translated by Jastrow, RBA. i. pp. 43^^ 
 Ungnad, TB. i. pp. 80 f. ; Jensen, KB. vi. 2, pp. 90 ff. Rogers, CP. pp. 14' ' 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 251 
 
 The fact which next calls for notice is the close connexion of 
 Abraham with Be'er-sheba" (Gen. 21 ^s-'i E, 21^2 J, 22" E), a con- 
 nexion which is continued in the narrative of Isaac, where' it is 
 related that Yahweh appeared to Isaac on the night of his arrival at 
 Be'er-sheba", revealing Himself as 'the God of Abraham thy father,' 
 and re-affirming the promises made to Abraham (Gen. 26 ^2"- J). It 
 is from Be'er-sheba' that Jacob sets out when he leaves his parents in 
 order to go to Paddan-Aram (Gen. 28 "> J) ; and when, in much later 
 life, he reaches Be'er-sheba' on his way to Egypt, he offers sacrifice 
 there 'unto the God of his father Isaac,' and is the recipient of a 
 Theophany in which God once more repeats His covenant promises 
 made to Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 461-^ E). 
 
 The name Be'er-sheba' means 'Well of number Seven,' jJaty 
 
 ' Seven,' being here identical with the Babylonian {ilu) Sibitti ' (god) 
 number Seven,' who seems to have represented one aspect of the 
 moon-god, the seven-day week as a lunar quarter : cf. Addit. note 
 pp. 43 f. The connexion which might naturally be inferred from 
 these facts alone between yaE* Sheba', ' God Seven,' and Yahweh, is 
 
 confirmed by the existence of the Israelite proper names j;3B''^N 
 
 Elisheba', ' God is number Seven,' and especially V3B'in* Jehosheba', 
 
 'Yahu or Yahweh is number Seven.' We may recall, in this con- 
 nexion, how Sabbath (the lunar quarter) and New Moon were 
 observed in later times in connexion with the worship of Yahweh. 
 
 Coming now to Moses, we observe that the mountain at which 
 God revealed Himself to him under the name of Yahweh, which is 
 called Sinai in the narratives of J and P, must have been so called on 
 account of an ancient connexion with the moon-god Sin, who gives 
 His name to the whole district in which the mountain is situated (' the 
 wilderness of Sin'). According to the account of the Theophany 
 preserved by E, Horeb (as the mountain is called in E and D) is 
 already, prior to the revelation made to Moses, known as ' the mount 
 of God ' (Ex. 3 '), i.e. it was invested with sacred associations owing 
 to its connexion with the worship of a particular deity — doubtless the 
 god Sin. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who was a Kenite, is styled 
 ' the priest of Midian,' i.e. the supreme interpreter of the religion of 
 his tribe ; and there can be little doubt that the God whom he 
 worshipped was the God Yahweh, and that the central seat of this 
 worship was Mount Sinai. No doubt the sacred associations of the 
 place, and very possibly the conversation which Moses may have had 
 with his father-in-law anent the character and worship of the tribal 
 God, in a great measure prepared Moses' mind for the revelation 
 which he was to receive.* It is interesting in this connexion to 
 
 * The view here put forward that Moses' mind may thus have been prepared, 
 to some extent, for the Theophany, does not, of course, diminish the extraordinary 
 and providential character of that Theophany, any more than does the fact that 
 St. Paul was doubtless reflecting upon the argument of St. Stephen's speech, and 
 
252 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 recall the account of the meeting of Moses with Jethro after tl 
 deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. Moses gave Jethro i 
 account of the course of events, laying stress upon the fact that 
 was Yahweh who had brought about this great deliverance ; and 
 is recorded that ' Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahwe 
 had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand i 
 the Egyptians. And Jethro said. Blessed be Yahweh, who hal 
 delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the han 
 of Phara'oh. . . . Now know I that Yahweh is greater than all gods 
 Jethro then proceeded to take 'a burnt offering and sacrifices fc 
 God : and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread wit 
 Moses' father-in-law before God' (Ex. iS*"--''^). Here no doubt w 
 have a sacrificial meal, in token of communion of Israel and th 
 Kenite in the worship of Yahweh, the God of Sinai (Sin's mountain) 
 
 These conclusions, with regard to the religion of the Kenites, ar 
 strengthened by consideration of the name of the North Arabia 
 tribe Jerahme'el, which was closely associated with the Kenites, ai 
 subsequently, with the tribe of Judah : cf. Addit. note, p. 45. W 
 may infer from i Sam. 3026-31 (-jj^t the Jerahme'elites were worshipper 
 of Yahweh. David is recorded to have sent presents ' of the spoil c 
 the enemies of Yahweh' to the elders of Judah, including 'those wb 
 were in the cities of the Jerahme'elites and those who were in th 
 cities of the Kenites.' i Chr. 2, which makes Jerahme'el a descendan 
 of Judah, i.e. an integral part of the tribe, gives, in vv. 2^'^, th' 
 genealogy of the descendants of Jerahme'el, and includes amoni 
 them Ahijah and Jonathan, two names which assert allegiance ti 
 Yahweh. The name Jerahme'el is compounded of Yerah-ma-'ei 
 'the moon indeed is god.'* Cf. for the formation of the name 
 'Abi-ma-'el (noticed p. 247). Thus this tribe of Yahweh-worshipper 
 bore a name which proclaimed their allegiance to the moon-god. 
 
 The description of the Theophany on Mount Sinai, after the ratifi 
 cation of the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 24^-11 J) is undoubtedly ven 
 ancient, and primitive in conception. It tells us that 'Then went u] 
 Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders 
 Israel ; and they saw the God of Israel ; and there was under hii 
 feet as it were a pavement of sapphire, and as the heaven itself foi 
 clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he put no 
 forth his hand : and they beheld God, and did eat and drink.' It ii 
 difficult to escape the impression that the imagery is here suggestec 
 by the spectacle of the moon, riding at its full in the deep sapphirf 
 sky ; and it can scarcely be objected that such an explanatior 
 involves a more crude and unspiritual conception than that whicl 
 
 the circumstances of the martyr's death, when he received the revelation upon thi 
 Damascus road, affect the character of that revelation as an interposition 
 Divine Providence. Each case illustrates the fact that God works through humar 
 agents in order to prepare the way for His signal manifestations in history. 
 * Cf. Hommel, Grundriss, i. p. 95, n 3. 
 
THE BOOK OP JUDGES 85J 
 
 Bfeems to be the only possible alternative, viz. that the writer pictured 
 a revelation in human form. 
 
 It would be possible to make kindred speculations as to the 
 ultimate meaning of other primitive descriptions of Theophanies— 
 e.ff. Jacob's ladder (Gen. 28 i-' E), the pillar of fire (Ex. 13 ^if- J, 14 « J), 
 and the revelation to Moses on Sinai (Ex. 33 ''-34 'J). Such specu- 
 lations, however, would be at the best highly precarious, and are not 
 needed in order to strengthen this argument for the primitive associa- 
 tion of Yahweh with the Moon-god. It is sufficient to observe, in 
 conclusion, that the opening words in which Yahweh proclaims His 
 character to Moses in Ex. 348, funi Dim hv. nW mn'' 'Yahweh, 
 Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God,' are identical in conception 
 with the 'Merciful gracious Father' in the hymn to Sin already 
 quoted (p. 250). 
 
 THE USE OF WRITING AMONG THE ISRAELITES 
 
 AT THE TIME OF THE JUDGES. 
 
 (Of ck. 81* note.) 
 
 The earliest written documents from Cana'an of which we have 
 knowledge are the T.A. Letters written dr. 1400 B.C. by the petty 
 rulers of Cana'anite and North Syrian cities to their Egyptian 
 suzerain Amenhotp III., and, subsequently, to his son and successor 
 Amenhotp IV. or Ahnaton (cf Introd. p. Ixix). These are written 
 in cuneiform Babylonian upon clay tablets. Similar letters, belong- 
 ing to the same period, have been unearthed at Lachish andTa'anach. 
 The earliest known documents written in the West Semitic language 
 (using this term broadly to embrace Cana'anite or Phoenician, 
 Hebrew, Moabitic, and also early Aramaic) are very much later. From 
 Southern Syria we have the Moabite stone, cir. B.C. 850 ; the Gezer 
 agricultural calendar, probably not later than the eighth century B.c. ; 
 the Siloam inscription, cir. B.c. 700.* To these we may now add the 
 ostraka from Samaria of the time of 'Omri and Ahab, i.e. the earlier 
 part of the ninth century B.C., facsimiles of which have not yet (1918) 
 been published ; % and a limited number of inscribed seals and jar- 
 handles, the most important of which is the seal from Megiddo 
 
 * These inscriptions may conveniently be consulted in NHTS.^ pp. vii. ff. 
 where further references are given. 
 
 J Cf. Driver in PEF. Qy. Si.; 1911, pp. 79 ff. ; and, for a summary account of 
 the excavations at Samaria, based upon the reports in the Harvard Theol. Journ., 
 1908-1911, Handcock, Tke latest light on Bible Laniis, pp. 245 ff. 
 
654 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 inscribed ' Belonging to Shama', the servant of Jerobo'am,' i.e. verj 
 possibly Jerobo'am ll., B.C. 783-743.* To Central Syria belongs thi 
 Phoenician inscription on fragments of a bronze bowl from thi 
 Lebanon, probably of the eighth century B.C. % Northern Syri; 
 offers the inscriptions of Kalumu (latter half of ninth century B.C.) 
 Panammu, and Bar-rekub (latter half of eighth century B.C.), king; 
 of Sam'al and Ya'di, and an inscription of Zakir, king of Hamatl 
 and La'ash, dr. B.C. 800. § These are written in the alphabeti( 
 script which was the prototype of the later West Semitic (Hebrew 
 Samaritan, and Syriac) and Central Semitic (Arabic) alphabets, a; 
 also of the alphabet of the Greeks. 
 
 It thus appears that we possess no direct evidence for the use oi 
 the alphabetic script in Syria earlier than the commencement of the 
 ninth century B.C. ; though its wide diffusion throughout Syria in the 
 ninth and eighth centuries (as proved by the examples above cited] 
 is a clear indication that its first employment must go back to a very 
 considerably earlier date. 
 
 The fact that, in the fourteenth century B.C., the cuneiform script 
 was regularly employed in Cana'an in official correspondence with the 
 kings of Egypt, and even (as exemplified by the Ta'anach Tablets ||) in 
 private correspondence between Cana'anite governors, is not in itself 
 a proof that the alphabetic script was unknown and unused even at 
 this early period. The Cana'anite practice in this respect may very 
 well have been parallel to that which existed among the Hittites at 
 about the same periods (as shown by Winckler's discoveries at 
 Boghaz Keui) ; these latter employing the cuneiform script and 
 Babylonian language together with their own hieroglyphic writing. 
 
 The reason why cuneiform Babylonian documents have survived 
 from this early period, whereas no alphabetic West Semitic docu- 
 ments belonging to the same period are known to exist, may 
 possibly be explained by the following facts. The cuneiform method 
 of writing is the direct result of the material employed for written 
 documents by the Babylonians and their imitators — this being nor- 
 mally the clay tablet, upon which, when in a damp condition, the 
 characters were impressed with some form of angular stylus, before 
 the document was baked or sun-dried. Thus, characters which were 
 originally pictographs came to assume the form of conventional 
 combinations of wedges or arrow-heads, the intractability of the 
 writing material being unfavourable to the preservation of the linear 
 
 * For the seals generally, cf. NHTS.^ p. iv. ; TB. ii. pp. 103 ff. ; and for the 
 Megiddo seal, Tell el-Mutesellim : Bericht iiber die . . . Ausgraiungen, i., 1908, 
 p. 99 ; Driver, Schweich Lectures, p. 91. For the jar-handles, cf. Driver, of. cii. 
 pp. 74 f. , with references there cited. 
 
 % Cf. CIS. I. i. I, pp. 22 ff. ; Ball, Light from the East, p. 238 ; Cooke, NSI. 
 pp. 52 ff. 
 
 § On these North Syrian inscriptions, cf. further pp. 173 f. 
 
 II Cf. Rogers, CP. pp. 281 ff. ; TB. i. pp. 128 f. 
 
tHE BOOK OV JUDGES 255 
 
 pictograph.* On the other hand, the West Semitic alphabetic script, 
 also without doubt originally pictographic, has preserved its linear 
 form because (though capable of being carved, like cuneiform, upon 
 stone) it was never, apparently, written upon clay tablets, J but with 
 a pen and ink upon skin or papyrus. But skin and papyrus neces- 
 sarily perish in the course of ages when exposed to the damp climate 
 of Syria ; therefore, it is well within the range of possibility that such 
 documents, written in the West Semitic script, may have existed at 
 this early period and subsequently perished, while the cuneiform 
 tablets survived. Indeed, the striking paucity of written documents 
 from ancient Palestine may perhaps be explained by the hypothesis 
 that skin or papyrus were commonly employed for writing purposes ; 
 and, if this was so, we may be sure that the script employed was the 
 West Semitic alphabet, and not cuneiform. § 
 
 * The present editor has made experiments in the writing of cuneiform upon 
 soft putty with a wooden penholder cut to a triangular shape, with one very sharp 
 angle, the end of the ' stylus ' being cut off flat. This is held through the full of 
 the hand, as the bearded Assyrian scribe is holding his stylus in the bas-relief 
 figured in Plate I. (from Layard, Momiments of Nineveh, ii. PI, 26). These 
 experiments have proved to him that the wedges can only be formed successfully 
 by impression without drawing, the variation in form being affected by differen- 
 tiating the slope at which the stylus is applied to the putty— the short broad 
 wedges being formed mainly by the end of the stylus, while the longer and 
 narrower ones result from impressing the sharp edge of the stylus into the putty 
 at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees, a still more acute angle (flatter 
 application of the stylus) being necessary for the production of a very long wedge. 
 Initial attempts to produce the latter by drawing with the stylus resulted in 
 failure, as the surface of the putty tended to crumble, and the characteristic 
 clear-cut impression was lost. The same difficulty would obviously stand in the 
 way of drawing Unear pictographs or West Semitic alphabetic characters upon 
 this kind of material. 
 
 % The only known exceptions are the Aramaic dockets on cuneiform contract- 
 tablets of the late Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenian periods, written, 
 for the most part, upon the edges of the tablets, so that their contents might be 
 seen at a glance when they were stacked upon a shelf. These have generally a 
 rough appearance, and must have been difficult to draw upon the damp clay. 
 Their existence certainly does not prove that it was usual to write the Aramaic 
 script upon clay, but simply that it was convenient, in the later stages of the use 
 of cuneiform writing, to have cuneiform documents so docketed. For these 
 Aramaic dockets, cf. CIS. II. i. Nos. 15 ff. ; J. H. Stevenson, Assyrian and 
 Babylonian Contracts with Aramaic Reference Notes (Vanderbilt Oriental 
 Series, 1902); A. T. Clay, Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, Vol. X. (1904), ' Business Documents of Murashfl sons of Nippur dated 
 in the reign of Darius II,' pp. 5 ff.; Vol. Vlli. (1908), ' Legal and Commercial 
 Transactions dated in the Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian Periods,' 
 pp. 14 ff. ; A. T. Clay, 'Aramaic Endorsements, etc.', in Old Testament and 
 Semitic Studies in Memory of William Rainey Harper (1908), Vol. i. pp. 286 ff. ; 
 University of Pennsylvania Museum, Publications of the Babylonian Section, 
 Vol. II. No. I, ' Business Documents, etc., 'by A. T. Clay (1912), Plates 116-123. 
 
 § This latter is very ill-suited for writing with a pen and ink. • Layard, 
 Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd Series, Plate 54, represents a fragment of coloured 
 
25^ THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 The scribes who wrote the T.A. Letters which came from Cana an 
 were obviously more at- home in using the West Semitic language 
 than in using Babylonian. This fact is proved by their employment 
 of . Cana'anite 'glosses' on Babylonian terms, or substitution of 
 Canaanite words when at a loss for the Babylonian equivalent (cf p. 
 1 66). If, however, they were familiarized with the idea of writing 
 through their official correspondence in Babylonian, and could write 
 their own West Semitic language in Babylonian cuneiform syllables, 
 as is proved by the ' glosses,' and were accustomed to express them- 
 selves in West Semitic rather than in Babylonian, why has no 
 discovery been made of documents in the West Semitic language, 
 but written in cuneiform upon clay tablets ? A reasonable inference 
 is that no such documents existed ; the West Semitic tongue, if 
 written at all at this period, being written upon perishable materials 
 such as skin or papyrus, in the alphabetic script. 
 
 There is a fact in connexion with the T.A. correspondence which 
 may very possibly indicate that the West Semitic alphabet -was 
 actually known to, and normally used by, the Cana'anite scribes of 
 this period. It is probable that the secretary at the Egyptian court, 
 whose business it was to read and interpret the Cana'anite corre- 
 spondence to the king of Egypt, was himself not a native Babylonian, 
 or a specially trained Egyptian, but a Western Semite Uke those with 
 whose correspondence it was his duty to deal. He was possibly a 
 personal friend of ARAD-giba of Jerusalem, who regularly concludes 
 his letters to the king with a postscript addressed to the secretary, 
 begging him to impress upon the king's mind the main points with 
 which his letters are concerned. Thus, in one of his letters he writes 
 to him, ' Bring thou in plain words unto the ■ King, my Lord. The 
 King my Lord's entire territory is Ipst ' (Knudtzon, 286). The phrase 
 here rendered ' is lost,' in Babylonian kal-ka-at, occurs, in the same 
 connexion, in another of ARAD-Hiba's letters (Knudtzon, 288, 1. 52), 
 and is glossed, for the sake of emphasis, by the Cana'anite a-ha-da-at 
 (Heb. m3K). We can scarcely err in interpreting this emphasis as 
 
 pottery on which are a few cuneiform characters painted with a brush ; but apart 
 from this no instance is known to the present editor of the writing of the script 
 otherwise than with a stylus upon clay or stone. In the bas-relief mentioned in 
 an earlier footnote (cf. Plate I.), which is part of a scene representing a bearded 
 Assyrian scribe taking a memorandum of the spoils of war in cuneiform writing 
 upon a tablet, this figure is accompanied by another who is writing with a pen 
 upon a piece of curlmg material which obviously represents a scroll of leather or 
 papyrus. The fact that this latter man is beardless marks him as a foreigner 
 (possibly a eunuch) ; and it may be inferred therefore that he is writing in a 
 non-cuneiform script — very possibly in the alphabetic Aramaic script. The two 
 scribes are thus making a double entry in Assyrian and Aramaic respectively. 
 The relief in question, which is of the seventh century B.C., is to be found in tlie 
 British Museum, Kouyunjik Gallery, West Wall, Nos. 4-8. Nos. 15-17 i" '^^ 
 same gallery evidently contain a continuation of the same series, and here too 
 we have two similar scribes engaged in the same employment. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 257 
 
 carrying the implication, ' Do not let there be any mistake : when I 
 say halkat, I mean abadaV ; and hence the inference is fair that the 
 Egyptian king's secretary, like his correspondent, was more familiar 
 with West Semitic than with Babylonian. 
 
 Now among the T.A. correspondence there were found certain 
 fragments of Babylonian legends which had apparently been written 
 as exercises in the writing of the cuneiform script by the secretary 
 of whom we have been speaking, or by some one else holding the 
 same position. These exercises are written in the simplest possible 
 form, ideograms and compound syllables {i.e. syllables both beginning 
 and ending with a consonant) being avoided, and the words built up 
 entirely with simple syllables {i.e. vocalic syllables or syllables con- 
 taining one consonant only). In illustration we may quote the first 
 few lines of the story of Nerigal and Ereskigal, which, apart from its 
 occurrence among the T.A. Letters, would be unknown to us : — 
 
 i-nu-ma i-lu is-ku-nu ki-e-ri-e-ta 
 
 a-na a-ha-ti-su-nn e-ri-es-ki-i-ga-a-al 
 
 is-pu-u-ru ma-a-ar si-i-ip-ri 
 
 ni-i-nu u-lu nu-ur-ra-da-ak-ki 
 
 u at-ti ul ti-li-in-na-a-si 
 
 su-u-up-ri-im-ma li-il-gu ku-ru-um-ma-at-ki. 
 
 ' When the gods prepared a feast. 
 To their sister Ereskigal 
 They sent a messenger ; 
 " Even if we should descend to thee, 
 Thou wouldst not come up to us ; 
 Therefore send and take thy portion." ' 
 
 A native Babylonian scribe, writing in normal fashion, would have 
 expressed this as follows : — 
 
 e-nu-ma DINGIR.MES is-ku-nu ki-ri-ta 
 
 a-na a-ha-ti-su-nu (DINGIR) e-ris-ki-gal 
 
 is-pu-ru TUR sip-ri 
 
 ni-nu u-lu nu-ur-ra-dak-ki 
 
 u at-ii ul ti-li-in-na-H 
 
 Sup-rim-ma lil-ku ktc-rum-mat-ki. 
 
 Here we give the ideograms DINGIR.ME§ = Bab. ilAni, TUR = 
 Bab. mAr, in Sumerian form in order more clearly to illustrate the 
 normal Babylonian method of using ideograms. 
 
 The use of simple, as distinct from compound, syllables suggests 
 that the scribe was accustomed to an alphabet rather than to a 
 syllabary, the simple syllables being for him the equivalents of his 
 own alphabetic signs. We say the equivalents, because it is obvious 
 that the West Semitic alphabet, which has no signs to denote vowels, 
 and which we are accustomed to regard as wholly consonantal, must 
 really have been regarded— at any rate by its framers and earliest 
 
 R 
 
258 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 users— as a 'simple syllabary, in which each consonantal sign carrie 
 the vowel which was appropriate to the word in which it was used. 
 In certain cases, e.g. in ga-a-al for gal, si-i-ip for sip, the T.A. scrib 
 uses the opportunity afforded him by the Babylonian syllabary t 
 expressing the vowel even in a closed syllable in which the vowel i 
 short. He does this because the language is unfamiliar to him, an 
 it is convenient to be able to employ a phonetic complement ; and, i: 
 so doing, he anticipates the history of the development of the writte 
 vocalic system in Hebrew, which was simply the invention of a serie 
 of phonetic complements when the fact that Hebrew had becom 
 comparatively unfamiliar to the Jews necessitated such a course. 
 
 Be this as it may, we have definite evidence to prove that by thi 
 twelfth century B.C., i.e. during the early part of the period coverei 
 by the Book of Judges, papyrus was employed in Palestine as ; 
 writing material ; and therefore, we must infer a form of writinj 
 other than cuneiform was known and used. The Egyptian envo' 
 Wenamon {dr. B.C. 1 1 14 ; cf Introd. pp. xcvi ff.) mentions, among thi 
 presents shipped from Egypt in payment to Zakar-ba'al, king 
 Gebal, for timber from the Lebanon, five hundred rolls of papyrus.: 
 It is evident, therefore, that this Phoenician king knew and valued ; 
 material which could only be employed for writing with pen and ink 
 and there is no reason to doubt that this writing was the ' Phoenician 
 alphabetic script. It is interesting to observe that, in the earlies 
 known examples of this script to which we have already referred- 
 the ostraka from Samaria belonging to the early ninth century B.C. 
 the writing is not scratched or otherwise incised upon the sherds, bu 
 written in ink with a reed pen, in a free and flowing style. § 
 
 The evidence afforded by philological examination of the termi 
 employed in Bib. Heb. in connexion with writing \% as follows. 
 
 The ordinary Heb. verb which means 'to write' is kdthabh, th( 
 ground-significance of which is uncertain. This verb may be use( 
 of engraving upon stone {e.g. the two tablets of the ten command 
 ments), or of writing with ink in a book. Other verbs which denoti 
 ' to engrave ' are haras, harath, hakak ; but the latter verb, as used ii 
 Isa. 30' ('inscribe it in a book'), may have come to be applied t< 
 writing in ink. It is worthy of note that the ordinary Bab. anc 
 Assyr. verb ' to write,' satdru, is not so used, in Heb. ; though thi 
 
 * Thus, if a Western Semite read "131, he did not— like modern learners 
 Hebrew— thinlc of it as a mere series of consonants d-l-r, to which the additioi 
 of the vowels was a matter of guess-work aided by the context ; but he though 
 of it as da-ba-r""'- if it happened to be the substantive meaning ' word,' or other 
 wise as the context dictated, the decision as to the precise vowel which the writte: 
 sign carried being instinctive to a born user of the language, just as the decisio: 
 as to a cuneiform sign-group, which, e.g., might have the different values dan 
 kal, or rib, was instinctive from its context to the practised reader of Babylonian 
 
 X Cf. Breasted, AR. iv. § 582. 
 
 § Cf. Handcock, The Latest Light on Bible Lands, p. 255. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 259 
 
 participial form soCrim, which is applied to a class of minor oflScials 
 who had to do with the civil and military organization of the people, 
 perhaps originally denoted ' scribes ' or ' secretaries.' 
 
 Heb. sepher, 'missive, document, book,' is probably an ancient 
 loan-word from Bab. sipru, 'missive, message,' which is derived 
 hoxa sapdru, 'to send'; and this very probably points to the 
 Babylonian origin of the use of written documents among the 
 Western Semites. Bab. sipru, however, never seems itself to denote 
 the document or clay tablet on which the message was inscribed ; 
 the regular term for this being duppu. That the Heb. sepher came, 
 at a relatively early date, to denote a leather or papyrus document 
 written in ink, and therefore in the alphabetic script, is clear from 
 such a passage as Ex. 32 '^ (prob. J) where Moses is pictured as 
 petitioning God, ' Wipe me, prithee, out of thy book which thou hast 
 written' (Pians "IB'N ^"IBBD N3 'JnD)^ the verb w«a^a implying the 
 
 wiping of something written in ink off a roll of papyrus or leather, and 
 not the erasure of cuneiform characters from a clay tablet. 
 
 The Heb. m'gilld, ' roll,' from galal, ' to roll ' (sometimes coupled 
 with sepher in the phrase 'the roll of a book') can, of course, only 
 have been a document of papyrus or leather, written in ink. The 
 term is earliest used of Jeremiah's roll (Jer. 36 ^ "■), written in the 
 reign of Jehoiakim, cir. B.C. 600. This was divided into d'ldthdth 
 (lit 'doors'), i.e. perhaps rectangular 'columns,' or, less probably, 
 ' leaves ' iv. ^^), and the writing is stated to have been in ' ink ' {d'y6, 
 ^/.'*). Ezekiel's 'roll of a book,' 'written on the face and on the 
 back' (Ezek. 2^°) is of nearly the same date. It is probably merely 
 accidental that the term m^gilld does not occur at an earlier period. 
 
 The regular Heb. term for a tablet for writing is lieah, which is 
 most commonly applied to the two tablets of stone on which the 
 ten commandments were inscribed. The term is used besides in 
 Isa. 30' — ' Now go, write it on a tablet in their presence, and' inscribe 
 it in a book, that it may be for a future day, Tfor a testimony! * for 
 ever'; and in Prov. 3^, 7^ Jer. 17', in the figurative expression, 'the 
 tablets of the heart.' In all these passages the reference is to the 
 making of a permanent memorial : and the inference is that tablets, 
 probably of stone, were used for such a purpose. No mention of the 
 use of clay as a writing material occurs in the O.T. 
 
 Heb. h^ret, 'stylus,' Isa. 8', must have been, in the first instance, 
 a graving tool for cutting incised characters upon stone or metal : 
 cf, the use of the same substantive to describe the tool with which 
 Aaron 'fashioned' (ly'l) the molten bull, Ex. 32^ E ; and the Aram. 
 verb h'^rat, 'to cut or scratch.' The term may, however, have come 
 to denote a pen for writing with ink. The gilldydn upon which the 
 writing is to be done in Isa. 8' may have been a polished metal 
 
 ♦ Vocalizing "vh in place oflW IJ?? 'for eternily.' 
 
26o THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 tablet (cf. R. v.), if (as is doubtful) the plur. form gilydntm in Isa. 
 denotes tablets of polished metal used as mirrors (from verb gala 
 the sense ' display, reveal ') ; but comparison of the Talmudic gily 
 which denotes the empty tnargin of a page or roll (from verb gala 
 the sense 'be uncovered, and so, bare'; cf Ax. gala) suggests tl 
 Isaiah may have been thinking of the blank page of a book : cf I 
 Totiov xapTov Kmvov* Heb. 'et, 'pen' or 'stylus,' was probably usua 
 a reed-pen for writing in ink. Jeremiah, who himself, as we ha 
 seen, used a 'roll' for the writing of his prophecies, refers to 't 
 lying pen {'ef) of the scribes ' ; and we may infer that his own p 
 (or rather, that of Baruch) would have been described as 'el. 'T 
 pen of a rapid writer,' Ps. 45 S pj % would naturally be a reed. T 
 'et, however, might also be an iron stylus for incising characters up 
 stone or metal. Jeremiah, in speaking of the ineradicable characi 
 of Israel's sin, says that it 'is written with a pen of iron with diamo: 
 point' (Jer. 17 ') : cf also Job ig^^-t 
 
 So far, then, as Biblical evidence is concerned, we gather tl 
 written records in pre-exilic times were in special cases engraved 
 stone ; but more commonly written in ink upon a roll or book 
 papyrus or leather. The earliest definite reference to the emplc 
 ment in a 'book' of writing which could be wiped off, and w 
 therefore presumably in ink, is Ex. 32^2 (Moses' prayer), which, 
 course, does not prove anything more than that the J writer (if t 
 passage is rightly assigned to him) in the ninth century B.C. suppos 
 that Moses would think of a book written in ink. It is likely, howevi 
 that J may be embodying an oral tradition emanating from an i 
 definitely earlier period. On the other hand, we find no referen 
 whatever to the use of clay tablets by the Israelites, and no hi 
 that it is in any way reminiscent of the use of the cuneiform scri 
 in early times. 
 
 If, as we have seen from the allusion in the story of Wenamt 
 papyrus was used for writing in Palestine in the twelfth century B. 
 it is at any rate very possible that the use of the alphabetic script m 
 
 * In either case, the terms are most probably used metaphorically, as is i 
 obscurely hinted by the expression ' stylus of a man, ' i.e. ' human stylus,' and 
 v.^ which refers the symbolism to the begetting of a son who is to be nam 
 Maher-shalal-hash-baz. The gillayon of v.'^ is a metaphor, then, for 'I 
 prophetess' of v."^, who, if described as a blank page, may very possibly hs 
 been Isaiah's second wife, and not the mother of She'ar-yashub of ch. 7^. ' 
 his explanation, the want of apparent connexion between the symbolism of 
 and that of v.^ disappears ; and there is no occasion to suppose that the gilld) 
 was a metal tablet to be set up in some public place, of that the expressi 
 hiret 'Inos, 'stylus of a man,' means an ordinary stylus which would wi 
 'common characters, intelligible to all' {as strangely explained by BE 
 
 p. 3SS)- 
 
 X Heb. 'et is probably connected with Bab. Jiattu, which usually mei 
 ' sceptre,' but also, no doubt, ' stylus ' (the ideogram which expresses it n 
 also denote ' scribe '). The cognate verb (latdtu means ' to cut into. ' 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 261 
 
 have been well diffused throughout the country at the time of the 
 Judges. How far the art of writing was generally understood and 
 practised, or had only been mastered by a class of specially trained 
 scribes, we cannot say. In the Gezer-calendar, however, in which 
 the months of the year are distinguished by the agricultural opera- 
 tions with which they were associated ('The month of ingathering, 
 the month of sowing, etc.'), it is generally recognized that we have 
 the work of a peasant-farmer who was able to write in a fair and 
 legible hand ; and if such an accomplishment was possible for 
 a peasant in the eighth century B.C. there is no valid reason for sup- 
 posing that it would have been impossible for the boy captured by 
 Gide'on some three or four centuries earlier. 
 
 The conclusion that the use of the alphabetic script may quite 
 possibly have been well-diffused in Cana'an at the time of the Judges 
 is as much as this note is concerned to argue. The question how far 
 back the script is to be traced is a much wider one, and is bound up 
 with the problem of its origin — a problem which has been much 
 debated, and upon which the paucity of evidence does not at present 
 permit us to speak with any certainty. It can hardly, however, be 
 disputed that there exist a few traces of the use of the West Semitic 
 alphabet at a period far earlier than the earliest of the documents men- 
 tioned on pp. 253 f. The alphabetic letters discovered by Schumacher 
 at Megiddo (cf. Tell el-Mutesellitn, p. 109) are dated by Kit. {GVI.^ i. 
 p. 120) between the sixteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. Some of 
 the signs on fragments of pottery discovered by BUss at Tell el-Hasy 
 (Lachish) bear a remarkable resemblance to West Semitic letters 
 (cf. A Mound of Many Cities, chap, ii.) ; and it is at least highly 
 doubtful whether they can be dismissed as ' owners' marks ' merely. 
 These pot-sherds were, with but one exception, found exclusively in 
 the earliest strata of the mound, dated by Bhss not later than 
 dr. 1600 B.C.* 
 
 As for the origin of the West Semitic script, few if any scholars at 
 the present day would maintain de Rouge's theory which attempted 
 
 * The inscription on an Egyptian statute of Hathor, discovered by Petrie at 
 Serabit in the Sinai-peninsula (cf. Researches in Sinai, pp. 129 £f. ), and dated 
 by him cir. 1500 B.C., was discussed by Ball in PSBA., 1908, pp. 243 f. , who 
 took the writing as an early form of Phoenician, and read the first four characters 
 as ^nnJ?, ' AtMar. The publication by Gardiner of further inscriptions from the 
 same locality now shows that the characters are badly written Egyptian hiero- 
 glyphics: cf. Journal of Egyptian Archceology, iii. (1916), pp. 1-21. Gardiner 
 attempts to prove that these signs are the prototypes of an early Semitic alphabet 
 of Egyptian origin, basing his argument upon the supposed octurrence of DPJjn, 
 Ba'alath, 'Mistress' — the title of the goddess— which recurs in several of the 
 inscriptions (reading from left to right, or from top to bottom) ; but his theory, 
 though supported by Cowley and Sayce, depends too much upon assumption to 
 carry weight as a plausible solution of the problem of the origin of the alphabet. 
 
262 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 to trace it to the Egyptian hieratic character. The theory of 
 origin from the Babylonian, or rather Sumerio-Akkadian, line 
 script which was the prototype of the cuneiform syllabary has be 
 maintained by Ball, Hommel, Winckler, and others. In favour 
 this theory many attractive arguments have been adduced,* thou] 
 in the present state of our knowledge these cannot be claim 
 
 * Cf. especially Ball, The Origin of the Phmnician Alphabet, PSBA., i8i 
 pp. 392-408 ; reproduced in revised and abridged form in Light from the Ei 
 pp. 232-238. Perhaps the most striking instances of close resemblance in/o; 
 and sound between the linear Babylonian and West Semitic characters are 1 
 following. The Suraerian sign ZI, ZIDA, ZIDE, Bab. Zitu {cf. Heb.. Sa 
 Greek Z^ra) probably represents a flowering reed. There being no consisti 
 differentiation between z and s in old Babylonian, the difference between the W 
 Semitic sounds seems to have been effected by taking the upper part (flower) 
 the reed for f^ and the lower part (a leaf) for V. The Sumerian sign G^ 
 (meaning, according to Babylonian lexicographers kadddu 'to bow down,' a 
 representing some bowed or bent object, conceivably a broken reed) is practica 
 identical in form with the West Semitic Gimel. Gimel corresponds to the Gre 
 TdiJ,ii,a, a form of the name which is not to be regarded as a modification of 
 original Fd/j,Xa (as suggested by Bevan, EB. 5360), but rather represents a mc 
 primitive form of the name : cf. Ar. dim. But the Sumerian GAM may al 
 have been pronounced GAMMA; cf. DUG, DUGGA; IL, ILLA ; etc. T 
 Heb. name Gtmel ' camel ' may then be taken to be a later modification of t 
 name GAM, due at once to the similarity in sound and to the fancied 
 semblance of the sign to the head and neck of a camel. If the names Zfp 
 TdfJ-fia really find their origin not in West Semitic but in Sumerio-Akkadian, t 
 linear Babylonian theory of the alphabet may well be regarded to be as good 
 proved. 
 
 We can, of course, argue nothing from such names of the alphabet as happ 
 to be Semitic words of known meaning ; since these may conceivably have be 
 bestowed at a relatively late date in the history of the alphabet (we have alrea 
 argued that the name Gtmel is probably later than GAM or GAMMA). Th 
 the fact that 1 bears the name Res ' head,' and not the Cana'anite or Hebri 
 name Jios, while it suggests the Bab. resu, is more probably to be explained frc 
 the Aram, rlsd ; the fact being well established that it was the Aramaean develc 
 ment of the alphabet which was the parent of the Hebrew square character — t 
 k'th&bh 'assiirt ' Assyrian {i.e. Mesopotamian) script ' — rather than the Phoenici 
 development which resulted in the Samaritan script. 'PS, the Greek form 
 Xis, may be compared with Ar. Jid, and with Sumerian RU, the name of I 
 triangular character which is practically identical wth the early West Serai 
 "1 l?Ss. But the Sumerian sign for RU may also bear the value DA, just 
 1 Res and T Ddleth are nearly identical in form in early West Semitic— a f; 
 which suggests that 1 and T may have had a common origin, and also that I 
 (for DAL? cf Ar. D&l) may have been the original name for the latter lett 
 this being later on semiticized into the word of known meaning Ddleth ' door. 
 
 A point in favour of the linear Babylonian theory which should not be ovi 
 looked is the fact that we have actual evidence, in the old Persian cuneifo: 
 writing, of the utilization of the cuneiform script for alphabetic purposes. 1 
 the manner in which the syllabary may have been gradually adopted so as 
 form an alphabet, cf Ball, op. cit. , and also the facts which we have notit 
 above (p. 257) as to the simplification of the syllabary by a Cana'anite scribe c 
 1400 B.C. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 263 
 
 actually to amount to a demonstration. Most recently Sir Arthur 
 Evans has attempted to prove {Scrip ta Minoa, vol. i. 1909) that the 
 Minoan script discovered by him in his excavations at Knossos in 
 Crete is closely connected with the West Semitic alphabet ; and this 
 writer therefore argues for a Mediterranean origin for the alphabet, 
 holding it to have been introduced into Canaan by the Philistines 
 and other kindred sea-peoples who invaded and settled in Palestine 
 at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the twelfth centuries B.C. 
 This theory assumes the doubtful position that there is no trace of 
 the use of the alphabetic script in Canaan prior to the thirteenth 
 century B.C. ; and, while ignoring the striking parallels, both in form 
 and sound, between the linear Babylonian and certain of the West 
 Semitic letters, draws similar parallels between the Minoan and 
 West Semitic scripts based on form only, the value of the Minoan 
 characters being' at present undetermined.* Evans also fails to take 
 account of the possibility that such resemblances as may be traced 
 between the Mediterranean and West Semitic scripts may con- 
 ceivably be due to a common dependence, whether direct or indirect, 
 upon linear Babylonian. % 
 
 8. 29-32. R'''s introduction to the story of Abimelech. 
 
 This short section forms a necessary introduction to the story of 
 Abimelech contained in ch. 9. As is noticed elsewhere (cf p. 268), 
 ch. 9, though derived from the old composite narrative and forming 
 part of R-''^'s history of the Judges, must have been cut out of the 
 book by R^^, who substituted the short summary 8 ^^'^ in place of it. 
 We infer therefore that the story of Abimelech, together with chs. 
 16-21, was re-inserted into the book by the final editor R'' ; and if 
 this is so, this editor must have been responsible for 8 '''■^^ introducing 
 ch. 9, apart from which the information which these verses contain 
 is superfluous to the narrative. The phraseology of 8 ^^"'^ points to 
 the influence of P : cf \yy< 'NV* 'that came out of his loins,' an 
 
 expression elsewhere (Gen. 46 ^6, Ex. i ^ f) peculiar to P ; naitD nark's 
 ' in a good old age,' Gen. 1 5 ^» (late editorial interpolation). Gen. 
 258 P, I Chr. 29281. 
 
 * This criticism applies equally to Petrie's recently published theory of the 
 evolution of the alphabet, by survival, out of a large and widely diffused signary 
 which had, according to him, its origin in prehistoric Egypt, and drew accretions 
 from the whole of the nearer East [The Formation of the Alphabet, 1912, pub- 
 lished as Vol. III. of The British School of ArchcEology in Egypt Study Series). 
 The theory really shows how deceptive arguments from form are when divorced 
 from value. 
 
 % Thus, to take one illustration only, the coincidence (if such it be) is at any 
 rate very remarkable that the Cypriote sign PA, noted by Evans {op. cit. p. i, 
 a 3 ; p. 71, no. 4) and compared by him with the same sign in Minoan, is absolutely 
 identical in form and bears the value PA in Sumerio-Akkadian. 
 
264 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. 29. 30. 
 
 29. R"" (E) And Jerubba'al the son of Joash went and dwelt in 
 his house. 30. And Gide'on had seventy sons, that came out of 
 
 Naturally R"" must have been dependent; for his facts upon the 
 original narrative introductory to the story of Abimelech. This 
 probably belonged, like the main narrative of ch. 9, to E ; notice the 
 name Jerubba'al in v^'^, as in ch. ^r.2M-SbMMMA\ 
 
 8. 29. went and dwelt, etc. Logically, we should have expected 
 this fact to have been narrated before the account of the making of 
 the Ephod in vv.'^^^. There is a reason, however, for the order 
 of events. The Israelites (■z'.^*) ask Gide'on to become their king. 
 He refuses this (w.^^), but at the same time takes the opportunity 
 (v. ^*) of asking for the ear-rings of their spoil ; and it is natural that 
 this should immediately be followed by the account of the use to 
 which the gold was put, and the abuse which the_ Ephod became. It 
 is not until these facts have been narrated that the writer gets the 
 opportunity of stating that (instead of accepting the offer of the 
 kingship) the hero retired into private life, which is what the state- 
 ment of z/.^" 'he went and dwelt in his home' (or, as suggested 
 by Bu., in'3^ aK*'! ' and returned to his home ') amounts to ; and 
 
 this reference is a natural introduction to the account of his becoming 
 the founder of a large family (z/z/.^"-^!). To conclude, therefore, that 
 v.'-^ 'stands singularly out of place' (Mo.), and ' originally closed the 
 narrative in vv.'^'^, or that in ww.^-^i' (Cooke) entirely misses the 
 point. The verse might immediately have followed ■z'.^', but could 
 not have preceded it. 
 
 30. seventy sons. The same number is given for the sons of Ahab, 
 2 Kgs. 10 '. The sons and the grandsons of the Judge 'Abdon are 
 said to have been seventy in all, Judg. 12". In the inscription on 
 the monument erected by Bar-rekub, king of Ya'di, in honour of his 
 father Panammu (c£ p. 173) it is stated that seventy brethren (or 
 kinsmen) of Panammu's father Bar-sur perished in an insurrection. 
 Adoni-sedek boasted that he had seventy captive kings picking up 
 crumbs under his table, Judg. i '. We can only conclude that in all 
 these cases seventy represents a large round number. 
 
 that came out of his loins, iieh. jydrekh (properly 'hip' or 'thigh') 
 is here used of the seat of procreative power : so also (in addition to 
 the other occurrences of the same phrase, cited above) in the phrase 
 (preparatory to the calUng for a specially solemn oath) 'Put thy 
 hand under ray ydrekh^ Gen. 242-^ J, 47 20 J j-, where the reference is 
 probably ' to an oath by the genital organs, as emblems of the life- 
 giving power of the deity — a survival of primitive religion ' : Skinner, 
 Genesis {ICC), p. 341. The force of the expression as used in our 
 passage is that these sons belonged to Gideon's clan by male descent, 
 in contrast to Abimelech, mentioned in the next verse, who belonged 
 
8. 31- 32.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 265 
 
 his loins : for he had many wives. 31. And his concubine who 
 was in Shechem, she also bare him a son ; and he made his 
 name Abimelech. 32. And Gide'on the son of Joash died in a 
 good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his 
 father, in 'Ophrah Tof "• the Abi'ezrites. 
 
 by birth to the clan of his mother : cf. note ad loc. Robertson Smith 
 remarks that the tejcmfakid ' thigh ' denotes a clan in the Palmyrene 
 inscriptions and elsewhere in Arabic literature, and contrasts it with 
 bain ' belly ' or ' womb ' which is similarly used ; arguing that 'the 
 "thigh" or clan of male descent, stands over against the "belly" or 
 clan of mother's blood' : cf Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia^''' 
 p. 38. 
 
 31. his concubine, etc. The connexion was not, according to the 
 custom of the time, an irregular one. It seems to have been a 
 marriage of a type well known among the early Arabians, in which 
 the wife does not become the chattel or property of her husband, but 
 is known as his sadika * or ' female friend,' and remains with her 
 own dan, being visited by her husband from time to time. Samson's 
 marriage with his Philistine wife {ch. 14) was very possibly of the 
 same character. In such cases, the children of the marriage belong 
 to the wife's clan — a fact which has an important bearing on the 
 events related in ch. 9 : cf note on 7/. ^ ' your bone, etc' On sadika- 
 marriage, cf Robertson Smith, op. cit. supra, pp. 93 ff. 
 
 he made his name. Heb. 'iDB'-nN D'ti'*1, lit. ' he set or appointed 
 his name.' This somewhat peculiar usage (in place of the normal 
 Knp'l 'he called') is seen again in 2 Kgs. 17^*, Neh. 9^ ; cf Dan. i '. 
 
 Abimelech. The name, which probably means ' the (divine) king is 
 father ' (sc. of the bearer of the name) is borne by the king of Gerar 
 in Gen. 20 ^ "• E, 26 ^ "■ J. Abi-milki (which is identical) is the name 
 of the governor of Tyre who figures in the T.A. Letters dr. 1400 B.C., 
 and of a prince of Arvad who was tributary to Ashurbanipal : KB. ii. 
 pp. 172 f On the use of the element Mdekh or Milk in proper 
 names, cf. KAT.^ pp. 469 ff. ; Baethgen, Beitrdge, pp. 37 fif. ; Gray, 
 Hebrew Proper Naines, pp. 115 ff. ; La., ARS.^ pp. loi fif. 
 
 32. in 'Ophrah, etc. Reading nnpys in place of the Absolute 
 form msya l§. it is possible, however, that the original narrative 
 may have read ' in 'Ophrah ' simply, and that the definition ' of the 
 Abi'ezrites' was added subsequently as a gloss from z/.^*, without 
 altering msva into the Construct State. 
 
 * The form saddka given by Cooke is unknown in this sense. He seems to 
 be making a confusion with sad&k, which denotes a gift given by the husband to 
 the wife on the occasion of marriage. 
 
266 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [8. 33- 35. 
 
 33. R^^ And, when Gideon was dead, the children of Israel 
 turned back, and went a whoring after the Ba'als, and made 
 Ba'al-berith their god. 34. And the children of Israel did not 
 remember Yahweh their god, who had delivered them out of 
 the hand of all their enemies round about. 35. And they did 
 not show kindness to the house of Jerubba'al (Gide'on), accord- 
 ing to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel. 
 
 8. 33-35. i?^^'^ summary in place of the story of Abimekch. 
 
 These verses, which are clearly marked by. their phraseology as 
 due to R'^^ give a summary account of Israel's apostasy based upon 
 ch. 9 (cf. vv. 33b-35a)^ ^nd evidently intended to take its place ; since, if 
 ch. 9 had 'Stood in R'^^'s book, such a summary would have been 
 superfluous. Cf. further Introd. to ch. 9. 
 
 8. 33. when Gide'on was dead. Cf. 2 «-i» E, 2 1", 4 1 R'^^ According 
 to the main editor's philosophy of history, apostasy regularly follows 
 after the death of a judge. 
 
 went a whoring. Cf. 2 '" note. 
 
 the Ba'als. Cf. 2 '' note. 
 
 Bdal-berith. Cf. 9 *. The title means ' Lord or owner of the 
 covenant.' In 9 *° El-berith, ' God of the covenant,' is used. Whether 
 this deity was thought to preside over a league of Cana'anite cities, 
 or whether the 'covenant' was between him- and his worshippers, 
 cannot be determined. Cf Cheyne, EB. 404 for different views. 
 
 Ba'al-berith, according to ch. 9, was the local Ba'al of the Cana'anites 
 at Shechem. This narrative, whence R"^^ derives his information, 
 says nothing about a general defection of the Israelites after the 
 Ba'al; the fact being quite clear that the inhabitants of Shechem 
 were Cana'anites, and that Abimelech obtained and held sway over 
 them in virtue of his Cand anite descent. Cf. p. 267. 
 
 35. did not show kindness, etc. A summary reference to the facts 
 narrated in 9 ''^^ Here again R"^- misses the point of the narrative, 
 and assumes that the execution of Jerubba'al's seventy sons and the 
 appointment of Abimelech asking were due to the Israelites. 
 
 Jerubba'al (Gide'on). R"^^ (or possibly some later hand) adds the 
 name Gide'on in order to make the fact clear that the two names 
 refer to one and the same man. Cf. the similar insertion in 7 ^ 
 
 9. 1-57. The story of Abimelech. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc. , quoted throughout the book, cf. H. Wincltler, 
 AF. i. (1893) pp. 59-62. 
 
 This ancient narrative is of the highest interest on account of the 
 light which it throws upon the circumstances of the early stages of 
 Israel's occupation of Cana'an. After the death of Gide'on or Jerub- 
 ba'al, the hegemony which he had exercised over his own clan at 
 ■Qphrah and (as we gather from this narrative) over the neighbouring 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 267 
 
 Cana anite city of Shechem, passed in natural course to his family. 
 Thus we see Israelite and Cana' anite living side by side in a relation- 
 ship of mutual toleration if not of friendship. Both races alike are 
 sufferers from the incursions of the Midianites from without; and, 
 when a deliverer such as Jerubba'al arises, both races thereafter are 
 willing to recognize his right to exercise some form of chieftainship 
 or government. Distinctions of race are, however, by no means 
 obliterated, as subsequent events prove. Abimelech, half-Cana anite 
 by birth, is wholly Cana' anite by tribal custom : c£ note on v?. 
 He uses his racial connexions to incite the members of his mother's 
 clan at Shechem in his own favour ; and by their aid he wipes out 
 (with one exception) all the other sons of Jerubba'al who by birth 
 were Israelites, and secures a short-lived kingship over Shechem and 
 the neighbouring district. The statement [vP') that Abimelech was 
 prince 'over Israel' seems to belong to the point of view which regards 
 Israel at this time as already forming an organic unity, and supposes 
 that the authority exercised by the Judges was general, and not simply 
 local. The fact that Israelites as well as Cana'anites were included 
 under Abiraelech's sway is, as Mo. notices, to be inferred from vfi^ ; 
 but it is clear that the framer of the narrative misses, or at least 
 fails to pay due regard to, the fact that Abimelech was essentially a 
 Cana' anite, who used his Cana' anite connexions in order to secure 
 his local kingship.* 
 
 Evidence of the employment of more than one source may be 
 noticed in the middle part of the narrative. As Mo. points out, the 
 growth of hostilities between Abimelech and the men of Shechem is 
 traced to two distinct causes. According to v.^% God sends an evil 
 spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, which causes 
 these latter to deal treacherously with their ruler. In w.^'^^, how- 
 ever, a new situation is created by the arrival on the scene of one 
 Ga'al and his family. These new-comers stir up the racial pride of 
 the blue-blooded Shechemites against the half-breed Abimelech, and 
 thus foster a revolt. Clearly this second cause is distinct from, and 
 not cumulative upon, the first. In v.''^^ it is stated that Abimelech 
 was informed of the treacherous aggressions of the Shechemites ; 
 and the expectation is created that he will immediately take action. 
 Instead of this, however, the narrative of Ga'al intervenes, and is 
 continued down to 7/." ; at which point, after Ga al's defeat by 
 Abimelech and subsequent expulsion from Shechem, he disappears 
 from the narrative, which is now concerned (wt/.*2«) with the reprisals 
 taken by Abimelech upon the Shecheniites as a whole. 
 
 * Cooke misapprehends this point when he states (p. 98) that 'at Shechem 
 the native Canaanites were in the ascendant, and yet there was a sufficiently 
 strong Israelite element in the place to raise Abimelech to the position of ruler.' 
 Yet he rightly recognizes (p. 97) that, in the sadtAa marriage, 'the children 
 remained with their mother and belonged to her tribe,' and that ' the narrative 
 seems to imply that the woman was a Canaanite ' (p. 97). 
 
268 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 It will be noticed that w."*, ' and they told Abimelech,' repeats 
 'and it was told Abimelech,' with but trifling variation. Wf 
 plausibly infer that the main narrative, interrupted after v. 
 resumed by R^'^ in w.*'*. Probably 2/.*^% 'And, on the morro 
 people went out into the field,' represents the redactor's atter 
 make what follows read as a continuation of the Ga'al-narrativ 
 anticipates w.^'', 'the people came forth from the city,'— an 
 which clearly took place after and not before Abimelech hac 
 his ambush as recorded in v.'^^K 
 
 We conclude, then, with Mo., that the Ga'al-narrative contaii 
 j,^_ 28-41 is derived from a distinct source. The rest of the nar 
 appears to be homogeneous ; and, except for a few later add 
 (cf. notes on vv}^'^^, v.^^), may well have been derived, as 
 supposes, from a single ancient source.* 
 
 The source of the main narrative appears to be E : cf. the 
 the name Jerubba'al, which elsewhere belongs to E (cf p. 
 'etokim 'God,' and not ' Yahweh,' ^/r/. 7-23.66.57 . i^iji, jj-uth and 
 integrity' (D^DDll nDN3) vv.^^-^", a phrase which only occurs 
 where (in reversed order) in Josh. 24''' E; 'd?na 'bond-maid 
 (J's phrase is siphhd in the same sense) ; and, generally, the em] 
 laid upon the moral that wickedness is sure to meet with it 
 punishment. If -z/z/. 1-26.43-57 -(vere derived from E, the inferei 
 natural that the Ga'al -fragment, ■z/t/.^^'", may have belonged to J 
 of this we have no direct evidence, since phrases elsewhere char 
 istic of J appear altogether to be lacking. It is worthy of r 
 however, that the expression of w.^^ ' thou shalt do to him as occ 
 serveth' (lit. 'as thy hand shall find,' IT' NSDH "IE'S3) occurs 
 in I Sam. 10' ('then do as occasion serveth') which belongs to 
 
 Ch. 9, like chs. 16-21, exhibits no trace of the hand of R"^' 
 clearly did not enter into his pragmatic scheme, as outha 
 ch. 2 ^-3 ^, and worked out in the histories of the ' major' Judges. 
 R'^^ had the story before him in the earlier composite narrative ' 
 he employed (the work of R'"'^) is proved, however, by the fact tl 
 knew it, and composed a short summary {ch. S^^-'*) whicl 
 intended to take its place. For R"^^ Abimelech was very far 
 being a divinely appointed Judge. The narrative relating his 
 had no interest in connexion with R'^"s religious philosophy of hi 
 except as illustrating (from his point of view) a period of api 
 which could fitly be summarized in a few sentences. The re-ins 
 of the story into the IJook of Judges must have been due to th 
 editor (R'' ; cf. note introductory to S^^-^^), who seems to 
 reckoned Abimelech among the Judges : cf the reference i 
 introduction to the first of the 'minor' Judges, 10 '% whose ins 
 in the book appears to have been due to this editor (cf note ad . 
 
 * The attempts which have been made by Winckler, Bu. , and No. to 
 a more detailed analysis are not convincing ; any more than is the argun 
 La. that the whole narrative is derived from a single source. 
 
9. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 269 
 
 9. I. E And Abimelech the son of Jerubba'al went to 
 Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and spake unto them and 
 unto all the clan of the house of his mother's father, saying, 
 
 9. I. Sheckem. The Roman Flavia Neapolis, and the modern 
 Nablus,* situated thirty miles north of Jerusalem in the fertile valley 
 which runs east and west between Mt. 'Ebal on the north and Mt. 
 Gerizim on the south, forming an easy pass between the maritime plain 
 and the Jordan valley. Placed at a point at which many important 
 roads converge, the city must always have exercised considerable 
 importance : cf. Smith, HG. pp. 332 ff. The name Shechem, de- 
 noting shoulder, probably refers to the position of the city on the 
 watershed, 1870 feet above the Mediterranean. 
 
 The early history of the relations between Israelites and Cana'anites 
 at Shechem is involved in great obscurity. The city was occupied, 
 prior to the arrival of the ancestors of Israel west of Jordan, by the 
 Cana'anite clan of the B'^ne-Hamor. The natural advantages which 
 it enjoyed rendered it the principal city of Central Palestine, and the 
 earliest Israelite clans- (the Patriarchs) gravitated thither on their 
 arrival in Cana'an, and lived on terms of friendship and alliance with 
 the B'ne-Hamor (Gen. ii^'' J, 33I8 P, 33 ^^-^ E). These relations 
 were broken by the treacherous aggressions of the Sime'on and Levi 
 clans (Gen. 34 %), which seem to have provoked such retaliation on 
 the part of the Cana'anites of the district as decimated and dispersed 
 these Israelite clans, the remnant of them seeking refuge in other 
 parts of the land (Gen. 49 ^-^ J). On the arrival of the Joseph-clans 
 in Cana'an and' their settlement under Joshua', Shechem lay within 
 the district which they overspread. North Israelite tradition recorded 
 that the bones of Joseph were brought up from Egypt and buried in 
 a plot of ground at Shechem acquired by purchase from the B'ne- 
 Hamor (Gen. 33 '^ E, 50 ^'"^'^ E, Ex. 13'° E, Josh. 24 ^^ e) ; and 
 according to a later tradition (Josh. 24 • E^) Shechem appears as the 
 rallying-place of 'all the tribes of Israel' on the occasion of Joshua's 
 farewell charge. Thus we are probably justified in assuming that 
 the eariy relations between the Joseph-tribes and the B'ne-Hamor 
 were of a friendly character. We find, however, that, in the time of 
 the Judges, Shechem is still in possession of the BenS-Hamor, the 
 burghers or free-born 'owners of Shechem' (DaB* '<hV2) cleariy 
 belonging to this Cana'anite clan : cf 9 ^s note. The services rendered 
 
 * With Nilblus as the Arabized form of Neapolis, cf Yerablus for Hierapolis. 
 
 + This narrative is clearly a thinly-veiled description of tribal relations between 
 Israelites and Cana'anites, at first friendly, then hostile. The two sources 
 employed in the chapter bear respectively the characteristics of J and P ; but 
 there are difficulties in the way of correlating the J narrative with the main 
 document J: cf. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), pp. 417 f- 
 
270 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9. 2. 
 
 2. ' Prithee speak in the ears of all the citizens of Shechem, 
 " Which is better for you, that seventy men should rule over 
 you, even all the sons of Jerubba'al, or that one man should rule 
 over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your 
 
 by Jerubba'al in ridding the country of the Midianite pest benefited 
 Israelite and Cana'anite alike, and the B*nS-Hamor at Shechem were 
 thereafter willing to acquiesce in Israelite predominance in the district 
 as represented by Jerubba'al and his sons. Abimelech's rise to power 
 was achieved through the stirring up of racial antipathies between 
 Cana'anite and Israelite ; but the pure-blooded B'=ne-Hamor were not 
 able for long to acquiesce in the domination of the half-bred upstart 
 ruler, and the friction which ensued resulted in the destruction of 
 Shechem, as related in our narrative. 
 
 When next we hear of Shechem, it is an Israelite town in possession 
 of the Joseph-tribes, and still holds the position of importance which 
 was the natural outcome of its physical advantages ; so that it appears 
 in I Kgs. 12' as the city to which 'all Israel' resorts in order to 
 anoint a successor to Solomon. The tradition in Gen. 48^^ E— 
 where the 'aged Israel on his death-bed bequeaths to Joseph one 
 shoulder (Heb. Shechem) above his brethren, which he claims to 
 have captured from the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with 
 his bow — may have arisen no earlier than the time of David or 
 Solomon, as a northern Israelite explanation of the way in which 
 the most favoured spot in Cana'an came into the possession of the 
 Joseph-tribes — a special gift made by the common father of the 
 Israelite clans to his most favoured son. The contrast, however, 
 with the other E tradition noticed above — which speaks of rights at 
 Shechem acquired by purchase from the B'nS-Hamor — is very 
 striking — and indeed inexplicable. Cf. further Introd. p cxi. 
 
 The fact that Shechem was not easily defensible against an outside 
 foe rendered it unsuitable as the capital of the organized kingdom of 
 Northern Israel ; and it was for this reason that 'Omri built Samaria 
 on a site five miles to the north-west which his military eye selected 
 as peculiarly adapted for a fortified capital city. 
 
 2. thecitizens of Shechem. Heb. 'B> ijjJJa lit. the oww^rj of Shechem. 
 
 The same term is used of the citizens of Jericho (Josh. 24?' E), of 
 the high places of Arnon (Num. 21^8 E*), of Gibe' ah (Judg. 20'), 
 of Ke'ilah (i Sam. 23 "12), and of Jabesh of Gile'ad (2 Sam. 21 '2). 
 
 your bone and your flesh. The same expression is used in Gen. 
 29" J, 2 Sam. 5 \ 19 12.13 (J§ 13.14) . cf. Gen. 2^3 J. As belonging to 
 
 * Here, however, |g is almost certainly corrupt. We need a verb in place 
 of *?ya— possibly ^^J)3 'it (the fire) hath consumed the high places, etc' 
 (E KaX Kariinev seems to have read nj)?3 or V72F\). ■ 
 
9. 4- S- 6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 271 
 
 flesh." ' 3. So his mother's brethren spoke concerning him in the 
 ears of all the citizens of Sbechem all these words : and their 
 heart inclined after Abimelech, for they said, ' He is our 
 brother.' 4. And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from 
 the temple of Ba al-berith ; and Abimelech hired therewith 
 worthless and reckless men, and they followed hira. 5. And he 
 came unto his father's house at 'Ophrah, and slew his brethren 
 the sons of Jerubba'al, even seventy men, upon one stone : but 
 Jotham the youngest son of Jerubba'al was left, because he hid 
 himself 
 
 6. And all the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo 
 
 his mother's clan and not to his father's (cf. 8 ^' note on ' his concu- 
 bine, etc.'), Abimelech could claim that he was of one race with the 
 Shechemites (the B^'ne-Hamor; cf. v.''^), in contrast to Jerubba'al's 
 other seventy sons who were of Israelite descent (cf. 8 ^^ note on ' that 
 came out of his loins '). 
 
 4. from the temple, etc. The temple, like that at Jerusalem (cf. 
 I Kgs. 7^^', 14^°, 15'^, a/.), contained a treasury in which were ac- 
 cumulated the gifts and fees of worshippers. Possibly also it may 
 have been the repository of public treasure : cf. the oTTitrfldSo/xof of the 
 Parthenon at Athens, and the aerariuni of the Temple of Saturn at 
 Rome (cited by Stu.). 
 
 Bd al-berith. Cf 8^3 note. 
 
 worthless. Heb. rekijn, lit. 'empty.' Cf ch. 11' note. 
 
 reckless. Heb. poh'^zim, a participial form, occurs once again in 
 Zeph. 3* ; a. cognate subs. pah'^zAth is found in Jer. 23 '^ t ; and 
 subs, pdhaz in Gen. 49 ■• t- In the latter passage it is said of Re'uben 
 that he is '/(i^a^ (" wantonness," z.«. "wanton" or "unbridled") like 
 water.' The cognate root in Ar. means 'to be insolent,' and in Aram. 
 ' to be lascivious ' — facts which suggest that the original idea may 
 have been to overpass bounds, be uncontrolled (cf the comparison 
 with water). Cf Hiph'il hiphhiz in Ecclus. 8 ^, 19 2. 
 
 5. upon one stone. The statement (repeated in w.'^) is striking. 
 Possibly the stone may have been the official place of execution. The 
 great stone used by Saul for the slaughter of cattle in conformity 
 with sacrificial rule (i Sam. 14^3') is compared by Mo., who thinks 
 that 'the very conformity to the precautions taken in slaughtering 
 animals in the open field shows that the motive was to dispose of the 
 blood, in which was the life of his victims, in such a way that they 
 should give him no further trouble. It is an instructive instance of 
 the power of animistic superstitions.' 
 
 6. Beth-millo. Cf v.^. A place of this name in the kingdom of 
 Judah is mentioned in 2 Kgs. 122", Jt^^'. The Millo at Jerusalem 
 
272 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9. 
 
 assembled themselves together, and went and made Abimelec 
 king by the terebinth of ^ the standing-stone"' which was i 
 Shechem. 7. And men told Jotham, and he went and stood 
 the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and criec 
 and said to them, 
 
 ' Hearken unto me, Shechem's citizens. 
 That so God may hearken unto you. 
 
 formed part of the fortifications of the City of David ; and if the won 
 is rightly explained as from the causative stem of the verb ma/e 'to bi 
 filled,' it must be understood as meaning something which ^Hs 
 banks up, and so possibly an earthwork : cf. Talmudic mfilitM 
 'filled-up ground'; Bab. miM, 'earthwork.' Probability, however 
 favours the view that the Jerusalem Millo was more than a simple 
 earthwork — rather, perhaps, a massive fortification on the northerr 
 side of the city where such protection was specially needed. If, in 
 our passage, Beth-millo has some such sense as ' House (place) of the 
 fortress,' it may have been identical with 'the Tower of Shechem' 
 (apparently distinct from the city of Shechem) mentioned in w.*'. 
 
 the stajiding stone. Reading na-VBH with most moderns, in place 
 of f§ a-'iD which only occurs again in Isa. 29 ^ in the sense of a 
 palisade or entrenchment. Possibly the massebha may have been 
 the stone which tradition stated to have been set up by Joshua' 
 (Josh. 2426 E). 
 
 7. stood 071 the top., etc. Not actually on the summit, which is 
 nearly 1000 feet above Shechem ; but on one of the lofty precipices 
 overhanging the city (cf. Thomson, LB. p. 473) from which he was 
 able to make himself heard from below, and at the same time to beat 
 a safe retreat after speaking. 
 
 8-15. The parable is intended to contrast the position of Jerubba'al 
 and his sons with that of the mere adventurer Abimelech, and to 
 predict that nothing but misfortune can result from the course which 
 has been taken by the Shechemites. The olive, the fig-tree, and the 
 vine, which are invited in succession to accept the kingship, represent 
 men who, like Jerubba'al, possess a status which has been won by 
 service for the pubhc good. These have business more important 
 than the acceptance and exercise of the office of kingship. On the 
 other hand, the buckthorn, a low-growing and worthless shrub, is 
 unequal to the task of affording shelter to the trees ; but only too 
 likely to be the cause of a forest-fire which may end in the destruction 
 of all. 
 
 The parable is cast into a rhythmical form which is very well 
 marked. After the summons to attend (w.^i"), which forms a couplet 
 of 3-beat stichoi, there follow four strophes, corresponding to the 
 
9- 8. 9.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 273 
 
 8. Time was when the trees set out 
 To anoint o'er themselves a kin^ ; 
 
 And they said to the olive, "Reign thou over us." 
 
 9. But the olive said to them, 
 " Shall I leave my fatness 
 
 I" whereby 1 men honour God [], 
 And go to wave over the trees ? " 
 
 applications to the four different trees. The first of these contains 
 six stichoi ; the second and third, five stichoi ; and the fourth, seven 
 stichoi. Most of the stichoi contain 3 beats ; but stichos 3 of strophe 
 I contains 4 beats, and in each strophe the response of the tree is 
 given in a long stichos which exhibits 5, or 2 + 3 beats (in strophe 4 
 perhaps 6, or 3 + 3, beats). The English rendering is intended, as 
 nearly as possible, to reproduce the rhythm of the original.* 
 
 8. Time was . . . set out. The Heb. says literally 'Going they 
 went,' i.e. the action is introduced with some emphasis, much as we 
 might say, ' Once upon a time the trees went.' 
 
 the olive. The olive, the fig, and the vine are the staple products 
 of Palestine, upon which its agricultural wealth and prosperity mainly 
 depend. Cf G. A. Smith, Jerusalem., i. pp. 299 fif. 
 
 9. Shall I leave. Lit. ' Am I to have left,' the Perfect tense being 
 idiomatically used in Heb. ' to express astonishment at what appears 
 to the speaker in the highest degree improbable ' : cf. Driver, Tenses, 
 §194 
 
 whereby, etc. Reading 13 in place of |§ »3 with ffi h jj, U 'qui.,> 
 E n^JDl 'from which,' and omitting D'B'JXI. This latter, which 
 spoils the rhythm by causing one beat too many, has obviously been 
 introduced from w.'^", ' which rejoiceth God and men.' The Imperfect 
 1133* is impersonal ; and is therefore rendered ' men honour.' 
 
 men honour God. The reference is to the use of oil in sacrifice 
 and worship. 
 
 to wave. The Heb. nud denotes the swaying motion of the 
 
 * The scheme adopted above agrees in nearly every detail with that offered 
 by Sievers {Metrische Studien, i. pp. 388 f.), though worked out independently. 
 The only difference is that Sievers makes the response of the trees in each case a 
 6-beat line ; in z^. ""/S by accepting p as it stands, and in vv. u»^.13»/3 by inserting 
 *3K after Tlpinn. Cf. also Rothstein, ZA. xxvi (1914). PP- 22 ff- 
 
 X The form 'DPinn is very anomalous. The most probable explanation 
 of it is that TlPTn is the Perfect Kal, and that the Karnes of the first syllable, 
 falling between the tone and the countertone, is weakened into hdtefh Karnes 
 through loss of emphasis : so G-K. § 63 k. The view that the form should be 
 vocalized as a Hiph'il or Hoph'al is less probable. 
 
 S 
 
274 THE BOOK OF JUDGES t9. i; 
 
 10. Then said the trees to the fig-tree, 
 " Come thou, reign over us." 
 
 11. But the fig-tree said to them, 
 " Shall I leave my sweetness, 
 
 and my goodly produce, 
 And go to wave over the trees ? " 
 
 12. Then said the trees to the vine, 
 " Come thou, reign over us." 
 
 13. But the vine said to them, 
 " Shall I leave my must, 
 
 which rejoiceth God and men. 
 And go to wave over the trees ? " 
 
 branches in the wind ; cf. Isa. 7 2. This is 'represented as a gesture 
 of authority' (Mo.). 
 
 13. must. Heb. tiros, which is frequently coupled with ddghan, 'corn,' 
 and yishdr, ' fresh oil,' as a natural product of the land, seems com- 
 monly to denote the grape-juice when first trodden out from the 
 grapes. In Joel 2 2*, Prov. 3 ^^ it is mentioned as filling the vats ; 
 and the term yekebh, ' vat,' denotes the trough into which the juice 
 flowed after being trodden out in the gath or 'wine-press'; zl. ck, 
 6'"^ note. The connexion in which tirds is used in the present 
 passage ('which rejoiceth, etc.') implies that it is regarded as an 
 exhilarating beverage ; and this suggests that the term may have 
 been used of wine in some degree fermented, as it certainly is in 
 Hos. 4", where it is coupled with ' whoredom ' and 'wine' (ydyin) as 
 something which ' taketh away the heart ' {i.e. the intellect). The 
 fact is well known that the ancients were in the habit of making 
 a light wine by checking the process of fermentation at an early 
 stage ; and it may be assumed that ttrds may denote such a light 
 wine, as well as the unfermented juice when first pressed out from 
 the grapes. 
 
 The view that tiros denotes the vine-fruit and not a liquid is 
 sufficiently refuted by the passages from Joel and Prov. already 
 quoted. The grapes in their natural state were placed in the gath^ 
 and it was the juice only which flowed into the yikebh, the purpose 
 of which was to separate the liquid from the solid matter. Cf. further 
 Driver in Amos {Camb. Bib.), pp. 79 f. 
 
 God and men. Or possibly 'gods and men.' The allusion is to 
 the use of wine in libations ^t sacrificial feasts, when the god, as well 
 as his worshippers, was thought to be cheered by the beverage. 
 
9. IS- I6-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 475 
 
 14. Then said all the trees to the buckthorn, 
 " Come thou, reign over us." 
 
 15. And the buckthorn said to the trees, 
 " If in truth ye wish to anoint 
 
 me as a king over you. 
 Come ye, take refuge in my shadow : 
 But if not, then come fire from the buckthorn, 
 And devour the cedars of Lebanon." 
 
 16. Now, therefore, if ye have dealt in truth and in integrity, 
 in that ye have made Abimelech king,R-"^? and if ye have dealt 
 well with Jerubbaal and with his house, and if ye have done to 
 hifn according to his deserts; 17. (in that my father fought for 
 
 15. the buckthorn. A variety of Rhamnus (so ffi, U), probably 
 Rhamnus palaestina, a low and straggling bush which is common in 
 the hill-country of Palestine. 
 
 Come ye, take refuge, etc. The irony of the parable culminates in 
 the absurdity of the invitation, which the buckthorn issues in all 
 seriousness. 
 
 16-20. The application fits somewhat loosely on to the parable ; 
 but such lack of strictly logical connexion as exists is a common 
 characteristic of Oriental reasoning. The main point of the parable 
 is that the Shechemites had chosen a king who could not command 
 confidence and respect ; but who, if treated otherwise than in good 
 faith (nDK3 7/.*°), was capable of compassing their ruin. The applica- 
 tion takes up the theme of the good faith of the Shechemites (DDXa 
 v.^'^), and points out that this has been markedly absent in their 
 dealings with Jerubba'al, a man who was, in the highest degree, 
 worthy of their confidence and gratitude. A fortiori, therefore, it 
 was most unlikely that good relations between them and Abimelech 
 would last for long ; and, once they failed, the ruin of both parties 
 was bound quickly to ensue. This moral is emphasized in the nar- 
 rative which follows : vv. 23.24.56.57 
 
 Doom., Bu., Mo., and others improve the connexion between 
 parable and application by marking wi/.i6bi9a ^g ^ \aXs.x addition. 
 The reference of HOKS 'in truth' or 'in good faith,' in z/."* is then 
 the same as in t/.'^, i.e. it refers to their good faith towards Abimelech : 
 ' If ye have made Abimelech king, intending to act towards him in 
 good faith, I congratulate you ; but if not, the parable teaches you 
 what to expect' 
 
 16. according to his deserts. Lit. 'according to the dealing of his 
 hands.' 
 
ayS THE BOOK OF JlJbGES [&• ^^ t9-i 
 
 you, and risked his life, and delivered you from the hand 
 Midian ; i8. and ye have risen up against my father's hou 
 this day, and have slain his sons, even seventy men, upon oi 
 stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his bond-mai 
 king over the citizens of Shechem, because he is your brother 
 19. if ye have acted in truth and in integrity with Jerubbaal ar 
 with his house this day,E rejoice in Abimelech and let him ali 
 rejoice in you. 20. But if not, let fire come forth from Abim 
 lech, and devour the citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo ; an 
 let fire come forth from the citizens of Shechem and Beth-mill 
 and devour Abimelech.' 21. And Jotham ran away and flei 
 and went to Be'er, and dwelt there, on account of Abimelech h 
 brother. 
 
 22. And Abimelech was prince R-'"' over Israel E three year 
 23. And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and tl 
 
 17. risked his life. Lit. ' cast his life in front' or ' (so as to be) < 
 a distance' (of. the use of IJJD in Deut. 32 ^2, 2 Kgs. 2'^, al); i. 
 exposed It to the utmost risk, without a thought of personal safety. 
 
 ig. his bond-maid. The Heb. 'amd implies a slave-concubine, sue 
 as were Hagar to Abraham, and Zilpah and Bilhah to Ja'cob. h 
 we have seen, however, ch. 8 ^' implies that Abimelech's mother wa 
 a free-woman, dwelling with her clan at Shechem. The miscor 
 ception involved in the present passage is a point in favour of il 
 later date. 
 
 20. let fire come forth from the citizens, etc. That the buckthon 
 in destroying the other trees, would itself perish, is implied thoug 
 not stated in the parable. 
 
 21. Be'er. The place intended may have been el-Bireh, twenty-tw 
 miles south of Shechem and eight miles north of Jerusalem, which ha 
 been supposed to be the site of Be'eroth of Josh. 9 ", al. The nam( 
 which means ' well,' was, however, doubtless of frequent occurrence i 
 ancient times ; just as its modern Ar. equivalent is at the present da; 
 
 22. was prince over Israel. On this statement, as implying a late 
 conception than that of the original narrative, cf. Introd. to chaptei 
 p. 267. The early narrative pictures Abimelech as possessing th 
 authority of a local sheikh over Shechem and the neighbourinj 
 district. 
 
 23. God sent an evil spirit. Cf. the evil spirit sent by God upoi 
 Saul, I Sam. 16", 18 "; and the spirit divinely commissioned t 
 deceive Ahab, in order that he might go up and fall at Ramoth 
 Gil' ead, I Kgs. 22 '^ «•. The view that God, from motives of dispIeasuR 
 
9- 24- 25- ] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 277 
 
 citizens of Shechem ; and the citizens of Shechem dealt treacher- 
 ously with Abimelech. 24. TTo bring"! the violence done to the 
 seventy sons of Jerubbaal, and to lay their blood upon Abimelech 
 their brother, who slew them, and upon the citizens of Shechem, 
 who encouraged him to slay his brethren. 25. And the citizens 
 of Shechem set men in ambush upon the hilltops to his hurt, 
 and they robbed all that passed by them on the way : and it 
 was told Abimelech. 
 
 may incite men to their own ruin, is frequent in the O.T. Thus He 
 hardens Pharaoh's heart [hikbidh, lit. 'made heavy,' Ex. 10' J ; 
 hizzekh, lit. ' made strong,' Ex. 42", lo^o-z? E or R^^ ; 912, 1 1 10^ 14 is.ir p . 
 hiksd, lit. 'made hard or rigid,' Ex. 7' P), and similarly He prompts 
 Sihon, king of the Amorites, to resist Israel in order that He may 
 give him into their hands, Deut. 2 ^o. So too, in 2 Sam. 24 ', He is 
 pictured as inciting David to a pernicious action ; in Isa. 19 21* He is 
 said to stir up civil strife in Egypt, and to mingle a spirit of perverse- 
 ness in the midst of her; and in Ezek. 14^ He deceives the false 
 prophet to his own destruction. 
 
 24. to bring. Reading Nian^ after (S to\i iirayayelv, with Gra., 
 Get, La., in order to avoid the very awkward change of subject in 
 3§ Xufs and the following D-ltJ^i)—' that the violence . . . might come, 
 and to lay their blood, etc' The alternative is to follow Mo., Bu., No., 
 Oort in retaining |^ NUP and deleting UVih as the introduction of 
 a scribe who missed the verb governing DD1 'That the violence 
 
 done to the seventy sons of Jerubba'al and their blood might come, 
 etc' 
 
 encouraged him. Lit. ' strengthened his hands.' 
 
 25. set men in ambush, etc. The Shechemites began to set armed 
 bands in the mountains to rob the passing caravans, thus enriching 
 themselves at the cost of Abimelech either by injuring his trade or by 
 interfering with the dues which he was accustomed to exact for the 
 safe conduct of merchandise through his territory. The force of the 
 Dativus inco7nniodi 1? 'to his hurt' is very idiomatic, and may be 
 compared with the use of the preposition in ch. 3 2*, 7 2*, 12^, 'take 
 the fords of the Jordan to the detritnent of (so, against) a foe. R.V. 
 renders 'set liers in wait for him' (cf ch. 16 2 p"-13"i!>!»l) ; and this is 
 explained by Cooke, ' They hoped to catch Abimelech, who apparently 
 was non-resident, and failing him, they plundered his friends.' This 
 is very improbable. 
 
 and it was told Abimelech. The sequel to this statement follows 
 in ■z/.*', after its repetition with slight variation in w.*^'', as already 
 
278 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9. 26. 2; 
 
 26. J And Ga'al the son of T'Obed'' came with his brethren, an 
 they went over into Shechem ; and the citizens of Shechem pi 
 their trust in him. 27. And they went forth into the field, ani 
 cut their vintage, and did the treading, and held a praise-festiva 
 
 explained (pp. 267 f.). Otherwise, if we assume the narrative of vv.^^ 
 to be of a part with v.'% the information conveyed to Abimeled 
 seems to have produced no result. 
 
 26. Ga'ai. Wellh. vocalizes as ^yj Goal, comparing Ar. ^u'a 
 'dung-beetle' : /sr. u. Jiid. Gesch}, p. 44. Mo. {SBOT.) notes tha 
 (according to Lane) gual in Ar. is ' also applied to a black and ugl 
 and small man, or to a contentious one.' This vocalization i 
 favoured by Jos. Vvakr\s {Ant. V. vii. 3 f.). 
 
 'Obed. Vocalizing nay with U, in place of IK 13J?. The sami 
 
 form is suggested by ffi" Iw^tjX, which, as Mo. points out, is probabi; 
 an uncial error IJ2BHA for JJBHA.* The form Q^ijS occurs in HP. 3c 
 Sl^ih HP. 56. ffi'"- A/3eS supports fH. The participial form 'Obed 
 'server,' i.e. 'worshipper' of a deity, is well known as a prope 
 name; whereas the substantive 'Ebed, 'servant,' though used ii 
 composition in'Abdi, 'servant of Yah,'' Abdiel, ' servant of God,' doe 
 not occur elsewhere by itself, and is unlikely to have been so used, t 
 less probable view has been put forward by Kue. [Ond. § 19^) am 
 others, who regard la^rjX as pointing to an original pVSi* ' Yahwel 
 is Ba'al' — a name which was offensive to later thought, and wa: 
 therefore altered in contempt into 'Ebed, 'servant.' With this viev 
 is involved the supposition that Ga'al, as the son of a worshipper 
 Yahweh, must have been an Israelite, whose object was to stir uj 
 the Israelite population of Shechem against the rule of the Cana'aniti 
 Abimelech. This, however, is plainly refuted by the fact that thi 
 men whose ear Ga'al succeeds in gaining are ' the citizens of Shechem 
 ('E5> i?j)3j ■z/.28)j i.e. the same people who, according to ^/w.^', madi 
 Abimelech king on the ground that he was their own kinsman ('you; 
 bone and your flesh,' t/.^). 
 
 27. cut their vintage. Here the plural of ,4/r^;«, 'vineyard,' is usee 
 by metonymy of the produce of the vineyard, as is indicated by th( 
 fact that it is coupled with the verb basar., which is the regular tern 
 for cutting grapes : cf. Deut. 24^1. 
 
 a praise-festival. If rightly connected with hillel., ' to praise,' Heb 
 hilMlim here seems to denote a festival of thanksgiving to the deity 
 The term occurs only once besides, in Lev. 19^* H, in the phrasi 
 
 * The form Iu(3i;5, for 1311? fi/37;S, occurs in ffiA i„ j chr. 2 i»wice).87.ii», n< 
 )ffiB IujStjS), 267, 2 Chr. 23 1. 
 
9- 28.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 279 
 
 and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, 
 and cursed Abimelech. 28. And Ga'al the son of T'ObedT said, 
 ' Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve 
 him? TshouldT not the son of Jerubba'al and Zebul his officer 
 Tserve"! the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? but why 
 
 kodes kilhWm, ' a holy thing of praise ' ; * the reference here being to 
 the produce of fruit-trees in the fourth year, when it was consecrated 
 to Yahweh in token of thanksgiving. In Aram, hilltda denotes a 
 marriage-song (cf the use of the Hoph'al hulldlu in Ps. 78 ^^). Ar. 
 tahlil is used of a shout of praise (ordinarily applied to the pronounc- 
 ing of the formula, 'There is no god but God'). This term, however, 
 is connected by Wellh. with Midi ' the new moon,' and is supposed 
 by him to have been associated originally with the festival in honour 
 of the new moon : cf Reste arab. Heidenthums, p. 108. 
 
 28. Who is Abimelech, etc. Reading Imperfect nayi in place of 
 fH Imperative •1135?. 
 
 As the text stands in ilM, Ga'al's speech can only be rendered as in 
 R.V. : 'Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we should 
 serve him? is not he the son of Jerubba'al? and Zebul his officer? 
 serve ye the men of Hamor the father of Shechem : but why should 
 we serve him ? ' Here '-Shechem ' seems to stand as the rhetorical 
 equivalent of ' Abimelech ' : cf i Sam. 25'", 'Who is David, and who 
 is the son of Jesse?' This is clearly the view adopted by 85, which 
 renders cai Wr iimv uior ^vxe/i for D3C}' 'D-1. We can hardly 
 
 assume, however, that a reading DSK^'IH lies behind the ffi rendering ; 
 
 since, as Robertson Smith (quoted by Mo.) has rightly pointed out, 
 this expression is never used in the sense Shechemite : and that 
 ' Shechem ' by itself should be employed as a synonym of ' Abimelech ' 
 is incredible. The alternative explanation is to take ' Shechem ' as 
 an antithesis to ' Abimelech ' — ' we Shechemites ' ; but, as the text 
 stands, this is excluded by the fact that there is no similar antithesis 
 in the answer which Ga'al supplies to his own question (we should 
 expect, ' is he not the son of J., etc., while we are, etc'). Further, 
 the Imperative -naj/ ' serve ye ' should naturally be followed by the 
 
 2nd person plur., ' but why should ye serve him ' ; and the occurrence 
 of the 1st person, 'but why should we, etc.,' is at least very awkward. 
 And again, in IJnjX 1313^ 1^371 the emphasis on \}cv^ subject of the 
 verb, as indicated by the personal pronoun, is very great — ' but why 
 should we serve him?' i.e. we in implied contrast to some other 
 
 * Probably we ought to place the 'aihnah upon kodes, and render, ' And in the 
 fourth year all its fruit shall be holy (lit. a holy thing), a praise-offering to 
 Yahweh.' 
 
28o THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9. 29. 
 
 should we serve him? 29. Oh, would that this people were 
 under my hand ! then would I remove Abimelech, Tand would 
 sayT to Abimelech, "increase thine army, and come out."' 
 
 person or persons ; whereas, if the earlier part of the sentence is 
 correct as it stands in JIM, we should expect the emphasis to be thrown 
 upon the object of the verb — 'but why should we serve himV (in 
 contrast to ' the men of Hamor, etc.'). 
 
 Adopting our simple emendation, the following explanation is 
 plausible. The speech contrasts the antecedents of Abimelech and 
 Shechem {i.e. the citizens of Shechem, or free-born B'^nS-Hamor)— 
 ' What is there in Abimelech's antecedents as compared with ours, 
 that we (pure-blooded B<^ne-Hamor) should serve him (the half-breed) ? 
 Ought not the relations to be reversed, and Abimelech and his place-- 
 man Zebul to serve the hereditary owners of Shechem?' This is 
 substantially the explanation of Mo., which has been adopted by Bu., 
 La., etc. ; except that these scholars read the Perfect -nij? in place 
 
 of JH .nay — ' Did not the son of J. and Z. his officer serve the men 
 
 of H., etc.?' i.e. 'he himself was formerly a subject of the old 
 Hamorite nobility of Shechem.' It may be urged, however, against 
 this reading that it implies that, prior to the election of Abimelech as 
 king, the ruling class in Shechem had been the B^n^-Hamor; whereas, 
 as a matter of fact, ■z/z/.'-^ represent the B«n§-Hamor as acquiescing 
 in time past in the rule of the Israelite Jerubba'al and his sons. 
 
 Upon the various other explanations and emendations of the 
 passage which have been offered, cf. Mo. Comm., and especially the 
 same writer's very full note in SBOT. pp. 46 f. For the most part 
 they depend upon the mistaken assumption that Ga'al was an Israelite, 
 and that the rebellion which he was fomenting was an upheaval of 
 the Israelites against the rule of the Shechemite Abimelech. Upon 
 this theory, cf note on ''Obed,' v.^^. 
 
 29. under my hand. Lit. ' in my hand,' i.e. subject to my authority. 
 
 and would say. Reading IDS') with ffi Ka\ epS> and most modems 
 
 in place of ^ "ipN'l '.And he said to Abimelech.' It is clear from 
 
 what follows that Ga'al's words are merely a boast which was not 
 carried into execution until his hand was forced, as related in z/.™. 
 
 Bu., however, thinks that, if the words ' and would say to A. " In- 
 crease thine army, etc.,'" really formed part of Ga'al's boast, the 
 challenge which they contain would have preceded and not followed 
 its result as embodied in the words ' then would I remove A' He 
 therefore suggests that the words ' Increase thine army, etc.,' originally 
 formed part of Zebul's message to Abimelech, as related in ww.^^'-, 
 and were later on erroneously inserted in their present position, 
 with the introduction ' and he said to A.' This objection can hardly 
 
9- 30. 3I-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES ■ 281 
 
 30. And when Zebul, the governor of the city, heard the words 
 of Gaal the son of T'Obed"" ; Ms anger was kindled. 31. And he 
 sent messengers to Abimelech at '"Arumah"', saying, 'Behold, 
 
 be maintained. It is obvious that Ga'al may first have stated the 
 main fact, viz. that he would soon get rid of Abimelech if he had the 
 chance, and then have gone on to boast how he would attain this 
 end — by challenging him to pitched battle. 
 
 30. Zebul the goziemor of the city. It is clear from the narrative 
 that Abimelech did not reside at Shechem, but at the neighbouring 
 city of Arumah : cf. vv. ^i*', with note on the former verse. Zebul 
 appears to have been his representative at Shechem. Whether he 
 was a Cana'anite or an Israelite cannot be determined. 
 
 31. at Arumah. Reading nonsa (or ilDIINjl • cf w. ") in place of 
 S HDina. R.V.'s rendering of this latter, ' craftily,' is the interpreta- 
 tion of S^ (Im »•> It presupposes that a 071-. Xcy. forma* from the 
 root rdma, ' to deceive,' is used in place of the normal mirma or 
 tarmith in the sense 'deceit.' AV., 'privily,' follows the majority of 
 
 the versions : ffi" eV Kpvfftjj, Y ' clam,' 2E T"13, Ar. |^— ;. This rendering 
 
 likewise presupposes derivation from the root rd?nd, upon the view 
 that an expression properly meaning ' in deceit ' is used in the sense 
 ' in secret.' Thus A V. adds marg. ' Heb. craftily.' So Rashi, Kimchi 
 (first explanation), and the older commentators generally. Granted, 
 however, that f-tormd is the equivalent of b'-mirmd, such a sense 
 as ' privily ' is illegitimate ; the only possible meaning of the statement 
 being 'that Zebul sent to Abimelech a deceptive, and therefore an 
 erroneous message' (Stu.). But this is excluded by the context, 
 which makes it clear that the message embodied a true statement 
 of affairs. 
 
 Kimchi TJsecond explanation) and Levi ben-Gershon rightly divined 
 that what we should expect is the name of the place at which 
 Abimelech was residing ; and observing that Arumah is named as 
 his residence in z/.*', supposed that Tormah and Arumah are variant 
 names of the same city. We may follow most moderns in concluding 
 that riDin represents a simple corruption of the latter name. &"^, 
 S*" \i.iTa. Scapav, i.e. nDnri3 suggests that the Greek translator may 
 have used a text in which the 1 was written as in ilDnKZ, v."-. 
 
 * The form nD"lPl is strange if derived from \l'i\'0'\- Konig (Lehrgetdude 
 I. ii. p. 193) groups it with njND from \/n3X Judg. 14 ■< njlH from -^XW 
 Prov. 10 1, 14 18, 1721, Ps. 119 28. 
 
282 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9. 33. 34 
 
 Ga'al the son of T'Obed"! and his brethren are come to Shechem 
 and, behold, ^they are stirring up^ ftie city against thee. 32. Now 
 therefore, arise by night, thou and the people who are with thee 
 and lie in wait in the field. 33. And in the morning, when th( 
 sun is up, thou shalt rise early and make an onset against th( 
 city : and, behold, he and the people who are with him wil 
 come forth unto thee, and thou shalt do to him as occasior 
 serveth.' 
 
 34. And Abimelech arose, and all the people who were wit! 
 him, by night, and they lay in ambush against Shechem in foui 
 bands. 35. And Ga'al the son of T'Obed^ went out, and stood ir 
 the entry of the gate of the city ; and Abimelech rose up, anc 
 
 The site of Arumah is unidentified. The modern el-'Ormeh (writter 
 with 3? and not S* about five miles south-east of Shechem ha: 
 been suggested. 
 
 are stirring up. Reading D^Tiyo with Frankenberg, Bu., Mo. 
 {SBOT.\ No., in place of ^ Q'-jv which can only mean 'are be- 
 sieging,' and is so rendered by the Versions. As Mo. points out, 
 however, the Heb. construction is irregular, J and the sense 'are 
 inciting to hostility,' which has been adopted by many commentators, 
 is illegitimate. 
 
 33. make an onset. The Heb. verb pdsat, which occurs again in 
 our narrative in ^'.^* (twice), expresses (as appears from the context 
 in these and other occurrences) the making of a sudden and unex- 
 pected raid or attack. The connexion with Heb. pdsat 'strip off' 
 (one's garment) is obscure. The explanation offered by BDB— '/«/ 
 <7^ (one's shelter), i.e. make a dash (from a sheltered place)' — is very 
 precarious. Jj 
 
 as occasion serveth. Lit. ' as thy hand shall find.' 
 
 2,\. four bands. Lit. 'four heads': cf. p. 181. So w."'. The 
 expression, though most frequent in J, is used in the parallel narrative 
 E in z/z/.*^*. 
 
 * Substitution of V for X is seen in the modern 'Askalan for ancient 'Ashkelon, 
 and in 'An! for 'Ono. The converse change is seen in 'EndUr for'En-dor. 
 
 J We should expect "l''j;n ^j; DnV, not Tiyn riN di"lV. Xhe only other 
 occurrence of "IIX followed by DN of the city is i Chr. 20' HST DN IS'1, 
 where || 2 Sam. 11" has the normal ?JJ. 
 
 § New Heb. fdsat, Aram, f'sat, mean ' to extend,' and also ' to make plain'; 
 while Bah. fasdiu has the sense 'expunge, obliterate, ' jc. , wrziing hy smwiini 
 or covering it with clay. The bond of connexion (if such exists) between the 
 various senses of the root requires investigation. 
 
9. 36. 37- THE BOOK OF JUDGES 283 
 
 the people who were with him, from the ambuscade. 36. And 
 when Ga'al saw the people, he said unto Zebul, ' Behold, people 
 are coming down from the tops of the hills.' And Zebul said 
 unto him, ' The shadow of the hills thou seest like men.' 37. And 
 Ga'al spoke yet again and said, ' Behold, people are coming 
 down from the navel of the land, and one band is coming by 
 way of the soothsayers' terebinth.' 38. And Zebul said unto 
 
 36. The shadow, etc. A taunt suggesting that ' his fears make him 
 imagine enemies where there are none' (Mo.). Zebul's policy was to 
 force Ga'al's hand by insinuating that he dared not be as good as his 
 word : cf. ■z'.^. 
 
 37. the navel of the land. The meaning of Heb. tabbAr is eluci- 
 dated by new Heb. tabbAr, tibbur, and Aram, tibburd, 'navel.' So 
 (S 6ii.(pa\6s, U ' umbilicus.' The other versions paraphrase : 
 
 C NSpin 'stronghold,' S"" cJU-OoZ. (meaning dubious), Ar. 
 
 (_j"^Ji' 'fiirthest part.' Rashi and Kimchi explain as a hill or elevation 
 
 forming a stronghold, and R. Isaiah as a central position from which 
 roads diverged. In Ezek. 38^^, the only other occurrence of the 
 term in O.T., it is also used topographically, the inhabitants of the 
 hill-country of Judah being described as 'those dwelling upon the 
 navel of the earth,' i.e. (from the IsraeUte point of view) the most 
 prominent and central part of the Universe (cf. Ezek. 5^). In the 
 present passage the expression is obviously a closer definition of ' the 
 tops of the mountains,' v. ^^, and probably describes some neighbouring 
 height (or even heights ; for t/.^'*' seems to indicate that the bands are 
 coming from different directions) which was regarded as the central 
 part pf the main mountain-range of Cana'an. 
 
 the soothsayer^ terebinth. Heb. 'ildn m''dn'nim, some well-known 
 tree which was the seat of the practice of divination. Gen. 12 ^J 
 speaks of a tree called 'Uon mor^, 'terebinth of the oracle-giver' 
 (cf. for mdrd, footnote p. 206), which was also in the near neigh- 
 bourhood of Shechem, and may have been identical with the tree 
 mentioned in the present passage. 
 
 The form of soothsaying practised by the m'''dnen is uncertain. If 
 the Heb. roox.' dnan is connected with Kr. ganna, 'to omit a hoarse 
 nasal sound,' n^dnSn may denote the murmurer (yc hoarsely humming 
 one. So Robertson Smith {fournal of Philology, xiv. pp. iigff.), 
 who states that 'the characteristic utterance of the Arabic sooth- 
 sayer is the monotonous rhythmical croon called sa£', properly the 
 cooing of a dove.' According to Wellh., however {Reste arab. 
 Heidenthums \ p. 204), the term is to be explained, from Ar. 'anna, ' to 
 appear,' as meaning dealer in phenomena. 
 
284 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9. 38. 41- 42. 
 
 him, ' Where is now thy boast, in that thou saidst, " Who is 
 Abimelech, that we should serve him?" Are not these the 
 people whom thou didst despise ? Pray, go forth now, and fight 
 with them.' 39. So Ga'al went forth before the citizens of 
 Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. 40. And Abimelech 
 pursued him, and he fled before him : and there fell down many 
 slain up to the entry of the gate. 41. And Abimelech dwelt in ' 
 Arumah : and Zebul drove out Ga'al and his brethren, so that 
 they should not dwell in Shechem. 
 
 42. R-*"^ And on the morrow, the people went out into the 
 field : and men told Abimelech. 43. E And he took the people 
 and divided them into three bands, and lay in ambush in the 
 
 38. thy boast. Lit. 'thy mouth.' The Heb. //, 'mouth,' is used 
 similarly in Ps. 49 " (% '''), ' This is the way of them that have self- 
 confidence, and of those who following them approve their speech 
 {mouth).' Bab. pu ' mouth ' frequently has the meaning ' speech.' 
 
 Are not these the people, etc. The situation is aptly summed up by 
 Mo. : 'Zebul, by reminding Ga'al, doubtless in the presence of many 
 bystanders in that pubhc place, of his former boasts, goads him into 
 fighting. He had indeed no choice ; if he declined the challenge, his ■ 
 prestige and influence in Shechem were gone.' 
 
 41. And Abimelech dwelt, etc. Abimelech returned to the city in 
 which he was dwelling (possibly the narrative may originally have 
 run 'n1 IB''! 'N 3C5'*1 'And A. returned, and dwelt in A'), and did 
 
 not trouble to follow up his victory, feeling no doubt that Zebul was 
 capable of dealing with the situation. Ga'al's incompetence as a 
 leader having been sufiiciently demonstrated by his shameful defeat, 
 Zebul had no difficulty in expelling him from Shechem, together- with 
 the other members of his family or clan. Thus the disaffection in the 
 city, of which Ga'al was the author, comes (at least temporarily) to an 
 end. 'The citizens of Shechem,' who had been persuaded by the 
 impostor to adopt him as their leader, were no longer concerned to 
 support him ; and Zebul could scarcely have expelled him from the 
 city without their aid, or, at any rate, without their acquiescence. 
 The continuation of the narrative in ■z/w.*^"-, which represents 'the 
 people,' i.e. the same citizens of Shechem, as still at active hostilities 
 with Abimelech ' on the morrow,' is thus not of a piece with the Ga'al 
 narrative. As we have seen (cf note on v. ^^''), vv. *5 "• are clearly the 
 proper continuation of the main narrative, which is broken off 
 at V. 25, and resumed by the Redactor in v. *2. 
 
 42. And on the morrow . . . field. On this statement, as repre- 
 senting an attempt on the part of R^"^ to harmonize his two narratives, 
 cf p. 268. 
 
S. 43. 44. 45.1 tttE BOOK OF JUDGES 285 
 
 field ; and he looked, and, behold, the people were coming out 
 from the city ; and he rose up against them, and smote them. 
 44. And Abimelech, and Tthe band"! that was with him, made an 
 onset, and stood in the entry of the gate of the city : and the 
 two bands made an onset upon all who were in the field, and 
 smote them. 45. And Abimelech fought against the city all 
 that day ; and he captured the city, and the people who were in 
 it he slew : and he broke down the city, and sowed it with salt. 
 
 43. the people -were coming out, etc. Coming out upon one of the 
 predatory excursions described in v. ^^ 
 
 44. the band. Reading sing. E>Nin with i' and some MSS. of ffi, 
 in place of ?§ plur. D''B'K"in 'the bands.' According to z'.*^^ 
 Abimelech had divided his available forces into three bands, and 
 according to t/.***" two bands attacked the Shechemites in the field 
 while Abimelech was seizing the gate of the city with his own 
 contingent. 
 
 made an onset. Cf. v. '^ note. 
 
 45. sowed it with salt. A symbolic action, apparently intended to 
 indicate that nothing thereafter was to live and flourish there. The 
 turning of a fruitful land into a salt desert as the result of a curse is 
 mentioned in Deut. 29 2^, Ps. 107 2* ; cf. Jer. 17^, and the story of the 
 destruction of the cities of the plain in Gen. 19 J. Ros. and com- 
 mentators after him refer to Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxi. ch. 7 ; Virgil, 
 Georg. ii. 238, as mentioning the well-known fact of the infertility of 
 a salt soil. More to the point, in connexion with our passage, is 
 Tiglath-pileser l.'s account of his destruction of the city of fjunusa 
 (Annals, col. vi. 14) : 'The three great walls of their city, which with 
 burnt brick were strongly built, and the whole of the city I laid waste, 
 I destroyed, I turned into heaps and ruins ; and salt (?) thereon I 
 sowed';* cf. Budge and Y^\a.%, Annals of the Kings of Assyria, \. 
 p. 79 ; KB. i. pp. 36 i. Scheiden, Das Salz, p. 95 (quoted in 
 EB. 4250) cites the tradition that Padua was sown with salt by Attila, 
 and Milan by Barbarossa. 
 
 Robertson Smith {Religion of the Semites 2, p. 45.4, n ') adopts a 
 
 * The word rendered ' salt ' is {abnu) SI. PA ; and unfortunately we cannot be 
 sure of the meaning of .SI. PA (or SI.IJAD), which is most likely the ideographic 
 form in which an otherwise unknown Assyrian word is written ; though the render- 
 ing above adopted appears to be the most probable. The Determinative Prefix 
 ahnu, ' stone, ' marks the substance as a mineral ; and there is a variant reading 
 plur. abni, ' stones ' (lumps of salt ?). The Assyr. azrH, ' Isowed (it),' is the same 
 verb as is used in our passage by the Heb., way-yizrd iha. The reference in 
 the Annals of Asurbanipal (col. vi. 79 ; cf. KB. ii. pp. 206 f.) cited in EB. 4250 
 from Gunkel, Genesis^, p. 187, which is supposed by Gunkel to refer to t^e same 
 ceremony, is of too doubtful significance to be quoted. 
 
286 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [9- 46-48. 
 
 46. And when all the citizens of the tower of Shechem heard 
 it, they entered into the crypt of the temple of El-berith. 47. And 
 it was told Abimelech that all the citizens of the tower of 
 Shechem had gathered themselves together. 48. And Abime- 
 lech went up to Mount Salmon, he and all the people who were 
 
 different explanation, supposing that the salt was used as a symbol 
 that the city was consecrated to the deity as a devoted thing [he'rem j 
 cf. note on ch. 1 ^'), since the sprinkling with salt has a religious 
 meaning, as a symbol of consecration, in Ezek. 43 ^\ This parallel, 
 which refers to the sprinkling of a whole burnt-offering with salt, 
 must be deemed of doubtful vaUdity. 
 
 46. the tower of Shechem. This stood, apparently, apart from the 
 city of Shechem, and was probably (like the tower of Penuel, ch. 
 8 ^■") the stronghold of an unwalled hamlet. 
 
 crypt. Heb. friah. The meaning of the term is somewhat obscure. 
 In its only other occurrence in the O.T., "i Sam. 13 ", it seems to 
 denote an underground chamber, natural or artificial ; * and this sense 
 is borne out by the use of s'riha in the Nabataean inscriptions to 
 denote a tomb hewn out of the rock : cf Euting, Nabatdische 
 Inschriften, 15 '•*. In Ar. the cognate word darih denotes 'a trench' 
 or oblong excavation in the middle of a grave, in distinction from 
 lahd (an excavation in the side) ; or it may denote the grave 
 altogether, as in the benediction ' May God illumine his grave ! ' 
 {darthahu) : cf. Lane s.v. 
 
 How such a rock-hewn crypt could have been set on fire is not 
 evident. Possibly the door may have been in the side of a rock, with 
 steps descending into the interior ; and, the faggots being piled 
 against this door, the fire burnt it through and suffocated the refugees. 
 Or, if we explain (as we legitimately may do) that the faggots were 
 placed upo7z (PJ?) the crypt, we may picture a flat trap-door on the 
 top of which the fire was laid, so that the mass of burning material 
 eventually fell upon the people in the crypt beneath. 
 
 A v., R.V., in giving the more general rendering 'hold,' seem to 
 depend upon ffi'^'' 6xvpa>iia, 'S (v.*^) ' praesidium.' Abulwalid com- 
 pared the Ar. sarh, 'a lofty building or chamber standing apart' 
 (from saraha ' to be unmixed, clear,' here used in the sense ' to stand 
 clear'); and hence the sense 'citadel' or 'tower' was adopted by 
 many of the mediaeval and earlier modern commentators. Most 
 recent scholars adopt the explanation which is given above. 
 
 48. Mount Salmon. The name Salmon seems to mean ' the shady 
 
 * In this passage s'rthlm are coupled with bordth, 'cisterns,' i.e. rock-hewn 
 receptacles for water which, in a disused state, might form effectual hiding- 
 places. 
 
9. 49- S0-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 187 
 
 with him ; and Abimelech took an axe ri in his hand, and cut 
 a bundle of brushwood, and took it up and placed it on his 
 shoulder; and he said unto the people who were with him, 
 'What ye have seen me do, make haste, do likewise.' 49. And 
 all the people also cut each his bundle ^'^ : and they went after 
 Abimelech, and placed them against the crypt, and set the crypt 
 on fire over them : so all the men of the tower of Shechem died 
 also, about one thousand men and women. 
 
 50. And Abimelech went unto Tebes, and encamped against 
 Tebes, and captured it. 51. Now there was a strong tower in 
 the midst of the city, and thither fled all the men and women, 
 
 — probably a reference to the woods which (as the context shows) 
 clothed its sides.* 
 an axe. Reading sing. dTlpn with <&'^^, S^ "S, S>', in place of 
 
 ?g plur. niOTlpin 'axes.' . The Heb. idiom says ' the axe,' the Definite 
 
 Article being so used with familiar objects which are understood 
 elements in the situation : cf. Davidson, Syntax, %i\d; G-K. § 126^- ; 
 NHTK. p. I. The idiom may be illustrated in English by the way 
 in which we speak of 'boiling the kettle' — never 'boiling a kettle.' 
 The emendation isTil^ 'his axe,' adopted by Mo., Bu., No., Kent, 
 
 Cooke, is much less idiomatic ; apart from the fact that ' his ' is not 
 pre-supposed by any of the versions above cited. 
 
 49. his bundle. Reading fem. iriDVtJ' (cf. •z'. **) in place of ilH fdW-, 
 which, as vocalized, is intended to convey the same sense, being 
 regarded as a masc. form 'qit}' with suffix of the 3rd masc. sing, (on the 
 sufSx-form; cf G-K. §§ 7<^, 9i«). Probably 3§ should be vocalized 
 ilDIB' ' a bundle,' which may be the original text. 
 
 against the cry ft. Or possibly, ' upon the crypt ' ; cf note on v. ^. 
 
