y narrated; such as his adventure in the house
of the harlot at Gaza, when he carried off the gate of the city and
the gate-posts "to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron." By
Delilah's treachery he was finally delivered over to his enemies, who,
having put out his eyes, condemned him to grind in the prison-house. On
the occasion of a great festival in honour of Dagon, he was brought into
the temple to amuse his captors, but while they were making merry at his
expense, he took hold of the two pillars against which he was resting,
and bowing "himself with all his might," overturned them, "and the house
fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein."*

* Some learned critics considered Samson to have been a sort
of solar deity.

The tribe of Dan at length became weary of these unprofitable
struggles, and determined to seek out another and more easily defensible
settlement. They sent out five emissaries, therefore, to look out for
a new home. While these were passing through the mountains they called
upon a certain Michah in the hill-country of Ephraim and lodged there.
Here they took counsel of a Levite whom Michah had made his priest, and,
in answer to the question whether their journey would be prosperous, he
told them to "Go in peace: before the Lord is the way wherein ye go."
Their search turned out successful, for they discovered near the sources
of the Jordan the town of Laish, whose people, like the Zidonians, dwelt
in security, fearing no trouble. On the report of the emissaries, Dan
decided to emigrate: the warriors set out to the number of six hundred,
carried off by the way the ephod of Micah and the Levite who served
before it, and succeeded in capturing Laish, to which they gave the
name of their tribe. "They there set up for themselves the ephod: and
Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were
priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of
the land."* The tribe of Dan displayed in this advanced post of peril
the bravery it had shown on the frontiers of the Shephelah, and showed
itself the most bellicose of the tribes of Israel.

* The history of this migration, which is given summarily in
Josh. xix. 47, is, as it now stands, a blending of two
accounts. The presence of a descendant of Moses as a priest
in this local sanctuary probably offended the religious
scruples of a copyist, who substituted Mana