Life of Martin & Chronicle 1

1 (1) I have undertaken to compress briefly the things set forth in the sacred Scriptures from the beginning of the world, and to relate them selectively with a distinction of times down to our own memory, many earnestly demanding this of me, who were eager to learn divine matters by a compendious reading; and following their wish, I did not spare my own labour, (2) so as to confine within two little books those things which were contained written in very many volumes, thus aiming at brevity that I have withdrawn almost nothing of the events. (3) Moreover, it seemed to me not absurd, since I had run through the sacred history down to Christ's cross and the acts of the Apostles, to connect also the events that followed;

to speak of the destruction of Jerusalem, the persecutions of the Christian people, and soon the times of peace, and again of all things thrown into turmoil by the internal dangers of the churches. (4) For the rest, I shall not be ashamed to confess that, wherever reason required, in order to distinguish the times and to continue the sequence, I have made use of secular historians, and from these have borrowed what was lacking for the supplement of knowledge, that I might both instruct the unlearned and convince the learned. (5) Nevertheless, in these things which we have set in order abbreviated from the sacred volumes, I would not so present myself as an authority to readers, that, those sources from which they are derived being passed over, these should be sought after; unless someone, when he has come to know those well, should here recognize what he has read there;

(6) for indeed all the mysteries of divine things cannot be drawn except from the very fountains. Now I shall make a beginning of narrating. 2 (1) The world was established by God now almost six thousand years ago, as we shall set forth in the course of this volume; although those who have published their investigation of the reckoning of times agree but little among themselves. (2) Since this comes about either by God's will or by the fault of antiquity, it ought to be free from blame. Now when the world was established, man was made; his name was Adam, the woman's name was Eve. But being set in paradise, when they had tasted of the tree forbidden to them, they were cast out as exiles into our earth, as it were. (3) Then from these were born Cain and Abel; but the impious Cain slew his brother.

He had a son Enoch, by whom a city was first founded, called by the name of its builder. (4) From him was born Irad, and from him Mehujael. He had a son Methuselah, and he begot Lamech, by whom a young man is said to have been slain, yet the name of the slain is not reported; which indeed is judged by the prudent to have been put forth as a sign of a future mystery. (5) Therefore Adam, after the death of his younger son, begot a son Seth, when he had now completed his two hundred and thirtieth year of age; and he lived nine hundred and thirty years. Seth begot Enos, Enos Cainan, Cainan Mahalalel, Mahalalel Jared, Jared Enoch; who is said to have been translated by God on account of his righteousness. (6) His son was called Methuselah, who begot Lamech;

from whom Noah was born, eminent in righteousness, and beyond other mortals dear and acceptable to God. (7) At which season, when the human race now abounded, the angels, whose seat was heaven, captivated by the form of beautiful maidens, sought after unlawful lusts; and degenerate from their own nature and origin, leaving the higher regions whose inhabitants they were, they mingled themselves in marriages with mortals. (8) These, little by little sowing noxious morals, corrupted the human progeny, and from their union the Giants are said to have been brought forth, since the mingling of natures diverse among themselves begot monsters. 3 (1) Offended by which things God, and most of all by the malice of men, which had advanced beyond measure, had decreed utterly to destroy the human race.

But Noah, a righteous man, was spared the appointed sentence by his blameless life. (2) Warned by God that a flood threatened the earth, he wove together from timber an ark of immense size and, smearing it with pitch, made it impervious to the waters. In it he was shut up with his wife, his three sons, and as many daughters-in-law; pairs of birds also, and likewise of beasts of every kind, were received into that same enclosure, while all else was swept away by the flood. (3) So Noah, when he perceived that the force of the rains had now ceased and that the ark was being carried about over a quiet sea, judging—as was indeed the case—that the waters were receding, sent out first a raven to explore the matter; and when it did not return—detained, as I suppose, by the corpses—he sent out a dove.

When the dove found no place to settle, it returned. (4) Sent out again, it brought back an olive leaf, a clear sign that the tops of the trees were laid bare. Sent out a third time, at last it did not return; from this it was understood that the waters had ceased. (5) Thus Noah went forth from the ark. This took place, as I find, two thousand two hundred and forty-two years after the beginning of the world. 4 (1) And first Noah built an altar to God and offered sacrifices from the birds. Soon he was blessed by God together with his sons, and received a command that he should not eat blood nor shed the blood of man, because at the very beginnings of the world the book of Cain had stained this commandment. (2) So, the world being then empty, the seed sprang from the sons of Noah; for he had three: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

But Ham, because he had laughed at his father lying drunk with wine, earned a curse from his father. (3) His son, named Cush, begot the giant Nimrod, by whom the city of Babylon is said to have been built. Many other towns also are recorded as founded at that time, which it was not my intention to recount by name. (4) But although the human race was multiplying and mortals occupied diverse lands and islands, yet all used one language, until the multitude, which was to be scattered over the whole world, gathered itself into one place. (5) After the manner of human disposition, their plan was to seek fame by some notable work before they should be parted from one another.

(6) So they set about making a tower that should reach to heaven; but by God's will, that the labours of the workers might be hindered, they spoke in a manner of tongues much different from their accustomed kind of speech, and unintelligible to one another. Thereby they were the more readily scattered, since each easily abandoned the other as a stranger. (7) But to the sons of Noah the world was so divided that Shem was contained within the East, Japheth within the West, and Ham within the regions between. Thus the line of descent drawn down to Abraham held nothing especially notable or memorable in itself. 5 (1) Now Abraham was born of his father Terah in the one thousand and seventieth year after the flood. Abraham's wife was called Sarah, and his first dwelling was in the region of the Chaldeans. Thence he sojourned at Haran together with his father.

(2) At that time, being warned by God, leaving his native home and his father, and taking with him Lot his brother's son, he set out into the land of the Canaanites and settled in a place named Shechem. (3) Soon, because of a scarcity of grain, he withdrew into Egypt, and again returned. Lot, having parted from his uncle on account of the multitude of the household, so that they might make use of the wider spaces of the then unoccupied region, settled in Sodom. That town was notorious for its inhabitants, men assaulting men, and on that account it is recorded to have been hateful to God. (4) At that time the kings of neighbouring nations were in arms; whereas before there had been no conflict among mortals.

But against these who were attacking the neighbouring regions with war, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and of the nearby regions burst forth into battle, and, routed at the first onset, yielded the victory. Then Sodom was plundered by the victors and became spoil for the enemy, and Lot was led away into captivity. (5) When Abraham had learned this, swiftly arming his servants, three hundred and eighteen in number, he stripped of their plunder and arms the kings, fierce with victory, and drove them into flight. (6) Then he was blessed by Melchizedek the priest, and gave to him the tithes of the spoil. The rest he restored to those from whom it had been seized. 6 (1) About the same time God spoke to Abraham, and promised that his seed should be multiplied like the sands of the sea and the stars of heaven.