 50. Tebes. The modem Tubas, twelve miles N.E. of Shechem, has 
 been identified by Rob. {BR.^ ii. p. 317) as the site which Eusebius 
 gives as the ancient Tebes ; which is described by him as thirteen 
 Roman miles from Neapolis (Shechem) in the direction of Scythopolis 
 
 * That the meaning ' to be dark or shady ' belongs to the root DPV is clear 
 from the subst. fl-ID^V (for fH nipPV) ' "^^^P shade,' and the Bab. root saldmu, 
 ' to be dark or black.' Probably Heb. DPV ' image ' properly means ' shadow ' 
 (so-called as being ltac& in a land of strong lights and shades), since an image 
 is the shadow or replica, of that which it represents. Cf. Delitzsch, Prolegomena, 
 p. 141; KAT.^ p. 475, k". BDB.'s explanation of D?V as 'something cut 
 out; based on Ar. salama, ' to cut off' (properly ' to extirpate by amputation ') is 
 very far-fetched. 
 
288 THE BOOK OF JUDGES tS- S3- $4. ; 
 
 even all the citizens of the city, and shut themselves in, ai 
 went up on to the roof of the tower. 52. And Abimelech can 
 unto the tower, and fought against it, and he drew near to tl 
 door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53. And a certain woma 
 cast an upper millstone upon the head of Abimelech, and bral 
 his skull. 54. And he called quickly unto the lad who bore h 
 armour, and said to him, ' Draw thy sword and despatch me, le 
 they say of me, " A woman slew him." ' So his lad thrust hii 
 through, and he died. S5- ^nd when the men of Israel sa 
 that Abimelech was dead, they went every man to his plao 
 
 (Bethshe'an), OS. 262". This identification is accepted by som 
 modern writers (so, most recently, Cooke) ; but must, on philologicj 
 grounds, be deemed highly precarious.* 
 
 53. an upper millstone. Heb. pelah rekhebh, lit. 'cleft (stone) c 
 riding,' so-called as riding upon the lower stone {pelah tahtUh 
 Job 41^*, |§ '"). The complete mill is termed rehdyim. The hand 
 mill still used in Palestine is formed of two flat stones : a peg ii 
 the centre of the lower one corresponds to a hole in the upper, whicl 
 is thus kept in place ; and the upper being turned by a woodei 
 handle, the corn which is placed between the two stones is ground 
 The diameter of the mill is usually about eighteen inches, the uppei 
 stone being of smaller diameter than the lower and two or thref 
 inches thick. These mills are usually turned by women, the per- 
 formance of such work by men being regarded as a badge of degrada- 
 tion : Judg. 16 21, Lam. 5 '^ Jer. 52" (ffi). Cf Kennedy in EB. 
 3091 ff". 
 
 54. Draw thy sword, etc. Similarly, Saul commands his armour- 
 bearer to slay him when he perceives that otherwise he must fall into 
 the hands of the Philistines : i Sam. 31*. 
 
 despatch me. Heb. motheth, the causative and intensive form of 
 m&th, ' to die,' always has the sense ' to kill outright.' Cf especially 
 I Sam. 14'', where it is stated that the Philistines 'fell before 
 Jonathan, and his armour-bearer despatched them {in'mdtheth) after 
 him.' 
 
 5 5. the men of Israel. Abimelech, in succeeding to the power and 
 influence exercised by Jerubba'al and his seventy Israelite sons, may 
 be supposed to have ruled over Cana'anites and Israelites alike in the 
 district about Shechem. The feelings of the Israelites against the 
 B"=n6-Hamor of Shechem and the Cana'anites of the neighbouring 
 
 * There is correspondence of one consonant only between Tebes and Tflbfc; 
 and the «2 in the latter name ought naturally to represent i in Heb. The 
 modern Ar. form would accurately correspond to a Heb. tJ'3iD rather than 
 J>nn ; cf. Cheyne, EB. 5033. 
 
9. S6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 289 
 
 56. Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech which he 
 had done to his father, in slaying his seventy brethren : 58. And 
 the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite upon 
 their head : and there came upon them the curse of Jotham the 
 son of Jerubba'al. 
 
 cities must have been intensified by the fact that the assassination of 
 Jerubba'al's Israelite sons was a Cana'anite movement (cf. p. 267) ; and, 
 hostile at heart as they must have been to Abimelech as the Cana'anite 
 nominee, they would naturally support him when it came to a conflict 
 with the Cana'anites : and they probably formed the bulk, if not the 
 whole, of his army. Cf. Mo. ad loc. 
 
 56. Thus God requited, etc. It is characteristic of E to draw a 
 religious moral from the facts of history. 
 
 10.1-5. The ^ Minor' Judges : Told and Jair. 
 
 The so-called 'minor' Judges, Tola' and Ja'ir (lo''^), Ibsan, Elon, 
 and 'Abdon (12 *'^^) appear scarcely to stand upon the same level as 
 historical personages with Ehud, Barak, Gide'on, Abimelech, and 
 Jephthah. Tola' is said to have been ' the son of Pu'ah the son of 
 Dodo, a man of Issachar,' and to have ' dwelt in Shamir in the hill- 
 country of Ephraim.' In Gen. 46 " P both Tola' and Pu'ah appear as 
 sons, i.e., doubtless, clans of Issachar ; and this is also the case in 
 Num. 26^ P, I Chr. 7 "'. Ja'ir the Gile'adite, whose thirty sons had 
 thirty towns called Hawoth-Ja'ir, is the same as Ja'ir the son or clan 
 of Manasseh who made conquests in Gile' ad which were afterwards 
 known as Havvoth- Ja'ir {i.e. 'the tent-villages of Ja'ir'), according to 
 Num. 32" J, Deut. 3", i Kgs. 4^1 Elon is described as 'the Zebu- 
 lonite' ; and in Gen. 46 " P Elon is a son of Zebulun, and, according 
 to Num. 26 ^ P, founder of the clan of the Elonites. That Ibsan and 
 'Abdon are also clan-names may be inferred. We know that Ja'ir's 
 thirty sons represent thirty village-settlements : when we read that 
 Ibsan had thirty sons and thirty daughters, and that 'Abdon had forty 
 sons and thirty grandsons, it is reasonable to infer that the writer's 
 meaning is the same in these cases also. The statement that Ibsan 
 made outside-marriages for his daughters, and brought in wives for 
 his sons, doubtless refers to the numerous alliances and connexions 
 with other clans which were formed by branches of the clan of 
 Ibsan. 
 
 it is a further question whether these ' minor ' Judges were included 
 in the historical scheme of R"'. In the survey of the course of 
 Israel's history during this period which forms the introduction to his 
 book in ch. 2"" (cf. pp. 52 ff.), R^' traces the periods of oppression 
 by foreign foes to Israel's declension from the service of Yahweh, 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 and regards the raising up of the Judges as deliverers as an act 
 condescension on Yahweh's part when punishment has been mete 
 out. This view of history is faithfully followed out by the editor i 
 the cases of the 'major' Judges ; but in the brief notices of the 'minoi 
 Judges mention of Israel's defection from Yahweh, and the namin 
 of the particular foes into whose power they were delivered, are coi 
 spicuously absent. Of Tola' it is simply stated that he 'arose afte 
 Abimelech to save Israel'; and of Ja'ir even more briefly that h 
 ' arose after him.' Ibsan, who is made to succeed Jephthah, is sai 
 to have 'judged Israel after him' ; and the same formula is used c 
 Elon and 'Abdon. Thus it maybe inferred with great probabilit 
 that the notices of the 'minor' Judges were inserted into the bool 
 subsequently to the redaction of R"^". The purpose of the interpolato 
 may have been to raise the number of the Judges to twelve, and, si 
 far as possible, to make them representative of the twelve tribes 
 Israel. Thus we have 
 
 'Othniel 
 Ehud . 
 
 
 
 Judah. 
 Benjamin. 
 
 Barak . 
 Gide'on 
 
 
 
 Naphtali. 
 West Manasseh 
 
 Abimelech 
 
 
 
 
 Tola . 
 Ja'ir . 
 
 
 
 Issachar. 
 
 East Manasseh. 
 
 Jephthah 
 Ibsan . 
 
 
 
 Gad. 
 
 ? 
 
 Elon . 
 
 
 
 Zebulun. 
 
 'Abdon 
 Samson 
 
 
 
 Ephraim. 
 Dan. 
 
 lilehem whic 
 
 h is 
 
 mentionec 
 
 i as the native city 
 
 {ch. 12 810) is the Bethlehem which is assigned to Zebulun in Josh. 
 19 "P, i.e. the modern Bet Lahm seven miles west-north-west of 
 Nazareth, this city seems to have been on the border between Zebulun 
 and Asher ; and thus Ibsan may have been regarded as the repre- 
 sentative of Asher. Re'uben and Sime'on are unrepresented, while 
 Abimelech properly gives a second representative to West Manasseh ; 
 still, the scheme is sufficiently complete to make it probable that the 
 theory above suggested was in the mind of the editor who added the 
 notices of the ' minor ' Judges. 
 
 Who this editor was may be inferred from the fact that his book 
 contained the story of Abimelech, and that this usurper was counted 
 by him as one of the Judges : cf ch. 10 >. He can hardly have been 
 other than the editor who reinserted the narrative of Abimelech 
 into R'^"s book, i.e. the late editor whom we have characterized 
 asR"". 
 
 For the grounds upon which the notice of Shamgar in ch. 3'' is to 
 be regarded as still later than the work of R^, cf p. 76. 
 
to. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 291 
 
 10. I. R'' And after Abimelech there arose to save Israel 
 Tola" the son of Pu'ah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar ; 
 
 10. I. Pu'ah. Heb. HK-IS ; so i Chr. 7 '. The form n-lS Puwwah 
 
 is given by Gen. 46 >', Num. 26 2^. The name is probably the equiva- 
 lent of Ar. fuwiuah, which denotes the species of madder called 
 Rubia tinctorum, L., from the root of which a red dye is derived* 
 (cf. Lane J.J/. ; Low, Pflanzennamen, p. 251); whereas Tola', which 
 means 'worm 'in Ex. 162" (more commonly fem. Told'ath, cf Bab. 
 tultu), is used in Isa. i '^, Lam. 4^ to denote the crimson dye called 
 cochineal (properly the insect irom which the dye is prepared; so, 
 more commonly, fem. Told'ath). The coincidence suggests that 
 kindred clans adopted kindred totem-objects. 
 
 Dodo. This name occurs again in 2 Sam. 23' K're= i Chr. 11 '^ ; 
 2 Sam. 23^*=! Chr. w^. 2 Sam. 23^ Kt. gives the form Dodai ; 
 and similarly ffi"'^'- reads AuSai in || I Chr. The same form is 
 favoured by the evidence of (S in 2 Sam. 23^* and || i Chr. Dodai 
 occurs in I Chr. 27*, where the reference seems to be to the same 
 man as is named in i Chr. 11'^ (called ' the Ahohite ' in both passages). 
 The form Dodo may be paralleled by Dudu, the name of an official 
 (probably a Cana'anite) in the service of the Phara'oh, which occurs in 
 the T.A Letters (cf Knudtzon, Nos. 158, 164) ; cf also KIT Dada in 
 Palmyrene (de Vogiie, La Syrie centrale^ 93 ; Cooke, NSI. p. 301), 
 and the names from cuneiform texts cited in KA T.^ p. 483. 
 
 The meaning of the name has been the subject of some discussion. 
 The most probable theory regards both Dodo and Dodai as hypo- 
 coristic abbreviations of a fuller form such as Dodiel or Dodiyya ( n'lM ; 
 
 cf -innn Dodavahu, 2 Chr. 20''). The element D6d is then the 
 
 same as the subst. which means ' uncle ' on the father's side (used in 
 I Sam. 14^, 2 Kgs. 24'^, al.\ properly, it may be assumed, 'object of 
 love' (so in Heb. the word often has the meaning 'beloved,' which is 
 also seen in Bab. dddu). Thus Dodo, Dodai, may mean 'the god is 
 uncle ' (i.e. kinsman or ■patron of the bearer of the name) \ ; or, con- 
 ceivably, ' Beloved of the god ' : cf , for the latter sense, the name 
 nnn* Jedidiah, 'Beloved of Yah,' 2 Sam. 12^5; and David, i.e., pro- 
 bably, 'Beloved' (by God). Cf Cheyne, ££. 11 22; Gray, J/ed. 
 Proper Names, pp. 60 if. A passage of interest in this connexion is 
 found in the Inscription of Mesha', where the Moabite king, in relating 
 his success against Israel east of Jordan, says, .'The king of Israel 
 had built 'Ataroth for himself: and I fought against the city and took 
 it ; and I slew the whole of it, even the people of the city, as a gazing- 
 
 * Eusebius explains Puah ipvBpi., OS. 200 98 ; Jerome, ruhrum, ib. 6^^. 
 X Cf. the South Arabian name DSdi-kariba, ' My (divine) kinsman has [or is) 
 blessed' ; Hommel, AHT. p. 86. 
 
292 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [10. 
 
 and he dwelt in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim. 2. Ar 
 he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and wi 
 buried in Shamir. 
 
 3. And after him there arose Ja'ir the Gile'adite; and 1 
 judged Israel twenty and two years. 4. And he had thirty sor 
 who rode on thirty ass-colts ; and they had thirty TcitiesT (the 
 
 stock unto Chemosh and unto Moab. And I captured thence tl 
 altar-hearth of mn, and dragged it before Chemosh in Keriyyott 
 {Moabite Stone, 11. 10-13). Here the word mn should perhaps b 
 vocalized mn 'its (divine) Patron,' iJ. the God of the city* (Yahweh 
 
 Cf. 11. 17 f., where, after taking the city of Nebo, Mesha' states that h 
 took the vessels of Yahweh, and dragged them before Chemosh 
 Failing this explanation, rnn must be vocalized DSd6, and regarde 
 as the proper name of a deity, which may (on this hypothesis) perhap 
 be recognized in the O.T. proper names above discussed : cf. Baeth 
 gen, Beitrdge, p. 234 ; KA T? p. 225. 
 
 (!5 vXbs narpaSeXcjiov avTov, "B ' patrui Abimelech,' &^ 01JJ j£2, trea 
 Dodo, not as a proper name, but as the subst. meaning 'uncle' wit] 
 sufBx of the 3rd masc. sing.j : 'son of his (?>. Abimelech's) uncle, 
 Such an explanation is excluded by the fact that, while Tola' i: 
 expressly described as ' a man of Issachar,' Abimelech, so far as h( 
 was Israelite in extraction, belonged to Manasseh. Several minus 
 cules of ffi (grouped by Mo. as (S") offer the reading xai ai/ea-Trjcrev < 
 ©eos . . . TQV ©a)\a vlov ^ova vlov Kapte (or Kaprje) 7raTpa5eX<^oi; avToii 
 omitting the words ' a man of Issachar.' Here Kapit may represent 
 the name mp Kareah : cf. 2 Kgs. 25 2^, Jer. 40 8, a/. The origin ol 
 
 this text is wholly obscure. 
 
 Shamir. The site is unknown. (S*"" eV lafiapt'ia. 
 
 4. who rode, etc. A similar statement is made \Ti ch. 12" with 
 regard to ' Abdon's descendants. The detail is mentioned as a badg« 
 of rank : cf. ch. 5 ">». 
 
 cities. Reading O'ly with all Versions, in place of |§ D'i*J( 'ass- 
 colts,' which has arisen from accidental imitation of the same word 
 preceding. 
 
 * in the difficult expression in Am. 8" 'as the way of Be'ersheba' liveth!' 
 ^T!) 'way' is plausibly emended by Winokler [AF. i. p.' 194 f.) into t|'1^. 
 This gives the sense ' As thy (divine) patron liveth, O Be'ersheba',' an excellent 
 parallel to ' As thy god liveth, O Dan ' ; cf. ffl 6 Bib% aov in place of '^'11, 
 
 % This explanation is also offered by IT, *p in 2 Sam. 239-s<, i Chr. ii"'". 
 and by a (K doublet in 2 Sam. z^^-^. 
 
10. S-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 293 
 
 are called Havvoth-Ja'ir unto this day), which are in the land of 
 Gile'ad. 5. And Ja'ir died, and was buried in Kamon. 
 
 Ifawoth-Jdir. Probably ' the tent-villages of Ja'ir.' Heh. kawwd 
 is explained from Ar. Mwd', ' a group of tents near together.' Most 
 likely the Hiwites, who are mentioned among the peoples of Cana'an, 
 obtained their name as originally inhabitants of such primitive village- 
 communities. 
 
 which are in the land of Gile ad. So Num. 32 *\ i Kgs. 4'', 
 I Chr. 222. In Deut. 3'*, Josh. 133° R° the Havvoth-Ja'ir are 
 incorrectly localized in Bashan. On the origin of this error, cf. 
 Driver, Deuteronomy {ICC.) p. 55. 
 
 5. Kamon. Polybius (v. Ixx. 12) mentions a Kamun east of Jordan 
 as captured by Antiochus the Great : — koi irpoayaiv, irapeXa^e IlEXXai', 
 Koi Ka/jiovv, Koi T€<f>povv. The name of Kamon is very possibly pre- 
 served in the modern Kumem, a village six and a half miles west of 
 Irbid. About one mile north-west of Kumem, a ruined site Kamm 
 may correspond to the ancient city. It should be noted that the 
 name Te(f>povv, which is coupled with Ka/iovv, i.e. doubtless the Ephron 
 (tnpV) of I Mace. 5 *% seems to be preserved in the W4dy el-Gafr 
 
 which lies some two miles north of Kamm. Cf. Buhl, Geogr. p. 256. 
 
 10. 6-16. Further apostasy receives its punishment. 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc. , cited throughout the book, cf. Stade, ZATW., 
 i. (1881) pp. 341-343 ; Stanley A. Cook, Critical Notes on Old Testament History 
 (1907), pp. 24'ff., 33 ff., 48 f., 127 f. 
 
 This is a section which raises interesting questions in connexion 
 with the original composition of the history of the Judges. As it now 
 stands, it was clearly intended by R'^^ as an introduction both to the 
 narrative of the oppression of the 'Ammonites and .the raising up of 
 Jephthah as judge {ch. 10"- 12'), and to that of the oppression of the 
 PhiHstines and the raising up of Samson as judge {chs. 13 fif.): cf. v!'. 
 The ordinary formulae of the pragmatic scheme of R=^ may be traced 
 in full in 2/." (omitting the specification of 'the gods of various 
 nations), z'Z'.'-"'^: cf. the type-form given on p. 54. On the face of 
 it, however, it is obvious that the whole section cannot have been 
 composed by R"^' for the purpose which it now fulfils in his book. 
 There is no reason why, at this particular point in his narrative, he 
 should depart from his ordinary practice of introducing the history of 
 each particular judge singly and in his regular brief form ; and, as a 
 matter of fact, the repetition of his ordinary formula at the beginning 
 of the Samson-narrative, ch. 13', renders the mention of Israel's 
 apostasy leading to the oppression of the PhiUstines (lo"^"'"') super- 
 fluous in ch. 10. Further, it should not escape notice that, if lo"'" was 
 actually composed by R"' as an introduction to the narratives of the 
 oppression of the 'Ammonites and Philistines in that order, he would 
 
294 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 scarcely have employed the opposite order in vJ^; 'and he sold them 
 into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children 
 of 'Ammon.' 
 
 Closer exarfiination reveals the fact that the phraseology of the 
 section is in many points identical with that which characterizes the 
 later strata of E ; especially as seen in Josh. 24, Judg. 6^-1", i Sam. 72-», 
 10 1"", 12. The most striking phrases are 'we have sinned' (UNDri) 
 
 vv.^"'^^, as in i Sam. 7^ 12^; 'oppress' (ynb) i/.^^ as in Judg. 6', 
 
 I Sam. 10"; 'foreign gods' (lajn ''n^K) t/.» as in Josh. 24 m 
 I Sam. 7'; 'put away' (T'DPI), in reference to the ' foreign gods,' w.", as 
 in Josh. 2420-23, i Sam. 7^ (on these phrases as generally characteristie' 
 of £2, cf Driver, LOT.^ p. 177); as well as the retrospect of Israel's 
 past history, especially the deliverance from Egypt, ■z/t/."'^, as in 
 Josh. 24"'-, Judg. 6*, I Sam. 10 's, 12 ''•s. 
 
 Thus it may be inferred that we have, in lo^"'^, a section originally 
 belonging to E's history of the Judges, which was incorporated by 
 R-"^ into his composite history, and then used by R"^' in place of (or it 
 may be, in combination with) his ordinary brief introductory formula. 
 The purpose which this section fulfilled in E's history seems to be 
 indicated by the reference to the Philistines as the oppressors in v.'"' 
 (so Bu., i?5. p. 128) ; the fact that this people is mentioned first pro- 
 bably indicating that the reference to the children of 'Ammon which 
 follows is a later addition, due to R'"^, and intended to make the 
 section serve as an introduction to c/i. 10 ''-12 'as well as to c/is. 
 
 13 ff- 
 
 But, if this is so, this introduction from E to the narrative of a 
 Philistine oppression cannot have referred to the Samson-story as 
 given in Judges, since this is derived wholly from J (cf p. 336) — apart 
 from the fact that a section in which the religious motive is so fully 
 developed can never have been designed to introduce a story of which 
 the crude and primitive character is almost unrelieved. It is scarcely 
 open to doubt that E's history of the Philistine oppression is that 
 which now forms one strand of the composite narrative in i Sam.; 
 and the proper conclusion to this narrative, as it took form under the 
 same hand (E''), is found in the account of the deliverance from the 
 Philistines as effected by Samuel, which is now contained in i Sam. 7 
 (so Mo., p. 276 ; S. A. Cook). 
 
 It is impossible accurately to determine how far R"^^ felt it neces- 
 sary to supplement his source ; since, as we have noticed in the 
 Introduction (p. xlvi ff.), his phraseology is modelled throughout upon 
 that of E*, and therefore cannot with certainty be differentiated from 
 it. Probably he was responsible for the summary statement of Israel's 
 apostasy which opens w." ; but the remaining formulae which normally 
 we associate with his pragmatic introductions were most likely 
 already existent in the work of E". Thus, for example, f' down to 
 ' Philistines,' which is cast in the well-known formulse of R"*', must, 
 
10. 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 295 
 
 6. R^" And the children of Israel again did that which was 
 evil in the sight of Yahweh,E' and served the Baals, and the 
 'AshtartSiR' and the gods of Aram, and the gods of Sidon, and 
 the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of 'Ammon, and 
 the gods of the Philistines ; E^ and they forsook Yahweh, and 
 served him not. 7. And the anger of Yahweh was kindled 
 against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, 
 ^'^ and into the hand of the children of 'Ammon. 8. E^^ And 
 they brake and crushed the children of Israel in that year, 
 R-"*^ eighteen years, even all the children of Israel who were beyond 
 Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gile'ad. 9. And 
 
 if our theory of the origin of the section be correct, have already 
 existed in E's introduction to the Philistine oppression. 
 
 The passages in wJ'^ which serve to make the section suitable as 
 an introduction to the narrative of the oppression of the 'Ammonites 
 must be due to the Redactor who placed it before 10 "-i 2', i.e., we 
 may assume, R^"^. The references in 7/.° to the gods of various nations, 
 and in wt/.^'-'^ to various nations besides Egypt as oppressors (some 
 of them, e.g. the Philistines and the 'Ammonites, out of place in a 
 retrospect of past oppressions and deliverances) must be due to a 
 much later hand, to whom the somewhat lengthy record of apostasy 
 and its outcome seemed adapted for the insertion of such detailed lists. 
 
 10. 6. the Baals and the ' Ashtarts. Cf. ch. 2 " notes. 
 
 8. they brake. Heb. raas (once again in O.T., Ex. iS^*") perhaps = 
 rahdsu in the T.A. Letters, which Zimmern {KAT.^ p. 653) regards 
 as aCana'anism; cf. Kn. 127,1. 33; 141, 1. 31, ' and may the bow-troops 
 of the King my lord . . . shatter {ti-ra-ha-as) the head of his enemies.' 
 
 in that year, eighteen years. As Mo. remarks, such a collocation 
 is impossible. The eighteen years probably belongs to R^^'s system 
 of chronology, referring to the duration of the 'Ammonite oppression ; 
 while ' in that year is more suitable to the verbs at the beginning of 
 the verse which suggest a signal catastrophe rather than a long- 
 continued subjugation and oppression' (Mo.), and probably refer to 
 the first stage of the Philistine aggressions, as narrated by E^. 
 
 even all the children of Israel, etc. The facts related by R^" in 
 this verse and v.^ as to the extent of the 'Ammonite aggressions were 
 probably derived by him from one of the ancient sources which 
 narrated the story of Jephthah. Cooke's statement that ' the extension 
 of the oppression to all the children of Israel on both sides of the 
 Jordan is probably due to the latest editor' is groundless. The 
 writer does not refer to the whole of Israel east and west of Jordan, 
 but to all Israel in Gile'ad east of Jordan, and to certain tribes (Judah, 
 Benjamin, Ephraim) west of Jordan which (he implies) were some- 
 
296 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [10. lo. ii 
 
 the children of 'Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also agains 
 Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house o 
 Ephraim ; E= and Israel was in sore straits. lo. And the childrer 
 of Israel cried unto Yahweh, saying, 'We have sinned agains 
 thee ; [] for we have forsaken <^Yahweh^ our God, and have servec 
 the Ba'als.' ii. And Yahweh said unto the children of Israel 
 ' Did not [] Egypt, R"" and [] the Amorites, ^and^ the children ol 
 
 what harassed by raids, though not oppressed in the same degree as 
 the inhabitants of Gile'ad. That the Ephraimites at any rate were 
 interested parties is proved by the narrative oi ch. 12 '". 
 
 10. for. Reading »3 simply with several MSS. of iffit, and ffi, F, 
 
 S^, in place of |§ »31 ' and because,' R.V. ' even because.' 
 
 Yahweh our God: The addition of ' Yahweh ' is supported by six 
 MSS. of m, and by ffi^ %"; TB. The phrase 'Yahweh our God' is 
 characteristic of E^ (as, subsequently, of D); and the proper name 
 Yahweh is desiderated by the contrast with 'the Baals.' 
 
 1 1. Did not Egypt, etc. Reading 
 
 with ffi*% S^ IL"-, U, S^, and taking the list as part of the 
 subject of the verb -ivn^ in v.'^\ So Mo. {SBOT.), No., Kit., Kent, 
 
 f§ (supported by ffi", %, 2.), by reading |D 'from' before each of the 
 
 peoples enumerated, offers an impossibly harsh anacoluthon, omitting 
 an indispensable verb, which is supplied by A. V., ' Did not / deliver 
 you from the Egyptians, etc' ; R. V., ' Did not / save you from, etc' 
 Such a verb, whether D3riN ''rii'-Vn (A.V.) or D3nx ''WB'in (R.V.), 
 
 could not be understood in Heb. ; though it is conceivable that its 
 omission may be due to an error of transcription. Against such 
 a view, however, is the fact (noted by Mo.) that we should expect 
 either verb to be followed, not by |p ' from ' simply, but by Tp 'from 
 
 the hand of.' Thus E^, with whose work we are dealing, employs 
 this expression exclusively after ^».vn 'deliver' both in Judg. and 
 
 I Sam. : cf. Judg. 6', 1 Sam. 7\ 10 " la'"" ; so Judg. 8 3* ^^\ In the 
 same way y^'in 'save' is regularly followed by ^>D in Judg.: cf. 
 2I6.W g22^ iqIz^ 122^ 136. once by the synonymous f|3p, 6". 
 
 The emendation above adopted has, as we have seen, the pre- 
 dominant support of the Versions, and offers the simplest solution 
 of the textual difficulty. We cannot, however, exclude the possibility 
 that onvsp ikhn of |§ may originally have been followed by 
 
10. 12.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 297 
 
 'Ammon, and [] the Philistines, 12. and the Sidonians, and 
 'Amalek, and ""MidianlE^ oppress you ; and when ye cried unto 
 me, I saved you from their hand? 13. But ye have forsaken 
 
 Danx 'n^^Vn (cf. ck. a^R", 68, i Sam. lo's E^) or DSriN ''nNVin (cf. 
 Josh. 24 s E^), ' Did not I bring you up (or, bring you out) from 
 Egypt ?' and that the verb was lost through later blundering insertion 
 of the names which follow at the end of the verse (so Bu., La., Cooke). 
 The relationship of v."- to v}'^ will then exactly resemble that of "v.^ 
 (the bringing out from Egypt) and vS' (oppression of surrounding 
 nations) in i Sam. 12 E^. In this case the reading of the Versions 
 which we have followed represents an attempt to make sense of a text 
 identical with %. 
 
 the Amorites. We find no specific allusion to the Amorites as 
 oppressors ; the fact, mentioned in ch. 1 2*, of their forcing * the 
 children of Dan from the vale into the hill-country being scarcely of 
 sufficient importance, and also not followed by any signal act of 
 deliverance. Taking 'Amorites' as a general designation for the 
 inhabitants of Cana'an (as is usual in E ; cf. note on ch. i' 'against 
 the Cana'anites'), it is conceivable that the allusion maybe to the 
 oppression of Sisera and 'the kings of Cana'ap' related in chs. 4, 5. 
 Possibly, however, as suggested by S^, '"ibNn may be a corruption 
 
 of D*3Nbn ' the Moabites ' (for the Gentilic form, cf especially Deut. 
 
 2"-^) or 3NiD 'Moab,' since it is rather surprising to find no allusion 
 
 to the oppression of this latter people, as related in ch. 3'^". ffi'^'', 
 while retaining 01 'Afioppaioi, adds xal Ma>a/3 after xai oi viol hjijitov. 
 
 the children of 'Ammon. These are named in ck. 3 '' as aiding 
 Eglon king of Moab in his oppression of Israel ; but such a passing 
 allusion could not have been in the writer's mind — at any rate unless 
 he had previously mentioned Moab (cf note preceding). Probably, 
 like the mention of the Phihstines with which it is coupled, the 
 allusion is to the narrative following; and since reference to 
 deliverance from the 'Ammonites and Philistines (r/.'^'') is historically 
 out of place, we may regard the names as a later careless insertion. 
 
 12. the Sidonians. We know of no occasion on which these people 
 played the role of oppressors of Israel. Possibly, as Mo. suggests, 
 their insertion here may be due to the mention of Sidon in v.^. 
 
 ' Amalek. Cf. ch. 3 '^, 6 ', where the mentions of ' Amalek, though very 
 possibly later than the main narratives in which they occur (cf notes 
 ad loc), are earlier than the present passage. 
 
 Midian. So (S"'^'- (ffi^ before 'Amalek), and most moderns. Some 
 MSS. of <!5, S\ 2., r read 'Canaan'; while S}" reads ''Ammon,' 
 
 * 1Sn^''1— the same verb as IVD? ' oppressed ' in 10 ". 
 
298 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [10. 14. 16. 
 
 me, and have served other gods ; therefore I will no more save 
 you. 14. Go and cry unto the gods whom ye have chosen; 
 let them save you in the time of your distress.' 
 
 15. And the children of Israel said unto Yahweh, 'We have 
 sinned; do thou to us whatsoever seemeth good in thy sight; 
 only pray deliver us this day.' 16. And they put away the 
 foreign gods from the midst of them and served Yahweh : and 
 his soul was impatient for the misery of Israel. 
 
 having omitted the reference to the children of Ammon and the Philis- 
 tines in w.". fl ' Ma'on ' is apparently the modern Ma'an some eighteen 
 miles east-south-east of Petra. The Ma'onites (Heb. M''iinim) are 
 mentioned in later times as antagonists of Judah (i Chr. 4", 2 Chr. 
 26' ; and probably also 2 Chr. 20') ; but we have no record of any 
 aggressions by them in the time of the Judges. On the other hand, 
 mention of the Midianite oppression {ch. 6) is to be expected. 
 
 14. whom ye have chosen. For the use of the verb ' choose ' in this 
 connexion, cf. Josh. 24 ''^ E 2, ' and if it be evil in your eyes to serve 
 Yahweh, choose ye this day whom ye will serve.' 
 
 16. and set-ved Ya/^wek. ffi'' adds /xovm, i.e. 1137, as in I Sam. 7*. 
 
 his soul was impatient. Lit. ' was j,4or/.' So elsewhere of Yahweh, 
 Zech. II*; of the Israelites, Num. 21 ** With n-n 'spirit' as subject, 
 
 Mic. 2^, Job 21 ''. The antithetical idea — 'was patient' — is expressed 
 by 'iB'BJ T"l?<'"l '''i^e. pro longed h\s soul'; cf. Job 6". 
 
 The rendering of ffi*''Kai ovk ''evripea-Tria-e {'^dripicrTrja-av eV) ra Xoa, 
 Kai ""aXiyo'^vxicrev C'oi'Siyoyf/vxilcrav) iv r<5 Kotrm IcrpaTjX seems to em- 
 body a doublet, the first clause being a rendering of 0^3 'iB'BJ ISpWI, 
 
 and the second correctly reproducing the text and meaning of ?§. 
 10. 17-12. 7. Jephthah. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc., cited throughout the book, cf. R. Smend, 
 Jeftas Botschaft an den Konig von Amman, ZA T W. xxii. {1902), pp. 129-137. 
 
 The hand of R'^^ is to be seen in ii33b(cf. cA 380, 423^ 8^8). Iniz" 
 this editor employs the formula which he probably found already 
 existing in the narrative of R-""^ (cf. ch. 152", 16 ^'^ i Sam. 4"'', 7'°). 
 
 Discussion of the ancient source, or sources, of the narrative must 
 take its start with an examination of 11 '^'^*, which relates the sending by 
 Jephthah of an embassy to the king of 'Ammon, protesting against his 
 encroachment upon the territory of Israel between the Arnon and 
 the Jabbolj:, and substantiating Israel's claim to hold it by right of 
 conquest from Sihon, king of the Amorites. It is a difficulty with 
 regard to this argument, as put into the mouth of Jephthah, that, 
 except for the single reference to 'Ammon at the end of v. '°, it refers 
 throughout not to 'Ammon but to Moab. Thus, z/w. "■'* state that 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 299 
 
 Israel, in approaching Canaan from the east, was careful not to 
 encroach upon the territory of Moab, i.e. the country south of the 
 Arnon ; but wa^ content to conquer and settle in the territory of the 
 Amorite Sihon,- north of the Arnon and south of the Jabbok. The 
 appeal of v. ^* is obviously addressed to Moab : ' Those that Chemosh 
 thy god dispossesseth — wilt thou not possess tAem ? etc' Chemosh 
 was the national god of Moab ; while the god who stood in this 
 position to 'Ammon was Milcom. In the same way, reference is 
 made {v. ^) to the example of an earher king of Moab, Balak the son 
 of Sippor, who left Israel unmolested in the enjoyment of their newly 
 acquired territory. 
 
 As regards the origin of II ^'-^^, two possibilities present themselves. 
 Either the section is a late insertion into an otherwise homogeneous 
 narrative, framed in order to establish Israel's claim to the territory 
 between the Arnon and the Jabbok — possibly in view of some later 
 encroachment of 'Ammon* (Mo., Cooke, etc.) ; or, the section, referring 
 properly to Israel's relations vidth Moab, is part of a variant tradition, 
 according to which Jephthah appeared as a deliverer of the Israelites 
 in Gile'ad from the aggressions, not of the 'Ammonites, but of the 
 Moabites. On this latter hypothesis, we may expect to find the strand 
 which embodies this variant tradition interwoven throughout the nar- 
 rative as a whole (Holzinger, followed by Bu., Cor., No., Kit., Kent). 
 
 The former theory depends upon the fact that Jephthah's speech, 
 as given in t/z/. '°"2'', appears to be drawn chiefly from Num. 20.21, 
 exhibiting, here and there, verbal similarities (cf notes on text). We 
 must suppose that the interpolator, finding ready to his hand an 
 ancient narrative which related the way in which Israel, in making 
 their conquest and settlements east of Jordan, were careful to respect 
 the old-established rights of Moab, adapted the facts extracted from 
 this narrative so that they might apply equally to ' Ammon by the mere 
 insertion of the words 'and the land of the children of 'Ammon' at 
 the end of v. '°. This theory is vitiated by the fact that, while it is 
 quite conceivable that the author of the interpolation may have 
 thought that a narrative which illustrated Israel's care to avoid 
 infringing the rights of the two kindred peoples, Edom and Moab, 
 was applicable by inference to their attitude towards another kindred 
 people ('Ammon), it offers "no explanation of the reference to the 
 example of Balak, an earlier king of Moab, as a precedent, and (most 
 markedly) it is obliged to assume that the writer is guilty of a gross 
 error in confusing Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, with the god of 
 the 'Ammonites. The fact has also been remarked that there is no 
 evidence to prove that the section is very late in origin. It depends, 
 as we have noticed, to some extent upon Num. 20 '^'^'j 21 i3-2i-2fa but by 
 
 * Mo. suggests that the occasion of the interpolation may have been the 
 aggressions of the'Ammonites upon the ancient territory of Israel at the beginning 
 of the sixth century B.C., as mentioned in Jer. 49 '. 
 
30O THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 no means slavishly so * ; and the conception of Chemosh in v. ** as a 
 national deity, exercising a potency and influence in relation to his 
 people comparable to that which Yahweh exercises pver Israel^ may 
 be paralleled by the conception of the same deity's power within his 
 own land which underlies the old narrative of 2 Kgs. 3 ''■^■'". % It is at 
 least unlikely that such a view should have found expression at a 
 period when at any rate in prophetic circles a doctrine of high 
 spiritual monotheism had gained currency. 
 
 Rejecting this theory, then, we are thrown back upon the alterna- 
 tive which regards n 12-28 as forming part of an originally distinct 
 narrative, in which Jephthah is raised up to meet the aggressions, 
 not of the 'Ammonites, but of the Moabites. Looking carefully at 
 10 17-12' as a whole, and examining it in detail, we are led to the con- 
 clusion that, while evidence that the narrative is composite throughout 
 is by no means so obvious as e.g. in the Gide' on-narrative, yet traces 
 of the combination of two traditions varying in detail really do exist. 
 
 Thus we note that, according to 1 1 1"", Jephthah is an outlaw from 
 Gila' ad, dwelling in the land of Tob, and is fetched thence by the 
 elders of Gile'ad in order that he may act as their leader in repelling 
 the 'Ammonite invasion. According to 1 1 ^o.si.si ff.^ however, his home 
 is at Mispah of Gile'ad; and the fact that he has lived there some 
 time as a person of consequence, possessing a considerable retinue of 
 dependents, seems to be indicated by the terms of his oath — ' The 
 comer-forth that cometh forth from the doors of my house to meet 
 me ' suggests some range of possibility as to the projected victim ; and 
 the idea that this may prove to be his only daughter is sufficiently 
 remote not to have entered into his reckoning. We may also observe 
 (with Frankenberg) that the words of Jephthah's daughter, ii^^ 
 ' Forasmuch as Yahweh hath wrought for thee full vengeance upon 
 thine enemies,' clearly indicate that Jephthah had a personal ground 
 of quarrel with the 'Ammonites ; apart from which, indeed, his vow is 
 difficult to explain. This fact, however, is hard to reconcile with the 
 representation of him in I r i-^ as an outsider, who undertakes at a 
 price to organize resistance to- the enemy. 
 
 Further, 10 "" can scarcely stand in original relationship to 10", 
 n'"". According to iqI'', the presence of an invading 'Ammonite 
 army in Gile'ad has been met by an organized muster of the Israelites 
 at Mispah. The double -Un*! ' and they encamped,' clearly implies 
 
 two hostile armies in battle-array : cf. ch. 6 ^', 7 1, i Sam. 4 ', 17 ' ^, 
 28 *. From lo i^, however, we learn, to our surprise, that the Israelite 
 army is without a leader ; and it is only at this stage that the 
 Gile'adites conclude, after deliberation, that they have no man of their 
 own fit to undertake command, and are obliged to send their elders to 
 
 * Cf. Kue. Ond. §1318; §196. 
 
 X Cf. NHTK. ad loc, and the present editor's Outlines of O.T. 
 pp. 34 ff. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 301 
 
 the land ofTob to fetch back Jephthah. Assuming for the moment 
 that this difiScultyis not insuperable, it is very strange that, while 
 according to 10 " the 'Ammonite invasion has already taken place, and 
 the critical conflict is impending, 1 1 « informs us (as though it were a 
 fresh fact) that 'after a while the children of 'Ammon fought with 
 Israel.' If, however, lo"' is not really of a piece with iii", this 
 mention of the 'Ammonite invasion in 11* forms the appropriate 
 prelude to the mission of the Gile'adite elders to fetch Jephthah, as 
 related in 1 1 5". 
 
 Jephthah's proceedings, again, as related in 1 1 ^s, can only be 
 explained as actuated by the necessity of raising an army before 
 attacking the 'Ammonites. Yet according to lo"', as we have seen, 
 the army is already mustered at Mispah. 
 
 Thus we seem to have established several points which indicate 
 that 10 " has no original relationship to 1 1 i-H-^Sj but belongs to a 
 different narrative. If this be so, 10 ^^ can be nothing else than the 
 clumsy attempt of a redactor to fit 10" on to 11 ^'^. The statement 
 'he shall be head, etc.,' is clearly drawn from 11 ^b* 
 
 If, then, 10" is distinct in origin from ii^", its proper sequel is 
 probably 1 1 J^-^', a section which we observed at the outset to be also 
 distinct from 11 'i', as making Moab, and not 'Ammon, the aggressor. 
 But 1 1 30.31.34-40 ijas also been argued to be distinct from 11'", on 
 the g^oimd that Jephthah the influential householder at Mispah is 
 distinct firom Jephthah the outlaw. On the other hand, we have seen 
 that 11^ coheres with 1 1 ''^^ and not with 10 ". The resumption of 1 1 ^^^ 
 may be seen in 1 1 ^, where the redactor of the two narratives picks 
 up the thread which has been broken by the insertion of 1 1 ^■^^. Traces 
 of the fusion of two accounts may perhaps be seen in 1 1 33", since we 
 appear to have a double terminus ad quern for the rout — ' until thou 
 comest to Minnith,' and ' as far as Abel-ceramim.' Probably 'from 
 ' kiotx until thou comest to Minnith' belongs to the Moabite narrative, 
 the 'Aro'er in question being the frequently mentioned city on the 
 Amon at the northern boundary of Moab which has been mentioned 
 in'^'.^; though this is uncertain (cf. note ad loc). 'As far as Abel- 
 ceramim' may then be supposed to come from the 'Ammonite 
 
 * It is a point worthy of notice that, in the account of the institution of the 
 monarchy in Israel in i Sam. 8-12, where two practically complete narratives, 
 from J and E respectively, have been combined, the opening words of RJ='s 
 connective narrative in 11 12-is are phrased in precisely the same form as 
 Judg, 10 18 : — 
 
 'And the people said every man to his fellow, Who is the man 
 ' And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he 
 
 that shall begin to fight with the children of 'Ammon ? 
 that said. Shall Saul reign over us ? 
 
 he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gile'ad.' 
 bring forth the men that we may put them to death.' 
 
302 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 narrative, unless it be taken as a further definition of the terminus cu 
 quern. 
 
 Lastly, we observe that the transition from ii ** to 12^ is somewha 
 unexpected. The account of the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter 
 and the yearly commemoration of this event vifhich was thereaftei 
 established, seems naturally to wind up the narrative ; and the event; 
 related in 12 '-^ give us the impression of belonging to an originallj 
 different source. We may assign 12 ''S, therefore, to the 'Ammonite 
 narrative 11'", etc., and we do this with the more confidence 
 through observation of the fact that Jephthah's words in v.^, 'and 1 
 passed over unto the children of 'Ammon, and Yahweh gave them 
 into mine hand,' are an echo of 1 1 29i>.32.* 
 
 Thus we may reconstruct two distinct narratives, which probably 
 ran originally as follows, square brackets being used where details 
 have now to be supplied by conjecture. 
 
 (l) 10^' J J 12-28.30.31.33 (in part). 34-40_ 
 
 [The Moabites oppress the Israelite inhabitants of Gile'ad (some 
 details possibly derived from this narrative by R^"^ in 10 ">•'"). 
 Jephthah, an influential citizen of Mispah, undertakes the defence 
 of his country. On the rumour, possibly, of warlike preparations 
 among the Gile'adites], a Moabite army is mustered, and encamps in 
 Gile'ad ; the. Israelite force being brought together in readiness at 
 its leader's native city (u''). Before joining battle, Jephthah has 
 recourse to diplomacy, but without success (ii i2-28)_ jjg^ therefore, 
 decides to attack the Moabites ; and vows that, if Yahweh will grant 
 success to his arms, he will offer up a human sacrifice from among 
 the members of his household (11 ^''•^'). [The battle results in a 
 decisive victory for Israel, the rout of the Moabites and slaughter of 
 the fugitives extending] over a specified area, and including the 
 destruction of twenty cities (n 33mpart^_ Qn Jephthah's return in 
 triumph to Mispah, his only daughter is designated by fate as the 
 sacrificial victim. Though torn by grief, he is faithful to the terms of 
 his vow ; and a yearly commemoration of Jephthah's daughter there- 
 after becomes an institution among the daughters of Israel (11 '*"). 
 
 In this narrative 'the children of 'Ammon' has been substituted for 
 'Moab' or 'the Moabites ' J in 10", n I2.i3.i4.27.a30.3i^ ainj additions 
 referring to the children of 'Ammon have been made in vv.'^^-^. The 
 object of these changes was, of course, to bring the narrative into 
 
 * The threat of the Ephraimites in 12 l'^^, ' we will burn thy house over thee 
 with iire,' might be supposed to point to the narrative in which Jephthah is a 
 householder in Gile'ad (ii 31.34) rather than to that in which he is an outlaw. 
 This is a point, however, which need not weigh against the conclusion adopted 
 above; since the first essential of the Gile'adites' compact with their new ruler 
 (n 9.10) would be the granting him a residence at Mispah. 
 
 J While the expression ' the children of ' Ammon ' is regularly used to denote 
 the 'Ammonites, we do not find 'the children of IWoab' used of the Moabites; 
 though we know of no reason why such a phrase should have been avoided. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 303 
 
 line with the parallel narrative in which Jephthah appeared as 
 deliverer from the 'Ammonite aggressions; and the author of them 
 was the redactor of the two narratives whom we must assume to have 
 been R^^ 
 
 The source from which this narrative is derived is indicated by 
 the fact, already noticed, that n 12-28 depends very largely upon 
 Num. 20 '■'2', 21 i3-2i.2ta These sections belong mainly, if not wholly, 
 to E ; and thus we are justified in inferring that E is the source of 
 the narrative which makes use of them. 
 (2) III-" (except vvy^"^-^, on which see below), 1 1 28.32b.33 (m pari)^ 12 1-6_ 
 
 Jephthah, a Gile'adite without any tribal position owing to the 
 accident of his birth, becomes an outlaw from Israelite territory, and 
 takes up his abode in the land of Tob, where he gathers a band of 
 desperadoes like himself, and gains a reputation as a successful free- 
 booter. The 'Ammonites commence hostilities against the Israelites 
 in Gile'ad ; and the elders of Gile'ad [having made an unavailing 
 appeal for help to the tribes on the west of Jordan,* and] having no 
 one among themselves equal to the task of raising and leading an 
 army, are obliged to have recourse to Jephthah in the land of Tob, 
 and to entreat his services. He consents upon the understanding 
 that, if successful, he is to become ruler of Gile'ad, and the compact is 
 sealed 'before Yahweh' at Mispah (11''"). After traversing the 
 country of Gile'ad and East Manasseh in order to raise an army, 
 Jephthah advances against the 'Ammonites {vP) in order to attack 
 them ; Yahweh gives them into his hand {v.^^'^), and he smites them 
 with a great slaughter as far as Abel-ceramim {vP "■ i"^'). After the 
 battle, an armed force of Ephraimites crosses the Jordan and threatens 
 Jephthah with reprisals, upon the false excuse that he did not summon 
 them to aid him in the battle with the 'Ammonites. Once more 
 gathering the Gile adites to his banner, he puts the Ephraimites to 
 the rout, and seizing the fords of the Jordan, cuts off all fugitives, so 
 that forty-two thousand Ephraimites are slain (12 1-*). 
 
 Since the other narrative must be assigned to E, the inference is 
 that the present narrative belongs to J ; and in favour of this we may 
 remark that the arrogant conduct of the Ephraimites (12 '"■) is strikingly 
 similar to their behaviour to Gideon as related in the J narrative, 
 ck. 8 H A narrative reflecting discredit upon the Ephraimites, and 
 possibly coloured by tribal antagonism, is more naturally assigned 
 to a Judaean than to an Ephraimite source. 
 
 It only remains to notice interpolations in the narrative which 
 appear to be very late in origin. 
 
 1 1 '''•2. It is clear from 1 1 ' that Jephthah's expulsion from Gile'ad was 
 tribal and not family. The 'brethren ' of v.^ are therefore his fellow- 
 
 * It is possible, however, that 11 29 in its original form may have related an 
 ineffectual attempt made iy Jefhthah to gain the assistance of these tribes. Cf. 
 note ad loc. 
 
304 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 clansmen and not his natural brothers, as seems to be implied by v} 
 Moreover, it is evident from the use of ' Gile'ad' in vv.^^-^, as thougl 
 it were the name of an individual, that we have here to do with th 
 method of narration which characterizes the late prie%tly school o 
 writers, in which districts, clans, and cities are spoken of as individuals 
 Instances of this method are frequent in the genealogies of P anc 
 I Chr. (cf for ' Gile'ad ' so treated, note on ' Machir ' ck. 5 ") ; and wi 
 have already found illustration of it in the accounts of the 'minor 
 Judges, which, as we saw, emanated from the latest redactor, R'' 
 
 The term HPI*! 'begat,' z'."', is very characteristic of P. Cf CH.' 30 
 
 It is clear, however, that the main narrative lo"-!! " is literal anc 
 not figurative, and deals actually with the doings of individuals 
 Possibly the reference in r/.^ to Jephthah's expulsion, 'and they dravf 
 out Jephthah ' may have been derived from the main narrative (so Bu.) 
 cf z/J^ On the other hand, it is very possible that v.""^ combinec 
 with v}^ may be the source of the allusion in v.^, as it comes from th« 
 hand of R"" (so Mo.). 
 
 11^^ This half-verse is superfluous by the side of v.^, and has the 
 appearance of a late gloss. It is omitted by ffi*'' ; while ffi° appears 
 to include it and to omit ».*. 
 
 jj26a3; -pjjg reference to Israel's possession of Gile'ad as having 
 lasted undisputed for three' hundred years is obtained by computa- 
 tion of the periods of oppression and deliverance (including the period? 
 assigned to the ' minor' Judges) given in the preceding narrative up to 
 the beginning of the 'Ammonite oppression (exactly, three hundred 
 and one years). This date must therefore have been inserted by 
 R'' or by some later hand. 
 
 12'''. The record of Jephthah's death and burial is given precisely 
 in the form which recurs in. 8^^, 10 ^^•^, 12 '^-i*, and represents the 
 regular formula of R"". 
 
 It has been maintained by some scholars (cf Sta., GVI. i. p. 68 j 
 Wellh., Comp? p. 224) that the story of Jephthah is altogether 
 without historical basis. Tradition supplies no historical details as 
 to his campaign. The account of his birth (cf 11'*, ' Gile'ad begat 
 Jephthah') and death and burial (cf 12 "> ?^, 'and he was buried in the 
 cities of Gile'ad') makes him a shadowy figure who is evidently only 
 the heros eponymus of an obscure Gile'adite clan, apparently of mixed 
 origin (cf \\\ ' the son of a harlot '). The story is supposed to have 
 grown up round the yearly festival which was customary in the 
 narrator's time (u^"-^"), and which was, in origin, a celebration 
 of the death of the virgin-goddess, for the observance of which in 
 Palestine evidence is forthcoming from other sources (cf AddHiond 
 note, p. 332). 
 
 The probability that the women's festival of later times may have 
 been erroneously explained as commemorative of the sacrifice of 
 Jephthah's daughter does not, however, compel us to conclude that 
 
10.17-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 305 
 
 17. R^^ And the children of 'Ammon E were called to arms, 
 
 the story of this sacrifice was invented in order to account for the 
 festival. The fact of such a sacrifice is not inherently improbable. 
 There is ample evidence to prove that human sacrifice was not 
 altogether unknown and unpractised among the Israelites in early 
 times (cf. Additional note, p. 329) ; though it seems to have been 
 sufficiently rare to have evoked the feeling of horror which is implicit 
 in the narrative. It is at least as likely that an originally independent 
 tradition of the death of Jephthah's daughter may have come to be 
 associated with a festival the idolatrous origin of which was forgotten, 
 as that the story is a deliberate invention without historical basis. 
 The absence — or rather, the paucity — of details as to Jephthah's cam- 
 paign is no argument against its historical truth. It might equally be 
 urged, on the other hand, that a mere inventor would have found no 
 difficulty in supplying such details. 
 
 These considerations have their weight even upon the assumption 
 that the narrative is derived from a single source. If, however, as 
 has been argued above, we have a combination of two somewhat 
 variant traditions from J and E, the case for an historical basis for 
 the tradition is greatly strengthened ; more especially as one of these 
 narratives appears (at any rate in the form in which we know it) to 
 have been independent of the story of the sacrifice with its com- 
 memorative festival. The details of ii"", 12"^, which are cited by 
 Wellh. in support of his theory of a clan-myth, have been shown 
 above to be additions which are due to the post-exilic hand R^. 
 
 ID. 17. the children of 'Amnion. This is the ordinary designation 
 of this people ; 'Ammon by itself occurring only twice, viz. i Sam. 11" 
 (but ffi, Sk^ 'the children of 'A.'), and the late (probably Maccabean) 
 Ps. 83 ', ?^ I The land of the children of 'Ammon (in Assyr. inscrip- 
 tions Bit Ammin, or, in short form, Amman) lay immediately east of the 
 territory captured by the Israelites from Sihon king of the Amorites, 
 which formed the southern part of Gile'ad, between the Arnon and the 
 Jabbok, and from which Sihon appears previously to have expelled 
 the Moabites (cf. 1 1 '^ note). The boundary between the two territories 
 is given in Num. 21 2' (ffi) as Ja'zer ; * a city which Eusebius places 
 ten Roman miles west of Philadelphia and fifteen miles from Heshbon 
 {OS. 264"'). The site intended seems to be the modern Hirbet Sir 
 
 * (15 «i-t lofTjp Hpio. viHv Afiniiv IdTiv. S 'y •'32 i'DJ W ''3 ' For the border 
 of the children of A. uas strong,' gives an unsuitable sense in the context ; and 
 ffi's reading Itj;'' (of which tV is a relic) is generally adopted. 
 
 Josh. 1326 P (probably influenced by David's conquests, as related in 2 Sam. 
 lo.ii) assigns to the tribe of Gad ' half of the land of the children of 'Ammon as 
 far as'Aro'er which is to the east of Rabbah.' In contrast with this, Deut. 2"! 
 represerrts Moses as forbidding the Israelites to encroach upon 'Ammonite 
 territory. 
 
 U 
 
3o6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [10. t; 
 
 and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Isra( 
 
 — a name which may possibly preserve a relic of the ancient name, i 
 spite of the difference of sibilant. * The name 'Amirion is preserve 
 in the modern 'Amman, the site of Rabbah or RabbatH-'Ammon, th 
 chief city of the 'Ammonites, which was rebuilt in the second centur 
 B.C. as the Roman city Philadelphia, considerable remains of whic 
 still survive. 
 
 were called to arms. Cf. 6 '* note. 
 
 Gile'ad. The country immediately east of Jordan, when accuratel 
 described in the O.T., is divided into three divisions— the Mlshor c 
 ' Table-land ' to the south, Gile ad (or ' the Gile ad ') in the centre, an 
 the Bashan to the north : cf. Deut. 3 '<>, 4*^ Josh. 20 s. This divisio 
 corresponds with the .physical characteristics of the country : c 
 especially Smith, HG. pp. 534 f. The Mishor, 'an absolutely treeles 
 plateau,' covers the southern half of the modern el-Belka, extendin; 
 from the Arnon to a line a little north of Heshbon, 'practicall 
 coincident with the WMy Hesban' (Smith, HG. p. 548). North c 
 this, ' the country is mainly disposed in high ridges ' of limestonf 
 ' fully forested,' as far as the Yarmuk. This is the ancient Gile'ac 
 the name of which, if rightly connected with the kx. gatad 'hare 
 rough,' is to be understood as referring to the geological charac 
 teristics of the mountain-ridges (cf. Conder, in Smith, DB.^'x. 1191a 
 North of the Yarmuk lies the Bashan (cf. Ar. batneh ' soft and smootl 
 ground'), an ancient volcanic region, where 'the soil is rich, red loan 
 resting on beds of ash,' and the rock black basalt. 
 
 Gile' ad is divided into halves by the Jabbok (cf. Deut. 3 1^, Josh. 12'' 
 13^'). The southern half, together with the Mishor {i.e. all tb 
 country between the Arnon and the Jabbok) was conquered by Israe 
 from Sihon king of the Amorites (Josh. 12 2), and became the territor 
 of the tribes of Gad and Re'uben (Deut. 3^^). According to P ii 
 Josh., the Mishor fell to Re'uben (13 '^-2^), and South Gile'ad to Gai 
 
 * Philological purists question, or even categorically deny, the possibility ( 
 connexion between the names Ya'zer and Sar on the ground of the differenc 
 between the sibilants. It is more than doubtful whether such an attitude ; 
 justified. That « and s were very easily confused, both within the Hebrr 
 language itself and among the different Semitic languages, is proved by sue 
 variations as Heb. ik and ik, zr and ir, zrb and srb (where the variatio 
 appears to be purely accidental, and not to embody any different shade of meat 
 ing) ; Heb. and W. Aram, sdk, but Palmyrene and Syr. zdk ; Heb. siyidh, bv 
 Ar. z&d, Aram, z'wddkd, Bab. s(z)iditu. If such interchanges as these ar 
 possible, it goes without saying that a place-name preserved for many centurif 
 by means of popular pronunciation merely may quite conceivably have sut 
 stituted s for an original z. 
 
 If Sdr really represents Ya'zer, the wearing away of the opening syllable wit 
 its weak consonants may be illustrated by YilDl"'am and Bil^'am, moder 
 Bel'ameh ; Yizr»'el, mod. Zer'in; 'Ayyalon, mod. Y116; BSth-'eked, mod. Bli 
 kad ; 'Aphek, (probably) mod. Fik. 
 
10 18.] tliE BOOK OF JUDGES i&f 
 
 gathered themselves together, and encamped in Mispah. 
 i8. R'^ And ""the people of IsraeP said every man to his fellow, 
 'Who is the man who will begin to fight with the children 
 of 'Ammonv? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of 
 Gilead.' 
 
 (13 "-28). North Gilead is assigned, together with the Bashan, to 
 East Manasseh (Deut. 2^\ Josh. is^^-^^P); and was probably conquered 
 by Manassite clans from the west subsequently to the settlement in 
 West Palestine : cf. note on ' Machir,' cA. 5 ". 
 
 Such is the more accurate application of the term ' Gilead ' ; though 
 it seems at times to have been used with greater elasticity. Thus in 
 Deut 34 ' it denotes the whole of the country east of Jordan, as far 
 north as Dan. : cf also i Mace. 5 2°". Elsewhere, again, ' Gile'ad' is , 
 restricted exclusively either to the northern or the southern half of 
 Gile'ad proper. In the present narrative (as in cA. 5 '^ ; cf. noie) it 
 denotes the southern half, including probably the Mishor, i.e. the 
 whole region between the Jabbok and the Arnon — the modern 
 el-Belka. For the classified occurrences of the different usages, 
 cf. BDB. s.v. The name of Gile'ad survives in the modern 
 Gebel Gil'ad, the highest part of the mountain-range south of the 
 Jabbok. 
 
 Mispah. The site is unknown, and the various conjectures which 
 have been put forward are devoid of all foundation. The name 
 means ' place of outlook ' (from the root sapha ' to look out, watch ') ; 
 hence we may infer that the city was situated on some eminence or 
 spur of the Gile'ad-range overlooking a wide prospect. The Mispah 
 of Gen. 3 1 *° J can hardly be the same, since it must have lain noriA 
 of the Jabbok on the north-east border of Gile'ad, overlooking 
 Aramaean territory ; unless, indeed, the verse is a later gloss upon 
 its context, as there is some reason to suppose : cf. Driver, Westm. 
 Comm. ad loc. 
 
 18. the people of Israel. Reading ^NI'B'^ DJ? in place of |§ 
 "vh} 'IB' oyn 'thepeople, the princes of Gile'ad.' Here ' the princes 
 
 of Gile'ad' is usually regarded as a late gloss, explicative of 'the 
 people,' and intended to connect the verse with 1 1 ^ If this is the 
 case, however, why do we not read ' the elders of G.,' as in 11 ^•''•*'- w"' ? 
 The term 'princes' is not used elsewhere in the narrative. Our 
 emendation assumes that ?K"lti''' was misread as '?J ''IE'; and that 
 DV, coming thus to be regarded as the Absolute, and not the Con- 
 struct, State, received the addition of the Definite Article. 
 
 For the expression ^SnC'' DV, cf 2 Sam. 18 ', 19 «», J^ ". In such ^ 
 connexion DJ? ' people ' has almost the force of ' soldiers ' or ' army ' j 
 cf BDB. S.V., 2d; NHTK. on i Kgs. 16 «. 
 
3o8 l-HE feOOK OP jtriiClfig til: 
 
 II. I. J Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty mar 
 valour, and he was the son of a harlot : R"" and Gile'ad be 
 Jephthah. 2. And the wife of Gile'ad bare him sons ; and wl 
 the wife's sons were grown up, they drave out Jephthah, i 
 said to him, ' Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house, 
 thou art the son of another woman.' 3. J And Jephthah 1 
 from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob ; and th 
 
 II. I. Jephthah. The name means ' He (i.e. God) openeth' {sc. 
 womb ?). The fuller form Jephthah-el is cited by Haldvy as a pro 
 name in Sabaean {Etudes Sabeennes^ 148 ^), and occurs as a place-na 
 in Josh. 19 ^''■2' P. Cf. the proper name Pethahiah 'Yah has opem 
 1 Chr. 24 '«, al. 
 
 the son of a harlot. The mother may have been a non-Israeli 
 and seems, at any rate, not to have belonged to the father's cl 
 Jephthah, as his mother's son, was therefore outside the father's c 
 also. Cf. note on ' his concubine,' ch. 8 ^'. 
 
 and Gile'ad begat., etc. Here the district is personified as fathei 
 Jephthah — a mark of late date for vv. '''•^, which can have formed 
 part of the original narrative : cf. pp. 303 f. ffi", ^ eyivvj^trev rm VdKa 
 ffi'^'', S*" KOI eVeKei' ra Takaah, seem merely to represent attempts 
 improve the connexion with v. \ and not an originally differi 
 text 'j^ n^pii. 
 
 3. the land of Tob. In 2 Sam. lo ^^ ' the men of Tob ' are m( 
 tioned-, together with the Aramaeans of Beth-Rehob and Zobah a 
 the king of Ma'acah, as allied with the 'Ammonites in their war w 
 David. Tm/Siov or Tovlitov east of Jordan, i Mace. 5 '^, the inha 
 tants of which are called Tovfietvoi or Tov^iavoi in 2 Mace. 12", 
 probably the same district. The Jerusalem Talmud makes the la 
 of Tob identical with Susitha (Shebiith, vi. i, fol. 361:), which 
 identified by Neubauer {Geographic du Talmud, p. 239) with Hipp 
 in the Decapolis, i.e. probably the modern Susiyyeh on the easte 
 side of the Sea of Galilee. This would seem to suit Sayce's propos 
 identification {Records of the Past^ v. p. 45) with Tubi mentioned 
 Thutmosi in. in a list of conquered cities a little before Astiratu, 1 
 Tell 'Astarah, this latter being twenty miles east-north-east _ 
 Susiyyeh. Conder {Heth and Moab, p. 176) and Smith {HG. p. 5! 
 find the name Tob in the modern et-Tayyibeh, south of the Yarm 
 and some eight miles a little south of due west of Irbid. Ba 
 {Geogr., p. 257, n^'^) refers to another et-Tayyibeh, some twenty-thr 
 miles east of Irbid, between Der'a and Bosr^. 
 
 worthless men. Lit. ' empty men,' as in ch. 9 *. ' Worthless ' is n 
 altogether a satisfactory rendering. Heb. rektm, as here used, do 
 not specifically imply moral obHquity ; but rather a lack of t 
 qualities which command success in the leading of a regular li 
 
11. 5- 6. 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 309 
 
 collected themselves worthless men unto Jephthah, and they 
 went out with him. 
 
 4. And after a while the children of 'Ammon fought with 
 Israel. 5. Gl. And when the children of 'Ammon fought with 
 Israel,! the elders of Gile'ad went to fetch Jephthah from the 
 land of Tob. 6. And they said to Jephthah, ' Come, and be our 
 ruler, that we may fight with the children of 'Ammon.' 7. And 
 Jephthah said to the elders of Gile'ad, ' Was it not ye who hated 
 me, and drave me out from my father's house? Why then are 
 ye come unto me now when ye are in straits?' 8. And the 
 elders of Gile'ad said unto Jephthah, ' Therefore have we now 
 returned unto thee ; so go with us, and fight with the children 
 of 'Ammon, and thou shalt be head over us, even over all the 
 inhabitants of Gile'ad.' 9. And Jephthah said unto the elders 
 of Gile'ad, ' If ye bring me back to fight with the children of 
 'Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, I shall be head 
 
 (' ne'er-do-wells '), and possibly also (as suggested by the usage of the 
 adverbial form rekam, ' with empty hands ') a lack of material goods 
 such as property and tribal status. Cf. the description of the men 
 who attached themselves to David when he was leading the life of an 
 outlaw in the cave of ' Adullam, i Sam. 22 ^. These include unsuccessful, 
 needy, and discontented men, to whom it is not necessary to suppose 
 that any moral stigma was attached. In 2 Sam. 6 ^, 2 Chr. 13 ', rlkim 
 does seem to denote the absence of specific moral qualities. In 
 post-Biblical Heb. the term comes to denote intellectual vacuity (cf. 
 the use of (cevos in Jas. 2 ^) \ but is also often used as a general term of 
 contempt (so probably 'PaKa = Np''1 in Matt. l"^). 
 went out with him. I.e. engaged in predatory forays. 
 
 5. And when, etc. Literally rendered, the Heb.' runs, ' And it came 
 to pass, when the children of 'A. fought with Israel, and the elders of 
 G., etc.,' it being idiomatic in Hebrew to continue with ' and ' after 
 
 ! the time-determination, which is really a parenthesis. Thus, if we 
 
 ■ regard the first half of the verse as a later gloss (cf. p. 304), the ' and ' 
 • connects v.^^ directly on to v.'^. Cf. the similar note on ch. 1^ ' the 
 
 ■ children of Israel enquired.' 
 
 6. ruler. Heb. ^dsin is the philol. equivalent of Ar. Mdy — pro- 
 perly one who decides judicially. On the ;z-termination, cf. Bevan, 
 ZA. xxvi. (191 2), p. 37. 
 
 H 8. Therefore, etc. The words contain a tacit admission that they 
 , were in the wrong. At all costs it was necessary to secure Jephthah's 
 
 .aid without further parley, ffi'^'' ovx ovrat, i.e. f3 N^ for |^ pi?^ 
 
 is certainly incorrect. 
 
310 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [11. lo. ii. 12. i; 
 
 over you?' 10. And the elders of Gile'ad said unto Jephthal; 
 ' Yahweh shall be hearer between us ; surely according to th 
 word so will we do.' 11. So Jephthah went with the elders c 
 Gile'ad, and the people set him over them as head and ruler ; air 
 Jephthah spake all his words before Yahweh in Mispah. 
 
 12. E And Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of R-'^ th 
 children of 'Ammon,E saying, ' What hast thou to do with me 
 that thou art come unto me to fight against my land ? ' 13. An( 
 the king of R-"^ the children of 'Ammon E said unto the messenger 
 of Jephthah, 'Israel took away my land when they came u] 
 out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto the Jabbok, and unt 
 the Jordan : now, therefore, restore "^it^ peaceably.' 14. Am 
 
 10. hearer. The expression is used in a judicial sense, as ii 
 2 Sam. 15^, Deut. i ", al. Cf. the manner in which the compact i 
 sealed, as related in w."''. 
 
 11. and Jephthah spake, etc. The reference is to the compact 
 T/.'". Jephthah was not content with a merely casual promise ; bo 
 took care that it should be solemnly ratified at the local sanctuary 
 Mispah, and therefore in Yahweh's presence as 'hearer.' 
 
 12. unto the king of the children of Amman. Upon the reason 
 which compel us to suppose that the message was addressed to Moai 
 and that, throughout z/w.'^-^', 'the children of 'Ammon' has been sub 
 stituted for ' Moab,' cf. pp. 298 f. 
 
 What hast thou to do with me ? Lit. ' What to me and tO' thee ? 
 i.e. 'What business have we with each other?' the regular idioo 
 in deprecation of interference : cf. 2 Sam. 16'°, 19^^, |§^', i Kgs. 17" 
 2 Kgs. 3>3, 2 Chr. 3521, Matt. S^a, Mark s'', John 2*. The ordinar 
 rendering ' What have I to do with thee ? ' obscures the sense. 
 
 13. Israel took away my land, etc. The excuse had some amour 
 of justification if, as we gather from Num. 21 2^, the territory in ques 
 tion, though captured by Israel from Sihon king of the Amorites 
 had previously been wrested by Sihon from Moab. 
 
 from Arnon. The modern Widy Mogib, which runs into tb 
 Dead Sea from the east, about twenty-two miles from its northern eiid 
 A description of the ravine of the Arnon is given on p. 221. 
 
 even unto the Jabbok. The modern Wady ez-Zerk4, the principa 
 tributary of the Jordan. The distance from the Arnon to the Jabbol 
 is about fifty miles ; and the breadth of the strip of territory from tb 
 Jordan to Qirbet Sir (assuming this to be the site of Ja'zer ; cf 10' 
 note) about sixteen miles. 
 
 restore it. Reading sing. an'lN (in reference to >V"1X 'my land' 
 with some MSS. of ffi, il'-, U, in place of ?§ plur. [nriN. 
 
II. IS- i6. 17. iS.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 311 
 
 Jephthah sent messengers yet again unto the king of R^"^ the 
 children of 'Amnion, 15. E and said to him, 'Thus saith 
 Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab,R'^ and the 
 land of the children of 'Amraon. 16. E But when they came 
 up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness unto 
 the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh. 17. And Israel sent 
 messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, "Prithee, let me 
 pass through thy land "; but the king of Edom hearkened not : 
 and also unto the king of Moab did he send; but he was 
 unwilling: so Israel dwelt in Kadesh. 18. Then he went 
 through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom and 
 the land of Moab, and came along the eastern side of the land 
 
 1 5. and the land of the children of Amnion. Cf. pp. 299, 302. 
 
 16. went through . . . to Kadesh. Bu., following Wellh. and 
 Holzinger, finds in this passage support for the theory of a more 
 original narrative of the wildemess-joumey, direct from the Red Sea 
 to Kadesh, which was the scene of the giving of the Law. But, how- 
 ever probable may be the theory which locates Sinai or Horeb in the 
 near neighbourhood of Kadesh (cf pp. log ff.), no support can justly 
 be drawn for this or any similar theory from the present passage ; 
 since Jephthah's sole concern was to relate the negotiations which 
 took place from Kadesh, and any allusion to earlier events of the 
 journey, e.g. the law-giving at Sinai, would have been wholly out of 
 place. La. remarks justly, ' Surtout Jephte ne peut vraiment pas 
 remonter au deluge ; les faits du Sina'i n'avaient rien k faire ici : il 
 mentionne la sortie d'Egypte par la mer Rouge et arrive aussit6t k 
 Cad^s, point de depart des negociations.' 
 
 17. And Israel . . . Edom. Cf Num. 20'* E, 'And Moses sent 
 messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom.' 
 
 Prithee . . . land. Cf. Num. 20 '^ E, ' Prithee let us pass through 
 thy land.' 
 
 but the king of Edom hearkened not. A summary of Num. 20 '^-^^ E. 
 
 and also unto the king of Moab., etc. We find no account of 
 negotiations with Moab in Num. or Deut. 
 
 Israel dwelt in Kadesh. Cf Num. 2oi»3 E, Deut. i «. 
 
 1 8. Then he went . . . Edom. Cf Num. ao^'Ji-^za, 'So Israel turned 
 aside from him. And they journeyed from Kadesh,' Num. 21^, 'by 
 way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom.' All that inter- 
 venes in Num., from 20^^ to 21 * down to 'Mount Hor,' is derived from 
 sources other than E. 
 
 compassed. I.e. ' went round,' so as to avoid encroaching upon it. 
 and came along . . . Moab. Cf Num. 21 " E, 'and they encamped 
 . . . over against Moab on the eastern side.' 
 
312 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [11. 19. 20, 
 
 of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of Arnon, and 
 did not come within the border of Moab ; for Arnon was the 
 border of Moab. 19. And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon 
 king of the Amorites, the king of IJeshbon, and Israel said to 
 him, "Prithee, let us pass through thy land unto my place.'' 
 20. But Sihon '"refused"' ^to allow'' Israel to pass through his 
 
 and they encamped, etc. Cf. Num. 21 '^ E, 'and they encamped on 
 the other side (135?D) of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that 
 Cometh forth from the border of the Amorites ; for Arnon is the 
 border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.' 
 
 19. And Israel sent, etc. Cf. Num. 21 ^'-^^E, 'And Israel sent 
 messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, saying. Let me 
 pass through thy land. ... By the king's highway will we go 
 until we shall have passed thy border'; Deut. i''-^-'^, 'And I sent 
 messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth unto Sihon king of 
 Heshbon with words of peace, saying. Let me pass through thy land: 
 by the highway only will I go ; I will neither turn aside to the right 
 hand nor to the left.' 
 
 Heshbon. The modern Hesban, sixteen miles east of Jordan and 
 twenty-four miles north of the Arnon. 
 
 20. But Sihon refused, etc. Reading 'jl "ibj; ^K"lb" nn 'D [NB)! ; 
 cf. Num. 2o2ii^3J3 "ibV ^X'i'B'; ihj DHN [KD^I. ffi'' cai o4k ^fleXijire 
 210)1/ Tov 'l<rparjX SieXdelv ktX, (S'^ koI ovk rf6i\r](Tiv hiikQeiv tov l(rpar)\ 
 ktX, B^ \J\;£dJ\ i^SJ? ^OjjwjuCD ]^. ]]o, support ISDM for 
 H VDKH i6^ (lND = ou eiX^tv in Gen. 37^5, 398^ 48 is, Num. 20^1, 22", 
 2 Sam. 13^, I Kgs. 20^% Isa. i ^, Hos. 11 ^, and frequently in Jer.), hut 
 clearly did not read flR ' to allow,' as above adopted, since this would 
 certainly have been represented in translation by Boivai ; cf 
 Num. 20 ^^ Kol OVK rjBe\rj(rev ESm^ dovvat ra 'l(rpar]\ irapekSeiv ktK. 
 
 Num. 21^3 reads ''h'Zi^ "ibj? 'B>»"nN 'd [nrN^l 'And Sihon did not 
 allow Israel to pass through his border'; and it is possible that our 
 author, having this text before him, and intending to substitute 
 riR 1X10)1 for |ri3 i<h\, may have accidentally omitted nn ; since 
 
 the construction "13V '5J''' OK t^D^I 'refused Israel to pass' is quite 
 unparalleled, and cannot have been intentionally written ([XD is regu- 
 larly followed by the Infinitive). This hypothesis explains the 
 rendering of ffi'^'-, S^ and also the corruption of ISO''! first 
 into |px*1 and then into [''ONn xisi in f§. An alternative hypothesis 
 
11. 21.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 313 
 
 border, and Sihon gathered together all his people, and they 
 pitched in Jahas; and he fought with Israel. 21. And Yahweh 
 the God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of 
 
 is to suppose that the ns before PNIE" is a corruption of nn, which 
 was already existent in the Heb. MS used by ffi. % as it stands, is 
 rendered by R.V. 'But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass, etc' ; but the 
 Heb. construction is impossible. Had the writer wished to use the 
 verb I'DSn in this connexion he would have written some such 
 sentence as ')i) ibV '"6 [nj iib) 'B"3 'D pONH i6) 'But Sihon 
 did not trust in Israel, nor suffer them to pass, etc' Deut. 2 ^, 
 n 'li'^^yn jiaB'n •^i'D 'D nas N^I ' But Sihon king of Heshbon was 
 not willing to let us pass by him.' 
 
 and Sihon gathered . . . Israel. Cf. Num. 2 1 ^^ E, ' and Sihon 
 gathered together all his people, and went out against Israel to the 
 wilderness, and came to Jahas, and fought with Israel'; Deut. 2^2 
 ' and Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at 
 Jahas.' 
 
 in Jahas. Heb. nvn*3 'in Jihsah,' with so-called n locative 
 ending. So Jer. 48 2i,Tchr. 6'*, W'^ ; cf. Num. 21^3, Deut. 22^ 
 (where, however, the H loc. may embody the sense oi direction towards., 
 after a verb of motion — 'to Jahas'). We find the form nSHi J^h^sah, 
 Josh. 13 '*. Elsewhere the form is Jdhas ; Isa. 15*, Jer. 48 ^, Moabite 
 Stone, 11. 19, 20. The site is unidentified. Our narrative suggests 
 that the city must have lain on the south-east border of Sihon's 
 territory, north of the upper reaches of the Amon, and this view is 
 supported by its mention in i Chr. 6 '* as a Levitical city in Re'uben 
 next before Kedemoth : cf. the reference in Deut. 2 ^^ to the wilderness 
 of Kedemoth {i.e. 'eastern regions') as the district outside Sihon's 
 territory to the east from which Israel sent an embassy to him. 
 Mesha' king of Moab says {Moabite Stone, loc. cit.), 'And the king 
 of Israel had built Jahas, and abode in it, while he fought against me. 
 But Chemosh drave him out from before me ; and I took of Moab 
 two hundred men, even all its chiefs, and I brought them up against 
 Jahas, and took it, to add it unto Dibon.' This suggests proximity 
 to Dibon (the modern Dibin), to the east of which the site of Jahas 
 is probably to be sought. Eusebius states {OS. 264 ^*) that the site 
 was shown in his day between Medeba and Dibon (if this is intended 
 by ArjPovs) ; but this would place it too far to the west, well into the 
 interior of Sihon's territory. 
 
 21. And Yahweh . . . sjnote them. Cf Deut. 2 2', 'And Yahweh 
 our God gave him up before us, and we smote him and his sons and 
 all his people.' Num. 21^*=- E has simply 'and Israel smote him at 
 the edge of the sword.' 
 
314 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [11. 22. 23. 2, 
 
 Israel, and they smote them : so Israel possessed all the land ( 
 the Amorites, who dwelt in that land. 22. And they possesse 
 all the border of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto th 
 Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto the Jordan. 23. S 
 now, Yahweh the God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorite 
 from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess them 
 24. Those that Chemosh thy god dispossessethn — wilt thoa nc 
 
 so Israel possessed, etc. Cf. Num. 21 ^^ E, 'and Israel dwelt in a 
 the cities of the Amorites.' 
 
 22. And they possessed, etc. Cf. Num. 21^'' E, 'and possessed h: 
 land from Arnon unto Jabbok, unto the children of 'Ammon; fc 
 rja'zerT is the border of the children of 'Ammon' (on the reading, c 
 note on 10'^). In Deut. 2 ^'^■^'' the conquered territory is defined a 
 extending from 'Aro'er on the edge of the Wady Arnon as far a 
 Gile'ad, i.e. the northern half of Gile'ad, north of the Jabbok (on th 
 variations in the use of the term ' Gile'ad,' cf. note on 10") ; and th 
 fact is carefully noted that no encroachment was made on th 
 territory of 'Ammon, this latter being defined as 'all the side of th 
 Wady Jabbok and the cities of the hill country' : cf Josh. 12^ R' 
 Here the reference must be to the upper course of the Jabbol 
 which, starting eastwards in the neighbourhood of Hirbet Sir (Ja'zei 
 takes a northward and then north-westward curve before turning du 
 westward, and thus seems in this passage to be regarded as th 
 (ideal) boundary between Israel and 'Ammon.* 
 
 23. and shouldest thou, etc. The italics, here and in w.^*, represei 
 great emphasis in the original. 
 
 possess them. I.e., of course, ' possess their territory.' So in z/.*. 
 
 24. those that Chemosh, etc. The speaker assumes just as real a: 
 existence for Chemosh as for Yahweh. He is no monotheist in th 
 proper sense of the term, i.e. he does not hold the doctrine tha 
 Yahweh is the one and only God of the whole earth, and that th 
 existence of other gods is a delusion. Yahweh is for him, doubtlesi 
 the sole object of Israel's allegiance and worship; but the holding c 
 
 * In Num. 21 Ml) it is doubtful whether ' unto Jabbolj ' defines the norther 
 limit of the territory merely ; or, taking a comprehensive survey of the who! 
 course of the w4dy, makes the reference to define the northern and easter 
 borders. On the latter hypothesis, 'unto the children of 'Ammon' isa/Krife 
 definition of this north-east border-line in so far as the upper part of the Jabbol 
 wSdy is identical with the border of 'Ammon. The fact, however, that in on 
 passage in Judg. ' unto Jabbolt ' clearly defines the northern limit of Sihorf 
 territory, 'from the wilderness' explaining the eastern limit, makes it probabi 
 that the expression is used in the same way in Num. , the statement meaning- 
 the strip of territory as defined from south to north, of which the easter 
 limit is the land of 'Ammon, marching with Sihon's territory along a lin 
 which runs approximately north and south through Ja'zer. Cf. Gray, ICi 
 ad loc. 
 
11- 24-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 315 
 
 possess them ? so, all that Yahweh our God hath dispossessed 
 from before us— them will we possess. 25. Now, then, art 
 
 this faith (monolatry) does not hinder him from believing that 
 Chemosh really stands in the same kind of relation to Moab as 
 Yahweh does to his own nation ; i.e. he thinks of Yahweh as the 
 national God of Israel, not as the God of the whole earth. His 
 religious belief thus differs from that of the eighth-century prophets 
 and their successors, who proclaim a doctrine of virtual monotheism — 
 i.e. a doctrine which, if not as yet in all respects worked out to its 
 logical conclusion, yet undoubtedly contains all the elements of a full 
 behef in the existence of one God only. Further passages in the O.T. 
 which embody the more primitive conception are noticed and dis- 
 cussed in the editor's Outlines of O. T. Theology, pp. 34 ff. 
 
 Chemosh. Cf Introd. to the narrative, p. 299. Chemosh is always 
 mentioned elsewhere in the O.T. as the god of the Moabites ; 
 Num. 21^9, I Kgs. 11^-33, 2 Kgs. 2313, Jer. 48'"-4st- In Num. 2i29, 
 Jer. 48''^ Moab is called 'the people of Chemosh.' In the inscription 
 of the Moabite Stone Mesha' king of Moab ascribes the oppression of 
 Moab by Israel to the fact that ' Chemosh was angry with his land ' 
 (1. 5) ; and the turn in Moab's fortunes which is marked by successes 
 against Israel is regarded as due to the renewal of the favour of the 
 god (11. 8 f , 33), who is pictured as directing Mesha''s plan of cam- 
 paign: 'And Chemosh said unto me, Go, take Nebo against Israel' 
 (1. 14); 'Chemosh said unto me, Go down, fight against Horonen' 
 (1. 32). Chemosh is represented as the leader in battle, 'Chemosh 
 drave him (the king of Israel) out (of Jahas) from before me' (1. 19); 
 the population of the city of 'Ataroth is utterly devoted to him as a 
 ' gazing-stock ' or spectacle over which he may gloat with satisfaction 
 (IV"l,* 1. 12); and the altar-hearth of the divine Patron J of the city 
 is dragged before him at Keriyyoth as a trophy (11. 12 f). In this 
 mode of thought, and the phraseology in which it finds expression, 
 we cannot fail to trace close resemblance to the ideas which were 
 current in Israel in early times as to Yahweh's relationship to His 
 people. 
 
 Two kings of Moab, as known to us, bear names which are honorific 
 to Chemosh — Chemoshkan,§ i.e. '(He whom) Chemosh has estab- 
 lished' (cf -in'^S -lITja' p^'in'' similar forms in honour of Yahweh), 
 
 * Probably to be vocalized fl'T a contracted form from n^NT from the 
 verb n^<^. Cf. Hal^vy, Revue Simitique, xiv. (1906), pp. 180 f. ; Grimme, 
 ZDMG. Ixi. (1907), pp. 81 ff. 
 
 X Cf. note on ' Dodo,' ch. 10 '. 
 
 § The second element in the name is doubtful, the letters being nearly illegible. 
 The reading adopted is that of Lidsbarski, as the result of a fresh examination 
 of the stone (cf. Efhemeris fur Semit. Epigr. i. pp. 3 f.). The old reading, 
 Chemoshmelekh, seems to be excluded by the fact that there is scarcely room 
 for more than two consonants. Clermont-Ganneau has suggested Chemoshgad. 
 
3i6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [11. 25. 26 
 
 thou at all better than Balak the son of Sippor, king of Moab 
 Did he contend at all with Israel, or did he fight at all agains 
 them? 26. When Israel dwelt in I€eshbon and its dependencies 
 and in 'Arro'e^r and its dependencies, and in all the citiei 
 
 the father of Mesha' {Moabite Stone, 1. i), and Kammusunadbi, the 
 Assyr. form of Chemoshnadab, i.e. probably ' Chemosh is liberal ei 
 princely' (cf. anj'in*, DlJ^aN), who is mentioned by Sennacherib as 
 paying tribute in B.C. 701 {KB. ii. p. 90). The Bab. form (ilu) Ka-mu- 
 su-§ar-usur '(god) Chemosh protect the king' occurs in a business- 
 document of the sixth year of Cambyses (quoted in KA T.^ p. 472). Two 
 seals of doubtful date and genuineness bear respectively the legends 
 pnvtyoa^ '(belonging) to Chemoshsedek,' '•n*6J'D3^ '(belonging) to 
 Chemoshy^i,' in Phoenician characters (cf Lidsbarski, EpkemerisfUr 
 Semit. Epigr. i. pp. 136 ff); and each has a representation of the 
 winged solar-disk, possibly, as Baethgen suggests {Beitrdge, p. 14), 
 connecting Chemosh with the sun. 
 
 dispossesseth. Reading B''"i''i» with Mo. in place of |^ ^ty'li* 
 R. V. ' giveth thee to possess.' The correction seems to be demanded 
 by the parallel clause in the latter half of the verse, and the final 3 
 may very probably have arisen through dittography from the initial 
 letter of B'1D3. On the verb hdris, meaning both 'to cause to possess' 
 and 'to dispossess,' cf note on i'^. 
 
 25. Balak the son of Sippor. The story of Balak and Balaam, 
 Num. 22^-24^^, is a composite narrative which raises problems of 
 more than ordinary difficulty. Most scholars hold that the sources 
 J and E are here combined : but the characteristics of J are not so 
 well marked as those of E, and the existence of the former source has 
 thus been questioned ; whilst the question of the stages by which the 
 narrative attained its present form affords scope for considerable 
 difference of opinion. Cf Gray's full discussion in ICC. pp. 307 ff. 
 
 26. dependencies. Lit. ' daughters.' Cf ch. 1 2^. The expression is 
 commonly characteristic of J. 
 
 ' Aro'er. Vocalizing, as normally, "lyhV in place of the anomalous 
 I'DIJJ of M.- The city is the modern 'Ari'ir: cf note p. 221. It is 
 commonly mentioned as situated 'on the edge (lip) of the Wady 
 Arnon,' and as the southernmost limit of the territory conquered by 
 Israel from Sihon. 
 
 ffi", in place of 'in 'Aro'er' reads eV 'laftp, and in place of 'by the 
 side of Arnon,' ffii'^'- reads Trapa rov 'lopSaj/Tjr, IJ 'juxta Jordanem'; and 
 these readings are adopted by Mo. {SBOT., followed by La., Cooke) 
 on the ground that ' Aroer and the Arnon come from w" (cf. 
 Num. 21'^*'); while Jaazer2.uA. the Jordan, which are not suggested 
 by anything in the context, are original.' More probably, as Bu. 
 
11. 47. 29-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 317 
 
 which are by the side of ArnoniR"" three hundred years ;E why, 
 pray, didst hhou^ not recover '"them'' at that time? 27. /, there- 
 fore, have not sinned against f/iee ; but tkou doest me wrong in 
 fighting against me. Let Yahweh, who is Judge this day, judge 
 between the children of Israel and the children of R^^ 'Ammon.' 
 28. E Howbeit, the king of R-"^ the children of 'Ammon 
 E hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent 
 unto him. 
 
 29. J And the spirit of Yahweh came upon Jephthah, and he 
 
 (Cotnm.) suggests, they represent a later attempt to adapt the argu- 
 ment to Israel's relations with 'Amnion, instead of (as was originally 
 intended; of. pp. 298 ff.) with Moab. On Ja'zer, as marking the 
 boundary between the territories of Israel and'Ammon, cf. notes on 
 10 1', 1 1 22. 
 
 three hundred years. On the source of this figure, cf. p. 304. 
 
 why., pray. Lit. ' and why.' On the idiomatic use of 1 copulative 
 to give a forcible and sarcastic turn to a question, cf. NHTK. on 
 I Kgs. 2 22, and note on ch. 6 ''. 
 
 didst thou not recover thein. Vocalizing DnP-Sn with ffi" ippvao) 
 avTovs, Stu., Mo., in place of JH DRP-Vn (plural verb with object 
 unexpressed). The sing, verb is in agreement with the context, the 
 subject being, not the particular king of Moab addressed, but the 
 land of Moab personified as an individual. Cf. v.^% where '/' clearly 
 refers, not to Jephthah, but to Israel (cf. w.'°). Strictly speaking, we 
 should expect a fem. suff. in reference to the ' cities ' preceding ; but 
 such a use of masc. suff. for fem. is not uncommon: cf. G-K. § 135(7. 
 
 27. /, therefore, etc. For the form and thought of the sentence, 
 cf. I Sam. 24 '2b 'And I have not sinned against thee, but thou art 
 hunting my life to take it.' 
 
 who is Judge this day. Connecting tDfi'tS'n closely with Di*n, 
 as the order of words seems to demand. So Mo. R. V., in agree- 
 ment with accents (which connect DBtJTI more closely with the pre- 
 ceding nini than with the following DVri), renders 'The Lord, the 
 Judge, be judge this day,' making DVn to refer to the verb DBB'' 
 
 at the commencement of the sentence. For the invocation of Yahweh 
 as arbiter between two parties, cf Gen. 16^ J, i Sam. 24 '2, Jg is. 
 
 29. And the spirit of Yahweh, etc. Cf ch. 3 '" note. 
 
 and he passed, etc. The passage is obscure ; but not so obscure as 
 it appears to those scholars who fail to recognize the combination of two 
 sources in the narrative (cf the remarks of Mo., and the paraphrase 
 of them given by Cooke). Looking at the opening statement of the 
 verse, ' And the spirit of Yahweh came upon Jephthah,' and compar- 
 ing it with the connexion in which the identical phrase (of ' Othniel) 
 
3i8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [li. n 
 
 passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and he passed over rto 
 Mizpeh of Gile ad,and from Mizpeh of Gile'ad he passed over<to' 
 
 stands in 3 '", and the similar phrase (of Gide'on) in 6 ^*, we may justl 
 infer that what follows refers to Jephthah's efforts to raise an army t 
 meet the 'Ammonites : nor is this inference invalidated by the fact thai 
 according to 10^', an army had already been mustered (Mo., Cooke] 
 since, as we have seen, this verse belongs to a different narrative 
 Even ii"% which, according to our analysis, belongs to the sam 
 source as 1 1 2', cannot be cited to the contrary (as by Mo.), sino 
 'the people' of Gile' ad who made Jephthah their head can hardl' 
 have been already a fully organized army. They doubtless formei 
 some part of the material for such an army ; but the whole point 
 the narrative 1 1 '"" is that the Gile'adites resorted to Jephthah becausi 
 they possessed no one of sufficient initiative not only to lead but alsi 
 to raise an army at all adequate to meet the aggressor. Observin; 
 further that the closing statement of z/.^^ (picked up and expanded ii 
 ijWa. aftgj- thg interposition of a portion of the other source, »»."•'' 
 speaks of Jephthah's advance to give battle to the 'Ammonites, it ma) 
 be claimed that our inference that the middle part of the verse refers 
 to the mustering of the army becomes a certainty. 
 
 Granted, however, that this is the case, it still appears most im- 
 probable that the narrative stands in its original form. The phrase 
 '31 iy?3 nx "inyi can only be intended to mean 'and he passeci 
 through Gilead, etc' ; but in this sense the construction ("laj? followed 
 by the Accusative) is almost, if not quite, without parallel* (the 
 regular construction is 3 "13J/). As the text stands, 'Gile' ad' is here, 
 as elsewhere in the narrative, the region south of the Jabbok (cf. 10" 
 note), while ' Manasseh ' most probably denotes the region to the 
 north of the wady, i.e. East Manasseh. We cannot be sure thai 
 clans from West Manasseh had by this time crossed the Jordan and 
 made their settlement in the east (they had not done so in the time 
 of Deborah ; cf. note on ' Machir,' ch. 5 1^) ; though this is a con- 
 sideration which need not have weighed with a narrator who may 
 have assumed that what was true of his own age was also true of an 
 earlier period. Still, taking note of Jephthah's claim in 12^10 have 
 summoned Ephraim to his assistance without success (a statement 
 which seems to presuppose an earlier reference in the narrative from 
 
 * Possible instances, e.g. Gen. 3282 ^N12B ON n3V nCXS. Josh. 16 « 
 [nW njSn] iniK [isnan] -layi, are probaWy to be understood in the sense 
 pass by (of. with the Accus., Judg. 326, 2 Kgs. 6»), rather than /«« through. In 
 any case, these passages deal with city-sites, not with widely extended iistvicti 
 like Gilead and Manasseh. Notice the carefully marked contrast in Ni«n. 
 20 ", 21 22 between 3 "13V fi^ss through or traverse a land, fields, vineyards, and 
 ^3V with Accus. pass over or cross the border of a land regarded as a definitely 
 marked line. 
 
11. 3I-] THE BOOK OK JUDGES 319 
 
 to the children of 'Ammon. 30. E And Jephthah vowed a vow 
 to Yahweh and said, ' If thou wilt indeed give R^^ the children 
 of 'Ammon E into my hand, 31. then the person that cometh 
 forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in 
 peace from R'^ the children of 'Ammon, E shall belong to 
 Yahweh, and I will offer him up as a burnt offering.' 
 
 which it is drawn), it is not unlikely (as Holzinger and Bu. suggest) that 
 ' Ephraim ' may originally have stood in the present passage in place 
 of ' Gile'ad ' ; in which case ' Manasseh ' will refer to West and not to 
 East Manasseh. Thus (reading PS for HX three times after "l^yi) the 
 passage may have run 'and he crossed over (the Jordan) to Ephraim 
 and to Manasseh, and he crossed over (again) to Mispeh of Gile'ad.' 
 The double ^3J?M, if referring to his crossing and re-crossing the 
 Jordan (cf. 6^^;, is thus not redundant. 
 
 Even so, the passage must have been abbreviated from its original 
 form, as 12^ certainly presupposes prior mention of the fact that the 
 appeal to Ephraim was fruitless. Probably the narrative was cut 
 down and mutilated when the two sources J and E were pieced to- 
 gether ; and this, possibly, in view of the fact that the narrative E in 
 10'' pictures the Israelite army as already mustered and encamped 
 at Mispah. Such a conclusion at any rate may suffice to account for 
 the obscurity of the verse, which the view that it ' is a somewhat 
 unskilful attempt to fasten the new cloth, v. '2-^*, into the old garment ' 
 (Mo.), or (otherwise expressed) that 'an editorial hand has attempted 
 to pick up the thread of the narrative after the long interpolation, 
 w. '^'^ ' (Cooke) certainly does not do. 
 
 and he passed (Tver to Mispeh, etc. Reading PX for J§ nx, as seems 
 to be demanded by the context. Whatever view be taken as to the 
 precise form of the description of Jephthah's earlier movements 
 (cf. note preceding), we can in the present statement scarcely find 
 anything else than the account of his return to Mispeh after raising 
 his army, and immediately prior to his attack upon the foe. The 
 forms Mispeh, Mispah appear to be used interchangeably with 
 reference both to this locality and to others of the same name. 
 
 to the children of 'Amman. Inserting !){< before I1DJ? '33 with 
 twelve MSS. of|g. 
 
 31. then the person that cometh forth., etc. Lit. 'the corner-forth 
 that cometh forth' — a phrase which implies that from the first a 
 human sacrifice is contemplated. Ros., Stu., and others quote the 
 remarkable parallel from Servius on Aeneid, iii. 331 : 'Idomeneus de 
 semine DeucaHonis natus, Cretensium rex, cum post eversam Tro- 
 jam reverteretur, in tempestate devovit diis sacrificaturum se de re, 
 quae primum occurrisset. Contigit autem, ut filius ejus primus 
 
320 ■ THE BOOK OP JUDGES [11. 3; 
 
 32. R^"^ So Jephthah passed over unto the children of 'Ammoi 
 J to fight against them, and Yahweh gave them into his hand 
 33. And he smote them E? from'Aro'er until thou comest t' 
 
 occurreret : quem cum, ut alii dicunt, immolasset, ut alii, immolar 
 voluisset, et post orta esset pestilentia, a civibus pulsus est regno 
 Cheyne {EB. 2362) cites an Arabian tradition mentioned by Lyal 
 {Ancient Arabian Poetry, Introd. p. xxxviii) : 'Al-Mundhir ha( 
 made a vow that on a certain day in each year he vifould sacrifice thi 
 first person he saw : 'Abid [a poet] came in sight on the unluck; 
 day, and was accordingly killed, and the altar smeared with hi: 
 blood.' 
 
 The narrator, though regarding the sequel of the vow — the fac 
 that the victim should prove to be the hero's only child — as a terribl 
 tragedy, yet does not seem to hold that such a vow is contrary to tb 
 spirit of Yahweh's religion. It is an extraordinary sacrifice, offeree 
 in a great emergency as a supreme bid for the active co-operation 
 the deity. Cf the Moabite king's sacrifice of his firstborn son as : 
 last resort (2 Kgs. 3 ^''■^') — a costly sacrifice which is supposed by th( 
 narrator to have been effectual in arousing the god Chemosh, anc 
 thus enabling the Moabites to expel the invaders from their land.^ 
 On the further evidence for the occurrence of human sacrifice among 
 the Israelites, c£ Additional note, p. 329. 
 
 33. from 'Arder. Besides the frequently mentioned city on the 
 edge of the Wady Arnon (cf z/.^^ note\ there was, according to Josh, 
 13 ^* P, another city named ' Aro'er to the east of Rabbath-' Ammon, i.e. 
 in'Ammonite territory. Ourignorance as to the source of the preseni 
 statement forbids our making a decision as to which 'Aro'er is here 
 referred to. If (as we conjecturally suppose) the source is E, then 
 the reference will be to 'Aro'er on the Arnon. If, on the other hand, 
 the passage is an extract from J, the allusion probably is to the'Aro'ei 
 of Josh. 132^. 
 
 Minnith. The site is unknown. Eusebius (05. 280**) identifiej 
 it with a village called yVaaviB, four Roman miles from Heshbon, or 
 the road to Philadelphia ; a locality which, according to Buhl (Geogr. 
 p. 266), would suit the modern ruins which bear the name Qesrum, 
 Such a position, however, appears unsuitable either to the Moabite (E] 
 or the 'Ammonite (J) narrative. 'Unto Minnith' marks the extreme 
 limit within which the twenty cities smitten must be pictured as lying ; 
 and clearly these can hardly have been within the invaded territory, 
 i.e. Israelite cities which had previously been captured and occupied 
 by the foe. Indeed, upon either view of the site of 'Aro'er, such an 
 assumption is impossible, since 'Aro'er marks the starting-point oi 
 ■the conquest, which must be presumed to have extended from 
 
 * On this explanation of the somewhat obscure passage in 2 Kgs. 3", 'And 
 there came great wrath, etc.,' cf. NHTK. ad loc. 
 
11. 34- 35-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 321 
 
 Minnith, even twenty cities,J as far as Abel-ceramim, with a very 
 great slaughter. R^" So the children of 'Ammon were subdued 
 before the children of Israel. 
 
 34. E And Jephthah came to Mispah unto his house ; and 
 behold his daughter coming forth to meet him with timbrels and 
 with dances : and she was absolutely an only child ; he had not 
 beside TherT son or daughter. 35. And when he saw her, he 
 rent his garments, and said, ' Alas, my daughter ! thou hast 
 indeed brought me low, and thou art become the supreme cause 
 
 'Aro'er on the Arnon southward into Moabite territory (if the state- 
 ment comes from E), or from 'Aro'er to the east of Rabbath-' Ammon 
 presumably further eastward (if it comes from J). 
 
 Abel-ceramim. The name means ' meadow of vineyards ' ; and 
 Eusebius {OS. 225 ^) informs us that in his day there was a village 
 named Abel with productive vin*yards (xaifii; aiiweXocpopos) six miles 
 from Philadelphia (Rabbath-' Ammon) — though in what direction he 
 does not state. If we may assume that this is a correct identification, 
 the statement ' as far as Abel-ceramim ' is naturally to be assigned 
 to J. 
 
 34. and behold his daughter, etc. So the Israelite women celebrate 
 the triumph of their people in Ex. 1 5 2" *• E (exactly as here, ' with 
 timbrels and with dances'), i Sam. iS"'-, Ps. 68 '^ (S '^)- 
 
 she was absolutely an only child. The Heb. is extraordinarily 
 emphatic — lit. ' and she only was an only child.' R. V., by omitting 
 to render the Heb. pi, misses this emphasis altogether. 
 
 beside her. Reading njSD with fem. suflSx, in place of the erroneous 
 
 13Sp 'beside him' of |^. So ffi^\ S^ IL, S"". 
 
 35. brought me low. Lit. 'bowed me down.' The expression is 
 very forcible. 
 
 the supreme cause of my trouble. Heb. 'ibys. Lit. 'as (in the 
 
 .character of) my troublers,' the idiomatic 3 essentiae (cf BDB. sub 
 3 I. 7) followed by the plural denoting intensity (the so-called //ara/zj 
 excellentiae). R. V. ' thou art one of them that trouble me ' misses the 
 force of the expression altogether, supposing it to mean ' among my 
 troublers.' We find exactly the same idiom in Ps. 54 * (?§ "), ' The Lord 
 is the great supporter oi my soVlV (Heb. i3dD3, lit. 'in the character 
 
 of the supporters'); Ps. 118^, 'Yahwehis for me my great helper' 
 (Heb. '^fV3 lit- 'in the character of my helpers'). In both these 
 
 passages (as in our passage) the feeble and erroneous rendering of 
 R.V. implies that Yahweh is only one among many helpers ! 
 
 The Heb. verb 'dkhar., for which the only general reading is 'to 
 trouble,' denotes, as its occurrences prove, the causing of poignant 
 
 X 
 
322 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [11. 
 
 of my trouble; seeing that / have opened my mouth ui 
 Yahweh, and cannot go back.' 36. And she said unto hi 
 ' My father, thou hast opened thy mouth unto Yahweh ; do 
 
 distress or anxiety. In New Heb. it has the meaning 'to m; 
 turbid' ; in Ar. 'akira 'to be turbid.' 
 
 The renderings of Jephthah's words in (S" rapaxfj irapa^as /if, 
 <TV rjs iv Ta Tapax<? I^ov, &'' •_> AjOGl t-iAj |0 . 1 1 5 "^ kkCO i.£LkkXG 
 ■ . g^ fi ....po Vn ] 1 Vn n . 'Thou hast utterly overthrown me, a 
 thou art to-day one of my overthrowers,' U 'decepisti me, et ij 
 decepta es,' suggest a Heb. original with the same verb in ea 
 clause. This may have been "I3J? ; though in the thirteen other occ 
 rences of this root none of these Versions represent it by the vei 
 which they use in this passage, ffi'-'s rendering of 'jn^ian ini 
 ipiireirobo(TTaTr]Kas p.01 (so ffi* in corrupt form, Si*^ . 1 N AklO ]pQ 
 3L ' impedisti me ') certainly suggests ijmSV ; cf. the rendering 
 "1315? by c'/MroSocTTaT-i/y in I Chr. 2'. If, however, the first clat 
 had originally run *3n")3I> (13J?), or, as suggested by Houb., Gr 
 '3m3yn "iD^n (no occurrence of Hiph'il elsewhere), the foUowi 
 
 clause would be tautological, and we should suspect the exii 
 ence of a doublet. The rendering of ''■I3J?3 IT'TI DKl given by t 
 85'^'', &\ 3L group, els o-KfflXoK iyevov iv o(^6aKfi.o'i.s jiov points 
 ''J^ya n"n B'PID^, B'PID (rendered by o-kH'Xov Ex. 10^, Deut. 7 
 
 Judg. S^') being apparently taken by the translator in the sen 
 of a iAorn or sharp-pointed instrument (cf. its use in Job 40' 
 More probably the Heb. was intended to mean ' Thou art becor 
 a snare in my sight,' i.e. an almost irresistible temptation to brei 
 the vow made to Yahweh, the existence of which he makes knoi 
 to her in the next clause. 
 
 2E, 'A., 2., e. support the text of J§, from which there is no goi 
 reason to depart. 
 
 / have opened my mouth. The Heb. verb pdsa 'to open' 
 
 similarly used (with subj. TlSii' ' which my lips uttered''') of makii 
 
 vows in Ps. 66 '*. 
 
 36. do to me, etc. Since the father has not actually ;«««/20««(/ 1 
 vow to the daughter, Bu. (i?5. p. 126) supposes that the narrati 
 must have undergone abbreviation, the daughter's inquiry as to tl 
 cause of her father's distress, and his explanation of it, having fall 
 out. But Mo. is assuredly correct when he remarks, ' To me it seen 
 on the contrary, much more in accord with the native art of the stor 
 teller that he lets the situation and a woman's quick presentime 
 suffice, without this prosaic explanation.' 
 
11. 37-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 323 
 
 me according to that which hath gone forth from thy mouth, 
 forasmuch as Yahweh hath wrought for thee full vengeance upon 
 thine enemies, R^^ even upon the children of 'Ammon.' 
 37. E And she said unto her father, ' Let this thing be done for 
 me : let me alone two months, that I may go, Tand wander free^ 
 upon the mountains, and weep over my maidenhood — I and my 
 
 that which hath gone forth, etc. The same expression is used of a 
 vow in Num. 30 ^ (f^ '). 
 
 full vengeance. Heb. ' vengeances ' — another case of the intensive 
 plural. Cf., for other instances, G-K. § 124^. 
 
 37. and wander free. Reading irnil with RSm., Kit., Cooke. Cf. 
 
 the use of the verb rAdh in Jer. 2'' 'we have wandered at large' ; and 
 Ar. rAda ' to go to and fro.' * 1§ 'riTl'l ' that I may go and go down 
 
 upon the mountains' is obviously impossible, it being a forced expedient 
 to follow Kimchi, who explains that ' Mispah, where Jephthah's house 
 was, was higher than the surrounding mountains ; or else the verb is 
 used with reference to the valley which lay between Mispah and the 
 mountains.' I "S 'circumeam,' S'' ^llCTl"| 'walk about,' € TiJjnNI 
 ' and wander ' (lit. ' extend myself) suggest our emendation TlTll ; 
 but may be simply paraphrasing TllT'l in order to obtain the sense 
 demanded by the context. 
 
 The view that ^DTT'I is out of place, and should properly stand at 
 the end of the verse, either as a gloss (Doom.) or a genuine part of 
 the text (Bu.), in the sense ' and then I will descend ' — i.e. return from 
 the mountains to offer myself as a willing victim — has nothing to com- 
 mend it. If it is unnatural to speak of ' descending ' from Mispah to 
 the mountains, the converse is equally unnatural ; since Mispah, as its 
 name implies (10'' note), must have stood on a prominent height. 
 
 and weep over my maidejthood. Stanley {Jewish Church, i. Lect. xvi.) 
 aptly compares the lament of Antigone (Sophocles, Ant. 890), of which 
 
 * La. emends TlTiril, the Hiph'il of the same verb in a similar sense 
 (Internal Hiph'n as in Ps. 55^). This form should surely be vocalized Tl'Tini 
 
 and not 'pmni^ as given by La. ; V'j? forms without separating vowel being 
 
 rare(cf. G-K. §72,4.). 
 
