V in evil, shall be the instruments of one another's punishment. The friendship that is based on sin is hollow, and ends in bitterness. God employs the wicked to punish the wicked. (3.) (ver. 22-57).—Fulfilment of Jotham's prophecy: vindication of God's righteousness in the mutual punishment of the accomplices in guilt.-Abimelech reigned three years, and seemed to have carried off the reward of wickedness with mpunity. But "if thou seest oppression and violent perverting of judgment, marvel not, for He that is higher than the highest egardeth; and there be higher than they" (Eccl. v. 8). The Lord eigneth, and has given three years of probation to the transgressor, ut now there must be no longer delay of vengeance (see Isa. vi. 14; Luke xiii. 7). "The triumphing of the wicked is hort" (Job xx. 5). God has only to let loose men's bad assions, that evil men may be the scourges of one another; ad then, "though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be punished" (Prov. xi. 21). The devil, the grand mischiefaker, was permitted to sow jealousy between the confederates guilt, the Shechemites and the king of their own making. e purpose of God was that thereby the blood of the innocent ght come not only on Abimelech, but on the Shechemites o abetted him in the murder. For they had shed blood, 1 Divine justice retributively will give them blood to drink ev. xvi. 6). The Shechemites, with the characteristic fickles of the multitude, soon repented of their choice. It had n better, if they had repented of their sin. But where re is no conscience, we must not expect consistency. melech had taught them treachery towards his father, and father's sons; it was God's righteous retribution, that he uld be punished by their treachery to himself (Isa. xxxiii. 1). e that killeth with the sword, must be killed with the rd" (Rev. xiii. 10). od's government of the world in righteousness traceable ughout history. In the very temple from which they had the price of blood to make him king, they met to curse contrive his death. Gaal the Canaanite son of Ebed, whose e means 'slave,' was the one in whom they now put conce to deliver them from Abimelech the son of a Canaanite concubine. It was bramble in conflict with bramble, potsherd striving with potsherd. If they were renouncing Baal, and their other sins, for Jehovah, there would have been hope for them. But Satan cannot cast out Satan; and Gaal, whom they now trusted, was no less turbulent and ambitious than Abimelech whom they discarded. It was but exchanging one bad demagogue for another. Untaught by bitter experience, and pleasing themselves with their fool's paradise, they were fast ripening for ruin. Gaal's swagger pleased them, whilst he poured contempt, not only on Abimelech and his officer Zebul, but on Abimelech's noble father, the Baal-conqueror: "Is not he the son of Jerubbaal?" Gaal's words convicted him as an evil-speaker of dignities, the last one of all to be trusted. Gaal's vauntings were soon dissipated, when he was tested in action. Boasters are often forced to change their tone, and be dismayed before those whom they had scorned. The Shechemites and their city, when they were promising to themselves peace and safety, were overtaken with sudden destruction. Abimelech designed this destruction to be in vengeance for their rebellion against him; but God overruled it to be His avenging of the blood of Gideon's sons on them as the accomplices of Abimelech (Isa. x. 6, 7). Violent men mean to vindicate their own honour-God uses them to vindicate His. The true key of history, amidst much that is dark, sad, and mysterious, is this, God reigning in righteousness by His secret and veiled Providence, overruling men's crooked policy in spite of themselves to further God's purposes, and thereby giving an earnest of His coming judgment of the world in manifestly revealed equity. The destroyer destroyed.—Abimelech has so far succeeded; but now comes his turn to be reckoned with. "When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoilt" (Isa. xxxiii. 1). A small city, Thebez, which he expected would be an easy prey to him after the capture of the greater city Shechem, proved his ruin. The town had been taken, and nothing seemed now restrained from him which he imagined to do. But death comes on the transgressor just at the time, and from the quarter, that he least expects it. God uses the weak things of he world to confound the mighty. In several particulars nerein God manifested His retributive justice. Abimelech was lain with one stone, even as he had killed his brothers "upon ne stone." The instrument of death fell on his head, and it was upon his head that the usurped crown had been set. It as a woman killed him, even as he had used the influence of woman, his Canaanitish mother, and that of her clan, to effect is usurpation. Vain glory and ambition had been his idol all is life: and now he must die an inglorious death-slain by a oman! Yet something worse remained. He tries to avert e stigma so degrading to a warrior, to be slain by a woman ompare Judg. iv. 9). His servant shall thrust him through. ol that he was, he has only branded himself with the addinal and more awful infamy of self-murder! Jealous of his ort-lived reputation, he was reckless of his immortal soul. e exultation at his accession was far exceeded by Israel's joy his death. As was said of Boniface VIII.-he "came in like ox, reigned like a lion, and died as a dog." How numerous such vain fools, who rush into death of body and soul, ious about what man may say of them, fearless of the nighty Judge. Righteous issue of this tragical history.-The Lord's justice vindicated by the judgments He executed, and a warning given to all ages that sin shall find out the sinner. Even his world ingratitude, filial impiety (Exod. xx. 12), bloodand cruelty, though successful for a time, recoil upon the etrators (Eccles. viii. 11-13; Isa. iii. 10, 11). Wrong to a at is a heinous sin, and brings a heavy punishment. God's rance waits long, but suddenly cuts off in the end. The r the penalty of sin is in coming, the heavier it is at last. s own wickedness becomes at the last their scourge. Ished can never be a lasting cement, and alliances based nspiracy for evil come to an end the moment that selfest comes in the way (see 2 Sam. xiii. 3–5, 32, 33). irators in evil are made their own mutual executioners gment. No tower of human strength can save. emites perish with their tower before Abimelech, then elech perished before another tower. But "the name of M The the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe" (Prov. xviii. 10). The peace of Israel was restored after this awful episode of usurpation and civil conflict. And the contrasted histories of Gideon and Abimelech, at once give a foretaste of the coming universal judgment, and prove that even now, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgeth in the earth" (Ps. lviii. 11). CHAPTER X. TIMES OF PEACE UNDER TOLA AND JAIR: TIMES OF TROUBLE (1) And after Abimelech [who though an usurper of kingship, t was son of Gideon, and de facto, though not de jure, judge] ere arose [at God's call], to defend [Heb., Lehoshia, “to save eh. ix. 27) "saviours who saved them "] Israel [from internal spirators like Abimelech, or external foes like Midian, and ove all from the apostasy and idolatry which had so often ovoked God to send such executioners of His wrath against ael. That Tola kept Israel from idols, appears from the t that, when he and Jair were dead, Israel relapsed into latry], Tola the son of Puah [both bore names the same as the ginal founders of families in Issachar (Gen. xlvi. 13; Numb. i. 23). Puah is written also Pua and Phuvah], the son of to [not "his uncle" as the Septuagint translate it; but a per name (2 Sam. xxiii. 9; 1 Chron. xi. 12], a man of char; and he dwelt in Shamir in Mount Ephraim [Tola led here, rather than in his own tribe Issachar, as being a ⇒ convenient centre of government. Van de Velde identifies ith the modern Khirbet Sammer, a ruin in the mountains. looking the Jordan valley, ten miles south-east of Nablus hechem. Distinct from Shamir of Judah (Josh. xv. 48)]. And he judged Israel [i.e., the northern and eastern tribes; the southern tribes, Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon, which no share in Gideon's victory, and had not come under helech's usurpation] twenty and three years, and died, and was d in Shamir. (3) And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite ourse, not the same as Jair the Manassite, who in the time |