Of the deliverance from the Philistines, which is said to have been effected by Shamgar with an ox goad, nothing is known. Probably during the period of rest, just mentioned, the Philistines suddenly invaded the country for purposes of plunder, and Shamgar, availing himself of the only weapon he possessed the ox goad, with which he was driving his oxen-fell upon the invaders and routed them. The incident may have resembled that of Samson, when, by divine help, he killed thousands of the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. More probably, Shamgar placed himself at the head of a hastily-gathered band of country people, who, arming themselves with the implements of tillage with which they were occupied, by an unexpected onslaught drove out the enemy. But to Shamgar also the honour belongs of having delivered Israel.

THE OPPRESSION OF THE CANAANITES.-The history of the Israelites is a painful and humiliating picture of the corruption of our common nature. The whole Bible is a continued history of human apostasy and of divine interposition. In the case of Israel, the chastisements and the gracious deliverances vouchsafed by God, seemed alike to fail in securing their reformation and constant fidelity. After the death of Ehud, the services of the sanctuary were neglected, and they again relapsed into idolatry. For this God "sold them into the hand of Jabin," the king of one of the Canaanitish tribes, which they ought to have destroyed. This Jabin was perhaps a descendant as well as successor of the king of the same name, who also reigned in Hazor, and who was routed and slain, and his city burned by Joshua (Joshua xi., 1-10). The city had been rebuilt and its power regained, and now the King of Hazor

obtained an ascendancy over Israel and heavily oppressed them. The Canaanites, provoked by their former defeat, would naturally make the burdens of the Israelites as grievous as possible, and these burdens would be made heavier by the reflection that but for their own cowardice, indolence, and unbelief, their present oppressors might have been exterminated. For 20 years Jabin oppressed the children of Israel, and then they "cried unto the Lord." The Lord showed His compassion and grace by qualifying Deborah for the work of deliverance. This Deborah was evidently a woman of great holiness and knowledge of divine things. She was endowed with the gift of prophecy, the first case of the kind recorded since the death of Moses probably 200 years before. Sitting under the pleasant shade of her palm tree she was accustomed to give counsel and advice, to redress grievances and determine causes, especially in matters pertaining to the law and the worship of God. Being a woman, she was not so likely to excite the jealousy and interference of Jabin. But Deborah, by divine inspiration, commanded the assistance from Barak, a native of Kedesh-naphtali in the far north of Palestine, by whom 10,000 men, chiefly of Zebulun and Naphtali were speedily enlisted to rid the country of the oppressor. Deborah, at Barak's request, accompanied the army, but she assured him that on account of his want of courage and faith the glory of the victory should belong chiefly to a woman. Sisera, the captain of Jabin's host, being informed of these preparations to oppose his power, gathered his forces at the river of Kishon. He collected a mighty host, and had with him 900 chariots of iron. But "the Lord had gone out" before Barak had put everything in readiness for his achieving a great victory, "and the

Lord discomfited Sisera." A supernatural panic seems to have been produced in Sisera's army, caused probably by a storm of wind, rain, and hail, and by this panic chariots rushed against each other and were broken, and horses and men were mingled in wild confusion, making them an easy prey to the swords of the Israelites. The entire army was destroyed. "There was not a man left." When Sisera saw that the battle was lost he alighted from his chariot and fled on foot. He came to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, a descendant of Hobab, the father-inlaw of Moses, who had emigrated to the northern part of the land. The Kenites were on a friendly footing with the subjects of Jabin, and Jael invited Sisera into her tent to offer him probably the ordinary hospitalities which the Orientals have ever been accustomed to show to strangers and travellers. But on discovering who her guest was, while professing kindness to him in order to increase his confidence and feeling of security, she was prompted to a bold action. She heartily sympathised with the people of God, and bravely resolved to destroy their oppressor. Taking "a nail of the tent," one of the long spikes which were driven into the ground, and to which the cords that secured the tent were attached, and a hammer or mallet, "she went softly unto him and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary." When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael took him into her tent and showed him his enemy lying dead with the nail in his temples. "So God subdued on that day Jabin, the King of Canaan, before the children of Israel" A beautiful triumphal ode was composed by Deborah to celebrate this signal victory over the armies of Jabin, an ode in whose lofty and

impassioned lines there is an expression of gratitude to God for past manifestations of power and goodness; a graphic description of the oppression under which the nation had groaned in consequence of their apostasy, and of the happy state of security and peace now to be enjoyed; an enumeration and review of the tribes which had joined the standard of Barak, and through whose patriotic bravery their country had been redeemed; a bitter and sarcastic reproof to those tribes which remained at home; a vivid account of the crisis of the battle and of the circumstances attending the death of Sisera, and a fervent prayer that all the enemies of God may perish in a similar way, while all who love Him gloriously prevail. After this victory the land had rest forty years.

THE OPPRESSION BY THE MIDIANITES. In the period of peace and rest which succeeded the overthrow of Jabin, the blessings of deliverance from oppression were again forgotten. The time graciously given for improvement was, as formerly, grievously neglected and abused. Regardless of past judgments, ungrateful for past mercies, "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." The Lord had again recourse to the rod of punishment, and "delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years." About 200 years before, a great portion of this race had been cut off by Moses (Numb. xxxi., 1-18), but they had recovered themselves, had rapidly increased in power, and now they prevailed against the sinweakened Israelites. As Midian occupied a very low place among the nations of that period, while Israel could boast of a superior position, lineage, and promises, this servitude was peculiarly galling. Evidently the Midianites took every opportunity of heaping insult and injury on the heads of

their ancient conquerors, so that the Israelites were obliged to conceal themselves in retired holes and fastnesses. After the Israelites ploughed and sowed their fields, the Amalekites and various mixed tribes fearlessly pitched their tents in the very heart of the country, and secured all the crops as they came to maturity. "No sustenance was left for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass." Great hordes of wandering Arabs possessed and ravaged the land. Need we be surprised to learn "that Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites." Their intolerable condition led them to "cry unto the Lord," and He, ever ready to hear the cry of the miserable when salutary discipline has done its work, was pleased to send a prophet to rebuke them for their sins which had caused these sufferings, and to intimate that deliverance should follow repentance and reformation.

The deliverer whom God raised up at this time was Gideon, the youngest son of Joash, who belonged to the family of Abiezer, and resided at Ophrah, near the western bank of the Jordan. While Gideon was threshing some wheat, which he had contrived to save from the rapacity of the Midianites, under the spreading branches of an oak, so as to be sheltered from the scorching rays of the sun, and concealed from the sight of the ever-watchful enemy, suddenly a person appeared and accosted him with the words, "The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." This expression may have referred to some display of courage and prowess already made by Gideon, or it may have been the promise of strength for the work to which he was now to be called. Gideon, who had evidently been pondering over the humiliating condition to which his country for the seven previous years had been reduced, and was longing for an opportunity to strike a decisive blow, and so rid the land of