 J Kimchi actually brings forward the suggestion that TlTT'l may be explained 
 froTn the verb riidh whicli we have adopted in our emendation, and quotes 
 Ps. 55* i° which the Internal Hiph'il occurs TT'B'D T'TK, ' I am restless (or toss 
 to and fro) in my murmuring.' He then rejects this in favour of the explanation 
 noticed above. Rashi is perplexed by the verb ' go down,' and explains that it is 
 'a term denoting lamentation, an example of which is seen in the passage 
 (Isa. 15 3) ' on their housetops and in their broad places every one lamenteth, 
 running down (11* lit. "going down ") in weeping.' 
 
324 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [11, 3 
 
 companions.' 38. And he said, ' Go,' So he sent her away tw 
 months, and she went — she and her companions, and wept ov( 
 her maidenhood upon the mountains. 39, And at the end i 
 two months she returned unto her father, and he did to her thi 
 which he had vowed, she having never known a man. And 
 
 the maiden's grief is 'the exact anticipation . . . sharpened by tl: 
 peculiar horror of the Hebrew women at a childless death^descendin 
 with no bridal festivity, with no nuptial torches, to the dark chambei 
 of the grave ' : — 
 
 S) Tv^^os, S) vvfiCJ)€'ioVi S) KaTaa-KaffyTjs 
 o'iKr]<ns dcl<ppovpos, oi nopevop,ai . . . 
 Koi vvv ayet /xe fita ■)(epa)v ovTo) Xaj3a)v 
 oKeKTpov^ dvvpevaiov, oure Tov ydpov 
 p-epos Xa^oiia-av, ovre iraibeiov rpo0^ff. 
 
 my companions. K'r^ TliVl has the support of the analogous fori 
 n'riiyn in v?^. For the Kt. form ^ri'S)"] cf »n'5Jn Cant, i "■'*, 2 2'»' 
 
 39. and he did to her, etc. Thus the narrator draws a veil over th 
 final tragedy ; but there can be no doubt that he intends to impl 
 that the sacrifice was carried out. On the various explanations whic 
 have been offered in order to obviate this conclusion, cf, the very fu 
 note given by Mo., pp. 304 f. The earliest Jewish interpreters [e.g 
 ST, Josephus) and the Christian Fathers explained the passage in it 
 natural sense ; and it seems not to have been till the Middle Age 
 that another solution was sought. Thus Kimchi explains tha 
 Jephthah built a house for his daughter, in which she was kept i 
 isolation from the world, and so in perpetual virginity ; and tha 
 annually the daughters of Israel went to visit her and bewail her fati 
 This explanation, under differently modified forms, gained acceptanc 
 after Kimchi both among Jews and Christians. But the literal intei 
 pretation was never without its supporters, and is now the gerierall 
 accepted view. 
 
 she having never known, etc. A circumstantial clause, of the forr 
 noted in Driver, Tenses, § 160. The emphasis laid on the virginity ( 
 the sacrificed maiden is perhaps bound up with the raythologici 
 motive which very possibly lies at the bottom of the yearly festiva 
 Cf. Additional note, p. 332. 
 
 and it became a custom. Reading ph^ 'URI with La. The subjec 
 
 of the fem. verb Tini is neuter; so exactly Ps. 69" »^ nisin^ 'ilf 
 
 'and it became reproaches unto me.' On the use of the fem. in 
 neuter sense, cf. G-K. § 122^. The view of Konig {Syntax, § 323/ 
 that the subject is the NT! of the preceding sentence— ' and she (tli 
 
II. 40. 12. i.l THE BOOK OF JUDGES 325 
 
 became ^^ a custom in Israel ; 40. yearly the daughters of 
 Israel go to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah, four days 
 in the year. 
 
 12. I. J And the men of Ephraim were called to arms, and 
 
 maiden) became a pattern ' — is very unlikely. |§ pn ifini makes the 
 masc. ph the subject of the fem. verb — a want of concord which Bu. 
 would remedy by reading 'n*1 • but this does not give so idiomatic 
 
 a phrase as that which we adopt. 
 
 Since the 'custom' refers to the women's festival mentioned in v.*", 
 it is clear that vv.^'"' are wrongly divided, and that pn? Tini should 
 stand at the beginning of z/.""". As is noted by Le Clerc, Ros, etc., 
 the reason for the division adopted by IE may be gathered from an 
 addition in C, according to which pn is explained, not as a ' custom,' 
 but as an '.ordinance' forbidding the sacrifice of son or daughter, 
 which is assumed to have been promulgated in order to obviate the 
 recurrence of such a tragedy : ' It was made an ordinance in Israel 
 in order that no m^n should offer up his son or his daughter for a 
 "burnt-offering, as Jephthah the Gile'adite did because he did not 
 consult Phinehas the priest. If, however, he had consulted Phinehas 
 the priest, he would have redeemed her at a price.' 
 
 ip. yearly. Heb. nD*p'' D^D'D lit. 'from days unto days,' i.e. 'from 
 year to year,' in accordance with the idiomatic use of the plural D''I3'' : 
 cf. BDB. s.v. DV 6 c. 
 
 the daughters of Israel go. The Imperf njppri describes a fre- 
 quentative action which still recurs in the writer's time. R.V. ' went,' 
 i.e. ' used to go ' (as though the annual custom had ceased) is certainly 
 wrong. 
 
 to commemorate. On the meaning of the Heb. verb here used, cf 
 note on 'they recount,' ch. 5 ^'. The festival is discussed in Additional 
 note, p. 332. Since the commemoration most probably took the form 
 of a ceremonial wailing., we might expect some more specific term 
 than nMvh. If the text should be emended, the easiest alteration 
 
 would be ni3K^ 'to lament'; cf the use of the verb in Isa. 3^^ 19 ^ 
 and the substantival forms n'JNI. n»JXri ' lamentation and mourning,' 
 in Isa. 292, Lam. 2^ So Ball, privately. 
 
 12. I. And the men of Ephraim, etc. On the resemblance between 
 this incident and that recorded in ch. 8 ' "■, cf. note ad loc. 
 
 were called to arms. Cf note on 6 ^*. 
 
326 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [12. 2 
 
 passed over to Saphon ; and they said to Jephthah, ' Why di 
 thou pass over to fight with the children of 'Ammon withi 
 having called us to go with thee ? We will burn thy house 
 thee with fire.' 2. And Jephthah said unto them, 'I 1: 
 a quarrel — even I and my people, and the children of 'Amir 
 <[oppressed me]> sorely; and I Tsummoned^ you, but ye did 1 
 save me from their hand. 3. And when I saw that ^there v 
 none"' to save ^1 put^ my life in my hand, and passed over ur 
 
 to Saphon. Acity of this name is mentioned in Josh. 13^'P, togetl 
 with Succoth, as lying in the Jordan valley. This is identified by I 
 Jerusalem Talmud {Shebiiih. ix. i^fol. 38 d) with IHD, i.e. the Amathus 
 Eusebius and Jerome, twenty-one Roman miles south of Pella (05. 91 
 219'"), and the modern 'Amateh, situated in the mouth of the W^ 
 Ragib, about seven miles north of the Jabbok. But we should ha 
 expected the Ephraimites to have crossed the Jordan south of t 
 Jabbok at the ford ed-Damiyyeh in order to reach Mispah ; and t 
 position of Succoth, with which Saphon is associated in Josh. 13 
 was probably south of the Jabbok : cf p. 220. ffi", 'A. 2., e., U, , 
 render 'northward,' and this is adopted by R.V. text; but t 
 rendering appears to be topographically impossible. 
 
 without having called us. Lit. 'and us thou hadst not called '- 
 circumstantial clause. 
 
 we will burn., etc. Cf ch. 14'^, 15^. 
 
 2. / had a quarrel. Lit. ' I was a man of strife.' 
 
 oppressed jne. Supplying »M3J?^ as suggested by <&^^ iTandvow , 
 (so iL"-, S>^\ with most moderns. This verb ' might easily be omittf 
 by a scribe after poj?' (Mo.), and some verb is indispensable, unle 
 (with "S 'contra fihos Ammon,' S' ^OklL ■ '-" 1 ^ JsOi. R.V. 'wil 
 the children of A. ') we treat the 1 as ' waw of association ' : cf casi 
 cited by BDB. s.v. \ i g-. 
 
 and I summoned you. Reading Hiph'll DDJIX pVTKI, as in c, 
 4'°'^ 2 Sam. 20 "-5. |§ Kal pvrxi should be followed by D3'i?N- 
 'and I cried unto you' (cf ffi'"' koi efiorjo-a npos viias). 
 
 The appHcation made by the Gile'adites to the western tribes ( 
 Israel for help against the 'Ammonites finds a close parallel i 
 I Sam. II, where the inhabitants of Jabesh of Gile'ad seek help in th; 
 direction against the aggressions of Nahash, king of 'Ammon. 
 
 3. that there was none to save. Reading VK'IO pX ''3 with ffi*' 
 %\ S>\ Bu., Gort., No., La., Kit. For the phrase, cf Deut. 28 »' 
 I Sam. 1 1 3, 2 Sam. 22*2, Ps. i8",l« |§ J?''B'1D HJiN 13 'that tho 
 wouldest not save.' 
 
 I put^ etc. Reading K'r^ nD'ti'XI in place of the anomalous K 
 
12. 4- 5-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 327 
 
 the children of 'Amnion, and Yahweh gave them into my hand : 
 why then are ye come up unto me this day to fight against 
 me?' 4. Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of 
 Gile'ad, and fought with Ephraim ; and the men of Gile'ad smote 
 Ephraim []. 5. And Gile'ad took the fords of the Jordan 
 against Ephraim ; and whenever the fugitives of Ephraim said, 
 'Let me pass over,' the men of Gile'ad said to each, 'Art thou 
 
 niOB'^XI. On the phrase, as expressive of risking one's life, cf. note on 
 ch. 5 '', ' that scorned its life, etc' 
 
 4. and the men of Gil'ead smote Ephraim. After these words 
 
 |§ adds nt^'jp •^lina onsN ^lina r\f>i drn onax 'D'iss -noN ''s 
 
 'because they said, "Fugitives of Ephraim are ye Gile'adites, in the 
 midst of Ephraim, in the midst of Manasseh," ' i.e. the Ephraimites 
 taunted the Gile'adites with being, in origin, renegade members of 
 their own tribe, without territorial status, and existing on sufferance 
 in the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh. But, according to the 
 earlier narrative, the reason why the Gile'adites smote Ephraim was 
 not on account of any such taunt (however much this may be sup- 
 posed to have exacerbated the combat), but because the Ephraimites 
 forced battle upon them. It is not clear how the Gile'adites could, in 
 one breath, be called ' fugitives of Ephraim,' and yet be charged with 
 living ' in the midst of Ephraim ' ; nor, again, is this latter expression, 
 which seems to suggest that the Ephraimites owned or at any rate 
 claimed territory in Gile'ad east of Jordan, susceptible of any explana- 
 tion. The terra p'lttim, 'fugitives,' always elsewhere denotes survivors 
 who have escaped from the battlefield,* and is in fact so used in v. ^ 
 It is here that we find the solution of our difficulty. In the Heb. the 
 first four words of the difficult sentence in v.\ 'K 'tD^PD IIDK ''3 
 ' because they said, " Fugitives of Ephraim," ' are, with one slight 
 variation (Perfect 1"1DK for Imperfect), identical with the words of w. ^ 
 rendered ' whenever the fugitives of Ephraim said.' It can hardly be 
 doubted that these words from v. * have come into v. * through an 
 error of transcription, and then, on the assumption that the subject 
 of the verb IIDK refers back to ' Ephraim ' preceding, and that the 
 words 'fugitives of Ephraim' form the commencement of what the 
 Ephraimites said, the sentence has been conjecturally filled out as we 
 find it in J^. The words- are lacking in the ffi MSS. HP. 54, 59, 82, 
 84, 106, 108, 128, 134, and are marked by an asterisk in SsK 
 
 5. took the fords, etc. Cf. ch. 3^, 7^. 
 
 whenever . . . said. The Imperfect IIDX'' denotes recurrence. 
 
 * Heb. falat, 'to escape,' seems properly to mean 'to survive,' and to be 
 identical with Bab. baldtu, ' to live. ' 
 
328 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [12. 
 
 an Ephraimite ? ' And if he said, 'No,' 6. they said to hir 
 'Say now Shibboleth,^ and he said ' Sibboleth,' and '^was"' m 
 Table^ to pronounce aright. Then they laid hold on him an 
 
 6. Say now Shibbdleth. The word Shibboleth, which may dene 
 either 'stream' (Isa. 27 ?2, Ps. 6g''^), or 'ear of corn' (Job. 24' 
 Gen. 41*"-, al.), appears to have been selected at random as a 
 example of a word commencing with the difficult letter B* (so Kimchi 
 We have no means of ascertaining the precise sibilant sound whic 
 the narrator represents by D in the Ephraimite pronunciation. It : 
 possible that it was actually D (an emphatic s), which is the sibilai 
 which represents the s of some Babylonian loan-words in Heb. (c 
 "130= sipru, I'linp = iargdnu, etc.). Or, bearing in mind the fact th; 
 the word meaning ' ear of corn,' which is written with K', /, in Heb 
 Aram., and Bab., is pronounced in Ar. with {,j~, s {sunbul, sunbula 
 we may conjecture that the Ephraimites may have used the Ar. pre 
 nunciation ; but since the narrator could not, in unpointed Heb 
 reproduce the difference between B* and ty, he was obliged to write i 
 in place of the latter in order to make his meaning clear. Kimcl 
 states that the people of Sarephath were unable -to pronounce tJ", . 
 and reproduced it as aspirated H, th {i.e. probably tlj); and h 
 suggests that the Ephraimite pronunciation may have been similai 
 Cf. the view of Marquart, ZATW., 1888, pp. 1 51-155. 
 
 Of the parallels for the test cited by commentators, the mos 
 striking (quoted by Ber., etc.) is the incident of the Sicilian Vesper: 
 Mar. 31, 1282, when the French were ordered to pronounce ceci 
 ciceri, and those who betrayed their nationality by pronouncing c a 
 in French {sesi e siseri) were immediately cut down. 
 
 was not able. Reading ^3' n^ with S"" "|o01 -> ■ ^ » Vri ;_,^. ]J 
 "S 'non valens,' Gratz, Mo., Bu., Cooke. |§ pD' X'^, lit. 'he coul 
 not fix,' must be taken to imply ellipse of some such object a 
 Va 'his mouth,' or VDab' 'his lips.' The view taken by BDB. arn 
 some commentators that the assumed object is 3^1 'the heart,' z.i 
 
 ' the mind ' (as in the late passages. Job, 1 1 ", Ps. 78 ^, i Chr. 29 '*, al. 
 and that the expression means 'he did not give attention,' is les 
 probable. The error in pronunciation was clearly due to dialecticj 
 peculiarity and not to inattention ; it being most unlikely that th 
 Ephraimites would fail through carelessness if they realized (as the 
 must have done) that it was a matter of life or death whether the 
 satisfied the test or not. Apart, however, from the inelegancy of P- 
 foUowed by p, the use of the simple Imperfect is singular in th 
 midst of a series of Imperfects with 1 consecutive. Twelve MSS 
 
12. 7-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 329 
 
 slew him at the fords of the Jordan : and at that time there fell 
 of Ephraim forty and two thousand. 
 
 7. R'^ And Jephthah judged. Israel six years. R'' And 
 Jephthah the Gile'adite died, and was buried in This city"", ^in 
 Mispeh of> Gile'ad. 
 
 of ^ in place of pa* read pi< 'he did not nnderstand\\.<yff to speak 
 aright.' 
 
 Then they laid hold . . . Jordan. At this point Bu. (followed by 
 La.) proposes to insert the words of z/. * DHN 'K ''D''i5£3 IIDK ''3 'for 
 they said, "Ye are fugitives of Ephraim."' Since, however, the 
 context deals with each individual case, we should have expected 
 nns 'K \yhti ' Thou art a fugitive of Ephraim.' 
 
 7. in his city, in Mispeh of Gile ad. Reading ^y^J naVD3 iTV3 
 
 with Stu., Doom., Bu., Mo., La., Kent, Cooke. This text has the support 
 of several minuscules of (It which read iv ttj ttoXei avrov iv 2e0e (or 
 2e^) TaKaah. Here 2e(^e seems to point to a Heb. original in which 
 the D of nsSD was obliterated. Jos. {Ant v. vii. 12) seems to have 
 used a similar text, for he writes Avtos bk ap^as f| err) reXevTa koI 
 oawTeTat eV rrj avrov irarpihi 'Sifter)' r^y VakahTqvrjs 8' €(Tr\v avrr). |^ 
 'i 'lya 'in the cities of Gile'ad,' is impossible ; it being quite illegiti- 
 mate to render, with A.V., R.V., 'in one o/the cities.' 2C follows |^. 
 €& ev TTf iroKei avrov €V FaXaafi. (Sc^^, ^^ ev rrj noKei avrov TaXaaB, IL, 1? 
 'in civitate sua Galaad.' S"" . '^V ,.^ 1A ..no 'in a city of Gile'ad.' 
 
 HUMAN SACRIFICE AMONG THE ISRAELITES. 
 (Cf. ch. ii2> note.) 
 
 Evidence shows that the practice of human sacrifice (especially the 
 sacrifice of the firstborn) was not Unknown among the Israelites ; 
 though in historical times it seems to have been very exceptional. In 
 pre-Mosaic times it was probably more frequent, if not customary. 
 The Book of the Covenant (Ex. 20^^-23'' E), many of the regulations 
 of which probably grew up in Cana'an at a period immensely earlier 
 than the age of Moses,* seems expressly to contemplate that the 
 normal fate of a firstborn son is that he should be sacrificed to 
 
 * The standpoint here assumed is that the Book of the Covenant represents 
 very largely the consuetudinary legislation of Cana'an from a period long prior to 
 the entry and settlement under Joshua' of those Israelite tribes (chiefly, if not 
 solely, the Joseph tribes) who had come under the leadership and influence of 
 Moses, and had thereby gained a higher and purer conception of Yahweh and 
 the requirements of his religion. This view seems to explain the close connexion 
 in many points of this early legislation with the Code of Hammurabi, which must 
 
330 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Yahweh. The enactment of 22 ^"' says, without qualification, ' T 
 firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give to me ' ; and this is immediatf 
 followed by the enactment with regard to the firstborn of anima 
 which is couched in precisely similar terms : ' So shalt thou do 
 thine ox and to thy sheep : seven days it shall be with its mother ; : 
 the eighth day thou shalt give it to me ' [v. ^). We know of coui 
 how the former enactment was interpreted elsewhere, and that in eai 
 legislation. The law of J in Ex. 34 ^^ lays down that ' Every fin 
 born of thy sons thou shalt redeem ' ; ahd this is repeated 
 Ex. 13 '5'' P. Thus it appears probable that an animal-substitute m; 
 usually have been provided at an early period in Israel's histo: 
 The story of Abraham's projected sacrifice of Isaac in Gen 22 E w, 
 probably intended to show that the Father of the Faithful had bei 
 ready to make the most costly sacrifice, and God had gracious 
 vouchsafed to be pleased with an animal in its place. Such a traditii 
 (if we are justified in regarding it as ancient) was doubtless not wit 
 out its influence in determining the interpretation of the old regul 
 tion. Mic. 6 ''*, if really the work of the eighth-century prophi 
 indicates that in the mind of the average Israelite of Micah's d: 
 there still lurked the idea that Yahweh might conceivably be pr 
 pitiated by the sacrifice of a firstborn son as the most costly form 
 offering ; but whether this idea was often, or ever, carried into practi' 
 at this period we cannot say. It is quite possible, as many schola 
 have thought, that the passage may be due to a prophetic teach 
 
 (if not in toto, at least as regards a large part of its enactments) have been opei 
 five in Syria as well as in Babylonia cir. B.C. 2000 (on Hammurabi as king 
 the West as well as of Babylonia, cf. Introd. pp., l.xi ff.). It explains also t 
 e.xtremely primitive character of many of the enactments of the Book of t 
 Covenant: e.g. 216, 22 8-9 (=^ 7.8)^ where hd-H6him can scarcely, except on t 
 most forced exegesis, be explained otherwise than as 'the (household) gods ' 
 probably identical with Teraphim. In 21^ the scene of the ceremony is cleai 
 the master's own house {not the local sanctuary), just as it is in Deut. 15'^'- i t 
 only difference being that in the later enactment the reference to ha-'ilohim 
 dropped, doubtless as offensive to the 'purer form of Yahwism. In 2.2^ hct-iUlii 
 are agents or means of divination, just as the Teraphim appears to have be 
 (cf. note on ch. 17'). If this view of the origin of the legislation of the Book 
 the Covenant is correct, we can understand how a code which was probably frc 
 primitive times the property both of the Cana'anites and of such Israelite elemei 
 as had not come under the influence of Mosaic Yahwism, may have contained 
 enactment enjoining the offering of the firstborn, which later on came, under t 
 refining influence of Mosaic Yahwism, to be interpreted as satisfied by t 
 redemption of the firstborn of man by the sacrifice of an animal. 
 
 On the view that the history of Israel's religion in early times is the history 
 a conflict between the high ethical Yahwism which was the outcome of the teac 
 ing of Moses, and a much cruder and more naturalistic form of Yahwi: 
 practised by Israelite tribes which had never been in Egypt nor come under t 
 influence of the great teacher, cf. an article by the present editor entitled 
 Theory of the Development of Israelite Religion in Early Times, JTS., Apr. I9< 
 pp. 321-352. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 331 
 
 during the idolatrous reaction under Manasseh in the seventh century 
 B.C., when it became the custom to sacrifice children as holocausts to 
 the god Molech (cf. 2 Kgs. 216, Jer. 32*, 731 19 ^-e 3236 Ezek. le^o-^i 
 2337.39)* 
 
 The same abuse is stated by the Deuteronomic redactor of Kgs. 
 to have been practised in the reign of Ahaz (2 Kgs. 16'), and 
 during the closing days of the Northern Kingdom (2 Kgs. 17") 5 but 
 no allusion to such child-sacrifices is made by Isaiah in his prophecies 
 which seem to belong to Ahaz's reign, nor by Amos and Hosea in 
 their indictment of the sins of the Northern Kingdom ; and it seems 
 probable, therefore, that R° in Kgs. may be erroneously attributing the 
 corrupt practice of Manasseh's age to an earlier period. Ps. io63'*- is 
 not evidence that the custom was general throughout pre-monarchic 
 times; but we may probably infer from Isa. 57 s'- that the seventh- 
 century practice survived into post-exilic times among the degraded 
 remnant of the Judaean population which was left in Palestine during 
 the exile. 2 Kgs. 1731 states that it was in vogue among a section of 
 the foreign settlers who were introduced into the Northern Kingdom 
 after the fall of Samaria. 
 
 The practice of the rite of child-sacrifice among the Cana'anites is 
 alluded to in Deut. 12 si, 18 ^w and forbidden to Israel (cf Lev. 18 2', 
 20 2 H). Excavation has brought to light numerous examples of 
 the burial of infants of about a week old in jars in the vicinity of a 
 sanctuary.J These are probably evidence for the practice of the 
 sacrifice of the firstborn among the Cana'anites ; though it is only 
 rarely that the remains of the infants appear to have been subjected 
 to the action of fire. Another form of human sacrifice which has 
 been attested by excavation is the foundation-sacrifice, in which the 
 victim (infant or adult) has been buried (probably alive) in the founda- 
 tions of a building. An instance of this form of sacrifice among the 
 Israelites is perhaps to be found in i Kgs. 16** ; but, if this be so, the 
 mere fact that the event is placed on record seems to indicate that it 
 was very unusual. 
 
 * The phrase which is often used in allusion to this form of sacrifice — 
 S^Xa "l^DVn, rendered by A, v., R.V., 'cause to pass through the fire ' (some- 
 times Ti3j;n simply) — has been otherwise explained as though it referred to some 
 rite of initiation. But the meaning of the expression is more probably ' make 
 over' ('cause to pass over') to the deity 'by fire' (cf. the use of the verb in 
 Ex. 13 ^2j ; and the fact that this really denotes a sacrifice in which the victim 
 was first slain and then burnt has been strongly maintained by Mo. {EB. 3184) 
 by comparison of passages in which the phrase occurs with parallel passages in 
 which the reference to the slaughter of children is unambiguous. Cf. especially 
 Jer. 3235 with 19 5-6; Ezek. 233'-39 with 16™'. 
 
 t Cf. Vincent, Canaan, pp. 188 ff . ; Driver, Schweich Lectures, pp. 67 ff. ; 
 Stanley A. Cook, Religion of Ancient Palestine, pp. 38 ff.; Handcock, Archce- 
 ology of the Holy Land, pp. 368 ff. On the foundation sacrifice generally, cf. 
 Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant, pp. 45 ff. A different theory as to the buried 
 infants has been offered by Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, pp. 82 f. 
 
332 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 THE WOMEN'S FESTIVAL OF JUDGES, ii. 40. 
 
 Whatever be the historical value of the story of the sacrifice of 
 Jephthah's daughter, it is probable that the festival which existed in 
 the narrator's time, and which he explained as commemorative of 
 this traditional event, really had its origin in a cultus which was 
 based upon mythology and not upon history. There is evidence for 
 the practice of a similar ceremonial in Syria in later times. The 
 worship of Kopr;, i.e. the heavenly virgin, by the inhabitants of 
 Shechem is attested by Epiphanius {Adv. haeres. iii. 2, 1055), who 
 supposed that the ceremonial sacrifice was connected with the com- 
 memoration of Jephthah's daughter. Porphyry {De Abstinentia, ii. 
 56) states that at Laodicea on the Syrian coast a virgin was in ancient 
 times offered to Athena, and that the ceremonial still survived, a stag 
 being substituted for the human sacrifice. Pausanias (ill. xvi. 8) 
 identifies the goddess who was thus honoured with Artemis, whose 
 image, he tells us, had formerly stood at Brauron, but had been 
 presented to the Laodiceans by Seleucus. Robertson Smith {Religion 
 of the Semites,^ p. 466) argues that the town of Laodicea was of much 
 greater antiquity than its re-christening by Seleucus ; and that, if the 
 goddess in question had really been Greek, she would not have been 
 identified with Athena as well as with Artemis. His conclusion is 
 that she must originally have been a form of the native Syrian god- 
 dess ' Ashtart (cf. also Frazer's note in his edition of Pausanias, vol. iii. 
 pp. 340 f.). The connexion of this sacrifice with the Iphigenia-legend 
 (as recognized by Pausanias) is clear ; especially with that form of 
 the legend in which a hind was substituted by Artemis as a sacrifice, 
 in place of the maiden. It is much more likely that the Greek legend 
 had its source in Western Asia (like many other elements of Greek 
 mythology), than, conversely, that the legend, and the rites in which 
 it was celebrated, penetrated from Greece into the Syrian littoral. 
 
 The resemblance between the stories of Iphigenia and Jephthah's 
 daughter has often been remarked : cf., e.g., the series of parallels 
 drawn by Capellus, De voto Jephthae, § xii. {Annotata ad Libros His- 
 toricos V.T., Tom. ii. 1660, p. 2082). If this resemblance is more 
 than accidental, it goes far to anticipate the objection which might be 
 brought against the validity of the evidence which has already been 
 adduced for the existence in Syria of rites analogous to the women's 
 festival of Judg. 1 1 *", viz. that the former is very late in comparison 
 with the latter ; since it is clear, from the early date at which the 
 legend of Iphigenia appears in Greek mythology, that, if at all 
 dependent upon Semitic cultus, it must testify to a cultus of very 
 considerable antiquity. 
 
 As to the original significance of this cultus we are altogether with- 
 out definite evidence, and can only make conjecture. Mo. (p. 305) 
 thinks that 'the annual lamentation of the women of Gilead for 
 Jephthah's daughter belongs to a class of ceremonies, the original 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 333 
 
 fnificance of which, often disguised by the myth, is mourning for 
 e death of a god.' Jeremias {OTLAE. ii. pp. 168 f.) would bring 
 e sacrifice into connexion with the Tammuz-IStar cult. 
 This latter cult appears to have been inherited by the Babylonians 
 3m their Sumerian predecessors, and is consequently of very high 
 itiquity. It was borrowed from the Babylonians by the Phoenicians, 
 nong whom Tammuz was venerated under the title Adon ' lord ' ; 
 id from the Phoenicians the Tammuz-IStar myth spread westwards 
 to Greece, in the well-known form of the story of Adonis and 
 phrodite. We may gather from the O.T. some few traces of the 
 lit in Israel, where, as e'lsewhere, it seems pre-eminently to have 
 ien practised among women.* Its central observance was cere- 
 onial mourning for the deaik of the god, who typified the youthful 
 in of springtime, or, according to a variant conception, the luxuriant 
 igetatioh produced by this sun, which is cut off and destroyed by 
 le fierce heat of the sun of midsummer. This mourning took place 
 1 the fourth month, which falls at or about the summer-solstice 
 f. OTLAE. i. pp. 96 ff.), and which bears the name of Tammuz in 
 le Babylonian (as in the later Jewish) calendar. J 
 The cult of I Star, as the earth-goddess of fertility, stands in intimate 
 annexion with that of Tammuz. She appears variously as his virgin- 
 lother, sister, wife, and lover. Sometimes, indeed, Tammuz seems 
 3 have been regarded as feminine, and bore titles which properly 
 elong to the goddess.§ The conception seems to vary according as 
 
 * Ezek. 81* speaks of the women at Jerusalem weeping for Tammuz. In 
 ia. 171" the phrase D'3DV3 'VliJ' which R. V. text translates ' pleasant plants,' 
 1 more probably to be rendered, as in the marg. , ' plantings of Adonis ' ; cf. the 
 rreek 'A5ti»'i5os Kiyiroi, i.e. pots or baskets containing quick-growing, and 
 uickly-fading, plants, which were dedicated to Aphrodite as emblems of her 
 jver's beauty and early death (cf, Plato, PktEdrus, 276 B ; Theocritus, 15, 113). 
 ome would find a similar reference in the allusion to ' gardens ' in Isa. i 29.30. 
 n Dan. li" the phrase D'tS'J mDH 'the desire (desired one) of women,' 
 rhich the context shows to be the title of a deity, probably refers to Tammuz 
 ;f. the commentaries of Bevan and Driver ad loc. ). The reference in Zech. 12 1' 
 3 'the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo' is obscure, and 
 be grounds for associating it with the Tammuz-wailing are highly precarious ; 
 rhile the supposition that an allusion to the ceremonial is to be found in ' the 
 louming for an only son ' Am. 8 1", and that the formulae of lamentation for the 
 lead mentioned in Jer. 22^8, 345 are derived from the cult, is most improbable. 
 "A. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun, pp. 87-93. 
 
 X Succinct accounts of the Tammuz-myth and ritual in Babylonia are given by 
 iayce, DB. iv. pp. 676 f. ; Cheyne, EB. 4893f. ; Zimmern, KAT.^ pp. 397 f. ; 
 astrow, RBBA. pp. 343-350, 370 f. For greater detail, cf. Zimmern, Der baby- 
 oniscke Gott Tamuz {Abhandl. der phil.-hist. Klasse der K. Sachs. Gesellsch. 
 ler Wissensch. xxvii. , 1909, pp. 701-738) ; Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtar, 1914. 
 'or the Phoenician form of the cult, cf. Baudis-sin, Adonis und Esmun, 1911. 
 ■■or the cult in its wider developments, cf. Frazer, Adonis, Aiiis, Osiris^, 1914 
 many very questionable assumptions), 
 
 § Cf. Zimmern, Tamuzlieder, pp. 211, 213 ; Der Bab. Gott TamUz, pp. 7 ff. ; 
 Hommel, Grundriss, pp. 387 f., 395; Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 347 f . ; Langdon, 
 tf. cit. pp. 16 ff. 
 
334 THE BOOK OF JUUCiES [12. 8. iz. 
 
 8. R'' And after him Ibsan of Bethlehem judged Israel. 
 9. And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he sent abroad, 
 and thirty daughters he brought in for his sons from abroad : 
 and he judged Israel seven years. lo. And Ibsan died, and 
 was buried in Bethlehem. 
 
 11. And after him Elon the Zebulonite judged Israel j and 
 he judged Israel ten years. 12. And Elon the Zebulonite died, 
 and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. 
 
 IStar is regarded as the spontaneously-prbductive virgin (or sexless) 
 Mother-Earth, or fertility is conceived as the result of union between 
 Spring-Sun and Earth. When the former conception held force, 
 Tammuz, as the emanation of Mother-Earth, might naturally be 
 regarded as virgin and feminine like herself. 
 
 The Greek myth of the abduction of Kore- Persephone (a vegetation- 
 goddess) to the Underworld, and her return to the earth in the spring, 
 is ultimately of Babylonian origin. The relation between Demeter 
 (originally the Earth-goddess) and Kore (the spring-vegetation) repre- 
 sents one form of the Tammuz-Istar myth, just as the relation between 
 Aphrodite and Adonis represents another form. It is probable that 
 the yearly sinking of Kore (or the feminine Tammuz) to the Under- 
 world may at one time have been marked (at least in Syria) by a 
 virgin-sacrifice, for which in later times another offering {e.g. a hind) 
 was substituted. We recall the fact already noticed that the sacrifice 
 of the Shechemites mentioned by Epiphanius, and connected by him 
 with the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter, was made to Kore. The 
 emphasis on virginity belongs to the basic conception of the Earth- 
 mother herself as virgin or sexless. Cf. further, Addenda, pp. xvii ft 
 
 Among the many virgin-sacrifices of early Greek mythology we 
 may compare that of Polyxena, who, as her name implies — 'she of 
 the many guests' — is in origin a queen of the Underworld, the wife 
 of Polydector or Polydegmon {i.e. Hades, so-called as iroXKovs hx<>- 
 jxfvos) : cf Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, pp. 121 f 
 
 12. 8-15. The ^ Minor' Judges, Ibsan., Elon, and ' Abdon. 
 On the 'minor' Judges generally, cf. pp. 289 £ 
 
 8. Bethlehem. Jos. (v. vii. 13) takes this city to be Bethlehem of 
 Judah ; and the same view is assumed by Rashi, Kimchi, and Levi ben- 
 Gershon, who preserve a tradition that Ibsan was the same as Boaz 
 the ancestor of David. There is, however, a northern Bethlehem 
 mentioned in Josh. 19 '^ P which is probably the modern Bet Lahm, 
 seven miles west-north-west of Nazareth, and it is not unlikely that 
 this may be the city intended. Cf p. 290. 
 
 12. was buried in Aijalon. Possibly the distinction drawn byilH 
 between the name of the judge and that of his city is merely artificial, 
 
12. 13- IS-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 335 
 
 13. And after him 'Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite 
 judged Israel. 14. And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, 
 who rode upon seventy ass-colts : and he judged Israel eight 
 years. 15. And 'Abdon the son of Hillel the Pir'athonite died, 
 and was buried in Pir athon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill- 
 country of the 'Amalekites. 
 
 ffi" reproduces both names as AiXwfi, i.e. fi^»N_ So Noldeke ( Unter- 
 suchungen zur Kritik des A. T., p. 184), Mo., La., Cooke. 
 
 13. tke Pir' athonite. Pir'athon corresponds philologically to the 
 modem Far atH, six miles west-south-west of Shechem. The ^apa6av 
 fortified by Bacchides (i Mace. 9^°) appears to have lain further south. 
 
 15. in the land of Ephraim. Some ffi MSS. here read eV opci 
 E(j}paiii. iv yfi ^eXKrjfi. This is adopted by Mo. (SBOT.) who supposes 
 that eV yy 2EXX7;/i= D7J?B' I'lxa, i.e. the land of Sha'alim mentioned in 
 I Sam. 9*. In support of this view he adduces the southern position of 
 Pir'athon, as inferred from i Mace. 9* and the fact that the name' Abdon 
 occurs in the genealogical lists in Benjamin, i Chr. 8 ^, 8 3o = g 36_ j^^^ 
 SeXXij/i = C^VB' (in 1 Sam. 9 *, ffi'' SaaXeifi, HS:^ 2cyaXei;i) is, however, a 
 bold assumption ; and, since 'Abdon is not an uncommon name, there 
 is no reason for supposing that the Benjaminite 'Abdon of I Chr. must 
 be identical with the 'Abdon of the present passage. 
 
 in the hill-country of the ' Amalekites. Cf p. 132. 
 
 13. 1-16. 31. Samson. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc., cited throughout the book, cf. B. Stade, Ri. 
 t4, ZATW. iv. (1884), pp. 250-256; W. Bbhme, Die dlteste Darstellung in 
 Richi. 6^^-24 und 13^^ 'und ihre Verwandtschaft mit der Jahveurkunde des 
 Pentateuch, ZA TVV. v. {1885), pp. 251-274 ; A. van Doorninck, De Simsonsagen. 
 Kritische Studien over Richteren 14-16, Theol. Tijdschrift, xxviii. {1894), pp. 
 
 14-32. 
 
 On the solar-mythological interpretation of the story, cf. (selected bibliography) 
 E, Meier, Geschichte der foetischen National- LUeratur der Uebrder, 1856, pp. 
 J7-108 ; G. Roskoff, Die Simsonsage nach ihrer Entstehung, Form und Bedetitung, 
 md der Heraclesmythus, i860; H. Steinthal, The Legend of Samson {trans, of 
 m article in Zeitschrift fiir Vblkerpsychologie, 1862), in Appendix to J. Goldziher, 
 Mythology among the Hebrews, 1877 ; F. Baethgen, Beitrdge zur semit. Reli- 
 'ionsgesch., 1888, pp. 161-173 ; H, Stahn, Die Simsonsage, 1908; A. Smythe 
 ■'aimer. The Samson-saga, and its place in comparative Religion, 1913.* 
 
 This narrative introduces us to the period of the Philistine oppres- 
 iion, for the history of which the way has been prepared by the 
 iccount of Israel's apostasy in 10 ^^° ; cf the reference to the 
 
 * Meier and Roskoff are selected as good representatives of the earlier writers 
 n the subject, who were mainly concerned with drawing out the parallels 
 etween the deeds of Samson and those of Herakles. Steinthal goes much 
 
336 ititL cuujs. UP jujjur-a 
 
 Philistines in vj* It was this oppression which led ultimatelyto 
 the institution of the kingship in Israel ; and, so far as we can gather 
 from the oldest sources, the strong hand of the Philistines was not 
 relaxed to any appreciable extent until some amount of consolidation 
 had been achieved among the Israelites through the establishment of 
 the monarchy. The narrative thus occupies its right chronological 
 position in the Book of Judges, cks. 17-21 being of the nature of an 
 appendix (cf Introd. p. xxxvii). 
 
 The Samson-narrative, though consisting of a number of semi- 
 independent stories, shows no sign of compilation from parallel and 
 divergent sources ; and the generally accepted view is that it has 
 been extracted in its entirety from one of the two main ancient 
 sources of Judg.J That this source was J can hardly be doubted. 
 Bdhme has proved conclusively that ch. 13 must be derived from J, 
 He notes the striking resemblances which it exhibits to the Gide' on- 
 narrative 6 ^^'^^ J — the appearance of the Angel of Yahweh as the 
 bearer of specific injunctions ; the offering of a kid upon a rock-altar ; 
 the miraculous disappearance of the supernatural visitor, whilst the 
 heavenly fire consumes the offering ; the terror of the human actors 
 on realization that they have seen a divine being, and their subse- 
 quent reassurance that Yahweh is well-disposed towards them. 
 Especially striking is the verbal identity between vv?'' and Gen. 16" 
 J in the phrase p m?''1 nin "l^n ' Behold, thou art with child, and shalt 
 bear a son,' and v}^^ and Gen. 32 ^o J ''DtJ'^ ^SBTl HT vxh 'Wherefore, 
 now, askest thou concerning my name ? ' Other resemblances cited 
 
 by Bohme are, v.^ h TJn ^ IDty DKl 'and his name he told me 
 not,' and Gen. 32 ^ J HDB' SJ r\Tin ' tell me, prithee, thy name ' ; 
 z/.i" IJni pni 'and she ran and told,' and Gen. 24 2*, 29 '^ J, where 
 the same two verbs are similarly coupled ; the association of "iilD 
 'hasten' and fll 'run' in v}", as in Gen. 186', 2420 J ; t/." '3X IDS'l 
 
 further than his predecessors in elaborating the solar-mythological tl^eory ; and, 
 while laying himself open to grave criticism in many points of detail, he marks a 
 distinct stage in the serious treatment of the subject. A valuable criticism of 
 Steinthal is offered by Baethgen. Stahn is useful as giving a very full biblio- 
 graphy of earlier monographs, with brief summaries of the views of different 
 scholars. Smythe Palmer deals with the subject in a far more detailed and 
 systematic way than has been attempted by earlier scholars, bringing together a 
 large and varied mass of material in support of his thesis. The value of the book 
 would have been greatly enhanced if this material had been more critically sifted. 
 The book is weakest in its Semitic philology, suggestions of a transparently 
 fallacious character being too often accepted and built upon. 
 
 * On lo^-is, as originally intended by the E narrator to introduce, not the 
 judgeship of Samson, but that of Samuel, cf. p. 294. 
 
 X An attempt to prove compilation from the two main ancient sources of Judg. 
 has been made by E. von Ortenberg, Beil. z. Jahresber. d. Gymn, zu Verdm, 
 1887 ; but has not met with acceptance among scholars. The present editor has 
 not been able to obtain access to this publication, 
 
THE BOOK OP JUDGES 3,37 
 
 'and he said, "/"' {i.e. 'I am he'), as in Gen. 272* J (elsewhere only 
 I Kgs. 13"; cf. ^3JS IDK^I 2 Sam. 22"). In addition to these, we 
 may note as characteristic J phrases, HI Hi -\vb'a 'the Angel of 
 Yahweh,' z,z,.3.i3.i6.i6.i7.i8.2o.3i (o^ Qsn^xH Ixi^D W.6 9 cf. «o/^j), S3 njn 
 'Behold, now,' z/.s ; inj? 'intreat,' v.\ ''JIK i2 'Oh, my lord' v.\ 
 nr HD^ 'Wherefore' z/.'s ; cf-^CH.J 4, 9, 48, 56^, 89^. Finally, the pro- 
 longed barrenness of the hero's mother is a trait which characterizes 
 the J narrative ; cf Gen. 11 '" (Sarai), Gen. 25 21 (Rebekah), Gen. 29^1 
 (Rachel), which are the only occurrences of the adjective rnpy 
 'barren' in narrative outside Judg. 132-3. 
 
 While, however, ch. 13 thus abounds with indications that it is 
 derived from J, the literary characteristics of J are absent from chs. 
 14-16. These latter chapters are exv^xxAy sui generis, full of the rough 
 vigour and broad humour of the rustic story-teller, but lacking the 
 literary grace and finish which distinguish the finer parts of J and E. 
 It is obvious, moreover, that the religious motive which colours the 
 narrative of ch. 13 is altogether absent from chs. 14-16. The birth- 
 narrative prepares us for a Gideon or a Samuel, keenly alive to the 
 fact that he holds a divine commission, and upheld in his perform- 
 ance of it by consciousness of the divine support. Samson, however, 
 proves to have no commission at all, and recognizes no higher guide 
 than his own wayward passions. Again, the fact can hardly be 
 denied that the story-cycle of chs. 14-16 contains a mythological 
 element which must be very primitive, and which is, in origin, far 
 removed from the Yahweh-religion of J (cf Addit. note, p. 391). 
 
 Yet that ch. 1 3 was written to introduce the narrative of chs. 14-16 can- 
 not be questioned. Had it originally prefaced a Samson-narrative more 
 in accordance with its own tone, we cannot imagine why this should 
 have been rejected by a later editor in favour of the present narrative. 
 Moreover, chs. 14-16 are not entirely without points of connexion 
 with ch. 13. We notice 14'''', the allusion to Yahweh's divine purpose 
 working unseen through Samson's wayward inclination ; and 16 "=^ 
 ' No razor hath come up upon my head, for a Nazirite of God have I 
 been from my mother's womb ' — a statement which presupposes the 
 injunction of 13*''. These are passages which lie upon the surface 
 of the narrative, and are easily detachable from it without in any way 
 affecting its sequence. The inference which may be drawn is that 
 the J narrator made use of an ancient cycle of folk-tales which were 
 current in his day, incorporating them into his work practically 
 unaltered from their popular form, except for one or two touches sucH 
 as we find in the passages above noticed. 
 
 This is the view of van Doorninck, who, however, is inclined to 
 assign to the later narrator not merely the passages above 
 meintioned, but also Samson's last prayer to Yahweh 16 21, and the , 
 three allusions to his feats of strength as inspired by the sudden 
 inrush of the spirit of Yahweh in 14''°, 15"; whereas on other 
 
 Y 
 
338 TttE SOOK OP JUDGES 
 
 occasions {e.g. 15', 16", (z/.) he appears to act without any sue 
 initiative. So drastic an ehmination from the ancient folk-tales ( 
 all allusions to Yahweh's influence on the hero (a proceeding whicl 
 to be complete, should include 1 5 1^-'" in its present form) can hardl 
 be accepted. However much the stories may, in their origin, hav 
 been coloured by the solar-mythological motive, it cannot be doubtei 
 that this motive had long been forgotten by the time that the tale 
 were utilized by the J writer for his narrative : and, if this was sc 
 and Samson's feats had come to be related as the actual deeds of ai 
 actual member of the tribe of Dan, it is natural that they should havi 
 come to be explained, like other events of a phenomenal character 
 as due to the active co-operation of the Spirit of Yahweh.* SucI 
 a presentation marks a stage midway between the purely pagan (non 
 Yahwistic) conception of the hero, and his adoption by the author 
 ch. 13 as the commissioned agent of Yahweh, of which the mos 
 salient feature is the interpretation of his long locks (originally in al 
 probability a solar trait ; cf Addit. note., p. 404) as the distinctivt 
 badge of dedication to Yahweh, from his birth and even earlier, as 
 a Nazirite — a conception which it is difficult to regard as originallj 
 inherent in the stories oi chs. 14-16 (cf note on 13^). 
 
 This view of the growth of the Samson-narrative is indicated in the 
 text by the marking of the old story-cycle as J', and the later con- 
 struction put upon it by the main J narrator (as embodied in ck. 13 
 and in the touches in chs. 14-16 above noticed) as y. The next stage 
 was the full acceptance of Samson as a member of the series of 
 divinely commissioned /z^^/^^j by R^'^, whose hand is seen in 13 *, and 
 in this editor's ordinary formula of conclusion in 16 '"'. The principal 
 editor of our Book of Judges, R'^* (whose regular formula of intro- 
 duction is seen in 13 '), appears to have laboured under a sense of the 
 moral unsuitability of the hero for inclusion in such a category ; and 
 thus to have made extensive excisions from the narrative, including 
 among them the account of Samson's death as a slave of the un- 
 circumcised. Probably he would have been by no means averse from 
 excluding him altogether, but found his figure too firmly enshrined 
 in the popular imagination to allow of the practicability of so drastic 
 a proceeding. R'^^'s revised account ended with ch. 15, as we may 
 see by the occurrence of the concluding formula as to the length of 
 the judgeship in is^o, which is the formula of R-""^, adopted by R"' 
 from 16^1'' when 16 is''' was cancelled.^ At a later time the excised 
 
 * As a matter of fact, 14 iS" is probably to be regarded as a later addition to 
 the narrative (cf. note ad toe), but not on the ground that it pictures Samson as 
 animated by the Spirit of Yahweh ; the particular phrase in which this is 
 described being probably copied from 14 6, where it seems to be an integral part 
 of the narrative. 
 
 J The considerations which may have influenced RE2 in liis inclusions and 
 omissions from the story-cydle have been well indicated by Bu. ;— ' Down to the 
 close of ck. 15, Samson is the husband of one wife, and love to her, along with 
 
THE BOOK OF JDDGES S5§ 
 
 stories were once more inserted, as we have them in ch. i6, doubtless 
 by the hand which restored the story of Abimelech and the Appendix, 
 chs. 17-21 (R' ; cf. note on ch. g^s-'Z). 
 
 The Samson-narratives {i.e. the ancient story-cycle, chs. 14-16) 
 stand alone in the O.T. as illustrations of a type of story emanating, 
 not from the literary circle of the prophets, but from the popular 
 traditions of the country-folk. As Bu. points out {DB. iv. p. 380 a), 
 ' the ideal of the country-hero was exactly the same in Israel then as 
 it is at the present day. The lion of a village must be first in 
 success with the female sex, first in bodily strength, courage, and 
 fondness for brawling, and first in mother-wit.' As has been argued 
 elsewhere (cf. Addit. note, p. 391), the stories seem to exhibit strongly- 
 marked traces of an ancient solar myth, the original significance of 
 which had doubtless been forgotten when it was drawn upon to 
 enrich the halo of the marvellous with which popular imagination 
 loved to surround the deeds of the tribal hero. When, however, 
 allowance has been made for this element in the narratives, there can 
 be no doubt that they possess unique value as illustrating the village- 
 life of the time, and the relations between Israelites and Philistines 
 living in the border-country. The two villages Sor'ah and Eshta'ol, on 
 the edge of the Shephelah, appear as the homes of a small cluster of 
 Danite clans. The Danites must have been few in number ; and it 
 is very probable that the migration of the main part of the tribe to 
 seek a new home in the extreme north (as related in ch. 18 ^^"-j Josh. 
 19 ^' J) may already have taken place. In any case, the Danites of 
 the south were at this time confined within a very small district ; 
 and, together with the neighbouring clans of Judah, were in subjec- 
 tion to the Philistines, and stood in wholesome dread of sharing the 
 responsibility of any action which might excite the animosity of their 
 masters (cf. 1 5 "). 
 
 The question must remain open whether any historical reality is to 
 be attached to the figure of Samson. It can hardly be denied that, 
 given the existence of a cycle of stories relating to a mythical solar 
 hero who had come to be popularly regarded as an historical 
 individual, we have sufficient substratum to account for the whole 
 Samson-tradition ; such elements in the story as are originally 
 unconnected with the solar myth belonging quite conceivably to the 
 local colouring which was the work of popular story-tellers. There 
 is, however, an abundance of analogy for the accretion of mythologi- 
 
 love to his native land is the motive of all his actions. But in ch. 16 he appears 
 as the slave of sensual passion, caught in the toils of a succession of paramours, 
 to the last of whom he even betrays the secret of the divine strength that 
 animated him. If this itself must have appeared to the mind of Rr> [our REs] 
 quite unworthy of a God-called judge (cf. 2 isisf), his fate also was an unfitting 
 one, namely that he should end his life as prisoner and slave of the unbeliever? ' 
 (£>fl. iv. p. 378 *). 
 
346 tHE BOOK: OF JDDGES [A i. i. 
 
 cal tales round historical persons ; and the fact that this is so should 
 warn us against pronouncing a categorical opinion that the figure of 
 Samson is wholly unhistorical. 
 
 Such a question is, however, of very slight importance. If we 
 could grant the historical chajracter of the whole Samson-narrative, 
 Samson would still not be the initiator or furtherer of any movement, 
 religious or political, in the history of Israel which would invest his 
 figure with the slightest historical significance. The real value of the 
 narrative lies in its local setting, which bears intrinsic evidence of 
 being very true to life, and in its preservation of a mythical tradition, 
 akin to that of other Semitic races, of the existence of which in Israel 
 we should otherwise be ignorant. 
 
 13. I. R"^" And the children of Israel again did that which 
 was evil in the sight of Yahweh ; and Yahweh gave them into 
 the hand of the Philistines forty years. 2. J" And there was a 
 certain man of Sor'ah, of the clan of the Danites, and his name 
 
 13. I. ike Philistines. On the origin of the Philistines, and their 
 settlement in Cana'an, cf Introd. pp. xcii ff. 
 
 2. a certain man. Heb. 'one man' — an indefinite use of iriN 
 'one' which is usually somewhat characteristic of the North Pales- 
 tinian dialect ; so in E in C/%. 9 =^ riDK nsyx ' a certain woman.' For the 
 classified Instances of inx in this sense, cf. NHTK. p. 209. This 
 small point cannot, however, weigh against the evidence already 
 adduced (p. 336) in proof that our narrative belongs to J. The whole 
 phrasing of v.^^ closely resembles that of ■z/.' of i Sam. i — a chapter 
 which, if reliance is to be placed upon striking parallels in diction 
 (cf. I Sam. I '"'P with v.^'-'^, I Sam. 1 1^" with v.^^, i Sam. i *^-'"', 
 3 ■'''■''^ with ij.^% should belong to J rather than (as commonly 
 supposed) to E. The details added to the narrative by Jos. {Ant. 
 V. viii. 2 f.) are apparently derived from his own imagination. 
 
 Sor'ah. The modern Sar'ah, fourteen miles due east of Jerusalem 
 in the Shephelah, upon an elevation on the northern side of the w4dy 
 es-Sarar (the widy of Sorek ; cf. 16*), up which the railway from 
 Jaffa to Jerusalem now travels. Beth-shemesh, i.e. ' Temple of the 
 Sun,' the modern 'Ain-Sems, stands on a corresponding eminence on 
 the opposite side of the widy, and its proximity may help to account 
 for the solar-mythological traits which the story of Samson seems to 
 exhibit (cf. Addit. note, p. 391). From the manner in which Sor'ah is 
 named with the neighbouring village Eshta'ol in z/.^'', ch. 16'', i8'''''' 
 as the home of the Danites, it would appear that they were at this 
 time nearly, if not wholly, confined to these two villages. The latty 
 village, if rightly identified with the modern 'Esfla' (cf. v?^ noif\ is. 
 less than, two miles off further up the wady to the no?th-east. The 
 Dknites must thus have been very few in number ; and it is to be 
 
13. 3-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 34I 
 
 was Manoah ; and his wife was barren and had not borne. 
 3. And the Angel of Yahweh appeared unto the woman, and 
 said unto her, ' Behold, now, thou art barren and hast not 
 borne ; ^'- but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4. J'' Now, 
 
 noted that they are described, both in this narrative, and in ch. 18 ^ni", 
 as a clan {mispaha; sebhet, 'tribe,' occurs, however, in 18 '•"•3°). 
 Their limitation to this small district on the edge of the hill-country 
 is explained in ck. i^; c£ further note ad loc. 
 
 Manoah. The manner in which the Manahtiles of Sor'ah 
 ('V"l-yn 'nnjsn lit. 'the Sorite Manahtites') are mentioned in i Chr. 
 1^ has suggested to many commentators that Manoah may have 
 been the eponymous ancestor of the clan-diyision of the Danites in- 
 habiting Sor'ah. It seems, however, to be likely that the connexion 
 in form between Manoah and Manahtites is merely accidental ; the 
 Manahtites being a Calibblte clan, a portion of which inhabited the 
 district of Sor'ah in post-exilic times.* The Calibbites formed an 
 element of the mixed tribe of Judah (cf note on ch. i '2) ; and we are 
 informed in Neh. 1 1 ^ that Sor'ah was one of the cities occupied by 
 the children of Judah after the Exile. 
 
 3. the Angel of Yahweh. Cf ch. 2 ' note. 
 
 but thou shalt conceive, etc. The words have the appearance of an 
 
 * The composite genealogy of the CaUbbites in i Chr. 2 *2-56 is very prob- 
 lematical ; but it seems likely, as Benzinger and Curtis assume (commentaries 
 ad loc. ; cf. also EB. 630) that vv. M-ss have to do with the posl-exilic Calibbites, 
 who, owing to the occupation of their former territory by the Edomites, were 
 obliged after the Exile to settle further north. Thus we find part of the Manahtites 
 at Sor'ah (v. ^), and another part in the neighbourhood of Kiriath-je'arim {v.^^ ; 
 read 'Dnjsn for mriJOn). These two divisions are traced respectively to 
 Salma and Shobal, who are said to have been 'sons,' i.e. clans of Caleb. These 
 Manahtites can hardly be unconnected with Manahath, son of Shobal, who is 
 mentioned in Gen. 36^3 P (cf. i Chr. i ") in the Horite division of the Edomites. 
 Though Manoah is only mentioned by name in Judg. 13 and 16 3i*, and not in 
 the old story-cycle oichs. 14-16, the connexion of his name with Samson and 
 Sor'ah must be of respectable antiquity (J2) ; and if he is really only the epony- 
 mous ancestor of the Manahtites, we must assume that, after the migration of 
 the Danites to the north, the last remnant of the tribe soon disappeared from 
 Sor'ah, and that the district was occupied by Manahtites at so relatively early a 
 period that the J narrator, in writing his introduction to the Samson-stories, 
 erroneously supposed that this Calibbite clan was Danite in origin. This is most 
 improbable. The only remaining possibility seems to be the assumption that 
 the tribe of Dan owed its origin, wholly or in part, to a CaUbbite or related 
 Edomite strain ; but, had this been so, should we not expect Dan to be con- 
 nected by tradition with Le'ah (like Judah) or at least with her handmaid Zilpah, 
 rather than with Bilhah— a relationship which seems to imply early connexiph 
 with thci Joseph-tribes rather than with Judah? 
 
 The name Manoah is identical in form with the wady el-Mun^h which runs 
 into the wady Sar^r from the direction of Tibneh (Timnah) ; but this is perhaps 
 a mere coincidence. 
 
342 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [13. 5. 
 
 therefore, prithee, take heed, and drink neither wine nor strong 
 drink, and eat nothing unclean: 5. for, behold,- thou art with 
 child, and shalt bear a son, and a razor shall not come up upon 
 his head ; for the lad shall be a Nazirite of God from the womb; 
 
 awkward anticipation of the announcement of v.^. They are pro- 
 bably a gloss (so Bu., Bohme, etc.) ; and it seems likely that they 
 were absent from the archetype of ffi°. (!B° now represents them 
 by Kai (rv\XTiii\jfri vJov, i.e. [3 n''"ini — probably an ad,dition from another 
 translation ; contrast the rendering of mri 13n I'Soi a-v iv yaa-rpi 
 tX"s, in vv.'-'' (so Mo.). 
 
 5. and shalt bear. On the Heb. Participial form, here and in v), 
 prh^y cf. G-K. § Zod. It occurs again in the parallel passage 
 
 Gen. 16". 
 
 a Nazirite. Heb. ndzir means 'dedicated' or 'consecrated' to the 
 service of the Deity. The law regulating the Nazirite vow is given 
 in the Priestly Code, Num. 6 ''^^ ; but it relates to a vow taken for a 
 limited period only, and not to a lifelong vow like that imposed upon 
 Samson. According to Num. 6 the Nazirite is bound to observe 
 three rules : (i) he must abstain from wine and all other products of 
 the grape, including even the fresh and dried fruit ; (2) he must 
 allow the hair of his head to grow, and must not touch it with a razor 
 so long as his vow lasts ; (3) he must not come near a dead body, 
 lest he incur defilement ; no relaxation of the rule being allowed in 
 the case of the death of father, mother, brother, or sister (wife 
 and child are not mentioned). Failure to observe this rule, such as 
 might be incurred through a sudden and unexpected death in his 
 company, involved the abrogation of his vow. The hair of his head 
 — which was regarded as the outward symbol of his consecration- 
 was considered to be defiled, and he remained unclean until the 
 V seventh day, when he shaved his head, and on the eighth day made 
 a specified offering. This being done, his head was once more con- 
 secrated by the priest, and he began again to perform the period of 
 his vow ; the days which had elapsed before his defilement being 
 considered to be forfeited. The completion of his vow without defile- 
 ment was signalized by the shaving of his head and the burning of 
 the hair on the altar, with the offering of sacrifices and the observance 
 of due formalities. Such a temporary vow is illustrated by Acts 21 ""■ ; 
 and that vows of this kind were frequent in post-exilic times is indi- 
 cated by such allusions as i Mace. 3 *', Jos., Ant. Xix. vi. i ; 
 BJ. II. XV. I. 
 
 The literary setting of the law of Num. 6 is, of course, like the rest 
 of P, post-exilic ; but there is no reason to doubt that in substance 
 the law is ancient, like so many other laws which are codified in P. 
 We note the resemblance between the regulation laid on Samson s 
 
13. S-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 343 
 
 mother with regard to abstaining from all products of the vine (cf. 
 especially v}\ and the regulation on this point as laid down in 
 Num. 6 2*. Apart from Samson, the only allusion to Nazirites in 
 pre-exihc times is found in Am. 2 "i^, where they are coupled with 
 the Prophets and spoken of as raised up by Yahweh to their vocation, 
 — the inference being that their vow was a lifelong one. This pas - 
 sage shows that the regulation of abstention from wine was funda- 
 mental ; and this is a trait which connects the Nazirites with the 
 Rechabites (Jer. 35), with whom they were probably also associated 
 in enthusiasm for a purer and simpler form of Yahweh-worship (cf. 
 2 Kgs. 10 '^ *), as opposed to the accretions (akin to Ba'al-worship) 
 which were the outcome of the settled life in Cana'an.* The fact that 
 Hannah, in dedicating her son to Yahweh all the days of his life, 
 vows that a razor shall not come up upon his head (cf i Sam. i '' 
 with Judg. 13°) has been taken by many to imply that Samuel was 
 another instance of a lifelong Nazirite ; and this inference is 
 strengthened if the addition of (S in •z'.", kqi olvov xal )i.i6v<T]ia ov 
 n-ierm, be regarded as a genuine part of the original text ; but the pro- 
 bability is rather that the passage has undergone amplification ' with the 
 view of representing Samuel's dedication as more complete' {NHTS.^ 
 ad loc). Samuel is called a Nazirite in Ecclus. 46" (Heb. text). 
 
 It is certainly a somewhat remarkable fact that, whereas such 
 references as we have to the Nazirite vow in pre-exilic times seem to 
 regard it as lifelong, the instances which occur in post-exilic times 
 are temporary merely ; \ but, in view of the scantiness of the evidence 
 which we possess, there is nothing in this to indicate that the two 
 forms of the vow were fundamentally different in conception,§ or did 
 not coexist throughout Israel's history. 
 
 * Cf. the present editor in JTS. ix. (1908), pp. 330 f., 346 f. 
 
 X The view that St. John the Baptist was a lifelong Nazirite is plausible, but 
 lacks evidence for its confirmation. The description given by Hegesippus of St. 
 James the Jtist, the brother of our Lord, represents him as a lifelong ascetic, 
 and uses language which is certainly based on the O.T. description of the 
 Nazirite obligations : — Oi5Tos 5^ e/c KotX£as fiTjrpbs aiirov dyios ^v. Olvov kclI 
 ffUepa oiiK ^iriev, odd^ ^fj-^uxov ^(paye, ^vpftv iirl ttjv Ketpa^X-qv avrou oOk dvi^Tj, 
 l\aiov oiiK TiXeitf/aTo, koI ^aXavelqi oix ixpijdaTo. Cf. Eusebius, HE. ii. 23. 
 
 § The most striking difference in the two forms of the vow — viz., that the 
 temporary vow found its culmination in the hair-offering, whereas in the lifelong 
 vow such an offering was an impossibility — is more apparent than real. The 
 conception involved in this form of offering appears to be that the hair, as a 
 living part of the human organism, represents the man's personality, which is 
 equally consecrated to the service of the Deity whether the hair is offered by fire 
 upon the altar at the conclusion of the vow, or remains inviolate upon the 
 Nazirite's head throughout his life. What is essential to the conception is that 
 the head of hair must not pass away from the sphere of consecration and be 
 treated as something profane ; and this is secured, in the temporary vow, by 
 ceremonial burning, and, in the lifelong vow, by the death of the Nazirite. 
 
 On the conception involved in the hair-offering, cf. Robertson Smith, Religion 
 of the Semites,^ pp. 323 ff. 
 
344 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [13, 5, 
 
 The failure of Samson to conform to the regulations prescribed to 
 the Nazirite in Num. 6 has led to the assumption that in ancient 
 times there must have been an essential difference in the character ol 
 the obligations imposed by the vow. Judging by the narrative of 
 Samson's life, the only obligation which he recognized was the wear- 
 ing of his hair unshorn (16 "). He can scarcely be supposed to have 
 abstained from wine ; for at his marriage-festival he gives a feast, the 
 Hebrew term for which {mistd, .i4"'-i2.i7^ from sdthd 'to drink') means 
 lit. a drinking-bout ; and that this feast was of the character which its 
 name implies is expressly indicated by the statement that, in so doing, 
 he did as other young men were accustomed to do in like circum- 
 stances (14'"). It may be inferred also that his slaughter of the 
 Philistines would have involved him in defilement through contact 
 with the dead.* The conclusion of Cooke that 'there was nothing 
 ascetic about the Nazirite in the early days,' and that 'abstinence from 
 wine did not become a mark of this type of devotee till a later time 
 (Am. 2 '2),' does not, however, solve the difficulty. The Samson- 
 narrative as a whole is not self-consistent on this point. The birth- 
 narrative, ch. 13, agrees well enough with Am. 2 "-'2, and even with 
 Num. 6, but cannot be reconciled with chs. 14-16. The injunction 
 laid upon Samson's mother to abstain from wine and strong drink 
 and from other products of the vine, and to avoid eating anything 
 unclean, so far from not being binding on the child (as Cooke 
 assumes J), is expressly based upon the fact that he is to be 'a 
 
 * The question has been raised by Gray [JTS.\. pp. 206 f. ) whether Samuel, on 
 the assumption that he was a Nazirite, could have been bound by the regula- 
 tions which forbade the drinking of wine and the touching of a dead body. He 
 * used to be present on festal occasions when it can scarcely be doubted that wine 
 was drunk, and we are never told that he himself abstained' ; and he 'hewed 
 Agag in pieces,' and so 'must have suffered pollution.' It is to be observed, 
 however, that on the three occasions on which Samuel is said to have presided at 
 a festival-meal (1 Sam. gii"-, ii"f-, i62ff), the meal was in every case sacrilidal, 
 and doubtless very different from Samson's rollicking 'drinking-bout.' If wine 
 was drunk at such sacrificial feasts, there is no reason why Samuel should not 
 have abstained. Was every Nazirite who was bound by the law of Num. 6 
 thereby debarred from taking part in such sacrificial meals during the period of 
 his vow, or throughout his life if he was a lifelong devotee? 
 
 The slaying of Agag was a solemn execution 'before Yahweh' (i Sam. is"*); 
 and it is at least an open question whether the slaughter of Yahweh's enemies 
 carried defilement like ordinary contact with the dead. When war was 'con- 
 secrated' (cf. Jer. 64, Joel 3', l§ 4^), i.e. a holy war proclaimed, were Yahweh's 
 'consecrated ones' (Isa. 13^), i.e. His warriors, who were tinder special regula- 
 tions of purity and taboo (Deut. 23 1"-!'', 2 Sam. 11 1^), defiled by active participa- 
 tion in it ? The Ark at any rate did not suffer pollution through going into battle 
 at the head of the army. 
 
 It may be admitted, however, that we have not the same ground for assuming tht 
 prohibition of contact with the dead to have been characteristic of the early form 
 of the Nazirite vow, as we have with regard to the prohibition of drinking wine. 
 
 X ' The restrictions are laid upon the mother ; nothing is said about the child 
 observing them ' (p. 132). 
 
3. 6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 345 
 
 '^ and it is he that shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the 
 hilistines.' 6. J" And the woman came and told her husband, 
 tying, ' A man [ ] came unto me, and his appearance was like 
 le appearance of [ ] ^a? god, very awful ; and I asked him not 
 
 azirite of God from the womb.' If, then, he is bound, through his 
 other, by this obligation when still unborn, a fortiori its stringency 
 
 not intended to be relaxed in his after-life. Yet not only, as we 
 ive seen, does he apparently drink wine, but he also eats honey 
 hich has been taken from the decomposed carcase of a lion ; and in . 
 1 this the narrator of chs. 14-16 evinces no consciousness that his 
 ;ro is infringing the terms of his vocation. The Conclusion to which 
 e are led is that of Y^Mt,. IReligion of Israel., i. p. 308) : ' Is it not 
 rident from this that Samson has been made a Nazirite, although, 
 ith the exception of this one feature [his long locks], his whole 
 story is opposed to this conception?' The author oi ch. 13 (which, 
 i we have seen, is later than the stories of chs. 14-16 which it intro- 
 Jces) seems to have assumed that the long locks with which his hero 
 as endowed marked him as a Nazirite ; and so in the birth-narrative 
 ; represented him as such — this inference being the easier owing to 
 6 fact that his supernatural strength was, according to the old tradi- 
 3n, bound up with the retention of his locks, just as a divine endow- 
 ent might be granted to a Nazirite on the condition of the faithfial 
 ;rformance of the terms of his vow. The difficulty of accepting 
 imson as a Nazirite is in itself a warrant for investigating the 
 aims of a different explanation of the meaning of his long hair 
 i. p. 404). 
 
 begin to save. In using this qualified phrase, R-"^ (cf p. 338) 
 jpears to be influenced partly by the difficulty of regarding Samson 
 
 an effective 'judge' (saviour), and partly by the fact that his 
 story was to contain E's narrative of the signal deliverance under 
 e judgeship of Samuel (i Sam. 7 ; cf especially v}^). Mo. explains 
 (egin to save' as meaning no more than 'be the first to save' (cf 
 I '* ' begin to fight,' also R-"") ; but this is less likely. 
 
 6. a man. Reading tr'N simply, with Bu., No., Kit., Ehr. Cf w.'", 
 lere the woman alludes again to the visitor as 'the man.' pj 
 n'^Nn E'lN must be intended to mean 'a man of God' (an inspired 
 an, or prophet) ; but this should naturally be D'rf^N K**!* (cf 
 Sam. 2^7, 9 s, 2 Kgs. i '", 4°), the use of the Definite Article before 
 
 n7K making the whole phrase definite — '■ the man of God,' as in v.^ 
 d very frequently elsewhere. It is probable that, as Bu. assumes, 
 
 n?xn has been carelessly added from v.\ 
 
 a god. Reading D'n'^X with Bohme, Holzinger, Bu., No., Kit. 
 
346 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [13. 9. k 
 
 whence he was, and his name he told me not. 7. And he sai 
 to me, "Behold thou art with child, and shalt bear a son; nov 
 therefore, drink neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nc 
 anything unclean ; for the lad shall be a Nazirite of God fror 
 the womb unto the day of his death.'" 
 
 8. And Manoah intreated Yahweh, and said, 'Oh, Lore 
 prithee let the man of God, whom thou didst send, come agaii 
 unto us, and teach us what we shall do to the child that shal 
 be born.' 9. And TYahweh"' hearkened to the voice of Manoah 
 and the Angel of '"Yahweh"' came again unto the woman, as shi 
 was sitting in the field ; and Manoah her husband was not will 
 her. 10. And the woman made ha^te, and ran, and told he 
 husband, and said unto him, 'Behold the man hath appearec 
 unto me that came unto me the other day.' 11. And Manoal 
 arose, and went after his wife, and came unto the man, and sai( 
 to him, ' Art thou the man that spake unto the w6man ? ' An( 
 
 The sense intended seems to be '■ Sl supernatural being' ; so probabl; 
 in 2/.^^. For this use of 'elohtm, of. i Sam. 28 '^, where the witch 
 'Endor, when she has called up the shade of Samuel (and also 
 apparently, attendant spirits; cf. NHTS? ad loc.\ says, 'I se( 
 'elohim (supernatural beings) coming up from the earth.' p 
 
 DTll'Kn ■^nI'ID 'like the Angel of God'; but the regular expressior 
 elsewhere in the narrative (j/2/.3'3-i»J6.i7.i8.2o.2i . ^^ ^9^ (,f_ ^^^^j ;g ifjn 
 Angel of Yahweh ' ; and it appears to be not till vP- that Manoal 
 and his wife even suspect the real character of their visitor {v}^'" ; cf 
 also ch. 6 ^^). 
 
 9. And Yahweh . . . and the Angel of Yahweh. Reading nin' ii 
 
 both cases for Q^flpsn ; in the first case with iL^, "S, S"", and in thf 
 
 second with iL'', S"". As Mo. remarks, the substitution of D'nPKn ir 
 
 |§ may have been accidentally due to the proximity of DTIPSn W 
 in V? 
 
 10. the other day. Heb. QVa lit. ' on the day,' i.e. the day whicl 
 was noteworthy on account of the event with which it was connected' 
 
 * The . use of the Definite Article is somewhat similar in the phras( 
 '31 DVn ''H'T (i Sam. i*, 14 1, 2 Kgs. 48.11.18, Job iS.is, 2 if), where Englisl 
 idiom renders 'And there came a day when, etc.,' but which literally nieani 
 'And the day was, etc.,' day being defined on account of the events (to bi 
 related) which happened on it. Cf. the discussion in NHTS.^ p. 6. 
 
13. 12. IS. i6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 347 
 
 he said, 'I am.' 12. And Manoah said, 'Now, if thy wordn 
 come to pass, what shall be the rule for the lad and his 
 work?' 13. And the Angel of Yahweh said unto Manoah, 'Of 
 all that I said unto the woman let her take heed. 14. Of all 
 that Cometh of the grape-vine she shall not eat, and wine and 
 strong drink let her not drink, and anything unclean let her not 
 eat: all that I have commanded her let her observe.' 15. And 
 Manoah said unto the Angel of Yahweh, ' Prithee let us detain 
 thee, and make ready before thee a kid of the goats.' 16. And 
 the Angel of Yahweh said unto Manoah, ' Though thou detain 
 
 12. Now, if, etc. The 'if is not expressed in Heb., the two clauses 
 being placed side by side so as to form a virtual hypothetical sentence 
 — 'Now, let thy word come to pass, what shall be, etc.,' implies 
 '■Assuming that thy word, etc' Cf. ch. 6'^ lit. 'And is Yahweh 
 with us, why, then, etc.,' i.e. ' If Yahweh is, etc' : Driver, Tenses, 
 § 149. Perles {Analekten, p. 35) and La. propose to emend nj? for 
 
 nny — ^ At the time when thy word cometh true, what shall be, etc' 
 
 (cf. Ps. 105 15 nai'Nia ny"ni? ' Until the time when his word came 
 
 to pass ') ; but the change is no improvement. 
 
 thy word. Reading sing. ^-|31 with many MSS. and (K, e., IL"-, 
 r, S'', in place of S plur. ^nan. 
 
 the rule for the lad. Heb. "iVJn DStJ'D. Heb. mispat is here used 
 
 in its common sense oi ordinance or rule of life. That this should be 
 the sense intended seems to be demanded by the Angel's answer, 
 which repeats the injunctions laid upon the woman. So R.V. marg. 
 'ordering.' R.V. text, 'What shall be the manner of the childV 
 interprets mispat in the sense which it seems to possess only else- 
 where in 2 Kgs. I ', ' What is the manner of the man that came up 
 to meet you ?' i.e. ' How would you describe him ?' Apart, however, 
 from the exceptional character of this use of mispat as the summary 
 of distinctive characteristics, such a sense is less suitable to the con- 
 text than that which we have adopted. 
 
 1 5. make ready before thee. As Mo. observes, the expression is a 
 pregnant one, equivalent to ' make ready and set before thee.' La. 
 
 assumes that "^is^ 'before thee' implies something further, and so 
 follows St. Augustine in supposing that Manoah is contemplating a 
 sacrificial meal, which the Angel rejects in favour of a holocaust ; 
 but this view is expressly precluded by ■z/.'^'', where we are told that 
 Manoah was unaware of the extraordinary character of his guest 
 
 16. Though thou detain me, etc. The J. narratives Gen. i8"'-. 
 
348 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [13. 17. 
 
 me, I will not eat of thy bread ; but if thou wilt prepate a burnt 
 offering, to Yahweh shalt thou offer it.' For Manoah knew not 
 that he was the Angel of Yahweh. 1 7. And Manoah said unto 
 the Angel of Yahweh, 'What is thy name? When thy word'"! 
 
 Judg. 6 i'-^', which have strong points of resemblance to our narra- 
 tive, differ somewhat as regards the guest's reception of the offer of 
 hospitality. In Gen. 18 the supernatural visitors accept the offer and 
 partake of the meal. In Judg. 6 the Angel of Yahweh, after assenting 
 to Gide'on's proposal, converts the meal into a sacrifice. Here he 
 refuses the meal, but suggests instead the offering of a sacrifice to 
 Yahweh. The three narratives thus seem to mark an advance from 
 a very primitive stage in which Yahweh Himself (cf. Gen. 18 '-'2*) is 
 thought to visit men and accept their hospitality, to later modification 
 of the naiveU of the conception by substitution of the Angel of 
 Yahweh for Yahweh Himself (cf note on ch. 2' at end), and 
 conversion of the meal into a sacrifice offered to Yahweh, who 
 seems in the present passage to be definitely distinguished from 
 His Angel. 
 
 17. What is thy name? Heb. ^DB' ''D, lit. 'Who is thy name?' 
 — perhaps through a sub-consciousness of the equivalence of the 
 question to 'Who art thou?' Elsewhere (Gen. 32^*, Ex. 3'') no 
 is used ; and it is possible that H and ^ which are very similar in 
 the old character, may have been confused in our passage. 
 
 when thy word . . . honour. Heb. 'l-li'liiai T}3T Niaj-'3. ffi*"-, 
 "S, S"", R.V. 'that when thy words come to pass we may do thee 
 honour'; and this rendering is adopted by commentators generally 
 without remark upon the difficulty of justifying it syntactically. The 
 Opening 'that' apparently represents the 1 of TIJIMI (so Ros. renders 
 ' si eveniat quod praedixeris, ut honoremus te '), and this would have 
 been the natural interpretation if the order of the sentence had been 
 ^^3^ K3'' '3 Tinaai 'that we may do thee honour when thy word 
 cometh to pass ' ; but it is more than doubtful whether such a render- 
 ing can be extracted from the sentence in its present order. It is 
 perhaps just possible to render ''3 ' for ' and treat what follows as a 
 virtual hypothetical (cf note on ■z'.'^, 'Now, if, etc.') — 'for, let thy 
 word come to pass, and we will, etc' (cf 3C), i.e. ' for, when (or if) 
 thy word ... we will, etc' ; cf. i/.^^ note. On the whole, however, 
 the rendering adopted above (so Stu.) is the most natural one. 
 
 thy word. Reading sing. 113T with K^ri, many MSS. of %, and 
 
 «5, U, S^ in place of Kt. T131. " 
 
 * The confusion in this narrative between the sing. 'Yahweh' (j/i,.ia-s.ioa.i3.i7.20.2ab.«.) 
 and the plur. 'three men' (i/K.2.4.6.8.9..i6.22a) jj very obscure. Cf., however, the 
 interesting remarks of S]tii\ner, ICC. pp. 302 f. 
 
f3. i8. 19.] tHE BOOK Of JUbGES 345 
 
 X)meth to pass we will do thee honour.' 18. And the Angel of 
 i^'ahweh said to him, ' Wherefore, now, askest thou concerning 
 ny name, seeing that it is wonderful?' 19. And Manoah 
 :ook the kid of the goats, ^i. with the meal-offering, J' and 
 offered it up upon the rock to Yahweh.[] 20. And, when 
 
 18. wonderful. The adj. piVt occurs only once again in the fern. 
 bitiyya Ps. 139 ^* which illustrates the meaning in the present 
 passage : — 
 
 ' Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; 
 Too high, I cannot attain unto it.' 
 
 The root-meaning is separate from the ordinary, and so surpassing 
 it. For the verbal form in the Niph'al with the sense surpassing 
 understanding, cf. Ps. 131 S Prov. 30'^, Job 42 ^ 
 
 19. with the tneal-offering. This use of minhd, which in pre-exilic 
 literature is the ordinary term for offering generally, in the specific 
 sense of w^aZ-ofifering, is late, and characterizes the ritual of the 
 Priesdy Code. Bohme is therefore probably correct in regarding the 
 reference here and in v?^ as a late addition made for the sake of 
 Hturgical correctness. 
 
 and offered it up, etc. Manoah, we must assume, kindles his sacri- 
 Bce in the ordinary way. Contrast 6^'. The narrative of Jos. {Ant. 
 V. viii. 3) is here strongly coloured by recollection of ch. 6 '^'2'. 
 Manoah regards the offering not as a sacrifice but as a mark of 
 hospitality. It is the Angel who commands him to place 'the loaves 
 md flesh, without the vessels,' on the rock, and who by touching, it 
 ivith the end of his rod converts it into a burnt-offering, then dis- 
 ippearing in the smoke of the sacrifice. 
 
 upon the rock. The reference seems to be to a rock-altar : cf, note 
 on ch. 6 ^. Such a primitive rock-altar exists at the present day in the 
 neighbourhood of Sar'ah : cf Kittel, Studien zur hebrdischen Archd- 
 ■ylogie und Religionsgeschichte (1908), pp. 97-158 (with two plans); 
 ijber primitive Felsaltdre in Paldstina, pp. 243-255 of Hilprecht 
 Anniversary Volume (with photographs). 
 
 At the end of the verse ?§ adds, d'N'I iriB'NI niJDI Tiimh xijaai, 
 i.e. ' and doing wondrously, and Manoah and his wife were looking 
 an.' Here the Participle K^'SD is without a subj., and cannot have 
 ihus stood originally. . &^^ "'■ ti^ 6av\iama noioiivn (in apposition to 
 preceding ra Kvpia), Y '(Domino,) qui fecit mirabilia,' presuppose 
 
 ♦ In these passages ATi. should be vocalized *X?a, njSPS. -^'ri 
 
556 tHE BOOK OF JUDGES tl3. 25. 
 
 the flame went up from off the altar towards heaven, the 
 Angel of Yahweh went up in the flame of the altar : and Manoah 
 and his wife were looking on, and they fell on their faces to the 
 ground. 21. And the Angel of Yahweh appeared no more 
 unto Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that it was the 
 Angel of Yahweh. 22. And Manoah said unto his wife, 'We 
 shall surely die, for it is a god that we have seen.' 23. And his 
 
 nVW^ X^SIsn 'who doeth {or who did) wondrously,' and this is 
 adopted by Mo., La., Kent. Maurer (quoted by Stu.), Get. suggest 
 'Jl xijaD X-ini 'He (Yahweh) doing wondrously'; but, as Stu. 
 
 remarks, it is awkward to have two circumstantial clauses (this and 
 the following 'J1 VKKS\) thus side by side. Get. gives as an alternative 
 'J1 N^a'l ' and he did wondrously ' ; cf. ffi" kai Biexaipicrev jroi^o-ai. 
 
 Houbigant supplies a subj. 'J1 KPSD nin"! 'and Yahweh did won- 
 drously.' R.V. 'and iAe angel did wondrously' could only be justi- 
 fied by the insertion of a subj. Sin or ^X?D^. Kit. supposes that the 
 words are misplaced, and should properly follow ■z/.^"* — ' and the Angel 
 of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar in a most wonderful 
 way.' It is, however, very superfluous to state at this point that the 
 Angel's action was extraordinary. 
 
 It can hardly be doubted that the difficult words are really a 
 marginal explanation — 'doing wondrously' — of the rare adj. piH 
 'wonderful' in v.^^ {J>iPt, lit. 'extraordinary' is explained by the 
 cognate verb m-aphli, ' making extraordinary as regards doing,' i.e. 
 acting in an extraordinary way). This has crept into the text in the 
 wrong place, together with erroneous repetition of the words 'and 
 Manoah and his wife were looking on ' from v.^. So Ber., Bohme, 
 Oort, Bu. 
 
 20. the altar. /.£. 'the rock' of w.'', which was evidently an ancient 
 
 place of sacrifice (cf. the use of the verb PVI 'and he offered it up'), 
 and, as such, may be appropriately described by the term n3H0. 
 
 There is no reason for suspecting the originality of the verse (Stu.), 
 or for supposing that 'the altar' has been substituted for 'the rock' 
 by a later hand (Bohme). 
 
 went up, etc. The description is more specific than that of 6*', 
 where the Angel merely vanishes from Gide'on's sight. 
 TVe shall surely die. Cf 6 ^^ note, 
 for it is a god, etc. The order of the Heb., -IJ^XT D'll'^S 'I, 
 
 is very emphatic. R.V. renders 'elohtm ' God ' ; but had this been 
 intended we should have expected Manoah to have used the name 
 
 \ 
 
13- 23-] THE BOOK OI^ JUDGlES 351 
 
 wife said to him, ' If Yahweh had been pleased to kill us, he 
 would not have -received at our ha'nd a burnt offering ^i. and 
 meal-offering;^ JJ-and would not Thave instructed us"" [ ] rthusl' [ ] 
 
 Yahweh, and not 'eloMm : cf. the verse following. On the sense in 
 which 'elohim is probably used, cf. note on v.^. 
 
 23. and would not have instructed us thus. Reading nxfs -IJlin X'^1 
 in place of |§ nNfa •laV'OB'n ^ nwi n^N-b-nx -UNin ^\ 'neither 
 
 would he have shewed us all these things, nor would he at this time 
 have told us such a thing as this.' The difficulty of f^'s text is two- 
 fold, (i) The expression nV3 'at this time' (omitted in some ffi 
 MSS., IL, 1") is very rare, occurring again only in ch. 21 ''^, Num. 23 2^, 
 in both of which passages it causes some little difficulty and its 
 originality is questioned. Granted that it means 'at this time' or 
 'just now,' its position in the sentence is strange, since, referring as • 
 it does very strikingly to UVOBTI SP, and not to the preceding 
 13Sin K?1 . . . np? K?, 'it seems to oppose the hearing, as recent, 
 to the seeing and the sacrifice' (Mo.). Mo.'s suggested emendation 
 nril? '3 'for now,' is unsuitable apart from omission of all that pre- 
 cedes from npi) N^ to rh\f. and the reading of }'Sn X^ for fSn "h— 
 ' Yahweh is not pleased to kill us ; for now he would not have told 
 us,' etc. 
 
 (2) If 'J1 IJKTn XP1, 'neither would he have shewed us all these 
 things,' refers to the sights which they had just witnessed, i.e. the 
 appearance of the Angel and his subsequent proceedings, since it was 
 on account of this appearance that Manoah supposed that Yahweh 
 would slay them, it is obvious that it could not be adduced as a reason 
 why He would not slay them. If, on the other hand, the verb 
 ' shewed ' refers to the information with regard to the birth of the 
 child and his fiiture, it is superfluous by the side of nST3 liV'DETI X? 
 'he would not have told us, etc,,' since it says the same thing with 
 but slight variation. 
 
 fflr*'', it, Si^ render 13X^^ K?1 by khi ouk hi cijiaTia-ev 17/ias, which 
 points to an original -ijiin iih) 'and would not have instructed us' ; 
 
 cf. their rendering of Ull'l w* by koI (j^atTKraro) ruias.* The fact that 
 
 IJlin N? and IJV'DETI XP are synonymous expressions seems to 
 postulate the existence of a doublet. We assume, then, that 
 nxn Ulin X^l was the original reading (cf. UIVl v.'), and 
 
 * The rendering is probably due {as Mo., SBOT., observes) to false etymo- 
 logical association of min with ^1X• The verb is similarly rendered in 2 Kgs. 
 12 2 17 ^'^S. 
 
354 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [IS. 44: 
 
 24. And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: 
 and the lad grew up, and Vahweh blessed hifti. 25. And the 
 
 riXt3 IJJJ^DKTI to, a marginal variant or explanatory gloss, was 
 subsequently introduced into the text. Later stages of corruption 
 are represented by the alteration of l^lin to "l3Snn (thus making 
 reference to seeing and hearing in place of the double reference to 
 hearing), the glossing of the first flXD by nPK P3 ns, and its sub- 
 sequent alteration to rij/a, and then to nj)31 when taken to refer to 
 the words which follow it. The conclusions of Mo. {SBOT.) and 
 La. are similar. 
 
 24. Samson, iffil Simson. The a-vowel of the English form, which 
 is found in ffi Sa/ii/Zmi', "B ' Samson,' represents the primitive vocaliza- 
 tion.* Cf. the name Sams4nu cited by Hilprecht, Business Docu- 
 ments of Murdshu Sons of Nippur, pp. 27, 70. 
 
 The connexion of the name with Se'me^ ' sun ' may be considered 
 certain, and no other proposed explanation is at all plausible | ; but 
 the precise meaning borne by the name is wholly vague. The view 
 that it is a diminutive form — ' little sun ' — is not very probable, the 
 only analogous formation that can be cited being 'USn ' pupil of the 
 eye' — apparently 'little man' (reflected in pupil) — formed from 'U 
 ' man ' : cf. G-K. § 86 ^. More plausible is the suggestion that the 
 termination makes the form adjectival ; cf kadhmon 'eastern'; from 
 kedhem 'east' : G-K § 86/ Samson might then mean 'solar one,' 
 just as irT'T 'Jericho' very possibly means 'lunar' (rfc. city)§; but the 
 
 precise significance of such a title — whether ' sun-like,' ' solar hero,' 
 or 'protege of the sun-god' — is obscure. The proximity of Beth- 
 shemesh 'Temple of the Sun' to Samson's birthplace (c£ note on 
 'Spr'ah,' f.^) suggests the likelihood that the hero's name was, in 
 origin, honorific of the sun-god. It is possible, indeed, that the name 
 may be hypocoristic for a fuller Samsi-el, ' Samas is God ' ; cf. "Abdon, 
 ch. 12 '21^ al, by the side of 'Abdi-el, 'Servant of God,' i Chr. 5". 
 Similar South Palestinian names are Sheshai and Shavsha (cf p. lo), 
 and possibly Shimshai of Ezr. 48.M7.23_ 
 
 * Cf. note on baggabborim, pp. 168 f. 
 
 { The statement of Jos. {Ant. V. viii. 4), koX yepdfievov rb iraiStov 'SiO.ii.^Sm 
 KoXoOffLv, Iffx^pbv &' 6,iTo(yqii^aivei rb bvo^a, is probably guesswork, it being unlikely 
 that he connected it with Sdmen (Meier) in the sense 'robust': cf, ch, 3®. 
 Ewald (HI. ii. p. 396) suggests derivation from New Heb. Hmmes, Aram. 
 sammes 'to serve,' in the sense 'servant' of God, i.e. Nazirite. Other views— 
 e.g. that the name stands for Samsom, a reduplicated form from idmim, in the 
 sense 'devastator' (cf. Ber.); or that it is to be e.xplained from Ar. samsam, 
 ' vir fortis et audax' (Golius quoted by Ros. ) — are philologically impossible. 
 
 § That the denominative termination -0, as seen in in'Ti is probably an 
 abbreviation of -$n, is suggested by the parallel forms Megiddd, MegiddSn, and 
 the adjectival forms ShtlSnt from ShilS, Gitont from Gilo : cf. Stade, LehrhmH 
 der heb. Grantm. , § 296 e. 
 
3. 25.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 353 
 
 pirit of Yahweh began to impel him in Mahaneh-Dan, between 
 iorah and Eshta'ol. 
 
 25. to impel him. I.e. to stir him up by a sudden access of frenzy 
 n which he was moved to put forth his supernatural strength. 
 The Heb. verb pa am is used elsewhere of the disquieting of the 
 luman spirit through anxiety or perplexity; Gen. 41', Dan. 2 ^-^ 
 
 's. 77*(S')+. 
 
 Mahaneh-Dan. Possibly a hamlet dependent upon Sor'ah which 
 ras the home of Manoah ; since the same definition of locality — 
 between Sor'ah and Eshta'ol' — is used in 16'' of the site of the family- 
 epulchre. The name, which means 'the camp of Dan,' is explained 
 n ch. 18'^ as owing its origin to an encampment of the Danites to 
 he west of Kiriath-Je'arim, when they were on the march from 
 jor'ah and Eshta'ol to seek a new home in the north. Kiriath- 
 e'arim, if rightly identified with Kuryet el-'Enab, is nearly eight miles 
 ast-north-east of Sor'ah. The existence in close proximity of two 
 )laces bearing the same name Mahaneh-Dan is very improbable ; 
 .nd since the connexion in which the name occurs in 18'^ favours 
 ts originality in that passage, it is very possible that it may be an 
 rroneous insertion in the present context. S. A. Cook's proposal 
 EB. 2904 ; Notes on O. T. History, p. 88) to emend Manahath- 
 Dan in both places, and to find allusion to the two divisions of the 
 ilanahtites, one in connexion with Kiriath-Je'arim (i Chr. 2,^^) and 
 he other at Sor'ah (l Chr. 2**), is ingenious but not convincing. As 
 ife have noticed above {footnote, p. 341), the Manahtites seem to 
 lave been post-exilic Calibbite settlers in these districts, and to have 
 lad no connexion with the tribe of Dan. 
 
 Eshtdol. Commonly identified with the modern 'Esua', not much 
 nore than a mile and a half to the north-east of Sor'ah ; cf. note on 
 ior'ah, v."^. On the rare (in Heb.) Iphf^'al form of the name, which is 
 )ossibly to be derived from the verb M'al 'ask' in the sense 'ask for one- 
 elf,' and so may mean ' place of consulting the oracle ' (the site of an 
 ncient sanctuary), cf the present editor's note mJTS. xiii. ( 1 91 1 ), p. 83. 
 
 14. Doom, and Sta. (followed by Mo., Bu., and most recent com- 
 aentators) have rightly perceived that the narrative of this chapter 
 las been extensively worked over, for the purpose of representing 
 lamson, so far as was possible, in the light of a dutiful son. As the 
 tory stands, it seems as though Samson's parents, though at first 
 trongly opposed to his wish to marry a PhiUstine maiden {v.\ finally 
 cquiesce and accompany him to Timnah in order to forward his 
 lans (vv.^-'^"). There are, however, very obvious difficulties in the 
 ^ay of accepting such a situation. In v.^, though Samson is accom- 
 anied by his parents, it is he alone who is confronted by the lion ; 
 nd, when he has slain it, his parents are unaware of the fact (z/.^"). 
 Ve can only infer that he must have outstripped his parents onfth? 
 
 Z 
 
354 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 way (Kimchi), or turned aside along a bypath in the vineyards ; yet 
 of this there is no hint in the narrative. In vv.''-^ the parents dis- 
 appear altogether ; and it is Samson alone who interviews the woman 
 and arranges the preliminaries of the wedding, returning after a time 
 to carry it through. In w'""- the father appears in a belated way; 
 but it is Samson who makes the marriage-feast (■z/."">), and acts 
 throughout on his own responsibility. 
 
 The account of the journeys to and from'Timnah is also, as the 
 narrative stands, very confused. After the first visit in company with 
 his father and mother, the return to Sor'ah is assumed but not 
 mentioned; and v.' narrates a second visit to Timnah of Samson by 
 
 himself in order to get married (nnnp?). On the way down he visits 
 the carcase of the lion and discovers the honey ; some of which he 
 gives to his father and his mother. Yet we cannot suppose that he 
 had returned to Sor'ah prior to the actual marriage-festival (z/w. ""'■), 
 since it was for the sake of this that he went to Timnah, as recorded 
 in v.^ ; nor can we assume that his parents accompanied him again in 
 V.', and that he gave them the honey on the way down or ai Timnah, 
 since it is not till v.^" that his father comes down (from Sor'ah). 
 The narrative at once becomes clear if, with Doom, and Sta., we 
 
 omit 1DK1 VHSI and read the sing. K2i1 in v.^ ; omit v.^^ TW iih\ 
 
 to ntJ'3? ; omit nnnph vfi ; read pCOE' in place of IHins in v}\ and 
 omit the name in vy^^. In face of his parents' opposition to the 
 match, Samson goes alone to Timnah, and returns after a few days 
 to his parents' house at Sor'ah ('Z'.'), bringing them some of the honey 
 which he has discovered on his journey home. The simple removal 
 
 of nnnpP 'to marry her' in v.^ at once solves the difficulty noted 
 above as to the journeys to and fro, by allowing the obvious inference 
 that it was on Ms return to Sor'ah that he found the honey, and not, 
 as the interpolator imagined, on going a second time to Timnah, 
 after a return home unrecorded. He would naturally inspect the 
 lion's carcase on the earliest opportunity. His second visit to 
 Timnah, in order to celebrate his marriage, is recorded in j/,'", 
 which originally ran ' And Samson went down unto the woman, and 
 he made there a feast, etc' 
 
 There is another point which confirms this view of affairs. From 
 Samson's request to his parents in v? it is clear that he originally 
 contemplated a marriage of the ordinary kind, when his father would 
 have interviewed the father of the maiden and arranged the viohar 
 (purchase-price), and the bride would have been brought back to the 
 bridegroom's house at Sor'ah, where the feast would have been held 
 In this case the bridegroom's 'companions' who assisted at the 
 function would have been young men from his own clan. According 
 to z/.", however, these 'companions' are not Danites but Philistines; 
 the feast, though provided by Samson, takes place not atSor'ah but 
 
14. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 355 
 
 at Timnah ; and it is there, evidently, that the marriage would have 
 been consummated {v.^% reading HTinn ■ cf. note) if Samson had 
 
 not left in a rage after the unfair discovery of his riddle. This is still 
 further borne out by c^. 1 5 \ where, on regaining his good temper, he 
 returns to Timnah with a present for his bride, and expects to enjoy 
 the rights of marriage at her father's house. It is evident, therefore, 
 that after failing to persuade his parents to agree to such a marriage 
 as he had at first contemplated, he arranges, without their consent, a 
 marriage of the sadika type (cf ch. 8 '' note), in which the custom was 
 that the bride remained with her own people, the children of the 
 marriage belonging to the mother's, and not to the father's clan, and 
 the marriage-contract being frequently for a limited period merely. 
 
 This explains the fact that the bridegroom's 'companions' of v}^ 
 are Philistines and not Danites. The only difficulty, as this verse 
 stands, is that they are selected, not by Samson, but by persons 
 undefined who seem to have thought it wise to have a strong body of 
 Philistines on the spot on account of the formidable appearance of 
 the bridegroom. Here the fact that the narrative has been worked 
 over is transparently evident. Probably the verse originally ran, 
 'And he {i.e. Samson) took thirty companions, and they remained 
 with him ' ; but the policy of representing Samson's conduct in the 
 best possible light, which seems to have dominated the reviser of 
 the narrative, has led to alteration of the text — instead of Samson 
 himself choosing his marriage-companions from among the uncircum- 
 cised, they were forced upon him ; and a reason for this has to be 
 invented and supplied. 
 
 As to when the narrative was thus extensively glossed we have no 
 means of determining. Probably the additions were made in late 
 post-exilic times (so Mo., SBOT.), though this is by no means 
 certain. They are marked in the text by the symbol Gl., i.e. ' Gloss.' 
 
 Further interpolations {vv. '* '■'') are noticed in their place. 
 
 14. I. J' And Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a 
 
 I. Timnah. The form nrUDD Timndtha with Accusative termina- 
 tion, which is natural in ■z/z/.'**' where direction towards is implied 
 (n locative; cf Gen. 38 '^•'^•"), is used without this implication in 
 ^^\\,.2.sb^ Josh. 19^^; cf note on Jahas, ch. 11^. njOD Timnah 
 occurs in Josh. 1 5 '" *', 2 Chr. 28 '*. Timnah is the modern Tibneh, 
 in the Shephelah, some four miles south-west of Sor'ah. The eleva- 
 tion of Sor'ah is 1171 feet above the Mediterranean, while that of 
 Timnah is 800 feet ; hence the use of the verb ' went down ' here and 
 in vv. *■''•"', and conversely 'went up,' vv. ^•"', of the homeward journey. 
 Timnah, which is here a Philistine city, is assigned to Dan in 
 Josh. 19*' P; while in Josh. 151" P it appears as a border-city of 
 Judah. 2 Chr. 28 '* mentions a Philistine raid on the Shephelah and 
 
356 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [14. 2. 3 
 
 woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2. Anc 
 he went up, and told his father and his mother, and said, '] 
 have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philis- 
 tines : now, therefore, get her for me to wife.' 3. And his father 
 G'- and his mother J' said to him, ' Is there not a woman among 
 the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my folk, that thou 
 art going to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines ? ' And 
 
 the Negeb in the reign of Ahaz, when Timnah and neighbouring 
 cities were captured from Judah. 
 
 a woman. Bu. comments on the uncommon use of issa here and in 
 w. 2a.7W instead aind'^rd ' maiden,' the ordinary term for an unmarried 
 girl. He suggests that the 'woman' may have been a widow or 
 divorced wife, or else that the term may be used with a shade of 
 contempt. The latter suggestion is the more probable ; cf. the appli- 
 cation of the term to Delilah in ch. 16^. 
 
 2. get her, etc. The preliminaries of marriage, such as the settle- 
 ment of the m6kar{ci. p. 354), were a matter of arrangement between 
 the fathers of the suitor and his desired bride : cf. the later version of 
 the story of Gen. 34, especially w.^-^-^-'^'K Samson addresses both 
 his parents and uses the plur. verb inp ^getjye.' This inclusion of the 
 mother may be due to P in view of her prominence in ch. 13, or to a 
 later hand for the same reason ; but this is by no means certain. 
 Though the negotiations rested with the father, there is no reason 
 why he should not have been to some extent dependent on his wife's 
 advice. In the following ■v.^'- it is probable that 10X1 'and his 
 mother' is an addition in imitation of ^'.^. Notice the sing, suffix of 
 'Dy ' my folk ' in the father's speech, and the fact that Samson's 
 response in v.^'' is addressed to his father only. 
 
 3. among the daughters of thy brethren. 'Brethren' here= 
 'fellow-clansmen'; cf. ch. 16^', 9^-^, 2 Sam. ig'l S^ presupposes 
 'IDX ri'33 'in thy father's house,' i.e. thy family or clan; cf. 16'', 
 
 and very frequently in P and Chr. (cf. references in BDB. p. iioa). 
 This is adopted by Bu., No. ; but the change is unnecessary. 
 
 my folk. &-, S"", Houbigant, Bu., Oort, No., La., ^ejj 'thy folk' 
 
 is plausible. But f§ ijaV is very natural in the father's mouth ; and 
 
 it is likely that the reading of fflt^, %^ may have arisen under the 
 influence of the preceding "JTIX (so Mo.). 
 
 uncircumcised. A term of opprobrium, applied to the Philistines 
 elsewhere in ch. 15 1', i Sam. 14^, 1728.36^ ^i*, i Chr. 10*. The 
 Philistines appear to have been the only race known to the Israelites 
 in early times who did not practice circumcision. Upon the diffusion 
 of the custom, cf. articles in DB. and EB.., and Skinner, Genesis, 
 ICC, pp. 296 f. 
 
14. 4- S- 6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 357 
 
 Samson said unto his father, ' Get her for me ; for she it is that 
 pleaseth me.' 4. J" And his father and his mother knew not 
 that it was from Yahweh : for he was seeking an occasion against 
 the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling 
 over Israel. 
 
 5. J^ And Samson went down, <'•■ and his father and his 
 mother, J' to Timnah, and '^'- they J' came to the vineyards of 
 Timnah : and, behold, a young lion came roaring to meet him. 
 6. And the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he rent it 
 
 Get her for me. Heb. 'p"np 3nix with very emphatic order of 
 
 words — her and none other. Samson will brook no interference with 
 his wayward inclinations. 
 pleaseth tne. Lit. ' is right in mine eyes.' So z/.'*'. 
 
 4. And his father and his mother., etc. The whole verse seems to 
 have formed no part of the original narrative. The first half of the 
 verse has a back reference Xa ch. \ 3, and was added, probably, by the 
 author of that chapter (J') in explanation of the fact that an inspired 
 Nazirite should have determined to contract such a marriage-alliance 
 (so Doom.), To the same hand, probably, belongs the reference to 
 the Philistine domination (possibly derived from 15"), which would 
 be superfluous if due to a later hand than R"^^ in 13 ">, or even than 
 RJ''ini3 6t>. 
 
 an occasion. I.e. an opportunity for the provocation of hostilities. 
 
 5. And Samson, etc. Originally, 'And Samson went down to 
 Timnah, and came, etc' Failing to gain his father's co-operation, 
 he starts off on his own account to contract a ja^z/^a-marriage. 
 Cf. pp. 354 f. 
 
 a young lion. nVIX TSS lit. 'a young Hon of the lions'; cf. the 
 
 phrase D'W HJI 'a kid of the goats.' Heb. k'phir denotes a lion 
 
 which has ceased to be a gi'ir or whelp, and has come to full growth 
 and attained the power of hunting its own prey : cf. especially 
 Ezek. 192-3; also Isa. 5 ^o, 31 \ Am. 3S Mic. 5', Ps. 35", 1042'. 
 
 6. And the spirit of Yahweh, etc. Cf. note on ch. 3 '". The verb 
 salah, which is applied to the powerful inrush of the divine impulse 
 upon Samson here and in z/.'", ch. 15^*, is similarly used with refer- 
 ence to Saul in i Sam. lo^-'", 11 " J. 
 
 he rent it. The Heb. verb, sissct is used in Lev. 1 1' P of tearing 
 open a bird by its wings, when offered as a whole burnt-offering. 
 This was done ' without dividing it,' i.e. without tearing it into two 
 halves. The verb is also employed, together with the cognate sub- 
 stantive, of cleaving the cleft {^ifsa) of the hoof, i.e. having a cloven 
 hoof^one of the distinctive marks of sacrificially clean animals. 
 
358 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [14. 8; 
 
 as one might rend a kid; and there was nothing in his hand; 
 ^■' but he told not his father and his mother what he had done. 
 7. J' And he went down, and spoke to the woman; and she 
 pleased Samson. 8. And he returned after a while <5'- to take 
 her, J' and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion : and, 
 
 Judging by these usages — especially by Lev. i " — Samson must have 
 torn the lion down the middle,* and may be supposed to have done 
 this by tearing the hind legs apart, precisely as Gilgame^' companion 
 Engidu is represented as doing (Plate 11., fig. 4), and also the colossal 
 figure from Cyprus (perhaps Melkart-Herakles ; Plate vi.). 
 
 In the Jerusalem ffi sassa' is used as the rendering of |§ 'jriB'S'l 
 'and he hath torn me in pieces' (as a lion rends its prey), 
 Lam. 3". 
 
 as one might rend a kid. Lit. ' like the rending of a kid,' i.e. as 
 easily as an ordinary man would perform the same action on a kid. 
 Mo. renders ' as a man tears a kid,' and thinks that this, like Lev. i ", 
 may be a reference to some ceremonial act. The whole point of the 
 description lies, however, in the ease with which Samson's extra- 
 ordinary strength enabled him to perform the deed, rather than on 
 the manner in which it was done. 
 
 and there was nothing., etc. Cf. the representations of Gilgames, 
 etc., noticed above. Herakles is related to have strangled the 
 Nemaean lion with his bare hands \ (cf the references collected by 
 Bochart, Hierozoicon, i. p. 754) ; and Pulydamas of Scotusa in 
 Thessaly, moved by desire to emulate the feats of Herakles, is said 
 to have slain a large and powerful lion on Mount Olympus without 
 weapons (Pausanias, vi. 5). 
 
 but he told not, etc. An interpolation of the reviser of the narra- 
 tive, based upon ^/7/.'"=■l6b^ and necessitated by the insertion of the 
 words 'his father and his mother' in v.^. If Samson's parents were 
 with him on the journey, it would be natural (apart from this state- 
 ment) to suppose that they would hear of the incident, even if they 
 did not witness it. 
 
 8. and he returned after a while, etc. Omitting the words 'to take 
 her' as a later addition, the reference naturally is to Samson's return 
 to Sor'ah after his visit to Timnah (cf p. 354). The phrase D'B'D 
 ' after a while ' is used in 11*, 1 5 ' of an indeterminate period, and, as 
 the latter reference proves, can be used of quite a short period as well 
 as of a long one (often, specifically, a year ; c£ references in BDB. 
 s.v. DV, 6c). 
 
 * Mo. is not justified in stating that ' he tore the lion limb from limb.' Had 
 he done this, there would not have been much of the carcase left for the bees to 
 build in. 
 
