13'i 



lion of the Angel, that he should only " begi7i to deliver 

 Israel out of the hands of the Philistines;" or, it would sup- 

 pose, thirdly, an hiatus in the sacred history, which we can 

 by no means admit. But there is also another argument, 

 which may be adduced, destructive of any contrary system. 

 Tlie sacred history expressly assigns to the dominion of the 

 PhiUstines forty years — of these, Samson judged Israel 20 

 years; he could not have commenced his functions of an 

 aveno'cr, or Judge, until he had attained the age of l6 or ]8 

 years ;* so that this death falls in with the thirty-eighth or 

 thirty-ninth year of the Philistine oppression, his birth being 

 after its commencement. It follows, therefore, that it was 

 about the period of Samson's death and great revenge on the 

 Philistines, that Israel endeavoured to shake off the dominion 



of 



• However, it would perhaps enable us to avoid many perplexing and dubious questions, 

 which might arise on this period of the Sacred History, if we should adopt the ingenious 

 supposition of Whislon, and understand the term, " the days of the Philistines,'' with 

 some latitude, as including the whole period from their former invasion, in conjunction 

 with the Ammonites, to the final emancipation of Israel by Samuel; which would permit 

 us to place the birth of Samson under the jurisdiction of one of the Judges succeeding 

 Jepthah, perhaps in that of Abdon, the latter years of whom were probably disturbed 

 by their incursions, previous to their general invasion and oppression, in the year of 

 his death. The idea of Whiston certainly receives something of verisimilitude, and 

 support, when we recollect, that there is no mention of any other servitude, or oppres- 

 sion, except that of the Philistines, from the jurisdiction of Jepthah until the invasion 

 of Nahash, in the first year of Saul, and, of course, the fears of the Israelites, as %vell as 

 their hopes of deliverance, would be necessarily directed to, and exhausted on the op- 

 pression of this formidable enemy. (Vide, Dissertation on the Chronology of Joscphus, 

 prefixed by Whiston to his translation of the Jewish historian. 



