Judges

The Book of Judges, ] Who were God’s lieutenants, extraordinarily raised up, as occasion required: for himseff still held the iura regalia, the royal rights and royalties, till Saul’s reign: whence Josephus calleth the government of this people a theocracy, or God government. Whether Samuel wrote this book, as the Hebrews say he did, or some other holy prophet or prophets, it mattereth not. Regis epistolis acceptis, saith Gregory, when a king sendeth his letters to his subjects, it is ridiculous for them to inquire with what pen he wrote them. God is the author of this book; and the argument of it we have in the second chapter, as also in #Ps 106. And whereas Vopiscus {a} saith, Neminem historicorum non aliquid esse mentitum; that all heathen historians have taken some liberty to lie; of this, and the rest of the sacred writings, we may safely say, as #Re 22:6, "These sayings are faithful and true"; they are also "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." {#2Ti 3:16}

{a} In Vita Aureliani

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Now after the death of Joshua.] The enemies haply might hope to hold their own, now that the lion was dead; as the loss of a valiant general is sometimes the ruin of a whole state; witness the Thebans, known by their calamities only, after the death of their renowned Epaminondas. But Israel, whilst they kept close to their covenant, might truly triumph and say, as in #Isa 33:22, "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us."

The children of Israel asked the Lord.] They had miscarried at Ai by not consulting first with God: so did afterwards David when he carted the ark, and Josiah when he went against Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt. The heathens usually consulted their oracles before they waged war: and they called a sacrifice Hostia, because when they went against their enemies they offered it.

Ver. 2. And the Lord said, ] viz., By the ministry of the high priest.

Judah shall go up.] A valiant, prudent, and hitherto a prosperous tribe, ever preferred according to #Ge 49:8, and with reference to Messiah the Prince, that Lion of this tribe.

Ver. 3. And Judah said unto Simeon his brother.] Both by race, place, and grace.

Come up with me.] Continue the old league, defensive and offensive, that is already betwixt us. See #Jos 12:14. Two is better than one, and a good neighbourhood no small happiness.

Ver. 4. And they slew of them in Bezek.] Saul’s rendezvous. {#1Sa 11:8}

Ver. 5. And they found Adonibezek.] Who had pompously called himself Lord of Bezek, after the name of his city, seeking thereby to immortalise himself upon his possession; {see #Ge 4:17 Ps 49:11} but it proved otherwise, for he was found and ferreted out of his den, whither he had carried together no small spoil. {#Jud 1:7}

Ver. 6. But Adonibezek fled.] Excusing his flight, perhaps, as afterwards Demosthenes did. Vir fugiens denuo pugnabit; He that now fleeth, may fight another time.

And caught him.] Fugere quidem hic tyrannus potuit, sed non effugere; fly he might, but not escape, because divine vengeance pursued him for his cruelty. And the like befell Manasseh, Zedekiah, Muleasses (discovered by his perfumes), and many others.

And cut off his thumbs and his great toes.] So Tamerlane shackled Bajazet the great Turk whom he had taken in battle, and shut him up in an iron cage made like a grate, that he might be seen and derided of all men. He used him also on festival days as a footstool to tread upon when he mounted to horse, and at other times scornfully fed him like a dog with crumbs fallen from his table. All which Tamerlane did, not so much for hatred to the man, as to manifest the just judgment of God against the arrogant folly of the proud, saith the historian. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., 220.

Ver. 7. And Adonibezek said.] Perhaps he repented a little, as did afterwards Antiochus, Licinius, and other tyrants, who yet acknowledged that God’s heavy hand was just upon them; but surely a fame of ingenuity he hath gotten him, for confessing God’s art of justicing in that most exact way of counter-passion or retaliation, such as did Adamussim aequiparare, et in librili perpendere, as Favorinus speaketh: {a} the scales were even: his cruelty in the one, his punishment in the other. This if he had thought on, and taken up in time, he might have haply redeemed his present sorrows and sufferings. Sethon king of Egypt

“ Qui Pharios currus regum cervicibus egit, ”

made his tributary kings draw his chariot by turns, till one time he espied one of those kings to look back earnestly on the wheel, and demanding the reason thereof, was answered by him, that with much comfort he beheld the lowest spokes turn uppermost by course. Whereupon, apprehending the moral, he left off that proud and barbarous custom. {b}

Having their thumbs and their great toes cut off.] That they might be disabled for fighting any more. The Latins call the thumb pollex, ab eo quod pollet, from its power and great usefulness. The Greeks call it αντιχειρ, that is, another hand. Further he might exercise this cruelty, Ut suas victorias ostentaret, et animum exhilararet; For a trophy of his victories, as did Sesostris or Sethon, forementioned; or to make himself sport, as Pope Clement V used Dandalus, the Venetian ambassador, whom he made to wallow under his table with dogs, that he might laugh at him. Man’s heart, saith Mr Perkins, {c} is a palace of satanical pride: it is like unto the table of Adonibezek, at which he sat in a chair of state, and made others, even kings, to eat meat like dogs under his feet, with their thumbs cut off. Such a one is every man by nature: he lifteth up himself, saying, I am the man, and treadeth his brother underfoot, as nobody to him.

Gathered their meat under my table.] Meat they had then, though in a base way. This was better usage yet than our Richard II met with here in his own kingdom. For although his food was served in at Pomfret Castle, and set before him in the wonted princely manner, yet he was not suffered to taste or touch thereof, but was tantalised and starved to death. {d} So were the cruel Duke of Alva’s prisoners, whom he told, that though he gave them quarter for their lives, yet he never promised them food in prison to keep them alive. About the year 1159, Frederick I, Emperor, sent Guafalgus Duke of Milan prisoner into Germany, and for three days together held him under his table as a dog, and caused him to be whipped with a dog whip. {e}

As I have done, so God hath requited me.] God loveth to retaliate, as were easy to instance. Phalaris was burnt in his own brasen bull:

“ Neque enim lex iustior ulla est,

Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.’’—Ovid.

Constantine the Emperor put out his uncle’s eyes, and five years after had his own eyes put out by his own mother Irene. {f} Phocas, the traitor, had his arms, feet, and genitals cut off in like manner as himself had served his sovereign Mauricius. Archbishop Arundel and Stephen Gardiner were smitten in their tongues and famished, as they had silenced preachers, spoken swelling words against the professors of the truth, and brought a famine of the word. {g} Charles IX of France, author of the Parisian massacre, {h} and Felix, earl of Wartenburg, {i} who threatened to ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans, were stewed in their own broth, choked in their own blood: they had "blood given them to drink, for they were worthy." What wouldst thou have done with me, said Tamerlane to Bajazet, if it had been my fortune to have fallen into thy hands? I would, said Bajazet, have enclosed thee in a cage of iron, and so in triumph have carried thee up and down my kingdom: even so, said Tamerlane, shalt thou be served. {j}

And there he died, ] viz., Of his wounds, little care being taken of his cure, because he was a proscribed person.

{a} Gell., lib. xx. cap. 1.

{b} Isaacson, Chron., p. 61.

{c} Perk., Of Man’s Imagin.

{d} Speed, p. 766.

{e} Naucler. Gen. xxix.

{f} Bucholc.

{g} Act. and Mon.

{h} Annal. Gall.

{i} Flac. Illyr.

{j} Turk. Hist., p. 220.

Ver. 8. Had taken it.] As also Hebron and Debir, while Joshua was yet alive, {#Jos 10:42 15:63} which yet some hold to be there set down by way of anticipation.

Ver. 9. Went down.] Being heartened by their former successes, but especially by that sweet promise in #Jud 1:2.

Ver. 10. And they slew Sheshai, &c.] Those huge giants were slain by such as seemed but grasshoppers unto them. See #Jos 11:21,22.

Ver. 11-13, &c. See #Jos 15:15,16, &c., {See Trapp on "Jos 15:15"} {See Trapp on "Jos 15:16"} &c.

Ver. 16. And the children of the Kenite.] Elsewhere called Jethro, Hobab, Revel: his posterity followed the Israelites for religion’s sake, into the promised land, leaving their own country—

“ Omne sohm forti patria est.’’—Ovid., Fast.

These Kenites dwelt in tents, and had no settled habitation, as a kind of Nomads or Cosmopolites. They held the same of the world that a certain philosopher did of Athens—viz., that it was a pleasant place to travel through, but not safe to dwell in.

Ver. 17. And utterly destroyed it.] So that this city was twice utterly ruined, and therefore called Horma, devoted to destruction.

“ Roma diu titubans, variis erroribus acta

Corruct, et mundi desinet esse caput.”

Ver. 18. Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof.] But lost them again to the Philistines—

“ Non minor est virtus, quam quaerere, parta tueri.”

Ver. 19. Drave out the inhabitants of the mountain.] Or, Possessed the mountain: for the same Hebrew word Jarash, signifies to possess and to dispossess.

But could not drive out.] Indeed, for want of faith: else they might have driven them out; Si ex fide fortiter pugnassent: to faith all things are feasible. Is not the same God, God of the valleys also, as well as of the mountains? But as it is said that {#Mr 6:5} our Saviour "could do no mighty work"—that is, he would do no mighty work—"in his own country, because of their unbelief," so was it here.

Ver. 20. And they gave Hebron.] See #Jos 14:6,7. {See Trapp on "Jos 14:6"} {See Trapp on "Jos 14:7"}

Ver. 21. And the children of Benjamin.] See #Jos 15:63.

Ver. 22. And the Lord was with them.] "The Lord, mighty in battle."

Ver. 23. Now the name of the city before was Luz, ] i.e., An almond, or a filbert; perhaps from the plenty of such fruits there growing: like as Cerasus in Pontus had its name from cherries, Elaea from olives, &c.

Ver. 24. And the spies saw a man come forth.] Whether upon his ordinary business, or to fall to the enemy, is uncertain.

Ver. 25. And when he showed them the entrance, ] i.e., Where and how they might best take it.

But they let go the man and all his family.] Who if he did this out of true faith, as Rahab did, {#Jos 2} he is to be excused: but if for selfish ends and sinister respects, he is to be esteemed a traitor, and might have met with such reward as Metius Suffetius did, who was drawn in pieces with wild horses by Tullus Hostilius for his treachery. Or as John Justinian of Genua did, who let Mohammed the great Turk enter Constantinople upon promise to make him king. He made him so; but after three days put him to death. Or, lastly, as he that betrayed the Rhodes; for he had his promised wife and portion presented; but the Turk told him that he would not have a Christian to be his son-in-law; he must needs be a Moslem, that is, a believing Turk both within and without. And therefore he caused his baptized skin, as he called it, to be taken off, and him to be cast in a bed strowed with salt, that he might get a new skin, and so he should be his son-in-law. But the wicked wretch ended his life with shame and torment.

Ver. 26. And built a city.] Therefore it seemeth he was well rewarded, and not in counterfeit coin: as the Spaniard rewarded a countryman of ours who had betrayed a town to him in the Netherlands, saying that false money was good enough for so false a knave.

Ver. 27. See #Jos 17:11,12.

Ver. 28. They put the Canaanites to tribute.] When they could have cast them out: this they did out of covetousness, that root of all evil, neglecting the command of God to the contrary. Well might David pray, "Incline mine heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness." {#Ps 119:36} Sallust saith, Ubi divitiae clarae habentur, ibi omnia bona vilia sunt, fides, probitas, pudor, pudicitia; Where money is in price, there honesty and fidelity are easily parted with.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. And an angel of the Lord.] Or, A messenger, as #Hag 1:13 Ec 5:6 Re 2:1 1Co 11:10. This was Phinehas, say the Rabbis some prophet, say others; or a created angel Diodate will have it to be meant of the Son of God himself, who had before appeared to Joshua, as Captain of the Lord’s hosts, at Gilgal, {#Jos 5:13} from whence also he is here said to have come up: ascenderat, Junius rendereth it, he had come up—viz., in the days of Joshua and the elders that survived him. Compare #Jos 2:6,11,12.

I will never break my covenant with you, ] i.e., Unless you first break with me. If God shall be all-sufficient to us, we must be altogether his. {#So 2:16} His is a covenant of mercy, ours of obedience: but the rebellious, though covenanters, shall bear their iniquity, and know God’s breach of promise. {#Nu 14:34}

Ver. 2. Why have ye done this?] Can you give any good reason? Nothing is more irrational than irreligion: and yet lust will so blear a man’s eyes, as that he shall believe he hath reason to be mad, and that there is some sense in sinning. Never did any yet come to hell, but they had some pretence for coming thither. The flesh never wanteth excuses, even when she is most inexcusable and self-condemned.

Ver. 3. As thorns in your sides.] See #Jos 23:13.

Ver. 4. The people lifted up their voice, and wept.] Thus they were wrought upon by the word preached, even unto tears; as were likewise David, Josiah, Hezekiah, Magdalen, Peter. So these hearers of his "were pricked at heart," {#Ac 2:37} and Paul’s at Ephesus wept sore. {#Ac 20:37} Few such to be seen in our congregations: some, as they say of witches, cannot weep. The enemy, when he hath stopt the wells and stayed the watercourses of a town, hath good hope to take it. So hath Satan remorseless souls.

Ver. 5. And they called the name of that place Bochim, ] i.e., Weepers. As they had formerly filled God’s bag with their sins; so now they help as fast to fill God’s bottle with their tears. Their hearts were as so many Hadadrimmons. {#Zec 12:11}

“ Sic faciles motus mens generosa capit.”

And they sacrificed there unto the Lord.] In testimony of their faith in Christ’s merits (for they mourned not desperately) and their thankfulness that God had sent them a preacher, and not an executioner, considering their deserts.

Ver. 6. And when Joshua had let the people go.] See #Jos 2:1; but Vatablus’s note here is, that these things are here spoken by way of recapitulation; that the sum and argument of the whole book may be in this place set down together.

Ver. 7. And the people served the Lord.] So did the primitive Christians, {#Ac 2:41-47 26:7} with great intention of affection, whilst the apostles and their disciples were yet living. And so at the beginning of the Reformation; but now what a general chillness!

“ Heu, pietas ubi prisca? profana o tempora!”

All the days of Joshua.] Of so great concernment it is that there be good governors; since the many will be of their religion. When George, Duke of Saxony, declared against Luther, his subjects were almost all of them Papists; as when Henry succeeded George, all on the sudden they became Lutherans. So when the Palatinate was lost to the Spaniard, people fell to Popery as fast as leaves in autumn; the most are of King Harry’s religion.

Ver. 8. Being a hundred and ten years old.] Which was also good Joseph’s age when he died.

Ver. 9. And they buried him.] Burial is a mercy, whatever the Cynics held to the contrary: and places of burial are to be kept decent, in token that we expect a resurrection.

In Timnathheres.] That is, The picture of the sun which was there worshipped. In detestation whereof, it may seem, the name was altered by transposition of letters in Timnathserah.

Ver. 10. And there arose another generation.] Things grow worse for most part, every age than other:—

“ Aeras parentum peior avis tulit

Nos nequiores, mox datura

Progeniem vitiosiorem.’’—Hor. {a}

Which knew not the Lord, ] i.e., Knew him not effectually and

experimentally. As our Saviour knew no sin—that is, he did none; so

men know not the Lord to any purpose, that obey him not; Eli’s sons,

for instance.

{a} Od. vi. lib. iii.

Ver. 11. And served Baalim, ] i.e., Lords. Hence Hannibal, Asdrubal, &c., of old; as now among the Turks, Beglerbeg, Scanderbeg, that is, Lord Alexander. Their idols they called their lords or protectors; and so the devil became their good lord, as they say: for he is ειδωλοχαρης, the author of idolatry, that evil as it is here called κατ αντονομασιαν.

Ver. 12. And they forsook.] By a detestable apostasy: such as heaven and earth had cause to he ashamed of. {#Jer 2:12,13} There is a commendable apostasy, sc., when men fall off from a false religion to that which is true. Thus the Papists called Luther, as they do all of us, an apostate. Confitur se esse apostatam sed beatum et sanctum, qui fidem diabolo datam non servavit; he confessed himself an apostate, but a holy and blessed apostate; one that had fallen off from the devil; and should therefore have been sainted rather than stigmatised.

Ver. 13. And served Baal and Ashtaroth, ] i.e., He-gods and she-gods of all sorts, closing up their orisons with, Diique, deaque, omnes, as Servius telleth us. {a} From this word Ashtaroth seemeth to come the Greek word αστηρ, and the Latin astrum, a star: as Saturn, Jupiter, Luna, Pallas, &c., came from the Hebrew.

{a} In Georg, lib. i.

Ver. 14. And he delivered them.] The next effect of wrath is revenge, both improperly attributed to God. "Fury is not in me." {#Isa 27:4}

He sold them into the hands.] {a} He renounced his right in them, as it were, casting off all further care of them, and then they must needs do full ill.

{a} In Georg., lib. i.

Ver. 15. As the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn.] But they would never believe till they felt, as holding all to be spoken in terrorem only to frighten silly people, or putting off all with a "God forbid," as those in #Lu 20:16; but execution followeth commination, unless repentance interpose and take up the quarrel.

And they were greatly distressed.] See #Zep 3:5. {See Trapp on "Zep 3:5"}

Ver. 16. Nevertheless the Lord.] Here we have an epitome of the whole book, showing the circle that God goeth in with his. See #Ps 30:5,7, &c., {See Trapp on "Ps 30:5"} {See Trapp on "Ps 30:7"}

Raised up judges.] Ordinary men, but extraordinarily qualified. God gifteth those whom he sendeth.

Ver. 17. But they went a whoring.] Carried on by a spirit of fornication, a strong inclination, a vehement impetus to whoredom; so that they care not how they waste all upon it, and will not be reclaimed: so idolaters.

They turned quickly out of the way.] See #Ga 1:6, with the note.

Which their fathers walked in.] Grace is not hereditary. Good progenitors may have a degenerate and unregenerate offspring.

Ver. 18. For it repented the Lord.] This was Mutatio rei, non Dei; effectus, non affectus; facti, non consilii.

Ver. 19. More than their fathers.] See on #Jud 2:10, and observe the danger of relapse in religion. See #Mt 12:43.

Nor from their stubborn way.] Heb., Hard, rough way; such are all the ways of wickedness: whereas God’s ways are plain and pleasant. {#Pr 3:17,23} Christ’s yoke is easy, and his burden light. {#Mt 11:29}

Ver. 20. And the anger of the Lord was hot.] He is not made all of mercy, as some dream, but can be angry: and "who knoweth the power of his wrath?" {#Ps 90:11} It is such as men can neither avoid nor abide.

Ver. 21. I also will not, ] sc., Unless they repent: for, Ideo minatur Deus ut non puniat; Repentance disarmeth God’s indignation. Let him but see that rainbow appearing in our hearts, and he will take up immediately.

Ver. 22. That through them I may prove Israel.] But whenas upon trial he found them to be no better than "reprobate silver," {#Jer 6:30} those nations served no longer for trials, but for scourges, and instruments of revenge.

Ver. 23. Therefore the Lord left those nations.] Those mentioned in the beginning of the next chapter.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Which the Lord left, to prove.] God proveth us by afflictions, Non ut ipse sciat, sed ut scire nos faciat, not to better his own knowledge, but ours, saith Augustine. See #Jud 2:22.

Ver. 2. Might know, to teach them war.] At their own costs and to their damage, say some, that they might experiment what an evil and bitter thing war is; called therefore "evil" by an antonomasia {#Isa 45:7} Others sense it thus; Those nations were left, that Israel might not rust through long rest, but have occasion to train up their children in martial discipline. Marcet sine adversario virtus. Slay them not, lest my people forget. Scipio persuaded his Romans not to ruin Carthage, lest their youth should lack exercise and grow wanton with too much ease.

Ver. 3. Five lords of the Philistines.] Three of them had been subdued; {#Jud 1:18} but were now lost again.

Ver. 4. And they were to prove.] See #Jud 3:1.

Ver. 5. Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites.] No mention of the Girgasites: perhaps they were extinct, or gone into other parts for security.

Ver. 6. And served their gods.] See #Ne 13:26. {See Trapp on "Ne 13:26"}

Ver. 7. And served Baalim and the groves.] That is, In the groves. The devil purposely chose those dark places, called Luci quia minime lucent, that his Tenebriones, children of darkness, might there more closely commit their deeds of darkness. Nos pudore pulso, said those worshippers of Priapus or Baalpeor, We cannot better please our god, than by banishing modesty.

Ver. 8. Into the hand of Chusanrishathaim.] Chusan impii, the Chaldee rendereth it; that is, Chusan the wicked. Gaudent tyranni horrendis nominibus, saith Lavater here, quae vel ipso sono homines terrere possint. Tyrants delight in terrible names and titles, as Attila, the Hun, who would needs be styled Ira Dei et orbis vastitas, the wrath of God, and waster of the world.

Eight years.] According to the time, saith Hugo and Lyra, that they had served idols.

Ver. 9. And the Lord raised up a deliverer.] Heb., A saviour. A word so emphatical, that other tongues can hardly find a fit word to express it, as Cicero observeth of the Greek word σωτηρ.

Ver. 10. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.] Calling him to the work, and by heroic virtues fitting him for it, and then mightily working upon his spirit to undertake it.

Ver. 11. And the land had rest forty years, ] sc., From the death of Joshua to the death of Othniel, and the eight years of servitude under the Syrians being taken in, as it may be gathered from #1Ki 6:1.

Ver. 12. And the children of Israel did evil, &c.] Hoc est, rem non gratam Deo qui cuncta intuetur, saith Vatablus: they did that which was offensive to the eyes of his glory. Neither ministry, nor miracle, nor misery, nor mercy could mollify their hard hearts, or contain them within the bounds of obedience.

And the Lord strengthened Eglon.] It is God who strengtheneth or weakeneth the arm of either party. {#Eze 30:24}

Ver. 13. And possessed the city of palm trees.] A poor city now, but there, belike, he had built some forts and earthworks; namely at Jericho, famous for palm trees, as Justin also testifieth.

Ver. 14. Served Eylon…eighteen years.] Eight years they served Chusanrishathaim, {#Jud 3:8} now Eglon eighteen, and afterwards Jabin twenty. With the froward God will wrestle; {#Ps 18:20} neither will God give to much punishing, till men do sinning; but punish them seven times more; {#Le 26:28} for is it fit that he should lay down the bucklers first, and not get the better of them?

Ver. 15. A Benjamite, a man left-handed.] Scaeva fuit, and no less valiant than that Roman Scaeva, a soldier of Caesar’s, who at the siege of Dyrrachium so long alone resisted Pompey’s army till he had two hundred and twenty darts sticking in his shield,

“ Densam portans in pectore sylvam."’’—Lucan.

And no less famous in his way was Mr William Perkins, lame of his right hand, as Ehud, but yet so as that with a left-handed pen he stabbed the Eglon of Rome to the heart. Of him one writeth thus:—

“ Dextera quantumvis fuerit tibi manca, docendi

Pollebas mira dexteritate tamen.”

Ver. 16. Upon his right thigh.] As more convenient for him that was left handed; as those that are right handed used always to wear their weapons on the left side. Hence among the Turks for place the left hand is held uppermost, for a soldier: because it giveth a man possession of his companion’s sword. {a}

{a} Sir H. Blunt’s Voy. into Lev.

Ver. 17. And Eglon was a very fat man.] And so the better mark for Ehud, and less able to resist. His soldiers also were fat men, and stewed in their own broth. {#Jud 3:29}

Ver. 18. He sent away the people that bare the present.] It was therefore no small present, the more to ingratiate. But he sent away the men that bare it, that he might the better accomplish his design, and have the less to care for.

Ver. 19. From the quarries that were by Gilgal.] Or, Graven images; stone statues set up there to be worshipped, and haply to vex the Israelites, or to entice them to idolatry: at the sight whereof, saith Fetus, Ehud’s zeal so wrought with him, that he returned and killed the king. Or haply, saith another expositor, he made a show as if he had been at Gilgal to worship before the king’s idols set up there, and something touching the king revealed unto him that he might the better get an opportunity of being alone with him.

Keep silence, ] viz., Till I have cleared the room of company. Kings are seldom without suitors and parasites; yet they have their retiring rooms, as here Eglon had a summer parlour for himself alone.

Ver. 20. I have a message from God unto thee.] Or, From the gods, for the word is plural; thy gods at Gilgal: but Elohim is commonly used for the true God. This message was his dagger. Not only the vocal admonitions of God, but also the real judgments are his errands to the world.

And he arose out of his seat.] To show his respect to the divine majesty: this he did though a heathen, a king, a fat and unwieldy man. It is a witty note that one {a} here maketh: Eglon that had risen up in arms against God’s people, now riseth up in reverence to his name. God would have liked well to have had less of his courtesy and more of his obedience.

{a} Bishop Hall.

Ver. 21. And thrust it into his belly.] This he did by an extraordinary call from God; {#Jud 3:15} and therefore this example was traitorously misapplied to Ravillas, that desperate assassin, who murdered the French king by the instigation of the Jesuits, and defended it when he had done. Our own chronicles {a} tell us of one Birchet in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, who by the example of Ehud, thought he might lawfully have killed a great personage in this kingdom, whom he took to be God’s enemy. Upon the same account he wounded Hawkins, and slew his keeper. The Janizaries have learned of the Jesuits the art of king killing: but to preserve him from harm by strangers, they allow none to come into the presence of the grand signior, but first they search him that he have no weapon; and so clasping him by the arms under colour of doing him honour, dissemblingly bereave him of the use of his hands, lest he should offer him any violence. {b}

And thrust it into his belly.] Eglon stabbed into the guts, finds his bane the same way with his sin. It was good counsel that one gave Henry IV of France, after that he had been first stabbed in the mouth and lost a tooth only, to take heed he denied not God with his heart, as he had already done with his mouth where now he was wounded, lest the next stab were to the heart, as indeed it proved.

{a} Camden’s Elisab, 174.

{b} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 22. And the dirt came out.] Which was a sign of death. And here Ehud was a type of Christ, in that he alone slew Eglon, as Christ alone doth all our enemies.

Ver. 23. And Ehud went forth through the porch.] Or, Gallery, or guard chamber, with a composed countenance and good courage proceeding from a good conscience, so that the courtiers had no suspicion of him.

Ver. 24. Surely he covereth his feet.] Or, He doth his easement, as Saul did in the cave. {#1Sa 24:3} The Scripture thus cleanly expressing foul things, teacheth us to beware of barbarology, and not to use broad language as the Cynics did, Atque sic committere in bonos mores.

Ver. 25. And they tarried till they were ashamed, ] viz., Of their long staying, and not looking after their lord.

And, behold, their lord was fallen down dead.]

“ Ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci

Descendunt reges, et sicca morte tyranni.”

God, when he hath chastised his children, doth many times cast the rod into the fire: witness the persecutors in all ages, many of whom came to untimely ends. Most of the Caesars, till Constantine, got nothing by their adoption or designation, nisi ut citius interficerentur, but to be the sooner slain.

Ver. 26. And Ehud escaped while they tarried.] So did Montgomery, Carnutensis, and other prime Protestants in the massacre of Paris, when lodging in the suburbs, and hearing the tumult within the city, though at first they could not tell what to make of it, yet afterwards they fled with all speed before the Duke of Guise, when his cut-throats came, who pursued a great way, but could not overtake them, God, by his providence, so ordering that, when the city gates were to be opened, the right keys could not presently be found. {a}

{a} Epitome Hist. Gallic., 148.

Ver. 27. He blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim.] He gave the alarm to those valiant and warlike men, such as are for most part your mountaineers; and while the Moabites were all on a hurry about their king’s death, he taketh his opportunity, which, as in all things else, so especially in military matters, is much to be observed, and hastily apprehended, since it is headlong, and once past, irrecoverable.

Ver. 28. And he said unto them, Follow after me.] This was captain-like spoken. Caesar never said to his soldiers, Ite, Go ye, but Venite, Come along: I will lead you, neither shall ye go farther than ye have me before you. Hannibal was wont to be first in the battle, and last out. {a}

{a} Princeps proelium inibat: ultimus conserto proelio excedebat. -Liv.

Ver. 29. All lusty.] Heb., Fat and succulent. Tremellius rendereth it, Opulent, wealthy. These were those Lurdaines or Lord-Danes, that did eat of the fat and drink of the sweet, while the poor Israelites, their vassals, were forced to take hard on.

