142 



and had led the people out to war. During the continuance 

 of the first reposes, and after the death of the Judges who 

 had dehvered Israel, (it is natural to suppose, that the high 

 priest, as we have demonstrated that " repose," and ''juris- 

 diction," are by no means commutative or co-extensive,) was 

 the usual and last resort in cases of civil jurisdiction, as the 

 oracle of the law. We may therefore imagine, that as during 

 the successive jurisdictions after the time of Jepthah, Israel 

 was gradually falling off from the Avorship of the true God, 

 the Philistines invaded them, to punish this defection and 

 apostacy, and subjected them to tribute, in the year of Ab- 

 don's death; the high priest, upon this as usual, assumed the 

 jurisdiction and held it till his death, and the commence- 

 ment of his administration is, of course, not mentioned any 

 more than in the occurrence of similar and preceding in- 

 stances. But others supposing that, after Samson commenced 

 his mission, the power more properly belonged to the leader 

 of the armies, allow Eli but twenty years, viz. those preced- 

 ing the commencement of Samson, and so his death, and 

 that of Eli, were nearly cotemporary. The Book of Samuel 

 reciprocally makes no mention of Samson, because, in its 

 commencement, it is merely a family memoir. It opens with 

 the jurisdiction of Eli, it afibrds merely a detail of occur- 

 rences in Shiloh, where the ark and the civil magistracy were 

 seated— and the notice of the pilgrimage to Shiloh surely was 

 by no means connected with the mention of the exploits or 



the 



