shipped the idols of all the heathen who were round about. They served Baalim and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. Therefore, the Lord again delivered His people into the hand of their enemies. He smote them with the sword of the Philistines and the children of Ammon. And the Ammonites and the Philistines wasted their land, and ate up their harvests and their bread, and carried away their flocks and their herds; so that they were greatly distressed. And when they cried unto the Lord, He would not hearken to their prayer. He bade them remember how many times He had saved them from the hand of their enemies, but they had again forsaken Him, and served other gods. Therefore the Lord said that He would not now deliver them. So for eighteen years the Ammonites oppressed the people of Israel. But after many years of suffering and sorrow, when the children of Israel humbled themselves before the Lord, and confessed their sins, and D About B.C. 1239. put away their idol-gods, and served Him with a true heart, He had again compassion on their misery. Then He raised up Jephthah, a man of Gilead, of the tribe of Dan, to deliver them. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he gathered together the men of Gilead, and led them forth against the Ammonites, and slew them with a great slaughter. So the Ammonites were subdued before the children of Israel. After the overthrow of the Ammonites, Jephthah ruled as chief judge in Israel for six years; and after him, Ibzan, and Elon, and Abdon were judges during twenty-five years. Judges viii. 32-35. ix.-xii. B.C. Chapter XCIEF. THE SERVITUDE OF ISRAEL UNDER THE PHILIS- About ABOUT thirty years after the time of Jephthah, when the children of Israel had again fallen back into their old sins, and did evil in the sight of the 1208. Lord, He delivered them again into the hand of the Philistines. And they remained subject to the Philistines for forty years. The Philistines were a strong and brave people, who dwelt by the sea-shore, on the border of the land of Simeon and Dan. They held many strong cities in the land of Israel, and had kept possession of a large part of the lot of the tribe of Simeon. During the time that the children of Israel were subject to the Philistines, the angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of a man of the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah. Now Manoah's wife had no children; and the angel said that she should bear a son, who should begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. And he commanded her to train up her child as a Nazarite unto God; he was to drink no wine nor strong drink; to keep himself at all times from all unclean things; and the hair of his head was to remain uncut from his childhood up. And the wife of Manoah had a son as the angel had said; and she called his name Samson. And she trained him up as the Lord had commanded, to be a Nazarite from his birth. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. When Samson was about twenty years old, the Spirit of the Lord began to move him to go forth against the Philistines. And the Lord gave him so great strength and courage, that with his own arm he slew very many of the enemies of Israel. He wasted their corn fields. and vineyards with fire, and smote them with a great slaughter, and then he returned and dwelt on the top of the rock Etam, in the land of the tribe of Simeon.ne Then the Philistines gathered together an army, and came up into the land of Judah to seek Samson. And the men of Judah were afraid of the anger of the Philistines, for the Philistines were rulers over them at this time. So they went up to the rock Etam with three thousand men to seek Samson, and give him into their hands. And they took him and bound him with new cords, for Samson did not resist them; and they led him away to the camp of his enemies. When the Philistines saw Samson brought bound to their camp, they shouted for joy. But when Samson heard the shout of his enemies, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he burst the cords that were upon his arms as if they had been flax burnt with fire. And he took a jaw-bone of an ass which he saw upon the ground, and with it he slew of the Philistines heaps upon heaps, even a thousand men. And after this Samson ruled as chief judge in Israel for twenty years. Whilst Samson was chief judge in Israel, the people were still subject to the Philistines; for they would not follow him to fight against them. But so long as he obeyed the command of God, and lived as a Nazarite, his strength was so great that his enemies could not stand before him; and they feared to provoke his anger. But a time came when Samson fell into sin, and broke the commands of God. He loved a woman of the Philistines, whose name was Delilah; and he did not flee from the company of the wicked, as he should have done. And when the lords of the Philistines knew that Samson loved Delilah, they promised to give her money if she would |