057. XXXVII. Reigns Of Gideon And His Son Abimelech
§ XXXVII. REIGNS OF GIDEON AND HIS SON ABIMELECH
1. The Midianite oppression. In time it came to pass that, when Israel had sown, the Midianites would come up, and leave no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor ass. For they would come up with their cattle and their tents. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian.
2. Gideon’s call to repel the Midianites. Then the Messenger of Jehovah came and sat down under the oak which was in Ophrah, that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine-press, to hide it from the Midianites. And the Messenger of Jehovah appeared to him, and said to him, Jehovah is with you, valiant warrior! And Gideon said to him, O, my Lord, if Jehovah is with us, why then has all this befallen us? But now Jehovah hath cast us off and delivered us into the hand of Midian. Then Jehovah turned to him and said, Go in this might of thine and save Israel from the power of Midian; have I not sent thee? But he said to him, O, Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house. And Jehovah said to him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
3. The divine sign. Then he said to him, If now I have found favor in thy sight, then show me a sign that it is thou who art talking with me. Do not go from here, I pray, until I come to thee, and bring forth my present and lay it before thee. And he said, I will wait until thou comest back. So Gideon went in and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes of about a bushel of flour; he put the flesh in a basket, and the broth in a pot, and brought out to him under the oak, and presented it. And the Messenger of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the Messenger of Jehovah reached out the end of the staff which was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and fire went up out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the Messenger of Jehovah vanished from his sight. So Gideon saw that it had been the Messenger of Jehovah; and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! for I have seen the Messenger of Jehovah face to face! But Jehovah said to him, Peace be to thee; do not be afraid; thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to Jehovah, and called it Jehovah-shalom [Jehovah is well-disposed]. Even to the present day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
4. The rally. And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet, and Abiezer assembled under his leadership.
5. The refusal of Succoth and Penuel to furnish food. And Gideon came to the Jordan, and passed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. And he said to the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. But the princes of Succoth said, Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand that we should give bread to your army? Then Gideon said, Therefore, when Jehovah hath delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will thresh your flesh with thorns of the wilderness and with briers. And he went up from there to Penuel, and made the same request of them; and the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Succoth. Then he said also to the men of Penuel, When I come back victorious, I will break down this tower.
6. Gideon’s strategy. Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men. And Gideon went up by the caravan road east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the host, as it lay without fear of attack. And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave them empty jars with torches within the jars. And he said, Look at me and do as I do, and say, ‘For Jehovah and Gideon.’ So Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when it had just been set, and broke in pieces the jars in their hands. And the three companies broke their jars, and took the torches in their left hands and their swords in their right and cried, For Jehovah and Gideon. And the entire host awakened and they sounded the alarm and fled.
7. His capture of the chiefs. Zebah and Zalmunna also fled; but he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and threw all the host into a panic.
8. His punishment of Succoth and Penuel. Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. And he captured a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him, and the young man gave him a list of the princes of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men. And when he came to the men of Succoth, he said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna concerning whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your power that we should give bread to your men who are weary?’ Then he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and he threshed the men of Succoth upon them. He also broke down the tower of Penuel, and slew the men of the city.
9. Blood-vengeance upon the Midianite chiefs. Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What kind of men were they whom you slew at Tabor? And they answered, As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. And he said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Jehovah liveth, if you had saved them alive, I would not slay you now. Then he said to Jether his first-born, Up and slay them. But the youth did not draw his sword, because he was afraid, since he was yet a youth. Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise yourself and fall upon us; for a man has a man’s strength. So Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
10. Offer of the kingship to Gideon. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son, and your son’s son also; for you have saved us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you; Jehovah shall rule over you.
11. Origin of the idol in Gideon’s capital, Ophrah. And Gideon said to [the Abiezrites], I will make a request of you, that you give me every man the ear-rings from his spoil. (For they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites). And they answered, We will willingly give them. So they spread a garment, and each man cast into it the ear-rings from his spoil. And the weight of the golden ear-rings for which he had asked was seventeen hundred shekels of gold; besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains which were about their camels’ necks. And Gideon made it into an ephod, and put it in his city Ophrah.
12. Reign and family of Gideon. And Gideon had seventy sons, for he had many wives. And his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash, his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
13. Abimelech’s assumption of the kingship. And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s kinsmen, and spoke to them, and to all the clan of the house of his mother’s father, saying, Put this question to all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that seventy persons should rule over you—all sons of Jerubbaal—or that one should rale over you?’ Remember too that I am your bone and fiesh. So his mother’s kinsmen spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem; and they were inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our kinsman. And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men on one stone; but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself. . . .
14. Rebellion of the Shechemites. And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his kinsmen and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put confidence in him. They then held festival, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech. And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who are the Shechemites that we should serve him? Is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and is not Zebul his officer? Be subject to the people of Hamor, the father of Shechem; for why should we be subject to him? Would that this people were under my authority! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase your army and come out.
