Chapter 2.
HOW, AFTER THE DEATH OF JOSHUA THEIR COMMANDER, THE ISRAELITES
TRANSGRESSED THE LAWS OF THEIR COUNTRY, AND EXPERIENCED GREAT AFFLICTIONS;
AND WHEN THERE WAS A SEDITION ARISEN, THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN WAS DESTROYED
EXCEPTING ONLY SIX HUNDRED MEN.FJAJ 5.35
1. AFTER the death of Joshua and Eleazar, Phineas prophesied, (10)
By prophesying, when spoken of a high priest, Josephus, both here and frequently
elsewhere, means no more than consulting God by Urim, which the reader
is still to bear in mind upon all occasions. And if St. John, who was contemporary
with Josephus, and of the same country, made use of this style, when he
says that "Caiaphas being high priest that year, prophesied that Jesus
should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also
he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered
abroad," chap. 11;51, 52, he may possibly mean, that this was revealed
to the high priest by an extraordinary voice from between the cherubims,
when he had his breastplate, or Urim and Thummim, on before; or the most
holy place of the temple, which was no other than the oracle of Urim and
Thummim. Of which above, in the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9.
that according to God's will they should commit the government to the tribe
of Judah, and that this tribe should destroy the race of the Canaanites;
for then the people were concerned to learn what was the will of God
They
also took to their assistance the tribe of Simeon; but upon this condition,
that when those that had been tributary to the tribe of Judah should be
slain, they should do the like for the tribe of Simeon.FJAJ 5.36
2. But the affairs of the Canaanites were at this thee in a flourishing
condition, and they expected the Israelites with a great army at the city
Bezek, having put the government into the hands of Adonibezek, which name
denotes the Lord of Bezek, for Adoni in the Hebrew
tongue signifies Lord.Now they hoped to have been too hard for
the Israelites, because Joshua was dead; but when the Israelites had joined
battle with them, I mean the two tribes before mentioned, they fought gloriously,
and slew above ten thousand of them, and put the rest to flight; and in
the pursuit they took Adonibezek, who, when his fingers and toes were cut
off by them, said, "Nay, indeed, I was not always to lie concealed
from God, as I find by what I now endure, while I have not been ashamed
to do the same to seventy-two kings." (11)
This great number of seventy-two reguli, or small kings, over whom Adonibezek
had tyrannized, and for which he was punished according to the lex talionis,
as well as the thirty-one kings of Canaan subdued by Joshua, and named
in one chapter, Joshua 12., and thirty-two kings, or royal auxiliaries
to Benhadad king of Syria, 1 Kings 20:1; Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 14. sect.
1, intimate to us what was the ancient form of government among several
nations before the monarchies began, viz. that every city or large town,
with its neighboring villages, was a distinct government by itself; which
is the more remarkable, because this was certainly the form of ecclesiastical
government that was settled by the apostles, and preserved throughout the
Christian church in the first ages of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion,
that "it would certainly be for the good of mankind to have all the
mighty empires and monarchies of the world cantoned out into petty states
and principalities, which, like so many large families, might lie under
the observation of their proper governors, so that the care of the prince
might extend itself to every individual person under his protection; though
he despairs of such a scheme being brought about, and thinks that if it
were, it would quickly be destroyed." Remarks on Italy, 4to, p. 151.
Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Armenian records, though
they give us the history of thirty-nine of their ancientest heroes or governors
after the Flood, before the days of Sardanapalus, had no proper king till
the fortieth, Parerus. See Moses Chorehensis, p. 55. And that Almighty
God does not approve of such absolute and tyrannical monarchies, any one
may learn that reads Deuteronomy 17:14-20, and 1 Samuel 8:1-22; although,
if such kings are set up as own him for their supreme King, and aim to
govern according to his laws, he hath admitted of them, and protected them
and their subjects in all generations.
