(90)

After laboring for the weal of her nation for forty years, Deborah
departed this life. Her last words to the weeping people were an
exhortation not to depend upon the dead. They can do nothing for
the living. So long as a man is alive, his prayers are efficacious for
himself and for others. They avail naught once he is dead.

The whole nation kept a seventy days' period of mourning in honor
of Deborah, and the land was at peace for seven years. (91)

GIDEON

Elated by the victory over Sisera, Israel sang a hymn of praise, the
song of Deborah, and God, to reward them for their pious
sentiments, pardoned the transgression of the people. (92) But they
soon slipped back into the old ways, and the old troubles harassed
them. Their backsliding was due to the witchcraft of a Midianite
priest named Aud. He made the sun shine at midnight, and so
convinced the Israelites that the idols of Midian were mightier
than God, and God chastised them by delivering them into the
hands of the Midianties. (93) They worshipped their own images
reflected in the water, (94) and they were stricken with dire
poverty. They could not bring so much as a meal offering, the
offering of the poor. (95) On the eve of one Passover, Gideon
uttered the complaint: "Where are all the wondrous works which
God did for our fathers in this night, when he slew the first-born of
the Egyptians, and Israel went forth from slavery with joyous
hearts?" God appeared unto him, and said: "Thou who art
courageous enough to champion Israel, thou art worthy that Israel