Auburn, 1862, p. 20 sq.) ; but it should be observed that three hundred shocks of corn would not make two stacks, and therefore the result would be quite inade- quate, considered as a punishment or act of vengeance upon the Philistine population, then predominant over the greater part of Palestine ; and if we take shocks to mean corn-stacks, then it may be asked how, and for wiuvt object, were three hundred corn-stacks brought together in one place from so large a surface of coun- try. The task, in that hill}' region, would have occu- pied all the cattle and vehicles for several months ; and then the corn could not have been thrashed out with- out making the whole population travel repeatedly, in order finallj' to reload the grain and take it to their threshing-floors. Nor will the verb npb (" caught") bear the rendering thus required, for it jn-operly means to ensnare, to take cajitive, and is specially api)lied to the act of catching animals (e. g. Amos iii, 5). (See, also, what an anonymous French author has written under the title of Itenards de Samsf.n, and his argu^ ments refuted in a treatise, " De Vulpibus Simsonaiis," In' Gebhard, in Thes. Nov. Theol. Phil, i, 553 sq. ; and comp. Gasser, Comment, ad he. [Hal. 1751] ; Pfaff', Von dem Eiichsen Sims07is [Tlib. 1753] ; Schroder, De vulpi- bus Siinsonis [Marh. 1713] ; Tiige, De rulpnbus Slmson- ceis [Griefsw. 1707]). 'Ihc proposed reading of Ken- nicott has deservedly found little favor with commen- tators. Not to mention the authority of the important old versions which are opposed to this view, it is prett}' certain that D"^!p"'d cannot mean "sheaves." The word, which occurs only three times, denotes in Isa. xl, 12 "the hollow of the -hand," and in 1 Kings xx, 10 ; Ezek. xiii, 19, "handfuls." Eeverting, therefore, to the interpretation of foxes burning the liarvest by means of firebrands attached to their tails, the case is borne out by Ovid {Fasti, iv, G81) —
"Ciu- i^itiir mitisaj jiinctis ardentia telis Teiga ferunt vnliies" — .
in allusion to the fiict that the Romans, at the feast in honor of Ceres, the goddess of corn, to whom they of- fered animals injurious to cornfields, were accustomed to turn into the circus foxes with torches so fastened to them as to burn them to death, in retaliation of the injuries done to the corn bj' foxes so furnished. Again, in the fable of Apthonius, quoted b}' Merrick ; but not, as is alleged, b}- the brick with a bas-relief represent- ing a man driving two foxes with fire fastened to their tails, which was found twentj--eight feet below the present surface of London (Leland, Collectanea'); be- cause tiles of similar character and execution have been dug up in other parts of England, some repre- senting the histor}' of Susanna and the elders, and oth- ers the four Evangelists, and therefore all derived from Biijlical, not pagan sources. Commentators, follow- ing the rendering of the Sept. (kioicoc, Vulg. cniida), have, with common consent, adopted the interpretation that two foxes were tied together b}- their tails with a firebrand between them. Now this does not appear to have been the practice of the Romans, nor does it oc- cur in the fable of Apthonius. Hence some have un- derstood the text to mean that each fox had a separate brand ; for it may be questioned wliether two united would run in the same direction. Tlicj' would be apt to pull counter to each other, and perha]is fight most fiercelj'; whereas there can be no doubt that every canine would run, with fire attached to its tail, not from choice, but necessity, through standing corn, if the field laj' in the direction of the animal's liurrow; for foxes and jackals, when chased, run direct to their holes, and sportsmen well know the necessity of stop- ping up those of the fox while the animal is abroad, or there is no chance of a chase. But this explanation requires that by the words rendered " tail to tail" we should understand the end of the firebrand attached to the extremity of the tail, i. e. one apiece ; this would be using the word in a double sense in the same pas-
FOX
638
FOX
sago, an equivoque not in accordanc3 with the direct stj'le of the narnitive. It is also probable that after a few fruitless efforts at trj'ing to pursue each his own course, the animals -would soon agree sufficiently to givj tli3 firebrand its fullest effect. Again, we know notliini; as to the length of the cord which attached the animals, a consideration which is obviously of much importance in the auestion at issue, for, as jackals are gregarious, the couples would naturally run together if we allow a length of cord of two or three yards, es- pecially when we reflect that the terrified animals ■would endaavor to escape as far as possible out of the re.ich of their captor, and make the best of their way out of his sight. Finally, as the opsration of tying 150 brands to so many fierce and irascible animals could not be effected in one day l)y a single man, nor pro- duce the result intended if done in one place, it seems more probable that the name of Samson, as the chief director of the act, is emploj^ed to represent the whole party who effected his intentions in different places at the sam2 time, and thereby insured that general con- flagration of the harvest which was the signal of open resistance on the part of Israel to the long-endured op- pression of the Philistine people. (See Clarke's Com- ment, ad loc. ; Kitto's DaUi/ Bible Illustrations, ad loc. ; Thomson, Land and Bool; ii, 341). — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. V. See S.A.JISOX.