Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.

15. As Adoni commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that Adoni commanded Moses.

Continuation by the Compiler of Joshua.-Joshua xi. 16. So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same; even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them.

:

18. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

19. There was not a city that made peace with the Bene Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle. For it was of Adoni to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel to battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as Adoni commanded Moses.

21. And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the Bene Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

23. So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Adoni said unto Moses: and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes.

And the land rested from war.

THE LEGEND OF GIDEON OF MANASSEH.-When the interpolations and transfigurations about Adoni and his Protean angel have been eliminated, this legend presents a simple and interesting tale.

State of Northern Palestine.-After the success of Barak peace had been restored between the Israelite settlers and the other inhabitants of the plains of Esdraelon and Gennesareth and the regions north and south of them.

The Hebrew families had intermingled and intermarried with the other races, and they served the same gods.

It is not suggested that Barak or any other Hebrew had acquired sovereignty or rule in these regions.

Some of the Hebrews, or of the mixed races, had taken to agriculture in addition to their pastoral occupations; and some to the culture of the vine.

A sept of Manasseh, the Abi-ezrites, had established their village or cluster of farm-yards (their city in scriptural phrase), Ophrah, on the northern slopes of Mount Ephraim, towards, perhaps overlooking, the plain of Jezreel.

The members of this sept participated in the general religion of the country, and in conformity with it, had a high place; and an altar for the worship of the sun (Baal), stood in the village.

Midian Invasion.-After this state of concord had continued for some years a common enemy appeared, from the regions beyond the Hebrew settlements Trans-Jordan, the Midianites and the Amalekites the people of the east.

To reach this part of Palestine these invaders must have traversed Gilead. They probably ravaged and reduced it to absolute submission, as may be inferred from the legend (Judges viii. 5).

According to the tale they poured into the plain of Esdraelon, with their cattle and their tents, like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels without number. From time to time they devoured the crops and plundered the country to the gates of Gaza. If so, they must have come into conflict with the lords of Gezer and Philistia. If these were unable to repel the irruption we may readily believe that the less disciplined peoples of the north were driven to despair, and that as the swarms of nomads from time to time approached to eat up the land, the inhabitants, original, Hebrew, and mixed, alike sought refuge in the caves.

According to the introduction, these bands of nomads, more powerful than their Hebrew predecessors, ravaged from Jordan to the sea, the plains of Jezreel and the regions north and south, and the plain of Sharon and half the Shefelah for seven years. Though it is indicated that their ravages were periodical, it is not to be inferred that they at any time entirely withdrew. From their camps on the border of the eastern desert to the Mediterranean, the distance was far less than a hundred miles. What is to be inferred, is, that as the grass and the harvests tempted them they roved over and devoured the land.

Yet the numbers of the invaders, 120,000 and 15,000, &c., &c., are extravagant even for a song.

Confederacy of the North.--It is natural to believe, and of this distinct indications appear in the legend, that the people of southern

Galilee, and of northern Ephraim, among whom the Bene Asher, Bene Naphtali, Bene Zebulon, Bene Issachar, and Bene Manasseh were settled, who were the sufferers from those incursions, had, during years of devastation, been concerting some confederacy for their relief. It is natural to believe that it had been excited or stimulated by an energetic young Manassite sheik, burning with revenge for the slaughter of his brothers (Judges viii. 19). And further that the greater sheiks or emirs of Ephraim in the south, who were not exposed to these calamities, held aloof from the confederation, and were jealous of the success of an inferior chief. It may then be readily supposed that the first effort was a spirited and well concerted night attack, and that its success roused all the confederates, and others glad to participate in plunder or a fray, to follow the banner of a victorious leader, and to swell his host.

The account of the numbers engaged runs into a puerile absurdity, probably introduced by the levitical compiler. Gideon is described as at the head of a host of 32,000, and as dismissing 22,000 who were afraid to fight, and so reducing his army to 10,000.

As a miracle must be introduced, and success is not to be achieved by natural means, this force is to be reduced by a process as ridiculous as it is contradictorily described, both in our bible and Josephus.

