GIDEON. 121

men of that city; he took ten-of his servants to assist
him, and did it in the night. -

Marianne. Did Gideon’s father worship Baal ?

Grandfather. It is plain that he did, and some think
that he was a leader in the worship of that false god—
perhaps a priest,—and that the altar he had near his
house was for the use of the whole town. When the
men of that town rose in the morning and saw that
their idol, altar, and grove were destroyed, they made a
point of discovering by whom this had been done. That
could not be very difficult to find out, and as soon as
they knew they called on Joash to deliver up his son
that they might put him to death.

Marianne. To death, grandfather, because he wor-
shipped God ?

Grandfather. For no other reason, so far sunk were
these Israelites in idolatry. By their law the man who
worshipped false gods was to be put to death. They
reversed it here, and would have put to death a man for
refusing to worship false gods. Joash would not allow
his son to be put to death. He said, if Baal were a god
he would avenge himself, and he gave Gideon a new
name, Jerubbaal, which means the antagonist of Baal.
Probably Gideon had before convinced him that he had
a divine commission to do as he had done. About this
time the Midianites, Amalekites, and Arabians came
from the east in great force, and pitched in the valley of
Jezreel, not far from Ophra, the city where Gideon lived.
Then a spirit of valour from heaven came upon Gideon ;