rl'qniring the addition of one or two generations to the.five indicated by David's, while not one requires a larger number. The genealogy of Saul is of the same length as David's. If m is the true number, we have a period of 198 years between the entrance into Canaan and the birth of David. If seve,i is the true number, we get 221 years. Deducting thirty years for Joshua and the elders, and (say) ten years for the interval between the close of the times of the judges and the birth of David, we get in the first case 158 years as the time of the judges ( HJ8-40), and in the second 191 (231-40). But the consent of all the genealogiel:' seems to preclude the possibility of such long periods as 400; 600, 600, and even 700 years, which some chronologism assign to the interval between the entrance into Canaan and the building of Solomon's temple. 1 As regards the age in the world's history to which the events of the Book of .Tuclges belong, we get at it by reckoning backwards from the birth of David. This may be assigned with some confidence to about the year B.c. 1083. If then we assume ten years to have elapsed between the close of the period of the judges and the birth of David, we get the year B.c. 1093 as the date of the end of the period of the judges ; and if we then assume 158 years as the duration of the times of the judges, we get 1093 + 158 = 1251 as the date of the commencement of the times of the judges; and if we then add thirty years for Joshua and the elders, and forty years for the sojourning in the wilderness, we get (1251 + 30 + 40) 1321 for the date of the exodus, which is within eight years of the Jewish traditional date B.C. 1313, and brings us to the reign of Menephthah, or .Menephthes, who is the most probable Pharaoh of the exodns who has been proposed. This is a considerable support to the system of chronology here advocated. STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS OF THE BooK. It has already been remarked that the history is not that of one united people, but of several separate tribes. The truth of this remark will appear if we con- sider the great length and detail of some of the narratives, quite out of proportion to their importance relatively to the whole· Israelitish nation, but quite natural when we look upon them as parts of the annals of particular tribes. The preserv- ation of Deborah's magnificent ode, the full details of the history of Gideon, the long story of Abimelech's reign, the highly interesting narrative of the birth and adventures of Samson, the detached accounm of the expedition of the Danites, and of the fall of the tribe of Benjamin, which close the book, are probably all due to the fact of their being taken from existing records of the several tribes. These were all brought into harmony and unity of purpose by the compiler, who selected (under the guidance of the Holy Spirit) those portions which bore upon his main purpose, which was to denounce idolatry, to confirm the Israelites in the service of the Lord the God of their fathers, and to illnstrate the faithfulness, the 1 Keil makes 533 vears from the entrance into Canaan to the building of Solomon', teJJJ}Jle, asoUJlling the ~00 years of Ju,lges xi. 26 to be a real date. THE BOOK OF JUDGES. V
mercy, an<l the power of their covenant God. And certainly if anything could confirm a fickle people in their faith and obedience to the living and true God, the exhibition of such deliverances as those from the Canaanite and Midianite and Ammonite invasions, and of such examples of faith and constancy as those of Barak, Gideon, and J ephthah, were well calculated to do so. And this leads us to observe a very important feature which the Book of ,Jnclges has in common with the later historical books, viz., the union of contemporary narratives and documents with late editorship. The method of the Hebrew historical writers seems to have been to incorporate into their work large portions of the ancient materials without altering them, only adding occasional remarks of their own. The method of modern historians has usually been to read for them- selves all the ancient authorities, and then to give the result in their own words. The information got from a variety of authors is all welded together, the unim- portant details are omitted, and a harmonious whole, reflecting the author's mind perhaps quite as much as that of the original authorities, is presented to the reader. But the Hebrew method was dill'erent. The ancient records, the Book of the wars of the Lord, the Book of Jasher, the Chronicles of the kingdom, the visions of Iddo the Seer, the Book of the Acts of Solomon, the Chronicles of the kings of Judah, and so on, were searched, and whatever was required for the author's purpose was inserted bodily in his work. Hence in the Book of Kings the lengthened episodes concerning Elijah and Elisha, the great length at which the reign of David is given in the Books of Samuel, and so on. This same method is very apparent in the Book of Judges. It seems scarcely open to doubt that the mass of the book consists of the original contemporary annals of the dill'erent tribes. The minute and graphic details of the narratives, Deborah's song, J otham's fable, J ephthah' s message to the king of Ammon, the exact description of the great Parliament at Mizpeh, and many other like portions of the book, must be contemporary documents. Then, again, the history of Samson the Danite, and that of the Danite expedition to Laish, indicate strongly the annals of the tribe of Dan as their common source ; while the importance attached to Gilead in chs. x., xi., and xii. points to annals of Gilead. But at the same time the presence of a compiler and editor of these various documents is distinctly visible in those pre- fatory remarks contained in eh. ii. 10-19; iii 1-7, which review, as it were, the whole subsequent narrative, as well as in casual observations thrown in from time to time, as at eh. xvii 6; xviii. 1; xix. 1; xx. 27, 28; xxi. 25, and in the general arrangement of the materials, This sketch of the structure and contents of the Book of Judges must not be concluded without mentioning the light thrown upon the condition of the neigh- bouring nations, the Canaanite tribes, Mesopotamia, the Philistines, the Moabites and Ammonites, the Amalekites, the Midianites, and the Sidonians. Nor must a brief reference be omitted to the repeated angelophanies, as in eh. ii. 1 ; vi. 11- 23 ; xiii. 3, &c. Again, we find the great institution of prophecy existing, as in eh, iv, 4; vi. 8, and, in a certain sense, wherevAr the Spirit of the Lord came upon a VI lNTHODUCTION 1'0