 X Jos. {Ant. V. viii. 5) is possibly influenced by the Herakles-tnyth when he 
 states that Samson strangled the lion (1S7X" '""'s X^P'^^)- 
 
14- 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 359 
 
 behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and 
 
 there was a swarm oj bees, etc. Bees will not build their combs in 
 putrefying matter; but probably we are to picture the carcase as 
 reduced to little more than a skeleton by jackals, vultures, or ants, 
 and dried by the heat of the sun (cf. Post in DB. i. p. 264 a) ; or, as 
 Mo. suggests, ' the body dried up, the skin and shrivelled flesh adher- 
 ing to the ribs, the belly hollow.' It is true that the few days (pre- 
 sumably) before Samson's return from Timnah would hardly suffice 
 for the building of combs and the gathering of a considerable store of 
 honey ; but clearly we cannot press the details of the narrative. 
 Herodotus' story of the head of Onesilus, which, when an empty 
 skull, was occupied by a swarm of bees which filled it with a honey- 
 comb {Hist. V. 114) has often been compared by commentators. 
 
 An alternative theory is that we have here an instance of the widely 
 spread ancient belief that bees were generated from putrefying animal- 
 matter (cf. references in Bochart, Hierozoicon, ii. p. 502 ; Sachs, 
 Beitrdge zur Sprach- und Alterthumsforschung, i. p. 154; ii. pp. 
 92 f.) ; the origin of which has been supposed to be due to the fact 
 that the drone-fiy, Eristalis ienax, which is easily mistaken for a bee 
 by those who are not entomologists, may have been observed to spend 
 its larval stage within the carcases of large animals.* This view, 
 
 * Cf. especially the monograph of Osten Sacken, On the oxen-born bees of ike 
 Ancients (1894). The difficulty which seems to lie in the way of regarding 
 Eristalis as the supposed ' bee ' which was generated from the carcases of cattle 
 is that the larva of this fly is aquatic, thriving in all kinds of liquid filth, but not 
 in the solid tissues of a carcase. The body of a dead animal, such as Samson's 
 lion, would speedily become infested with carrion-feeding larvse, such as those 
 of Calliphora (the blue-bottle fly) and Lucilia (the green-bottle fly) which bear 
 no resemblance to bees ; but only by Eristalis if it happened to be lying in a 
 pool of water (as was the case with the sheep, which seems to be the only certified 
 instance known to Sacken in which this fly has actually been observed hovering 
 over, or settling on, a carcase), or if the process of putrefaction had led to lique- 
 faction of the viscera. It is worthy of notice, however, that the directions given 
 by Virgil (Georg. iv. 295 fif. ) for the production of bees from the carcase of a 
 bullock, according to the Egyptian method — the bruising of the body while the 
 skin remains intact and the apertures of the nose and mouth are carefully 
 stopped — seem to be aimed at producing a fluid condition of the interior {'sol- 
 vuniur viscera,' 1. 302) after the lapse of the period during which the carcase is 
 kept closed up in a narrow chamber ; and such a condition would be favour- 
 able to the production of Eristalis, supposing that the fly could deposit its eggs 
 in such a way that the larva could reach this internal fluid [e.g. if the skin of the 
 bullock eventually burst). As a matter of fact, when, as Virgil goes on to relate, 
 Aristaeus, who was the first to learn the secret, used this method— or something 
 like it— to renew his stock of bees, and was successful, we are told (11. 554 ff.) 
 
 that 
 
 ' Hie vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum 
 Aspiciunt, liquefacta bourn per viscera toto 
 Stridere apes utero et ruptis effervere costis.' 
 
 ' Bees ' thus produced may very well have been Eristalis. 
 
36o THE BOOK OF JUDGES [14. 9. 10. 
 
 honey. 9. And he scraped it out into his palms, and went on, 
 eating as he went. And he came to his father and his mother, 
 and gave to them, and they did eat : but he told them not that 
 it was out of the body of the lion that he had scraped the 
 honey. 10. And '^'- his father J' went down unto the woman, 
 and <''• Samson J' made there a feast, for so were the young men 
 
 while accounting for the (supposed) bees, would not explain the homy 
 in the carcase ; yet, once given the existence of such a belief as to the 
 origin of bees, the story that honey was actually derived from such a 
 source might easily follow.* It should be remarked, however, that 
 the ancient theory connected bees specifically with the carcases of 
 oxen (whence it is termed ^ovyovia), just as it traced the origin of 
 wasps to the carcases of horses, etc. ; and we nowhere find any sug- 
 gestion that bees were generated from the bodies of other animals, 
 e.g-. lions. 
 
 On the theory that the story of the lion and the honey has a solar- 
 mythological origin, cf. Addit. note, p. 405. 
 
 9. he scraped it out. The verb radha, which only occurs in this 
 passage in the O.T., is used in post-Biblical Heb. of extracting or 
 scraping out bread from an oven (if, for instance, it adheres to the 
 oven in baking). 
 
 And he came, etc. According to Jos. he took three honeycombs 
 from the breast of the lion, and gave them, not to his parents, but to 
 the damsel at Timnah, together with the rest of the presents which he 
 had brought for her. This alteration may be due to the difSculty 
 noticed on p. 354, viz. that, as the text stands, he was on his way to 
 Timnah, and his parents were not with him. 
 
 10. And his father . . . feast. Originally, ' And Samson went 
 down unto the woman, and he made there a feast.' Cf the discussion 
 on p. 354. 
 
 a feast, ffi, Ss^ 'a seven days' feast' is probably based upon wz;."'". 
 Had there been anything unusual about the length of the festivities 
 we should have expected it to have been specified in this verse ; but 
 seven days seems to have been the customary period in ancient times 
 (cf Gen. 29 " E, Tob. 1 1 "), and is still customary at the present day 
 among the Syrian peasantry (cf. Wetzstein, Zeitschrift fUr Ethm- 
 logie, 1873, pp. 287 ff ) ; so the duration of the feast did not call for 
 specification. 
 for so were the young men, etc. The statement implies that the 
 
 * Such a process of legendary accretion is aptly illustrated by Osten Sacken 
 [ftp. cit. pp. 18 f.) by a quotation from Massoudi (died A.D. 955 in Cairo) in his 
 Golden Meadows (translated by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille, 
 Paris, 1861). Massoudi ' relates a conversation which took place in Arabia, and 
 of which this is a fragment : ' ' Had the bees which produced this honey deposited 
 
14. II. 12.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 361 
 
 ivont to do. II. Gi. And because they '"feared"' him, they J' took 
 :hirty companions, and they remained with him. 12. And 
 Samson said to them, 'Prithee let me propound a riddle to 
 fou : if ye can tell it me during the seven days of the feast, 
 
 narrator is referring to a custom which was obsolete, or at any rate 
 jnusual, in his own day. This can hardly refer to the giving of a 
 Feast, or to its duration — supposing that to have been originally 
 specified (cf. noie preceding). What calls for note is the fact that the 
 Feast was given ' there,' i.e. at the house of the bride's parents, instead 
 rf at the bridegroom's house (so Mo.). 
 
 1 1, because they feared him. Reading in'lX DflXTa or 'T^a with 
 K , IL , S*", Jos. (Sia Seos tt]s \<T)(yos tov veavia-Kov), and many 
 modems. riN")* is here, as frequently, Infin. Constr.; cf G-K. § 45 d. 
 
 M init? DniSlS 'when they saw him,' is explained by Black, Mo. 
 
 saw what a dangerous-looking fellow he was ' ; but surely, with all his 
 :oming and going to and fro, the Timnites must have been familiar 
 ;nough with his appearance. 
 
 On the reasons for which we assume that z/."" is the reviser's 
 iddition, and that v. ^''' originally opened with sing, np"! ' and he 
 i.e. Samson) took,' cf p. 355. 
 
 thirty companions. The viol tov vviJ.cf>S>vos, Matt. 9'', Mark 2'^, 
 Lu. 5**. In the modern Syrian peasant-marriage they are termed in 
 kr. sabdb al-'aris, ' the bridegroom's young men,' and their number 
 raries in accordance with the scale of the marriage-festivities, part of 
 ;he cost of which they commonly defray. Probably the custom of 
 ;hoosing a large number of such companions dates from very early 
 :imes, when the condition of the country was unsettled, and it was 
 lecessary to provide a bodyguard during the marriage-festival. Cf 
 tVetzstein, op. cit. p. 288, n^. 
 
 12. a riddle. Heb. hidha, only in this chapter denoting a trivial 
 :onundrum invented to pose ingenuity. The term is used in i Kgs. 
 [Q^of the 'hard questions' with which the Queen of Sheba tested 
 Solomon's wisdom ; while in Ps. 49 * {% °) 78 ^ Prov. i ^ (R. V. in 
 ;ach case 'dark saying') it denotes a perplexing question of ethics 
 )r morals. 
 
 t in the body of a large animal ? " asked Yiad. The surveyor answered : ' ' Hear- 
 ng that there was a hive near the sea-coast, I sent people to gather the honey, 
 rhey told me that they found at that place a heap of bones, more or less rotten, 
 n the cavity of which bees had deposited the honey that they brought with 
 hem." ' Sacken's comment is : ' This case, as a parallel to Samson's bees, is 
 . remarkable instance of the force of imaginative association in the human 
 irain, and of the sameness of its illogical conclusion under similar circum- 
 tances. ' 
 
362 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [14, 14. 
 
 '^'- and find it out, J' 1 will give you thirty linen wrappers and 
 thirty suits of festal apparel. 13. And if ye are not able to 
 tell it me, ye shall give me thirty linen wrappers and thirty suits 
 of festal apparel.' And they said to him, ' Propound thy riddle, 
 and let us hear it.' 14. And he said to them, 
 
 ' From the eater there came forth something to eat, 
 And from something strong came forth something sweet.' 
 
 andfindit out. Heb. DnxVD-1 omitted by some MSS. of ffi and 
 
 by iL'', and marked by an asterisk in S*", stands in |§ in a most 
 awkward position, and must be regarded (with Sta., Mo., etc.) as a 
 gloss from v}^'*'. Had the expression formed a genuine part of the 
 text, we should have expected ' If ye can find it out and tell it, etc' 
 
 linen "wrappers. Heb. sddhin (Greek aivhav) was a large rect- 
 angular piece of fine linen, which might be worn either as a garment 
 or as a sleeping wrap (cf. Mark 14^' '■). It is mentioned in Isa. 3*' 
 among other articles of female attire ; and in Prov. 31 ^* as made by 
 the capable woman, and sold by her to 'the Cana'anites,' i.e. the 
 Phoenician traders — a reference which perhaps gives us a hint as to 
 the origin of the term in Greek. The word is well diffused in the 
 other Semitic languages (Bab., Ar., Syr.), and is used in the Talmud 
 of a curtain, wrapper, or shroud (cf. references given by Mo. ; and for 
 the last usage, cf. Matt. 27^^, Mark 15 ^, Luke 23 ^^). 
 
 suits of festal apparel. Heb. Ifliphoth b'gkddhhn, as in 2 Kgs. 5 '■^^■''; 
 similarly, Ifliphoth s'mdloth twice in Gen. 45 ^'^ E. Here hHiph&th is 
 probably to be explained as meaning ^changes' (cf. the use of the 
 word in Job 10 1', 14", Ps. 55 ''', 1^^°) ; 'changes of raiment ' denot- 
 ing the best garments, which were only worn on festal occasions, in 
 distinction from the everyday dress. Cf. the use of the cognate verb 
 of changing the raiment in Gen. 35 ^ E, DD'O'^pi}' ■1S''i'nri. Less 
 
 probable is connexion (suggested by Delitzsch, Assyr. Studien, p. 112) 
 with Assyr. halApu ' to cover,' whence are derived nahlapu, nahlaptu, 
 nahluptu, all meaning garment or covering ; since, on this expla- 
 nation, we have to regard Ifghddhim (or s'mdlSth) as standing in 
 explanatory apposition to Jf-ltphdth — a term which, ex hypoihesi, 
 bears the same meaning. 
 
 14. A 3-beat disdch : — 
 
 mehdokhel ydsa md'^khdl 
 ■Ame'dz ydsd mdthok. 
 
 And from something strong., etc. Heb. TV and piriD both of 
 
 which are adjectives, are used indefinitely without the Article ; hence 
 the rendering adopted above rather than that of R.V., ' and out of the 
 strong came forth sweetness.' 
 
14- I4-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 363 
 
 And they were not able to tell the riddle ^^- for Tsix"! days. 15. 
 And on the seventh day J^ they said to Samson's wife, ' Beguile 
 thy husband, that he may tell us the riddle, lest we burn thee 
 
 ni has normally the meaning ' strong ' or ' fierce.' Bochart, how- 
 ever {Hierozoicon, ii. p. 523), remarks that we should expect a paradox 
 in the contrast between VH and plHO, just as we have one between 
 ?3S<n ' the eater,' and n?3S ' something to eat,' in the first line. He 
 thinks that TP may have a range of meaning similar to the Latin acer 
 (which may mean either ' pungent,' or ' fierce '), comparing Ar. mirra 
 'strengrth,' and marir 'strong,' from the verb marra, 'to be bitter' 
 (cf., however, footnote, p. 380) ; and so he renders ' ab acri prodiit 
 dulce,' and in 7/.'*, 'Quid dulcius est melle? Et quid acrius est leone?' 
 
 The need for such a paradox was felt by S', which renders 
 
 I I N Ki «n '^ 1 I^^Id ^i:DO 'and from something bitter, etc' It 
 
 might be brought out in English if we were justified in representing 
 TV by some such rendering as ' something biting^ where the reference 
 would of course really be to the biting {i.e. ferocious) lion, but the con- 
 trast with 'sweet' would immediately suggest that it referred to 
 something of a biting {i.e. acrid) taste : cf. the word-play in ch. 15 1^. 
 The difficulty is that we possess no evidence that TV was used in the 
 sense acrid or bitter ; yet the question is not set at rest by Mo. when 
 he remarks that there is in reality only one antithesis in the couplet 
 (that between 'eater' and 'something to eat'), and that it is unneces- 
 sary therefore to make out a perfect antithesis between the adjectives 
 independently. The rhythmical parallelism of the clauses favours 
 such an antithesis, in sense as well as in form.* 
 
 for six days. Reading nW in place of |§ HB'^B' 'three,' which 
 
 cannot stand alongside of v.^^ 'and on the seventh day.' So 
 Doom., Mo. The alternative correction is to read ' the fourth day ' 
 in ■z/.i* ; and this has the support of ffi""^, IL'-, S'', and most moderns. 
 
 * It is, at any rate, a moot point whether 'az may not have been used in the 
 sense harsh or acrid, and applied to a flavour. The adj. mar 'bitter,' which is 
 commonly used of a flavour, denotes z. fierce disposition in ch. 18 ^6, 2 Sam. 178, 
 Hab. !«; and, conversely, it may be inferred that 'az, which is commonly used 
 of s. fierce disposition, may also have denoted a bitter flavour. The Ar. parallel 
 offered by Bochart in illustration of connexion between the meanings strong and 
 bitter is questionable ; yet it seems likely that a similar range of meaning may 
 have been possessed by the Heb. root ntJ'p- This has the sense ' to be hard, 
 severe, fierce ' (so BDB. ) ; and, in the adjectival form kasi, is used in parallelism to 
 'az as a synonym in Isa. t.<)* (' harsh lord . . .fierce king'). The root NtJ'p, 
 from which is derived kisSH'im ' cucumbers,' was plausibly connected by the Jews 
 with nU'p ; cf. Aboda zara, fol. xi. i, ' Why are they called kisiu'iml Because 
 Ihey are as harsh {idSin) to the human body as a sword.' Similarly, Pliny {ffist 
 Nat. xix. s) says of cucumbers, ' vivunt hausti in stomacho in posterum diem. 
 
364 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [14. 15. 16. 
 
 and thy father's house with fire : was it to beggar us that ye 
 invited us rhither"" ? ' 16. And Samson's wife wept upon him, 
 and said, ' Thou surely hatest me, and dost not love me : thou 
 
 Adopting either emendation, it is impossible, however, to square the 
 note of time with the narrative which follows, according to which, 
 when the Philistines have persuaded Samson's bride to extract the 
 answer of the riddle from her husband, she weeps over him the whole 
 seven days during which the feast lasts (v."). Clearly, then, the 
 Philistines can have made no serious attempt to solve the riddle for 
 themselves, but must have had recourse to the woman on the day 
 when Samson propounded it to them. The note of time in wt/."'' 
 must be due to a later hand, who, overlooking v.^'', supposed that the 
 Philistines would have spent at least part of the time in attempting to 
 discover the answer themselves ; and we may conclude (with Sta.) 
 that the narrative originally rah ' and they were not able to tell the 
 riddle ; and they said to Samson's wife, etc' 
 
 15. was it to beggar us. Heb. ^•yff-\'hp,. For the verb tJ'T' in this 
 sense, c£ the use of the Niph'al in Gen. 45 " E, Prov. 20'^, 23^', 30'. 
 On the exceptional retention of '' in the Infin. Constr. Kal, c£ G-K. 
 § 69 m. There is a variant vocalization ■13{}''n*^n which apparently 
 treats the form as Pi'el. '^^' 
 
 hither. Reading Q'^n with five Heb. MSS., 3E, and moderns, 
 ?§ Npn ' or not ' is irregular in construction ; x'^ qk being usual in 
 the second half of a disjunctive question : cC G-K. § 150^, »'. 
 
 16. surely, pi has here an asseverative force, as in Gen. 20", 
 
 nee perfici queunt in cibis ' (both references cited by Ges. , This. p. 1241 b). 
 Both these passages refer to indigestibihty rather than to flavour ; yet there can 
 be httle doubt that there was a close connexion in thought between the indigesti- 
 bihty of the cucumber and its bitter or acrid taste when eaten with the rind or 
 in an over-ripe state. We may compare the incident related in 2 Kgs. 4*'^', 
 where, when wild gourds (probably Citrultus colocynthis, L., allied to the 
 cucumber, the pulp of which is 'intensely bitter,' and forms 'a drastic cathartic, 
 and, in quantities, an irritant poison ' ; cf. Post in DB. ii. p. 250) have been 
 accidentally included in the stew, the fact that 'there is death in the pot' is 
 recognized by the flavour. 
 
 It may be added that this connexion between the Heb. roots nt^p and W^ 
 is made in full consciousness of the fact that in the former the / runs through ; 
 Heb, , Ar. , and Aram. , whereas in the latter, Heb. /=:Ar. ^= Aram, ^(for <aftet^). ; 
 Such a difference does not impiy original diversity of root ; but may represent 
 merely a slight differentiation in sound for the sake of marking a variation in the 
 shade of meaning. Cf. the way in which e.g. the Heb. kdm appears in Ar. as 
 kasa 'to cut' in the literal sense, but as kada when denoting a metaphorical 
 'cutting,' z.«. 'deciding.' 
 
14. i8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 365 
 
 hast propounded the riddle to the sons of my people, and thou 
 hast not told it to me.' And he said to her, ' Behold, I have not 
 told it to my father or my mother, and should I tell it to thee}' 
 17. And she wept upon him the seven days during which the 
 feast lasted ; and on the seventh day he told her, because she 
 pressed him sorely ; and she told the riddle to the sons of her 
 people. 18, And the men of the city said to him on the 
 seventh day, before he entered ^the bridal chamber^, 
 
 ' What is sweeter than honey ? 
 And what is stronger than a lion ? ' 
 
 Deut. 4^ I Kgs. 21 ^^ Ps. 32'. The restrictive meaning ^ only' is 
 clearly not so suitable. 
 
 18. before he entered the bridal chamber. Reading rmnn as the 
 
 last word in place of |§ nD"inn 'before the sun went down,' where 
 
 the word for ' sun ' is very uncommon (cf. ch. i '* note) and of anoma- 
 lous form (with the old accusative ending). ilTinn (cf ch. 15 '=■), first 
 
 suggested by Sta., has been generally adopted ; and is supported by 
 S"", in which the inexplicable p_QoZ must be an error for (jOoZ 
 'inner chamber' (inn is so rendered in ch. 16^'^, l Kgs. ■20'^, al; 
 cf references in Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus, s.v. col. 50).* 
 'The Timnathites waited till the last moment, to heighten their 
 triumph and his discomfiture' (Mo.). 
 
 It would appear from this passage that the marriage was not to 
 have been consummated until the end of the seventh day of the 
 festival ; and this also seems to follow from v.^, where, after Samson 
 has rushed off in a rage, the bride is at once given in marriage to his 
 ' chief friend,' clearly in order that she may escape the disgrace and 
 ridicule which would have fallen upon her if the marriage had not 
 been completed (cf. her father's words in 15 2); but otherwise (we 
 may presume) an unnecessary step to take. Such a custom of 
 deferring the completion of the marriage is, however (apart from this 
 instance), unknown to us. Jacob consummates his marriage with 
 Le'ah upon the first of the seven days (Gen. 29 21-28 E) ; and the same 
 practice is observed in the modern Syrian marriage (cf Wetzstein, 
 op. cit.) 
 
 What is sweeter, etc. A rhythmical 2-beat distich :— 
 
 mam-mathok midd'bhds 
 Hme-'dz me"^ri. 
 
 * The editor's attention was called to this point by Prof. Bevan. 
 
366 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [14. 19. 
 
 And he said to them, 
 
 ' If ye had not plowed with this heifer of mine, 
 Ye would not have found out this riddle of mine.' 
 
 19. Gi. And the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he went 
 down to Ashkelon, and smote thirty men ^from thence^, and 
 
 If ye had not, etc. The 3-beat distich is rhymed upon the suffix of 
 the 1st pers. sing. : — 
 
 lAli If'rah^m If'eghldthi 
 Id m/'sath^m hidathi. 
 
 The rendering 'of mine' for 'my' attempts to reproduce this in 
 English. Cf. the similar rhyme in ch. 16^^. 
 
 19. and smote . . . riddle. Reading DB'D for DIID DniS'i>n for 
 DniX''^n and omitting niS'^nn after m»l. with ffi*'-, S^ Km ivaunv 
 
 T • -:J • -: - I .. . -) 
 
 fKfWev rptdnovTa avSpas, kol eXa/Se ras- trroKas avrav /cat edaKe rois 
 inayye'CKacn rb jrpo^Xrjfia. Cf also V. |^ DHD ' of them,' t.e. of the 
 Ashkelonites, as assumed from the preceding 'he went down to 
 
 Ashkelon,' is very awkward ; while DniSvPI ' their spoil ' (lit. ' what 
 was stripped offxh&va ' ; cf 2 Sam. 2 2^) is so similar to DDISvn that 
 it is natural to regard it as a corruption, which has led, in turn, to the 
 
 addition of mSvnn after JIT'I ('he gave — not the spoil as a whole, 
 but — the festal attire '). Adopting our emendation, the use of in*1 
 
 without expressed object — this being inferred from preceding Dnifivn 
 — is very idiomatic ; cf, with the same verb, Gen. i8'-*, 20'*, 21'*, a/. 
 Sta. and Doom, are probably right in regarding the whole of v?^ 
 as a later addition to the narrative. We need not press the impro- 
 bability of Samson's actually rushing off in his frenzy to a seaside 
 town some twenty-three miles distant (cf ch. i6^, where he carries 
 the gates of Gaza to the top of a hill to the east of Hebron some 
 thirty-eight miles off), getting exactly what he wanted (the suits of 
 festal attire) from the bodies of the slaughtered Philistines, returning 
 to pay his wager (the same night ?), and then departing, still in angry 
 mood, to his father's house. Nor is the fact that nothing results from 
 his raid on Ashkelon in the way of reprisal necessa^-ily fatal to the 
 originality of the verse. It is obvious, however, that the statement 
 of vP^ 'and his anger was kindled, etc.,' is curiously weak and 
 inappropriate when following after v}^ (the superhuman access of 
 
 frenzy denoted by 'J1 n?Vni ; cf v? note) ; but, on the rejection of 
 ■z/.'^", it forms a natural description of his rage at the underhand trick 
 by which the Philistines had discovered the solution of the riddle. 
 We assume, then, that the original story made Samson depart home 
 
14. 20, 15. I. 2.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 367 
 
 took '"their suits of festal apparel"!, and gave them [ ] to the 
 tellers of the riddle. J' And his anger was kindled, and he 
 went up to his father's house. 20. And Samson's wife was 
 given to his companion, whom he had made his chief friend. 
 
 15. I. After a time, however, in the days of wheat-harvest, 
 Samson visited his wife with a kid of the goats ; and he said, 
 ' I will go in unto my wife into the bridal chamber.' But her 
 father would not suffer him to go in. 2. And her father said, 
 ' I verily thought that thou didst hate her, so I gave her to thy 
 companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? prithee 
 
 in anger without paying the wager, which had not been fairly won ; 
 and that the addition is due to an interpolator who thought that the 
 story would be improved if he were represented as paying, and at the 
 same time inflicting damage on his foes. 
 
 20. And Samson's wife, etc. Cf. note on t/.". 
 
 his companion. The (jjiXos tov pvixcpiov (Jo. 3 ^\ or, as we should 
 say, iest man ; called in the modem Syrian wedding wazir, i.e. 
 vizier or charge d'affaires (from wazara ' to bear a burden ') to the 
 king, as the bridegroom is termed during the seven days' festival 
 (Wetzstein, op. cit.). 
 
 15. I. in the days of wheat-harvest. This varies in Palestine in 
 accordance with the elevation, the harvest of the Jordan valley being 
 considerably earlier than that of the hill-country. In the district of 
 Timnah wheat-harvest falls (according to La.) from mid-May to mid- 
 June. The season is mentioned in view of the incident of vv.'^-'. 
 
 a kid of the goats. Cf Gen. 38'"". The gift seems to have been 
 of the kind which was called saddk among the ancient Arabians ; 
 and was probably made to the sadika-viite on each occasion of such 
 a visit. Cf Robertson Smith, Kinship,^ pp. 83, 93. 
 
 2. / verily thought. Heb. *niDX nbX lit- 'Saying I said (to 
 
 myself).' The force of the Infin. Absolute is to emphasize the mental 
 process by which he arrived at his conclusion — much as we might 
 say in colloquial English, 'What I thought was, etc' Cf. Davidson, 
 Syntax, § 86 a. 
 
 that thou didst hate her. Here the force of the Infin. Absolute 
 in the phrase nnXJii' NbE" can only be expressed by italicizing the 
 
 verb ; unless, with Mo., we render ' that thou didst certainly hate her.' 
 R. V. ' that thou hadst utterly hated her ' is very erroneous ; the 
 emphasis being not on the quality of the feeling denoted by the verb 
 {bitter hatred), but upon the accurate definition of the feeling (hatred, 
 and not love). A similar error is perpetrated by R. V. in V.'' (cf note). 
 
368 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [15. 3. 4. 
 
 let her be thine instead of her.' 3. And Samson said to them, 
 ' I am quits this time with the Philistines ; for I am about to do 
 them a mischief.' 4. And Samson went and caught three 
 
 3. said to them, ffi''^ S>\ 'V', U read ' said to him.' This, how- 
 ever, is probably an alteration induced by the fact that the woman's 
 father only is speaking in v?. In favour of || cf v?. As Mo. re- 
 marks, ' It is not necessary to suppose that in either case the words 
 were spoken in their hearing ; the threat was addressed to them.' 
 
 / am quits., etc. 'n^piJ is a Perfect of certitude. As the brilliant 
 
 idea strikes him which, when put into action, will, he forsees, wipe 
 off all scores which he owes to the Philistines, he speaks of it as an 
 accomplished fact. Cf. Driver, Tenses., § 13. 
 
 The verb nikkd, as here used, followed by min, means freed from 
 obligation towards (the obligation in this case being, of course, that 
 of taking -vengeance) ; and it would be best expressed by the old 
 phrase ' quit of as used e.g. in Shakespeare, Coriolanus, IV. v. 89 : — 
 
 ' To be full quit of these my banishers. 
 Stand I before thee here.' 
 
 The phrase is used (of gaining freedom from obligation of service) in 
 Num. 32^^, where Moses, in impressing upon the two and a half 
 tribes that they can only gain the right to the territory conquered by 
 all Israel east of Jordan if they in their turn will cross the Jordan 
 with the other tribes, and help them to conquer the territory to 
 the west, adds that, when this has been accomplished, 'afterward 
 ye shall return, and shall be quit of Yahweh and of Israel' 
 
 (i'K-iB'^Di nwD Dipj Dn''''m). 
 
 This sense is expressed by R.V. marg. and by La. R.V. text 
 follows the Versions, Jewish commentators, and nearly all modems 
 in rendering, ' This time shall I be blameless in regard of, the Philis- 
 tines, when I do them a mischief — an interpretation which is bound 
 up with the rendering of 'ji »3K DE'Va as a temporal clause, which 
 
 can scarcely be justified (we should surely expect ^Dili's; '3 ' when I 
 
 shall have done,' etc), n'ti'j? is to be explained as Futurum instans ; 
 
 cf. the rendering given above. 
 
 4. three hundred foxes. Since the fox is a solitary animal, it has 
 been supposed by many that the reference is \.6 jackals., which live 
 together in large packs, and could be caught in numbers without 
 great difficulty. It is, however, a very doubtful expedient to attempt 
 to explain Samson's feats by depriving them of the element of the 
 marvellous. 
 
15. S- 6. 7- 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 369 
 
 hundred foxes, and took torches and turned tail to tail, and put 
 a torch between every two tails in the midst. 5. And he set 
 fire to the torches, and turned them loose into Tthe fieldsl of the 
 Philistines, and burned both shocks and standing corn and 
 vineyards <(and^ olives. 6. And the Philistines said, ' Who hath 
 done this ? ' And they said, ' Samson, the son-in-law of the Tim- 
 nite ; because he took his wife, and gave her to his companion.' 
 Then the Philistines went up, and burned her and her father's 
 <(house^ with fire. 7. And Samson said to them, ' If ye do after 
 this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I 
 will cease.' 8. And he smote them leg upon thigh with a 
 
 took torches, etc. Commentators generally have noted the remark- 
 able resemblance of the action here ascribed to Samson to the custom 
 which was observed at Rome during the festival of Ceres, when foxes 
 with burning torches attached to their brushes were hunted through 
 the Circus (Ovid, Fasti, iv. 679 ff.). This point is discussed in Addit. 
 note, pp. 393 f. 
 
 5. into the fields. Reading nnS'S with Bu., in place of |§ niDp3 
 ' into the standing corn,' which occurs only here in the plur., and is 
 not very suitable before the following statement 'and burned both 
 shocks and standing com' (nDp sing.). 
 
 and vineyards and olives. Reading nUl mS'iyi with <&, "S, in 
 place of S n»T D"I3"1SJ1 (rendered by R.V. 'and also the olive- 
 yards'; as though D13 — elsewhere always vineyard — here meant 
 'yard' or 'plantation' of olives). Vineyards and olives are thus 
 coupled in Ex. 23 " E, Deut. 6 ", 28 39'">, Josh. 24 « E, i Sam, 8 ", 
 2 Kgs. 520, Neh. 5", 925. S^ % nnnyi D-|3-nj;i. There is no 
 reason to suppose, with Mo., that the words ' are probably an addition 
 by a later hand, exaggerating the mischief 
 
 6. and her father''s house. Reading rx'ilff. TT'STINI with many 
 MSB. of f§, ffi*\ %\ S"", Mo., Bu., etc.\cf ch. 14")', in place of 
 ^*3^5"nN1 ' and her father.' 
 
 7. surely I will be avenged of you. Heb. D3a 'riDpJ'DX ''3. 
 The particles DS ''3 are closely connected, with a strong assevera- 
 tive force, and TlDpJ is a Perfect of certitude : cf. the precisely similar 
 construction in 2 Kgs. 5 '"' {note on construction in NHTK.\ Jer. 51 '*. 
 DN ''3 is so used, followed by the Imperfect, in i Sam. 26 '" {note in 
 NHTS.\ 2 Sam. 1 5 21 Kt. ; cf also I Sam. 21 «, Ru. 3 12 Kt. 
 
 8. leg upon thigh. Heb. sok denotes the leg generally, or specifi- 
 
 2 A 
 
370 THE BOOK OF JUDGES tlS. 8. 
 
 great slaughter, and went down, and abode in a deft of the- crag 
 ^Etam. 
 
 9. Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and 
 
 cally the shank from the knee downwards, as distinct from the thigh ; 
 while yarlkh is used of the thigh, or rather, the whole of the upper 
 part of the leg from the hip down to the knee (cf. Ar. warik ' hip ' or 
 'buttock')- The only plausible explanation of the difficult expression 
 s6k 'al ydrekh is that it is a wrestler's term, akin to the English cross- 
 buttock, which is thus di&iQ,rhe.&.'\a.\h.e. Sporting Magazine, xxx. (1808), 
 247 A : — ' A cross-buttock in pugilism is, when the party, advancing 
 his right leg and thigh, closes with his antagonist, and catching him 
 with his right arm, or giving a round blow, throws him over his right 
 hip, upon his head.' Cf D'Urfey, Colliris Walk (1690), ii. p. 74 :— 
 
 ' When th' hardy Major, skill'd in Wars, 
 To make quick end of fight prepares. 
 By strength o'er buttock cross to hawl him. 
 And with a trip i' th' Inturn maul him.' 
 
 Castle [Lexicon heptaglotton, 3716) and Le Clerc connected the 
 phrase with wrestling ; but supposed that the leg {sdk) of the victor 
 was impacted against the thigh l^al ydrekh) of the vanquished. To 
 Smythe Palmer (p. 225) belongs the credit of connecting the phrase 
 with a cross-buttock, in view of the cylinder-seals in which GilgameS 
 is figured as wrestling with an antagonist, and throwing him across 
 his own thigh (cf Plate 11., fig. 5). 
 
 The Versions were evidently puzzled by the phrase, ffi renders 
 literally Ki/^/iT/v eVi lirjpov ; "B 'ita ut stupentes suram femori im- 
 
 ponerent' ; S' ^OtTLitaj^ pD^O iOOiJLqj Vn ' from their legs 
 
 even to their loins' ; BE PKPJI DJJ pt^lB 'horsemen with footmen.'* 
 Other attempted explanations — such as those of Kimchi, 'shank over 
 thigh,' as they fell in precipitate flight (or, as we might say, 'heels 
 over head '), and Ges., Thes., ' in frusta eos concidit ita ut membra 
 eorum, crura et femora, alia super aliis disjecta jacerent' — merely 
 serve to illustrate the lengths to which perverted ingenuity can go. 
 
 the crag 'Etam. A city of Judah named 'Etam is menrioned in 
 2 Chr. 1 1 " as built by Rehoboam ; and the order in which the name 
 occurs, between Bethlehem and Tekoa', favours a site at or near the 
 modern Urtis, near which is a spring called 'Ain ' Atin : 5 WP. Mem, 
 
 * This rendering inverts the order of the phrase, sdk being interpreted of 
 those who go on foot (cf. Ps. 147 i") ; while the sense attributed to ydrekh may 
 be gathered from the Ar. verb waraka, which (according to Kazimirski, Bid. 
 Ar.-Franfais) may mean ' Appuyer un cdt6 du corps sur le dos du chevalet 
 voyager ainsi. ' 
 
15. 9- M.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES jjl 
 
 spread themselves abroad in Lehi. lo. And the men of Judah 
 said, ' Why have ye come up against us ? ' And they said, ' To 
 bind Samson have we come up, to do to him as he hath done 
 to us.' II. Then three thousand men from Judah went down 
 
 iii. p. 43. This, however, is too far removed from the scene of 
 Samson's exploits. Schick, ZDP V. x. (1887), pp. 143 f., and Hanauer, 
 PEF. Qy. St., 1896, pp. 162 ff., have plausibly suggested the rock 
 called 'Arik Isma'in, near Hirbet Marmiti, some two and a half miles 
 east-south-east of Sor'ah, in which there is a cave which exactly suits 
 the description of our narrative. 'The cave is approached by 
 descending through a crack or fissure in the very edge of the cliffs 
 overhanging the chasm of wady Isma'in. The crack is scarcely wide 
 enough to allow one person to squeeze' through at a time. It leads 
 down to the topmost of a long series of rudimentary steps, or small 
 artificial foot-ledges, cut in the face of the cliff, and descending to 
 a narrow rock terrace running along the front of the cave, and between 
 it and the fragments of massive wall (belonging to an ancient 
 Christian coenobium)' : Hanauer, op. cit., p. 163. 
 
 9. and spread themselves abroad. Heb. •'it;'D3*1 again in this sense 
 in 2 Sam. 5I8.22. 
 
 in Lehi. As the narrator is about to record the incident from which, 
 according to his tradition, the place obtained its name of LSM 'jaw- 
 bone,' he uses the name here and in ■z/." proleptically. Probably the 
 name was originally given to some hill or ridge on account of its 
 resemblance to a jawbone. Commentators generally compare the 
 Greek 'Oi/ou yvd6os — the name of a promontory at the southern end 
 of Laconia ; cf. Strabo, vili., v. i. Schick {ZDPV. x. pp. 152 i.) 
 proposes to identify Lehi with Hirbet es-Siyy4g, a hill with ruins 
 a little south-west of 'Ar^k Isma'in. Hirbet es-Siyyig means 'ruin of 
 the goldsmiths ' ; but such a name is very strange in this locality, and 
 the view is plausible that Siyyig really represents the Greek inayiov, 
 which is the rendering of Lehi employed by 'A., 2., Jos. {Ant. v. viii. 
 8 £), and by ffi in z/z/."". 
 
 Lehi is mentioned again in 2 Sam. 23 '' (emended text *) as the 
 scene of an exploit of Shammah, the son of Agee, one of David's 
 heroes, in withstanding and smiting a large number of Philistines 
 single-handed. On the suspicious similarity between the deeds of 
 Samson, Shammah, and Shamgar, cf. p. 75. 
 
 II. three thousand men. The huge numbers here and in z/.'^, ch. 
 
 * Reading ' Now the Philistines were gathered together rto LehiT ' (i.e. n*n? 
 for the very obscure n'n? of iK, after ffi"- kirl aiaybva.]. This emendation is 
 generally accepted. 
 
5?4 TttE BOOK OF JDdgES [15. 13. 14. 15. 16. 
 
 unto the cleft of the crag 'Etam, and said to Samson, ' Knowest 
 thou not that the Philistines are ruling over us ? What then is 
 this that thou hast done to us?' And he said to them, 'As 
 they did to me, so have I done to them.' 12. And they said to 
 him, 'To bind thee are we come down, to deliver thee into 
 the hand of the PhiHstines.' And Samson said to them, 'Swear 
 to ihe that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.' 13. And they 
 spake to him, saying, ' Nay, but we will bind thee, and deliver 
 thee into their hand ; but we will not slay thee.' So they bound 
 him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the crag. 
 
 14. As soon as he came unto Lehi, the Philistines came shout- 
 ing to meet him : and the spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, 
 and the ropes that were upon his arms became like flax that hath 
 been burnt with fire, and his bonds melted from off his hands. 
 
 15. And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put forth his 
 hand, and took it, and smote therewith a thousand men. 16. 
 And Samson said, 
 
 ' With the red ass's jawbone '^I have reddened them right red^ ; 
 With the red ass's jawbone I have smitten a thousand men.' 
 
 16 " are of a piece with the marvellous character of the narrative as 
 a whole. 
 
 13. Nay, but we will bind thee, etc. The use of the Infinitive 
 Absolute here — lit. ' binding we will bind thee . . . but slaying we 
 will not slay thee ' — is intended to emphasize what they will do, in 
 distinction from what they will not do ; and can only be rightly 
 reproduced in English by the use of italics. R.V. 'we will bind thee 
 fast, etc.,' is erroneous in supposing the emphasis to be on the 
 security of the binding. Cf. the similar error in u.^ {note on 'that 
 thou didst Afl/« her'). 
 
 14. melted. Heb. -1013*1, a graphic description of the powerlessness 
 of the bonds as against Samson's strength. 
 
 15. a fresh jawbone. Heb. n*"lD lit. ' moist,' explains how the jaw- 
 bone was suitable for use as a weapon. Had it been old and dry it 
 would have been too brittle. 
 
 16. with the red ass's jawbone, etc. A 4-beat distich : — J 
 
 Bil'hi hak^mor hdmor himmartim 
 Bithi haJf-mor hikkSthi 'eleph-is. 
 
 We vocahze the first stichos D»Jii")K)n "I'lDn "I1»nn »n^3. There 
 is a play upon the word for ass ijfmdr), which means lit. the red 
 
15. i6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 373 
 
 coloured animal, and the verb {Aamar ; in Pi'el, himmer) applied to the 
 slaughtered Philistines, which is explained from Ar. hamara, properly 
 ' to be or to make red,' used e.g. of skinning a sheep so as to make 
 it appear red, and in Conj. 11. (the equivalent of the Heb. Pi'el) of 
 dyeing a thing red (so Lane). Cf. the use of the P^'aral in Heb. in 
 Job. 16'^, 'my face is reddened {h''marm''ru) from weeping.' The 
 pun is suggested to Samson by the appearance of the blood-stained 
 corpses.* As an alternative possibility, we might vocalize as Kal 
 D'mDn and regard the verb haniar as a denominative from If-mor, 
 
 with the meaning 'treat as an ass' (in this case, by belabouring 
 them), a sense which is also possessed by hamara in Ar. Thus, if we 
 were justified in coining (not for the first time %) a verb to ass in this 
 sense, we might bring out the word-play by rendering : 
 
 ' With the jawbone of an ass I have thoroughly assed them.' 
 
 This explanation is adopted by Levesque {Revue Bibligue, 1900, pp. 
 89 ff.), who reproduces the assonance excellently by use of the French 
 rosse = a sorry jade and the denominative verb rosser=to beat or 
 belabour violently, properly, to treat as a jade (cf Littr^, Diet, de 
 la lang. Frang., 1 761) : — 
 
 ' Avec une michoire de rosse, je les ai bien rosses.' 
 
 So also La. 
 
 iH D'mbn n'lDn is rendered by A.V., R.V. 'heaps upon heaps,' 
 
 •AT T -: -: 
 
 with marg. Heb. 'an heap, two heaps' (cf D'nDm DITl ch. 5^°), 
 
 upon the assumption that ^iD^ (though identical with the word for 
 
 ' ass ' preceding) has the same meaning as ^D^ Hab. 3 '^ (text very 
 
 suspicious), plur. D'lDn Ex. 8 "' J ; and this is the sense which was 
 
 probably intended by the vocalization, ffi, however, treats the two 
 words as Infin. Absol. and Finite verbs, e'^aXfi'^toi' e^riXfiij/a airovs ; 
 and the other Versions explain DTllDn as a verbal form : — U ' delevi 
 
 eos,' S .OOTiiD A . » n 'jA . » n^ ' I have heaped some of them in 
 
 heaps,' C plUT tUrTiDl, ' I have cast them in heaps.' 
 
 The view that we should read Infin. Absol. Kal, coupled with a 
 Finite verb, either Kal or Pi'el, is adopted by most moderns ; but 
 very various meanings are assigned to the verb. J. D. Michaelis 
 
 * This explanation occurred to the present editor, and was adopted by him as 
 given above, before he noticed that he had been anticipated by Zenner, Zeitschr. 
 fiir kath. Theol. , 1888, p. 257, quoted and followed by Cheyne, EB. 2340. 
 
 X The verb to ass, in the sense ' to call an ass,' is quoted by the New English 
 Dictionary from G. Harvey, Pierces Supererogation (1592), 57 :— ' He . . . 
 bourdeth, girdeth, asseth the excellentest writers of whatsoever note that tickle 
 not his wanton sense.' 
 
374 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [15. i; 
 
 17. And when he had finished speaking, he cast away 
 jawbone out of his hand ; so that place was called Ran 
 lehi. 18. And he was sore athirst, and called unto Yah 
 and said, ' Thou hast given this great victory by the hand oi 
 servant ; and now, I must die of thirst, and fall into the 1: 
 of the uncircumcised.' 19. Then God clave the Mortar 
 is in Lehi, and there came water thereout ; and when he 
 drunk, his spirit returned, and he revived : wherefore its n 
 
 (quoted by Ros.) connected the ffi rendering with Ar. hamara in 
 sense to skin or shave, and this explanation is adopted by Dc 
 (followed by Bu. doubtfully, No., Kit.), ' I have thoroughly flaye 
 shaved them.' Mo. (followed by Bu. doubtfully, Cooke), ' I ] 
 heaped them up in heaps' — ^^on 'perhaps a casual denomina 
 invented for the paronomasia ' ; of S"". It is a defect in these 
 other explanations, as compared with those given at the be 
 ning of this note, that the play upon Ifmdr ' ass ' is one of si 
 merely, apart from any connexion in ineaning. 
 
 17. Ramath-lehi. Here Rdmath is explained by '^f)E>>i 'be 
 
 away,' as though derived from rama 'to cast or throw' — the nameb 
 taken to mean ' the throwing of the jawbone.' With such a deriva 
 we should expect the foi'm to be vocalized R'math. Rdmath sh 
 be derived from the root r-dm ' to be high ' ; and there can be 
 doubt that the name really means ' the height of Lehi '; cf. the pr 
 names nD") or n»nn 'the height,' nsvsn n»"l 'the height of 
 
 outlook-point,' etc. The story is based upon an unphilological ii 
 pretation of the name. 
 
 19. Then God clave, etc. The story probably embodies a trac 
 solar mythology : cf. Addit. note, p. 406. 
 
 the Mortar. Heb. ham-makhtes — doubtless a circular depressio 
 the rock or soil, of the appearance of a mortar, from the side of w 
 the spring issued. There was a place called 'the Mortar' at J 
 salem : Zeph. i ". 
 
 that is in Lehi. Lehi is here, of course, the place, as is pn 
 by the statement at the end of the verse that the spring was in e 
 ence in the narrator's own day. The rendering of U, S^, A.V., I 
 marg. suggests that the spring issued from a 'hollow place 'in 
 actual jawbone. 
 
 his spirit returned. Heb. in-IT DtJ'PII. So exactly in i Sam. 
 of the return of animation and vigour after faintness. Heb. rAc 
 the essential principle of life, the removal of which from the 1 
 results in death (cf. Ps. 10429). 
 
 he revived. Lit. ' he lived.' 
 
15. 20, 16. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 375 
 
 was called '£n-hak-k6re, which is in Lehi, unto this day. 
 2o. R"' And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 
 twenty years. 
 
 l6. I. J' And Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a harlot, 
 
 ' En-hak-kore. The name means ' the spring of the caller,' and is 
 explained by the narrator as referring to Samson ; cf the statement 
 of v^^ 'and he called {way-yikra) unto Yahweh.' Hak-kore,'how- 
 ever, is the Heb. term for the partridge in i Sam. 26^°, Jer. 17I', 
 referring to its call-note, which is a familiar sound in the hill-country 
 of Palestine ; and modern commentators (following J. D. Michaelis) 
 consider that the name of the spring was the Partridge-spring, and 
 that the explanation given by the narrator, like that of Ramath-lehi, 
 represents a later adaptation of the meaning. It is tempting to sup- 
 pose that, \i hak-kore really here refers to a bird, -'the caller' may in 
 this case be, not the partridge, but its near relative the guail (else- 
 where called s'ldw), which is likewise distinguished by a very clear 
 and resonant call-note.* Bochart {Hierozoicon, ii. p. 99) quotes from 
 Athenaeus (ix. 47) the myth that Herakles, when slain by Typhon, 
 was restored to life by smelling a quail — whence arose the proverb 
 among the Greeks, 
 
 ''OpTV^ etrcoo-cv ^UpaicXrjv tov Kaprepov. 
 
 According to Eudoxus (Athenaeus, loc. cit.\ the Phoenicians annually 
 sacrificed a quail in commemoration of the resurrection of Herakles 
 in the month Peritius (Feb.-Mar.), at the season when the quail 
 returns to Palestine in great numbers (cf Robertson Smith, Religion 
 of the Semites^ p. 449) — a ceremony which is almost certainly to be 
 brought into connexion with the solar myth : cf Addit. note, p. 406. 
 If the quail was thus sacred to Herakles-Melkart, the possibility is 
 opened that the bird may have played a part in the story which 
 related the revival of Samson's vital powers (inn ^BTll) ; though, if 
 this was so, the original connexion was so remote from [or so 
 explained away by) the narrator that 'the caller' became, not the 
 bird, but the hero himself 
 
 20. And he judged, etc. On this notice as the conclusion of the 
 Samson-narrative in R'^^s book, cf p. 338. 
 
 i6. I. Gaza. Heb. n-tV. The English form of the name is from 
 
 (K Va^a, in which the V reproduces the harder form of J? — a consonant 
 which, when Heb. was a spoken language, must have repre- 
 
 * Cf. Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 232:— 'A few remain there [in Palestine] 
 throughout the winter, but their numbers are suddenly reinforced at the end of 
 March, when every patch of grass resounds with their well-known peculiar 
 call-note. ' 
 
376 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [li 
 
 and went in unto, her. 2. <(And it was told)> to the Gazath 
 saying, ' Samson hath come hither.' And they came round ab 
 and laid wait for him all Tdayl in the gate of the city; and t 
 kept quiet all night, saying, ' when the morning dawns we 
 
 sented two distinct sounds, akin respectively to and ^ in i 
 
 cf. G-K. § 6 ^. The modern Ar. name is Gazzeh (identical with 
 Heb. form) ; and the city, which in ancient times was of consider; 
 importance as a trade-centre on the caravan-routes to Egypt 
 Arabia, still possesses a considerable population : cf Smith, HG. 
 181 if. Gaza is some thirty-six miles south-east of Sor'ah. 
 
 2. And it was told. Supplying nj>5 with ffi'^ naX avrjyyeXij, (&"■ 
 cmr)yyi\ri, S>^ jiolZ]©, 51 HinnX, and all moderns. "S reads, 'qi 
 cum audissent Philisthiim.' H is untranslatable without a verb. 
 
 all day. Reading Di*n"^3 with Kit., in place of n^)^n"^D ' all nig 
 
 erroneously copied from the latter half of the verse. The poin' 
 the statement 'and they kept quiet all night, saying, etc.,' must 
 that during the night they were off their guard, relying upon 
 supposition that, so long as the city-gates were closed, Samson co 
 not escape. It was thus — as they imagined — unnecessary for th 
 to be back at their post till dawn ; but Samson baffled them 
 rising in the middle of the night and removing the gates. It m 
 therefore have been not all night that they laid wait for him in 
 gate of the city ; but so much of the preceding day during whi 
 after Samson's arrival, the gates remained open, and it was necessi 
 to guard them. We may safely rule out any such explanation of 
 as that they kept watch all night, but fell asleep at their post (i 
 awakened even by the noise of the tearing up of the gates !), or t 
 Samson overawed or otherwise quelled their attack — since si 
 details, had they been presupposed, would certainly have been mi 
 tioned in the narrative. Stu. (who was the first to put forward ■ 
 explanation above adopted) simply omits the first HPvn 73 ; and 
 followed by Sta., Doom., La. Mo. conjectures that the wh 
 sentence, 'and they came round about . . . gate of the city,' i 
 later addition ' intended to make Samson's escape the more wond 
 ful by exaggerating the precautions which the Philistines took 
 prevent it' So No. 
 
 When the morning dawns. Heb. i pan "liN-lS? may perhaps ms 
 'Till the morning dawns' : with ellipse of 'Wait,' which is suppl 
 in translation by ffit'^'' "Ems (^wtos Trpmi fielvcofifv. Cf note on 
 morning,' ch. 6^'. It is unnecessary to follow Mo. {SBOT.) 
 supplying nSHJ (cf 2 Kgs. 7 >*). 
 
16. 3- 4- 5-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 377 
 
 slay him.' 3. And Samson lay until midnight, and arose at mid- 
 night, and laid hold of the doors of the city-gate, and the two 
 posts, and plucked them up together with the bar, and put them 
 upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill 
 that is in front of Hebron. 
 
 4. Now afterwards he loved a woman in the widy of Sorek, 
 whose name was Delilah. 5. And the lords of the Philistines 
 came up unto her, and said unto her, ' Beguile him, and see 
 by what means his strength is great, and by what means we may 
 
 3. and laid hold, etc. Cf. the description of the probable construc- 
 tion of the gates given by Mo. The bar let into the two posts, and 
 stretching across the gates, would keep the latter firmly locked in 
 position, and enable Samson to carry off the whole, when plucked 
 up, 'in one piece.' 
 
 in front of Hebron. I.e. to the east of it — the sense which is 
 
 always possessed by 'JS-pJ? except when following the verb eiptjij 
 
 ('look out over') ; cf. the instances collected by Mo. and by BDB. 
 p. 818^. The distance from Gaza to Hebron is some thirty-eight 
 miles ; but this is a mere detail to the narrator. The connexion of 
 Samson with a point so far removed from the scene of most of his 
 exploits is obscure, unless we are justified in suspecting a solar motif: 
 cf. Addit. note, pp. 406 f. 
 
 4. the ivddy of Sorek. The modern wady es-Sarir on the 
 northern edge of which Sor'ah is situated (cf note on ch. 1 3 2). The 
 name Sorek (which is the name of a choice kind of grape-vine) is 
 preserved in IJirbet Surik,* two miles west of Sor'ah. 
 
 Delilah. We are not told whether the woman was a Philistine, or 
 an Israelite in the pay of the Philistines, though the general trend 
 of Samson's inclinations favours the former supposition. Her name 
 is Semitic in form ; but this affords no indication as to her nation- 
 ality, since Semitic names appear to have been largely used among 
 the Philistines (cf. Sidka, Silbel, etc.). On the probable meaning of 
 the name, and its importance in relation to the mythological element 
 in the story, cf. p. 407. 
 
 5. the lords of the Philistines. Cf. note on ch. 3''. 
 
 by what means his strength is great. Heb. >n3 1113 nB3. 
 A. v., R.V. render ' wherein his great strength lieth,' with ffi, "S ; but 
 
 * The law which governs the interchange of sibilants in Heb. and Ar. would 
 lead us to expect Sflrik. The use of s in the Ar. form is perhaps an indication 
 that the later Heb. pronunciation of the name substituted D for tJ' (the two con- 
 sonants are often interchanged in Heb.). 
 
378 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [16. 7. 
 
 prevail over him and bind him, so as to reduce him ; and we 
 ourselves will each give thee eleven hundred shekels of silver.' 
 6. And Delilah said unto Samson, ' Prithee tell me by what means 
 thy strength is great, and by what means thou mayest be bound 
 so as to reduce thee.' 7. And Samson said unto her, 'If they 
 bind me with seven fresh bowstrings which have not been dried, 
 
 such a rendering would only be legitimate if fj'njn were read.* (^i■Il 
 
 without the Definite Article can only be predicate. ' By what means' 
 suggests the supposition that his strength depended upon some magic 
 charm (so Le Clerc, Mo., etc.). 
 
 to reduce him. I.e. to reduce or overcome his strength ; Heb. 
 inisy^. This seems to be the meaning rather than A.V., R.V. text 
 ' to afflict him,' marg. ' to humble him ' ; Mo., La. ' to torment hiin.' 
 Cf. note on v.'^". 
 
 ■will each give thee. ' Each ' probably refers to the five lords of the 
 principal Philistine cities. Cf. ch. 3 '. 
 
 eleven hundred shekels of silver. Why this particular sum is fixed, 
 rather than what we should term a round sum, cannot be said. 
 Commentators display a singular unanimity in repeating Reuss' sug- 
 gestion that the meaning is a full thousand, or over a thousand. 
 If this is so, we can only say that they allowed a substantial margin. 
 The sum mentioned in ch. ly^ happens to be the same. 
 
 The value of the Heb. silver shekel, as calculated by Kennpdy 
 {DB. iii. 420 a) was about 2s. gd. ; so the sum promised by each 
 of the princes would have amounted to something like ;^I5I in our 
 money. Money at this period was not coined ; but the value of the 
 metal was determined by weight. The verb sakal ' to weigh ' (from 
 which the subs, shekel is derived) is comnionly employed in 
 descriptions of money-transactions : cf. Gen. 23 1" P, Ex. 22 '' E, 
 I Kgs. 20'^, al. 
 
 7. seven fresh bowstrings. For Heb. _y///^«r in this sense, cf. Ps. ji', 
 and the usage of the Ar. watar, SyT.yathr&. The bowstrings were, no 
 doubt, of twisted gut which was still moist (the lit. meaning of D'n?), 
 and therefore less likely to fray or break. The rendering of A.V., 
 R.V. text 'green withs (withes)' — cf. Jos. KXrjjiaa-iv . . . dftTrfXou— is 
 improbable in itself and without support in usage. The number sewn 
 was probably considered to have a magical virtue. 
 
 * Maurer(aj«arfRos.) cites ")nK DD^nS? 'your other brother,' Gen. 43", as 
 an instance of an adj. without the Article qualifying a subs, made definite by a 
 pronominal suffix. This single instance, however (which may be due to textual 
 corruption) does not prove the possibility of such a usage in the preseiil 
 passage. 
 
16. g. H. 13.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 379 
 
 then shall I become weak, and shall be like any other man.' 
 8. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven 
 fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound him 
 with them. 9. Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner 
 chamber. And she said unto him, ' The Philistines are upon 
 thee, Samson ! ' And he snapped the bowstrings just as a 
 strand of tow is snapped when it feeleth fire. So his strength 
 was not known. 10. And Delilah said unto Samson, ' Behold, 
 thou hast mocked me, and told me lies : now, prithee, tell me 
 by what means thou mayest be bound.' 11. And he said unto 
 her, ' If they only bind me with new ropes wherewith no work 
 hath been done, then shall I become weak, and shall be like any 
 other man.' 12. So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him 
 with them, and said unto him, ' The Philistines are upon thee, 
 Samson ! ' Now the liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner 
 chamber. And he snapped them from off his arms like a 
 thread. 13. And Delilah said unto Samson, 'Hitherto thou 
 hast deceived me, and told me lies : tell me by what means thou 
 mayest be bound.' And he said unto her, ' If thou weave the 
 seven locks of my head along with the web, ^and beat up with 
 
 like any other man. Heb. DIXH TnN3 lit. ' like one of mankind.' 
 
 9. The Philistines, etc. The alarm is given, not to call out the 
 ambush, but to test the success of the experiment. When this 
 proves a failure, the Philistines must, of course, be supposed to remain 
 in hiding, so that Samson is unaware of their presence, and thinks 
 that Delilah is merely playing with him in order to gratify her own 
 curiosity. 
 
 ■when it feeleth the fire. Lit. 'when it smelleth the fire,' i.e. without 
 actual contact. For the simile, cf ch. 1 5 '^^ 
 
 II. with new ropes. Cf ch. 15 •'. 
 
 13. the seven locks, etc. The precise sense in which Heb. mahl'phdth 
 is used — whether of natural curls ox plaits — is uncertain, the etymology 
 of the word being obscure.* (E a-etpas or ^oarpvxovs, "S ' crines,' & ^ 
 
 ■ .m n o_ V 'plaits,' 2E n?''1J id. We are reminded of the way in 
 which GilgameS is represented on seal-cylinders, with hair divided 
 into curling locks ; though these are always six in number (not seven, 
 as stated by Jeremias, Cooke, and Smythe Palmer), three falling on 
 
 * The explanation given by BDB. for the sense 'plaits,' 'so called from inter- 
 twining, passing through each other, of the strands,' is based on the fact that the 
 verb hdlafh, which commonly means ' to pass on or away,' seems in two passages 
 
38o THE BOOK OF JUDGES [16. 13 
 
 the pin, then shall I become weak, and shall be like any 
 man. 14. So, when he slept, Delilah took the seven locli 
 his head, and wove them along with the web,)> and beat up ■ 
 the pin, and said unto him, 'The Philistines are upon t 
 
 each side of his face : cf. Plate 11., figs. 3, 4, 5 5 P'^te ill., figs. 
 On the probable solar significance of this characteristic, cf At 
 note, p. 404. 
 
 13, 14. and beat up . . . the web. Adding 'n'iTIl nri»3 H! 
 
 n3DSn"DJf JlXril iB'XI. The words are necessary to complete l 
 
 Samson's directions and also the account of the way in which Del 
 exactly carried them out : cf the correspondence between his w( 
 and her actions in vvi'-^, >''^, "''•i^. They have fallen out o) 
 through homceoteleuton ; the scribe's eye passing from the 
 occurrence of rUDDH DJ? 'along with the web' to the second. ' 
 missing words occur, with variations, in MSS. of fflf, and in %}\ 
 We follow the reading of ffi**, according to which z/z/.i3b.i4aa j-yj, 
 einev 7rpo£ avrrjv, 'Edv vfj^dvrjs ras inra a-^ipas ttJs Ke(|)aX^? fiov (TVi 
 dtdafiari Kal ^VKpovarfs Tw Tratrffaka els rov toI^^ov, kol ecrop^i as els 
 
 to have the sense ' to pass through (cf. ck. 5^6 note) ; but the connexion in ideaw 
 is here assumed appears sornewhat uncertain (unless — as privately suggeste 
 Prof. Margoliouth — we may justify such a transition in meaning by the ana! 
 of the Ar. root marra, 'to pass by »r beyond, pass along,' from which are der 
 marir ' a rope that is slender and long, and strongly twisted,' 'amarru ' mor 
 most tightly twisted ' — an elative form). The comparison of Ges., Ties. , with 
 hall/, 'contortus, convolutus,' is derived from Golius ; but this meaning is 
 given by modern Ar. lexicons. There is an Ar. word Aaltf which mean: 
 woman who lets her hair fall down her back behind ' (Ar. halafa meaning 
 come after, succeed ' temporally, and also ' to come behind or at the b< 
 locally) ; and half denotes ' the location or quarter which is behind' (Lane), 
 is used e.g. of joining the hands behind the back (Dozy). This suggests 
 possibility that mahflldphoth may properly denote locks which fall down the i 
 Cf. the description given of GilgameX when, after his conquest of Humhaba 
 washed and polished his arms, put on fine raiment, and ' caused his long hai 
 fall down upon his back' (unassik kimmatsu eli sirisu; Tab. VI., 1. 2. 
 passage is one which unmistakeably embodies a solar motif: cf. Addit. t 
 pp. 396 f. ). It is worthy of notice that mahHdpha is, \uform, the exact equivalei 
 Bab. nafilaftu, which denotes something which covers or clothes. Possibly the v 
 may have existed in Heb. in the sense of trapping or adornment, and mayl 
 been appUed to a curl. More probable, however, than any of these suggest 
 is connexion with Heb. hdlaph in the sense to sprout: cf. Ps. 90 ''•^ (Kal), Job 
 (Hiph'il) — a meaning which, though explained by BDB. as derived from the i 
 to shew newness, is rather to be associated with Bab. eUpu, to sprout, applied 1 
 tree [sa isi), or to be long. ''B'SI mslTID would then properly denote 
 sproutings (long tresses) of my head ' : cf. the use of the verb flDS ' to spn 
 in Z/.22 of the fresh growth of the hero's hair after it had been cut off. 
 
16. 13- 14-] THE BOOK OP JUDGES 581 
 
 avdpaijrav aa-6eVT]S. Kai iyevero fv Tm KOifiaadai aiiTov Koi eXafiev AaXfida 
 Tas ETTTi treiphs r^r Ket^aXijs avTov Kol v<j)avev iv Tco Sido-^ari kt\. Here 
 els Tov Tolxov appears to be an explanatory gloss, due to misunder- 
 standing of the meaning of '\r\''Z nvpni (see below) ; but the rest of 
 the passage presupposes a clear and self-consistent original.* So. Mo. 
 The text of ffi'^'- offers a conflation between that of ffi° and a variant text 
 which is preserved most nearly in the group of MSS. cited by Mo. as 
 ffi^-P (cf. SBOT.). In this latter text the most noteworthy variation 
 is in the commencement of 7/.", <a\ eKoliiia-ev airbv AaXiSa, xai 
 KareKpova-ev ktK Hence Bu. reads 'J1 J'lNni ■in2B'»ri1 (cf. t/.'^). 
 
 The precise nature of the test which is thus described has been 
 elucidated by Mo. {^Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, 
 1889, pp. clxxvi fif. ; cf. also Comm. and SBOT. So, previously, 
 Braun, De Vestitu Sacerdotum Hebraeorum, Amstel., 1698, p. 252, 
 who is followed by Stu.). Mo. seems, however, to be incorrect in 
 assuming that the loom was of the upright kind : cf Kennedy, article 
 'Weaving' in EB., who points out that, in the ancient Egyptian 
 representations, which are given by him (col. 5279), and- by Mo., 
 SBOT. Eng. trans., p. 86, the looms are really horizontal ; though 
 absence of perspective makes them appear at first sight to be upright. 
 We should probably picture a horizontal loom of the simplest sort, in 
 which two pairs of posts firmly fixed in the ground hold the yarn- 
 beam and the cloth-beam respectively. A piece of unfinished stuff 
 (the massekheth ' web ') is standing in the loom ; an4 Delilah, having 
 manoeuvred so as to get Samson to sleep with his head on her knees 
 beside the loom, weaves his long hair into the warp with her fingers, 
 and beats it up tightly into the web by means of the ydthedh, i.e. the 
 ' pin ' or ' batten ' (a flat piece of wood with a thin edge), so that his 
 hair actually becomes part of the finished material. J When aroused 
 
 * IZStya is adopted as the original of h t^ Koi/idcrdM airrdv because 33B'j 
 properly 'to lie down to rest,' is regularly rendered hy Koifxav in <S (151 cases 
 cited in Hatch and Redpath's Concordance) ; whereas only one passage (Isa. 527) 
 is cited in which |Ey' is so rendered. 
 
 J Cf. the description of a modern Bedawin loom given by Palmer (Desert of the 
 Exodus, i. p. 125), who, in referring to his visits paid to Bedawin encamp- 
 ments, tells us that ' On one of these occasions I noticed an old woman weaving 
 at the tent door. Her loom was a primitive one, consisting only of a few upright 
 sticks upon which the threads were stretched : the transverse threads were inserted 
 laboriously by the fingers, without the assistance of a shuttle, and the whole fabric 
 was pressed close together with a piece of wood. Beside her stood a younger 
 female spinning goats' hair to supply the old lady with the material necessary for 
 her task.' So, too, Rob. (BR.^ i. 169) relates that 'Just before setting off 
 [from'Akabah], we saw in one corner the process of manufacturing the goats' 
 hair cloth of which the common Arab cloaks are made. A woman had laid her 
 warp along the ground for the length of several yards, and sat at one end of it 
 under a small shed, with a curtain before her to ward off the eyes of passers-by. 
 She wove bypassing the woof through with her hand, and then driving it up with 
 a fiat piece of board having a thin edge. ' 
 
382 THE BOOIt OF JUDGES [16. t- 
 
 Samson ! ' And he awoke from his sleep, and plucked u 
 the loom and the web. 15. And she said unto him, '[ 
 canst thou say, " I love thee," when thy heart is not with 
 three times already thou hast deceived me, and hast not 
 me by what means thy strength is great.' 16. And when 
 
 by the alarm, Samson leaps up ; and, as he raises his head, he 
 the four posts of the loom out of the ground, and carries off web 
 
 .loom together attached to his hair. 
 
 The ffi addition els tov toIx"", noticed above, assumes erronec 
 that ydthedh (as in ch. 4 ^i-^^, 5 ^^) denotes a feg which De 
 hammered into the wall {kol ivKpovcrrjs rep watro'dXa ktX., aal eit 
 T<u naa-a-aXa ktX. ; c£ !F ' et clavum his circumligatum terrae fixe 
 in order to secure the web ; and a similar error is probably res 
 
 ,sible for the insertion of HVTI in w."'' |§ (cf note). Thatydt/ 
 however, can be used in other senses is proved by Deut. 23 '*, w 
 it denotes an implement for digging. S"" renders |Jqj, i.e. the 'ci 
 beam ' of the loom to which the warp is attached ; so 3C ]02ii in ; 
 but in v.^*'^ Snao 'peg.' The meaning of Heb. massikheth '1 
 from nasakh ' to weave ' (cf. Ar. nasagd), may be illustrated bj 
 usage of the nearly identical form massekhd, which occurs in Isa. 
 ('the web that is woven over all nations'), 30* ('to weave a wi 
 and in Isa. 28^° in the sense of '(woven) bed-spread.' Keni 
 {EB. 5282) supposes that masse'kheth and massekhd primarily de 
 the ' warp,' and then by metonymy the ' web,' on the ground thai 
 post-Bib. Heb. verb hesekh is used of setting the warp in the k 
 This view, however, is opposed by the relation of Heb. nasakh to 
 nasa^a, which certainly means ' to interweave.' 
 
 14. the loom. ilH Jisn ^n^'^ isintended tomean 'thepegof 
 
 loom.' in*n (which is condemned as an insertion by the anottia 
 
 use of the Article with the Construct State) must have been origir 
 a marginal addition made by a scribe who, taking 10' in vy^ to n 
 the peg with which Delilah fastened the web to the wall or gro' 
 desiderated a reference to Samson's plucking this out when he f 
 himself As we have seen, however (preceding note) IfT' has c 
 a different meaning, and it was the loom itself which San 
 pulled up. 
 
 15. How canst thou say, etc. Cf. ch. 14'°. 
 
 when thy heart, etc. Mo. brings out the sense by rendering, sc 
 what paraphrastically, 'seeing that thou dost not confide in 
 ' Heart,' as he points out, is used not of the affections, but of 
 inner man with its secret thoughts.' Cf.,z/.*', 'he told her all 
 heart.' 
 
16. 17- i8. I9-] tHE BOOK OF JUDGES 383 
 
 pressed him sore with her words continually, and urged him, his 
 soul was impatient unto death. 17. And he told her all his 
 heart, and said to her, J' No razor hath come up upon my head, 
 for a Nazirite of God have I been from my mother's womb : 
 J' if I be shaven, then my strength will depart from me, and I 
 shall become weak, and shall be like all other men.' 18. And 
 when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and 
 called the lords of the Philistines, saying, ' Come up this once, for 
 he hath told ^me^ all his heart.' And the lords of the Philistines 
 '"came up^ unto her, and brought up the money in their hand. 
 
 19. And she made him sleep upon her knees, and called for a 
 man, and '^he^ shaved off the seven locks of his head ; and '^he^ 
 began '^to be reduced^, and his strength departed from him. 
 
 20. And she said, ' The Philistines are upon thee, Samson ! ' 
 And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, ' I will go out as at 
 
 17. no razor . . . -womb. As to the grounds upon which this 
 passage is to be regarded, as an addition to the old story by the 
 author of ch. 13, of. pp. 337 f. Its excision from the narrative causes 
 Samson's answer (' If I be shaven, etc.') to commence in precisely the 
 same form as in wz/.^"-'^ 
 
 18. hath told me. Reading '{) for Kt. n?, with K'r^., many MSS. 
 of |§, and all Versions. 
 
 came up. Reading -lisV*! the regular tense form in narration, with 
 many MSS, of 1§, in place of the irregular vVI. 
 
 19. and he shaved off. Reading n^J^I. S n^JRl ' and she shaved 
 off' ; but, if Delilah did this herself, it is not clear why the man 
 should have been needed. 
 
 and he began to be reduced. Reading Tiwh ^HM (or nijvi') with 
 
 Br*"- Km ^p^aro TandvovaBai., Sk^ rmnVnAynX ,_,;_»o. The ^-eference 
 is to the gradual ebbing away of his strength as he is shorn of his 
 locks. Cf. t/.s note, and the use of nsSf in Ps. 102 ^3 (5§ 2*), ' He 
 
 ■weakened my strength in the way.' H iniSV^ ^nril 'and she began 
 
 to afflict him,' has the support of ffi", S'', ®, and is paraphrased by S 
 ' et coepit abigere eum, et a se repellere.' Whatever meaning, how- 
 ever, be read into the statement, it involves (coming as it does before 
 'and his strength departed from him') something of a hysteron- 
 • proteron ; since it would be only after his loss of strength that 
 Delilah would venture to treat him with contumely. 
 
384 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [16. 20. 21. 22. 23 
 
 other times, and shake myself free ' ; not knowing that Yahwel 
 had departed from him. 21. And the Philistines laid hold or 
 him, and bored out his eyes ; and they brought him down tc 
 Gaza, and bound him with bronze fetters ; and he did grind ir 
 the prison-house. 22. But the hair of his head began to grov 
 when he had been shaved. 
 
 23. And the lords of the Philistines gathered themselves 
 together to sacrifice a great sacrifice unto Dagon their God, and 
 
 20. and shake myself free. The expression suggests that Delilah 
 had bound him (cf w.^), in addition to causing his locks to be shaved 
 off; and Mo. may be right in his conjecture that a statement to this 
 effect has been accidentally omitted. 
 
 not knowing., etc. Heb. '31 J)"i» Np x-IHI a circumstantial clause. 
 
 that Yahweh, etc. Doom, supposes that inb ' his strength ' originally 
 stood in place of ' Yahweh ' ; cf. z/."*^. Cf , however, the remarks 
 on pp. 337 i. 
 
 21. and he did grind. The Heb. |nitD 'IT'l imphes that this was 
 his constant occupation. On grinding as a badge of degraded servi- 
 tude, cf note on ch. 9 *^ It is probable, however, that the reference 
 in Samson's case is not to a mere handmill, but to a heavy mill such 
 as would usually be turned by an ox or an ass. The reference may 
 very possibly embody a solar motif: cf Addit. note, p. 408. 
 
 22. But the hair of his head, etc. This statement carries the mind 
 of the sympathetic reader beyond the immediate blackness of the 
 hero's fate, by hinting at the denouement in which Samson will 
 perform his greatest feat of all. 
 
 23. Dagon. A Philistine deity who had a temple not only at Gaza, 
 but also at Ashdod (i Sam. 5 \ i Mace. lo^'*-; 1 1*), and (if the text of 
 I Chr. 10'° is to be trusted) at Beth-she'an. Beth-Dagon ('Temple 
 of D.') was the name of a city in the Shephelah which is assigned to 
 Judah in Josh. 15*' P; and the same name was borne by a city on 
 the border of Asher, apparently east of Carmel and not far from the 
 border of Zebulun ; Josh. 19^' P. The former of these names may 
 show Philistine influence in the Shephelah ; while the latter conceiv- 
 ably indicates the presence of the kindred people called Takkara, whom 
 we know to have settled at Dor, a little south of Carmel (cf Inirod. 
 p. xcvi). Among modern Ar. place-names, we find Bet-Degan* 
 
 * Whether this is the same as the Beth-Dagon of Josh. 15*1 is doubtful. It is 
 so identified by Eusebius {OS. 235"), Bi;9 l^ayav. ipv\TJs lovda. xai lirnw 
 KthfiTj fj.eyi<7r7] Ka0a/) Aa7a)j' /j,era^i) AiotrTriXews Kal la/nvlas. The site lies out- 
 side the Shephelah properly so called (cf. note on cA. i s) ; but the list of cities in 
 Josh, in which the name occurs is so confused that we can draw no certain 
 conclusion. 
 
16. 23-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 385 
 
 five and a half miles south-east of Jaffa, with a ruined site Dagun a 
 little further south. One of these, no doubt, is the Bit-Daganna men- 
 tioned before Joppa by Sennacherib in his Prism-inscription : cf. 
 KB. ii. p. 92. 
 
 It seems probable, however, that Dagon was not a foreign deity 
 introduced from the west by the sea-peoples in their influx into 
 Cana'an, but rather a native Semitic deity, adopted (like Ba' al-zebul,* 
 the god of 'Ekron, 2 Kgs. 1 2^) after their settlement in the land. 
 There is another Bet-Degin some seven miles east of Nablus 
 (Shechem), whither we have no reason for supposing that Philistine 
 influence ever extended. It can hardly be doubted that Dagon is 
 identical with the god Dagan, who is known to us from the cunei- 
 form inscriptions. Dagan is sometimes connected with the god Anu 
 (e.g. by the Assyrian kings Samsi-Adad vil., KB. i. p. 174, and Sargon, 
 KB. ii. p. 38), occupying in relation to Anu the position which is 
 commonly filled by Enlil, to whom there is reason for assuming that 
 he was regarded as the equivalent.]: Among the T.A. Letters there 
 are two from a Cana'anite vassal of the king of Egypt named Dagan- 
 takala (Winckler, KB. v. Nos. 215 f ; Knudtzon, Nos. 317 f); and 
 the name of the deity is especially frequent as an element in proper 
 names of the Babylonian First Dynasty period, several of which 
 {e.g. Yasub-(ilu)-Dagan, Yasmah-(ilu)-Dagan, etc. §) appear, from the 
 verbal forms which they embody, to have been borne by Western 
 Semites (men of Amurru ; cf Introd. p. lix) ; cf the way in which 
 JJammurabi, in the introduction to his Code (iv. 27), speaks of Dagan 
 as his creator (banisu). We first meet with Dagan in the theophoric 
 names of two successive rulers of the city-state of Nisin, Idin-Dagan 
 and Isme-Dagan, dated by King cir. B.C. 2250 {Sumer and Akkad, 
 Appendix II.). These rulers, though members of a dynasty which 
 used the Sumerian language || and adopted Sumerian customs, yet 
 bear Semitic names (meaning respectively 'Dagan has given' and 
 ' Dagan has heard ') ; and there is thus some ground for the conjec- 
 ture of Meyer {GA.'^ I. ii. pp. 501 f ) that the dynasty of Nisin may 
 have been of Amorite origin, and may have brought the worship of 
 Dagan with them from the west. IT 
 
 The view that Dagon was represented as half man and half Jish is 
 based upon supposed connexion of the name with Heb. dagh 'fish,' " 
 
 * On this form of the name, as original rather than Baal-zebub of 15, cf. p. 5. 
 
 J Cf. the full discussion of Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 449 ff. 
 
 § Cf. the lists given by Tiiureau-Dangin, Leltres et contrats de Vipoque de la 
 PremUre Dynastic Babylonitniie. 
 
 II Cf. the inscriptions given by Thureau-Dangin, Die Sumerischin und Akka- 
 dischen Konigsinschrifitn, pp. 204-Z07. 
 
 IT Cf. also for this view, Zimmern, KA T.^ p. 358; Jastrow, RBA. i. pp. 219 ff. 
 King, who formerly maintained the Sumerian origin of the dynasty of Nisin 
 (Sum. and Akk., pp. 284, 303), now holds it to have been Semitic {Bab. pp. 
 
 131 ff.). 
 
 2 B 
 
386 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [16. 23, 
 
 and first appears in the commentaries of Rashi and Kimchi on 
 I Sam. 5 ; * but, apart from this assumed etymology, it can claim no 
 external support. The Assyr. representations of a deity part man 
 and part fish, figured in Riehm, HWB:' i. p. 290, in the article 
 ' Dagon,' represent Ea-Oannes \ (cf the quotations from Eusebius 
 and Helladius given in OTLAE. i. p. 48), whom we have no reason 
 to associate with Dagon. More plausible is the association of the 
 name with Heb. daghdn 'corn,' put forward by Philo of Byblos, who 
 states that Dagon was the inventor of corn and the plough, and was 
 known as Zeir aporpioi. Granted this connexion, we may either 
 suppose, with Sayce (cf. HCM. p. 326), that the worship of an 
 originally Sumerian deity travelled westward to Cana'an, and a native 
 etymology having been found for his name, he 'became a god oi 
 corn, an agricultural deity who watched over the growth and ripening 
 of the crops ' ; or (as seems more probable), that the name of an 
 originally Amorite corn-deity came to be used to denote corn^ much 
 as the Romans derived cerealia from Ceres, and used the term to 
 denote 'cereal crops.' It is worth noticing, in this connexion, that 
 among the Babylonian First Dynasty names there occurs Izrah-(ilu)- 
 Dagan, i.e. 'Dagan sows,' § a name in which the thought may have 
 been that the god of sowing sows the seed of a man. Cf the 
 
 * The difficult passage i Sam. 5 '' states that, after the image of the deity had 
 
 lost its head and hands, VPy 1X^*3 t'lJ't pi ' only Dagon was left upon hira ' 
 
 [i.e., apparently, ' belonging to him ' or ' oi him '). It is upon this passage that 
 Kimchi bases his statement that Dagon was fish from the navel downwards, and 
 human above — a view which he cites as a generally received opinion (' They say, 
 etc.'). Wellh.'s emendation 'U'l for [ij'^ ' only to / jAy /a;-/ was left ' ( r55. 
 
 ad loc], supports this view, but has not gained general acceptance. We seem 
 to need some word meaning ' stump ' or ' trunk,' such as is suggested by the ffi 
 rendering ■kKt]v t) pax" Aa7wv xnreKd^B-r). Cf. NHTS.^ ad loc. 
 
 % Cf. also TB. ii. p. 60, figs. 99 and 100 ; and Jastrow, Bildermafpe ziir 
 Religion Bab. und Assyr. , figs. 70a and 95, who takes the figure clad in a fish- 
 skin to represent, not the god himself, but his priest. 
 
 § /zra^ probably stands for IIIV, h in early cuneiform representations oi 
 Amorite words standing for the weaker as well as the stronger form of y. Cf, 
 Yasma^-(il-u)- Dagan already cited = |JiyDB'*. }arf?/;-i& = 7NVn'' (as it 
 I Chr. 76.10.11, II 45^ 26 2), and cases cited in Introd. p. Ixxv, footnote. It raaj 
 be admitted, however, that there is not the same certainty that Izra^ is an 
 Amorite Imperfect as exists in the case of the first elements in such First Dynast) 
 names as Vahnah-[ilu)-Dagan, Yasub-[ilu)-Dagan, Yamlih-ilu, Yaknn-{ilu] 
 Adad, etc., where the verbal forms are clearly not Babylonian, and, in Yahnalt, 
 we have the original a of the preformative syllable of the Imperf. Kal preservec 
 as in Ar. (cf. yazkur='\yf'' among the T.A. glosses ; p. 169 note). If, ai 
 assumed, Izrah = )3'\V, we must suppose that in this case the thinning procesi 
 from a to i has already taken place. It is possible, however, that the form raa) 
 be prseterite of the Bab. verb sar&hu ' to shine, ' = Heb. mt. 
 
16. 2$.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 387 
 
 to rejoice: and they said, 'Our god hath given into our hand 
 Samson our enemy.' 25. And when their hearts were merry 
 they said, 'Call Samson, that he may make sport for us.' So 
 they called Samson from the prison-house, and he made sport 
 
 place-name bitV-lV Jezre'el, i.e. ' the god sows,' which, if (as is doubt- 
 less the case) it goes back to Cana'anite times, may represent a 
 dedication to Dagon.* 
 
 25.24. The change in order of verses follows the suggestion of Bu. 
 (so No., Kit., Cooke). 'And when the people saw him' (v.^*) is out 
 of place until Samson has been fetched and brought in to the festival 
 {v.^) ; but, with the transposition, the reference of v.^* is most appro- 
 priate, and the narrative runs smoothly. La. retains the order of ?§ 
 on the view that the Object in ' when they saw him ' is the god Dagon, 
 whose image was carried in procession or otherwise exhibited ; but 
 this is most improbable. 
 
 25. w^en their hearts -were merry. Kt. 310 »3 (Perfect) and K'ri 
 3iD3 (Infin. Constr.) are equally idiomatic. The Massoretes substi- 
 tute the construction which is found in 2 Sam. 13 ^, Hos. 10 ', Est. i '", 
 possibly failing to recognize 31D of Kt. as a Perfect. The occur- 
 rences of this Perfect form are often difficult to distinguish from the 
 Adjective ; but the real existence of such a form (verb middle o, like 
 E'iS) is proved by the occurrence of the plur. -nb Num. 24 °, Song 4 '". 
 
 that he may make sport for us. Whether the reference is to minor 
 exhibitions of strength and dexterity, or to the exercise of his jesting 
 proclivities, is not clear. S'', Ar. suppose that he was to dance before 
 them. 
 
 and he inade sport. Here fl? somewhat strangely varies the spelling 
 
 * It is very possible that the passage in the Sarcophagus-inscription of 
 Eshmun'azar, king of Sidon, 11. 18 f. , should be rendered, ' And, moreover, the 
 Lord of kings gave us Dor and Joppa, the excellent land of Dagon, which is in 
 the field of Sharon' (so Schlottmann, Movers, and Blau, as cited in CIS. I. i. 
 p. 18). The phrase rmNn JJT flVnX is taken, however, by most scholars to 
 mean 'the excellent corn-land.' On this view, the passage seems to illustrate 
 the fact that the region inhabited by the worshippers of Dagon was principally 
 noted for its daghan ' corn ' (as is still the case in modern times) — a fact which 
 has its importance in relation to the view above discussed that Dagon was a 
 corn-deity. 
 
 Sayce {//CM. p. 327) cites a seaNpreserved in the Ashmolean Museum as 
 bearing the inscription Ba'al-Dagon in Phoenician letters, together with the 
 representation (among other symbols) of an ear of corn. The reading is, how- 
 ever, very doubtful. Lidzbarski (Epkemeris fur Nordsemit. Epigr., i. p. 12) 
 thinks that it should more probably be read Ba'al-regem ; whilst the ear of corn 
 requires considerable ingenuity for its detection. 
 
388 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [16, ; 
 
 before them ; and they made him stand between the pilla 
 24. And when the people saw him, they praised their god, ^an 
 said, 
 
 ' Our god hath given 
 Our enemy into our hand, 
 And him who laid waste our land. 
 And who multiplied our slain.' 
 
 of the verb, using the form pT])S which is found elsewhere only in tl 
 Pentateuch (so invariably ; thirteen times) and in Ezek. 23 ^', whereas i 
 ^^_25a.27 ^g have the ordinary form pntJ'- Very possibly the variatio 
 may be due merely to a copyist. It is noteworthy, however, that i 
 place of g Omph pny?1, ®'^% S*" read koX ivivm^ov avT<}, i.e. probabl 
 'U'-l!'^Vn'l (cf- the ffi renderings of this verb in c/i. ig'\ i Sam. 31 
 
 a/.), 'and they made sport of him,' i.e. insulted him. This tej 
 appears to lie at the back of the doublet of ffi" km ipdinCov airi. 
 (perhaps a corruption of the reading of ffi'^"') which follows afte 
 Koi cTraifei' ivi>niov aiirav — an accurate rendering of the text of f§ 
 Jos. (Ant. V. viii. 12) seems to support the reading of ffi'^'' when hi 
 states that the Philistines sent for Samson Snais iw^pitrao-Lv ahrif napi 
 Tov noTov. It is conceivable that fflt'^'' may represent the origina 
 text, and that the variation of spelling in f§ may be due to the fac 
 that the text has been altered by a later hand. 
 
 24. and said. Reading .IIDN'I with ffi* koi elnav, in place of % 
 •npx *3 'for they said.' So Bu., No. Clearly the words whicl 
 
 follow embody the expression of praise, and not simply the reason foi 
 it. 3 and 1 were frequently confused in the older form of writing ; 
 cf. instances collected in NHTK. p. 177. 
 
 Our god, etc. The words fall into a rough rhythm, with recurrent 
 rhyme upon the suffix -enu ' our ' : — 
 
 NatMn 'Hoh'inu 
 b'yadhenU 'etk 'dy^bhenu 
 'w"eth malf'ribh 'arsenu 
 wcC^hr hirbha 'etk h'^ldlknU. 
 
 Such rhymes are by no means infrequent, especially in short poetical 
 pieces or proverbial sayings preserved by story-tellers in their narra- 
 tives. In longer poems they are occasional ; but not used systemati- 
 
 „„1T„ „, o,,tor,c;„£.l„ rf Hpn /I 23 ^T29a ^n6a.n.26a<. V-i I C 2-8. Nuffl, 
 
16. 26. 27.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 389 
 
 26. And Samson said unto the lad that held his hand, ' Suffer 
 me that I may feel the pillars ^i. whereon the house is sup- 
 ported, J' and may lean upon them.' 27. Now the house was 
 full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines 
 were there, and upon the roof were about three thousand men 
 
 21 18a.28 * 23^.21^23^ 24"'-211>-22 DeUt. 32 2a..eb.0.26b.30b.36.41a ,, 3.8.]0b.l8.26 
 
 Judg. 1418b I Sam. i8">, 2 Sam. 1 20b. Occasional instances maybe 
 found in the Psalms; e.g. 2'-^", 6 2, 181211.16.19.20.21.23.29.37.46.47.49.61^ ^l 
 The most frequent and approximately systematic use of rhyme is in 
 the Song of Songs : c£ the present editor's note mJTS. x. pp. 584 ff. 
 
 26. that I may feel. K're i3a'''Dni from nO (c£ Ps. 115^; Kal 
 Gen. 27 2if), Kt *:B'p''ni from B'D'' (otherwise unknown). Since 
 
 CJ'tJ'D is the verb ordinarily used in the sense required, it is probable 
 that we should read 'JB'Dni. 
 
 ■whereon the house is supported. Doom, is probably right in re- 
 garding these words as a gloss from v.^. Samson would hardly have 
 risked betraying his purpose by using them. 
 
 27. Now the house, etc. Apparently we are to picture a banqueting 
 hall with one side open to a courtyard, the roof on this side being 
 supported by a pair of central pillars. Samson makes sport in the 
 courtyard where he can be seen both by those inside the building 
 and by those on the roof. Having thus exhibited his powers, he is 
 brought forward and placed between the pillars— possibly in order 
 that the lords of the Philistines and the other more important people 
 within the hall may obtain a closer view of him. 
 
 Doom, regards the latter half of the verse (from 'and upon the 
 roof, etc.') as a gloss in exaggeration of the foregoing ; while Mo. 
 (followed by Bu., etc.) would delete the middle part ('and all the lords 
 . . . men and women'), upon the ground that the Article with the 
 Participle D'Sin then refers naturally to D'CJm D'lB'JKn. It is 
 difficult to believe, however, in view of the great emphasis in r'.^'"' 
 upon the huge number slain, that the verse as thus attenuated is more 
 
 * Here we observe the scheme of rhyming lines i, z, and 4, with non-rhyming 
 3, as in Arabic poetry : — 
 
 ki es yds^'d meHe^b6n 
 lehabha mikkirydth SthSn 
 'dkh'ld 'Ar Moabh 
 ha'^li bdmhh 'ArnSn. 
 
 Cf. Num. 242ii>.22, and the instances cited from the Song of Songs in JTS. 
 loc. cit. p. 586. 
 
390 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [16. 28. 30 
 
 and women, looking on while Samson made sport. 28. Anc 
 Samson cried unto Yahweh, and said, ' Lord Yahweh, prithee 
 remember me, and prithee strengthen me only this once, C 
 God, that I may avenge myself upon the PhiHstines in one 
 vengeancV '"for"' my two eyes.' 29. And Samson grasped the 
 two middle pillars whereon the house rested, and leaned upon 
 them, one with his right hand, and the other with his left. 30, 
 And Samson said, ' Let my soul die with the Philistines ! ' And 
 he bowed himself mightily ; and the house fell upon the lords, 
 and upon all the people who were therein. So the dead that 
 
 original in form. On the use of the Def. Art. in D^Sin, cf. G-K. 
 § 126 ;r. 
 
 28. this once. Heb. n-tn DJJSn. We should expect nx-tn DVSn 
 or DJ?sn simply (cf. ch. 6^", Gen. 18'^, Ex. 10"). 
 
 in one vengeance for my two eyes. Reading *y5? 'PiB'S nnx nop) 
 for ?§ *ri? ''PlB'lp nriK Oi^J. He prays that at one stroke he may 
 exact an adequate vengeance for his grievous loss. So ffi"*, B. 
 This meaning is adopted by R.V. text., but cannot be extracted from 
 |§ as it stands. |^ can only mean ' a vengeance for (lit. of) one of 
 my two eyes ' ; and this rendering is adopted by R. V. marg., Kimchi, 
 Rashi, and most moderns. But, jester as Samson was, the dignity 
 and pathos of the context seem to forbid the idea that he is here 
 facing death with a jest on his lips. 
 
 30. Let my soul die. The use of it>>s3 'my soul' as a choice 
 
 synonym for 'me' is frequent in Heb., especially in poetry. The 
 nephes (properly, that which breathes) is the principle of life which 
 animates the basar ' flesh,' and the exit of which results in death. It 
 is not ' soul ' in the sense in which we use the term, i.e. of the 
 immortal ego. 
 
 he bowed himself. Probably we are to picture Samson as grasping 
 the pillars with either arm, and then bending forward so as to force 
 them out of the perpendicular. Mo., who renders Dirisy '^DD)! in 
 v.""^, 'and he braced himself against them,' explains t3>l here as 
 
 meaning 'he thrust,' supposing that 'standing between the two 
 columns, he pushed them apart by extending his arms.' Such a 
 sense attached to nt33 may perhaps be justified by its use to denote 
 the stretching forth of the hand (Ex. 8^ Isa. 5 2°, al.), though it is 
 not very natural without expression of the object ('his hands or 
 arms'); nor is it easy, on this interpretation, to justify nS7'l, '"• • 
 If he pushed the pillars apart, he would hardly have grasped them. 
 
lo. ji.j Lnr. cuuis. (Jf JUJJljJib 391 
 
 he did to death at his death were more than those that he 
 did to death in his life. 31. And his brethren and all his 
 father's house went down, and took him, and brought him up, 
 and buried him between Sor'ah and Eshta'ol, in the grave of 
 Manoah his father. R^" And he judged Israel twenty years. 
 
 Ae did to death. This rendering of n^tpn (which would ordinarily 
 be translated ' he slew ') is adopted in order to bring out the para- 
 doxical word-play which is intended in the original. 
 
 2,1. went down. Cf. «o^e on 'Timnah,' c^ 14^ 
 between Sor'ah, etc. Cf. ch. 13^* note. 
 
 THE MYTHICAL ELEMENT IN THE STORY 
 OF SAMSON 
 
 The view has frequently been put forward that the story of Samson 
 contains many legendary elements derived from the solar mythology 
 which seems to have been the common property, not merely of the 
 Semitic peoples, but of other races widely distinct from them. In 
 this respect, it has been argued, the Hebrew Samson is analogous to 
 the Phoenician Melkart and to the Babylonian Gilgames among the 
 Semites, as well as to the Greek hero Herakles, the main features 
 of whose portrait may well have been derived from Semitic sources.* 
 
 The subject is one which lends itself very readily to theorizing ; 
 and there can be no doubt that the arguments which have been 
 adduced to prove that the whole, or the major part, of Samson's 
 exploits are based upon a solar myth are insufficiently attested. 
 When this has been said, it must be affirmed, on the other hand, that 
 there are certain elements in the story which seem to have been 
 drawn ultimately from solar mythology ; and the evidence that this 
 is so can hardly be ignored. 
 
 The name Samson or Simson, connected as it doubtless is with 
 Heb. Semes 'sun ' (cf note on ch. 13^*), has of course been adduced 
 as an argument for the theory of the solar myth. Bu. {DB. iv. 
 p. 381 a) maintains on the contrary that the derivation 'tells rather 
 against than in favour of this view, for it is not the way with a nature- 
 
 * The comparison of the deeds of Samson with those of Herakles is as old as 
 Eusebius [Ckron,, ed. Schoene, p. 54), Philastrius (de Haeres. c. viii), and 
 Augustine {de Civ. Dei, xviii. 19). That Herakles represents the sun is main- 
 tained by Macrobius (Saturnal. I. xx) upon etymological grounds : — ' Et re 
 vera Herculem solem esse vel ex nomine claret. 'Hpa/cX^s cnim quid ahud est 
 nisi "Hpas id est aeris KKiail quae porro alia aeris gloria est, nisi solis 
 illuminatio ? ' 
 
392 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 myth to borrow or even to derive the name of its hero froni th 
 cosmical object which it describes.' Be this as it may, it can hardl 
 be denied that the name must have been in origin honorific of th 
 sun, and so must indicate the existence of sun-worship in the localit 
 — a fact which is indeed attested by the place-name Beth-shemesh 
 ' Temple of the Sun,' in the immediate neighbourhood of the scene o 
 the hero's exploits. 
 
 We are probably justified in going further, and in associating thii 
 sun-worship, not with an alien Cana'anite clan inhabiting the district 
 but with the tribe (or rather clan) of Dan itself. As is well known 
 the Heb. DAn means 'Judge,' and is so explained in Gen. 30' 
 - J or E, 49 18 J. The tribe of Dan is one of the four Israelite tribes 
 whose descent is traced, not from a wife of Jacob, but from a hand- 
 maid — a tradition which is probably to be interpreted as meaning 
 that these tribes were regarded as not belonging to Israel by full- 
 blooded descent, but as occupying in some way or other an inferior 
 position among the tribes. Very possibly they were settled in 
 Cana'an prior to the entry of the Joseph-tribes under Joshua', and 
 were only incorporated into the Israelite confederation at a later 
 period (cf Introd. pp. cvi f.). 
 
 As regards Dan, we may gain support for this view from the old 
 poem of Gen. 49. The statement of v}^, 
 
 ' Dan shall judge his people 
 As one of the tribes of Israel,' 
 
 is scarcely satisfied by the jejune explanation that he shall maintain 
 his independence as successfully as any other tribe (so, many com- 
 mentators). It undoubtedly implies that he will vindicate his claim 
 to be reckoned as an Israelite tribe, i.e. will raise himself out of 
 a position in which he was looked down upon as outside the full 
 blood-brotherhood. 
 
 Now in the case of two of the handmaid-tribes, Gad and Asher, 
 it seems clear that the tribal names were originally the names or 
 titles of deities (cf. the remarks on pp. 197 f.). It is not, therefore, 
 unlikely that the name Ddn referred originally to a dLWint Judge who 
 was regarded as the patron of the clan. The god of the Babylonian 
 Pantheon who was pictured as the Judge par excellence was Samas 
 the Sun-god, whose common title among the Babylonians and 
 Assyrians was Ddn (i.e. Daian) sam& u irsiti, 'Judge of heaven and 
 earth ' : cf the numerous references under the heading ' Samas, 
 Richter (Gott der Gerechtigkeit) ' in Jastrow, RBA. ii. 2, p. 1098 ; and 
 the citations under ddnu 2 in Muss-Arnolt, Diet. i. p. 258. If, then, 
 we may assume that the ancient patron-deity of the tribe of Dan was 
 the Sun-god under his aspect of divine Judge, we shall not be 
 surprised if we find relics of solar mythology surviving in a 
 euhemerized form among the folk-traditions of the tribe. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 393 
 
 Can we, however, lay our finger upon any such mythological ele- 
 ments in the story of Samson with reasonable probability ? The one 
 incident which must certainly be interpreted as the product of folk- 
 mythology is the fox-story of ch. 1 5 ^-^ It is impossible to suppose 
 that this can be unconnected with the ceremonial hunting of foxes 
 with blazing torches attached to their brushes which took place 
 annually in the Circus at Rome during the Cerealia, April 19, as 
 stated by Ovid {Fasti, iv. 679 ff.). Ovid cites, in explanation of this 
 custom, a tale which he had heard from an old countryman of 
 Carseoli. A twelve-year-old farmer's son, having caught a vixen-fox 
 which had repeatedly robbed his father's hen-roosts, wrapped it in 
 straw and hay, to which he then proceeded to set fire. The fox, 
 escaping, rushed through the fields of corn and set them in a blaze ; 
 hence a law was formulated at Carseoli dealing with the fate of 
 captured foxes.* Clearly this story is nothing more than a popular 
 invention in explanation of an ancient rite, the origin and significance 
 of which had passed into oblivion. Preller {Rd?nische Mythologief 
 ii. pp. 43 f.) brings the ceremony into connexion with the Robigalia, 
 which were celebrated at the same time of year (April 25), when (as 
 he states) young puppies of a red colour were sacrificed in the grove 
 of Robigus, the spirit who was supposed to work in the robigo, i.e. 
 the red rust or mildew which was so apt to attack the corn when 
 approaching maturity. Here he seems to be not quite accurate. The 
 sacrifice of red sucking whelps {rutilae canes), together with an 
 augury made from their exta {augurium canarium), took place out- 
 side the Porta Catularia at Rome, and appears to have been a move- 
 able festival, distinct, at least in origin, from the offering of the exta 
 of a sheep and a dog at the grove of Robigus, which was situated at 
 the fifth milestone on the Via Claudia : c£ Ovid's description, Fasti, 
 iv. 901 ff. Yet the two rites were doubtless closely connected, if not 
 (at any rate in later times) identified : cf. Warde Fowler, Roman 
 Festivals, pp. 88 ff. ; Pauly-Wissowa, Real^Encyc. der class. Alier- 
 tumswiss., iii. col. 1981 {s.v. Cerealia) ; Wissowa, Religion und Cultus 
 der Romer, p. 163. The resemblance in colour between the sacrificed 
 puppies and the foxes is not likely to be accidental ; and it is probable, 
 as Preller supposes, that both the red puppies which were deemed 
 an appropriate sacrifice to Robigus, and also the red foxes which 
 
 * Precisely what this fate was to be escapes us owing to a corruption of the 
 text. The best MSS. read :— 
 
 ' Factum abiit, monimenta manent : nam dicere certam 
 Nunc quoque lex volpem Carseolana vetat. ' 
 
 Here ' nam dicere certam ' yields no sense ; and has been corrected into ' nam 
 vivere captam,' which is found in some inferior MSS. Other suggestions which 
 have been offered are ' namque icere captam,' 'namque ire repertam,' ' namque 
 urere captam, ' ' incendere captam, ' etc. Cf. Warde Fowler, Roman Festivals, 
 p. 78 ; Postgate, Corp. PI. Lat. i. p. 519. 
 
/ 
 
 394 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 were hunted at the festival of the corn-goddess Ceres, were typical oi 
 the red-coloured blight with its destructive burning properties,* which 
 in the one case it was hoped might be averted by the sacrifice,! and 
 in the other was supposed, by a kind of sympathetic magic, to be 
 chased away so, that it might not do damage to the crops. 
 
 Now the ancient theory as to the origin of rust was that it was due 
 to the action of the hot sun upon the corn-stalks when left damp bj 
 the dew.§ The view of Steinthal and Smythe Palmer is thus highlj 
 plausible that, in the incident of Judg. 15 '^-^, Samson plays the pari 
 of the Sun-god with his fiery heat, letting loose the destructive plague 
 of rust which burns up the standing corn of the Philistines. That 
 the Roman custom is to be traced ultimately to a Segiilis^source 
 (whenceHTwas derived, 'possibly, as Bochart, Hierozoicon, i. p. 857, 
 supposed, through the Phoenicians) may be inferred from the fact 
 that it took place in the latter part of April — the period when, in 
 Syria, the corn is approaching maturity and the danger of rust is to 
 be apprehended, but some considerable time before the crop reaches 
 such a stage in Italy.|| It may well have been, therefore, 'that the 
 rite was transferred bodily to Latin soil without any rectification of 
 season to make it significant' (Smythe Palmer, p. 105). 
 
 * Roblgo is also termed uredo in Lat. , as burning uf the. crops, just as rust is 
 dialectically termed brand in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Devon for the same reason 
 (cf. Wright, Dialect Diet. i. 376). Smythe Palmer {pp. loi ff.) cites the Greek 
 Xd/iTTou/siS ' torch-tail ' applied to the fox, and compares the German Brand-Fiichs 
 (occurring dialectically in Eng. as brant-fox), a term which associates the fox with 
 burning on account of its red colour. 
 
 J Ovid versifies the prayer which he heard the Flamen Quirinahs utter when 
 offering the exta at the grove of Robigus : 
 
 ' Aspera Robigo, parcas Cerealibus herbis, 
 
 Et trcmat in summa leve cacumen humo. ^ 
 
 Tu sata sideribus caeli nutrita secundi 
 
 Crescere, dum fiant falcibus apta, sinas. 
 
 I 
 
 Parce, precor, scabrasque manus a raessibus aufer, ' 
 
 Neve noce cultis ; posse nocere sat est, etc' , ^ "^ 
 
 § Cf. Ovid, Fasti, iv. 917 ff. : 
 
 ' Nee venti tantum Cereri nocuere, nee imbres, 
 4 Nec sic marmoreo pallet adusta gelu. 
 
 Quantum si culmos Titan incalficit udos ; 
 Tunc locus est irae, diva timenda, tuae.' 
 
 Pliny (i8, 68, 10) mentions this as the commonly accepted view, but contradicts 
 it ; ' Plerique dixere, rorem inustum sole acri frugibus rubiginis causam esse et 
 carbunculi vitibus : quod ex parte falsum arbilror, omnemque uredinem frigore 
 tantum constare, sole innoxio.' Columella {Arbor. 13), Palladius (i. 5S)i '"■' 
 Servius {ad. i Georg. 131) supposed the cause to be ' malae nebulae.' 
 
 II ' The corn harvest in middle Italy took place in the latter half of June and 
 in July.' — Warde Fowler, op. cit. p. 154. 
 
TJHK BOOK OF JUDGES 395 
 
 We have dealt at length with this single incident, because it may 
 be claimed that it proves decisively the real existence of a mytho- 
 logical element in the story of Samson ; and, further, suggests very 
 strongly that this element is solar in character — an inference which, 
 when taken in connexion with the known existence of sun-worship in 
 the locality in which the hero's exploits are laid, and the solar signifi- 
 cance of his name (cf. pp. 352, 392), may fairly be claimed to be raised 
 to a reasonable certainty. The gaining of such a vantage-ground 
 provides justification for further advance, in the confidence that, how- 
 ever speculative in detail such investigations may be, the theory with 
 which they are bound up is not in itself illusory, but possesses a solid 
 basis in fact. 
 
 In the notes on the text, comparison has more than once been 
 drawn between the exploits or characteristics of Samson and those 
 of the Babylonian hero Gilgames. The fact that GilgameS is a 
 solar hero is well established. As he is known to us from the famous 
 Epic,* he is not identical with Samas, for he is represented as under 
 the protection and patronage of that deity. ' Samas loves him ' 
 (Tab. I. col. V. 1. 21) ; he figures as patron to him and to his friend 
 Engidu (11. iii. 27 ff. ; vi. 171 if.); the mother of Gilgame§ makes 
 an offering to Sama§ before her son's expedition against the giant 
 Humbaba, and asks why the god has placed in her son a heart 
 which sleeps not, and so dominates him that he incites him to the 
 most dangerous exploits (iii. ii. 8 ff.). Yet there can be no doubt 
 that the hero is a double of the Sun-god ; and the fact that his 
 exploits find their ultimate explanation in the passage of the sun 
 through the heavens is transparently obvious. 
 
 Thus, for example, he follows the course of the sun, and goes where 
 no one but the sun has been. Most important, in this connexion, is the 
 account of the journey which he undertakes, after the death of 
 Engidu, in search of the secret of immortality (IX., X.). We find him 
 arriving at the mountain of Maiu, % where scorpion-men guard the 
 entrance and exit of the sun. In spite of the terrible and death- 
 dealing aspect of these warders, he prevails upon them to admit 
 him through the gate ; and he journeys for twelve double-hours 
 along a route where the darkness is dense, until he emerges once 
 more into the light of day. Here he finds himself in a garden in 
 which grows the tree of the gods, the branches of which, formed of 
 
 * The cuneiform text of the Epic has been edited by Haupt, Da^ babylonischt 
 Nimrod-Epos. Transliteration and translation with notes by Jensen in KB. vi. 
 pp. n6 ff. ; Dhorme, Choix des textes religieux assyr.-bab., pp. 182 ff., 100 ff. 
 Translation and discussion by Ungnad and Gressmann, Das Gilgamesch-Epos. 
 More orless detailed outlines by Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod; Zimmern, KA 7'.' pp. 
 566 fif.; Ungnad, TAi. pp. 39 ff.; La., £^5.2 pp. 342 ff.; Rogers, CP. pp. 80 ff. 
 
 { A/(Jia='twin.' The mountain thus appears to be the twin- (double-peaked) 
 mountain which appears in representations of the God faamas emerging through 
 the gates of sunrise, which attendants throw open to him : cf. PI. III., fig. 3. 
 
396 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 precious stones, produce rare fruits. The custodian of this garden ii 
 the maiden Siduri-Sabitu, who sits on a throne by the shore of thi 
 ocean. GilgameS' aim is to cross this ocean, in order to reach th< 
 abode of his ancestor, Uta-napiStim (the Babylonian Noah), who 
 after surviving the Flood, has, with his wife, been raised to immor- 
 tality by the gods, and dwells beyond the ocean. He at least maj 
 be expected to possess the secret by which death may be escaped, 
 In answer to the hero's inquiries as to the possibility of a crossing. 
 Sabitu replies : — 
 
 ' O GilgameS, there hath never been a passage, 
 And no one, from all eternity, hath crossed the ocean. 
 The warrior SamaS hath crossed the ocean ; 
 But save for §ama§, who shall cross ? 
 Difficult is the passage, laborious its course. 
 And deep are the waters of death which bar its access. 
 Why then^ O GilgameS, wilt thou cross the ocean ? 
 When thou arrivest at the waters of death, what wilt thou do?' 
 