And it was foretold that his seed should be sojourners, and that his descendants would endure servitude for four hundred years on a hostile soil, and afterwards be restored to liberty. (2) Then for him and his wife the name was changed by the addition of a single letter; so that now from Abram he is called Abraham, and from Sarai, Sarah. The not-empty mystery of this matter it is not the purpose of this work to expound. (3) At the same time the law of circumcision was imposed upon Abraham. He had moreover a son Ishmael by a handmaid. And when he himself was a hundred years old, and his wife ninety, God promised them a son to come, Isaac—God who had come to him with two angels.

(5) Then the angels, sent to Sodom, found Lot sitting in the gate; and when he, thinking them men, had received them with hospitality and was entertaining them after supper in his house, the wicked youth of the town clamoured for the new guests to abuse them shamefully. Lot, offering his daughters in place of his guests, when those who craved rather what was unlawful would not consent, was himself being dragged off to be abused. (5) The angels, swiftly delivering him from outrage, poured blindness upon the eyes of the shameless ones. Then Lot, instructed by his guests that the town was to be destroyed, went out swiftly with his wife and daughters; yet it was forbidden them to look back.

(6) But the woman, too little heedful of the command—by that human fault whereby one hardly abstains from what is forbidden—turned back her eyes, and is recorded to have been at once changed into a heap. (7) But Sodom blazed up with divine fires. Lot's daughters, however, thinking that the human race had perished, made their drunken father drunk and sought his bed; whence Moab and Ammon were born. 7 (1) About the same time, when Abraham was now a hundred years old, his son Isaac was born. Then Sarah drove out the handmaid by whom Abraham had begotten a son; she is recorded to have dwelt in the desert together with her son and to have been defended by the protection of God. (2) Not long after, God, testing Abraham's faith, demanded that his son Isaac be offered to Him in sacrifice by his father.

He, not hesitating to offer him, when he had laid the boy upon the altar and was drawing his sword, a voice was sent from heaven that he should spare the boy; a ram was at hand as the victim. And the sacrifice being completed, God spoke to Abraham, promising those things which He had already pledged. (3) But Sarah, when she was passing her hundred and twenty-seventh year, departed; her body, by her husband's care, was buried in Hebron, a town of the Canaanites, for there Abraham was dwelling. (4) Then Abraham, seeing Isaac his son of youthful age—since indeed he was passing his fortieth year—commanded his servant to seek a wife for him, yet from that tribe and land from which he himself appeared to have sprung;

only that he should bring the girl, once found, into the region of the Canaanites, and should not suppose that he would return to his native soil for the sake of a wife. And that the servant might diligently carry out these commands, having touched his master's thigh, he gave an oath. (5) So the servant set out into Mesopotamia and came to the town of Nahor, Abraham's brother. He came into the house of Bethuel the Syrian, born of his father Nahor; and catching sight of his daughter Rebekah, a beautiful virgin, he asked for her and brought her to his master. (6) After this Abraham took a wife named Keturah, who in Chronicles is called a concubine, and begot sons by her. But to Isaac, born of Sarah, he handed over his substance, while to those whom he had begotten of concubines he distributed gifts. And so they were separated from Isaac.

(7) Abraham reached the end of his days, having completed a hundred and seventy-five years; his body was laid in the tomb of Sarah his wife. 8 (1) But Rebekah, long barren, by the constant prayers of her husband to the Lord, about the twentieth year from the day of her marriage, brought forth twins; who are recorded often to have struggled in their mother's womb, and it was said by the response of God that two peoples were foretold in them, and that the elder should be made subject to the rule of the younger. But the first brought forth, rough with bristles, was called Esau; the younger had the name Jacob. (2) At that time a severe scarcity of grain had set in. By this necessity Isaac withdrew into Gerar, to king Abimelech, being warned by the Lord not to go down into Egypt;

and the possession of all that land was promised to him, and there he was blessed; and being multiplied in cattle and all substance, he was driven out by the inhabitants through their envy. Driven out, he settled at the well of the oath. (3) Then, being heavier with years, his eyesight clouded, when he was preparing to bless his son Esau, by the counsel of his mother Rebekah, Jacob presented himself to be blessed in place of his brother. Thus Jacob, to be worshipped by princes and nations, was set above his brother. (4) Inflamed by these things, Esau was plotting his brother's death. Through this fear Jacob, at his mother's urging, fled into Mesopotamia, warned by his father to take a wife from the house of Laban, Rebekah's brother; so great was their care that, though they dwelt in foreign lands, they should yet draw their lineage from within their own family.

(5) So Jacob, having set out into Mesopotamia, is recorded to have seen the Lord in sleep; and on that account holding the place of the dream as sacred, he took a stone from it, and vowed that, if he returned with prosperity, it should become for him a pillar of the house of God, and that he would give to God the tithes of all that he should acquire. (6) Thence he betook himself to Laban his mother's brother, who, recognizing him as his sister's son, received him kindly into hospitality. 9 (1) Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel; but Leah is recorded to have been less comely in her eyes, and Rachel beautiful. Captivated by her beauty, Jacob was burning with love for the maiden, and asking her of her father for himself in marriage, he bound himself to a servitude of seven years. (2) But when the time was fulfilled, Leah was substituted for her;

and again he was subjected to a servitude of seven years, and Rachel was given to him. But we have learned that she was long barren, while Leah was fruitful. (3) The names of the sons whom Jacob had by Leah are these: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah; by Leah's handmaid were born Gad and Asher, by Rachel's handmaid Dan and Naphtali. But Rachel, now despairing of childbearing, brought forth Joseph. (4) Then Jacob, desiring to return to his father, when Laban his father-in-law had given him a part of the flocks as the wage of his servitude, and that too little—Jacob the son-in-law, reckoning him unfair to himself and suspecting trickery from him, set out secretly about the twentieth year after he had come. Rachel, her husband unaware, carried off her father's idols by theft;

by which wrong Laban pursued his son-in-law; but the idols not being found, peace was made and he returned, earnestly adjuring his son-in-law not to take other wives over his daughters. (5) Setting out thence, Jacob is recorded to have seen angels and the camp of God. But when he was directing his journey past the region of Edom, which his brother Esau inhabited, having first sent envoys and gifts, he sounded out his brother, who was suspect to him. Then Esau came forth to meet his brother; yet Jacob did not further trust himself to his brother. (6) But on the day before the brothers met together, God, having taken on human form, is reported to have wrestled with Jacob. And although Jacob had prevailed against God, yet he was not ignorant that He was not mortal; he begged earnestly to be blessed by Him.

(7) Then his name was changed by God, so that from Jacob he should be called Israel. But when he in turn sought from God the name of God, the answer was that it should not be sought, because it was wonderful. From the wrestling, moreover, the breadth of Jacob's thigh went numb. 10 (1) So Israel, turning aside from his brother's house, advanced his band to Salem, a town of the Shechemites, and there, having received the place for a price, set up a tent for himself. Over this town Hamor, prince of the Hivites, presided. (2) His son Shechem subjected to defilement Dinah, the daughter of Jacob born of Leah. When this was discovered, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, by a stratagem destroyed all the male sex in the town, and energetically avenged the wrong done to their sister; the town was plundered by the sons of Jacob and all the spoil carried off.

