The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel

by Wangerin Jr. , Walter

  The men of Judah were terrified.

  “Why have you come up against us?” they said.

  The Philistines said, “We have come to bind Samson the Danite, to take him back and to do to him what he did to us.”

  So the men of Judah asked among themselves and discovered that Samson was hiding in Etam.

  They went to him, saying, “What is the matter with you? Why have you put us in such danger? You know we can’t win a war against the Philistines.”

  Samson said, “I have never done more to them than they did to me.”

  The men of Judah said, “That is nothing to us. We have come to bind you and to give you into their hands.”

  Samson said, “Kinsmen, do one thing for me.”

  “What thing?”

  “Swear that whatever happens, you will not fall on me yourselves.”

  “We swear, we will not kill you,” they said.

  So he came forward and allowed them to bind him with two new ropes, and they led him up from the rock to the Philistines.

  Then, just as the army of the Philistines closed in around their prisoner with shouting and triumph, the spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and his ropes became like flax in flames: they snapped. He saw on the ground the jawbone of an ass and seized it, and with that weapon Samson slew a thousand men, the entire army.

  Then he mounted a hill and cried out:

  “With the jawbone of an ass I made an army red!

  With the jawbone of an ass a thousand men are dead!”

  So the place was called Ramath-lehi: The Hill of the Jaw-bone.

  BUT FOR SOME of the Israelites, tales of a single hero were no comfort at all. These people hated the waste. They considered such stories to be a dangerous diversion, because they provided only a false hope while covering up the actual danger which the Philistines were becoming to Israel.

  These Israelites asked the realistic questions: “When their armies attack, who will fight for us?”

  “The Lord,” was the answer. “The Lord has always raised up leaders for us.”

  “Yes, and until then we remain twelve tribes who sometimes talk and who sometimes don’t. How often has a leader been able to bind all twelve tribes into a single fighting army? Never! There are always some who refuse to fight.”

  “But the few who fought, haven’t they always won the victory?”

  “This is a new enemy. He fights with iron. He comes under captains who were born to slaughter Israelites.”

  “The Lord God himself is our captain.”

  “Yes, the Lord! And didn’t the Lord also say that he made us a nation? Look around, children. We are no nation! Nothing unifies us—nothing and no one. We need a king.”

  “No! Gideon said it long ago: the Lord must rule as king among us.”

  “We need a king, to train men in fighting, to give us continual leadership and a center like other nations—or else we will die on the point of an iron sword!”

  ONCE UPON A TIME Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah, and he went in and lay with her.

  When the lords of the Philistines learned that Samson regularly slept with Delilah, they came to her and said, “If you can tell us where his strength abides, so that we can bind him and subdue him, we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

  Late one night Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies.”

  Samson smiled and said, “Bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, new and never dried, and then I shall be as weak as any other man.”

  He stretched himself out on her couch and fell asleep.

  Immediately, Delilah told Philistine soldiers what he had said. They brought her seven bowstrings which had not been dried, and she bound Samson with them, wrist and ankle, and then she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines are upon you!”

  But when he woke he snapped the bowstrings as a thread snaps in fire, and he struck the soldiers unconscious. So the secret of his strength was not known.

  On the following night Delilah said, “Bowstrings don’t weaken you, do they, Samson? Bowstrings have nothing to do with it, do they?”

  “No,” he said.

  “What binds you then?” Delilah asked.

  And Samson said, “Ropes, Delilah. New ropes, never used, shall make me weak like any other man.”

  So when he had fallen asleep, she took new ropes and bound him arms and legs, neck and thigh. She invited soldiers into her inner chamber, and she cried out, “Samson! The Philistines are upon you!”

  But he snapped the ropes like thread and dispatched these soldiers as he had their brothers.

  The next night Delilah fell to sobbing. She wept piteously and said, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me, Samson, how you might be bound.”

  Samson said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web of a loom and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, like any other man.”

  So while he slept Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. She made them tight with the pin and then cried out, “Samson! Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”

  But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, the beam, and the web.

  So then Delilah slapped the man in the face and grew angry. “How can you say you love me,” she cried, “when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times. Three times you have lied about your strength. When will you ever tell me the truth?”

  And when she pressed him hard day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death, and he told her all his mind.

  “A razor has never come upon my head, not since I left my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, like any other man.”

  When Delilah saw that he had told her all his mind, she sent for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come at once.”

  Then the lords came to her and brought the money in their hands.

  In the night she caused Samson to sleep on her knees, and she called a man to shave off the seven locks of his head.

  Then she began to torment Samson, and his strength left him.

  She whispered in his ear, “The Philistines, Samson. The Philistines are upon you.”

  He tried as before to break free, but he could not.