And there escaped not a man.] Ne ignifer quidem relictus est.

Ver. 30. And the land had rest fourscore years.] That is, To the end of fourscore years, reckoning from the death of Othniel.

Ver. 31. And after him was Shamgar.] Who if he were not Judex, yet surely he was Vindex, renowned for this one thing only, that he slew so many of the enemy with so mean a weapon. Samson did the like with the jaw bone of an ass. What cannot the Lord do when his will is that his people shall be helped with a little help, {#Da 11:34} that through weaker means they may see God’s greater strength

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. And the children of Israel again did evil.] After fourscore years of peace and rest. {#Jud 3:30} The sedentary life is most subject to diseases: standing waters soon putrify. It is hard and happy not to grow worse with liberty.

Ver. 2. And the Lord sold them.] As #Jud 2:14. It must not be troublesome to us to hear the same things often: Verba toties repetita viva sunt, vera sunt, sans sunt, plana sunt, saith Augustine.

Into the hand of Jabin.] Whose father or grandfather, of the same name, Joshua had slain, and burnt his city. {#Jos 11:1,11} He therefore, on revenge, having got now the better of the Israelites, oppressed them most grievously for twenty years together, using them like beasts which are bought and sold to carry burdens, as Ferus noteth.

Which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.] Or, In the wood of the nations, {a} as some render it; that is, of the remaining Canaanites, who had hither betaken themselves for safety and conveniency of issuing forth against the enemy.

{a} In loco sylvatico. Jun.

Ver. 3. He mightily oppressed the children of Israel.] See #Jud 4:2. In the Canaanites the same wickedness prospereth that is punished in Israel. Our very profession hurteth us, if we be not innocent.

Ver. 4. The wife of Lapidoth.] Or, A woman of Lapidoth, {a} or a woman of lights, -so some render it, taking the word appellatively, -so called either because concinnabat ellychnia, she made lights for the sanctuary; {b} or because she was full of heavenly lights, by the Spirit. {c}

{a} Lapidothana.

{b} Tremel.

{c} Vatab.

Ver. 5. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah.] Or, She sat under the palm tree, as the Septuagint and Vulgate render it. The kings of Persia sat under a golden plane tree, or under a vine of gold, that had bunches of smaragdes and other precious stones, when they sat in judgment {a}

“ O curas hominum! o quantum est in rebus inane!”

{a} Athenaeus, lib. xii.

Ver. 6. And she sent and called Barak.] She sent; not went: for, (1.) She was a judge in Israel, and of great authority; (2.) It is not fit for women to wander up and down. Ambrose saith Barak was her son, others her husband, but neither is likely.

Ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali.] In which tribe Hazor stood; and therefore their oppression was the greater. But ten thousand were but a few to go against so potent an enemy. {a} God can save with a little help. {#Da 11:34}

{a} Mashac, est occulto impetu aliquem impellere quo velis.

Ver. 7. And I will draw unto thee…Sisera.] Verbis pelliciam, I will persuade, I will incline his heart.

“ Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.”

Ver. 8. If thou wilt go with me.] He is famous for his faith, {#Heb 11:32,33} and yet here he showeth some unbelief. Let us be faithful in weakness, though but weak in faith, and pray, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" Albeit in some respects it was not amiss for Barak to desire Deborah’s company, viz., to advise him and pray for him, as being a prophetess. Neither fearful nor rash. Neque timide, neque temere, should be the soldier’s motto.

Ver. 9. Shall not be for thine honour.] Because a weak woman shall share with thee therein. Although in some women, such as were Deborah, Jael, Artemisia, Zenobia, Blandina, Queen Elizabeth, besides their sex there was nothing womanlike, or weak.

Ver. 10. And he went up with ten thousand men at his feet.] They followed him κατα παδας, in due order, and, as it were, treading in his steps. {See Trapp on "Jud 4:6"}

Ver. 11. Had severed himself from the Kenites.] Who dwelt in the wilderness of Judah. {#Jud 1:16} Why he severed himself is not expressed; perhaps for better pasture’s sake, or it may be for conveniency of contemplation; for it is said in the next words, that he pitched his tent into the plain—or oak, or grove, as the Septuagint and others render it—of Zaanam. Bernard confessed of himself, that what knowledge of the Scriptures he had attained unto, he had got it in the woods and fields by meditation and prayer, Nullos se aliquando magistros habuisse nisi quercus et fagos, but the oaks and beech trees.

Ver. 12. And they showed Sisera.] It was brought unto him either by public rumour,

“ Sine vano publica fama, ”

or else by intelligencers employed for the purpose: Habent enim Principes suos coricaeos. Mount Tabor also was a high hill, and not far from him.

Ver. 13. Unto the river of Kishon.] "That ancient river," {#Jud 5:21} famous afterwards for the slaughter of the Baalites there. {#1Ki 18:40}

Ver. 14. Is not the Lord gone out before thee?] As general of the army: yea, he alone is a whole army of men, van and rear both. {#Isa 52:12}

Ver. 15. And the Lord discomfited Sisera.] Or, Terrified, as the vulgar Latin hath it, perhaps by thunder and hailstones, as #Jos 10:10 1Sa 7:10, where the same Hebrew word is used; or else by some hurry noise made in the air by the angels, as #2Ki 6:15-18; but something was certainly done from heaven, {#Jud 5:20} wherewith the Canaanites were so frightened, that many of them ran into the river Kishon and there perished. {#Jud 5:21} So the winds fought for Theodosius in that famous battle against Maximus. {a} Hence Claudian, a heathen, cried out of him—

“ O nimium dilecte Deo, cui militat aether,

Et coniurati veniunt ad classica venti”

{a} Aug., De Civ. Dei, lib. v. cap. 26.

Ver. 16. There was not a man left.] Heb., Unto one. Ne ignifer quidem relictus est, as the Latin proverb hath it, {a} scarce one left to bring the sad news of a πανολεθρια.

“ Desinat elatis quisquam confidere rebus:

Magna repente ruunt, summa cadunt subito.”

{a} Claudian.

Ver. 17. For there was peace, ] i.e., Non erant simultates aut bella inter illos, { a} there was no open hostility: or if there were a league, the Emperor of the world, saith Ferus, had now disannulled it, as having proscribed Sisera, and declared that he should be destroyed, and that by a woman.

{a} Jun.

Ver. 18. Turn in, my lord, turn in to me.] Fair words make fools fain: Vide cui fidas. Jael is commended by Deborah for what she did. {#Jud 5:24}

“ Dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?”

She covered him with a mantle.] Stragula villosa, with a rug or blanket, to get him the sooner asleep.

Ver. 19. And she opened a bottle of milk.] Ut esset potus suavior, et induceret illi somnum, saith Vatablus; that she might mend his liquor, and make him sleep; as it is the nature of milk, when drunk largely by them that are hot, to render them sleepy.

Ver. 20. That thou shalt say, No.] An officious lie is held a peccadillo; but God’s children are such as will not lie. {#Isa 63:8 Zep 3:13} Jael made him no promise to do as he desired, but said within herself, likely, as that good woman in Jerome did, Ideo mentiri nolo, ne peccem, I will do anything sooner than lie: for that were to sin against God.

Ver. 21. Took a nail of the tent.] Which was long and strong enough for her purpose to pierce his skull, and to fasten him to the ground.

And smote the nail into his temples.] Lo, there lay this proud worms’ meat sprawling, with his head fastened to the ground, as if it had been now listening what was become of the soul. In #Eze 32:27, it is said, that such as cause terror in the land of the living, are tumbled together into hell.

For he was fast asleep and weary.] Fright, and flight, and grief, and perhaps long watching, had cast him into a deep sleep: which made way to that somnus ferreus, as the poets call death.

Ver. 22. Sisera lay dead.] By the hand of woman, which those warriors take for no small disgrace. {#Jud 9:54} Heber was perhaps in the army of the Israelites. We read of a brave Hungarian woman whose courage far exceeded the weakness of her sex: for at the siege of Buda, she thrusting in amongst the soldiers upon the top of the fort, with a great scythe in her hand, at one blow struck off two of the Turks’ heads, as they were climbing up the rampart. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., 741.

Ver. 23. So God subdued on that day Jabin.] By the death of his general and destruction of his forces. See #Jud 4:16.

Ver. 24. Until they had destroyed Jabin.] So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord. Read the Church’s prayer, #Ps 83:9,10; -"Do unto them as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth."

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Then sang Deborah and Barak.] Like as before had done Moses and Miriam in #Ex 15:1-21, which chapter and this are by one called monumental chapters. Deborah was a poetess as well as a prophetess, learned, eloquent, industrious, far beyond Sappho or Procatia, who was called Musa Lyrica, and five various times got the better of Pindarus in versifying. {a}

On that day.] While the deliverance was fresh and their hearts well affected. So did Jehoshaphat and his army at Berachah. {#2Ch 20:26} So did Hezekiah newly recovered. {#Isa 38:9,22} So did Zacharias so soon as his mouth was opened. {#Lu 1:64} If this be not done speedily, benefits will soon wax stale, and putrify as fish. No part of the thank offering might be kept unspent till the third day. God loveth a cheerful giver. "Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion." {#Ps 65:1}

{a} Suidas.

Ver. 2. When the people willingly offered themselves.] As #Jud 4:10. Barak had no power to press them, but did only persuade with them, as the word Mashar there importeth. He gave goodly words, as being of the tribe of Naphtali, {see #Ge 49:21} and prevailed, God working their hearts thereunto, who is therefore worthily praised. All his people are volunteers, {#Ps 110:3} he draweth them and they follow him. {#So 1:4}

Ver. 3. Hear, O ye kings.] Hear and give ear, be not proud, cast down your crowns, and give glory to God. The altar of incense was compassed about with a crown of pure gold, {#Le 3} to show that gratitude is a rich and royal virtue, best beseeming the best princes.

Ver. 4. Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir.] When thou marchedst before thy people through the wilderness. Thus this good woman recogniseth mercies long since received, that she may the better praise God for the present deliverance. A worthy pattern for us to imitate, with whom, as with children, eaten bread is soon forgotten. It is good to begin our thanksgivings high enough: and as shopkeepers, by turning over their books to look up one debt, take notice of many more: so should it be with us in revising and celebrating God’s favours.

Ver. 5. The mountains melted from before the Lord.] Heb., Flowed.

“ Ruunt de montibus amnes.”

There was a general concussion, and the nations were all affrighted. See #Ps 68:15,16 Jos 5:1.

Ver. 6. In the days of Shamgar.] From the death of Ehud until this conflict with Jabin: for though Shamgur did worthily, -especially if without help of others he slew at one time six hundred of the enemy with an ox goad, Scanderbeg is said to have slain eight hundred Turks at several times with his own hands, some say three thousand, -and though Jael, a woman of a public spirit, and active beyond her sex, did her utmost; yet the times were very troublesome, "neither was there any peace to him that went out, or to him that came in, but great vexations"; {#2Ch 15:5} and no free commerce, or safe abode in any village, but

“ Luctus ubique, metus, et plurima morris imago.”

Thus the dangers bypast are fitly recounted, that the present freedom may be the better prized. The miseries also of war, especially civil, when

“ vi geritur res, ”

are lively described, an evil so great as no words, how wide soever, are able to express. See #La 1:4 4:18.

Ver. 7. The inhabitants of the villages ceased.] As now they do in Hungary, where the Turk wasteth at pleasure. They want but another Hunniades at the heels of them, who fought five times upon one day with the Turks, and five times foiled and put them to flight: and at that famous battle of Vascape, with fifteen thousand soldiers, he overthrew Abedin Bassa with fourscore thousand fighting men.

Until that I Deborah arose.] This she speaketh not as vaunting of herself, but to the glory of God, who had made use of her as his unworthy instrument to excite Barak to this expedition.

That I arose a mother in Israel.] A mater patrioe, a governess and protectress: such as was our English Deborah, Queen Elizabeth, whose usual saying was that she could believe nothing of her people that parents would not believe of their children. {a}

{a} Camden’s Elisab., 205.

Ver. 8. They chose new gods.] τα καινα κενα: Nihil mihi antiquius, id est potius: We should set a jealous eye upon novelties, and say, The old is better. Idolatry is ancient, but not in comparison of God’s true worship. The serpent’s grammar first taught men to decline God plurally, Eritis sicut Dii, ye shall be as gods, saith Damianus.

Then was war in the gates.] Hannibal ad portas; the enemy came up to their very gates, disarming and disabling them for their own defence. Rome, since it became Antichristian, was never besieged, but it was taken. Idolatry is a land desolating sin.

Ver. 9. My heart is toward the governors of Israel.] Heb., Those in whom was the legislative power, that they should lay by their parliament robes and gird on their swords to fight against the common enemy: that these he goats should go before the flocks, {#Jer 50:8} this got them a great deal of love and honour.

Ver. 10. Speak, ye that ride on white asses.] Ye nobles and circuit judges; ye merchants and marketmen, that while durst not be seen abroad for Tories and cut throats, speak out God’s worthy praises for the re-enjoyment of your pristine privileges, that your Malvoy is now become a Salvoy.

Ver. 11. In the places of drawing water.] The water bearers that erst could not draw water, but with the hazard of their lives or liberties, are now freed of that fear.

There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord.] Not sing filthy songs and ballads, the scurf of scald heads, as one caileth them, but spiritual songs to God’s glory, and their mutual edification. In the primitive times, happy was he counted who could sing aliquid Davidicum, something of David’s ditties. Tatianus telleth us that the boys and girls, as they sat at their work, were wont to speak of God’s word. And Nicephorus writeth, that the Christians, even as they travelled and journeyed, were wont to sing psalms of praise to God. {a}

Then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates.] Where was wont to be war, {#Jud 5:8} but no law and judgment. Inter arma silent leges. the noise of wars drowneth the voice of laws, {#La 2:9} the law is no more.

{a} Eccles. Hist. lib. iii., cap. 37.

Ver. 12. Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake.] As the cock clapping first his own sides awakeneth himself, and then calleth up others; so doth Deborah here, and finding haply some indisposition to this duty of praising God, she setteth the thorn to the breast, with the nightingale. Her good soul was unsatisfiable; and, like an earthly angel, she sings perpetual hallelujahs, stirring up others to do the like.

Ver. 13. Then he made him that remaineth, ] i.e., Once he made the relics of the Canaanites to rule over the nobles of Israel; but now the Lord hath made me or my people to have dominion over those mighties. Or rather thus, Then he made the residue of Israel to prevail over their oppressors. The Lord made me, a weak woman, to get the better of those nobles and high officials.

Ver. 14. Out of Ephraim was there a root {a} of them.] Deborah, an Ephraimite, was the root and rise of this expedition against the Canaanites, and the Amalakites their auxiliaries.

After thee, Benjamin, ] i.e., After thee, O Ephraim, came Benjamin.

Out of Maehir, ] i.e., Out of that half tribe of Manasseh which dwelt within Canaan: for the other half tribe beyond Jordan are afterwards, under the name of Gilead, blamed for their backwardness {#Jud 5:17}

That handle the pen of the writer.] Scribes and scholars took up arms to help the Lord against the mighty.

{a} By "root" some understand Joshua, and others the tribes of Judah and Simeon.

Ver. 15. For the divisions of Reuben.] Who deserted their brethren in this war, there were great thoughts of heart, that is, great heart burnings and inward turmoil of discontent against them: they were very ill thought of, and hardly censured. Others, reading the words thus, In the divisions of Reuben, make this the sense, That the Reubenites are so divided among themselves, and cannot agree upon it to help their brethren against the common enemy; the true cause is their pride and haughtiness of spirit. The truth is, pride is a dividing distemper. Gouty swollen legs keep at a distance. Bladders blown up with wind spurt else from another, they will not close; but if you prick them, you may pack a thousand in a little room. {a}

{a} Burr’s Heart Divisions.

Ver. 16. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds?] Minding only thine own wealth and ease. Of the Portuguese it is said, that they are ready to obey any, so they may be rich. The Spaniards, while their lords, were wont to say of them, that they were Pocos y locos, few and foolish. These Reubenites were neither few, but a numerous tribe, nor fools, in their own opinion at least, but of deep reach for their own private ends. Howbeit here they are sharply reproved for their selfishness and baseness of spirit: for that they were toti in se, like the snail, still within doors at home, dressing up their own cabins when the whole ship was in danger of being cast away.

For the divisions of Reuben.] See on #Jud 5:15.

There were great searchings of heart.] Much musing what should be the matter that Reuben was so insensible.

Ver. 17. Gilead abode beyond Jordan, ] i.e., Gad and the other half tribe of Manasseh, the degenerate offspring of valiant Machir.

And why did Dan remain in ships? &c.] All these are worthily shamed and shented, though they were not without some sorry pleas and pretences. The labouring Church must be some way helped, if it be but by our prayers: precando saepe plus efficitur quam praeliando. Great is the power of prayer.

Ver. 18. That jeoparded their lives.] Or, Devoted, exposed; and are therefore worthily renowned and never enough commended. They that "do worthily in Ephrata," shall be "famous in Bethlehem." {#Ru 4:11} What a name hath Seanderbeg, Hunniades, Zisca, the Black Prince, who was so called, not of his colour, but of his dreaded acts in battle! {a}

{a} Speed.

Ver. 19. The kings came and fought.] They could combine, but so could not the Israelites. What a shame is it that the great Turk should be heard to say, that he sooner expected that his fingers should be all of one length than that the Christian princes should be all of one mind against him their common enemy.

They took no gain of money.] Desiderabile argentum non acceperunt, they served freely without pay, out of their love to the cause, and hopes of making themselves great gainers by the spoils of the Israelites. So George Fransperg, a general in the imperial army, under the conduct of Charles Bourbon, that sacked Rome in the time of Pope Clement VII, carried into Italy thirteen thousand soldiers of Germany, almost all Lutherans, with no other pay but of one crown apiece of his own goods, and a promise to lead them to Rome, where he would hang the Pope, and give them the spoil of the city. {a}

{a} Hist. of Council of Trent, 43.

Ver. 20. They fought from heaven.] Where the Lord of hosts hath his Magnleh cheloth, his upper forces, say the Rabbins, as on earth he hath his Matteh cheloth, his lower forces ready prest. And sins unpardoned can soon raise the posse comitatus, all the armies of God against men.

The stars in their courses.] Like soldiers that observed both rank and file.

Fought against Sisera, ] s.c., By their extraordinary influences stirring up storms and tempests. See Joseph. "Antiq.," lib. v.

Ver. 21. The river of Kishon swept them away.] For fear they ran into this river and there perished; which yet I, a weak woman, have manfully passed over on foot, without such danger: so Vatablus senseth the text, which he thus readeth, O my soul, thou hast trodden (that river) valiantly.

Ver. 22. Then were the horse hoofs broken, ] viz., With hasty flight; as afterwards it fell out at the battle of Spurs—so the battle of Terwin was called, where Henry VIII routed the French. {a}

{a} Paul. Jov.

Ver. 23. Curse ye Meroz.] So effectual was this curse, that, as the fig tree cursed by our Saviour withered immediately, so this city Meroz now liveth only by fame, there being no mention of it elsewhere in Scripture, in Jerome, Adrichomius, or any other. Neutrality is most odious to Jesus Christ, the angel here mentioned. Solon made a law that none should stand neutal.

Ver. 24. Above women in the tent.] A fit place for women to be found in, but not for the men of Meroz; they should have been active in the field against the Church’s enemies, as she was in her tent. Others that were more remote are blamed: but they are bitterly cursed, and that by the authority of the angel.

Ver. 25. She gave him milk.] See #Jud 4:19.

Butter in a lordly dish.] Butter to eat, as well as milk to drink. Such are the murdering morsels of sin, εχθρων αδωρα δωρα και ιυκ ονησιμα: the giftless gifts of Satan.

Ver. 26. She smote off his head.] Sept., She bored through, or pierced his head; as Ulysses perforated Polyphemus’s eye.

Ver. 27. At her feet he bowed, he fell.] He was soon despatched, and could never tell who hurt him. There now lies the greatness of Sisera: he that had vaunted of his iron chariots, is slain by a woman with one nail of iron.

There he fell down dead.] Heb., Destroyed; dead as a door nail, as we say, ταλαιπωρος, miserable, as the Septuagint renders it. Thrice he essayed to rise, but bowed down thrice, and fell again. So did a better man than he, Huldericus Zuinglius, when slain in battle; but he could say what Sisera could not, Age, corpus quidem occidere possunt, animum non possunt. Well, the enemies may kill my body, but cannot come at my soul. {a}

{a} Scultet, Annal., p. 348.

Ver. 28. The mother of Sisera.] Per hypotyposin, Mulierum hostilium iactationes cum sarcasmo traducit.

Ver. 29. Her wise ladies.] The wicked’s hopes fail them when at highest, and prove to be "as the giving up of the ghost." {#Job 11:20}

Ver. 30. Have they not sped?] Yes, they are sped, they have their passport, and your hopes hop headless.

To every man a damsel or two.] The Hebrew word signifieth, vulvam vel uterum; so they call the Israelitish damsels by way of contempt, as Lavater observeth.

Ver. 31. So let all thine enemies perish, &c.] "Let them be as dung for the earth"; {#Ps 83:10} yes, do thou dung thy vineyard with their dead carcasses.

Be as the sun.] Let them do great exploits, live and die with glory.

And the land had rest forty years.] Counting from those eighty. {#Jud 3:30}

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. And the children of Israel did evil.] This was the bad fruit of their forty years’ peace. "Ease slayeth the foolish." {#Pr 1:32, marg.} {See Trapp on "Jud 4:1"}

Into the hand of Midian.] Who once outwitted them and vexed them with their wiles, {#Nu 25:17} now with their inroads: ever full of malignity against the Israelites, though they were of the posterity of Abraham by Keturah, and had been better taught by Jethro, a priest and prince of God amongst them.

Ver. 2. Made them the dens which are in the mountains.] These served for shelters, places of refuge and strength, until the last desolation of the Jews. See #1Sa 13:6.

And caves, and strongholds.] They sought not to God till needs must; till these coverings were too short. {#Jud 6:6}

Ver. 3. And so it was, when Israel had sown.] This was threatened, {#De 28:14-68} but not believed till it befell them, and the proverb {#Joh 4:37} verified, "One soweth, and another reapeth."

Ver. 4. And destroyed the increase of the earth.] A stratagem that was afterwards also used by Halyattes against the Milesians, {a} and is still by the great Turk, that scourge of Christendom and waster of the world.

Till thou come unto Gaza, ] i.e., The whole length of the land: for Gaza was a city of the Philistines, bounding the land of Israel southward.

And left no sustenance for Israel.] None, to speak of: they became like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food, {#Pr 28:3} living on the spoil as long as it lasted, or as they listed. This was a sad case, but nothing so sad as theirs that suffer a famine of the word, as do at this day the Africans, Grecians, those seven churches of Asia, and many others, once famous and flourishing.

{a} Herod., lib. i.

Ver. 5. And they came as grasshoppers.] Innumerable and devoratory. See #Jud 6:4 Joe 2:25

Ver. 6. Cried unto the Lord.] They fled to the "Rock of Ages, the Lord Jehovah." {#Isa 26:4} When their other refuges failed them, they were a "poor and afflicted people," and then "they trusted in God," {#Zep 3:12} they confessed their sins, repented of their wicked ways, and implored the divine help, putting themselves into the hands of justice in hope of mercy.

Ver. 7. When the children of Israel cried.] If men can find a praying heart, God will find a pitying heart.

Ver. 8. That the Lord sent a prophet.] Heb., A man, a prophet; therefore not an angel, as Lyra and Comestor fancied. They had repented in part before, but this prophet is sent to stir them up to do it thoroughly. So #Ac 2:37, those who were before pricked at heart, are yet further excited to "repent, for the remission of sins," &c. {#Ac 2:38}

Ver. 9. And I delivered you, &c.] Deliverance commandeth obedience. {#Ezr 9:13,14}

Ver. 10. Fear not the gods.] As true religion hath fear of piety for its foundation, so superstition hath its fear of that deity which it faneieth, and is therefore called δεισιδαιμονια.

“Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor.”

Ver. 11. And there came an angel.] When the people, being kindly humbled by the prophet’s reproof, cried mightily to God for mercy and deliverance, he "who comforteth the abject" {#2Co 7:6} sent them an angel.

And his son Gideon threshed wheat.] Though he had many servants, {#Jud 6:27} yet himself threshed. So did the ancient Roman senators, Cincinnatus, Curius, Scipio, &c.; neither was grain ever cheaper at Rome, saith Pliny, than in those days.

Ver. 12. And the angel appeared unto him.] As he was threshing. So God called Moses and David from following the ewes, Elisha from the ploughing, the apostles from fishing, washing, and mending their nets, &c. He usually appeared to the busy visions, like as Satan doth to the idle in manifold temptations.

Thou mighty man of valour.] The Septuagint renders it, "Even the Lord mighty in valour."

Ver. 13. Why then is all this befallen us?] As if that could not be, and they in durance. But we must frame a new Bible, saith one, ere we can find any colour out of God’s afflicting us, to prove that he doth not love us, and hath forsaken us. Non deserit etiamsi deserat, saith a father.

Ver. 14. And the Lord looked upon him.] As well liking his speech, for the main, and the publicness of his spirit, sensible of the common calamity.

Go in this thy might.] As thou now lustily belabourest the wheat thou art threshing out, so arise and thresh the mountains, the Midianites, another while. {#Isa 41:15 Mic 4:13} Or, in this thy might, which I now give thee.

And thou shalt save Israel.] God could have saved them without Gideon, or any other instrument. But in most of his works he acteth, as I may so speak, in concert with the creature. It is seldom that he hath an immediate attingence with effects: he useth, and delighteth to use the service of men.

Ver. 15. Wherewith shall I save Israel?] Since I want both men and money, -the sinews of war, and authority to order an army. Here Gideon was faithful in weakness, though but weak in faith, and is therefore reckoned among those renowned worthies in #Heb 11:32.

Behold, my family is poor.] He was well descended, but had mean thoughts of himself. True worth is modest, Some render it, My chiliad. Moses had distributed the people into thousands, {#Ex 18:25} as Alfred did the English into shires, hundreds, and tenths, or tithings, whereof the aucientest were called the tithing men.

Ver. 16. Surely I will be with thee.] I who, of myself, am a whole army. {#Isa 52:12}

As one man.] So easy it is with God to deal with huge multitudes of people, when he once taketh them to do.

Ver. 17. Then show me a sign, ] sc., That thou art that "Captain of the Lord’s hosts," and of our salvation. This sign Gideon sought not, as the Pharisees did, out of curiosity or incredulity, but for further confirmation concerning his call to the work, that it was of God. A good cause, a good calling, and a good conscience, will make a good courage; and are all necessary, to a soldier especially.

Ver. 18. And bring forth my present, ] i.e., My provision, as #Ge 18:5.

Ver. 19. Under the oak.] Where, as a wayfaring man, he had reposed himself. {#Jud 6:11}

Ver. 20. And lay them upon this rock.] Christ is called the Rock, {#1Co 10:4} and that is a good rule given by the apostle in #Col 3:17, -"Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

Ver. 21. And there rose up fire out of the rock.] Here was a sign that the Midianites should be destroyed without man’s labour. Christ, as he is Piorum rupes, a rock of refuge to the godly, so he is Reorum scopulus, a rock of revenge to dash the impenitent to pieces, as Valerius Maximus saith of the tribunal of L. Cassius, a rock sending out fire, as here. {a}

{a} As once water came out of a rock. {#Ex 17:6}

Ver. 22. Alas, O Lord God!] Fasciculus temporum, A.D. 884, cries out in the words of this text, Heu, heu, Domine Deus! bittery bewailing the iniquities of those times.

For because I have seen an angel] And shall therefore doubtless die. But how then should he save Israel, as God had promised? Where was now his faith? Was this the "mighty man of valour?"

Ver. 23. Fear not: thou shalt not die.] Death is dreadful to nature, as being its slaughter man, and hell’s purveyor. But why should a true believer be fond of life, or afraid of death, since to him it shall be but the day break of eternal brightness? Some heathens counted mortality a mercy.

