Antiquities Book 5, Chapter 11
Herein Is Declared What Befell The Sons Of Eli, The Ark, And The People And How Eli Himself Died Miserably.
1. About this time it was that the Philistines made war against the
Israelites, and pitched their camp at the city Aphek. Now when the
Israelites had expected them a little while, the very next day they
joined battle, and the Philistines were conquerors, and slew above four
thousand of the Hebrews, and pursued the rest of their multitude to
their camp.
2. So the Hebrews being afraid of the worst, sent to the senate, and to
the high priest, and desired that they would bring the ark of God, that
by putting themselves in array, when it was present with them, they
might be too hard for their enemies, as not reflecting that he who had
condemned them to endure these calamities was greater than the ark, and
for whose sake it was that this ark came to be honored. So the ark came,
and the sons of the high priest with it, having received a charge from
their father, that if they pretended to survive the taking of the ark,
they should come no more into his presence, for Phineas officiated
already as high priest, his father having resigned his office to him, by
reason of his great age. So the Hebrews were full of courage, as
supposing that, by the coming of the ark, they should be too hard for
their enemies: their enemies also were greatly concerned, and were
afraid of the ark's coming to the Israelites: however, the upshot did
not prove agreeable to the expectation of both sides, but when the
battle was joined, that victory which the Hebrews expected was gained by
the Philistines, and that defeat the Philistines were afraid of fell to
the lot of the Israelites, and thereby they found that they had put
their trust in the ark in vain, for they were presently beaten as soon
as they came to a close fight with their enemies, and lost about thirty
thousand men, among whom were the sons of the high priest; but the ark
was carried away by the enemies.
3. When the news of this defeat came to Shiloh, with that of the
captivity of the ark, [for a certain young man, a Benjamite, who was in
the action, came as a messenger thither,] the whole city was full of
lamentations. And Eli, the high priest, who sat upon a high throne at
one of the gates, heard their mournful cries, and supposed that some
strange thing had befallen his family. So he sent for the young man; and
when he understood what had happened in the battle, he was not much
uneasy as to his sons, or what was told him withal about the army, as
having beforehand known by Divine revelation that those things would
happen, and having himself declared them beforehand,—for what sad things
come unexpectedly they distress men the most; but as soon as [he heard]
the ark was carried captive by their enemies, he was very much grieved
at it, because it fell out quite differently from what he expected; so
he fell down from his throne and died, having in all lived ninety-eight
years, and of them retained the government forty.
4. On the same day his son Phineas's wife died also, as not able to
survive the misfortune of her husband; for they told her of her
husband's death as she was in labor. However, she bare a son at seven
months, who lived, and to whom they gave the name of Icabod, which name
signifies disgrace,—and this because the army received a disgrace at
this time.
5. Now Eli was the first of the family of Ithamar, the other son of
Aaron, that had the government; for the family of Eleazar officiated as
high priest at first, the son still receiving that honor from the father
which Eleazar bequeathed to his son Phineas; after whom Abiezer his son
took the honor, and delivered it to his son, whose name was Bukki, from
whom his son Ozi received it; after whom Eli, of whom we have been
speaking, had the priesthood, and so he and his posterity until the time
of Solomon's reign; but then the posterity of Eleazar reassumed it.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ The Amorites were one of the seven nations of Canaan. Hence
Reland is willing to suppose that Josephus did not here mean that their
land beyond Jordan was a seventh part of the whole land of Canaan, but
meant the Arnorites as a seventh nation. His reason is, that Josephus,
as well as our Bible, generally distinguish the land beyond Jordan from
the land of Canaan; nor can it be denied, that in strictness they were
all forgot: yet after two tribes and a half of the twelve tribes came to
inherit it, it might in a general way altogether be well included under
the land of Canaan, or Palestine, or Judea, of which we have a clear
example here before us in Josephus, whose words evidently imply, that
taking the whole land of Canaan, or that inhabited by all the twelve
tribes together, and parting it into seven parts, the part beyond Jordan
was in quantity of ground one seventh part of the whole. And this well
enough agrees to Reland's own map of that country, although this land
beyond Jordan was so peculiarly fruitful, and good for pasturage, as the
two tribes and a half took notice, Numbers 32:1, 4, 16, that it
maintained about a fifth part of the whole people.]
