(3) He is reported to have been of marvelous strength with unshorn hair, so much so that he tore apart with his hand a lion that met him on the way. He took a wife from among the Philistines; and when she, while her husband was absent, had passed into marriage with another, grieving over his wife snatched away, he devised the ruin of the nation; trusting in God and in his own strength, he openly afflicted the victors with slaughter. For, having caught three hundred foxes, he tied burning torches to their tails and sent them into the enemies' fields. And then, since the harvests happened to be ripe, the fire was easy, and the vineyards and olive trees were burned up. (4) By the great destruction of the Philistines he seemed to have avenged the wrong of his stolen wife. Moved by this grief, the Philistines consumed with fire the woman who was the cause of so great an evil, together with her household and her father.
But Samson, judging himself too little avenged, did not cease to press the profane nation with every kind of harm. (5) Then the Jews, compelled, handed him over bound to the Philistines; but, having been handed over, he broke his bonds, seized the jawbone of an ass which chance had furnished as a weapon, and laid low a thousand of the enemy. And when the heat grew worse and he was afflicted with thirst, having called upon God, water flowed from the bone which he held in his hand. 28 (1) At that season Samson presided over the Hebrews, the Philistines having been subdued by the valor of one man. Therefore, plotting against his life and not daring to attack him openly, they bribed with money his wife, whom he had afterward taken, to betray the man's strength.
(2) She, attacking him with womanly blandishment, while he long eluded her and hesitated much, drove him to disclose that his strength resided in the hair of his head. (3) Soon, lying in wait for him as he slept, she cut off his hair and so handed him over to the Philistines; for often before, though he had been handed over, they had been unable to lay hold of him. Then they, having gouged out his eyes, cast him bound in fetters into prison. (4) But in the course of time the hair that had been cut began to grow again, and with it his strength began to return. And now Samson, conscious of his recovered might, only awaited the time of a just revenge. It was the custom of the Philistines, when they held their festival days, to bring out Samson as if in public procession, insulting their captive.
(5) Thus on a certain day, when they had given a public feast in honor of their idol, they commanded Samson to be brought forth. Now the temple, in which all the people and all the chiefs of the Philistines were feasting, was supported on two columns of marvelous size; (6) Samson, brought forth, was placed between the columns. Then he, seizing his opportunity and having first called upon the Lord, threw the columns apart; and the whole crowd was crushed by the collapse of the house, and he himself, not unavenged, fell with the enemy, having presided over the Hebrews for twenty years. (7) To him succeeded Shamgar, of whom Scripture has handed down nothing further. For I have found neither the end of his rule, nor do I find that the people was without a leader. Therefore, when there was civil war against the tribe of Benjamin, Judah was taken as temporary leader of the war.
But most who have written about the times have noted a one-year rule for him; many have passed over him in such a way that after Samson they appended Eli the priest. We shall leave that matter, as too little ascertained, in suspense. 29 (1) During these times, as we said, a civil war had blazed up, and the cause of the disturbance was this. (2) A certain Levite, journeying with his concubine, pressed by the oncoming night, had been compelled to take lodging in the town of Gibeah, which was inhabited by the Benjamites. When a certain old man had kindly received the guest into his hospitality, young men from the town surrounded the guest, intending to subject him to violation.
(3) Much rebuked by the old man and scarcely entreated, having at last received in mockery the body of his concubine as a substitute, they spared the stranger, and, after she had been abused the whole night through, on the next day they returned her. But she—whether from the injury of the violation or from shame, I do not well determine—at the sight of the man breathed out her life. (4) Then the Levite, in testimony of the dreadful crime, cut up her limbs into twelve parts and sent them through the twelve tribes, that he might the more readily stir all to indignation at the deed. (5) When this became known to all, the eleven remaining tribes conspired in war against Benjamin. In this war Judah, as we said, was leader. But in two battles the fighting went ill; only in the third were the Benjamites at last conquered and cut down to annihilation; thus the crime of a few was punished by public destruction.
