And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer?

God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated* toward him, when he had said that.

:

And Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.

And he said unto the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.

And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army?

And Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

And he went up thence to Penuel, and spake unto them likewise : and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him.

And he spake also unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.

COMMENT.-Gideon came back encouraged and inspired with the means of surprising the unguarded camp. He bade each of his three hundred resolute comrades take a trumpet, probably a ram's horn, and a torch-a branch of resinous wood from the forest-lighted, but hidden in an earthen pitcher. Thus they crept silently in the darkness down the hill to the verge of the tents, and then at the signal every trumpet was blown, every pitcher was broken, and the enemy woke from their sleep to the wild bray of the trumpets on all sides and the glare of the torches. Up they started in terror and confusion, not knowing who attacked them, whether the Amalekites or the Israelites, and in their blind rage and fright they fell on each other; each man's sword was turned against his fellow, many slew one another, and the rest broke up their camp, and hurried, as fast as their numbers would allow, to the south-east, to cross the Jordan and return to their own desert around the Dead Sea.

All the men of Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh, the ten thousand brave and the twenty-two thousand faint-hearted, rose up to pursue them, slay the men, and seize the cattle that straggled in their flight through the land of Ephraim. They would have to

* Lessened.

cross the Jordan, and Gideon sent to the Ephraimites to watch the fords by which alone they could cross-especially Bethbarah, the "place of passage." The men of Ephraim did so, and, meeting the discomfited foe, cut off their flight, and slew their two desert chiefs, whose very names showed their ferocious breeding-Oreb and Zeeb, the "raven" and the "wolf;" but the proud tribe which aspired to the chieftainship of Israel found fault with Gideon when he came up in the pursuit, for not having called them to the battle. He was in far too much speed to debate the point, or let the enemy escape while he quarrelled. To hunt the Midianite remnant home, and destroy their two terrible remaining chiefs, mattered far more than who ought to have been called to the battle. He only answered modestly that the gleaning won by the great tribe, in the slaughter of the runaways and of Oreb and Zeeb, was better worth having than the harvest reaped by his own little family of Abiezer; and their vanity was so far satisfied that they let him hurry on with the brave three hundred, faint, hungry, weary, yet still not slackening their chase. At Succoth-the place named after Jacob's booths-he entreated for food for his band, but the men of Succoth, envious or distrustful, answered that they saw no proof of his deserving to be fed ; and at Penuel, where Jacob's mysterious wrestling had taken place, he was equally ill received. He passed on with a short stern threat to each, and the men who had been self-contained and dignified when they quenched their thirst at the spring of Harod, were staunch and constant, through all hunger and weariness, in finishing the victory of the Lord.

[Gideon's victory was won by the flash of the torches in the pitchers; so was the Light of Truth hidden in earthen vesselsnamely, within the breasts of the holy Apostles, who sounded the trumpet of the Gospel, and made the Light to shine forth, and shine all the more when their perishable bodies were broken; and the brightness of their doctrine has shone even to the ends of the earth.]

LESSON XXXI.

THE VICTORY.

JUDGES viii. 10—32.

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor,* and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword.

And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host: for the host was secure.

And when Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and discomfited all the host. And Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun was up, And caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and enquired of him : and he described unto him the princes of Succoth, and the elders thereof, even threescore and seventeen men.

And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary?

And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught † the men of Succoth.

And he beat down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city. Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.

And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother: as the LORD liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you.

And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks.

Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.

And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.

And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

* Level place.

+ Chastised.

Little moons.

And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.

And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks.

And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.

Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

And Gideon had threescore and ten sons: for he had many wives. And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

COMMENT.-The two kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, had fled far on to a level place with about half of their numbers, and these thought themselves secure, but the terrible Gideon, pursuing them even thither, defeated their army again, and chased the kings until he had made them both prisoners. This driving them even to their desert homes broke the force of the Midianites for many a day, so that it is long before we find them coming again to rob and despoil the fields of Israel. Gideon brought his two captives back to show to the churlish men of Succoth and Penuel, who had refused him aid in his pursuit. He found a young man of the place who might describe to him the elders who had thus answered him, and after he had shown them the two captive Midianites, he took thorny and spring branches of the trees in the wilderness, and with them taught the men of Succoth-" made them to know"-what it was to refuse to come to the help of the warriors of the Lord. The men of Succoth were beaten with thorns, the men of Penuel had their tower broken down, and some of them were even slain. It seems a harsh punishment, but any slackness towards these battles of the Lord was always severely visited; and Gideon, if he were to be the defender and Judge of Israel, needed to make himself respected and feared. Afterwards, he examined Zebah and Zalmunna as to some Manassites whom they had slain at Mount Tabor. They were like himself, the kings said, "each one like the son of a king." Gideon knew them by that token for his own slaughtered brothers. Otherwise he would have spared the captives, but by that old law he was

the Revenger of blood, and therefore bound to put them to death; or rather, his own eldest son, Jether, as heir of all these brothers, was the Revenger as nearest of kin, and Gideon called him to slay the two kings, but the youth shrank back, and Zebah and Zalmunna entreated to die by the strong steady hand of the father, rather than by the weak and faltering stroke of the lad.

Long years after, when other foes were invading Judah, the Levites sang

Do thou unto them as unto the Madianites,

As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison,

Which perished at En-dor.

They became as the dung of the earth.

Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb,

Yea, all their princes as Zebah and as Zalmunna,
Who said, "Let us take to ourselves

The houses of God in possession."

The trophies Gideon took from these two were the ornaments or little silver moons that hung from their camels' necks, perhaps in honour of Ashtaroth, or the moon.

The Israelites wanted to make him their king, and to establish the kingdom in his family, but he nobly bade them own that the Lord was their only King, and refused to do more than act as the defender or Judge appointed by Him. All he would allow them to give him was the rings worn in the ears and noses of the slain Midianites. These, when heaped together in one cloak spread on the ground, amounted to seventy pounds' weight. He did not desire this treasure for himself, but to dedicate it as a thank-offering to God. There is reason to think that, after the death of the great Phinehas, the priests at Shiloh had grown careless and indifferent. At any rate there is no mention of them, and this seems to have tempted Gideon to dedicate the beautiful ephod, or priestly garment he made with the gold, in his own house instead of at Shiloh. This became a snare to him and the Israelites; and though he did not worship, nor permit the worship of, any God save the Lord, there was a tendency to come to Gideon's ephod rather than to observe the appointed sacrifices and feasts in the appointed way.

And this led to frightful evil when Gideon, having guarded Israel through a long life, died, and was buried at his own home, whence the Holy One had called him away from his winepress.