2 (return) [ It plainly appears by the history of these spies, and the
innkeeper Rahab's deception of the king of Jericho's messengers, by
telling them what was false in order to save the lives of the spies, and
yet the great commendation of her faith and good works in the New
Testament, Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, as well as by many other parallel
examples, both in the Old Testament and in Josephus, that the best men
did not then scruple to deceive those public enemies who might justly be
destroyed; as also might deceive ill men in order to save life, and
deliver themselves from the tyranny of their unjust oppressors, and this
by telling direct falsehoods; I mean, all this where no oath was
demanded of them, otherwise they never durst venture on such a
procedure. Nor was Josephus himself of any other opinion or practice, as
I shall remark in the note on Antiq. B. IX. ch. 4. sect. 3. And observe,
that I still call this woman Rahab, an innkeeper, not a harlot, the
whole history, both in our copies, and especially in Josephus, implying
no more. It was indeed so frequent a thing, that women who were
innkeepers were also harlots, or maintainers of harlots, that the word
commonly used for real harlots was usually given them. See Dr. Bernard's
note here, and Judges 11:1, and Antiq. B. V. ch. 7. sect. 8.]
3 (return) [ Upon occasion of this devoting of Jericho to destruction,
and the exemplary punishment of Achar, who broke that duerein or
anathema, and of the punishment of the future breaker of it, Hiel, 1
Kings 16:34, as also of the punishment of Saul, for breaking the like
chefera or anathema, against the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15., we may
observe what was the true meaning of that law, Leviticus 27:28: "None
devoted which shall be devoted of shall be redeemed; but shall be put to
death;" i.e. whenever any of the Jews' public enemies had been, for
their wickedness, solemnly devoted to destruction, according to the
Divine command, as were generally the seven wicked nations of Canaan,
and those sinners the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15:18, it was utterly
unlawful to permit those enemies to be redeemed; but they were to be all
utterly destroyed. See also Numbers 23:2, 3.]
4 (return) [ That the name of this chief was not Achan, as in the common
copies, but Achar, as here in Josephus, and in the Apostolical Constit.
B. VII. ch. 2., and elsewhere, is evident by the allusion to that name
in the curse of Joshua, "Why hast thou troubled us?—the Lord shall
trouble thee;" where the Hebrew word alludes only to the name Achar, but
not to Achan. Accordingly, this Valley of Achar, or Achor, was and is a
known place, a little north of Gilgal, so called from the days of Joshua
till this day. See Joshua 7:26; Isaiah 65:10; Hosea 2:15; and Dr.
Bernard's notes here.]
5 (return) [ Here Dr. Bernard very justly observes, that a few words are
dropped out of Josephus's copies, on account of the repetition of the
word shekels, and that it ought to be read thus:—"A piece of gold that
weighed fifty shekels, and one of silver that weighed two hundred
shekels," as in our other copies, Joshua 7:21.]
6 (return) [ I agree here with Dr. Bernard, and approve of Josephus's
interpretation of Gilgal for liberty. See Joshua 5:9.]
7 (return) [ Whether this lengthening of the day, by the standing still
of the sun and moon, were physical and real, by the miraculous stoppage
of the diurnal motion of the earth for about half a revolution, or
whether only apparent, by aerial phosphori imitating the sun and moon as
stationary so long, while clouds and the night hid the real ones, and
this parhelion or mock sun affording sufficient light for Joshua's
pursuit and complete victory, [which aerial phosphori in other shapes
have been more than ordinarily common of late years,] cannot now be
determined: philosophers and astronomers will naturally incline to this
latter hypothesis. In the mean time, the fact itself was mentioned in
the book of Jasher, now lost, Joshua 10:13, and is confirmed by Isaiah,
28:21, Habakkuk, 3:11, and by the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 46:4. In the
18th Psalm of Solomon, yet it is also said of the luminaries, with
relation, no doubt, to this and the other miraculous standing still and
going back, in the days of Joshua and Hezekiah, "They have not wandered,
from the day that he created them; they have not forsaken their way,
from ancient generations, unless it were when God enjoined them [so to
do] by the command of his servants." See Authent. Rec. part i. p. 154.
