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, Philistia (The Shᵊpheil•âhꞋ); ca. B.C.E. 1186
Visits His Ish•âhꞋSeveral days later, at the time of the spring wheat-harvest (i.e. Khag ha-Shâvu•ōtꞋ), Shi•mᵊsh•onꞋ checked-in with his ish•âhꞋ, bringing a kid to share the Khag with her.
"Shâ•lōmꞋ," he said upon seeing her dad and sister at the door. "I've come to see my ish•âhꞋ". As in past visits, Shi•mᵊsh•onꞋ started into the front door, but her father motioned for him to stop.
"I was going to her room", Shi•mᵊsh•onꞋ explained.
"I declared unequivocally," her father remonstrated, "that you were eschewing her. So I agreed for her to marry your friend. Besides, isn't her younger sister prettier? Why don't you marry her instead?"
"This time, I'm rid of Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ," Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ retorted, "because I'm going to kick-over an urn of fiery demons on them."
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 ùÑåÌòÈì Syrian fox (Vulpes thaleb) |
So Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ went out and, two at a time, snared foxes. Tying the pairs close together by their necks, he took oil-torches and tied them to the middle of the lines between them, so that the oil-torches would trail-out between the tails, dragging behind them.
Then he took the pair of foxes to a Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ grain field, or olive grove, lit the torch and turned them loose. Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ repeated this process 150 times, unleashing a total of 300 firefoxes, burning-up Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ grain fields and olive groves.
"Who's doing this?" the Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ were asking. Several farmers reported, "It was Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ, the son-in-law of the Ti•mᵊn•iꞋ, who took his ish•âhꞋ" and agreed to let her marry his friend." So the Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ went to her home and burned it down—with her and her father inside!
"When you do things like this," Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ sent word to them, "I will take vengeance on you. Only after that will I stop."
So he raided and burned Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ villages, terrorizing and overthrowing them, leg-over-loin; a devastating campaign. When he finally felt vindicated, he retired down into the Shᵊpheil•âhꞋ, dwelling in Eitâm's Rock Holler.
Optional parental preparation:
15.04, Foxtails tied together? — Like the 10 Plagues, there have always been several conundrums in this story. Tying two foxes together by their tails, especially when Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ didn't want to injure them before sending them on their way, in that case even if these were pet hunting foxes, he would have been bitten to ribbons before getting even to the second pair. And there were 150 pair! This seems to be a task for raids over a period of at least several weeks. Further, what kind of knot would hold two foxes together by their tails as they frantically tugged and leaped away from the flaming torch tied to their tails? The oil-torches would have fallen off straight-away, more likely to burn Shi•mᵊsh•ōnꞋ than Pᵊli•shᵊt•inꞋ fields of grain or olive groves. The first time the pair of foxes took opposite sides of a row of corn, or an olive tree, they would have been stopped in their tracks. The plan would have failed. There's nothing wrong with the text; it just doesn't contain all of the information and past commentators have been addicted to filling in the blanks with the simplest, most fanciful and mythical. Here, I have made the text compatible with reality and understandable while also keeping it compatible with (not contradicting) what was written.
So why, then, did he go through the difficult task, risking bites and clawings, of tying them in pairs? Why not take the simpler and easier approach and just tie a torch to trail out from the neck of each fox? One may speculate that a single fox would likely flee in a straight line toward a forest. By tying them in pairs, the foxes would tend to flee in opposite directions from the burning torch, and whatever it was setting afire, behind them. Struggling against each other, they would more likely zigzag, more or less in the direction they were released, through grain fields and olive groves, causing the desired burning of fields and groves.. 
15.08, ùÑåÉ÷ òÇì-éÈøÅêÀ — "leg-over-loin"; i.e. head-over-heels; overturned; turned upside-down.
Questions you might anticipate that your child might raise and be prepared to discuss:
What is a kid? How does one prepare a kid (or other livestock) for grilling?
What does unequivocal mean?
What does remonstrate mean?
What does eschew mean?
What is a demon? (A fictional evil devil.)
What is an urn?
What does retort mean?
What is vengeance? Vindicated?
That does raid mean?
What does overthrow mean?
What does devastating mean?
What does retire mean?
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