(6) These things too are contained in the volume of Judges; the books of Kings follow. But to me, as I pursue the order of years and the sequence of the times, the history seems but little continuous. (7) For although after Samson the judge Shamgar lived, and a little later the history records that the people acted without judges, and Eli too is reported in the books of the kingdoms to have been a priest—yet how many years there were between Eli and Samson, Scripture has by no means handed down; I see that there was a certain intervening span of time which labors under doubt. (8) Moreover, from the day of Joshua's death up to that time at which Samson died, there are reckoned four hundred and eighteen years, and from the beginning of the world four thousand three hundred and three years. Although I am not unaware that others disagree with this computation of mine;
but I am conscious to myself that I have not carelessly brought forth the hidden order of years, until I came upon these times, about which I confess that I am in doubt. Now I shall pursue the rest. 30 (1) Therefore, as I related above, the Hebrews acted by their own judgment, without any judge or leader. Eli was a priest; under him Samuel was born. (2) His father was Elkanah, his mother Hannah. She, long barren, when she begged of God a conception, is reported to have vowed that, if a boy were born, he should be consecrated to God. So when she had brought forth the boy, she handed him over to Eli the priest. Soon, when he had grown up, God spoke to him. (3) He announced wrath to Eli the priest on account of the life of his sons, who had turned their father's priesthood into gain, exacting gifts from those who sacrificed;
although the father is reported to have for the most part rebuked them, yet the gentler chiding had not satisfied discipline. (4) Therefore, when the Philistines burst into Judea, they went out to meet them. But the Hebrews, defeated, prepared to restore the battle line; they carried out with them the ark of the Lord into the fight, and with it the sons of the priest went forth, since he himself, heavy with years and his eyes clouded over, was unable to fulfill his office. (5) But when the ark was brought into the sight of the enemies, terrified by a certain majesty of the present God, they made ready for flight. And then, taking up their constancy again and—not without God—their minds having been changed, they rushed together with all their strength. (6) The Hebrews were defeated; the ark was captured, the sons of the priest fell.
Eli, when the evil news was brought to him, dismayed, breathed out his life, having administered the priesthood for twenty years. 31 (1) The victorious Philistines, in a second battle, carried the ark of God, which had come into their power, into the temple of Dagon in the town of Ashdod. (2) But the image dedicated to the demon, when the ark had been brought in, fell down; and when they had restored the idol to its place, on the following night it was torn apart. Thence mice arose throughout the whole region and put many thousands of men to death with harmful bites. (3) Compelled by this evil, the people of Ashdod, to avert the calamity, transferred the ark of God to the Gathites. And when these were afflicted with a like disaster, they carried the ark over to the town of the Ashkelonites.
But these, having summoned the chiefs of their nation, resolved to return the ark of the Lord to the Hebrews. So, according to the judgment of the chiefs and the augurs and the priests, it was placed on a cart with many gifts and sent back. (4) That was a marvel: that, when they had yoked cows that were mothers to the burden and had kept their calves at home, the beasts directed their way into Judea with no driver, the affection for the offspring left behind not calling them back. By the miracle of this thing the princelings of the Philistines followed the ark to the borders of the Hebrews and rendered a religious service. (5) But the Jews, when they saw the ark being brought back, vying with one another, rushed out from the town of Beth-shemesh with joy to meet it, hastening, exulting, rendering thanks to God.
Soon the Levites, whose business this was, celebrated a sacrifice to God, and offered up as victims those very cows which had drawn the ark. (6) But in the town which we mentioned above, the ark could not be kept. And so, by the will of God, slaughter raged everywhere throughout the whole city, and the ark was transferred to the town of Kiriath-jearim and remained there for twenty years. 32 (1) At that season Samuel the priest presided over the Hebrews; affairs being at rest from war, the people lived in ease. Then the peace was disturbed by an inroad of the Philistines, with all trembling because of the consciousness of their sin. (2) Samuel, having first slain a victim and relying on God, led his people into battle, and at the first onset the enemies were routed and the victory remained with the Hebrews.
