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as a forcible argument, that the first servitiitles arc to be in- 

 cluded in the periods of repose, (Jud. 2. 18. 19 ) For, we 

 are assured, " the Lord delivered them from the hands of 

 their enemies," 0013^ " all the clai/s of the Judge;" but, after 

 the death of the Judge, they were delivered into the power 

 of the surrounding nations, without, as we have seen, resist- 

 ance or hostility intervening, or before the repose concludes. 

 The terms, also, generally used, " the Lord delivered Israel 

 into the hands," &c. &c. " the Lord sold the children of 

 Israel," &:c. and the dreadful denunciations against disobe- 

 dience, ^Deut. 28. 25. Sec.) seem to infer, that the punish- 

 atient was equally prompt and inevitable, and that even the 

 glory, equivocal as it might be of resistance, was not per- 

 mitted to give relief or elevation to their misfortunes. 



We shall now proceed to the next period, according to the 

 text. After the death of the last avenger, and the usual for- 

 getfulness of the mercy and the providence of God, which 

 generally took place in the course of a generation, " the Lord 

 (Jud. 6. 1.) delivered Israel into the hands of Midian, seven 

 years, and the circumstances of the oppression are distinctly 

 marked; the severity of it also, forms a new feature in the 

 history. It does not seem to have been the servitude of 

 tribute, for " because of the Midianites, the children of 

 Israel made them the dens which arc in the mountains, and 

 caves, and strongholds; and so it was, when Israel had sown, 

 that the Alidianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the 



children 



