that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the melechs of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him and we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.

6. And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.

7. And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

8. Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. So his strength was not known.

10. And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man. Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.

13. And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.

15. And she said unto him, How canst thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth.

16. And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; that he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto Adoni from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from

me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the melechs of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he hath shewed me all his heart.

18. Then the melechs of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.

20. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that Adoni was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

22. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven. Then the melechs of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.

25. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.

27. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the melechs of the Philistines were there: and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.

28. And Samson called unto Adoni, and said, O Adoni, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O god, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.

30. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might and the house fell upon the

melechs, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

31. Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

In Josephus (Ant. V. viii.) the story of Samson is in the main conformable with that in Judges, but very differently told. He states that Manoah was fond of his wife to a degree of madness, and on that account was unmeasurably jealous of her; that the wife informed her husband when he came home of what the angel had said, and showed so great an admiration of the beauty and tallness of the young man that had appeared to her, that her husband was astonished and out of himself for jealousy . . . . and that when all was ready for the sacrifice (referred to in Judges) the angel enjoined him to set the loaves and the flesh, but without the vessels, upon the rock; which when they had done, he touched the flesh with the rod which he had in his hand, which, upon the breaking out of a flame, was consumed, together with the loaves; and the angel ascended openly, in their sight, up to heaven, by means of the smoke, as by a vehicle. He informs us that the name Samson signifies one that is strong. He also states that Samson divorced his wife; and that the girl despised his anger, and was married to his companion, who made the former match between them; and he gives, in somewhat different terms, the story of letting loose 300 foxes with lit firebrands at their tails. He describes the surrender of Samson to the men of Judah in somewhat different terms, and his achievement of slaying 1,000 of the Philistines with a jaw-bone as occurring at a place now called (Lehi) the "Jaw-bone," on account of the great action there performed by Samson, though of old it had no particular name. Samson is described as too proud of his performance as effected by his own prowess, but that thirst compelled him to ascribe it to god; and on his penitence god was moved by his entreaties, and raised him up a plentiful fountain of sweet water at a certain rock; whence it was that Samson called the place Lehi, the Jaw-bone, and so it is called to this day.

The story of carrying off the gates of Gaza is in the main similar, but instead of going to a harlot "he took up his lodgings at a certain inn."

The story of Samson's love for Delilah, his betrayal by her to the

Philistines, and thrusting down the pillars of the room in which they were assembled at a public festival, is told in a very free conformity with that in Judges.

THE STORY OF MICAH, HIS LEVITE, AND THE MIGRATION OF DAN.— The compiler of Judges does not attempt to give this story a chronological place, beyond stating that it refers to a time when there was no king in Israel, therefore before Saul.

The story is, probably, mainly a fiction, into which the author has introduced a tradition of a migration from Dan to the north.

If there ever was such a migration, it could not have occurred until after the time of Gideon; for until then it is manifest that 600 Danites could not have forced their way to the capture of a town so far north.

Josephus treats every story in the scriptures, at least as derived from those accessible to him, or as modified by his own fancy, as a narrative of fact. He places this immediately after the story of the levite and the slaughter of Benjamin, which he introduces before the tale of Ehud. This is certainly inconsistent with the other legends. But whether pure fiction, or an approximately true story, as to Micah, as to his levite, and as to the migration from Dan, it is so much more free from levitical corruption, as to afford a history of the condition, religion, habits, and manners of the country before the time of David, and to be entitled to greater respect from the historian than almost any other portion of what is called holy writ.

Micah is the personification, real, or eponymous, of a wealthy Palestinian sheik, or franklin, residing in the neighbourhood of Shechem. He is established in his city or village, surrounded by his immediate kindred, and, perhaps, by some junior branches of his sept, and their dependents. From the menace of the Danites, it is apparent that the village or sept was not large. He was, however, the hereditary patriarch of that ilk. His father, perhaps from traffic with the passing merchants at the mart of Shechem, had amassed a very considerable fortune for that time and country, 1,100 shekels of silver (about £126, proportionate to a modern fortune of £3,000 or £4,000) in addition to his agricultural and farming stock.

The young elder, patriarch, or chief of the family, and his mother, had some question about the title to this great hoard of bullion, which Micah had taken from her. The son, repentant of perhaps an over exertion of authority, delivers the treasure to the mother.

The pious and affectionate old lady had only intended to save it for her gods and her son.

The result is that the shekels are restored to the safe keeping of the mother.

As Gideon had established a princely sanctuary or ephod at Ophrah with the golden spoils of the Midianites, so Micah and his pious mother established a respectable franklin's sanctuary in his village in Mount Ephraim. Micah made a house of gods, and an ephod and teraphim; and they expended 200 shekels (or halfcrowns) in the purchase or about 7 lbs. 8 ounces in weight, in the fabrication-of a molten god and a graven god, which they established in this house or tabernacle. The images made out of this silver must have been small. We are not informed what deities they represented. Some in India and China are very small. The respectable farmer having, under the pious influence of his mother, built the village temple, and duly instituted in it the images and the teraphim, like other patrons, appoints a minister for the performance of the service, and, with or without laying of hands upon him, sufficiently consecrates his son to the office, but apparently as a mere vicar, until a more highly-qualified parson

should be found.

Next on the scene appears a migratory levite from BethlehemJudah, not of the subsequently fabricated family of Levi, but of the family of Judah. This levite seems to have been a fascinating but not very scrupulous gentleman, judging from the influence he acquired over Micah and his villagers, and afterwards over the Danite rovers, and how he abused it.

He had probably heard of the little church or tabernacle of Micah, and took a morning's walk across the mountains to offer his services there.

Micah found him better qualified for the ritualistic services in the house of the graven and molten images, and more graceful in putting on the ephod than his rustic son, and, probably, better educated in prophecy, that is, in singing songs, in telling stories, and in inventing such stories as might be gratifying to the patriarch and his sept; and cheerful at the banquet also, and acquainted with Jotham's fable of the vine producing wine "which cheereth god and man."

He seems to have been an agreeable, captivating, accommodating levite, the very man to be sought for good company and willing to accept promotion.