(3) But once the fear of the enemy had been removed and affairs were prosperous and peaceful, their counsels became corrupted, and after the manner of the common crowd—to whom present things are an object of loathing and the unaccustomed an object of longing—the people began to desire the title of king, a thing hateful to almost all free nations; with a notably striking example of madness they plainly preferred to exchange liberty for servitude. (4) Therefore they thronged about Samuel in great numbers, asking that, since he himself had now grown old, he should appoint a king over them. (5) But he gently, with a wholesome speech, tried to turn the people away from their insane resolve; he set forth the despotic power of kings and their arrogant rule, he extolled liberty, he condemned slavery, and finally he proclaimed to them the divine wrath, since men corrupted in mind, while having God as their king, were demanding for themselves a king from among men.
(6) When these and other words of this kind had been spoken in vain, and the people persisted in their resolve, Samuel consulted God. He, moved by the madness of the insane nation, answered that nothing should be denied to those who were seeking nothing against Himself. 33 (1) Thus Saul, first anointed by Samuel with the priestly oil, was appointed king. He, of the tribe of Benjamin, sprung from his father Kish, was modest of disposition and of excellent form, so that the dignity of his body deservedly matched the dignity of the kingship. (2) But at the very beginning of his reign a considerable part of the people had revolted from him, refusing to obey his command, and had joined themselves to the Ammonites. But Saul vigorously avenged this; the enemy were conquered, and pardon was granted to the Hebrews. Then Saul is reported to have been anointed a second time by Samuel. (3) From this point a fierce war arose through an incursion of the Philistines;
Saul had appointed Gilgal as the place for his army to assemble. (4) And when he waited for Samuel for seven days, in order that a sacrifice might be offered to God, and while Samuel delayed and the people were slipping away, the king, by an unlawful presumption, offered the burnt offering in place of the priest; and being sharply rebuked by Samuel, he confessed his sin with a repentance that came too late. (5) Therefore, on account of the king's sin, fear had spread through the whole army. The enemy's camp, situated not far off, made the present danger evident, and no one had the heart to go out to battle; many had sought out caves.
For besides the weakness of their spirits—since they reckoned that, because of the king's offence, God was estranged from them—the army was in the greatest lack of iron weapons, so much so that, except for Saul and his son Jonathan, no one is recorded to have had a sword or a spear. For the Philistines, victors in the previous war, had taken away from the Hebrews the use of the whetstone, and no one had been allowed to make a weapon of war or even an iron implement for farming. (6) Therefore Jonathan, by a bold plan, with only his armour-bearer as his companion, entered the enemy's camp, slew about twenty of the enemy, and struck the whole army with terror. (7) Then indeed, by the will of God, the enemy were turned to flight; they neither carried out commands nor kept their ranks, but placed all their safety in their feet.
When Saul perceived this, having quickly led out his men, he pursued the fleeing enemy and gained the victory. (8) On that day the king is reported to have issued a decree, that no one should take food until the enemy were destroyed. But Jonathan, unaware of the prohibition, having found a honeycomb and dipped his spear-point in it, had tasted the honey. When this was made known to the king through the wrath of God, he commanded that his son be put to death. But by the help of the people he was rescued from destruction. (9) At that time Samuel, warned by God, came to the king, announcing the words of God: that he should make war upon the nation of Amalek, which long ago had hindered the Hebrews coming out of Egypt from passing through, with the added prohibition that he should covet nothing from the spoils of the conquered. (10) So the army was led into the territory of the enemy, the king was captured, and the nation was subdued.
Saul, overcome by the abundance of the plunder and forgetful of the divine command, ordered the captured king to be kept alive and carried off. 34 (1) Offended by this deed, God addressed Samuel: that He repented of having appointed Saul king. (2) The priest reported this word to the king. Soon, warned by God, he anointed David with the royal oil—a boy still small, living under his father's charge, a shepherd of sheep, accustomed often to play the lyre; on account of which David was afterwards taken up by Saul and held a place among the royal attendants. (3) At that season, while the Philistines and Hebrews were ablaze with war, when the battle-lines had taken their stand opposite one another, a certain Goliath of the Philistines, a man of wondrous size and strength, stepping out beyond the ranks of his own people, hurling insults at the enemy with fierce words, kept calling for single combat.