 The ocean, then, is the western ocean which is regularly crossed 
 by the Sun in his journey towards the region of sunset. The narra- 
 tive goes on to relate how, by the aid of Uta-napi§tim's mariner, 
 Ur-Sanabi, Gilgames succeeds in making the passage, and safely 
 reaches the abode of his ancestor, from whom he learns the narrative 
 of the Flood — with which in the present connexion we are not 
 concerned. 
 
 Moreover, Gilgames not only traverses the sun's path, but he 
 undergoes changes which indubitably illustrate the phases through 
 which the sun passes during its yearly course. In illustration of this 
 we may quote first a most important passage at the commencement 
 of Tab. VI., following immediately after the victory over IJumbaba, 
 of which only a fragmentary account survives in Tab. v. 
 
 ' He washed his weapons, he furbished his weapons. 
 He caused his long hair to fall down upon his back. 
 He doffed his soiled raiment, he donned his clean raiment, 
 With . . . ? he clothed himself, and bound on a doublet ; 
 Yea, Gilgames decked himself with his diadem, and bound on a 
 
 doublet. 
 To the beauty of Gilgames majestic Istar raised the eyes ; 
 " Come, GilgameS, be thou my spouse ! 
 Thy fruit to me, I pray thee, yield ! 
 Be thou my husband ; let me be thy wife ! 
 Let me yoke for thee a chariot of lapis lazuli and gold, 
 With wheels of gold, with horns of diamond ; ■ 
 
 Thou shalt yoke daily the great steeds. 
 Into our house enter thou mid the perfume of cedar. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 397 
 
 Into our house when thou enterest, 
 
 ■(They that sit on> thrones shall kiss thy feet ; 
 
 Beneath thee shall prostrate themselves kings, lords, and 
 nobles ; 
 
 The . . . ? of the mountain and land shall bring thee tribute." ' 
 Gilgameg rejects IStar's advances, reminding her of the sad fate of 
 former lovers whom she has quickly spurned and made the victims 
 of various misfortunes through which their vital force is lost. As 
 Jastrow {RBBA. pp. 127 f.) remarks, 'The tale is clearly a form of 
 the general nature-myth of the union of sun and earth, which, after a 
 short time, results in the decline of the sun's force. Tammuz, an 
 ancient personification of the sun of the springtime, is named as the 
 first of Star's lovers ; he becomes her consort and is then slain by 
 the goddess and consigned to the nether world, the abode of the 
 dead. The promise made by I§tar to GilgameS to present him with 
 a chariot of lapis lazuli, and to shelter him in a palace of plenty, 
 unmistakably points to the triumph of the sun when vegetation is at 
 its height. Tammuz and I Star, like GilgameS and I§tar, thus repre- 
 sent the combination of the two principles which bring about life ; 
 and upon their separation follow decay and death.'* 
 
 In revenge for this rebuff, Istar persuades her father Anu to send a 
 heavenly bull to destroy Gilgame§ ; but the beast is slain by the hero 
 and his friend Engidu (cf PI. ill. fig. 2). Gilgames dedicates the 
 horns to his god Lugal-banda, and returns in triumph to his city of 
 Erech. Tabs. VII. and VIII. are unfortunately very fragmentary ; but 
 enough remains for us to gather that Engidu is suddenly afflicted 
 with some fell disease, and, after taking to his bed, dies at the end of 
 twelve days. The cause of his malady does not appear from the text 
 as it now stands ; but we are probably right in inferring that it was 
 due to the curse of I Star, following upon the failure of her first attempt 
 to punish GilgameS (cf the account of Engidu's deliberate insult 
 offered to the goddess. Tab. vil. 11. 178 ff.). GilgameS' grief at the 
 death of his friend is vividly portrayed at the end of Tab. vil. ; and 
 from the beginning of Tab. vill. we learn that its poignancy is in- ' 
 creased by the thought that the same fate must ultimately overtake 
 him also : 
 
 ' GilgameS for Engidu his friend 
 Bitterly weepeth and wandereth through the desert : 
 " Must not I too die like Engidu ? 
 Grief hath pierced mine inward part ; 
 I fear death, and I wander through the desert." ' 
 
 * The description of the chariot is (as Dhorme notes) strikingly similar to 
 Ovid's description (Metam. ii. 11. 107 ff.) of the chariot of the Sun : — 
 ' Aureus axis erat, temo aureus, aurea suramae 
 Curvatura rotae, radiorum argenteus ordo, 
 Per juga chrysolithi positaeque ex ordine gemmae 
 Clara repercusso reddebant lumina Phoebo.' 
 
398 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 It is at this point that he forms the resolution to seek out his 
 ancestor Uta-napiStim, who by some means (as yet unknown to him) 
 has gained immortahty, and who may possibly be able to hand on 
 the secret to him. He at once, therefore, sets out upon the journey 
 which we have already outhned. 
 
 In the course of this journey, as indeed prior to it, those whom he 
 encounters comment in identical terms upon the shocking spectacle 
 which he presents : * 
 
 ' Why is thy strength consumed, thy face bowed down ? 
 Thy heart is in evil case, thy features are perished, 
 And there is sadness in thine inward part ; 
 Thy face is like that of one that hath journeyed far ; 
 . . . distress and grief enflame thy face, 
 and thou wanderest through the desert.' 
 
 To each of' these inquiries he replies by asking why he should not 
 appear thus, seeing that he has just lost so close a friend. It seems, 
 however, to be clear that he is afflicted by something more than grief, 
 and that in all probability the disease which has destroyed Engidu 
 has fastened its hold upon him also. At any rate, when he reaches 
 Uta-napiStim, he is in a terrible condition, as appears from the words 
 of his ancestor in which he directs the sailor, Ur-Sanabi, to take him 
 to a washing-place where he may bathe and restore his health 
 (xi. 251 ff.) : — 
 
 ' The man before whom thou didst walk, 
 Whose body is covered with boils. 
 The beauty of whose flesh is marred with scales — 
 Take him, Ur-Sanabi, to the washing-place bring him ; 
 His boils in water let him wash (white) as snow ; 
 Let him cast off his scales, and let the sea bear (them) away; 
 Fair let his body appear ; 
 Let the turban of his head be renewed ; 
 With a robe let him be clothed, his garment of modesty ; 
 Until he come to his city, 
 Until he come to his own way. 
 
 Let the garment not become threadbare, | but let it be new— 
 be new ! ' 
 
 Uta-napistim's directions are followed, and Gilgames is able to 
 make the return -voyage, reaching Erech in perfect health, and clad 
 in fair attire. The account of his actually finding, and then through 
 
 * So, some one whose name has disappeared, VIII. v. 7 ff. ; Ur-Sanabi, X. iii. 
 I ff. ; Uta-napiStim, X. iv. 42 ff There is every reason to suppose that the same 
 inquiry should be restored and put into the mouth of Siduri in X. i. 33 S. 
 
 J Lit. 'throw off grey hair,' i.e. perhaps, its surface-wool, or, as we might say, 
 lose its naf. A different explanation is given by Haupt, AJSL. xxvi. (1909), 
 D. 16. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 399 
 
 an accident losing, the magic herb by means of which he might have 
 secured immortality, does not concern our present purpose. 
 
 Here, then, we have, in a parable the inner meaning of which is 
 transparently obvious, an account of the sun's triumph in springtime, 
 followed by its gradual decline in force as it starts on its long journey 
 towards the waters of death. This culminates in the last stage of 
 disease when it reaches its goal, where it undergoes a process of 
 lustration, so that, when it appears once more in the east, it possesses 
 its original beauty and glory. The meaning of the story of Engidu, 
 who actually dies as the result of Tatar's malice, may perhaps not be 
 affirmed with equal certainty ; but the whole trend of evidence goes 
 to suggest that he is a chthonic deity, typifying the reproductive 
 vigour of animal-nature in the springtime, which dies away as the 
 year passes onward on its course.* 
 
 Were it necessary to add anything in support of this clear evidence 
 that Gilgames is a solar hero, it might be found in the material which 
 
 * This is suggested by the description of his early life as a companion of the 
 beasts of the field, and by the satyr-like form — half man and half bull — in which 
 he is represented upon early seal-cylinders : cf. PI. 11. fig. 5 ; PI. ill. fig. 2. He 
 is described in I. iv. 6 as luld amilu ' the man of animal-desire.' 
 
 It is a hopeless task to attempt to construct a wholly satisfactory and consistent 
 explanation of the cosmology of the Gilgames-epic ; Cf. , on this subject, 
 Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, pp. 66 ff. ; Jensen, Das Gilgamesch-Efos, pp. 77 ff. ; 
 Zimmern, KATfi pp. 566 ff. ; Dhorme, Choix des textts religieux assyr.-bab., 
 pp. 271 f. , 278 f. ; Ungnad and Gressmann, Das Gilgamesch-Epos, pp. 154 ff. 
 The view that the twelve tablets present us with the sun's doings dtuing the 
 twelve months of the year, and that each of these is associated with its appropriate 
 zodiacal sign, seems to be improbable. It may be worked out in a few in- 
 stances, but breaks down in the majority. Thus, Tab. III., which relates the 
 beginning of the adventm-es of Gilgames and Engidu, might stand for Gemini 
 (though the cementing of the friendship between the two heroes takes place as 
 early as the end of Tab. I.); Tab. VI. which contains the Istar-incident might 
 stand for Virgo ; and, most strikingly, Tab. XI. , the Flood-narrative, for Aquarius. 
 If, however, the creation of Engidu, who, as we have already remarked, is figured 
 as half bull, represents Taurus, we should expect to find the account of this in 
 Tab. II. and not in Tab. I. ; and the Scorpion-men of the mountain of Ma§u 
 (Scorpio) should appear in Tab. VIII. rather than in Tab. IX. , unless indeed they 
 stand also for Sagittarius ; cf. the representation of a scorpion-man as an 
 archer on an ancient boundary-stone (v. R. 57 ; OTLAE. i., fig. 2, p. 11), and 
 also on the seal-cylinders figured by Delaporte, Cylindresorientaux, PI. XXI. figs. 
 313, 316. Probably the truth is that some of the incidents in the Epic do repre- 
 sent the course of the sun through the zodiacal stations, but not (at least in the 
 form in which the Epic has come down to us) in any consistent order, or, at anyrate, 
 in an order which is marked by the twelve tablets into which the poem is divided. 
 
 Again, it seems probable that the incidents of the poem typify not merely the 
 yearly course of the sun, but that there is a combination of the yearly and daily 
 courses which it is difficult or impossible to unravel. Gilgames' adventure at the 
 mountain of Mlsu, where he sjarts a journey of twelve double-hours over the 
 route of the snn—jiarran (ilu) Samh— is most naturally to be understood of the 
 daily circuit of twenty-four hours ; though, in view of the fact that all the way the 
 darkness is dense, and it is only at the end of the journey that he emerges into the 
 
40O THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 is supplied by the ancient seal- cylinders of Babylonia. On th( 
 we not infrequently find the figures of GilgameS and the Sun-g 
 used interchangeably in precisely similar settings. One such ser 
 is illustrated on PI. ll. Here in figs, i and 2 we have a figi 
 described in pictographic writing as ilu Samas, who contends wi 
 antelopes and lions. In fig. 3 Gilgame§ likewise contends with t 
 same animals, the arrangement of the figures being identical wi 
 that of figs. I and 2. That the central figure in fig. 3 is intended f 
 Gilgames is indicated by his full-face representation (peculiar 
 figures of Gilgamei and Engidu), and by the arrangement of his ha 
 in six locks ; cf. the Gilgameg-figures on PI. ill. figs, i, 2. The 
 are similar series which are no less significant.* 
 
 light ' before the sun,' we should expect the reference to be to the nociurnalfow. 
 
 of the sun from west to east, which should rather occupy six double-hours 1 
 twelve hours. His journey across the ocean with Ur-Sanabi occupies one moni 
 and fifteen days before he comes to the waters o f death. Since the condition i 
 which we find him at this point, in the last stage of disease, can hardly denol 
 anything else than the winter-solstice, when the power of the sun is at its lowei 
 ebb, it may be that this voyage represents the half of the winter-quarter ; th 
 corresponding half being occupied by the return of the sun after purification in ; 
 condition to renew once more his yearly course. 
 
 It is impossible, again, to attain any degree of certainty in attempting to defini 
 the conception of the Epic as to the earthly counterpart of the heavenly course 
 the sun. Jensen places the cedar-mountain where the hero and his friend con 
 quer the giant gumbaba among the mountains of Elam to the east of Babylonia, 
 over which the sun rises. Thence Gilgames reaches his city of Erech where lie is 
 at the climax of his glory. From this point Jensen would make him pursue his 
 course due west across the Syrian desert to the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, wiiich 
 he regards as the twin-mountain of M^su, and over the whole length of tlie 
 Mediterranean Sea to the waters of death — the Atlantic. This view is adopted 
 by Zimmern ; though it is difficult to see how the Atlantic can have come within 
 the Babylonian horizon. Of course Jensen arid Zimmern have the Pillars of 
 Hercules in their minds ; but the Phoenicians must surely have been the earliest 
 Semitic traders to get so far west. Other scholars find the name Misu in the 
 Syro-Arabian desert, which Asurbanipal calls the land of Mas, and describes as 
 ' a place of thirst and languor, wherein no bird of heaven flies, nor do wild asses 
 and gazelles graze there * : cf. KB. ii. p. 220 ; Delitzsch, Faradies, pp. 242 f. 
 Across this they would make Gilgames travel not due west but south-west, till he 
 reaches South Arabia, where dwells Siduri who is termed Sabitu, i.e. on this inter- 
 pretation ' the Sabaean ' : cf. Hommel, AHT. pp. 35 f. This perhaps agrees 
 better with the sun's course as viewed from the northern hemisphere — not due 
 west across the zenith, but south-west. Yet the theory of a very early date for the 
 origin of the Sabaean kingdom is now not regarded as probable. 
 
 * Cf. , in Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres orieniaux . . . de la BibliotMqvi 
 Nationale, PI. IV. fig. \i, a figure described as ilu Samas in conflict with a 
 human-headed bull; PI. V. fig. 43, a similar figure unspecified contending 
 with the same human-headed bull, in company with Engidu contending with 
 a lion ; fig. 45, GilgameS with the human-headed bull (duplicated), and Engidu 
 with the hon ; fig. 44, Gilgames with the human-headed bull together with 
 a figure like that of fig. 43 contending with another bull of the same kind, and 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 401 
 
 The adventures of Gilgameg and Engidu form favourite subjects 
 for representation on seal-cylinders in the Sumerian and early Semitic 
 Babylonian period, as well as in later times. The heroes are most 
 commonly depicted in conflict with beasts — either Gilgames attacks 
 a wild bull or water-buffalo while Engidu is similarly engaged with a \/ 
 lion, or Gilgames by himself is seen in conflict with the latter beast : 
 cf. PI. II. fig. 4 ; PI. III. figs. I, 2. In spite of the fragmentary 
 condition of parts of the Epic, it affords us ample evidence that the 
 two heroes were mighty hunters.* 
 
 The space which we have devoted to the GilgameS-epic may seem 
 to be out of all proportion to its importance in relation to the story 
 of Samson ; but this is not really so. In the first place, it has 
 enabled us to establish the fact of the existence of a Semitic solar 
 myth in a form of which the significance is incontrovertible, and the 
 widespread influence of which in countries adjacent to Babylonia 
 can easily be demonstrated. In PI. IV. we have Gilgame§ as pictured 
 by the Assyrians ; PI. v. illustrates the fact that the hero and his 
 companion were familiar to the Jlittites of Carchemish ; PI. VI. 
 exhibits the movement of the same myth westward to Cyprus, the 
 colossal figure clearly exhibiting Assyrio-Babylonian influence in the 
 treatment of the beard and hair (cf p. 498), and in the manner in which 
 he is rending the lion. J This last figure is probably rightly identified 
 with the Phoenician Melkart, whose influence on the Greek myth of 
 
 the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan, PI. V. fig. 22, a figure marked ilu SamaS 
 attacking a lion by seizing its tail and one hind leg and placing a foot on the 
 back of its neck; Delaporte, op. cit., PI. III. fig. 22, Gilgames attacking a lion 
 in precisely the same way (duplicated) ; cf. also PI. II. fig. 21. 
 
 * Sayce, ET. xxiv. (1912) p. 39, in endeavouring to identify the hero of the 
 seal-cylinder representations with a supposed Namra-Uddu (i.e. the Biblical 
 Nimrod) and not with Gilgame?, makes the assertion, ' Gilgames was not 
 a hunter, and he never struggled with lions or held slaughtered animals in his 
 hands.' This statement strangely overlooks the words which are addressed to 
 Gilgames in VIII. v. 5, 
 
 ' <In the passes> of the mountain thou didst slay lions,' 
 as well as the refrain of the hero's lament over Engidu (cf X. v. 11), 
 
 ' <My friend who with me> slew the lions, etc' 
 Cf. also, in Gilgames' description to Uta-napistim of the diflficulties of his 
 journey (x. v. 31 f.), 
 
 'The Msu-hird, the tea-bird, the lion, the panther, the jackal(?), the stag, 
 
 the ibex, the wild bull, 
 Their < flesh > I eat, and with their skins I < clothe myself >.' 
 
 It is highly probable that one of the Tabs, in., iv., or v., which are very 
 fragmentary, originally contained an account of a lion-combat, possibly corre- 
 sponding to the zodiacal station Leo. 
 X Cf. the representation of Engidu and the lion in PI. 11. fig. 4. 
 
 2 C 
 
404 THE BOOK OV JUDGES 
 
 y Herakles in many of its details can scarcely be gainsaid.* Th( 
 ■^ proved existence of such a solar myth is the most weighty fact whicl 
 can influence our decision as to whether solar elements do or d 
 not enter into the Samson-tradition. In comparing Samson will 
 Gilgameg in our search for solar traits, we are not bolstering up thi 
 merely hypothetical interpretation of one series of traditions by thi 
 scarcely less hypothetical interpretation of another series ; but we an 
 testing the former series by that which, in the latter, may be regardec 
 as a well-ascertained conclusion. 
 
 In the second place, for a right estimation of the character of th( 
 Samson-narrative, it is as important to notice the contrast which i: 
 offers to the Gilgames-epic as it is to register the points of resem 
 blance between the two stories. The Gilgame§-epic as a whole (and 
 v/this is also true of the Herakles-saga) moves in a plane which is 
 wholly mythical. Gods and goddesses take their part in the sequencf 
 of events like ordinary mortals. The hero and his friend are diS' 
 tinguished as semi-divine by the use of the determinative prefix ilu 
 ' god,' before their names. Indeed, the fact that Gilgames possesses 
 a divine strain in his blood is more than once emphasized in the 
 Epic (i. ii. I ; IX. ii. i6) by the statement 
 
 'Two-thirds of him are god, and his third part is human.' 
 
 * Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, in his edition of Euripides, Herakles, i. p. 27! 
 (ist ed. , 1889), dismisses the theory of the derivation of the Greek Heraldes fron 
 old Babylonian sources with great contenipt, having clearly never taken ths 
 trouble to investigate and appreciate the evidence which can be advanced in iti 
 favour. Later on (pp. 290 ff.) he goes on to enumerate the earliest elements ii 
 the Herakles-myth as follows: — (i) the descent of the hero from the highesl 
 gods : (2) the conflict with the lion ; (3) the conflict with giants ; (4) the journej 
 to the Underworld, and the conquest of death ; (5) the journey to the garden ol 
 the gods. As a matter of fact, as Jeremias [Izdubar-Nhnrod, pp. 70 £f. ) point: 
 out, these are the very incidents which can be most strikingly paralleled from 
 the Gilgames-epic. In his 2nd edition (1895) Wilamowitz-Moellendorf make: 
 grudging concession to Jeremias that ' the resemblance of Herakles to " Izdubar- 
 Nimrod " is of course remarkable in the highest degree (allerdings hbchsl 
 merkwurdig). Naturally this also struck the ancients, and necessarily led tc 
 identification, as e.g. the Cyprian representation of the Geryones-adventurt 
 demonstrates : Journ. of Hell. Stud., xliii. 74.' It may be observed that this con- 
 cession does not touch Jeremias' point that the earliest elements in the Herakles- 
 myth (teste W.-M. ) are those which find closest parallel in the Babylonian-myth, 
 
 Jeremias further remarks that it is reasonable to hold that, just as we have thi 
 series Istar — ^Ashtart — Aphrodite, so we also have the series Gilgames— Samsor 
 — Herakles ; a conclusion which may be accepted with substitution of th( 
 Phoenician Melkart for the Israelite Samson, the conception of whom can 
 hardly have had any direct influence on Greek mythology. The line of trans- 
 ference was probably Babylonian — Phoenician — Greek; while Samson, as is 
 argued above, seems to represent a lateral development of the myth in a verj 
 diluted form. Herodotus (ii. 44) states that he visited the temple of Herakles 
 at Tyre ; and that this was of very great antiquity, being said to be contemporarj 
 with the foundation of the city, which he places at 2300 years before his time. 
 That this Herakles was the god IVIelkart {i.e. ' King of the city') admits of no 
 doubt. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 46^ 
 
 The world in which events are enacted is not our world ; or at any 
 rate it is ours only in a very remote and symbolical sense. * The 
 Samson-narrative (and here we are referring to chs. 14-16, apart 
 from the later-added ch. 13) is markedly different. Samson indeed 
 performs prodigies of strength which are incredibly marvellous ; but 
 the whole setting of the narrative, so far from being artificial, is as 
 fresh and true to life as almost anything contained in the O.T. It 
 leaves us no doubt that we are breathing the natural atmosphere of 
 the border-country between the Israelites and Philistines, and are 
 witnessing scenes of social intercourse such as must have been of 
 everyday occurrence at the period with which the narrator deals. J 
 
 Again, the author of the Gilgames-epic was an educated man of 
 great literary ability. § He had evidently reflected much on the 
 problems of life and death ; and, had we had occasion to refer to his 
 speculations as to human mortality, we might have quoted passages 
 of wonderfiil beauty and pathos. He seems to have been versed in 
 the astronomical knowledge of his day. The technique of the poem 
 is highly developed, and its descriptive power (as witnessed e.g. by 
 the Flood-story) of a very high order. In contrast, the charm of the 
 Samson-narrative lies in its artlessness, and in the fact that it comes 
 straight from the lips of the rustic story-teller, whose sole equipment 
 consisted in a retentive memory, a sense of humour, and a native 
 power of description. Whether it be possible or not to explain every 
 detail of the Gilgames-epic as an integral part of the solar myth, 
 there can be no question that this method, if applied to the Samson- 
 narrative, goes very widely astray. The whole narrative is so inti- 
 mately bound up with the occurrences of everyday life, and quite 
 possibly with the actual doings of an historical individual, that the 
 fallaciousness of such a method is self-evident. 
 
 Thus it is clear that the difficulty of distinguishing the solar traits 
 in the Samson-narrative is very considerable. A particular incident 
 may bear resemblance more or less close to a characteristic motif in 
 the stories of other solar heroes ; but unless it is impossible to regard 
 it as an actual incident which may have occurred in real life, its inter- 
 pretation as a solar trait must remain extremely precarious. To take 
 a single example : Samson slew a lion single-handed, and so did 
 Herakles, and Gilgame§ very possibly slew several ; but, again, 
 similar incidents are recorded of David (i Sam. 17^*^) and Benaiah 
 (2 Sam. 23 2°) ; and we have, in these latter instances, no ground for 
 regarding the feat as other than historical, because it is the kind of 
 feat that a strong and brave man might reasonably accomplish. 
 
 Bearing these considerations in mind, we may proceed to notice 
 
 * Cf. the last paragraph of the fasX. footnote, p. 400. 
 
 X Cf. the remarks on p. 339. 
 
 § In speaking of the author, in the singular, it is not intended to express any 
 opinion as to the unity, or composite character, of the Epic. All that is affirmed 
 is true of the Epic as a whole, whether it be the work of one or more authors. 
 
454 tllE BOOK Of JUDGiEg 
 
 certain points in the Samson-narrative which may very well owe their 
 origin to solar mythology. 
 
 Among these the most striking is the conception that the strength 
 of the hero lies in his long hair, and that when this has been shaved 
 off he becomes powerless ; just as the sun when adorned with his 
 rays (which are pictured as hair in the literature of all nations *) is 
 endowed with great strength, but sinks into weakness when he loses 
 these in the winter-season. We have noticed how Gilgame^, when 
 he figures as the glorious sun of springtime, is said to wear his Ion? 
 hair falling down his back ; and this hair is prominent in early seal- 
 cylinder representations of the Babylonian hero, arranged in six 
 curling locks which fall on either side of his head (cf PL n, 
 figs. 3, 4, 5 ; PI. III. figs. I, 2), with which we may compare the 
 six rays which are depicted as issuing from the shoulders of the Sun- 
 god (PI. III. fig. 3). Samson's hair was also arrayed in locks 
 though these were seven and not six.j We are not definitely told 
 that GilgameS loses his long locks when his strength fails him and he 
 becomes the victim of disease, § though, since they are so prominently 
 mentioned as a mark of his beauty when at the height of his youthful 
 power, it is perhaps not an unfair inference that he is to be pictured 
 as deprived of them in his afHiction (cf the remarks as to his changed 
 appearance quoted on p. 398). When he is washed clean and free 
 from disease ' the turban of his head ' 1 1 is renewed ; but no mention is 
 made of his locks, which, if they were lost, must be pictured as 
 gradually growing again. The sun does not arrive at its full strength 
 and glory at the turn of the year. Samson's hair began to grow 
 again after it was cut off, but some time elapsed before he was able to 
 put forth his pristine strength. In the note on ch. 13° we have 
 observed how ill the conception of the author of this chapter that 
 Samson was a Nazirite fits in with the portrait of him which is to be 
 gathered from the older chs. 14-16, and have concluded that the ; 
 view that he was under such a vow must probably be regarded as a 
 later interpretation of the meaning of his long locks. If we are right j 
 in explaining them as an ancient solar trait, we can now understand 
 why the author of ch. 13, who endeavours to view Samson and his 
 
 * Cf. the admirably full body of evidence collected by Smythe Palmer in c%, iv. 
 
 X We have, noticed above (Mff/^ on ch. i6i')that the statement that Gilgame! 
 wore his hair in seven locks, which seems to emanate from Jeremias(cf. OTLAS. 
 ii. p. 172), is incorrect. For the possible meaning of Samson's seven locks, cf. He 
 conjectures put forward by Smythe Palmer, ch. v., who cites instances of Ibe 
 Sun-god depicted as adorned with seven raySf the most striking of whicii is 
 perhaps the Pompeian wall-painting figured by Roscher, Lexikon der p'lcli- 
 u. roni. Mythol. , 2003. 
 
 § Smythe Palmer's statement (p. 221) that when Gilgames 'begins tofailaio 
 fall ill ' he ' loses his hair in which lay his strength,' unfortunately goes beyond 
 his facts as they may be gathered from the Epic. It is an inference merely. 
 
 II Bab. parsigu Sa kakkadiSu. The term farsigu is used elsewliere of 1 
 bandage. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 405 
 
 doings from the standpoint of a pious Yahweh-worshipper (cf. p. 338), 
 should have read a different meaning into this characteristic. 
 
 Much more doubtfully significant as a solar trait is Samson's slay- 
 ing of the lion, though greatly emphasized as such by many writers ; 
 because, as we have already remarked, it is the kind of deed which 
 might naturally have been performed by a strong man, or might 
 naturally be ascribed to him, without the involving of any symbolical 
 meaning. The term which is used to describe the hero's rending of 
 the lion does seem, however, to suggest connexion with the GilgameS- 
 myth : cf. notes on ch. 14 ^. A similar connexion may possibly be 
 traced in the fact that the incident occurs early in Samson's career 
 and immediately prior to his being ensnared by the charms of 
 Philistine womankind, which leads to his ultimate undoing. Gil- 
 games' lion-slaying feats inust, as we have noticed,* have occurred 
 a little before the IStar-incident which marks the beginning of the 
 hero's misfortunes. J 
 
 A much clearer trace of solar mythology is to be found in the 
 story of the bursting forth of the spring at Ramath-lehi to satisfy 
 
 * Qi, footnote* , p. 401. 
 
 + The present writer can attach no weight at all to Steinthal's theory that the 
 story of the honey in the lion's carcass belongs to the solar myth with the sym- 
 bolical meaning that, when the sun is in the zodiacal sign Leo {i.e. in July), honey 
 is most plentiful. This theory is built up upon a series of assumptions, any one 
 of which is open to question. It is assumed that no other explanation of bees 
 building in a carcass is satisfactory ; whereas, as we have seen (cf. note on 14'), 
 this may be explained either by the supposition that the carcass was hollow and 
 sun-dried, or by the /3ou70i'ia-theory. Again, the claim that this explanation 
 offers the Philistines a possibility cf solving the riddle, which is otherwise in- 
 soluble apart from a knowledge of the facts, can hardly carry weight. Samson's 
 wit was not of so high a class that he must be deemed incapable of a very bad, 
 and so, unfair riddle ; especially as the story makes it clear that he was confident 
 that he would win the wager. And lastly, the assumption that July is the month 
 when honey is most plentiful seems to be based upon experience of the habits of 
 bees in the temperate regions of Europe where flowers abound throughout the 
 summer, and to overloolt the fact that in the sub-tropical climate of Palestine the 
 flowering season ceases and herbaceous vegetation is burnt up by about the middle 
 of May, after which (presumably) the bees are living on their store of honey, and 
 the supply is gradually decreasing. 
 
 Steinthal's further conjecture that Samson's slaying of the lion typifies the 
 milder sun of autumn extinguishing his own burning rays (the lion representing 
 the fierce heat of midsummer) is in itself so incredible that it requires no refuta- 
 tion. It may be noticed, however, that it seems to involve a kind of hysteron- 
 .iroleron ; for the autumnal sun stifles the heat of midsummer ie/ore the bees — 
 .Afhich typify the fact that honey is plentiful in midsummer— establish themselves 
 n the carcass. 
 
 , At the same time, the fact is undoubted that in Babylonian mythology the 
 _^ion is closely associated with the god Nergal, who typifies the hot sun of raid- 
 summer ; the choice of this animal being no doubt dictated by its fierce and 
 "^.estructive disposition, its tawny colour, and its shaggy mane which suggests 
 ' ot remotely the rays of the sun. 
 
4o6 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Samson's need. Abundant evidence exists in proof that springi 
 — and especially hot springs — were associated with the sun or w 
 solar heroes.* Athenaeus (xii. 512) states that all hot springs wh 
 break forth from the earth are sacred to Herakles : cf. also Dii 
 Sic, iv. 23, V. 3 ; Strabo, pp. 60, 172, 425, 428 ; Livy, xxii. i ; 
 The original idea seems to have been that such springs are warm 
 by the sun during his nocturnal course under the earth. Cf. especia 
 the account given by Herodotus (iv. 181) and Lucretius {De Ren 
 Natura, vi. 848 f.) of the spring of the sun in the oasis of Ammoniv 
 (Siweh) in the Libyan desert, which is cold by day but boihng hot 
 night. The point is interesting as definitely connecting Herakl 
 with the sun. In some cases at any rate (cf. Diod. Sic. loc. cit.) t 
 traditional connexion with the solar hero was that the springs h 
 been caused to burst forth in order that he might bathe in them wh 
 weary. 
 
 That cold springs were also associated with the sun by the Semit 
 is proved by the occurrence of the name 'En-shemesh 'the spring 
 the sun,' Josh. 15', 18" — the modern 'Ain el-H6d 'the Apostli 
 spring,' a little east of Bethany on the road to Jericho ; and 'Ai 
 Sems, the modern Ar. name of Beth-shemesh. Whether the he 
 bathes in the warm spring, as does Herakles, or drinks from the cc 
 spring, as does Samson, the effect is the same, viz. the restoration 
 his vitality which through weariness or faintness has reached a k 
 ebb. The conception seems to be bound up with the restoration 
 the sun's power in the springtime : cf. the way in which Gilgam 
 has to bathe in order to free himself from his disease and renew 1 
 beauty — a figure which, as we have seen (pp. 398 f.), typifies tl 
 renewal of the sun's powers after he has reached his lowest ebb 
 the winter-solstice. 
 
 If any weight may be attached to our suggestion {ck. 15" ml 
 that, in the name 'fen-hak-kore given to the spring of Lehi, kd\ 
 originally denoted not the partridge but the guail, we seem here 
 trace the combination of a kindred mythical conception as to tl 
 return of the sun in springtime. The reason why the quail w: 
 sacrificed by the Phoenicians to Herakles-Melkart in the early spriii 
 and the reason why Herakles was thought to have been restored I 
 life by smelling this particular bird, was that the quail was the bii 
 which — as its Greek name oprv^, Sanskrit Vartikd ' the returning om 
 denotes — -^^^ par excellence the migrant whose reappearance heralde 
 the return of the sun in the spring. Hence, according to Ma 
 MuUer {Science of Language, ii. p. 506) is derived Ortygia (the nam 
 of the island which was otherwise called Delos 'the bright'), whic 
 was regarded as the birthplace of Apollo, the young Sun-god 
 springtime. 
 
 The incident of Samson's removal of the gates of Gaza, and hi 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 407 
 
 setting them up on a hill to the east of Hebron, is probably connected 
 with the conception that the sun, in rising, issues through a door with 
 double gates on the extremity of the eastern horizon. Cf. the repre- 
 sentation of the Sun-god Samas passing through such gates, which 
 are held open for him by attendants : PI. in. fig. 3. The subject is 
 one which is frequently figured on Babylonian seals. Samson re- 
 moves the gates after spending the night in company with his 
 paramour — a conception which reminds us of the description of the 
 sun at his rising in Ps. 19* (J^ ^) : 
 
 ' And he is like a bridegroom issuing from his bridal chamber ; 
 He rejoiceth like a mighty man to run the course.' 
 
 It is rash to look for any symbolical meg.ning in the names Gaza 
 and Hebron, these particular cities being probably merely part of the 
 local setting of the story. It is possible, however, that some particular 
 hill to the east of Hebron may have acquired a name as the hill over 
 which, from the Shephelah, the sun was regularly observed to rise. 
 
 The name of Samson's paramour, Delilah, is of some importance 
 as exhibiting almost certainly the influence of Babylonian thought 
 upon the story. Comparison with the Bab. proper names Dalil-iilu)- 
 Istar, Dilil-{ilu)-Istar,* 'worshipper of I§tar,' though (so far as the 
 present writer knows) it has not before been made, is obvious. 
 Delilah, 'worshipper' or 'devotee,' may be assumed to be a hypo- 
 coristic for the full form Delilat-IStar {or 'AStart).| As applied to 
 a woman, the connotation of this name (at least according to the 
 original form of the tale) can hardly be mistaken. Delilah must 
 have been a sacred prostitute devoted to the service of the goddess 
 (Heb. k^dhesd, Bab. kadistu, harimtu, samhatii, or kazratu). The 
 close connexion of these consecrated female worshippers with Istar 
 in her relations with Gilgame§ is illustrated by the Epic in the 
 narrative of Tab. vi. 184 ff. We may compare also Tab. I. iii. i ff., 
 where Engidu, whilst living the life of a wild man among the beasts 
 of the field, is decoyed away by the attractions of such a harimtu and 
 adopts a life of civilization. It is Samson's relations with Delilah 
 which prove the cause of his undoing, just as it is through IStar that 
 GilgameS' misfortunes are brought about. We may compare the way 
 
 , * Cf. T. N. Strassmaier, Alphabetisches Verzeichniss der Assyrischen und 
 
 Akkadischen Worter, 1835 and 1975. 
 X Such a contraction is, of course, common in Heb, proper names : e.g. Nathan 
 ' for N«than'el, or Baruch, ' Blessed' [sc. of Yahweh). 
 
 i In DaHl-{ilu)-/star, Dalil is an active participle, while DilU in the cognate 
 ll form appears to be a substantive 'worship' for 'worshipper.' Heb. DelUd 
 g might appear at first sight to be a passive form ; but this is not necessarily so, 
 
 since, as G-K. § 84"/ points out, the form Mtil may result from an original 
 , active Adtll as well as from a passive iiiil. At the same time it is likely that 
 i' the intransitive or passive meaning of the word (Bab. dal&lu properly='to 
 
 submit oneself) would favour the development of such a formation. 
 
4o8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 in which the hatred of Hera is the prime cause of the labours ai 
 sufferings of Herakles. 
 
 Possibly, though not certainly (since the incident is one whii 
 might very well have happened in real life ; cf. p. 403), the story 
 Samson as a blinded captive grinding in the prison-house may hai 
 a solar significance, based on the fact that the sun, powerful as he i 
 yet covers the same beaten track day after day, and so may be coi 
 ceived to be the victim of some external compulsion, which obligf 
 him to perform the same allotted task daily without variation. 1 
 as seems probable, the mill at which Samson grinds is to b 
 pictured, not as a small hand-mill, but as a large mill which i 
 ordinarily turned by an ox or ass which travels round and round in a 
 unvarying track, the analogy is the more striking. Probably th 
 same idea lies at the root of the story that Herakles was unde 
 compulsion to perform his labours at the bidding of the weak ani 
 . tyrannical Eurystheus. 
 
 Finally, the account of Samson's death can hardly be dissociate 
 from the solar myth. The point has been so thoroughly illustratei 
 by Smythe Palmer {ch. xv.) that it is needless to treat it at length 
 By pulling down the western pillars which were thought to suppor 
 the vault of heaven* (Job 26^'), the sun overwhelms himself andthi 
 world with the darkness of night. The idea is aptly illustrated b; 
 Homer's description of sunset (//. viii. 485 f.) : 
 
 e'v S' eireo"' 'ilxeavo) Xa^npov (j)dos rjeXloiOj 
 eXKQv vvKra p.e\aivav eVi ^eidoipov apovpav. 
 
 The red glow of sunset probably suggested the idea of a grea 
 carnage wrought by the downfall of the sky-temple ; just as, in th( 
 Herakles-myth, it suggested the conception of the hero's glowing 
 funeral-pyre on Mount Oeta. In the words of Smythe Palmer- 
 'We may suppose, then, that some such thoughts as these werf 
 present to the primaeval gazer on the changing drama of sunset 
 See ! the mighty sun has fallen ! His enemies were too strong foi 
 him! In dying, he has dragged down the bright sky after him 
 The pillars of heaven are broken and darkness comes crashing 
 down ! But see ! the place where he fell is red with the carnage ol 
 his foes ! The clouds which obstructed him and exulted over him are 
 ensanguined — involved with him in a common ruin ! ' {op. cit. p. 180), 
 
 17. 1-18. 31. The story of Micah and the Danites. 
 
 The fact that this narrative is composite is very evident ; and it 
 can hardly be doubted that we have to do with two originally inde- 
 pendent parallel narratives (so Vatke,t Ber., Bu., Mo., etc.), rather 
 
 * We may compare the pillars set up by Hercules at Gades, the westernmosl 
 point of the then-known world. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 409 
 
 than with a single narrative which has undergone extensive interpola- 
 tion (Wellh.,* Kue., La., Gress.). It is not, however, always easy to 
 disentangle the strands with any certainty, probably because the two 
 versions of the story were originally closely similar in detail. 
 
 According to 17''*, Micay'^hu (Wa^a) restores the stolen silver, 
 which is then made into a graven image (and a molten image). The 
 idol (or idols) is placed in Micay'hu's own house. In 17 ^ however, 
 we are told that the man Micah (na^D a shorter form of in'D'D) already 
 
 possessed a temple (Q^'^PK r\''2), for which he made an Ephod and 
 Teraphim, and installed one of his sons as priest. Here we note that 
 the graven image and molten image of 175'' stand over against the 
 Ephod and Teraphim of 17''; and the inference that the one pair 
 may be peculiar to the first narrative (which we may term A), while 
 the other pair is peculiar to the second narrative (provisionally called 
 B), is confirmed, rather than the reverse, by the curious way in which 
 aU four are mentioned together in 18 '^'^■'*, and three of them in 18 ™ — 
 passages which have all the appearance of having been filled out by 
 a redactor. In 18^" the graven image is mentioned by itself, just 
 as it occurs without the molten image in 18 ^^ ; and this fact, taken in 
 connexion with the fact that the verb Tl'l 'and it was' in 17'' seems 
 clearly to refer to a single idol, and not to two (graven image and 
 molten image), suggests (as perceived by Mo.) that the narrative A 
 originally referred to a graven image only, and that the molten image 
 is a late interpolation, possibly made in view of the fact that the silver 
 was handed over to a 'smelter' (1"I1S). 
 
 Further, it can hardly be doubted that 17 '"'^ combines two accounts 
 of the appearance of the Levite on the scene. In 17 ''he is intro- 
 duced as 'a youth' (lyj) who was a Levite, who happened to be 
 sojourning 'there' — i.e., obviously, in Micah's village or the near 
 neighbourhood of it. In 17^, however, where he is termed 'the man' 
 (tJ"Kn), he sets forth from Bethlehem of Judah to sojourn where he 
 may find employment, and chancing to arrive at Micah's home, he is 
 hired by him as priest (z/'Z/.^'^"). The terms in which Micah, in t/.'", 
 invites the Levite to become to him '' a father and a priest' appear 
 absurdly inappropriate if the latter was very young, as is implied by 
 the term nd'ar used in v?, which denotes little more than a mere boy. 
 
 perceiving that our story, as it stands, contains repetitions and discrepancies 
 whicti are only to be explained by the hypothesis of the combination of two 
 parallel narratives. He correctly perceived that the sacra are differently de- 
 
 :5cribed in the two narratives, though erring in the supposition that the wandering 
 Levite appears in one narrative only, his place in the other being taken by 
 
 'Micah's son (ch. 17 S), who is the Jonathan of ch. 18 30 of the tribe of Manasseh. 
 
 ;The general outline of the two stories is 'briefly indicated by Vatke, and not 
 yorked out in detail. Mo. (Comm. pp. 367 f) gives a convenient summary of the 
 nalyses adopted by different scholars. 
 
 :5 * In an appendix to Comp.^ (pp. 363 ff.) Wellh, adopts the theory of two 
 larallel narratives. 
 
410 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 As a matter of fact, in w.*^'', where the term nd'ar is next used, it 
 stated that 'the youth' became to Micah 'Hke one of his sons.' M 
 have here, then, a clear mark of differentiation. According 
 I7 7.nb.i2a^ a youthful Levite of the clan of Judah [is adopted orhirf 
 by Micah] and becomes like one of his own sons, being installed i 
 priest. According to i7 8-"a.i2b.i3^ g, Levite from Bethlehem of Juda 
 of mature age, is travelling in search of employment when he receivi 
 an offer from Micah which he accepts i,v}^% and takes up his abo( 
 in his house (■z/.'^'').* Micah then congratulates himself (w.'^) c 
 having obtained the services of a Levite — clearly as opposed to thoi 
 of his own non-Levitical son (■z/.^). This last point indicates th; 
 178-na.12b.13 belongs to the narrative B, to which we have assigned!/.' 
 hence 177.1ib.12a jg (q ^e assigned to A, to which it is quite suitable.} 
 We have thus accounted for the whole of ch. \ 7 except w."— a stat 
 ment which, repeated as it is, in whole or in part, in 18 '% 19 ^'', 2r 
 is clearly editorial, inserted for the purpose of explaining a conditic 
 of religion and morality which, from the editor's own standpoint, w; 
 a very low one. Whether this editor is the pre-exilic redactor of tl 
 old narratives (R-*^), or the post-exilic redactor who added the Appei 
 dix {chs. 17-18, 19-21) to Judg., maybe considered an open questioi 
 In the view of some scholars {e.g. Kue., Bu., Cor., Driver, LOT. 
 Cooke) the form of expression used by the editor implies without 
 doubt that when he wrote there was a king in Israel, and that then 
 fore his standpoint is earlier at any rate than the close of the Judaea 
 monarchy. Such a conclusion is questionable. It is obvious thi 
 an exilic or post-exilic editor, surveying the course of Israel's pai 
 history, may equally well have drawn a distinction between pn 
 monarchic and monarchic times, regarding the former in compariso 
 with the latter as an unsettled and disorganized period. Furthe 
 the occurrence of the statement in 17^ is clearly called forth by tl 
 (from the editor's point of view) irregularities of cultus which the ol 
 narrative relates — the use of images, etc., in Yahweh-worship and tl 
 appointment of a non-Levitical priest. Is it likely that R'^, livin| 
 as we must assume, at or about the time of the idolatrous reign 1 
 King Manasseh, would have explained such irregularities by the fai 
 that the kingship had not yet been established, regarding the kinj 
 ship as a moderating and restraining influence, favouring a relativ 
 
 * The reason why this half verse is referred to this narrative rather than I 
 the other is that we are told in i8i5» that the youthful Levite had a house 1 
 his own. 
 
 X It is possible that z;.i2a<» may belong to B, leaving only the words 'an 
 the youth became his priest ' to A. This is a point which it is impossible I 
 settle decisively. The words ' from ' Bethlehem of Judah' in kw.'-' belong to B 
 cf. v.^^. A's description of the Levite's native place is given more vaguely in tl 
 words 'of the clan of Judah,' ».''. We may infer, then, that the secon 
 occurrence of 'from Bethlehem of Judah' (v.^) is redactional, in order t 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 4n 
 
 purity of cultus ? Such a view is surely more closely allied to the 
 constitutional and priestly aspect of rehgion which we see e.g. in a 
 post-exilic writer like the Chronicler, than to the highly spiritualized 
 aspect which characterizes prophetic thought in the seventh century 
 B.C. Again, the position occupied by the statement in 21^5, rounding 
 off a composite narrative which admittedly contains a large post-exilic 
 element, suggests that it, like other redactional matter in the narrative, 
 is due to 'BJ. 
 
 The explanatory note in iS^''^ ('for there had not fallen, etc.') has 
 the appearance of a late addition. iS^'ois naturally continued by 
 18^. In i8^, however, the description of the spies who are sent out 
 by the Danites is somewhat unwieldy, and may well be composite. 
 Comparison of 18"" suggests that the words 'from their whole 
 number, men of valour ' are alien to the rest of the description ; for 
 by their excision this latter tallies exactly with the description of the 
 band of warriors in 7/."^ In continuation, the words ' to spy out the 
 land and to explore it' seem to be redundant by the side of the 
 following 'and they said unto them, "Go, explore the land"' ; and in 
 view of the established fact that we are dealing with two parallel 
 narratives, we may suspect that these are parallel passages from the 
 two sources. The main strand of 18 ^'^ is marked as B by its parallel- 
 ism with 18 "^ ; and by the fact that it seems properly to be continued 
 by 18^, which belongs to that source. Thus the two insertions, 
 ' from their whole . . . valour,' ' to spy out . . . explore it,' are left 
 by inference to A, to which the phrase ' to spy out, etc' seems to 
 belong in w.''-^'-'"\ 
 
 In iS^*" the spies arrive at Micah's house and spend the night 
 there; but in 18' it is when they are near the house of Micah 
 ('D JT3 DV) that they happen to recognize the voice of the youthful 
 Levite, and this causes them to turn aside thither (DB* niO'l), i.e. 
 arrests them on their journey, and turns them out of the way. 
 Clearly, then, 18'"' and 18' are from different sources; and it is 
 interesting to observe that the former is connected with B by the 
 rather curious use of the prep. "iV in the phrase ' as far as (lit. up to) 
 the house of Micah,' exactly as in 17 ^ 18''"; and the latter with A 
 by its reference to 'the youth, the Levite' ; cf. lyTiibiZ!'?, 18'^. 
 
 The dialogue in 1 8 ^^'^ may be suspected of containing elements 
 from both narratives. In v.^^ the final question ' and what is thy 
 business here ? ' is perhaps redundant after the question preceding. 
 If, as there is no reason to doubt, the first two questions connect with 
 v.^, and are addressed to the youthful Levite, they belong to A. The 
 last question may then be assigned to B, from which, in continuation, 
 vv.*^ seem to be drawn : notice in v.* the reference to the agreement 
 under which the Levite was hired to become priest, which recalls 
 1710,13 (the phrase \T\:h nin is common to 17 1"", 18^''); and the 
 reference in v.'^ to ' the priest,' whereas in A the regular phrase is 
 ' the youth, the Levite.' 
 
412 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 In the description of Laish and its inhabitants in i8', the word 
 ' dwelling in security after the manner of the Sidonians ' are marke( 
 as alien to the preceding by the use of the fem. nntJ'V, which canno 
 refer to DVH ' the people,' but must presuppose a reference in its owi 
 source to T'JJn 'the city' (fem.). It is also clear that the phrasi 
 ' dwelling in security' is superfluous by the side of 'quiet and secure 
 which follows. This latter phrase (nt331 tipB') refers naturally to 'th( 
 people ' (DVn masc.) of the early part of the verse ; cf riD31 t2p\i> DV 7) 
 ' unto a people quiet and secure,' v. ^ — a passage which, as we shal 
 see, belongs to B. The remaining statements in the verse appear t( 
 belong to the same narrative ; cf. w. i»b.28aa_ -^g uj^y ^^ms assigr 
 the whole of z/. ^ to B, except the intrusive passage ' dwelling . . 
 Sidonians,' which is presumably derived from A. 
 
 I g 8-10 presents something of a problem. Most likely 'toSor'ah 
 etc,' in v.^ belongs to a different source from ' unto their brethren. 
 The question 'What news have ye?' in •z'.'* seems to demand as 
 answer, not the exhortation of f.^^", but the statement of fact 'We 
 have seen the land, etc.,' v.^P\ The proper continuation of v.''' 
 seems to be found in z/.*"^", which gives a reason for the hortator) 
 form in which it is couched ; but v.'"'^^, 'for God hath given it, etc., 
 which connects most lamely on to w.'""", is admirably fitted as the 
 continuation of v.^^, ' be not slothful to go to enter in to possess the 
 land.' On removal of this statement, v.^"^, 'a place, etc.," falls 
 naturally into apposition with ' the land is broad,' which, no doubt, il 
 immediately followed in the original source. This division of sources 
 yields us two narratives, each of which is practically complete in 
 itself ; as we may see by placing them side by side. 
 
 A B 
 
 ^And they came unto their *[And they came] to Sor'ah 
 
 brethren, and their brethren said and Eshta'ol, ^ and said, ' Arise ! 
 
 to them, ' What news have ye ? ' and let us go up against Laish, 
 
 ^ [And they said,] ' We have seen for '" when ye come [thither] ye 
 
 the land, and, behold, it is very shall come unto a people secure, 
 
 good : and will ye be still ? be and the land is broad — a place 
 
 not slothful to go in to possess where there is no lack of any- 
 
 the land, '"for God hath given it thing that is in the earth.' 
 into your hand.' 
 
 Our decision as to the sources is based upon the parallelism of the 
 one narrative with v.^'"^, which undoubtedly belongs to B. 
 
 iS''"'^ read as a single narrative ; and this is marked as B by the 
 recurrence of the phrase ' and they came as far as (IJJ) the house oi 
 Micah,' as in i;"", iS^\ At the end of z/.'^ the words 'behold, etc.,' 
 which define more precisely the position of Mahaneh-Dan in relation 
 
Ltie. BUUK UF J UDGES 4t3 
 
 In i8'*-'' we have a combination of two accounts of the theft from 
 Micah's sanctuary. These seem naturally to divide themselves as 
 follows : — 
 
 '■* Then answered the five men 
 that went to spy out the land, 
 and said unto their brethren, 
 'Do ye know that there is in 
 these houses a graven image? 
 Now therefore consider what ye 
 will do.' ^' And they turned 
 aside thither, and came unto the 
 house of the youth the Levite, and 
 asked him of his welfare. '^And 
 the six hundred men girt with 
 their weapons of war were stand- 
 ing at the entrance of the gate : 
 ''*and the five men that went to 
 spy out the land went up ; they 
 went in thither, they took the 
 graven image. 
 
 B 
 
 ''''And while the priest was 
 standing at the entrance of the 
 gate, with the six hundred men 
 that were girt with the weapons 
 of war, '* these others went into 
 the house of Micah, and took the 
 Ephod and Teraphim. And the 
 priest said unto them, ' What do 
 ye?' ''And they said to him, 
 ' Hold thy peace, lay thy hand 
 upon thy mouth, and go with us, 
 and be to us a father and a 
 priest : is it better for thee to be 
 a priest to the house of one man, 
 or to be priest to a tribe and to 
 a clan in Israel ?' 
 
 ¥ 
 
 Here we notice that w.'** and ■z/.''* are connected by the phrase ' to 
 
 spy out the land ' (1''!!$'?"'^^ '^"l?)) which also occurs in v.^% belong- 
 ing apparently to the A narrative. Other marks of this narrative are 
 'their brethren' ■Z'.", as in vfi ; 'they turned aside thither' z/.'*, as in 
 v.^^; 'the youth the Levite' v.^^, as in v.^'' ; cf 17 ^iiibizap, ihe 
 characteristic marks of B are ' the priest ' vv.^'"'-^% as in v."'^ ; ' and 
 be to us a father and a priest' w.'", as in 17'°. 
 
 Further, it is not unnatural to assume that in v.^'' the first object 
 
 mentioned, viz. ?DSn ' the graven image,' is original, and that the 
 others are redactors' additions ; whereas, in the curious phrase of f.'^ 
 
 lIDKn PDS ns, which as it stands can only mean ' the graven image 
 of the Ephod,' it is probable that PDS has been carelessly 
 inserted by the redactor, and that the original narrator wrote 
 D'Sinn riNI TiSSn nx ^^p^'^. This conclusion, which has been 
 adopted in the distribution of sources given above, thus apportions a 
 description of the theft to each of the two narratives. 
 
 Besides the conflate allusions to the sacra in these verses and in 
 v.^*, we have assigned to the redactor ' Laish ' in the curious expres- 
 sion 'the land Laish' in 7/." (Laish of vvJ"-^" is a cUy and not a 
 land ; and, had the name been assigned to the surrounding district, 
 the phrase would have been e>''? pS 'the land 0/ Laish.' In A the 
 
414 THE feOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 spies explore 'the land' unnamed— cf. wz/.^*^''"* ; the city Lais 
 belongs to B) ; 'the house of Micah' 2/."% explicative (from th 
 redactor's point of view) of 'the house of the youth, the Levite' 
 ' that were of the children of Dan' z/.'^'' — awkward in position an 
 redundant. 
 
 On the removal of these redactional additions, the whole remainin 
 text can be made, as we have seen, to fall into two narratives whic 
 read connectedly ; yet there are difficulties in the apportionment ( 
 Tjyis.n vjrhich appear to be insuperable. Closely parallel as the tw 
 narratives doubtless were, it is scarcely credible that the phras 
 'six hundred . . . weapons of war' occurred in that form in eac. 
 (^^_i6a.i7b3^ . jjor, again, that the phrase 'standing at the entranc 
 of the gate' is common to both, referring in the one (z/.'^^) to th 
 six hundred, and in the other (v."^'^) to the priest. In w."" th 
 
 asyndeton inp? HDB' 1X3 'they went in thither, they took, etc.,' i 
 extraordinarily harsh in the Heb., and can scarcely be original 
 while in v."^ the construction 'J1 Cti'l . . . 3V3 [nam ' and the pries 
 was standing . . . with (lit. and) the six hundred, etc.,' though it ii 
 possible to justify it syntactically (cf no/e ad loc\ yet imparts to thi 
 sentence an unnatural appearance. 
 
 We must conclude, therefore, that these two verses have undergoni 
 such an amount of alteration — probably owing to textual corruptioi 
 and the introduction of marginal glosses — that it is impossible ti 
 ascertain their original form.* 
 
 J 3 20-20 shows no trace of the combination of two narratives. It ii 
 clearly the direct continuation of w.'^, which, as we have seen, belong! 
 to B. Notice, as a mark of this narrative, the repeated reference ti 
 'the priest,' vv?"'''^'^. Redactional additions are — the introductioi 
 of ' and the graven image ' in 7/.^°" ; the topographical note in vP^ 
 and, probably, v.^ from ' after the name of Dan ' to the end. Thi 
 final statement, v?^^, is framed precisely in the form of Gen. 28 ""'. 
 
 The two verses 18^"" have occasioned considerable discussioli 
 Clearly, they cannot be the work of a single writer ; since, while 'v?'. 
 according to J§, speaks of the worship of the graven image as existing 
 at Dan 'unto the day of the captivity of the land' — /.«., we must sup 
 
 * It is possible, of course, by cutting out portions of j/f.i6.i7 as margina 
 doublets, to reduce the narrative of the theft to a single account, which is then 
 to be assigned to the source B. Such a measure is suggested by ffi^, in which 
 2,2; 17.18 run as follows : — /cal a,vi^y](sa,v oi -wivT^ ivdpes ol irofievBiPTes Kuramii- 
 ^aadac tt]v y^v, /cai elu^Qov kKei els oTkov Met^ata, /cai 6 lepeits hrtiK' Ktti 
 ^Xa^ov t6 yXuirrbv Kal to e0w5 Kal rd 6epaip€Li/ Kai rb x^vevrbv. KoX elirey irpbi 
 avTods Upevs, kt\. On the basis of this it is open to conjecture that B's accouni 
 
 may have run inp'l nDB* 3S3 piDni n^O r[^2 1X3*1 Wmnn WW l^iP'l 
 
 'ji pan Dniijx idx^i n''a-inn nxi iiaxn nx. such a process of selec- 
 tion and rejection is, however, too arbitrary to be accepted as a conclusion. E'' 
 offers a single account by omission of i;i/.i">.i8a . ^ut this may be due to homoso- 
 teleuton Kal T& xuvevrdv — cf. HS^ which offers the full text of 3S. 
 
The book of juDoteS 415 
 
 f)ose, until B.C. 734, when Tiglath-Pileser IV. overran Northern Israel 
 and deported the inhabitants (2 Kgs. 1 5 »> ; cf. Rest, Keilschrifttexte 
 Tiglat-Pilesers, pp. 78 ff ; Rogers, CP. pp. 320 f.), v.''^ refers it simply 
 to the period during which the house of God was at Shiloh — i.e. down 
 to the capture of the Ark by the Philistines and the death of 'Eli, as 
 related in i Sam. 4 ; after which we hear no more of the sanctuary of 
 Shiloh, and are probably justified in inferring that it had suffered 
 destruction (cf Jer. 7 '2", 268", Ps. 78 «»«•). Mo. refers w.^' to the 
 narrative which we distinguish as A, and supposes that r/.^" belongs 
 to the other narrative, B, 'the graven image' having been substituted 
 by an editor for 'the Ephod,' and the reference to the captivity of the 
 land being also a late alteration (cf SBOT.). If, however, 'the 
 Ephod' had originally been mentioned, it would hardly have been 
 cut out of the narrative ; the redactional practice in regard to the 
 sacra being that of conflation, and not substitution. 
 
 The probable explanation of the origin of the duplication in the two 
 verses is suggested by Kimchi's conjecture that ' the captivity of the 
 land' refers to the capture of the Ark and its sequel, upon the basis 
 of which Houbigant substitutes [iixn 'the Ark 'for j'tNil 'the land.' 
 
 'All the time that the house of God was in Shiloh' has been glossed 
 by the explanation ' up to the day when the Ark went into captivity,' 
 with reference to the narrative of i Sam. 4 : cf , for the use of HPJ 
 'go into captivity' in this connexion, i Sam. 4^'-^^, 'glor>' hath gone 
 captive from Israel.'* If this is so, it is further probable that w."" is 
 a marginal gloss on v.^, offering the variant ID'E'^I ' set up ' for 1D'p*1 
 
 'reared up,' and explaining PDDn as the image made by Micah. The 
 mention of the name of the priest — ' Jonathan, the son of Gershom, 
 the son of Moses ' — is undoubtedly ancient, and must emanate from 
 one of the old narratives — presumably from the narrative to which 
 ' the graven image ' of v.^'^ belongs, i.e. A ; but it is difficult to sup- 
 pose that a fact of so much interest (the grandson of Moses) origin- 
 ally found mention at the close of the narrative for the first time. 
 We should expect the Levite's name to have been mentioned at the 
 point at which he is first introduced ; and very possibly a trace of it 
 may survive in the final words of ch. 17 ' (cf note ad loc). 
 
 We may then regard v.^ down to ' Danites' and w.'"' as belonging . 
 to the narrative A. 
 
 Assuming the existence of a double strand of narrative in the story 
 of Micah to be proved, the presumption is that the two narratives 
 were derived, like other double narratives in Judg., from J and E 
 •espectively : yet, owing to the lack of phrases which might guide us 
 
 Kimchi compares Ps. 78 *i, 
 
 'And He delivered into captiviiy (''yih) His strength, 
 And His glory into the hand of the adversary.' 
 
4t6 THE BOOK Of JUDGES 
 
 in assigning either narrative to one or other of these SOurcfeS, it 
 difficult or impossible to pass any decisive verdict. The only real 
 characteristic phrase in either narrative seems to be pj"i ' to spy oii 
 
 which occurs in iS^"-^'' — passages which we have assigned to o 
 narrative A. This phrase is characteristic of E in the Hexateucl 
 cf. Gen. 42 3ii"i6.3o.3i.34^ Josh. 2 \ 622-23, to which we may perhaps ac 
 Num. 21 22 (£ ?), The verb is only found in J in Josh. 72. It occu 
 again in Deut. 1 2*, Josh. 6^6 (RJ'^), 14'' (R"). Another point whi( 
 favours the assigning of this narrative to E is the fact that tl 
 description of the circumstances which led to the making of the id 
 in 172* is almost certainly intended to cast contempt and ridicu 
 upon it : cf notes ad loc. A similar motive dominates E's narratii 
 of the theft of Laban's Teraphim in Gen. 31 ; cf. vv?^-^, where Rach 
 conceals the idols from her father by sitting upon them. E's oppos 
 tion to idolatry is well-marked : cf the references to the putting awa 
 of 'strange gods' in Gen. 352-*, Josh. 24 "-25, i Sam. 7H 
 
 As an indication that our narrative B is derived from J, we ma 
 notice the way in which Sor'ah and Eshta'ol figure in this narrativ 
 as the home of the Danite clans in i8 2-8iij as in the Samson-narri 
 tive, 1325, 16". The phrasing of 18" I'KnB'SOl njJ-lSO ''Jin TWms. 
 is closely similar to 132^ ^T\r\ nnSCDD nj?1VD IHS t^X. 
 
 If the foregoing analysis is approximately correct, the story ( 
 Micah and the Danites presents a combination of two ancient nam 
 tives from J and E which were, in all essentials, strikingly simiiai 
 The whole complexion of the story, in both traditions, is naive am 
 archaic. With the exception of E's account of the origin of th 
 graven image in 172-*, there is nothing in either narrative whicl 
 suggests disapproval of Micah's proceedings in establishing a priyat 
 sanctuary for the practice of an idolatrous form of Yahweh-cultus 
 and this fact, together with the picture of the wandering Levite seek 
 ing a livelihood as best he could, and of the movements of the Danite 
 in search of a new home in the north when (as stated in ch. \'^] 
 cf. note) the pressure of alien foes rendered their earlier home toi 
 constricted for them, bears upon its face the unmistakeable stamp 
 historical truth, unmodified by the thought of a later age. The story 
 then, may take rank with the history of Abimelech, ch. 9, as one 
 the most ancient and valuable historical sources which we posses 
 dealing with the conditions of life in Cana'an during the period 
 the Judges. 
 
 If, as there seems to be no reason to doubt, the tradition whicl 
 makes the Levite a grandson of Moses is historical, and if, again, thf 
 reference means that he was Moses' grandson in the literal sense 
 and not simply a more remote descendant ('son of Gershom' being 
 used in the wider sense of descendant).^ then the narrative must oo' 
 viouslv relate to events which took place very early in the penoo 
 
17. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 417 
 
 covered by the Book of Judges. That this is so is favoured by the 
 allusion to the tribe of Dan in the Song of Deborah, where it seems 
 to be pictured as settled in its northern home in security, and so 
 wrapped up in seafaring interests as to ignore the call to united 
 tribal action issued by Deborah : cf. ch. 5 " note. The Danites of 
 Sor'ah and Eshta'ol, as they appear in the story of Samson, were 
 probably a small remnant left behind in the ancient home after the 
 migration of the main body of the tribe had taken place (cf p. 339). 
 
 17. I. E Now there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, 
 whose name was Micay'^hu. 2. And he said to his mother, 
 'The eleven hundred shekels of silver which were taken from 
 
 17. I. Micayhu. Heb. -inp'D here and in v.''. The form, of 
 which HD^D Micah is an abbreviation, was perhaps originally used 
 throughout the E narrative. Another form of the name is n'D*D 
 which occurs in Jer. 26 '^ Kt. with reference to the prophet riD'D. 
 
 2-4. The text of these verses in |§ is clearly disarranged ; the disar- 
 rangement being as old as the Versions. In v.'^'^ the words spoken by 
 the mother have fallen out (^JIX3 mOK DJl can only mean ' and didst 
 also say in mine ears,' "lOS being regularly followed by the words 
 spoken.* R.V. ' and didst also speak it in mine ears ' is an illegitimate 
 rendering : had this sense been intended, we should have expected 
 rnai for riipx). in v.*^ Micay°hu returns the money to his mother ; 
 
 in v?'°^ she declares her intention of returning it to him ; and in v.'^ he 
 returns it to her once more in order that she may hand it over to the 
 silversmith. Bu. was the first to observe that the words of v?'*'^ ' and 
 now I will restore it to thee ' must be part of Micah's speech in v?'^. He 
 places vv?'"^-^ after z/.^^ and excises v?"- as a repetition of v.^^ (in 
 Comm. excising also the two words 1DN "IDsril in v.*'^). The recon- 
 struction proposed by Mo. seems to be superior to this, and has been 
 adopted above. Mo. holds that the missing words of the mother's 
 adjuration in v.^ — which Bu. supposes to have been suppressed 
 owing to the terrible character of the curse (but cf. note on ' didst take 
 an oath ') — are the words of z/.""*, which have been misplaced in the 
 general dislocation of the text, and are there introduced by the gloss 
 IDK IDKOI. He agrees with Bu. in placing v.^^P after v.'^'-, and in 
 regarding z/.^" as a repetition of z/.^" ; but he leaves z'."'" in the position 
 
 ( * Ex. 1925 J nn^N "IDX'1 Oyn ha HB^D 1T1 is a very curious exception ; 
 ind it seems probable that the words spolien by Moses have disappeared in the 
 iiiecing together of the sources. In Gen. 48 J VPIN 73n PX ['p 1DN*1, the 
 -vords spoken by Cain, which are missing in 1g, are found in the Versions, 
 f 2D 
 
4i8 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [I7 
 
 thee, concerning which thou didst take an oath, and also di 
 say in mine ears, <3'=''. "I do surely consecrate the silver 
 
 in which it stands in % the fact that, by the removal ofv.^i^toi 
 the whole of "v.^ is accounted for, rendering the position of v.*^ bef 
 v.'''^ highly suitable. 
 
 2. concerning which thou didst, etc. Lit. 'and thou didst, e 
 The Personal Pronoun of the 2nd fem. sing, preserves the mi 
 primitive form, Kt. ipiK which occurs elsewhere sporadically in 0. 
 
 and seems to be specially characteristic of the North Palestini 
 (Ephraimitic) dialect. Cf NHTK. p. 208. 
 
 didst take an oath. Heb. T\hv.. The oath was the solemn prom 
 
 to devote the silver to Yahweh's service. Such an oath brough 
 curse upon the person who violated it, whether this were the makei 
 the oath, or any one else who misappropriated the consecrated thii 
 It was, no doubt, the fear of this curse which caused Micah to conS 
 to the theft and to make restitution ; and very possibly his mot! 
 may have suspected his guilt when she made the adjuration in 1 
 hearing. The verb 'did invariably means 'to take an oath' beft 
 God (I Kgs. 831 = 2 Chr. 6^2, Hos. 4^ 10 «; Hiph'il, 'cause to ta 
 such an oath",' i Sam. 142*, i Kgs. 8" = 2 Chr. e^^t), and doesi 
 mean 'utter a curse' (R.V. text, Bu. *), i.e. 'curse the thief (1! 
 Comm.,X Cooke). Had such a sense been intended, it would ha 
 been expressed by another verb {killel or 'drar). The subst 'a 
 which means 'oath' before Yahweh, may be used in the sen 
 'curse' ; but only of a curse which results from, the violation of su 
 an oath (different therefore from k'ldld, which is used e.g. of the cm 
 of Jotham, ch. 9*', and of Shime'i's cursing David, i Kgs. 2*). ■ 
 
 / do surely consecrate. Heb. TlB'Ipn ^"^pTt, The Perfect a 
 
 pears to be used in accordance with the idiom noted by Drivi 
 Tenses, § 10, 'to describe the immediate past, being generally bi 
 translated by the present.' As the words pass her lips, she has effiO 
 the consecration. Cf. Gen. 14^^, 'lift up (inbin) my hand to heaven 
 
 I Sam. 17'°, 'I reproach (^PiBin) the armies of Israel this day.' 
 
 is of course possible to render as an Aorist, ' I did surely consecral 
 i.e. in time past, prior to the theft ; but it is more likely that the id 
 
 * Bu. so far misunderstands the meaning of the verb as to suggest thai I 
 
 form may originally have carried an Accusative suffix VH vN ' didst curse him' 
 
 J In SBOT. !VIo. brings out the correct sense by rendering 'didst make 
 solemn declaration ' ; though this is not so forcible as ' didst take an oatb.'sii 
 it does not so clearly imply that a penalty was atiHched to its violation. 
 
r. 2. J TJHli BUUK OF JUDGES 419 
 
 ahweh from my hand '"alone"', to make a graven image R"" and 
 molten image ">— E behold, the silver is with me ; it was I that 
 )ok it; ^3''^. and now I will restore it to thee.'^ And his 
 lother said, ' Blessed of Yahweh be my son ! ' 3. [] 4. So he 
 
 f making the silver sacred to Yahweh occurred to her owing to 
 
 s loss. If it was not found, she was under no further obligation, 
 
 hereas the thief (as noticed above) would bring himself under a 
 
 arse. 
 
 from my hand alone. Reading ''^3^ in place of ?§ '33^ with ffi'^'' 
 
 i"", E^ Mo., La. Mo. seems rightly to explain the point of the restric- 
 on implied by the words : — ' No one else can fulfil the vow of conse- 
 ration, and, by having an image made, lift the taboo from the rest of 
 le silver.' In the phrase '"nap n'', the speaker says lit. ' the hand 
 F me, in my separateness ' — an idiom which is exactly paralleled by 
 s. 71" ^"na^ ^npiy 'thy righteousness alone.' Bu.'s stricture that 
 ny hand alone ' should be n'^ap 'T is therefore unwarranted. 
 
 ^ '33? means 'for my son,' i.e. on his behalf, in order that he may 
 enefit by the piety of the action. Assuming ''33/' to be a corruption 
 F '13?, the reading can only have arisen subsequently to the dis- 
 ication of the text by which the mother's words appeared to be 
 )oken after Micah's confession of the theft. The dedication is made 
 : expiation of his guilt. 
 
 a graven image and a molten image. EtymologicaIly//Je/ denotes 
 1 idol carved or hewn out of wood or stone, while massekhd denotes 
 le which is cast of metal in a mould. In spite of its etymology, 
 jwever, pHel may also denote a cast-metal idol (probably sometimes 
 1 idol with a core of wood or base metal overlaid with precious 
 etal), as is proved by such passages as Isa. 40 '^, 44 '" (where it is 
 innected with the verb ndsakh 'to cast'), Jer. 10", 51^' (connected 
 th soreph 'smelter,' the term rendered 'silversmith' in z/.* of our 
 •rrative). As has been shown above (p. 409), the original E narra- 
 te seems to have mentioned a single idol only, termed p^sel, which 
 is cast by the soreph out of the silver ; but a later hand, taking /^j^/ 
 i^raologically as a graven image, added it-massekhd on the ground 
 It the context demanded mention of a cast or molten idol. 
 wph me. I.e. 'in my possession' — an idiomatic usage of the prep, 
 ith'; cf. cases cited by BDB. s.v. DK, 3a. 
 
 it was I, etc. Heb. ITIDp? '3K. Emphasis is expressed by the use 
 the separate Personal Pronoun before the verb. 
 
 Blessed of Yahweh, etc. The mother's blessing neutralizes the 
 rse which would have resulted from misappropriation of the con- 
 ;rated silver. 
 
420 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [I7, 
 
 restored the silver to his mother. Then his mother took 
 hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the silversmith 
 he made thereof a graven* image R"" and a molten image : E 
 it was in the house of Micay^hu. 5. J And the man M 
 had a sanctuary ; and he made an Ephod and Teraphim 
 
 4. two hundred shekels. We are not told what became of 
 remaining nine hundred shekels. Kimchi supposes that the 
 hundred shekels were merely the payment made to the silversmitli 
 making the idol out of the rest of the silver ; while Ros., Stu., I 
 etc., assume that the nine hundred shekels were devoted to the bu 
 ing and furnishing of the sanctuary. Mo. thinks that the woman 
 under no obligation to devote the whole of the silver to Yahwe 
 ' The intention of the dedication (w. ^) was not to devote the wholi 
 the treasure to the making of an image, but to compel the thiel 
 restore it by putting the whole under a taboo until she herself 1 
 made, from this silver, an image of Yahweh.' This view is accep 
 by Bu., La. There is, however, much to be said for the view first 
 forward by Auberlen {Studien und Kritiken, i860, p. 548), ; 
 adopted by Kue., that, after the woman had got back the sil 
 through the expedient of consecrating it to Yahweh, her avarice can: 
 her to seek to fulfil the vow by devoting merely an insignificant p 
 tion of it, and keeping back the major part. Cf the parallel offe: 
 by the action of Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5. Both mother a 
 son are thus represented in an odious light ; and it is wholly in 1 
 manner of the E narrator to make his point allusively (cf. G 
 31 34.35^^ a,nd not to labour it in a heavy-handed manner. 
 
 5. a sanctuary. Heb. DTIPS IT'S 'a house of God {or god 
 Whether this is to be pictured as a small shrine within, or attach 
 to, Micah's own house (cf. the parallel narrative in ■z/.'"'^), or as 
 separate building, is not clear. 
 
 an Ephod. Cf. the full discussion in note on ch. 8". Referei 
 to the present passage occurs on pp. 240, 242. 
 
 Teraphim. The nature of the object, or objects, denoted by tl 
 term is highly obscure. That some kind of idol is intended appei 
 from Gen. 31 30-32 5;^ where Laban accuses Jacob of having stolen 1 
 ' gods ' ilelohhn) ; and that this was an image in human form sea 
 to be clear from i Sam. 19 '^w^ where Michal is related to ha 
 placed the Teraphim in David's bed in order to simulate him, ai 
 thus to facilitate his escape from Saul's emissaries. If the Terafhi 
 of this passage was a complete human figure, we must infer that 
 was life-size ; but the life-sized image of a human head or bust mig 
 have served Michal's purpose almost equally well. Laban's Teraphii 
 which Rachel hid by placing them under a camel's saddle and sittii 
 upon them (Gen. 31 3* E), must, if they were complete human figun 
 
 1 U«„« — U , ^„11«- T ;i — i.\.^ ^1 1 ^V7:i7.i *.U« T^^l1rQ^ TpK 
 
5-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 421 
 
 ailed one of his sons, and he became his priest. 6. R'' In 
 
 n may denote one image (i Sam. loc. cit.) or more than one 
 n. loc. cit. ; cf. the plural suffixes XlT\'<7i . . . DDCDI in v.'^). 
 : is clear that Teraphim were employed as' oracle-givers. In 
 ;. 3 \ as in our narrative, they are mentioned together with the 
 :ular Ephod; and in i Sam. 15^3^ Zech. 10 2, Ezek. 21 21-22, g 26.27 
 1 the form of divination called kesem, i.e., as we know from the 
 sage in Ezek. and the use of the root in Ar., a method of casting 
 by shaking headless arrows out of a quiver. It is possible that 
 association of Teraphim with famihar spirits and wizards in 
 gs. 23 24 may connect them with the practice of necromancy. The 
 1 that they were a form of household-god is based upon their 
 iirrence as the property of private individuals (Laban, Micah, 
 ad) ; and many scholars suppose that their cult was connected 
 1 ancestor-worship : cf Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode, 
 j6; Stade, GVI.- i. p. 467 ; Nowack, Hebr. Arckdologie, ii. p. 23. 
 y possibly they were identical with the 'elohim mentioned in the 
 ik of the Covenant, Ex. 2 1 6, 22 ^■^, on which cf Footnote, p. 330.* 
 he derivation of the word t'rdpMm is obscure. A plausible sug- 
 ;ion connects it with r'pMim 'ghosts' or 'shades' of the dead, 
 his is so, the root of both is probably to be seen in Bab. rabti 
 'apie, which is used of the sinking of the heavenly bodies into 
 Underworld: cf the use of Heb. HQT in this sense in ch. ig'. 
 Iphim, then, like r'phWim, will denote, not the weak or flaccid 
 ■ (as the latter term is commonly explained), but those who have 
 k down to or disappeared in the Underworld : cf the use of the 
 t'al of rabA in iv.2 R. 30, No. 2, Obv. 24, 25, iilu) Samas irtabl 
 ana irsitim mituti, 'The Sun-god sinketh, the Sun-god sinketh, 
 the Land of the Dead.'l So Ball, Proc. Brit. Acad., vii. p. 16. 
 
 '■stalled. The Heb. phrase milli yadh, lit. ' filled the hand of,' is 
 technical expression for installation in the priestly office : cf 
 ides ^.i") Ex. 28", 299-29.33.35^ Lev. S^s (all P), Lev. 16 ^2, 21 >" 
 
 The curious explanation of Teraphim which is found in the Jerusalem ffi and 
 rkS d* Rabbi EH'ezer (early ninth century A.D. ), identifying the object with 
 ead of a sacrificed first-born son, pickled in salt and oil, upon the tongue of 
 1 was laid a charm written upon a thin plate of gold, and which was then 
 upon the wall, and worshipped and consulted as an oracle-giver (cf. refer- 
 in Buxtorf, Lexicon Chald. Talm. et Rabbin., s.v. D'Sin), closely corre- 
 Is with the description of the rites of the pseudo-Sabians of garrSn, as 
 n to lis at the period of the Mohammedan expansion (cf. discussion and 
 rities cited inChwolson, Die Ssabier, ii. pp. 19 ff., 150 ff., 388 fif.), and the 
 :annot be independent : but whether the Sabian rites were of remote anti- 
 , and, if so, whether they had any connexion with the Teraphim-cult, is 
 y unknown to us. 
 
 lere Su=&«2^«= ' repetition ' (Br. 10840), indicating that the preceding 
 i are to be repeated, as in the Sumerian text of this bilingual fragment. 
 
422 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [17. 
 
 those days there was no king in Israel : every man was 
 to do that which was right in his own eyes. 
 
 7. E Now there was a youth J from Bethlehem of Judah, 
 the clan of Judah, and he was a Levite, and he sojourned t 
 8. J And the man departed from the city, R^^ from Bethle 
 of Judah, J to sojourn where he might chance : and he can 
 the hill-country of Ephraim, as far as the house of Mica) 
 
 (both H), Num. 3' P, i Kgs. la'^, i Chr. 296, 2 Chr. 138, 29^1, 
 metaphorically of the consecration of an altar, Ezek. 43 ^°f. 
 expression is usually supposed to refer to the ceremony of fillinj 
 hands of the person to be consecrated with the choice portigi 
 the sacrifice for a waive-offering : cf Ex. 2922-25^ £ev. S^^ (botl 
 These portions are called niilli(tm in Ex. 29 '*, Lev. 8 ^8. 
 
 In Bab. and Assyr. inscriptions, however, the same phrase ur 
 kdta is used more generally in the sense of entrusting authon, 
 any one, usually with some one of the gods as subject. Thus, e.^. 
 said of Adadnirari iv. sa (ilu) Asur malkut Id san&n umallii idi 
 ' whose hand (the god) ASur filled with an unrivalled kingdom ' ( 
 i. pp. 188, 190) : cf Muss-Arnolt, Diet. i. p. 542, where other exan 
 are cited. 
 
 6. In those days., etc. On this statement as the work of the li 
 redactor, R'', cf p. 410. The statement is no doubt called forth 
 to explain the (from the late priestly standpoint) grave irreguli 
 of the appointment of a non-Levitical person to exercise prii 
 functions. 
 
 7. Bethlehem of Judah. The modern Bet-Lahm, five miles S' 
 of Jerusalem. The definition ' of Judah ' is perhaps intended to 
 tinguish the city from the northern Bethlehem of Zebulun, on w 
 cf. ch. 12' note. 
 
 of the clan of Judah. The difficulty raised by this statement 
 the Levite was a Judaean by birth is discussed in Addit. note, p. 
 
 and he sojourned there. Heb. Dt^"TJ N-ini. The statement im) 
 that he was enjoying the rights of protection extended to an < 
 ger or sojourner by the clan with which he dwelt. Cf the par 
 narrative in v.^ nvD' "IB'Na "yxh. Considering, however, tha 
 the present passage the words Dl^ "IJ contain the identical lei 
 of the name DB'TJ Gershom (cf. the explanation which is oifere 
 
 the meaning of the name in Ex. 2 22 J), and also that the mentio 
 the Levite's name at the end of the narrative {ch. 18™) and not al 
 beginning is very strange, it is possible that DtJ' 'IJ Xini may 1 
 relic of an original QB'iria \r\i\r\'' iDB'l 'and his name was Ji 
 than, the son of Gershom.' Cf Addenda., p. xx. 
 
'. 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 423 
 
 rder to accomplish his errand. 9. And Micah said to him, 
 Whence comest thou?' And he said unto him, ' I am a 
 ,evite from Bethlehem of Judah; and I am going to sojourn 
 here I may chance.' 10. And Micah said to him, ' Abide with 
 le, and be to me a father and a priest, and / will give thee ten 
 
 8. in order to accomplish his errand. Heb. is'i'i nii^y!' lit. 'to 
 lake {or do) his way.' Cf. Isa. 58" T'S'l? nVWp 'not doing thy 
 'ays' {i.e. 'thy wonted pursuits' — less specific, but yet parallel), 
 leb. ddrekh, which is frequently used in the sense oi journey (cf 
 ases cited by BDB. s.v. '?|'1^ 2), here seems to be used of the object 
 f the journey, just as it is in ch. 18 ^-^ (noted by Mo.) and, more 
 enerally, in Deut. 28^, Josh, i', i Sam. 18'*, al. The point of the 
 tatement is, of course, not that the Levite came to Micah's house 
 ^ith the specific expectation of finding work there and nowhere else, 
 lut that up to arriving at that point he had not as yet accomplished 
 he object of his journey, and so had it in view. The rendering here 
 .dopted is favoured by Mo. {Comm.\ Ehr. 
 
 R.V. renders 'as he journeyed,' and so Mo. {SBOT.) 'in the course 
 if his journey,' and this explanation is generally adopted : but it is 
 )pposed (if not precluded) by the facts that such a use of an Infin. 
 vith ? appears to be unparalleled,* and that the phrase 'make a 
 oumey,' though natural enough in English, is not found elsewhere 
 n Heb. 
 
 ID. a father. For the title as a term of respect, cf BDB. s.v. 
 IK, 8. 
 The |§ addition at the end of the verse, ii^n '^^M, is clearly a 
 
 ;orrupt duplication of 'l^n ^nVI at the commencement of z/." 
 
 so most modems) ; being marked as such by the repeated ''vfl, and 
 
 * No. objects (against Mo. , Comm. ) to the explanation which we have adopted , 
 ind renders (in accordance with R.V., etc.) ' auf seine Reise,' asserting tliat 
 
 nCy? is a gerundial usage of the Infin. with ?> and should fall among the 
 lases cited in G-K. §1140. In the very miscellaneous list of cases embodied 
 
 n this section, the uses of the Infin. with 7 may be classified as follows : — 
 "urfost ('in order to'), Lev. 8", i Sam. 20^, Ps. 63^, loi 8, io4"f', Prov. 28; 
 Reference or closer definition {• 2lS regards' or 'through'). Gen. 322, 18 19, 34'-", 
 ■ium. 1486, I Sam, 12", 14'', ig^ 2 Sam. 3i<>, i Kgs. z^'-, 148, Jer. 44"'-, 
 ^s. 78 18, 10320, 1116, Prov. Z'", Neh. 13'*; Consequence ('so as to'), Ex. 23", 
 
 ^ev. 5-'-22-2«, Prov. 18 ». If, however, 13")! fllCTP really means 'in making 
 
 lis journey,' such a usuage of 7 is circumstantial, and cannot be brought imder 
 
 .ny of the preceding categories. Such a rendering makes TWV7 the equivalent 
 
 .f nityya or TWm"^ (or, more properly, of iniW3 or iniB'Va)- 
 
424 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [17. ii. 13.-I8. 
 
 shekels of silver a year, and a suit of apparel, and thy living.', 
 1 1. And the Levite consented to dwell with the man ; E and tl 
 youth became to him like one of his sons. 12. And Mici 
 installed the Levite, and the youth became his priest, J and w 
 in the house of Micah. 13. Then said Micah, 'Now I knc 
 that Yahweh will do me good, seeing that the Levite hai 
 become my priest.' 
 
 18. I.' ^'' In those days there was no king in Israel; J andi 
 those days the tribe of the Danites were seeking them a 
 inheritance to dwell in ; R"" for there had not fallen unto thei 
 unto that day ■(a land)> for an inheritance among the tribes ( 
 Israel. 2. J And the children of Dan sent from their clan fiv 
 
 by the unsuitability of the verb to the context. The words coul 
 only mean 'and the Levite went,' i.e. 'departed' (of. Gen. 18'', 34' 
 I Sam. 14', 15^'', al.). R.V. 'went in' {sc. to Micah's house) wouli 
 require sh'l at least. The words are omitted by "S. 
 
 II. consented. On the usage of the Heb. verb hd'il, cf. ch. i ^', ml 
 on 'persisted.' 
 
 13. Now I know, etc. A Levite as priest is regarded as highl] 
 desirable, but not as vitally necessary. 
 
 18. I. In those days . . . Israel. Mo. refers R^'s statement hen 
 to the close of the preceding part of the narrative, in reference to thf 
 (from the later point of view) ritual irregularities which are thert 
 related. His view is that 'Jerome erroneously joined the words tc 
 the following : " In diebus illis non erat rex in Israel, et tribus Dan 
 quaerebat possessionem sibi, etc." ; and was naturally followed in the 
 division of the chapters which was introduced in the Latin Bible in 
 the thirteenth century, and from it into the printed Hebrew Bible,' 
 This conclusion is adopted by No., La., Cooke. It may be observed, 
 however, that, while the full form of the comment concludes a 
 narrative-section in 17 ^ and 21 2^, the shorter form (as in this passage) 
 opens the narrative of ch. 19. It is not clear why the statement sheuld 
 not be intended to explain the independent and lawless action of the 
 Danites as related in ch. 18. 
 
 for there had not fallen, etc. The subject of the verb is missing 
 in 3§. We must supply j^nx 'a land' with Stu. : for the constr. 
 
 nprua pS npS: cf. Num. 34 2, josh. 13 "l ffi on ouk eVeVeo-tv mfj 
 
 . . . Kkrjpovoixia possibly presupposes a text in which n?nj stood as 
 
 subject in place of ?§ nirij^. 
 
8. 2. 3- 5-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 425 
 
 len E from their whole number, men of valour, J from Sor ah, 
 nd from Eshta'ol, E to spy out the land and to explore it ; J and 
 bey said unto them, ' Go, explore the land ' : and they came to 
 ne hill-country of Ephraim, as far as the house of Micah, and 
 pent the night there. 3. E When they were by the house of 
 licah, they recognized the voice of the youth, the Levite : and 
 ley turned aside thither, and Said to him, ' Who brought thee 
 ither? and what doest thou in this place? J and what is thy 
 usiness here?' 4. And he said unto them, 'Thus and thus 
 ath Micah done for me, and he hath hired me, and I am 
 ecome his priest.' 5. And they said to him, ' Prithee enquire 
 
 2. from their tuhol^ number. I.e. representatives of the whole 
 Ian (its several branches). Heb. k^sSikdm means lit. 'their ex- 
 "etnities' — a 'condensed term for what is included within extremities 
 = the whole' (BDB. s.v. TVi\>). The idiom is well elucidated by 
 Tum. 22^', 'and he saw from thence the uttermost part of the 
 eople' (Dlfn nvp) i.e. by implied inclusion, the whole of them. 
 
 INHTK.on i Kgs. \2^K 
 
 from Sor' ah and from Eshta'ol. Cf. notes on 13 ^-^^ 
 to spy out. Heb. riggel is a denominative from rdghel ' foot,' like 
 at. vestigare from vestigium.. On the usage of the verb as 
 baracteristic of E cf. p. 416. 
 
 3. When they were by . . . they recognized. Heb. n''3 DJ> nDH 
 I'^n riDm na'D, lit. ' They were by the house of Micah, and they 
 :cognized.' The great emphasis upon the Personal Pronoun in 
 ich clause throws the two clauses into vivid antithesis, the object 
 sing to emphasize the circumstances in which the fact narrated 
 1 the second clause took place. This usage is very idiomatic : cf. 
 'river. Tenses., g§ 168, 169. 
 
 by the house. Heb. T^l DV, lit. ' with the house,' i.e. close to it. For 
 lis idiomatic use of the preposition, c£ ch. 19 '^ Q near Jehus'), 
 sn- 35 ■*> Josh. 7 2, 2 Sam. 20 ^, i Kgs. i ", al. 
 
 they recognized the voice. The view put forward by Stu. that Heb. 
 i/, 'voice,' here means dialect, by which the Danites recognized the 
 5vite as a Judaean and not an Ephraimite, is most improbable, 
 he obvious meaning is that they happened to have known him 
 Tsonally before, when he was living in Judah. Cf for the closeness 
 local association between the tribes of Dan and Judah, ch. 15 '". 
 and what is thy business here ? Heb. na ^? IIDI, lit. 'and what 
 thee here ? ' 
 
 5. Enquire of God. Cf. note on ch. i^. We note the fact that, 
 lile the Danites' request is ' Enquire of 'elohtm,' the response (v. ") 
 
426 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [18. ( 
 
 of God, that we may know whether our journey on which w 
 are going shall be prosperous.' 6. And the priest said to their 
 ' Go in peace : before Yahweh is your journey whereon ye go 
 
 is 'Before Yahweh is your journey, etc' Here, though the ordinaril 
 unquestioned conclusion is that 'eldhtm denotes ' God,' and is synonj 
 raous with ' Yahweh,' the possibility presents itself that the two terms 
 as they stand, may embody a distinction with a difference. The refer 
 ence of 'eloMm may be to the Teraphim, regarded as the mediun 
 rather than the source of the divine response : cf. the use of hd-'elohk 
 in Ex. 21", 22 ^-^ (noted on p. 330), and Micah's reference ti 
 'my gods,' z/. ^* (cf. Gen. 3130.32 g)^ a.s well as BHh-'eldhim, ch. 17' 
 if this means properly ' house of gods' If this be so, the force 
 the prep. 3 may very possibly be ''by' or ' through ' : cf Num 
 27 21 P, ' He (Joshua') shall stand before Ele'azar the priest, wh( 
 shall enquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh 
 (niiT 'JS^ nnisn tase'Da 1^ Wl); Ezek. 2121 (g^s)^ 'He(thekinj 
 of Babylon) enquired through the Teraphim' (D''S"in3 7StJ'; hen 
 it is of course possible to render 'he enquired o/" the Teraphim') 
 I Sam. 28 ^, where Saul says to the witch of 'Endor, ' Prithee divinf 
 for me through the familiar spirit ' (31N3 v S3 ''OlDp), and, witl 
 reference to the same incident, I Chr. lo '3, ' and also, for thai 
 he (Saul) enquired through the familiar spirit' (31K3 71SE'? D31).' 
 Upon this explanation, the Danites say, ' Enquire through 'Hohhw 
 (or, vocalizing D*n$K3 ''through the 'elohim'), and the Teraphim, 
 
 when thus interrogated, returns the answer, 'Before Yahweh is 
 your journey whereon ye go.' Even with retention of the ordinary 
 sense of sd'al i", 'enquire o/,' the primary meaning maybe, 'Enquire 
 of the oracle ' — a sense which likewise implies that 'elohim is not 
 identical with Yahweh, but simply voices His attitude towards the 
 project of the Danites. 
 
 A distinction in phraseology, identical with that of our passage, is 
 drawn in ch. 20 '*, ' They enquired of {or through) 'eldhtm ... and 
 Yahweh said.' ; cf. also i Sam. 14 3^, 2 Sam. 16 ^l 
 
 our journey. I.e. the object of it, ' our errand' : cf. note on cL 17' 
 
 6. before Yahweh. Heb. nokhah, rendered ' before,' means lit. in 
 front of or ' opposite.' So Mo., ' under the eye of Yahweh.' 
 
 * Here, whatever be the precise meaning of 'Sbfi, rendered ' familiar spirit (00 
 which cf. NHTK. p. 354 ; Driver, Deuteronomy, ICC, p. 226 ; T. W. Daviesio 
 EB. 1120 f.), it is clear that the enquiry is made through and noto/theW. 
 The response comes from the spirit of Samuel, and the '$bh acts merely as 
 intermediary. 
 
18. 7-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 427 
 
 /. So the five men went, and came to Laish, and saw the people 
 ;hat were therein, E dwelling in security, after the manner of the 
 jidonians, J quiet and secure, and there was no ""want of any"'- 
 
 7. Laish. Heb. tr'^ means 'lion.' In Josh. 19" J the name is 
 given as DB'? Leshem— a variant form which ought probably (as 
 suggested by Wellh., De gentibus et familiis Judaeis, p. 37) to be 
 vocalized qb'?, i-e., Dt}'v Leshdm, the same name as tJ**^ with for- 
 mative termination : cf. D13*J? 'Etam from D'S? '^y?.^ ' bird of prey ' 
 
 (so Gray, Heb. Proper Names, p. 93). 
 
 Eusebius and Jerome locate Laish or Dan four Roman miles from 
 Paneas (the modern B^nyis) on the way to Tyre {OS. 114^", 249 ^2), 
 and state that it is here that the Jordan breaks forth {OS. 136", 
 275 ^). The site intended is no doubt the modern Tell el-Kady, an 
 oblong mound, from the western side of which there issues a copious 
 stream which forms one of the sources of the Jordan.* Jos. {BJ. 
 IV. i. i) knows this site as Daphne, and states that its springs, 
 beneath the temple of the golden bull, supply water to the little 
 Jordan, which flows into the great Jordan. This identification is 
 accepted by Rob. {BR.^ iii. pp. 390 ff.) and most modern writers. 
 The At. name Kady, which like Heb. Dan means 'judge,' may 
 possibly offer a point of connexion. Smith {HG. pp. 473, 480) prefers 
 to find the site of Laish-Dan at B4ny3.s,j; on the ground that the 
 meadows and springs of the upper Jordan could not be held against 
 an enemy without also holding Banyis and its castle ; but, as Cheyne 
 not unjustly remarks {EB. 997), 'From Judg. 18 we do not gather 
 that Laish was a place of exceptional natural strength ; its inhabi- 
 tants were a peaceful folk, who trusted not in their fortress but in 
 their remoteness from troublesome people like the Danites.' 
 
 dwelling. On the fem. form JiaB'i' as implying a fem. antecedent 
 Tiyn 'the city,' in the source from which the extract is derived, 
 cf. p. 412. 
 
 in security. I.e. without apprehension of danger from outside. 
 Heb. n^3^. 
 
 and there was no want . . . earth. Reading 13'n"i'3 niDHD p^l 
 pN3 ne'K as in t/.'", with Her., Bu., Mo. {SBOT.), No., La., Kit., 
 
 * This stream has not been indicated in Map I. 
 
 X Theodoret (on Jer. 41=) and Jerome (on Ezek. 48 is, and Am. 8 ") speak of 
 Paneas as occupying the site of Dan. 
 
 Why Smith (p. 473) should say that B^nyis is ' scarcely an hour io the north ' 
 of Tell el-KMy is not clear. His own maps, like the 5 W-P. Great Map, locate it 
 nearly due east. 
 
428 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [18. 8. 
 
 thing <that is> in the earth, [] and they were far from the 
 Sidonians, and had no dealings with ''Aram"'. 8. E And they 
 came unto their brethren J to Sor'ah and Eshta'ol : E and their 
 brethren said to them, ' What news Thave ye"' ? ' 9. J And they 
 
 Cooke, Gress., in place of f§ f\^2 l^'l D»i'3p-pN'!. Here the 
 
 curious "13T D v3D, which can only be understood as ' one insulting 
 {or humiliating) in a matter,' very early caused difficulty, and was 
 glossed by nvjJ fff'i)'' 'one usurping coercive power'* (omitted by 
 
 <&") which has crept into the text of f^. This explanation of the 
 latter phrase as a gloss is simpler and more natural than the view 
 of Bu. (based on ffi'' Kkr]pov6iJ.os dria-avpoi, "S 'magnarumque opum') 
 that it is an integral part of the text, meaning ' possessing richesj 
 i.e. either iv'lN or -w'i of which two readings ^ "IVJJ represents an 
 
 amalgamation. 
 
 far from the Sidonians . . . Aram. Lying at the southern mouth 
 of the valley which runs between the Lebanon and Hermon ranges, 
 Laish was isolated from Sidon by the Lebanon range to the north- 
 west, and from Aram-Damascus \ by the Hermon range to the 
 north-east. The reading mx ' Aram,' which is offered by ffi*'', S', 
 
 31"-, 2., is adopted by Bu., La., Kit., Gress., and is undoubtedly 
 superior to |§ dTX — 'had no dealings with mankind? The refer- 
 ence to Sidon requires a more definite antithesis. 
 
 8. What news have ye ? Reading DDPIX riD lit. ' what is with 
 
 you?' with Wellh. {Comp.^ p, 365), No., Kit, in place of g DFIN HD 
 
 which offers an incomplete sentence, ' What ye ?' For the use of flK 
 ' with ,' cf. 2 Kgs. 3 '^, Jer 27 '*, where the word of Yahweh is said to 
 be with a prophet, i.e. revealed to him ; and the employment of the 
 preposition in the sense ''known to' in Job 12^, 14°. 
 
 ffi", making the words part of the speech of the spies., renders km 
 
 fliTov Tois dSeXt^oir avrmv Ti u^cTr KaSrjcrdf ; i.e. QpiS HD DiTriNP TWi?\ 
 
 Qiat*'*. Such an inquiry, however, is redundant by the side of 
 
 D'B'np DRNI ' and will ye be still ? ' in v?, apart from the fact that 
 
 we should expect ■pxh rather than no. ffi*\ though agreeing with 
 
 * The subs. "iSV is a &-wa% \ey6iJ.evov, but the sense implied appears to be 
 
 sufficiently guaranteed by the usage of the verb 1 W, 
 
 J It seems probable that the narrator is thinking of the kingdom of 
 Damascus rather than of the small Aramaean states in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood (Beth-rehob and Ma'achah) to which Mo. alludes. 
 
18. 9- J 1^^ BUUK Ul> J U DUES 429 
 
 said, ' Arise ! and let us go up ^to Laish^ : for E we have seen the 
 land, and, behold, it is very good : and will ye be still ? be not 
 slothful to go to enter in to possess the land. lo. J When ye 
 come, ye will come unto a people secure, and the land is broad : 
 E for God hath given it into your hand ; J a place where there is 
 no want of anything that is in the earth.' 
 
 II. Then there set forth from thence of the clan of the 
 Danites, from Sor ah and from Eshta'ol, six hundred men girt 
 with weapons of war. 12. And they went up, and encamped in 
 
 H in making the words an address io the spies, yet, like ffi°, has the 
 reading naSria-Bc ; and Mo. deduces from this the possibility that 
 D'atJ''' may be the corruption of an original D'a^B^D— ' What (news) 
 are ye bringing backV Bu.'s suggestions DnN["!] HD 'What have 
 ye seen?' or onxrVDlTltD 'What have ye found?' are improbable. 
 
 9. Arise ! The sing. HD-lp is used as a stereotyped interjection in 
 place of the plur. (which appears in several Codd., probably as a 
 correction). Cf. nan ' Come ! ' — originallin ' Give ! ' or ' Permit ! ' — 
 addressed to a plurality of persons, Gen. 1 1 '■*•' ; nai) ' Come ! ' 
 addressed to a woman. Gen. 19^^; HK") 'Behold!' addressed to 
 Israel in the plural, Deut. i'. 
 
 let us go up. On the use of the verb 'aid ' go up,' in the general 
 sense of making a military expedition, cf. ch. i ^ note. 
 
 to Laish. Reading rwh with No., in place of f^ on'^I? 'against 
 them,' the suflfix of which has no antecedent, ffi" eV airijj', i.e. xvhji^ 
 may represent the first stage in the corruption. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, however, that there exists a doublet in 
 (TjAi-aJ.^ gh (marked by obelus) which may possibly contain the 
 original text. This runs in ffi^ as follows : d<TT]K6a\i.(v koI 
 €ii.irepieTTaTfitrafi.fv tjjj/ yfiv euf els Aataa, Kai e'iSofiev rbv Xaov tov 
 KaroinoiivTa iv avrrj in' eXniSi Kara to (TvyKpifia rmv 'SiBaviav Kal 
 jxanpav ajre'xoiTaj eV SiSmvoy, Ka\ \6yos ovk rjv avrois jxera Svpias ' 
 aWa avdarriTe Kai aua^5>p.tv eV avrois, on ktK. This is accepted 
 as original by La. in the following form : Vi>'h-~\V nN|l '^l^ni^lJl -13X3 
 
 D'pin-1-1 p'ji^v LJSB'pi) nD3^ ae'V na-ipa -\f^ ovn-nx nN-iiii 
 •iD-ip Dn.N-D.s; nn^TN i?^! D':n*-v» nan, in place of f§ np-ip. 
 
 This provides us with the necessary antecedent to Dn»i?5?. ; but the 
 passage is somewhat unnecessarily tautological after v.\ and may 
 have been constructed in imitation of that verse. 
 
430 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [18. 12. 
 
 Kiriath-je arim, in Judah : wherefore that place was called 
 
 \2. Kiriath-je'arim. The name means ' woodland-town.' Eusebius 
 places the city nine {OS. 271 «) or ten {OS. 234"*) Roman miles from 
 Jerusalem on the road to Diospolis (Lydda)., The site intended has 
 been identified, since Rob. {BR.^ ii. pp. 11 f.), with Kuryet el-'Enab 
 (' town of grapes '), or el-Kuryeh,* and the position suits the connexion 
 in which Kiriath-je'arim is mentioned in Josh. 9" among the 
 Gibe'onite cities Gibe'on, Kephirah, and Be'eroth ; and also the 
 description of the northern boundary-line of Judah as described in 
 Josh. 15^"- P, where, after running just south of Jerusalem to the hill 
 to the west of the valley of Hinnom and north of the vale of Repha'im, 
 it continues in a north-westerly direction to the spring of the waters 
 of Nephtoah (probably Lifta J), Mount 'Ephron (unidentified), and 
 Kiriath-je'arim (Kuryet el-'Enab), where it takes a turn (3D:1 k'") 
 south-westward to Mount Se'ir, and passing along the northern 
 shoulder of Mount Je'arim§ where Chesalon (Kesli) is situated, it 
 descends to Beth-shemesh ('Ain-§ems) and passes on to Timnah 
 (Tibneh). Cf. also the description of the southern boundary of 
 Benjamin in Josh. 18 1*"- P. 
 
 * The village is often called Abd G6s after a celebrated family of bandits 
 which resided there during the earlier half of the nineteenth century. 
 
 X The interchange between n and /, as seen in Nephtoah, Lifti, may be illus- 
 trated by Heb. niskasxiA liskd 'chamber,' Heb. ndhas (root of na;^aJ" serpent') 
 and Idhas ' to hiss,' Bab. nesu and Heb. Idyis ' lion,' New Heb. ndkai and Bib. 
 Heb. Idkat, Aram, n^kai and I'kat, ' to pick up, ' Heb. ndthan and Aram, n'thia 
 and n'thal ' to give,' Heb. 'almdnd and Aram 'arm-Hd ' widow,' etc. The inter- 
 change is not confined to Semitic : thus the English Lincoln appears in Northern 
 French as Nicole ; level is from Oldi French livel, which has become nimau in 
 modern French ; lilac comes ultimately from the Persian lilak, a variation of 
 nilak ' blue' ; etc. 
 
 If, as seems likely, the n in Nephtoah is formative, and the root \sfathah 'to 
 open,' in the sense of an opening in the rock for the exit of water {cf. the use of 
 the verb in Isa. 41 '^^, Ps. 105 ^i), the disappearance of the final guttural h in Lifl& 
 may be illustrated by the fact that both pdthah and pdthd occur in Heb. in the 
 sense of opening. Lifta possesses ' a large spring and the stones of some very 
 ancient buildings at the E. entrance to the village' (Baedeker, PaUitine,^^. 18). 
 
 § T'yty in 'the hairy, i.e. scrubby, mountain' (cf. Ar. Sa'dr, 'tangled, or, 
 abundant and dense, trees') and D*"lS?'' "IH ' the woodland-mountain' appear 
 respectively to denote the hill on which Saris stands to the north of theff^dy 
 c!-Hamar, and the hill on which Kesia stands, south of the same wSdy. Both 
 hills are still covered by scrub and the remains of old woods: cf. SWP. Gnat 
 Map, xvii., and Buhl, Geogr. p. gi. Baedeker, Palestine,'^ p. 16, in describing 
 the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem in the neighbourhood of Saris, says : ' The hills 
 are overgrown with underwood ; besides the wild olives the carob-tree is fre- 
 quently observed.' Similarly, Macmillan's Guide to Palestine,^ p. 15: 'On 
 either side of the road are rocky heights, with olive-trees occupying every point 
 of vantage, and amongst them may be seen many carob-trees, conspicuous by 
 their handsome dark green foliage. There are also several fine oak and 
 terebinth trees.' 
 
18. 14- I5-ISJ J^iiE UOUK OF JUDGES 431 
 
 Mahaneh-Dan, unto this day : R'' behold, it is to the west of 
 Kiriath-je'arim. 13. J And they passed on thence to the hill- 
 :ountry of Ephraim ; and they came as far as the house of 
 Micah. 14. E Then answered the five men that went to spy out 
 the land ^^ Laish, E and said unto their brethren, ' Do ye know 
 
 The rival identification (proposed by Henderson and Conder, 
 i' WP. Mem. iii. pp. 43 ff.) is the ruined site 'Ermi, on the southern 
 side of the wady Sarftr about four miles east of 'Ain-Sems. This 
 suits the proximity to Beth-Shemesh, which is suggested by 
 I Sam. 6^^^* but is irreconcilable with the description of the 
 boundary of Judah as noticed above,! ^-nd (as Cheyne points out, 
 EB. 2680) is too near Sor'ah and Eshta'ol to suit the present 
 narrative. 
 
 Mahaneh-Dan. Cf. note on ch. 1 3 ^^ 
 
 to the west of. Lit. ' behind' Cf. the phrase ' behind {i.e. to the 
 west of) the wilderness ' in Ex. 3 ^ E, and contrast the phrase ' in front 
 0^ Hebron,' ch. 16^ note. 
 
 14. the land Laish. On Laish (the city) as a gloss inserted by the 
 redactor of the two narratives, cf p. 413. 
 
 Now therefore consider, etc. Verbum sap. For the phrase, cf. 
 I Sam. 25 1^. 
 