  So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to the city of Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters and set him to turning the millstone in the prison, like any ox.

  As the years passed the hair of his head began to grow again.

  Then came the day when the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god, Dagon.

  And when their hearts were merry they said, “Call Samson! Let him make sport for us!”

  So Samson was brought from prison into the magnificent house of Dagon. They commanded him to stand between the pillars of the temple, where everyone could see him, those on the ground, those in balconies, and those who lay on the roof—about three thousand people.

  Samson, raising his blind eyes, heard the roar of three thousand throats and felt their heavy breath upon him. He put out his hands until he found two pillars, and he asked the lad who led him, “Are these the pillars that the whole house rests on?”

  The lad said, “Yes.”

  So Samson prayed, “Lord God, remember me and strengthen me only this once, that I may be avenged upon the Philistines for one of my two eyes.”

  Then he grasped the pillars and leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one, his left hand on the other. And crying out, “Let me die with the Philistines,” Samson bowed with all his might, and the temple fell upon the lords and upon all the people that were in it.

  So the dead whom he slew at his death were more than all those whom he had slain during his life.

  These are the stories of Samson, hero of the Israelites.

  FOURTEEN

  The Levite’s Concubine

/>   IN THOSE DAYS there was no king in Israel. People did what was right in their own eyes, and tribes were not always friendly one to another.

  Now, the concubine of a certain Levite became angry with him and ran away to her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah. She was young. She stayed there four months without returning.

  Though she was no more than a concubine, purchased from an impoverished family, the Levite had developed an affection for the girl. So he arose and went after her, planning to speak kindly to her and to bring her home again.

  For two days he traveled south through foreign territory with one servant and two donkeys.

  When the girl’s father saw him coming, he ran out with joy and invited the Levite to stay a while. So the man ate and drank and lodged there. By the end of three days he had persuaded his concubine to come home of her own will. Therefore they decided to leave early on the fourth day.

  But that morning the father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and after that you may go.”

  So the two men ate and drank together, and the time passed, and soon it was the middle of the afternoon. When the Levite and his concubine rose to go, her father said, “The day has sunk into the evening. Stay one more night. Let your heart be merry and tomorrow you may rise early for the journey.”

  But the man had made up his mind. He saddled his donkeys and left Bethlehem, his concubine, his servant, and himself, traveling north.

  As they were passing Jerusalem, the servant said, “Let’s turn aside and spend the night in this city.”

  But the Levite said, “This city belongs to Jebusites. We cannot stay in a city of foreigners.”

  So they continued until they came into territory of Israel, land held by the tribe of Benjamin—and just at dusk they arrived at the city of Gibeah. They entered there and sat down in the open square, but no one offered them lodging for the night.

  Finally an old man came in from his work in the field. He was an Ephraimite sojourning among the Benjaminites. When he saw the Levite and the girl, he said, “Where are you going?”

  The Levite said, “Into the hill country of Ephraim, where my home is. But no one here will take us into his house. We have bread and wine enough for everyone. There is no lack of anything.”

  The old man said, “Peace be to you. I will care for all your wants. Come, stay with me.”

  So he brought them to his house and gave the asses provender; and they washed their feet and ate and drank.

  But in the darkness the young men of Gibeah, wicked fellows, surrounded the house and beat on the door.

  “Old man!” they cried. “Send out your visitor so that we can lie with him!”

  The Ephraimite went out and begged them to stop. “The man is my guest,” he said. “How can you even ask such a vile thing?”

  But the crowd became louder and more brutal. They struck the old man aside, broke his lock, reached inside and seized the Levite by his robe. Knives flashed. With one hand the Levite braced himself against the door; with the other he grabbed his concubine and pushed her outside and slammed the door and leaned his body against it.

  The young men of Gibeah, sons of Belial, raped the girl all night long. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.

  In the grey light the girl came and fell down at the door of the house where her master was.

  And the Levite rose up in the morning. When he opened the door of the house and went out, there was his concubine lying at the door with her hands on the threshold.

  He said to her, “Get up. Let us be going.”

  But there was no answer.

  He kneeled down beside her and heard the breath go out of her body. She sighed and did not breathe again.

  The Levite stood up and lifted the girl in his arms and laid her across the back of one donkey. He rode the other, leading her home the entire day without a rest or a pause; and when he entered his own house he found a knife, and laying hold of his concubine’s corpse, he divided it limb from limb, into twelve pieces.

  He sent the pieces throughout all the territory of Israel.

  And all who saw them said, “Such a thing has never happened from the day the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt! Consider it! What shall we do?”

  So the people of Israel gathered at Bethel, and the elders said, “Tell us how this wickedness came to pass.”

