131 



functions of the Judge, and the forty years Avhich are at- 

 tributed to him, (1. Sam]. 4. 18.) are parallel and contempo- 

 raneous to the twenty of Samson, which I thus prove: 



Samson, at his death, had destroyed tiie whole assembly 

 of the Philistine lords. This Avas the beginning of redeeming 

 Israel from their enemies, which had been foretold of him. 

 We next hear, (in Samuel, c. 4. v. 1.) that the children of 

 Israel went out against the Philistines ; which I should in- 

 terpret to mean, that after the signal destruction of their 

 leaders by Samson, Israel revolted. Since it is quite incon- 

 sistent and 'anomalous to suppose such an event, in their 

 favour, would be overlooked ; this war concluded in the 

 taking of the ark, and the death of Eli; Avhich, of course, 

 happened in the same, or the year following the death of 

 Samson. The contrary opinion would be subject to inex- 

 tricable difficulties: it would suppose, that Israel had not 

 taken advantage of the destruction atchieved in their favour 

 by Samson ; or it would suppose, that Samson, by that act,, 

 had accomplished their deliverance,* contrary to the declara- 

 tion 



• Syncellus and the Chronicon Paschale seem to adopt this latter alternative, in grant- 

 ing 40 years of profound peace and interregnum between the death of Samson, and' 

 the commencement of Eli. The Chronicon Orientale, published by Abraham Ecchel- 

 lensis, grants to this imaginary interval of repose, only 8 years, both equally unsup- 

 ported by Scripture or by reason; but such are ihe gratuitous and arbitrary suppositions 

 to which those are obliged to recur, who would reject the authority of the text, or 

 lengthen the interval from the exod. (vide Syncellus, Chron. Pas. ut supra et Chron. 

 Orientale cura Ecchellensis, Paris 1685.) 