(3) Jacob is recorded to have taken this deed very ill. Soon, warned by God, he sought Bethel and there set up an altar to God. Thence he pitched his tent in the part of the tower of Eder. Rachel died in childbirth; the boy was called Benjamin. Isaac departed at the age of a hundred and eighty years. (4) But Esau was powerful in riches, having taken to himself wives even from the nation of the Canaanites; whose offspring I have not thought fit to insert in so condensed a work. If anyone is more zealous, let him return to the source. After his father's passing, Jacob dwelt in that same soil in which Isaac had lived. His sons at one time went off with their flocks for the sake of pasture, while Joseph, however, and little Benjamin remained at home.

(6) Joseph was very dear to his father and on that account hateful to his brothers, especially because by his frequent dreams it seemed to be portended that he should become greater than all. So, sent by his father to inspect the flocks and to visit his brothers again, he proved a fit object for outrage. (7) For at the sight of their brother they formed a plan to kill him. But Reuben resisting—whose mind shrank from so great a crime—he was let down into a pit; soon, at Judah's persuasion, they were brought to a milder counsel and sold him to traders who were then making for Egypt. And by these he was handed over to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. 11 (1) About the same time Judah, Jacob's son, took in marriage Shua, a Canaanite woman. By her he raised three sons: Er, Onan, Shelah.

But Er was joined in wedlock to Tamar. When he died, Onan took his brother's wife; who, because he poured his seed upon the ground, is recorded to have been put to death by God. (2) Then Tamar, having put on the garb of a harlot, lay with her father-in-law, and by him brought forth twins. (3) In that birth, moreover, there was a marvel: for when, to discern which should be born first, the midwife had bound with scarlet the hand of the boy as he came forth, the boy, drawn back into his mother's womb, was born later. The infants were given the names Perez and Zerah. (4) But Joseph, when he was kindly treated by the royal steward who had bought him for a price, and managed his house and household, himself handsome and of striking appearance, had turned upon himself the eyes of his master's wife.

And when she was perishing with base love, having often solicited him and he not yielding to her, she defamed him with a false crime and complained to her husband that defilement had been attempted upon her. Thus Joseph was cast into prison. There were in the same custody two of the king's servants; (5) who, when they had related their dreams to Joseph, divining the future from the dream, he declared that one of them should pay the penalty with his head, the other should be acquitted. And so it came to pass. Then after two years a dream was set before the king. (6) When it could not be unravelled by the wise men of the Egyptians, that servant of the king, released from prison, reminded the king that Joseph was a wonderful interpreter of dreams. (7) So Joseph was loosed and interpreted the king's dream;

that in the next seven years there would be the greatest abundance of crops, and in those following, scarcity. Struck with this fear, the king, seeing the divine spirit in Joseph, set him over the matter of grain-supply, making his power equal to his own. (8) Then Joseph, the grain abounding throughout all Egypt, gathered a great store; and, multiplying granaries, had provided against the coming famine. At that time the hope and salvation of Egypt rested in him. (9) About the same time he begot two sons by Asenath, Manasseh and Ephraim; he himself, when he received the highest power from the king, was thirty years old; for at seventeen years of age he had been sold by his brothers. 12 (1) Meanwhile, matters in Egypt against famine being well arranged, a grievous scarcity of grain was shaking the world.

Compelled by this necessity, Jacob sent his sons into Egypt, keeping only Benjamin at home with him. (2) So they came to Joseph, who was master of affairs and in whose hands was the control of the grain-supply, and bowed before him after the royal manner. Seeing them, he, craftily concealing his recognition, charged that they had come in hostility and were slyly spying out the places. (3) He was troubled, however, because he did not see his brother Benjamin. The matter therefore was brought to this point: that they should promise his presence—doubtless that it might be inquired of him whether these men had entered Egypt for the sake of spying. As pledge of the promise, Simeon was handed over as a hostage; to themselves the grain was given freely. So, returning again, they brought down Benjamin, as had been agreed.

(4) Then Joseph made himself known to his brothers, not without shame on the part of those who had ill deserved of him. So, loading them with grain and bestowing many gifts, he sent them home, forewarning them that the famine would still last five years; that they should migrate, with their father and all their offspring and household. (5) Thus Jacob went down into Egypt, the Egyptians greatly rejoicing, the king glad, and he was kindly received by his son. This took place in the hundred and thirtieth year of Jacob's age, and in the one thousand three hundred and sixtieth year from the flood. Moreover, from the time when Abraham settled in the land of the Canaanites to that in which Jacob entered Egypt, two hundred and fifteen years are reckoned.

(6) So Jacob, in the seventeenth year after he had come into Egypt, pressed by illness, adjured his son Joseph to render his body to the tomb. (7) Then Joseph offered his sons to be blessed; and when they were blessed—though by the merit of the blessing he set the younger before the elder—he hallowed all his sons with a blessing. He died, moreover, at the age of a hundred and forty-seven years. The funeral was magnificently provided for; Joseph laid the body in the tomb of his fathers. (8) After his father's death, the brothers, fearful by reason of their conscience, he treated kindly. Joseph himself, moreover, died in the hundred and tenth year of his age. 13 (1) So the Hebrews, who had come into Egypt—it is incredible to relate how quickly they were increased in number, and, their offspring being multiplied, filled Egypt.

(2) But the king who had cherished them kindly on account of Joseph's merits being dead, they were oppressed by the rule of the succeeding kings. For both the hard work of building cities was imposed upon them, and—because the now overflowing multitude was feared, lest at some time they should claim liberty by arms—they were compelled by royal edict to drown in the waters the little ones newly born. (3) Nor was it permitted to disguise the bloody command. At that time the daughter of Pharaoh took up an infant found in the river to be nursed as her own son; she gave the boy the name Moses. (4) This Moses, when he was in his manly years, beheld a Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian; moved with grief at this, vindicating his brother from the wrong, he slew the Egyptian, struck down with a blow.

(5) Soon, fearing punishment for the deed, he fled into the land of Midian; and lodging with Jethro, the priest of that region, he took his daughter Zipporah in marriage, and by her raised two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. (6) In this span of times Job lived, embracing by the law of nature both the knowledge of God and all righteousness, exceedingly rich in possessions and the more illustrious in this, that he was neither corrupted by them while intact nor depraved by their loss. (7) For when, through the devil, he had been stripped of his goods and bereaved even of his children, and at the last afflicted with dreadful ulcers, he could not be overcome so as to sin in any part through impatience of grief. (8) Having at length obtained the reward of the divine testimony, restored to health, he received double all that he had lost.