So they carried him alive as far as Jerusalem; and when he was dead, they
buried him in the earth, and went on still in taking the cities: and when
they had taken the greatest part of them, they besieged Jerusalem; and
when they had taken the lower city, which was not under a considerable
time, they slew all the inhabitants; but the upper city was not to be taken
without great difficulty, through the strength of its walls, and the nature
of the place.FJAJ 5.37
3. For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they
had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants
There were till then left
the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely
different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible
to the hearing
The bones of these men are still shown to this very day,
unlike to any credible relations of other men
Now they gave this city
to the Levites as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs of two thousand
cities; but the land thereto belonging they gave as a free gift to Caleb,
according to the injunctions of Moses
This Caleb was one of the spies
which Moses sent into the land of Canaan
They also gave land for habitation
to the posterity of Jethro, the Midianite, who was the father-in-law to
Moses; for they had left their own country, and followed them, and accompanied
them in the wilderness.FJAJ 5.38
4. Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took the cities which were in
the mountainous part of Canaan, as also Askelon and Ashdod, of those that
lay near the sea; but Gaza and Ekron escaped them, for they, lying in a
flat country, and having a great number of chariots, sorely galled those
that attacked them
So these tribes, when they were grown very rich by
this war, retired to their own cities, and laid aside their weapons of
war.FJAJ 5.39
5. But the Benjamites, to whom belonged Jerusalem, permitted its inhabitants
to pay tribute
So they all left off, the one to kill, and the other to
expose themselves to danger, and had time to cultivate the ground
The
rest of the tribes imitated that of Benjamin, and did the same; and, contenting
themselves with the tributes that were paid them, permitted the Canaanites
to live in peace.FJAJ 5.40
6. However, the tribe of Ephraim, when they besieged Bethel, made no
advance, nor performed any thing worthy of the time they spent, and of
the pains they took about that siege; yet did they persist in it, still
sitting down before the city, though they endured great trouble thereby:
but, after some time, they caught one of the citizens that came to them
to get necessaries, and they gave him some assurances that, if he would
deliver up the city to them, they would preserve him and his kindred; so
he aware that, upon those terms, he would put the city into their hands.
Accordingly, he that, thus betrayed the city was preserved with his family;
and the Israelites slew all the inhabitants, and retained the city for
themselves.FJAJ 5.41
7. After this, the Israelites grew effeminate as to fighting any more
against their enemies, but applied themselves to the cultivation of the
land, which producing them great plenty and riches, they neglected the
regular disposition of their settlement, and indulged themselves in luxury
and pleasures; nor were they any longer careful to hear the laws that belonged
to their political government: whereupon God was provoked to anger, and
put them in mind, first, how, contrary to his directions, they had spared
the Canaanites; and, after that, how those Canaanites, as opportunity served,
used them very barbarously
But the Israelites, though they were in heaviness
at these admonitions from God, yet were they still very unwilling to go
to war; and since they got large tributes from the Canaanites, and were
indisposed for taking pains by their luxury, they suffered their aristocracy
to be corrupted also, and did not ordain themselves a senate, nor any other
such magistrates as their laws had formerly required, but they were very
much given to cultivating their fields, in order to get wealth; which great
indolence of theirs brought a terrible sedition upon them, and they proceeded
so far as to fight one against another, from the following occasion: -FJAJ 5.42
8. There was a Levite (12)
Josephus's early date of this history before the beginning of the Judges,
or when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19;1, is strongly confirmed
by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat,
2 Chronicles 14:8, and 16:17, who yet were here reduced to six hundred
men; nor can those numbers be at all supposed genuine, if they were reduced
so late as the end of the Judges, where our other copies place this reduction.
a man of a vulgar family, that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt
therein: this man married a wife from Bethlehem, which is a place belonging
to the tribe of Judah
Now he was very fond of his wife, and overcome with
her beauty; but he was unhappy in this, that he did not meet with the like
return of affection from her, for she was averse to him, which did more
inflame his passion for her, so that they quarreled one with another perpetually;
and at last the woman was so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left
her husband, and went to her parents in the fourth month
The husband being
very uneasy at this her departure, and that out of his fondness for her,
came to his father and mother-in-law, and made up their quarrels, and was
reconciled to her, and lived with them there four days, as being kindly
treated by her parents
On the fifth day he resolved to go home, and went
away in the evening; for his wife's parents were loath to part with their
daughter, and delayed the time till the day was gone
Now they had one
servant that followed them, and an ass on which the woman rode; and when
they were near Jerusalem, having gone already thirty furlongs, the servant
advised them to take up their lodgings some where, lest some misfortune
should befall them if they traveled in the night, especially since they
were not far off enemies, that season often giving reason for suspicion
of dangers from even such as are friends; but the husband was not pleased
with this advice, nor was he willing to take up his lodging among strangers,
for the city belonged to the Canaanites, but desired rather to go twenty
furlongs farther, and so to take their lodgings in some Israelite city.
