ΑΝ

Univerfal History,

FROM THE

Earliest Account of Time.

VOL. IV.

BOOK I.

The ASIATIC Hiftory to the Time of ALEXANDER the Great.

The Hiftory of the Jews under the Judges; or, from the Death of Joshua to Saul their first King.

T

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 Ifrael; 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 laft 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.

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 most 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 firft 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 shew.

WE have obferved already, that, at the death of Joshua,

a great part of Canaan remained still unconquered; fo that Year of they could not, without pursuing 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 Jephunneb, famous for his bravery and faithfulness in 1443 the report he made of the land of Canaan 2, 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. 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 Mofes, as a reward of his faithfulness, and yielded to him accordingly by Jofbua, 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 exhaust 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

family (A), whose conduct and bravery, upon this occafion, raifed him foon after to the dignity of judge.

WHILST Caleb, and his new fon-in-law, were employed in inlarging their inheritance, the other tribes were doing the fame in their feveral lots; but wholly neglected the exprefs order of their lawgiver, and, instead of extirpating them, contented themselves with laying them under tribute. This proved the fource of all their misfortunes, and of those many flaveries that enfued; for the oppreffed Canaanites did, at least in appearance, fo patiently submit 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 sense; but, it is plain, he was not his brother by the father's fide, because the one is called the fon of Jephunneh, and the other the fon of Kenaz: neither can they be supposed 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 disparity of age is another proof of it: Caleb was then above eightyfive years of age; Othniel therefore must be fuppofed much younger to have married his daughter, who was an heiress: 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 there

fore more reasonable to fuppose, that Caleb and Kenaz were first-coufins, which the original often calls brothers ; in which cafe Othniel and Achfab might lawfully marry. St. Auftin, and after Vatablus, affirm Othniel to have been, not only a great warrior, but also 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 Jerus tell us wonders of the beauty of Caleb's daughter. However, her husband was not fo well fatiffied with her, and her portion, but he prevailed upon her to fue for an addition to it; which the accordingly did; and, upon her complaining of the drought and barrenness of the fouth high lands, which her father had given her, fhe obtained thofe of the valleys beneath, which were better watered, and confequently more fertile. This happened in Joshua's time (4).

(1) Joh. xv. 17. Judges i. 13. (2) Vide Vatabl in loc. fup. vol. ii. p. 486, fub not. (4) Vide Job. Jud, ubi fup.

(3) Vide

Aftaroth, and other gods of Canaan, and provoked God to forfake them; which gave their enemies an opportunity to regain their liberties, and to opprefs them in their turns.

IT was during this time of apoftafy and confufion, that Micah, a wealthy man, of the tribe of Ephraim, is supposed to have erected that idol in his house, which was foon after taken from him by the Danites, and set up at Dan (A). The ftory, giving us a lively idea of the monftrous abfurdities of the religion of those times, and of the degeneracy of the Ifraelites, who could fo foon give into them, cannot well be omitted.

The flory MICAH felt a remorfe for having wronged a covetous of Micah. and fuperftitious mother of eleven hundred pieces of filver, Year of for which fhe had beftowed fome fevere curfes upon him. the flood She conceived fuch joy at his reftoring them to her, that 936. the refolved to confecrate the greatest part of it to what she Bef. Chr. called a religious ufe, fuch as might prove an equivalent 1412., bleffing to him for the curfes he had extorted from her.

Accordingly, with part of that filver, fhe and her fon purchafed two idols, one molten, and the other carved; and, with the reft, built a chapel to fet them up in, together with fome teraphim, which they had, in all likelihood, already in the house h. To this they added an ephod, or priestly garment, with which Micah inftalled his fon to the priestly office of his new gods. Soon after, a young indigent Levite, wandering that way, was hired, as a more proper perfon for that office than his own fon.

MICAH thought himself highly blessed, and that nothing could hinder him from the favour of GOD', when the Danites, who found themselves too ftreightened in

De his vid. vol. iii. p. 282, (B).

(A) The ftory of it is inIdeed related at the end of the book of Judges; from whence fome have concluded, that it happened after Samfon's death (1); whilft others place it about the latter end of Joshua's life (2); but the far greater part between Caleb's death,and Othniel's being chofen judge (3). Till that time, the idolatrous

i Jud. xvii. paff.

Ifraelites feem to have contented themselves with the idols of the Canaanites, without fetting up any of their own. Micab was the first we read of that took it into his head to outdo them, not only by erecting this, but by confecrating an apart ment of his house to it, and procuring a wandering Levite to officiate.

(1) Vide Seder Holam, Serar, & al. in loc. (2) Mafius de Lyr, Riber. & al. (3) Vide Corn, a Lapid, Gros, Uffer. Munft. Calmet. & al.

their own tribe, fent out fome spies to feek for a new habitation. Thefe chanced to come that way; and, having confulted the Levite about the fuccefs of their journey, and received a favourable answer, went directly to Laish, a confiderable town, whofe rich inhabitants, like those of Zidon, lived in a careless fecurity, without magiftrates, foldiery, or ftrength. They returned, and acquainted their tribe with the joyful news: upon which the Danites of Zorah and Efhtaol armed fix hundred of their men; and these, with their five fpies at their head, marched immediately towards Laifh. In their way, the spies acquainted them with Micah's having a young Levite there, named Jonathan, the son of Gerfpom, from whofe mouth they had received a promife of fuccefs in this expedition. The Danites therefore, inftead of reproving Micah for his apostafy, entered by main force, took away the idols, teraphim, and ephod, and forced the young prieft to go along with them to Laifh. Micah followed them, and made loud complaints, that they had robbed him of all that was valuable in life k. All the answer they gave him was, That his outcries might coft him his life; and that it was his fafeft way to go home quietly. They foon arrived at Laish, took and destroyed it, with its inhabitants; and, having built a new city, and called it Dan, after the name of their progenitor, they fet up their idols there, and retained young Jonathan and his fons to be their priests. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and fome Jewish rabbies, call him the grandfon of Mofes; but the original, the grandfon of Manasseh TM. As for the idol, the text fays, that it continued there till the captivity of the land; and what that means, we have fhewn in a former note ".

m

Year of

the flood

942. Bef. Chr.

DURING these years of anarchy, the inhabitants of Gi- A bloody beah in the tribe of Benjamin were guilty of fo horrid a war breach of hofpitality towards a wandering Levite, as proved against the cause of much bloodfhed, and was like to have occa- Benjamin. fioned the ruin of that whole tribe. The Levite was bringing his eloped concubine home, and was come to that place towards fun-fet. After he had waited fome time in vain for fomebody to lodge him that night, an old man, coming from his work, who was a fojourner there, at last invited him to his house. They had scarce refreshed themfelves, when a band of profligate young fellows furrounded the house, and, in a tumultuous manner, demanded the 1 De hoc vide vol. ii, p. 457, & (T). Vol. iii. p. 239, & feq. & (Q).

* Judg. xviii. 24. Judg. xxiii. 30.

1406.