had won the great victory. Kenaz only answered: "Ask those who
were with me about my deeds." His men were thus forced to
confess that they knew nothing, only, on awakening, they had seen
the plain full of dead bodies, without being able to account for
their being there. Then Kenaz turned to the thirty-seven men
imprisoned, before he left for the war, for having cast aspersions
upon him. "Well," he said, "what charge have you to make against
me?" Seeing that death was inevitable, they confessed they were of
the sort of sinners whom Kenaz and the people had executed, and
God had now surrendered them to him on account of their
misdeeds. They, too, were burnt with fire.

Kenaz reigned for a period of fifty-seven years. When he felt his
end draw nigh, he summoned the two prophets, Phinehas and
Jabez, (19) together with the priest Phinehas, the son of Eleazar.
To these he spake: "I know the heart of this people, it will turn
from following after the Lord. Therefore do I testify against it."
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, replied: "As Moses and Joshua
testified, so do I testify against it; for Moses and Joshua
prophesied concerning the vineyard, the beautiful planting of the
Lord, which knew not who had planted it, and did not recognize
Him who cultivated it, so that the vineyard was destroyed, and
brought forth no fruit. These are the words my father commanded
me to say unto this people."

Kenaz broke out into loud wailing, and with him the elders and the
people, and they wept until eventide, saying: "Is it for the iniquity
of the sheep that the shepherd must perish? May the Lord have
compassion upon His inheritance that it may not work in vain."