Ver. 24. And called it Jehovah-shalom, ] i.e., The Lord of peace, or the peace of the Lord. Christ had said unto him, {#Jud 6:23} Peace be unto thee: he therefore honoureth Christ by this name given to his newly built altar. We should write upon our hearts Jehovah-tsidkenu, Jehovah-shalom—The Lord our righteousness, the Lord our peace. "The Lord of peace himself give us peace always by all means." {#2Th 3:16} Such an inscription there would answer all our doubts, and cheer up our spirits above belief.

Ver. 25. And it came to pass the same night.] The night wherein the Lord had so comforted him, {#Jud 6:23} and whilst "his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord." {#2Ch 17:6}

Throw down the altar of Baal.] He must first reform before he went against the Midianites, or else no good success could be expected. Musselburgh field was won by the English in Edward VI’s time, the selfsame day and hour wherein the idolatrous images were burnt at London by authority of Parliament. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 26. And take the second bullock.] Appointed likely for Baal. This bullock was to be offered up, and with the wood of the grove, in sacrifice to the Lord. We see then that things which have been abused to idolatry, may afterwards be lawfully used in God’s service, as churches, monasteries, chalices, &c. So the men of Bethshemesh took and used the Philistines’ cart and cattle. {#1Sa 6:15}

Ver. 27. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants.] Who were religious as himself in those corrupt times, and yielded to run the same hazard with him. So that devout centurion had a "devout soldier waiting upon him." {#Ac 10:7} He "feared God with all his house." {#Ac 10:2}

That he did it by night.] In executing God’s commands that cannot be done without danger, it is not unlawful to go the wisest way to work, and to proceed in a prudential manner; yea, it is Et licitum et laude dignum, both lawful and commendable.

Ver. 28. Early in the morning.] To do their devotions. So did Nestor in Homer, the Argonauts in Apollonius, the Persian Magi, the Roman Pinarii and Potitii, &c., for a shame to many Christians are late and lag in God’s service.

Ver. 29. Who hath clone this thing?] They should have asked rather, Why hath any one done this? And was not there good reason he should do so? But idolaters "have eyes, and see not," &c.; they are brutishly carried on, more guided by rage than by right; violence and obstinacy, like two untamed horses, draw their desires in a blindfold career.

Ver. 30. Bring out thy son, that he may die.] Idolatry is bloody, as the experience of all ages testifieth. How Nebuchadnezzar dealt by those who would not worship his golden gods, and how the king of Persia handled Abdas, the bishop who had overturned his idol temple, A.D. 413, I need not relate. The memorable story of William Gardiner, an English martyr in Portugal, who had both his hands cut off, and was afterwards burnt to ashes, for overturning the chalice at Mass, and treading under foot the breaden god, may be read in Mr Foxe’s "Martyrology," fol. 1242; and so may the story of William Flower, who, for like cause here in England, had first his hand held up against the stake where he was burned, and stricken off. {a} John Clark, of Melda, for testifying against the Pope’s pardons, and calling him Antichrist, was whipped and branded with a hot iron. But the next year, A.D. 1524, for breaking down the images without the town, which the superstitious Papists were the next day to have worshipped, he had first his right hand chopped off, and after that his nose pulled off with pinchers, and then his two arms and his two breasts torn from his body with the same instrument. Amidst his greatest torments he cried out, "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands." When they had tired themselves torturing of him, they burnt his body with fire. {b}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1427.

{b} Scultet., Annal.

Ver. 31. And Joash said unto all that stood against him.] Which were the many headed multitude, that untamed beast. But Joash, by a sudden change of his heart, for he was till now an idolater, and on the defence of his son, bravely withstandeth them, and putteth Baal to plead for himself, which he was ill enough able to do. And by this one seasonable speech, though he were but a single man, he hindered the mischievous multitude from murdering Gideon, who soon after delivered them out of the hand of the Midianites. So Nicodemus, by a word spoken in time, dissolved the council that was gathered together against Christ. {#Joh 7:50-53} It is good to appear for God, though there be few or none to second us: who knows what may be the success?

Ver. 32. He called him Jerubbaal, ] i.e., A man against whom Baal is to strive and contend: a title of honour; as were those of Iconomachus and Iconoelastes, image breakers, though given by way of disgrace to some of the Greek emperors.

Ver. 33. Then all the Midianites, &c.] In the worst time that could be for themselves; for now the reformation was begun in Israel, {#Jud 6:25} and a door of hope opened unto them.

Ver. 34. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.] Who had not his name for nought: for it signifieth a feller, or cutter down. He had manfully cut down Baal’s grove, and now God had brought him these barbarians that he might hew them down, and cut them in pieces: for which end also the Spirit of the Lord clothed him with wisdom, zeal, and fortitude.

Ver. 35. And they came up to meet them.] Asher was justly blamed by Deborah for their backwardness to fight against Sisera. Here they come with the first. Sarciamus et nos quod peccatum est. It is happy when people mend.

Ver. 36. And Gideon said unto God.] These signs he desired of God, not out of infidelity, but in all humility, for his further confirmation in faith and obedience.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Beside the well of Harod.] That is, Of terror; {see #1Sa 28:1 29:1} so called from the fear that there surprised Gideon’s army, who seeing the multitude of their enemies, said, as Caesar did at Rubicon, Yet we may go back; and so they did. {#Jud 7:3}

Ver. 2. Are too many.] They thought themselves too few, and therefore feared. God’s thoughts are not as man’s thoughts: he never complaineth of too few: but saith, as that general did to his fearful soldiers, How many reckon you me for? I alone am a whole army of men. {#Isa 52:12}

Lest Israel vaunt themselves.] Which yet they had small reason to do, everything considered. But God knoweth the vanity of men’s minds, and "needeth not that any should testify of man, for he knoweth what is in man." {#Joh 2:24,25} So bladder-like is the soul, that filled with the wind of vain glory, it grows great and swells in pride: but if pricked with the least pin of grief or fear, it shrivelleth to nothing.

Mine own hand hath saved me.] Memet meis viribus servavi. Man is a self-ascribing creature. Ajax acknowledged no god but his sword. Sejanus sacrificed to himself. Polyphemus setteth up himself for the sole doer. {a} The Caldeans sacrifice to their own net. {#Hab 1:16}

{a} Dio. Euripides.

Ver. 3. Let him depart.] Lest the rest be discouraged, for cowardice is catching. {#De 20:8} Judas Maccabeus made the like proclamation.

And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand.] Though they had been so long and so heavily oppressed, though now they had God’s promise of victory, and a fair opportunity put into their hands of recovering their ancient liberties, -which ought to have been as precious unto them as a drop of cold water would have been to the rich man in hell when he was so grievously tormented in those flames, -yet away they went, and deserted their brethren. So little trust is there to be put in the fickle and faithless multitude.

Ver. 4. The people are yet too many.] God is sometimes troubled with too much help, but never with too little. We are sometimes too soon, but he is never too late.

And I will try them for thee there.] Heb., Eliquabo, I will melt them, and so separate the dross from the good ore. Cowards are the dross and offal of an army.

Ver. 5. That lappeth of the water, &c.] Iudicium strenuitatis et temperantice, saith Piscator: this was a sign of strength of body and temperance of mind, as the other posture was of weakness and greediness. Those are fit to follow the Lord, saith Diodat here, who for zeal to his service, do but taste the pleasures of the world as they pass along, without staying with them, only for necessity, and not for any constant delight they take in them. He which, with some of the Polonians, or with that dog Diogenes, lappeth water out of his hands, may nevertheless go forwards; as an Egyptian dog doth, when he lappeth the water of Nile in fear of a crocodile. {a}

{a} Solin., cap. 20.

Ver. 6. Were three hundred men.] Methe mispar, a poor few. Many are called, but few are chosen.

“ Rari quippe boni, numero vix sunt totidem quot

Thebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili.’’—Juvenal. {a}

{a} Sat. 13.

Ver. 7. By the three hundred men.] "They shall be holpen with a little help." {#Da 11:34} And why with a little? but that through weaker means may be seen God’s greater strength.

Ver. 8. And their trumpets.] Trumpets of rams’ horns, saith Josephus after the Septuagint. {a}

{a} τας κερατινας.

Ver. 9. Get thee down unto the host.] This was a hard task, but he trusted in God, and devoured the difficulty, despised the danger. Επου τω Θεω, was the old rule among the wiser heathens, Be ruled by God.

Ver. 10. Go thou with Phurah thy servant.] Optimum solatium, sodalitium. Two is better than one. Christ sent out the seventy disciples by two and two. And himself took Peter, James, and John with him into the garden, where he was to begin his passion. This Phurah was but a servant; yet, for his faithfulness, he is renowned in God’s book, when many great monarchs, who strove by pyramids, palaces, arches, porches, and other monuments, to eternalise their memories, lie nevertheless obscured, or wrapt up in the sheet of shame.

Ver. 11. And thou shalt hear.] For further confirmation of thy faith. So low stoopeth the Lord to our meanness.

Unto the outside of the armed men.] And if the strength of the army despond of the victory, what mayest thou think of the rest?

Ver. 12. Like grasshoppers.] See #Jud 6:5. So were the Persians that came against Greece, under the conduct of Xerxes: but they were utterly discomfited. See many such examples of huge armies routed by small forces in Alex. ab Alexandro, Genial. dier., lib. vi. cap. 25.

Ver. 13. Behold, there was a man that told a dream.] So now-a-days, saith a divine, men dream their Midianitish dreams of errors, and tell it for gospel to their neighbours. This man told his dream to his fellow: but for no good to himself, yet to Gideon’s comfort: as Balaam, and afterwards Caiaphas, prophesied for the good of the Church.

Behold, I dreamed a dream.] This dream was of God (Homer saith of some dreams that they are διοπεμπτα), and his fellow gave a right interpretation thereof. Wicked men may have common gifts. They read their own doom, but have not grace to repent, and make a holy use of it, as Mr Rough the martyr did, who not long before his apprehension, dreamed that he was carried forcibly to Bishop Bonnet, and that the bishop plucked off his beard, and cast it into the fire, saying these words, Now I may say I have a piece of a heretic burnt in mine house. All which fell out accordingly; and he looked upon it as a sweet mercy to be thus forewarned. {a}

And, lo, a cake of barley bread.] This cake represented the smallness and weakness of Gideon’s forces: the matter of it, barley bread, the meanness of Gideon’s person, little esteemed; the trundling of it down a hill, his impetuous falling upon the Midianites, who had robbed the Israelites of their better food, and made them glad to eat barley bread.

And came unto a tent.] Ad tentorium omnium elgantissimum et fortissimum, unto a fair strong tent (for so much the notificative article ה implieth), which it utterly overturned, to note the routing and ruining of the army.

{a} Act. and Mon., 1843.

Ver. 14. This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon.] God spake through this fellow, as through a trunk, for Gideon’s confirmation. See #Jud 7:13.

Ver. 15. The dream, and the interpretation thereof.] Heb., The breaking thereof. A metaphor from the breaking of a nut, to come at the kernel: or from a fowl’s beating the shell with her beak to get out the fish.

Ver. 16. A trumpet in every man’s hand.] As if there had been so many troops as were trumpets. By a like stratagem, Pompey overcame Mithridates in Asia.

With empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.] Hereunto the apostle seemeth to allude, when, speaking of the light of the gospel, he saith, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." {#2Co 4:7}

Ver. 17. Look on me, and do likewise.] He was sure of the victory, and yet giveth military precepts, and useth the means.

Ver. 18. The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.] Domino et Gideoni; this was the word. {a} Against Jehovah there was no fighting: and Gideon’s name was now grown terrible to them, as Scipio’s afterwards was to the Carthaginians, Hunniades’s to the Turks, &c.

{a} Tessera et symbolum fuit quo terrerent hostes, et ipsi se mutub cognoscerent. -Lav.

Ver. 19. In the beginning of the middle watch.] He took the advantage of the night, to beat up their quarters. Nox formidinem auxit. Night is full of error and terror.

Ver. 20. Blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers.] By the sound of trumpets and shining of lamps out of earthen broken vessels, Gideon overcame his enemies: so Christ, by the trumpet of his word, and light of the gospel, carried through the world by weak instruments, hath confounded his enemies. {#1Jo 2:14}

The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.] Under the conduct of Germanus here in Britain, who came over from France to subdue the Pelagian heresy, which then prevailed amongst us, against a mighty army of Saxons and Picts, the Britains prevailed only by the three times pronouncing the word Hallelujah: which voice echoing and redoubling from the acclamation of his followers among the mountains, nigh to which the enemy had encamped, frightened them, and won the conquest: upon which it was called Victoria Halleluiatica. {a}

{a} Arch. Ussher., De Britan. Eccles. Primord.

Ver. 21. And they stood every man in his place.] As if they had been trumpeters and torch bearers to a formidable army at the heels of them.

And all the host ran, and cried, and fled.] Daunted and dismayed with that sudden sound and sight. Who then, can we think, shall be able to stand before that last terror, wherein the archangel’s trumpet shall sound, and the heavens shall pass away with a noise, and the elements shall be on flame about our ears? {#2Pe 3:10}

Ver. 22. And the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow.] For being smitten by God with a spirit of giddiness, they took their friends for their foes: and, like those terrigenae fratres, they slaughtered one another in the place. See the like, #1Sa 14:15-20 2Ch 20:23.

And the host fled to Bethshittah, &c.] Places unknown to us out of Scripture, save only Abelmeholah, {a} which was in the half tribe of Manasseh within Canaan, {#1Ki 4:12} and so, likely, were the rest. But whithersoever they fled, in running from death they ran to it.

{a} This Abelmeholah was afterwards the habitation of the prophet Elisha. {#1Ki 19:16}

Ver. 23. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together.] Various of those doubtless that, as white livered soldiers, had deserted the army; and others that, for their sloth and intemperance, were not honoured so far by God as to break a pitcher or to bear a torch, are now got together to pursue a flying enemy, and to share in the spoil.

Ver. 24. And Gideon sent messengers.] As not willing to engross the glory of the victory to himself alone; which yet many in this case would have done. At the battle of Belgrade, where Mohammed the great Turk was defeated and driven out of the field, the chief doers were Capistranus the Pope’s legate, and Hunniades the general of the army. Both these wrote the history of that day’s work: and yet neither of them made any mention at all of the other; but each ascribed to himself the glory of the whole action: whereupon Aeneas Silvins crieth out, Ingens dulcedo gloriae: facilius contemnenda dicitur quam contemnitur. Glory is sweet, and not easily slighted.

Ver. 25. Oreb and Zeeb.] Oreb signifieth a raven. Zeeb, a wolf.

“ Conveniunb rebus nomina saepe suis.”

Upon the rock Oreb, … at the wine press of Zeeb.] So these places were called, on this occasion: and God was just in it. These princes had forced Israel to hide in the rocks, and had robbed them of their provisions, and therefore fitly became examples of that rule,

“ Per quod quis peccat, per idem punitur ipse.”

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. Why hast thou served us thus?] Nay, why have you served me thus? might Gideon for better cause have said: and how is it that you came no sooner to mine assistance in so common a cause? But none are so ready to except and exclaim, as the most faulty.

And they did chide with him sharply.] Heb., Strongly. They should rather have cried him up for his valour, and blessed God for his victory. But this is merces mundi, the world’s wages: and these Ephraimitcs, pricked on by pride and envy thus to brawl and lay about them, had they not met with a man of a milder temper than themselves, had occasioned a far worse war than the former. If two fires meet, it must needs be a great combustion: it proved so in Jephtha’s days, {#Jud 12:1-6} and these proud Ephraimites met with their match.

Ver. 2. What have I done now in comparison of you?] By a soft answer he pacifieth their wrath. {#Pr 17:1 25:15} Milk quencheth wildfire: oil, saith Luther, quenches lime, which water kindles. Hard to hard, will never do well: but you may break a flint upon a cushion; a bullet if it light upon a wool sack, dieth there. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath." {#Ro 12:19} Howbeit some men are as nettles: handle them gently, they sting you; handle them hard, and they will do you no hurt.

Ver. 3. And what was I able to do in comparison of you?] He knew them to be ambitious, and therefore he doth little less than ascribe the victory to them. Yet he saith not, You have done all, and I little or nothing: for then they would have thought he had jeered them. Only he immindeth them of entitling God to all their achievements, when he saith here "God hath delivered into your hands," &c. This, these proud persons perhaps thought not of.

Then their anger was abated.] As it might well enough: for, like the waters of Shiloah at the foot of Zion, {#Isa 8:6} which run softly, he made but small noise, though he heard great words.

Ver. 4. And Gideon came to Jordan.] This was before that bickering he had with the Ephraimites, though set down after it.

Faint, yet pursuing.] So Daniel, though sick, did the king’s business. "Continue instant in prayer." {#Ro 12:12}

Ver. 5. Loaves of bread.] Or, Morsels, or cakes that may be soon baked, and we not hindered in our pursuit. Thus Gideon performed all the parts of a good general: he not only knew how to overcome an enemy, but also how to use the victory.

Ver. 6. And the princes of Succoth said.] They not only deny him so reasonable a request, but deride and scornfully treat him, in like sort as afterwards Nabal the churl did David; which vexed him not a little.

Ver. 7. Then I will tear your flesh.] Heb., I will thresh your flesh with the thorns. The Chaldee hath it, upon thorns; q.d., will whip you to death repetitis ictibus, by stroke upon stroke with thorns or thistles of very sharp prickles. And this he threateneth to do, not out of passion, but on premeditation, as a just severity towards such treacherous wretches.

Ver. 8. And the men of Penuel answered him.] Not the rulers only, as at Succoth: but the common people also.

Ver. 9. I will break down this tower.] Whereon you bear yourselves so bold as if there were no coming at you; as if you were out of the reach of God’s rod and man’s revenge.

Ver. 10. Were in Karkor.] A city beyond Jordan, where they thought themselves safe, and feared not a pursuer: but vengeance would not suffer them to live. {#Ac 28:4}

Ver. 11. And Gideon went up by the way of them that dwelt in tents.] The Arabian Nomades or Scenites, who dwelt not in houses or cities, but in movable tents, feeding their cattle, {#Jer 49:29} taking up wheresoever night took them. So the Hamaxobii among the Scythians. They had their scouts abroad, doubtless; but he fetched a compass about and came upon the east side, where they never feared any enemy.

For the host was secure.] Security ushereth in destruction; as it did at Tyre, at Babylon, those Amalakites in #1Sa 30:16,17, the Pompeians at the Pharsalian field, {a} the French at the battle of Agincourt, {b} &c.

{a} Caes. Comment.

{b} Speed’s Chron.

Ver. 12. He pursued after them.] Now was his time, and he took it, to complete his victory:—

“ Nil actum credens dum quid superesset agendum.’’—Lucan. {a}

{a} De J. Caes.

Ver. 13. Before the sun was up.] Still he set upon them in the night, because of the weakness of his army, which by night appeared not. Julius Caesar, indeed, held the night unfit for battle, Lucem enim pudorem oculis militum afferre. But I cannot think with Vatablus and others, that this war here was begun and ended in one night. {a}

{a} Hoc bellum una nocte fuit incaeptum et confectum: quod refertur ad laudem Dei. -Vat.

Ver. 14. And he described unto him the princes.] Who had denied him refreshing in his pursuit of the enemy, and were therefore to be punished; though it is seldom seen that princes fall alone, since their sins do much harm, (I.) By imitation; (2.) By imputation: for pleotuntur Achivi, as #2Sa 24

Ver. 15. Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me.] Men may utter such words in the pride of their spirits, as may afterwards be driven down their throats. Cave ne lingua feriat guttur, saith the Arabian, Take heed thy tongue cut not thy throat.

Ver. 16. And he took the elders of the city, and thorns, &c.] Wherewith he tore them, as well as taught them what it was to be so barbarous, and that he had not threatened them in terrorem only. God also chastiseth his children, and thereby "teacheth them," but after another manner, "out of his law, that he may give them rest from the day of adversity." {#Ps 94:12,13} He whippeth them, but it is with sweetbrier. But let scorners of God and his people, deriders and discouragers of the good, look for a Gideon to torture them, with briers and thorns, with scourges and scorpions.

Ver. 17. And he beat down the tower of Penuel.] Which Jeroboam rebuilt and made it a garrison. {#1Ki 12:25}

Ver. 18. Whom ye slew at Tabor.] The sword spareth neither lord nor ragamuffin.

Each one resembled the children of a king.] They were goodly and lovely personages: this they spake to ingratiate. But why were they so cruel as to kill such as whose beauty, that flower of virtue, bespake more lenity?

Ver. 19. I would not slay you.] As now I must, both as an avenger of blood {#Nu 25:7,8} and as a magistrate; for Bonis nocet qui malis parcit, to restrain justice is to support sin: and not to correct, is to consent to the crime.

Ver. 20. And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them.]

“ Adeo a teneris assuescere magnum est.”

Gideon would inure his son to manlike actions from his youth, and make him share with him in the honour of his victory.

Ver. 21. Rise thou, and fall upon us.] For thou wilt quickly despatch us; and we will die with honour.

“ Hoc tamen infaelix miseram solabere mortem,

Aeneae magni dextra cadis.’’—Virg. Aeneid., lib. x.

For as the man is, so is his strength.] This they speak with an undaunted spirit, as it may seem, which is not always a sign of a good cause, but sometimes of a dedolent and desperate disposition, as we may see in many of Satan’s martyrs.

Ver. 22. Rule thou over us, ] viz, As king of the land. A fair offer, and such as few men would have refused. But he knew that to accept of it, were to trench upon God’s prerogative royal, who had used all means to have the glory of this victory ascribed to himself only. See #Isa 42:8.

For thou hast delivered us.] We should for this cause set up Christ, since servati sumus ut serviamus {#Lu 1:74}

Ver. 23. I will not rule over you.] Since I cannot without manifest wrong done to God. This modesty of his in refusing such an offer was very commendable; as it was afterwards in Alphonsus, King of Arragon, and Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, who might have been chosen emperors of Germany, but would not. Rodolphus, Duke of Suevia, was too forward to accept of the empire offered him by Pope Hildebrand; and all too late repented it. So was Silvester II, who for seven years’ enjoyment of the popedom, gave his soul to the devil.

Ver. 24. For they had golden earrings.] But an obedient ear {#Pr 20:12,25:12} had been a far better ornament. These inaures aureae were ill bestowed upon such uncircumcised ears as Ishmaelites had.

Ver. 25. We will willingly give them.] Giving we will give.

“ Dat bene, dat multum, qui dat cum munere vultum.”

Ver. 26. And collars.] Or golden cabinets; wherein they carried balsam to pour into their wounds. {a}

{a} Vatab.

Ver. 27. And Gideon made an ephod thereof.] Of a good intention likely; but without a good warrant from God. A good aim doth not make a good action: but men nmst "come to the light, that their deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." {#Joh 3:21}

And all Israel went thither a whoring after it, ] sc., After Gideon’s death. So they did also after the brazen serpent. {#2Ki 18:4}

Which thing became a snare.] The cause of all those tragic accidents that befell his house after his death. Good, therefore, is the wise man’s counsel, #Pr 3:4-6.

Ver. 28. Forty years.] Beginning the computation at those forty years mentioned in #Jud 5:31.

Ver. 29. Went and dwelt in his own house.] As finding by experience, that high seats are never but uneasy; and that many a care attendeth greatness. Vacia, the Roman, having been praetor in the time of Tiberius, withdrew himself to his country house. In any public storm, therefore, the people would commonly cry out, O Vacia, solus scis vivere. O Vacia, thou hast the only life of it.

Ver. 30. Of his body begotten.] Heb., Going out of his thigh, in which there are veins, say anatomists, that go along to the genitals, and convey thither the matter for the seed of generation. Hence that expression of Abraham to his servant, {#Ge 24:2} "Put thine hand under my thigh," out of which is to come the Messiah, "and swear," &c. So #Ge 47:29 46:26.

Ver. 31. And his concubine, ] i.e., His wife though in an inferior degree: {a} as having been before his maid servant. {#Jud 9:18}

Whose name he called Abimelech, ] i.e., My father is king. This name, probably, he gave him at the motion of his concubine, who might say of her son as afterwards Nero’s mother did of him, Occidar, modo imperet; let him reign upon any terms: and possibly this name of his might stir him up to aspire to the kingdom, taking omen ex nomine, and being told that his father was offered the sovereign and supreme power for him and his posterity.

{a} Dio.

Ver. 32. In a good old age.] Heb., With a good hoar head, notwithstanding his last evil act which God overlooked, though it were some spot to his white head.

Ver. 33. As soon as Gideon was dead.] So great a mischief, many times, is the death of a good governor.

And made Baalberith their god.] To whom they become professed covenanters, as the name importeth. The Greeks called him Jupiter ορκιος, to whom they had sworn themselves.

Ver. 34. Remembered not the Lord.] Their idolamania had obliterated the memory of the true God, whom it is as necessary to remember, as to draw breath.

Ver. 35. Neither showed they kindness.] No wonder that apostates from God prove unkind and unthankful to men.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. And communed with them.] What might be the likeliest means of effecting his design. Ambition rideth without reins; and like the crocodile, groweth as long as it liveth. These uncles of his might haply advise him, whom they saw thirsting after sovereignty, as Calvus once did Vatinius, Perfrica frontem, et digniorem te dic, qui Praetor fieres, quam Catonem. {a} Set a good face upon it, and say that thou better deservest the office than ever Cato did.

And with all the family.] Who haply were leading men, and might do much with that people.

{a} Quintilian.

Ver. 2. Whether is better for yon.] Heb., What is good? The public good is usually pretended to private interest. He taketh it for granted that they would have a king, because they offered that dignity to his father: who, not so wise as he should have been, Abimelech thinks, refused it. He cunningly insinuateth also, that all Gideon’s sons affected domination over them; for so ill minded men muse as they use, and measure others by themselves; and would divide the kingdom amongst them, which would cause great stirs in the state.

Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.] And will therefore favour you, and promote you. Thus he singeth a song of utile in their ears, which he knew would take with them. Machiavel was not now in rerum natura: but the devil was as great a master then as afterwards.

Ver. 3. And his mother’s brethren spake of him.] And perhaps they gained the same commendation that the Duke of Buckingham, speaking to the Londoners for Richard III to be made likewise king, did, viz., that no man could deliver so much bad matter in so good words and quaint phrases.

Ver. 4. And they gave him threescore and ten pieces.] Pounds, saith the Vulgate: but more likely, shekels: which though it were a small sum, yet we must know that a little money would go a great way in those days; as also that such soldiers might be hired for small wages, &c.

Hired vain and light persons.] Beggarly rascals, fit for his purpose, debauched desperadoes.

Ver. 5. And slew his brethren.] So did afterwards Joram, the degenerate son of good Jehoshaphat; Romulus, first king of Rome; Jugurtha, king of tbe Numidians; and so doth the great Turk to this day, so soon as he cometh to the kingdom, that he may have no competitors.

Upon one stone.] Whereon, likely, they laid down their necks, and had their heads stricken off, under some pretence of justice, as if they had conspired against him, or against the state. Howsoever, Abimelech, knowing that it was no good policy to play the villain by half-deal, was resolved to suffer never a rub to lie in the way that might hinder the true running of his bowl.

Ver. 6. And all the men of Shechem.] They might have foreseen by his bloody fratricide what kind of king they should have of him; but they were set upon it, and they soon had enough of it; for as these Shechemites were first in raising Abimelech unjustly to the throne, so they were the first that felt the weight of his sceptre. The foolish bird fouls and smears herself with that which grew from her own excretion. Who wondereth to see the kind peasant stung with his own snake?

Ver. 7. And when they told it to Jotham.] He only escaped of all the seventy sons, to tell Abimelech and his Shechemites their own, and that on the coronation day too; thundering out God’s curses from the very mountain of blessings. This could not but be terrible, and much dissweeten that day’s solemnity. Sed surdis fabulam. Where ambition hath possessed itself thoroughly of the soul, it turneth the heart into steel, and maketh it incapable of a conscience.

Hearken unto me, &c.] An august exordium, whereby, and by the whole speech, it appeareth that this young man was vir bonus dicendi peritus, as Quintilian saith an orator should be, one that could deliver his mind fitly, and that durst do it freely.