  The Levite said, “When the men of Gibeah came against me and attacked the house by night, I knew they meant to kill me! They raped my concubine and killed her. They have committed an abomination. People of Israel, all of you, what shall we do?”

  They said, “Not one of us will return to our houses until we make Gibeah of Benjamin pay for the vile crime which they have committed in Israel.”

  So they sent messages to the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “Give up those wicked fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and put this evil away from Israel.”

  But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of the other tribes. Instead they mustered an army from all their cities and came to join Gibeah in battle against the rest of Israel. Now, the men of Benjamin could shoot a bow with either hand; and they could sling a stone at a hair without missing.

  The people of Israel inquired of God: “Which of us shall go up first to battle against Benjamin?”

  And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first.

  So the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. Their armies went forth into battle. Judah first. Judah took the field first, but Benjamin beat the men of Judah backward with terrible attacks, killing them as they ran. Moreover, Benjamin drove the rest of Israel from the field.

  The people of Israel then wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired of him, “Shall we again attack our brethren the Benjaminites?”

  The Lord said, Go up against them.

  Therefore the men of Israel took courage and again formed the battle line in the same place where they formed it the first day. And Benjamin came out of the city of Gibeah this second day, and again they defeated the men of Israel. So the armies withdrew to Bethel again and wept louder than before. They sat before the Lord and fasted and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Phinehas the son of Eleazar brought forth the Ark of the Covenant of God, and the people asked, “Shall we yet again go out to battle against our brethren the Benjaminites, or shall we cease?”

  And the Lord said, Go up; for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.

  On the third day Israel set an ambush behind the city of Gibeah—otherwise, they formed the same battle line as on the previous two days. And in the morning the entire army of Benjamin rushed forth from the city, attacking Israel. As before, Israel fought a little while, then turned and ran, and Benjamin followed, killing about thirty men of Israel.

  But then the men hidden in ambush broke out and rushed to the city of Gibeah. They struck the whole city with the edge of their swords.

  A signal had been arranged between the men of Israel and the men in ambush: When smoke goes up from Gibeah, turn! Turn and fight.

  And so it was. A column of smoke rose from Gibeah; the armies of Israel saw it and turned to attack their brothers. Benjamin, too, saw the city going up in smoke, and were so dismayed that they retreated from Israel in violent disorder.

  The men of Benjamin fell that day; the cities of Benjamin were burned; women and children perished with the cities, and the tribe was reduced to almost nothing. Six hundred men fled toward the rock of Rimmon and hid in the shadow of that rock four months.

  Then all the rest of Israel came together again at Bethel and sat before God until the evening, weeping bitterly. For they said, “O Lord, why has this come to pass, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?”

  For the sake of their brothers, they went armed to the city of Jabesh in Gilead and seized four hundred young women, none of whom had ever lain with a man. With these they offered peace to the men at the rock of Rimmon. So the
virgins of Jabesh-Gilead became wives and mothers in Benjamin, and the tribe did not die.

  IN THOSE DAYS there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.

  PART FOUR

  Kings

  FIFTEEN

  Saul

  I

  BY THE GATES of Jabesh-Gilead there stood a stone fortress several stories higher than the rest of the city. One could stand in the northwest corner of this fortress and look down into the Jordan valley at some of the richest soil on the east side of the river. From its southwest corner one could see the magnificent hills of Gilead, their lower slopes terraced for olive orchards and vineyards, their highest reaches covered with forests as thick as those of Mount Carmel or Lebanon.

  Into the wet dew of an early dawn three men crept through an outer door of that fortress and began to run west along a dry riverbed toward the Jordan River. No one else was in view. The houses of Jabesh were empty. All its citizens were huddled in the fortress itself. The children still were sleeping.

  As the three men approached a low break of trees just beyond bowshot of the fortress, they slowed to a walk. They bowed their heads and lifted their arms, revealing empty scabbards. A small detachment of Ammonite soldiers stepped out of the break and surrounded them, holding spear-points to the backs of their necks.

  “King Nahash has given us leave,” said the tallest of the three, his head still bowed. “We have seven days. At the end of seven days you can kill us, but till then the king’s order grants us safe passage.”

  One of the soldiers grabbed the hair and yanked backward. When his face was tilted to the morning light, it was evident that the man of Jabesh had but one eye. His right eyeball was gone. The lid fluttered, sucked into the skull like the cheek of a toothless grandfather. The Ammonite soldiers burst into a sneezing, scornful laughter. They pulled back the heads of the tall man’s companions and their laughter redoubled. These two also were blinded in their right eyes. And because they were also afraid, their lids were open. The sockets writhed with white tendons. A foolish flow of tears fell from the empty eyes.