LVIII

Chronicles of Jerahmeel, by M. Gaster [1899], at sacred-texts.com

LVIII. (1) Josippon says that the incident of Micah and the concubine of Gibeah occurred between the time of the death of Joshua and Othniel, between the times to which the following verses refer, viz.: 'And Judah captured Azah and its boundary, and Ekron and Askalon'; and the other, And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He delivered them into the hands of the Canaanites. Then the children of Dan built Laish and the mountain.' For the purpose of enabling us to calculate

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the days of the judges, this portion was placed at the end of the Book of Judges.

(2) After Othniel came Ehud. At that time, in the days of Ehud, the city Cinnereth in Lybia (###) was built, and many ships were built by Tritolymus (###), for carrying wheat, for merchandise. Dionysius built the city of Niza, in Media; Troy (###) was built about the same time in Dardania. There a dog killed Piritius (###), and attempted to slay Tisius, and Heraclones saved him. In the sixty-ninth year of Ehud the city Ṣirine (###) in Libia was built. (3) Shamgar succeeded him, and was followed by Deborah and Barak, who fought with Sisera. And the Lord confounded Sisera and all his charioteers and his whole camp with a fierce tempest; and He overwhelmed them all with hail, and blinding rain and lightnings and thunders, so that they could no longer stand, but fell by the sword.

(4) Sisera then fled on foot to the tent of Jael, who went out to meet him and embraced him. Then, covering him well, he fell into a deep sleep. And Jael prayed to God, saying, 'I pray Thee, O Lord, strengthen Thy handmaid against Thy enemy, and by this I shall know that Thou wilt deliver him into my hand, viz., if I bring him down from his bed on to the ground, and he does not awake.' She did accordingly. Then, taking a nail of the tent and a hammer, she knocked the nail into his temple, according to Deborah's prophecy. And Barak captured Ḥaṣor and slew its king, and all its inhabitants.

(5) Now, when Sisera went out to fight against Israel his mother, Tamar, with her maidens and princesses, by means of their enchantments prophesied, saying that Sisera would bring as spoil one or more of the women of Israel with their coloured garments, for she saw in her charms that he would lie upon the bed of Jael, the wife of Heber, and be covered with a coloured garment of needlework. Therefore she said, 'A damsel, two damsels to every man.'

(6) At that time the kings of Argos, who had reigned for

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[paragraph continues] 544 years, were destroyed and exterminated, and their kingdom passed into the hands of Mesenes (###). In the thirty-ninth year of Deborah's reign the city of Meletus was built. Gideon succeeded Barak and Deborah. He asked a sign of the Lord from the fleece of wool. (7) I find that Gideon asked for yet another sign, for he said, 'Give me a sign that God has chosen me to deliver Israel just as He gave to Moses, who delivered the Israelites from Egypt.' And the angel replied, 'Run and fetch me some water from that pool and pour it upon this rock. I shall then give thee a sign.' Having done as he was requested, the angel said, 'Tell me, shall this water be turned into blood or fire?' And Gideon answered, 'Let part of it be turned into fire and part into blood.' And thus it was, the blood neither quenching the fire, nor the fire drying up the blood.

(8) At that time, during the reign of Gideon, Mercorius (###) discovered certain islands called Sirenes (###); in Ashkenaz they are called Nikes (Nix) (###). The inhabitants were like beautiful women, their lower parts resembling fishes; and the inhabitants of the forests of the islands were half men and the other half wild animals and horses. The wise man Dialus, by means of his cunning (###), made images and idols and birds of gold and brass, and having breathed into them, the idols spoke and the images prophesied while the birds flew about, for he was exceedingly clever in this art. The city of Tyre was built 240 years before the Temple at Jerusalem. (9) After Gideon Abimelech, the son of his concubine, succeeded him, and at that time the measure of the Kor (###) and the art of playing upon the timbrel were discovered in Greece. Tola, the son of Phua, succeeded Abimelech. During his reign Erkules (###) conquered Anteos (###), in Lybia, in the water, and destroyed the city of Elios (##) when Priamus reigned in Troy.

(10) Yair the Gileadite rose up after him. He made an altar unto Baal, and all the Israelites turned after it and worshipped Baal, except seven righteous men, who did not worship it. These were their names, Da‘al, Abi Yezre‘el,

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[paragraph continues] Gutiel, Shalom, Ashchor, Jonadab, and Shim‘i. These said to lair, 'We remember what Moses commanded Israel, saying, "Take care lest ye turn aside from following the Lord to worship Baal."' Yair then commanded his servants to burn those men with fire, because they spoke against Baal. Then, taking the men they cast them into the fire, but the fire swerved from them and burned instead the servants of lair who cast them therein, together with all his household. And these seven men escaped from the fire and went on their way, for the men round about them were struck with blindness so that they could not see them, and the fire reached the house of Yair, who heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'I have promoted thee to be a judge over Israel; but thou hast corrupted the people and caused them to turn aside from following the Lord and to worship Baal, and those who remain steadfast to Me thou hast burned with fire. But they shall live, and thou shalt die by being consumed in the flames which shall never be extinguished.' Thus the Lord consumed lair and all his house, and Baal with 10,000 of his followers; and lair was buried in Qamon.

(11) At that time Theseus captured Helena, but Castor and Pollox, the brothers of Theseus, and his mother, were captured. The city of Carthage (Qar Laini, ###) was then built. Nizpa (###) invented the Latin alphabet.