Accordingly, he obtained his purpose, and came to Gibeah, a city of the
tribe of Benjamin, when it was just dark; and while no one that lived in
the market-place invited him to lodge with him, there came an old man out
of the field, one that was indeed of the tribe of Ephraim, but resided
in Gibeah, and met him, and asked him who he was, and for what reason he
came thither so late, and why he was looking out for provisions for supper
when it was dark? To which he replied, that he was a Levite, and was bringing
his wife from her parents, and was going home; but he told him his habitation
was in the tribe of Ephraim: so the old man, as well because of their kindred
as because they lived in the same tribe, and also because they had thus
accidentally met together, took him in to lodge with him
Now certain young
men of the inhabitants of Gibeah, having seen the woman in the market-place,
and admiring her beauty, when they understood that she lodged with the
old man, came to the doors, as contemning the weakness and fewness of the
old man's family; and when the old man desired them to go away, and not
to offer any violence or abuse there, they desired him to yield them up
the strange woman, and then he should have no harm done to him: and when
the old man alleged that the Levite was of his kindred, and that they would
be guilty of horrid wickedness if they suffered themselves to be overcome
by their pleasures, and so offend against their laws, they despised his
righteous admonition, and laughed him to scorn
They also threatened to
kill him if he became an obstacle to their inclinations; whereupon, when
he found himself in great distress, and yet was not willing to overlook
his guests, and see them abused, he produced his own daughter to them;
and told them that it was a smaller breach of the law to satisfy their
lust upon her, than to abuse his guests, supposing that he himself should
by this means prevent any injury to be done to those guests
When they
no way abated of their earnestness for the strange woman, but insisted
absolutely on their desires to have her, he entreated them not to perpetrate
any such act of injustice; but they proceeded to take her away by force,
and indulging still more the violence of their inclinations, they took
the woman away to their house, and when they had satisfied their lust upon
her the whole night, they let her go about daybreak
So she came to the
place where she had been entertained, under great affliction at what had
happened; and was very sorrowful upon occasion of what she had suffered,
and durst not look her husband in the face for shame, for she concluded
that he would never forgive her for what she had done; so she fell down,
and gave up the ghost: but her husband supposed that his wife was only
fast asleep, and, thinking nothing of a more melancholy nature had happened,
endeavored to raise her up, resolving to speak comfortably to her, since
she did not voluntarily expose herself to these men's lust, but was forced
away to their house; but as soon as he perceived she was dead, he acted
as prudently as the greatness of his misfortunes would admit, and laid
his dead wife upon the beast, and carried her home; and cutting her, limb
by limb, into twelve pieces, he sent them to every tribe, and gave it in
charge to those that carried them, to inform the tribes of those that were
the causes of his wife's death, and of the violence they had offered to
her.FJAJ 5.43
9. Upon this the people were greatly disturbed at what they saw,
and at what they heard, as never having had the experience of such
a thing before; so they gathered themselves to Shiloh, out of a prodigious
and a just anger, and assembling in a great congregation before the tabernacle,
they immediately resolved to take arms, and to treat the inhabitants of
Gibeah as enemies; but the senate restrained them from doing so, and persuaded
them, that they ought not so hastily to make war upon people of the same
nation with them, before they discoursed them by words concerning the accusation
laid against them; it being part of their law, that they should not bring
an army against foreigners themselves, when they appear to have been injurious,
without sending an ambassage first, and trying thereby whether they will
repent or not: and accordingly they exhorted them to do what they ought
to do in obedience to their laws, that is, to send to the inhabitants of
Gibeah, to know whether they would deliver up the offenders to them, and
if they deliver them up, to rest satisfied with the punishment of those
offenders; but if they despised the message that was sent them, to punish
them by taking, up arms against them
Accordingly they sent to the inhabitants
of Gibeah, and accused the young men of the crimes committed in the affair
of the Levite's wife, and required of them those that had done what was
contrary to the law, that they might be punished, as having justly deserved
to die for what they had done; but the inhabitants of Gibeah would not
deliver up the young men, and thought it too reproachful to them, out of
fear of war, to submit to other men's demands upon them; vaunting themselves
to be no way inferior to any in war, neither in their number nor in courage.
The rest of their tribe were also making great preparation for war, for
they were so insolently mad as also to resolve to repel force by force.FJAJ 5.44
10. When it was related to the Israelites what the inhabitants of Gibeah
had resolved upon, they took their oath that no one of them would give
his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite, but make war with greater fury
against them than we have learned our forefathers made war against the
Canaanites; and sent out presently an army of four hundred thousand against
them, while the Benjamites' army-was twenty-five thousand and six hundred;
five hundred of whom were excellent at slinging stones with their left
hands, insomuch that when the battle was joined at Gibeah the Benjamites
beat the Israelites, and of them there fell two thousand men; and probably
more had been destroyed had not the night came on and prevented it, and
broken off the fight; so the Benjamites returned to the city with joy,
and the Israelites returned to their camp in a great fright at what had
happened
On the next day, when they fought again, the Benjamites beat
them; and eighteen thousand of the Israelites were slain, and the rest
deserted their camp out of fear of a greater slaughter
So they came to
Bethel, (13)
Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, when he took the Hebrew
word Bethel, which denotes the house of God, or the tabernacle, Judges
20:18, for the proper name of a place, Bethel, it no way appearing that
the tabernacle was ever at Bethel; only so far it is true, that Shiloh,
the place of the tabernacle in the days of the Judges, was not far from
Bethel.
