This led to a civil war, for Jephthah was not so submissive to the proud Ephraimites as the judge of Ophrah had been. The men of Ephraim crossed the Jordan, near the town of Zaphon, and assumed a warlike attitude; but Jephthah punished them for their presumption, defeated them, and blocked their road of retreat on the banks of the Jordan. Jephthah might have strengthened the tribes beyond the Jordan, but his rule lasted only six years, and he left no son to succeed him. He had only one daughter, and about her a deeply touching story has been preserved, which describes how she became the victim of her father's rash vow. Whilst the hero of Gilead was subduing the Ammonites by force of arms, Samson was fighting the Philistines, who claimed from the tribe to which Samson belonged the coast-line of Joppa, formerly a part of their possessions. The tribe of Dan smarted under their yoke, but had not the power to effect a change. Samson was not supported in his enterprises by the various tribes, as Jephthah had been. They greatly feared the Philistines; thus Samson was compelled to have recourse to stratagems, and could harm the enemy only by unexpected onslaughts. This mode of warfare was censured in the words, "Dan shall judge his people like one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be as a serpent by the way, and as an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backwards."[13] Samson is supposed to have fought during twenty years for Israel, without, however, improving the state of affairs. Long after his death, the Philistines kept the upper hand over the tribes of Dan and Benjamin, and also over Judah and Ephraim. The rule of the Philistines pressed with increasing weight upon Israel. After Samson there arose successively three other deliverers, two in the tribe of Zebulun, and one in the tribe of Ephraim; but their deeds were of so insignificant a character that they have not been deemed worthy of mention. Of the two hero-judges in Zebulun, only the names and the territory or town in which they were buried have been preserved: Ibzan, of Bethlehem in Zebulun, and Elon, of the town of Ajalon. Also of the Ephraimite judge, Abdon, son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, little is known. It is not even stated against what enemies they waged war; but the fact that the men of Zebulun, who at first lived far away from the sea, afterwards extended their dwelling-places to the shore, leads us to suppose that they supplanted the Canaanite inhabitants. CHAPTER V. ELI AND SAMUEL.