After this time Eli the priest at the sacred tabernacle, a descendant of Ithamar, the youngest son of Aaron,[204] is said to have been in honour among the Israelites. Not only was he the priest of the national shrine, but counsel and judgment were also sought from him. But Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas; did evil, and lay with the women who came to the sacred tabernacle to offer prayer and sacrifice.[205] FOOTNOTES: [181] Judges v. 10, 14; x. 4. [182] Judges x. 1-5; xii. 8-15. [183] _e.g._ Judges ix. 27. [184] Judges xxi. 19; 1 Sam. i. 3; ii. 13. [185] Judges xx. 1; vol. i. 410. [186] 1 Sam. x. 3; vol. i. 390, 411. [187] Judges xvii. 5, 10; xviii. 30; 1 Sam. vii. 1; 2, vi. 3. [188] Judges xvii. ff. [189] 1 Sam. xix. 13-16; xxi. 9; Gen. xxxi. 34; Judges xvii. 5; xviii. 14, 17; 2 Kings xxiii. 24. [190] _e.g._ Judges vi. 36-40; xviii. 5; xx. 18 ff. The priests wore a pocket with lots (apparently small stones) on the breast. The Urim and Thummim of the High Priest was originally nothing but these lots. [191] On the composition of the Book of Judges, cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," 325 ff. [192] In David's time only 270,000 are given: below, chap. 7. [193] Judges xx. 8; xxi. 7-18. [194] Gen. xlix. 27; Judges xx. 16; 1 Chron. viii. 39; xii. 2; 2 Chron. xiv. 7. [195] These events belong, according to Judges xx. 27 ff., to the period immediately after the conquest: as a fact, the war against Benjamin is not to be placed long after this, _i.e._ about 1200 B.C. Cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," S. 326. [196] Judges iii. 12 ff. [197] Judges iv., v. [198] Judges vi. 2-5. [199] Judges viii. 19. [200] The observation that Gideon was the least in the house of his father, and his family the weakest in Manasseh (Judges vi. 15), is due no doubt to the tendency of the Ephraimitic text to show how strong Jehovah is even in the weak. From similar motives it is said that Gideon himself reduced his army to 300 men (Judges vii. 2-6). In the presence of the Ephraimites Gideon speaks only of the family of Abiezer. [201] What is meant in Judges viii. 27 by an ephod is not clear. The words which follow in the verse--that all Israel went whoring after Gideon--are obviously an addition of the prophetic revision. [202] Judges viii. 22. [203] Gideon's date can only be fixed very indefinitely. He and the generations after him must have belonged to the second half of the twelfth century B.C. [204] Joseph. "Antiq." 5, 11, 5. [205] 1 Sam. ii. 22-25. CHAPTER V. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY IN ISRAEL.