a city that was near their camp, and fasted on the next day; and besought
God, by Phineas the high priest, that his wrath against them might cease,
and that he would be satisfied with these two defeats, and give them the
victory and power over their enemies
Accordingly God promised them so
to do, by the prophesying of Phineas.FJAJ 5.45
11. When therefore they had divided the army into two parts, they laid
the one half of them in ambush about the city Gibeah by night, while the
other half attacked the Benjamites, who retiring upon the assault, the
Benjamites pursued them, while the Hebrews retired by slow degrees, as
very desirous to draw them entirely from the city; and the other followed
them as they retired, till both the old men and the young men that were
left in the city, as too weak to fight, came running out together with
them, as willing to bring their enemies under
However, when they were
a great way from the city the Hebrews ran away no longer, but turned back
to fight them, and lifted up the signal they had agreed on to those that
lay in ambush, who rose up, and with a great noise fell upon the enemy.
Now, as soon as ever they perceived themselves to be deceived, they knew
not what to do; and when they were driven into a certain hollow place which
was in a valley, they were shot at by those that encompassed them, till
they were all destroyed, excepting six hundred, which formed themselves
into a close body of men, and forced their passage through the midst of
their enemies, and fled to the neighboring mountains, and, seizing upon
them, remained there; but the rest of them, being about twenty-five thousand,
were slain
Then did the Israelites burn Gibeah, and slew the women, and
the males that were under age; and did the same also to the other cities
of the Benjamites; and, indeed, they were enraged to that degree, that
they sent twelve thousand men out of the army, and gave them orders to
destroy Jabesh Gilead, because it did not join with them in fighting against
the Benjamites
Accordingly, those that were sent slew the men of war,
with their children and wives, excepting four hundred virgins
To such
a degree had they proceeded in their anger, because they not only had the
suffering of the Levite's wife to avenge, but the slaughter of their own
soldiers.FJAJ 5.46
12. However, they afterward were sorry for the calamity they had brought
upon the Benjamites, and appointed a fast on that account, although they
supposed those men had suffered justly for their offense against the laws;
so they recalled by their ambassadors those six hundred which had escaped.
These had seated themselves on a certain rock called Rimmon, which
was in the wilderness
So the ambassadors lamented not only the disaster
that had befallen the Benjamites, but themselves also, by this destruction
of their kindred; and persuaded them to take it patiently; and to come
and unite with them, and not, so far as in them lay, to give their suffrage
to the utter destruction of the tribe of Benjamin; and said to them, "We
give you leave to take the whole land of Benjamin to yourselves, and as
much prey as you are able to carry away with you." So these men with
sorrow confessed, that what had been done was according to the decree of
God, and had happened for their own wickedness; and assented to those that
invited them, and came down to their own tribe
The Israelites also gave
them the four hundred virgins of Jabesh Gilead for wives; but as to the
remaining two hundred, they deliberated about it how they might compass
wives enough for them, and that they might have children by them; and whereas
they had, before the war began, taken an oath, that no one would give his
daughter to wife to a Benjamite, some advised them to have no regard to
what they had sworn, because the oath had not been taken advisedly and
judiciously, but in a passion, and thought that they should do nothing
against God, if they were able to save a whole tribe which was in danger
of perishing; and that perjury was then a sad and dangerous thing, not
when it is done out of necessity, but when it is done with a wicked intention.
But when the senate were affrighted at the very name of perjury, a certain
person told them that he could show them a way whereby they might procure
the Benjamites wives enough, and yet keep their oath
They asked him what
his proposal was
He said, "That three times in a year, when we meet
in Shiloh, our wives and our daughters accompany us: let then the Benjamites
be allowed to steal away, and marry such women as they can catch, while
we will neither incite them nor forbid them; and when their parents take
it ill, and desire us to inflict punishment upon them, we will tell them,
that they were themselves the cause of what had happened, by neglecting
to guard their daughters, and that they ought not to be over angry at the
Benjamites, since that anger was permitted to rise too high already."
So the Israelites were persuaded to follow this advice, and decreed, That
the Benjamites should be allowed thus to steal themselves wives
So when
the festival was coming on, these two hundred Benjamites lay in ambush
before the city, by two and three together, and waited for the coming
of the virgins, in the vineyards and other places where they could lie
concealed
Accordingly the virgins came along playing, and suspected nothing
of what was coming upon them, and walked after an unguarded manner, so
those that laid scattered in the road, rose up, and caught hold of them:
by this means these Benjamites got them wives, and fell to agriculture,
and took good care to recover their former happy state
And thus was this
tribe of the Benjamites, after they had been in danger of entirely perishing,
saved in the manner forementioned, by the wisdom of the Israelites; and
accordingly it presently flourished, and soon increased to be a multitude,
and came to enjoy all other degrees of happiness
And such was the conclusion
of this war.FJAJ 5.47