107 



the broad lines of policy and practice which are requisite to 

 fill up the contrast. It is now, I trust, sufficiently clear, that 

 the ])eriod of the jurisdiction of the three first Judges is not 

 assigned in scripture ; that the term ^'repose," is not synoni- 

 mous witli "jurisdiction;" and that the second repose of 80 

 years concludes with the war against Jabin, king of Hazor, 

 in which Israel shook off his dominion. The history of this 

 servitude, and of the subsequent revolt, as it is related to us, 

 affords a very striking confirmation of the observations we 

 have just submitted, and of the system we adopt. The text, 

 (Judg. 4. 4. 5. &c.) having recorded the oppression of Jabin, 

 for 20 years, (v. 3.) proceeds to relate, " And Deborah, a 

 prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that 

 time," viz. during the dominion of Sisera and his sovereign, 

 as (if there could be any doubt,) is plain from the following 

 verses, (5. 6.) in which the children of Israel are represented 

 as " coming up to her for judgment," when she selected 

 Barak, the son of Abinoam, to be their deliverer. Summon- 

 ing the tribes of Napthali and Zebulun, he completely de- 

 feated Sisera, (v. 15.) and pursued the course of his success 

 until the sovereign and the kingdom of Hazor were " com- 

 pletely destroyed," (v. 24.); and, in fact, from this period, 

 the Canaanites appear to have made no further opposition to 

 the dominion or prosperity of Israel. It was in commemo- 

 ration of this signal success, that Deborah composed the 

 hymn of praise, in which she relates, in the most sublime 



and' 



