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27. Erections in the form of altars, in commemoration of remarkable events, were common in antient times. Indeed, any form of a folid building, large or fmall, and that did not terminate in a point, might be called an altar, becaufe facrifices might be made upon it.

33. The LXX fay that it was Joshua who gave this name to the altar. But his name not being mentioned in the preceding account of the tranfaction, it is evident that when the war was over he did not retain any civil power, but returned to the rank of a common citizen.

Ch. XXIII. 9 This was a proof of the fuperiority of their God to thofe of thefe nations.

14. Solomon made the fame acknowledgment, 1 Kings, viii, 56.

15 This has been verified in the fullest extent, in confequence of the apoftacy of the people from their religion.

Ch. XXIV. 1 The LXX and the Arabic verfions have Shiloh in this place.

2 This is the only account that we have of the fami ly of Abraham having actually been idolatrous.

12 Ihis was particularly promifed Exod. xxiii, 27, Deut. vii,20, and here it is faidŝto have been performed, tho'nothing is faid of this circumftance in the preceding hiftory of the war. The LXX has twelve kings, omitting the mention of Sihon and Og.

14 Jolhua, no doubt, knew of the idolatrous practices which had been ufed in the wildernefs, and he might well prefume they were ftill practifed in fecret by Cc 4

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fome of the people. But tho' they had in fome meafure conformed to the religion of the Egyptians while they refided among them, they had not done fo in all refpects, as appears by their longing for the leeks and the onions they had eaten in Egypt; and from these the Egyptians religiously abftained.

19 Cease not to serve Jehovah. H.

It was very proper to apprize the people of the character of the God whom they declared they would ferve, fince he was very unlike the gods of the heathens, who tolerated the worship of each other. On the contrary, if they ferved Jehovah, they must ferve him only, which was contrary to the maxims of the heathens in general.

25. This folemn promife and engagement is called a covenant, and was a renewal of that which was entered into in the time of Mofes. Here the LXX has Shiloh.

This was probably a pillar that might remain to poflerity, as a memorial of the folemn tranfaction. In Jud. ix, 6, mention is made of the pillar in Shechem.

26 It is evident from this that Jofhua was a writer as well as Mofes, and he, no doubt, wrote the greatest part of this book which bears his name. And this book of Fofhua, as well as thofe of Mofes, might in a certain fenfe be called the book of the law of God, as containing a continuation of the hiflory of the tranfactions of God with the nation, and the orders that were given in his time.

29. As no mention is any where made of the age of Joshua when he left Egypt, tho' he must have been more than twenty, the length of his life cannot be afeertained. Since he was forty years in the wildernefs, fup

pofing him to have been thirty at that time, as he was called a young man,he must have lived forty in the land of Canaan,

In the Vatican copy of the LXX there is this addition, "They put with him into the fepulchre the "knives of flint with which he circumcifed the children "of Ifrael in Gilgal, when he brought them out of Egypt, as the Lord commanded them; and they are "there unto this day."

31. This verfe could not have been written by Joshua, any more than the laft chapter of Deuteronomy by Mofes. But this is no objection to the authenticity of the rest of the book, it being natural for any transcriber of fufficient information to add fuch circumftances as thefe, in order to make the work complete, and for the farther information of pofterity. It is generally thought that Samuel wrote this addition to the book of Jofhua,. as well as the book of Judges.

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NOTES ON THE BOOK OF

THE

JUDGES.

HIS book has its name from its containing the hiftory of tranfactions during the government of the Ifraelites by temporary judges, before that of kings, from the death of Joshua to the time of Samuel, who is with pretty good reafon thought to have been the writer of this book. It was evidently written before the taking of Jerufalem by David, as may be inferred from Ch. i, 21. As this book was always received by the Jews as an authentic hiftory, and the contents of it are al uded to in other books of unquestionable authority, there cannot be any good reafon for entertaining a doubt concerning it at this day. It comprizes the hiftory of about three hundred years, and all the facts recorded in it are of fo remarkable a nature, that they could not have been forgotten in the time of Samuch, even if there had been no public record of any of them, when they took place. But fince both Mofes and Jofhua were writers, and compofed the hif tory of their times, it cannot be fuppofed but that the

high-priests at least would fee that the hiftory was continued in the fame authentic manner.

This history abundantly verifies the frequent warnings and predictions of Mofes, according to which the people, being under the more immediate government of God, were in the most exemplary manner to be rewarded for their obedience, and punished for their difobedience, and especially for their conformity to the religions of their neighbours, whom God had devoted to destruction, on account of their polytheifm and idolatry.

Ch. I. 1. In this conduct they followed the directions given by Mofes, according to the original princi ples of their government; the high-priest, in the prefence of the chief magistrate, afking directions from God, and receiving an answer in an articulate voice. Perhaps the power of the Amorites, Hittites, and other nations, being now broken, thofe names were no more ufed; but the remains of them were called Canaanites as before. For here the people to the South, as well as thofe in the North, are called by this name.

2. This is the first time that we find the tribe of Ju dah diftinguished in this manner. They were the most numerous and powerful of all the tribes, and according to the prediction of Jacob were to have the pre-eminence of all the others.

4. Bezeck was in the tribe of Judah, not far, it is thought, from Jerufalem.

7. The Ifraelites had, no doubt, heard of the wanton cruelty which he had exercifed towards the kings that he had conquered, and purpofely treated him in the

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