15. Zebul’s warning and advice to Abimelech. And when Zebul the governor of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was aroused. And he sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his kinsmen have come to Shechem, and now they are stirring the city to revolt against you. Now therefore, arise by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the fields; and in the morning as soon as the sun is up, rise early and rush upon the city; and, behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you can do to him as opportunity offers.
16. Abimelech’s attack and defeat of the rebels. So they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. And when Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, Abimelech rose up with the people who were with him, from the place of ambush. Then, when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. But Zebul said to him, It is the shadow of the mountains that you see as if they were men. But Gaal said again, See there are people coming down from beside the hill, and one company is coming by the way of the Diviner’s Tree. Then Zebul said to him, Where is now the boast which you made, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ is not this the people whom you despised? Go out now, I pray, and fight with them. Then Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech pursued him, and he fled before him, and there fell many wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. But Abimelech continued to live at Arumah, while Zebul drove out Gaal and his kinsmen, that they should not dwell in Shechem.
17. Abimelech’s ignominious death. Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez and captured it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither all the men and women fled, and all the people of the city, and shut themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and was drawing near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire, when a certain woman threw an upper mill-stone on Abimelech’s head, and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man, his armorbearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, that men may not say of me, A woman killed him. So his young man ran him through and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his home.
18. Moral of the story. Thus God brought home to Abimelech the crime which he committed against his father, in slaying his seventy brothers.
I. The Two Accounts. The evidence that there are two parallel accounts of the founding of Gideon’s kingdom has long been recognized by biblical scholars. In the one version Gideon is a religious reformer rather than a warrior. He is represented as first destroying the altar of Baal and then as rallying several of the tribes against the Midianites. The three hundred men who ultimately follow him are the eager warriors, who in their zeal stop only to lap up the water with their hands, as they rush out in pursuit of the enemy. In what is evidently the older version, the immediate cause of the pursuit was the slaying of Gideon’s brothers by the Midianites. The motive which impelled him, therefore, was the most sacred obligation in early Semitic life, the law of blood-revenge. Already he was a famous warrior, and the three hundred who followed him were the members of his own clan of Abiezer.
Two distinct and yet complete accounts of the reign of Abimelech are also found in the ninth chapter of Judges. In general these two versions are in agreement, but in details there are wide variations. The one clearly comes from Northern Israel and the other from Southern Israel. Of these two, the Judean as usual, is evidently the older and more historical, although together they give a very definite and reliable account of these important events of the reign.
II. The Historical Situation. Evidently the Hebrews are already masters of central Canaan. Deborah and Barak, however, have passed away, and there is no organized government binding the different tribes together. The result is that the Hebrews are an easy prey to the at tacks of different marauding tribes that come in from the desert. Like the inhabitants of the outlying districts of Palestine to-day, the different villages and clans submit to robbery, and doubtless pay tribute rather than resort to the sword in protecting their rights. Above all, they lack a determined leader to take the initiative in repelling the robber attacks. The Midianites figure in early Hebrew history as wandering tribes, living to the southeast and east of Palestine. Possibly the attacking tribe had followed in the wake of the Hebrew advance from the east-Jordan. They approached from the point where the plain of Jezreel runs down to the Jordan, and closely connects central Canaan with the headlands of Moab and the desert beyond. Their systematic attack had continued for some years; but there would have been no effective resistance had not a certain Midianite band killed the brothers of Gideon.
III. Gideon’s Call. The solemn obligation of blood-revenge was clearly the chief motive which influenced Gideon to rally his clansmen and attack the Midianites. The early Judean narrative adds, what is doubtless true, that he was also inspired by patriotic and religious zeal. The earliest account of his call is exceedingly graphic. As in the stories of Abraham, a divine Messenger, subsequently identified with Jehovah himself, commands him as a valiant warrior to go forth and save Israel from the power of Midian. Like Abraham of old, he also prepares a meal for the divine guest. The Messenger, however, does not taste the food but touches it with the end of his staff so that it is con sumed by fire. The incident is exceedingly instructive, for it vividly illustrates the primitive idea of sacrifice. The food which Gideon pro vides is that which he would set before any guest, whether human or divine. Even so in later times, the Hebrews brought the best products of the field and flock, and at the annual festivals set them before Jehovah as a sacred meal. Part they ate themselves, and the part intended especially for Jehovah they burned with fire. Thus, according to their thought, they renewed their covenant, as they ate the sacrificial meal, sharing it with their divine guest. The older belief that at times the god or gods came down in bodily form and ate the food which was set before them, was crude and childlike; but the deeper conviction that Jehovah was ever present in the joyful, as well as the solemn experiences of life, anticipates the profoundest doctrine of modern philosophy. Later Judaism lost sight of this belief in the immediate presence of God. Jesus, standing on the high vantage ground attained by the earlier prophets, restored it to the race.
