SECT. I.-That the Medes were chief actors in the subver- sion of the Babylonian empire.... SECT. II.-By what means the empire was translated from SECT. III.-Xenophon's relation of the war which the Medes THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, IN FIVE BOOKS. THE SECOND BOOK. CHAP. XIII OF THE MEMORABLE THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN THE WORLD, FROM THE DEATH OF JOSHUA, TO THE WAR OF TROY; WHICH WAS ABOUT THE TIME OF JEPHTHA. SECT. I. Of the Inter-regnum after Joshua's death; and of Othoniel. HEN Joshua was now dead, who, with the WHEN advice of the seventy elders, and the high priest, held authority over the people, and ordered that common-wealth; it pleased God to direct the tribe of Judah, (in whom the kingdom was after wards established,) to undertake the war against the VOL. III. A Canaanites, over whom, with God's favour, and the assistance of Simeon, they became victorious. In the first attempt which they made, they not only slew ten thousand, but made Adonibezek prisoner; the greatest and cruellest comman der, both of the Canaanites and Perizzites. This tyrant's cruelty, as elsewhere hath been signified, they returned in the same kind upon his own head; and so, by the torments which he now felt in his own person, (before no otherwise known unto him, but by his malicious imagination,) made him confess and acknowledge God's just judgment against himself. The tribes of Judah and Simeon did also master and possess, during this Inter-regnum, (or, as some think, before the death of Joshua,) the cities of Azotus, Askelon, Ekron, and Jerusalem, which they burnt, and the Jebusites afterwards re-edified. They took also the cities of Hebron, Debir, or Kiriathsepher, and Zephath, afterwards Horma. And although it be not set down in express words, that any one person commanded in chief over the people, as Moses and Joshua did; yet it seemeth that Caleb was of greatest authority amongst them, and that he, with the advice of Phineas, directed and ordered their wars. For, if any think that they proceeded without a chief, the good success which followed their undertakings witnesseth the contrary. And it was Caleb, even while Joshua governed, as appears Josh. x. 39., that propounded the attempt of Debir to the rest of the captains; for the performance of which enterprise, he promised his daughter Achsah; which he performed to Othoniel, his younger brother, after the conquest; whose behaviour in that service was such, as, (next unto the ordinance of God,) it gave him the greatest reputation among them; and it may be esteemed the second cause of his preferment and election for their first judge soon after. But while those of Judah made war with their borderers, from whom they only recovered the mountainous countries; (for they could not drive out the inhabitants of the vallies, because they had chariots of iron';') the rest of the tribes sought also to enlarge and establish their own territories. In which war they laboured with variable success; for as the house of Joseph recovered Bethel or Luz*, from the Hittites, so did the Amorites recover from Dan all the plain countries, and forced them to save themselves in the mountains. And now the Israelites, unmindful of God's benefits, and how often he had miraculously aforetime defended them, and made them victorious over their enemies, (the elders being also consumed, who better advised them in the Inter-regnum,) did not only join themselves in marriage with the heathen nations; but, (that which was more detestable,) they served the idols of Baal, and Asteroth, with other the dead gods of the Canaanites and Amorites. And therefore did the Lord God, whom they had provoked with their idolatry, deliver them into the hands of the Aramites of Mesopotamia; whom Chushan Rishathaim at that time commanded. But after they had felt the smart of God's displeasure against them eight years, it pleased him to have compassion on his people, and to raise up Othoniel to be their judge and leader3; who, by God assisted, delivered his brethren from oppression, and enforced the Aramites to return into their own deserts, and into Mesopotamia adjoining; after which the Israelites had peace forty years, during all the time of Othoniel's government. This Othoniel is thought by Tostatus to have been the younger brother of Caleb; for as much as in the book of Judges he is twice called Othoniel the son of Cenaz, Caleb's younger brother. Others do rather interpret those words, (Caleb's younger brother,) as if they signified the meanest of his kindred. Indeed it is not likely, that Caleb's daughter should marry with her own 1 Judg. i. 19. 2 Judg. i; 25. Judg. i. 32. 3 Judg. iii, 10. uncle; yet it follows not therefore, that Othoniel should have been the meanest of the kindred. Wherefore we may better think, that he was the nephew of Caleb, (as some learned men expound it,) and as the very words of seripture seem to enforce. For Caleb was the son of Jephunneth, and Othoniel the son of Cenaz, Caleb's younger brother; that is, he was not brother to Caleb, but his younger brother's son ; to whom it was not only lawful, but commendable, to marry with his cousin-german, Caleb's daughter. How long it was from the death of Joshua to the government of Othoniel, it cannot be found; but it seems to have been no short time, for many wars were made in that space against the people of the land. Laish was then taken, (as is thought,) by the Danites; and the best writers are of opinion, that between the times of Joshua and Othoniel, that civil war broke out between the Benjamites and the rest of Israel, for the forcing to death of the Levite's wife. For it is written, that in those days there was 'no king in Israel, but every man did that which was good in his own eyes.' And as Judah led the people against the Canaanites, during the Inter-regnum, so was he commanded to do against Benjamin, even by the Lord God, whose direction they craved, as wanting a judge to appoint what should be done; which sheweth it to have been when Joshua was dead, and before the government of Othoniel; especially, considering, that all other times wherein they wanted governors, were spent under such oppression of strangers, as would have given them no leave to have attended such a civil war, if their power had been as great, as it was in the managing of this action; wherein they so weakened the body of their estate, by effusion of blood, that in many ages they could not bring into the field such numbers as formerly they had mustered against their bordering enemies. 4 Judg. xvii, xviii, and xix. |