THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

B >> BY LOUIS GINZBERG >> THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27

The enemy whom God raised up against Israel was Jabin, (71) the
king of Hazor, who oppressed him sorely. But worse than the king
himself was his general Sisera, one of the greatest heroes know to
history. When he was thirty years old, he had conquered the whole
world. At the sound of his voice the strongest of walls fell in a
heap, and the wild animals in the woods were chained to the spot
by fear. The proportions of his body were vast beyond description.
If he took a bath in the river, and dived beneath the surface,
enough fish were caught in his beard to feed a multitude, and it
required no less than nine hundred horses to draw the chariot in
which he rode. (72)

To rid Israel of this tyrant, God appointed Deborah and her
husband Barak. Barak was an ignoramus, like most of his
contemporaries. It was a time singularly deficient to scholars. (73)
In order to do something meritorious in connection with the Divine
service, he carried candles, at his wife's instance, to the sanctuary,
wherefrom he was called Lipidoth, "Flames." Deborah was in the
habit of making the wicks on the candles very thick, so that they
might burn a long time. Therefore God distinguished her. He said:
"Thou takest pains to shed light in My house, and I will let thy
light, thy flame, shine abroad in the whole land." Thus it happened
that Deborah became a prophetess and a judge. She dispensed
judgement in the open air, for it was not becoming that men should
visit a woman in her house. (74)

Prophetess though she was, she was yet subject to the frailties of
her sex. Her self-consciousness was inordinate. She sent for Barak
(75) to come to her instead of going to him, (76) and in her song
she spoke more of herself than was seemly. The result was that the
prophetical spirit departed from her for a time while she was
composing her song. (77)

The salvation of Israel was effected only after the people,
assembled on the Mount of Judah, had confessed their sins
publicly before God and besought His help. A seven days' fast was
proclaimed for men and women, for young and old. Then God
resolved to help the Israelites, not for their sakes, but for the sake
of keeping the oath he had sworn to their forefathers, never to
abandon their seed. Therefore He sent Deborah unto them. (78)

The task allotted to Deborah and Barak, to lead the attack upon
Sisera, was by no means slight. It is comparable with nothing less
than Joshua's undertaking to conquer Canaan. Joshua had
triumphed over only thirty-one of the sixty-two kings of Palestine,
leaving at large as many as he had subdued. Under the leadership
of Sisera these thirty-one unconquered kings opposed Israel. (79)
No less than forty thousand armies, each counting a hundred
thousand warriors, were arrayed against Deborah and Barak. (80)
God aided Israel with water and fire. The river Kishon and all the
fiery hosts of heaven (81) except the star Meros (82) fought
against Sisera. The Kishon had long before been pledged to play
its part in Sisera's overthrow. When the Egyptians were drowned in
the Red Sea, God commanded the Angel of the Sea to cast their
corpses on the land, that the Israelites might convince themselves
of the destruction of their foes, and those of little faith might not
say afterward that the Egyptians like the Israelites had reached dry
land. The Angel of the Sea complained of the impropriety of
withdrawing a gift. God mollified him with the promise of future
compensation. The Kishon was offered as security that he would
received half as many bodies again as he was now giving up.
When Sisera's troops sought relief from the scorching fire of the
heavenly bodies in the coolness of the waters of the Kishon, God
commanded the river to redeem its pledge. And so the heathen
were swept down into the Sea by the waves of the river Kishon,
whereat the fishes in the Sea exclaimed: "And the truth of the Lord
endureth forever." (83)

Sisera's lot was no better than the lot of the men. He fled from the
battle on horseback (84) after witnessing the annihilation of his
vast army. When Jael saw him approach, she went to meet him
arrayed in rich garments and jewels. She was unusually beautiful,
and her voice was the most seductive ever a woman possessed.
(85) These are the words she addressed to him: "Enter and refresh
thyself with food, and sleep until evening, and then I will send my
attendants with thee to accompany thee, for I know thou wilt not
forget me, and thy recompense will not fail." When Sisera, on
stepping into her tent, saw the bed strewn with roses which Jael
had prepared for him, he resolved to take her home to his mother
as his wife, as soon as his safety should be assured.

