(/) There are only a few passages in Jg which possess sufficiently clear marks of s late origin.
(a) We do not venture to reckon among these elements those passages where the intervention of a supernatural power is described, as in the expression ' an (see Konig's Syntax, § 304 e) angel of the LOKD' (2' IS^"-), or 'the Spirit of the Lord came upon him,' etc. (S'o 6^* 11^ 14«- >» 15"). For 'there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philo- sophy.'
(ti) But we find, undoubtedly, a series of so- called • round numbers ' ; ' seven ' (6'- " 8* 12" 1671. 18. i» 20'»), or 'seventy' (1' S" [repeated in 9a. B. 18. 24. 86] 4 1214), or ' Bcveuty - scveu ' (8'*), or ' forty ' (3" 5«- " 8=« 13'). There are, indeed, also instances where the number ' seven ' is meant in an e.xact sense, as in the case of the seven days of the marriage feast (M^- "); for such a feast even at the present day actually lasts, as a rule, for seven days, and is called 'the king's week' (Wetzstein, Ze'itschrift f. Ethnolugie, v. 291, 293). But the numbers 'seven,' 'seventy,' and 'forty' are un- questionably intended frequently in an approxi- mate sense ; cf. ' seven ' in Gn 4" 31-* 33», Ex V-*, Lv 26'»"»», Dt W-^, IS 2» etc.. Is 4' etc.; 'seventy' in Gn 46-'', Ex 1M5=' 24'- », Nu ll'««'- 33», Dt 10=^, 2 K 10', Is 23", Jer 25" 29'», Ezk 8", Ps 90'", Lk IC ; ' seventy-seven ' in Gn 4*" ; ' forty ' in Gn 6», Ex V 16=» etc., Dt 34', 1 S 4'« 17", 2 S 5« 15', 1 K 2" 11" 19», Ezk 4« 29"-'», Am 2'" 5=», Jon 3S Ps 95'», Neh 9-', Mt 4», Ac 1'; cf. the Egyp. and the Gr. parallels in Gn 50* and Herodot. li. 29, iii. 23, iv. 73. The psychological orit;in of the em- ployment of these numbers lies in this, that natur- ally it was only approximately and by a familiar expression that one could or would indicate a smaller or a larger quantity. Cf. Adrianos, Ei<ro- lijiy^ tl% Tit flelas ypatpi^, § 85 : ' T4i' ^tt4 ipidnbv irl T\eoi'a(T/xoO \^fi {rj ypatp^).*
To the same category may be assigned also the numbers 'eighty' (3*'), 'twenty' (4' 15* 16"; from 40 + 20 arose the 60 which in Jg 12' is assigned by the LXX B, etc., as the length of the sway of Jephtlmh), ' ten ' (6' 12", cf. Gn 31', Lv 20*', Nu 14», IS)' etc., Is 6", Am 5' etc., the ten temptations of Abraham in the liuak of Jubilets, ch. 19), and the 'fifty' which is read by LXX A, etc., in 3" (cf. Gn IS^*, Jos 7=', 1 S 6'»etc.). Mm the nuinbor 'three' in the three years' reign of Abinieluch (Jg 9'^) might bear the same cliaructer, because 'three' soinetiiiicH designates an approximate quantity (Gn 30*" 40"'- '^ 42-'', Ex 2' etc.. Is 10" '2Sf, Jon 2', Est 4", Dn 1». 1 Ch 21'"). But then the history of Abimelech posaessea in other respects many marks of exactitude (see above, 6 (/, a). It is eertjiinly, however, an unjustifiable procedure to include in this class of huihIh-Ts the ' eighteen ' of Jg 3", the ' twenty-three ' of 10', or the ' t\scnty- two rcail by a few Gr. niinuscula MSS in lO", pmb- *bly in imitation of the following number 22, the VOL. II. — 5a
' eighteen ' of 10», the ' forty-two ' of 12«, the ' six ' of 12^ or the ' eight ' of 12'^*
This last procedure would be justifiable only upon the assumption that these numbers may bo regarded as the arbitrarily chosen parts of a previously fixed total. In point of fact, the follow- ing observation has been made : the sum of the interregna (3'- » 4» 6' 10': 8-(-18-(-20-(-7-H 18 = 71) almost exactly corresponds to the sum of the years of the so-called minor Judges (10"- 12»- "• " : 23-h22 + 7-t- 10-h8=70). Wellhausen, who was the first to note this correspondence (in Bleek's Inirod.* p. 185, and in Prolcgom.'- p. 240), afterwards con- fessed (Comp. of Hex. p. 350) that he had no longer much faith in his former attempt. But Budile, in the Kurzer Hdcomm. (1897, p. xviii), still regards the observation as pertinent in spite of the diller- ence of the two totals that are said to correspond with one another. But if a redactor of Jg had any thought of this correspondence, would he not have been capable of making it an exact one?
Hence the approximate character can be empha- sized only in the case of the number 40 and its actual double (80) or its half (20). This is com- mended further by the following three considera- tions. The number 40 occurs with relatively great frequency as a round number (see the series of passages cited above). Further, the 480 years wliicli, according to 1 K 6', elapsed between the Exodus and the beginning of the building of the temple (in the 4th year of Solomon's reign), are probably a product of 40 x 12. Again, the length of a generation (i", Arab. cMrun, lit. irepIoSos) was probably, in the view of the Israelites, 40 years. For a generation, with few exceptions, was doomed to die in the w^ilderness (Nu 14*"- 26"), and this sojourn in the wildeme.ss lasted for (about) 40 years (Nu 14=«'- 20^''f- 32" 33'«'-, Dt '2' 8' 29», Jos 5" etc.).t Besides, Bertheau (Comm.' p. xvi) rightly observes that in 1 Ch 5^''* O""** twelve generations are counted from Aaron to Ahimaaz the contem- porary of David and Solomon. Kessler (Chronol. ludicum, etc. p. 12) remarks that no one can prove that twelve generations actually lived in the period from Moses to Solomon. But all we need is proof that Israelitish tradition ever reckoned twelve generations between a contem- porary of Moses and a contemporary of Solomon, and this tradition is actually found in 1 Ch 6^"" and 6""**. Consequently, it can be main- tained with sufficient certainty that the chronology of the Bk. of Jg is a product of secondary com- bination in so far as the ai>proximate number 40 (3" 5" 8=» 13'), ita double (3**), and its half (4' 15*11 16"), are employed as factors in this chronology (so, essentially, Bertheau, p. xiii ; Oettli, p. 212 ; Moore, p. xlif.). Further, it appears to the present writer that the chronologioU problem of the Bk. of Jg has to be examined in the following direction:— (a) The number 480 (1 K 6') is an un- certain total, and cannot be used as the standard in estimating the chronological data of Jg. (/3) The round numbers of Jg are really to be treated only as approxuiiate figures equally with the 300 years wliieh Jephthah (Jg 11-") says elapsed between