The period of the Judges was an era of divine intervention so direct that storms fought battles and fires executed corrupt leaders. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, the cycle of sin and salvation repeated itself in increasingly dramatic fashion.
Ehud followed Othniel as judge, and during his time the ancient world was being reshaped. Cities were built across the Mediterranean, ships were launched for the wheat trade, and Troy rose in Dardania. Then came Shamgar, followed by Deborah and Barak, who faced Sisera and his massive chariot army. God did not leave the fighting to Israel alone. He sent a fierce tempest that overwhelmed Sisera's forces with hail, blinding rain, lightning, and thunder. The charioteers could not stand. They fell by the sword in confusion.
Sisera fled on foot and took refuge in the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite. When he fell asleep, Jael drove a tent peg through his temple. Gideon came next, defeating the Midianites with his famous 300 men. But after Gideon's death, his son Abimelech murdered seventy of his own brothers on a single stone to seize power. Only Jotham, the youngest, escaped.
The most shocking episode belonged to Yair, who judged Israel for twenty-two years. Yair built a sanctuary to Baal and commanded all Israel to worship it. Seven righteous men refused, invoking Moses' warning against idolatry. Yair ordered them burned alive. But the fire swerved away from the seven men and instead consumed Yair's own servants. The seven walked out unharmed, while everyone around them was struck blind. Then the flames reached Yair's own house, and God's voice declared: "I promoted you to judge Israel, but you corrupted the people and burned those who remained faithful to Me. They shall live, and you shall die." The fire consumed Yair, his household, Baal, and 10,000 of Baal's followers.
LVIII. (1) Josippon says that the incident of Micah and
the concubine of Gibeah occurred between the time of the
death of Joshua and Othniel, between the times to which
the following verses refer, viz.: ' And Judah captured Azah
and its boundary, and Ekron and Askalon '; and the other,
' And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of
the Lord, and He delivered them into the hands of the
Canaanites. Then the children of Dan built Laish and the
mountain.' For the purpose of enabling us to calculate
174 [LVIII. 2
the days of the judges, this portion was placed at the end
of the Book of Judges.
(2) After Othniel came Ehud. At that time, in the days
of Ehud, the city Cinnereth in Lybia (i^^i^h) was built, and
many ships were built by Tritolymus (^•iD^'plonp), for
carrying wheat, for merchandise. Dionysius built the city
of Niza, in Media; Troy (^^'-no) was built about the same
time in Dardania. There a dog killed Piritius (c^'i^-Dn^s),
and attempted to slay Tisius, and Heraclones (^^^'t^^nn)
saved him. In the sixty-ninth year of Ehud the city Sirine
(^;n>v) in Libia was built. (3) Shamgar succeeded him,
and was followed by Deborah and Barak, who fought with
Sisera. And the Lord confounded Sisera and all his
charioteers and his whole camp with a fierce tempest; and
He overwhelmed them all with hail, and blinding rain and
lightnings and thunders, so that they could no longer stand,
but fell by the sword.
(4) Sisera then fled on foot to the tent of Jael, who went
out to meet him and embraced him. Then, covering him
well, he fell into a deep sleep. And Jael prayed to God,
saying, ' I pray Thee, 0 Lord, strengthen Thy handmaid
against Thy enemy, and by this I shall know that Thou
wilt deliver him into my hand, viz., if I bring him down
from his bed on to the ground, and he does not awake.'
She did accordingly. Then, taking a nail of the tent and
a hammer, she knocked the nail into his temple, according to
Deborah's prophecy. And Barak captured Hasor and slew
its king, and all its inhabitants.
(5) Now, when Sisera went out to fight against Israel
his mother, Tamar, with her maidens and princesses, by
means of their enchantments prophesied, saying that Sisera
would bring as spoil one or more of the women of Israel
with their coloured garments, for she saw in her charms
that he would lie upon the bed of Jael, the wife of Heber,
and be covered with a coloured garment of needlework.
Therefore she said, ' A damsel, two damsels to every
man.'
(6) At that time the kings of Argos, who had reigned for
Lvm. 10] 175
544 years, were destroyed and exterminated, and their
kingdom passed into the hands of Mesenes (t^':;^*''^). In tiie
thirty-ninth year of Deborah's reign the city of Meletus
was built. Gideon succeeded Barak and Deborah. He
asked a sign of the Lord from the fleece of wool. (7) I find
that Gideon asked for yet another sign, for he said, ' Give
me a sign that God has chosen me to deliver Israel just as
He gave to Moses, who delivered the Israelites from Egypt.'
And the angel replied, ' Run and fetch me some water from
that pool and pour it upon this rock. I shall then give
thee a sign.' Having done as he was requested, the angel
said, ' Tell me, shall this water be turned into blood or
fire ?' And Gideon answered, ' Let part of it be turned into
fire and part into blood.' And thus it was, the blood
neither quenching the fire, nor the fire drymg up the blood.
(8) At that time, during the reign of Gideon, Mercorius
(::*-ii<nip'^p) discovered certain islands called Sirenes (C!^^^^t^');
in Ashkenaz they are called Nikes (Nix) (^'i?.\^). The inhabi-
tants were like beautiful women, their lower parts resembling
fishes; and the inhabitants of the forests of the islands
were half men and the other half wild animals and horses.
The wise man Dialus, by means of his cunning (IN^p^s^p'px),
made images and idols and birds of gold and brass, and
having breathed into them, the idols spoke and the images
prophesied while the birds flew about, for he was exceed-
ingly clever in this art. The city of Tyre was built 240
years before the Temple at Jerusalem. (9) After Gideon
Abimelech, the son of his concubine, succeeded him, and at
that time the measure of the Kor (nn) and the art of playing
upon the timbrel were discovered in Greece. Tola, the son
of Phua, succeeded Abimelech. During his reign Erkules
(^^•1P7^) conquered Anteos (D-"i5<''rijis), in Lybia, in the water,
and destroyed the city of Elios (DikS^'pvs) ^Yhen Priamus
reigned in Troy.
(10) Yair the Gileadite rose up after him. He made an
altar unto Baal, and all the Israelites turned after it and
worshipped Baal, except seven righteous men, who did not
worship it. These were their names, Da'al, Abi Yezre'el,
176 [LViii. 10
Gutiel, Shalom, Ashchor, Jonadab, and Shim'i. These said
to Yair, ' We remember what Moses commanded Israel,
saymg, " Take care lest ye tm*n aside from following the
Lord to worship Baal." ' Yair then commanded his
servants to bm^n those men with fire, because they spoke
against Baal. Then, taking the men they cast them into
the fire, but the fire swerved from them and burned instead
the servants of Yair who cast them therein, together with
all his household. And these seven men escaped from the
fire and went on their way, for the men round about them
were struck with blindness so that they could not see them,
and the fire reached the house of Yair, who heard the voice
of the Lord, saying, ' I have promoted thee to be a judge
over Israel; but thou hast corrupted the people and caused
them to turn aside from following the Lord and to worship
Baal, and those who remain steadfast to Me thou hast
burned with fire. But they shall live, and thou shalt die
by being consumed in the flames which shall never be
extinguished.' Thus the Lord consumed Yair and all his
house, and Baal with 10,000 of his followers; and Yair was
buried in Qamon.
(11) At that time Theseus captured Helena, but Castor
and Pollux, the brothers of Theseus, and his mother, were
captured. The city of Carthage (Qar Laini, ^rxDip) was
then built. Nizpa (^^Iv^) invented the Latin alphabet.