14 (1) But the Hebrews, pressed by the multiplied evil of their servitude, with their complaints turned toward heaven, were awaiting the hope of help from God. Then to Moses, as he was pasturing sheep, a bush suddenly seemed to burn, yet—what was more marvellous—unharmed by the flames. (2) Astounded by this strange thing, he drew nearer to the bush, and at once God spoke to him in words to about this effect: that He was the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose offspring, oppressed by the dominion of the Egyptians, He desired to be snatched from their evils; that he should therefore go to the king of Egypt and show himself the leader of the people to be restored to liberty. As he hesitated, He confirmed him with power, imparting to him the virtue of working signs.

(3) So Moses, having set out into Egypt, first showing signs among his own people, taking his brother Aaron, approached the king; he declared that he had been sent by God, and that he spoke the words of God, that he should let the Hebrew people go. But the king, denying that he knew the Lord, refused to obey the command. (4) And when Moses, in testimony of God's commands, had made a serpent from his rod, and soon had turned all the waters into blood and filled the whole land with frogs—the Chaldeans doing the like—he pronounced that whatever was done by Moses was magic arts rather than the power of God, until, locusts being brought on, the land was filled, the Chaldeans confessing that these things were done by divine majesty.

(5) Then the king, constrained by the calamity, having summoned Moses and Aaron to himself, gave the people leave to depart, only on condition that they should avert the calamity that had been brought on. (6) But when the calamity was removed, his ungoverned spirit, returning into itself, would not suffer the Israelites to go forth as had been agreed. At the last he was crushed and overcome by ten plagues of body and of his kingdom. 15 (1) But on the day before the people went forth from Egypt, those still untaught of the seasons were instructed by the commands of God: that they should recognize that month, which was then current, to be the first of all months; that the sacrifice of that day was to be celebrated as a solemnity of the ages to come in this manner—that on the fourteenth day of the month an unblemished, year-old lamb should be slain as the victim, and the doorposts smeared with its blood;

the flesh was to be eaten entirely, but the bone not to be broken; for seven days they should abstain from leaven and use unleavened bread, and hand down this rite to their posterity. (2) Thus the people went forth, rich both in their own resources and the more heaped up with the spoils of Egypt; whose number had grown, from the seventy-five Hebrews who first went down into Egypt, to six hundred thousand men ... and this in the four hundred and thirtieth year from the time when Abraham first came to the land of the Canaanites, and the one thousand five hundred and seventy-fifth from the flood. (3) So, as they went forth in haste, a pillar of cloud was carried before them by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

But since, because of the intervening gulf of the Red Sea, the road led past the land of the Philistines, lest afterwards, the Hebrews disdaining the desert, a means of returning into Egypt by a known route through continuous lands should lie open to them, by God's will they were turned aside and brought to the Red Sea, and there, lingering, they pitched their camp. When this was announced to the king—that the Hebrew people, by error of the road, had come down to the sea that barred them, and that there was no exit for them, the element opposing—mad in spirit, since he was tormented that so many thousands of men should depart from his kingdom and power, he swiftly led out his army.

(5) And now from afar arms and standards, and battle-lines extended over the wide open plains, were being seen, while the Hebrews trembled with fear and gazed at heaven; then Moses, warned by God, struck the sea with his rod and divided it. (6) Thus for the people, the waters yielding to either side, the way was passable as if upon dry land. Nor did the Egyptian king hesitate to follow those who yielded, entering the sea where it lay open; soon, the waters coming together, he was destroyed with his whole army. 16 (1) Then Moses, exulting in the safety of his own and the destruction of the enemy, sang a song to God, and the whole throng of male and female sex did likewise. (2) But as they entered the desert, when they had now journeyed for three days, the want of water pressed hard, and that which was found, on account of its bitterness, was not for use.

(3) And then first appeared the obstinacy of the impatient people, and now it was directed against Moses, when, taught by God, he cast a piece of wood into the waters, whose power was such that it rendered the flowing waters of a sweet savour. (4) Thence the band, being advanced, settled at Elim, where twelve fountains of water and seventy palm-trees were found. Again the people, complaining of hunger, reproached Moses, longing for the servitude of Egypt with fullness of belly; then a flock of quails, sent from above, filled the camp. (5) But on the following day those who had gone forth outside the camp noticed the ground covered with certain small pods; whose appearance was after the manner of coriander seed, of an icy whiteness, as we often see the earth in winter months covered with the frosts spread over it.

(6) Then through Moses the people were admonished that this bread had been sent to them as a gift of God; that each one ought to take of it only so much as was sufficient for a single day according to the number of individuals, in vessels prepared for the purpose; yet on the sixth day, because it might not be gathered on the sabbath, they should take a double portion in advance. (7) But the people, as ever too little heedful of the command, after the manner of human disposition, did not curb their greed, looking to the morrow as well out of what they had hidden away. But what was stored up boiled up with a foul stench into worms, (8) while what had been reserved on the sixth day for the sabbath remained whole. This food the Hebrews used for forty years, whose savour was next to honey; its name is handed down as manna. And in testimony of the divine gift, Moses is said to have reserved a full omer in a golden vessel.

17 (1) Advancing thence, the people, being tried by want of water, with difficulty refrained from the destruction of their leader. Then Moses, at the Lord's command, striking the rock with his rod at a place named Horeb, brought forth a great abundance of water. (2) But when they reached Rephidim, the Amalekites were ravaging the people with their incursions. Moses, having led out his men into battle, when he had set Joshua over those who fought, taking Aaron and Hur, to be a spectator of the fight and at the same time for the sake of praying to the Lord, ascended the mountain. But when the lines had clashed with doubtful outcome, by the prayers of Moses, Joshua the victor cut down the enemy until nightfall.

(3) About the same time Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, with his daughter Zipporah—who was married to Moses and had remained at home when her husband set out into Egypt—and with Moses' children, having learned of the things that were being done through Moses, came to him. (4) By his counsel Moses distributed the orders of the people, appointing tribunes and centurions and decurions, and handed down to posterity a necessary rite of discipline; Jethro returned to his own country. (5) Thence they came to Mount Sinai. There Moses was warned by the Lord that the people should be sanctified, being about to hear the voices of God; and this was carefully seen to. But when God stood upon the mountain, the air was shaken with mighty blasts of trumpets, and thick clouds with frequent lightnings rolled around.

(6) But Moses and Aaron stood near the Lord at the summit of the mountain, while the people stood around the foot of the mountain. Thus the law was given, manifold and copious in the words of God, and often repeated; of which if anyone shall be more curious, let him go to the source itself; we touch upon it briefly. (7) "You shall not have," He says, "strange gods before me; you shall not make for yourself an idol; you shall not take the name of your God in vain; on the sabbath you shall do no work; honour your father and your mother; you shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness against your neighbour; you shall not covet anything of your neighbour's."