Ver. 8. The trees went forth on a time.] An apologue or parable. The like whereunto see #2Ki 14:9 2Sa 12:2 Mt 13:2,3, &c. The trees, that is, the men of Israel (Plato compared a man to a tree inverted, with the root above and the branches below) went forth, eundo iverunt, they went hastily, but (to an ill bargain) they returned heavily. They might have foreseen, by his bloody dealing with his innocent brethren, what kind of king they should have of him. But, Deus quos destruit, demental they were infatuated, because destined to destruction.

And they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.] Those that are most unworthy of honour are hottest in the chase of it; while the conscience of better deserts bids men sit still, and stay to be either importuned or neglected. The Venetians have magistrates called Pregadi; because at first men were prayed to take the office, and to help to govern the state.

Ver. 9. But the olive-tree said unto them.] The bramble thought it a great matter to reign over the rest; not so the olive. Animo mayno nihil magnum. The violent obtain heaven; but for earth, they look upon it as a magnum nihil.

Should I leave my fatness?] That is, My fitness to serve God and men in my place and station. It is hard and happy not to be worse for outward honour and greatness. Vespasian is said to be the only one of all the emperors, qui accepto imperio melior factus est, who was made a better man by that preferment.

And go to be promoted?] Or, Go up and down for other trees. Ut item vayatum, id est cireumcur satum ad regium munus exquendum, { a} that I should go haliprancing from place to place in the execution of my kingly office. This made Florus the poet sing:

“ Nolo ego Caesar esse,

Ambulare per Britannos,

Rigidas pati pruinas.’’—Carion. Chron.

This made Rodolphus Rufus, the Emperor, thus bespeak his crown:

“ Nobilis es fateor, rutilisque onerata lapillis:

Innumeris curis sed comitata venis.

Quod bene si nossent omnes expendere, nemo,

Nemo foret qui te tollere vellet humo.’’—Par. Medul.

{a} Jun.

Ver. 10. And the trees said to the fig tree.] By the fig tree the Jewish doctors understand Deborah, as by the olive tree Othniel or Ehud; and by the fruitful vine, Gideon with his numerous offspring.

Ver. 11. Should I forsake, &c.] See #Jud 9:9.

And my good fruit.] Dioscorides scribit ficum utile alimentum praebere: Figs are good for meat and medicine.

Ver. 12. Then said the trees unto the vine.] So fond they were of a king, howsoever it went. When the Romans offered the Capadocians to make them a free state, they refused it, saying they could not live without a king.

Ver. 13. Should I leave my wine?] This is the drunkard’s motto, Malle so, vitam quam vinum eripi. {a} Take away my liquor, you take away my life. Ambrose reporteth of one Theotimus (too good a name for such a wretch), that, having a disease upon his body, and told by the physician that unless he did abstain from wine he was like to lose his eyes, Vale lumen amicum, said he, If they will not away with wine, they are no eyes for me. He would rather lose his sight than his sin. So will many their souls. Woe to those drunkards of Ephraim!

Which cheereth God and man.] God, because poured out in sacrifices of a sweet smelling odour to him: and man, by "refreshing his spirits"; {#Ps 104:15 Pr 1:6} whence Plato reckoneth wine among the μαλακτικα of man’s life: and Simonides saith that it is αμυντωρ δυσφροσιναων, an expeller of sadness.

{a} Aug., De Temp. Serm., 131.

Ver. 14. Then said all the trees unto the bramble.] Or, Thistle, or teazle; which is not a tree but a shrub, prickly, barren, base, abject, good-for-nothing but to stop gaps, or kindle a fire. Abimelech was a right bramble indeed, who grew in the base hedgerow of a concubine, and scratched and drew blood to purpose, when once he had scrambled up to be king of Israel.

Ver. 15. If in truth ye anoint me king over you.] Whereunto he also must be entreated for fashionsake: like as Richard III was by the Londoners at the solicitation of Buckingham, who knew his mind and factored for him, as here Abimelech’s uncles did. This base bramble, a dry, empty, sapless kex and weed, apt and able only to scratch, tear, and vex, must needs be up, and hoised into a high room, and domineer over others. Men of most prostituted consciences are, for most part, the most pragmatical prawlers, saith a grave divine, {a} after undeserved preferments, and the only men to serve themselves viis et modis, as they say, into offices, honours, and places of advancement.

Then come and put your trust in my shadow.] At umbra rhamni non est commendabilis. The bramble bush yieldeth no very good shade; the silly sheep flying to it for shelter and defence in weather, is sure to lose part of his fleece, if not of his flesh.

Let fire come out of the bramble.] Isidore and many other learned men {b} say, that the bramble being much shaken by the wind, is thereby set on fire, whereby both itself and all the trees about it are consumed. Jotham might allude to this. The counsel is good that one here giveth; Let not the bramble be king; let not earthly things bear rule over thine affections. Fire will arise out of them that will consume thy cedars, emasculate all the powers of thy soul. One bastard will destroy all the true born sons.

{a} Bishop Hall.

{b} Testatus, Mercer, Forster, Carthusian, Moller.

Ver. 16. Now therefore.] This is the επιμυθιον, the explication and application of the parable, the key to it, and use of it, bringing it home to the hearers.

If ye have done truly and sincerely.] With God, whose government ye have rejected: and if candidly and gratefully with my father, who jeoparded his life for you, then much happiness may you have in your new choice. But, alas! he that hath but half an eye may see the contrary, and foresee the mischief that will follow upon it.

Ver. 17. And adventured his life.] Heb., Threw his life far from him, set light by it, was prodigal of it. And was not the Lord Christ much more so for us? Out upon our uuthankfulness!

Ver. 18. And ye are risen up against my father’s house, &c.] This was

“ Mordaci radere vero, ”

plain dealing indeed. They who do what they should not, shall once hear what they would not; as Ahab did from Eliah; Herod from John Baptist; Eudoxia, the Empress, from Chrysostom; &c.

Ver. 19. Then rejoice you in Abimelech.] As I hardly think you ever will; for it is an irony: Mutuum oblectemini, May there be all good correspondency.

Ver. 20. But if not.] As your own consciences, those domestical chaplains, will tell you: for

“ Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ira concipit intra

Pectora pro facto spemque metumque, suo.’’—Ovid.

Let fire come.] See #Jud 9:15.

Ver. 21. And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went.] It was but high time to fly, Cito, citius, citissime, whence all this heap of words in the text. So fled Jacob from Esau, David from Saul, Paul from his persecutors. {#Ac 9:23-25} It is not unlawful in some cases to save ourselves by flight. Tertullian was too rigid in this point. God hath not set us as standing marks or butts to be shot at.

Ver. 22. When Abimelech had reigned three years.] And now haply began to think, as afterward Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily did, that his kingdom was tied to him with chains of adamant.

Ver. 23. Then God sent an evil spirit.] The devil, that troubler, that seedsman of sedition, that great kindle coal and mischief maker of the world, who, working upon these men’s corruptions, whom God had justly given over to a reprobate mind, filled them with "envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity," &c. {#Ro 1:28,29}

Dealt treacherously with Abimelech.] Whom themselves had chosen and set up. What a fickle tenure holdeth he by, who holdeth of the multitude! Neutrum modo, mas modo Vulgus. So the English were soon weary of Richard III, who yet was a good prince though an evil man, and made many good laws against those evils in others which himself practised.

Ver. 24. That the cruelty done.] God maketh inquisition for blood, and suffereth not murder, but especially parricide, to pass unpunished: for it ever bleedeth fresh in his eyes. {#2Ki 9:26}

Ver. 25. Set liers in wait for him.] Attempting thereby secretly to have slain him, or at least to have seized his person.

And it was told Abimelech.] These robbers going beyond their commission discovered the plot, and so Abimelech escaped. But this preservation was but a reservation.

Ver. 26. And Gaal the son of Ebed.] This thrasonical fellow, no less ambitious, subtle, and seditious than Abimelech, offereth to head the Shechemites, whom he saw to be at this time in a disorder, and to lead them against Abimelech.

Put their confidence in him.] As before they had done in Abimelech, {#Jud 9:15} and were now grown no whit wiser by what they had suffered, but ripened apace for utter ruin.

Ver. 27. And they went out into their vineyards.] Which till Gaal came they durst not do, belike, for fear of Abimelech, who was Hannibal ad portas.

And made merry.] Or, Made songs. See #Isa 16:10. The Septuagint renders it εποιησαν χορους, they danced; little thinking how soon that merry dance would end in a miserable downfall The Hebrew is, praises: for at first God was thereby praised.

And cursed Abimelech.] Which they ought not to have done, since they had made him ruler of the people. {#Ex 22:28} So Dr Story cursed Queen Elizabeth in his daily grace before eating, and was worthily executed at Tyburn: Sanders railed bitterly against her, calling her Lupam Anglicanam, &c., and had his mouth stopped with famine in Ireland.

Ver. 28. Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem?] Or, Who is Shechem? q.d., Is it so contemptible a city, that so base a fellow as Abimelech should have the sovereignty over it?

Is not he the son of Jerubbaal?] That is, Of one who bereft us of that religion, Baal worship, which is now happily re-established. Thus, this cunning fellow raketh together arguments of all sorts, whereby to wind himself into the people’s affections, and to get the government of the city.

And Zebul his officer?] His viceroy. O rem miseram! Dominum ferre non potuimus, et conservo servimus, { a} But why did they not turn Zebul, Abimelech’s intelligencer, out of this city? This, Gaal drove at doubtless, but could not obtain.

Serve the men of Hamor the father Shechem.] Who was rather a father than a ruler of this city: serve such as are descended of him (so Gaal pretended to be, as some think), or at least, will resemble him in fatherly lenity.

{a} Cicer., Epist., lib. xii.

Ver. 29. And would to God this people, &c.] This is the very voice of these quorum bibulas animas ambitionis possidet salsugo; witness Absalom, Julius Caesar, Phocas, &c.

And he said to Abimelech.] Who perhaps heard him not, or else he sent him a challenge. We have those that in their mad mood dare say as much to death: who yet when death comes indeed, cannot look him in the face with blood in their cheeks.

Ver. 30. His anger was kindled, ] sc., To hear his lord and himself so slighted and debased: there being nothing that man’s nature is more impatient of than contempt; for a reproachful scorn showeth an utter disrespect, which issueth from the very superfluity of malice.

Ver. 31. Behold, Gaal…and, behold, they fortify.] Abimelech was but a usurper, yet Gaal, his prefect or lieutenant, sticketh to him. So did John, Duke of Norfolk, to Richard III, though the night before Bosworth-field he had this distich fastened to his tent-door—

“Jocky of Norfolk, be not too bold:

For Dicky, thy master, is bought and sold.”

- Hollinsh.

So Sir Ralph Percy, slain upon Hegely moor, in Northumberland, by the Lord Mountacute, General for Edward IV, would in nowise depart the field, though defeated; but in dying said, "I have saved the bird in my breast," meaning his oath to King Henry VI. {a}

{a} Speed, 869.

Ver. 32. Thou and the people that is with thee.] Those thou hast ready: lose not the present opportunity. In bello non datur bis errare, in war there is no use of after wise.

Ver. 33. As thou shalt find occasion.] This was welcome advice to Abimelech, who might probably hereupon set as high a price upon Zebul, as afterwards Darius did upon Zopyrus. {a}

{a} Justin., lib. i.

Ver. 34. And Abimelech rose up…by night.] According to Zebul’s advice. It is best not to need good counsel; and it is next best to take it when given. {a}

{a} Hesiod.

Ver. 35. And stood in the entering of the gate of the city.] To see what he could discover of the enemy: and had he been as valiant as he was vigilant, it might have gone better with him and his partisans.

Ver. 36. He said to Zebul.] Who had hitherto played on both hands, and seemed to side with Gaal, that he might bring him into the hands of Abimelech’s ambuscado. Huiusmodi homines instructi arte Pelasga, &c. Fair words make fools fain.

Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.] Either thine eyes are not matches or thy fear hath blinded thee:—

“ Pessimus in dubiis augur timor.’’—Statius Theb., lib. iii.

The Burgundians, once expecting a battle, thought long thistles were lances. So saith Zebul here, in a jeer, thou takest mountains for men, shadows for substances.

Ver. 37. By the plain of Meonenim.] Or, Of the soothsayers. It may be rendered, By the oak of the oraculous diviners. The oak was consecrated to Jupiter: and of the Dodonaean oak much is spoken by the poets: but what meant such places or such doings among the people of Israel, who were flatly forbidden them? {#De 18:9-14}

Ver. 38. Where is now thy mouth?] Thy bubbles of words, thy thrasonical boastings? Now play the man, and fight the approaching enemy, or thou art shamed for ever.

Ver. 39. And Gaal went out.] Zebul’s taunts had made him ashamed to retire: but God had a special hand in it, for his just punishment. That is a true saying of one, Where iniquity breaketh fast, calamity will be sure to dine; to sup where it dineth, and to lodge where it suppeth.

Ver. 40. And he fled before him.] Notwithstanding his great brags and insolent challenge. Those who vaunt most have oft the least courage: as those creatures which have the greatest hearts of flesh are the most timorous, as the stag, panther, hare, {a} &c.

{a} Diod.

Ver. 41. And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah.] {a} Concealing his ill-will against the Shechemites, as though he had meant it to Gaal only. It is said of Tiberius the Emperor, that the farther off he threatened, the heavier the stroke fell. And of our Richard III, that he would use most compliment and courtesy to him in the morning whose throat he had taken order to be cut that evening.

{a} Jerome saith that Arumah is the same with Arimathea.

Ver. 42. Went out into the field, ] viz., To renew the battle, and to rid the country of Abimelech; not to their grape gathering, or about their husbandry, as Josephus and Procopius say.

Ver. 43. Were come forth out of the city.] As ambitious of their own destruction. Judgments need not go to find out wicked persons; they run to meet their bane.

Ver. 44. Ran upon all the people.] Omnia sunt misera in bellis civilibus, saith Cicero. Civil war is a woe which no words, how wide soever, are able to express.

Ver. 45. He took the city, and slew the people.] There was, as at Athens when taken by Sulla, ανελεης σφαγη, a merciless massacre, the streets running down with blood. {a}

And beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.] Milan was so served by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, A.D. 1162, but rebuilt not long after, {b} as was likewise Shechem by Jeroboam. {#1Ki 12:25} But here the bramble, or thistle, made good his motto, Nemo me impune lacessit. He dealt most barbarously with his native country, turning the place of his birth into a place of "nettles and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation," {#Zep 2:9} as far as in him lay.

{a} Appian.

{b} Sigon. Naucler.

Ver. 46. Into an hold of the house of the god Berith.] This was as if a man should run into a stack of straw or barrel of gunpowder, to secure himself from a raging fire. Their covenant with Baal, that image of jealousy, {#Eze 8:3} was the cause of their ruin. They looked upon this hold as both a fort and a sanctuary; but it saved them not.

Ver. 47. And it was told Abimelech.] Who carefully watched all their motions, and had his corycaei to give him intelligence of all passages.

Ver. 48. To mount Zalmon.] Which had its name from the shadiness, by reason of the many trees there growing.

What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do.] Princeps imperio maximus, exemplo maior, as Paterculus {a} saith of Tiberius; Princes are easily imitated. Vespasian undertaking to repair the decayed capitol, first with his own hands shovelled up the rubbish, and carried it forth on his shoulders. {b}

{a} Paterc., lib. ii.

{b} Sueton., in Vesp., cap. 8.

Ver. 49. All the men of the tower of Shechem.] Who were, probably, those men of Millo that had helped to make Abimelech king; and so Jotham’s parable was fulfilled.

Ver. 50. Then went Abimelech to Thebez.] Elijah the Tishbite’s country, and more famous for him than Thebes, in Greece, was afterwards for Pindarus the poet.

Ver. 51. Thither fled all the men and women.] As all creatures in times of danger run to their refuges. {#Pr 30:26,18:11 Ps 104:18 Da 4:10,11}

Ver. 52. And went hard unto the door.] This was not soldier-like, whose rule must be, Neque timide neque temere, Be neither timorous nor temerarious. See #2Sa 11:21. But Abimelech, lifted up with his former successes, thought, belike, he might do anything, and said within himself,

“ Maior sum quam cui possit fortuna, nocere.”

Ver. 53. And a certain woman.] Women have sometimes done singular service against an enemy: as at the siege of Lamia, laid by M. Acilius, the Roman general: {a} of Coccinum, in the isle of Lemnus, by the Turks, where Marulla, a maiden, fought desperately in defence of her country: {b} of Buda, where the Hungarian women bestirred them lustily to save the town. {c} But what monstrous mothers were those Suevian women, who, assisting their husbands in fight against the Romans, under the conduct of Drusus, son-in-law to Augustus Caesar, threw their young children at them instead of darts. {d}

Cast a piece of a millstone.] So that ambitious King Pyrrhus was at last slain with a tile stone thrown upon his head by a woman. {e} And the like deadly blow light by a like hand, upon the head of Hermanius Earl of Lucelburg, whom Pope Hildebrand had set up in opposition to Henry the Emperor, whom he had excommunicated. {f} Simeon De Monteforti also, another of the Pope’s champions, fighting against those ancient Protestants the Waldenses, was brained with a stone at the siege of Tholouse. {g} That scholar that took his death by the falling of a letter of stone from the Earl of Northampton’s house at the funeral of Queen Anne, was to be pitied. But commentators observe it for a just hand of God upon Abimelech, that upon one stone he had slain his seventy brethren, and now a stone slayeth him: his head had stolen the crown of Israel, and now his head is smitten.

{a} Liv., lib. xxxvii.

{b} Turk. Hist., 413.

{c} Ibid., 741.

{d} Heyl., Geog.

{e} Plutarch.

{f} Val. Max. Christ.

{g} Arch. Ussher.

Ver. 54. Then he called hastily unto the young man.] Exemplum pertinacis ambitionis et impaenitentiae. {a} A fearful example of a man who died in his sins, which is far worse than to die in a ditch, niggardly of his reputation, prodigal of his soul. Do we not sometimes see vain fools running wilfully into the field, into the grave, into hell? and all lest it should be said they have as much fear as wit.

And his young man thrust him through, and he died.] So there lay the greatness of Abimelech, "killed with death," as the phrase is in #Re 2:23. Of him it might be truly said, as it was afterwards of Pope Boniface VIII, that he entered like a fox, reigned as a lion, and died as a dog.

{a} Piscat.

Ver. 55. They departed every man to his place.] They stayed not to take the tower, and to revenge their lord’s death, but haply were glad they were rid of such a tyrant.

“ Cure mors crudelem rapuisset saeva Neronem,

Credibile est multos Romam agitasse iocos.”

Ver. 56. Which he did unto his father.] Wrong done to a parent in any kind, is a heinous sin, and hath a heavy punishment.

Ver. 57. And upon them came the curse.] The prophetical curse, though it were more than three years after. Subito tollitur qui diu toleratur: et Dei patientia quo diuturnior eo est minacior.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. There arose, to defend Israel.] Heb., To save. He thrust not himself into the office, as Abimelech, that usurper, had done; but was raised up by God, and accordingly qualified.

A man of Issachar.] The men of this tribe are little memorised. Deborah, indeed, celebrateth them in her song, {#Jud 5:15} and David made great account of them, because "they had understanding of the time, to know what Israel ought to do." {#1Ch 12:32} This Tola, likely, was such a one, by a specialty.

Ver. 2. And he judged Israel twenty and three years.] Appeasing the tumults at the end of Abimelech’s reign, restoring the true religion, and administering justice according to God’s laws. {a}

{a} Dr May.

Ver. 3. Jair, a Gileadite.] Of whom we may say as one doth of Jesse, the father of David, that he was Vir bonus et probus, sed minus clarus, a good honest man, but there is not much said of him.

Ver. 4. And he had thirty sons.] A happy man if they all proved towardly: otherwise he might be put to wish as Augustus did, Utinam aut caelebs vixissem, aut orbus periissem.

That rode on thirty ass colts.] Jair therefore was a man of quality, likely, for birth and wealth: and so fitter for government, ordinarily. See #Ec 10:17. By the laws of England, noblemen may not be bound to the peace; because it is supposed that the peace is always bound to them, and that of their own accord they will both preserve and promote it.

Ver. 5. And Jair died.] "It, is appointed for all men once to die, and after death judgment." Judges shall once say, —

"Iudex ante fui, nunc Iudicis ante tribunal Sistor."

"Do ye then speak righteousness? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of

men?" {#Ps 58:1} "Behold, the Judge standeth before the

door." {#Jas 5:9}

Ver. 6. And the children of Israel did evil again, ] viz., After Jair’s death. Great is the loss of a good magistrate. Israel now did worse than ever; they did proficere in peius, as the apostle hath it. {#2Ti 3:13} Now they affect a πολυθεσιης, such as the heathens round about them then had, and such as Socrates, an honest pagan, derided, and in despite of them swore by an oak, a goat, a dog, as holding these better gods than those. Cicero, albeit in his book, De Natura Deorum, he set forth the vanity of all those heathenish deities, yet in his oration for Flaccus he saith, that it became not the majesty of the Roman empire to worship one god only; they must have a multiplicity of gods, for reasons of state. But this was to speak and do evil things as they could. {#Jer 3:5} Meanwhile they "forsook the Lord, and served not him," as it followeth in this verse. For when it was sometimes disputed among the Romans, -in the council using to deify great men, -whether Christ, having done many wonderful works, as Pilate witnessed before Tiberius, should be received into the number of the gods, and his image put in the Pantheon, the historian saith, that at length it was carried in the negative, for these two reasons: first, Because he persuaded poverty, and chose poor men; secondly, Because he had but few worshippers. Accordingly Peter Martyr giveth these two reasons here why the Israelites went so a whoring after these false gods of the several neighbour nations: (1.) Because they so flourished in wealth and honour, when themselves were so poor and contemptible; (2.) Because the worship of the true God was so severe, but the heathenish superstition licentious and pleasing to flesh and blood.

Ver. 7. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, ] i.e., He abandoned them into the power, and left them to the pleasure of those very nations with whom they hoped to ingratiate by serving their gods.

Ver. 8. And that year they vexed and crushed the children, &c.] That year, quo scilicet desciverunt a cultu divino, { a} wherein they fell off from God’s true worship, {b} their bonds were increased: the Ammonites before, and the Philistines behind, devoured Israel with open mouth. "For all this his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still." {#Isa 9:12} We read in the Turkish history, that when Solyman II saw a company of his Christian subjects, many thousands, fall down before him, and hold up the forefinger, as their manner of conversion to Mohammedanism is, he asked, What moved them to turn? They replied, It was to be eased of their heavy taxations. He, disdaining that baseness, or not willing to lose in tribute for an unsound accession in religion, rejected their conversion, and doubled their taxations.

{a} Vatab.

{b} Or, that year, that is, the last of the eighteen of their oppressing Israel

Ver. 9. Moreover the children of Ammon.] Now that Jair was dead. Likens after the death of Hunniades, the Turks got further footing, and did great spoil in Christendom.

Ver. 10. And the children of Israel cried.] Cried they had before, as very brutes will do when they are hurt, but not with their whole heart; their cries were the fruits of the flesh for ease, not of faith for God’s favour.

Both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.] Which are two such evils as make the heavens sweat, and the axle tree of the earth ready to crack. {#Jer 2:12,13}

Ver. 11. Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians?] They instance their sins, and God’s benefits—teaching us to keep catalogues—for an aggravation of their sins. See #De 32:5,6 Ezr 9:13,14. There is here an angry aposiopesis; for these words, "I deliver you," are not in the original. Those that are angry use to utter imperfect speeches.

Ver. 12. The Zidonians also, … and the Maonites.] Hereby it appeareth that God had done more for this people than hitherto had been recorded. He keepeth count; should not we much more?

Ver. 13. Wherefore I will deliver you no more, ] sc., " Except ye repent." {#Re 2:5} Deus ideo minatur ut non puniat: If sinners repent, God will do so too; {#Jer 26:13} yea, he will pardon such sin as no man would pardon, {#Jer 3:1} nor god neither. {#Mic 7:18}

Ver. 14. Go and cry unto the gods, &c.] He commandeth them not idolatry, but upbraideth them with it; layeth it in their dish, and showeth them how little they have profited by it. See the like in #De 32:37,38 1Ki 18:27. And were we not ready to think in our late unnatural troubles, that God had even abandoned us, whatever he may do yet, and to say of England, as he once did of Rome, Nunquam magis, iustis iudiciis, approbatum est non esse curae Deo securitatem nostrum, esse vindictam? {a} That God had cast away the care of our safety, but not of our utter destruction?

{a} Tac., Hist., lib. i. cap. 11.

Ver. 15. We have sinned: do thou unto us.] They do not yet despair, but put themselves into the hands of divine justice, in hope of mercy; they make a total resignation of all that they are and have to God; they pray on, and put away the evil of their doings from before his eyes. {#Jud 10:16} An excellent pattern of repentance for all to imitate.

Ver. 16. And they put away the strange gods from among them.] This was it that completed their repentance. What is humiliation without reformation? Optima et aptissima poenitentia est nova vita, saith Luther. Ephraim never repented indeed till he said, "What have I to do any more with idols?" When these words once fell from him, then "God heard him, and observed him," {#Ho 14:8} yea, God melted over him, and said, "I will surely have mercy upon him." {#Jer 31:20} And the like he did here, for

His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.] O gracious God, what could have been spoken more for the honour of thy goodness, and for the comfort of thy poor afflicted! God’s soul was shortened, he could hold in no longer; Postquam poenitentitiara egerunt, totus ipsorum factus est; now that they had repented, they might have but what they would of him.

“ Flectitur oratus voce rogante Deus.’’—Ovid.

Ver. 17. Then the children of Ammon were gathered together.] But, that they might be "broken in pieces" {#Isa 8:9}

And the children of Israel assembled.] Now they have taken heart of grace, and can face their enemies; who before durst not mute or move against them. And although they had no answer or comfort from God, yet knowing his gracious disposition and dealing with the penitent, they take courage to encounter the Ammonites. "The righteous are bold as a lion," {#Pr 28:1} and "God hath not given to his the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind." {#2Ti 1:7}

Ver. 18. That will begin to fight.] That will be our leader in this expedition. They were not here, as in Alcibiades’s army, all leaders, no learners. They wanted one that would give the onset, and do some noble exploit against the enemy, promising to give him the principality of Gilead. Militaribus praemiis virtus excitatur. {a}

{a} Lavat.

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. Was a mighty man of valour.] Magna vi animi et corporis fuit, as Sallust saith of Catiline: He was stout and strong, hardy and able to suffer hardship, as a good soldier should do; one that had done great exploits, and had oft looked death in the face upon great adventures in the field.

And he was the son of an harlot.] A bastard this was a blur to him, through the fault of his parents. The Hebrews call such a one Mamzer that is, a strange blot: the Greeks, υβριδα, a reproach. The English, in disgrace of such births call all whores harlots, from Arlett, a skinner’s daughter, on whom Robert Duke of Normandy begat our William the Conqueror. Howbeit God made choice of such a one here to be a deliverer of his people; and hath registred him among other of his worthies, famous for their faith. {#Heb 11:32} This is for the comfort of bastards, if believers and born of God. {#Joh 1:12,13} We read in our Chronicles of one Faustus, the son of Vortiger, who wept himself blind for the sin of his incestuous parents. And that David had good assurance that the child born of his adultery with Bathsheba went to heaven, is gathered from those words of his, "I shall go to him; he shall not return to me."

Ver. 2. They thrust out Jephthah.] Little thinking that they should one day be glad to be beholden to him. It is good for great men, who now work their own wills without wit, to remember that greatness may decay, the wheel may turn, and they may have need of those they now slight; as Sir James Paulet had of Cardinal Wolsey when he came to be Lord Chancellor, whom the said Sir James had, out of humour, set by the heels when he was a poor schoolmaster; {a} and as Sir Francis Askew had of Archbishop Holgat, whom he had much molested in law when he was a country minister. {b}

“ Discite iustitiam moniti, et non temnere quenquam.”

The Pope, who is the devil’s by-blow, was worthily thrust out of England A.D. 1245, as before he had been out of France and Arragon, it being said that the Pope was but like a mouse in a satchel, or a snake in a man’s bosom, &c. England had been his ass; but at length she cast her rider, and would no longer bear his burdens. {c}

For thou art the son of a strange woman.] Vulgo quaesitus, as the Latins call such: the Hebrews shatuki, from shatack, tacere, because when others are praising their parents, such must hold their peace. But Jephthah was hardly dealt with, to be put to shift for a livelihood, and to get it before he ate it.

