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Legends of the Jews, the — Volume 4 by Louis Ginzberg
page 40 of 403 (09%)
said to Jair: "We are mindful of the lessons given us by our
teachers and our mother Deborah. 'Take ye heed,' they said, 'that
your heart lead you not astray to the right or to the left. Day and
night ye shall devote yourselves to the study of the Torah.' Why,
then, dost thou seek to corrupt the people of the Lord, saying, 'Baal
is God, let us worship him'? If he really is what thou sayest, then
let him speak like a god, and we will pay him worship." For the
blasphemy they had uttered against Baal, Jair commanded that the
seven men be burnt. When his servants were about to carry out his
order, God sent the angel Nathaniel, the lord over the fire, and he
extinguished the fire though not before the servants of Jair were
consumed by it. Not only did the seven men escape the danger of
suffering death by fire, but the angel enabled them to flee
unnoticed, by striking all the people present with blindness. Then
the angel approached Jair, and said to him: "Hear the words of the
Lord ere thou diest. I appointed thee as prince over my people, and
thou didst break My covenant, seduce My people, and seek to burn
My servants with fire, but they were animated and freed by the
living, the heavenly fire. As for thee, thou wilt die, and die by fire,
a fire in which thou wilt abide forever."

Thereupon the angel burnt him with a thousand men, whom he had
taken in the act of paying homage to Baal. (105)

JEPHTHAH

The first judge of any importance after Gideon was Jephthah. He,
too, fell short of being the ideal Jewish ruler. His father had
married a woman of another tribe, an unusual occurrence in a time
when a woman who left her tribe was held in contempt.(106)
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