The Story of the Chosen People (Yesterday's Classics) by H. A. Guerber
Authors: H. A. Guerber
Tags: History
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his homeward journey at midnight, and finding the gates closed, lifted them off their hinges, and bore them off to the top of a neighboring mountain, whence the people of Gaza had much trouble in bringing them down once more.
Shortly after this adventure, Samson married another Philistine woman named Delilah. She had been secretly bribed by his enemies to discover the source of his great strength, and to deliver him into their hands securely fastened with bonds which even he could not break.
DELILAH
When first asked by his bride what bonds would hold him, Samson told her that he could not break green withes. So she once bound him thus, while he was asleep, and then awakened him by crying that the Philistines were coming; but he snapped his bonds as if they had been threads.
Delilah now made two other efforts to bind him,—once with new ropes, and once with seven strands of his own hair,—but these also failed to hold him. Then she pouted and coaxed until the giant told her that the real secret of his strength lay entirely in the keeping of his vow, and hence in his unshorn locks.
Delilah therefore cut off Samson's abundant hair while he was sound asleep, bound him, and delivered him bodily into the hands of the cruel Philistines. They put out his eyes, and made him grind wheat in their prison.
Samson suffered untold agonies while thus in the enemy's power. But God had not entirely forsaken him; for, as his hair grew long again, he gradually felt his wonted strength come back.
His enemies, wishing to taunt him, once had him brought into the temple of their god Dagon. The heavy roof of this building was supported by large stone pillars. As it was a great festival, several thousand Philistines were assembled there on that occasion, and about three thousand were on the flat roof.
After breathing a short, silent prayer for divine help, Samson threw his powerful arms around two of the columns, gave them a mighty wrench, and thus tore them down. As they fell, the heavy roof which they supported came crashing down upon the heads of the luckless Philistines, whose taunts were still ringing in their victim's ears.
All the people assembled there perished, and Samson's body, taken from the ruins, was buried with his family in their ancestral burying ground.
CHAPTER XXXII
The Ark Captured
S AMSON was succeeded by Samuel, the last judge of Israel, and the first prophet of a long series which was continuous until the return from captivity in Babylon, as you will see.
Samuel was the son of a Levite and his wife, Hannah. This woman, having remained childless for many years, once went up to Shiloh to worship the Lord. She prayed so fervently before the altar that Eli, the high priest, concluded from her excited gestures that she must be the worse for strong drink.
He was about to turn her out of the holy place when she told him the cause of her grief. Eli then blessed her, and promised her a son. When Samuel was born, Hannah rejoiced greatly, but remembering the vow she had made to give her child to the Lord, she brought him to the temple as soon as he was weaned.
There the mother left her only son in the care of Eli, the high priest, and went home, where God rewarded her for her sacrifice by giving her three other sons and two daughters to cheer her old age.
Eli, the high priest, was a very good man, but very weak. Instead of training his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, in the way they should go, he treated them with such indulgence that they soon took to evil ways.
When the father saw this, he called his sons to him, reproached them for their bad conduct, and sadly compared them to Samuel, who "was in favor both with the Lord and also with men." But this reproof came too late, and the young men went on doing wrong, until a prophet came to tell Eli that both his sons would die on the same day, and that instead of them God would find a priest worthy of serving him.
Eli was already very old and nearly blind. He dwelt in the
Shortly after this adventure, Samson married another Philistine woman named Delilah. She had been secretly bribed by his enemies to discover the source of his great strength, and to deliver him into their hands securely fastened with bonds which even he could not break.
DELILAH
When first asked by his bride what bonds would hold him, Samson told her that he could not break green withes. So she once bound him thus, while he was asleep, and then awakened him by crying that the Philistines were coming; but he snapped his bonds as if they had been threads.
Delilah now made two other efforts to bind him,—once with new ropes, and once with seven strands of his own hair,—but these also failed to hold him. Then she pouted and coaxed until the giant told her that the real secret of his strength lay entirely in the keeping of his vow, and hence in his unshorn locks.
Delilah therefore cut off Samson's abundant hair while he was sound asleep, bound him, and delivered him bodily into the hands of the cruel Philistines. They put out his eyes, and made him grind wheat in their prison.
Samson suffered untold agonies while thus in the enemy's power. But God had not entirely forsaken him; for, as his hair grew long again, he gradually felt his wonted strength come back.
His enemies, wishing to taunt him, once had him brought into the temple of their god Dagon. The heavy roof of this building was supported by large stone pillars. As it was a great festival, several thousand Philistines were assembled there on that occasion, and about three thousand were on the flat roof.
After breathing a short, silent prayer for divine help, Samson threw his powerful arms around two of the columns, gave them a mighty wrench, and thus tore them down. As they fell, the heavy roof which they supported came crashing down upon the heads of the luckless Philistines, whose taunts were still ringing in their victim's ears.
All the people assembled there perished, and Samson's body, taken from the ruins, was buried with his family in their ancestral burying ground.
CHAPTER XXXII
The Ark Captured
S AMSON was succeeded by Samuel, the last judge of Israel, and the first prophet of a long series which was continuous until the return from captivity in Babylon, as you will see.
Samuel was the son of a Levite and his wife, Hannah. This woman, having remained childless for many years, once went up to Shiloh to worship the Lord. She prayed so fervently before the altar that Eli, the high priest, concluded from her excited gestures that she must be the worse for strong drink.
He was about to turn her out of the holy place when she told him the cause of her grief. Eli then blessed her, and promised her a son. When Samuel was born, Hannah rejoiced greatly, but remembering the vow she had made to give her child to the Lord, she brought him to the temple as soon as he was weaned.
There the mother left her only son in the care of Eli, the high priest, and went home, where God rewarded her for her sacrifice by giving her three other sons and two daughters to cheer her old age.
Eli, the high priest, was a very good man, but very weak. Instead of training his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, in the way they should go, he treated them with such indulgence that they soon took to evil ways.
When the father saw this, he called his sons to him, reproached them for their bad conduct, and sadly compared them to Samuel, who "was in favor both with the Lord and also with men." But this reproof came too late, and the young men went on doing wrong, until a prophet came to tell Eli that both his sons would die on the same day, and that instead of them God would find a priest worthy of serving him.
Eli was already very old and nearly blind. He dwelt in the
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