{a} Negotiat. of Card. Wolsey, p. 2.

{b} Godw., Catal., p. 625.

{c} Speed, 622.

Ver. 3. Dwelt in the land of Tob.] Or, Of the Tubiemites, as histories call it. Some think it took its name from one Tob, the possessor of it: who might be so surnamed for his goodness, as Aristides was by the Athenians surnamed Justus, and Phocion Bonus. Of Probus the Emperor it was said, Si Probi nomen non haberet, habere cognomen posset: {a} that he was Probus or honest all over.

{a} Flav. Vopisc., in Probo.

Ver. 4. In process of time.] Heb., After days. Junius rendereth it, post annos illos, after those years, that is, those eighteen years mentioned in #Jud 10:8.

That the children of Ammon made war against Israel.] About which time also the Greeks made war against Troy, and after ten years took it.

Ver. 5. The elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah.] Whereunto they were necessitated: for else a bastard might not bear office, {#De 23:2} for an admonition of chastity in regard of the infamy and contempt of such a polluted posterity. Upon a like necessity of the Catalinarian conspiracy breaking out in Rome, M. Tullius Cicero was made consul, though a new man, and none of the ancient nobility: which when it was objected unto him, he answered, Satius est meis gestis florere, quam maiorum opinione uti, &c., { a} that it was better to be a foundation of nobility to his posterity, and a pattern of virtue, than to be famous only for his noble ancestors. Two things he said he had to support him under whatsoever crosses or obloquies of men, Optimarum artium scientiam et maximarum rerum gloriam, { b} the knowledge of good arts, and the glory of his great acts: the one whereof should never be taken from him whilst alive; the other, no not when he was dead.

{a} Sallust.

{b} Epist. Famil., lib. vii.

Ver. 6. Come, and be our captain.] See Trapp on "Jud 11:2".

Ver. 7. Did not ye hate me, and expel me?] It may be some of his brethren were elders, or at least they cast him out formula iuris, by an order of the elders giving judgment against him.

And why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?] May not God justly say as much to most of us? we seldom seek to him till needs must. It was a trim saying and very true of General Vere to the King of Denmark, that kings cared not for soldiers until such times as their crowns hung on the one side of their head.

Ver. 8. Therefore we turn again to thee now.] We see our former oversight, and are ready to make thee amends.

Ver. 9. Shall I be your head?] He would make his bargain wisely, to prevent all differences for the future, and the rather because he had been before but coarsely used by them.

Ver. 10. The Lord be witness.] "An oath for confirmation is to men an end of all strife": {#Heb 6:16} ορκος quasi ερκος, an oath is a hedge to keep men within compass of duty.

Ver. 11. Then Jephthah went.] He not only forgave, but forgot all former unkindnesses, burying them all in the love of his country. So did Camillus among the Romans, Themistocles among the Athenians, &c.

Ver. 12. And Jephthah sent messengers.] He would treat before he would fight: not for want of courage, as Philip said of the Athenians, but in obedience to God. {#De 20:10} So the Romans first sent heralds to require right, and proffer peace, before they proclaimed war: Cuncta prius tentanda, saith the poet. {a} And Omnia prius experiri consilio quam armis sapientem decet, saith the comedian. {b} It becometh a wise man to prevent blows as much as may be.

To fight in my land.] This he could not have said if they had not made him their head. Now he hath a just title, and pleadeth it.

{a} Ovid.

{b} Terent.

Ver. 13. Because Israel took away my land.] This was a lie; but that is a small matter with many, where anything is to be gotten. Hegesippus saith of Pilate, that he was Vir nequam et parvi faciens mendacium, a naughty man, and one that made no bones of a lie. All this country that the king of Ammon layeth claim to, was first the Moabites’, and from them won by Sihon king of Amorites, and from him by the Israelites.

Ver. 14. And Jephthah sent messengers again.] By whom, negat ac pernegat, he utterly denieth that they had at all wronged the Ammonites.

Ver. 15. Israel took not away.] It falls out often that plain dealing puts craft out of countenance. "There is no such thing as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine heart," saith Nehemiah to his adversary; so here.

Ver. 16. But when Israel came up from Egypt.] It appeareth that Jephthah was a good historian. Public persons had need to be so: skilful in the sacred history especially, and in their own chronicles.

Ver. 17. Then Israel sent messengers.] Apologies in some cases are very necessary—if not vocal, yet real—to stop an open mouth, and clear up our innocency.

Ver. 18. Then they went along through the wilderness.] This was the naked truth of things. And truth, like our first parents, is most amiable when most naked.

Ver. 19, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land.] This he not only denied to do, but came out with all his forces to fight with them. John, king of Navarre, did none of all this: but because, being himself a Frenchman, and having the greatest part of his patrimony in France, he would not suffer the Spaniard, whom the Pope then favoured against Louis, king of France, to lead his army through the middle of his country into Aquitane; and because he would not deliver up to the Spaniard three of his strongest forts to be garrisoned against the French king, &c., he was presently proclaimed a schismatic, a heretic, a traitor to the see apostolic, deprived of his kingdom, his posterity disinherited, and his enemy put into possession of all. {a}

{a} Guicciardin.

Ver. 20. {See Trapp on "Jud 11:19"}

Ver. 21. And the Lord God of Israel.] Not the Archiflamen of Rome, nor any earthly power whatsoever: but "the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords," the great proprietary of the world.

Ver. 22. {See Trapp on "Jud 11:21"}

Ver. 23. So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed.] He argueth that the land in question is Israel’s out of all question, by a threefold right: (1.) Of conquest; (2.) Of divine donation; (3.) Of prescription. {#Jud 11:25}

Ver. 24. That which Chemosh thy god giveth thee.] Namely, The land of the Zanzummims, {#De 2:19,20} which their god Chemosh had not in very deed given them, for "we know that an idol is nothing in the world," {#1Co 8:4} and nothing he can give, {#Jer 10:5} but only the king of Ammon thought so; like as in #2Ch 28:23, it is said that "the gods of Damascus smote" or plagued Ahaz, that is, in the opinion of Ahaz.

Ver. 25. And now art thou anything better than Balak?] Heb., An bonus es tu prae Balaco?…an contendendo contendit? an pugnando pugnavit? Here he pleadeth prescription: and he doth it with great intention of spirit, and contention of speech. As men must not be hot in a cold matter, so neither cold in a hot.

Ver. 26. Three hundred years.] So he calleth the time for a round number, making the most of it, now that he pleadeth prescription.

Ver. 27. Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, ] q.d., My cause is good, and so shall my courage be.

“ Transit et attollit vires in milite causa:

Quae nisi iusto subest, excutit arma pudor.”

The Lord the Judge be judge this day.] It appeareth by this whole discourse, that Jephtha was an orator as well as a soldier. Achilles had this charge from his father,

“Μυθων τε ρητηρ εμεναι, πρηκτηρα τε εργων.’’—Homer.

Ver. 28. Hearkened not to the words of Jephthah.] For his ears were stopped with pertinacity, pride, and covetousness. God also hath a controversy against him, and a purpose to destroy him.

Ver. 29. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.] See #Jud 3:10.

Ver. 30. And Jephthah vowed a vow.] Perplexed and confused, yea, rash and inconsiderate, to say no worse of it, out of a preposterous zeal. Jerome saith, In vovendo fuit stultus, in praestando impius, he was a fool for vowing, and yet a worse fool for so performing. That he did perform his vow, it is most certain. {#Jud 11:39} But how and in what manner, there are quot homines, tot sententiae; quot sententiae, tot sensus; quot sensus, tot dissensus; the doctors are divided, and it is very hard to determine. It may seem by the text that he sacrificed his daughter, and not separated her only as a recluse, and one devoted to God. Which fact of his, if he did it, hath no approbation from God; the Scripture leaveth it uncensured. Ferus saith that no man ever durst determine whether Jephthah did well or ill herein, because it is uncertain whether he did it by the motion of God’s Spirit, or of his own mind, seeing this is not revealed. But, beside other of the ancient fathers and rabbis who generally condemn Jephthah, Augustine, though in his questions upon the Judges he go about to excuse him what he may, yet in his questions upon the Old Testament, if at least they be his, he is bold to call Jephthah’s devotion foolish, and himself facinorosum et improbum, a lewd and rash man in that enterprise.

Ver. 31. Shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up.] Or, Or I will offer it up; for Fau is sometimes a conjunction disjunctive, as #Ge 26:11 Ex 21:10 21:15; as if he should say, I will sacrifice it, if lawfully I may; or consecrate it unto God howsoever, if it be not fit for sacrifice.

Ver. 32. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon.] He stayed not their coming, but went over to them to fight them, being caelo, Christo, Deo armatus, - not Styge armatus, as the poet saith of Achilles, -and that he was therefore insuperable.

Ver. 33. And he smote them from Aroer.] The Ammonites had better have kept home, content with their own country, a great part whereof they now lose by reaching after more, like the dog in the fable, and are so beaten that they cannot recruit.

Ver. 34. He had not of his own, son nor daughter.] Heb., Of himself. No more had God any son of himself, begotten of his own substance, but only Jesus Christ: whom yet he freely parted with, to be offered up as a slain sacrifice for our redemption. Ama amorem illius, saith Bernard.

Ver. 35. He rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter!]

“… Usque adeo nulla est sincera voluptas,

Sollicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit…’’—Ovid.

It is seldom seen that God alloweth unto any here a perfect contentment. Something men must have to complain of, that shall give an unsavoury verdure to their sweetest morsels, and make their very felicity miserable.

And I cannot go back.] But were there no priests to inquire of, what was the law in that case? Or were they also ignorant, or forgetful? Could nobody think of #Le 27:4, but Jepthah must follow his own counsel?

Ver. 36. Do to me according.] A generous virgin this was, and a most morigerous dutiful daughter: only she should have admonished her father to advise with the priests about such an unwonted sacrifice; for sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts.

Ver. 37. And bewail my virginity.] She saith, not the loss of my life, but the want of posterity; which in those days was counted a great curse.

Ver. 38. Upon the mountains.] Which were solitary places, where she might pour forth her complaints with more freedom.

Ver. 39. That she returned unto her father.] As Damon did to Dionysius; as Regulus the Roman did to the Carthaginians, though it were to receive punishment; they would not break their words, but die rather than lie.

Who did with her according to his vow.] {See Trapp on "Jud 11:30"}

And it was a custom in Israel.] Or, An ordinance; and that for two reasons, saith Augustine: first, That parents might be admonished not to vow so rashly; secondly, That this noble virgin’s obedience to her father might be eternised.

Ver. 40. To lament.] Or, To talk with her, as #Jud 5:11.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. Gathered themselves together.] Heb., Were called; sc., by Jephthah, as #Jud 12:2, but came too late. Post bellum auxilium, so some understand it. Others, that these Ephraimites desirous of vain glory, provoking their brethren and envying them, as #Ga 5:26, tumultuarily met to pick a quarrel and make war upon Jephthah and his Gileadites, whom they insolently revile and threaten. "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who can stand before envy?" {#Pr 27:4} The venom of all vices is found in that sharpfanged malignity.

And went northward.] Toward Mizpeh of Gilead; called the wood of Ephraim, {#2Sa 18:6} from the slaughter of these Ephraimites there, as it is likely, and afterwards Iturea, and Trachoniti, that is, Rough and Rocky.

Wherefore passedst thou over to fight?] See #Jud 8:1, where they quarrelled in like sort with Gideon, who pacified them with good words; but here they showed themselves implacable, as being ripe for ruin.

We will burn thy house upon thee with fire.] Here was to good Jephthah aliud ex alio malum, a succession of sorrows. He was newly returned from his expedition against the Ammonites, was brought very low, or greatly bowed downward by his only daughter’s unhappy coming forth to meet him. Qui liberis caret, pro mortuo habetur. And now he is necessitated to fight with them, who should with all thankfulness have congratulated his victory. Crosses seldom come single. Catenata piorum crux. Of Queen Elizabeth it is reported, that she provided for war when she was at most perfect peace with all men: so should we do.

Ver. 2. And Jephthah said unto them.] Apologies are lawful, and in stone cases needful: the primitive Christians, as Tertullian, Athenagoras, and others, offered their apologies to the Roman emperors to very good purpose.

And when I called you.] Which yet they denied. {#Jud 12:1} Proud and spiteful people make little of a lie. See #Jud 11:13.

Ver. 3. I put my life in my hands.] I hazarded it to loss, and set as light by it as a boy doth by a bird, which he holdeth loose in his open hand. See #Jud 9:17. The Hebrew here hath it, I put my life in my palm.

Wherefore then are ye come up against me this day?] Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man? as Themistocles asked his ungrateful countrymen. But this is the world’s wages; and those that have best deserved of the publics must look for no better, but only from God.

Ver. 4. Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead.] When he saw they were set upon it, and that they would needs quarrel with their friends, and not with their faults, he set light by their threats, Minorum strepitus armorum crepitus and resolved to chastise their insolency with the edge of the sword. When there is no hope of curing, men must fall to cutting. {a}

Ye Gileadites are fugitives.] {b} Or, Abjects, mongrels, the refuse of both tribes: a brand of dishonour, and therefore heinously taken, and heavily revenged. Such opprobrious and reviling speeches, Leviter volant, non, leviter violant. Jephthah and his soldiers might haply here be glanced at, because he was forced to flee from his father’s house.

Among the Ephraimites, ] q.d., The scum of those two noble tribes, fellows of no fashion. But the meanest are not to be slighted; since

“ A cane non magno saepe tenetar aper.”

{a} Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum.

{b} Or, the Gileadites being got between the Ephraimites and Manassites, the Ephraimites said, Ye are but the fugitives of Ephraim.

Ver. 5. Before the Ephraimites.] Who were now become a woeful example of that rule, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." {#Pr 16:18}

If he said, Nay.] As most men will do in such a case, rather lie than die; which yet they should not do, but resolve with that good woman in Jerome, when she was upon the rack, Non ideo negare volo, ne peream: sed ideo mentiri nolo, ne peccem. Lie I will not, but prefer affliction before sin.

Ver. 6. Say now Shibboleth, and he said Sibboleth.] Shibboleth est fluxus fluminis, ut #Ps 69:2,3, a stream, or ford. They were discerned by their lisping, their dialect betrayed them. {a} How many have we that can hardly lisp out a syllable of good language, and if they attempt it, falter fearfully!

{a} Sic et hodieque in Hispaniac voce "Cebolla," cepam significante, facile agnoscunt qui exteri sint, quique incolae.

Ver. 7. And was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.] Heb., In the cities; whereupon some have founded a conceit that Jephthah was so esteemed for his valour, that they cut his body in pieces when he was dead, and carried a part to each of their cities, and there buried it. Peter Martyr by "cities" understandeth some one city so called, as Accius called Athens Quatrurbem.

Ver. 8. Ibzan of Bethlehem.] Hic dicitur fuisse Boaz, saith Vatablus. This some will have to be Boaz, the husband of Ruth, the Moabitess, and great-grandfather of King David. But this is a conjecture only.

Ver. 9. Thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad.] Providing fit matches for them in due time; which is the father’s duty, since there is in most people a propensity to the nuptial conjunction. The man misseth his rib, and the woman would be in her old place again, under the man’s arm or wing. "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee"—that is, a husband—"that it may be well with thee?" {#Ru 3:1}

Ver. 10. And was buried at Bethlehem.] Where he had done worthily, and was therefore bewailed. Contrarily, of King Edwin it is said, that he lived wickedly, died wishedly.

Ver. 11. Judged Israel ten years.] Maintaining the purity of God’s true worship, and administering justice to the people. Not to "do good among a man’s people," is to "die in his iniquity." {#Eze 18:18}

Ver. 12. And was buried in Aijalon.] Where the moon stood still. {#Jos 10:12}

Ver. 13. Judged Israel.] See #Jud 12:11.

Ver. 14. And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode.] Equestris ordinis, potent and opulent. In Persia the peasant never rides; the gentleman never goes on foot, but fights, trades, confers, doth all on horseback. {a}

{a} The Preacher’s Travels, 63.

Ver. 15. And was buried in Pirathon.] Where Benaiah, David’s worthy, was born: and God loveth the places the better for that such and such of his servants were "born there." {#Ps 87:4-6}

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord.] To whom any sin is an eyesore, but especially apostasy and idolatry, the sins of those Israelites, who were therefore worse than others, because they ought to have been better.

Into the hand of the Philistines forty years.] During the days of Samson and Eli. Peace they had enjoyed likely, under the three forementioned Judges, {#Jud 12:7-9,13,14} and were the worse for it.

“ Luxuriant animi rebus plerunque secundis.”

Ver. 2. A certain man of Zorah.] Samson’s country, much ennobled by his name: as afterwards Co was by Hippocrates, Arpinum by Cicero, Hippo by Augustine, &c.

And his wife was barren.] What her name was is not recorded; written her name was in the Book of Life, and the Lord knoweth all his by name, and will give them a name in his house better than of sons and of daughters. {#Isa 56:5} A good woman she was, and the better, doubtless, for her barrenness: which was a great means to humble, and so to prepare her for such a mercy in her son Samson. It is observed that the barren women in both Testaments had the best children: as Sarah, Rachel, Elizabeth, &c. David also had his best sons by Bathsheba, after that they had been soundly humbled for their sin.

Ver. 3. And the angel of the Lord, ] i.e., Christ the Angel of the Covenant, called afterwards by Manoah Elohim, and by his wife Jehovah, {#Jud 13:23} and by himself Wonderful. {#Jud 13:18 Isa 9:6}

Behold now, thou art barren.] See #Jud 13:2.

And bear a son.] A singular son, a Nazarite; such as should be "purer than snow, whiter than milk," {#La 4:7} drained from the dregs, and sifted from the bran of the ordinary sort of people.

Ver. 4. Now therefore beware, I pray thee.] Since he must draw nourishment from thee, both in the womb and at the breasts; since the sanctifying of thy son must take beginning from thyself; beware therefore for his sake, and inure him to abstinence and sobriety of a little child. See also that he nourish his hair, which is the crown of his Nazariteship, {#Nu 6} and that he come not at funerals, &c. Quintilian requireth in him that shall be an orator, that by his parents, nurses, attendants, he be inured to the best words well pronounced, and that from his infancy; that so he may soon become Vir bonus dicendi peritus, a good man and well-spoken. How much more requisite is this to a magistrate or minister!

Ver. 5. For the child shall be a Nazarite unto God.] And so a type of Christ, the great votary.

And he shall begin to deliver Israel.] He shall be doing at it, but David shall perfect this deliverance. Christ is both author and finisher of his people’s salvation.

Ver. 6. Then the woman came and told her husband.] Which because the first woman did not, but held a parley with the serpent, great mischief ensued. Married couples must freely impart their minds one to another in things of common concernment. Coniugis illa sui Cor, Caput iste suae. Josephus tells us that Manoah was jealous of his wife: but who told him so?

A man of God.] A prophet: it was indeed the Arch-prophet.

Very terrible.] Majestic, glorious, and sparkling with divine light.

But I asked him not whence he was.] Modesty and taciturnity do well become women. Video, taceo, I see and say nothing, was Queen Elizabeth’s motto.

Ver. 7. Behold, thou shalt conceive.] Had her husband been jealous, as Josephus wrongfully reporteth him, she would hardly have told him this story. But had not she been barren, the angel had not now been sent to her. Afflictions to the saints are advantageous.

From the womb to the day of his death.] By God’s special designation and command. So was John Baptist. This was not ordinary.

Ver. 8. Then Manoah entreated the Lord.] So should we as oft as any difficulty ariseth in wedlock, or otherwise, especially about the breeding or disposing of our dear children. There is a woe to such as "take counsel, but not of God; and that cover with a covering, but not of his Spirit." {#Isa 30:1}

Ver. 9. And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah.] As he turneth not away any faithful prayer without a comfortable answer. {#Ps 66:20}

As she sat in the field, ] i.e., Rusticabatur, saith Vatablus, she was about her country business.

Ver. 10. Ran, and showed her husband.] {See Trapp on "Jud 13:6"}

Ver. 11. And Manoah arose, and went after his wife.] Whereby appeareth the unity wherein these two lived together, and that conjugal love which is the inward cement of married couples, and such an elixir, as by contaction, if there be any disposition of goodness in the same metal, it will render it of the property.

Ver. 12. How shall we order the child?] Or, What shall be his office and his work? This their solicitude about the child was very commendable. Let it be parents’ care, that

“ Ipsa Deo blandos fundant cunabula flores.’’—Virg.

Careless parents are a kind of parricides, peremptores potius quam parentes, saith Bernard.

Ver. 13. Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware, ] sc., For her child’s sake. And generally, that mother that would have a holy child, must herself be holy and temperate: for Partus sequitur ventrem, the birth usually followeth the belly, the child taketh after the mother.

Ver. 14. She may not eat, &c., ] viz., While she is with child, or a nurse: and let her see that the child do much more refrain the use of those things forbidden him by the law. {#Nu 6}

Ver. 15. Let us detain thee, until we shall, &c.] A prophet’s reward they held him worthy of, even "double honour," {#1Ti 5:17} that is, Reverentia et alimonia, saith Ambrose: Officium et subsidium, saith Beza.

Ver. 16. I will not eat of thy bread.] I need it not, as you mortal wights do, since Animantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, your life must be upheld by food, but not so mine: I am more than a creature. It is by degrees that Christ revealeth himself.

And if thou wilt offer a burnt offering.] Thou must be a willing offerer: God straineth upon no man. Virtus nolentium nulla est.

Thou must offer it unto the Lord.] And therefore to me, who am Αυτοθεος, very God.

Ver. 17. What is thy name?] This he asketh, not out of curiosity, but of an honest intent to do him honour, by some munus honorarium, honorary present, and all due respect besides; such as the Shunamite gave Elisha, and as that good woman in the Book of Martyrs gave Dr Sands, who departing the land for fear of Queen Mary, told her, who had been married eight years, and was childless, that ere one whole year was past, she should have a son: and it came to pass accordingly, that time twelveth month, lacking but one day. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1894.

Ver. 18. Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?] Or, Wonderful, that is, incomprehensible. I am called as I am called; but such is thy weakness, that it surpasseth thy conception. So Bede, Victorinus, and others expound it. God, as he surmounteth all creatures, so he surpasseth all notion, all name. Afri vocant Deum ignotum Amon, idest, Heus tu quis es! {a} Christ, not only as God, but as Mediator also, is called Wonderful. {#Isa 9:6}

{a} Plutarch, lib. De Iside et Osiride.

Ver. 19. So Manoah took a kid, &c.] Both the sacrifiser and the altar were extraordinary; but they had Christ’s warrant for it. {#Jud 19:16}

And the angel did wondrously.] Probably by bringing fire out of the rock, as before for Gideon, and consuming the sacrifice.

And Manoah and his wife looked on.] For the confirmation of their faith. This was a high favour. All Israel might see Moses go toward the rock of Rephidim. None but the elders might see him strike it: their unbelief made them unworthy of this privilege. It is no small favour of God to make us witnesses of his wondrous works.

Ver. 20. When the flame went up toward heaven.] As it doth naturally. God can draw up our spirits as a heave offering. {#Ex 29:27} As we see the flame ascend, we are to think of it as of a sheet let down by God from heaven, to take up our love and affections in, like the flame of this sacrifice wherein the angel ascended.

That the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar.] This did most sweetly represent and shadow forth, saith a grave interpreter, the office of Christ, whose work it is to present all our services before God, and to procure them to be graciously accepted of him.

And fell on their faces to the ground.] Partly through fear, and partly in way of thankfulness to God.

Ver. 21. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel.] Even that Angel of the covenant, the Angel of the great council, as the Septuagint styles him. {a} {#/LXXE Isa 9:6} prefixing that before other of Christ’s titles there, though that be not found in the Hebrew.

{a} και καλειται το ονομα αντου μεγαλης βουλης αγγελος.

Ver. 22. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die.] The most valiant Gideon said as much in effect. {#Jud 6:22} This opinion grew, as it is thought, from the misunderstanding of that text, "There shall no man see me, and live." {#Ex 33:20} But albeit we cannot see God in his majesty; yet Jacob, Moses, and others have seen some simulacra vel species, whereby he hath made himself visible to them; they have seen the chariot in which God rode, but not the rider, as the Rabbis express it. {a}

{a} Merchabah, velo Rochebh.

Ver. 23. But his wife said unto him.] She, it seemeth, had the stronger faith; and her arguments were in readiness to cheer up her fainting husband. The like, in likelihood, did Priscilla for her Aquila, when for St Paul’s life they laid down their own necks: wherefore also she hath the first salutation. {#Ro 16:3,4} Sure it is that Helen Stirk, a Scotch martyr, suffering together with her husband for the cause of Christ, thus bespake him at the place of execution: Husband, rejoice; for we have lived together many joyful days; but this day, wherein we must die together, ought to be most joyful to us both, because we must have joy for ever: therefore I will not bid you good night, for we shall suddenly meet within the kingdom of heaven. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1154.

Ver. 24. And called his name Samson.] That is, Solilus, a little sun, a type of Christ "the Sun of Righteousness." Josephus expoundeth it, Robustus, strong; because as the sun in his strength is irresistible, so was Samson.

And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.] With a heroic spirit, and extraordinary strength of body, far above that which the poets feign of their Hercules, with his twelve incredible labours.

Ver. 25. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times.] Or, Hither and thither, as the bells which hung in the skirts of Aaron’s garment. Those bells have their name (pagnamon) from pagham {a} here used; because they were shaken to and fro.

In the camp of Dan.] Whence some think he is called Bedan; {#1Sa 12:11} others quasi Ben Dan, the son of Dan.

{a} Agere sive impellere, verberare ut incus, quae nominatur "Pagnain" {#Isa 41:7}

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. And Samson went down to Timnath.] Whether to the market, or the sports, or some great feast, &c., it is not recorded; but God had an overruling hand in this journey for the punishment of the Philistines, though Samson cannot be altogether excused; for he went "after the sight of his eyes and lust of his heart." {#Ec 11:9} Ill guides.

And saw a woman in Timnath.] This licentious eye should have been plucked out. {#Mt 5:29} A little otherwise than Democritus the philosopher put out his eyes, because he could not look upon a woman but he must lust after her; wherein he did nothing else, saith Tertullian, {a} but lay open his own folly to the whole city where he dwelt. How much better David, who prayed, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity," {#Ps 119:37} and Job, who voweth and imprecateth {#Job 31:1,7} against these oculorum dolores, as great Alexander called the Persian maids.

{a} In Apolog.

Ver. 2. Now therefore get her for me to wife.] Though set upon it, and, as some gather from #Jud 14:4, warranted by God to do as he did, yet he would not take a wife without his parents’ consent. This is of the law of nature.

Ver. 3. Then his father and his mother said unto him.] I wish, saith a grave divine, Manoah and his wife could speak so loud that all our Israelites might hear him.

Is there never a woman? &c.] If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we not regard it in our most important choice? Marriage is like a stratagem of war, saith another, where one can err but once. Therefore the heathens were wont to set Mercury, their god of wisdom, by Venus, their goddess of marriage, to note that there was need of judgment there; and that it is not evil to marry, but good to be wary.

For she pleaseth me well.] The eye indeed is to be pleased in the choice of a wife; but that is not the chief thing to be minded; there is a better beauty; and many a man hath died of the wound in the eye.

Ver. 4. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.] Who had haply sworn fealty and subjection to the Philistines; and therefore Samson was to seek an occasion against them.

Ver. 5. Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother.] Who were overcome by his importunity; and being loath to cross his desires, yielded to him, though against their own judgments.

And, behold, a young lion.] Adultus leo, a lion in his full strength and utmost fierceness, met him with open mouth.

Ver. 6. And he rent him as he would have rent a kid.] So did the Lord Christ subdue the devil in the desert, {#Mt 4:4,7,10,11} whereof David also was a type, when he slew the lion and the bear. {#1Sa 17:36}

And he had nothing in his hand.] But so had Hercules, when he killed a lion and a bear, as the poets sing of him, and Lysimachus, one of Alexander’s worthies. Polydamus, Milo Crotonitates, and others are famous for their strength, but none comparable to Samson, the Church’s champion.

