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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
The Antiquities of the Jews
Written by Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Book Six
Chapter 5
Saul's Expedition Against The Nation Of The
Ammonites And Victory Over Them And The Spoils He Took From Them
1. After one month, the war which Saul had with Nahash, the king
of the Ammonites, obtained him respect from all the people; for
this Nahash had done a great deal of mischief to the Jews that
lived beyond Jordan by the expedition he had made against them
with a great and warlike army. He also reduced their cities into
slavery, and that not only by subduing them for the present,
which he did by force and violence, but by weakening them by
subtlety and cunning, that they might not be able afterward to
get clear of the slavery they were under to him; for he put out
the right eyes (9) of those that either delivered themselves to
him upon terms, or were taken by him in war; and this he did,
that when their left eyes were covered by their shields, they
might be wholly useless in war. Now when the king of the
Ammonites had served those beyond Jordan in this manner, he led
his army against those that were called Gileadites, and having
pitched his camp at the metropolis of his enemies, which was the
city of Jabesh, he sent ambassadors to them, commanding them
either to deliver themselves up, on condition to have their
right eyes plucked out, or to undergo a siege, and to have their
cities overthrown. He gave them their choice, whether they would
cut off a small member of their body, or universally perish.
However, the Gileadites were so affrighted at these offers, that
they had not courage to say any thing to either of them, neither
that they would deliver themselves up, nor that they would fight
him. But they desired that he would give them seven days'
respite, that they might send ambassadors to their countrymen,
and entreat their assistance; and if they came to assist them,
they would fight; but if that assistance were impossible to be
obtained from them, they said they would deliver themselves up
to suffer whatever he pleased to inflict upon them.
2. So Nabash, contemning the multitude of the Gileadites and the
answer they gave, allowed them a respite, and gave them leave to
send to whomsoever they pleased for assistance. So they
immediately sent to the Israelites, city by city, and informed
them what Nabash had threatened to do to them, and what great
distress they were in. Now the people fell into tears and grief
at the hearing of what the ambassadors from Jabesh said; and the
terror they were in permitted them to do nothing more. But when
the messengers were come to the city of king Saul, and declared
the dangers in which the inhabitants of Jabesh were, the people
were in the same affliction as those in the other cities, for
they lamented the calamity of those related to them. And when
Saul was returned from his husbandry into the city, he found his
fellow citizens weeping; and when, upon inquiry, he had learned
the cause of the confusion and sadness they were in, he was
seized with a divine fury, and sent away the ambassadors from
the inhabitants of Jabesh, and promised them to come to their
assistance on the third day, and to beat their enemies before
sun-rising, that the sun upon its rising might see that they had
already conquered, and were freed from the fears they were
under: but he bid some of them stay to conduct them the right
way to Jabesh.
3. So being desirous to turn the people to this war against the
Ammonites by fear of the losses they should otherwise undergo,
and that they might the more suddenly be gathered together, he
cut the sinews of his oxen, and threatened to do the same to all
such as did not come with their armor to Jordan the next day,
and follow him and Samuel the prophet whithersoever they should
lead them. So they came together, out of fear of the losses they
were threatened with, at the appointed time. And the multitude
were numbered at the city Bezek. And he found the number of
those that were gathered together, besides that of the tribe of
Judah, to be seven hundred thousand, while those of that tribe
were seventy thousand. So he passed over Jordan, and proceeded
in marching all that night, thirty furlongs, and came to Jabesh
before sun-rising. So he divided the army into three companies;
and fell upon their enemies on every side on the sudden, and
when they expected no such thing; and joining battle with them,
they slew a great many of the Ammonites, as also their king
Nabash. This glorious action was done by Saul, and was related
with great commendation of him to all the Hebrews; and he thence
gained a wonderful reputation for his valor: for although there
were some of them that contemned him before, they now changed
their minds, and honored him, and esteemed him as the best of
men: for he did not content himself with having saved the
inhabitants of Jabesh only, but he made an expedition into the
country of the Ammonites, and laid it all waste, and took a
large prey, and so returned to his own country most gloriously.
