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above the numbers in the Book of Kings. In this dilemma, 

 unwilling, totally to neglect the authority of the text, he en- 

 deavours to reconcile it, with the period he would assign, by al- 

 ledging, that the 480 years should be computed from the en- 

 trance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan, " which," says 

 he, " finished in effect their peregrinations after the esod:"' 

 And in support of this new interpretation, he alledges (Deut. 

 4-45) where the expressions " After they came forth out of 

 Egypt," (which are the same as those in 1 Kings, 6-1), are 

 used with considerable latitude, as including the whole period 

 of their sojourn in the desert ; and the passage in the Psalms, 

 (Ps. 114-1-3) stating, that " When Israel went out of Egypt, 

 Jordan was driven back," which, however did not happen until 

 the fortieth year after the exod. And on these grounds he 

 justifies- the interpretation of the passage, as referring to thtf 

 entrance into Canaan, and not including the 40 years passed 

 in the desert. Ravius and Codoman have followed, or anti- 

 cipated him in his ingenious method of eluding the authority 

 of the sacred text, with this diflerence, that, the calculus 

 which they would- follow enlarges the interval considerably. 

 Codoman determines it precisely to 598 years, " because," 

 says he, " the peregrinations of Israel, did not finish until 118 

 years after the exod, when the tribe of Dan acquired posses- 

 sion of its allotted inheritance." Tunc fine m hubuit exitus vel 

 iter filiorum Israel ex Egypto. To justify his enlarged inter- 

 pretation of the expression, " exitus" or, " coming forth of 



the 