But he told not his father.] As some braggart would have done: this was his modesty. And it may be he feared to be chidden by his parents, for his rashness in this exploit.

Ver. 7. And he went down, and talked with the woman.] Treated with her about the marriage, and perhaps was contracted to her; for that also was in use amongst the heathens.

“ Placuit despondi, nuptiis hic dictus est dies.’’—Terent.

The Hebrews say that Samson converted her to the true religion by this conference; but that is uncertain.

Ver. 8. And after a time.] Some convenient time there must be betwixt the contract and the wedding, but let it not be over long, for many reasons; whereof elsewhere.

And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.] That he might recognise God’s goodness to him in so great a deliverance, and be accordingly thankful. Unto true thankfulness for mercies received, there must concur recognition, estimation, and retribution. He was also brought hither again by a secret instinct of the Spirit for a further purpose, as it followeth in the history; and that he might see another wonder, for his further confirmation.

And, behold, there was a swarm of bees.] Prodigiosum est quod mellifiearunt in cadavere, saith one. {a} It was wondrous strange that bees should breed and make honey so soon in such a place: since they are naturally driven away by an ill smell, as abhorring all stinking things. Some think that the carcass was consumed to the bare bones, and so stank not. {b}

{a} Lav.

{b} Pliny, Columella.

Ver. 9. And went on eating.] So must we pass on toward our heavenly Father’s house, feeding on the heavenly manna, sucking sweetness out of the precious promises, {#Isa 66:11} which are pabulum fidei, the food of faith.

But he told not them.] Taciturnity is sometimes a virtue; and Tacitus is Primus in Historia. If this had come abroad, where had been the matter of his riddle?

Ver. 10. So his father went down to the woman.] To warn her of the wedding, and that she might make ready.

For so used the young men to do, ] sc., When they were married. And surely a feast can never be more seasonable than at the recovery of the lost rib: only let it be kept without dancing, dalliance, and other such disorders.

Ver. 11. And it came to pass, when they saw him.] His stature, strength, countenance, carriage, &c.

That they brought thirty companions to be with him.] Honoris quidem specie, sed cautionis ergo: under a pretence of doing him honour, but indeed to secure themselves, they set a guard upon him. So the Turks at this day suffer no stranger to come into the presence of their Emperor, but they clasp him by the arms, under colour of doing him honour, but indeed lest he should offer the Emperor any violence, as Miles Cobelite, a poor wounded Christian soldier, did Amurah III, whom he slew under pretence of coming near to crave his life of him. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., p. 200, 715.

Ver. 12. I will now put forth a riddle unto you.] He prudently took no notice of the guard set upon him; but set them an exercise of wit, as at feasts was usual. Plato and Xenophon thought it fit and profitable that men’s speeches at meals should be written. But if Christians should do so, what manner of books would they be? Luther’s "Convivula" or table talk is printed to very good purpose: but there are not many Luthers.

Then I will give you thirty sheets.] Which they carried about them usually in those eastern parts, to rub and dry themselves, &c. The women of the Isle of Man here in England, whensoever they go out of their doors, are reported to gird themselves about with the winding sheet that they purpose to be buried in: to show themselves mindful of their mortality. {a} For "sheets" here some read "shirts"; and by "change of garments," they understand upper garments which they changed at pleasure, as gowns, cloaks.

{a} Speed’s description of that island abridged.

Ver. 13. Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.] Et intelligemus illud, that is, by expounding it we will manifest that we understand it: so Junius. Carnal men are too confident of their own abilities: but can no more understand gospel mysteries, than a swain can the profundities of the mathematics: they can judge no better of them than a blind man can do of colours, or a sick man of food. {#1Co 2:14,15}

Ver. 14. Out of the eater came forth meat.] Vorator cibat, et crudelis delectat. This was the problem or riddle, made up of contraries, as many of God’s ways are. An express figure, saith Diodate, of the mystery of the sweet and saving food of the soul, brought forth by Christ’s death, by which he destroyed death and the devil. See #Joh 6:5 Heb 2:14. Others apply it to affliction sanctified, where, as in honey, the sweetest lieth in the bottom, and all things co-operate for good. God loveth to store up comforts for his people, where they would least expect to find them.

And they could not in three days.] Though they had tried their utmost, and tired their wits, and well nigh cracked their heads together, {a} yet they could not unriddle it. And as little can carnal people comprehend the gospel, which therefore they reprehend, and persecute the professors thereof.

{a} Much study cere-diminuit-brum, saith Ennius.

Ver. 15. On the seventh day, that they said.] Being loath to lose the wager, they set the woman awork: so doth the devil oft. Many a man’s head he breaketh with his own rib: and this bait he hath found to take so well, that he never changed it since he crept into Paradise.

Lest we burn thee.] With such big words they scare the timorous woman, who feared to be burnt, and was afterwards burnt; that which she feared came upon her. So it did upon Denton the smith, burnt in his own house, after that he had refused to burn in the cause of Christ. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1557

Ver. 16. And Samson’s wife wept before him.] Tears are women’s weapons or engines, and many of them

“ Ut flerent oculos erudiere suos.’’—Ovid, Amor., lib. ii.

Apollodorus in Athenaeus telleth of the harlot Phryne, that from her feigned tears she was surnamed κλαυσιγελως, laugh-cry; because she could easily do either.

Ver. 17. And she wept before him the seven days.] Or, Unto the seventh day; this was no less unseasonable and absurd than music in mourning.

He told her, because she lay sore upon him.] Whom the lion could not conquer, the tears of a woman have conquered. Samson never bewrayed infirmity but in mulierosity {Excessive fondness for women} and uxoriousness. {doting or submissive fondness of one’s wife} Utinam tam prudens ad cavendam mulierem fuisset quam fortis ad strangulandum leonem, saith Paulinus. I would he had been as wise as valiant. But many military men are fleshly minded.

Ver. 18. If ye had not ploughed with my heifer.] His wife he calleth his heifer, propter mulierum insolentiam, saith Lyra. Some think that these words intimate some sign of suspicion of some secret and unchaste dealing with his wife, that iuvenca petalca, which kindled a "jealousy" in him, which is, saith Solomon, "the rage of a man."

Ver. 19. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.] These extraordinary impulses of the Spirit Samson had not always, but when and as long as the Lord pleased. The prophets also had not always the gift of prophecy: nor the apostles the power of working miracles.

And he went down to Ashkelon.] Which was one of the five chief cities of the Philistines, {#1Sa 6:17} where, by a bold attempt, he slew in that populous place thirty men of that tyrannical and accursed nation; the rest of the citizens running away, likely, and hiding themselves for fear of Samson. Did ever any Hercules do the like? The proverb is, Ne Hercules quidem contra duos.

And his anger was kindled, ] viz., Against his perfidious wife and his injurious companions: and now he meditateth revenge, which is the next effect of anger.

And he went up to his father’s house.] Whose counsel he now wisheth he had taken in the choice of his wife. Leo cassibus irretitur, &c. Si praescivissem.

Ver. 20. But Samson’s wife was given to his companion.] To his Paranymph {a} {#Joh 3:29} the first and chief brideman, his bosom friend, who haply had ploughed with this wanton heifer before. Wrongs done by a friend are more unsufferable. "It was thou, my friend," {#Ps 55:13} saith David.

{a} Pronubus, Νυμφαγωγος.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. But it came to pass within a while after.] When Samson had now digested the wrong his wife had done by disclosing his secrets, as Fulvia did Catiline’s. Married couples must either not fall out, or not go long unreconciled—

“ Qum modo pugnarant iungant sua rostra columbae.’’—Ovid.

Visited his wife with a kid.] As a token of his kindness. So Isaac feasted Abimelech and his company, {#Ge 26:30} to show that there was no rancour, or purpose of revenge. Feasting together hath, as Athenaeus saith of wine, ελκυστικον τι προς φιλιαν a force to make men friends.

Ver. 2. I verily thought.] But he should have made sure of that; which because he did not, it cost him and his daughter their lives.

“ Differ: habent parvae commoda magna morae.”

Is not her younger sister fairer?] Heb., Better: but never the better for her beauty, if, with Aurelia Orestilla, the Roman lady, she had nothing else to commend her. {a}

“ Forma bonum fragile est.’’—Ovid.

Take her, I pray thee, instead of her.] This man made nothing of incest: the Pope frequently dispenseth with it, Lege nimirum canina: but Samson abhorred the motion, according to #Le 18:18.

{a} Sallust.

Ver. 3. Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines.] Who all were in fault, because they either approved, or at least inhibited not this injury done to Samson; wherefore he proclaimeth open war against them all, vowing revenge.

Ver. 4. And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes.] Whereof that country was full, {#So 2:15 Ps 63:10} and he might herein use the help of his friends. The Philistines vulpinando had got away his wife from him, as Herod that fox had done his brother Philip’s: by foxes therefore they are fitly plagued.

And put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.] Putting something else also between them, saith Lyra, which might not burn asunder; and which might keep the fire from burning the foxes, through the space betwixt tail and tail; heretics and schismatics are like these foxes with fire at their tails: for striving to run farthest one from another, they set the Church in a combustion. Eutyches fell into the other extreme of Nestorius: so did Osiander of Stancarus, and Illyricus of Strigelius, to the great disturbance of the Church. {a}

{a} Evag., lib. i. cap. 9. Schluss., de Stanc., p. 87. Schluss., de Sect. Manich.

Ver. 5. With the vineyards and olives.] How this could be is hard to conceive: but in these things we must silence our reason, and exalt our faith. He that is scholar to carnal reason, hath a fool to his master.

Ver. 6. Burnt her and her father with fire.] Thus the fear of the wicked cometh upon them, {#Pr 10:24} and justly, when they prefer iniquity before affliction, as Samson’s wife had done. See #Jud 14:15. Josephus saith that together with her they burned all her kindred. She should have been of his mind who said, Potius in ardentem rogue insiluero quam ullum peccatum in Deum commisero. I will leap into a bonfire, rather than sin against God.

Ver. 7. Though ye have done this, yet, &c.] Here he protesteth that he was no way satisfied with, what they had done to his wife and her father; because not in a way of justice, but out of rage and fury for the loss of their grain. He would further have his pennyworths of them as a public person set up by God for the purpose to take vengeance upon an ungodly nation. "And after that," saith he, "I will cease," viz., till next time: and till I see good to begin again. Tremelius rendereth it, Siccine facturi estis? Is this your manner of dealing? q.d., You would surely serve me in like sort if I were in your hands: but I will be on the bones of you shortly. They are an angry man’s words, and therefore short and cutted.

Ver. 8. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, ] i.e., Wherever he hit them, he gave them their passport, as we say: he beat them back and belly, as the French proverb hath it; he peppered them, and paid them to some tune, as ours. He hurled them to the ground with spurns and thrusts with his knees saith Diodat. Wherever his blows fell, they mauled them, and made them sure for stirring any more, saith another interpreter. Here we see that veriverbium of Solomon exemplified, "One sinner destroyeth much good." {#Ec 9:18} As also, what a deal of mischief and bloodshed many times followeth upon adulteries, rapes, or other violations of wedlock: the Trojan war, for instance, waged much about this time: according to that prophecy of Cassandra to her brother Paris.

“ Grain iuvenca venit quae te, patriamque domumque

Perdet; io prohibe; Graia iuvenca venit.’’—Ovid’s Epist.

The Scots paid dear for the dishonour they did to our Edward VI, whom they denied his espoused wife, their then Queen, and married her to the Dauphin of France. This occasioned that great loss they sustained at Musselburgh field. {a}

{a} Life of Edward VI.

Ver. 9. Spread themselves in Lehi.] Which showeth that they were a great army that came to fetch their bane. "Associate yourselves, ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces." {#Isa 8:9}

Ver. 10. Why are ye come up against us?] They choose rather to treat than to fight, though they had such a champion as Samson. Hosti discedenti pons aureus extruendus est, et magno precio, precibus, patientia et prudentia, alma pax redimenda. War is woeful, peace a precious commodity: yet not to be sought with the loss of truth. {#Zec 8:19}

Ver. 11. As they did unto me.] He pleadeth ius talionis, for his own defence. This would not have held good if Samson had been a private person, and the wrong had been done to himself only, {#Pr 20:22,24:19,17:13 Ro 12:17,19} though tallying of injuries is by carnal people held but justice, and counted manhood; whereas indeed it is doghood rather. But public revenge is justly exercised by the magistrate; who yet must not rashly make war, but remember what was once gravely spoken by our Henry VII: If we princes should take every occasion that is offered, the world should never be quiet, but wearied with continual brawls.

Ver. 12. We are come down to bind thee.] In these Israelites we have an example of ingratitude: as in Samson, of meekness, and care of his unworthy countrymen. How fitly might he have said to them, as once Themistocles in like case did to his Athenians, "Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man?"

That we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines.] With shame enough they might speak it, like a company of cowards as they were. But he upbraideth them not with their pusillanimity {lack of courage or fortitude} or perfidy; but, as solicitous of their safety, yieldeth to be bound. So did our dear Saviour, &c. Facinus vincere civem Romanum, saith the orator. Let me imitate his gradation, It was much for the Son of God to he bound, more to be beaten, most of all to be slain. Quid dicam, in crucem tolli?

That ye will not fall upon me yourselves.] And so occasion me, in mine own defence, to fall foul again upon you. He made no question of making his party good with the Philistines, though they were an army of them: this showeth the strength of his faith.

Ver. 13. But surely we will not kill thee.] No, but you will do as bad: for qui non cum potest servat occidit. This is the world’s wages; expect hard usage, even from some professors, when it comes to a critical point once: they will dispraise what erst they praised and applauded, and turn cat in pan, as they say, to provide for their own ease and safety.

And they bound him with two new cords.] So that now he seemed to be in a forlorn and desperate condition. God reserveth his holy hand for a dead lift; and helpeth those that are forsaken of their hopes.

Ver. 14. The Philistines shouted against him.] But ere long Samson made them change their note, and turn their crowing into crying. Thus the hope of the wicked perisheth—their Hilary-term is very short. "In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare,"—or, a cord, to strangle his joy with, -"but the righteous sing and rejoice." {#Pr 29:6}

Became as flax.] Similia funibus ex lino ustulato.

And his bands loosed.] Heb., Melted; dissoluta dissilierunt.

Ver. 15. And he found a new jaw-bone of an ass.] This holy Hercules had no better a club to bestir him with; and it was sufficient. So was "the foolishness of preaching," to subdue the world under Christ, the true Samson, who, by his death, brake the bands of death, and destroyed his and our enemies.

And slew a thousand men therewith.] So did Shamgar six hundred with an ox-goad; David, Goliath, with a sling and stone. God can effect great matters by small means. How many thousands perish by a pestilential air, as #2Sa 1:25. The great cardinal of Lorraine was lighted to his lodging and to his long home at once by a poisoned torch. {a}

{a} Bucholc.

Ver. 16. With the jaw bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps.] Heb., A heap, two heaps. Here is an elegancy (antanaclasis) in the original; for the same word Chamor signifieth both an ass and a heap. And this was Samson’s epinicion, or song of thanksgiving to God; not a vain vaunt of his own strength and achievements, as Josephus and Ambrose will have it, for which cause also God punished him afterwards with so great thirst, say they.

Ver. 17. And called that place Ramathlehi.] We must likewise set up marks and monuments of God’s signal mercies, to preserve the memory of them, which else will soon be moth eaten. Abraham did so by his Jehovahjireh, Moses by his Jehovahnissi, Samuel by his Ebenezer, Jehoshaphat by his Berachah, the Jews in Esther by their Purim, &c.

Ver. 18. And he was sore athirst.] To keep him humble after so notable an exploit, and to make him pray, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to God alone.

And now shall I die for thirst?] Which is a most grievous kind of death, worse than that by hunger, which yet is worse than to die by the sword. {#La 4:9}

And fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?] This will much reflect upon thee, Lord, and redound to thy dishonour. Viderit Christus, said Luther, nam si ego causa excidero, ipse solus ignorainiam reportabit. Let Christ provide for his own great name.

Ver. 19. But God clave a hollow place.] In figure like a mortar, as #Pr 27:22.

That was in the jaw.] Or rather in Lehi, the place so called. See the like in #Ps 78:15,16; {a} #De 32:13, -"He made him to suck honey out of the rock," that is, water as good as honey, because in a pressing necessity.

Wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore.] That is, The well of him that called or cried. See #Jud 15:17. If we should not be in straits sometimes, God should have no tribute from us, as those malignants in Ezra suggested against the returned captives. {#Ezr 4:13}

Which is in Lehi unto this day.] Till Samuel’s time, who is thought to have written this book. Jerome saith it remained till his time. And Glycas saith, in the suburbs of Eleutheropolis is still seen a spring called The Jaw Bone.

{a} Locus ille referebat mortarium. -Vat.

Ver. 20. And he judged Israel.] Haply after this victory he was publicly accepted and acknowledged as judge of Israel by this people, who before had dealt so unworthily with him:

“ Sic cum fortuna statque caditque fides.”

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. Then went Samson to Gaza.] Not by a call from God, but of his own mind, as some think, presuming upon his strength, and therefore justly deserted and foiled. Or if by some weighty occasion, as others hold, yet not purposely to see and have this harlot; for that had been to "make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof," {#Ro 13:14} which scarce befalleth a godly man to do. But accidentally casting his eyes upon this Circe, he was enchanted by her, finding her fair face to be like a glass, wherein, while larks gaze, they are taken in a day-net.

“ Quid facies faciem Veneris cum veneris ante!

Non sedeas, sed eas: non pereas per eas.”

And went in unto her.] Carried away by human infirmity, forgetting God and his high calling, this Iudex et Senex falleth into the foul sin of fornication.

“ Laenam non potuit, potuit superare leaenam:

Quem fera non potuit vincere, vicit hera.”

Ver. 2. And they compassed him in.] See their sedulity and Samson’s security, but especially God’s superabundant mercy: {#1Ti 1:14} the riches of his grace cast in over and above desert or desire. {#Eph 2:7 Ro 5:20}

Ver. 3. And arose at midnight.] From the bed of fornication, where the Spirit had screeched out unto him, "Oh, do not this abominable thing!" {#Jer 44:4} Nevertheless he did it; and yet by the instinct of the same Spirit, who might justly have loathed his lodging, he arose and prepared to be gone. God dealeth not with his people according to their sins, but beareth long with their evil manners.

And took the doors of the gate of the city.] The watchmen sleeping the while, or not daring to stir. A figure of Christ’s glorious resurrection, maugre the malice of earth and of hell.

Bar and all.] By an act of stupendous strength—never the like heard of he carrieth away the gates wherein they thought to have encaged him. If a temptation has drawn any of us aside to lie down to sin, it is happy for us if we can arise ere we be surprised by judgment.

Up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.] Or, Over against Hebron, though some miles distant; for Hebron was fourteen miles from Gaza, saith Adricomius.

Ver. 4. And it came to pass afterward.] Not long afterwards, but before he had soundly repented of his former faultiness; the orifice of his lust being not yet stopped. So Lot committed incest two nights together. But of Judah it is expressly noted that, coming to a sight of his sin with Tamar, he "knew her again no more." {#Ge 38:26}

In the valley of Sorek.] A pleasant place, full of vines and myrtles. To Samson it proved a valley of vanity.

Whose name was Delilah.] A fit name for a harlot, for it comes from Dalal, which signifieth to exhaust, or to impoverish. It is the property of such female sinners to exhaust the purse, drain the strength, dry up the credit, waste the all of the mightiest Samsons. The Rabbis make Delilah to have been his wife, and further say, that he taught her the law of Moses before he took her; but none of this is likely to be true.

Ver. 5. Entice him, and see wherein, &c.] Two engines they use against Samson, Muliere et Munere: these were as bad as those two great pieces of ordnance cast by Alphonsus, duke of Ferrara, the one whereof he called the Earthquake, and the other Grandiabolo, or the great devil.

That we may bind him to afflict him.] Or, To humble him. They would not say to kill him, lest that should sound harsh in her ears who had entertained him for her paramour, and pretended love to him, but only to tame him, and take him a link lower, as they say.

Eleven hundred pieces of silver.] Which is held to be more than a thousand pounds. Wicked men care not what they part with, nor how they lavish out of the bag, for the satisfying of their lusts. Haman offered ten thousand talents to have the Jews rooted out. Decius Mundus, a nobleman of Rome, offered Paulina six thousand pounds for one night’s lodging with her, as Josephus reporteth. {a}

{a} Lib. xviii, cap. 4.

Ver. 6. Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength.] It is likely that Samson at some time or other had given out that his great strength lay in something whereof he might be deprived, though he never yet told wherein; and was now most hardly drawn to it.

Ver. 7. And Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs.] This he said for a put off, or as intending to make himself sport with her. But he should have remembered that God’s children will not lie. {#Isa 63:8}

Ver. 8. And she bound him with them.] So heathen histories tell us of Hercules, that he was miserably enslaved and abused by his mistress, Omphale Queen of Lydia. Amantes amentes. How was Antony befooled by Cleopatra, {a} and the Persian kings by their concubines, being captivarum suarum captivi! they commanded the whole world, but were commanded by those minions.

{a} Plutarch.

Ver. 9. Now there were men lying in wait.] But durst not for their ears show themselves, till the experiment should prove true, and they be sure to overcome him.

Ver. 10. And told me lies.] Delilah may give Samson the lie: she may say anything, do anything to him: as Omphale or Jole might clap Hercules on the cheeks, or beat him about the head with her slipper: whereas, if another had done half so much, it would not have been borne with more patience than Robert Earl of Essex took a cuff on the ear from Queen Elizabeth. He laid his hand upon his sword, saith Mr Camden, and swore a great oath that he neither could nor would swallow so great an indignity, nor would he have borne it at King Henry VIII’s hand.

Ver. 11. And he said unto her.] See #Jud 16:7.

Ver. 12. And there were liers in wait.] This he little thought of. No more do evil doers consider that the wrath of God and rage of all the creatures are ready prest to surprise them.

Ver. 13. And told me lies.] See #Jud 16:10.

The seven locks of my head.] Here he came nearer the business than before; till at length she had his whole heart out. Well might Terence call harlots Cruces.

Ver. 14:. And he awaked out of his sleep.] The Philistines durst not meddle with him though asleep: no more than men dare venture upon a sleeping lion.

Ver. 15. How canst thou say, I love thee?] This was, it seems, a great word in Samson’s mouth, "I love thee dearly, Delilah." This she twitteth him with, as if only from the teeth outward: and that he did not Medullitus et animitus eam amare. In amore sese comitantur ερως ετ ερις.

Ver. 16. When she pressed him daily with her words.] Coarctaret, pene cogeret. She gave him no rest or respite, Ut anima eius tantum non enecaretur, so that he was even weary of his life through her importunity, to the which at length he yielded: as afterwards Alexander the Great burned the fair city Persepolis, at the motion of a strumpet, upon whom he impotently doated.

Ver. 17. There hath not come a razor upon my head, &c.] Of Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, it is storied, that he nourished his hair, which his mother coming of the race of Samson, as he gave it out, willed him to do in token of his descent. This was the cause that made him to be more respected of his men of war, most part of them believing that in those hairs was some rare virtue, or rather some fatal destiny. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., 236.

Ver. 18. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart.] Whoredom indeed had "taken away his heart," {#Ho 4:11} had infatuated and besotted him, as it is the nature of these sensual sins to do; these "lusts of the flesh that war against the soul." {#1Pe 2:12}

And brought money in their hand.] Money they knew to be the monarch of this world, and to bear the mastery; but especially with such Poscinummiae, et Crumenimulgae as Delilah was.

Ver. 19. And she made him sleep upon her knees.] He sleepeth, but his enemies are waking and working against him: so are the antichristian rout against the Church of Christ. Oh pray, pray, said an eminent Dutch divine, Pontifex enim Rom. et Concilium Tridentinum mira molluntur.

To shave off the seven locks of his head.] And here Samson, simul comam atque coronam amisit, saith Jerome; he lost his hair and his crown, that is, his stupendous strength, together. And with this history of Samson agreeth that which Ovid {a} writeth of Nisus, king of the Megarensians, with his purple hair stolen from him by his own daughter, to his utter undoing. The devil loveth to be God’s ape. Quid enim Satanas impie non imitetur? saith Junius here.

And she began to afflict him.] Trudere et trudendo excitare, ut sibi caveret fuga; to bind him, and then to rouse him by jogging and thrusting him.

{a} Metam. 8.

Ver. 20. That the Lord was departed from him.] After which, all miseries came rushing in upon him, as by a sluice: according to that of the prophet, "Woe be unto you when I depart from you": του λογου ησυχαζοντος. When the Godhead withdrew but a while from our Saviour in the garden, and upon the cross, then began his sorrows and sufferings.

Ver. 21. Took him, and put out his eyes.] These eyes of his were the first offenders that betrayed him to lust; {#Jud 16:1} and now they are first pulled out, and he led a blind captive to Gaza, where he was first captivated to his lust. The loss of his eyes showeth him his sin, saith one. {a} Neither could he see how ill he had done, till he saw not. Muleasses king of Tunis, expelled his kingdom for whoredom, had his eyes put out with a burning hot iron, but was not brought thereby to a sight of his sin.

And bound him with fetters of brass.] Who had suffered himself to be bound with the green withs of sensual delights.

And he did grind in the prison house.] Like a slave, or rather like a horse: that he might earn his bread before he ate it. Yet by it, saith an interpreter, they chuckered themselves to think what use they should make herein of his great strength.

{a} Bp. Hall.

Ver. 22. Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again.] By this time Samson was thoroughly humbled, and "accepting the chastisement of his iniquity," found God favourable, whose property it is to comfort the abject, {#2Co 7:6} and to do his people good when they are called outcasts; when men say, "This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after." {#Jer 30:17} Samson repenting, reassumed his Nazariteship, and God was soon reconciled.

Ver. 23. For to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god.] That is, To Triton, the idol af those maritime nations, which was a fish downward, whence also he had his name Dagon. See #1Sa 5:4. Diodorus Siculus calleth this idol Derceta; others, Leucothea.

And to rejoice.] Ad celebranda hilaria. So the wild Irish when they go to rob, which they account no shame, pray to God that they may meet with a booty; and when they meet with it, they account it God’s gift, and rejoice exceedingly. {a}

{a} Camd., Britan. Irel., p. 144.

Ver. 24. And when the people saw him, they praised their god.] Magnates, magnetes; the multitude do as their rulers; and, as in beasts, the body followeth the head, so here.

Ver. 25. Call for Samson, that he may make us sport.] At feasts they had their γελωτοποιοι, such as made them merry. The Emperors of Rome presented the people with strange sights, as of lions, bears, panthers, tigers, &c., to exhilarate them: they also led their enemies before them in triumph: which Cleopatra not able to endure, killed herself: So did not Samson, but became the subject of his enemies’ scorn and malice, as did likewise Christ. {#Mt 27:29-31}

And they set him between the pillars.] Where he might best be seen: but God had a holy hand in it, for a further mischief unto them.

Ver. 26. That I may lean upon them.] And so rest me, who am wearied out, either with grinding in the prison, or now making sport.

Ver. 27. Now the house.] Dagon’s temple: that where they had sinned, there they might suffer. So Ahab’s blood was licked up by dogs in the place where he had slain Naboth. {#1Ki 21:19} So Henry III of France was stabbed to death in that very chamber where he had contrived the massacre of Paris.

Was full of men and women.] Assembled they were, by an overruling Providence, that they might be "broken in pieces." {#Isa 8:9} So were the Baalites in mount Carmel, {#1Ki 18:40} and afterwards in the house of their god, to be slain by Jehu. And so were the refractory Jews besieged and taken by the Romans at the feast of the Passover, when they were met together out of all parts of the land.

Ver. 28. And Samson called unto the Lord.] This was a prayer of faith, and a fruit of his repentance. Nunquam sero, si serio.