18 (1) When these things had been said by God, while the trumpets sounded round about, the torches blazed, and smoke covered the mountain, the people shuddered with fear, unable to bear the words of God; and they begged of Moses that God should speak to him alone, and that thus, having heard, he should report them to the people. (2) Now the decrees of God to Moses are of this kind: A Hebrew boy bought with money shall serve six years, after this he shall be free; but to one remaining of his own will in servitude, the ear shall be pierced. He who has killed a man shall pay the penalty with his head; he who has done it unwittingly shall duly be an exile. He who has struck his father or mother, or spoken abuse to them, shall be punished with capital punishment. (3) If anyone has sold a Hebrew who has been kidnapped, he shall be given over to death.

If anyone has struck his own male or female slave and from that blow the slave has died, he shall be made guilty in judgment. If anyone has caused a woman to miscarry an unformed offspring ... he shall be put to death. If anyone has knocked out the eye or tooth of a slave, the slave shall be freed in compensation. (4) If a bull has killed a man, it shall be stoned; if its owner, knowing the beast's defect, has not taken precaution against it, he too shall be stoned, or let him redeem himself with a price, to the amount the accuser shall demand. If a bull has killed a slave, money shall be paid to the master in thirty didrachmas. If anyone has not covered a dug pit, and a beast has fallen into the pit, he shall give the price of the beast to its owner. If a bull has killed another's bull, the beast shall be sold and they shall share the price between the owners, and they shall also divide the one that was killed.

But if the owner, knowing the ox to be vicious, has not taken precautions, he shall surrender the ox. (6) If anyone steals a calf, he shall make fivefold restitution; if he steals a sheep, the penalty shall be fourfold; if the animals are found alive in the rustler's possession, he shall make twofold restitution. It is lawful to kill a thief by night, but not by day. If anyone's cattle have grazed down another's crops, the owner of the cattle shall make good the damage. If a deposit is lost, the one with whom it was deposited shall swear that he has done nothing fraudulently. A thief who is caught shall pay double. An entrusted animal seized by a wild beast shall not be made good. (7) If anyone violates a maiden not yet betrothed, he shall provide a dowry for the girl and so take her as his wife; if the girl's father refuses the marriage, the ravisher shall give the dowry.

If anyone couples with a beast, he shall be put to death. (8) Whoever sacrifices to idols shall perish. The widow and orphan are not to be oppressed; the poor debtor is not to be pressed hard, nor is interest to be demanded; the garment of a poor man is not to be taken as a pledge. The ruler of the people is not to be reviled. All firstborn are to be offered to God. Flesh taken by a wild beast is not to be eaten. Conspiracies to bear false witness for any kind of malice are not to be made. [You shall not pass by your enemy's straying animal, but shall lead it back. If you find your enemy's beast collapsed under its burden, you must help it up. (9) You shall not slay the innocent and the just. You shall not justify the wicked for the sake of bribes.] Bribes are not to be accepted. The stranger is to be treated kindly. Work is to be done for six days, and rest taken on the Sabbath.

The produce of the seventh year is not to be reaped, but left for the poor and needy. 19 (1) These, in sum, are the words of God which Moses reported to the people; and he set up an altar of twelve stones at the foot of the mountain. (2) Then again he ascended the mountain on which God was present, taking with him Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders. But these, unable to gaze upon the Lord, nevertheless saw the place where God stood; its wondrous form and surpassing brightness are recounted. Moses, however, summoned by God, entered the inner cloud which had stood about God, and is reported to have remained there forty days and as many nights. (3) During that time he was instructed by the words of God concerning the building of the tabernacle and the ark, and the manner of sacrificing;

But since these things seemed altogether lengthy, I did not think they should be inserted into so concise a work as this. (4) But while Moses delayed rather long, since he spent forty days with the Lord, the people, despairing of his return, compelled Aaron to make images. (5) Then from the molten metals there arose the head of a calf. When the people, forgetful of God, had offered sacrifices to it and given themselves over to wine and gluttony, God, beholding these things, in righteous indignation would have destroyed the wicked people, had He not been entreated by Moses. (6) But Moses, on returning—having brought down two stone tablets written by the hand of God—and finding the people given over to debauchery and sacrilege, shattered the tablets, judging the nation unworthy that the law of the Lord should be delivered to it.

Yet after sharply rebuking them, he gathered the Levites to himself and commanded them to draw their swords and cut down the people. By this onslaught twenty-three thousand men are reported to have been slain. (7) Then Moses set up the tabernacle outside the camp; and as often as he entered it, a pillar of cloud was seen to stand before the doors, and God spoke face to face with Moses. (8) But when Moses asked that he might see the Lord in His own majesty, the answer was that the form of God could not be perceived by mortal eyes, yet it was granted him to see His back parts; and the tablets which Moses had earlier shattered were renewed. But in this converse with God, Moses is reported to have remained with the Lord forty days.

(9) And when he came down from the mountain bearing the tablets, his face shone with such brightness that the people could not look upon him. But when he was about to report God's commands, he covered his face with a veil, and thus spoke to the people the words of God. In this place is recounted the tabernacle and the construction of its inner parts. When this was completed, a cloud descended from above (10) and so overshadowed the tabernacle that it shut out Moses himself from entering. These things, in sum, are contained in two books, Genesis and Exodus. 20 (1) Next follows the book of Leviticus, in which the precepts of offering sacrifice are delivered, and commands are also added to the law set forth above, all of it full of priestly ordinances. Whoever wishes to learn these will gain them more fully there.

For we, keeping to the measure of the work we have undertaken, pursue the narrative alone. (2) Therefore, when the tribe of Levi had been set apart for the priesthood, the remaining tribes were numbered, and six hundred three thousand five hundred men were found. (3) Now since the people fed on the food of manna, as we have related above, ungrateful as ever for so many and so great benefits of God, they longed for the worthless things to which they had grown accustomed in Egypt. (4) Then God brought an immense supply of quails into the camp; and as they greedily snatched at them, they perished with the meat scarcely brought to their lips. And there was a great slaughter in the camp that day, so that twenty-three thousand men are reported to have perished. Thus the people were punished by the very food they had craved. (5) From there the host advanced and came to Paran;

and Moses, instructed by God that the land whose possession God had promised them was near, sent spies into it; and it was reported back that the region was rich in every kind of plenty, but that the peoples were strong and the towns fortified with vast walls. (6) When this became known to the people, a great fear seized the minds of all; and they came to such a pitch of evil that, spurning Moses' command, they made ready to appoint a leader for themselves under whose guidance they might return to Egypt. (7) Then Joshua and Caleb, who had been among the spies of the land, with their garments torn, weeping, implored the people not to believe the spies who reported terrifying things; that they too had been with them, and had found nothing to be feared in that land;

(8) that they ought to trust in the promises of God, and that the enemies would be prey rather than destruction. But the untamed nation, stubbornly resisting sound counsels, was rushing to its own ruin. Moved by these things, God exposed a part of the people to be slaughtered by the enemies, while the spies were killed to strike terror into the multitude. 21 (1) There followed the insolence of those who, under the leadership of Dathan and Abiram, attempted to rise up against Moses and Aaron; but the earth swallowed them up alive in its chasm. (2) And not long after, a sedition arose among the whole people against Moses and Aaron, so much so that they burst into the tabernacle, which it was unlawful for any but the priests to enter. Then indeed death raged among them in droves;

and in a moment all would have perished, had not the Lord, appeased by the prayers of Moses, turned away the calamity. Yet the number of those slain was fourteen thousand seven hundred. (3) And not long after, on account of a scarcity of water—as had already happened rather often—a sedition of the people arose. Then Moses, warned by God to strike the rock with his rod—a method familiar to him, since he had already done so before—struck the rock once and again, and so water flowed out. In this very matter Moses is reported to have been censured by God, because through distrust he brought out the water only with a repeated blow; and finally, on account of this sin, he did not enter the promised land, as I shall show below.

