12? 



is by no means synonimous. It may refer to the usual intro- 

 duction and prelude to the history of any oppression or servi- 

 tude, which it naturally precedes, as cause precedes effect; 

 or it may be used as a term to signify that this succeeded the 

 defection last recorded; or it may be still more probably only 

 a more enlarged statenaent of the defection related to have 

 taken place after the death of Gideon— an apostacy which 

 the justice and the denunciation of Fleaven were equally 

 concerned to punish and to avenge, but on which there is no 

 mention of any chastisement being inflicted, till the oppres- 

 sion we are examining took place. The rebellion being after 

 the death of Gideon, was during the judicature of Tolah, 

 and the measure of iniquity being completed, and the long- 

 suffering mercy of Heaven finally exhausted, the oppression 

 took place under the government of Jair. It is the genius 

 and the character of the Eastern writers, (and perhaps, gene- 

 rally of antiquity,) to anticipate, to unite, and to coalesce all 

 the circumstances and events relating to a single individual, 

 or a single occurrence in their narration. The sacred historian 

 has been just recording the family, the influence, the posses- 

 sions, and the government of Jair; the length of his juris- 

 diction, and the circumstances of his death naturally unite 

 with these, and they are as naturally conjoined in his family 

 panegyric and memoir. He is proceeding on a separate field, 

 and he will not break or interrupt the course of his future 

 narration, to record what seems to him to have been more 

 VOL, XI. s properly 



