ment of Gideon's threat in ver. 7 recorded be. The answer of Zebah and Zalmunna, in the same words with regard to Succoth, which is not given in its entirety, was no just as the breaking down of the tower of doubt intended to be soothing and depreca- Penuel in ver. 17 is in verbal agreement tory of Gideon's wrath. They pleaded tbe with ver. 9. The Septuagint and Vulgate necessity they were under in self-defence to both seem to have found he threshed in their slay them ; they were men of such royal copies. stature and prowess that their own Ii ves Yer. 17.-Be slew the men of the city. would have been in danger had they spare<l This makes it probable that the threshing of them. But Gideon turned a deaf ear to tbei, the men of Succoth was a capital punish- plea. He must avenge the death of his o,m ment, as there is no reason why the men of brothers, his own mother's sons. He would Penuel should be more severely punished have spared them as prisoners of war (2 than the men of Succoth. Kings vi. 22), but be must do his part as Ver. 18. - Whe.t me.nner of men, &c. goel or avenger (Numb. x:xxv. 12). Observe An incident not before related is here brought the stress laid on their being not merely his to light, viz., that on some unknown occa- father's sons by another wife, but his own sion, possibly as soon as the rising of the mother's sons, a much more tender relation Israelites under Gideon became known, or (cf. Ps. I. 20). when, as related in eh. vi. 2, they had Ver. 20.-He ea.id untoJether, &c. These sought to hide themselves in Mount Tabor, marks of savage life are painful to contem- but had been caught, Zebah and Zalmunna plate in such a man as Gideon. But it is had put to death Gideon's brothers. We well for us to be made aware how the best may observe in passing how characteristic and greatest men cannot rise above the man- this is of a true narrative in which every- ners and received maxims of their age ; and thing that happened cannot possibly be re- it teaches us to make due allowance for the lated (see eh. x. 11, 12, note). The word faults of uncivilised men with whom we here rendered what manner of, i. e. of what have to do, whether Afghans, or Zulus, or sort, means, in every other place in which it others. occurs, where 1 and the sense of what sort is Ver. 21.-The ornaments. Literally, little only inferred from the answer, .A.s thou art, moons, crescent-shaped ornaments of gold so were they. But it is not safe thus to and silver, which as well as "chains" (ver. change the universal meaning of a common 26) were hung as ornaments on their camels' word. It is better to take the words of necks (cf. eh. v. 30). It would seem from Gideon, Where are the men whom ye slew ver. 26 that the kings themselves also wore at Tabor? as an upbraiding of them for the these ornaments; and in Isa. iii 18 they are murder of his brethren, and a threat that enumerated among the articles of female where they were their murderers would soon attire-round tires like the moon, A. V.
HOMILETICS. Vera. 13-21.-Tlie complete revenge. If any man ever stood on the very apez: of success and triumph, it was Gideon on his return from the pursuit of the Midianites. He had saved his country ; he had set a whole people free from a foreign yoke ; he had restored the worship of the true and living God in his native land, and uprooted a vile nnd debasing idolatry ; he was the conqueror of a vast host with most inade- quate means ; he had subdued and taken pri~oners two powerful kings ; he had avenged the death of his own brothers upon those who, in pride and wantonness, bad slain them ; and he had chastised the insolent, cowardly, and unpatriotic conduct of his own countrymen who, at his time of greatest need, bad insulted instead of help- ing him; and he stood in the proud position of having undertaken o.n almost im- possible task, and he.ving succeeded beyond bis utmost expectation. But in the very height of this success we seem to see an overbalancing towo.rds a fall. It is very slight; there was still a wonderful moderation of mind (as seen in vers. 22, 23) ; but the weak human heart had a stronger drau&'ht of success than it could bear. As long, indeed, as his eye wo.s quite single, and 1t was only the glory of God that be sought, and the welfare of his country, all went well (see ver. 2). But Gideon was not perfect. Hnd he been without the pride of fallen humanity, he would not have slain the captive kings, he would not have put to death the insolent men of Buccoth and Penuel, richly as they deserved punishment. But it is here that we seem to see the first clouding of the singular brightness of Gideon's disinterested zeo.l. When we hnve me.de every allowance for the customs and opinions of the age, 90 THE DOOK OF JUDGES. [ce. vm. 22-35
we cannot hrlp feeling that something different from zeal ancl love for God wns nt work ";thin him when he took away those lives. Zebah and Zalmnnna 1111d slain !iis brothers, and so had done on injury to him, and put. a slight upon him; the men of Sucroth 11nd p..,nuel hnd taunted and affronted liim, they lincl nndervnlued his power, they hacl_ taken ad,·antage_ of his momentary weakness to put him to shame. He must ha,-e his revenge. In !us hour of more than human greatness the little- ness of humanity started into birth. It was no doubt true that the law of the nvenger of blood justified the slaughter of the kings, and the base conduct of the Su~eothit:s and Penuelites_ would secure a unive:sal acquiescence in the justice of their pumshment. But still we cannot help seemg thut the pride of self albeit unperceived by Gideon, had a hand in these actions, which cast a distinJ shade upon Gideon's shining path, and which we cannot read of even at this distance of time without a _pang of reg:ret. Ho';'V gllld we should b~ _if that noble spirit, in the Yery flush of victory, had nsen sufficiently above the spmt of his ao·e and above his o":n anger to spare his prostrate foes; and if in the height of his glory he had de- spised the meanness of the men of Succoth, and left them to the punishment of their own shame, and the contempt of their fellow-men I (see 2 Sam. xix. 23). But it could not be. And perhaps the lesson of human weakness is more valuable to us as it is ; for it leaves us a warning not to seek a complete revenge for ourselves under any circumstances, but to be content to commit our cause to God: and that it is better for man to be thwarted and humiliated than to have everything his own '1,ay. He cannot bear it.