Once Again the Three Warriors Have Thrown Themselves Into a Mighty Battle

Samson: strongman

Bible Soldiers & Warriors: Samson.

Samson was an exceptionally potent human, a giant incommunicable to shell. He never needed to deal.

He was not attached to whatever formal army, similar other ancient heroes like Achilles in the Iliad. Instead, he used his personal strength to have on any enemy. He caused mayhem on many occasions.

Some of his feats include:

• the nuptials riddle used at his matrimony to the Philistine girl from Timnah, where Samson killed thirty Philistines in revenge on the Philistine men who bribed his wife to obtain the respond to the riddle
• his concluding escapade with Delilah, who deceived him to learn the hole-and-corner of his strength.

Read what modern Bible scholars say nearly aboriginal war & weapons

One of the weapons used by Samson was the jawbone of an ass (see photo beneath). He used it equally an improvised social club.

Improvisation and ingenuity were especially valued by the Jewish tribes. Why? Because they were forbidden past the Philistines to smelt or piece of work metallic, then were unable to produce metallic weapons themselves. This was clearly a disadvantage when fighting an enemy.

Anyone who could get around this trouble by inventing

• a different way of fighting (guerrilla warfare) or
• an efficient non-metal weapon (the jawbone of an ass used as a club)

was clearly an nugget to the beleagued tribes.

The jawbone of an ass

When the Philistines learned the reason backside Samson's prodigious forcefulness, they captured him and put out his eyes making him, they thought, utterly helpless.

Some fourth dimension later, he was led into the temple of Dagon and made sport of as function of the day's entertainment.

But unnoticed by the Philistines, his hair had begun to grow dorsum…

In one last magnificent effort, he pulled the two supporting pillars of the temple apart, burying himself and upwardly to three m Philistines in the rubble.

---

David, boy warrior

Everyone is familiar with the story of David and Goliath -the boy warrior who defeated an enemy much stronger and meaner than himself.

Bible Soldiers & Warriors: David faces Goliath!!

Why is the story then famous?

It was a mirror of the situation that daily faced the Israelites – they were militarily and technologically inferior to their enemy the Philistines, and only  guile and the tactics of guerrilla warfare got them through.

Later, when David became male monarch, he  faced the Philistines in two decisive battles, at Baal Perazim and Rephaim virtually Jerusalem.

He defeated the Philistines and pushed them back onto the coastal plain, where they were less of a threat to him and his people.

He did something else that had never been washed in Israel before, and was not popular: he decided to ignore the tribal militia and use mercenary troops instead – the Cherethites and Pelethites.

Why was this and so important? Because the two cohorts were a decisive gene in a later battle – when David's son Solomon wrested the throne from  his older brother Adonijah. For the beginning fourth dimension in Israel's history, foreign mercenaries were used in an internal boxing.

David was a soldier with a vision: he set out to create an empire.

In the first stage of his plan, he attacked the last strongholds of the native Canaanite population in the northward, and added Megiddo, Beth Shean and Taanach to his territory.

Calibration armor. Each modest metal plate was attached to a leather thong so that the pieces formed a protective surface for the warrior who wore it.

Why was this so important? Because he bankrupt the Philistine monopoly on metal industry. This meant that he was able to put far amend weapons into the hands of his soldiers.

David then undertook successful campaigns confronting the Moabites, Edom and then the Ammonites – giving him an outlet to the Red Sea.

Lastly, he defeated the Arameans and annexed Aram-Zobah and Damascus, so that the borders of his kingdom may have reached as far every bit the Euphrates River.

Dandy for a boy who started life as a shepherd…

Joshua & the Promised State

Joshua was Moses' successor every bit leader of the Hebrew tribes when they scrambled for a foothold in the country of Canaan.

 Almost all the keen victories of that time are credited to him – though many of the battles were probably conducted past others. Instead of a sweeping conquest, Israel'south settlement of the land was a more complicated procedure.

Nevertheless, the celebrity was Joshua'south, a true Bible soldier and warrior.

He is all-time-known for his extraordinary victory over Jericho, where 'the walls came tumbling downward' – though the existent hero of the story is Joshua's God, who shows awesome power with only minimal assistance from the Israelite soldiers.

'…when the priests blew with their trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, 'Shout! for the Lord has given you the city. And then that the people went up into the metropolis, every human straight before him, and they took the urban center."