So the people were greatly pleased at these excellent
performances of Saul, and rejoiced that they had constituted him
their king. They also made a clamor against those that pretended
he would be of no advantage to their affairs; and they said,
Where now are these men? - let them be brought to punishment,
with all the like things that multitudes usually say when they
are elevated with prosperity, against those that lately had
despised the authors of it. But Saul, although he took the
good-will and the affection of these men very kindly, yet did he
swear that he would not see any of his countrymen slain that
day, since it was absurd to mix this victory, which God had
given them, with the blood and slaughter of those that were of
the same lineage with themselves; and that it was more agreeable
to be men of a friendly disposition, and so to betake themselves
to feasting.
4. And when Samuel had told them that he ought to confirm the
kingdom to Saul by a second ordination of him, they all came
together to the city of Gilgal, for thither did he command them
to come. So the prophet anointed Saul with the holy oil in the
sight of the multitude, and declared him to be king the second
time. And so the government of the Hebrews was changed into a
regal government; for in the days of Moses, and his disciple
Joshua, who was their general, they continued under an
aristocracy; but after the death of Joshua, for eighteen years
in all, the multitude had no settled form of government, but
were in an anarchy; after which they returned to their former
government, they then permitting themselves to be judged by him
who appeared to be the best warrior and most courageous, whence
it was that they called this interval of their government the
Judges.
5. Then did Samuel the prophet call another assembly also, and
said to them," I solemnly adjure you by God Almighty, who
brought those excellent brethren, I mean Moses and Aaron, into
the world, and delivered our fathers from the Egyptians, and
from the slavery. they endured under them, that you will not
speak what you say to gratify me, nor suppress any thing out of
fear of me, nor be overborne by any other passion, but say, What
have I ever done that was cruel or unjust? or what have I done
out of lucre or covetousness, or to gratify others? Bear witness
against me, if I have taken an ox or a sheep, or any such thing,
which yet when they are taken to support men, it is esteemed
blameless; or have I taken an ass for mine own use of any one to
his grief? - lay some one such crime to my charge, now we are in
your king's presence." But they cried out, that no such thing
had been done by him, but that he had presided over the nation
after a holy and righteous manner.
6. Hereupon Samuel, when such a testimony had been given him by
them all, said, "Since you grant that you are not able to lay
any ill thing to my charge hitherto, come on now, and do you
hearken while I speak with great freedom to you. You have been
guilty of great impiety against God, in asking you a king. It
behoves you to remember that our grandfather Jacob came down
into Egypt, by reason of a famine, with seventy souls only of
our family, and that their posterity multiplied there to many
ten thousands, whom the Egyptians brought into slavery and hard
oppression; that God himself, upon the prayers of our fathers,
sent Moses and Aaron, who were brethren, and gave them power to
deliver the multitude out of their distress, and this without a
king. These brought us into this very land which you now
possess: and when you enjoyed these advantages from God, you
betrayed his worship and religion; nay, moreover, when you were
brought under the hands of your enemies, he delivered you, first
by rendering you superior to the Assyrians and their forces, he
then made you to overcome the Ammonites and the Moabites, and
last of all the Philistines; and these things have been achieved
under the conduct of Jephtha and Gideon. What madness therefore
possessed you to fly from God, and to desire to be under a king?
- yet have I ordained him for king whom he chose for you.
However, that I may make it plain to you that God is angry and
displeased at your choice of kingly government, I will so
dispose him that he shall declare this very plainly to you by
strange signals; for what none of you ever saw here before, I
mean a winter storm in the midst of harvest, (10) I will entreat
of God, and will make it visible to you." Now, as soon as he had
said this, God gave such great signals by thunder and lightning,
and the descent of hail, as attested the truth of all that the
prophet had said, insomuch that they were amazed and terrified,
and confessed they had sinned, and had fallen into that sin
through ignorance; and besought the prophet, as one that was a
tender and gentle father to them, to render God so merciful as
to forgive this their sin, which they had added to those other
offenses whereby they had affronted him and transgressed against
him. So he promised them that he would beseech God, and persuade
him to forgive them these their sins. However, he advised them
to be righteous, and to be good, and ever to remember the
miseries that had befallen them on account of their departure
from virtue: as also to remember the strange signs God had shown
them, and the body of laws that Moses had given them, if they
had any desire of being preserved and made happy with their
king. But he said, that if they should grow careless of these
things, great judgments would come from God upon them, and upon
their king. And when Samuel had thus prophesied to the Hebrews,
he dismissed them to their own homes, having confirmed the
kingdom to Saul the second time.
Continue on to
Book
Six,
Chapter 6,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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