(4) Therefore Moses, advancing from that place, when he prepared to lead the host past Edom, sent envoys to the king and asked leave to pass through, thinking he should refrain from war by reason of kinship of blood; for that nation was descended from Esau. But the king, scorning his suppliants, refused passage, ready to contend in arms. (5) Then Moses turned his march toward Mount Hor, keeping clear of the forbidden way, lest he furnish any cause of war among kinsmen; and in that course he destroyed the king of the nation of the Canaanites. He also struck down Sihon king of the Amorites and seized all their towns; he likewise conquered the kings Og of Bashan and Balak. He pitched camp upon the Jordan not far from Jericho. Then war was waged against the Midianites, and they were defeated and subdued.

(6) Moses died, having ruled over the people for forty years in the wilderness. Moreover, the Hebrews are reported to have remained in the desert for so long a time for this reason: until all who had not believed the words of God should perish. For except Joshua and Caleb, no one over twenty years old who had set out from Egypt crossed the Jordan. (7) That Moses himself only saw the promised land but did not reach it is ascribed to his sin, namely that at the time when he was commanded to strike the rock and bring forth water, after so many proofs of his own powers, he had doubted. (8) He died in the hundred and twentieth year of his age. Of the place of his burial little is known. 22 (1) When Moses had died, the chief power lay with Joshua son of Nun;

for indeed Moses had appointed him as his successor, a man most like himself in virtues. (2) At the outset of his assumed command, dispatching messengers through the camp, he made the people aware that they should prepare provisions, and he announced a march for the next three days. (3) But the river Jordan, exceedingly strong, prevented their crossing, since neither was there a supply of boats for the occasion, nor could the river be forded, as it was then flowing with a full channel. So he commanded that the ark be carried in front by the priests, and that they take their stand in the river facing the current; and when this was done, the Jordan is said to have been cut off; thus the host was led across on dry ground. (4) In these regions there was a town named Jericho, fortified with very strong walls and not easy either to storm or to besiege.

But Joshua, relying on God and not assaulting the city with arms or force, commanded the ark of God to be carried around the walls and the priests to go before the ark and sound the trumpet. And when the ark had been carried around seven times, the walls and towers fell down, and the town was plundered and burned. (5) Then Joshua is reported... Thence the army was led against Ai, and with an ambush set behind the city, Joshua, feigning fear, turned his back to the enemy. Seeing this, those who were in the town, with the gates open, pressed upon the retreating men. Thus those who had been in the ambush took the empty city, and all were slain without any escaping; the king was captured and subjected to the utmost punishment. 23 (1) When this became known to the kings of the neighboring nations, they conspired in war to drive off the Hebrews by arms.

But the Gibeonites, a strong nation from a wealthy city, of their own accord surrendered themselves to the Hebrews, promising to do what was commanded, and were received into a covenant; it was commanded that they should gather wood and water. (2) But their surrender had provoked the wrath of the kings of the neighboring cities. So, bringing up their forces, they laid siege around the Gibeonites' town named Gibeah. The townsmen, therefore, in their straitened circumstances, sent messengers to Joshua, that he might come to the aid of the besieged. (3) Thus he, hastening his march, came upon them unawares, and many thousands of the enemy were cut down to annihilation. When the day was failing the slayers and the night seemed likely to be a protection to the conquered, the Hebrew leader, by the merit of his faith, turned back the night and prolonged the day; thus there was no escape for the enemy. Five kings were captured and put to death.

By the same onslaught the neighboring cities too were added to his rule, and their kings slain. (4) But since it was not my plan to pursue all these things in order, while we strive for brevity, we have taken care to note only this: that twenty-nine kingdoms were subjected to the rule of the Hebrews; and their land was distributed man by man among eleven tribes. For to the Levites, who were taken into the priesthood, no portion was given, that they might serve God more freely. (5) Indeed, I would not pass over this example in silence, and I would gladly press it for the reading of the ministers of the churches. For they seem to me not only forgetful of this precept, but even ignorant of it; so great in our time has the lust of possessing crept upon their minds like a wasting disease.

They gape after possessions, cultivate estates, brood over gold, buy and sell, and in all things are eager for gain. (6) But if any seem of a better resolve, neither owning nor trading—which is far more shameful—they sit waiting for gifts, and hold all the honor of their life corrupted by hire, while they offer up holiness as though it were for sale. (7) But I have digressed farther than I wished, while the times we live in disgust and weary me; I return to my undertaking. Therefore, as I said above, the conquered soil having been divided among the tribes, the Hebrews enjoyed the deepest peace, while their neighbors, terrified by war, were unwilling to try in arms a people renowned for so many victories. (8) In the same period Joshua died, in the hundred and tenth year of his age. But concerning the duration of his rule I make little definite statement;

yet it is the common opinion that he ruled the Hebrews for twenty-seven years. If this is so, from the beginning of the world to his death there are three thousand eight hundred and eighty-four years. 24 (1) When Joshua had died, the people acted without a leader. But when war had to be waged against the Canaanites, Judah was chosen as leader of the war. Under his leadership affairs were prosperously conducted; there was the utmost ease both at home and in war; the people held sway over the nations subdued or received by surrender. (2) Thence, as always tends to happen in prosperity, the people, forgetful of morals and discipline, began to take wives from the conquered, gradually to adopt foreign customs, and soon to sacrifice to idols with profane rite; so utterly pernicious is all fellowship with foreigners.

These things God, foreseeing long beforehand, had instructed the Hebrews by a salutary response: that they should put the conquered nations to annihilation. But the people, eager for dominion, preferred to rule the conquered even at their own peril. (3) Therefore, when, having forsaken God, they worshiped idols, deprived of divine aid, they were overcome and subdued by the king of Mesopotamia and bore captivity for eight years, until, restored to liberty under the leadership of Othniel, they held power for fifty years. (4) And again, corrupted by the evil of a long peace, they sacrificed to idols. And soon punishment was at hand for the sinners; defeated by Eglon king of the Moabites, they were enslaved for eighteen years, until, by the prompting of God, Ehud slew the enemy king by guile and, having mustered a hastily gathered army, vindicated their liberty by arms.

