He let them go with the exception of a few thousand who seemed fairly reliable.But even these he could not trust,and he asked Jehovah to give him a token of his future approval.He placed some wool upon the ground outside his tent.In the morning,when he picked it up,it was drenched with dew.The grass,however,upon which it had rested had remained dry.This meant that Jehovah would be with Gideon in the coming attack and that he could go ahead with his arrangements.
Gideon took his soldiers out for a long march.When they were quite tired out,he sent them to the river.Only three hundred (out of a total of several thousand)knew enough of the business of war to watch the other bank of the flood while they drank.They also used their hands to carry the water to their mouths.The others leaned forward (like so many thirsty animals)and lapped up the water without further ado.
Gideon kept those three hundred.The others were dismissed.They would have been only a nuisance when it came to fighting.
The three hundred faithful men then received their instructions.
Gideon gave each of them a ram's horn and a torch.The torch was hidden in an earthen-ware jar,so that the rays of the light could not be seen.
In the middle of the night,Gideon led his men against the Midianites.
While they were running,they all blew their horns,and at a given signal,they broke the earthen jars.The sudden light of so many torches blinded the Midianites.They were thrown into a panic (as happens so often with eastern people)and they fled.Thousands of dead and wounded were left upon the field of battle.
As for Gideon,he was recognised as the uncrowned king of the Jews and he was their Judge for many years.
But after his death there was more trouble.Gideon had been married several times and he left quite a large family.No sooner was he buried than his sons began to quarrel to see who should succeed their father.One of them,by the name of Abimelech,was very ambitious.He wanted to be King of all the Jews and he thought that he had the necessary qualifications.Such young men are rarely appreciated by those who know them best.Abimelech therefore left his home and went to the village of Shechem,where his mother's people came from.In Shechem he began to plot for the throne.He had no funds,but the Shechemites,who could see the advantage of his plan (if he were successful)gave him a loan,and with the money he hired a few professional cut-throats and told them to murder his brothers.
In one single night,all the sons of Gideon were killed,with the exception of the youngest,whose name was Jotham.
Jotham ran away and hid in the mountains.
Abimelech,however,was acclaimed King by the people of Shechem,and there was a great celebration.
During the next four years,Abimelech and his chief lieutenant,Zebul,maintained themselves and forced several other villages and cities to recognise their rule.Once in a while they heard of Jotham.The boy was apt to appear unexpectedly at some market-place,to denounce his wicked brother.Abimelech,however,did not care.Jotham did not have a penny in the world and had no following.His violent denunciations of his bloodthirsty brother were a futile waste of words.They merely amused the crowd.
The glory of Shechem,however,did not last very long.Abimelech was self-willed and stupid.Soon his subjects grew discontented.A man named Gaal made himself the centre of an insurrection.In the fighting which followed,Abimelech and Zebul were victorious.Gaal and his men were driven into a high stone tower.
When Abimelech could not capture this stronghold,he sent his soldiers into the forests for fire-wood.This he heaped up in large piles at the foot of the Tower and Gaal and his followers were all burned to death.
A few years later,however,there was another uprising in the town of Thebez.Again Abimelech defeated the rebels and for a second time,his enemies barricaded themselves in a tower.But when Abimelech tried to roast them alive (as he had done with the people of Shechem)and stepped proudly forward to set fire to this human funeral pyre,a woman leaned out of one of the upper stories and threw a rock at him.That rock broke his back.Foolish Abimelech,rather than be killed by a woman,told one of his men to put him out of his misery before he should die of his wound.
For a short while afterwards there was an end to these ill-starred efforts to unite the tribes of Israel into a single kingdom.But the border warfare and inter-tribal strife became worse than before.First the Midianites threatened to conquer all the lands on both sides of the Jordan.A few years later the Ammonites tried to do the same thing.
They burned and plundered so many villages that the Jews forgot their own quarrels long enough to fight the common enemy.They chose Jephthah,of the tribe of Manasseh,as their commander-in-chief.Jephthah was a God-fearing man and soon the power of Ammon was broken.
But even in the hour of victory,the old quarrels between the tribes continued with terrible bitterness.Some of the soldiers accused others (who belonged to the tribe of Ephraim)of having been lax in their duties.The Ephraimites,who unfortunately for themselves had arrived upon the field of battle just when the enemy began his retreat,answered that they were sorry but that they could not help being late.They had had to come all the way from the other side of the river and it was a long distance.Jephthah,however,who was a good deal of a fanatic,accepted no apologies,and would not listen to explanations.
He sent guards to all the fords across the Jordan and gave orders that no one be allowed to pass.