Back of the early story of Gideon’s call lies the fact that, like all the great leaders of Israel’s history, he was raised up not by chance but in accordance with the divine purpose to do a great work for his people. Again the need found the man, and under the influence of the divine spirit he undertook the important task intrusted to him.
IV. The Pursuit of the Midianites. Gideon’s native city, Ophrah, appears to have been situated eight or ten miles northeast of Shechem, at the head of the modern Wadi Farah, the chief western confluent of the Jordan. Along this valley, which leads directly to the Jordan, Gideon led his three hundred clansmen. Across the Jordan the two Israelite towns of Succoth and Penuel, beside the Jabbok, refused to give bread to Gideon and his followers. The reason for their refusal was evidently because they feared the Midianites, to whom they doubt less paid an annual tribute that they might enjoy immunity from attack. Vowing vengeance, Gideon pressed on in hot pursuit and overtook the Midianites, encamped at night beside the caravan route, out on the borders of the desert.
V. Gideon’s Vengeance Upon His Foes. Two accounts of the method of attack have evidently been closely blended. In the older account Gideon employed a very effective strategy. The attack was made at midnight when the Midianites, after their long journey, were wrapped in deep sleep. Doubtless the fear of blood-revenge had hastened their flight and increased their weariness. Dividing his follow ers into three companies, he provided all his men with empty jars in which were placed lighted torches. In their right hands they carried swords ready for the attack. At the given signal the war cry, “For Jehovah and Gideon,” was raised, and the jars were suddenly broken revealing to the awakening Midianites what seemed to them to be a vast host. Terror seized these cowardly desert robbers, and they were soon in flight, pursued by the Hebrew warriors. The two Midianite chieftains were brought back captive by Gideon. He first executed his threat of vengeance upon the inhospitable towns of Succoth and Penuel, and then discharged the obligation imposed by the law of blood-revenge, slaying with his own hand these robber foes who had killed his brothers.
VI. Gideon’s Sanctuary and Rule. Gideon’s valiant act revealed a strong and able deliverer. His rigorous treatment of his foes demon strated his ability to rule in an age when might largely made right. Ac cordingly he was asked by his own tribesmen, not only to rule over them, but also to transmit his authority to his descendants. This simple request and Gideon’s compliance mark the all important transition from the ephemeral rule of local tribesmen and deliverers to the king ship and a permanent central authority. To establish his rule, Gideon caused an ephod to be made from the spoils of gold and silver captured from the Midianites. This image was set up in his capital Ophrah. Like the later temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, the royal shrine thus established undoubtedly strengthened the authority of the new dynasty. Gideon also made many marriages with the daughters of the neighboring sheiks. Among these was a certain Canaanite woman from the town of Shechem. Thus it would seem that by the prestige of his sword and by intermarriage he extended his authority and built up a little kingdom in the heart of central Israel.
VII. Abimelech’s Conspiracy. Gideon’s kingdom, like that of David, suffered from the baneful effects of polygamy. At the death of his father, Abimelech, the worst of Gideon’s seventy sons, slew his brothers, and, with the aid of the Shechemites, succeeded to the kingship. From this early narrative it is clear that Hebrews and Canaanites lived together side by side in this ancient city. Apparently the worshippers of Jehovah and of the local Canaanite Baal had so far affiliated that they also worshipped in the same sanctuary, which bore the significant name, Baal of the Covenant. Abimelech himself was a product of that process of assimilation which continued for the next century or two, until the old Canaanite population was completely absorbed. His attitude toward his subjects appears to have been that of the Canaanite tyrants, who reigned over the petty states of Palestine, and treated their subjects as slaves, rather than of the Israelites, who regarded their king as little more than a tribal sheik and demanded that he should faithfully serve and represent them. Abimelech’s policy soon begat rebellion even in the friendly city of Shechem. This rebellion he put down with a cruelty which reveals the weakness of his character. At best his authority appears to have been only partially established; and his reign was characterized by a series of rebellions.
VIII. The End of the First Hebrew Kingdom. At last, in besieging the town of Thebez, a few miles northwest of Ophrah, Abimelech was struck by a stone thrown by a woman and mortally wounded. Thus like Sisera, the earlier oppressor of the Hebrews, Abimelech suffered the most ignominious fate known to the ancient world. Upon his own guilty head was visited the consequences of his early crimes. At his death no attempt appears to have been made to perpetuate the rule of his house. Through the inefficiency and brutal cruelty of this half-Israelite ruler, the first attempt of the Hebrews to establish a kingdom proved a sad failure. Without doubt this unfortunate example confirmed them still further in their distrust and dislike of all established authority. It illustrates, however, the problems and tendencies of the times. When at last conditions were ripe and a worthy leader was found, a permanent Hebrew kingdom was destined to rise.