Page:A Short History of the World.djvu/134

 114 A Short History of The World ^£c TTVISLD of i^ HEBRB^VS^ and with the kindred tribes about them, the Moabites, the Midian- ites and s® forth. The reader will find in the book of Judges a record of their struggles and disasters during this period. For very largely it is a record o f disasters and failures frankly told. For most of this period the Hebrews were ruled, so far as there was any rule among them, by priestly judges se- lected by the elders of the people, but at last some- when towards 1000 B.C. they chose themselves a king, Saul, to lead them in battle. But Saul's leading was no great improvement upon the leading of the Judges ; he perished under the hail of Phihstine arrows at the battle of Mount Gilboa, his armour went into the temple of the Phihstine Venus, and his body was nailed to the walls of Beth-shan.