Finally, being encouraged by words fortuitously overheard (what the later Jews termed the Bath-Kol) (compare 1 Sam. xiv, 9. 10 ; Lightfoot, IJnr. Hebr. ad Matt, iii, 14), in the relation of a significant dream, Gideon framed his plans, which were admirably adapt- ed to strike a panic into the huge and undisciplined nomad host (Judg. viii, 15-18). We know from his- tory that large and irregular Oriental armies are es- pecially lialde to sudden outbursts of uncontrollable terror; and when the stillness and darkness of the night were suddenly disturbed in three different direc- tions by the flash of torches and by the reverberating
GIDEOX
856
GIER-EAGLE
echoes which the trumpets and the shouting -woke among the hills, we cannot be astonished at tlie com- (ilete rout into which the enemy were tlirown. It nnist be remembered, too, tliat the sound of 300 trum- pets would make them suppose that a corresponding number of companies were attacking them. It is curi- ous to find " lamps and pitchers" in use for a similar purpose at this verj- day in the streets of Cairo. The Zabil or Agha of the police carries with him at night '• a torch which burns soon after it is lighted, Mithout a flame, excepting when it is waved through the air, when it suddenly blazes forth : it therefore answers the same purpose as our dark lantern. The burning end is sometimes concealed in a small pot or jar, or covered with sometliing else, when not required to give light" (Lane"s Mod. E(j. i, ch. iv). For specimens of similar stratagems, see Livy, xxii, IG ; Polywnns, Stratei). ii, 37; Frontinus, ii, 4; Sallust, .7?/^. 91); Niebuhr, />e«c. de rArabie, p. 30-1; Joiinml As. 1841, ii, 516. The custom of dividing an army into three seems to have been common (1 Sam. xi, 11 ; Gen. xiv, 15), and Gid- eon's war-cry is not unlike that adopted bj' Cyrus (Xenoph. Cijr. iii, 28). He adds his own name to the war-cr)-, as suited both to inspire confidence in his fol- lowers and strike terror in the enemy. His stratagem was eminently successful, and the Midianites, break- ing into their wild peculiar cries, fled headlong '• down the descent to the Joi'dan," to the " house of the Aca- cia" (Beth-shitta), and the "meadow of the dance" (Abel-meholah), but were intercepted by the Ephraim- ites (to whom notice had been sent, Judg. vii, 24) at the fords of Beth-barah, where, after a second fight, the princes of Oreb and Zeeb (" the Raven" and " the Wolf") were detected and slain — the former at a rock, and the latter concealed in a wine-press, to which their names were afterwards given. The Ephraimites took their heads over to Gideon, which amounted to an ac- knowledgment of his leadership ; but still the always haughty and jealous Ephraimites were greatly anno}'- ed that they had not in the first instance been sum- moned to the field ; and serious consequences might have followed but for the tact of Gideon in speaking in a lowly spirit of his own doings in comparison with theirs. Gideon's ''soft answer," which pacified the Ephraimite warriors, became a proverb (Judg. viii, 1- 3). Meanwhile the "higher sheiks, Zebah and Zal- munna, had already escaped," and Gideon resolved to pursue them into eastern Manassch, and burst upon them among the tents of their Bedouin countrymen. On that side the river, however, his victory was not believed or understood, and the people still trembled at the very name of the Midianites. Hence ho could obtain no succor from the places which he passed, and town after town refused to supply even victuals to his fatigued and hungry, but still stout-hearted troop. He denounced vengeance upon them, but postponed its execution until his return. Continuing his pursuit of the Midianites southward, he learned that they had encamped with the remnant of their army in fancied security at Karkor, just without the limits of Pales- tine ; he therefore resolved to surprise them by a rapid detour throutj;h the edge of the nomadic region of the Hauran, a measure which he accomplished so success- fully that, falling suddenly upon them from the east by niudit, he utterly routed them, and by sunrise was on his way to the .Jordan. In thi-; ins tfiird victory he avent;ed on the INIidianitish emirs the massacre of his kingly brethren whom they liad slain at Tabor. In those days captives of distinction taken in war were almost invarial)ly slain. Zebah and Zalmunna had made up their minds to this fate; an<l yet it was Gid- eon's humane intention to spare tliem till he learned that they iiad put to death his own I)rotliers under the s;ime circumstances; upon which, as the avenger of their blood, he slew the captives with hi^ own hand. In these three l>attles only 15,000 out of 120,000 Mid- ianites escaped alive. It is indeed stated in Judg.
viii, 10, that 120,000 Midianites had already/a^/ere ; but here, as elsewhere, it may merely be intended that such was the original number of the routed host. Dur- ing his triumphal return Gideon took signal and ap- propriate vengeance on the coward and apostate towns of Succoth and Peniel. The memory of this splendid deliverance took deep root in the national traditions (1 Sam. xii, 11 ; Psa. Ixxxiii, 11 ; Isa. ix, 4 ; x, 26 ; Heb. xi, 32).