Reconstruction of the plummet of the walls surrounding Jericho.

This ruse is explicable in the light of a later one described in a Roman volume of war machine ruses composed by Frontinus:

"When Domitius Calvinus was besieging Lueria, a town of the Lugerians protected non only by its location and siegeworks but also by the superiority of its defenders, he instituted the exercise of marching often effectually the walls with all his forces, and then marching back to campsite. When the townspeople had been induced by this routine to believe that the Roman commander did this for the purpose of drill, and consequently took no precautions against his efforts, he transformed this do of parading into a sudden attack, and gaining possession of the walls, forced the inhabitants to surrender."

Joshua used trickery to brand upwards for his army's lack of numbers, as for example in his capture of the city of Ai. His chief aim was to depict the city's inhabitants away from the fortifications, so enter.

The plan is presented simply and conspicuously in Joshua viii: 3 –8:

Modernistic excavations of the biblical metropolis of Jericho

… and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them away by night. And he commanded them, saying, 'Behold, lie in wait confronting the city, even behind the urban center: go non very far from the city, only be ready: And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach the city: and it shall come to laissez passer, when they come out against us, equally at the first, that nosotros will abscond before them, for they volition come out after us till we have drawn them from the city; for they volition say, "They flee before usa, as at the offset": therefore we will abscond earlier them. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush and seize the metropolis: for the Lord your God volition deliver it into your hand.

The cities Joshua conquered were placed under the herem, the ban in holy war when everything that breathed, animal and man, was utterly destroyed.

In this case Joshua'south God was a warrior god who advised the wholesale slaughter of the Canaanite population.

Joshua complied.

Gideon was wily

Mobile unit of camouflaged soldiers

Gideon was State of israel's quaternary judge in the time between the death of Joshua and the beginning of the monarchy.

A 'estimate' was not a legal official, but someone who was filled with the spirit of God and led military campaigns to defeat Israel's enemies. He adult the strategy of guerrilla warfare, and it was the Israelites' chosen method of fighting for many centuries.

Gideon became a judge after he was called by an angel.

At first he was doubtful that it was God who was commissioning him, merely one time convinced he threw himself into the task of fighting the Midianites and the Amalekites, enemies of the Israelite tribes.

With an regular army of 300 men, chosen from a much larger group past a series of tests, Gideon attacked the Midianite camp at dark, panicked and then routed them. The Midianite leaders were captured and beheaded.

Scooping h2o from a stream, using cupped hands

His selection of the 300 warriors makes an interesting story. He had more than volunteers than he needed, so he had to choose between them.

God instructed him to cull the men who drank from a stream by lying total-length and lapping at the h2o. This meant they had to lie on the basis, dunk their confront into the water and gulp it upwards directly, rather than cupping water in their hands which is a more than 'civilized' matter to practise.

Note: a human natural language cannot lap up water the way a dog does; it doesn't have the flexibility or length of a dog'due south tongue.

Why did God choose the 'gulpers'? Perchance because of their physical and psychological fighting chapters.

• Those who were too fastidious to fling themselves on the ground and gulp the water may have shown insufficient adaptability, a reluctance to face discomfort.
• Those who lay full length on the ground offered the enemy a reduced target, perhaps a signal that they have faced an enemy before and learnt the hard lessons of war.

Memorial statue of 3 soldiers

In any event, these 300 men proved successful in battle.

Afterward his victory over the Midianites Gideon returned to Succoth and tortured the elders of the urban center, because they had refused to give him and his men the provisions they needed.

Retribution and enforcement were necessary in this harsh state of affairs, Gideon believed.

The men of State of israel asked Gideon to get their king, simply he refused because, every bit he said, Israel should have but one king, God. He and so returned home and lived to a ripe old age.

(Judges half-dozen-eight )

Maccabees and Hasmonean Defection

Maccabees one tells the story of the Hasmonean Defection. The book describes the Jewish struggle for independence and the rebellion against idolatry.

The rebellion began when a member of the Hasmonean family, Mattathias, refused to offer sacrifice to a pagan god and then struck downwardly a Jewish homo who had done just that.

To escape imprisonment, he fled to the Gophna hills, together with his 5 warrior sons. Many disgruntled Jews flocked to his side, becoming a formidable army under Mattathias' leadership.

