474 JUDGES XX-THE DEFEAT OF BENJAMIN the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. 27 And the children of Israel inquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up, for to-morrow I will deliver them into thine hand. 29 And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah. 30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. 31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah 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 from the city unto the highways. 33 And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah. 34 And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them. 35 And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword. 36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah. 37 And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword. 38 Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city. 39 And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle. 40 But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven. Abimelech's Death FROM THE BIBLICAL SERIES BY JULIUS SCHNORR. + “And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull.”—Jud., 9, 53. A FTER Gaal's flight, Abimelech showed the full savageness of his tyranny. He waited till the Shechemites had gone out into the fields, then he led his troops between them and the town, captured it and slew all within. Giving free rein to his fury, he destroyed the city utterly and "sowed it with salt," that the ground might be worthless forever. Some of the people had escaped to a strong tower; and this he set on fire, so that all perished in the flames. Even this terrible warning could not crush the fierce rebellion that spread everywhere against the tyrant. He attacked and captured the little Ephraimite city of Thebez. Here again the survivors shut themselves in a strong tower, while Abimelech tried to burn them up, as he had done at Shechem. But a millstone, hurled from the tower by a woman, killed him. So perished Israel's first king. The people, terrified by the miseries they had brought upon themselves, went back to their old style of rulers. Two judges, in succession, Tola of the tribe of Issachar and Jair from the region east of Jordan, guided the land through a long period of peace. |