Had the Canaanites possessed any real cohesion anion" themselves, the Israelites must have been chased out of the country as the Midianites were chased out by liideon ; out the Canaanites were hopelessly divided. They were, in fact, a mixed population, wluther we reckon them as exactly seven nations or not.
v. Hi.<5T0RY. — Owing to the doubtfulness of the chronolopy, a formal division of the epoch of the Judges into periods is inij)os.sible. Three great crises, however, stand out in the history — (1) the union of the tribes against Sisera and the Canaan- ites (Jg 4. 5) ; (2) the a-ssertion of Israel's indi- viduality (or nationality) against the Midianites t (3) the appearance of the Philistines.
(1) All writers recognize the importance of the Israelite rising under Deborah anci Barak. Israel had been checked in its conquests by the fortresses which girdled the plain of Esdraelon and by the chariots of iron which controlled it. Once checked they sank into helplessue&s, and the Canaanites of the plain turned upon their former assailants. Tlieir siucess was great. The Isrnt'lites of the north and of the centre would have become the helots of the Canaanites, if Del>orah bad not prophesied and if Barak had not fought. Nor did the battle of the Kishon give Israel freedom only ; it also gave life to the idea of nationiJ unity. Six tribes, viz. Ephrdim, Benjamin, Manasseh (Machir), Zebulun, Issachar, and Naph
808
JUDGES
JUDGES
iJili, united to fight the battle of the God of Israel • and four others. Reuben, Gad (GUead), Pan, and' Asher are reminded in the Song of Deborah of their failure to realize the duties of their kinship witji the rest. The sole literature of this period ^ (so far as we know) is this song of a people stru^t'linc to assert Us freedom and its nationality
(2) Gideon represents a crisis hardly less acute than that at which Deborah appeared. Israel was passing from nomadic to settled life; but if the fruus of agriculture were snatched from them by the Midianites the tempUtion to return to a wandering (and perhaps marauding) life, would be very great. At another time, under circum-
„, ■' ? " '~ •■""""»' Inline, uuuer circum-
stances of stress. Jephthah and David did actuallv return to the condition of • children of the East ' l<rom any such retrograde step Israel, as a whole was saved by Gideon, the farmer c»Ued from the threslung-flail to save his people.
The deliverance wrought by Gideon brought up the question of appointing a permanent head, to W^ ^'"..•j"?"' ^""^ ''S'''' ""^'r tattles (cf. 1 S 8») 1 lie Midianites invaded the land every year (j'r 6'-'), so that the crisis demanded some permanent organization to meet the standing danger. Gideon on the invitation of the people, established a rule winch was a theocracy according to his own pro- fession, but It was administered by himself as earthlv vicefjerent He established at his home at Oi.hrah, in addition to the rest of his state, a golden ephod (see EpHOD) of the God whose government he (and his sons after him) professed to administer (Jg S-^-"- so 92). ' fioiessea
(3) The appearance of the Philistines was a muttex of grave importance. If, as seems prob- able (but see art. Judges [Book of], p. 818") this event was contemporaneous witli the beginnktr of Ammonite a.ssaults on Israel, this importancf h greatly enhanced. Attacked on the east by Ammon reduced m part to subjection on the west by the I Ihstines, the Israelites fell into a disorganized and helpiess state, from whicli nothin" uerhans Jhem "^'=^^'i^'>"»«°' °f the kingdom coulS rescue
no?onW fn?Th°^?^ ^^"^ ^"''S'=^ ^^^ remarkable, ?Un fn7„ 1 " *5''^M '="'^" J*^^*^ mentioned, but al.0 for a slow and silent revolution which Went on during the whole of its course
itilf"'*f *' "n^ "'"■* *'"'' '"""^e' assimilated to tself a large Canaanite population. Wellhausen
vLh'-,-^"^- ?^^;f *««■•) P°i°ts o,it that th fus on
™t To';,/? fi'^l '°^'"''y-' ^^'"''^ '''« ^^anaanite peasant «ouId find more in common with the
sraelite settler than with his own fellow-countrv men in the cities This incorporation of the or "inll population into Israel ex,,lains the striking growth of the population which took place under the Judges, which indeed, made ^Jacob so much stronger than the kin.lred tribes, Moab, Ammon and Edom, and rendered the empire of Dav"d and bolomon a possibility
Jtoo^''''ti1° r'T'-'- "^ ""^ HrsTORY of the
OtTDOES — Plus history is so natural a preface to the period of the Kings, that no charge of im
Many details, however, have been referred with more or less probabUity to myth or m^undeV^ standing, and not to history. misuuuer
(Ar,,".^'""' ■>"'''^"!''i" <•'« •■''> "f Mesopotamia
fit^r^ Th''"ijr* " * ]'''?"^°"T ^"l uncertain ngure. The Shamgar of Jg 3« is sunnospH t^
be irreconcilable with the Shamgar of ?i^5«' h^
note), as the context [of Jg 5«] shows ' T1,p minor judges Tola and iair (fg lO^^JraLd Ibzan?
beio'n'Jto 'he'Tirfcdof-'trJuJi^L*''^ V" '" P^""' '°™ "'^o
I
Elon, and Abdon (Jg 12«->») are generally said 0 l.e merely personiheaiiuiisof leadiii" fainifies Our
ion that Jephthah's ■message to Ammon' (Jg 11'-") seems to be really a document hav n" reference rather to J/,«6; cf. the mention ol Cheiuosh (V ^) and of Balak (v.=»). On the otln hand Jephthah's vow and its fullilment are de fended as natural in Jephthah's age (and there fore as probably historical) by Kittel (ii. SP The story of Samson, finally, has not been proved