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inhabitants were put to death excepting four hundred young, unmarried women, whom they brought back with them to the camp at Shiloh, the destined wives of the surviving Benjamites. These, it will be recollected, to the number of six hundred, had escaped to the neighborhood of Rimmon, and were hoping to remain secure in the fastnesses of a rock there. An embassy was sent to them by the Israelites, speaking words of peace; inviting them to come forth without fear of molestation; and offering them as wives the female captives from Jabesh-Gilead.

The Benjamites readily accepted these proposals. Two hundred of them, however, would be still unprovided with wives; and this deficiency, it was universally agreed, must by some means be supplied. But there was a great difficulty in the way of doing this. The people had sworn;— "Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin." This oath they held sacred, or rather would seem to hold sacred; for they contrived a mode of evading it, as they thought, but which in fact resulted in its violation. They had much better have acknowledged their guilt in making so rash a vow, and sought forgiveness for doing it, thus having the way opened for any new and unincumbered path of duty. But, like many others who aim at consistency even in wickedness, they endeavored to appease the rebukes of con

science, by adhering, as they would maintain, to the strict letter of the oath, while the spirit of it was disregarded.

There was soon to be a sacred festival of a peculiar kind near Shiloh. It happened once a year. A part of it would consist in the young women of that place coming out to join in dances in the neighborhood of the vineyards. The Benjamites were told that this occasion would afford them the opportunity of seizing as many of the daughters of Shiloh as they needed, to furnish the remaining two hundred with wives. If the fathers or brethren of the young women should complain, then, said the Israelites, we will interpose in your behalf. "We will say unto them, be favorable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty ;"-ye have not violated the oath, inasmuch as the young women were carried off by force, and without your consent.

The plot was laid. The Benjamites, as directed, concealed themselves in the vineyards, and coming unexpectedly upon those who were engaged in the dances, secured their prize. There seems to have been no serious difficulty growing out of the transaction. If offended, the parents and relatives of the young women yielded to the general remonstrance; and the Benjamites, re

turning to their homes, rebuilt their cities, and gradually regained their usual prosperity. The various tribes, too, went back to their respective territories; while the sacred narrative again informs us, as if to account for these singular and sinful transactions, that "in those days there. was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes."

CHAPTER VI.

The king of Mesopotamia subdues the Israelites. Othniel delivers them. Eglon enslaves Israel.

At the time when the occurrences took place which have been recited in the four preceding chapters, many of the heathen nations still renained in Canaan. They were so numerous that the Israelites are spoken of as dwelling among them ;—a most sinful violation of duty, as they were expressly commanded to drive out the heathen from before them, that they might obtain the entire possession of the promised land. God permitted this to happen through their cri

minal neglect; and the result would show whether they would remain true to their allegiance to him, or be led astray by the idolatrous practices, and other sins of the Canaanites.

Alas! this too soon proved to be the case. The Israelites began to intermarry with the heathen around them; and, as a necessary consequence of this intimacy, adopted the worship of their idol-gods. An entire forgetfulness, in their conversation and conduct, of the true God,-the God of their nation whom they had sworn to love and obey,—soon followed; and they abandoned themselves not only to idolatry, but to other and grievous sins. This they did in defiance of the express commands of Jehovah, and of his numerous warnings and threatenings. What he said to them by the lips of his servant Moses, and which they had recorded for their constant admonition in the book of the law, was a solemn testimony against their wickedness. If any sentiments of gratitude still lingered in their breasts, or their consciences could yet be awakened by appeals the most solemn and affecting, it would seem as if the voice of the Almighty, thus speaking to them, would be heard and felt. "When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee-and when the Lord thy God shall destroy them before thee; thou shalt smite

them and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly."

The command was violated. The warning was unheeded. The penalty was incurred. "Therefore," we are told,-what an awful import in that single word," Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years."

Mesopotamia, the country lying between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, was a great distance from Canaan. It was an expedition of no small magnitude for its powerful monarch to traverse that distance with his armies for the subjugation of the Israelites. What first impelled him to the enterprise; the forces that he had brought with him; the battles which were fought; and the degree of resistance that was made; are passed over in silence in the sacred narrative. All we are told is, that the Israelites were sold into the hand of their oppressor, and that they served him

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