According to our bible Gideon was to select those who lapped with their tongue, as a dog lappeth, and to reject those who bowed down on their knees to drink; and in obedience to this command, he selected those " that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth," as if dogs took up the water in their hands, or drank as men would drink water taken up in their hands. According to Josephus, who was puzzled, perhaps, by such a description, if found in his copy of the scriptures, those were to be selected who bent down on their knees to drink, that is those who were to be rejected according to our copy of the scriptures, and that those who drank tumultuously were to be discharged; yet he informs us that there were 300 who took water in their hands tumultuously, and that these were the chosen. We do not pledge ourselves to the texts or translations of the bible or of Josephus; but these are the accepted translations, and such errors in a legend are more excusable, than in an inspired writing.

As already suggested, the legend probably described a night

attack, with natural exaggeration, but that 300 men should have surrounded a host of 135,000 with their innumerable camels and cattle is rather too strong for a legend. And that Gideon should have pursued the flying emirs of Midian with his original 300 men, after all the north country, and even Ephraim, had been roused against them, is still more extravagant.

The account of the progress of the war through Gilead shows the want of union at this time between that region and Palestine. The legend still retains an historical character, notwithstanding its disfigurement by the introduction of Adoni and his angel, and the mismanagement of numbers.

The jealous emirs of Ephraim are appeased by a large share in the spoil, and acquiesce in the supremacy of the victor, and the union of the Hebrew and native races is cemented by his marriage with a daughter of the royal Shechemite house.

The army of Gideon is gathered from the regions in which, it may be inferred, that a confederacy was in progress, if not complete. Abi-ezer was gathered after him, and he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali : and they came up to meet them.

The story of the night attack has some features similar to the story of Alfred's attack upon the disorderly camp of the Danes. There is not the slightest indication of any connection between Gideon and Judah.

The angel of Gideon.-The Protean angel in this legend is an incongruous feature; far different from the Sibyl of the palm-tree in Barak. The prophetess is a natural personage in an insurrection of barbarians, and the Adonite colouring is delicately inlaid; but the angel of Gideon is a fantastic, incongruous, levitical phantom.

This angel comes to rouse the worshippers of Baal to exertion and tells a tale about coming out of Egypt, in the conventional form. He at first has a human aspect, he then becomes a spirit and broils or burns the flesh and the cakes and vanishes, and then assumes the voice of Adoni himself, and then commands the destruction of the sanctuary, as if that were likely to rouse the worshippers of Baal to a common defence.

The whole is a preposterous attempt at a miracle, by which, and by Adoni's directions to reduce the army, the legend is well nigh spoilt.

Gideon not an Adonite.-The story of Gideon, notwithstanding

all the interpolations and disfigurements, shews that he was not an Adonite chief.

He introduces an ephod which causes great distress in the levitical mind, and though he mostly resides at his old farm at Ophrah, he not only marries a native wife, but maintains the temple of Baal in Shechem throughout the whole period of his rule.

It might be said that his non-interference with the temple of Baal-Berith, was in deference to his new subjects or the passing

caravans.

But the making of an ephod was manifestly the institution of a worship different from that of Adoni. That worship was instituted at Ophrah, somewhat inconsistently with the story of his overturning the altar of Baal. And Gideon made an ephod thereof -i.e., of the golden earrings weighing 1,700 shekels of gold (321b. 3oz., worth £1,551 68.) and the ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment, that was on the emirs of Midian, and the chains that were about the camels' necks.

This ephod then, does not mean merely a cassock, but the institution of an endowed priesthood, although the amount of gold is probably exaggerated.

And he put it in his city even in Ophrah-establishing, contrary to all Adonite notions, a sanctuary there.

And all Israel went thither a whoring after it; which thing became a snare unto Gideon and his house.

Could this be the altar which Gideon built for the metamorphic angel?

His offence is similar to that of Jeroboam, in withdrawing the worship from the Adonite shrine at Gilgal, or Shiloh, or wherever it happened then to have wandered. He did not send Adoni a bullock or a sheep, in acknowledgment of his victories.

Miracles. Here we may begin to trace a vein which runs through the scriptures, Christian as well as levitical; the demand of a sign. Gideon is described as demanding from the angel a sign of his spirituality. Samson's father demands a sign. Elijah gives a sign like one of those of Gideon's angel. Hezekiah has a sign pressed upon him, and again and again in the gospels Jesus talks of a sign.

There are stories of miracles from the beginning to the end of the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Any examiner, however much his mind is perverted by superstition, must feel that the whole superstructure of belief in these