130 BATTLES OF THE BIBLE.

God ; he ought to have guarded against the slightest ap-
proach to idolatry. This teaches us that it is not enough
that our own intentions be pure ; we ought to avoid all
appearance of evil.

George. Was there any more war in Gideon’s time °

Grandfather. No, there was peace while he lived,
which was forty years after he had subdued the Midianites.
He left seventy-one sons. One of them, named Abimelech,
resolved to attain to the sovereignty which his father had
rejected. That he might gain this end, nothing was too
wicked for him to do. He, cold-blooded murderer as he
was, killed all his brethren on one stone, all except the
youngest, who escaped by hiding himself.

Marianne. Surely the people would not make him
king after he had done that.

Grandfather. They did, for the Israelites were sadly
degenerated by the worship of false gods. His prin-
cipal supporters were the menof Shechem, a city in the
tribe of Ephraim. The chief men of it seem to have much
resembled himself. They did not long continue to respect
the king they had made: in three years they began to
deal treacherously with him. The men of Shechem even
sent out liers in wait to watch on the country roads for
Abimelech, that they might take him prisoner, and they
set up over themselves another ruler, Gaal, the son of
Ebed. Gaal does not seem to have possessed one good
quality ; he had a bold tongue and a cowardly heart.
When Abimelech heard of the revolt of the Shechemites
he marched against them. Gaal made an attempt to go