auxiliaries the Arabians, about a hundred and
twenty thousand; and the Hebrews took a great prey, gold, and silver,
and garments, and camels, and asses. And when Gideon was come to his own
country of Ophrah, he slew the kings of the Midianites.

6. However, the tribe of Ephraim was so displeased at the good success
of Gideon, that they resolved to make war against him, accusing him
because he did not tell them of his expedition against their enemies.
But Gideon, as a man of temper, and that excelled in every virtue,
pleaded, that it was not the result of his own authority or reasoning,
that made him attack the enemy without them; but that it was the command
of God, and still the victory belonged to them as well as those in the
army. And by this method of cooling their passions, he brought more
advantage to the Hebrews, than by the success he had against these
enemies, for he thereby delivered them from a sedition which was arising
among them; yet did this tribe afterwards suffer the punishment of this
their injurious treatment of Gideon, of which we will give an account in
due time.

7. Hereupon Gideon would have laid down the government, but was
over-persuaded to take it, which he enjoyed forty years, and distributed
justice to them, as the people came to him in their differences; and
what he determined was esteemed valid by all. And when he died, he was
buried in his own country of Ophrah.

CHAPTER 7. That The Judges Who Succeeded Gideon Made War With The
Adjoining Nations For A Long Time.

1. Now Gideon had seventy sons that were legitimate, for he had many
wives; but he had also one that was spurious, by his concubine Drumah,
whose name was Abimelech, who, after his father's death, retired to
Shechem to his mother's relations, for they were of that place: and when
he had got money of such of them as were eminent for many instances of
injustice, he came with them to his father's house, and slew all his
brethren, except Jotham, for he had the good fortune to escape and be
preserved; but Abimelech made the government tyrannical, and constituted
himself a lord, to do what he pleased, instead of obeying the laws; and
he acted most rigidly against those that were the patrons of justice.

2. Now when, on a certain time, there was a public festival at Shechem,
and all the multitude was there gathered together, Jotham his brother,
whose escape we before related, went up to Mount Gerizzim, which hangs
over the c