Chronology from the Death of Mofes to Saul. CHAP. I. JOSHUA. Septenary Years of Reft. HE unfuccessful attempts of Ufher, Bedford, TH Whifton, &c. to fix the true era of fabbatical years and jubiles, induced Prideaux to pronounce thofe circulating periods both uncertain and useless. Their use in computation is obvious, and the term of computation defined, in the original inftitution, "When ye come into the land, &c. then shall the land keep a fabbath. Six years fhalt thou fow thy feed; and fix years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in thy fruit; but in the feventh year fhall be a fabbath of reft unto the land; a fabbath for the Lord: Thou shalt neither fow thy field; nor prune thy vineyard *." Before the inhabitants were fubdued and the land divided, Ifrael could neither fow nor reap. Ufher allows fix years for the conqueft of the country, and appropriates the feventh for its partition. But a fabbatical year could not be observed before fix had been employed in fowing and reaping. • Lev. xxv. 2-5. The The fubjugation of the natives was the work of five years. In the beginning of the fixth, Joshua and Eleazar, with the fathers of the tribes, proceeded to divide the lands by line and lot. Caleb, prior to that diftribution, claimed, in virtue of a grant from Moses, Hebron for his inheritance. In the fecond year from the Exodus Caleb's age was 40, and 85 in the 46th *. Thus is the date of the partition ascertained. At the time of the autumnal equinox in that year the tribes, having acquired their several poffeffions, began to plow, plant, and fow. The firft poffible year of rest began at the fame cardinal point in the 53d from the egrefs, and the 13th from the paffage over Jordan, A. M. 2568. "THOU fhalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, feven times seven years; and the space of the seven fabbaths of years shall be forty-nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of jubile to found on the tenth day of the seventh month t." Here is the quantity of a jubile defined; the 50th year from the foregoing jubile inclufively; or in a continual feries from the primary reft for the land. Thus is the term of computation certain. These circulating periods ferve as a regulating measure in the progrefs of computation indefinitely; and with refpect to the facred chronology, answer the fame end with the Julian period, applied to the chronology of the world. For example, THE facred critics and expofitors agree that a jubile characterised some one year of our Lord's natural Life; + Lev. xxv. 8, 9. * Josh. xiv. 7-11. that that of his nativity, baptism, or crucifixion. Difcordant, however, are their opinions. But this teft is decifive. FROM A. M. 2568, on the tenth day of the feventh Hebrew month, according to the patriarchal calendar, continue the reckoning down 1470 years, equal to 210 feptenary combinations of years, or 30 jubiles; the operation terminates with the ninth of the feventh Hebrew month, A. M. 4038. That was the fourth of John's miniftry, the 34th of our Lord's age, and the very date of his baptifm. From Jordan he went ftraitway into the wilderness, at the end of 40 days returned into Galilee, entered the fynagogue at Nazareth, on the fabbath day, and read from the book of Ifaiah, "The fpirit of the Lord God is upon me, becaufe he hath anointed me to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Thus calculation agrees with the infallible teftimony, both of prophecy and history, in the conclufion, that our Lord began his miniftry on the 30th jubile from the firft fabbatical year in Canaan. HENCE it is evident, that the Primate's arrangement mifplaces the root of computation by jubiles, confounds the first year of John's miniftry with that of Chrift's baptifm, and contrary to every notation in the gospel history, defers his entrance on the prophetical function, three years beyond its true date. Length of Joshua's Government. By the computation of Jofephus the adminiftration of Joshua is compressed within the narrow limits of 25 7 years; years; Lightfoot admits but 17; Ufher no more than nine. He died at the age of 110. If the ANNALS give the proper notation, he was 61 years old in the year of the egrefs. In that year he is denominated a young man *. AT the age of 30 the expreffion young is usual; but youth is at variance with threefcore. Suppofe Joshua in his 30th year discomfited Amalek. Add 80, the fum is 110. By this reckoning he judged Ifrael 40 years. In the year of the partition he was old and ftricken in years, his age being 76. "Very much land then remained to be poffeffed" +. The truth is, that no part of it had been divided by lot. Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manaffeh, their poffeffions, had been affigned by Moses. "It came to pafs a long time after the Lord had given reft unto Ifrael from all his enemies round about, that Jofhua waxed old," &c. t. If Jofhua died three years after the partition, the phrase, a long time after, is egregioufly mifapplied, but extremely proper, if he died after the lapfe of 34 years. With thefe characters of time every circumftance in the hiftory accords. But the Primate, finding it impracticable to comprise the years of oppreffion and reft, within a reasonable compafs, fo as not to exceed the period of 480 years, found it necessary to abbreviate the duration both of Joshua's and Samuel's government. * Exod. xxxiii. 11. ↑ Josh, xiii, 1. ‡ Ch. xxiii. 1. CHAP. T СНАР. II. The Book of the Judges. HIS history opens with a recapitulation of certain incidents more fully recorded in the Book of Joshua, and fills up the interval from his death to the commencement of Othniel's adminiftration, where the proper subject of this history begins. This interval includes 20 years; for the oppreffion under Cufhan began in the laft year of the first century from the Exodus; and these 20 years are divided into two equal portions. "During all the days of the elders who furvived Jofhua, Ifrael served the Lord. But after them arofe another generation, who knew not the Lord," &c. The enormities practifed during these ten years are concisely related from the 17th chapter to the end of the Book The time is intimated by two chronological marks, the pontificate of Phinehas the fon of Eleazar, and by the want of a king, or fupreme civil magiftrate in Ifrael. The period thus characterised could be no other than the intermediate space of 20 years from the death of Joshua to Othniel *. The particular enormities which prevailed during the latter interval of 10 years were the introduction of idolatry by Micah, the tragical incident of the Levite and his concubine, the defection of the Danites, the maffacre of the Benjamites, and of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, &c. FROM |