• lluilde (p. XI): 'die beidcn Zahlcn IS, die 23 und dia M •UlUn li'iilUc AbwrichullKin von 20 dar' ; bul iven he (p. ivUl) di'rivte ■ die von dcr lUijol eo welt abweicheode Z»hl fl tdr Ji'plilliah (127) «u« finer Vorla^.'
\ The round character ot the number 40 baa been cont«<t«a by J. O. A. Keaaler (Chronotcojia iudicum «t j^moruin re^m, 1SS2) Id the wonla, ■ lldea hiatorica oumerl 40 anDoruni dod dubia e«t ; nam mplua hunia apatil parte* commemorantur at In CO aioffuil annl vel menaea nunierantur : l>t t^*, i6 b*,\ K X", 1 Ch ia^, Ki U", Nu 10" iO> l)t !•■ (p. 12). Hut Ilockeralh {UibL CAronoAvv, isa6, p. «) aITea<V remarka that the round numbera were partly auppUod In place ot numbera Uiat had be- come IndlaUnct, and In any caae It ta Inadmlaalhla to auppoaa that a perloil ot 40 yeara oould have cmai|«d M traqnentlj ^> oecideni.
818
JUDGES, BOOK OF
JUDGES, BOOK OF
Israel's entrance into Canaan and his own days. Hitherto no attempt (cf. Seder olam rabha, ed. Meyer, p. 381 f. ) tliat lias been made lias succeeded ill brinjiinj; this number 300 into harmony with tlie other clironological statements of Jg. (7) both the principles just stated appear to the present writer to be more correct than the view (Noldeke, Untersuih. z. Krilik d. AT, p. 173 f.; Moore, p. xli ; Budde, p. xviii) that an author of the Bk. of Jk did not count the years of foreign domination (3S.U4361 lu": 8+lS + -20 + 7 + 18 = 71 years) in ad- dition to the years of rest, or the years of the hero who destroyed this foreign domination. This is at least nut the meaning of the te.xt of S*''" ; for after it has been mentioned that the Lsraelites served Cushan-rishathaim 8 years (3''), it is added by means of an iniperf. consec. 'and (hence) the Israelites cried unto the LoKD, and the Lord raised up a deliverer, etc. (v.'), and (hence) the land had rest 40 years, and Othniel died' (v.'"). The e.xegesis which reckons the 8 years of the foreign domination to the years of Othniel, which, it is self-evident, could begin only with the shaking oir of the foreign yoke, is not in harmony with the text although it was a favourite with Jewish interpreters.* As little is it the case in 3''', for the 18 years durin"; which Israel groaned under the yoke of the Aloabites cannot be included in the 80 years of rest (3*). Nor are the 20 years of oppression (4') reckoned among the 40 years of rest (5'')- As little are the 7 years of invasions by the Midianites (6') reckoned among the 40 years during which the Midianites could not lift up their heads, and the country was in quietness ; and these forty years are expressly identitied with the da.\ s of Gideon (8^). And was Jephthah chosen to he leader at the beginning of the 18 years of the oppres.sion (10*) ? Then he must have long deferred his victory ; and yet the text (II'"'- ""■) presents the choice, the attack, and the victory of Jephthali as a continuous succession of incidents. liudde, indeed, says (p. xviii) that ' R"" has not counted the times of the foreign domination as elements in the chronology of his people.' But whence does he derive this conclusion ? From the circumstance that in the case of the 'minor Judges' only the length of their olHce is noted ; and that in 10'- ' JOS. 11. 18 we tind ' after him.' But it is by no means an unquestionable fact that this ' after him ' is meant to indicate a 'liickenlose' succession. In any case it is a false generalizing from the data to attribute to the author of 10'-= I2»- "• " the opinion that ' during the whole period of the judges, judge followed judge in direct succession.' And because of this opinion is he to be supposed to have rejected the years af foreign domination and to have replaced ''hese by the years of the
• The words * and after him (Joshua) [was raised up] Othniel, the son of Kenaz, forty years [b*' .} subtract from them the eight years of the oppression under Cushan-rishathaim' (Seder olam rabba, ch. xii.), contradict the *ext of OT. But it is a verj- interesting circumstance that Seder o. r. does not always adopt the same excL'esis. It does so with the 18 years of S^*, and of the 40 years of 53i two years are subtracted for the oppression of Jabin and Sisera (D'jip': KnD'Di pD'S niDJIP '31?) ; but after the mention of the 40 years of Gideon it is expressly said ' and ( = but) the 7 years of Midiao (6') are not reckoned to them'CJe' yain pinD V7V hS |-id). Further, how is one to explain the state- ment, 'from Othniel to the death of Samson are 324 years'? {Dik. Aa-f/Tamlm, § 70 D'iC'Vi riND tn^s; pco*? npfy* ly 7K'jn>D D-JP V3-W!l). The numbers 40-)-80-l-40-(-40-)-23-H22-l-6-f7-(-10 -1-8+20 (311 30 581 82i io2r. i27f. 11. » 1520 n ig:)!) make up a total of only 296 years. But if 28 be added, the number 324 is ob- tained. May we perhaps have recourse to the 28 years which .n Seder olam rabba fch. xii.) are attributed to Joshiia? At the end of § "0 of Dikdit)^ comes the statement, ' from Othniel to the rise of Kll as judjre were 324 years.' But this also occasions an insoluble problem. Neither of these dicta of .lenish tradi- tion is either noticed or explained in any of the helps accessible to the present writer (BMia Heb. et Rabbin. ; Sedtr olam rabba ; Jewish and modem oommentarieflX