Ver. 29. And Samson took hold.] Orat et laborat: the heathens could say, Admota manu invocanda est Minerva. Men must pray, but with it do their endeavour; for God is not mocked. They that will be wise to salvation, must not only beg, but dig. {#Pr 2:3-5} Samson first prayed, and then bowed himself with all his might. {#Jud 16:30}

Ver. 30. Let me die with the Philistines.] Heb., Let my soul die {as #Nu 23:10} with the Philistines, -yet not as the Philistines, but the death of the righteous, who hath hope in his death, -to {#Pr 14:32} destroy these Philistines, God’s enemies, out of a zeal of God’s glory. He devoted himself to death, not out of despair, or for vainglory, as some heathens did—Codrus the king of Athens, Decius the Roman Consul, &c.—but by an extraordinary instinct of God’s Spirit, and for a public good: as that Christian soldier did, who at the siege of Buda, to prevent the taking of the town, threw himself down from the wall, together with the dog, as he called him, -the Turk who had first got to the top of it, and set up the Turkish colours there; whereby the town was saved. Samson knew that he should die with the Philistines, Simili quidem poena, sed dissimili culpa, et diverso fine ac fato. Multum interest et qualia quis, et quisque patiatur, saith Augustine. These all died alike, but not for a like cause, or with like comfort.

And the house fell upon the lords, &c.] Lords and the common people perished together. So they did at Fidenae in the days of Tiberius, where the amphitheatre fell at a sight of sword playing, and destroyed thirty thousand people, {a} So at the fall of Blackfriars, many Papists were slain at a Mass: Drury the priest had his sermon and his brains knocked out of his head together. Let those that sport themselves with oaths as the Philistines did with Samson, beware; it will pull the house about their ears. {#Zec 5:4}

So the dead.] A type of Christ herein. {#Heb 2:14} Death also is to a saint the accomplishment of mortification. {#Ro 6:7}

{a} Sueton.

Ver. 31. Then his brethren.] An example of brotherly kindness.

Chapter 17

Ver. 1. And there was a man.] The Vulgate hath it, And at that time there was a man, &c. And some Rabbins say that this fell out soon after Samson’s death. But they do better who place this story and the rest that follow, to the end of this book, in the interim between the elders that survived Joshua and the judges that next followed. See #Jud 2:11 5:14.

Ver. 2. And he said unto his mother.] His conscience troubled him when he heard his mother curse the thief, which he knew to be himself:

“ Conscia mens ut cuique sun est, &c.”

The eleven hundred shekels of silver.] Lyra telleth us of some that held Delilah to be Micah’s mother, because she received one thousand one hundred pieces of silver of each lord of the Philistines, to betray Samson into their hands. But this is but a blind guess, and no whit likely; let it therefore pass for a Jewish fable. I like his note better who saith, {a} Old wood is apt to take fire. After all the airing in the desert, Micah’s mother will smell of Egypt. And again, As civilly, so also morally, the birth followeth the belly, as Micah, his mother. Hence most of the kings’ mothers are named.

About which thou cursedst.] Whilst her wealth lasted, she could dedicate a good part of it. But now she hath lost it she falleth a-cursing; as a parrot when beaten falleth to her own hoarse and harsh voice. Wicked men’s mouths are "full of cursing and bitterness." But cursing men are cursed men.

And spakest of also in mine ears.] He started at and was terrified by a mother’s curse. And indeed if there be just cause, God sometimes says Amen to parents’ curses, as were easy to instance. See #Ge 9:25 {See Trapp on "Ge 9:25"}

I took it.] Of robbing parents, see #Pr 28:24, with the note.

Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son.] "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing." {#Jas 3:10} So doth it out of the Pope’s eftsoons, as in the case of Henry IV of France.

{a} Bp. Hall.

Ver. 3. And when he had restored.] Restore your ill-gotten goods, saith father Latimer, or else you will cough in hell, and the devil will laugh at you.

I had wholly dedicated the silver.] Many women are very superstitious. In the Papacy, sundry crosses graven in the pavements of their churches, have indulgences annexed for every time they are kissed: which is so often done, by the women especially, that hard marble is worn with it. {a}

To make a graven image.] To despite the Lord with seeming honours. A good intention here excused not. Men that would be approved in Christ, as Apelles was, {#Ro 16:10} must "come to the light" of God’s word, "that it may be made manifest that their deeds are wrought in God." {#Joh 3:21}

{a} Spec. Europ.

Ver. 4. Yet he restored the money unto his mother.] And so disburdened his conscience, which was grated upon by this guilt, worse than the kidneys are by gravel. I myself, saith a reverend divine, {a} knew one man that had wronged another but of five shillings, and fifty years after could not rest till he had restored it.

And gave them to the founder.] For his pains, haply, in making her gods of the other nine hundred: or, two hundred she laid out upon the images, and nine hundred upon the other trinkets. Idolaters "lavish money out of the bag." {#Isa 46:6} Canutus bestowed as much upon a crucifix as a year’s revenue of his kingdom came to. He gave a hundred talents of silver and one of gold for St Augustine’s arm, which he bestowed on Coventry. Our Edward I prepared thirty-two thousand pounds to have his heart carried to Jerusalem, which he charged his son upon his deathbed to see done.

{a} Mr Burroughs.

Ver. 5. And the man Micah had an house of gods.] Aediculam sacram. The devil is ειδωλοχαρης, saith Synesius, a great promoter of idolatry. His champion Julian was by the Christians merrily called Idolian.

And teraphim, ] i.e., Seraphims and cherubims, saith Hugo: but it seemeth rather to signifiy certain statues, whereby the devil gave answers or oracles. {#Eze 21:21 Zec 10:2}

Ver. 6. In those days there was no king in Israel, ] i.e., No ordinary supreme magistrate: hence this idolatry and the following outrages. Of the two, tyranny or ochlocraty, that rule of rascality, is better than anarchy. It is noted as a just wonder, that "the grasshoppers have no king, yet go they forth in bands": {#Pr 30:27} for the body of the commonwealth which lacked a chief ruler, is like the body of Polyphemus, without an eye. Ulysses, asking what kind of kingdom the Cyclopes had, was answered by Silenus, Νομαδες, ακουει ουδεις ουδενος, they wander at pleasure, and do what they want without control. The inhabitants of Brazil are said to be sine fide, sine rege, sine lege, without religion, law, or government, and must therefore needs be miserable. Look what a ship is without a steersman, a flock without a shepherd, a house without the father of the family, or a school without a schoolmaster; such is a state without a supreme government. This when none would take upon them, the prophet showeth that confusion followed, {#Isa 3:6} and men became as fishes, devouring one another.

But every man did that which was right in his own eyes.] So they did in the interregnums at Rome, and do still in Turkey, to the great disturbance of the public welfare. Stobaeus {a} telleth us, that by the Persian law, there was at the death of their king a five days’ lawless liberty proclaimed, to the end that, by the want of good government for such a time, people might be made to know the worth of it, and so might prize it the better ever after.

{a} Orat., xlii.

Ver. 7. And there was a young man.] Puer: so he is called ratione ministerii {#Ex 33:11} saith Junius. And why not for his folly? as #Ge 34:19. Neque distulit puer? A novice he was, Cereus in vitium flecti, one that would murder souls for a morsel of bread; {#Eze 13:19} which was the worse in him, because this was Jonathan, the nephew of Moses the man of God: for men are therefore worse than others, because they ought to be better. See #Jud 18:30.

Ver. 8. To sojourn where he could find a place.] By the iniquity of the times, he was put to his shifts, and forced to seek a subsistence where he could get it. See the like in #Ne 13:10,11. Ministers are not of the chameleon kind: they cannot live upon the air. It was a sad thing that Luther should be forced to complain, Spoliantur parochiae et scholae non aliter ac si fame necare nos velint: Parishes and schools are robbed, as if they meant to starve up the ministry. It was an ingenuous confession of that Popish priest, but a shame for those that put him to it, We preach the gospel, tantum ut nos pascat et vestiat, only for food and raiment. In many places they allow the ox nothing but the straw for treading out the grain: and so much straw as themselves please. O tempera!

Ver. 9. Whence comest thou?] He should have asked him more questions than this, ere he had agreed with him: as, Can you preach? can you produce a good testimonial? how happens it that you are thus necessitated? &c.

Ver. 10. Be unto me a father and a priest, ] As a father he would respect him, though but a young man, because a priest. The Papists’ respect to their hedge priests, under the name of padres, fathers, will rise up in judgment against us.

And I will give thee ten shekels of silver, &c] A poor slender salary. This man had eleven hundred pieces of silver to bestow upon his idols, but ten shekels is held wages enough for his priest. So Louis XI of France allowed his chaplains twenty shillings a month: but for his physician, {a} one John Cotiers, he allowed him ten thousand crowns a month. In Ireland formerly ministers had no more maintenance than the pasture of two milk cowes, &c. In the whole province of Connaught, the stipend of the incumbent was not above forty shillings, in some places but sixteen shillings. {b} Now, blessed be God, the matter is well amended there, and very good encouragement promised to preachers that shall go over, Stipendia honoraria, with an honourable respect.

So the Levite went in.] Graeculus esuriens. Hunger will snap at anything, where there is not grace to restrain men.

{a} Barber; Cottier, p. 348.

{b} Heyl., Geog.

Ver. 11. Was unto him as one of his sons.] For good usage, good will, and good cheap titles, it was better with this Levite than with him in Plautus, who said, -and so may many ministers now-a-days, — Ego non servio libenter, herus meus me non habet libenter: tamen utitur me, ut lippus oculis.

Ver. 12. And Micah consecrated the Levite.] Which none might lawfully do but the high priest. See how one sin draweth on another.

Ver. 13. Now know I that the Lord.] In his blind devotion he promiseth himself prosperity: so do Papists in their priests’ absolution, Pope’s pardon. But it happened otherwise with Micah; {#Jud 18:18-20} like as it did with the riflers of Semiramis’ tomb, who expected rich treasure, but met with a deadly poison.

“ Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo.”

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. There was no king.] See #Jud 17:6.

All their inheritance had not fallen unto them.] Because the Amorites were too hard for them, and detained it. See #Jud 1:34, with #Jos 19:47, where this expedition is briefly set down, by anticipation.

Ver. 2. To the house of Micah, they lodged there.] He was a wealthy man, it seems, and gave them entertainment. But what a rich man was Pythias, who could entertain a million of men, even Xerxes’s whole army, for three days together! And yet this great rich man died a beggar, whatever Micah did.

Ver. 3. When they were by the house of Micah, ] sc., In or near unto the Levite’s lodging, which was adjoining to the chapel of those idols made by Micah. {#Jud 18:14}

They knew the voice of the young man.] Either out of some former acquaintance with this roving leap-land Levite, or by his tone, as #Jud 12:6 Mr 14:70.

Ver. 4. And hath hired me, aud I am his priest.] He should have been ashamed to tell them thus, since it was directly against God’s word that he had done. But sin had added an impudency in his face, &c.

Ver. 5. Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God.] Videntur non minus leves fuisse quam Levita ille, saith Lavater. These Danites were as wise as this wandering Levite; and hearing of a teraphim, would needs have an oracle.

Ver. 6. Go in peace: before the Lord is your way.] A doubtful answer; as the wary devil useth to be λοξις, equivocal, in his oracles: {a} that, which way soever things go, he may save his credit; as #1Ki 22:12, "For the Lord shall deliver it into the hands of the king." Yea, but of which king, thou lying spirit?—the king of Israel, or the king of Syria? So, Croesus Halyn penetrans magnam disperdet opum vim. And, Aio te Aeacida Romanos vicere posse, &c. So here, "Before the Lord is your way," may be interpreted, either, God seeth what you are going about: or, God will see to your safety, and give you good success. Satan vero et si semel videatur verax, millies est mendax, et semper fallax.

{a} Ite bonis avibus.

Ver. 7. Careless, … quiet and secure.] And so, ripe for ruin. See #Jer 49:31. They lived in all pleasure, plenty, and prosperity, like so many Sodomites or Sybarites; or as those Roman nobles at Caprea, which Augustus was wont to call Απραγοπολις, the city of Do-noughts; or lastly, as the nobles of Naples at this day, who are said of all men to live the most idle and careless lives; having, like the tyrant Polycrates, nothing to trouble them, but that they are troubled with nothing. {a}

And there was no magistrate in the land.] Heb., No heir of restraint to repress wickedness, to turn the wheel over the enormous: no officer, but such as they could make and unmake at pleasure.

That might put them to shame in anything.] Shame is instanced, because many stand more upon shame, than upon either sin or smart.

And they were far from the Zidonians.] Who should have been their protectors, but could not save them from a sudden surprise, because far remote.

{a} Erasm., Apophtheg. Mr Clark’s Mirr., 549.

Ver. 8. What say ye?] Quid vos? So hasty they were to hear the news, that they utter imperfect speeches.

Ver. 9. Be not slothful to go, &c.] Thus do these spies notably and manfully encourage their contribules to set upon Laish, to secure a city. Captain Gam in like sort bespake our Henry V before the battle at Agincourt, If the French be so numerous, there will be enough to be killed, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away. It proved accordingly, though the French were so confident of a victory, that they sent to King Henry, to know what ransom he would give. {a}

{a} Speed, 795.

Ver. 10. A place where there is no want of anything.] And might therefore have been called Macaria, or Blessed; as the island Cyprus was of old, because of the abundance of commodities which it sendeth to other countries, of whom it craveth no help again. {a} The people therein generally lived so at ease and pleasure, that therefore the island was dedicated to Venus, who was therehence called Cypria. Sextus Rufus, writing thereof, saith, Cyprus, famous for its wealth, solicited the poverty of the people of Rome to seize upon it. Ita ut ius eius insulae avarius magis quam iustius simus assecuti: so that we got that island more covetously than justly. So did the Danites this city of Laish, if at least, as some will have it, it belonged to the tribe of Asher, and not to them.

{a} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 11. Six hundred men.] Picked out for the purpose, and very well appointed: they and their families, a whole colony of them, set forward for Laish, by the persuasion of the spies. Oh that we could as easily prevail with people to take God’s kingdom by force, to storm heaven, and to lay hold upon eternal life! Plutarch {a} telleth of the Gauls, that after they had once tasted of the grapes that grew in Italy, they never rested till they had possessed themselves of that country. Oh that we would do so for heaven!

{a} In Camillo.

Ver. 12. Called that place Mahanehdan.] That is, The camp of Dan. See #Jud 13:25. Here dwelt Samson’s parents, and here were his Specimina et tyrocinia edita.

Ver. 13. And came unto the house of Micah.] Whom the five spies ill requited for his former hospitality and courtesy: Perraro grati reperiuntur, saith Cicero. A thankful man is a rare bird. Ungrateful persons are but like a mouse in a satchel or a snake in one’s bosom, who do ill repay their hosts for their lodging. Xerxes dealt barbarously with the sons of Pythias, who gave free quarter to that whole huge army of his. See #Jud 18:2.

Ver. 14. Consider what ye have to do.] Here they stir up their fellows to theft. There is little difference faveasne sceleri, an illud facias, whether ye hold the bag, or fill it.

Ver. 15. The house of the young man the Levite.] {See Trapp on "Jud 18:3"}

And saluted him.] And so did soon insinuate into him who— levitate plus quam desultoria -might be won with an apple, and lost with a nut. These Danites, with their salutations and fair promises, win this hireling Levite insalutato hero suo dacedere, to leave Micah his master without leave taken of him; who yet had used him as one of his sons.

Ver. 16. Stood by the entering of the gate.] To aid the thieves, if there should be any opposition made against them. So that here met those two ways of theft mentioned by Nazianzen, επιβουλη, or crafty contrivance, and επιβολη, rapine and violence.

Ver. 17. And took the graven image, &c.] Not out of any hatred of idolatry—as neither did Cambyses when he destroyed the Egyptian idols, nor Dionysius when he spoiled the temple of Jupiter—but to set up those monuments elsewhere, in case they should prosper in their expedition.

Ver. 18. What do ye?] And with it, perhaps, he was about to call to the neighbourhood, and to raise as great an uproar as Demetrius afterwards did for like cause at Ephesus. {#Ac 19:23-29}

Ver. 19. Lay thine hand upon thy mouth.] Digito compesce labellum. See #Job 21:5 29:9.

Or that thou be a priest unto a tribe.] Thus the Papists offered Luther a cardinalship to be quiet: they sent unto him Vergerius, to put him in mind of the example of Aeneas Sylvius, who following his own opinions, with much slavery and labour, could get no further preferment than to be canon of Trent, but being changed to the better, became bishop, cardinal, and finally Pope Pius II. He called to his memory also Bessarion of Nice, who by complying with the Church of Rome, wanted not much of being Pope. But he answered, I care neither for Rome’s favour nor fury. {a}

{a} Hist. of Counc. of Trent, 73.

Ver. 20. And the priest’s heart was glad.] Every wind can raise a bubble: profit and preferment carry those any way that are worldly minded in the ministry. It was therefore excellent counsel Luther gave preachers, to see to it, that these three dogs did not follow them into the pulpit, -ambition, covetousness, and envy or contentiousness.

And went in the midst of the people.] With all his trash and trinkets; either for his own greater security, or else in an apish imitation of the ark’s marching in the midst of the tribes.

Ver. 21. And the cattle and the carriage before them.] For they feared Micah’s pursuit more than any other enemy that was before them. For "carriage" some render preciosa, the precious things, and interpret it of household stuff, according to that of Solomon, "Thy house shall be full of all precious and pleasant riches."

Ver. 22. The men that were in the houses near to Micah’s.] The whole neighbourhood; and those were not a few, by reason of the idol temple there causing great resort, as now at Loretto and Sichem.

And overtook the children of Dan.] Heb., Clave unto them, Conglutinati sunt cum filiis Dan, were even at the heels of them; Amor addidit alas.

Ver. 23. What aileth thee, that thou comest?] They knew well enough what ailed him, and yet they expostulate an injury. This is one of the miseries of war, that might overcometh right. Sic cedit viribus aequum, poor men must suffer wrongs and be thankful.

Ver. 24. My gods which I made.] Goodly gods that were made by man, and could not save themselves from being stolen! See #Isa 44:9. So the breaden god among the Papists: together with their images, those carpenters’ chips, as Mrs. Cotismore called them. {a}

And what have I more?] The Vulgate hath it, All that I have: that is, all that I make any account of. He reckoned all the rest of his goods as nothing, having lost his gods; and came forth to fight for them, velut pro aris et focis. This superstitious zealot shall rise up in judgment against our lukewarm Laodiceans, our neuter passive professors, that care not what becomes of true religion, — modo ferveat olla, so the pot boil. God hath many such cold friends now-a-days. {#1Ki 18:21}

{a} Act. and Mon., 763.

Ver. 25. Let not thy voice be heard.] Tace, si sapis. The noise of weapons drowns the voice of right. {#La 2:9} The law is no more.

Lest angry fellows run upon thee.] Irati et irritati, biliosi et bellicosi. Heb., Men bitter of soul. Gallice, Gens de cholere.

And thou lose thy life, &c.] Heb., Ne recolligas animam tuam: that is, lest God take thy soul to himself, as Vatablus rendereth it: lest thou be sent to heaven the sooner for thy devotion.

Ver. 26. He turned and went back unto his house.] But took no notice that God punished him for his idolatry by those injurious Danites. "Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed." {#Isa 26:11}

Ver. 27. And they took the things.] Chuckering themselves, to think what happiness they should have in them, and little considering that there would be "bitterness in the end." {#Jer 2:19}

Unto a people that were at quiet and secure.] See #Jud 18:10. This is often repeated, as the root of their wretchedness. Security ushereth in destruction. {#1Th 5:3}

And they smote them.] God oft punisheth the wicked by the wicked: and when he hath worn his rod to the stumps, as that martyr said, he casteth it into the fire. Vice may correct sin.

And burnt the city with fire.] Here we have much in few: as in that of Virgil, so much admired by Macrobius for fulness of matter in fewness of words, Iam seges est ubi Troia fuit.

Ver. 28. Because it was far from Zidon.] See on #Jud 18:7.

Ver. 29. The name of the city was Laish at the first.] Laish, or Leshem. {#Jos 19:47} Afterwards it was called Cesarea Paneadis, and Cesarea Philippi, because rebuilt and beautified by Philip, brother to Herod the Tetrarch, in honour of Augustus Caesar.

Ver. 30. And the children of Dan set up the graven image.] Animated, doubtless, by their good success against Laish, foretold them by that oracle. See #2Th 2:10. {See Trapp on "2Th 2:10"}

And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh.] Of Moses by nature, but of Manasseh that notorious idolater, by imitation: In accuratissimis libris Nun in "Manasseh" suspensum est supra alias literas, saith learned Buxtorf. {a} To save the honour of Moses; lest it should reflect upon so good a man to have so bad a grandson, as would rather have beseemed Manasseh than Moses. Manasseh is written in the Hebrew here with Nun elevated above the other letters, and this mark, o, upon the top, and a note in the margin. {Hebrew Text Note}

Until the day of the captivity of the land, ] viz., By the Philistines, when the ark was taken. {#1Sa 4:10,11} Compare #Ps 78:60-62,66.

{a} In signum eam adesse vel abesse posse ut sit et filius השׁמ et השׁנמ, istius prosapia, huius imitatione. -Buxtorf.

Ver. 31. All the time, &c, ] Till Samuel threw down this and other idols. {#1Sa 7:3}

Chapter 19

Ver. 1. And it came to pass in those days.] Not long after Joshua’s death, and before Othniel was judge. See #Jud 17:6.

Who took to him a concubine.] Heb., A wife, a concubine; {a} not a harlot concubine, such as are the priests’ lemans {One who is loved unlawfully; an unlawful lover or mistress} among the Papists. The Helvetians had an old use and custom in their towns and villages, that when they received any new priest into their churches, they used to prewarn him to take his harlot concubine, lest he should attempt any misuse of their wives and daughters. If comparison should be made, said Cardinal Campeius, much greater offence it is for a priest to have a wife, than to have and keep at home many harlots; for they that keep harlots, said he, as it is naught that they do, so do they acknowledge their sin; the other persuade themselves to do well, and so continue without repentance or conscience of their fact. {b} A fit reason for a carnal cardinal.

{a} ημιγαμος: Vero-coniux.

{b} Act. and Mon., 790, 791.

Ver. 2. And his concubine played the whore against.] Which she could not have done had she not been a kind of secondary wife, according to the corrupt custom of those times. Josephus saith {a} that she was a fair woman, and not affecting her husband as she ought, but lingering after other lovers, great strife grew between them, whereupon she went away to her parents within four months after marriage. Varium et mutable semper femina.

And went away from him.] An odious woman she was, which is one of those four things that disquiet the earth. {#Pr 30:20}

Unto her father’s house.] Who, as a fond father, received her, whenas he should rather have rated or punished her, and sent her home again.

{a} Antiq, lib. iii. cap. 2.

Ver. 3. And her husband arose, and went after her.] Either out of pity to her, or want of her company. She should have sought to him first, as being the peccant party; but she could not bring her heart to it.

“ Fastus inest pulchris, &c.”

Having his servant with him.] This Levite had one servant. Balaam the false prophet rode with two. {#Nu 22:22} Oh, let not Christ’s true ministers be slaves to others, servants to themselves.

He rejoiced to meet him.] The father and daughter made no means for reconciliation; but when remission came home to them, none could entertain it more thankfully. The nature of many men is forward to accept, and negligent to sue for; they can spend secret wishes upon that which shall cost them no endeavour.

Ver. 4. Retained him.] Or, as others render it, Embraced him.

So they did eat and drink.] In token of hearty reconciliation. {#Ge 26:30 Ex 32:6}

Ver. 5. That he rose up to depart.] It is good hearing, saith a reverend man, {a} when the Levite maketh haste home. An honest man’s heart is the place of his calling. Such a one, when he is abroad, is like a fish in the air; whereinto if it leap for recreation or necessity, yet it soon returneth to to its own element. This charge by how much more sacred it is, so much the more attendance it expecteth. Even a day breaketh square with the conscionable.

{a} Bp. Hall.

Ver. 6. And did eat and drink both of them together.] The Levite and his concubine, that their hearts might the better reunite, and their loves be renewed: as a bone once broken is stronger after setting; and as boards well glued will not easily be dissevered.

Ver. 7. His father-in-law urged him.] Compelled him—as Lot did the angels, to lodge in his house; {#Ge 19:1-3} as the two disciples did our Saviour, to stay longer with them—not by force, but by friendly entreaties.

Ver. 8. And he arose early in the morning.] See #Jud 18:5.

And they tarried until afternoon.] Heb., Till the day declined; whereas else, haply, they might have got home that night, and the following mischiefs have been prevented. Delays are many times very dangerous.

“ Semper nocuit differre paratis.”

The devil usually courteth and cozeneth {defrauds} those that have a mind to look toward heaven, as this old man did the Levite, with, Be content, I pray thee, &c. What haste? In space cometh grace; and, Hereafter may be time enough. But we must be resolute and peremptory, or worse will come of it, sure enough.

Ver. 9. And when the man rose up to depart.] As home is homely; neither is there any perfume so sweet to a traveller as his own smoke.

The day draweth toward evening.] Heb., Is weak and remiss.

The day groweth to an end.] Mansio diei, the sun is hastening to his lodging; for so it seemeth to do when it setteth.

Lodge here, that thine heart may be merry.] This importunity was an incivility. Homer’s rule in this case is very good:

“Χρη ξεινον παρεοντα φιλειν, εθελοντα δε πεμπειν.”

Show your stranger all courtesy while he is willing to stay, but send him away timeously, when desirous to be gone.

Ver. 10. But he rose up and departed.] Such contentment doth sincere affection find in the presence of those we love, that death itself hath no other name than Departing.

Ver. 11. Come, I pray thee, and let us turn, &c.] This was not the worst counsel that ever the Levite had given him.

“ Saepe etiam est holitor valde opportuna locutus.”

But he thought to have done otherwise for the better, though it fell out for the worse. Counsels are not to be valued by events, but by the reasons whereupon they are grounded; and God’s direction, above all, is to be implored.

Ver. 12. We will pass over to Gibeah.] But where can a man be safe from the devil and his imps? And what place but hell itself can yield a worse creature than a depraved Israelite, than a profligate professor? We used to say that an Englishman Italianate is a devil incarnate. In Mexico and other parts of America, whoredom and sodomy—those Spanish virtues—are common without reproof among the pseudo-Catholics; whereas the Indians abhor this most loathsome living; showing themselves in respect of the Spaniards, as the Scythians did in respect of the Grecians, whom they so far excelled in life and behaviour, as they were short of them in learning and knowledge.

Ver. 13. In Gibeah, or in Ramah.] They took up at Gibeah, which is held to be the same with either Gibeon, or Geba, cities given to the Levites out of Benjamin’s lot, {#Jos 21:17} but detained from them, belike, by the Benjamites; or if enjoyed by the Levites, the following wickedness there committed was so much the worse. {#Isa 26:10}

Ver. 14. Gibeah, which belongeth to Benjamin.] Called elsewhere Gibeah of Saul, {#1Sa 11:4} at this time a very Poneropolis, a place where Satan’s throne was.

Ver. 15. He sat him down in a street of the city.] There were not inns and houses of receipt for strangers in those days, as are now: but if no man took them in, they lay in the streets. {#Ge 19:2}

For there was no man that took them into his house.] This their inhospitality and inhumanity was a forerunner of their destruction. The Jews at this day are very hospitable to their own. So were the ancient Protestants the Waldenses. And surely if God had been in any of these Benjamites’ houses, his servant had not been excluded.

Ver. 16. There came an old man from his work out of the field.] Though an "old man," yet a "workman," and at "field work," and "till the evening." It was wonder that this honest man had not been banished out of Gibeah, as once Hermodorus was out of Ephesus, merely for his honesty and frugality. {a} At which time also this law was made there, ουδεις ημων ονηιστος εστω. Let there be none honest amongst us: let no man excel others in any point of good husbandry; or if he do, let him be packing. Which law of theirs, when Heraclitus heard of, he said, it was pity they were not all hanged for public pests and botches of mankind.

{a} Strabo., l. 14. c. 1. s. 25. 6:231

Ver. 17. Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou?] Necessary questions to be asked of such as shall be entertained by us, lest we take a snake into our bosoms. Abundans cautela non nocet. It is good to be hospitable, but with it to be cautious.

