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Page 28
After this, as long as Gideon lived, he ruled as Judge in Israel. The
people wished him to make himself a king.
"Rule over us as king," they said, "and let your son be king after you,
and his son king after him."
But Gideon said:
"No, you have a king already; for the Lord God is the King of Israel. No
one but God shall be king over these tribes."
Of all the fifteen men who ruled as Judges of Israel, Gideon, the fifth
Judge, was the greatest, in courage, in wisdom, and in faith in God.
THE STORY OF SAMSON, THE STRONG MAN
Now we are to learn of three judges who ruled Israel in turn. Their
names were Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. None of these were men of war, and in
their days the land was quiet.
But the people of Israel again began to worship idols; and as a
punishment God allowed them once more to pass under the power of their
enemies. The seventh oppression, which now fell upon Israel, was by far
the hardest, the longest and the most widely spread of any, for it was
over all the tribes. It came from the Philistines, a strong and warlike
people who lived on the west of Israel upon the plain beside the Great
Sea. They worshipped an idol called Dagon, which was made in the form of
a fish's head on a man's body.
These people, the Philistines, sent their armies up from the plain
beside the sea to the mountains of Israel and overran all the land. They
took away from the Israelites all their swords and spears, so that they
could not fight; and they robbed their land of all the crops, so that
the people suffered for want of food. And as before, the Israelites in
their trouble, cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard their prayer.
In the tribe-land of Dan, which was next to the country of the
Philistines, there was living a man named Manoah. One day an angel came
to his wife and said:
"You shall have a son, and when he grows up he will begin to save Israel
from the hand of the Philistines. But your son must never drink any wine
or strong drink as long as he lives. And his hair must be allowed to
grow long and must never be cut, for he shall be a Nazarite under a vow
to the Lord."
When a child was given especially to God, or when a man gave himself to
some work for God, he was forbidden to drink wine, and as a sign, his
hair was left to grow long while the vow or promise to God was upon him.
Such a person as this was called a Nazarite, a word which means "one who
has a vow"; and Manoah's child was to be a Nazarite, and under a vow, as
long as he lived.
The child was born and was named Samson. He grew up to become the
strongest man of whom the Bible tells. Samson was no general, like
Gideon or Jephthah, to call out his people and lead them in war. He did
much to set his people free; but all that he did was by his own
strength.
When Samson became a young man he went down to Timnath, in the land of
the Philistines. There he saw a young Philistine woman whom he loved,
and wished to have as his wife. His father and mother were not pleased
that he should marry among the enemies of his own people. They did not
know that God would make this marriage the means of bringing harm upon
the Philistines and of helping the Israelites.
As Samson was going down to Timnath to see this young woman, a hungry
lion came out of the mountain, roaring against him. Samson seized the
lion, and tore him in pieces as easily as another man would have killed
a little kid of the goats, and then went on his way. He made his visit
and came home, but said nothing to any one about the lion.
After a time Samson went again to Timnath for his marriage with the
Philistine woman. On his way he stopped to look at the dead lion; and in
its body he found a swarm of bees, and honey which they had made. He
took some of the honey and ate it as he walked, but told no one of it.
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