(4) Then the king promised great rewards and the marriage of his daughter, if anyone should bring back the spoils of the challenger; but no one out of so great a host dared to attack him. (5) Therefore David, still a boy, offered himself for the fight; and casting aside the armour, which his tender age found burdensome, taking only a staff and five stones, he advanced into battle. And at the first stroke, with a stone hurled from a sling, he struck down the Philistine, carried off the head and the spoils of the conquered, and afterwards placed the sword in the temple; but all the Philistines, turned to flight, conceded the victory. (6) But when they returned from the battle, the great favour shown toward David had kindled the king's envy. Fearing, however, to slay one so dear to all amid the odium and ruin it would bring, he resolved, under the appearance of honour, to expose him to dangers.
(7) And first he had made him a tribune, that he might attend to military affairs; then, when he had promised him his daughter, he broke faith and gave her to another. Soon the king's younger daughter, Michal by name, had begun to burn with love for David. Therefore he proposed the following condition for her marriage: if David should bring back a hundred foreskins from the enemy, the royal maiden would be yielded to him in marriage; for he hoped that the young man, daring such perilous deeds, would easily perish. (8) But it turned out far otherwise than he had reckoned; for, as had been proposed, David vigorously brought back a hundred foreskins from the Philistines, and thus received the king's daughter in marriage. 35 (1) Day by day the king's hatred toward him grew, goaded on by envy, for the wicked always persecute the good.
Therefore he commanded his attendants and his son Jonathan to lay snares for David's life. (2) But David had been dear and acceptable to Jonathan from the very beginning; and so the king, rebuked by his son, restrained his bloody command. (3) But not for long are the wicked good. For when Saul was afflicted by a spirit of error, and David was attending upon him, soothing his sufferer with the lyre, Saul attempted to strike him with a spear, and would have, had not David quickly dodged the deadly blow. (4) From that time he prepared death for him no longer secretly, but openly; and David no longer entrusted himself to the king. And first, fleeing, he betook himself to Samuel, then to Ahimelech, and finally took refuge with the king of Moab. Soon, warned through the prophet Gad, he returned into the land of Judah, and went on facing peril of his life.
(5) At that season Saul slew the priest Ahimelech, for having received David; and since none of the royal attendants dared to lay hands upon a priest, Doeg the Syrian carried out the bloody service. (6) After this David sought the wilderness. Thither also Saul pursued him, but in vain he laboured to contrive the destruction of one whom God was protecting. There was in the wilderness a cave, opening into a vast recess. Into its inner part David had cast himself. (7) Saul, unaware, had entered at the very mouth of the cave for the sake of refreshing his body, and there, overcome by sleep, was resting. When David perceived this, though all urged him to seize the opportunity, he refrained from the king's destruction, yet took away his cloak.
(8) Then going out, from a safe place at a distance, he addressed him from behind, recounting his own kindnesses toward him: how he had often exposed his head to dangers for the sake of his kingdom, and how, finally, at the present time, he had been unwilling to slay one delivered to him by God. At this Saul confessed his fault, begged for pardon, poured forth tears, extolled David's loyalty, accused his own malice, calling him both king and son. (9) So greatly was that fierce spirit changed; you would have believed he would attempt nothing further against his son-in-law. But David, who had more carefully observed and come to know the disposition of the wicked man, judging that nothing should be entrusted to the king, kept himself within the desert.
(10) Saul, mad of mind, since he had no power to seize his son-in-law, gave his daughter Michal—David's wife, as we related above—in marriage to a certain Phalti. David took refuge among the Philistines. 36 (1) At that season Samuel ended his days. When the Philistines made war, Saul consulted God, and no answer was returned to him. Then, through a woman whose inward parts a spirit of error had filled, he summoned up Samuel and consulted him. It was said to him by Samuel that on the following day he, together with his sons, would be conquered by the Philistines and fall in battle. (2) Therefore the Philistines, having pitched their camp on hostile soil, drew up their line on the next day, David however having been sent away from the camp, because they trusted too little that he would be loyal to them against his own people.
