IT has already been noted, that the 41ft of Afa, and the 25th of Jehoshaphat, being incomplete, are severally accounted the first of the fubfequent reigns. Thus is the duration of the fix reigns in Judah reduced to 93. The nine in Samaria, tried by this ftandard, may be circumfcribed within the fame limits.

ANALYSIS of the reigns from A. M. 3030, to 3123.

FROM the scheme of co-existent fovereigns it is obvious, that the four years affigned to Nadab and Ela are comprehended in the reigns of Jeroboam, Baafha, and Omri, on the throne of Ifrael. The laft of Jeroboam coincides with the firft of Afa, and the firft of Omri with the 27th; fo that the intermediate in the kingdom of Samaria are, by the numbers of reference, reduced from 30 to 26. Ahab began to reign in the 38th of Afa, which was the 12th of Omri, who dying before its termination, the whole year is accounted the firft of Ahab.

Abp. Ufher extends this period to 95.

years

IN each chronicle a few notations, seemingly dif, cordant, occur.

"IN the 36th year of Asa, Baasha came up against Judah." But, "In the 26th of Afa, Elah the fon of Baasha began to reign over Ifrael +." Of this invafion the true date was certainly the 26th of Afa; for Jofephus appofitely remarks, that Baafha, after a repulfe, returned immediately to his own country, and being prevented by death, had no leifure to meditate expeditions against Judah.

"IN the 27th of Afa, Omri fet fire to Zimri's palace, and burnt it over him, so that he perished in the conflagration." But Omri's reign is dated from the 31ft of Afa §. This apparent incongruity is obviated in the context. The people was divided. One faction made Omri king, another declared in favour of Tibni: After a conflict of four years Tibni died, and Omri reigned.

"AHAZIAH the fon of Ahab began to reign over Ifrael in the 17th of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned two years ||." From the history it is probable that Ahab, alarmed by the awful threatenings denounced against him on account of Nabal's murder, took his fon Ahaziah into a partnership in the fovereignty three years before his death, though these, conformably to the ufual mode of computation, are included in his reign of 22 years. The true date of this conjunct reign is the 17th of Jehoshaphat, as above expressed, and the two

years of the fon's fole reign are counted from the deceafe of the father.

JEHORAM, the fon of Ahab, king of Ifrael, began to reign in the 18th of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and reigned 12 years *." This arrangement excludes two years from the reign of Ahab with the two fubfequent years of his immediate fucceffor, Ahaziah, and extends the reign of this Jehoram to 16. But certain it is, that prior to the acceffion of Jehoram king of Samaria, his brother Ahaziah confulted with Jehoshaphat, concerning an expedition to Ophir, in the interval from the death of Ahab. Jehoram, therefore, was not invested with sovereignty so early as the 18th of Jehofhaphat, for in the 19th Ahab died. By fome incidental mistake in transcribing this text, 18 is fubftituted for 22; and the error is repeated in the Septuagint, and other verfions.

THE reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, had a double commencement; the one in his father's lifetime, the other at the vacancy of the throne. For Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, in Samaria, having died without a fon, was fucceeded by his brother Jehoram, in the fecond year of Jehoram the fon of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah +; and, "in the fifth of Joram, the fon of Ahab, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, began his fon Jehoram to reign ‡."

* 2 K. iii. I.
Ch. viii. 16.

† 2 K. i. 17.

THESE

I

CHAP. III.

From Athalia to the Reduction of Samaria.

N his Treatife on the Sacred Chronology the vene

rable Primate remarks, that the fum of the reigns over Judah, in this period, is 165; thofe over Ifrael 143 years 7 months; the deficiency being 21 years 5 months. With respect to the former feries, the author deviates from his arrangement in the Annals, where the interval is reflricted to 163. The larger number is a correction juftified by the facred regiflers. Yet by a ftrange fatality, he proceeds to an equation, and retrenching one year from the reign of Jehoafh, another from Ahaz, reftores the deficient number. As no hint of an incomplete year, or of a joint administration, occurs in either cafe, this abridgement is inadmiffible. In the former period, the fubject of the preceding chapter, it is recorded, that Afa died in the 41ft year from his acceffion; and that the firft of Jehoram's fole reign, began while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. These hints, had the Metropolitan attended to them, gave him full authority for reducing the fpace between Solomon and Athalia from 95 to 93 years. If no other unchronological abbreviations had been made, the length of

the

the interval from the acceffion of Rehoboam to the difperfion of the apoftate tribes, would have agreed with every recorded criterion of the intermediate times.

THIS period may conveniently be divided into two parts.

I. From the death' of Ahaziah to that of Uzziah, kings of Judah, the fum of the reigns is 127. Uzziah and Pekahiah, king of Ifrael, died in the fame year. From the 12th of Joram, exclufively, to the death of Pekahiah, must likewise intervene 127 years. Jeroboam II, in Samaria, died 14 years after the beginning of Uzziah's perfonal reign in Judah, which was the 13th from the death of Amaziah; and 13 +14= 27, connect the 41ft, or laft, year of Jeroboam with the 27th of Uzziah, thus:

UZZIAH reigned 52 years, and consequently lived 25 after Jeroboam. But the reigns of Jeroboam's fucceffors, from Zachariah to Pekahiah, both included, make but 12 years 7 months. Here is a deficiency of II years 5 months, the complement of 25.

IT must be prefumed, that from the 27th to the 38th of Uzziah, when Zachariah afcended the vacant throne, was a season of anarchy in Samaria. Suppofe it to have lafted 11 years nearly; for though Zachariah's fix months began in the 38th, they ended in the 39th.

IN