90 



and to consider properly the force and evidence of my third 

 observation. 



On the second, I would remark, that according to the ac- 

 knowledged principle, " that an autlior is his own best com- 

 mentator," and the admitted conformity of style in the earlier 

 historic records of the Jewish nation, I have produced a pas- 

 sage from another book (Joshua, 14. 15.) of similar style and 

 period, which absolutely expresses the words 1 would have 

 understood in all passages of the same tendency and import; 

 so that unless we understand the expressions in the manner I 

 have proposed, we convict the author of the Book of Judges 

 of a manifest inconsistency in his narration, unknown to the 

 books of the Old Testament, and contradictory to the uni- 

 form simplicity of the Eastern genius, which delights to nar- 

 rate the same fact in a similar style of language, and cast of 

 thought; and finallj^ that it was so understood by the ancient 

 interpreters, as many of the earlier Vulgates add " apraeliis," 

 as in Jos. Vide Simon sur le vieux Test. 



The third observation, I trust, is already fully elucidated 

 in the preceding remarks, and is, in itself, sufficiently clear. 

 But we want not their authority to support or to confirm our 

 supposition, since we can refer to another passage, so com- 

 pletely in point, that it is surprising how it could have been 

 overlooked in the decision of this question. In the 2 Book 

 of Chron. 17 chap. 1 verse, we are informed — Asa succeeded 

 his father Abijah, and " in his days the land was quiet ten 



years." 