 15-18. The two accounts, which are here interwoven, seem to 
 have been further confused by later glossing (cf p. 414), but the 
 general situation is surely not so obscure as Mo. (who is closely 
 followed by Cooke) makes out. Some difficulty is caused by the 
 repeated reference (^'^'.^^•") to ' the entrance of the gate.' The term 
 Mar ' gate ' is never applied to the door of a house ; yet it is clear 
 from vv.^*'^ that Micah's house was one among a few others forming 
 a small village, certainly not surrounded by a massive wall with a 
 gate. Mo., while rightly remarking, upon v.^*, that ' Micah evidently 
 lived in an open village,' yet explains ^/.'^ as meaning that ' the main 
 body [of Danites] halted without the village,' and speaks later on 
 of 'the armed men at the entrance of the village' — an expression 
 
 * The statement of Jos. (.4nt. VI. i. 4) that Kiriath-Je'arim was in the 
 neighbourhood of Beth-shemesh is probably based merely upon this narrative. 
 
 t Leaving out of account the plausible identification of Nephtoah with LiftS, 
 the mere fact that Kiriath-je'arim occupies a position on the boundary-line 
 between the valley of Hinnom (Josh. 158) and Chesalon (i/.i") seems absolutely to 
 exclude the site 'Erma.. How could the line run from Hinnom to 'Ermd (pre- 
 sumably along the upper course of the WMy Sarslr), strike north-east to Chesalon 
 [Kesia) at an acute angle, and then return south-west at a still more acute 
 angle, over the shoulder of the hill on which Chesalon is situated, so as to reach 
 Beth-shemesh? As a matter of fact, we are told in u. 1" that, after reaching 
 Kiriath-je'arim, the boundary (so far from striking north-eastward) turned 
 westward (riD* ' towards the sea ') to Mount Se'ir and Chesalon, 
 
432 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [18. i6. 
 
 that there is in these houses R'"^ an Ephod, and Teraphim, Ea 
 a graven image R"" and a molten image ? E Now therefore. a 
 sider what ye will do.' 15. And they turned aside thither, a 
 came unto the house of the youth the Levite, R^^ the house 
 Micah, E and asked him of his welfare. 16. E?+Gl. ^^^ t^l 
 six hundred men, girt with their weapons of war, that were 
 the children of Dan, were standing at the entrance of the gat 
 17. and the five men that went to spy out the land went u] 
 they went in thither, they took the graven image, ^'^ and tl 
 
 adopted verbatim by Cooke. Neither of these scholars explains wh 
 kind of 'entrance' he pictures an unwalled village as possessinj 
 yet it is clear that the phrase ' the entrance of the gate ' must post 
 late a real gate * ; and the natural inference seems to be that Mica! 
 as a man of some position, had a house surrounded by a courtyard 
 and that it was at the gate of this courtyard, and not outside tl 
 village, that the men at arms were standing whilst their companior 
 slipped inside (cf La.). If this was so, the difficulty does not seei 
 very great. The Danites might endeavour to distract the priest 
 attention by parleying at the gate, yet it would still be possible ft 
 him to observe the movements of the five spies, and to intervene wit 
 his feeble protest as recorded in v}^. 
 
 16. the six hundred men, etc. We must read tJ^'NIl as in a", ii 
 place of ?§ E»*N indefinite. 
 
 17. went up. The precise significance with which the verb is usei 
 is obscure. Ros. and Stu. assume from it that Micah's sanctuar 
 was an 'dliyya or upper chamber on the roof of his house, to whicl 
 the ascent would have been by an external staircase ; but such ai 
 inference is precarious. It is not impossible that 'dla may be usee 
 simply of an aggressive entry, in much the same way as it is fre 
 quently employed of making a hostile expedition (cf. ch. i ' noU] 
 without implication of an actual ascent. 
 
 they went in thither., they took, etc. The asyndeton is very harsli 
 in the Heb., and can hardly be the work of the original narrator, 
 Wellh.§ (in Bleek, Einleitung\ p. 198) and Bu. suggest that the two 
 
 Perfects should be vocalized as Imperatives (inpf) nBty -1X3), s'"' 
 
 * Whether the statement of Ex. 3226 J that Moses ' stood in the gate of the 
 camp' implies that the camp of Israel was surrounded with a zariba or barricade 
 with an actual gate is not clear ; but in any case 'gate' by itself has not the same 
 definiteness as 'nyBTl flDS, lit. 'opening of the gate,' in our narrative. 
 
 + Cf. Warren in DB. ii. p. 432a : ' In the villages there is usually a coml 
 attached to the house, in which the cattle, sheep, and goats are penned. 
 
 § Wellh. retracts this suggestion in Comp.^ p. 366, 
 
18. 19- 21. 22. 23.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 433 
 
 Ephod, and the Teraphim, R"" and the molten image. J+Gl. And 
 while the priest was standing at the entrance of the gate, with 
 the six hundred men that were girt with the weapons of war, 
 
 1 8. J these others went into the house of Micah, and took 
 R'^ the graven image, J the Ephod, and the Teraphim, R"" and the 
 molten image. J And the priest said unto them, ' What do ye ? ' 
 
 19. And they said to him, 'Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon 
 t thy mouth, and go with us ; and be to us a father and a priest : 
 lis it better for thee to be priest to the house of one man, or to 
 
 be priest to a tribe and to a clan in Israel?' 20. And the 
 priest's heart was glad, and he' took the Ephod, and the 
 Teraphim, R'"^ and the graven image, J and went in the midst of 
 the people. 21. So they turned and departed, and put the little 
 ones and the cattle and the goods before them. 22. When they 
 were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in 
 the houses which were near to Micah's house were called to 
 arms, and followed hard after the children of Dan. 23. And 
 they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their 
 [faces, and said to Micah, 'What aileth thee, that thou art up 
 :in arms?' 24. And he said, ' My gods that I made ye have 
 
 that the words originally formed the continuation of the spies' advice 
 in 7'." — ' Now, therefore, consider what ye will do : go in thither, take 
 the idol, etc' This destroys the terse suggestiveness of z/." as it 
 stands in fH. We might parallel the asyndeton in narrative by 
 ch. 20=1 Opn:n), 20*^ (inanin . . . nnj) ; but here again the 
 'originality of the text may be questioned. 
 
 And while the priest, etc. Lit. 'And the priest was standing . . . 
 
 nd these went in, etc' For the construction, cf. Driver, Tenses, § 169. 
 ■with the six hundred, etc. Lit. ''and the six hundred.' The con- 
 
 truction may be justified as an instance of ' waw of association ' (cf. 
 
 iDB. p. 253a) ; yet it is not very natural, and tends to accent our 
 
 uspicions as to the state of the text. 
 
 19. lay thy hand, etc. For the expression, cf. Mic 7'", Job 21^, 
 9", 40*, Prov. 30^2. 
 
 21. the goods. Heb. irn-ias only here ; but cf. the usage of the 
 lasc. nu3 in Gen. 31', Isa. lo^ al. 
 
 22. when they were, etc. Lit. ' They were a good way from . . . 
 nd the men that were, etc' — a circumstantial construction similar to 
 hat noticed in v.^. 
 
 were called to arms. Cf. note on ch. 6 ^. 
 
 23. art up in arms. Lit. 'art called to arms' as in v.^. The 
 
 " 2 E 
 
434 THE BOOK OP JUDGES [18. 25. 27, 28, ; 
 
 taken away, and the priest, and are departed, and what have 
 more? and how then say ye unto me, "What aileth thee? 
 25. And the children of Dan said unto him, ' Let not thy vol 
 be heard near us, lest hot-tempered men fall upon you, and th( 
 lose thy life and the life of thy household.' 26. Andthechildr 
 of Dan went their way ; and when Micah saw that they we 
 stronger than he, he turned and went back unto his houi 
 27. And they took that which Micah had made, andtheprie 
 that had belonged to him, and came unto Laish, unto a peop 
 quiet and secure, and smote them at the edge of the swor 
 and the city they burned with fire. 28. And there was 1 
 deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dei 
 ings with ^Aram"' ; R'' and it is in the vale which belongeth 
 Beth-rehob. J And they built the city, and dwelt therein. 2 
 And they called the name of the city Dan, R' after the name 
 Dan their father : howbeit Laish was the name of the city atti 
 first. 30. E And the children of Dan reared up for themselvi 
 the graven image : and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son ( 
 Mo^^ses, he and his sons became priests to the tribe of tl 
 
 passive verb, which seems inappropriate as addressed to Micah wf 
 was the tnusterer, of course contemplates the whole company < 
 mustered. 
 
 25. hot-tempered men. Heb. EJ'SJ "'10 D''tJ'3X, lit. 'men bittern 
 soul,' i.e. -oi fierce (or acrid., Mo.) temper., and so, easily roused. 
 this use of the adjective mar, ci. footnote, p. 363. 
 
 27. that which Micah had made. Heb. n3''D riB'j; IW H 
 without expressed antecedent. The reference of course is to rt 
 Ephod and Teraphim of the J source ; and Mo. is perhaps right i 
 his suggestion that these originally stood in the narrative, but wei 
 omitted by the redactor of the two sources in order to make tl 
 statement more general (including the graven image). 
 
 28. Aram. For the emendation, cf. v.'' note. 
 
 Beth-rehob. Cf. note on Rehob, ch. i ^^. ' The vale ' (Heb. M-'emti 
 in which the city was situated is the broad plain of el-Buka betwet 
 the two Lebanon ranges. 
 
 30. Moses. M riK'^D ' Manasseh,' with Niln tHuya ('suspended 
 
 — a rabbinic device intended to spare the reputation of Moses by v 
 stating openly that he was the grandfather of a priest who practisf 
 idolatry. The fact that the reference is really to Moses was, howeve 
 acknowledged by early Jewish scholars : cf. e.g. the words of Rash: 
 ' Because of the honour of Moses was the Nun written so as to alti 
 
;. 31.] THE BOOK OF jUt)GES 45? 
 
 anites Gl. up to the day when '^the Ark^ went into captivity. 
 r. And they set them up the graven image of Micah which he 
 id made, E all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. 
 
 le name. The NAn, however, is suspended to tell thee that it was 
 3t Manasseh but Moses.' The name Manasseh was explained as 
 ;ferring, not to the ancestor of the tribe bearing that name, but to 
 le idolatrous king of Judah of the 7th century B.C., on the ground 
 ■ likeness of character between him and Micah's priest : cf. Kimchi's 
 :marks on ch. 17^. Three other cases of a 'suspended' letter occur 
 1 the Heb. Bible, viz. Ps. 80", Job 38 '^is. In many Heb. MSS. and 
 irly editions nC5'3D is written without Nun t'li'iyd. Cf., for a full 
 jnspectus of Rabbinic discussion on the subject, Ginsburg, Intro- 
 uction to the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible^ 
 
 p. 334 ff- 
 
 'Moses' is the reading of some ffi'^^^-, IL'', F, and appears in the 
 onfiate text of ©"^s^-, S*". ' Manasseh ' appears in ©"*'', S"", %. 
 
 the Ark. Reading ir\»X\ in place of ^ psn 'the land.' The 
 rounds upon which this emendation is adopted are explained on 
 .415. 
 
 31. all the time . . . in Shiloh. Shiloh is the modern Selun in the 
 ill-country of Ephraim, some nineteen miles north of Jerusalem and 
 (velve miles south of Shechem. It appears in i Sam. 1-4 as the site 
 f 'the House of Yahweh' (i Sam. i '■'^*, 3^^), which was apparently 
 ot a mere tent but a solid structure (called Mkdl 'temple' in 
 
 Sam. 1°, 3') with doors (i Sam. 3'^) and door-post (i Sam. i ^).* 
 "his sanctuary had the custody of the Ark of Yahweh (i Sara. 3^, 
 ^"•), having apparently succeeded Bethel in this capacity (cf. note 
 n 'unto Bethel,' ch. 2 '). After the defeat of Israel and the capture 
 f the Ark by the Philistines (i Sam. 41°") we hear no more of the 
 anctuary of Shiloh ; and though the narrative of i Sam. draws a veil 
 ver its fate, the assumption that it was destroyed by the Philistines 
 eems to be justified, both from the allusions in Jer. 7 '''■", 26"", J 
 >s. 78*'"-, and from the fact that the Ark, when restored by the 
 'hilistines, did not return thither but remained in private custody 
 t Kiriath-je'arim (i Sam. 6^"-^', 7') until brought up by David to 
 erusalem (2 Sam. 6), and that the principal centre of Yahweh-cultus 
 1 Saul's reign was not at Shiloh but at Nob (i Sam. 21.22). 
 
 * The passage in i Sam. 2 ^^ which refers to the sanctuary as ' the Tent of 
 leeting ' is not found in ffi, and is generally regarded by scholars as an inter- 
 olation: cf. NHTS.^adloc. 
 
 X The view which has been advanced by some scholars that Jer. 7i'.'", 26 s-' 
 oes not refer to the destruction of the sanctuary at Shiloh in 'Eli's time, but to 
 
 disaster (otherwise unmentioned) which was recent and still fresh in men's 
 inds when Jeremiah wrote, is purely gratuitous. The deep and lasting im- 
 -ession which was made by the tragedy of i Sam. 4 is sufficiently illustrated by 
 5. 78 «0"-. 
 
43^ THE BOOK OF ]i)DGE§ 
 
 The meaning of the note of time ' all the time that, etc' is i 
 obscure. We can scarcely be intended to infer a coincidence betw 
 the cessation of the Dan-cultus and that of the Shiloh-cultus. ' 
 view of Ber. that the allusion is to the rough correspondence in t 
 between the supersession of Shiloh by Jerusalem as the princ 
 seat of Yahweh-cultus, and the supersession of Micah's image 
 Jerobo'am's costly golden bull and the merging of the partici 
 cultus of the Danites into that of the northern half of Jerobo'a 
 kingdom, does not commend itself as at all likely.* More proba 
 the reference is not to the cessation of either cultus, but to the : 
 that the establishment of the sanctuary at Dan was of the si 
 antiquity as the establishment of the house of God at Shiloh. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE LEVITES 
 
 (Cf. ch. 17" note) 
 
 The terms in which the Levite is introduced in the story of Mlc 
 raise, in its most acute form, a difficulty with regard to the tribe 
 Levi which appears, on present evidence, to be almost insuperat 
 If Levi was, as is generally assumed throughout the O.T., in orij 
 an independent Israelite tribe, possessing full tribal rights (1 
 third son of Le'ah ; Gen. 29 '* J), how can the Levite of our narrati 
 be spoken of as having clan-connexions with the tribe of Jud 
 (m-in'' nnSK'SD) ? The distinction between the Levite's position 
 
 Judah and in Ephraim is well marked ; for it is stated that, wherf 
 he belonged to the clan of Judah, he was sojourning merely 
 Ephraim, i.e. he was a ger or stranger enjoying certain rights 
 protection whilst hving with a tribe of alien origin to himself: cf. t 
 similar allusion to the Levite oi ch. 19 ^ (sojourning in the hill-count 
 of Ephraim). Hence it has been supposed by many that the Levil 
 were in origin not members of a separate tribe, but a priestly cm 
 marked out by a special ritual training handed down from father 
 son. This view is thought to gain support from Ex. 4 '* R^^ whe 
 Yahweh, in addressing Moses, speaks of 'thy brother Aaron tl 
 Levite.' Driver {Camb. Bib. ad loc.) remarks, 'As Moses, equal 
 with Aaron, belonged to the tribe of Levi (Ex. 2 '), the term, 
 applied distinctively to the latter, must denote, not ancestry, but pr 
 
 * Even if we assume the very doubtful conclusion that the establishment 
 Yahweh's seat at Jerusalem marks the close of the Shiloh-period, there sli 
 according to Biblical chronology (cf. 2 Sam. 5^, i Kgs. 2", 11 *2) remains 
 difference of at least seventy years between David's bringing up of the Aric 
 Jerusalem and the establishment by Jerobo'am of the bull-worship at Dii 
 or, if we suppose that the Jerusalem-period dates from the completion of U 
 
 Temnle in the seventh vear nf Snlomnn a riiffprenrp nf at least thirtV-three JW 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 437 
 
 :ssion.' He thinks (citing MacNeile, West Comm. ad loc.) that 
 there must have been a period in the history of the " Levites " when 
 le term was " the official title of one who had received the training 
 f a priest, regardless of the tribe of which he was a member by 
 irth.'" According to this view the name Lewi is rightly connected 
 \ Gen. 29^* J with the verb lawa 'to be joined' or 'to attach 
 neself ; but originally in the sense of those who have attached 
 lemselves to distinctively priestly functions, i.e., as we might say, 
 lerics as distinct from laymen : cf the use of the verb in Num. 18 ^•'' P, 
 'here they are spoken of as attached to Aaron for the service of the 
 'abemacle (-n^^ 11^31), and in Isa. 56 ^ which alludes to the strangers 
 'jho are attached (D»1^3n) to Yahweh to minister to him. The 
 
 deory gains greatly in plausibility if we may assume a connexion 
 etween Lewi and the term lawtu (fem. lawi'at) which, according to 
 lommel {AHT. p. 278), is used in Minaean inscriptions to denote 
 riests and priestesses of the god Wadd.* 
 
 The outstanding objection to this theory, which has never been 
 let, lies in the fact that in the (in the main) very early poem \ which 
 ; known as the ' Blessing of Ja'cob,' Gen. 49, Levi appears as a purely 
 ecular tribe, and, together with Sime'on, is censured for some act of 
 ggression and violence which is regarded as having brought a curse 
 pon them resulting in their dispersion among the other tribes {w.^''). 
 'he event to which allusion is here made is naturally to be found in 
 lie treachery practised by Sime'on and Levi upon the Shechemites, as 
 elated in Gen. 34 (J and P combined), which may very well have 
 ;d to such reprisals as decimated the two Israelite tribes and forced 
 teir remnants to seek a new home in other parts of the land. As a 
 latter of fact, we know from Judg. 1 3.16.17 that, at a somewhat later 
 -but still, very early — period, Sime'on is found seeking a settlement 
 1 the Negeb in the midst of Judah, with which tribe it seems ulti- 
 lately to have become merged (cf note on ch. i ^). It is by no 
 leans improbable that the remnant of Levi may in like manner have 
 ought a home in this region ; and such an hypothesis would sufficiently 
 
 * Professor Margoliouth suggests (privately) the comparison of Lewi with 
 r. wely, the ordinary Mohammedan term for a saint — properly one who 
 near to God, i.e. in intimate association with Him, from the root wala 'to 
 
 iUowafier, be near to.' For connexion ofzus/awith HIP, cf. Ar. wasa, Heb. jllVi 
 3th in Pi'el with sense ' to enjoin ' ; Ar. waha, Heb. ITin, both ' to declare or 
 :veal. ' 
 
 X According to Skinner (Genesis, ICC, pp. 510 f.), 'the Blessing' is a com- 
 jsite production, the earliest portions (on Re'uben, Sime'on and Levi) referring 
 I events in the remote past, and probably composed before the Song of Deborah ; 
 lose on Issachar, Dan, and Benjamin at any rate earlier than the establishment 
 ■ the monarchy ; while that on Judah presupposes the existence of the Davidic 
 onarchy. The Joseph-section may be, in whole or in part, still later ; but this 
 a very disputed question. 
 
438 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 explain the fact that a Levite could be spoken of as 'of the cl; 
 Judah,' much as the clan of Caleb came to be regarded as belongii 
 the tribe of Judah, though in origin distinct from it (cf. note on ch. 
 
 In ' the Blessing of Moses,' Deut. 33, belonging probably tc 
 period of the divided monarchy, * Levi is regarded (in contrai 
 Gen. 49 ^•') as entrusted with priestly functions ; but still figures 1 
 the less as a tribe, and on a par in this respect with the other trib 
 Israel. There seems no good reason to doubt that there mai 
 truth in the constant Israelite tradition that a tribe originally sec 
 came at a particular period to be invested with such functions, the 
 the tradition as to the circumstances which led to this may very 
 have fluctuated, t The one basic fact probably is that the Lei 
 inherited the privilege /^o;» Moses, who, according to Ex. 2'E, 
 himself a member of the tribe, and who, in the only early aca 
 which we possess of the Tent of Meeting (Ex. 33 '•" E), appear 
 the sole intermediary between Yahweh and Israel. 
 
 What, however, are we to infer as to the relative periods to wl 
 these events in the history of the tribe belong? To assume, as s( 
 scholars have done, that the Shechem-incident of Gen. 34, tho 
 placed by the narrator in Patriarchal times, properly refers to 
 period of the Judges, is surely very wide of the mark. In the I 
 place, there is a sharp contrast between the antique tone of Gen. 
 in which tribes figure symbolically in the guise of individuals, and 
 vivid realism of the story of Abimelech in Judg. 9, which, whili 
 also centres round Shechem, is as true to the life as anyhistori 
 portion of the O.T. Again, while Gen. 34 brings Sime'on and 1 
 into connexion with Shechem, the Book of Judges has nothing in I 
 connexion to tell us of these tribes, but pictures Manassite clans 
 occupying the district — i.e. elements of the Joseph-tribes concern 
 which tradition is strong that they invaded Cana'an from the e 
 under Joshua' at some period subsequent to the Exodus from Eg) 
 Sime'on, however, is pictured, at the same period or eariier, as alrea 
 settled with Judah in the south (Judg. i ^■" J) ; and a similar inl 
 ence with regard to Levi may be drawn (as we have seen) from I 
 genuinely old story of Judg. 17, 18, according to which the Lev 
 was a native of Bethlehem in Judah, but a ger merely in Ephrai 
 Lastly, the whole tone of Gen. 49 s-', which has nothing but a cui 
 for Levi as a predatory secular tribe which, with Sime'on, is regard 
 
 * Cf. the allusion to Judah in v.'', with Driver's note, ICC. adloc, ■ 
 X On the one hand, we have the tradition of Ex. 32 25tf. (J and E comhint 
 where the zeal of the Levites on Moses' side as against the buU-worsliipp 
 appears as the cause of their selection ; on the other hand the allusion of 'I 
 Blessing' in Deut. 338 seems to point to a tradition which related thetestinj 
 the fidelity of the tribe at Massah and Meribah (an explanation of the origin 
 these names different from that which is given in Ex. 17' J E combined, Nu 
 20 13 p), Deut. 108 alludes to the selection of the tribe by Yahweh for tlie p 
 
 fnrmflTlPP nf nrif^ctlv fnnftinnc MntViniit cnooifirinrr tKo r.i../.nn-ictonrpi!. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 439 
 
 s a disgrace to its kindred, stands, as we have noticed, in striking 
 mtithesis to Deut. 33 8» ; and as surely as the latter reflects the work 
 md personality of Moses and the priestly privileges conferred by him 
 m his tribe, so does the former point to an age when the name and 
 eputation of Israel's great rehgious leader lay as yet in the bosom of 
 he future. 
 
 If, where all is vague and uncertain, it be possible to bridge the 
 fulf between the secular and sacred tribe of Levi by a structure of 
 vhich the outlines appear to offer an approximation to reality, we 
 nay picture the Joseph-tribes as already settled in Egypt, possibly 
 or a considerable period, while the Le'ah-clans of Sime'on and Levi 
 —which, after expulsion from central Cana'an, have, together with 
 dans of Judah, settled in the far south, in close contact, and on 
 imicable terms, with their North Arabian neighbours — move across 
 :he Egyptian frontier in time of drought and famine with that ease 
 with which we gather from Egyptian inscriptions that Semitic Bedawin 
 tribes were admitted even after the fall of the Hyksos and under 
 the restored Theban aristocracy of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth 
 Dynasties.* This would account for the birth of Moses of Levitical 
 parents in Egypt, and the subsequent events through which he escapes 
 From Egypt as a political refugee and settles in Midian,J receives a 
 revelation at Sinai, leads the tribes out of Egypt, and conducts them 
 to the scene of the Theophany, which lay probably in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Kadesh-Barnea', south of the Negeb, which seems to 
 
 * Cf. the two Egyptian inscriptions given by Breasted, AR. iii. §§ 10 if., 636 ff. 
 The first of these is attached to a mutilated relief depicting officials receiving in- 
 atruction as to the reception of Asiatic refugees who, in time of distress, petition for 
 1 home in the domain of Pnara'oh ' after the manner of your fathers' fathers since 
 the beginning.' This, according to the inscription, is granted by Phara'oh. 
 This inscription belongs to the reign of Haremheb, the first king of the Nineteenth 
 dynasty ; or possibly, as Breasted prefers to thinlc, to one of the later kings of 
 the Eighteenth dynasty under whom Haremheb held the position of general. The 
 second inscription, which belongs to the reign of Mineptah of the Nineteenth 
 dynasty (the assumed Phara'oh of the Exodus: cf. Introd. p. civ), is a letter 
 From a frontier-official in which he informs his superior that certain Edomite 
 Bedawin have been allowed to pass the frontier and pasture their flocks in the 
 Wady Tttmtiat close to Pithom, i.e. in the district of Goshen. 
 
 That Sime'on at any rate joined the Joseph-tribes at a subsequent period is 
 perhaps to be inferred from the tradition embodied in Gen. 4224.36 £_ 
 
 X The story of Moses' escape to Midian, where he marries the daughter of a 
 Midianite chieftain and settles down for a time, is remarkably paralleled by the 
 Egyptian tale of Sinuhe, who was a political exile in the reign of Sesostris I. of 
 ;he Twelfth dynasty, some 700 years earlier. Sinuhe escapes from Egypt to a 
 ;egion in or near Cana'an, and is hospitably received by the local sheikh, whose 
 laughter he eventually marries and becomes himself a sheikh of the tribe for 
 ome years, after which he returns, like Moses, to Egypt. Cf. Breasted, AR. i. 
 i§ 486 ff. ; Maspero, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt, pp. 68 ff. ; Alan Gardiner, 
 Votes on the Story of Stnvhe (translation pp. 168 ff.). The parallel shows how 
 Veil within the range of historical probability the Biblical story lies. 
 
440 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 have formed their headquarters during the wilderness-period 
 pp. 109 ff.)- 
 
 Here we find him, according to the oldest tradition (cf. especis 
 Ex. 18""-, 33"' E) occupying the position of supreme, or rather x 
 exponent of religion as intermediary between Yahweh and Isn 
 Nothing, according to this tradition, is said of any participation 
 Aaron in these priestly functions — still less of his occupying; I 
 supreme position in the priesthood. In the only instance, indeed, 
 which Aaron is brought into connexion with the Tent of Meeting in t 
 old narrative, he goes there with Miriam to receive a sentence of cc 
 demnation and rebuke for having ventured to speak against Mosi 
 who is specified as God's servant with whom He is accustomed 
 speak mouth to mouth (Num. 12 E). In view of these facts, it 
 once becomes obvious that, in the expression ' thy brother Aaron tl 
 Levite' of Ex. 41* J, which came under discussion at the beginning 
 this note, either the specification ' the Levite ' does not distinctive 
 denote priestly profession, or if (as seems more likely) it does do's 
 it must represent the later point of view, according to which Aarc 
 and not Moses was the priest par excellence, and so is without vali 
 as regards any bearing upon the question of the origin of the Levite 
 It seems not unlikely that, after a period spent in the neighboui 
 hood of Kadesh-Barnea' (the wilderness-sojourn), while the Josepl 
 tribes eventually broke off from this centre, and travelled round th 
 land of Edom in order to enter Cana'an from the east of Jordai 
 bearing with them the Ark of Yahweh with its priestly (Levitical 
 caretakers, the main part of the tribe of Levi, which, ex hypotksi 
 had even prior to the Exodus possessed associations with the Nortl 
 Arabian clans (subsequent elements of the tribe of Judah) inhabitini 
 the region south of the Negeb, preferred to throw in its lot with thesi 
 Judaean clans, and so moved up northward with them at theii 
 conquests in the Negeb and the hill-country beyond it, which cairn 
 later on to be known as the heritage of the tribe of Judah (cf AMI 
 note, p. 44). 
 
 This theory appears satisfactorily to account for the tribal con- 
 nexion of the Levites with Judah, as found e.g. in Judg. 17™-, 19'. 
 It also offers an explanation of the story of the golden bull in Ex. 32, 
 in which (at any rate in the form of the narrative which has come 
 down to us) Aaron appears in an unfavourable light as the maker of 
 the image, and the Levites in a favourable light as uncompromising 
 adherents to the pure form of Yahweh-worship. The inference lies 
 near to hand that the narrative, in its present form, was intended as 
 a polemic against the bull-worship of the Northern kingdom.* The 
 
 * The narrative of Ex. 32 is composite, vv. 1-6.i6-24.35 being assigned to E, aiil 
 vv. 26-34 (in -which the Levites figure as champions on Moses' side against Ilit 
 - - - iIIf 
 
 ...-a 11G1I!I 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 441 
 
 vords, 'These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of 
 he land of Egypt ' (Ex. 32 *) are identically the same as are put into 
 he .mouth of Jerobo'am in i Kgs. 12^8, in the account of this king's 
 nstitution of the bull-worship at Bethel and Dan. As spoken by 
 erobo'am, the plural 'gods' naturally refers to the two images of 
 Bethel and Dan : but in the Exodus-narrative it is difficult, if not 
 mpossible, to justify the plural as applied to the single image. If, 
 hen, at the period at which the story of Ex. 32 took shape, ' Aaron ' 
 itands as the representative of the bull-worship of the Northern 
 cingdom, we may infer that 'the sons of Levi' are the priestly 
 amilies of the kingdom of Judah, who are the champions of a purer 
 brm of cultus.* It seems to follow that, while the ' sons of Aaron ' 
 vere connected with the early sanctuaries of the Joseph-tribes, 
 Bethel, Shiloh, and Nob, the main Levite stock supplied the priestly 
 leeds of Judah in the days when this tribe lived in comparative 
 solation from the central and northern Israelite tribes ; I though 
 iingle Levites might wander northward in search of a livelihood, 
 hrough exercise of the priestly functions which they were fitted to 
 lischarge by birth as well as by training. § 
 
 "tropketic schools of the two kingdoms) are keenly antipathetic to the buU- 
 TOrship. It is possible, however, ' that — although Jerobo'am himself appointed 
 lon-Levitical priests (i Kgs. 12 3i) — there may have been among the priests of 
 he calves some who traced their ancestry to Aaron, and claimed him as the 
 bunder of the calf-worship in Israel. If this were the case, it would make 
 Varon's condemnation the more pointed ' (Driver, Camb. Bib. ad loc), 
 
 * Jerobo'am's appointment of non-Levitical priests to his newly equipped 
 lanctuaries (i Kgs. 12 31) may have been dictated by political motives, owing to 
 he close association of the Levites with the tribe of Judah. 
 
 J It is worthy of notice that, though Sajnuel, who was an Ephraimite, held a 
 )osition at the sanctuary at Shiloh which we might have e.xpected a Levite to fill, 
 le is nowhere termed a Levite; and this is surely a very surprising fact upon the 
 LSsumption that the term ' Levite ' denotes official and not tribal status. His 
 ixample goes to prove that in northern Israel at that period it was not deemed 
 lecessary that a priestly official should be a Levite by birth, rather than that a 
 nan trained for the priesthood, whatever his tribe, if so facto became a Levite by 
 )rofession. 
 
 § If, as we have assumed, the remnant of the tribe of Levi found in early times 
 '. home among the North Arabian (Judaean) clans to the south of the Negeb ; 
 .nd if, again, members of this tribe came to adopt a wandering life in search of 
 . livelihood as priests ; is it beyond the range of possibility that some of them 
 nay have migrated southward into Arabia, and may thus account for the use of 
 he term lawi'u to denote a priest, which we have noticed as occurring in the 
 ilinaean inscriptions from el-'Oia? 
 
442 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 19. I — 21. 25. The outrage at Gibe ah, with its consequences. 
 
 Besides the Commentaries, etc., cited throughout the book, cf. Giiden^^nn, 
 Tendenz und Abfassungzeit der Utzten Capitel des Buches der Richter, Uonat- 
 schrift fur Gesch. u. Wissenschaft d. Judenthums, xviii. (1869), pp. 357-368; 
 W. Bohme, Richter c. 21, ZA TW. v. (1885), pp. 30-36. 
 
 In ck. 19 signs of duplication in the narrative are evident in ww."^— 
 most strikingly in the speech of v.^^, where repetition of statement is 
 combined with variation in number, the speaker using the plural in one 
 set of clauses and the singular in the other : ' Behold, prithee, the day 
 hath waned toward evening ; prithee stay ye the night ; and ye shall 
 arise early to-morrow for your journey' (D33"n7 DriDatSTIl . . . I3*j)); 
 ' Behold the day hath closed in ; stay thou the night here, and 
 let thy heart be merry . . . and thou shalt depart to thy home'. 
 (^r\^ riD^ni . . . •\-y:h . . . P^). in w.'^-^^ the expression 'his 
 father-in-law, the damsel's father,' is inelegantly redundant ; and we 
 observe that, while the former designation stands alone in i/."", the 
 latter so stands in •j/7/.3''.5b.6b.8_ i-jjg expression 'the damsel's father' 
 (predicating no position of relationship to the husband on the father's 
 part) is suitable to the damsel's position as concubine merely and not 
 a full wife; whereas the term ho then 'father-in-law' seems (at any 
 rate to us) somewhat surprising in such a connexion, and it is reason- 
 able to infer that it may belong to a version of the story in which the 
 girl held the full status of a wife. Possibly a trace of this may be 
 found in the statement of v}^, 'he took to him a wife, a concubine,' 
 
 where TW& may be derived from one narrative, and B'J?''a from the 
 other.* Further, the father's offers of hospitality are couched in two 
 different phrases, each of which occurs twice— ' Strengthen thine 
 heart,' wfi""-^^^ (in each case put into the mouth of ' the damsel's 
 father') ; ' Let thine heart be merry,' W7/.^*3-*». We may notice also 
 v?° ' some time, four months ' — a double (indefinite and definite) note 
 of time (cf note ad loc.) ; v.\ 'he abode with him three days,' but 
 v.*^, 'and they stayed the night there' — i.e. apparently, \\ie first 
 night ; ' they (he) arose early in the morning,' ■uv.^^?-^'^ (cf w'¥), 
 beside 'the man (he) rose up to depart,' vv.^^-'''^-*^ ; 'he came over 
 against Jebus,' v.^'^?, but 'they were near Jebus,' w.^"^, as though the 
 proximity to this city were now mentioned for the first time ; in w' 
 the man specifies Gibe'ah as the place at which they will spend the 
 night, but in v.'^^ he again speaks (without any intervening response 
 from his lad), and proposes Gibe'ah or Ramah (here it is clear that, 
 while the response to w." is contained in w.'^, v.^'^ — alien to this 
 account — is continued by w.'*, the question 'Gibe'ah or Ramah f 
 
 * This inference is of course precarious. t^J^^S HK'N may be a compound 
 term 'concubine-wife' (or simply 'concubine-woman,' lilce nN*33 HB'N 'P™' 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 443 
 
 leing settled by the sun's disappearance whilst they are 'alongside of 
 he former city). 
 
 On the basis of these facts, we may make (somewhat tentatively) 
 he following distribution. To the main narrative may be assigned 
 /."= (omitting nCN 'wife'); "vv?-^ (omitting 'four months' in v?'"); 
 the damsel's father' in w.*" ; v^'° ; 'and they arose early in the 
 noming' in v.^ ; v?^ {except 'unto his son-in-law') ; v.^ {except 'and 
 et thine heart be merry' ;) v?^^ ; v? {except 'on the fifth day') ; v.^? ; 
 n v?^ ' the damsel's father,' and the portions of the speech which are 
 iddressed to a plurality of persons (as noted above) ; z/7/.ioi=.u.i2.i5_ 
 This narrative, which runs almost continuously, seems to bear clear 
 
 ndications that it is derived from J. We may notice the use of flSIp? 
 to meet ' in v.^^ of going to welcome a guest, as in the J passages 
 
 Gen. 18 2, 19 1, 29"; Dn? nS ^37 1]iD 'strengthen thine heart with a 
 
 morsel of bread,' z/.° (so v.^ without DR? nS), which closely resembles 
 
 Gen. 18^ J, Q2J? nyoi on^ na nnpsi 'and let me take a morsel of 
 bread, and strengthen ye your hearts ' ; the immediately following 
 
 13?n insi 'and afterward ye shall depart,' compared with 1"i3J?n "l^^? 
 'afterward ye shall pass on' which immediately follows in Gen. 18^ 
 (c£ also lbr\ "inx Gen. 24*° J) ; the use of nDHDnn 'tarry' or 'delay,' 
 
 Z/.8, as in Gen. 1911=, 43"", Ex. 12 ^9, all J ; D33-ni5 inD OnoaB'ni 'and 
 ye shall arise early to-morrow for your journey,' v.^, as in Gen. 19 ^ J, 
 
 DDam? Dnairil DnD^KTII ' and ye shall arise early, and shall depart 
 for your journey.' The phrase of v.^^ DHfiX in TlDT'a ' in the furtker- 
 most parts (lit. sides ox flanks) of the hill-country of Ephraim' (so also 
 in v.^) is most easily explicable from a Judaean point of view. 
 
 This J narrative is continued by the remainder of the chapter, 
 which reads as a single continuous narrative. Points which connect 
 j;^.ie-2i ^;tii J are as follows : Kl'1 VJ-iy NB*''! 'and he lifted up his 
 eyes and saw,' vX', as in Gen. 13^°, 18", 24'', 33^ 43^^ Josh. 5", all 
 
 J, as against Gen. 22*'^ E; l?n DJX 'whither goest thou?' vX, as 
 in Gen. 16*, 32" (|^ "«) j. xun p6<» 'whence comest thou?' as in 
 ch. 17' J, cf Gen. 29*, 42' J (Josh. 9* doubtful, but assigned to J by 
 Holzinger); NIDDD DJ pfl DJ 'both straw and provender,' •z/.^', 
 exactly as in Gen. 24 ^° J, whilst the two substantives are similarly 
 coupled in Gen. 24^2 J, and the remaining occurrences of SISDD 
 ' provender ' (Gen. 42 '", 43 ^) are confined to this document ; use of 
 QJ . . . D3 'both . . . and,' i/.'^ cf CH.-' No. 11 ; use of ty 'there is,' 
 
 z/." twice, cf CH.-' No. 84; ^\y^ ^3 -|lDn» pN 'there is no want of 
 anything,' w.", as in ch. i8'-'° J ; I^TI ^K 3ima pi 'only do not spend 
 the night in the market-place,' v."^, cf Gen. 19 2 J, )^i>3 3imn 'we will 
 spend the night in the market-place ' ; DiT'PJT ismil ' and they washed 
 
444 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 their feet,' vP-, cf. Gen. i8S 19^, 24=2, 4324 (all J).* The account o( 
 the outrage, ■z'z/.^^"-, is parallel phrase by phrase with Gen. 19 ^.j 
 in so remarkable a manner as to compel the conclusion that one 
 narrative must have been deliberately modelled on the other. The 
 action taken by the Levite after his return home is strikingly 
 paralleled by Saul's action when summoning the tribes to the assist- 
 ance of Jabesh of Gile'ad, i Sam. 11 J. The closeness of verbal 
 coincidence is exhibited in the comparison which follows : — 
 
 Judg. 19.^2 They were making merry, when behold the men of the 
 Gen. 19.'' They had not yet lain down, when the men of the 
 
 Judg. 19. city, base fellows, surrounded the house (n'3n DS 12DJ) 
 
 Gen. 19. city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house (JTSn 7J) 13D3) 
 
 Judg. 19. . . . 
 
 Gen. 19. . . .^ 'Where are the men who came unto thee to-night ? 
 
 Judg. 19. ' Bring forth the man who came unto thine house, that we 
 Gen. 19. ' Bring them forth unto us that we 
 
 Judg. 19. may know him.' 2^" And the man, the owner of the house, 
 Gen. 19. may know them.' ^ And Lot 
 
 Judg. 19. went forth unto them, and said unto them, 'Nay, my 
 
 Gen. 19. went forth unto them, . . .' and said, 'Nay, my 
 
 Judg. 19. brethren, do not act wickedly, I pray you. ^* Behold, 
 Gen. 19. brethren, do not, I pray you, act wickedly. ^ Behold, now, 
 
 Judg. 19. my daughter, who is a virgin, and his 
 
 Gen. 19. I have two daughters who have not known a man ; 
 
 Judg. 19. concubine ; let me, pray, bring them forth and humble 
 Gen. 19. let me, pray, bring them forth unto you, 
 
 Judg. 19. ye them, and do to them that which is good in 
 
 Gen. 19. and do to them according to that which is good in 
 
 Judg. 19. your sight ; but to this man ye shall not do a thing of this 
 Gen. 19. your sight ; only to these men do not do a thing 
 
 Judg. 19. wantonness, 23b inasmuch as this man hath entered into my 
 Gen. 19. forasmuch as they have entered into the 
 
 Judg. 19. house.' ... \. 
 
 Gen. 19. shadow of my roof.' . . . '% 
 
 * One characteristic E phrase, "|nDX ' thy handmaid," is to be noted in ».". 
 T's ordinary exoression in this sensp is nnnw. 
 
THJi BUUK UK JUDGES 445 
 
 udg. ig.29 And he entered into his house, and took a knife, and took 
 Sam. 1 1.' And he took a yoke of oxen, 
 
 udg. 19. hold of his concubine, and cut her upCnnnri), limb by limb, 
 Sam. 1 1. and cut them up (innnyi), 
 
 udg. 19. into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the border of 
 Sam. II. and sent them throughout all the border of 
 
 udg. 19. Israel. 20" And all the children of Israel came out 
 
 Sam. II. Israel. . . . And they came out 
 
 udg. 19. {or were called to arms) . . . like one man. 
 : Sam. 1 1. {or were called to arms) like one man. 
 
 The second narrative in vv. '■'* is fragmentary, and seems to have 
 jeen used merely as a supplement It may be traced in the use of 
 WX 'wife,' vP'; 'four months,' v?° ; v.''^ {except 'the damsel's 
 ather'); v.^ {except 'and they arose early in the morning'); 'and 
 et thine heart be merry' in v.^^^ ; t/.^^-*"* ; w.^"", and the parts of the 
 ipeech in v.^^ in which the man is addressed in the singular (as noted 
 ibove) ; vv.">^-^'-^*. Since the other narrative has been identified as J, 
 t is natural to infer that the present narrative may be derived from E, 
 hough there occur no characteristic E phrases to substantiate this 
 /iew. It may be noted, however, that Hosea', in alluding (9', 10^) 
 ;o ' the days of Gibe'ah ' as marking the depth of depravity to which 
 [srael was capable of sinking, appears to have this narrative in mind,* 
 md also to assume that so allusive a reference will be sufficient to 
 recall it to those for whom he is writing ; and, if this is so, we must 
 ;onclude that the story formed part of the historical tradition of the 
 Northern Kingdom, whether in written (E) or oral form. 
 
 Redactional links, supplied by R'"^, are probably to be seen in the 
 ivords 'unto his son-in-law,' ■z/.*, an explicative addition to J suggested 
 Dy Unn 'his father-in-law' of E ; 'on the fifth day,' v.^ with back- 
 •eference to v.^. Lastly, v.^^ is obviously from the same hand as 
 [7S iSi'-zs, 21 25, viz. R^ 
 
 Passing on to cAs. 20, 21, we are confronted by a far more intricate 
 aroblem. In cA. 19 the story, as we have it from J and (so far as we 
 :an judge from its fragmentary remains) in the parallel source which 
 ne have assigned to E, bears at least a superficial appearance of 
 
 * This is tlie only natural explanation of the allusion : cf. Cheyne's note 
 Camb. Bib. ad loc, ) : 'The prophet's language is correct from his own point of 
 'iew. True, Israel as a people took summary vengeance on the Benjaminites 
 or the outrage of Gibe' ah. But the seed of wickedness remained, and developed 
 nto evil practices worthy only of the Gibe' ah of old.' The interpretation of a; on 
 Hos. 10' finds reference to the election of Saul as king ; and this explanation 
 las been revived by Wellh., Comp.^ p. 233, n ' ; Stade, GVI. i. p. 580 ; Nowack, 
 Handkommentar , ad loc. ; but it cannot be regarded as at all plausible. Cf. the 
 liscussion by Mo. , Comm. pp. 405 f. 
 
446 tHte BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 antiquity, and might, for ought that tells to the contrary, be assumed 
 to embody a genuinely historical tradition. In chs. 20, 21, the whole 
 atmosphere of the story is different. The tribes of Israel, when in 
 receipt of the Leyite's gruesome summons, assemble 'as one man' 
 (20 IS") and form themselves into ha-edha 'the congregation' (20', 
 21 i»i3.i6) — a term which, in this connotation, is elsewhere character- 
 istic of P in the Hexateuch.* Their assembling is expressed by the 
 verb nikhal (20^), i.e. 'assembled themselves as a kahal^ this sub- 
 stantive being the term employed in 21 ^-8, and in the phrase 'the 
 assembly of the people of God,' 20 ^ — expressions which are nearly 
 confined to D and P. 
 
 Moreover, from this point onwards, a large part of the detail of the 
 story is manifestly unhistorical. Considering that the old narratives 
 of Judg. as a whole exhibit the tribes of Israel as for the most part 
 disunited and struggling to maintain their bare existence against 
 alien races, fighting each for its own hand, and only at the best 
 attaining a very limited measure of cohesion when it was a matter of 
 life or death in face of a common foe, it is impossible to entertain the 
 credibility of the picture of a judicially constituted assembly of all 
 Israel, mustered at short notice to sit in judgment upon Gibe'ah for 
 an outrage (however heinous) committed against a single individual. 
 Such an appeal as that made by the Levite may no doubt have 
 aroused a large measure of support (of. i Sam. 1 1 J), and resulted in 
 reprisals upon the guilty city, if not upon the tribe of Benjamin to 
 which it belonged, which may, as related, have rallied to its support ; 
 but this can surely not have happened in the form and on the scale 
 pictured in the narrative as it now stands. The huge numbers of the 
 narrative are certainly unhistorical. 25,000 Benjaminites + 700 men 
 of Gibe'ah are mustered to oppose 400,000 men of Israel (20""). 
 On the first day's battle the Benjaminites slay 22,000 Israelites, 
 apparently without themselves suffering a single casualty (20'"). 
 On the second day the Israelites lose 18,000, while the Benjaminites 
 come off with the same immunity as before (20 ^-2^). On the third 
 day as the result of Israel's ruse the tables are turned, and the 
 Benjaminites lose 25,100 men (20^5 ; cf. ^'. ""*"), the whole tribe being 
 exterminated with the exception of a bare 600 (20 *^). Contrast with 
 these figures the statement of the Song of Deborah, which puts the 
 whole fighting force of Israel at 40,000 (5 ^^). Again, if the fact that 
 
 * mVn 'the congregation' occurs 77 times in Ex., Lev., Num., and Josh. ; 
 my without def. art. once; ^NIEJ''' (''3D) mSJ 'the congregation of (the 
 children of) Israel ' 37 times ; HI IT mV ' the congregation of Yahweh ' 4 times. 
 All these occurrences belong to P, the expression being wholly absent from 
 J, E, and D. Outside the Hexateuch the only occurrences of niVn are 
 I Kgs. 86 RP = 2 Chr. 56, i Kgs. la^o, and the four instances in Judg. 20,21 
 noticed above. . These calculations are based on Davidson's Hehrtw Concordaut 
 (with addition of '{J"* 133 mj? Num. 1326, omitted by Davidson). 
 
THE BOOK Of JUDGES 447 
 
 Saul, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, was elected the first king 
 of Israel, does not necessarily cast doubt upon the story of the dis- 
 grace of the tribe, and its reduction to the verge of extinction at some 
 date not very long previous,* yet the account of the total destruction 
 of the inhabitants of Jabesh of Gile'ad is at any rate rendered some- 
 what improbable by the fact that the city appears as a fortified city 
 of some strength in the narrative of i Sam. 11. Indeed, the conjec- 
 ture Hes near to hand that the whole story of Judg. 19-21 may have 
 taken its rise out of antipathy to the memory of Saul — his native city 
 Gibe'ah, his tribe Benjamin, and the men of Jabesh of Gile'ad who 
 owed him a debt of gratitude (i Sam. 11) which they were not forget- 
 ful to repay to the best of their ability (i Sam. 31 "«■) being in turn 
 held up to execration by the narrator. J 
 
 Close examination oi c^s. 20, 21 reveals the presence of a mass of 
 discrepancies, repetitions, and dislocations which sufficiently proves 
 that the narrative in its present form must have resulted from a very 
 complicated process of combination and later working over. The 
 following points may be noted : — 
 
 According to 20 ' the Israehtes gather unio Yahweh at Mispah. 
 Mispah may be assumed therefore to have been the site of an im- 
 portant sanctuary : cf 20 5=-, 21 '■'''■8\ In spite of this, however, they 
 have, according to 20 1^-^^, 21 ', to go up to Bethel to consult the oracle 
 of Yahweh. 
 
 20 '^j the mention of the fac{ that the Benjaminites heard of the 
 mustering of the Israelites, interrupts the sequence of the narrative 
 in the midst of which it stands, and does not receive its natural con- 
 tinuation until v}^. 
 
 The gathering of all the men of Israel against Gibe'ah in 20" 
 refers, as it stands, not to mobilization (already mentioned in v}\ but to 
 the beginning of active hostilities. We should expect the negotiations 
 
 * On the assumption of the substantially liistorical character of the narrative 
 of Judg, 19-21, it is of course possible that the events narrated may have 
 occurred early in the period of the Judges, and so perhaps some two hundred years 
 before the days of Saul. Saul speaks of the tribe of Benjamin as ' the smallest 
 of the tribes of Israel' (i Sam. 9^1 J), and the srnallness of the tribe might be 
 explained by the circumstances narrated in Judg. 20 ^S-^'f' ; but it should be 
 remarked that the fact of the srnallness of Benjamin is inherent in the whole 
 tradition that he was Jacob's youngest son. The narrative of Judg. 20 does not 
 suggest that the tribe was originally a small one, but rather the contrary ; 
 25,700 fighting men as against 400,000 men mustered from the rest of Israel 
 pictures Benjamin as not markedly smaller than the average of the other tribes. 
 It is possible therefore (in view' of the suggestion put forward above that the 
 story is coloured by antipathy to Saul and his tribe) that, so far from the small- 
 ness of the tribe in subsequent times being due to the disaster which it suffered 
 in the days of the Judges, the story of the disaster may be a spiteful invention 
 suggested by its srnallness in the narrator's day (in face of the genuinely old 
 tradition which imfjlies that the tribe was small from the first, and not that it 
 became small after having previously been normal in size). 
 
 X Cf. Gudemann, op. cit. ; Wellh. , Comp^ p. 232 i. ; Kue. Ond. § 20'. 
 
448 THE BOOK Of JUDGES 
 
 of vvP-^^ to have preceded, and not to have followed, so extreme 
 a measure, and to have taken place whilst the Israelites were still 
 assembled at Mispah, and prior to the investment of Gibe'ah. 
 
 The consulting of the oracle at Bethel, 20 ", as to which of the 
 tribes shall begin the attack, results in the specification of Judah ; 
 but there is no allusion to this in what follows. It is Israel as a 
 whole, and not Judah simply, which offers battle to Benjamin and 
 meets with disaster on the first day (t/w.'""^') ; and there is no mention 
 of the separate action of other tribes on the second and third days, 
 nor, on the other hand, of a change in the strategy resulting in the 
 combination of all the tribes as a new measure. 
 
 20^2, where the Israelites, in spite of the first day's disaster, take 
 courage and again join battle, should follow and not precede v?^ in 
 which they are overwhelmed by the disaster (of the first day) and 
 consult the oracle as to whether they are to resume hostilities on the 
 second day (7/.^*). 
 
 20 2'" must originally have been directly continued by lOR?' saying' 
 of v.^^, and cannot, as at present, have been separated from it by the 
 lengthy and awkward parenthesis. 
 
 20'^ relates the smiting of 25,100 Benjaminites, i.e. the whole of 
 their force except the 600 survivors of 7/.*^, and in w.'*" it is stated 
 that the remnant of the Benjaminites realizedthat they were defeated; 
 yet in v.^^^ we find the Israelites still giving ground to Benjamin with 
 the object of drawing them off from Gibe'ah, and it is not till ?/." 
 that the Israelites, at the appointed signal, face about and confront 
 the Benjaminites. 
 
 The account of the smiting of the 25,100 Benjaminites (20^") is 
 repeated at a later stage in the narrative, ww.***^ (here in a round 
 number 25,000). 
 
 2o**^« — the flight of the survivors to the crag of Rimmon— is re- 
 peated in •2/.'"'% obviously as a resumption of the narrative after the 
 insertion of an interpolation. The purpose of this interpolation is 
 plain, viz., to square the 18,000 of z/."" with the 25,100 of w^'*by 
 the addition of 5000 + 2000 in v.^°, resulting in the total given in k*". 
 
 The remorse of ' the people ' at the practical extinction of one tribe 
 from Israel having been described with some detail in 21 ^'*, it is at 
 least strange that it should be mentioned again, as though it were a 
 fresh piece of information, in v.^. 
 
 The inquiry of 2 1 ^ anticipates that of v.\ While v.^ is clearly in 
 place, offering itself as it does as a possible solution of the question 
 put forward in v. ', 'How shall we do for wives for them ? ' etc., w' as 
 clearly comes too early in the narrative. 
 
 . 21 ^ is redundant after ■z'."' ; and though it might be just possible 
 to refer both to the same narrator by explaining that w."" states that 
 as a matter of fact Jabesh of Gile'ad was unrepresented in the army, 
 and that this was then found out by the numbering of w.', yet '^ 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 449 
 
 repetition is most inelegant, and it is clear that, for the purpose of the 
 narrative, either v.^^ or 7/.^ by itself is amply sufficient. 
 
 The question of 21 ", 'How shall a remnant be left to Benjamin, 
 etc.,' is strange if steps had already been taken to provide wives for 
 the major part of the surviving Benjaminites ; and the inference at 
 once suggests itself that the sparing of the maidens of Jabesh and the 
 rape of the maidens of Shiloh may have belonged to two different 
 accounts of the manner in which wives were obtained for the Ben- 
 jaminites, and that these accounts have been harmonized in ■uv.''^^''-^- 
 by the explanation that the former were not sufficient, and therefore 
 some further source of supply had to be found. 
 
 In spite of this complication, there exists a clue, the following of 
 ^vhich seems to lead us far in the process of unravelling the different 
 sources of the narrative. The Israelites are described by three dis- 
 tinct phrases. Thus we have (A) 'the children of Israel,' answering 
 to 'the children of Benjamin,' both terms naturally construed with a 
 
 plural verb; (B) 'the men of Israel,' a collective term (^NIB'i B'''S), 
 corresponding to 'Benjamin' as a description of the Benjaminites; 
 both of these terms are usually construed with a singular verb ; 
 (C) 'the people,' a term which appears to be used exclusively in 
 passages which are marked by phraseology and standpoint as belong- 
 ing to the latest hand of all, and in short insertions of the character 
 of glosses in their context.* 
 
 Using this criterion, we may construct two parallel and self-con- 
 sistent narratives A and B. A is practically continuous, except for 
 omission of the account of the setting of the ambuscade (after v.'^'), 
 and the ruse by which it captured the city (after v.^'') ; while B, 
 which has been drawn upon for an account of these facts, lacks the 
 account of Israel's defeat on the first (after t/.-°) and second (after 
 v.^ days, of the earlier stage of the battle on the third day (after 
 ■v.^^), and of the escape of the surviving Benjaminites— details which 
 are sufficiently supplied by the narrative of A| 
 
 ♦ It is of course not implied that there is anything in the ordinary Heb. 
 usage of DVn ' the people ' which favours the view that it is a late usage, since 
 the fact is evident that the contrary is the case. Our postulate merely is that, as 
 used in the present narrative, its occurrences happen to stand either as manifest 
 glosses or in close association with phrases and ideas which manifestly belong to 
 the latest stratum. 
 
 X The division of the sources allows, in places, room for a small amount of 
 ambiguity. Is 20^ superfluous after 2o37»? Probably not. While the first 
 half of the verse mentions the onset of the ambuscade, the second half describes 
 the manner in which it was made (viz. by deployment), and its result. The 
 manner in which allocation is made of 20 «•"■*' depends upon the assumption that 
 both A and B probably mentioned the escape of the surviving Benjaminites to 
 
 the crag of Rimmon, and upon the possibility that the difference pOin Jf?D 
 
 jfj/.Jssa.^a^ WQ-\ yjjQ t;.'"'', 21 1' may mark the different sources. It is of course 
 
 ;2F 
 
450 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 ' Then all the children of Israel 
 were called to arms as one man 
 unto Yahweh at Mispah. ^"And 
 the children of Benjamin heard 
 that the children of Israel had 
 gone up to Mispah; '*and the 
 children of Benjamin were 
 gathered together out of the 
 cities unto Gibe'ah, to go out to 
 battle with the children of Israel. 
 '^ And the children of Israel arose 
 in the morning, and encamped 
 against Gibe'ah. '^ And the chil- 
 dren of Benjamin came out from 
 Gibe'ah, and felled of Israel 
 to the ground in that day 
 two and twenty thousand men. 
 '^ And the children of Israel went 
 up, and wept before Yahweh 
 until the evening ; and they 
 enquired of Yahweh, saying, 
 ' Shall I again approach to battle 
 with the children of Benjamin 
 my brother ? ' And Yahweh said, 
 ' Go up against him.' 
 
 ^* So the children of Israel 
 drew near against the children 
 of Benjamin on the second day ; 
 ^^ and [the children of Benjamin] 
 again felled to the ground of 
 the children of Israel eighteen 
 thousand men. ^^ Then all the 
 children of Israel went up . . . 
 and wept, and sat down there 
 before Yahweh until the evening. 
 ^''^ And the children of Israel 
 enquired of Yahweh, ^' saying, 
 
 B 
 
 " Then all the men of Isra 
 were gathered together again 
 the city as one man in coi 
 federacy. 
 
 2° And the men of Israel wen 
 out to battle with Benjamin ; aii( 
 the men of Israel set the battle ii 
 array against them at Gibe'ah ,., 
 
 '' And the men of Israel took 
 courage, and again set the battle 
 in array in the place where they 
 had set it in array on the first 
 day. ^^"^ And Benjamin went out 
 to meet them from Gibe'ah on the 
 second day . . . 
 
 impossible to regard !<. ■'5''" and v.*''" as being parallel accounts of the escape to 
 the crag from the two sources for the reason already given, p. 448), where it K 
 shown that vj'"^ represents the redactor's resumption of ».<'»« after his interpoli-' 
 tion. The B narrative as allocated contains two references to 'the children ol 
 Benjamin,' in place of the ordinary 'Benjamin' or 'the men of Benjamin, 'vi^ 
 20 <8, 21 13; but both these are rather different from the ordinary allusionSr 
 referring, not to the army in the field, but in the first case to those who "' 
 mained at home (old men, women, and children), and in the other to lbs 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 451 
 
 'Shall I again go out to battle 
 with the children of Benjamin 
 my brother, or shall I forbear ? ' 
 And Yahweh said, ' Go up ; for 
 to-morrow I will deliver him into 
 thine hand "... 
 
 '"And the children of Israel 
 went up against the children of 
 Benjamin on the third day, and 
 set themselves in array against 
 Gibe'ah as aforetime. '^ And 
 the children of Benjamin went 
 out to meet them, and were drawn 
 away from the city ; and they 
 began to smite and kill as afore- 
 time in the field about thirty men 
 of Israel. '^ And the children of 
 Benjamin said, ' They are smitten 
 down before us as at the first' : 
 but the children of Israel said, 
 'Let us flee ; and draw them away 
 firom the city into the highways.' 
 ^•■And the ambuscade of Israel 
 burst forth from its place on the 
 west of Geba', ^^ and they came 
 in front of Gibe'ah, even ten 
 thousand chosen men out of all 
 Israel. . . . And the battle was 
 sore, ^ and Yahweh smote Ben- 
 amin before Israel : and the 
 j;hildren of Israel felled of Ben- 
 amin on that day twenty-five 
 housand, one hundred men. 
 '* And the children of Benjamin 
 aw that they were smitten ; 
 "" and they turned and fled to- 
 'ard the wilderness unto the 
 rag of Rimmon, "'^ even six 
 -"ndred men. . . . 
 
 ^' And Israel set an ambuscade 
 against Gibe'ah round about. 
 '^"And all the men of Israel 
 rose up from their place, and set 
 themselves in array at Ba'al- 
 tamar . . . 
 
 2*t> but i^ey knew not that evil 
 was closing upon them. ^^^ And 
 the men of Israel gave place to 
 Benjamin, for they trusted in the 
 ambuscade which they had set" 
 against Gibe'ah. '' And the 
 ambuscade hasted and made an 
 onset against Gib'eah : and the 
 ambuscade opened out, and smote 
 all the city at the edge of the 
 sword. ^' Now the appointment 
 between the men of Israel and 
 the ambuscade was, that when 
 they should make a beacon of 
 smoke to rise up out of the 
 city, ^ the men of Israel should 
 face about in the battle. And 
 Benjamin began to smite and 
 kill among the men of Israel 
 about thirty men ; and they said, 
 ' Surely they are utterly smitten 
 before us as in the first battle ! ' 
 *° Then the beacon began to 
 ascend from the city in a column 
 of smoke ; and when Benjamin 
 looked back, behold, the holo- 
 caust of the city rose up toward 
 heaven. *' And the men of Israel 
 faced about ; and the men of 
 
452 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 21." And the children oi Israel 
 were moved to pity for Benjamin 
 their brother, and said, ' One 
 tribe is cut off to-day from Israel.' 
 "■And they said, '.How shall a 
 remnant be left to Benjamin, that 
 a tribe be not blotted out from 
 Israel, ^* seeing- that we are not 
 able to give them wives of our 
 daughters ? ' for the children of 
 Israel had sworn, saying, 'Cursed 
 be he that giveth a wife to Ben- 
 -jamin.' '"And they said, 'Be- 
 hold, there is the feast of Yahweh 
 in Shiloh yearly.' ^ And they 
 commanded the children of Ben- 
 jamin, saying, ' Go, and lie in 
 wait in the vineyards ; ^ and see, 
 and, behold, if the daughters of 
 Shiloh come forth to dance in the 
 dances, then come ye forth from 
 the vineyards, and snatch ye 
 every man his wife from the 
 dausrhters of Shiloh. and so to the 
 
 Benjamin were dismayed, 
 they saw that evil had cloi 
 ijpon them. *2 gg they turr 
 before the men of IsraeLunto ( 
 way to the wilderness ; but t 
 battle overtook them, and tli 
 that were from the city wi 
 destroying them in the mid 
 *' and they beat down Benjam 
 and pursued him froin Nohah 
 far as over against Geba' towar 
 the east. « And there felt 
 Benjamin eighteen thousa; 
 men ...*"> And they abode' i 
 the crag o'f Rimmon four montl 
 ** And the men of Israel tumi 
 back unto the children of Be 
 jamin, 'and smote them at tl 
 edge of the sword, both inhabih 
 city, and cattle, and everythii 
 that there was ; moreover all tl 
 cities that there were they set t 
 fire. 
 
 21.1 Now the men of Isra 
 had sworn in Mispah, sayin, 
 ' There, shall not any of us gii 
 his daughter to Benjamin to wifi 
 ...''' How shall we do for wiw 
 for them, seeing we have swoi 
 by Yahweh not to give them ( 
 our daughters to wives ? ' 'An 
 they said, ' What one is there i 
 the tribes of Israel that cam 
 not up unto Yahweh to Mispah 
 And, behold, there had come n 
 man to the camp from Jabesh ( 
 Gile'ad. " So they sent thithf 
 twelve thousand men of the moi 
 valiant, and commanded then 
 saying, ' Go, and smite the ii 
 habitants of Jabesh of Gile'a 
 at the edge of the sword, wit 
 the women and the little ones 
 "but the virgins ye shall sav 
 alive.' And they did so. "Am 
 they found of the inhabitants c 
 Jabesh of Gile'ad four hundre 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 453 
 
 land of Benjamin. - 22 ^nd when virgin girls, that had not known 
 
 their fathers or their brothers a man ; and they brought them 
 
 come to complain unto you, ye unto the camp. '' Then they 
 
 shall say, ' Grant them graciously sent, and spake unto the children 
 
 to us ; for we took not every man of Benjamin that were on the 
 
 his wife in battle : for if ye had crag of Rimmon, and proclaimed 
 
 given them to us, ye would now peace to ihem. "■ And Benjamin 
 
 be guilty.' ^^And the children returned at that time, and they 
 
 of Benjamin did so, and took gave them the women that they 
 
 wives according to their num- had saved alive of the women of 
 
 ber of the dancers that they had Jabesh of Gile'ad. . . . "« ^^^ 
 
 forcibly carried off: and they they went out thence every man 
 
 went and returned unto their to his inheritance, 
 inheritance, and built the cities, 
 and dwelt in them. ^^^ And the 
 children of Israel departed thence 
 at that time, every man to his 
 tribe and to his clan. 
 
 The occurrences of phrase (C) ' the people ' are 20 2»-8a..i0ii.i6.22a.26a.3ib.*^ 
 2i2.4.9.i5_ -pjjg fact that this phrase is an editorial gloss in 20 ^^''^^n 
 ~ is obvious ; whilst in 20 ''■'■ it is associated with the phrase ' the 
 assembly of the people of God' ('X DV Pnp) which is of a piece with 
 the late priestly conception of Israel as 'the congregation' (mvn) 
 in v} ; and in 20^", 21 ^'^ with the going up to Bethel and the offering 
 of sacrifices. Here Bethel is doubtless regarded, from the post- 
 exilic standpoint, as the single sanctuary for sacrifice at this time, 
 legalized as such by the presence of the Ark and the ministration of 
 Phinehas as Aaron's lineal descendant : c£ ch. 2 '•^. The writer 
 accepts the allusion to Mispah in the two older narratives as the 
 place of fnuster, but does not recognize it as a sanctuary, in spite 
 of the fact that the expression ' unto Yahweh ' and the allusion to the 
 oath taken there seem to imply that it was such. It is probable that 
 in 20 ^ mention of Mispah as the place to wWch ' the children of 
 Israel went up' was cut out by him when he.inserted 'and all the 
 people, and came to Bethel ' ; and a similar excision may have been 
 made in 20 ^'. 
 
 The conception of all Israel acting together as a politico-ecclesi- 
 - astical body ^edha) seems to be based upon the expression ' as one 
 man,' which, if our analysis is correct, occurs both in A (20 ') and in 
 B (20"). This latter expression, while not in itself a mark of post- 
 exihc date (see below), was admirably fitted to form the text of the 
 post-exilic writer's expansion. The 'edha is naturally conceived as 
 acting in accordance with a strictly judicial procedure, as appears 
 
 * The occurrence in 2o3i»fB DPH nSIp? disappears under our emendation 
 DnXlp?. CI. note ad he. 
 
454 THE BOOK OF JUDGES ' "- 
 
 in 20 '''■'■■' ; and it should not be doubted that this passage (though the 
 section w. ^^'^ is commonly assigned by scholars to the oldest narra- 
 tive) belongs, at least in its present form, to the latest hand. The 
 fact that it breaks the connexion which must once have existed 
 between v.^'^ and w." favours the view that it is an interpolation. 
 Besides the two occurrences of ' the people ' {vv. 'aioaj^ y^g jjj^y notice, * 
 as marks of this hand, the use of nOT ' lewdness ' in v.^ (in this sense 
 a characteristic phrase of H and Ezek.), 'the country of the inherit- 
 ance of Israel' in vfi, and the phrase VH "lya 'extirpate the 
 wickedness,' v.'^^ (D and later). The details of the outrage as 
 described by the Levite are naturally drawn by the late hand- 
 from the old narrative of ch. 19; but the statement of v.^ 'me 
 they thought to have slain' is a softening down of the grossness 
 of 19 ^^•', which possibly marks the superior refinement of a later 
 age. 
 
 The account of the numbering of the two rival armies in ?/j/."" 
 has been assigned, in its present form, to the late hand, the main 
 determining fa'ctor being the combination of the phrases 'the children 
 of Benjamin' {v}^), 'this people' (w.'^), 'the men of Israel' (w"). 
 Both the narratives A and B, however, deal with large numbers in 
 their account of the battle, and mAy therefore be conjectured to have 
 made mention of the original numbers of the two hosts ; and frag- 
 ments of their accounts may well have been incorporated by the late 
 hand. There is an obvious connexion between the 25,000 Ben- 
 jaminites -I- 700 men of Gibe'ah, and A's account of the 25, 100 who fell 
 in battle, leaving 600 survivors,' The verb Ipsnil, where used again 
 in the narrative (21 ^) undoubtedly belongs to the late hand. 
 
 The account in v}^ of the consulting of the oracle at Bethel as to 
 which tribe shall open the attack, and the designation of Judah'—a 
 proceeding which, as we have already noticed (p. 448), seems to have 
 no effect whatever upon the subsequent course of action— is of great 
 interest. Clearly it has been taken straight from the J narrative 
 ch. I ^■^, without regard for its appropriateness ; and since it was R 
 who added the Introduction ch. 1 '-2 ^ to Judg., it is fair to assume 
 that the extract is due to this redactor, and that it is his handiwork 
 which we have been-^ discussing as 'the late hand,' and not some 
 originally distinct and independent source. We have already observed 
 that the designation of Bethel as Israel's proper sanctuary goes back 
 to ch. 2 1-^ 
 
 In 21" 131 33B>D TW']'' and in 7/." the addition I3r 33K'B^ seem 
 to be derived directly from Num. 31 "i'-^^ P. For the older narrative 
 
 the phrase E'^S njJT' vh ItJ'K suffices; cf ch. ii^'. 
 
 The remaining passages assigned to R"" fall into the followmg 
 groups: — passages governed by the conceptions of the '«f/4a and of 
 Bethel as the sacrificial centre, and by reference to 'the people, 20 
 
 ini)art.27b.28ainpM-t 21 2-5.9.(10.13. in part) 15.16 . harmonistlC hnks, 20''*^''*"*'l 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 455 
 
 21"''; statistical notes introduced by n^JX ^3, 20^^-^^^-'^^^ (so v.*^ ; 
 cf. nr ^3 v.^<ib, and for T\n f['?& vv.'^b.n.^.m.teb^ ^^, g lo) . topographical 
 notes, 2o'i*''"P'^, 21 i2i'^.i9mpart ((.f. cA. i8i2b;3.28ap . and for the descrip- 
 tive phrase 'which is in the land of Cana'an,' 21 '^bp^ cf Josh. 22 '■'" P) ; 
 21^5, cf. 17", 18 >% 19 1=^^. 
 
 There still remains the question of identification of the sources 
 A and B. As regards B this seems sufficiently clear. The phrase 
 'the men of Israel' occurs in 19 5° as restored after <&, and this 
 passage is the continuation of the preceding J narrative in that chapter, 
 and may well have been the antecedent to our narrative B. The 
 account of the ruse by which the city of Gibe'ah was ambushed and 
 burnt, and the panic-stricken Benjaminites caught between two 
 forces of Israel, which has been assigned to B, bears close resem- 
 blance to the ruse by which 'Ai was captured and destroyed, as 
 related in Josh. 8 which is mainly from J. Cf. especially ly. ■'**', ' but 
 
 ikey did not know (15'T' N? Dill) that evil was closing upon them,' 
 with Josh. S"*", 'but Ae did not know (VI'' id Kini) that there was an 
 ambush against him behind the city'; w.'* 'and Benjamin looked 
 back, and, behold, the hglocaust of the city rose up toward heaven, 
 with Josh. 8™^" 'and the men of 'Ai looked back and saw, and, 
 behold, the smoke of the city rose up toward heaven ' ; ■z/.''2i"» ' so they 
 turned . . . unto the way to the wilderness,' with Josh. 8 '^ ' and they 
 fled by the way to the wilderness ' ; v. *^^P^ ' but the battle overtook 
 them, and they that were from the city were destroying them in the 
 midst' nin3), with Josh. S^ib.aa^ 'then they turned again and smote 
 the men of 'Ai. And the others came forth out of the city against 
 
 them ; so they were in the midst of Israel (1103 PKIB'"? 1''n''1), some 
 on this side, and some on that side ; and they smote them, etc' ; 
 v.*" 'and the men of Israel turned back unto the children ol 
 Benjamin, and smote them at the edge of the sword,' with 
 Josh. 8 2*b 'and all Israel turned back unto 'Ai, and smote it at the 
 edge of the sword.' The description of the muster of the men ol 
 Israel 'as one man' (20") and the large number of Benjaminites 
 slain (18,000 according to 20^''), cannot be said to be inconsistent 
 with J's authorship. In the narrative of i Sam. 11, part of J's 
 account of the circumstances which led to Saul's election to the king- 
 ship, which is of acknowledged antiquity as compared with the 
 parallel narrative from E, and which, in 11^, shows close affinity to 
 the J narrative in Judg. 19 (cf. p. 445), it is stated that, on the receipt 
 of Saul's summons, the Israelites were called to arms 'as one man, 
 and the muster produces the incredible numbers of 300,000 Israelites 
 and 30,000 men of Judah. There is no ground whatever for the 
 assumption that exaggeration of numbers is peculiar to post-exilic 
 narrative. Any narrative, whether pre- or post-exilic, if committee 
 
456 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 to writing long after the events which it narrates, seems to have beei 
 liable to this failing. We have already noticed (cf. p. 12b) that, ii 
 contrast to the modest assessment of 40,000 able-bodied men 
 Israel given by the contemporary Song of Deborah, the narrative 
 J in Ex. 12''''=, Num. 11 ^' estimates the men who came out of Egyp 
 as 600,000. The very fact that our narrative in 19^^ states that the 
 Levite divided his concubine into twelve pieces, and sent hei 
 throughout all the border of Israel, pictures Israel as already a 
 federated entity of twelve tribes, and paves the way for the descriptiot 
 of a unanimous response (contrast the historical account of the 
 merely partial response to Deborah's summons), and for an incredibly 
 high estimate of the muster. While, however, we assign the narrative 
 B to J, the fact cannot be overlooked that this narrative, in ch. 19 as 
 in chs. 20, 21, must belong to the latest stratum of J. The fact that 
 it exhibits throughout so close a verbal connexion with various other 
 parts of J (Gen. 19^"*, i Sam. 11 '', Josh. 8), proves that the dependence 
 is on its side and not vice-versd, and therefore that it has been con- 
 structed by a process of selective imitation, and must be much later 
 than the old narratives which it has employed, and, in its present 
 form at least, almost certainly unhistorical. On the other hand, the 
 fact that the author has employed J, and J only, as his model, and 
 that his phraseology is uncoloured by the influence of later literature,* 
 
 * E.\ception will doubtless be taken to our inclusion of 21 7-8.io.i2-ln (in the main) 
 as part of J, this being a narrative which many critics [e.g. Mo.) regard as the 
 latest part of the narrative, on the ground that it is based on Num. 31 1"-— the 
 carrying out of the ^^rem or ban upon Midian — a story which is assigDed wiiB 
 good reason to a secondary stratum of P. The striking points of connexioii 
 between the two narratives which are adduced are (i) the fact that the number 
 of warriors sent to execute the hdrem is the same in each narrative, viz. 12,000, 
 and (2) the phrase which occurs in Judg. 2iii-i2 to mark the distinction between 
 
 the married and unmarried women (l3t nSB'Di' C^N nVn' N^. "131 3D{!'B nM 
 as compared with Num. 3117-18.35. it should be recollected, however, that the 
 custom of the hirem was very ancient ; and that, when this was practised, the 
 saving of the unmarried girls as slave-concubines must have been frequent, if not 
 regular (cf. Deut. zi lo-i^). The phrase noted under (2) does seem to have been 
 derived from the narrative of Num., as remarked above. On the other hand, we. 
 should not overlook such distinctions between the two narratives as the regular and ' 
 
 exclusive use of Jin 'kill' in Num. (z/z/.'MiJ-iTSis.iS) as contrasted with 3111 'S? 11311 
 'smite at the edge of the sword ' in Judg. ai'", d^inil ' ban «rdevote to destruction' 
 f."; D'tJ'J3 flOn 'the young amongthe women' in Num. 31'', but n?in3 mW 
 ' virgin-girls ' in Judg. 21 12. Xhe identity in number, 12,000, is, it maybe 
 admitted, somewhat striking; but, if on this score we are to infer connexion 
 between the two narratives, the dependence is quite as likely to be on the side of 
 the late narrative in Num. as vice-versd. The involving of Jabesh of Gile'ad m 
 the odium which falls upon Gibe'ah and upon the whole tribe of Benjamin fits m ' 
 so well with the theory that the story as a whole makes an attack upon the 
 memory of Saul (cf. p. 447) that it is difficult to suppose that the whole Jabe# 
 narrative was only inserted as a very late afterthought. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES 457 
 
 seems to indicate that we are right in regarding him as pre- and not 
 post-exiUc* 
 
 The origin of the narrative A is far more dubious. If B is rightly 
 identified with J, it is natural to look for indications of the hand of E 
 in the companion-narrative, more especially as the second source in 
 igiis has been conjecturally assigned to E ; and since the use of high 
 numbers in 20^^-^^-^ does not (as we have just noticed) necessarily 
 imply a post-exilic point of view, there is no primd fade reason why 
 this narrative should not date from pre-exilic times. No signs of E's 
 phraseology are, however, apparent in the narrative ; while, on the 
 other hand, there are several indications that it, like B, was acquainted 
 with J's account of the attack on 'Ai in Josh. 7, 8 : cf ch. 20 ^5-^', 
 'they wept before Yahweh until the evening,' with Josh. 7*, 'he fell 
 on his face to the earth before the Ark of Yahweh until the evening ' ; 
 j-gsia 'they were drawn away (Ipn^n) from the city,' w.^^'', 'Let us flee 
 and draw them away (inUpDJI) from the city,' with Josh, g^bp.eaa 'and 
 we will flee before them . . . until we have drawn them away (UpTlH IJ/ 
 DniS) from the city,' 8 ^''''^ ' and they were drawn away (Ipnyi) from 
 the city'; ch. 20'^ 'And the children of Benjamin said, "They are 
 smitten down before us as at the first " (njB'S"133) ; but the children 
 of Israel said, " Let us flee, etc.," ' with Josh. 8 ^ 'for they will say, 
 "They are fleeing before us as at the first" (njCSia "It^Ka) ; so we 
 will flee before them ' ; ch. 20 '** ' and they came over against (? HJJD) 
 Gibe'ah,' with Josh. 8 ", ' and they came over against (nJJ) the city.' 
 These facts, together with the artificial appearance of the narrative of 
 the three days' battle (which, however, is scarcely more marked than 
 in E^s narrative in ch. 7^^), and, especially, the fact that the com- 
 bination of A and B appears to have been effected, not by a pre-exilic 
 redactor (such as RJ"^), but by R'' himself (cf especially the redac- 
 tional link 21 1*!"-"*), seem to favour the conclusion that we have in A 
 a post-exilic narrative of unknown provenance, possibly containing 
 some independent and relatively ancient elements [e.g. the story of 
 the rape of the maidens of Shiloh %), but otherwise perhaps ultimately 
 based upon the older J narrative with which it was eventually com- 
 
 * It may be noted that the J writer is characterized, in the account of the 
 battle, by an unusual fondness for placing the subj. before the verb when the 
 subj. changes in the sequence of the narrative -.—cf zo^S'lDp PNIt!'* CN ?D1, 
 
 2o37. iB>mn anxni, 20^ xvn nvicni, aoss" isnn po''33'i. 2o« nxtyani 
 xhr\r\, 2o*i» isn ^x'TC''' b"ni, 20'B'13B' Ws^^ V'VS, 21'" i'^its" t^'Ni 
 
 X The fact that this story is probably ancient has been generally recognized. 
 Unlike other parts of the narrative which have the superficial appearance of 
 antiquity, but are really based on other narratives (cf. the foregoing discussion 
 of the J narrative), it appears, so far as we can judge, to be independent ; and it 
 may well be that, if any part of chs. 19-21 is historical as it now stands, such an 
 historical element may be contained in this story. It seems not impossible that it 
 may have been derived ultimately from the E source. 
 
458 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 bined by R''. The narrative A, as of unknown source, has beer 
 marked in the text by the symbol X.* 
 
 * The foregoing analysis was worked out independently by the present editoi 
 prior to consultation of the attempted analyses of other scholars, and differs verj 
 widely from them. Chapters 20 and 21 have not unnaturally given scope forgreal 
 divergency of opinion among commentators in the past ; but, speaking generally, 
 it may be said that in the main some agreement in the guiding principle of 
 analysis has been reached by the most recent writers, as represented, e.g., by Mo. 
 (Comm. and SBOT.), Bu. (Comm.), No., Driver [LOT.^, p. 170), Kent, This 
 principle appears to be that, since ck. 19 ' is old in style and representation,' its 
 continuation in chs. 20, 21 must have been similar, the assumption being that 
 such similarity should be found in absence of the element of exaggeration aad 
 incredibility. Thus, drastic elimination is made, not merely of the passages 
 which picture Israel as organized as an 'Idhd (assigned by us to R''), but (in spite 
 of I Sam. 11^-8 J) of all passages which speak of Israel as acting 'as one man,' 
 and which deal with incredibly large numbers. Mo. {SBOT.) assigns to J 
 
 20 laa.lb/3.3-S.14.19.29.36.37».38.S9 (gm. ' aS in the first battle ') 40.41.44a.«^ 21 1.15.16b.l9«a.20b.2I. 
 
 22aii.22b.23^ and regards the rest of the narrative as a post-exilic Midrash, 2oii.is.a 
 24.27b.a8»a..37b^ 21 4.6.8 end ( ' mifg the assembly ') 18 (from ' which is north,' etc.) being 
 redactional. Driver (on the basis, mainly, of the analyses of Bu. and No.) assigns 
 to the earlier source (except a few words here and there) 20 iaa.ib^.3-8.i4.i9.29.3i.34.36b. 
 37i.38.40-42.44a.47^ 21 1.6-8.10-12 (jn briefer form) 13-14 (with 'they' for 'the whole con- 
 gregation ')i5-i'^-25. These analyses give us, as the oldest (presumably historical) 
 narrative, the account of the outrage as given in ch. 19, with the Levite's summons 
 to Israel ; the assembling at Mispah and an enquiry into the circumstances of the 
 crime, followed by a one day's battle in which by aid of an ambuscade the Ben- 
 jaminites are defeated and almost exterminated ; and, lastly, provision of wives 
 for the survivors [by saving the unmarried maidens of Jabesh, and] by capture of 
 the rpaidens of Shiloh. 
 
 The fallaciousness of an analysis which is based on the view that the older 
 narrative can be i-ecovered by elimination of all that is patently unhistorical has 
 been sufficiently demonstrated by the foregoing discussion. The antiquity of ch. 
 19 is (as Wellh. rightly recognizes) more apparent than real, since, as we have seen, 
 this narrative (at least in part) is framed in close imitatiori of older J stories— a 
 fact which leads us with some reason to question its historical value. Why, e.g., 
 should we accept the account of the Levite's method of appeal to the tribes of 
 Israel, which is manifestly connected with i Sam.. 11'', and at the same time 
 reject both the allusion to the Israelites' assembling ' as .one man' (though this 
 identical phrase occurs in the same verse of i Sam. 11), and also the use of high 
 numbers (though this is paralleled by i Sam. 11 8)? Again, if, as cannot be 
 denied, the account of the ambushing of Gibe'ah (generally accepted as ancient) 
 depends on Josh, 8, why should not the account of success attained by this ruse 
 have been preceded by a narrative of two days' failure, on the analogy of Joshuas 
 first failure against "Ai, as related by the J narrative in Josh. 7 ? Lastly, what 
 ground exists for the supposition that a narrative which bears strongly the stamp 
 of J phraseology, and is obviously modelled on earlier J elements, was coritinued 
 by the story of the rape of the Shilonite maidens, which contains no J phrases 
 and is independent of any earlier similar narrative? 
 
 On the other hand, the merit of the criterion for analysis which we have 
 adopted (cf. p. 449) rests in the fact that, without any sleight of hand, it immedi- 
 ately resolves the confusion of the narrative as it now stands, aftd offers us two 
 parallel and nearly continuous narratives, together with the additions of a later 
 redactor, the object of which can easily be divined. The distinction in the usage 
 
19. I. 2.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 451 
 
 19. I. R^Now in those days, when there was no king ir 
 Israel, J there was a certain Levite sojourning in the furthermos 
 parts of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him E a wife 
 J a concubine out of Bethlehem of Judah. 2. And his con 
 cubine ^was vexed"' with him, and went away from him untc 
 
 19. I. in those days. I.e. in the days of the Judges, rather than (ai 
 Mo. thinks) 'loosely dating the following story in the period of thi 
 Danite migration.' 
 
 When there was no king., etc. Cf. p. 410. 
 
 a certain Levite. Lit. ' a man, a Levite' ; so ch. 20^ 'the man, th< 
 Levite,' ch. 18 '-'^ 'the youth, the Levite.' The man is only twic( 
 described as a Levite, being elsewhere mentioned merely as 'thi 
 man ' : hence Bu. supposes that the words "IJ ''1? ' a Levite sojourn 
 ing ' are a late insertion under the influence of the preceding narrativ( 
 — ^but this hypothesis has little to support it.* 
 
 the furthermost parts. Heb. yark'the, lit. 'sides' or 'flanks,' ii 
 used of the innermost recesses of a cave, i Sam. 24 \ a house, Am. 6 " 
 a ship, Jon. i', the pit {i.e. She'ol), Isa. 14=*, or of the remote parts o 
 the north, Isa. 14'', a/., or, of the earth, Jer. 6^^, al. Hence thi 
 expression as here used is taken by Mo., Cooke to refer to the mos 
 northerly parts of Ephraim, from the Judaean point of view. Mor< 
 probably the reference is to the actual flanks of the hill-country 
 whether to the east or west, which, lying away from the main rout( 
 from south to north (which then, as now, must have run along thf 
 centre of the range) might, especially from the Judaean standpoint 
 be viewed as somewhat remote. 
 
 2. was vexed with hi7n. Reading Vpy fj/tni with Bottcher 
 
 Houb., Gratz, Mo. {SBOT.\ Kit. Cf. ffi'"'-, i^ % kcH ipytV^i 
 avrQ (the root ^\ is rendered by opyifet" in 2 Chr. 161"). Fo; 
 «iyt followed by hv, cf. Prov. 19 3. f§ v^y njTPlI, R.V. 'played thi 
 harlot against him,' can hardly be original ; for (l) the contex 
 
 of the phrases ' the men of Israel ' and ' the ' children of Israel ' was observed b 
 Ber, as one of his criteria ; though he does not work it out consistently, and alsi 
 fails to distinguish the redactional passages from the sources. His analysis is a 
 
 follows : A 20 l-3b-10,14.a8).19.24-28.29-36a.47 31 5-14.24 . g 30 2a.ll-13.15-17.20-23.36b-44.45.46.4i 
 
 21 l-4.15-23_ 
 
 * Bu. finds fault with the constr. 'jl lil '1? B'''X Tl*!, on the ground that w 
 should expect 13 N-IHI ; but it is difficult to see any essential difference betwee: 
 the participial usage in our passage and, «.,?., Gen. 25" 3t^* QR {J>*X 3p5?.''. 
 D'iri'S ' and Ja'cob was a simple man, dwelling in tents.' 
 
46o THE BOOK OF JUDGES [19.- 
 
 her father's house, unto Bethlehem of Judah, and was then 
 some time, E four months. 3. J And her husband arose, am 
 
 demands that the cause of estrangement should be a passing tiff am 
 not an act of unfaithfulness, and (2) the constr. njt followed by ?J 
 of the person against whom the offence is committed is unparallelet 
 (the verb is regularly in this sense followed by ]0 'away from,' b] 
 itself or in combination with another prep., ?VD, ''nriKO, finno). 
 
 S^ ^^(T\Q^^ AjJIO reproduces |§ ; and it is probable that ffi' 
 Kal cTTopevBr] an avTov, U 'quae rehquit eum,' Jos. {Ani. v. ii, 8] 
 KaraXiTTovaa rhv avhpa, are merely paraphrases of the same readifig : 
 cf. the comment of Levi ben-Gershon, who explains that the verb 
 must be taken to mean simply that the woman forsook him, and not 
 in its ordinary sense, otherwise it would have been unlawful for the 
 
 - Levite to fetch her back. % TIIPV JTIDDI, ' despised him,' may also 
 be a paraphrase, unless n"iD31 represents ntapll (Dathe) ; -but here 
 
 again the following IvJ? forms a difficulty (only found in the late 
 passage, Neh. 2 '"). The same objection is valid against the easy 
 emendation rUTRI adopted by Michaelis, Ewald {HI. ii. p. 352), 
 
 Stu., Wellh. {Comp.^ p. 230), etc.; this verb being ordinarily (if not 
 exclusively*) transitive and followed by an accusative iii the sense 
 cast off' or spurn a personal or impersonal object. Mo. suggests, as 
 another possibility, that the original of xai mpyia-Btj aira was V?y IDNfll 
 that this verb was corrupted into f\iiiF\) (' she committed adultery'), 
 which, again, was later on corrected into njITll upon the ground that 
 
 the woman was .not a wedded wife. This suggestion (favoured by 
 Bu., No., La.) is almost too ingenious ; and, as Mo. himself observes, 
 
 the prep. 3 (and not ?V) is regularly used after the verb ^JS. 
 
 some time, four months. Heb. n''B'Tn ni?3"lX D*D\ Here D*0' 
 (as in ch. 14', 15') seems to refer to a period of indefinite length., 
 which is then accurately defined by 0''ti'in nj;3"lK ; J and the natural- 
 inference is that the latter definition is a gloss upon the former, or 
 rather (as assumed in our analysis) that it is derived from the pardlel 
 source (cf the precision of this source in vv.^-^, 'three days,' etc.). 
 The appositional relation between D'D^ and Q''B'in nj)3"lS is hardly 
 
 * It may, however, be possible that njTi when used absolutely (cf. e.g. Ps. 74'i 
 JJ^, Lam. 331) may possess the sense 'to be angry,' which regularly belongs to.; 
 the Bab. equivalent zinA. If this be so, it is not inconceivable that the verb 
 might be construed with ?J) ' was angry against; much as the Bab. verbis con- 
 strued with itti, ' be angry with ' (cf. the illustration cited p. 59). 
 
 J Wti^in n3?3-|N1 D''DS I Sam. 27', is of course different; this meaning 
 ' dsiys (i.e., hy usa.ge, a year) and {out months.' 
 
19. 3- S- 8-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 461 
 
 went after her, to speak kindly to her, to bring '"her"' back again 
 having his lad with him, and a couple of asses, and The came" 
 to her father's house : and when the damsel's father saw him, he 
 came joyfully to meet him. 4. E And his father-in-law, J the 
 damsel's father, E detained him ; and he abode with him three 
 days : J and they did eat and drink, and stayed the night there 
 5. E And on the fourth day J they arose early in the. morning 
 Eand he rose up to depart : J and the damsel's father said R'^ untc 
 his son-in-law, J ' Strengthen thine heart with a morsel of bread 
 and afterward ye shall depart.' 5. So they sat down, and did eat 
 both of them together, and drank : and the damsel's father saic 
 unto the man, 'Prithee consent, and stay the night, Eand' le 
 thine heart be merry.' 7. And the man rose up to depart: bu 
 his father-in-law urged him, J and he stayed the night there 
 again. 8. And he arose early in the morning R'^ on the fiftl 
 day J to depart : and the damsel's father said, ' Prithee strengther 
 thine heart ' ; so they tarr''ied"' till the day declined, and did eat 
 
 identical with the very idiomatic usage of D'D' when it pleonasticalh 
 follows the statement of a definite period, as e.g: in o'D* tflH ': 
 
 month of time' (lit. 'a month, days'). Cf., on this latter usage, th( 
 discussion in Ges., TAes. 58515, where the analogous usage of zamd) 
 ' time,' in Ar. is cited. 
 
 3. io speak kindly to her. Lit. 'to speak to her heart.' Cf , for thi: 
 idiom. Gen. 34 ^■ 50=1, 2 Sam. 19^ W, Isa. Ao\ Hos. 2'*, |§» 
 Ru. 2»3, 2 Chr 302^, 32 «t. 
 
 to bring her back again. Reading K'ri PCX-frh, in place o 
 
 Kt. yrvrh. 
 
 and he came. Reading xb^l with (!5''\ S^ and moderns, in placi 
 of fg -inN'ani. Mo. plausibly suggests that the readings of 1^ her 
 and in the preceding U't^ni'— which he renders ' that she might wii 
 him back'— are early alterations based upon the corruption njmi ii 
 W.2, on the view that, since the man was the injured party, it was fo 
 the woman to make the advances towards reconciliation. 
 
 5. Strengthen thine heart Heb. t|3^ nyp. Here the Imperativi 
 is to be pronounced sf'ddh (not s^adh) the conjunctive accent Darg. 
 which it bears being used as a substitute for Methegh : cf G-K 
 § 64<:, «". 
 
 8. So they tarried. Reading 'inpnnn»l with La., in place of ? 
 ■inpnonni which can only be an Imperative (so all Versions). Since 
 however, in z/.» the father uses the fact that the day has declined a 
 
462 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [19, g, 
 
 both of them. 9. E And the raan rose up to depart, J he and 
 his concubine and his lad ; E and his father-in-law, J the damsel's 
 father, E said to him, J ' Behold, prithee, the day hath waned to 
 setting, prithee stay ye the night : E behold, the day hath closed 
 in ; stay thou the night here, and let thy heart be merry; J and 
 ye shall arise early to-morrow for your journey, E and thou shalt- 
 
 a reason why they should stay the night, and leave (presumably jn 
 good time) on the morrow, he would scarcely jn the first place have 
 urged them to tarry till the decline of day before starting on th^ir 
 return. Mo. notes the fact that certain groups of (K MSS. (cited by 
 him as ffi"") offer (in place of inonDnni, which is rendered by ffi*"- 
 Kal (TTpaTev6r\Ti, ffi^ K.ai (TTpareva-ov*) the reading SieirXdi/a airav of 
 bi€TT\aTvve avTov (cf. Field, Hex., ad loc), i.e. -innfiil ; whence he con- 
 jectures that the original text may have run apriDnsi -inns*!, 'and 
 
 he persuaded him, and he lingered,' etc. This gives an excellent 
 sequence, and is accepted by Bu., No., Kit., with the modification 
 •inonDn'1 ; but the method of constructing a composite text from two 
 
 variant readings must be deemed somewhat questionaBle. _ 
 and did eat. ffi'^'' adds koi 'iiviov (so 3i^ with obelus) ; cf. wz/.'*. 
 
 9. the day hath- waned to setting. Heb. 1115^7 Dl'n HBl, lit. 'the 
 day hath sunk down so as to set' ' Day' is here used by metonymy 
 for ' sun,' as sometimes in English : cf. passages cited in the Oxford 
 New Eng. Diet. s.v. ' set ' 11. 9 b. The use of raphs. may be paralleled 
 by Bab. rabu or rapA which is used of the sinking of the sun to the 
 Underworld: cf. Muss-Arnolt, Diet. p. 949, and note on 'Teraphim,' 
 p. 421. There is no ground for substituting nt03 for nsi with Mo. 
 
 SBOT. <& els {Trjv) io-iripav reads D^y? for 3'niJ?, which may be 
 original. 
 
 behold, the day hath closed in. Heb. Di'n ni3n TVSlT], lit 'behold, 
 the closing (declining) of day.' Heb. hana, which is elsewhere used 
 in the special sense of encamping, is here a synonym of nata (cf. v?) 
 in the sense bend ^own or decline, which, as is shown by the cognate ' 
 languages (Ar., Syr.) is the original meaning of the root 
 
 &, S*" omit DVn man njn KJ \ih, thus removing the duplication in 
 the invitation which probably marks the different sources (c£ p. 442). 
 ffi'^^ KaTokvdov {^Srj) &8e en a-fjuepov seems to have arisen througli- 
 
 combination with the preceding X3 Uv and the reading of nsn as 
 
 * Mo. notices that the original <S reading is clearly ffTpayedBryn (for 0-7/107- 
 
 ■yeOevri) which is found in the HP. codd. 15, 18, 64, 65 ; Si" jOlZZ(0. This 
 has become irTpaTeiidrjTi through the not uncommon confusion between V and T 
 in uncial writing ; and arpATevaov represents a grammatical correction: 5 , 
 
19. 10. II. 12.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 463 
 
 depart t6 thy home.' 10. And the man would not stay the 
 night; but he rose up and departed, and came over against 
 Jebus R' (that is Jerusalem) : J and with him were a couple of 
 asses saddled; his concubine was with him also. 11. When 
 they were near Jebus, the day ^was far spent"' ; and the lad 
 said unto his master, ' Prithee come, and let us turn aside into 
 this city of the Jebusites, and stay the night in it.' 12. And 
 his master said unto him, 'We will not turn aside into the city 
 
 nan (apparently Di»n 115? i"^^!] ^^V^) ; ^"t ^s ^''s "ot justifiea in 
 looking to this ffi rendering for the original text (as does Mo., 
 followed by Cooke), since [v should be followed by npvn ' to-night,' 
 and not by DVn 'to-day.' 
 
 to thy home. Lit. 'to thy tents': of for this usage ch. 7^, 20^, 
 Deut. 16', Josh. 22*-6'-8, I Sam. 13 2, 2 Sam. 19', 20 1-^^, i Kgs. S^^, 
 12^'. According to Driver (on Deut. loc. dt.), 'the expression is a 
 survival from the time when Israel was a nomadic people and actually 
 lived in tents ; it remained in use long after the " tents " had given 
 place to permanent "houses."' Since, however, Heb. 'ohei is the 
 philological equivalent of Ar. 'ahl ' community of settlers,' Bab. 4lti 
 ' city,' originally ' settlement,' it is perhaps truer to say that we have 
 in this Heb. usage a survival of the wider and more primitive usage 
 of the term. 
 
 10. Jebus. Apart from the present narrative, this name is only 
 applied to Jerusalem in i Chr. 1 1 ''■^ (a narrative expanded from 
 2 Sam. 5 '" in which the name Jebus does not appear). The manner 
 in which it is explained here by the editorial addition ' that is Jeru- 
 salem' seems to suggest that it was the more ancient name ; but that 
 this cannot be so is proved by the occurrence of the latter name in 
 the form Urusalim m> the T.A. Letters of the fourteenth century B.C. 
 (cf Knudtzon, Nos. 287, 289, 290 = Winckler,' Nos. 180, 182-H85, 
 183). 
 
 his concubine, etc. The addition xai o n-ais avrov, found in some 
 MSS. of fflr, is probably due to a precisionist. 
 
 11. was far spent. Reading T]< (lit. 'had gone down') in place of 
 the inexplicable it of S. "vy however, does not occur elsewhere 
 of the decline of day,* the nearest parallel being 2 Kgs. 20 ", where it 
 is used of the decline of the shadow on the step-clock of Ahaz. 
 
 12.' the city of foreigners who, etc. Reading plur. D^SJ for sing. 
 nD:, andmasc. n»n for fem. r\ir\ with several MSS. of ||. 
 
 * Why Mo. [SBOT. ) should cite i Kgs. iZ« as a parallel is inexplicable. 
 
404 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [I9. ,2, 
 
 of foreigner'"s"'j r^ho'' are not of the children of Israel, but we 
 ill pass on as far as Gibe'ah.' 13. E And he said to his lad 
 
 w 
 
 Gibe'ah. The name occurs elsewhere, as here, without the Def. Art. 
 nyna ; and also, as in vw. "■'"•"■«'■, with the Def. Art. nvnjH 'the Hill' 
 par excellence as being DTIPKn fiyaj ' the Hill of God,' i.e. the site of 
 an ancient sacred place, i Sam. 10*.* The city is sometimes defined 
 as 'Gibe'ah of Benjamin' (i Sam. 13 '5, 141^; 'G. of the children of 
 B.,' 2 Sam. 23 2^; cf. 'G. which belongeth unto Bj in w.''' of our 
 narrative), or 'Gibe'ah of Saul' (i Sam. 11^, 15^*, Isa. lo'^'). Some 
 confusion has arisen here and there in the O.T. between Gibe'ah and 
 Geba' (a masc. form also meaning ' hill ') ; but that the two sites are 
 distinct is proved by Isa. 10 ^'"5^, where both are mentioned. The site 
 of Geba' has been certainly identified in the modern Geba' south of, 
 the widy Suwenit, five and a half miles north-north-east of Jerusalem. 
 We must read Geba' for Gibe'ah in ch. 20 ^2, i -Sam. 13 2, 142 (cf. 
 jjie^ 14^) ; and, conversely, Gibe'ah for Geba' in ch. 26'°, i Sam. 13' 
 (cf. 10 610). 
 
 The present narrative makes it clear that Gibe'ah lay close to the 
 road which runs north froni Jerusalem to NS.blus, and was reached 
 from Jerusalem rather sooner than Ramah (cf. v.^^) ; and, further 
 {ch. 20 21), that not far off from it the road divided, one branch going , 
 to Bethel — i.e. the main northern road, and the other to Gibe' on (on 
 the reading, cf. note ad loc.) — i.e. the road by the two Bethhorons to 
 Joppa. Further evidence is furnished by the statement of Jos. {BJ.'^' 
 V. ii. i) that Titus, when advancing against Jerusalem from Gophna 
 (Gifni) on the road from Samaria, pitched his camp in the Valley of 
 Thorns, near a village called Gibe'ah of Saul, about thirty stadia (i.e. 
 rather over three miles) from Jerusalem, in order to await reinforce- 
 ments coming from Emmaus (Nicopohs), z.«. 'AmwSs, which would- , 
 naturally arrive by the Bethhoron road. Similarly, Jerome | describes 
 how Paula journeyed from Nicopolis by the ascent to Upper and 
 
 * That D''^7^?^ nynj is identical with iiyajn, which was Saul's native city, - 
 is evident from the narrative of i Sam. 10B.10-16. When Saul is seized with the 
 prophetic ecstasy, 'those who knew him before time' (w. ^i). who, according to 
 this narrative, give rise to the proverb, ' Is Saul among the prophets?' are clearly ' 
 his fellow-townsmen ; and when he ceases to prophesy {v. 13), we find him [vvM"-] 
 at home among his relatives without furthei" travelling (read prohahly in a" 
 nn'an. 'he came home'—es in 1 Kgs. is''-", a/.— for 3§ 1183311 'to the Usl>- 
 place,' with which we should expect ?y*1 'he went up' — not N3*l! so Wellh., 
 Driver, Kennedy, H. P. Smith, etc.). The identification of DTIPNil nW3 
 proposed by Smith, /fG. p. 250, with Ram-Allah (meaning in Ar. 'the Hil|of, 
 God') a mile west of Bireh is therefore out of the question, since it is mi; 
 possible that Gibe'ah of Saul can have lain so far to the north. 
 
 X ' The Pilgrimage of the holy Paula ' (translated in Palestine Pilgrims' Tal 
 Society, i. (cf. § 6). 
 
19. 12.] TH£ BOOK OF JUDGES 465 
 
 Lower Bethhoron, beholding on her right Aijalon and Gibe' on, and 
 
 resting awhile at Gibe'ah before continuiiig her journey to Jerusalem. 
 It is clear from these facts that Gibe'ah must have lain close to the 
 
 function of the two roads, and south rather than north of this junction ; 
 
 ind adding the fact (derived from Jos.) that the distance of the city 
 
 "rom Jerusalem was not less than three miles, the possibilities of site 
 
 ire confined within narrow limits. 
 The site proposed by Rob. (BR.^ i. pp. 577-579), following a sug- 
 
 ■estion made by Gross {Theol. Stud. u. Kritiken, 1843, P- 1082) is 
 
 'ell (or Tulel) el-Fiil, a high Tell crowned by the remains of a fortress 
 
 ame three hundred or four hundred yards to the east of the north 
 
 )ad, about three miles due north of Jerusalem and two miles due 
 
 >uth of Ramah (er-R4m). This has been accepted by many moderns. 
 
 'bjection is raised to the identification by Federlin {Revue Biblique, 
 
 J06, p. 271) and Hagemeyer {ZDPV. xxxii., 1909, pp. i ff.) on the 
 
 ■ound that there exist no traces of an ancient village, such e.g. as 
 
 e rock-hewn cisterns which must necessarily have existed on such a 
 
 te. Federlin favours Hirbet es-Soma', on a small eminence about 
 
 X hundred yards south of Tell el-Ful, where there are considerable 
 
 mains, among which are to be found about fifteen cisterns. This is 
 
 •obably too far south of the junction of the two roads, and too close 
 
 "•/Jerusalem, unless we accep,t the variant statement of Jos. in his 
 
 :count of the Judges-episode {Ant. v. ii. 8) where he gives the 
 
 stance as twenty stadia only (this, however, has not the same 
 
 jpearance of comparative accuracy as the -statement in BJ.). 
 
 agemeyer proposes the ruins called JJirbet el-Hawinit, five hundred 
 
 jds north-west of Tell el-Ful, and actually on the main road. Here 
 
 ere are the remains of massive walls, and ancient cisterns, and the 
 
 )per part of the wady Bet Hannma to the west may represent the 
 
 lUey of Thorns. This identification, however, seems to be excluded 
 
 ) by the fact that it is unconnected with a hill, and so could scarcely 
 
 ve borne the name nj;3jn, and (2) by the fact that it is actually on 
 
 ; road, whereas the verb IID''! in i/.'^ of our narrative implies that 
 
 ^ Levite's party had to ' turn aside ' from the road for some little 
 
 y before reaching the city. 
 
 All things considered, the ruined site Qirbet Ris et-Tawil, about 
 If a mile north-east of Tell el-Fiil and three-quarters of a mile nearly 
 e east of the junction of the two roads, and also a little south of the 
 dy el-H4fy (which may have been the Valley of Thorns *), merits 
 
 It is worthy of- notice that the wady el-H^fy joins the wady es-SuwSnit 3 
 miles east of yirbet Ras et-Tawil. Ar. es-SuwSnit means ' the little acacias,' 
 thorny trees of the Mimosa tribe (of course distinct from the American tree 
 ed' acacia in England) : cf. the name Seneh ' thorn-bush ' applied to the 
 )th of rock ' on one side of the w4dy in i Sam. 14 ■•. "A-Kavda, denotes the acacia 
 Serod. ii. 96, and is used by 6. as the rendering of Heb. Htia ' acacia.' The 
 Dosition is therefore plausible that in the time of Jos. the name 'Valley of 
 irns ' {^A.xavSSiv aChiv) may have been applied to both branches of the wady-^ 
 w4dy el-Hafy as well as the wiLdy es-SuwSnit. 
 
 2G 
 
466 THE BOOK OP JUDGES [19.13.14.15.4., 
 
 ' Com'^e^, and let us draw near to one of the places, and stay tl 
 night in Gibe'ah or in Ramah.' 14. So they passed on ar 
 went their way; and the sun went down upon them close 
 Gibe ah, which belongeth to Benjamin. 15. J And they turne 
 aside there to go in to stay the night in Gibe'ah ; and he wei 
 in, and sat down in the market-place of the city ; and there wi 
 no man that took them into his house to pass the night, n 
 And, behold, an old man came in from his work, from the fieli 
 at evening : and the man was from the hill-country of Ephrain 
 and was sojourning in Gibe'ah ; but the men of the place wer 
 Benjaminites. 17. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the wai 
 faring man in the market-place of the city ; and the old ma 
 said, ' Whither goest thou ? and whence comest thou ? ' li 
 And he said unto him, ' We are passing from Bethlehem c 
 Judah unto the furthermost parts of the hill-country of Ephraim 
 from thence am I, and I went as far as Bethlehem of Judah 
 arid I am going ^unto my home^ ; and there is no man tha 
 
 further investigation as a possible site. This site is mentioned as ai 
 alternative to Tell el-Ful by Sir C. Wilson (Smith BB.', s.v. 'Gibe'ah' 
 and by Mo. It is marked by ancient re^iains : cf. SWP. Mem. iii 
 p. 124. ^ 
 
 13. Come. K^ri na^ for Kt. 'q^_ 
 Ramah. Cf. ck. 4 ^ note. 
 
 14. which belongeth to Benjamin. In distinction from other sitei 
 bearing the same name, e.g. the Gibe'ah of Judah (Josh. 15''), am 
 the Gibe'ah of Phinehas in the hill-country of Ephraim (JosK. 24''). 
 