He asked her for milk to drink, saying: "My soul burns with the
flame which I saw in the stars contending for Israel." Jael went
forth to milk her goat, meantime supplicating God to grant her His
help: "I pray to Thee, O Lord, to strengthen Thy maid-servant
against the enemy. By this token shall I know that Thou wilt aid
me if, when I enter the house, Sisera will awaken and ask for
water to drink." Scarcely had Jael crossed the threshold when
Sisera awakened and begged for water to quench his burning thirst.
Jael gave him wine mixed with water, which caused him to drop
into a sound sleep again. The woman then took a wooden spike in
her left hand, approached the sleeping warrior, and said: "This
shall be the sign that Thou wilt deliver him into my hand if I
draw him from the bed down on the ground without awaking him."
She tugged at Sisera, and in very truth he did not awaken even
when he dropped from the bed to the floor. Then Jael prayed: "O
God, strengthen the arm of Thy maid-servant this day, for Thy
sake, for the sake of Thy people, and for the sake of those that
hope in Thee." With a hammer she drove the spike into the temple
of Sisera, who cried out as he was expiring: "O that I should lose
my life by the hand of a woman!" Jael's mocking retort was:
"Descend to hell and join thy fathers, and tell them that thou didst
fall by the hand of a woman." (86)

Barak took charge of the body of the dead warrior, and he sent it to
Sisera's mother, Themac, (87) with the message: "Here is thy son,
whom thou didst expect to see returning laden with booty." He had
in mind the vision of Themac and her women-in-waiting. When
Sisera went forth to battle, their conjuring tricks had shown him to
them as he lay on the bed of a Jewish woman. This they had
interpreted to mean that he would return with Jewish captives.
"One damsel, two damsels for ever man." (88) they had said.
Great, therefore, was the disappointment of Sisera's mother. No
less than a hundred cries did she utter over him. (89)

Deborah and Barak thereupon intoned a song of praise, thanking
God for the deliverance of Israel out of the power of Sisera, and
reviewing the history of the people since the time of Abraham.
(90)

After laboring for the weal of her nation for forty years, Deborah
departed this life. Her last words to the weeping people were an
exhortation not to depend upon the dead. They can do nothing for
the living. So long as a man is alive, his prayers are efficacious for
himself and for others. They avail naught once he is dead.

The whole nation kept a seventy days' period of mourning in honor
of Deborah, and the land was at peace for seven years. (91)

GIDEON

Elated by the victory over Sisera, Israel sang a hymn of praise, the
song of Deborah, and God, to reward them for their pious
sentiments, pardoned the transgression of the people. (92) But they
soon slipped back into the old ways, and the old troubles harassed
them. Their backsliding was due to the witchcraft of a Midianite
priest named Aud. He made the sun shine at midnight, and so
convinced the Israelites that the idols of Midian were mightier
than God, and God chastised them by delivering them into the
hands of the Midianties. (93) They worshipped their own images
reflected in the water, (94) and they were stricken with dire
poverty. They could not bring so much as a meal offering, the
offering of the poor. (95) On the eve of one Passover, Gideon
uttered the complaint: "Where are all the wondrous works which
God did for our fathers in this night, when he slew the first-born of
the Egyptians, and Israel went forth from slavery with joyous
hearts?" God appeared unto him, and said: "Thou who art
courageous enough to champion Israel, thou art worthy that Israel
should be saved for thy sake." (96)

An angel appeared, and Gideon begged him for a sign, that he
would achieve the deliverance of Israel. He excused his petition
with the precedent of Moses, the first prophet, who likewise has
asked for a sign. The angel bade him pour water on the rock, and
then gave him the choice of how he would have the water
transformed. Gideon desired to see one-half changed into blood,
and one-half into fire. Thus it happened. The blood and the fire
mingled with each other, yet the blood did not quench the fire, nor
did the fire dry out the blood. Encouraged by this and other signs,
(97) Gideon undertook to carry on the war against the Midianites
with a band of three hundred God-fearing men, and he was
successful. Of the enemy one hundred and twenty thousand
corpses covered the field, and all the rest fled precipitately. (98)

Gideon enjoyed the privilege of bringing salvation to Israel
because he was a good son. His old father feared to thresh his grain
on account of the Midianites, and Gideon once went out to him in
the field and said: "Father, thou art too old to do this work; go thou
home, and I shall finish thy task for thee. If the Midianites should
surprise me out here, I can run away, which thou canst not do, on
account of thy age." (99)

The day on which Gideon gained his great victory was during the
Passover, and the cake of barley bread that turned the camp of the
enemy upside down, of which the Midianite dreamed, was a sign
that God would espouse the cause of His people to reward them
for bringing a cake of barley bread as an 'Omer offering. (100)

