THE WORKS OF SIR WALTER RALEGH, KT. NOW FIRST COLLECTED : TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED THE LIVES OF THE AUTHOR, BY OLDYS AND BIRCH. IN EIGHT VOLUMES. VOL. IV. HISTORY OF THE WORLD. BOOK II. CHAP. 13, 5.-28. OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. THE FIRST PART Of the memorable things that happened in the world from Of Gideon, and of Dædalus, Sphinx, Minos, and others that lived DEBORA and Barac being dead, the Midianites, assisted by the Amalekites, infested Israel. For when under a judge who had held them in the fear of the Lord, they had enjoyed any quiet or prosperity, the judge was no sooner dead, than they turned to their former impious idolatry. Therefore now the neighbouring nations did so master them in a short time, (the hand of God being withheld from their the mountains, and other the like places of hardest access; their enemies possessing all the plains and fruitful valleys; and in harvest time by themselves, and the multitude of their cattle, destroying all that grew up, covering the fields as thick as grasshoppers; which servitude lasted seven years. Then the Lord by his angel stirred up Gideon the son of Joash, afterwards called Jerubbaal; whose fear and unwillingness, and how it pleased God to hearten him in his enterprise, it is both largely and precisely set down in the holy scriptures: as also how it pleased God by a few select persons, 'namely 300 out of 32,000 men, to make them know that he only was the Lord of hosts. Each of these 300, by Gideon's appointment, carried a trumpet, and light in a pitcher, instruments of more terror than force, with which he gave the great army of their enemies an alarum ; who hearing so loud a noise, and seeing (at the crack of so many pitchers broken) so many lights about them, esteeming the army of Israel to be infinite, and strucken with a sudden fear, they all fled without a stroke stricken; and were slaughtered in great numbers, two of their princes being made prisoners and slain. In his return, the Ephraimites began to quarrel with Gideon, because he made war without their assistance, being then greedy of glory, the victory being gotten; who, if Gideon had failed, and fallen in the enterprise, would no doubt have held themselves happy by being neglected. But Gideon appeasing them with a mild answer, followed after the enemy, in which pursuit being tired with travel, and weary even with the slaughtering of his enemies, he desired relief from the inhabitants of Succoth, to the end that (his men being refreshed) he might overtake the other two kings of the Midianites, which had saved themselves by flight. For they were four princes of the nations which had invaded and wasted Israel; to wit, Oreb and Zeeb, which were taken already, and Zebah and Salmunna, which fled. Gideon being denied by them of Succoth, sought the like After the translation to Mycenae, Mar. Scotus finds these kings: STHENELUS, EURYSTHEUS. The sons of Pelops by Hippodamia: Atreus by Europe had Agamemnon and Menelaus. PERSEUS, ATREUS and THYESTES, AGAMEMNON, EGYSTHUS, ORESTES, TISAMENUS, Of these kings, Mercator and Bunting leave out the two first and the last; beginning with Eurystheus, and ending with Penthilus. In Tisamenus's time the Heraclidæ returned into Peloponnesus, of which hereafter. The contemporaries of Barac and Debora were, Midas, who reigned in Phrygia, and Ilus, who built Ilium; with others mentioned in our chronological table, as contemporaries with Debora. SECT. V. Of Gideon, and of Dædalus, Sphinx, Minos, and others that lived in this age. DEBORA and Barac being dead, the Midianites, assisted by the Amalekites, infested Israel. For when under a judge who had held them in the fear of the Lord, they had enjoyed any quiet or prosperity, the judge was no sooner dead, than they turned to their former impious idolatry. Therefore now the neighbouring nations did so master them in a short time, (the hand of God being withheld from their defence,) as to save themselves they Pcrept into caves of P Judg. vi. |