Subsequently Matthias died, he was succeeded by his son Judas Maccabeus (Judah the Hammer), a guerrilla genius who developed a model of underdog warfare.

Many of his followers were inspired by the idea of religious martyrdom – something which influenced the Jewish and Christian faiths for many centuries.

Judas was not tolerant of Hellenization, non tolerant at all. He did everything he could to crush and destroy Greek-inspired ideas and civilization, including murdering many Jews who had become Hellenized.

In 160BC Judas fell in battle, and was succeeded past his brother Jonathan, who was besides made High Priest. He likewise died fighting.

The last surviving brother Simon did what had seemed impossible – he created and ruled a free Jewish land, the first for four and a half centuries.

Jephtah – bad luck

Jephtah started behind the eight-ball.

• He was built-in to a prostitute in a order where family lineage was of import
• when his father died and the inheritance was divided, Jephtah'southward legitimate half-brothers drove him off
• he was forced to live the life of a bandit, gathering a motley group of thugs and thieves around him.

Only the bike turned. When war loomed for the Israelites he was courted by the very people who had thrown him out. They knew his prowess every bit a fighter, and they needed his assistance.

 French soldier, World War I

This time he bargained with them: 'I'll fight for you lot' he said, 'just on my terms'.

He was victorious and became a national hero.

His story would have been forgotten had not Jephtah, just prior to the battle, bargained with God.

If he won, he told God, he would offer a sacrifice of the first living thing that ran to greet him when he returned habitation.

What he did not foresee was that the matter that ran out towards him was his just child, a daughter whom he adored.

But he kept his promise to God. He killed her.

Encounter the story in more particular at Jephtah'south daughter

Omri, nation builder

The Mesha Stele

The Mesha Stele
'I am Mesha, the king of Moab. My begetter was king over Moab for thirty years, and I became king after my male parent. Omri was the king of State of israel, and he oppressed Moab for many days. And his son reigned in his place; and he also said, "I will oppress Moab!" In my days he said then. But I looked down on him and on his business firm, and Israel has been defeated; it has been defeated forever!'
(Translation of office of the inscription)

There is no doubt that Omri was 1 of the great armed forces commanders of the ancient world, only nosotros know tantalizingly picayune about him.

This is because of his religious policies – he allowed his subjects to worship any god they chose, so the Bible has shown him in an unfavorable calorie-free, hardly mentioning him.

In fact, he was a potent war machine commander who made a play for the throne after the previous king, Zimri, was killed.

When this happened the country was in danger of splitting into ii, but Omri

• gained command
• ended well-nigh fifty years of civil strife
• unified the country over again
• and founded a strong dynasty.

Ivory plaque from the site of the Ivory House in Samaria. It shows the notorious 'Adult female at the Window', linked with sacred prostitution

This dynasty prospered for over forty years – non much by mod standards, but a stand-out success at the fourth dimension. He laid the foundations of the Kingdom of Israel, and after Assryian inscriptions referred to the Kingdom of Israel as 'Bit Humri', the House of Omri.

A man of energy and vision, he likewise began building a new majuscule metropolis for his country at Samaria. His palace was called the 'Ivory House' because of the lavish use of carved ivory plaques in its decoration.

Why isn't the Ivory Business firm ameliorate known? It outshone anything Jerusalem could produce, putting the Temple-based priesthood in second place. So they simple ignored it when they came to record events.

History is written by the victors.

Ahab: warrior king

Ancient wall relief. The boxing chariots of Ahab were similar, conveying an archer and a driver

Ahab is one of the well-nigh underrated kings of the Old Testament. He was one of the Bible'south well-nigh formidable soldiers and warriors.

• During his reign the kingdom of Israel played an of import part in international diplomacy.
• He strengthened ties with Phoenicia in the n and Judah in the south, marrying a princess from Tyre (Jezebel) and so allying himself to Judah through the matrimony of his girl Athaliah.

He was a warrior every bit well as a diplomat – he had to exist, because Ben-Hadad the rex of Damascus engaged him in 3 carve up wars. Ben-Hadad, together with xxx-two vassal rulers, was able to advance as far equally Ahab'southward upper-case letter Samaria, where he laid siege to the city.

Ahab collection him back, routing him in the process.

Ahab'south main enemy, however, was the Assyrian male monarch Shalmaneser III. Ahab led a coalition of twelve kings who fought Shalmaneser at the Boxing of Qarqar in Syria, 1 of the peachy battles of the ancient world.