 15. market-place. Heb. r'hobh, lit. 'broad place,' was an opei 
 space in the city, usually near the gate, which served as a meeting' 
 place for business or social purpo'ses. Cf. especially Job 29', 2 Chi 
 32«, Neh. 8i-"<5. , ■■ 
 
 16. and the man was, etc. The fact that the old man was mere!; 
 a sojourner in Gibe'ah is emphasized in order that his conduct ma; 
 by contrast bring the inhospitality of the Gibe'athites into, holds 
 relief. On the sacred duty of hospitality in the East, cf. Cheyne 
 EB. 2128. 
 
 18. unto my home. Reading iflia ^x with ffi eis roc o'kov (ioi 
 
 (cf. v.'^), in place of 3^ nin' n*3"nx which has no doubt arisei 
 
 through a copyist's mistake of *ri''3 for an abbreviated '* Tfi, to whid 
 the fact that the man was a Levite may have been a contributor 
 cause. Cf. the errors of ffi in rendering tov 6vfi6v liov (*nDn) fp; 
 
1&. 2I.-22.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 46^ 
 
 taketh me into his house. 19. Yet there is both straw anc 
 provender for our asses, and there is bread and wine also for me 
 and for thine handmaid, and for the lad with thy servants : therf 
 is no want of anything.' 20. And the old man said, 'Peace be 
 to thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only do noi 
 pass the night in the market-place.' 21. So he brought hirr 
 into his house, and foraged for the asses ; and they washed theii 
 feet, and did eat and drink. 22. They were making merry, when 
 behold, the men of the city, men that were sons of Belial, sur 
 rounded the house, beating on the door, and spake unto the mastei 
 
 niiT' n»n in Jer. 6", evfioi fiov QSm) for niH'' ?)« in Jer. 25 '^ Cf 
 
 21. foraged. Heb. bdlal., only used here, is a Denominative verb 
 from subs. ¥lil 'fodder' (properly moistened or mixed ioAA&r), with 
 the meaning ' to give fodder.' Thus the relation between the verb and 
 subs, is exactly reproduced by the English use of ' forage ' as subs, and 
 (hence) as verb. 
 
 22. m.en that were sons of Belial. Heb. 7S?>pa"''33 'tJ'JN 'men, sons 
 
 of B.', with Suspended Construct State : cf. G-K. § 130 ^.* 
 
 The meaning of Belial, or rather, b'liyyd'al, is highly obscure. The 
 form, as vocalized, is evidently a compound, the first element of 
 which is the negative b'li. It is in connexion with the second 
 element that difficulty arises. If we put aside the Talmudic explana- 
 tion {Sanhedrin, 111 b, ' sons who have broken the yoke of Heaven 
 from off their necks ') which implies a different vocalization from iEH, 
 b^li + 'ol, 'without yoke' — adopted by Jerome in the present passage, 
 ' filii Belial (id est, absque jugo) ' — the explanations in debate at the 
 present day are two. (i) The second element yd'al is taken as a 
 subs, meaning ' worth,' which, though otherwise unknown in Heb. or 
 any other Semitic language, is assumed from the existence of the 
 verbal form in the Hiph'rl modification, ho'il, with the meaning ' to 
 be profitable.' B^liyaal is thus supposed to mean ' worthlessness ' ; 
 and this is the generally accepted modern explanation, adopted e.g. 
 by BDB., and appearing in R.V. marg. (2) The explanation of 
 ydal as an apocopated Imperfect from ja'"// ' (that which) comes up ' 
 is as old as Kimchi, who supposes that 'not coming up' has the 
 sense 'not prospering,' i.e. 'n^er-do-well.' So Hupfeld among 
 moderns. 
 
 The objection that the context in which the term is regularly used 
 requires something much stronger than a merely negative term, e.g. 
 
 * Perhaps, however, we ought to read D'tJ'JN for ''B'JKi as in ch. 20 '3, 
 Deut. 13 14, I Kgs. 2i">. 
 
468 THE BOOK Ot' JUDGES [1§. a 
 
 of the house, the old man, saying, ' Bring forth the man whi 
 came unto thy house, that we may know him.' 23. And thi 
 man, the master of the house, went out unto them and said unti 
 them, 'Nay, my brethren, do not wickedly, I pray you; seeim 
 
 malignity or dangerous wickedness - msiy perhaps be" met by the 
 parallels offered by other languages in which terms originally nega- 
 tive have come to assume a very definite positive meaning — e.g. 
 do-e/Siyr, German ' Unheil,' Old Eng. ' naughty ' (cf NHTK. p. 245)> 
 A real objection is, however, advanced by Cheyne (cf. EB. 525 f., and 
 articles in ET. there cited) when he points out that neither explanation 
 suits the occurrence of the word in 2 Sam; 22 ^•'' = Ps. 1 8-*-* (3| ^■') which 
 must be deemed crucial for its interpretation. This passage runs— . 
 
 ' Billows of Death encompassed me ; 
 Torrents of B'liyyaal o'erwhelmed me ; - ; 
 
 Toils of She'ol surrounded me ; 
 Snares of Death* confronted me.' 
 
 Here B'liyyaal is parallel to Death and She'ol, and Cheyne with 
 great plausibility suggests that it denotes the Abyss as ' (the place- 
 from which) one comes not up' ; cf. the Bab. nidt la tdri 'the Land 
 of No-return,' a title of the Underworld. That there was, in Heb. 
 thought, a definite connexion between the ideas of the Abyss- and 
 abysmal wickedness is proved by the use of the term hawwa, or 
 more frequently the intensive plur. kawwoth, as that which- 
 characterizes the wicked man's ' inward part ' (Ps. 5 ', |§ ""), or, which 
 he plots or meditates (Ps. 38^2, |§ >3, 52", 5^4.9^ 55",- ?§'^ a^O/ 
 Hawwa corresponds to Ar. hdwiya, ' a deep pit, hell,' Syr. hawM, 
 'gulf, chasm' (cf. BDB, p. 217 b), and its only satisfactory rendering 
 as used in the cases noted is Cheyne's ' engulfing ruin ' (now generally 
 adopted). On this analogy it is reasonable to assume that b'liyyd'at, 
 as the Abyss from which there is no ascent, came to be applied to 
 wickedness of an appalling and catastrophic character. Lagarde has 
 acutely pointed out {Prophetae Chaldaice, p. xlvii) that in Ps. 41 * (S') 
 the derivation of ¥liyyd'al, as understood by the poet, seems to be 
 given. If we vocalize 13'n for ^3'!^ the passage runs — 
 
 I 
 ' A plague of b'^liyyd'al is poured out upon him ; ' 
 
 And now that he hath lain down he shall arise no more.' 
 
 Here stichos b indicates that ddbher bHiyyd'al in stichos a is to be 
 understood as 'a plague of not rising up' {i.e. 'from which one does 
 not arise '), or, as we should say, ' a mortal sickness.' 
 
 * The repeated DID is auspicious. Possibly we should emend n-lD7V ' deep 
 darkness' with Cheyne, Book of Psalms'^, ad loc, who rendered the four terms 
 'Deathland . . . Ruinland . . . She'ol . . . Gloomland,' 
 
19. 23- 24.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 469 
 
 that this man hath come into my house, do not this wanton- 
 ness. 24. Behold my daughter, who is a virgin, and his 
 concubine, let me, pray, bring them out, and humble ye them, 
 and do to them that which is good in your sight ; but to this 
 man ye shall not do any such wantonness.' 25. But the men 
 would not hearken to him : so the man laid hold on his con- 
 cubine, and brought her out unto them outside ; and they knew 
 her, and abused her all the night until the morning, and let her 
 go when the dawn arose. 26. Then came the woman at the 
 approach of day, and fell down at the doorway of the man's 
 house where her lord was, till daylight. 27. And her lord arose 
 
 In 2 Cor. 6'^ BfXmX or BeXidp is used, as often in Apocalyptic 
 literature (of. references in EB. 525), as a name of Satan. 
 
 23. wantonness. Heb. n'bha.ld. The term denotes the action of a 
 person (called nabhal) who is morally insensible- of the claims of 
 either God or man. In the present passage n'bhald is used, as most 
 often, of immorality viewed as a callous disregard of fhe rights of other 
 people. Cf. Driver's notes in Parallel Psalter., Glossary, p. 457 ; 
 NHTS? p. 200. 
 
 AV., R.V., in rendering ndbhdl 'fool,' n'bhald 'foolishness,' are 
 not only inadequate but misleading. Driver renders 'senseless,' 
 ' senselessness ' ; but an objection to this rendering is that the English 
 terms would not naturally be understood (apart fsom explanation) to 
 convey the meaning of moral and religious insensibility. There 
 seems to be no English rendering of ndbhdl which suits all occurs 
 rences. Perhaps the best general rendering is ' impious,' if we may 
 use this adj. to denote one who lacks pietas in the full and wide 
 sense in which the term is employed in Latin. When, however, the 
 term ndbhdl expressly contemplates a man's attitude towards his 
 fellowmen, the rendering 'churl' may be more appropriate. Cf. 
 Abigail's summary of the character of her husband in i Sam. 25 ^^ — 
 '■ Churl {Ndbhdl) is his name, and churlishness {n'bhdld) is with him.' 
 The character of the ndbhdl is summarized in Isa. 32 *f- (A.V., R.V. 
 here 'vile person' ; ««i5/^/a 2/.^ 'villainy'). 
 
 24. Behold my daughter, etc. The view of Befr. that this verse is a 
 later interpolation from Gen. 19 * is improbable in view of the fact 
 that the whole narrative is closely modelled on Gen. 19 2«- in the first 
 place (cf. p. 444).* 
 
 * The abnormal suffix-form inB'jf'^S is doubtless an error for IK'JP^S ; cf 
 ,/j,. 2.25.27.29 (Q.K. § gi^f). For the masc. plur. suffixes DniK (twice), DHP, we 
 should of course expect the fem. ; but such a use of masc. for feni. is frequent (cf. 
 instances collected by Konig, Syntax, § 14). 
 
470 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [19. 28: 30. 
 
 in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went 
 out to go on his way, and, behold, the woman his concubine 
 was fallen down at the doorway of the house, with her hands on 
 the threshold. 28. And he said unto her, ' Up, and let us be" 
 going ' ; but there was none that answered : then he took her 
 up upon the ass; and the man arose, and went to his place. 
 
 29. And he entered into his house, and took his knife, and laid 
 hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into 
 twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the border of Israel. 
 
 30. []<And he commanded the men that he sent, saying, 'Thus 
 
 28. but there was none that answered. The addition of ffi"ss. j^, 
 r]v veKpa adds an unnecessary explanation, and is clearly a gloss. 
 
 30. And he commanded. . . and speak. Reading ^t}'K p'tJ'JNiTnK 1X*1 
 
 •nani nvv r\'hv 05^ ■icii' n-rn Dvn -q onspp h^js^ This 
 
 text follows ffi*' '"'•, which, after a text corresponding to |§ in w.™', offers 
 the doublet koi evereiXaTO Tois avhpdtriv ols i^aireiTTHKfv Xiyiav TdSe 
 ipe'ire rrpis iravra av8pa liTparfK Ei •ycyoi/ei' Kara to mfia tovto ano Tjjs 
 fifiipas dva^dtrecos v'lmv ItrpoT^X e^ AlyvjTTOv ecos rrjs rjjiepas Tairrjs ! SiaSi 
 S17 iavTois ^ovKtjv nepl airfis Koi "KaXrjcraTe. That this rendering, has a 
 genuine Hebrew text behind it is proved by the mistranslation irpos 
 TrdvTa av&pa IcrparfK, which clearly represents the collective expression 
 
 ^KIC'' B'''N h:h (cf. ch. 20", al.). It is to be expected that the Levite 
 should have entrusted his envoys with a verbal message ; and the 
 exhortation ' Take ye counsel,' etc., comes more naturally from him 
 than from those to whom the messengers are sent. In J§ 73 HMI 
 'J1 ^D^<1 nxin the tenses are difficult, and, if part of the original 
 narrative, can only be taken as frequentatives — 'And it kept happen- 
 ing that everyone that saw would say,' etc. ; but such a use of 
 the frequentative is hardly natural. Assuming the text which we 
 adopt to represent the original, the corruption in ?§ may have arisen 
 as follows. The words 'And he commanded . . . men of Israd' 
 were omitted through homoeoteleuton, the preceding z/.^' ending with 
 ' Israel.' The speech ' Hath there been,' etc. being thus disconnected^ 
 and the spokesman undefined, attempt was made to solve the diffi- 
 culty by insertion of ' And it was so, that everyone that saw it said, 
 the fact that this is a late gloss being indicated by the tenses 
 nOXI . . . n^m, which are to be regarded as Perfects with weak \ 
 not 1 consecutive. The substitution of K7 for n interrogative at the 
 beginning of the speech may have arisen through dittography of 46 
 final h of fiNIB". , j 
 
19. 3°- 20. I.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 471 
 
 shall ye say to all the men of Israel), " ''Hath'' there been Tsuch 
 a deed as this"' since the day that the children of Israel came 
 up from [] Egypt unto this day 1 Take ye rcounseP concerning 
 it, and speak."' 
 
 20. I. X Then all the children of Israel Twere called to arms'" 
 R' and the congregation was assembled X as one man, R'' from 
 
 Bu., Mo. (SBOT.), No., La., Kit. BJI., Cooke prefer to construct 
 a text from ffi'^ v.^\ ffi'^, ^ v.^\ |^ v.^ ; i.e. after receiving the 
 Levite's message, the spectators respond by echoing it in substance. 
 Such repetition is, however, from the literary point of view, almost 
 intolerable ; and' it is difficult to justify the conflate text. We cer- 
 tainly cannot explain the omission of the injunction to the mes- 
 sengers in |§ through homoeoteleuton ('unto this day' in the words of 
 the messengers and in the response of the spectators) as is done by 
 Mo. and Cooke, since such homoeoteleuton would naturally result in 
 omission of the response of the spectators and not vice versd, the 
 scribe's eye passing from the first HtH DITI ly to the second and 
 omitting all that came between. How could it pass from the second 
 to the first and omit all that came before the first ? On the other 
 hand, the text of &" {i.e. the second reading which we take to be 
 original) might have omitted '% v.^*^ by homoeoteleuton ; but in this 
 case we should expect omission also of l!5^, ?^ v.^'*' which, as forming 
 part of the Levite's message, must ex hypothesi have preceded 
 
 take ye counsel, etc The expression nvif •ICB', 'Apply {lit. set) 
 counsel,' does not occur elsewhere : cf , however, ch. 20 '^ DDP XITS 
 D$n nail nsV, 'Give here your advice and counsel,' with the same 
 Ethic Dative D3? (it is possible that we should read 1311 for -nail 
 as in 20'^). 1^ -nail -IVV r\'hi D3H»''k') 'set [your mind] upon it, 
 take counsel, and speak,' implies an ellipse of DSaf) after •Itt'tJ', as in 
 Isa.4120. Houb., Stu., etc., read 033!) for D3^. The verb p^ 'take 
 counsel' (for the normal J'y) occurs once again in Isa. 8 "". 
 
 '20. I. were called to arms. Reading -IpV-SM with Bu. in place o\ 
 f§ -IXS'I 'came out,' etc., to battle (Mo.). The emended verb is more 
 natural in connexion with the words following ' unto Yahweh at Mis- 
 pah.' The same emendation is probably to be made in the parallel 
 passage l Sam. 1 1 ' on the authority of ffi : cf. NHTS.^ ad loc. 
 
 the congregation. Cf. p. 446. 
 
472 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 2. 5. 
 
 Dan even to Be'er-sheba", and the land of Gile'ad, X unto ;' 
 Yahweh at Mispah. 2. R'' And the chiefs of all the people, 
 •(out of)> all the tribes of Israel, took their stand in the- 
 assembly of the people of God, even four hundred thousand 
 footmen that drew sword. 3. X And the children of Benjamin ' 
 heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mispah. 
 R'' And the children of Israel said, 'Tell how this wickedness- 
 was brought to pass.' 4. And the Levite, the husband of the 
 murdered woman, answered and said, ' To Gibe' ah which be- 
 longeth to Benjamin I came, -even I and my concubine, to 
 spend the night. 5. And the citizens of Gibe'ah rose up against 
 me, and surrounded the house against me by night; me they 
 thought to have slain, and my concubine they humbled so that 
 
 from Dan, etc. So (defining the northern and southern limits of 
 the land of Israel) 1 Sam. 320, 2 Sam. 31°, 17", 24 ^i^, i Kgs. 4^* 
 (1^ 5 ^).t With jnverted order, i Chr. 21 2, 2 Chr. 30^.1 
 
 the land of Gile'ad. Gile'ad is used here in its widest sense of all 
 the Israelite territory east of Jordan. ■ Cf. note on ch. lo^'. 
 
 unto Yahweh. According to this narrative, Mispah seems to be 
 regarded as the site of an important sanctuary. Cf. the remarks 
 on pp. 447, 453. 
 
 Mispah. The accepted site is the modern Neby Samwi! on a lofty 
 eminence (2935 feet) five miles north-west of Jerusalem, appropriately . 
 named 'place of outlook' (cf. note on the eastern Mispah, ch. 10'') as 
 commanding the country round for a great distance. Neby Samwil 
 is about three and a half miles nearly due west of Hirbet Ris et- 
 Tawil, and a little north of due west of Tell el-Ful (cf note on 
 Gibe'ah, ch. 19'^). Cf. Map, p. 465. 
 
 2. the chiefs. Heb. pinnoth (i Sam. 14^*, Isa. 19'', Zech. lo*) is 
 explained as a figurative usage of the word meaning 'corner' (w. 
 ' corner-stone ') of a building. Cf. the usage of the Ar. rukn ' corner- 
 stone,' and then ' noble.' 
 
 out of all the tribes, etc. Reading 'tD3B'"i'3tp with Gra., in place 
 of i§ 'Q3t^"^3 '(even) all the tribes,' which, as it stands, is awkwardly-' 
 explicative of DVn 'the people.' ffi'^, "S j;ender 'and all the tribes.' 
 The D which we insert may easily have fallen out through haplo-. 
 graphy after DJ/H. 
 
 four hundred thousand footmen. On the huge numbers, cf. pp. 44^. 
 
 me they thought to have slain. On this statement as compared ■ 
 with 1922b (,£ p_ ^j^ 
 
 5. they humbled. ffi^% 3L, Si^ add koi ivitrai^av avrrj, i.e. nylTP?!}'] 
 as in ch. 1925. 
 
20. 6. 8. 9- 10.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 473 
 
 she died. 6. Then I took hold of my concubine, and divided 
 her, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance 
 of Israel, because they had committed lewdness and wantonness 
 in Israel. 7. Here ye all are, ye children of Israel; give here 
 your advice and counsel.' 8. And all the people arose as one 
 man, saying, ' We will not any of us go to his home, neither will 
 we any of us turn unto his house : 9. but now this is the thing 
 which we will do to Gibe' ah ; <we will go up> against it by lot, 
 10. and will take ten men of an hundred of all the tribes of 
 Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten 
 thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do [] to 
 Gibe''"ah'' of Benjamin according to all the wantonness that 
 
 6. lewdness. Heb. zimma, as applied to sins of unchastity, is 
 characteristic of H — Lev. i8'', 19 2°, 20''"'* and of Ezek. where it is 
 used metaphorically jaf idolatry under the figure of whoredom and 
 adultery— Ezek. 16 27*3.68^ 22 «, 23 2i-2J-29-36M.«!.«.49^ 24"; so also in 
 Jer. 13 ''I Elsewhere of adultery. Job 31". Scholars who hold 
 that vv?^^ belong to the oldest narrative are forced by these 
 facts to suppose that zimma is a later insertion, the original nar- 
 rative running simply 'because they had committed wantonness in 
 Israel.' 
 
 8. to his home. Lit. ' to his tent.' On the usage of the phrase, of. ch. 
 19' note. Perhaps we ought here to read the plur. VPHN? as is usual, 
 
 rather than the sing. i^riN^. 
 
 9. we will go up, etc. Inserting n^VJ with ffi a.va^i\<T6fii6a in' airf/v 
 
 iv K.\jjpa. So Ros., Stu., Mo., etc. This verb may easily have fallen 
 
 out before Tfhv. || reads simply ' against it by lot,' which clearly 
 
 cannot be original. K K3ny3 rOV 'iDnj ' we will apportion ourselves 
 
 against it by lot,' S'" 1 ^ OIjJxI I^DtJ ' we will cast lots against 
 
 it,' represent different attempts to fill the lacuna. Bu.'s ^nij n^^SJ 
 
 is less probable than the emendations adopted. The reference of the 
 casting of lots appear to be to 7/.'*, where Judah is selected to begin 
 the attack, a statement which, as we have seen (p. 448), seems to 
 stand out of relation to the main narrative in which all the tribes take 
 part simultaneously in the battle. 
 
 10. that they may do to Gibe'ah, etc. Omitting DN13^, which is 
 
 intruded in f§ between r\Vi>V^ and V3J^. R.V. renders |^, 'that they 
 may do, when they come to Gibe'ah of Benjamin, according to all 
 
474 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. u. ' 
 
 rthey'' have done in Israel.' ii. J Then all- the men of Israel 
 were gathered together against the city as one man, in con- 
 federacy. 12. R^ And the tribes of Israel sent men through all 
 the tribe'"' of Benjamin, saying, ' What is this wickedness that is 
 brought to pass among you? Now therefore deliver up the 
 men, the sons of Belial, that are in Gibe'ah, that we may put 
 them to death, and extirpate ''the'' wickedness from Israel.' But 
 <^the children of)' Benjamin were not willing to hearken to the 
 voice of their brethren the children of Israel. 14. X ^nd the 
 
 etc' ; but, apart from the extreme awkwardness of the position of 
 
 DKU?, the use of the prep. ? in a temporal sense (in place of 3 or D) 
 
 is unparalleled. DK13P is possibly a corruptixjn of rij?33? which has 
 
 come in from the margin, where it was noted as a correction of WH?. 
 
 ffi'^, reading D*N3^ for DNia^J and placing it before nWJf?, renders 
 
 Tols da-tropevoixevoLS iin.Te\ea-at rfi Tafiaa, kt\. This yields a tolerable 
 sense ; but may be suspected of being a correction of the text of 
 <S:^, &^, where we have the order of |l§ — iinrikiaai. rois fio-mpevo- 
 fievots Va^aa^ ktX. ' . 
 
 io Gibe ah. Reading Ti^yh in place of S '^'^'hf which is an 
 obvious error : cf. note on ch. 19'^. 
 
 they have done. Reading plur. •ib'SJ with (!K* Si", S'', in place of 
 % sing. masc. n'K'S?. Had the city been individualized, we should 
 have expected the fem. sing.: cf. G-K. § 122 ^ 
 
 12. tribe of Benjamin. Reading D3tJ' with the Versions for plur. 
 ipiB' of 51, which probably arose through unintentional imitation of 
 hvcyo'' 'tpafe*' at the beginning of the verse. The same error is found 
 in I Sam. g^i. The Jewish commentators explain the plur. by the 
 assumption that 'tribes' is here equivalent to 'clans' (ninS^D), 
 Kimchi referring to the term Benjaminite clans enumerated in 
 Gen. 46 ^* ; but such a usage is very improbable. 
 
 sons of Belial. Cf. iq^^ note. 
 
 the wickedness. The Def. Art. is necessary before njn. Its 
 omission in ^ is due to erroneous division of the words— nj)"! mynJi 
 for nj?in lynjl — or to haplography. 
 
 the children of Benjamin. So K^re, many MS S. of 1§, ffi, »,*■ 
 Kt. ' Benjamin ' simply. 
 
20. 14. IS- iSb.i6.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES ■ 475 
 
 children of Benjamin were gathered together out of the cities 
 unto Gibe'ah, to go out to battle with the children of Israel. 
 15. R'' And the children of Benjamin were mustered in that day 
 from the cities twenty and '"five'' thousand men that drew sword, 
 not including the inhabitants of Gibe ah, [] even seven hundred 
 
 14. out of the cities, ffi, S"" presuppose Dn^iyo 'out of their 
 cities.' 
 
 15. twenty and five thousand. So ffi*"-, S^ U, in place of ?§, 
 'twenty and six thousand.' The correction is necessary in view of 
 the statement that after 25, 100 had fallen {v.^^) the survivors numbered 
 600 {v.^''). The narrator is very precise in the matter of numbers, 
 and we are hardly justified in following Kimchi, who suggests that 
 the' 1000 who are unaccounted for in comparison of the 26,700 of |§ 
 with the numbers given in vv.^-^'' combined may have fallen in the 
 battles of the first two days. According to the parallel account (J) 
 18,000 Benjaminites fell in battle (z/."), and the redactor is content 
 (7/7/. 'of) to raise this number to a round total of 25,000, ignoring the 
 odd 100. 
 
 iSb.i6. not including, etc. The text adopted follows y, 'praeter 
 habitatores Gabaa, qui septingenti erant viri fortissimi, ita sinistra ut 
 dextra proeliantes, etc' This differs from ?§ in omitting npSfin in 
 
 ■u>^\ and lina t^'K niSD J?3tJ> HTn Dj;n bo in v}^\ So <E, S^ 
 except that in 7/.'^'' they retain Hpsnn, which they treat as a relative 
 sentence (©'' o\ inetrKenria-av, ffi'^'' ovToi £iv€<rK€nr)tTav, S"" Q_i_11dZ(j), 
 a course which is followed by A.V., R.V. ; but illegitimately, since 
 such a rendering demands the insertion of ^B>^{ before the verb, 
 
 or (as Bu. suggests), of ntsn. As |^ stands, the meaning of 
 
 npann nj)33n 'aC'D la? can only be 'not including the inhabitants 
 of Gibe'ah were they (the Benjaminites) numbered.' It is obvious, 
 however, that the inclusion of npSDH in the text destroys the balanced 
 contrast between the openings of vv.^^-'", . . . t''D''33 ''J3 llpSfT'l 
 npann ^snS" B^KI, lit. 'and were numbered the children of 
 Benjamin . . . and the men of Israel were numbered' — a variation 
 of order which is very idiomatic in Heb. (called by Driver, Tenses, 
 § 160, Obs., 'the Hebrew equivalent of fiiv ... St of the Greeks'). 
 As for v.^^a, omitted by F, ffi, S"" — it is true that such omission 
 might be due to homoeoteleuton (iin3 C'S) ; yet it seems in the 
 highest degree unlikely that both the inhabitants of Gibe'ah and 
 the left-handed warriors should have been described originally by 
 identically the same phrase, '700 chosen men.' An alternative 
 emendation of the text, favoured by some scholars, is to end v.^ 
 
476 ■ THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 15. 18. 21. 
 
 chosen men 16. [] that were left-handed ; all of these were used 
 to sling a stone at a hair and not let it miss. 17. And the meh 
 of Israel were mustered, not including Benjamin, four hundred 
 thousand men that drew sword ; all of these were meri of war. 
 18. And they arose, and went up to Bethel, and enquired of 
 God, and the children of Israel said, ' Who shall go up for us 
 first to battle with the children of Benjamin?' and Yahweh 
 said, ' Judah first.' 19. ^ And the children of Israel arose in 
 the morning, and encamped against Gibe 'ah. 20. J And the 
 men of Israel went out to battle with Benjamin ; and the men 
 of Israel set the battle in array agains"t them at Gibe'ah. 
 21. X And the children of Benjamin came out from Gibe'ah, 
 and felled of Israel to the ground in that day two and 
 
 with npsnn, making its subj. to be the children of Benjamin, and 
 to retain v.^^ as it stands in ?§, thus taking the genuine mention of 
 the 700 chosen men to be to the experts with the sling. The 
 objection to such a text (which has. no support from the Versions) 
 is that it leaves us in ignorance of the number of the Gibe'athites— 
 m omission which, in a tale which is so exact in its numbers, is very 
 unlikely. 
 
 Adopting our text, it is the Gibe'athites who form the corps of 
 left-handed sUngers ; and it is worthy of notice that the warriors 
 who, according to I Chr. 12"'-, joined David at Siklag, and who 
 'were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the 
 eft * in slinging stones and in shooting arrows froin the bow,' were 
 of Saul's brethren of Benjamin,' and their leaders are stated to have 
 Deen Gibe'athites. 
 
 15. chosen men. Heb. Hs baMr, i.e. young warriors in the prime 
 jf manhood. 
 
 18. went up to Bethel. On the site of Bethel, cf. ch. i ^^ note. It 
 ies eight miles to the north-east of Mispah (Neby Samwil). On the 
 ntroduction of the sanctuary at Bethel, here and in v.^, 21 \ as ahen 
 :o the conception of the narrative which pictures the tribes as assem- 
 sling ' unto Yahweh' at Mispah, cf. pp. 447, 453 "B takes Bethel to 
 •efer to ' the house of God' at Shiloh, on the assumption that the Ark 
 vas at Shiloh from the days of Joshua" (Josh. 18 1°) to those of 'Eli 
 cf. Mo. on 7/W. 27-28). - 
 
 enquired of God. Cf. note on ch. i '. On the incident recorded in 
 his verse as modelled directly upon ch. i '-^^ cf. pp. 448, 454. 
 
 21. felled . -. . to the ground. Heb.- ni^lX . •in'ni!'«1. The 
 ■endering of A. V., R.V., ' destroyed down to the ground,' accortts 
 
 * Cf. the explanation of the phrase IVD* "V nt3X given by »; :P-not simply 
 left-handed,' but ' ambidextrous. ' 
 
&0. 23. 26. 27.] THE BOOK OV JUDGES 4>7 
 
 twenty Hhousand men, 22. J And R" the people, J the men of 
 Israel, took courage, and again set the battle in array in the 
 place where they had set it in array on the first day. 23. X And 
 the children of Israel went up, and wept before Yahweh until 
 the evening; and they enquired of Yahweh, saying, 'Shall I 
 again approach to battle with the children of Benjamin my 
 brother?' And Yahweh said, 'Go up against him,' 24. So 
 the children of Israel drew near against the children of Ben- 
 jamin on the second day, 25. J' And Benjamin went out to 
 meet them from Gibe'ah on the second day, X and again felled 
 to the ground of the children of Israel eighteen thousand 
 men: R"" all these drew sword. 26. x Then all the children 
 of Israel, R'' and all the people, X ^^^gnt up, R"" and came to 
 Bethel X and wept, and sat down there before Yahweh, R'' and 
 fasted that day X until the evening, R''and offered burnt offerings 
 and peace-offerings before Yahweh. 27, X And the children of 
 Israel enquired of Yahweh, R''(for the Ark of the covenant of 
 
 with the conventional rendering of hishith, but offers an unnatural 
 expression in English. Ball points out (verbally) that in the present 
 use of hishith we have a preservation of the original meaning of ihe 
 verb as seen in the Bab. sahdtu of the T.A Letters, which means 'to 
 fall,' and would therefore in the causative stem (Hiph'il) naturally 
 signify 'to fell.' So vv. ''^■^ (in the last case with om. of nSIN, 'to the 
 ground'). Cf. for the sense 'cause to fall' in Pi' el. Gen. 38"- 
 
 23. And the children of Israel went up. We expect the place to 
 which they went up to be mentioned. Probably this was originally 
 specified as Mispah by the X narrator, and this name was cut out by 
 R' so as not to conflict with his own conception of Bethel as the 
 central sanctuary. Cf. t/.^°, where the words 'and came to Bethel' 
 have been inserted by R'. 
 
 26. burnt offerings and peace-offerings. The burnt offering (wholly 
 consumed by fire on the altar) is here a piaculum., and is followed by 
 the peace-offering as a communion-feast shared by Yahweh and His 
 worshippers with the purpose of ratifying and strengthening the 
 covenant-bond. On the origin and conception of these two forms of 
 sacrifice, cf. the present writer's Outlines of O.T. Theology, pp. 55 ff. 
 The precise meaning of s^lem, conventionally rendered 'peace- 
 offering,' is somewhat obscure. For different views, cf. BDB. p. 1023. 
 
 27. the Ark of the coveruint of God. This form of allusion to the 
 A,rk ('of the covenant, etc.') is due in the first place to Deuteronomic 
 influence. In ancient narratives it is called 'the Ark' simply, or 
 ' the Ark of Yahweh ' {or ' of God '), Cf. the conspectus of allusions 
 in NHTK. pp. 31 f. 
 
478 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 28. 31. 
 
 God was there in those days, 28. and Phinehas, the son of 
 Ele azar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) 
 X saying, ■* Shall I again go out to battle with the children of 
 Benjamin my brother, or shall I forbear ? ' And Yahweh said, 
 'Go up ; for to-morrow I will deliver him into thine hand.' 
 
 29. J And Israel set an ambuscade against Gibe'ah round about. 
 
 30. X And the children of Israel went up against the children.of 
 Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against 
 Gibe'ah, as aforetime. 31. And the children of Benjamin went 
 
 28. Phinehas. There seems to be no doubt that the name is the 
 Eg. Pe-nhesi, 'the negro,' i.e. 'child of dark complexion' ; cf. Lauth, 
 ZDMG. XXV. (187 1), p. 139 ; W. M. MuUer in EB. 3728, and, for the 
 general usage of the term nhesi, AE. p. 112. The Eg. origin of the 
 name is an important point in favour of the historical existence of 
 its bearer* ; and this is strengthened by the fact that the name 
 reappears as the name of a descendant J — the second son of 'Eli 
 (i Sam. I ^, a/.). 
 
 stood before it. The phrase, which is here employed of the sefvici 
 of the Ark as the typical embodiment of Yahweh's manifestation, is 
 used elsewhere of the Levites' ministrations ' before Yahweh ' (Deut. 
 10^, 18', Ezek. 44^^), and in the mouths of the prophets to illustrate . 
 thSr conception of their relation to Yahweh (i Kgs. 17', 18'*, 2 Kgs. 
 3 '*, 5 ^''). Standing in the presence of a master is the natural attitude 
 of a servant who is ready to execute his behests (cf. i Kgs. l', 12', 
 Jer. 5212, a/.). '■ 
 
 31. to meet thetn. Reading DflXlp? conjecturally in place of 3§ 
 DVn nN"lpi5 'to meet' the people,' on the ground (argued above, pp. 
 449, 453) that the use of DJ?n is elsewhere in the narrative character- 
 istic of the redactor R"", and that the change which we here pre- 
 suppose is a very easy one. 
 
 * In the same way, the identity (gsnerally accepted) of the name Moses (Heb. 
 MSsi) with the Egyptian Most, which appears as an element in theopborous 
 proper names, e.g. Ahmosi, Thutmosi, and also as a name by itself, is, historically 
 important. Had Moses been merely a legendary national hero, Israelite, his- 
 torians would hardly have invested him with an Egyptian name. 
 
 J That the family of 'Eli represented the ancient legitimate priestly line— there- 
 fore the line of descent from Ele'azar — seems to follow from i Sam. 2^". The 
 theory of the Chronicler (i Chr. 248) that Sadok was a descendant of Aaron's - 
 firstborn son Ele'azar, and Abiathar ('Eli's great-great-grandson) a descendant of 
 his youngest (fourth) son Ithamar, is clearly a device intended to legitimitize the 
 claim of Sadok's family to the highpriesthood. We note, however, that, according 
 to the earher theory of i Sam. 2 36, Sadok (who is clearly hinted at : cf. i Kgs. 2'^) 
 is to be raised up on account of his superior moral claims as representing the 
 mind of Yahweh, and nothing is said about his prior claim by birth, thd conttW 
 being in fact implied hynv.^-^. Of Sadok's antecedents prior to his appointment; 
 by David we really know nothing. Cf. Wellh., Prolegomena, pp. 126, 138 f-,,; 
 
20. 33-] THE fiOOK OF JUDGES 475 
 
 out to meet '"them"', '"and'^ were drawn away from the city ; and 
 they began to smite and kill R"" of the people, -X as aforetime, 
 R'' in the highways, of which the one goeth up to Bethel and the 
 other to Gibe^on"', "X in the field, about thirty men of Israel. 
 32. And the children of Benjamin said, 'They are smitten 
 down before us, as at the first ' : but the children of Israel said, 
 'Let us flee, and draw them away from the city into the high- 
 ways.' 33. J And all the men of Israel rose up'"^ from their 
 
 and were drawn away. Reading ■'ipri3»i with Ehr. in place of I§ 
 
 •Ipnjn, which is anomalous in form (we should expect -IpRn) and also 
 
 awkward as an asyndeton. As Ehr. remarks, the n may easily have 
 arisen through a misreading of ^1. 
 
 in the highways . . . Gibe'on. Reading njV33 in place of |§ 
 nnyaj 'to Gibe ah,' with Bu., No., La., Kit., Cooke! 
 
 Heb. m'Hlla denotes, not a mere beaten track, but a properly 'made' 
 highroad. Whatever view' be taken as to the precise site of Gibe'ah 
 (cf. 19'^ note\ there is no. doubt that it was on {i.e. just off) the main 
 northern road which led to Bethel : therefore, on the reading of H, 
 the distinction here so clearly drawn between the two highroads is 
 hardly explicable. Half a mile north-west of Tell el-Ful and nearly 
 due west of Hirbet Ris et-Tawil the northern road forks, one branch 
 running north-west, and reaching Gibe'on (el-Gib) after three miles. 
 Both roads ' go up ' on the whole. The elevation at the fork is 2462 
 feet. The Bethel-road reaches Bireh (2824 feet) in some five miles, 
 and then makes a further continuous rise to Bethel (2890 feet), which 
 it reaches two miles further on. The Gibe'on-road falls at first in 
 crossing the wady ed-Dumm (2298 feet) at three-quarters of a mile, 
 and then makes a steady rise to Gibe'on (2535 feet) some two miles 
 fiirther. A line drawn from Mispah (Neby Samwil) to JJirbet RS-s 
 et-Tawil actually crosses the fork of the road : consequently a hostile 
 army approaching Gibe'ah (assumed to have been-at the latter site), 
 and feigning a disordered retreat in order to draw the Gibe'athites 
 away from their city, would naturally be spread out over the two 
 roads. Cf. Map, p. 465. 
 
 in the field. According to our analysis of the sources, this is not a 
 description of the site of Gibe'on or Gibe'ah, but the direct continua- 
 tion of 'began to smite and kill as aforetime,' in the narrative of X. 
 The object of the Israelites' feint of retreat was to draw the Ben- 
 jaminites away from the city-precincts into the open country (cf. Josh. 
 8 ^•'=-), and thus to facilitate the capture of the city by the ambush. 
 
 33. And all the men of Israel rose up., etc. Here we have in J the 
 direct continuation of v."^. Having laid the ambush, the main army 
 makes a move to begin the attack. The order of the sentence. 
 
4§0 tHE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 33, 
 
 place, and set themselves in array at Ba al^tamif ; X and the 
 ambuscade of Israel burst forth from its place '^on the west of 
 
 IDp ?S^tf ^ tJ'^N P31, with the subj. brought into prominence by beinff 
 placed first, offers an intentional antithesis to v.'^ (the ambush was 
 laid thus, iui the main army, etc.).* 
 
 The construction of % iopSD' -IDp is hardly tolerable. We must 
 read sing. Dp in agreement with the collective ?X1t5'* (^N, the narra- 
 tive then continuing with the plur. verb ISiyi as in vv.^"-^^ ■' or 
 accepting the plur. verb with the collective sing, subj., as in vv.^^-^1-** 
 adopt the plur. suffix DDipBD. 
 
 Ba'al-iamar. Unidentified. Eusebius (05. 238'°) states that in 
 his day there still existed a Beth-tamar near Gibe'ah. 
 
 burst forth. Heb. n*JD. The verb ^za^ is only used elsewhere in 
 the O.T. of water bursting forth. Job. 38^, 40 2^, Ezek. 32 ^ (doubtful) 
 — cf. Gihon, ' the Gusher,' the name of the spring outside Jerusaleai ; 
 or, of a child bursting forth from the womb, Mic. 4 ■", Ps. 22 '" (doubt- 
 ful), cf. Job. 38 8 already cited. The verb is frequent in Aram, in the 
 Aph'el, followed by the accus. mp 'battle,' in the sense 'movere 
 bellum.' The emendation n^iliyD 'looked forth' (cf. S^ |001inj^), 
 proposed by Gra., is much inferior to J§. 
 
 on the west of Gebd. Reading ^ a^^BD with ffi*"-, S% U, and 
 
 most moderns, in place of J§ niysD. Md'^re (treated by R.V. text 
 
 as a proper name : cf. ffi" aTro Mapaaya/Sc) is rendered 'meadow' by 
 R.V. marg. (A.V. 'meadows'), on the assumption that it means a 
 bare, naked place \ {i.e. devoid of trees ?) : cf. the rendering of E 
 ■itJ'''D ' plain.' § Such a bare open space would obviously -be the 
 last place which an ambush would choose for concealment. Si' 
 
 ^ini-yj-Oj 1^ri^ ,^ 'from the cave (mySD) which is in Geba'), 
 
 * The hopeless difficulty in which this half-verse has involved commentatQfS; 
 upon the ordinary assumption that it is a continuation of the narrative immedi- 
 ately preceding, is well set forth by Mo. Mo. himself hesitates upon the verge 
 of the conclusion which we have adopted : — ' It might be suspected that the half- 
 verse came from the older narrative, in which it would have a passable sense and 
 connexion after v.^, but the construqtion is so negligent, not to say ungram^ 
 matical, that the conjecture is hardly to 'be entertained.' Cf., however, the 
 remarks on the construction made above. With the slight emendation there 
 advocated it is perfectly idiomatic. 
 
 X niiy 'bare places' (?) in Isa. 19', rendered by R.V. ' the meadows ^ly fin 
 Nile,' is itself too dubious to be quoted-in support. 
 
 § According to SWP. Great Map, imi., there actually exists a Sahel Geba', 
 i.e. 'plain of 6eba',' south-east of the village of deba', but this appears too 
 remote from the scene of action. Cf. Map, p. 465. 
 
20. 34-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 481 
 
 Geba', 34. and they came in front of Gibe'ah, even ten thousand 
 
 and this is improved upon by Ar., the half-verse being rendered, 
 'and the ambuscades were in the caves of Geba', looking forth 
 (n*J^D) from their positions,' the plur. ' caves ' being substituted for 
 the sing, probably on the ground that one cave would not suffice for 
 such a force (Ros.). * 
 
 Geba' is nearly two and a half miles north-north-east of Hirbet Ris 
 et-Tawil, and three miles from Tell el-Ful ; so that, if 'to the west of 
 Geba'' is literally interpreted, the ambuscade must have been placed 
 at a considerable distance from the city. Not improbably, however, 
 we may think of it as concealed in the valley which runs from the 
 western side of Geba' down to Hizmeh (so La.), from which it could 
 rapidly proceed up the wady el-Hify to Ras et-Tawil. Of Map, 
 p. 465. 
 
 Mo. effects a complete agreement with the Versions upon which we 
 base our emendation by reading ' west of Gibe'ah ' (ffi*'' dw6 Sva-fimv 
 T^s TajSao, F 'ab occidental! urbis parte') ; but this surely cannot be 
 correct, since west of Gibe'ah was the very direction in which the 
 Benjaminites were advancing to the attack of the Israelite host. 
 The whole account of the stratagem seems to indicate that the 
 ambush attacked Gibe'ah from the east or north-east, while the 
 Benjaminites were being drawn off to the west. 
 
 34. in front of Gibe'ah. Heb. nV3a^ 1330. The sense of 1J3D is 
 
 somewhat obscure. It may be supposed that it denotes something 
 more definite than ' in view of,' and is intended to describe the quarter 
 from which the city was approached ; and, if this is so, we may con- 
 jecture that it has the sense often possessed by the analogous expres- 
 sion I'sh 'before,' viz. '■ eastward of ' : cf BDB. s.v. CiS, 7a (rf). This 
 is the quarter from which the city could be approached unobserved, 
 and from which it would naturally be approached from the south- 
 west of Geba'. Such a meaning suits the use of ijj in the similar 
 description of the capture of 'Ai in Josh. 8. Here the ambuscade is 
 west of 'Ai (7/.°), and the main army of Israel, advancing from the 
 Jordan valley, would naturally come ' in front of the city ' {i.e. east- 
 ward of it) before encamping on the north of it {v. "). La. takes a 
 different view, holding that ' in front of means that the ambuscade 
 placed itself between the Benjaminites and Gibe'ah so as to cut off 
 retreat— therefore, to the west of it. A different reading offered by 
 twenty-seven MSS. of |§ and presupposed by St (DIIID) is n|3p 'to 
 the south of This might describe the position of a force coming up 
 the w4dy Zimry to attack R4s et-Tawil ; yet the reading is hardly to 
 be preferred to that of ?§. 
 
 * Three caves are marked at 6eba' in the S WP. Great Map, xvii. 
 2H 
 
l82 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 35. 37. 38. 
 
 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore ; J but they 
 knew not that evil was closing upon them. 35. x And Yahweh 
 smote Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel felled 
 of Benjamin on that day twenty-five thousand one hundred' 
 men : R'' all these drew sword. 36. X And the children of 
 Berijamin saw that they were smitten ; J and the men of Israel 
 gave place to Benjamin, for they, trusted in the ambuscade which 
 they had set against Gibe ah. 37. And the ambuscade hasted; : 
 and made an onset against Gibe'ah : and the ambuscade opened 
 out, and smote all the city at the edge of the sword. 38. Now 
 the appointment between the men of Israel and the ambuscade 
 was [] that when they should make a beacon of smoke to rise up 
 
 even ten thousand, etc. The reference is to the ambuscade. - 
 but they knew not, etc. The subj. is clearly the Benjaminites who 
 are the victims of the ruse ; and the fact that they are not mentioned;: 
 in the earlier half of the verse is an indication that we are dealing in 
 this latter half with the other source (J). The ' antecedent statement 
 in J must have described how the Benjaminites sallied forth to meet 
 Israel at Ba'al-tamar {v.^'^); cf. Josh. 8", where the latter half of 
 the verse bears a marked resemblance to the present passage. 
 
 35. felled. Cf. note on z'.^'- 
 
 twenty -five thousand one hundred tnen. I.e. all but the 600 sur- 
 vivors mentioned in w.*^. Cf. note on w.^^ 
 
 37. opened out. I.e. deployed. Heb. '^B'D*1. Cf. ch. 4 ' note. 
 
 ■^Z. appointment. Heb. 'mS'edh, lit. (here) 'appointed time' (as 
 very frequently ; cf BDB. s.v. la). The signal of the smoke-beacon 
 indicated the md'edh for Israel's volte-face, but was not itself the 
 nio'edh (we have no parallel for mS' edh = ' a.Tppomteii signal'). 
 
 was, that when, etc. Omitting the vox nihili 3in before Dn'vVnp 
 
 with some MSS. oi<Sf, 9)^, U, and all recent commentators, as corrupt 
 dittography of the immediately preceding 3'n'Kn 'the ambuscade.' 
 
 % XpDNP t12D"'''1, lit. 'that they should make great to send up,' is 
 followed by R. V., ' that they should make a great cloud of smoke, etti 
 (A.V. is similar.) This rendering apparently regards 3"in as apoco- 
 pated Imperat. Hiph'Il of nan — a view which would be just possible if 
 the injunction were couched in the oratio recta {X\'h'i}h 3in 'make 
 great to send up,' i.e. ' send up as much as you can ! '), but is of course ; 
 out of the question when it is expressed obliquely with the suflix 
 form ^T\^h^^rh. Some MSS. of f^ read yyy ' sword,' which appears 
 in (JEt*^ fM^aipa thrown into the sentence without any intelligible; 
 
!0. 39- 40. 42.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 483 
 
 )Ut of the city, 39. the men of Israel '"should"' face about in the 
 battle. And Benjamin began to smite and kill among the men 
 if Israel about thirty men; '"and"' they said, 'Surely they are 
 itterly smitten before us, as in the first battle.' 40. Then the 
 aeacon began to ascend from the city in a column of smolce ; 
 ind when Benjamin looked back, behold, the holocaust of the 
 :ity rose up toward heaven. 41. And the men of Israel faced 
 ibout; and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw 
 that evil had closed upon them. 42. So they turned'^"' before 
 
 connexion. ffi° r^s /laOT^ (connecting with preceding iiera toO 
 iviipov) appears to represent an att empt to make sense of this. 
 a beacon. Heb. ina^elk, lit. ' an uplifting.' 
 
 39. the men of Israel should face about. Reading Tisni after the 
 happy suggestion of Mo. (adopted by Driver, ET. xviii. p. 332, and 
 Cooke). The Perf. with 1 consecutive (idiomatically continuing the 
 Infinitive construction : cf. Driver, Tenses^ § 118) states the other side 
 of the pact |§ '^bn>1 'and the men of Israel /ac^rfai(;«/,' anticipates 
 
 z/.^S and makes the Israelites anticipate the appointed signal which 
 is not given till -z/.*". The attempt of some scholars {e.g. Kit., La.) to 
 explain the verb as meaning here ' faced about in flight ' (which they 
 had already done in i'.^^''),'and in z/.^'" 'faced about to make a stand,' 
 is obviously futile. 
 and they said. Reading •nDN'l in place of ?§ -nOX 'S 'for they 
 
 said.' Obviously the conclusion drawn by the Benjaminites was the 
 result of their preliminary success in smiting Israel. The text of ^ 
 can only be explained as meaning that they began to be successful 
 because they supposed that the same result was bound to ensue as 
 on the preceding days. This, however, is clearly not the intention 
 of the narrative. The confusion of 1 and 3 is not uncommon : cf ch. 
 16 2', I Sam. 2 21 npa '3 for IpES'l (ffi koi eVfo•.:£^^a^o), Jer. 37 i« K3 ''3 
 for N3'1 («& (cai ^X^ev) ; conversely i Kgs. 22 ^^ nD''1 for HD '3 (ffi on 
 Te8vriK€v), Isa. 39' yOB"''! for yDK* '3 (ffi rJKOva-ev yap, and so ^ in 
 2 Kgs. 20 *2). 
 
 40.. The holocaust of the city. Heb. -|iS?n 5".^3. The rendering 
 adopted is that of Mo., who points to Deut. 13 '' for a similar use of 
 kalU in allusion to the destruction of a city by fire : ' And thou shalt 
 bum with fire the city and all its spoil as a holocaust to Yahweh thy 
 God.'. R.V., rendering 'the whole of the city,' has to supply the 
 words 'z« smoke' after 'went up.' The similar passage in Jpsh. 8^ 
 has ' the smoke of the city went up toward heaven.' 
 
 42. they turned. Reading Jfi'l in agreement with the singulars 
 
484 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 43. 
 
 the men of Israel unto the way to the wilderness ; but the battle 
 overtook them, and they that were from ^the city"' were destroy- 
 ing them in the midst'^^, 43. "^and they beat down^ Benjamin 
 
 ?nD''1, Ivy proceeding, and the sing, suffix of inn|3''3in following in 
 place of ^ plur. !|3Ei»l. So Bu., No., Kit. B//. . ': 
 
 from the city. Reading TiyniO with "S (' sad et hi qui urbem suc- 
 
 cenderant'), some MSS. of ffi, Mo. The reference is, of course, to . 
 Gibe'ah. The ambuscade, having burned the city, now joined in the 
 attack of the Benjaminites in the field. Cf Josh. 8 22. ^ D'lSno 
 
 ' from the cities,' must have arisen through dittography of the initial 
 ID of D^nTlB'D immediately following. 
 
 in the midst. Reading 'qina with Mo., No., La. (cf U 'ex utraque 
 
 parte,' S^ lAijLQ£3, % K3D1 K2D), as in Josh. 8", ' And these others 
 
 [the ambuscade who had just burned the city] came out of the city 
 against them ; so they were in the midst of Israel [lit. they were, as 
 regards Israel, in the midst,' '^lina], some on this side, and "some on 
 
 that side : and they smote them,' etc. The meaning of the phrase is 
 the same in our passage, viz. that the Benjaminites were 'in the 
 midst' of the Israelite forces, caught between the main army and the 
 ambuscade which has issued from the city. In J^ 131)13 R-V. 'in the 
 
 midst thereof,' the reference of the suffix is obscure, and we may 
 regard the 1 as properly the 1 consecutive belonging to the verb which 
 opens the next verse. Cf. note following. 
 
 43. and they beat down . . . Gebd. Reading pD'jaTIN •1fl3|! 
 
 V?a nDi 11? nniao •inD'in'i, in place of ?g -inannn Dp^^stin -nrii 
 
 nwan rm ny -inannn nn-ljp, rendered by R.V. 'They enclosed! 
 
 the Benjamites about, [and] chased them, [and] trode them down 
 at [their] resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah.' The text of 
 |§ is undoubtedly very corrupt. 11113, 'they surrounded,' is strange 
 in the description of a pursuit ; and if the verb is preserved uncor-, 
 rupted it seems almost necessary to regard the statement 'they sur- 
 rounded Benjamin' as a marginal gloss upon 131)13 in the preceding 
 verse. Our emendation -inS'l (so Ehr.) is based on ffi" km KaThojtnv, 
 ffi*'- KOI (Koy^av ; cf the use of the verb in a similar connexion in 
 Num. 14^5 (ffi KOI KaTeKoyjfav avTovs), Deut. I **. The disappearance 
 of 1 consecutive before the verb may be due to the fact that it has 
 been taken as the suffix of the preceding 13in3, which should be 1113 
 (cf note preceding). The suggested emendations .1)1)13 or ini3 
 have not the same support in usage. 
 
20. 43] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 485 
 
 '"and"' pursued him rfrom Nohah"" [] as far as over against 
 nGeba'n towards the east. 44. And there fell of Benjamin 
 
 ina''lin, inamn are suspicious as being asyndeta. The Hiph'll 
 of CITI is otherwise unknown.' The Hiph'il yrin can hardly mean 
 'trod down,' the sense which is assigned to it by A.V., R.V. (we 
 should expect Kal ; cf. Isa. 63 3) ; but probably (as noted by Ros.) 
 the meaning intended is ' overtook,' as in the Ar. Conjugation iv. and 
 Syr. Aph'el of the verb. The close similarity between the two verbs 
 marks them as doublets ; and one of them at least must be deleted 
 from the text.* We read ■ins'l'I'l with La., Ehr. on the assumption 
 
 that V has been misread. H (cf. noie on 'and were drawn away,' v.^^), 
 and delete in^'iTn as a doublet. 
 
 nn-ljp, 'rest' or 'resting-place,' is treated by R.V., Ber., Ke., Get. 
 
 as an Accus. of place ; but such a usage would be quite without 
 parallel even if the subs, had the Def. Art. prefixed. The sense in 
 which the word is used in its context has proved a crux to the Ver- 
 sions. 85'^'', KaTaTrava-ai avTov KaTaTrav<TLv, treats it as a second Accus. 
 after the preceding verb. Sb^ (connecting with following verb) 
 
 regards nnWD as an adverbial Accus., ■ .mn «-i; ^ . |j^»_i_Li30, ' and 
 quietly (easily ?) slew him ' — hence A V. ' trode them down with ease,' 
 and similarly Ros., and Bottcher in Winer's Zeitschr. 11. i. p. 62 ; 
 but this is a misuse of the meaning of nniJD. U, ®, & treat the 
 initial D of nni30 as the particle jD : so 5J somewhat paraphrastically, 
 'nee erat uUa requies morientium,' i.e. ID of separation, 'apart from 
 rest'; ® (connecting with preceding verb) pniT'J n''3D pjism, 'they 
 chased them from their resting-place ' ; ffi° xai eSia^av avrov ano 
 Noua, treating nni3 as a place-name with p as the terminus a quo. 
 This last explanation, a4opted by Houb., is favoured by Mo., who 
 cites Nohah named in i Chr. 8 ^ as the fourth ' son,' i.e. clan of Ben- 
 jamin, and so possibly the name of a Benjaminite city or village. 
 This we have adopted in our text (with La., and Driver in ET. xviii. 
 p. 332) in default of a better solution ; though, since it cannot be 
 maintained with Mo. {SBOT.) that the ter?ninus ad quern 'as far as 
 over against Geba' ' requires a terminus a quo (there is none e.g. in 
 Num. 14**, Deut. i**), it must be admitted that the emendation is 
 extremely precarious.}: The only alternative seems to be to follow 
 Bu. (with No., Kit., Cooke) in omitting nniJD as due to dittography, 
 on the view that a scribe accidentally duplicated the words \'p''i'2. 
 inamn and the duplication eventually became iriD^ITn nni3D. 
 
 * It is conceivable that both may be marginal variants of innp'^TH in the 
 preceding verse. 
 
 X Luther and Stu. treat nflUD as a place-name defining the terminus ad quern, 
 ' unto Menuhah, ' this being further defined by ' as far as, etc, ' Cf. for this cA. 7 22, 
 ' toward Seredah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah. ' 
 
486 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [20. 44. 45. 
 
 eighteen thousand men : R"" all these were men of valour; 
 45. X And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the 
 crag of Rimmon. R"" And they gleaned of him in the highways. 
 five thousand men, and they followed hard after him as far as 
 i^Geba'^ and they smote of him two thousand men. 46. So all 
 
 In f§ 'as far as over against Gibe'ah to the east,' ' Gibe'ah' is cer- 
 tainly an error, since, as Mo. remarks, ' the Israelites clearly did not 
 desist from pursuit in the immediate vicinity of Gibe'ah, that is, at the 
 very start.' Since the fugitives had as their objective the crag of 
 Rimmon to the north-east (cf. note on vJ^ for the site), it is natural to 
 suppose that we should read ' Geba',' the two names (as noted on 
 p. 464) being often confused. So Mo., Bu., La., Kit., Driver {ET. 
 xviii. p. 332), Cooke. Why the pursuit ended at the point indicated 
 hardly calls for solution, the reasonable inference being that the ulti- 
 mate survivors had at this stage succeeded in getting clear away. 
 Mo. remarks that 'Geba (Geba') lies in the line of flight from Gibeah 
 (Tell el-Ful) toward Rammon, and the great wady es-Suweinit, with/ 
 its difficult passage between Geba" and Makhmas, would naturally 
 check the pursuit.' Similarly, Cooke — ' Jeba' lies on the way to 
 Rammon ; but before the fugitives could reach their place of refuge 
 (Rimmon, v}^) the narrow defile of the Wadi Suwenit (i Sara. 14*"), 
 between Jeba' and Machmas would stop further pursuit.' The pre- 
 sent writer can, however, state, from personal inspection of the wMy, 
 that, at any point at which it would naturally be encountered in a 
 flight from Tell el-Ful or R4s et-Tawil to Rammon it could be crossed 
 without much difficulty^ Only if the fugitives had gone out of their 
 way towards the east, and then struck off northward at an angle, 
 would they have found the w4dy a formidable obstacle." Cf Map, 
 p. 465. 
 
 44. all these, etc. Heb. ^Tl ''E'JK H^X'i'STlN here and in w", with 
 
 nx introducing the Nominative with some emphasis^a mark of late. 
 and inferior style : cf. G-K. § 117 «. 
 
 45. the crag of Rimmon. Eusebius and Jerome (05. 146', 287") 
 mention a village named Rimmon fifteen Roman miles north of 
 Jerusalem. The identification by Rob. {BR.^ i. p. 44°) wi"i *^ 
 modern Rammon, three and a half miles east of Bethel, ' situated on 
 and around the summit of a conical chalky hill, and visible in; all 
 directions,' is generally accepted. Cf., however. Addenda, p. m, 
 where the claims of a rival identification are discussed. 
 
 as far as Geba'. Reading VariV with Mo. (ra/3oa, Ta^o is the. 
 reading of the group of ffi MSS. cited by Mo. as ffi"), in place of % 
 D'yiriy which, as- vocalized, can only be regarded as a propel 
 
20. 48.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 487 
 
 that fell of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that 
 drew sword in that day : all these were men of valour. 47. But 
 there turned and fled towards the wilderness unto the crag of 
 Rimmon X six hundred men ; J and they abode on the crag of 
 Rimmon four months. 48. And the men of Israel turned back 
 unto the children of Benjamin, and smote them at the edge 
 
 name 'unto Gid'om' — a locality which is otherwise quite unknown 
 to us. 
 
 There should be no doubt that the emendation adopted is correct. 
 The reference occurs in the redactor's interpolation, vv.^^'^P^-^, the 
 sole object of which is, not to supply fresk topographical information, 
 but (cf. p. 448) to cure the discrepancy between the figure 1 8,000 in 
 v.^ (J), as compared with 25,100 in v.^° (X). As a means of accom- 
 plishing this, he had in his sources iwo scenes of action to which the 
 slaughter of further Benjaminites (making up, in round numbers, 
 25,000, v.^) might be assigned : {ci) the battlefield, which, as we 
 learn from z/w.^'-'^, extended over the m'silldth, 'highways,' west and 
 north-west of Gibe'ah (cf. note on v?^) ; {b) the Hne of flight, which is 
 described in v.*^ as extending (from the battlefield) ' as far as over 
 ■against Geba'.' Thus, on the view that the 1 8,000 fell on the battle- 
 ' field before the flight (a deduction implied by the placing of v.^ 
 before •z/.**^), he assigns {a) an additional 5000 as the result of a 
 grape-gleaning (for the use of the verb 'olel, cf the subs. Sleloth in 
 ch. 8 ^ note), i.e. a careful going over the m'silldth a second time to 
 wipe out stragglers ; and {b) 2000 more as overtaken in the pursuit 
 before it was abandoned on reaching 'as far as Geba'.' 
 
 A casual suggestion thrown out (though not adopted) by Mo. in 
 a footnote in his Comm. (p. 444) is that we might vocalize the word 
 in |§ as an Infinitive, DyirnV ' till they cut them off'' : cf. the use of 
 the verb in c^ 21^, 'One tribe is cut off" (^133) to-day from Israel.' 
 This has been adopted by succeeding commentators (so Bu., No., 
 La., Kit., Cooke). Clearly the syntax will not admit of such a 
 reading. Considering that Benjamin is referred to in the sing, both 
 immediately before (innS) and immediately after (1J0»), the writer's 
 choice, had he meant to use such an Infinitive, would have lain 
 between iVirnV (cf. i Kgs. 22 1'l, Ps. 18 ^s), and, preferably, 
 
 in'K nyirny (cf. Jer. g'^, 4937, Deut. ^\ 28 « «/.). 
 
 The reading of 5', ' Gibe'on,' is adopted by Gra. ; but this city lay 
 in the wrong (Mrection. 
 
 48. turned back unto the children of Benjamin. The reference is 
 to the non-combatants (old men, women, and children) whom they 
 found at home in the cities and villages. 
 
488 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [21, 4 
 
 of the sword, both '"inhabited"' city, and cattle, and everything 
 that there was ; moreover all the cities that there were they sel 
 on fire. 
 
 21. I. Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mispah, saying, 
 'There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin -to 
 wife.' 2. R"^ And the people came to Bethel, and sat there until 
 the evening before God, and lifted up their voice, and wept sore, 
 3. And they said, ' Wherefore, O Yahweh, God of Israel, hath 
 this come to pass in Israel, that there should be missing to-day 
 one tribe from Israel? ' 4. And on the morrow the people rose 
 up early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings 
 and peace-offerings. 5. And the children of Israel, said, 'Who 
 
 both inhabited city. Vocalizing QfiD T'VD lit. ' both city of men,' 
 as in Deut. 1^, 3=, Job 24 12, with several Heb. MSS., Stu., Wellh., 
 Mo., etc., in place of f&. QhD "l^VD which, if genuine," would seem 
 
 to mean ' both city of entirety^ whence R. V. ' both entire city.' The 
 subs. Dhp only occurs again in Isa. i ^, Ps. 38^-' (?§*■') in a different 
 connexion (' soundness ' of body). Even with our emendation the 
 sequence (lit.) 'from city of men unto cattle, unto everything, etc' is 
 
 rather strange. 5'" reads \ • v-^V ]SDjiO \»-^ *JLld ^, 
 
 which, if not merely a paraphrase, presupposes 'jl nDilS'iyi D1KD 
 
 'from mankind to cattle, etc.': cf. Gen. 6', 7^^, Ex. 9^, 12", 
 Lev. 27^^, Num. 3", Jer. 50^, 51^^^ Ps. 135 ^ This reading, which 
 is adopted by Gra., is certainly easier. Kit. DriBD 'from men,' 
 omitting 1*5?, 
 
 21, 4. and built there an altar. The statement is difficult to 
 explain in view of 20 ^^■'■"», according to which Bethel was the scene 
 of the priestly ministrations of Phinehas, and the IsraeHtes had 
 already offered there the same forms of sacrifice as are mentioned 
 in the present passage — clearly (it is implied) on the ancient altar 
 pertaining to the sanctuary. Mo. and Bu. regard the statement 
 relating to the new altar as a gloss ; but, considering that the 
 Bethel-passages, here and in ch. 20, appear to emanate from the late 
 redactor R"", it is difficult to conjecture what purpose a still later 
 interpolator could have in view in making a fresh altar take the 
 place of the old and orthodox altar as pictured by the priestly writer. 
 May we conjecture that certain elements from one of the sources 
 underhe R'''s work in vv.^-^, and that among these there was an 
 allusion to the building of an altar at Mispah ? 
 
21. S- 6. 7. 8.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 489 
 
 is there from among all the tribes of Israel that came not up in 
 the assembly unto Yahweh?' For the great oath had been 
 pronounced concerning him that came not up unto Yahweh to 
 Mispah, saying, ' He shall surely be put to death.' 6. x And 
 the children of Israel were moved to pity for Benjamin their 
 brother, and said, ' One tribe is cut off to-day from Israel. 
 7. J How shall we do for wives for them, R'' for the survivors, 
 J seeing we have sworn by Yahweh not to give them of our 
 daughters to wives ? ' 8. And they said, ' What one is there of 
 the tribes of Israel that came not up unto Yahweh to Mispah ? ' 
 And, behold, there had come no man to the camp from Jabesh 
 of Gile'ad R"" unto the assembly. 9. And the people were 
 mustered, and, behold, there was not there a man of the 
 inhabitants of Jabesh of Gilead. 10. J So R"" the congregation 
 
 5. for the great oath, etc. The definite form in which the reference 
 is couched seems to point to a recognized formula, the provisions of 
 which were well understood (Mo. compares i Sam, i424-26.28)_ Failing 
 this explanation of the Def. Art., we must infer that it points back 
 to an earlier mention of the oath — in which case it is probable that 
 here again we have an element from one of the sources. R.V. 
 'for they had made a great oath, etc.,' does not bring out the force of 
 the Heb. 
 
 6. is cut off. Lit. 'is hewn or lopped off,' like a branch from 
 a tree (so Mo., who compares Isa. 10'^, 14'^). In place of JJ'133 
 
 some MSS. read V"1J3 'is withdrawn or subtracted,' which, though 
 
 possible, is not so forcible as the accepted text. 
 
 T. for them, for the survivors. Here 'for them' originally found 
 its reference in a part of J's narrative which has been omitted by R^ 
 Thus, to make the allusion clear, R"" has added ' for the survivors ' 
 (cf. z/.i«»). 
 
 8. fabesh of Gile'ad. The name is preserved in the w4dy Yabis, 
 which runs into the Jordan from the east about nineteen miles north 
 of the mouth of the Jabbok ; but the site of the city has not been 
 identified. Eusebius {OS. 225 ^, 268 *') describes it as lying ' on the 
 mountain ' (table-land) beyond Jordan six Roman miles from Pella 
 on the road to Gerasa. Rob. {^BR.^m. p. 319) proposes the ruined 
 site ed-Der on the southern edge of widy Yabis, six miles from the 
 Jordan ; but this site, though the right distance from Pella (Q. 
 Fahil), is off the road to 6eraS, and, according to Merrill, unmarked 
 by really ancient remains. Merrill {DB. ii. p. 524) favours the 
 ancient site Meryamin on the northern side of wAdy Yibis ; but 
 this, though stated by him to be 'about seven miles from Pella,' 
 
490 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [21. n. 12. 
 
 J sent thither twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and 
 commanded them, saying, ' Go, and smite the inhabitants of 
 Jabesh of Gile'ad at the edge of the sword, with the women 
 and the little ones. 1 1. R"" And this is the thing that ye shall do; 
 every male, and every woman that knoweth cohabitation with a 
 male ye shall devote to destruction, J'^but the virgins ye shall 
 save alive.' And they did so.> 12. And they found of the 
 inhabitants of Jabesh of Gile'ad four hundred virgin girls, that 
 had not known a man R'' in respect of cohabitation with a male ; 
 
 appears, as measured on the map, to be not more than two or three 
 miles distant.* 
 
 Jabesh is mentioned elsewhere in the O.T. solely in connexion 
 with the history of Saul. It was the rescue of the city from Nahash 
 the 'Ammonite which (according to the J liarrative i Sam. 11) gave 
 Saul the opportunity of proving his ability as a leader and led to his 
 election to the kingship ; and in grateful memory of this rescue the 
 inhabitants of Jabesh, after the death of Saul at the battle of Mouat 
 Gilboa', recovered his body from the wall of Beth-she'an where it 
 had been hung by the Philistines, and buried it, together with the 
 bodies of his sons, in or near their city (i Sam. 31 '■'^). David, on 
 his succession to the kingship at Hebron, sent a message of thanks 
 to the Jabeshites for this action (2 Sam. 2 *"■), and eventually brought 
 back the bones of Saul and his sons from Jabesh and buried them in 
 the ancestral tomb of Kish in the land of Benjamin (2 Sam. ai'"'). 
 The selection of this city — so friendly and faithful to Saul— for a 
 shameful part in a narrative which deals with an atrocious deed 
 committed by Gibe'ah, Saul's native city, suggests with some reason 
 that the leading motive in the story may have been deep antipathy 
 to the memory of Saul and his adherents. Cf. p. 447. 
 
 II. but the virgins . . . did so. Adding |3 -Itfyiil -ITin ni^-in3n"JlKl 
 
 after &^ ras hi nap6ivavs 7repi7roi,r]0-e(r8e. xal e7roiTi(Tav oiras, Cf. » 
 ' virgines autem reservate.' The addition is indispensable in view of 
 the fact that the saving of the virgin girls was the prime purpose of 
 the expedition. - ^- 
 
 xi. four hundred virgin girls. It is not unlikely that, according 
 to J, there were only four hundred surviving Benjaminites to be 
 provided with wives. 
 
 ' There is a discrepancy in the position of Meryamln as given by the Sraitii- 
 Bartholomew map and the EB. map, the former placing it barely two miles 
 south-east of fj. Faliil and three and a quarter miles north-west of deir Halaweh 
 (ed-DSr), while the latter places it nearer the vv^dy Yabis, three arid a half miles 
 south-east of H. Fahil and two and a half miles north-west of ed-D6r. SmitKiS 
 Map VI. in HG. agrees more nearly with EB. 
 
21. IS- I7-] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 491 
 
 J and they brought them unto the camp R'' to Shiloh, which is in 
 the land of Cana'an. 
 
 13. J Then R'' the whole congregation J sent, and spake unto 
 the children of Benjamin that were on the crag of Rimmon, 
 and proclaimed peace to them. 14. And Benjamin returned at 
 that time, and they gave them the women that they had saved 
 alive of the women of Jabesh of Gile'ad ; R' and yet so they did 
 not find enough for them. 15. And the people were moved to 
 pity for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in 
 the tribes of Israel. 16. And the elders of the congregation 
 said, ' How shall we do for wives for the survivors, seeing that 
 women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?' 17. x And 
 they said, ' i^How shalP a remnant "^be left^ to Benjamin, that a 
 tribe be not blotted out from Israel, 18. seeing that we are not 
 
 to Shiloh. Why the camp should be represented as transferred 
 from Mispah (or Bethel) to Shiloh cannot be divined. Mo. thinks 
 that the editor may be already shifting the scene to prepare for the 
 narrative of vv. '"'•, though, as he adds, ' that story is really quite 
 incompatible with the presence of the Israelite encampment at 
 Shiloh.' 
 
 which is in the land of Canaan. The same curious definition is 
 found in Josh. 21 2, 22', with reference to Shiloh, both passages 
 belonging to the Priestly source. The second passage, which relates 
 how the two and a half tribes leave Shiloh to return to Gile'ad, east 
 of Jordan, suggests that ' in the land of Cana'an ' may be the equiva- 
 lent of 'west of Jordan,' as distinct from east of it (of. Josh. 22'°); 
 but in any case, the fact that the site of Shiloh has to be defined at 
 all indicates a very late date for the comment. Cf the exact descrip- 
 tion of the site in v. ^. 
 
 15. Yahweh had made a breach. For the phrase, cf. 2 Sam. 6^. 
 SimUarly (verb pE3) 2 Sam. 520, Ex. 1922-24. 
 
 17. How shall a remnant be left. Readirig rwh^ l^fPI 'q'X as 
 suggested by some MSS. of ffi irwr cVrai xX^poj Siao-mfo^ei'OE kt\., 
 with Mo. (who offers the alternative verb W^'Pi), La., Kit., Driver 
 {,ET. xviii. p. 332), Cooke. % 'a^ nD''^a V!i-\\ ' An inheritance of a 
 remnant for ((7^ pertaining to) Benjamin,' is freely expanded by A.V., 
 R.V. into ' There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped 
 of Benjamin ' ; but even if we grant the legitimacy of this rendering, 
 there still remains the difficulty that the question deals with the 
 territory of Benjamin, whereas the context makes it clear that the 
 immediate concern was to secure that the tribe zte^ should not be 
 
492 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [21. 19. 20. 21., 
 
 able to give them wives of our daughters ? ' for the children of, 
 Israel had sworn, saying, ' Cursed be he that giveth a wife to 
 Benjamin.' 19. And they said, 'Behold, tHere is the feast of 
 Yahweh in Shiloh yearly,' R"" which is on the north of Bethel, 
 on the east of ^the^ highway which goeth up from Bethel to 
 Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. 20. X And '^they^ com- 
 manded the children of Benjamin, saying, ' Go and lie in wait 
 in the vineyards ; 21. and see, and, behold, if the daughters of 
 Shiloh come forth to dance in the dances, then come ye forth 
 from the vineyards, and snatch ye every man his wife from the 
 daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22. And 
 
 blotted out. Gort reads nxES'n ' let there be left, etc.,' following &' 
 ^^ I V)i m\ ]jL2i~» ^n^Lm-ii OiLD]o; while Bu., No., prefei 
 rn*NB'3 ' let us leave, etc' 
 
 19. Behold there is, etc. Bu. is doubtless right in regarding these 
 words as addressed to the Benjaminites, and as directly contintied 
 by V. '"'^ in the original narrative. The insertion of the topographical 
 note in v. '' has necessitated the resumption, ' And they commanded, 
 etc' 
 
 the feast of Yahweh. The Heb. term hag properly means ' a 
 pilgrimage ' (cf. Ar. ha^£} ; and though the description of the festival 
 suggests that it was local in character, it may have been attended by 
 pilgrims from the country round. Cf. the description of the position 
 occupied by Shiloh as the religious centre for festival -pilgrimages in 
 I Sam. I, 2. 
 
 which is on the north, etc. The modern Selun (cf. ch. 18'' noti) is, 
 as described, nearly ten miles north-north-east of BMn (Bethel), two 
 miles east of the high road to Niblus (Shechem), and three miles 
 east-south-east of el-Lubbin (Lebonah).* 
 
 of the highway. Vocalizing rhufph with the Def. Art., in placeofilH 
 
 20. And they commanded. K're \i(^'i\ in place of Kt. IV^l. 
 
 21. if the daughters of Shiloh come out. On the plur. masc. pre- 
 dicate before a plur. fem. subj., cf. G-K. § 145 p. 
 
 * In the phrase ? nyiQ-VD of., for the Construct State before the prep., G-K. 
 i 130a, n s, and, for the H locative with the Construct State, G-K. § 90c. The 
 lormal phrase is 7 |iS-XD cf. cA. 2', <j/. 
 
21. 22.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES 493 
 
 when theiV fathers or thei'"r'' brothers come to complain unto 
 Tyou'', '"ye'' shall say, ' Grant the'"m"' graciously to us ; for we took 
 not every man his wife in battle : for ^if ye had given them 
 to '"us"', ye would now be guilty.' 23. And the children of 
 
 22. their fathers or their brothers. Reading fern, suffixes [nnN 
 
 tn^PIK, in place of the erroneous masc. suffixes of |§. Similarly we 
 
 must read [Pinx or |ns (Ezek. i6^) for DHiN in the request 'Grant 
 
 them graciously, etc' With the mention of the brothers as likely to 
 be prominent in demanding satisfaction, cf Gen. 34'''-, 2 Sam. 13 ^'"'■. 
 
 To complain. On Kt. n-n^, cf ch. 6 '" note. K^re substitutes the 
 normal 3'")^. 
 
 unto you. Reading D3*i?N with ffi""^, S^ F, in place of |§ .U'l^x 
 'unto us.' The aggrieved Shilonites would naturally complain 
 directly to the'captors, rather than to Israel at large. 
 
 ye shall say. Reading DRnDNl in place of |§ ■IJIOK'l ' we will say.' 
 
 The emendation is necessitated by that immediately preceding, and 
 by the words of the speech which follow (' to us,' ' for we took not 
 every man his wife, etc.').* The retention of ■IJ'IDN'l involves emen- 
 dation of the speech : cf. notes following. 
 
 Grant them graciously . . . be guilty. Reading ^ for xj) (as 
 suggested by Sta) and -ufj for Xixh. The Benjaminites are to appeal 
 
 to the complaisance of the Shilonites, adducing two reasons : (i) that 
 the Shilonites were not bound to a vendetta on account of the rape, 
 since the maidens had not been captured in battle ; (2) nor, on the 
 other hand, had they given their daughters to the Benjaminites, and 
 so they were not guilty of infringing the oath (v. "). The measure 
 adopted by the Benjaminites had in fact steered a middle course 
 between capture with bloodshed, which must have forced a quarrel 
 on the Shilonites, and request for^the maidens as a voluntary gift, 
 which, if granted by the Shilonites, would have brought them under 
 the curse. The double Accus. in inS 1313n is exactly paralleled by 
 Ps. 119^' ippn 'irniPI 'Graciously grant me Thy law.' The Def. 
 
 Art. in noni'»3 does not necessarily refer to any specific battle 
 
 T T : ■ - 
 
 (cf. I Sam. 26 "", 30", 2 Sam. ig*), though it is possible to find in it 
 an allusion to the great battle of ch. 20. 
 
 * The renderings of A.V., ' because we reserved not to each man his wife, etc' 
 R.V. , 'because we look not for each man [of them] his wife etc' stand in daring 
 disregard of the meaning of the common Heb. idiom. 
 
54 THE BOOK OF JUDGES [21. 2j. 25.' 
 
 ienjatnin did so, and took wives according to their numlaer,, of 
 ne dancers that they had forcibly carried off: and they went 
 nd returned unto their inheritance, and built the cities, and 
 Iwelt in them. 24. And the children of Israel departed thence 
 t that time, every man to his tribe and to his clan, J and they 
 rent out thence every man to his inheritapce. 25. R' In those 
 lays there was no king in Israel : every man was used to do that 
 rhich was right in his own eyeS. 
 
 A different text is represented by some MSS. of (S, and by Si\ 
 \erj<raTe avTovs, OTt ovk eXa^ev {of fKa^ov) avrjp yvvatKa avroii iv Tt^ jro- 
 
 .efia (similarly (5^ with omission of oiik), S"" ^^^SD ^0C71 1 \s QiOwj^ 
 
 r^^riS CTiZAjI i^=»-M °r^? P?i cf. U 'miseremini eorum: non 
 
 :nim rapuerunt eas jure bellantium atque victorum ' ; i.e. (retaining 
 31DN1 and putting the speech into the mouth of the Israelites) 
 
 IDni^Da iriB'N B'^N -inp^ ab »3 nniN -l-in 'Regard them favourably, 
 
 T T :■-:••; IT • T T . J 
 
 or they did not receive each his wife in the war.' This text is 
 idopted (with variations in the rendering of DDIK Un) by Mo., 
 Driver {£T: xviii. p. 332), Cooke. Here ' in the war' is taken to 
 efer to the raid on Jabesh, which had not sufficed to provide wives 
 or the Benjaminites in question. Since, however, the narrative of 
 labesh belongs, (on our theory of the sources) to the other source, we 
 nust (if we accept this text)' trace in the verse the hand of R', , 
 larmonizing and connecting the two narratives — and this not simply 
 with Mo.) as regards the words ' for they did not ... in the war;' 
 3ut as regards the whole verse, since the conception of the carrying- 
 jf the grievance ' unto us ' surely involves the Priestly theory of a 
 lentral judicial authority. Bu. regards the text of 3§ as due to 
 /arlation in the sources, according to one of which the Shilomtes 
 
 Dring their complaint to Israel ('Jl inpi) ^ 'D DHIN Un \TXm ^ih^, 
 Dut, according to the other, bring it directly to the Benjaminites 
 
 23. took wives, etc. Ros. and other commentators compare the 
 Roman legend of the rape of the Sabine women in order to provide 
 ivives for the followers of Romulus (Livy, Hist. i. 9). 
 
 25. in those days, etc. Cf p. 410. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Two scribes taking note of spoils after an Assyrian victory. The 
 bearded man is writing Assyrian in cuneiform upon a clay tablet, 
 using an angular stylus which is held through the full of the hand to 
 impress the characters upon the soft clay. The other man, who is 
 marked by his shaven face as a foreigner, is writing with a pen upon 
 a roll of leather or papyrus, and employing, no doubt, the West 
 Semitic alphabetic script, to make his entry in a language which we 
 may conjecture to be Aramaic. It is interesting in this connexion to 
 note that a general list of titles and offices contained in ii. R. 3 1 , 64b- 6sb 
 mentions together A.BA mdt Assur-a-a and A.BA mdt Ar-ma-a-a, 
 i.e., perhaps, 'an Assyrian secretary' and 'an Aramaean secretary' 
 (the honorific title ABA=' elder' is here thought to correspond to 
 dupsarru ' tablet- writer,' * the Heb. tiphsar of Nah. 3", Jer. 51^')- 
 The representation is part of a large relief from Kouyunjik 
 (Nineveh) figured in iTayard, Monuments of Nineveh, 7.nd Series, 
 PL 26, and is now in the British Museum, Kouyunjik gallery, 
 west wall, series Nos. 4-8. It dates from the seventh century B.C. 
 Similar pairs of scribes are figured in Layard, op. cit.. Plates 26, 
 upper tier, 19, 29 (both with scrolls), 35, 37, Jo. Cf. the remarks on 
 this Plate on pp. 255 £ of the Commentary. 
 
 Plate II. 
 
 Fizs. I and 2. A figure described in pictographic writing as 
 ilu Samcd (the Sun-god) contends with antelopes and lions. 
 
 Fig. 3. GilgameS contends with antelopes and lions. The 
 arrangement of the figures is identical with that of figs, i and 2, the 
 only difference being that Gilgame.? takes the place of ilu Samal 
 That the figure on this seal is GilgameS is indicated by his full-face 
 representation, and the arrangement of his hair in six locks : cf. 
 Plate in. figs. I and 2. Cf p. 400. 
 
 * Cf. Delitzsch, Paradies, p. 258;, Beiirage mr Assyriologie, i. p. 218; 
 
 Sumerisches Glossar, p. 4. 
 
 495 
 
496 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Fig. 4. GilgameS and Engidu struggling with a bull and lion 
 respectively. On the manner in which Engidu is tearing asunder the 
 hind legs of the Hon, cf. note on Judg. 14'. 
 
 Fig. 5. Three Gilgames-figiires wrestling with similar figures: 
 The vanquished figure appears to have been thrown by impact of the 
 victor's thigh against his leg — a form of throw which inay perhaps 
 be intended by the obscure phrase 1"!'' ?V pltf* 'leg upon thigh' 
 in Judg. 15' (cf note ad loc). Cf also the seal figured by Hayes 
 Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (1910), fig. 199. 
 
 The five figures included in this Plate are reproduced by permis- 
 sion from Delaporte's Catalogue des Cylindres orientaux . . . de la 
 Bibliothique Nationale. 
 
 Plate III. 
 
 Fig. I. Gilgames struggling with a lion. He appears to be 
 throwing it by impact of his knee against its back, or by turning it 
 across his thigh (cf description Plate II. fig. 5), possibly in order to 
 break its back (cf Hayes Ward, op. cit., fig. 1 57). This is the finest 
 figure of Gilgames in existence. Note especially the characteristic 
 arrangement of his hair in six locks. The seven locks or plaits 
 (niBPriD) of Samson may perhaps be analogous. Cf pp. 379 f, 
 404. 
 
 Fig. 2. On the left, Gilgame§ and his friend Engidu contend with 
 the heavenly bull (the bull of Anu). On the right, Gilgames is repre- 
 sented in contest with a lion. This seal illustrates very clearly the 
 fact that, in this and similar representations, we really have to do 
 with scenes from the Gilgames-epic (against the view of Sayce, as 
 quoted, p. 401, footnote). The description of the contest with the 
 heavenly bull (sent against Gilgames by the god Anu at the request 
 of I star, in revenge for the hero's rejection of her advances ; cf. p. 
 397 of the Commentary) exists in a fragmentary state on Tab. VI. 11. 
 92 ff. of the Epic. Engidu is described as taking the bull 'by the root 
 (thick part) of its tail ' {ina kubur zibbatisu, 1. 147) and 'by its horns' 
 (11. 134 f), exactly as he is doing on the cylinder-representation. 
 Engidu is always figured with the face and torso of a man, but with 
 the hind legs, tail, horns, and ears of a bull. When first introduced 
 in the Epic he is described as human, but dwelling among the 
 beasts of the field and sharing their characteristics (Tab. I. col. ii. 
 11. 35 ff.). Having been enticed away from their society, he becomes 
 the inseparable companion of GilgameS, and the sharer of his 
 adventures. 
 
 Fig. 3. The Sun-god {ilu Samas) issuing through the gates of 
 sunrise, which are held back by attendants,- and stepping on to a 
 
bESCRIPTlON OF .THE PLATES 49^ 
 
 double-peaked mountain — probably the mountain of Mam ('twin- 
 mountain ') mentioned in the GilgameS-epic as standing at the gates 
 of sunrise. Cf. pp. 395, 399^, 4o6f. 
 
 The three figures in this Plate are reproduced by permission of 
 the Trustees of the British Museum from wax-impressions specially 
 made for the writer through the kindness of Dr. L. W. King. 
 
 All.the figures in Plates II. and III. are examples of Sumerian or 
 early Semitic Babylonian art not later than the third millennium B.C. 
 
 ^ Plate IV. 
 
 Gilgames with the. lion as represented in Assyrian art. The relief 
 is from the palace of Sargon (reigned B.C. 722-705) at Khorsabad 
 (Dur-Sarrukin), and is now in the Louvre. From a photograph 
 by Braun et CK 
 
 Plate V. 
 
 Two reliefs from Carchemish, illustrating the spread of the 
 Gilgames-myth to the Hittites. 
 
 Fig. I. Two identical full-faced figures like Engidu as represented 
 on Babylonian seals, with hind quarters, tail, horns, and ears of a 
 bull, but human face and torso, holding spear and advancing left and 
 right. Two lion-headed human figures behind, wearing short tunics. 
 One threatens Engidu with a weapon. 
 
 Fig. 2. A figure full-faced like Gilgames, but with Hittite cap, 
 kilt, and boots, holds a lion or lioness by the hind legs with his 
 right hand and a bull by the horns with his left hand. A stag and 
 two lion-cubs (?) are in the field. These figures of Gilgames and 
 Engidu are the only full-faced figures among the representations from 
 Carchemish. 
 
 Dr. D. G. Hogarth, who dates the reliefs about the ninth 
 century B.C., points out that, while Babylonian or Assyrian influence 
 is manifest, the technique is characteristically Hittite, the relief 
 returning quite steeply to the bed of the plane. Contrast the Assyrian 
 figure of Gilgames in Plate IV. 
 
 The figures are reproduced, by permission of the Trustees of the 
 British Museum, from Carchemish: Report on Excavations, 1914, 
 ed. D. G. Hogarth. 
 
 » Plate VI. 
 
 A colossal figure from Amathus in Cyprus : height 4 m., 20, breadth 
 of shoulders 2 m. The art is Phoenician ; and the figure, which 
 doubtless represents Herakles-Melkart, illustrates the spread of the 
 : 21 
 
498 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Gilgames-myth westward. M. Al. Sorlin-Dorigny, who describes the 
 figure in the Gazette ArMologique, 1879, pp. 230-236, states that it 
 originally had an ornament on the top of the head, inserted a little 
 behind the horns, in a hole measuring four centimetres in diameter 
 and twelve centimetres in depth. From the edge of this hole all the 
 locks of hair diverge, some, short and wavy, falling over the forehea(^ 
 others, long and smooth, forming six tresses (' ondulations ') in the 
 Assyrian manner, then dividing themselves, into three great bunches 
 of curls which rest on the neck and shoulders. The two horns are 
 imperfect. Assyrian influence is very marked in the treatment of 
 the beard. 
 
 It will be observed that, while the figure generally suggests 
 Gilgames, especially as regards hair and beard, there is more than a 
 suggestion of Engidu in the horns and in the manner in which he is 
 rending the lion by tearing its hind legs asunder (cf. Plate II, 
 
 fig- 4). 
 
 The figure is reproduced from Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de tart 
 dans Vantiquitd, iii., fig. 386, by arrangement with Messrs. Chapman 
 and Hall, Ltd., who own the rights of reproduction in England. 
 
 On Plates IV.-VI., as illustrating the widespread influence of the 
 Gilgames-myth, cf. p. 401 of the Commentary. 
 
 NOTE ON THE MAPS OF PALESTINE 
 
 The Maps of Palestine at the end of this volume have been pre- 
 pared by Messrs. Bartholomew, who are responsible for the coloured 
 contours and all other physical features. The site-identifications have 
 been carefully weighed by the present editor, whose aim has been to 
 admit no identification which does not seem to him to be reasonably 
 assured upon historical and philological grounds. 
 
 The editor is indebted, in the first place, to the Map of Western 
 Palestine, in twenty-six sheets, from surveys conducted uniier the 
 auspices of the PEF. (scale one inch to the mile : cited in the Com- 
 mentary as 5 WP. Great Map), and to the Arabic Name List prepared 
 for the Survey by Prof. Palmer : for the modern names in Map V. he 
 is chiefly indebted to the map of the Negeb in EB., and to Prof, 
 Guthe's Bibelatlas (1911), as well as to the excellent map by Dr, Hans 
 Fischer in ZDPV. xxxiii (1910). ' 
 
 The identification of ancient sites depends upon the labours of a 
 number of investigators in the past, among whose works mention 
 may be made of Dr. Robinson's Biblical Researches in FalestiV^t 
 work which, though based upon travels undertaken so far back as 
 1838 and 1852, still possesses very considerable value), the i/^ww,; 
 of the Survey of Western Palestine published by the PEF,, Sir G, A. 
 Smith's Historical Geography of the Holy Land (first published'in 
 1894), and Prof F. Buhl's Geographie des alten Paldstina (1896), 
 
i>iVJlI!> (J!S IMJi MAI'S 455 
 
 The only British maps of Palestine marking ancient sites which are 
 thoroughly trustworthy are those contained in SB. ; and the help 
 afforded by these was usefully supplemented by Prof. Guthe's Bidel- 
 atlas already mentioned. Other British maps depend chiefly upon 
 the site-identifications contained in the S WP. Mem., and embodied 
 in the maps published by the PEF. which mark ancient sites ; and 
 these, while offering much that is valuable, are unfortunately vitiated 
 by many identifications which are highly dubious, and by some which 
 are positively misleading.* This stricture extends, unfortunately, in 
 some degree even to the folding map (scale four miles to one inch) 
 published under the direction of Mr. J. G. Bartholomew and edited 
 by Dr. G. A. Smith, which is in many respects, the most useful general 
 map which can be employed. J 
 
 As occasion arose in the Commentary, the attempt has been made 
 to note and illustrate the modifications which ancient Biblical names 
 
 * Dr. Driver's warning (NHTS.^ p. xcv) may well be reiterated: — 'The 
 identification of a modern with an ancient site depends mostly, it must be 
 remembered, in cases in which the ancient name itself has not been unambigu- 
 ously preserved, partly upon historical, but very largely upon philological con- 
 siderations : and men who are admirable surveyors, and who can write valuable 
 descriptions of the physical features, topography, or antiquities of a country, are 
 not necessarily good philologists. ' 
 
 X Since the maps for the present Commentary were printed, there has appeared 
 (1915) the long-expected Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 
 edited by G. A. Smith and J. G. Bartholomew. This is a work which takes first 
 rank among Biblical Atlases for beauty of execution, and which contains much 
 that is of first importance to the student — notably the valuable maps of Jerusalem 
 at different periods, and modern Jerusalem illustrating recent discoveries, which 
 have already appeared in G. A. Smith's Jerusalem (1907), and the sectional maps 
 of Palestine on the scale of one inch to four miles which represent a revision of 
 the folding map to which allusion has been made above. These latter maps will 
 naturally be the most consulted of all that are contained in the Atlas ; and it is 
 therefore to be noted with regret that they have not undergone the thorough 
 revision which was anticipated by Dr. Driver when he expressed the conviction 
 (NHTS.^, p. xcv) that the forthcoming Atlas was ' likely to prove in all respects 
 adequate and trustworthy.' To take some points which strike the eye — sect. iii. 
 still contains the preposterous identification of Betsaanim with Sahel el-Ahma 
 which depends (cf note on ch. 4") upon A.V.'s erroneous rendering of 'Hon 
 ' terebinth ' as 'plain.' In the Orographical map 11-12 the 'plain of Zaanaim' 
 still stands ; and here and in sect, map vii. we have the ' plain of Mamre ' (A. V. 's 
 error for terebinths of Mamre). In sect. vi. Gibe'ah is identified with Geba' and 
 both with the rflodem Jeba' (Geba"), in face of the cogent Biblical evidence noted 
 on ch. 19 12 that Gibe'ah is distinct from Geba', and of Dr. Smith's own adoption 
 {Jerusalem, ii. p. 92, n^) of the commonly received identification of the former 
 with Tell el-FM. Other impossible, or highly improbable, identifications (hardly 
 palliated by the fact that they are marked with a query) are 'Ain-Helweh=Abel 
 Meholah (cf. ch. 7^ note), 'Osh el-Ghurab=Rock 'Oreb {ch. 7^ note), Kh. "Erma. 
 =K.iriath-Je'arim (ch. 18 12 note), Tell Deir-'Allah, north of the Jabbok=Succoth 
 (surely, in spite of the Talmudic identification with Dar'ala, to be looked for 
 south of the Jabbok : cf. p. 220). The identifications of Kefr Hasan with Ashnah, 
 and of Ta'lat Heisa with the Ascent of Luhith, which are now (as contrasted with 
 
have undergone in -their reproduction in modern Arabic form.* This 
 is a subject which needs, and would repay, more detailed and sys-~ 
 tematic study than it has as yet received, at any rate in this country, 
 The only scientific attempt to grapple with the subject (so far as the 
 present writer is aware) is that by G. Kampffm'eyer in his articles 
 entitled Alte Namen in keutigen Paldstina und Syrieii in ZDPV.vn, 
 (1892), pp. 1-33, 65-116 ; xvi. pp. 1-71, which well repay careful study. 
 Even a superficial examination of the site-identifications which have 
 so far been fixed or proposed suggests that, while, on the one hand, 
 we have to be on our guard against conclusions which have been 
 drawn in ignorance of philology, yet, on the other hand, there is 
 danger lest we should be limited by too strict a regard for the philO' 
 logical laws, as ordinarily understood, which govern correspondence 
 between Hebrew and Arabic forms. When, as must have happened 
 in a multitude of cases, ancient names have been preserved for 
 centuries merely by oral transmission among ignorant peasants, it is 
 surely inevitable that they should sometimes have assumed a form 
 which, as compared with the original, would seem to be incapable of 
 being brought under the laws of correct philological interchange. 
 Further, there is evidence which indicates that, in some few cases at 
 least, the modern name as transmitted has assumed a form which . 
 possesses no sort of philological connexion with the ancient name, 
 and has been suggested merely by a rough assonance with its original. 
 Such a case has been noted in the modern name of the Kishon, Nahr 
 el-Mukatta', i.e. 'river of the ford,' which has almost certainly arisen . 
 through assonance with the ancient city-name Megiddo of unknown^ 
 meaning in the near vicinity. J Other instances are "probably to be 
 seen in the modern name Aid el-Ma, 'the feast of water,' or, in a 
 variant form, Aid el-Miyyeh, ' the feast of the one hundred,' which 
 has been plausibly suggested as the modern equivalent of AduUam, 
 
 the folding map) marked with a query in deference to Dr. Driver's strictures in 
 ET. xxi. pp. 495, 563 f, , should surely have been omitted altogether'. We also 
 find, without so much as a query, the very questionable identifications el-Lejjto 
 = Megiddo, instead of (as now established) Tell el-MuteseUim nearly a ittile to . 
 the north (of. ch. 1^ note), Ttlbas=Thebez (cf. ck. g^ note], Teli esH-Sheri'ali 
 =Sharulien, edh-Dhaherlyeh=Debir (an identification which, though generally 
 accepted, is really based upon a wholly false etymblogical conclusion drawn by 
 Conder, and is therefore at best nothing more than a guess at the site, apart 
 from any connexion in name : cf. ch. i^^ note). On the other hand, the identic 
 fication of Lift^ with Nephtoah, which is philologically sound and also suitable 
 to the description of Josh. 158, 18 16 (and which the present writer' would have 
 included in his own map without a query, if he had made the investigatioii 
 embodied under ch. 18 '^ before the completion of the map) is not noticed at all; 
 and Kuryet el-'Enab, which strong probability marks as the site of Kiriath- 
 Je'arim (cf. ch. 18 12 note) is simply marked (with a query) as the site of the 
 obscure Kiriath of Josh. 18 28 (where the text is very possibly at fault). 
 
 * ef. 'Ca^ footnotes pp. 21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 282, 306, 377, 430, 
 
 J Cf. Ko^e on 'the rills of Megiddo,' cA. 5^'. 
 
NOTE ON THE MAPS 501 
 
 and in 'Ain S4rah for the well (or cistern) of Sirah (2 Sam. 3 28). 
 Doubtless a number of such cases might be collected. 
 
 Even when we find a satisfactory correspondence between a 
 modem and an ancient name, this in itself by no means settles the 
 problem of identification. It is clear that there has occurred a certain 
 amount of drifting of ancient place-names, the names being now 
 attached to modem villages or to remains which cannot go back so 
 far as O.T. times. Instances of this may be seen in Eriha ( = Jericho, 
 Heb. Y^riho) which is now the site of a modern village one and a half 
 miles south-east of the mound called Tell es-Sultto which un- 
 doubtedly represents the site of ancient Jericho ; Umm L4kis, which 
 probably preserves the ancient name of Lachish,* though the ancient 
 site of this city is fixed with high probability at Tell el-Hasy, three 
 miles to the south-east ; Zer'in, which corresponds accurately with 
 Jezre'el, though, as Prof. Macalister has recently pointed out (cf ch. 
 6^ note), the modem site contains no remains of an antiquity 
 approaching the O.T. period. 
 
 To be ideally complete, the evidence for identification of an ancient 
 site should be threefold : — {a) The philological equivalence between 
 the ancient and modern names should be satisfactory, {b) The site 
 should be attested by the evidence afforded by Biblical and extra- 
 Biblical historians, {c) Examination in situ should be able to prove 
 the existence of remains of a sufficient antiquity. 
 
 The meaning of the geographical terms which occur in Arabic in 
 the maps is as foUows : — 
 
 'Ain (plur. 'Ayiin) = spring. 
 
 Btr or Sireh = well. 
 
 Geb. = Gebel= mountain. 
 
 G«r= bridge. 
 
 y. = H.irbet=r\xvi\ (mined site). 
 
 ^if;^r= village. 
 
 Nahr=r\str. 
 
 i?aiy=head (headland). 
 
 Sahel= plain. 
 
 7a7«#= ascent. 
 
 7V//= mound (usually formed by debris of mined city). 
 
 W.= ff(J^= watercourse (c£ p. 88). 
 
 - * The interchange between k and k which is involved has been thought to con- 
 stitute a difficulty. Cf., however, the converse interchange in the modern Kinah 
 IS compared with the ancient Kanah (cf. p. 24). 
 
502 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 The following orthographical corrections of names in the maps 
 should be noted : — 
 
 Map II. 
 
 For Hapharaim read Hapharaim. 
 „ Gilboa „ Gilboa'. 
 
 Map III. 
 
 For W4dy Kanih ( IV. Kdnah) read Widy Kanah ( W. Kdnah)! 
 
 Kefr And read Kefr 'And. 
 
 Mukmds „ Muhmds. 
 
 Ebal „ 'Ebal. 
 
 Zor'ah „ Sor'ah. 
 
 Mizpeh „ . Mispeh. 
 
 er-Rummdneh read RammSn. 
 Before Liftd add Nephtoah. 
 „ IJ. Sdr add Ja'zer ? 
 
 Map IV. 
 
 For H. Gdld read H. dd/d. 
 „ Ziklag „ Siklag. 
 „ Beth-zur „ Beth-sur. 
 „ Nezib (BSi Nasib) read Nesib {Bet Nasib). 
 
 Map V. 
 
 For Bozrah read Bosrah. 
 
INDICES 
 
 I. GENERAL INDEX 
 
 Aaron, 436, 440 f. 
 
 Abd-Asirta, Ixxii, Ixxvi, Ixxviii, Ixxx, 
 
 xcii, ig6. 
 'Abdi, 'Abdiel, 278. 
 Abdi-Tirsi, cxvii. 
 'Abdon, ciii, 2895., 335. 
 Abel-ceramim, 321. 
 Abel-meholah, 220 ff. 
 Abiathar, lii, 239, 478. 
 Abi-eshu', lix. 
 
 Abi'ezer, 134, 179, 187, 227. 
 Abimelech, xxxvii, xlix, cii, ciii, 76, 
 
 263, 265, 266 ff. , 290. 
 Abi-milki, 265. 
 Abishua', lix. 
 Abram, Abraham, Ixxiv, Ixxx, Ixxxv, 
 
 cix, ex, cxi, cxiv f. , 9 ; meaning of 
 
 name, 250. 
 Acacia, 465. 
 'Acco, aS. 
 'Achsab, 13. 
 Achzib, xiii, 29. 
 Acre, 28. 
 
 Adad-Nirari I. , Ixxix. 
 Adad-sum-nasir, ci, 
 Adam, city of, xiii, 219. 
 Adoni in compound names, 4. 
 Adoni-bezek, 4. 
 Adoni-sedel:, Ixxxvi, cxvii, 5f., 41, 81, 
 
 264. 
 Adonis. See'Tammuz.' 
 'Adullam, 500. 
 Aegean pottery, xciv. 
 Aeginetans, 6. 
 Afk&, 29. 
 
 Agag, execution of, 344. 
 Agb6h4t, 231. 
 Agum-Kakrime, biiv. 
 Ahab, lii), xcviii. 
 Ahaziah of Israel, liii. 
 Afeetaton, Ixx. 
 Aliijah, lii. 
 Ahiman, 9 f. 
 Ahimelech, lii. 
 
 Ahitub, lii. 
 
 Ahlab, 28. 
 
 Ahlamu, Ixxix, Ixxxiii. 
 
 Ahmosi i. , Ixvi, Ixvii, cxii, cxv, cxvi. 
 
 Ahnaton, Ixx, Ixxii, Ixxiii, Ixxix, Ixxxvii, 
 
 Ixxxviii, cxii, cxiv, 253. See also 
 
 ' Amenhotp iv. ' 
 'Ai, cviii, 21. 
 
 'Aid el-Ma, 'Aid el-Miyyeh, 500. 
 Aijalon, 8, 32, 334. 
 'Ain'Atln, 370. 
 'Ain Dilbeh, 14. 
 'Ain es-Sulta.n, 15. 
 'Ain 6aitld, 205, 208 f. 
 'Ain didi, 16. 
 'Ain Hegireh, 14. 
 'Ain el-Helweh, 220. 
 'Ainel-H6d, 406. 
 'Ain Kudes, 34, no. 
 'Ain Mahil, 27. 
 'Ain Slrab, 501. 
 
 'Ain-sems, xciv, cvii, 340, 406, 430. 
 'Aljaywasa, xcii. 
 Altiya, Ixx, Ixxxvi. 
 'Akka, 28. 
 
 Akkad, Ixii ; Semitic dynasty of, Iv f. , Ix. 
 'Akrabbim, ascent of, 33 f. 
 Alasa, xcviii. 
 Aleppo, Ixii. 
 Alphabet, names of letters in Greek and 
 
 Hebrew, 262. See also ' Writing.' 
 Alphabetic script, xcvii, 254 ff. , 495. 
 Altar, primitive rock-, 19s, 349, 350 ; 
 
 built of stones, 192, 199 ; at Bethel, 
 
 488. 
 'Amalek, 'Amalekites, li, Ixxix, 17, 68, 
 
 no, 132, 185, 297. 
 Amarna Tablets. See 'Tell el- 
 
 Amarna.' 
 Amathus, 'Amateh, 326,. 
 Amenljotp i. , Ixvii. 
 Amenhotp 11., Ixix, cxii, cxv, cxvi. 
 Amenhotp in., Ixix, Ixx, Ixxii, Ixxiii, 
 
 Ixxxiii, cxiii, cxvi, 253. 
 
 603 
 
504 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Amenhotp IV., Ixix, Ixx. See also 
 ' Ahnaton.' 
 
 Amkaruna, 19. 
 
 Ammiditana, Iviii, Ixii, Ixxxi. 
 
 Ammizaduga, Ivii). 
 
 'Ammon, children of ("Ammonites), 
 liii, ex, 297, 298 S. ; land of, 305. 
 
 Ammonium, oasis of, 406. 
 
 Ammu or Ammi in proper names, Iviii. 
 
 Amon, priesthpod of, Ixxxvii, Ixxxviii, 
 xcvi; temple of, Ixvii, xcix ; barge 
 of, xcvi, xcvii ; ' Amon-of-the-Way , ' 
 xcvi. 
 
 Amor. See'Amurru.' 
 
 Amorite, Amorites, Iviii ff. , Ixxiii, Ixxxvii, 
 cviii, 3, 30, 41, 297, 385. 
 
 'Amos, xxxviii. 
 
 Amraphel, Ixii, ex. 
 
 Amurru, Amor, Ivi, lix, Ixi, Ixii, Ixiv, 
 Ixvi, Ixxiii, Ixxix, Ixxx, Ixxxi, Ixxxv, 
 Ixxxvii, xc, xcv, cxiv, 41, 196; lan- 
 guage of, Ixi, 166. See also ' West 
 Semitic language. ' 
 
 'Amw^s, 464. 
 
 'Anakites, 9, 10, 20, 46. 
 
 'AncLt^, 30. 
 
 'Anath, 30, 76. 
 
 ' Anath-bethel, 30. 
 
 'Anath-el, Ixvi. 
 
 'Anath-yahu, 30. 
 
 'Anathoth, 30. 
 
 Anatolian strain in Assyrians, c. 
 
 Anatum, Antum, consort of Anu, 30 ; 
 
 hypocoristic form, 76. 
 1 Angel of Yahweh (of God), 35 f., 89, 
 151, 186, 192, 341, 346. 
 
 Antigone, 323 f. 
 
 Anu, 30, 76, 385, 397, 496. 
 
 Anum-pi-Sin, Ixxxiii. 
 
 Aphik, 29. 
 
 Aphrodite, 333, 402. 
 
 Apil-Sin, Iviii. 
 
 Apollo, 406. 
 
 ' Apuriu, 'Apriu, cxiv. 
 
 Aquarius, 399. 
 
 Arabia, central, early common home 
 of Semites, Ivi, Ix ; north, cviii, '9, lo, 
 439, 441 ; south, lix, Ixi, 400. 
 
 Arabic language, exhibiting primitive 
 formations, Ix. 
 
 "Arad, i6, 44 f. 
 
 ARAD-JJiba, Ixxiii, Ixxiv, Ixxv, Ixxvii, 
 Ixxviii, Ixxxi, Ixxxii, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvi, 
 cxvii, 256 ; nationality of, Ixxxvi. 
 
