89 



1st. The duration of the government of" the four first 

 Judges or avengers is not expressed in the sacred historian ; 

 or it is very differently expressed from that of their successors. 



2dly. That the terms of the Vulgate, " quievit terra/' or 

 of our translation, " that the land had rest," signify a peace, 

 or cessation from all hostility during the expressed period; 

 which peace or rest is concluded, only, by having again re- 

 course to arms, without being interrupted by any servitude 

 intervening, unless when the people rose to avenge themselves 

 on their oppressors, so that every such expression, " quievit 

 terra," or " the land had rest," is to be understood as declar- 

 ing, that such a period intervened without hostilities inter- 

 rupting it; and when the words "a praeliis," or, as our trans- 

 lator has it, " from war," (Jos. 14-15.) are not expressed in 

 the Book of Judges, they are to be understood. 



3dly. That we have no authority from Scripture for under- 

 standing the words, " the land had rest," as synonimous to 

 the terms, " the Judge presided," as most authors have done, 

 since it will not be clear, if we do thus understand them, 

 why the sacred historian should not have been consistent in 

 his expression, as the Judges, after the four first, are dis- 

 tinctly mentioned to have "judged Israel," for the assigned 

 periods. 



To prove the first, it will not be necessary to look farther 

 than the sacred history itself, (Judges, chap. 3. & 4. passim.) 



N 2 - and 



