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of Baalim, with which they were so often reproached, and 

 which also, they adopted after the death of Gideon, (v. 33.) 

 remained yet unpunished. And as the principles I adopt 

 always admit the interval of a generation, to consummate 

 the apostacy of Israel, and merit the vengeance of the Al- 

 mighty, this period is properly supplied by the 30 years that 

 intervene, between the death of Gideon and the fourth year 

 of Jair, in which I hold the eighteen years of the oppression 

 of the Ammonites to have commenced ; and it is further 

 observable, that the contemporaries of the conquest of Midian 

 must have generally disappeared, as this generation may have 

 been their grandsons, agreeably to the course and observation 

 of Scripture. (Jud. 2. 10. Exod. 1. 1.) 



Secondly. AVe must otherwise admit an anarchy after the 

 death of Jair, to allow time for the general apostacy of 

 Israel, related in the text, (chap. x. 6.); — a supposition which 

 we have already, in general, rejected, and which the sequel 

 will prove demomtratively false, if the very fact of the as- 

 sembling of the people, to elect a chief in his room, did not 

 sufficiently expose its absurdity. It is true, the death of 

 Jair is mentioned before the particulars of the apostacy of 

 Israel are recorded; but we have seen already, that the death 

 of the chief is a very distinct thing from the commencement 

 or the duration of a servitude ; and it is observable, that it is 

 not mentioned " after the death of Jair," the people relapsed, 

 as is said in so many other instances, but only "again,'' which 



is 