[8: Of the books laid up in the temple, see the note on Antiq. B. III.
ch. 1. sect. 7.]
9 (return) [ Since not only Procopius and Suidas, but an earlier author,
Moses Chorenensis, p. 52, 53, and perhaps from his original author
Mariba Carina, one as old as Alexander the Great, sets down the famous
inscription at Tangier concerning the old Canaanites driven out of
Palestine by Joshua, take it here in that author's own words: "We are
those exiles that were governors of the Canaanites, but have been driven
away by Joshua the robber, and are come to inhabit here." See the note
there. Nor is it unworthy of our notice what Moses Chorenensis adds, p.
53, and this upon a diligent examination, viz. that "one of those
eminent men among the Canaanites came at the same time into Armenia, and
founded the Genthuniaa family, or tribe; and that this was confirmed by
the manners of the same family or tribe, as being like those of the
Canaanites."]
10 (return) [ By prophesying, when spoken of a high priest, Josephus,
both here and frequently elsewhere, means no more than consulting God by
Urim, which the reader is still to bear in mind upon all occasions. And
if St. John, who was contemporary with Josephus, and of the same
country, made use of this style, when he says that "Caiaphas being high
priest that year, prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and
not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one
the children of God that were scattered abroad," chap. 11;51, 52, he may
possibly mean, that this was revealed to the high priest by an
extraordinary voice from between the cherubims, when he had his
breastplate, or Urim and Thummim, on before; or the most holy place of
the temple, which was no other than the oracle of Urim and Thummim. Of
which above, in the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9.]
11 (return) [ This great number of seventy-two reguli, or small kings,
over whom Adonibezek had tyrannized, and for which he was punished
according to the lex talionis, as well as the thirty-one kings of Canaan
subdued by Joshua, and named in one chapter, Joshua 12., and thirty-two
kings, or royal auxiliaries to Benhadad king of Syria, 1 Kings 20:1;
Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 14. sect. 1, intimate to us what was the ancient
form of government among several nations before the monarchies began,
viz. that every city or large town, with its neighboring villages, was a
distinct government by itself; which is the more remarkable, because
this was certainly the form of ecclesiastical government that was
settled by the apostles, and preserved throughout the Christian church
in the first ages of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion, that "it
would certainly be for the good of mankind to have all the mighty
empires and monarchies of the world cantoned out into petty states and
principalities, which, like so many large families, might lie under the
observation of their proper governors, so that the care of the prince
might extend itself to every individual person under his protection;
though he despairs of such a scheme being brought about, and thinks that
if it were, it would quickly be destroyed." Remarks on Italy, 4to, p.
151. Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Armenian records,
though they give us the history of thirty-nine of their ancientest
heroes or governors after the Flood, before the days of Sardanapalus,
had no proper king till the fortieth, Parerus. See Moses Chorehensis, p.
55. And that Almighty God does not approve of such absolute and
tyrannical monarchies, any one may learn that reads Deuteronomy 17:14-
20, and 1 Samuel 8:1-22; although, if such kings are set up as own him
for their supreme King, and aim to govern according to his laws, he hath
admitted of them, and protected them and their subjects in all
generations.]
12 (return) [ Josephus's early date of this history before the beginning
of the Judges, or when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19;1, is
strongly confirmed by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days
of Asa and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 14:8, and 16:17, who yet were here
reduced to six hundred men; nor can those numbers be at all supposed
genuine, if they were reduced so late as the end of the Judges, where
our other copies place this reduction.]
13 (return) [ Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, when he
took the Hebrew word Bethel, which denotes the house of God, or the
tabernacle, Judges 20:18, for the proper name of a place, Bethel, it no
way appearing that the tabernacle was ever at Bethel; only so far it is
true, that Shiloh, the place of the tabernacle in the days of the
Judges, was not far from Bethel.]