 'Arak Isma'ln, 371. 
 
 Aranl-Damascus, 428 
 
 Aram-naharaim, Ixxx, 60. 
 
 Aramaeans, Ixxix f. , ex f, 
 
 Aramaic language, influence of en: 
 vironment upon, Ix; a dialectical-y 
 form of the language of Amurru, Ixi, 
 175 ; dockets in, on cuneiform tablets, 
 
 2SS- 
 
 Aramaisms, 129, 172 ff. 
 
 Arami the son of Gus, cii. 
 
 Arandas, Ixxxvi, Ixxxix. 
 
 Arawna (Araunah), Aranya, Ixxxvi, 20. 
 
 Arbela, 43. 
 
 Arethusa, xiii, c. 
 
 Arik-dta-ili, Ixxix. 
 
 Arioch, Ixii. 
 
 Ark of God (of Yahweh), 3, 37, 242, 
 
 344. 415. 435, 440. 477- 
 Armenians, Ixxi. 
 Arnon, 221, 305, 306, 312, 314. 
 Arnuanta, Ixxxvi, xcix. 
 'Aro'er, "Ari'lr (by Arnon), 221, 316, 
 
 320 ; (in 'Ammonite territory), 320. 
 Artakhsatr^ (Artaxerxes), Ixxxiv. 
 Artamanya, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvi. 
 Artassumara, Ixxii, Ixxxvi. 
 Artatama, Ixix, Ixxxvi ; (grandson)! 
 
 Ixxii, Ixxiir. 
 Artemis, 85, 332. ' 
 
 Arumah, 2B1. 
 Arvad, Ixviii, xci, ci. 
 Aryans in Western Asia, Ixxxiv f. ' 
 Arzawa, letters, Ixxi, Ixxxiii f. ; sons of, 
 
 • Ixxxii, Ixxxiii f. 
 Asher, Ixxxix, civ, cvi, cvii, 27 f., 29, 
 
 143. 197 f- 
 'Ashera, cvii, 195 ff. 
 Ashkelon, Ixxiii f., xc, xcii, 19, 282, 
 
 366. 
 'Ashtar-Chemosh, 30, 59, 244, 248.- • 
 'Ashtart, 'Ashtarts, xxxv, cxxi, 58 f., 
 
 332, 402, 407. 
 'Ashtoreth. See "Ashtart.' 
 Asiatic refugees in Egypt, 439. ; , 
 Aslra, 196. 
 Asirtu, ASratu, 196. 
 'AskalSn, 19, 282. 
 Ass, 124, 292. 
 Assur, Ixii. 
 Assyria, Assyrians, Ixvi, Ixviii, Ixix, 
 
 Ixx, Ixxix, xcv, xcviii, xcix, c i. ; 
 
 chronology, liii; Biblical names in 
 
 Annals of, 99. 
 
INDICES 
 
 505 
 
 Asurbanipal, 285, 400. 
 
 Asur-dan I. , ci. 
 
 Asur-uballit, Ixx, Ixxix. 
 
 Athena, 332. 
 
 'Athtar, 59, 261. 
 
 Atirat, 196. 
 
 Atlantic, 400. 
 
 'Attar, 59- 
 
 Attila, 285. 
 
 Avaris, Ixv f. 
 
 Awan, Iv. 
 
 Ay, Ixxxvii, Ixxxviii. 
 
 Azini, Ixxiii, Ixxvi, Ixxviii, Ixxxvii. 
 
 Ba'al, Ba'als, xxxv, cxx, cxxi, 57 f. ■ 
 
 Ba'al a title of Yahweh, 201. 
 
 Ba'al-berith, 266. 
 
 Ba'al-Gad, xcix, 63. 
 
 Ba'al-hanan, 202. 
 
 Ba'al-Hermon, xcix, 63. 
 
 Ba'al-tamar, 480. 
 
 Ba'al-ya, 202. 
 
 Ba'al-yadha' , 201. 
 
 Ba'al-zebul, 5, 385. 
 
 ' Babel und Bibel' controversy, 244. 
 
 Babylonia, Babylon, Semites in, Iv f . , 
 Ivii ff. ; First Dynasty of, Iviii ff. , 
 bd, bdii, Ixiv, Ixxxv, 43, 76, 99, 196, 
 197, 243 fF. ; Second Dynasty of, 
 Iviii, Ixiv; Third Dynasty of, Iviii, 
 ' Ixv, Ixxxii, ci (see also ' KaSsites') ; 
 struggle with Assyria, c f. ; names of 
 kings of First Dynasty, Iviii f. ; 
 chronology, Ivi, Iviii, cxvi ; language 
 (Semitic) in inscriptions of early 
 rulers of Akkad, Ivii ; prevalence and 
 persistency of Semitic Bab. language 
 : in Babylonia, Ix ; influence of lan- 
 guage upon Hebrew, Ixii f. ; influ- 
 ence of civilization of, upon Cana'an, 
 Ixiv ; theory of origin of alphabet 
 from hnear script of, 262 ; rhythm of 
 poetry of, 97. 
 
 Badyra, Bod'el, xcvi. 
 
 Bai-ti-tu-pa-ira, 12. 
 
 Balak, 299, 316, 
 
 B4ny4s, 63, 427. 
 
 Barak, xxxvi, cii, 78 ff., 85, 87. 
 
 Barbarossa, 285. 
 
 Bar-Gus,"cii. 
 
 Barley-bread, 119. 
 
 Bar-rekub, inscriptions of, 173 f., 254, 
 264. 
 
 Bar-sur, 264. 
 
 Bas'annim, 82, 90. 
 
 Basban, 306. 
 
 Bayawa, Ixxviii. 
 
 Be'er, 276. 
 
 Be'er-sheba' , ex, 43, 251. 
 
 Bees in carcase of lion, 359, 405. 
 
 Be'eshtSra, 58. 
 
 Belial, xl, 467 i. ' 
 
 Bait-UR.MAy.ME§, Ixxvii. 
 
 el-Belka, 306. 
 
 Benaiah, 403. 
 
 B»ng-Hanior, 269 f , 2711, 280. 
 
 Ben-Hadad II., liii, cii. 
 
 Ben-Hadad in. , cii. 
 
 Benjamin, 20, 21, 133 f. ; smallness of 
 
 tribe of, 447. 
 Berossus, Iv. 
 Bgs^n, 23, 219. 
 Bessdm, 82, go. 
 BSt-Degta, 384, 385. 
 BSt-Gibrln, 8. 
 Beth-'anath, xc, cvii, 30. 
 Beth-Arbel, 43. 
 Beth-barah, 225. 
 Beth-Dagon, 384. 
 Bethel, xx, cviii, 21, 37, 441, 447, 448, 
 
 453. 476, 477, 479. 488. 
 Beth-horon, cviii. 
 Bethlehem, of Zebulon, 290, 334 ; of 
 
 Judah, 422. 
 Beth-millo, 271 f. 
 Beth-rehob, 29, 428, 434. 
 Beth-she'an, xciii, 23, 24, 219, 220, 222, 
 
 223, 490. 
 Beth-shemesh (in the north?), cvii, 30; 
 
 (in the south), cvii, 10, 340, 392, 406, 
 
 430- 
 Beih-shittah, 219. 
 Bethuel, Ixxx. 
 BStJn, 21. 
 
 B6t-Lahra, 290, 334, 422. 
 Bezek, 4. 
 
 Bezkeh, girbet, 5. 
 
 Biblical sites, identification of, 499 S. 
 Bilhah-tribes, cvii, ex. 
 BSreh, 276, 479. 
 BiridaSwa, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvi. 
 Biridiya, Ixxvii, Ixxxii, Ijtxxiv, Ixxxvi. 
 Bir-idri, liii, cii. 
 Bit-Daganna, 385. 
 ' Blessing of Ja'cob,' cvi, 437. 
 ' Blessing of Moses,' 4, 438. 
 Blood-feud, 199. 
 Bochim, 37. 
 
5o6 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Boghaz Keui, documents from, Ixix, 
 
 Ixxi, Ixxii, Ixxvi, Ixxx, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvi, 
 
 xci, xcix, 41, 84, 254. 
 ' Book of the Wars of Yahweh,' xl, 
 
 106. 
 Boundary-stones, 71. 
 Brand-Fuchs, 394. 
 Brant-fox t 394. 
 Buckthorn, 275. 
 el-Buka', xcix, c, 62, 434. 
 Bull of Anu, 397, 496 ; human-headed, 
 
 400. 
 BurnaburiaS, Ixx. 
 Burnt offering, 477. 
 
 Caesura, in Hebrew 'poetry, 160 ; in 
 
 Babylonian, 161. 
 Cain, 14. 
 Caleb, Calibbites, xl, 8, 9, 10, 12 f. , 46, 
 
 341- 
 
 Cana'an, earliest settlement of Semites 
 in, Iv f. ; neolithic inhabitants of, 
 Ivii ; language of, Ixi ; influence of 
 Babylonian civilization upon, Ixi ff. ; 
 events leading to invasion and con- 
 quest of, by Egypt, Ixv ff. ; at period 
 of T.A. Letters, Ixxiiiff. ; non-Semitic 
 element in, Ixxxiii ff. ; settlement 
 of Philistines in, xcii ff. ; decline of 
 Egyptian authority in, xcv ff. ; period 
 of freedom in, from external inter- 
 ference of any great power, xcviii ff. ; 
 Israel's settlement in, xxxiv f. , Ixxiv, 
 Ixxx f. , ciii ff. , iff.; partition of, 3 ; 
 ' seven nations ' of, 63 ; kings of, Ixx, 
 Ixxiv, 144 ; king of, 84, 145. 
 
 Cana'anite, Cana'anites, Iviii, Ixxiii, 3, 
 30, 41, 297. 
 
 Cana'anite 'glosses' in T.A. Letters, 
 Ixi, 99, 166, 167, 168, i6g. 
 
 Canon, Hebrew, xxxiv, cxxi. 
 
 Caphtor. See ' Kaphtor. ' 
 
 Carchemish, Ixxix, Ixxxii, xcix, ci, cir ; 
 bas-reliefs from, 401, 497. 
 
 Caria, Carians, xciv f. 
 
 Carmel, in Judah, 16 ; Mount, xciii, 28. 
 
 Carseoli, 393. 
 
 Cassites. See ' Kassites.' 
 
 Ceres, Festival of, 369, 393. 
 
 Chaboras, 66. 
 
 Chariots, 20, iji. 
 
 Chedorla'omer, Ixii. 
 
 Chemosh, 299, 314 ff. , 320. 
 
 Chemoshk^n, 315. 
 
 Chemoshnadab, 316. 
 
 Chemoshsedelj, 316, 
 
 Chemoshy%i, 316. 
 
 Chesalon, 430. 
 
 Chronology, of Judges, 1 ff. ; Biblical 
 
 from Abraham to entry into Cana'an 
 
 cxii, cxv ff. ; early Babylonian, Ivf 
 
 Iviii, cxvi. 
 Cilicians, xc. 
 Circumcision, 356. 
 Clay tablets, use of, in Cana'an, Ixixf., 
 
 253- 
 Cochineal, 291. 
 
 Coleridge's Christalel, rhythm of, 96, 
 Commagene, xcix. 
 Concubinage, 265. 
 ' Congregation ' of Israel, 446. 
 Corn, rust in, 393 f. ; harvest in Syria 
 
 and in Italy, 394. 
 Cosmology of Gilgames-epic, 399 f. 
 Covenant, 60 ; Book of the, 252, 329 f, 
 'Crag, the,' 34. 
 
 Creation-epic, Babylonian, Ixiii, i6i. 
 Crete, Cretans, xciv f. 
 Cross-buttock, 370. 
 Crypt, 2B6. 
 Cubit, 70. 
 Cuneiform script, in Syria and Cana'an, •: 
 
 Ixiv, Ixix, 253 ff. ; in Asia Minor, 
 
 Ixix. 
 Cup-marks, 192. 
 Cushan-rish'athaira, 64 ff. 
 Cybele, 85. 
 Cyprus, xcviii ; Cypriote script, 263; 
 
 Daberath, 81. 
 
 DS.di-kariba, 291. 
 
 Dagan, Ixii, 244, 385 f. 
 
 Dagan-takala, Ixxvii, Ixxix. 
 
 Dagon, 384 ff. 
 
 Dagun, 385. 
 
 Dalil-(ilu)-ntar, Dilil-[Uu)-lHar, ipn- 
 
 ed-Da.miyyeh, 219 f., 221, 223 f., 23'> 
 
 326. 
 Dan, Danites, xx, xcix, cvif.,31, i42fM 
 
 339. 340. 341. 392. 4". 417. 43^ 
 Danauna, xciii, xcv. 
 Danonim, xcv. 
 Daphne, 427. 
 Dapur, xo. 
 Dardanians, xc. 
 Daroma, cviii. 
 David, XX, xciv, 68, 403 ; name, 291:; 
 
 northern limit of kingdom of, xcix f. , 
 
INDICES 
 
 507 
 
 Death of Samson, 408. 
 Debit, conquest of, 8 ; site of, 10 f. 
 Deborah, xxxvi, xxxvii, cii, cvi, cvii, 
 78 ff. , 85; Song of, xl, ciii, cxx, 29, 
 47, 78, 417 ; compared with Prose- 
 narrative, 78 ff. ; literature on, xiv, 
 94 f. ; metrical forhi of, 96 ff. , 158 ff. ; 
 strophic arrangement of, loi f. ; 
 corrupt condition 8f text of, 102 ; 
 translation of, 103 ff. ; discussion of, 
 105 ff. ; ascription of authorship to 
 ■prophetess, 116; climactic parallelism 
 
 of, 169 f. ; language of, 171 ff. 
 Debdriyyeh, 81, 88. 
 DeUlah, 377, 407. 
 Delos, 406. 
 Delphi, xviii, 85. 
 Demeter, xvii ff., 85, 334. 
 ' Deploy, ' 87. 
 ed-DSr, 489 f. 
 Descent, through father, 264 ; through 
 
 mother, 265. 
 Deuteronomic editor (R^^), in Joshua', 
 
 xliii ff. , cv, I ; in Kings, xlv. 
 Deuteronomic hand, (D^) in Judges, 
 
 xlix, ss, 61. 
 Deuteronomic school, xli, xliii ff. 
 Deuteronomy (D), origin and promul- 
 gation of, xlv f. 
 Dibon, Diban, 313. 
 Disarmament of Israelites, 119. 
 Dodo, Dodai, etc., 289, 291 f. 
 Dor, xcv, xcvi, 23 f. , 384. 
 Drinking, different methods of, xiv f. , 
 
 210 ff. 
 Drone-fly, 359. 
 DudMlia, Ixii. 
 DCtdu, cxiii, 291. 
 
 Ea, 30. 
 
 Ea-Oannes, 386. 
 
 Ear-rings, 235. 
 
 East, children of the, 68, 185. 
 
 'Ebal, Mount, 269. 
 
 Edom, Edomites, ex, 33, 34, 109, iioi 
 
 3". 341- 
 
 'Eglon, 67 ff., 297. 
 
 Egypt, domination of, by Hyksos, Ixv, 
 cxii ; expulsion of Hyksos from, Ixvi, 
 cxv, cxvi ; invasion and conquest of 
 Palestine and Syria by kings of the 
 Eighteenth dynasty of, Ixvii ff. ; corre- 
 spondence discovered at Tell el-Amar- 
 na in, Ixix; relations of, with Mitanni, 
 
 Ixviii, Ixix ; intrigues of Hittites 
 against, Ixxi f., Ixxxvii; relations of 
 the Amorites Abd-Asirta and Aziru 
 with, Ixxiii, Ixxx ; Habiru and SA. 
 GAZ undermine authority of, in 
 Cana'an and Syria, Ixxiii ff. ; loss of 
 hold on Asiatic dominions by later 
 kings of Eighteenth dynasty, Ixxxvii f ; 
 restoration of Asiatic empire by kings 
 of Nineteenth dynasty, Ixxxviiiff. : col- 
 lision of, with Philistines and other 
 sea-peoples, xcii f. ; Exodus of Israel- 
 ites from, liii, civ, cv, cvi ; loss of 
 Asiatic empire by kings of Twentieth 
 dynasty of, xcv ff, ; connexion of 
 Joseph-tribes with, cviii f. ; influx of 
 Semites into, during Empire-period, 
 cxiii f. 
 Egyptian, Semitic names in, Ixviii, xc, 
 cxiv ; hieratic character, theory of 
 origin of alphabet from, 261 f. 
 Ehud, xxxvi, xxxvii, cii, 67 ff. 
 'Ekron, 19. 
 
 Elam, Elamites, Ixi, Ixii, Ixxxi, ci. 
 Elders surviving Joshua', xxxv, xxxviii, 
 
 li, 56. 
 Ele'azar, 478. 
 
 Elephantine, Jewish garrison at, 30. 
 Eleutheropolis, cviii, 8. 
 'Eli, xxxvi, xlix, lii, 415 ; family of. Hi, 478. 
 Elisha"s fountain, 15. 
 EloMm, preference of E narrative for 
 use of, xxxviii, 178. See also ' God,' 
 and Index of Hebrew terms, s. v. 
 Elohistic document. See ' Ephraimitic 
 
 document. ' 
 Elon, Elonites, ciii, 289 f, 334. 
 Emmaus, 464. 
 Emutbal, Ixi. 
 'En-gedi, 16. 
 Engidu, 107, 358, 395, 397, 398. 399. 
 
 400, 401, 407, 496, 497, 498. 
 ' En-hak-lj5re, 375, 406. 
 Eniel, cii. 
 Enhl, Iv, 30, 385. 
 Enlil-kudur-usur, ci. 
 Ephah, 192. 
 
 Ephod, lii, 3, 236 ff. , 409, 415. 
 Ephraim, cvii, 25, 132, 222, 226, 327. 
 Ephraimitic document (E), xxxvii ff., 
 xlii ff., cxxi, 3, 46, 52 ff'. 67 f-. 83, 
 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 1B4, 
 186, 23s, 241, 268, 289, 294, 303, 316, 
 4iSf., 440. 445. 457- 
 
;o8 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Ephron, 293. 
 
 Srecli, Iv, 397, 398, 400. 
 
 5re§kigal, xix, 257. 
 
 iridu, Ixii. 
 
 irlha,, 15, SOI. 
 
 Erma, 431. 
 
 isagila, Ixiv. 
 
 Jsdraelon, 203. 
 
 £sh-ba'al, 201. 
 
 Sshmun'azar, Sarcophagus-inscription 
 
 of, cxiii, 153, 387. 
 Lshta'ol, 339, 340, 353, 4?6. 
 Ssfla', 340, 353. 
 Etam, 370. 
 Euphrates, 66. 
 Curystheus, 408. 
 i;vil spirit sent by God, 276 f. 
 ilxodus, the. See 'Israel.' 
 
 "ar'ah, 187. See also ' Wa.dy Far' ah. ' 
 
 "■irin, (jebel, 109. 
 
 far'ata, 187, 335. 
 
 ^ig, 273- 
 
 fire, supernatural, 192. 
 
 ^irst-born, sacrifice of, 329 f. 
 
 'lamen Quirinalis, 394. 
 
 "lavia Neapolis, 269. 
 
 'lood-narrative, xl, 396, 399, 403. 
 
 ^ortuna, temple of, 238. 
 
 'oundation-sacrifice, 331. 
 
 four, as divine title, g, 43 f. 
 
 foxes, 368 ; Samson's, 393 f. 
 
 Ja'al, 267, 278. 
 
 ra'asb. Mount, 57, 
 
 rad, evil, 142, 197, 306. 
 
 iades, 408. 
 
 lalilee, 30 ; Sea of, cviii. 
 
 faiad, Mount, 207 ff. 
 
 !aza, Gazzeh, 19, 185, 375 f. 
 
 re, xix. 
 
 reba', Geba', xxi, 464, 480 f. , 486. 
 
 tebal, xcvi. See also ' Rib-Adda. ' 
 
 rebalites, xcix, 63. 
 
 '■emini, 399. 
 
 rera, 69. 
 
 fcrizim. Mount, 269, 272. 
 
 rershom, xx, 415, 416, 422. 
 
 reshur, 10. 
 
 rezer, Ixxiii f. , xcii, xciv, xcviii, 25 f. ; 
 
 agricultural calendar from, 253, 261. 
 l-Glb, 479. 
 Hbe'ah, xxi, xxxvii, ciii, 442 f., 464 ff., 
 
 479, 481, 486. 
 
 Gibe'on, 464, 465, 479. 
 
 Gide'on, xxxvi, xxxvii, cii, ciii, 176 fF. 
 
 Gifna, 464. 
 
 6il'ad, debel, 307. 
 
 Gilboa', Mount, 205, 206, 208. 
 
 Gile'ad, cv, 142, 207 f., 306 f., 318, 472. 
 
 Gilgal, xxxiv, cv, 2, 36 f. 
 
 Gilgames, 358, 379, 391, 395 ff., 495, 
 496. 497, 498 ;'Epio of, 97, 107, 161, 
 248, 380, 395-407. 496, 497- 
 
 Gilu-IJipa, Ixxii, Ixxxvi. 
 
 God, moral government of, cxxi; not 
 to be seen by human eyes, 193 ; in- 
 citing men to their own ruin, 276 i. ; 
 ('«/JA^m) as title of supernatural being, 
 36, 346, 350; as title of judges, 117. 
 See also ' Yahweh.' 
 
 Golden bull, 440 f. 
 
 Gophna, 464. 
 
 Goshen, cix, 439. 
 
 Graven image, 409, 415, 419. 
 
 Greek alphabet. See 'Alphabet.' 
 
 Grinding, possible significance of Sam- 
 son's, 408. 
 
 gabiraean (ffaiird), Ixxxi, Ixxxiii. 
 
 Habirti, identity of, Ixxiii ff. ; identifica- 
 tion of, with Hebrews, Ixxiv, Ixxx f., 
 Ixxxiii, cxi. ; philological equivalence 
 of name, with ' ibhri, Ixxiv f. ; conr 
 nexion of, with SA.GAZ, Ixxv ff. ; 
 ' Qabiru-gods,' Ixxvi, Ixxvii ; addition 
 of KI to name, Ixxviii, Ixxxiii; ag- 
 gressions of, in Cana'an, Ixxiii, Ixxvii, 
 Ixxx f., Ixxxii, civ, cxi, cxvi ff. ; con- 
 nexion of, with Sutfl, Ixxix; Aramaean, 
 nomads, Ixxx ; early mention of, in 
 Babylonia, Ixxxi, ex ; called Sasii by 
 the Egyptians, Ixxxviii; proposed 
 identification of, with Kassites, 
 Ixxxi f. ; proposed identification of, 
 with Hittites, Ixxxii f. ; literature 
 dealing with, Ixxxiii, 
 
 Habor, 66. 
 
 Hadad-Rimmon, mourning of, 333. 
 
 el-Hadlreh, 84. . ' 
 
 Hair, worn long, 107 f. ; -offering, 343 i ' 
 of Samson and of Gilgames, 404, 495, 
 496, 498. 
 
 Hamath, cii, 63 ; Entry of, xcixf., 63. 
 
 gammurabi, Iviii, Ixi, Ixii, Ixiv, Ixxxi, 
 Ixxxiii, Ixxxv, ex, cxv„ 42, 196, 197, 
 330, 385 ; Code of, Ixii, Ixiii, 329, S^S' 
 
 Hamor. See ' B=ng-Ham'or.' . 
 
iNblCES 
 
 m 
 
 JJana, Hani (kingdom), Ixiii, Ixiv, Ixxxv. 
 Handmaid-tribes, cvi f,,, cviii, 392. 
 Qani (deity), Ixiii f. 
 ' Haran, ^arran, ci, ex, cxv, 249, 250. 
 ^arbisiKu, Ixxxi. 
 Haremheb, Ixxxviii, cxii, 439. 
 Har-lieres, 32. 
 el-Ha.ritiyyeh, 78, 84. 
 Harod, spring of, 205. 
 Harosheth, 78, 84. 
 Harri, Ivii, btxxiv. 
 garu, Ivii, Ixxxviii, xcii. 
 Hasor, cxvii, 78, 84, 
 Hathor, 197, 261. 
 Hatsepsut, Ixvii. 
 JJatti (city), Ixix, Ixxi. 
 ^attusili I,, bcxii. 
 {JattuSili II., bcxix, Ixxxvi, Ixxxviii, 
 
 xci, 84. 
 Haur^n, Ixxxviii, xci, 23!. 
 
 - Havvoth-Ja'ir, 289, 293. 
 el-Hawanlt, Qirbet, 465. 
 gaylln, 174. See also ' 9ya.n. ' 
 
 ' Heart,' as seat of intellect, 125, 274, 
 382. 
 
 Hebrew language, origin and con- 
 nexions of, Ixi : influence of Baby- 
 lonian on, Ixii f. ; words elucidated 
 from other Semitic languages, 171 ; 
 original pronunciation of, 99, 159 ; 
 alphabet. See 'Alphabet.' 
 
 Hebrew manuscripts, early, abbrevia- 
 tion in, 124, 149, 466 ; transposition 
 in copying, cxxiii, 124, 210, 417 ; 
 marginal glosses and doublets incor- 
 porated into the text of, cxxiii f., 113, 
 
 _ 130, 232; confusion of letters in, 
 cxxiii, 123, 149, 225, 348 ; ditto- 
 graphy in, cxxiii, 225, 423. 
 
 Hebrew poetry, rhythm of, 96 ff. , 
 158 ff., 272 I., 365, 366, 372, 388 ; 
 rhyme in, 388 f. ; Climactic parallel- 
 ism in, 169 f. 
 
 Hebrews, identification of, with Habiru, 
 
 Ixxiv, Ixxx f., Ixxxiii, cxi ; movements 
 
 of, westward, cii, cix f. ; supposed 
 
 -^ identity of ' Apuriu (Apriu) with, 
 
 cxiv. See also ' Israel. ' 
 
 Hebron, site, 9; elevation of, 7, 11; 
 Hittites at, Ixxxv f. ; conquest of, by 
 
 - Judah (Caleb), cv, 8 ; in Samson- 
 narrative, 377. 
 
 Helbah, 28. 
 Heliopolis, 32, 
 
 Hera, 408. 
 
 Herakles compared with Samson, 335, 
 358, 375. 391. 402. 403. 406, 408; 
 Herakles-Melkart, 497. 
 
 Hermon, 428 ; Little, 206. 
 
 Heshbon, Hesbln, 306, 312. 
 
 tiesrum, 320. 
 
 ' Hexameter,' term applied to Hebrew 
 poetry by Josephus, 98. 
 
 Hexateuch, xxxviii, xxxix, xl, xli, xlix. 
 
 {Jipa, IJepa, Ixxxvi. 
 
 Hittites, invasion of Babylonia by, Ixiv, 
 Ixxxiv ; Anatolian origin of, Ixiv, 
 Ixxi ; oldest references to, Ixiv ; 
 racial connexions of, Ixxi ; language 
 of, Ixxi ; foundation of empire of, 
 Ixxii ; excavation of capital city of, 
 Ixxi ; movements of, in Syria, Ixxi f. , 
 Ixxxvii ff. ; relations of, with Egypt, 
 Ixviii, Ixxxix ff. ; reMions of, with 
 Mitanni, Ixxii, Ixxxvii ; fall of empire 
 of, xcix ; a racial element in Syria- 
 Palestine, Ixxxiii ff. ; one of ' the 
 seven races' of Cana'an, Ixxxv f. , 
 63 ; connexion of Jebusites with, 
 Ixxxvi f. ; at Hebron, Ixxxv f. ; pro- 
 posed connexion of gabiru with, 
 ■ Ixxxii f. ; principalities of, in Syria, 
 xcixf. , ci, 23; southern frontier of, 
 in Syiia, xcix f., 23, 62 f. ; relations 
 of, with Ararqaeans, ci f. ; allusions 
 to, in Judges, 23, 62, 63 ; in the 
 Lebanon, xiii, 62 f. ; Hittite names 
 in Judges, 76, 84, 113 ; Gilgameg 
 pictured by, 401 , 497 ; literature 
 dealing with, Ixxi f. 
 
 Hivvites, 6, 62, 293. 
 
 Hizmeh, 48 r. 
 
 Hobab, 14 f. 
 
 Homs, xcix, c. 
 
 fioreb. See 'Sinai.' ^ 
 
 Horim, Ivii. 
 
 Hormah, 18, 44, 45. 
 
 Horse, Sumerian name for, Ixv ; intro- 
 duced into Babylonia by Kassites, 
 Ixv ; introduced into Egypt by 
 Hyksos, Ixvi ; in ancient warfare, 
 151 ; gallop of , reproduced in rhythm, 
 
 Hosea', religious standpoint and in- 
 fluence of, xlv, 184, 242. 
 Hrihor, xevi, 23. 
 yaieh, Lake, 78. 
 {Jumbaba, 380, 395, 400. 
 
5l6 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 gunusa, 285. 
 
 Husham, 65. 
 
 Hy^n, Ixv, Ixvi. 
 
 Hyksos, domination of Egypt by, Ixv ; 
 -meaning of name, Ixv ; racial charac- 
 ter of, Ixv f. ; expulsion of, from 
 Egypt, Ixvi ; royal names of, Ixvi ; 
 chronology of, Ixvi f. ; supposed con- 
 nexion of Israel in Egypt with , cxii, 
 cxv, cxvi, * 
 
 Ible'am, 23. 
 
 Ibsan, ciii, 289 f., 334. 
 
 Ibzik, Hirbet, 5. 
 
 Idin-Dagan, 385. 
 
 Idomeneus, 319. 
 
 f ezer, 134. 
 
 Ilu-bi'di, cii, 245. 
 
 Indra, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Iphigenia, 332. 
 
 IrhulSni, cii. 
 
 Isaac, Ixxx, ex ; story of Abraham's 
 projected sacrifice of, 330, 
 
 Ish-ba'al, 201, 
 
 Israel, migration of ancestors of, to 
 Cana'an, cixff. ; settlement of tribes in 
 Cana'an, Ixxiv, Ixxx f. , cv ff., i ff. , 
 44 ff. , 47 ff. , 439 f . ; name displaces 
 earlier name Ja'cob, ex, cxi ; hand- 
 maid-tribes of, cvi f. , cviii, 392 ; 
 tribes of, personified as individuals, 
 cix; entry of tribes into Egypt, 
 cxi ff. ; duration of sojourn of tribes 
 of, in Egypt, cxii ; Exodus of, from 
 Egypt, xl, 1, li, liii, civ, cv, cvi, cviii, 
 cxv, cxvi, cxviii, 439 ; wilderness- 
 wanderings of, 1 f., cix, 439 f. ; exter- 
 nal allusions to tribes of, ciii f. , ex f. , 
 cxv; mention of, by Mineptah, xcii, 
 civ, cv, cxi, cxviii ; influence of Baby- 
 lonian civilization upon, Ixiv ; con- 
 ception of tribes as political unity in 
 early times, xxxvi, 1, cvi, 235, 267, 
 446, 453 ; ideal northern limit of 
 kingdom of, xcix f. ; Divine Inspira- 
 tion guiding religious evolution of, 
 cxix. See also ' Hebrews,' and 
 names of separate tribes. 
 
 Isme-Dagan, 385. 
 
 Issachar, cviii, 136, 289 f. 
 
 Istar, 58 f., 396, 397, 399, 402, 405, 
 407. 
 
 Itakama, Ixxii. 
 
 Ithamar, 478. 
 
 Jabbok, 305, 306, 314, 
 
 Jabesh of Gile'ad, 447, 489 f. 
 
 Jabin, cxvii, 78, 80 f. , 84. 
 
 Ja'cob, Ixxx, ex f. 
 
 Ja' cob-el (personal name), Ixvi, ciii, 
 cxv ; (place-name), Ixviii, civ, cxi. 
 
 Ja'el, 79 f., gaf., 113. 
 
 Jahas, 313. 
 
 Ja'ir, ciii, 51, 135, 2S9 f., 292 f. 
 
 James the Just, St. , 343. 
 
 Ja'zer, 305 f., 314. 
 
 Jebus, 7, 463. 
 
 Jebusites, Ixxxvi f., 7, 20, 21. 
 
 Jehoshaphat, xxxviii. 
 
 Jehovistic document. See 'Judaean 
 document.' 
 
 Jephthah, xxxvi, xxxvii, xlix, cii, 226, 
 293, 295, 298 ff. ; daughter of, 321 ff., 
 332 ff-, 
 
 Jerahme'el, Jerahme' elites, cviii, 9, 12, 
 45, 136, 252 ; meaning of name, 252. 
 
 Jeremiah, xliii. 
 
 Jericho, xxxiv, cv, cviii, 3, 15, 69, 
 
 Jerobo'am I., liii, 4. 
 
 Jerobo'am II., xxxviii, xcix, 4. 
 
 Jerubba'al, 178, 201 f., 264. 
 
 Jerusalem, in time of T.A. Letters, 
 Ixxiii, Ixxviii, cxvii ; antiquity of 
 name, 463 ; racial character of Jebu>' 
 site inhabitants, Ixxxvi f ; capture of, ' 
 6 f. ; elevation of, 7 ; Temple at, xx. 
 
 Jethro, 14 f. , 251 f. 
 
 Jezre'el, 202, 387 ; Vale of, 202 f. 
 
 Jogbehah, 231. 
 
 John the Baptist, St., 343. 
 
 Jonathan the priest, 415,-422, 434. 
 
 J'ordon, fords of, 75, 225, 327. 
 
 Joseph, story of, cix, cxiii; Joseph- 
 tribes, cviii f. , cxviii, 21, 49 f., 392, 
 439 f. ; in Egypt, cviii ff. 
 
 Joseph-el?, Ixviii, civ, cxv. > 
 
 Joshua', XXXV, xxxviii, li, Ixxiv, civ ff^ 
 cxvi ff., I, 2, 22, 56, 438; Farew« 
 address of, xlii f., xlv. )^ 
 
 Jotham's parable, 272 ff. 
 
 Judaean document (J), xxxviii ff., cv, 
 cvi, cvii, cviii, i, 46, 47 ff., 55. 67f-i 
 83, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183, 
 184, 235, 268, 303, 316, 336 f., 4'Sf-i 
 440, 443 ff., 454. 45Sff-i 458. 
 
 Judah, cviii f., 45 ff. ; northern bound- 
 ary of, 430 ; southern boundary of, 
 33 ff. , Wilderness of, 15 f. 
 
 Judges, Book of, title, xxxiii; period 
 
INDICES 
 
 Sn 
 
 Covered by, xxxiii, cxx ; place of, in 
 Hebrew Canon, xxxiv, cxxi ; struc- 
 ture of, xxxiv ff. ; first introduction 
 to (Ri"), xxxiv f , I ff. ; second intro- 
 duction to {R^2)^ XXXV, xxxvii, 
 xxxviii f. , 52 ff. ; appendix to, xxxvii ; 
 religious pragmatism of, xxxv f. , cxxi, 
 54 ; J & E in, xxxvii ff. ; continuation 
 of in I Sam. , xxxviii ; editors of, 
 xli ff. (see also ' Redactors of 
 Judges ') ; date of redaction of, 1 ; 
 chronology of, 1 ff. , civ, cxviii ; per- 
 manent religious value of, cxviii ff. ; 
 Hebrew Text of, cxxii ff. ; Versions 
 of, cxxiv ff. 
 Judges of Israel, place of, in history, 
 xxxiii f. ; raised up by Yahweh, 
 xxxv ; local character of influence of, 
 xxxvi, liii f. ; historical character of, 
 cii f. ; achievements of, wrought by 
 divine strength, cxxii ; meaning and 
 use of Hebrew term 'Judge,' xxxiii, 
 59, 66, 85. 
 
 Kadasman-Enlil II., Ixxix. 
 Kadasman- JJarbe I. , Ixxix. 
 Kadesh on the Orontes, Ixvii, Ixviii, 
 
 Ixxii, Ixxxix, xc, xcv, xcix, c, 23, 63. 
 'Kadesh-Barnea', xl, cv, cviii, cix, 18, 
 
 34, 44, 68, no, 311, 439 f. 
 Kadis, 82. 
 Kalumu, Inscription of, Ixvi, xcv, 174, 
 
 254- 
 Kamm, 293. 
 Kammusunadbi, 316. 
 Kamon, 293. 
 Kamusu-sar-usur, 316, 
 Kaphtor, xciii f. 
 Kara-indas i. , Ixxxii. 
 Kardunias, Ixix, Ixxix, Ixxx, Ixxxii. 
 Kdrt, xcv. 
 
 Karkar, battle of, liii, cii, 230. 
 Karkor, 230. 
 
 Karn Sartabeh, 220, 222, 224. 
 Karnak, Ixvii, xci, xcix, 
 Kashsha-risbat, 64. 
 Kasi, Ixxxii. 
 Kassites (Cassites), Ixv, Ixvi, Ixxix, 
 
 Ixxxi ff., Ixxxv, c, 64, 244. 
 Kassu, Ixxx, Ixxxii. 
 Kataonians, xc. 
 Katna, xci. 
 Kattath, 27. 
 Kedesh of Issachar, 82. 
 
 Kedesh of Naphtali, 78, 80 ff., 8g. 
 
 Kefr Hiris, 57. 
 
 Kefr Isfla' , 56. 
 
 Keftiu, Keftians, xciv. 
 
 Ke'ilah, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Kenaz, Kenizzites, 12 f, 
 
 Kenites, cviii, cix, 14, 45, 251 f. 
 
 K'ritht, xciv. 
 
 KeslS., 430. 
 
 KStlnith, KStonith, 27. 
 
 Keturah, cix, 184. 
 
 Key, 74. 
 
 Kinahhi, 41. 
 
 Kinship, 265, 267, 270 f. 
 
 Kinza, Kidsa, Ixxii. 
 
 Kiriath-arba' , conquest of, 8 ; meaning 
 
 of name, 9, 43 f. 
 Kiriath-je'arim, 341, 430, 431. 
 Kiriath-sepher, 11 f. 
 Kis, Iv. 
 Ki-savas, 10. 
 
 Kishon, 78, 79, 88, 147, 500. 
 Kitron, 27. 
 
 Knossos, excavations at, xciv, 263. 
 Koa', Ixxix. 
 
 Kore, worship of, xvii ff. , 332, 334. 
 Kudur-Mabuk, Ixi, Ixxxi. 
 Kudurra, Ixxxi, Ixxxiii. 
 Kumani, ci. 
 Kum^m, 293. 
 Kummuh, xcix. 
 el-Kurmul, 16. 
 
 Kuryetel-'Enab, el-Kuryeh, 430. 
 Kus, 64. 
 Kussar, Ixxii. 
 Kuteineh, Hirbet, 27. 
 Kutfl, Ixxix. 
 
 Laban, Ixxx, ex, cxi, 416. 
 
 Labaya, Ixxvii, Ixxxiv ; sons of, Ixxiii, 
 
 Ixxxii, Ixxxiii. 
 Lachish, cxvii, 501 ; cuneiform tablet 
 
 from, 253 ; signs on potsherds from, 
 
 261. 
 Lagamal, Ixii. 
 Laish, 412, 413, 427, 428. 
 Laodicea, sacrifice at, 332. 
 Lappidoth, 85. 
 Larsa, Ixi, Ixii, Ixxxi, Ixxxiii. 
 Le'ah-tribes, ex. 
 Leather as writing-material. See 
 
 'Skin.' 
 Lebanon, Lebanons, xiii, Ixviii, Ixxii, 
 
 Ixxx, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvii, Ixxxix, xc. 
 
5; 2 
 
 THE BUUK Vb J UDGES 
 
 xcvi, xcix f., ci, cv, 62 f., 428 ; as 
 'twin-mountain' (M^sll), 400; in- 
 scription from, 254. 
 
 Left-handed, 69 f. , 476. 
 
 ' Leg upon thigh,' 369 f. , 496. 
 
 Lehi, 371, 406. 
 
 Leo, 401, 405. 
 
 Ushdm, j\2'j. 
 
 Levi, Levite, Levites, cix, 269, 409, 
 416, 459 ; origin of, 436 ff; 
 
 Libyans, xcii, xcv. 
 
 Lifta, XX, 430, soo. 
 
 Litihyan, 10. 
 
 Lion, slain by Samson, xix, 357 f. , 
 405 ; slain by Gilgames, 401, 495, 
 496, 497, 498 ; associated with 
 Nergal, 403. 
 
 ' Lip ' as a topographical term, 220 f. 
 
 Loins, 264. 
 
 Loom, 381 f. 
 
 Lot, ex. 
 
 Lugal-banda, 397. 
 
 Luka. See ' Lycians.' 
 
 Lunar worship, among early Hebrews, 
 ex. See also ' Moon-god ' and 
 ' Yahweh.' 
 
 Luz, 23. 
 
 Lycia, Lycians, xc, xcii, xciv. 
 
 Ma'aehah, Ma'achathites, 135, 428. 
 Ma'Hn, 298. 
 Machir, cvi, 134 f. 
 Mahalliba, 28. 
 Maljaneh-Dan, 353, 431. 
 Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 260. 
 Mahiai, 27. 
 
 el-Mahrllk(Makhrttd), 222, 224. 
 el-Makrah, Gebel, no. 
 Malkatu, 250. 
 
 Malki-sedek (Melchizedek), Ixxxvii. 
 Ma'iai, 27. 
 Manahtites, 341. 
 
 Manasseh, cv f., 24, 50, 134 f., 222, 
 318 ; substitution of, for Moses, 434 f 
 Manetho, Ixv, Ixvi. 
 Manoah, 341, 
 Mandthll, 10. 
 Manya, Ixxxiv. 
 Ma'on, 16. 
 Ma'onites, 298. 
 Maps of Palestine, 498 ff. 
 Marduk, Ixiv. 
 Marmlta, Qirbet, 371. 
 
 Marriage-customs, 265, 354 f., 356 
 
 360 f., 365. , , 
 Mas, 400. 
 Masawasa, xcv. 
 Massah, 438. 
 
 Massoretic Text, vocalization of, 159. 
 M^su, 39S, 399f,497. 
 Mattiuaza, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvii. 
 Meal-offering, 349. 
 Mediterranean, 400 ; Mediterrainm 
 
 origin of alphabet, theory of, 263. 
 Megiddo, Ixvii, Ixxviii, 'Ixxxiv, 23, 78, 
 
 82, 145, 203, 500 ; alphabetic letters 
 
 from, 261. 
 Melkart, 358, 391, 401, 402, 406, 497, 
 MSnl, 10. 
 
 Merg 'Ayyiln, xcix. 
 Merg ibn 'Amir, 202, 204. 
 Meribah, no, 438. 
 Merib-ba'al, 201. 
 Merom, 78. 
 Meroz, 151. 
 Meryamin, 489 f. 
 Mesha', Ixi, 18. See also ' Moatitf. 
 
 Stone.' 
 Meshech, xcix. 
 Mesopotamia, 66. 
 Micah, XX, xxxvii, xlix, cii, ciii, cvii, 
 
 240, 408 ff. 
 Micay»hu, 417. 
 Midian, cix, no, 184, 297. 
 Mikmash = Muhmas, xiii. 
 Milcah, 250. 
 Milcom, 299. 
 el-Milh, 16. 
 
 Milkili, Ixxiii, Ixxvii, Ixxxii. 
 Mill, millstone, 288. 
 Millo, 271 f. 
 Minaean language, lix ; inscriptions,' 
 
 437. 441- - . .. 
 
 Mineptah, Uii, xci f., civ, cv, cxi, cxii, 
 
 cxviii, 26, 439. 
 Minnith, 320. . ' 
 
 Minoans, xciv ; Minoan script, 263. 
 Minor Judges, the, xxxvi, 2S9 ff., 
 
 334 f- 
 Minos, xciv. 
 Miriam, 440. 
 Mish6r, 306, 307. 
 Mispah, in Gile'ad, ex, 307, 319; i" 
 
 Benjamin, 447, 453, 472. 477. 479i 
 
 488 I Land of, 62. 
 Mitanni, Mitannians, 'Ixviii, Ixix, Ixx. 
 
 Ixxii, Ixxiii, Ixxx, Ixxxiv f., Ixxxvii, 
 
INDICES 
 
 513 
 
 cii ; language of, Ixxxv ; kingdom of, 
 
 Ixxxv. 
 Mitra, Ixxxiv. 
 Moab, ex, 68, 298 ff. ; Moabites spoke 
 
 Hebrew, bti. 
 Moahite Stone (inscription of Mesha'), 
 
 bci, bdii, i8, 30, 59, 155, 174, 253, 
 
 291, 313. 315. 316. 
 Moledi, child-sacrifice to, 331. 
 Molten image, 409. 
 Money, primitive, 145, 378. 
 Monolatiy, 314 f. 
 
 Moon-god, cvii, 9, 44, 196 f. , 249 £F. 
 Moreh, 206. 
 Mortar, the, 374. 
 Moses, name of, cix, 478 ; connexion 
 
 of, with Levites, cix, 438 ff. ; at 
 
 Midian, 439; father-in-law of, 15, 
 
 251 ; Tbeophany madeto, 189, 248 f. ; 
 
 leads tribes out of Egypt, cvi, cviii ; 
 
 connexion of, with Joshua' , cxvi ; 
 
 reUgious influence of, cvii, cix, cxx f. , 
 
 329 f. ; as typical intercessor, xliii ; 
 
 Blessing of, 4, 438 ; descendant of, 
 
 415, 416, 434 f. 
 Mugiret el-Ga'y, xxi. 
 Murassas, 151. 
 Mursili, Ixxxix, xci, 84. 
 Mfls4, debel, no. 
 Muskaya, xcix. 
 Must, 274. 
 
 Muwattalli, Ixxxix, xc, xci. 
 Mylitta, 59, 198. 
 Mysians, xc. 
 
 Nabataeans, 34. 
 
 N^blus, 269. 
 
 Nabonidus, Ivi. 
 
 Nahalol, 27. 
 
 Nabarjn, Ixvii, Ixviii^ Ixix, Ixxii, Ixxviii, 
 
 Ixxxv, Ixxxix, xci, 66. 
 Nahor, Ixxx. 
 Nahr el-'Auf a, 24. 
 Nahr (klM, 206. 
 Nahr el-Kelb, Ixxxix. 
 Nahr el-Mukatta' , 145, 500. 
 Nahrima, Narima, Ixxviii,. 66. 
 Namyawaza, Ixxvii, Ixxix, Ixxxiv. 
 Naphath (NaphSth) Dor, 24. 
 Naphtali, cvii, 29, 79, 81, 137. 
 Naram-Sin, Ivi. 
 Nlsatya-twins, Ixxxiv. 
 ' Navel' as a topographical term, 283. 
 Nazirite, 337, 338, 342 ff., 404. 
 
 2 
 
 Neby Dahy, 6ebel, 206. 
 
 Neby Samwil, 472, 479. 
 
 Nebuchadnessar, xlvi. 
 
 Necromancy, 421. 
 
 Nefertiti, Ixxii. 
 
 Negeb, cviii, 7, 16, 439; conquest of, 
 
 xl, cv, 44 ff. 
 Nemaean lion, 358, 403. 
 Neolithic inhabitants of Palestine, Iv ii. 
 Nephtoah, xx, 430, 500. 
 Nergal, 405. 
 
 Nerigal and Ereskigal, story of, 257. 
 Nesubenebded, xcv ff. / 
 
 Nicopolis, 464. 
 Nimrod, 401. 
 Nineveh, Ixii. 
 Ninib-tukulti-ASur, Ixxxi. 
 Nisaba, Ixiii. 
 Nisin, Iv, 385. 
 Nob, 441. 
 
 Nobah, 51, 135, 231. 
 Nubia, Ixxxvii f. 
 Number, exaggeration of, 120, 446, 
 
 455 f-. 458. 
 
 Oath, 418, 489. 
 
 'Obed, 278. 
 
 Oeta, Mount, 40B. 
 
 el-013I, 10, 441. 
 
 Old Testament, religious value of, 
 
 cxviii ff. 
 Olive, 273. 
 Onesilus, 359. 
 'Ophrah, 187. 
 'Oreb, 225 f. 
 Origen, transliterations of, from 
 
 Hebrew, 166, 167, 168. 
 el-'Ormeh, 282. 
 Ortygia, 406. 
 
 'Othniel, xxxvi, ciii, 12 f., 64 ff. 
 Ox-goad, 77. 
 
 Paddan-Aram, Ixxx. 
 
 Palms, city of, xxxiv, 15, 69. 
 
 Panammu, inscription of, 173 f- . 254- 
 
 Paneas, 63, 427. 
 
 Papyrus, use of, as writing material, 
 
 xcvii, 255, 258, 259, 260. 
 Papyrus Anastasi i. , xci. 
 Papyrus Gol^nischeff, xcvi. 
 Parallelism, Climactic, 169 ff. 
 Paran, 109. 
 Partridge, 375. 
 Paula, pilgrimage of, 464. 
 
 K 
 
SM 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Peace-offerings, 477. 
 
 Peg, 93, 152. 
 
 Pe-kanan, xcii, 41. 
 
 Pe-nhesi, 239, 478. 
 
 Pentameter, terrei applied , to Hebrew 
 poetry by Josephus, 98. 
 
 Penuel, 223 f. , 228, 233. 
 
 Perizzites, 6. 
 
 Persephone, xviii, xix, 334. 
 
 Persian, old, cuneiform writing of, 262. 
 
 Perversion of proper names, s, 58, 64, 
 6s f. , 22B f. , 434. 
 
 Petra, 34. 
 
 Phaestos dislc, xciv. 
 
 Philadelphia, 306. 
 
 Philistines, invasion of Cana'an by, xcii 
 f. ; origin of, xciii f. ; connexion of, 
 with Minoans of Crete, xciv ; head- 
 dress of, xciv ; connexion of, with 
 Lycians and Carians, xciv f. ; ' Lords 
 of,' 62; Dagon, deity of, 384 ff. ; 
 theory of introduction of alphabetic 
 script to Cana'an by, 263 ; oppression 
 of Israelites by, lii, Uii, 295 ff. , 335 f. ; 
 Samson's relations with, 335 ff. ; un- 
 circumcised, 356. 
 
 Phinehas, lii, 32.1;, 478. 
 
 Phoenicia, Phoenicians, Ixviii, Ixxiii, Ixxv, 
 Ixxviii, Ixxxii, Ixxxviii, Ixxxix, xciii, 
 xcvi ff., 28, 143, 400; inscriptions, 
 Ixi, 254. 
 
 Pictographic script, 255. 
 
 Piers Ploughman, rhythm of, xiv. 
 
 Pig, relation of, to Tammuz, xvii f., 
 
 Pillars of Hercules, 400, 408. 
 
 Piping to flocks, 141. 
 
 Pir'athon, 335. 
 
 Pithom, civ, cxvi. 
 
 Poetry, Hebrew. See ' Hebrew 
 poetry.' 
 
 Polydector, Polydegmon, 334. 
 
 Polyxena, 334, 
 
 Porta Catularia, 393. 
 
 Priestly redactor. See 'Redactors.'' 
 
 Promontorium album, 28. 
 
 Prophets, teaching and spiritual appeal 
 of, cxviii f. , cxxi ; Prophetical schools, 
 xxxiv, xl, xli ff. 
 
 Ptolemais, 28. 
 
 Pu'ah, 289, 291. 
 
 Pudu-IJipa, Ixxxvi. 
 
 Pulasati. See ' Philistines.' 
 
 Pulydamas of Scotusa, 358. 
 
 Puppies, sacrificed, 393. 
 
 Quail, sacred to Herakles, 37J, 406,: 
 
 Ra' amies (store-city), civ, cxvL 
 Rabbah, Rabbath-'Ammon, 306. . 
 Rabbinic exegesis, 73. . 
 Rachel, ex, 416. 
 Ramah, ef-Rlm, 86, 465. 
 Ramath-lehi, 75, 374, 405. 
 Ra'messe i., Ixxxviii. \ 
 
 Ra'messe 11., liii, Ixxxix ff., civ, cxii, 
 
 cxiv, cxv, cxvi, cxviii, 27. 
 Rajmesse in., xcii ff., xcviii. 
 Ra'messe ix., xcviii. 
 Ra'messe xii., xcv. 
 Ramm6n, xxi, 486. 
 Ra,s el-Abyad, 28. 
 Ra.s et-Tawll, Qirbet, 465, 472, 479, 
 
 481, 486. 
 R&s 'Umm el-garrubeh, 222. 
 Rebekah, Ixxx, ex. 
 Rechabites, 343. 
 Redactors of JJidges :— 
 
 RJE, xli, xlix f., S5, 63, 181, 182, 194, 
 226, 268, 294, 295, 298, 301, 303, 
 
 338, 34S> 410. 445- 
 
 RE2, xxxiii, xli ff., 52 ff., 59, 61, 176, 
 
 184, 266, 268, 293 f, 29s, 298,338. 
 
 Ri', 1, I, 2, 5S, 76, 263, 268, 290,304, 
 
 339. 410 f-. 424. 454. 457. 4S8- , 
 Reed-pen, 258, 260. 
 
 Rehob, 29. 
 
 Rehobo'am, liii, xcviii. 
 
 Rephidim, li, 68. ' 
 
 er-"Rest^n, xiii, xc, c, cii. 
 
 Retenu, Upper, Ixvii, xciv. 
 
 Re'uben, cviii, 306. 
 
 Re'uel, 15. ,, 
 
 Revelation of Yahweh, progressive!' 189. 
 
 Revised Version, criticism" of renderings 
 of, 25, 75, 86, 90, 106, 108, 116, ii7i 
 123, 139, 147. 148 f-. 157, 189, 190, 
 203, 212, 229 f., 234, 321 his, 325, 
 347. 348, 350 bis, 367. 368, 372. 377;; 
 378, 418, 423, 476, 485, 493 ; margm, 
 93, 148 f., 2037207, 390, 480, 
 
 Rhyme. See ' Hebrew poetry.' 
 
 Rhythm. See ' Hebrew poetry.' 
 
 Rib-Adda, Ixxiii, Ixxv, Ixxviii, lxxi», 
 Ixxx, Ixxxii. 
 
 Riblah, c. 
 
 Righteous acts of Yahweh, 129. 
 
 Rimmon, xxi, 448, 486. 
 
 Rim-Sin, Ixi, Ixxxi, Ixxxiii, ex. 
 
 Robigaha, Robigus, 393 f. 
 
INDICES 
 
 SIS 
 
 Rock-altar. See 'Altar.' 
 Romulus,-494. 
 Roof-chamber, 71. 
 Rosse, rosser, 373. 
 Ruhizzi, Ixxxiv. 
 Rusmanya, Ixxxiv. 
 Rust in corn, 393 f. 
 
 Sabaean kingdom, 400 ; language, lix. 
 
 Sabbath, 251. 
 
 Sabians, pseudo-, 421. 
 
 Sabine women, rape of, 494. 
 
 Sacrifice, 191, 477 ; human, 320, 329 £f. ; 
 of firstborn, 329 f. ; child-sacrifice to 
 Moloch, 331 ; foundation-, 331 ; vir- 
 gin-, 332 £f. ; of red puppies, 393 ; 
 of pigs, xviii. 
 
 Sadok, 478. 
 
 es-Safa, nakb, 17, 33, 35. 
 
 es-Safiyyeh, 35. 
 
 Safrineh, c. 
 
 Sagalassos, xcii. 
 
 SA. GAZ (people), Ixxv ff., Ixxxviii, cxi, 
 cxvii f. , 26. 
 
 Sagittarius, 399. 
 
 Saida, 28. 
 
 Sakalusa, xcii, xciii. 
 
 Sakere, Ixxxvii. 
 
 Salitis, Ixv. 
 
 Salm, 229. 
 
 Salma, 341. 
 
 Salmon, Mount, 286. 
 
 Salmunna', 228. 
 
 Salt, City of, 16 ; covenant of, 42 ; sym- 
 bolical use of, 285. 
 
 Salt Sea, 34. 
 
 Sam'al, cii, 173, 
 
 Samaria, capture of^ by Sargon, xlvi ; 
 ostrakafrom, 253, 258. 
 
 Samal. See ' Sun-god. ' 
 
 ^msAnu, 352. 
 
 Samli-Adad vii., 385. 
 
 Samson, xxxvi, xxxvii, xl, xlix, lii, liv, 
 cii, TO, 75, 293, 294, 335 iif. ; meaning 
 of name, 352, 391 ; solar-mythological 
 
 _ element in story of, xix, 337, 338, 377, 
 380, 384, 391 ff. 
 
 Samsu-ditana, Ixiv. 
 
 Samsu-iluna, lix, Ixiv. 
 
 Samuel, judge, xxxvi, xlix ; last address 
 of, xlii f. , xlv ; as typical intercessor, 
 xliii ; length of judgeship of, li f. ; a 
 Nazirite(?), 343, 344; not a Levite, 
 441. 
 
 Sangara, 76. 
 
 Saphon, 326. 
 
 Sar, girbet, 305 f. , 310, 314. 
 
 Sarah, 250. 
 
 Sar' ah, xix, 340, 349. 
 
 Sardina, Sardis, Sardinia, xcii, xciii. 
 
 Sargthan, 219 ff. 
 
 Sar-Gani-sarri, Iv, Ivi. 
 
 Sargon of Akkad, Iv f. , Ix. 
 
 Sargon of Assyria, xlvi, 385. 
 
 Saris, 430. 
 
 Sarpanitum, Ixiv. 
 
 Sarratu, 250. 
 
 Sarru-kin, Sarru-iikln. See 'Sargon.' 
 
 Sasu, Ixv, Ixxix f. , Ixxxviii. 
 
 Satta, 219. 
 
 Saul, lii, Ixxix, ciii, 444, 447, 455, 490. 
 
 Scorpio, 399. 
 
 Scorpion-men, 395, 399. 
 
 Scribes, Assyrian and West Semitic, 
 
 256. 495- 
 
 Sea-country, people of, Ixiv. 
 
 Seafaring life adopted by Israelite 
 tribes, 143. 
 
 Seals, Hebrew inscribed, 253. 
 
 Sebaita, xiii, 17. 
 
 Sedad, c. 
 
 Sedek, 41 ff. 
 
 Seffliriyyeh, 27. 
 
 §gh Sa'd, xci. 
 
 Seil ed-Dilbeh, 14. 
 
 Se'ir, Ivii, cxx, 109; in Judah, 430. 
 
 Se'irah, 74. 
 
 Sela', 34. 
 
 Semites, early movements of, Iv ff. ; 
 early common home of, Ivi. 
 
 Semitic languages, development of, 
 from a common original, Ix ; influ- 
 ence of environment upon, Ix ; primi- 
 tive connexion with Sumerian, Ivii. 
 
 Seneh, 465. 
 
 Sennacherib, Prism-inscription of, 28, 
 
 385- 
 Sephath, xiii, 17, 45. 
 Serabit, inscription from, 261. 
 Serbal, debel, in. 
 Serdanu {amilu Serdani), Ixxix, xcii, 
 Seredah, 219 ff. 
 Serpent, relation of, to Earth-goddess, 
 
 xix. 
 Servant of Yahweh, the, 56. 
 Sety I., Ixxxviii f. , civ, cvi, cxviii, 27. 
 Seven as divine title, 9, 43 f. , 251. 
 Seventy, as large round number, 264. 
 
ItltL, liUUJ^ Uf JUiJUtS 
 
 iha'albim, 33. 
 
 ihalraaneser iii. , xcviii, cii, 71, 230. 
 
 Shameful thing' substituted in text 
 
 for Ba'al, 5, 58, 202. 
 Jhamgar, x.xxvii, ciii, 75 ft, 113, 290. 
 jhamir, 292. 
 jhammah, 75, 77. 
 Jharon, Ixxxiv. 
 sharuhen, Ixvi. 
 shavsha, 10, 352. 
 3he'ar-yashub, 260. 
 Shechehi, xxxv, Ixxiii, Ixxviii, Ixxx, 
 
 Ixxxi, cviii, cix, cxi, 4, 56, 134, 269 f., 
 
 437 f- 
 shekel, 236, 378. 
 ihephelah, 7 f. , 20. 
 sheshai, 9 f., 352. 
 Shibbdleth, 328. 
 Shiloh, 37, 415, 435 f., 441, 476, 491, 
 
 492- 
 5hirfar, Ixii, Ixviii. 
 5hisha, 10. 
 Shishak, xcviii. 
 bhobal, 341. 
 jibitti, 43 f. , 251. 
 Sicilians, xciii. 
 sidk^, 377. 
 
 5idon, 28 I Sidonians, 297, 428. 
 Siduri-Sabltu, 396, 398, 400. 
 Sihon, 306, 310, 312 f. 
 Siklag, 68. 
 Mlb61, ■^'j']. 
 
 siloam-inscription, 253. 
 iime'on, Ixxv, civ, cviii f., 4, 46, 269, 
 
 437 ff- 
 Simyra, Ixviii. 
 5in. See 'Moon-god.' 
 Sin-muballit, Iviii, Ixi. 
 ainai,- cxx, 68, 109 ff.,.112, 231, 311. 
 Sin^ar, Gebel, Ixviii. 
 Singara, Ixviii. 
 iinuhe, tale of, 439. 
 3ipp6ri, 27. 
 Sirah, well of, 501. 
 jisera, Ixvii, 78 ff. , 84. 
 Biweh, 406. 
 ;s-Siyyag, 371. 
 skin, use of, as writing material, 255, 
 
 ^ 259- 
 
 sobah, c. 
 
 Solomon, date of accession of, liii, cxv ; 
 
 kingdom of, xcix. 
 5S-S6ma', Qirbet, 465. 
 soothsayer, 283. 
 
 Sor'ah, xix, 339, 340; 416. 
 
 Sorek, W^dy of, 340, 377. _ ^ 
 
 ' Soul,' as principle of life in man, 390. 
 
 Spirit of Yahweh. See ' Yahweh. ' 
 
 Springs, in solar mythology, 405 f. 4; 
 
 ' Stand before, ' 478. 
 
 Stone, as place of execution, 271; 
 standing-, 272. 
 
 Stylus, for writing cuneiform, xvii,r 
 
 ^ 254 f. ; Hebrew terms for, 259 f. 
 
 Subandu, Ixxxiv. " . 
 
 Subhiluliuma, Ixxii, Ixxxvii, kxxviii, 
 xci. -. '^ 
 
 Succoth, 220, 228. 
 
 Sudanese mercenaries, Ixxxii. 
 
 Sumer, Sumerians, Ivi, Ixii, Ixiv, c, 
 385, 386; deities of, Ivii; influence 
 of civilization of, Ixiii f ; language, 
 ultimate connexion of Semitic bili- 
 terals with, Ivii ; legal codeoj Ixiii. 
 
 Sumu-la-ilu, lix. 
 
 Sun, supposed effect of, on corn, 394; 
 course of, in the heavens, 395 f., 
 399 f., yearly phases of; 396 f., 399; 
 chariot of, 397. 
 
 Sun-god, cvii, 42, 333, 392, 395, 396, 
 400, 406, 407, 421, 495, 496. 
 
 Stlrlk, tJirbet, 377. 
 
 Sasltha, 308. 
 
 Sdsiyyeh, 308. 
 
 Sutarna, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Sutatarra, Ixxii. 
 
 Sutfi, Sut<l,i Ixxvii, IxxTx f. , Ixxxiii, cxi, ; 
 
 Suwardata, Ixxvii, Ixxxiv. ~ ' '/ 
 
 Synchronistic History of Babylonia and V 
 Assyria, c. 
 
 Syria, Semites iri, Ivi, Iviii; inclusion ' 
 of, under name Amurru, lix ; con- 
 nexion of Hyksos with, Ixvi ; influx 
 of Hittites into, Ixvi, Ixxi ; invasion , 
 and conquest of, by Egyptian kings, 
 Ixvii ff..; sons of chieftains of, edu- 
 cated in Egypt, Ixviii ; condition of, 
 at period of T.A. Letters, Ixx ff. ; 
 caravan-service through, Ixx; non-; 
 Semitic element in population-; of, 
 Ixxxiii ff. ; struggle of Egypt witli^ 
 Hittites in, Ixxxix ff. ; Hittite prinoi-t- 
 palities in, xcix ; Aramaeans in, ci f.") 
 Syrian desert, Ixxix f. See also 
 ' Cana'an. ' 
 
 Ta'anach, Ta'annuk, 23, 79, 82, 131. 
 Tab'al, Tab'el, 66. 
 
INDICES 
 
 S17 
 
 Tabbath, 223. 
 
 Tablet for writing, 259. 
 
 Tabor, xc, 79 f., 87, 234. 
 
 Takkara, xcii ff. , xcvi, xcviii, 24, 384. 
 
 Talmai, 9 f. 
 
 Tammuz, xvii flf. , 333 f. , 397. 
 
 Tanturah, 24. 
 
 Tarhulara, 84. 
 
 Tarhundaraba, Ixxxiii. 
 
 Tadu-JJipa, bcxii, Ixxxvi. 
 et-Tayyibeh, 308. 
 
 Tebes, 234, 287. 
 
 Tell Abfi Kudis, 82. 
 
 Tell el-Amarna Letters, Ixi, Ixix ff., 
 Ixxxviii, ci, cxi, cxii, cxiii, cxvi, cxvii, 
 cxviii, 20, 26, 41, 66, 76, 99, 144, 253, 
 256 ff. , 265, 463, 477. 
 
 Tell ■ Arid, 16. 
 
 Tell (Tula) el-FM, 465, 472, 479, 481, 
 486;. 
 
 Tell Gezer, 25. 
 
 Tell el-Hasy. 501. 
 
 Tell el-Kady. xcix, 427. 
 
 Tell Ma'ln,' 16. 
 
 Tell el-Mashflta, civ. 
 
 Tell el-Mutesellim, 23, 82. 
 
 Tell es-Safiyyeh, xciv. 
 
 Tell es-§ihab, Ixxxviii. 
 
 Tell es-Sult4n, 15. 
 
 Tell el-Yahudiyyeh, Ixv. 
 
 Tell Zlf, 16. 
 
 Temple, building of, by Solomon, 1. 
 'Tentamon, xcvi, xcvii. 
 
 Tent of Meeting, 440. 
 
 Tent-peg. See 'Peg.' 
 
 ' Tents '=' home,' 463. 
 
 Teraphim, 117, 409, 416, 420 f , 426. 
 
 Terebinth, 187. 
 
 Teuwatti, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Thebes, Ixx, Ixxxvii, xcvi. 
 
 Theocracy, conception of, 183. 
 
 Tbesmophoria, xviii f. 
 ^Thirty, as title of Moon-god, 44. 
 
 Threshing-board, 229. 
 
 Threshing-floor, 204. 
 
 "Thutmosi I., Ixvii, Ixxxv. 
 
 "Thutmosi 11. , Ixvii. 
 
 "Thutmosi Hi., Ixvii f., Ixxxv, Ixxxix, 
 cxii, cxiv, 26. 
 
 Thutmosi IV., Ixix, Ixxii. 
 
 "Tibneh (N.W. of Bethel), 56; (in 
 Shephelah), 355, 430. 
 
 Tidal, bcii. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser 1. , Ixxix, xcix, ci, 285. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser iv., cii, 415. 
 
 Tii, Ixxii. 
 
 Timnah (N.W. of Bethel), 56; (in 
 
 Shephelah), 353, 430. 
 Timnath-heres, Timnath-serah, 56. 
 Titus, 464. 
 Tob, land of, 308. 
 To'i, To'u, cii. 
 Tola', ciii, 289 f. 
 Torches in pitchers, 216. 
 Totemism, xviii, 225, 291. 
 Tribal names transferred to places or 
 
 districts, cxi. 
 Trumpet, 215. 
 •Tilbas, 287. 
 "Tubi, 308. 
 Tuhi, cii. 
 
 Tukulti-Ninib 1. , ci. 
 Tunip, Ixxxv, xci. 
 Turusa, xcii. 
 Tusratta, Ixxii, Ixxxvii. 
 Tut'anhaton (Tut'anhamon), Ixxxvii. 
 Tuw61 ez-Ziy^b, 226. 
 Tyre, xcvi, 402. 
 Tyrrhenians, xcii. 
 
 Umman Manda, Ixii. 
 Ur, Iv, Ixxxiii, ex, 249, 250. 
 Urim and Tummim, 3, 239 f. 
 Ur-§anabi, 396, 398, 400. 
 Urt4s, 370. 
 Urukagina, Ixiii. 
 Urusalim, 20, 463. 
 ' Us5 el-Gurlb, 226. 
 Uta-napistim, 396, 398, 4or. 
 
 Vale, the, 19, 203 f. 
 ' Valley of Thorns,' 464, 465. 
 Vandalian Church, 77. 
 Vartikd, 406. 
 Varuna, Ixxxiv. 
 Vine, 273. 
 
 Virgin-sacrifice, 332 ff, 
 i^irgo, 399- 
 
 Wadd, 437. 
 
 Wady el-'Arls, 34. 
 
 Wady Berameh, 23. 
 
 Wady Bit Hannlna, 465. 
 
 Wady ed-Dumm, 479. 
 
 Wady Fai'ah, 207, 220, 222, 223, 224, 
 
 225. 
 wady el-Fikrah, 33 f. 
 wady e^-66zeleh, 225. 
 
5i8 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Wady el-Hafy, 465, 481. 
 
 Wady HesMn, 306. 
 
 Wady of Jezre'el, 185. 
 
 Wady Kana, 24. 
 
 wady el-Kelt, 15, 88. 
 
 wady el-Maiih, 220. 
 
 W4dy M6gib, 310. 
 
 wady el-Munah, 341. 
 
 wady Ragib, 326. 
 
 wady es-Sarar, 340. 
 
 wady Serrar, 185. 
 
 wady es-Suw6nlt, xxi, 465, 486. 
 
 wady Tamiiat, Ixv, civ, oix, 439. 
 
 wady Yabi?,, 222, 489. 
 
 wady ez-Zerka, 310. 
 
 wady Zimry, 481. 
 
 Warad-Sin, Ixi, Ixii. 
 
 Wasasa, xciii. 
 
 Watches, night-, 216. 
 
 Weaving, 381. 
 
 Wenamon, narrative of, xcv, xcviff., 
 23, 24, 258. 
 
 West Semitic language (language- 
 group), 253; Arabian affinities in, 
 Iviii f. , Ix ; alphabet, 254 ff. 
 
 Wheat-harvest in Palestine, 367, 394. 
 
 Whistling, effect of, on animals, 141 f. 
 
 Wilderness-journey, Israel's, 311. 
 
 Wine, new. See ' Must. ' 
 
 Wine-press, 187, 274. 
 
 Witch of 'Endor, 426. 
 
 Writing, reference to, in Judges, 232 ; 
 use of cuneiform in Cana'an, Ixix f., 
 253 : earliest known documents in 
 West Semitic language, 253 f. ; de- 
 velopment of cuneiform from picto- 
 graphs, 254; cuneiform script and 
 alphabetic script possibly co-existent 
 in Cana'an in early times, 254 f. ; 
 explanation of paucity of written 
 documents from Palestine, 255 ; 
 method of writing cuneiform, xvii, 
 2SSr 495 ; Aramaic dockets on cunei- 
 form tablets, 25s; T.A. Letters 
 written by West Semitic scribes, 256 ; 
 use of alphabetic script in Assyria, 
 256, 495 ; exercises in writing cunei- 
 form script, 257 ; West Semitic al- 
 phabet really a syllabary, 258 ; early 
 use of papyrus in Cana'an, xcvii, 258 ; 
 terras used in O.T. in connexion 
 with writing, 258 ff. ; earliest traces 
 of West Semitic alphabet, 261 ; 
 theories as to origin of West Semitic 
 
 alphabet, 261 ff. See also 'Alpha, 
 bet,' 'Papyrus,' 'Stylus,' 'Cana'amteli 
 glosses,' ' Hebrew MSS.' ' ;' 
 
 X, unknown source, 458. 
 
 Yabni-el, cxvii. 
 
 Ya'di, Ixvi, xcv, 173 ff. 
 
 Yahweh, predilection of J narrative for 
 use of name, xxxviii ; Yahweh Seb- 
 ha'6th, xl ; Sinai, ancient seat of, cxx, 
 109, 251 ; Mosaic Yahwism in con- 
 flict with naturalistic Yahwism, cat, 
 330 ; covenant of, cxxi, 60 ; spirit of, 
 inciting men to action, cxx, cxxii, 66, 
 203,317, 337f., 357)372; Israel'sleader 
 in battle, cxx, cxxii, 91, 109; con- 
 sultation of oracle of, 3, 239 f., 425 f., 
 476 f . ; sacred ban of, 18, 231, 456; 
 mentioned on Moabite Stone, 18; 
 Angel of, 35 f., 89, 151, 192, 346; 
 title 'Servant of,' 56; strengthering, 
 Israel's foes, 68 ; connexion of, with 
 phenomena of the storm, 91 ; ' arm 
 of,' 129; ' righteous acts of,' 129; as 
 King of His people, 1S3 ; name as 
 denoting progressive revelation, 189 ; 
 Yahweh shaWm, 193 ; relation of 
 Ashera-Cult to Vorship of, 196 f. ; 
 Asher possibly a surname of, cvii,; 
 198 ; title ' Ba'al ' applied to, 201 f. ;' 
 originally an Amorite deity, 243 ff. ; 
 name revealed to Moses with uniquely 
 new significance, 248 f. ; early identi- 
 fication of, with Moon-go3, 249 ff. i 
 as national God (in restricted sense], 
 , 314 f. ; human sacrifice to, 319 f.i 
 329 f. ; Teraphim in connexion yiifh 
 worship of, 330, 426. See also 
 'God.' 
 
 Yai6, 32. 
 
 Yanhamu, ixxviii, cxiii. 
 
 Yapahi, Ixxix, cxvii, 26. 
 
 Yaphia', cxvii. 
 
 Yarimuta, cxiii. 
 
 Yarraulj, 306. 
 
 Yarmulh, cxiii. 
 
 Yasdata, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Ya-u, Ya-u-tum, etc., in proper names, 
 243 ff. 
 
 Ya'u-bi'di, cii, 245, 246. 
 
 el-Yemen, nakb, 33. 
 
INDICES 
 
 519 
 
 Yeno'am, xcii. 
 Yerim6th, cxiii. 
 
 Zabum, lix. 
 
 ez-Z^ariyyeh, 10 f. 
 
 Zakar-ba'al, xcvi ff., 258. 
 
 Zakir, Inscription of, Ixiii, cii, 173 f., 
 
 2S4- 
 Zamama-sum-iddin, ci. 
 Zebah, 228. 
 
 Zebul, 279 f., 281, 284. 
 
 Zebulun, cviii, 26, 79, 81, 289. 
 
 Ze'eb, 225 f. 
 
 ez-Zlb, xiii, 29. 
 
 Zilpah-tribes, ex. 
 
 Zimrida, cxvii. 
 
 Ziph, 16. 
 
 Ziphron (ZiMn), c. 
 
 Zirdamyasda, Ixxxiv. 
 
 Zodiac, 399. 
 
520 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 II. INDEX OF GRAMMATICAL 
 AND PHILOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 
 
 {The reference is to Hebrew unless otherwise specified) 
 
 Accusative, adverbial, 149. 
 
 Arabic Place names, modern, 499 ff. ; 
 modification of consonants in, xx, 24, 
 27, 29, 282, 306, 500, 501 ; modifi- 
 cation of final -el to -in in, 21 ; 
 dropping of final syllable in, 23; 
 dropping of preformative * in, 23, 
 306 ; formation of, by assonance 
 with ancient names, 85, 145, 500. 
 
 Article, Definite, idiomatic usages of, 
 213, 287, 346, 489 ; with Construct 
 State, 231 ; omission of, with Adjec- 
 tive, 378. 
 
 Asyndeton, 432. 
 
 Babylonian Permansive compared with 
 Hebrew Perfect, Ixiii, 
 
 Babylonian Praeterite compared with 
 Hebrew Imperfect with Wdw con- 
 secutive, Ixiii. 
 
 Biliteral roots, xiii, xvi, 40, 69, 92. 
 
 Case-endings, 167. 
 
 Circumstantial clause, 324, 326, 384, 
 
 425. 433- 
 
 Construct State, before Preposition, 
 136 ; Suspended, 150. 
 
 Darga, as substitute for Methegh, 
 461. 
 
 Dativus inco-mmodi, 67, 277. 
 
 Diminutives, 27, 352. 
 
 Egyptian expression of Semitic Dual- 
 ending, 66. 
 
 Egyptian r representing / in another 
 language, 84 ; cf. Ixxxviii, Ixxxix 
 Hs, xci, xcii, xciii. 
 
 Emphasis, expression of, 321, 357, 367, 
 372, 419, 425. 
 
 Hypocoristic affixes in Babylonian, 76, 
 246. 
 
 Hypothetical sentence, virtual, 347. 
 
 Imperative, original form of, in Kal, 
 166 ; 2nd pers. sing. masc. as Inter- 
 jection, 429. 
 
 Imperfect, anomalous use of, 38 ; in 
 pictorial description, 148 ; describ- 
 ine recurrence. 176. 181;. ^2?. ^27: 
 
 emphatic form of, 152 f ; raasc. 
 
 form of 2nd pers. plur. referring to 
 
 fem. subject preceding, 129, 237, 
 Infinitive Absolute, usage of, 73 f., 
 
 367; misunderstood by R.V., 25,' 
 
 367, 372. 
 Infinitive Construct with 1, 105 f ; 
 
 with 7, 423. 
 Interchange of Consonants in Semitic 
 
 languages, in, 174, 430. 
 Iphf^al in Hebrew, 353. 
 Jussive in place of Imperative, 149. 
 Modus energicus in Arabic, 152, 169. 
 N4n fliiyd, 434. 
 
 Order of Sentence, 212, 457, 475, 479. 
 Participle, usage of, 213, 227, 368, 384; 
 
 Active Kal, original form of, 166; 
 
 Pu'al, dropping of preformative D 
 
 in, 228. 
 Paskd in M, 38. 
 Pausal forms, antiquity of, 168. 
 Perfect, idiomatic usages of, 368^369, 
 
 418 ; with Wdw consecutive :after 
 
 Infinitive, 483 ; with weak Win, 
 
 73, 214, 470 ; 2nd pers. fem. 
 
 sing, of, with archaic termination, ' 
 
 116. • , -i 
 
 Permansive. See ' Babylonian,' 
 Phonetic Complement in cuneiform, 
 
 Ixxvi. 
 Pf el, final vowel of,' 167, 
 Pluralis excellentiae (intensive plural), 
 
 321.323- 
 Pronoun, Personal, 2nd pers. fem. 
 
 sing., 418. ^< 
 
 Segholate Nouns, Original pronancia?^ 
 
 tion of, 167. 
 Sibifants, interchange of, in Semitic, 
 
 III, 306, 328, 377. 
 Substantive in place of Adjective, 191 
 
 231. 
 Substantives ending in ■■&ih, ISS' 
 Tenses, sequence of, 176, 328. 
 Tone in Arabic, iS9' 
 
INDICES 
 
 S2I 
 
 Transposition of Consonants in Semitic 
 
 Roots, XV, 437. 
 Triliteral Roots, modification in, 69,116. 
 Verb y doubled, weakened forms of, 
 
 112. 
 
 Vocalization, original form of, in 
 
 Hebrew, 166 B, 
 Wdw consecutive, usage of, 93, 227, 
 
 483- 
 
 Wdw explicative, 194. 
 
 Wdw introducing sentences with sar- 
 castic turn, 187, 317. 
 
 WSw of association, 326, 433. 
 
 riK introducing Nominative, 486. 
 
 3. usage of, 230, 321. 
 
 n locative, 72, 224. 
 
 E"j usage of, 204. 
 
 '3 introducing direct narration, 190. 
 
 7 of norm, 7. 
 
 V, harder form of, represented by V in 
 Greek, xix, 376; softer form of, 
 I represented by ^ in cuneiform, Ixxv, 
 I 386. 
 
 I 15?> usage of, 200, 224, 225. 
 i DV, usage of, 425. 
 i 1 originally doubled in Hebrew, 168. 
 \ B'^preformative in verbal forms, xvi. 
 
inn, ijuujs. ur juu\^£*o 
 
 III. INDEX OF FOREIGN TERMS 
 
 (Tke order of the English alphabet is follouued) 
 
 Hebrew (including Canaanite * glosses* 
 FROM THE T.A. Letters) 
 
 ibbir, 151. 
 
 Ibhar, 318. ' 
 
 ikhar, 321. 
 
 ild, 418. 
 
 lid, 3, 429, 432. 
 
 iliyyd, 71, 432. 
 
 zlld, ^alldn, 86. 
 
 imd, 276. 
 
 imdl, 153. 
 
 imeltm, 15^. 
 
 indk, 20. 
 
 Inan, 283, 
 
 tpkuddd, 237, 241. 
 
 2^-fl-^, 114. 
 
 Irakh, 198 f. ^ 
 
 iSi^rdtk sdnikhd, 58. . 
 
 2^, 363. 
 
 'adiu, 166. 
 
 •a/a/, ^^/z/, 467. 
 
 'arkdntm, 230, 
 
 'i2ja/*, 390. 
 
 '(2ja?-, 278. 
 
 '^atnu, 167. 
 
 'i^liyd'al, 467 f. 
 
 '^jfl', 145. 
 
 '^iffli^, 231. 
 
 iz^'a, 62, 203. 
 
 'J/tf/A, 5, 58, 202. 
 
 ^^,?^. 385- 
 
 idghdn, 386. 
 
 Ddleth, 262. 
 
 idrdm, cvii f. 
 
 iHdthdth, 259. 
 
 iorbhdn, dorbhond, jj, 
 
 i-^s, 229 f. 
 
 Ji/Aa, 446, 453. 
 
 ehyek, 189. 
 
 e/a, '^/(?«, 'eltm, 86, 90, 187. 
 
 V/tf/A, 189. 
 
 Slohttn, 36, 117, 346, 350, 421, 425 f. 
 
 ^we^, 19, H2, 144, 202, 203 f. 
 
 ephddh badh, 238. 
 
 e^ndbk, 155. 
 
 ^/, 260. 
 
 ^a/(z/, galgal, 37. 
 gdraph, 146. 
 ^<2/A, 187, 274. 
 g^dherdthdyimt 141. 
 
 G«/^/ kag-goyim, 29. 
 ^er, 422, 436, 438. 
 ^sA, 480. 
 gilldydn, 259 f. 
 gilySn, 260. 
 
 Gimel, 262. 
 gomedhy 70. 
 gulLath^ 13. 
 
 .f^^, 357. 
 
 hdbhat, 187. 
 
 ^a^, 492. 
 
 hdkak, 258. 
 
 hdlaph, 154, 379/. 
 
 JiHiphBth b^ghddktnij 362. 
 
 halmHth, 153. 
 
 h^mdr, hdmar^ 372 f. 
 
 h^-m^sim, 213. 
 
 hdram, keh^rzm, 17 f. , 144. 
 
 hdra^, 258. 
 
 hdrath, 258. 
 
 karri, 168. 
 
 /;ai, 71. 
 
 Jf-sdfrd, 215, 
 
 kdthdn, 15. 
 
 hawwd, hawtvdth, 46B. 
 
 hi^bhirbd'B, 331. 
 
 hem'd, 93. 
 
 kerem, 18, 44, 286, 456. 
 
 hereph, 143. 
 
 hiret, 259 ; -^/r^/ '/ff^r, 260. 
 
 kehbh, 237. 
 
 kesekh, 382. 
 
 ktdkd, 361. 
 
 hillMim, 278. 
 
 hiphhiz^ 271. 
 
 hiSkith, <Y77. 
 
 hithnaddebk, 106, 109. 
 
 hizzek, 68. 
 
INDICES 
 
 523 
 
 hoil, 25, 424. 
 
 homer, 192. 
 
 kores, 84. 
 
 hdrts, xliv, 19, 316, 
 
 hdHd, mSHd , xxxiii, 59. 
 
 hotkerij 15. 
 
 'tS6n, 352. 
 
 'i^d, 356. 
 
 'itter, 69. 
 
 kaddtm, 215. 
 
 kadkmon, 352. 
 
 kdhal, nikhal, 446. 
 
 (S(z/^/, 483. 
 
 Aara' , xiv f . 
 
 kdsin, 309. 
 
 kathabh, 258. 
 
 kidkevt, kiddem, 147. 
 
 k^dhesim, ^dkesoth, 58, 407. 
 
 ^dhUmim, 147, 
 
 <6^«, 137. 
 
 ifpktr, 357. 
 
 kirem, 278. 
 
 kisem, 421. 
 
 ^sdthdm, 425. 
 
 >6«/A^A 'iziyiar^, 262. 
 
 kiWrdth lihem^ 228. 
 
 kissH'im, 363. 
 
 ^/, 425. 
 
 /^^tf^, 227. 
 
 Uwtf Idwd, 437. 
 
 limmedk, 77. 
 
 /j^a^, 259. 
 
 md°'rdkkd, ig8 f. 
 
 maddtm, 70. 
 
 mat/A, middin, 122. 
 
 mdhd, 259. 
 
 mdhak, 154, 
 
 miL^ldpkd, 379 f. 
 
 mak'^n^, 219. 
 
 mahsu, 168, 
 
 makhies, 374, 
 
 malmedh, 77. 
 
 mdoz, 198. 
 
 «fli, 25. 
 
 mas'abbim, 129. 
 
 mdsak, 87, 136. 
 
 mas'eih, 483. 
 
 massebkdt massebkoik, 197, 272. 
 
 ma's'sikhd, 'graven image,' 242, 419. 
 
 ma's'sikheth, ma's'sekhd, 'web,' 381 f. 
 
 matzdldtk, 146. 
 
 m'^&rd, xix. 
 
 m^bhd, 22. 
 
 mf^gilld, 259. 
 
 mPhok^ktm, 122, 136. 
 
 OT^i/, 238. 
 
 milekhy 265. 
 
 m^onen, 283. 
 
 mi^dr, 42. 
 
 m^Hlld, 479. 
 
 milleyadh, 421. 
 
 tnilWtm, 422. 
 
 fnima, m&ma, 168. 
 
 minhd, 70, 191, 349. 
 
 minhdrdthj 185. 
 
 mipkrds, 143. 
 
 misd^rdnd, 73. 
 
 mWr, 203, 306, 307. 
 
 ■mUpdha, 189. 
 
 fni^pdt, 347. 
 
 mis^thdyim, 141. 
 
 mistiy 344, 
 
 mdedh, 482. 
 
 OToAsr, 354, 356. 
 
 •mokii, 39 f, 
 
 moragh, 229. 
 
 mdtheth, 288. 
 
 TttMithd, 272. 
 
 «a, 190. 
 
 ndar^ li. 
 
 nd'^rd, 356. 
 
 ndhalj xiii, 88. 
 
 ndkaS, 40. 
 
 naksapu, naksapii, 169. 
 
 ndsakk, ' weave, ' 382. 
 
 ndsakh, 'cast,' 419. 
 
 nflj^^r, 343. 
 
 n^bhdld, ndbkdl, 469. 
 
 niphes^ 122, 390. 
 
 nizem, 235, 
 
 nikkd, 368. 
 
 nokah, 426. 
 
 wiSa', 273. 
 
 '^^^, 426. 
 
 'J<4«/, 463. 
 
 'oleldth, 'dlel, 227, 487. 
 
 'or^hd, 114. 
 
 ^a'a/B, 353. 
 
 pd^mS, 155. 
 
 /aA, 39 f.- 
 
 /ariz" , /(^ra' , 107 f. 
 
 paras, 116. 
 
 pars^dhdnd, 72. 
 
 /a/a, 322. 
 
 pdSat^ 282. 
 
 /i', 284. 
 
 p^laggoth, pHugg6th, 139. 
 
 /^/a-^ rikhebkt 288. 
 
S24 
 
 f^litlm, palat, 327. 
 
 p^rdH, 6. 
 
 p'rdz6n, 115. 
 
 p^rdzdth, 115. 
 
 pisel, 419. 
 
 p^HItm, 71. 
 
 /«7'«, 349, 330. 
 
 pinnStA, 472, 
 
 poh^ztm, pahP'zilth, 'pahaz, 271. 
 
 rSas, 295. . 
 
 rdham, 155. 
 
 rdmd, 374. 
 
 rdphd, XX, 4^2. 
 
 rthayim, 288. 
 
 r'A^M, 466. 
 
 T^Hm, rtkdTti^ 308 f. 
 
 r^phdtm, 421. 
 
 i?^/, 262. 
 
 r^^A, 201. 
 
 roz^nim, 109. 
 
 f-<2aA, 227, 374. 
 
 riidk, 323. 
 
 ruSunu, 169. 
 
 iii'a/ i", 426. 
 
 /(far, 431. 
 
 Sdde, 262. 
 
 sddhar, 73. 
 
 sddhi. III f. , 144. 
 
 sddhtn, 362. 
 
 MdhAdh, 154. 
 
 sahy^rdnim, 235. 
 
 Sahri, 167. 
 
 Sdkal, 378. 
 
 sdlah, 66, 357. 
 
 sdlam, 287. 
 
 sdphd, 307. 
 
 Sdphat, 59, 8s; Hophet, BphHim, xxxiii, 
 
 1. 
 Sdrak, 142. 
 saraph, 208. 
 sartm, 232. 
 /ojo, Ixxix. 
 /ffi/^, 167. 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Mbher, xvi, 214. 
 
 S^bket, 136. 
 
 fhSr6th, 124. 
 
 i«/2j;, i''/^/, 213. 
 
 s°mikkd, 92. 
 
 iSphel, 152. 
 
 sSpher, 259. 
 
 siren, 62. 
 
 s^rtah, 286. 
 
 s^rikdth 'ddhdrim, 141 f, 
 
 rfaA, 125. 
 
 «ija' , JVia' , 357. 
 
 dppAy, 241. 
 
 /zV^'a, 465. 
 
 /(^^, 369. 
 
 sdphdr, 215. 
 
 ^3frim, 259, 
 
 su'ru, 167. 
 
 t'rdphim, xx, 421. 
 
 tiib-Hr, tailAr, 283. 
 
 tinnd, 129, 325. 
 
 tiph'sar, 495. 
 
 /2?-^/, 274. 
 
 iSldath, 291. 
 
 tomer, 86.- 
 
 /i5ra, 206. 
 
 tormd, 281. 
 
 /j^r, 22. 
 
 142. 
 ydkaS, 40. 
 ydrekh, 264, 370. 
 yark'thi, 459. 
 ydHabh, 86, 123. 
 ydthedh, 80, 381 f. 
 yazkur, 169, 386. 
 ydkebk, 187, 274. 
 yither, 378. 
 yibbebh, 154. 
 yukabidf 168. 
 zdnahj 460. 
 z^kenim-f 232. 
 zimmd, 473. 
 zurn^, 168. 
 
 Babylonian and Assyrian (including Sumerian). 
 
 A. BA, 495. 
 ADDA,lxi. 
 iJ/a, 463. 
 
 AMA.U§UMGAL.ANNA, xix. 
 amHu, Ixxiv. 
 
 ANSU.KURRA, Ixv. 
 Arbtt'iiu (dlu), 43. 
 baldtu, 327. 
 BAR, PAR, xvi. 
 S^/iV tai^dzi, 59. 
 
INDICES 
 
 525 
 
 DA, 262. 
 dddu, 291. 
 ddnu, 392. 
 ddiu, 229. 
 
 bUMU.ZI, Diiiizu, DAzu, xvii. 
 duppu, 259. 
 dupSarru, 495. 
 ellpu, 380. 
 galidu, 209. 
 GAM, 262. 
 GAR.ZA, 116. 
 ^iiaium, ^bdlu, Ixxvi. 
 fiald-pu, naklaptu, 362. 
 ^rimtu, 58, 407, 
 ^arrdnu, 249. 
 faiiu, hatitu, 260.' 
 kazan{n)u, hazianu, Ixxiv. 
 . ^ursu^ hursu, 85. 
 lira, Ixxxiii. 
 iUarati, 59. 
 kad&dUf 262, 
 KA-DI, xix. 
 kadistti, 58, 407. 
 kafdru, kuppuru, xvi. 
 karittu, 59. 
 kazratu, 407. 
 <§^nK, 137. 
 kettUf 42. 
 KI, Ixxviii. 
 
 Kimta rapaHuirit Iviii. 
 Kimtum keiium, lix, 
 iCIRRUD.DA, 72, 
 KI§, Iv. 
 kudmu, 147. 
 kUR, 112. 
 luldamllu, 399. 
 manzazu, manzaltu, 146. 
 MAR.TU, Ux, 41. 
 MAR.ZA, 116. 
 «»^/ /a /^ri, 468. 
 mdtu, 112, 
 ME§, Ixxvi. 
 . mSSdru, 42. 
 »>s, iRa, 247. 
 
 muallidat, 59, 199. 
 
 mum, 272. 
 
 nintelu, 154. 
 
 PA, 263. 
 
 paraSdinnUj 72. 
 
 pardsu, 116. 
 
 parsigu, 404. 
 
 parsu, 116. 
 
 paSdtu, 282. 
 
 piristu, 116. 
 
 pirtu, 107. 
 
 ;>«?, 284. 
 
 ptiluggUy pulukku, 139. 
 
 ra^zS, ra/i2, xx, 421, 462. 
 
 rakdsu, 295, 
 
 y^/w, 262. 
 
 RU, 262. 
 
 russunu, 109. 
 
 ?abrii, sabrdtu, xvi, 214. 
 
 saddti, 39. 
 
 /aif?2, 112. 
 
 SagdSu, Ixxvi. 
 
 SA.GAZ, lxxvff.,26. 
 
 sahdiu, 477. 
 
 saldmu, 287. 
 
 !fam.hatv, 407. 
 
 sdpitu, xxxiii. 
 
 /ira, 133. 
 
 saSsu, 10. 
 
 satdrUj 258. 
 
 stseru, sisseru, 84. 
 
 SI.PA, (ai^na), 285. 
 
 Hpru^ Sapdru, 259, 328. 
 
 j^ji2, Ixv. 
 
 §U, 421. 
 
 ialtmu, 10. 
 
 tultu, 291. 
 
 umalli kdta, 422. 
 
 urudd, 152. 
 
 urzunu, 109. 
 
 zardli-u, 386. 
 
 ZI, ZIDA, ZIDE, 262. 
 
 zi«^, 460. 
 
 abidbhd, 142. 
 *&mal, 154. 
 bissud , 145. 
 biekdi bezki, 5. 
 g^aph, 146. 
 
 Aramaic (including Syriac). 
 
 A'ra/, 259. 
 Iiarreph, 143. 
 kawthd, 463. 
 hillM&, 279. 
 ya«a, 86. 
 
526 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES 
 
 Mft, 137. 
 mdtkd, 112. 
 p^rd ; 107. 
 p^iat, 282, 
 pulhgh, 1:40. 
 r%id, 262. 
 sapkrd, 207. 
 lassd, 358. 
 
 frihd, 286. 
 sihP-rd^ sahr&, 235. 
 129. 
 
 tanm. 
 
 Hbb4rd, 283. 
 yabhebh, 154. 
 yathrd, 378. 
 
 Arabic. 
 
 'a A/, 463. 
 
 'ahlu-iwabar, 152. 
 
 'aMama, 147. 
 
 'amila, ^amal, ^amil, 153 f. 
 
 'ammt Iviii. 
 
 ^anna, 283. 
 
 bad'a, 145. 
 
 ^<2^«, 265. 
 
 batneh, 306. 
 
 dafara, 207. 
 
 /Pi^/, 262. 
 
 dartht 286. 
 
 /a/z, 40. 
 
 fahid, 265. 
 
 /ar', 107. 
 
 farda, 107, 108. 
 
 furdahffirdd^farada, 143. 
 
 fuwwah^ 291. 
 
 /a/a, 260. 
 
 gaVad, 306, 
 
 ganna, 283. 
 
 ^arafa, 146. 
 
 G^OT, 262. 
 
 ^c/, 278. 
 
 ^fl/^. 492. 
 
 kalafa, half, 380; 
 
 halify 380. 
 
 hamara, 373. 
 
 ^mts, 213/'' 
 
 haruma, 18. 
 
 hassa, hissah, 126. 
 
 hdtin, 15, 
 
 hdwiya, 468. 
 
 ^z^^, 139. 
 
 b'/fJ/, 279, 
 
 kadUnt, 148. 
 
 ^tii^, 309. 
 
 'lanna, 138. 
 
 kara'a, xiv.. f. 
 
 /a,^(^, 286. 
 
 lawi'ii, lawi'at, 437, 441. 
 
 leben, 93. 
 
 madda, 123. 
 
 ntahaka, 154, 
 
 manzil, al-mandzil, 146. 
 
 marra, 363, 380. 
 
 masaka^ 136. 
 
 minkara, minkar, 185. 
 
 mugdra, xix. 
 
 nasa^a, 382. 
 
 ^(^(/c, 323. 
 
 rakda, xv. 
 
 rukn^ 472. 
 
 /tziJtJ^ al-aris, 361. 
 
 saddk, 265, 367. 
 
 sadtka, 265, 355, 367. 
 
 ja/,283. 
 
 jflAtf/, 90. 
 
 J=iz>^r, 235. 
 
 sahUr, suhra, 124. 
 
 salama, 287. 
 
 j^ra, 133. 
 
 sarh, saraka, 286. 
 
 sunbul, sunbula, 328. 
 
 takltl, 279. 
 
 tanna, 129. 
 
 'ulliya, ^illiya^ 71. 
 
 wtfi/i', 88. 
 
 waha, 437. 
 
 walaga, xiv. 
 
 warik, waraka, 370. 
 
 wasa, 437. 
 
 watar, 378. 
 
 waztr, 367. 
 
 wf^, wala, 437, 
 
 zamdn, 461. 
 
INDICES 
 
 527 
 
 Greek. 
 
 'AStictffos Kijiroi) 333. 
 &Kav6a, 465. 
 ApTXyfTfitat, iviii. 
 dffe/SiJs, 468. 
 'Axaifoij xcii, 
 BeeXfe/3ouX, 5. 
 SeXiaX, BeXiapf 469. 
 PovyovLa, xix, 360. 
 r<i/A/ia, 262. 
 Aaifao^, xciii. 
 
 f"a|As, 'Oaf6s, 'A^6s, xciii. 
 ZiJTa, 262. 
 *HXto5(3pos, Ixxxiv. 
 Kepis, 309. 
 'K.6p'tj, 332. 
 XdjUTTOupt?, 394. 
 fiiyapoVj xviii. 
 Mi\uTffa, 85. 
 p.njTp6Tro\is, 9. 
 Hkluru/), 42. 
 
 Micxoi, xcix. 
 
 Ml/XlTTtt, 59, 198. 
 
 "Oi'Du T^d^os, 371. 
 d7rL<rd68o/j,os, 271. 
 6pTv^, 406. 
 TreStj/'jJ, 8. 
 iredlor, S. 
 TTvyfX'q, 70. 
 'PaK^d, 309. 
 'Pw, 262. 
 aivSwv, 362. 
 (TTpardiredoy, 219. 
 2u5u/c, 42. 
 0"D/)t7^, 142. 
 TevKpoi, xciii. 
 TTifpavvoij 62. 
 Tvp<r7}voi, xcii. 
 uioi Tou vvfKpQvos, 361. 
 0fXos ToO yvfJL^ioVf 367. 
 Zei)ff dp&rpios, 386. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 ^^r, 363. 
 
 Achivij xcii. 
 aerarium^ 271. 
 augurium canarium, 393. 
 cerealia, 386. 
 Citrullus colocynthis, 364. 
 dividere, 127. 
 Eristalis tenaxj 359. 
 
 furtum lido et lance conceptum, 239, 
 
 pietas, 469. 
 
 Pistacia terebinthus , 187. 
 
 Rhatnnus palaestina, 275. 
 
 ro^z;^i7, 393 f. 
 
 Rubia tinctorum, 291. 
 
 sibila, 141, 
 
 uredo, 394. 
 
 IV. INDEX OF PASSAGES FROM OTHER BOOKS 
 DISCUSSED 
 
 Gen. 4' 
 Gen. 10" 
 Gen, 14 
 Gen. 16 13 
 Gen. 18 1"- 
 Gen. 23 
 
 Gen. 242 
 Gen. 30 11 
 Gen. 34 
 Gen. 43" 
 Gen. 4729 
 
 ■ 417- 
 
 Gen. 48 21-22 
 
 
 
 cxi, 270, 
 
 . 224. 
 
 Gen. 49 = ' 
 
 
 
 437- 
 
 . Ixif. 
 
 Gen. 49 18 
 
 
 
 392- 
 
 ■ 193- 
 
 Ex.312 
 
 
 
 189. 
 
 • 348. 
 
 Ex. 3 " 
 
 
 
 189 f. , 248 f. 
 
 . Ixxxv f. 
 
 Ex. I2''0 
 
 
 
 cxii. 
 
 . 264. 
 
 Ex. 18 8"- 
 
 
 
 252. 
 
 J . I97f- 
 
 Ex. 1925 
 
 
 
 417. 
 
 . 438. 
 
 Ex. 21 8 . 
 
 
 
 "7. 33°- 
 
 • 378. 
 
 Ex. 228-9 
 
 
 
 "7. 330- 
 
 . 264. 
 
 Ex. 24 9-11 
 
 
 
 252 f. 
 
!8 
 
 X. 28 . . 
 X. 32 . 
 
 ,x. 32 ^2 
 
 ;x. 33 1' 
 ;x. 34^ 
 
 Iinn. 6 1-21 . 
 Jum. M-""* ■ 
 Jum. 2 1 1-3 . 
 ■Jum. 2l24 . 
 >Jum. 21^8 . 
 ^ura. 22^-24^ 
 Hum. 2629"- 
 Num. 3ii"- ■ 
 Num. 32^2 • 
 Num. 32^9 
 Num. 34'-^ ■ 
 Deut. i«-*6 . 
 Deut. 32 8 
 Deut; 32^ . 
 Deut. 33.2 
 Deut. 33 SI" . 
 Deut/ 33 23 . 
 Deut. 33^9 . 
 Josh. 1 5 
 Josh. 7. 8 
 Josh. 8 1' 
 Josh. II* 
 Josh. 13 1' 
 Josh. 14 15 
 Josh. 15'-* 
 Josh. 158 "• 
 Josh, is"-" 
 Josh, is''' 
 Josh. 16 lO" 
 josh. 17 1"'' 
 Josh. 17 1"^ 
 Josh. i8"«- 
 J osb. 19 1* 
 Josh. 1929 
 Josh. 19 « 
 Josh. 19^° 
 Josh. 23 
 Josh. 24 
 Josh. 24 
 Josh. 24 
 I Sam. I '2 
 I Sam. 222 
 I Sam. s-* 
 
 THE BUUK ua J uuuiio_ 
 
 28-31 
 SO 
 
 236 ff. 
 440 f. 
 
 259 
 189 f. 
 
 253. 
 
 342. 
 
 44 f. 
 18, 44 f. 
 
 305. 314- 
 
 270, 389. 
 
 316. 
 
 134- 
 
 456- 
 
 368. 
 
 SO- 
 
 34- 
 
 44- 
 i 37- 
 
 107 f. 
 . 109 f. 
 
 ■ 4- 
 . cvii f. 
 . 198. 
 . 189. 
 . 4SS>4S7- 
 
 . 21. 
 
 . 62. 
 
 • 51- 
 
 ■ 9- 
 
 . 34- 
 
 . 430. 431- 
 
 . 8. 
 
 . 6, 20; 
 
 . 26. - 
 
 • 134 f- 
 . 49 f- 
 
 ■ 430- 
 . 27. 
 
 . 28. 
 
 ■ 3i> 5J- 
 
 • 32- 
 
 . , xliii f. 
 . xliif. 
 . 52 f- 
 . 32- 
 . 200. 
 
 . 435- 
 , 386. 
 
 I Sam. 8 6-' . _ 
 I Sam. II 12-" 
 I Sam. 12 
 I Sam. 13 1 
 I Sam. 13 5 
 I Sam. 14 12 . 
 I Sam. 14 >8 . 
 I Sam, 14" . 
 
 1 Sam. 23' 
 
 2 Sam. i.2i» . 
 2 Sam. 23 11 . 
 2 Sam. 246 
 
 I Kgs. 4I2 -. 
 I Kgs. 5 s("' . 
 
 1 Kgs. I2 28S1. 
 
 2 Kgs. i' 
 
 2 Kgs. 32s-" . - 
 Isa. 81 . 
 Isa.i7"- ~ ■ 
 Isa. 19 1' . 
 Isa. 30* . 
 Isa. 3d22 . 
 Isa. 579 , , ■ 
 Isa. 639 . 
 jer. 712,14 
 
 Jer. 268-9. 
 Ezek. 132" ■ -. 
 Ezek. i63-« . 
 Ezek. 44'*" ^ 
 
 Hos. 2 8(10) . 
 
 Hos. 58 
 
 Hos. 8 10 
 
 Hos. 9 19, io9 . 
 
 Am. 2 1112 . 
 
 Am. 3^ . 
 
 Am. 8 " . 
 
 Mic. 61-8 . 
 
 Zech.i2ii 
 Ps. 35 s-^-' 
 Ps. 54="" 
 Ps, 6981(22) . 
 
 Ps. ii87 . 
 Job 6 19 •. 
 Job 31 82 
 Dan. II "■ 
 I Chr. 242-55 , 
 iChr. 7"-i« . 
 Ecclus..5oi2ff- 
 
 183.' 
 30ij 
 . xlii f. 
 lii. 
 2b. 
 
 233' 
 
 3, 239, 242. 
 
 3. 240, . 
 
 239- 
 
 112. 
 
 371- 
 
 xcix, 23, 
 xvii, 221 f.' 
 
 115. 
 441. 
 
 347- 
 320. 
 
 259 f- - 
 
 333- 
 
 32. 
 
 • 259, 
 242 f. 
 
 • 133' 
 . 36- 
 
 • 435- 
 
 • 435- 
 
 • 149- 
 
 . Ixxxvii. 
 
 . 237. 
 
 . 241. 
 
 . 133. 
 
 . 184. 
 
 ■ 445- 
 . 343- 
 . 40. 
 
 . 292. 
 
 ■ 330- 
 . 333- 
 . 124. 
 
 . 321' 
 
 . 194- 
 
 . 321- 
 
 '. 114- 
 
 . 114- 
 
 . 333- 
 
 . 341- 
 
 . 13^- 
 
 . 199- 
 
 LAUS DEO 
 
NORTHERN PALESTINE 
 
 MAP T 
 
 COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
 J(iiaBartkaianwlr& Co. 
 
CENTRAL PALESTINE (NORTHERN PORTION) 
 
 2£4T' IL 
 
 COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
 JohiL BacthoImneTt- & Co- 
 
CENTRAL PALESTINE (SOUTHERN portion) 
 
 JdJLP III 
 
 COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
 JoLaEQi't]iliIaniBir& Co. 
 
2£4J' IV 
 
 SOUTHERN PALESTINE 
 
 COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
IdAF V 
 
 MAP OF THE NEGEB, Etc. 
 
 COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
 m. 
 
 5000 FEET 
 
 4000 .1 
 
 3000 
 
 2000 " 
 
 i&OO 
 
 1000 
 
 500 
 
 n SEA 
 
 
 
 ^ LEVEL 
 
 le Eitiiiibupgii Geo tfpf^iiiiiial JaatiAiOe 
 
 JohuBm^^iolflmew & Go-. 
 
 Scale -= 22 Miles to am Tadh. 
 
 30 40 
 
COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
COLOURED SCALE 
 OF ALTITUDE 
 
 LEVEL 
 
 &00 FEET 
 
PALESTINE 
 
 
 
 KILasd,) ', 
 iiron. Upper- 
 
 jf'JaTioni; „ aibe'ahofSsulr 
 Nob? G , „ 
 
 Scale - 8 MLes to i 
 
PLATE I 
 
PLATE III 
 
 Fii:. I 
 
 Fie. 2 
 
 '|^?^''jr^' 
 
 Fig. 3 
 
PLATE IV 
 
 Pholo: Braun f; CK 
 
PLATE V 
 
 Fi.r. I 
 
 Fij. 2 
 
PLATE VI