But when battle was joined the Hebrews were routed, the king's sons fell; Saul, having slipped from his horse, lest he should come alive into the power of the enemy, fell upon his own sword. (3) Concerning the length of his reign we have learned with little certainty, except that in the Acts of the Apostles he is said to have reigned forty years. Yet I myself judge that there, by Paul, whose preaching is recorded, the years of Samuel also were counted under the age of this king. (4) Most, however, who have written about the chronology, have noted that he reigned thirty years; to which opinion we by no means assent, for at that season when the ark of God was carried over into the town of Kiriath-jearim, Saul had not yet begun to reign; and it is recorded that the ark was removed from that town by King David, after it had stood there for twenty years.
Therefore, since within that span Saul reigned and died, he held the kingship for but a very short time. (5) The same obscurity besets us concerning the times of Samuel, who is reported to have been born under Eli the priest, and to have exercised the priesthood when already quite old. By some, however, who have written about the chronology, since sacred history has noted almost nothing about his years ... but by very many he is reported to have presided over the people for seventy years; yet from what source this authority was taken I have not found. (6) Amid so great a wealth of uncertainty, we have followed the reckoning of the Chronicles, because we judge that it derives, as we mentioned above, from the Acts of the Apostles, and we report that Samuel and Saul exercised rule for forty years.
37 (1) When Saul had perished, David, in the land of the Philistines, on having the news of his death brought to him, is reported to have wept with a marvellous example of piety. Then he made for Hebron, a town of Judaea; there again, anointed with the royal oil, he was called king. (2) But Abner, who had been the commander of the army of King Saul, scorning David, set up Ish-bosheth, the son of King Saul, as king. Thereafter there were frequent battles, with clashes between the commanders of the kings; Abner, often driven back, nevertheless slew Joab's brother in his flight—Joab who commanded the army on David's side. Out of grief for this, afterwards Joab, when Abner had surrendered himself to King David, commanded that he be slain, not without grief to the king, whose good faith he had stained with blood.
(3) About the same time almost all the elders of the Hebrews, by public consent, conferred upon him the kingdom of the whole nation; for he had reigned only in Hebron for seven years. Thus he is anointed king a third time, at about thirty years of age. (4) The Philistines, breaking into the kingdom, he drove back in successful battles. At that season he transferred the ark of God—which, as we related above, was in the town of Kiriath-jearim—to Zion. And when he had it in mind to build a temple to God, a divine answer was returned to him, that this was reserved for his offspring. (5) Then by war he subdued the Philistines, brought the Moabites under the yoke, conquered Syria and imposed tribute upon it. He brought back an immense amount of gold and bronze from the spoil. (6) Then a war arose against the Ammonites out of the wrong done by Hanun their king.
When the Syrians rebelled anew, having conspired together with the Ammonites for war, David entrusted the supreme command of affairs to Joab the chief of the army, while he himself, withdrawn from the war, remained within Jerusalem. 38 (1) At that season he came to know, through her violation, a certain Bathsheba, a woman of wondrous beauty. She is reported to have been the wife of a certain Uriah, who was then in the camp. David contrived to have this man, exposed to the enemy in an unfavourable position of battle, put to death. Thus he added to the number of his wives the woman, now free for marriage, but already pregnant from the adultery. (2) Then, sharply rebuked through the prophet Nathan, although he acknowledged his fault, he did not escape God's chastisement.
For the son brought forth from that stolen union he lost a few days later, and many accursed things befell his house and household. (3) At the last his son Absalom took up impious arms against his father, desiring to thrust him out of the kingdom. Against him Joab clashed in battle, having been admonished by the king to spare the vanquished; but he, scorning the command, avenged the parricidal attempts with the sword. That victory is reported to have been mournful to the king; so great was his fatherly love that he wished even his parricide son to be pardoned. (4) Scarcely did this war seem extinguished when another arose again, under a certain Sheba as leader, who had stirred up every most wicked man to arms. But the whole disturbance was quickly suppressed by the death of the leader.