After God had favored Israel with great help through him, Gideon
had an ephod made. In the high priest's breastplate, Joseph was
represented among the twelve tribes by Ephraim alone, not by
Manasseh, too. To wipe out this slight upon his own tribe, Gideon
made an ephod bearing the name of Manasseh. He consecrated it
to God, but after his death homage was paid to it as an idol. (101)
In those days the Israelites were so addicted to the worship of
Beelzebub that they constantly carried small images of this god
with them in their pockets, and every now and then they were in
the habit of bringing the image forth and kissing it fervently. (102)
Of such idolaters were the vain and light fellows who helped
Abimelech, the son of Gideon by his concubine from Shechem, to
assassinate the other sons of his father. But God is just. As
Abimelech murdered his brothers upon a stone, so Abimelech
himself met his death through a millstone. It was proper, then, that
Jotham, in his parable, should compare Abimelech to a thorn-bush,
while he characterized his predecessors, Othniel, Deborah, and
Gideon, as an olive-tree, or a fig-tree, or a vine. This Jotham, the
youngest of the sons of Gideon, was more than a teller of parables.
He knew then that long afterward the Samaritans would claim
sanctity for Mount Gerizim, on account of the blessing pronounced
from it upon the tribe. For this reason he chose Gerizim from
which to hurl his curse upon Shechem and it inhabitants. (103)

The successor to Abimelech equalled, if he did not surpass, him in
wickedness. Jair erected an altar unto Baal, and on penalty of
death he forced the people to prostrate themselves before it. Only
seven men remained firm in the true faith, and refused to the last
to commit idolatry. Their names were Deuel, Abit Yisreel,
Jekuthiel, Shalom, Ashur, Jehonadab, and Shemiel. (104) They
said to Jair: "We are mindful of the lessons given us by our
teachers and our mother Deborah. 'Take ye heed,' they said, 'that
your heart lead you not astray to the right or to the left. Day and
night ye shall devote yourselves to the study of the Torah.' Why,
then, dost thou seek to corrupt the people of the Lord, saying, 'Baal
is God, let us worship him'? If he really is what thou sayest, then
let him speak like a god, and we will pay him worship." For the
blasphemy they had uttered against Baal, Jair commanded that the
seven men be burnt. When his servants were about to carry out his
order, God sent the angel Nathaniel, the lord over the fire, and he
extinguished the fire though not before the servants of Jair were
consumed by it. Not only did the seven men escape the danger of
suffering death by fire, but the angel enabled them to flee
unnoticed, by striking all the people present with blindness. Then
the angel approached Jair, and said to him: "Hear the words of the
Lord ere thou diest. I appointed thee as prince over my people, and
thou didst break My covenant, seduce My people, and seek to burn
My servants with fire, but they were animated and freed by the
living, the heavenly fire. As for thee, thou wilt die, and die by fire,
a fire in which thou wilt abide forever."

Thereupon the angel burnt him with a thousand men, whom he had
taken in the act of paying homage to Baal. (105)

JEPHTHAH

The first judge of any importance after Gideon was Jephthah. He,
too, fell short of being the ideal Jewish ruler. His father had
married a woman of another tribe, an unusual occurrence in a time
when a woman who left her tribe was held in contempt.(106)
Jephthah, the offspring of this union, had to bear the consequences
of his mother's irregular conduct. So many annoyances were put
upon him that he was forced to leave his home and settle in a
heathen district. (107)

At first Jephthah refused to accept the rulership which the people
offered him in an assembly at Mizpah, for he had not forgotten the
wrongs to which he had been subjected. In the end, however, he
yielded, and placed himself at the head of the people in the war
against Getal, the king of the Ammonites. At his departure, he
vowed before God to sacrifice to Him whatsoever came forth out
of the doors of his house to meet him when he returned a victor
from the war.

God was angry and said: "So Jephthah has vowed to offer unto me
the first thing that shall meet him! If a dog were the first to meet
him, would a dog be sacrificed to me? Now shall the vow of
Jephthah be visited on his first-born, on his own offspring, yea, his
prayer shall be visited on his only daughter. But I assuredly shall
deliver my people, not for Jephthah's sake, but for the sake of the
prayers of Israel."