Ahab provided 10,000 infantry and 2,500 chariots – or at least that is what the records show. The numbers may have been smaller.

But the fact remains that Ahab led a coalition of kings in a major battle of the ancient world, and he won. Details of the battle appear on the inscriptions of the Syrian male monarch too as in the Bible.

Wall carving from the northwest palace at Nimrud. A warrior mortally wounded by an pointer is trampled underfoot by a chariot horse

Peace could not be maintained. No wonder the Bible suggests Ahab was prone to fits of deep depression – run into Jezebel takes Naboth's vineyard.
Once once more, Ben-Hadad broke the peace, and Ahab faced him in boxing at Ramoth-Gilead. This fourth dimension he dressed as a mutual soldier – leaders in battle were targets for archers, and information technology was prudent to utilize some course of cover-up.

The ruse did not work, and Ahab was mortally wounded by a random arrow.

Simply he fought on. When he could no longer stand, he had himself propped up in his chariot, and then that he could come across the fighting. As the sun went down on the battlefield, he died.

This picture is supposed to bear witness the death of Ahab. In fact he would have been in total boxing armour

Saul, tragic leader

Philistine warrior, from a carving at Medinet Habu

Saul stood out from the crowd. He was handsome, tall and commanding – a charismatic leader.

Simply from the first he faced a formidable enemy, the Philistines, who occupied all the fertile state in the central colina country of Judah.

When Saul's son Jonathan killed the Philistine governor at Geba, it was on for young and old.

The Philistines took up a position reverse Gibeah in the gorge of Michmash and Jonathan, without telling his begetter, scaled the cliff and killed twenty men in the Philistine outpost. In the ensuing fighting, Philistine control of the mount area was cleaved.

Saul'south reign (and the reign of any tribal leader of the period) was a lifelong struggle against the enemy.

At the approach of Saul's last battle he was filled with foreboding, and went to En Dor to consult a witch nigh the outcome of the battle – soldiers have always been superstitious.

The witch confirmed what he knew already: that the Israelite army had no chariots and could non withstand the assault of the well-armed Philistines. See what happened at The Witch of Endor

Photo of boy soldiers
from the American Civil War

In the ensuing battle Saul's three sons were killed, and he himself was seriously wounded.

In the terminal moments of his life he asked his amour-bearer to 'thrust me through', and when the immature human refused, Saul cruel on his ain sword and died.

The Philistines institute him and hung his decapitated body on the walls of their city Beth Shan, but some loyal followers removed the body and gave it an honourable burial.

Barak had a plan…

The name Deborah ways a bee: 'float like a butterfly, sting similar a bee'

The Israelite general Barak was not eager to fight the large coalition of Canaanite kings. When you wait at the odds he faced information technology'southward hardly surprising.

• His enemy was more than numerous, better equipped, and had excellent morale.
• Their technology was far superior to his – they controlled metal-making, so their weaponry was tougher than annihilation Barak could produce.
• The enemy general, Sisera, also had well-disciplined and seasoned troops.

As far every bit Barak could run across, facing them would exist tantamount to suicide.

WW1 soldier lost in a sea of mud, as Barak was

He was eventually persuaded to fight pastone of the most forceful women in the Bible, Deborah. She convinced him that winning a battle was not only a question of equipment and grooming, merely of strategy besides – and she had a plan.

They staged the battle near a large swampy surface area that slowed down the formidable atomic number 26-wheeled chariots of the enemy – once these had had a brake put on them, so to speak, they would not exist nearly as manoeuverable or effective.

At this phase, God stepped in and sent a rainstorm, which not only slowed downwardly the chariots but brought them to a standstill.

Boyfriend using a sling shot

The archers who would commonly accept shot from the back of the chariots now had moisture bowstrings and limited visibility. Encounter the Bow & Pointer in War

Barak's Israelite militia, on the other manus, excelled at hand-to-mitt combat and in the apply of sling-shots, and were able to crush their enemy.

Mud was their marry, and the day was won. See Bible Battles: Deborah & Barak

Search Box

Bible Study Resource for State of israel's great soldier warriors
Joshua, Samson, David, Gideon, the Maccabees, Omri, Ahab, Saul, Barak, Jephtah

dizonvilim1999.blogspot.com

Source: https://womeninthebible.net/bible-extras/10-warriors/

Share this post