117 



In a word, I trust the positions, and rules of interpretation, 

 which I have premised, are, at least in the case of the five 

 first Judges, so clearly proved, that we ma}', without diffi- 

 culty, assume them in our future observations. I shall only 

 add one elucidation farther, on tliis subject : if the periods 

 of repose are synonimous with those of jurisdiction, to what 

 epoch are those ages when " there was no king [more properly 

 ' rulers,'] in Israel, and every man did as was right in his 

 own eyes," to be assigned ? The sacred text is careful to re- 

 cord that, at the commencement of Micha's idolatry, and 

 the defection of the tribe of Dan, there was no established 

 or legitimate government, as some apology or extenuation 

 for those acts. It is hence evident, that they cannot be as- 

 cribed to the government of tlie elders, because " all the 

 days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over-lived 

 Joshua, Israel served the Lord." (Jos.24.3L Jud.2.7.) Nor 

 can they be attributed to the period of the servitudes, because 

 some of tliose events suppose not only internal peace, as the 

 the journey of Levite; but external success, as the final set- 

 tlement of Dan, which, more particularly as the unassisted 

 act of a single tribe, could nol have taken place during the 

 *jurisdiction of Joshua or Caleb; and the mention of it in the 

 Book of Joshua (19. 47.) is evidently posterior to the division 



of 



• This will be easily conceded, when we recollect that Joshua refused to permit Caleb, 

 to conquer his uiberitaoce alone, but joined him with the force of all the tribes, in bis 

 attempt. 