(5) Then David fought frequent battles against the Philistines with successful outcome, and when all had been subdued by war and both foreign and domestic disturbances had been crushed, he held a most flourishing kingdom in peace. (6) Then a sudden desire seized him to take a census of the people in order to measure the strength of his empire; thus by Joab the master of the army a thousand and three hundred thousand citizens were counted. Soon he regretted and repented of this deed, asking pardon from God, for having raised his mind to this, that he should estimate the power of his kingdom rather from the multitude of his own people than from the divine favour. (7) And so an angel sent to him announced a threefold punishment and gave him the choice of choosing one.
But with three years of famine, three months of flight, or three days of death set before him, abhorring flight and famine, he chose death; and in a moment of time seventy thousand men perished. (8) Then David, seeing the angel by whose right hand the people were being laid low, begged for pardon and offered himself alone to punishment in place of all; he was worthy of destruction, because he himself had sinned. Thus the slaughter was turned away from the people; and David, in the place where he had seen the angel, set up an altar to God. (9) Soon, broken by age and disease, he appointed as successor to the kingdom his son Solomon, born of Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. He, anointed with the royal oil by Zadok the priest, was called king while his father was yet living. David, when he had reigned forty years, died. 39 (1) Solomon at the beginning of his reign surrounded the city with a wall.
To him God appeared to stand by in sleep, granting him the choice of asking whatever he wished. (2) But he asked that nothing else be given to him than wisdom, esteeming all else of little worth. Thus, roused from sleep, when he had stood before the sanctuary of God, he gave proof of the wisdom granted him by God. (3) For two women dwelling in one house, when they had borne sons at the same time, and one of these had died in the night after the third day, the mother of the dead one, plotting against the other's sleep, put her dead child in place of the other's and took away the living one. Thereupon there arose between them a dispute over the child, and at last the matter was brought before the king; the resolution of the judgement was difficult between women who denied, where a witness was lacking.
(4) Then Solomon, by the gift of divine wisdom, commands that the child be killed and his body divided between the disputants. And when one of them acquiesced in the judgement, but the other preferred rather to yield the child than to have him torn apart, Solomon, inferring from the woman's affection that this one was truly the mother, adjudged the child to her, not without the admiration of the bystanders, since by his prudence he had brought to light the hidden truth. (5) And so, in admiration of his genius and prudence, the kings of the neighbouring nations sought from him friendship and a treaty, ready to do his bidding.
40 (1) Trusting in his wealth, he undertook to build to God a temple of immense work; and having prepared the materials over three years, in about the fourth year of his reign he laid the first foundation, about five hundred and eighty-eight years from the departure of the Hebrews out of Egypt—although in the third book of Kings they are reported to have been four hundred and forty, which by no means agrees, since, by the sequence comprised above, it would more easily be that I have noted perhaps fewer years rather than more. (2) But I do not doubt that the truth was corrupted rather by the negligence of the copyists, especially with so many ages now intervening, than that the prophet erred.
Just as in this very little work of ours we believe it will come to pass, that things which have been set in order by us not without care may be corrupted by the carelessness of those who copy them. Therefore Solomon completed the begun work of the temple in the twentieth year. (3) Then, when a sacrifice had been celebrated there and a prayer recited, by which he blessed the people and the temple, God spoke to him, declaring that it would come to pass, if ever they should sin and forsake God, that the temple would be levelled to the ground. This we see already long since fulfilled, and presently we shall set forth the connected order of events.
(4) Meanwhile Solomon, flourishing in wealth, the richest of all the kings who had ever existed, and—as is ever the order of things—sliding from wealth into luxury and vice, when contrary to God's prohibition he had taken wives from among foreigners and now had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, set up for them idols after the rite of their own nations, to which they might sacrifice. (5) Turned away by these things, God, having sharply rebuked him, threatened a punishment: that it would come to pass that the kingdom, for the greater part taken away, would be handed over to a servant of his son. And so it happened. 41 (1) For when Solomon died in the fortieth year of his reign, and his son Rehoboam, in the sixteenth year of his age, had begun to hold his father's kingdom, a part of the people, offended by him, withdrew.