He ruled the Hebrews in peace for eighty years. To him succeeded Shamgar; and he, engaging against the Philistines, fought a battle with favorable outcome. (5) And again, when the Hebrews followed idols, a king of the Canaanites named Jabin subjugated them and exercised a most grievous dominion over them for twenty years, until the woman Deborah restored their former state. So utterly was there no hope in their leaders, that they were defended by a woman's aid. Although this was set forth beforehand as a type of the Church, by whose aid captivity is driven off. (6) Under this leader, or judge, the Hebrews remained for forty years. And again, on account of their sins, handed over to the Midianites, they were held under a harsh rule, and, afflicted by the evil of servitude, they implored divine aid.

Thus, always in prosperity forgetful of the heavenly benefits, they supplicated idols, but in adversity, God. (7) Hence, when I am wont to ponder in my mind that the people, bound by so many benefits of God, restrained by so many disasters when they sinned, having experienced both the mercy and the severity of God, were in no way amended, and, though they always received pardon for their error, always sinned after pardon, it can seem no wonder that Christ was not received by them, since from the very beginning they are found to be so often rebellious against the Lord; and it is rather a wonder that, though they always sinned, the clemency of God never failed them whenever they implored Him.

25 (1) Therefore, when the Midianites lorded it over them, as we related above, having turned to the Lord and earnestly begging the accustomed mercy, they obtained it. (2) There was among the Hebrews a certain man named Gideon, a just man, dear to God and acceptable. To him, as he was returning home from the field of harvest, an angel stood by and said, 'The Lord is with you, mighty in valor.' (3) But he, in a lowly voice, lamented that God was not within him, since he wept as he recalled that captivity oppressed the people, and the mighty deeds of the Lord who had led them out of the land of Egypt. (4) Then the angel said, 'Go in this spirit in which you have spoken, and rescue the people from captivity.' But he refused, saying that, with the strength of his people broken, while he himself was the least, he could undertake so great a burden.

The angel persisted, that he should not doubt that what God spoke could be done. (5) Having completed a sacrifice and overthrown the altar which the Midianites had consecrated to the idol of Baal, he set out to his own people and pitched camp facing the enemy's camp. But the nation of Amalek too had joined itself to the Midianites; yet Gideon had prepared an army of no more than thirty-two thousand. (6) But before he engaged, God spoke to him, saying that this multitude which he wished to lead into battle was too great; that the Hebrews, by their habitual faithlessness, would ascribe the outcome of the fight not to God but to their own strength; and so he should give those who wished it permission to depart. When this was made known to the people, twenty-two thousand withdrew from the camp.

But of the ten thousand who had remained, warned by God, he kept no more than three hundred; (7) the rest he dismissed from arms. Thus, having entered the enemy's camp at midnight, with all commanded to sound the trumpet, he struck great terror into them; and no one had the courage to resist; in shameful flight they slipped away wherever each could. But as the Hebrews met them on every side, they fell as they fled in all directions. Gideon pursued the kings beyond the Jordan and, having seized them, put them to death. In that battle one hundred and twenty thousand of the enemy are reported to have been slain, and fifteen thousand captured. (8) Then by the consent of all it was offered to Gideon that he should be prince of the people. But he, scorning it, preferred to live among the citizens by common right rather than to rule over his own.

When therefore the captivity which had held the people for seven years had been driven off, there was peace for forty years. 26 (1) But when Gideon had died, his son Abimelech, born of a concubine, having killed his brothers—with all the basest men consenting and especially the chiefs of the Shechemites lending their effort—seized the kingship. (2) And he, harassed by civil discords, while he was pressing his own people with war, set about to storm a certain tower into which those fleeing from the lost town had withdrawn; and as he approached too incautiously, struck by a stone thrown by a woman, he perished, having held power for three years. (3) To him succeeded Tola, who held the rule for twenty-two years.

After him came Jair, who, when he likewise had held the principate for twenty-two years, the people, having forsaken God, gave themselves over to idols. And on account of this the Israelites were subdued by the Philistines and Ammonites, and were under their rule for eighteen years. (4) At which time, when they called upon God, the divine response was returned that they should rather call upon their images, for He would no longer grant mercy to the ungrateful. But they, weeping, confessed their fault and begged for pardon, and, casting away their idols and imploring God, obtained the mercy that had been denied. (5) Therefore, with Jephthah as leader, they assembled in great numbers to vindicate their liberty by arms, having first sent envoys to the king of Ammon, that, content with his own borders, he should refrain from war.

But he, not refusing battle, drew up his line. Then Jephthah, before the signal for battle was given, is said to have vowed that, if he fought successfully, whoever first met him on his return he would give as a victim to God. (6) Thus, when the enemy had been conquered and he was returning home, his daughter came to meet him, who had gone forth joyfully with timbrels and dances to greet her father the victor. Then Jephthah, dismayed, with his garments torn in grief, made known to his daughter the necessity of his vow. But she, with no womanly steadfastness, not refusing to die, asked only for the space of two months of life, that she might first see her companions. When this was done, she returned of her own accord to her father, and he rendered the vow to God. (7) Jephthah held the principate for six years.

To him succeeded Ibzan, and, his rule passing in tranquil affairs, he died in the seventh year. After him Elon the Zebulonite held power for ten years, and likewise Abdon for eight years; in the time of peace they brought forth nothing that history might tell. 27 (1) Again the Israelites, turned to idols and deprived of divine protection, were made subject to the Philistines and paid the penalties of their faithlessness through forty years of captivity. (2) At that season Samson is reported to have been born. His mother, long barren, saw an angel, and it was told her that she should abstain from wine and strong drink and unclean things; that she would bear a boy who would be the vindicator of liberty and the avenger of the enemies. Thus the woman, having brought forth the boy, gave him the name Samson.

(3) He is reported to have been of marvelous strength with unshorn hair, so much so that he tore apart with his hand a lion that met him on the way. He took a wife from among the Philistines; and when she, while her husband was absent, had passed into marriage with another, grieving over his wife snatched away, he devised the ruin of the nation; trusting in God and in his own strength, he openly afflicted the victors with slaughter. For, having caught three hundred foxes, he tied burning torches to their tails and sent them into the enemies' fields. And then, since the harvests happened to be ripe, the fire was easy, and the vineyards and olive trees were burned up. (4) By the great destruction of the Philistines he seemed to have avenged the wrong of his stolen wife. Moved by this grief, the Philistines consumed with fire the woman who was the cause of so great an evil, together with her household and her father.