The first to meet him after his successful campaign was his
daughter Sheilah. Overwhelmed by anguish, the father cried out:
"Rightly was the name Sheilah, the one who is demanded, given to
thee, that thou shouldst be offered up as a sacrifice. Who shall set
my heart in the balance and my soul as the weight, that I may stand
and see whether that which happened to me is joy or sorrow? But
because I opened my mouth to the Lord, and uttered a vow, I
cannot take it back." Then Sheilah spoke, saying: "Why dost thou
grieve for my death, since the people was delivered? Dost thou not
remember what happened in the day of our forefathers, when the
father offered his son as a burnt offering, and the son did not
refuse, but consented gladly, and the offerer and the offered were
both full of joy? Therefore, do as thou hast spoken. But before I
die I will ask a favor of thee. Grant me that I may go with my
companions upon the mountains, sojourn among the hills, and
tread upon the rocks to shed my tears and deposit there the grief
for my lost youth. The trees of the field shall weep for me, and the
beasts of the field mourn for me. I do not grieve for my death, nor
because I have to yield up my life, but because when my father
vowed his heedless vow, he did not have me in mind. I fear,
therefore, that I may not be an acceptable sacrifice, and that my
death shall be for nothing." Sheilah and her companions went forth
and told her case to the sages of the people, but none of them
could give her any help. Then she went up to Mount Telag, where
the Lord appeared to her at night, saying unto her: "I have closed
the mouth of the sages of my people in this generation, that they
cannot answer the daughter of Jephthah a word; that my vow be
fulfilled and nothing of what I have thought remain undone. I
know her to be wiser than her father, and all the wise men, and
now her soul shall be accepted at her request, and her death shall
be very precious before My face all the time." Sheilah began to
bewail her fate in these words: "Hearken, ye mountains, to my
lamentations, and ye hills, to the tears of my eyes, and ye rocks,
testify to the weeping of my soul. My words will go up to heaven,
and my tears will be written in the firmament. I have not been
granted the joy of wedding, nor was the wreath of my betrothal
completed. I have not been decked with ornaments, nor have I
been scented with myrrh and with aromatic perfumes. I have not
been anointed with the oil that was prepared for me. Alas, O
mother, it was in vain thou didst give birth to me, the grave was
destined to be my bridal chamber. The oil thou didst prepare for
me will be spilled, and the white garments my mother sewed for
me, the moth will eat them; the bridal wreath my nurse wound for
me will wither, and my garments in blue and purple, the worms
will destroy them, and my companions will all their days lament
over me. And now, ye trees, incline your branches and weep over
my youth; ye beasts of the forest, come and trample upon my
virginity, for my years are cut off, and the days of my life grow old
in darkness." (108)

Her lamentations were of as little avail as her arguments with her
father. In vain she sought to prove to him from the Torah that the
law speaks only of animal sacrifices, never of human sacrifices. In
vain she cited the example of Jacob, who had vowed to give God a
tenth of all the possessions he owned, and yet did not attempt later
to sacrifice one of his sons. Jephthah was inexorable. All he would
yield was a respite during which his daughter might visit various
scholars, who were to decide whether he was bound by his vow.
According to the Torah his vow was entirely invalid. He was not
even obliged to pay his daughter's value in money. But the scholars
of his time had forgotten this Halakah, and they decided that he
must keep his vow. The forgetfulness of the scholars was of God,
ordained as a punishment upon Jephthah for having slaughtered
thousands of Ephraim.

One man there was living at the time who, if he had been
questioned about the case, would have been able to give a
decision. This was the high priest Phinehas. But he said proudly:
"What! I, a high priest, the son of a high priest, should humiliate
myself and go to an ignoramus!" Jephthah on the other hand said:
"What! I, the chief of the tribes of Israel, the first prince of the
land, should humiliate myself and go to one of the rank and file!"
So only the rivalry between Jephthah and Phinehas caused the loss
of a young life. Their punishment did not miss them. Jephthah dies
a horrible death. Limb by limb his body was dismembered. As for
the high priest, the holy spirit departed from him, and he had to
give up his priestly dignity. (109)

As it had been Jephthah's task to ward off the Ammonites, so his
successor Abdon was occupied with protecting Israel against the
Moabites. The king of Moab sent messengers to Abdon, and they
spoke thus: "Thou well knowest that Israel took possession of
cities that belonged to me. Return them." Abdon's reply was:
"Know ye not how the Ammonites fared? The measure of Moab's
sins, it seems, out against the enemy, slew forty-five thousand of
their number, and routed the rest. (110)