Ver. 18. , But I am now going to the house of the Lord, ] viz., at Shiloh, there to wait upon mine office as a Levite, which is my chief care. Verbi Minister es, hoc age, was Mr Perkins’s motto. Thou art a minister, mind thy work.

And there is no man that receiveth me to house.] Heb., That gathereth me. A sure sign of gasping devotion, of a settled godlessness, when a Levite is suffered to lie without doors. Hesiod reckoneth it one of the greatest wickednesses that can be, not to show kindness to a stranger.

Ver. 19. Yet there is both straw and provender, &c.] So that we shall be no way chargeable or troublesome, but only for houseroom. Job had this to say for himself, "The stranger did not lodge in the street, but I opened my doors to the traveller." {#Job 31:32} But now, alas (as one not without cause complaineth), Eliajah lacketh his hostess of Sarepta; Elisha, the Shunamite; Paul cannot find the Purpuriss, nor Peter, the tanner. Job we have not, nor Lot we find not. Captain Cornelius is a black swan in this generation, &c.

Ver. 20. Only lodge not in the street.] He maketh it his suit to the Levite that he may lodge him, &c. This is to pursue hospitality. This good old man was a sojourner there himself; and, as she said, Non iguara mali, &c., he could the more pity and provide for strangers. Queen Elizabeth’s speech to the children of Christ’s Hospital as she rode through Fleet Street, was, "We are orphans all: let me enjoy your prayers, and ye shall be sure of mine assistance." {a}

{a} England’s Elizeb.

Ver. 21. And they washed their feet.] So they usually did in those hot countries before they sat down to eat; {#Ge 18:4 19:2 Lu 7:44 2Sa 11:8 1Ti 5:10} for men used, because of the great heat there, to go barefooted.

Ver. 22. Certain sons of Belial.] Yokeless, lawless, masterless monsters; breathing devils, {#2Co 6:15} and such as differed from beasts, non ratione sed oratione tantum, by speech only, not by reason; men compact of mere incongruities and absurdities {a} {#2Th 3:2} unreasonable wicked men; flagitious fellows.

Beset the house round about.] Sodomite like. {#Ge 19:4} Domus tutissimum cuique refugium atque receptaculum, saith the civil law. A man’s house is his castle, say we. But this old man could not be quiet in his own house for these beastly ruffians, qui gyraverunt circa domum, who beset the house and beat at the door, as though they would have broken it down.

That we may know him.] O faces hatched with impudence! "They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not," {#Isa 3:9} they set it on the "cliff of a rock" to the view of all. {#Eze 24:7,8} But it may be that then at Gibeah, as now in the Levant, {b} sodomy was not held a vice.

{a} Αποποι.

{b} Sir H. Blunt’s Voyage, 79.

Ver. 23. Nay, my brethren.] Brethren they were by race and place: but these were unworthy of this compellation, as having put off the man, and become dogs, and worse, {#De 23:18 2Ti 3:8} scalded {a} in their own grease. {#Ro 1:27}

{a} εξεκαυθησαν.

Ver. 24. Behold, here is my daughter.] This was a rash and sinful offer, to prostitute his daughter and the concubine to their brutish and boundless lusts. God preserved the maiden from these impure petulant dogs. As for the concubine, one saith that she offered herself for the deciding of the controversy, and of her own accord, Messalina like, went forth to them. But that is not likely. See #Jud 19:25.

Ver. 25. But the men would not hearken] Unruly lust hath no ears. Fertur equis aurigo, nec audit currus habenis: like heavy bodies down steep hills, which once in motion, move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom.

And abused her all the night.] Factitarunt in ea; vel occuparunt sese in ea: opus abominabile fecerunt in ea in coitu. {a} This was a just hand of God upon her for her former filthiness and unfaithfulness. Lais, that notorious harlot, died in the act of uncleanness: so did Pope Paul IV, of whom the proverb went, Eum per eandum partem vitam profudisse per quam acceperat. {b}

{a} Piscat. Vatab.

{b} Jac. Revius, De Vit. Pontiff

Ver. 26. Fell down.] Dead. These villains had taken their lustful turns upon her, until they had turned her out of the world. And the like was done at Winchelsea in Sussex, by the French soldiers, upon a holiday, at the time of divine service, where a woman being of singular beauty, was, by their insatiable violations, murdered, and they got back to their ships before the country could rise upon them to take due vengeance. Hereupon King Edward III advanced toward Paris, and took it. {a}

{a} Speed, 714. Walsingham, 166.

Ver. 27. The woman his concubine was fallen down.] As #Jud 19:26. Like as she sinned, so she suffered: Per quod quis peccat, &c. See #Heb 13:4. And let the guilty that go yet unpunished make an end of all in God’s privy chamber of mercy by repentance, that so his open judicial proceeding in court may be stopped.

Ver. 28. And he said unto her, Up.] Little thinking she had been dead, but either asleep, or sick from ill-humour.

Ver. 29. Laid hold on his concubine, and divided her.] Hoc Levitae factum singulare est, et illegitimum, saith Junius; this deed of the Levite was singular and unlawful, as being against the public and common rights of humanity and honesty, in a husband especially. Others think the Levite did well herein, being moved with a zeal for God’s glory, and for the promoting of justice, that such a horrible villany might be punished, and God’s heavy judgments prevented.

And sent her into all the coasts of Israel.] Into Benjamin also. See a like practice of Saul in #1Sa 11:7

Ver. 30. There was no such deed done.] So that it grew to a proverb, "They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah." {#Ho 9:9} And that this should be done so soon after Joshua’s death, is a just wonder.

Chapter 20

Ver. 1. Unto the Lord in Mizpeh.] Where was, they say, an oratory or synagogue; {#/RAPC 1Ma 3:46} and that here was the first beginning of synagogues, which were as chapels of ease to the tabernacle or temple. That meet at Mizpeh, {#1Sa 7:5} is very famous. Hither they resorted, as being in the heart of the country, when any great business concerning the public was to be transacted. See #1Sa 10:17 Jer 40:7,8.

Ver. 2. And the chief of all the people.] Heb., The corners of all the people: for the chieftains and rulers bear up the people, and hold them together, as the corner stones do the whole building, which else would soon shatter and fall to ruin. {a} See the like in #Zep 3:6. Diodat rendereth it, the cantons.

{a} Ut anguli in domo, sunt primates in populo. -Vat.

Ver. 3. Then said the children of Israel, Tell us.] This they said to the Levite, to his servant, and to the old man his host. Janius will have it spoken to the Benjamites, who should have answered by their agents at this meeting: who because they appeared not, the Levite remonstrateth the whole business briefly and plainly, without preface or passions. {a}

{a} ανευ προοιμιων και παθων.

Ver. 4. The husband of the woman.] She was not then his harlot, but a secondary wife, as is before noted.

Ver. 5. And the men of Gibeah.] Some certain varlets there; not all the city, as once at Sodom. {#Ge 19:4,5} But because these were not punished, but countenanced, all became guilty.

And thought to have slain me.] As they have done my concubine: {a} and perhaps they threatened to kill him, if he would not come forth, and be abused by them.

And my concubine have they forced.] The monks in Bohemia ravished a sister of that noble warrior, Zisca; in revenge whereof he took arms, overthrew three hundred monasteries, and did many more great exploits against the Papists there, and in other parts of Germany.

{a} i.e., Abuti me praepostera libidine usque ad mortem. -Val.

Ver. 6. For they have committed lewdness.] Wickedness with a witness: such as may not go unpunished.

Ver. 7. Behold, ye are all children of Israel.] This injury reacheth not to me alone, but to the whole community.

Ver. 8. And all the people arose as one man, saying.] For the punishment of foul offences serio et sedulo ineumbendnm est, men must do their utmost; and not as Popish councils, which make a show only of reformation. Luther truly and trimly compared them to a company of foxes, which sweeping a foul room with their tails, raise a great dust, but remove none.

Ver. 9. We will go up by lot against it.] They do not shake off the plaintiff, or send him to Gibeah for satisfaction, or defer the further hearing and determining of the cause, as the Areopagites dealt by the dame of Smyrna, whom they appointed to appear some hundred years after; but, We will presently go up, say they, and that by lot, that none may think himself wronged.

Ver. 10. To fetch victual for the people.] For, Animantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, saith the philosopher: Were it not for the repair of nutrition, the natural life would soon be extinguished.

Ver. 11. Knit together as one man.] Heb., Fellows: resolved to live and die together. The strength of an army is in unity: as the strength of a whale consisteth much in the close knitting of his joints together; one member is tied to another; {#Job 41:7,8,14} whence also he is called Leviathan, of Lavah, which signifieth to join, to couple, and to stick together.

Ver. 12. And the tribes of Israel sent men.] They would treat before they would fight, and hear both parties ere they would determine for either, though it were a clear case, according to the old rule—

“Μητε δικην δικασης πριν αμφοιν μυθον ακουσης.”

Ver. 13. And put away evil from Irsael.] Both the evil of sin and the evil of punishment: for these two are inseparable companions Flagitium et flagellum sunt sicut acus et filum.

Would not hearken to the voice of their brethren.] God had a holy hand in it for the just punishment of both parties.

Ver. 14. But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves, &c.] In the defence of those sons of Belial, and out of self-confidence, they venture their lives and fortunes upon a very great disadvantage. What should not we then do for the dear servants of God, and in assurance of his assistance? Queen Elizabeth was famous for this; when she undertook the protection of the Netherlanders against the Spaniard, all princes admired her fortitude: and the king of Sweden said that she had now taken the crown from her head and set it upon the doubtful chance of war, A.D. 1585. {a}

{a} Camden’s Elisab.

Ver. 15. Twenty and six thousand men that drew sword.] But were all shortly after devoured by the sword, the whole land becoming like a general slaughter house, or a place of infernal torture. Had they not been so numerous, they had not, likely, been so venturous. "The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee." {#Ob 1:3}

Ver. 16. Lefthanded; every one could sling stones, &c.] See #Jud 3:15. David had an excellency in slinging: so had Domitian and Commodus the Emperors. The Indians are much commended for their faculty herein by Philostratus and Plutarch. The Boeotians and the Baleares in Spain were bred up to it of children, their mothers allowing them no more meat than they could hit with a sling stone. We have musketeers amongst us that are notable marksmen, as they call them.

Ver. 17. Four hundred thousand men.] Besides those that supplied the camp when they came out of Egypt, they were six hundred thousand: but then Benjamin also was reckoned with them: and there were not a few cut off in the late conquest of Canaan, &c.

Ver. 18. Which of us shall go up?] They asked not, Shall we go up? and shall we prosper? for of that they were over confident, because of the equity of their cause and their great strength. They slighted the Benjamites also for their paucity {few in numbers} and folly, as the Spaniards were wont to do the Portuguese for pocos y locos, that is, few and foolish. Hence they miscarried.

Ver. 19. And the men of Israel went out to battle.] They went forth as men do to a lottery, with their heads full of hopes, but they came back with their hearts full of blanks. The Lord had rejected their confidences; therefore they could not prosper in them. {#Jer 2:37}

Ver. 20. {See Trapp on "Jud 20:19"}

Ver. 21. And destroyed down to the ground…twenty and two thousand men.] They slew so many upon the turf, as we phrase it, and that with a great deal of eagerness and earnestness; such as Scanderbeg expressed when, in fighting against the Turks, the blood did oftentimes burst out of his lips. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., p. 287.

Ver. 22. Encouraged themselves.] Not in the Lord their God, as David in a distress did, {#1Sa 30:6} but in the goodness of their cause, and in the multitude of their men. Thus also did the Tigurines in their fight against the Popish cantons, and were defeated and discomfited by them. In that fight fell that famous man of God, Huldericus Zuinglius. And Oecolampadius in an epistle to the divines of Ulm writeth thus thereupon, Non inter minima bona recenseri merentur humiliatio mentium nostrarum, et fiducia non in brachium carnis sed in Deum ipsum: quae duo electi inde discunt. Two good things we have learned by this late defeat: first to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God; and secondly, not to put confidence any more in the arm of flesh, but in God alone.

Ver. 23. Wept before the Lord until even.] Yet more for their losses than for their offences: at least, they were not yet so thoroughly humbled, their repentance was not so deep and downright, so soaking and souring with the greatness of godly sorrow, as was fitting. David’s heart was leavened. {#Ps 73:21} "Peter wept bitterly," {#Mt 26:75} and that for sin as it is sin, offensivum Dei, et aversivum a Deo, an offence against God, and an aversion from God.

Go up against him.] Thy brother though he be. They neither prayed for success, nor doth God promise them any; but answereth them according to the idols of their hearts, of which they had not yet repented. They had forgotten, belike, what Joshua had foretold them; {#Jos 24:19,20} -"Ye cannot serve the Lord," i.e., unless ye will be thorough in his service, "for he is a holy God, he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye fosake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good."

Ver. 24. And the children of Israel came near.] But because vice came to correct sin, and there were yet many gross offenders in their army, therefore they could not proceed with any good success; as Joshua could not against Ai till Achan was cut off. Besides, God would have the Israelites to be yet by a second loss the more enraged against the Benjamites, for their greater punishment.

Ver. 25. Destroyed down to the ground…eighteen thousand men.] Here a Pompey would have denied a providence; Brutus would have cried out against virtue as a mere name; others against hard fortune, Ecquid hoc infortunii est? &c. "But God giveth his more grace; wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God Be afflicted," or afflict yourselves with voluntary sorrows for your sins, "and mourn, and weep," &c. {#Jas 4:6,7,9,10} These did so the next time, and had the day. Wit is best when dear bought.

Ver. 26. And wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted, … and offered, &c.] This was a sorrow according to God—these were tears of a right nature. Lachrymas angustiae exprimit crux; lachrymas paenitentiae peccatum. This was the "fast that God had chosen"; for "he saw their works," as once at Nineveh, "that they turned from their evil way." {#Jon 3:10} Here was that best of sacririces, "a broken spirit," {#Ps 51:17} and peace offerings, to testify their faith and assurance of victory.

Ver. 27. And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord.] Now they could find the way to do everything well, as having paid for their learning. Affliction exciteth devotion; but

“ Rarae fumant felicibus arae.”

Ver. 28. Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them.] Now they have a promise, which before they had none. Josephus saith {a} that when they inquired of God by Urim and Thummim, as here they did, the splendour and brightness of the high priest’s breastplate foreshowed victory. Certain it is that this promise did so.

{a} Antiq., lib. iii. cap. 3.

Ver. 29. And Israel set liers in wait.] See the like strategem used at Ai. {#Jos 8:4,5}

Ver. 30. And the children of Israel went up.] Though they had a promise, yet they neglected not to use the best means. God, they knew, was to be trusted, but not tempted; and this is the very difference between true faith and vain presumption.

Ver. 31. And they began to smite of the people.] This flushed the Benjamites, and made them cry Victoria; but the scene was soon altered. It is not good to triumph before the victory.

Ver. 32. They are smitten down before us.] This was their επινικιον, which they sang too soon; for their destruction was at next door by. But sorry man knoweth not his time. "As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." {#Ec 9:12}

Ver. 33. Out of the meadows.] Or, Dens, as Pagnine and others render it.

Ver. 34. They knew not that evil, &c.] See #Jud 20:31. As they say of the metal they make glass of, it is nearest melting when it shineth brightest, so are the wicked nearest destruction when at their greatest lustre.

Ver. 35. And the Lord smote Benjamin.] Not the Israelites by their stratagem, but the Lord smote them. Victory is his gift.

“ Vincere quisquis aves hostilem exereitum, age, ante,

Invictum vincas per tua vota Deum.”

Ver. 36. Because they trusted unto the liers in wait.] As the instruments; but they trusted in God as the chief agent.

Ver. 37. And the liers in wait hasted.] Here the business is more particularly related by the parts and circumstances, that God may be the more acknowledged, and people instructed that forbearance is no quittance. There will be a later reckoning with sinners, &c.

Ver. 38. Between the men of Israel.] That they should turn head, and renew the battle.

“ Obruet hostiles ista ruina domos.’’—Ovid. Fast.

Ver. 39. Benjamin began to smite.] See #Jud 20:31.

Ver. 40. The flame of the city.] To be an example of that rule, that great sins bring great punishments from God, as Herodotus wisely observeth of the destruction of Troy by fire.

Ver. 41. Evll was come upon them.] Heb., Touched them; that they were lost.

Ver. 42. In flying from death, they fled to it. Una salus victis, &c.

Ver. 43. And chased them, and trode them.] These things are recorded, that people may see the woe of war, and take heed of sin, the cause of it.

Ver. 44. And there fell of Benjamin.] To wit, In the battle.

Ver. 45. Unto Gidom.] Or, Unto their occasion, destruction.

Ver. 46. Twenty and five thousand.] Besides a thousand slain in the two former battles; for war is utrinque triste, sad on both sides.

Ver. 47. Unto the rock Rimmon.] Wherein there was a sweet providence, that these might be as a seminary, for recruit of that tribe.

Ver. 48. And smote them with the edge.] If this were done out of the heat and fury of war only, and not by the command of God, they were to blame. That once flourishing commonwealth of the Lacedemonians was likewise utterly overturned at the battle of Leuctra, by reason of a rape there committed by two noble Spartans upon the two daughters of Scedasus, who complained thereof to the Ephori, but could get no remedy.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. Now the men of Israel had sworn.] Rashly and uncharitably, out of rage rather than right zeal The fiery spirited man hath mettle in him, but base and reprobate, that never received the image and impress of God’s Spirit. Men must swear in judgment; {#Jer 4:2} and as Minerva is said to put a golden bridle upon Pegasus, that he should not fly too fast, in like sort our Minerva, that is, our Christian discretion, must put a golden bridle on our earnest zeal, lest it make us follow too fast.

Ver. 2. And the people came to the house of God.] That is, To Shiloh, for that was now their Bethel, there to praise God for their recent ctory; and to seek direction what to do, and how to wind out of that labyrinth whereinto they had inconsiderately cast themselves.

“… qui non moderabitur irae,

Infectum velit esse dolor quod suaserit et mens.’’—Horat.

And abode there till even before God.] To the shame of such as, held but a while longer than ordinary at holy meetings, cry out, as #Mal 1:13, "Behold, what a weariness it is! and snuff." They sit in the stocks when they are at prayers, and come out of the church, when the tedious sermon runs somewhat beyond the hour, like prisoners out of a jail.

And lifted up their voices, and wept sore.] Notwithstanding their recent victory, which now they met to praise God for, Adeo nihil est ex omni parte beatum. It is seldom seen that God alloweth men here a perfect contentment. Something they must have to complain of, that they may not set up their rest on this side heaven.

Ver. 3. Why is this come to pass in Israel?] q.d., Alas, Lord, that it should be so! Oh, show us some expedient for prevention of such a mischief. Oh, the sad effects of our rage and rashness, which now in cold blood we repent us off, but know not which way to remedy!

Ver. 4. And built there an altar.] Either for a monument and memorial of the victory, {a} as #Jos 8:30 Jud 6:24, or else by reason of the multitude of their sacrifices, {b} as #1Ki 8:64.

{a} Diodat.

{b} Junius

Ver. 5. Who is there among all the tribes of Israel?] i.e., What city or country is there that did not send in their help? This inquisition was made, likely, by God’s appointment, in answer to that compassionate expostulation and request of theirs, {#Jud 21:3} for the just punishment of those neutrals of Jabeshgilead. Neutrality was banishment by Solon’s laws, death by God’s. {a}

For they had made a great oath.] An oath seconded with a curse, as #Jud 21:18.

{a} Agell., lib. ii., cap. 12.

Ver. 6. And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin.] But why did they not repent of their unlawful oath, which now they might as lawfully have broken? Howsoever, it was well done of them to put off their arms and their anger against Benjamin together. Claudian saith in commendation of Theodosius,

“ Post acies odiis idem qui terminus armis.”

Ver. 7. How shall we do for wives? &c.] All this difficulty, say our interpreters, did arise from their gross ignorance in those dark times: for they had no other cause to perplex themselves about their oath, but to stop the outcry of a superstitious conscience: since their oath being wicked, they were not bound at all to keep it, &c.

Ver. 8. There came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead.] They came not up to help the Lord, as #Jud 5:23; they contributed nothing toward the just punishment of those sons of Belial, and therefore seemed to like well of their wickedness. These inhabitants of Jabeshgilead lay far out beyond Jordan, toward the Lake of Gennesaret, and therefore, haply, held themselves less concerned. There is none so wise as the sluggard, {#Pr 26:16} for self-love teacheth him a great many excuses, which he thinks will go for wisdom, because by them he thinks to sleep in a whole skin. But in fine his cunning deceiveth him, and he smoketh for it.

Ver. 9. For the people were numbered, and, behold, &c.] God will one day send out summonses for sleepers; he will make strict inquisition for such as affect an indifferency and neutrality in religion, as halt between two, as are neither hot nor cold, as redeem their peace with the loss of truth. The Lord that could not endure miscellane-seed nor linsey-woolsey in Israel, can less endure that his people should be as a "speckled bird," {#Jer 12:9} here of one colour, and there of another; or as a doughy baked cake. {#Ho 7:4-8} None so loathsome to him, as those that are of a Laodicean temper.

Ver. 10. Of the valiantest.] Heb., Of the sons of valour; such as were those duo fulmina belli, the two Scipios.

With the women and the children.] Why, what had those poor sheep done, that they must be slaughtered? {a} This is surely Exemplum nimiae severitatis saevientis in innocentes, as Piscator noteth: an excess of severity, raging against innocents that could not resist. Egregiam vero laudem! Surely, if these men had rightly repented of their cruelty toward the Benjamites, as they even now pretended, those of Jabeshgilead had found more mercy. David had not yet recovered his foul fall, when he dealt so cruelly with the Ammonites. {#2Sa 12:31}

{a} Here again rash zeal outruns right reason.

Ver. 11. Ye shall utterly destroy every male.] This also was a barbarous and bloody decree, {#Eze 18:20} not unlike Draco’s laws, whereof Aristotle giveth this commendation, that they are not worth remembrance, but only for their severity.

Ver. 12. That had known no man by lying with any male.] At least that any one else knew of: for many pass for virgins that are not so. See #Pr 30:18-20. But what a base slander is that of Sylvester Petrasancta the Jesuit, who saith that among the Protestants few maids are married that have not been first lain with by other men! {a} Jesuits of all others may hold their tongues with shame enough, as being noted for Connubi, sanctifugae, commeretricitegae.

Unto the camp to Shiloh, which is.] Which lieth within the land of Canaan, and not beyond Jordan, as Jabeshgilead did. Or thus it may be rendered, Unto Shiloh to the camp, which abode in the land of Canaan, and went not over Jordan to fight against Jabeshgilead.

{a} Rivetti Jesuita Vapulans, p. 146.

Ver. 13. And to call peaceably unto them.] God retaineth not his anger forever; -he here graciously provideth for these sinners against their own souls, the remaining Benjamites; -no more must men. The Athenians are justly blamed for this, that their anger was αειμνηστος, long-lasting; memor ira, as Virgil hath it. They hated all barbarians for the Persians’ sake, and forbade them their sacrifices, as they used to do murderers. It is a grievous sin to be implacable, irreconcilable. {#Ro 1:31 2Ti 3:3} Men should piece again, and not be as broken glass, that cannot be made whole any more.

Ver. 14. And Benjamin came again at that time.] They believed their brethren, and obeyed their voice. Had they done so at first, and not tried it out with them, they had redeemed their own sorrows, and been much happier. But bought wit, they say, is best.

Ver. 15. And the people repented them for Benjamin.] Being very sorry that they were constrained to execute justice so sharply. Non nisi coactus, said that Emperor, when he passed sentence of death upon one who had well deserved; that is, I do it not but unwillingly. Utinam nescirem literas, said another: I would I could not write, when he was to sign a writ of execution.

“ Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox.’’—Ovid.

Justice should be done, but not without much compassion. The sword of justice must be bathed in the oil of mercy.

Ver. 16. How shall we do for wives? &c.] Now all their care was for a recruit for Benjamin. A public person should be public spirited; and as Cato did, Toti genitum se credere genti. Selfish people are like those envious Athenians, who sacrificed for none but themselves and their neighbours of Chios.

Ver. 17. There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped.] Else our state will be dismembered. But why was not this thought of before now? Anger is an evil counsellor; and cannot do, but it must over do. Wherefore,

“ Vince animos, iramque tuam.”

That a tribe be not destroyed.] St Paul and many other good men were afterwards of this tribe. The whole "twelve tribes served God instantly day and night." {#Ac 26:7}

Ver. 18. Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters.] And unless those daughters were given them by their parents, they would not marry with the Benjamites, though it were to be made mistresses of such large inheritances. It is of the law of nature, that parents have the dispose of their children in marriage. But the Pope taketh upon him to dispense in that case. Potest de iniustitia facere iustitiam, saith Bellarmine {a} out of the Canonists. Ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium. Papae!

Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.] They had backed their oath with an imprecation. This was to be too hot in a cold matter. They will not break their unlawful oath; but they devise how to elude it, which was worse. Dum vitant stulti vitium, &c.

{a} De Pontif. Rom., lib. iv.

Ver. 19. Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh.] What feast this was is much controverted; some say, the feast of tabernacles; others, the feast of blowing trumpets, the seventh of the first month. {#Nu 10:10 29:1} Others again, that it was some singular feast kept in Shiloh only to the honour of God in way of thankfulness for choosing it to set his tabernacle there; and that, haply, upon the day that it was first set up there, from year to year. Such a feast as is yet kept in Switzerland for joy of the Reformation: or as Bugenhagius kept yearly on the day that Luther and other divines finished the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the Dutch, calling it, The feast of the translation of the Bible.

Ver. 20. Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin.] Who should first have examined the commands of their superiors, before they had obeyed them. Obediemus Artridis honesta mandantibus, saith the tragedian {a}

{a} Eurip., in Iphig.

Ver. 21. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances.] This was not a mixed dancing of men and women together, which is a slippery slope to much sin, but of virgins only among themselves, and that in honour of God, according to the manner of those times at their solemnities, in due time and place, as our best interpreters are of opinion. This, then, no whit maketh for the mixed dancing of our days; much less for the mad practice of those in the isle of Sardinia, where after service done, they fall to dancing in the midst of the church, singing in the meantime songs too immodest for an ale house, and turning diem Dominicum in daemoniacum, the Lord’s day into the devil’s day, as Alstedius {a} complaineth of his Germans.

{a} Encyclopaed.

Ver. 22. Come unto us to complain.] As they had just cause to do for such a plagium. Children are a chief part of their parents’ goods; and Jacob took it very heavily to be robbed of his Dinah. The civil law punisheth it with death.

Be favourable unto them for our sakes.] Or, Gratify us in them: Non illis sed nobis datae reputantur.

For ye did not give unto them at this time.] And so, sacramento soluti estis, ye are free from the breach of your oath. True: but neither were they free from the sin of man stealing, {#De 24:7} nor their counsellors from crimen stellionatus.

Ver. 23. And took them wives.] Without consent of parents or parties, to the great grief of both no doubt. Much mischief hath followed upon such rapes, and many bloody wars: as between the Grecians and Trojans, the Romans and Sabines, the Emperor Maximilian and Charles VIII king of France, about Anne the only daughter of the Duke of Britanny, espoused to Maximilian, but violently taken away by Charles. The Britons, or Welsh, that, being driven out by the Saxons, first came into that dukedom, and gave the name to it, taking wives of that country, and finding them troublesome, are said to have cut out their tongues. It is likely there was somewhat to do, ere these couples could agree that came together so ungainly: but necessity, which is a hard weapon, and a later consent might heal all, and the women keep their tongues in their heads.

Ver. 24. And the children of Israel departed.] To their tribes by troops, to their families and several possessions man by man; but not without the loss of many a man lost in the war, and much lamented by their relations, who cried out

“ Omega nostrorum Mors est, Mars Alpha malorum.”

Ver. 25. In those days, &c.] See #Jud 17:6.

Every man did that which was right.] Quod sibi placebat, id solebat facere. {a} Had the Israelites been, as some say the Thracians were, αυτονομοι, every man a law to himself, it might have been better with them. But although they lived in God’s good land, yet because not by God’s good laws, nor had at this time any supreme magistrate, therefore all was out of order, and their anarchy begat a general ataxy.

{a} Vatab.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21