But there is not much recorded of him until twenty years after the death
of Eli, who lived to be ninety. It was during this period that the
Philistines had carried away the sacred ark from Shiloh, and had overrun
the country and oppressed the Hebrews, who it seems had fallen into
idolatry, worshipping Ashtaroth and other strange gods. It was Samuel,
already recognized as a great prophet and judge, who aroused the nation
from its idolatry and delivered it from the hand of the Philistines at
Mizpeh, where a great battle was fought, so that these terrible foes
were subdued, and came no more into the borders of Israel during the
days of Samuel; and all the cities they had taken, from Ekron unto Gath,
were restored. The subjection of the Philistines was followed by the
undisputed rule of Samuel, under the name of Judge, during his life,
even after the consecration of Saul.

The Israelitish Judge seems to have been a sort of dictator, called to
power by the will of the people in times of great emergency and peril,
as among the Romans. "The Theocracy," says Ewald, "by pronouncing any
human ruler unnecessary as a permanent element of the State, lapsed into
anarchy and weakness. When a nation is without a government strong
enough to repress lawlessness within and to protect from foes without,
the whole people very soon divides once more into the two ranks of
master and servant. In Deborah's songs all Israel, so far as lay in her
circle of vision, was divided into princes and people. Hence the nation
consisted of innumerable self-constituted and self-sustained kingdoms,
formed whenever some chieftain elevated himself whom individuals or the
body of citizens in a town were willing to serve. Gaal, son of Zobah,
entered Shechem with troops raised by himself, just like a condottiere
in Italy in the Middle Ages. As it became evident that the nation could
not permanently dispense with an earthly government, it was forced to
rally round some powerful leader; and as the Theocracy was still