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The Three Hundred Chosen

AFTER AN ENGRAVING BY F. BÖTTCHER IN THE
ANCIENT "BIELE THEATRE" BY PISCATOR.

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"And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men.”—Jud., 7, 6.

OD was by now so nearly forgotten throughout
Israel that He knew that, if the people defeated

G

Midian, they would credit the victory to their own might, not to His. Therefore He told Gideon that his army was too numerous. Gideon proclaimed that all the men who were afraid should return to their homes. Somewhat to his dismay over two-thirds of them took advantage of this permission. Yet there still remained ten thousand resolute men. God declared these also were too many.

Meanwhile, the hordes of Midian, outnumbering the Israelites perhaps a dozen times, had come up against them and lay in wait for them in the valley. God bade Gideon let his men go down to drink at a pool which is still called "the fountain of Gideon." There the leader was to watch which men threw themselves recklessly down to drink from the stream, and which were watchful against the enemy, keeping their heads uplifted and raising the water in their hands. Of all the ten thousand men only three hundred thus proved themselves wary. So Gideon separated these from the rest, and God bade him send the others off to a distance. By these three hundred alone should Israel be rescued.

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JUDGES XV-SAMSON AND THE PHILISTINES

Chapter 15

463

1 Samson is denied his wife. 3 He burneth the Philistines' corn with foxes and firebrands. 6 His wife and her father are burnt by the Philistines. 7 Samson smiteth them hip and thigh. 9 He is bound by the men of Judah, and delivered to the Philistines. 14 He killeth them with a jawbone. 18 God maketh the fountain En-hakkore for him in Lehi.

UT it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her: therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.

3¶ And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.

4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.

5 And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.

6 Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

7¶ And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

9¶Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

10 And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.

11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. 12 And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. 13 And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from

the rock.

14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the

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