A N IN RECTO DEC Printed for T. OSBORNE, in Gray's-Inn; A. MILLAR, in MDCCXLV IL AN Universal History, FROM THE Earliest Account of Time. VOL. IV. BOOK I. The ASIATIC Hiftory to the Time of CHA P. VII. SECT. VIII. The Hiftory of the Jews under the Judges; or, from the Death of Jofhua, to Saul their first King. HIS degenerated epoch is prefaced by the facred hiftorian, in more places than one, with words to this effect; In those days there was no king in Israel; but every man did what was good in his own eyes; and is indeed filled with little elfe than the moft horrid apoftafies and idolatries on the Ifraelites fide, and with the most severe punishments inflicted on them by GoD on the other; to fay nothing of fome tranfactions mentioned in the five lat chapters of that book; though, in point of time, belonging rather to the beginning of it, during the time of its B 2 anarchy Judah's war. 1443. anarchy and confufion; which plainly prove them to have funk into the moft fhameful degree of irreligion and depravity. Who fucceeded Joshua as head of the Ifraelitish nation, the text no-where informs us; and it is moft likely, that they fell into a kind of ariftocracy, in which the heads of every tribe were the governors of them: but, whether thefe chofe one from amongst them to command over the reft, is what cannot be affirmed with any certainty; only Jofephus intimates as if Othniel had been the first judge, though the facred penman feems to give that honour to his father-in-law Caleb the then chief of the houfe of Judah, from whom it paffed afterwards to that worthy fon-in-law, as the fequel will fhew. WE have obferved already, that, at the death of Joshua, a great part of Canaan remained ftill unconquered, fo that Year of they could not, without purfuing their conqueft, fecure the flood the poffeffion of what they had. The tribe of Judah was 905 appointed by the oracle to begin the war; Caleb, the fon Bef. Chr. of Jephunnch, famous for his bravery and faithfulness, in the report he made of the land of Canaana, was head of that tribe, and engaged that of Simeon, with which his own was interwoven, to join forces with him against the king of Bezek b. We have feen elsewhere the fate of that infolent petty prince c. As for Caleb, he fet himself immediately about the conqueft of Jerufalem, which had been retaken by the Jebusites from the tribe of Benjamin, and foon after took and burnt it to the ground; the befieged retiring into the fortrefs of Zion d. After this, he turned his forces towards the fouth, against the cities of Hebron, or Kirjath-arba, and Debir, called alfo KirjathJepher, which were then inhabited by the gigantic fons of Anak. Thefe had been formerly promifed to him by Mafes, as a reward of his faithfulness, and yielded to him accordingly by Joshua, a little before his death. Caleb, however, who was then above fourfcore and five years of age, tho' ftill ftrong and vigorous, thought it prudent not to exhauft his ftrength too far in the fiege of thofe ftrong places, and therefore propofed his daughter Achfah as a reward to the man that took Kirjath-fepher; and it was not long before it was gained by Othniel, a man of valour, and of his own • Vid. Num. xiii. 6, & 30. xiv. 6, & alib. XV. 13, & feqq. d Judg. i. 8. b Jud. i. 4. Josh, с family (A), whofe conduct and bravery, upon this occafion, raised him foon after to the dignity of judge. WHILST Caleb, and his new fon-in-law, were employed in enlarging their inheritance, the other tribes were doing the fame in their feveral lots; but wholly neglected the express order of their lawgiver, and, inftead of extirpating them, contented themfelves with laying them under tribute this proved the fource of all their misfortunes, and of those many flaveries that enfued for the opprcffed Canaanites did, at leaft in appearance, fo patiently fubmit to their yoke, that they became lefs cautious, and were by degrees fo far enfnared with the beauty of their women, as to contract affinities with them. These unhappy intermarriages foon reconciled them to the worship of Baal, (A) The text calls him the fon of Kenaz, brother to Caleb (1); fo that it is not eafy to determine, whether he, or his father, was Caleb's brother. The Septuagint and Vulgate have taken it in the first fenfe; but it is plain, he was not his brother by the father's fide, because the one is called the fon of 7ephunneh, and the other the fon of Kenaz: neither can they be fuppofed to be uterine brothers; because, in fuch a cafe, the law of Mofes would not have permitted the one to have given his daughter to the other. The difparity of age is another proof of it Caleb was then above 85 years of age; Othniel therefore must be fuppofed much younger, to have married his daughter, who was an heirefs. Neither could he have married her, if his father Kenaz had been Caleb's brother; because the marriage of an aunt is likewife forbidden by the Mofaic law. It is therefore more (1) Joh. xv. 17. Judg. i. 13. p. vol. ii. pag. 486, fub not. reasonable to suppose, that Caleb and Kenaz were first-coufins, which the original doth often call brothers; in which cafe Othniel and Achfah might lawfully marry. St. Auftin, and after him Vatablus, affirm Othniel to have been, not only a great warrior, but alfo a learned doctor of the law (2), and fo doubly eager for the conqueft of a place which was the feat of learning at that time (3). The Jews tell us wonders of the beauty of Caleb's daughter. However, her hufband was not fo well fatif.fied with her and her portion, but he prevailed upon her to fue for an addition to it; which fhe accordingly did; and, upon her complaining of the drought and barrennefs of the fouth high lands, which her father had given her, the obtained thofe of the valleys beneath, which were better watered, and confequently more fertile. This happened in Joshua's time (4). |