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FROM the date of the war with Cufhan, to the inauguration of Saul, are 296 years; and the chronology of the Annals extremely intricate. The arrangements of Marsham, and Bedford, come nearest to the truth of history; but the refult is approximation only, which always implies imperfection.

Is it practicable, by the aid of internal characters of time, to educe hiftorical order out of apparent confufion; and to elucidate what is dark in the chronology?

FROM Othniel to the death of Gideon the years of war are 53; and the wars are defcribed as in fucceffion. The years of reft are 200. But it is prefumed, that fome parts of the country were involved in the calamities of war, while others enjoyed tranquillity.

To Gideon fucceeded Abimelech, and after him Tolah. They judged Ifrael 26 years. Under the government of Jair, the fucceffor of Tolah, brake out the war with Ammon, which lafted 18 years, and was terminated by the valour of Jephtha, who fucceeded Jair. To Jephtha the king of the children of Ammon fent meffengers, demanding the restoration of certain lands, once belonging to the kingdom of the Amorites. Jephtha remonftrated, that Ifrael had been in the poffeffion of those lands 300 years; that the right, established by prefcription, was then unalterable, and the claim for recovery too late. Confiding, that the fword might enforce what negociation could not obtain, the Ammonites hazarded a battle, and incurred a total defeat.

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To the year of the entrance into Canaan, or the 41ft from the Exodus, add 300: The computation thence exclufively, is continued to 342, which seems to have been the first of Jephtha's adminiftration. To this date an objection occurs. The fecond year from the paffage over Jordan was prior to the divifion of the country, and confequently to the poffeffion of those lands by the Ifraelites. It is replied, that Mofes, on certain conditions, had granted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, all the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, with all the cities of Og, king of Bashan *; and that they had received their inheritance before the general partition +. The poffeffion of 300 years is thus evinced.

BUT farther; the war of 18 years with Ammon, is by Jud. x. 7. comprehended in the 40 years war with the Philistines, under the joint administration of Eli and Samfon, while Jair and Jephtha conducted the war with Ammon. Thus is established a decifive evidence of co-exiftent wars, and contemporary rulers, with local jurifdiction and this discovery points out a juftifiable and necessary expedient for reducing the amplified accounts of chronologers to the authentic notations of the facred writers.

JEPITHA fubdued the Ammonites, in the year from the Exodus 342. This fum deduct from the date of

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Long before Marsham, Petavius fuggefted the scheme of coincident wars, and contemporary magiftrates, between the times of Abimeleck and Saul, but the hypothefis of neither is framed with chronological precision.

Saul's

Saul's inauguration 396, the difference is 54, including 18 years of Eli's government, and 36 of Samuel's :

18 +36=5418+

IN the Annals, the Philiftine war of 40 years terminates 20 years after the death of Eli, with the fecond battle at Ebenezer. It certainly ended with the first battle there fought, for, prior to the fecond, Samuel had officiated as fupreme magistrate and high priest 20 years. But the Primate, by connecting the year fubfequent to this battle with the confecration of Saul, entirely excludes Samuel from the register of the priests and judges. The fources of this mistake are obvious from the furface of the hiftory. A minute refutation would here require a fuperfluous expence of argu

ments.

It is not however inappofite to rectify an erroneous number in the Greek Teftament, relative to this fubject. "When he had deftroyed the feven nations, he divided their land unto them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges by the space of 450 years, until Samuel the prophet." The land was divided in the 46th year after the Exodus: And 396-46 which difference is the true interval from the partition to the end of Samuel's miniftry. Terganoσio, 400, had inadvertently been fubftituted for, Tgiaxoσio, 300, in one copy, and at last pervaded all.

35o,

UNTEXTUAL and violent is the Primate's glofs in support of this erroneous notation: "Much about 450 years after the election of the fathers, and the time of

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Ifaac's birth, was the land divided." The election of the fathers, rightly dated from the call of Abraham, was about 520 years before this divifion; and of Ifaac's birth no mention occurs in the context. The order of the apostle's words, and the strain of his argument, require the computation to proceed in the descending feries from the partition, and by no means admit the retrograde order thence to the birth of Isaac.

THE hiftory of Ruth is entirely omitted in the course of the Annals; but in the tract on Sacred Chronology*, is referred to the days of Ehud or Shamgar. Its true date is neceffary to determine the time of Obed's birth: And every circumftance favours the fuppofition, that Elimelech retired into the land of Moab, in the time, of the famine, during the seven years war with Midiant. After ten years, Naomi, having heard that the Lord had vifited his people, in giving them bread, returned, with Ruth, to Bethlehem.

Arrangement of the Chronology from the Exodus to Saul. Years after the Exodus

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A. M. 2515

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After Ehud's victory, reft 60
Reft continues, fouth
War with Midian, fouth

* P. i. c. 12.

20

over all Canaan War with Jabin, north 246 7 Reft after Barak's victory 253

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From the first year of Eli's government, coincident with the laft of Tolah, both excluded, to the death of Abdon, the intermediate years, common to contemporary judges, are 54, equivalent to the fum retrenched in the Annals, from Joshua's ministry, and to the abridged fpace between the death of Samfon and the acceffion of Saul.

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