, and slew about forty-two thousand of them.

12. So when Jephtha had ruled six years, he died, and was buried in his
own country, Sebee, which is a place in the land of Gilead.

13. Now when Jephtha was dead, Ibzan took the government, being of the
tribe of Judah, and of the city of Bethlehem. He had sixty children,
thirty of them sons, and the rest daughters; all whom he left alive
behind him, giving the daughters in marriage to husbands, and
taking wives for his sons. He did nothing in the seven years of his
administration that was worth recording, or deserved a memorial. So he
died an old man, and was buried in his own country.

14. When Ibzan was dead after this manner, neither did Helon, who
succeeded him in the government, and kept it ten years, do any thing
remarkable: he was of the tribe of Zebulon.

15. Abdon also, the son of Hilel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and born at
the city Pyrathon, was ordained their supreme governor after Helon.
He is only recorded to have been happy in his children; for the public
affairs were then so peaceable, and in such security, that neither did
he perform any glorious action. He had forty sons, and by them left
thirty grandchildren; and he marched in state with these seventy, who
were all very skillful in riding horses; and he left them all alive
after him. He died an old man, and obtained a magnificent burial in
Pyrathon.

CHAPTER 8. Concerning The Fortitude Of Samson, And What Mischiefs He
Brought Upon The Philistines.

1. After Abdon was dead, the Philistines overcame the Israelites, and
received tribute of them for forty years; from which distress they were
delivered after this manner:--

2. There was one Manoah, a person of such great virtue, that he had few
men his equals, and without dispute the principal person of his
country. He had a wife celebrated for her beauty, and excelling her
contemporaries. He had no children; and, being uneasy at his want of
posterity, he entreated God to give them seed of their own bodies to
succeed them; and with that intent he came constantly into the suburbs
[18] together with his wife; which suburbs were in the Great Plain. Now
he was fond of his wife to a degree of madness, and on that account
was unmeasurably jealous of her. Now, when his wife was once alone,
an apparition was seen by her: it was an angel of God, and resembled
a young man beautiful and tall, and brought her the good news that she
should have a son, born b