SAMSON

The last judge but one, Samson, was not the most important of the
judges, but he was the greatest hero of the period and, except
Goliath, the greatest hero of all times. He was the son of Manoah
of the tribe of Dan, and his wife Zelalponit (111) of the tribe of
Judah, (112) and he was born to them at a time when they had
given up all hope of having children. Samson's birth is a striking
illustration of the shortsightedness of human beings. The judge
Ibzan had not invited Manoah and Zelalponit to any of the one
hundred and twenty feasts in honor of the marriage of his sixty
children, which were celebrated at his house and at the house of
their parents-in-law, because he thought that "the sterile she-mule"
would never be in a position to repay his courtesy. It turned out
that Samson's parents were blessed with an extraordinary son,
while Ibzan saw his sixty children die during his lifetime. (113)

Samson's strength was superhuman, (114) and the dimensions of
his body were gigantic he measured sixty ells between the
shoulders. Yet he had one imperfection, he was maimed in both
feet. (115) The first evidence of his gigantic strength he gave when
he uprooted two great mountains, and rubbed them against each
other. Such feats he was able to perform as often as the spirit of
God was poured out over him. Whenever this happened, it was
indicated by his hair. In began to move and emit a bell-like sound,
which could be heard far off. Besides, while the spirit rested upon
him, he was able with one stride to cover a distance equal to that
between Zorah and Eshtaol. (116) It was Samson's supernatural
strength that made Jacob think that he would be the Messiah.
When God showed him Samson's latter end, then he realized that
the new era would not be ushered in by the hero-judge. (117)

Samson won his first victory over the Philistines by means of the
jawbone of the ass on which Abraham had made his way to Mount
Moriah. It had been preserved miraculously. (118) After this
victory a great wonder befell. Samson was at the point of perishing
from thirst, when water began to flow from his own mouth as from
a spring. (119)

Besides physical prowess, Samson possessed also spiritual
distinctions. He was unselfish to the last degree. He had been of
exceeding great help to the Israelites, but he never asked the
smallest service for himself. (120) When Samson told Delilah that
he was a "Nazarite unto God," she was certain that he had divulged
the true secret of his strength. She knew his character too well to
entertain the idea that he would couple the name of God with an
untruth. There was a weak side to his character, too. He allowed
sensual pleasures to dominate him. The consequences was that "he
who went astray after his eyes, lost his eyes." Even this severe
punishment produced no change of heart. He continued to lead his
old life of profligacy in prison, and he was encouraged thereto by
the Philistines, who set aside all considerations of family purity in
the hope of descendants who should be the equals of Samson in
giant strength and stature. (121)

As throughout life Samson had given proofs of superhuman power,
so in the moment of death. He entreated God to realize in him the
blessing of Jacob, (122) and endow him with Divine strength.
(123) He expired with these words upon his lips: "O Master of the
world! Vouchsafe unto me in this life a recompense for the loss of
one of my eyes. For the loss of the other I will wait to be rewarded
in the world to come." Even after his death Samson was a shield
unto the Israelites. Fear of him had so cowed the Philistines that
for twenty years they did not dare attack the Israelites. (124)

THE CRIME OF THE BENJAMITES

A part of the money which Delilah received from the Philistine
lords as the price of Samson's secret, she gave to her son Micah,
and he used it to make an idol for himself. (125) This sin was the
more unpardonable as Micah owed his life to a miracle performed
by Moses. During the times of the Egyptian oppression, if the
prescribed number of bricks was not furnished by the Israelites,
their children were used as building material. Such would have
been Micah's fate, if he had not been saved in a miraculous way.
Moses wrote down the Name of God, and put the words on
Micah's body. The dead boy came to life, and Moses drew him out
of the wall of which he made a part. (126) Micah did not show
himself worthy of the wonder done for him. Even before the
Israelites left Egypt, he made his idol, (127) and it was he who
fashioned the golden calf. At the time of Othniel the judge, (128)
he took up his abode at a distance of not more than three miles
from the sanctuary at Shiloh, (129) and won over the grandson of
Moses (130) to officiate as priest before his idol.

The sanctuary which Micah erected harbored various idols. He had
three images of boys, and three of calves, one lion, an eagle, a
dragon, and a dove. When a man came who wanted a wife, he was
directed to appeal to the dove. If riches were his desire, he
worshipped the eagle. For daughters both, to the calves; to the lion
for strength, and to the dragon for long life. Sacrifices and incense
alike were offered to these idols, and both had to be purchased
with cash money from Micah, even didrachms for a sacrifice, and
one for incense. (131)

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27