110 



of tlie sovereign, her opinion respected and her authority al- 

 lowed. The Arabic records furnish us also, with a parallel 

 and analogous iustance : the wife of " the Prophet," we are 

 informed, for many years acted as supreme arbitrator and 

 Judge of the national disputes, on account of her supposed 

 knowledge of the law, and meaning of her husband. In fact, 

 in our commentary and interpretation of scripture, the ana- 

 logy of eastern manners, and the subsidiary rays deducible 

 from Asiatic history, should never be out of sight : it atibrds 

 us a clue to many points irreconcileable to merely European 

 ideas ; and the success of a work conducted on this principle, 

 in happily elucidating many important circumstances in the 

 sacred writings, is the best criterion of its advantages. It 

 Avill be easily seen I allude to " Burder's Oriental Customs." 

 Perhaps we may attribute much of the obscurity and 

 disagreement, which has arisen on the state of this period 

 of the Hebrew records, to a misconception of a passage 

 in which the term " Judges," and " deliverers," is used as 

 synonimous. It is not to be denied, that the chieftain, 

 who had avenged his country on their enemies, might, in 

 many circumstances, have also executed the duties of civil 

 jurisdiction; and, undoubtedly, if he had been one of the 

 authorized Judges, who appear, from the hymn of De- 

 borah, to have been continued in the state, perhaps from 

 the original election of Moses, (Ex. 19. v. 20. 21.) he would 

 have, after his victory, persevered in the discharge of his 



function. 



