their political government: whereupon God was provoked to anger,
and put them in mind, first, how, contrary to his directions,
they had spared the Canaanites; and, after that, how those
Canaanites, as opportunity served, used them very barbarously.
But the Israelites, though they were in heaviness at these
admonitions from God, yet were they still very unwilling to go to
war; and since they got large tributes from the Canaanites, and
were indisposed for taking pains by their luxury, they suffered
their aristocracy to be corrupted also, and did not ordain
themselves a senate, nor any other such magistrates as their laws
had formerly required, but they were very much given to
cultivating their fields, in order to get wealth; which great
indolence of theirs brought a terrible sedition upon them, and
they proceeded so far as to fight one against another, from the
following occasion: -

8. There was a Levite (12) a man of a vulgar family, that
belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt therein: this man
married a wife from Bethlehem, which is a place belonging to the
tribe of Judah. Now he was very fond of his wife, and overcome
with her beauty; but he was unhappy in this, that he did not meet
with the like return of affection from her, for she was averse to
him, which did more inflame his passion for her, so that they
quarreled one with another perpetually; and at last the woman was
so disgusted at these quarrels, that she left her husband, and
went to her parents in the fourth month. The husband being very
uneasy at this her departure, and that out of his fondness for
her, came to his father and mother-in-law, and made up their
quarrels, and was reconciled to her, and lived with them there
four days, as being kindly treated by her parents. On the fifth