Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 265 of the Palestine
     Exploration Fund.

These cities had also to reckon with Ephraim, and the tribes which had thrown in their lot with her.  Dan had cast his eyes upon the northern districts of the Shephelah—­which were dependent upon Ekron or Gath—­and also upon the semi-Phoenician port of Joppa; but these tribes did not succeed in taking possession of those districts, although they had harassed them from time to time by raids in which the children of Israel did not always come off victorious.  One of their chiefs—­Samson—­had a great reputation among them for his bravery and bodily strength.  But the details of his real prowess had been forgotten at an early period.  The episodes which have been preserved deal with some of his exploits against the Philistines, and there is a certain humour in the chronicler’s account of the weapons which he employed:  “with the jawbone of an ass have I smitten a thousand men;” he burned up their harvest also by letting go three hundred foxes, with torches attached to their tails, among the standing corn of the Philistines.  Various events in his career are subsequently narrated; such as his adventure in the house of the harlot at Gaza, when he carried off the gate of the city and the gate-posts “to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.”  By Delilah’s treachery he was finally delivered over to his enemies, who, having put out his eyes, condemned him to grind in the prison-house.  On the occasion of a great festival in honour of Dagon, he was brought into the temple to amuse his captors, but while they were making merry at his expense, he took hold of the two pillars against which he was resting, and bowing “himself with all his might,” overturned them, “and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein."*

     * Some learned critics considered Samson to have been a sort
     of solar deity.

The tribe of Dan at length became weary of these unprofitable struggles, and determined to seek out another and more easily defensible settlement.  They sent out five emissaries, therefore, to look out for a new home.  While these were passing through the mountains they called upon a certain Michah in the hill-country of Ephraim and lodged there.  Here they took counsel of a Levite whom Michah had made his priest, and, in answer to the question whether their journey would be prosperous, he told them to “Go in peace:  before the Lord is the way wherein ye go.”  Their search turned out successful, for they discovered near the sources of the Jordan the town of Laish, whose people, like the Zidonians, dwelt in security, fearing no trouble.  On the report of the emissaries, Dan decided to emigrate:  the warriors set out to the number of six hundred, carried off by the way the ephod of Micah and the Levite who served before it, and succeeded in capturing Laish, to which they gave the name of their tribe.  “They there set up for themselves the ephod:  and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land."* The tribe of Dan displayed in this advanced post of peril the bravery it had shown on the frontiers of the Shephelah, and showed itself the most bellicose of the tribes of Israel.