But Samson, judging himself too little avenged, did not cease to press the profane nation with every kind of harm. (5) Then the Jews, compelled, handed him over bound to the Philistines; but, having been handed over, he broke his bonds, seized the jawbone of an ass which chance had furnished as a weapon, and laid low a thousand of the enemy. And when the heat grew worse and he was afflicted with thirst, having called upon God, water flowed from the bone which he held in his hand. 28 (1) At that season Samson presided over the Hebrews, the Philistines having been subdued by the valor of one man. Therefore, plotting against his life and not daring to attack him openly, they bribed with money his wife, whom he had afterward taken, to betray the man's strength.

(2) She, attacking him with womanly blandishment, while he long eluded her and hesitated much, drove him to disclose that his strength resided in the hair of his head. (3) Soon, lying in wait for him as he slept, she cut off his hair and so handed him over to the Philistines; for often before, though he had been handed over, they had been unable to lay hold of him. Then they, having gouged out his eyes, cast him bound in fetters into prison. (4) But in the course of time the hair that had been cut began to grow again, and with it his strength began to return. And now Samson, conscious of his recovered might, only awaited the time of a just revenge. It was the custom of the Philistines, when they held their festival days, to bring out Samson as if in public procession, insulting their captive.

(5) Thus on a certain day, when they had given a public feast in honor of their idol, they commanded Samson to be brought forth. Now the temple, in which all the people and all the chiefs of the Philistines were feasting, was supported on two columns of marvelous size; (6) Samson, brought forth, was placed between the columns. Then he, seizing his opportunity and having first called upon the Lord, threw the columns apart; and the whole crowd was crushed by the collapse of the house, and he himself, not unavenged, fell with the enemy, having presided over the Hebrews for twenty years. (7) To him succeeded Shamgar, of whom Scripture has handed down nothing further. For I have found neither the end of his rule, nor do I find that the people was without a leader. Therefore, when there was civil war against the tribe of Benjamin, Judah was taken as temporary leader of the war.

But most who have written about the times have noted a one-year rule for him; many have passed over him in such a way that after Samson they appended Eli the priest. We shall leave that matter, as too little ascertained, in suspense. 29 (1) During these times, as we said, a civil war had blazed up, and the cause of the disturbance was this. (2) A certain Levite, journeying with his concubine, pressed by the oncoming night, had been compelled to take lodging in the town of Gibeah, which was inhabited by the Benjamites. When a certain old man had kindly received the guest into his hospitality, young men from the town surrounded the guest, intending to subject him to violation.

(3) Much rebuked by the old man and scarcely entreated, having at last received in mockery the body of his concubine as a substitute, they spared the stranger, and, after she had been abused the whole night through, on the next day they returned her. But she—whether from the injury of the violation or from shame, I do not well determine—at the sight of the man breathed out her life. (4) Then the Levite, in testimony of the dreadful crime, cut up her limbs into twelve parts and sent them through the twelve tribes, that he might the more readily stir all to indignation at the deed. (5) When this became known to all, the eleven remaining tribes conspired in war against Benjamin. In this war Judah, as we said, was leader. But in two battles the fighting went ill; only in the third were the Benjamites at last conquered and cut down to annihilation; thus the crime of a few was punished by public destruction.

(6) These things too are contained in the volume of Judges; the books of Kings follow. But to me, as I pursue the order of years and the sequence of the times, the history seems but little continuous. (7) For although after Samson the judge Shamgar lived, and a little later the history records that the people acted without judges, and Eli too is reported in the books of the kingdoms to have been a priest—yet how many years there were between Eli and Samson, Scripture has by no means handed down; I see that there was a certain intervening span of time which labors under doubt. (8) Moreover, from the day of Joshua's death up to that time at which Samson died, there are reckoned four hundred and eighteen years, and from the beginning of the world four thousand three hundred and three years. Although I am not unaware that others disagree with this computation of mine;

but I am conscious to myself that I have not carelessly brought forth the hidden order of years, until I came upon these times, about which I confess that I am in doubt. Now I shall pursue the rest. 30 (1) Therefore, as I related above, the Hebrews acted by their own judgment, without any judge or leader. Eli was a priest; under him Samuel was born. (2) His father was Elkanah, his mother Hannah. She, long barren, when she begged of God a conception, is reported to have vowed that, if a boy were born, he should be consecrated to God. So when she had brought forth the boy, she handed him over to Eli the priest. Soon, when he had grown up, God spoke to him. (3) He announced wrath to Eli the priest on account of the life of his sons, who had turned their father's priesthood into gain, exacting gifts from those who sacrificed;

although the father is reported to have for the most part rebuked them, yet the gentler chiding had not satisfied discipline. (4) Therefore, when the Philistines burst into Judea, they went out to meet them. But the Hebrews, defeated, prepared to restore the battle line; they carried out with them the ark of the Lord into the fight, and with it the sons of the priest went forth, since he himself, heavy with years and his eyes clouded over, was unable to fulfill his office. (5) But when the ark was brought into the sight of the enemies, terrified by a certain majesty of the present God, they made ready for flight. And then, taking up their constancy again and—not without God—their minds having been changed, they rushed together with all their strength. (6) The Hebrews were defeated; the ark was captured, the sons of the priest fell.

Eli, when the evil news was brought to him, dismayed, breathed out his life, having administered the priesthood for twenty years. 31 (1) The victorious Philistines, in a second battle, carried the ark of God, which had come into their power, into the temple of Dagon in the town of Ashdod. (2) But the image dedicated to the demon, when the ark had been brought in, fell down; and when they had restored the idol to its place, on the following night it was torn apart. Thence mice arose throughout the whole region and put many thousands of men to death with harmful bites. (3) Compelled by this evil, the people of Ashdod, to avert the calamity, transferred the ark of God to the Gathites. And when these were afflicted with a like disaster, they carried the ark over to the town of the Ashkelonites.

But these, having summoned the chiefs of their nation, resolved to return the ark of the Lord to the Hebrews. So, according to the judgment of the chiefs and the augurs and the priests, it was placed on a cart with many gifts and sent back. (4) That was a marvel: that, when they had yoked cows that were mothers to the burden and had kept their calves at home, the beasts directed their way into Judea with no driver, the affection for the offspring left behind not calling them back. By the miracle of this thing the princelings of the Philistines followed the ark to the borders of the Hebrews and rendered a religious service. (5) But the Jews, when they saw the ark being brought back, vying with one another, rushed out from the town of Beth-shemesh with joy to meet it, hastening, exulting, rendering thanks to God.

Soon the Levites, whose business this was, celebrated a sacrifice to God, and offered up as victims those very cows which had drawn the ark. (6) But in the town which we mentioned above, the ark could not be kept. And so, by the will of God, slaughter raged everywhere throughout the whole city, and the ark was transferred to the town of Kiriath-jearim and remained there for twenty years. 32 (1) At that season Samuel the priest presided over the Hebrews; affairs being at rest from war, the people lived in ease. Then the peace was disturbed by an inroad of the Philistines, with all trembling because of the consciousness of their sin. (2) Samuel, having first slain a victim and relying on God, led his people into battle, and at the first onset the enemies were routed and the victory remained with the Hebrews.