14 (return) [ It appears by the sacred history, Judges 1:16; 3:13, that
Eglon's pavilion or palace was at the City of Palm-Trees, as the place
where Jericho had stood is called after its destruction by Joshua, that
is, at or near the demolished city. Accordingly, Josephus says it was at
Jericho, or rather in that fine country of palm-trees, upon, or near to,
the same spot of ground on which Jericho had formerly stood, and on
which it was rebuilt by Hiel, 1 Kings 16:31. Our other copies that avoid
its proper name Jericho, and call it the City of Palm-Trees only, speak
here more accurately than Josephus.]
15 (return) [ These eighty years for the government of Ehud are
necessary to Josephus's usual large numbers between the exodus and the
building of the temple, of five hundred and ninety-two or six hundred
and twelve years, but not to the smallest number of four hundred and
eighty years, 1 Kings 6:1; which lesser number Josephus seems sometimes
to have followed. And since in the beginning of the next chapter it is
said by Josephus, that there was hardly a breathing time for the
Israelites before Jabin came and enslaved them, it is highly probable
that some of the copies in his time had here only eight years instead of
eighty; as had that of Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolye. 1. iii., and
this most probably from his copy of Josephus.]
16 (return) [ Our present copies of Josephus all omit Tola among the
judges, though the other copies have him next after Abimelech, and allot
twenty-three years to his administration, Judges 10:1, 2; yet do all
Josephus's commentators conclude, that in Josephus's sum of the years of
the judges, his twenty-three years are included; hence we are to
confess, that somewhat has been here lost out of his copies.]
17 (return) [ Josephus justly condemns Jephtha, as do the Apostolical
Constitutions, B. VII. ch. 37., for his rash vow, whether it were for
sacrificing his daughter, as Josephus thought, or for dedicating her,
who was his only child, to perpetual virginity, at the tabernacle or
elsewhere, which I rather suppose. If he had vowed her for a sacrifice,
she ought to have been redeemed, Leviticus 27:1-8; but of the sense of
ver. 28, 29, as relating not to things vowed to. God, but devoted to
destruction, see the note on Antiq. B. V. ch. 1. sect. 8.]
18 (return) [ I can discover no reason why Manoah and his wife came so
constantly into these suburbs to pray for children, but because there
was a synagogue or place of devotion in those suburbs.]
19 (return) [ Here, by a prophet, Josephus seems only to mean one that
was born by a particular providence, lived after the manner of a
Nazarite devoted to God, and was to have an extraordinary commission and
strength from God for the judging and avenging his people Israel,
without any proper prophetic revelations at all.]
20 (return) [ This fountain, called Lehi, or the Jaw-bone, is still in
being, as travelers assure us, and was known by this very name in the
days of Josephus, and has been known by the same name in all those past
ages. See Antiq. B. VII. ch. 12. sect. 4.]
21 (return) [ See this justly observed in the Apostolical Constitutions,
B. VII. ch. 37., that Samson's prayer was heard, but that it was before
this his transgression.]
22 (return) [ Although there had been a few occasional prophets before,
yet was this Samuel the first of a constant succession of prophets in
the Jewish nation, as is implied in St. Peter's words, Acts 3:24 "Yea,
and all the prophets, from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many
as have spoken, have likewise foretold of those days." See also Acts
13:20. The others were rather sometime called righteous men, Matthew
10:41; 13:17.]
Israelites, and pitched their camp at the city Aphek. Now when the
Israelites had expected them a little while, the very next day they
joined battle, and the Philistines were conquerors, and slew above four
thousand of the Hebrews, and pursued the rest of their multitude to
their camp.
2. So the Hebrews being afraid of the worst, sent to the senate, and to
the high priest, and desired that they would bring the ark of God, that
by putting themselves in array, when it was present with them, they
might be too hard for their enemies, as not reflecting that he who had
condemned them to endure these calamities was greater than the ark, and
for whose sake it was that this ark came to be honored. So the ark came,
and the sons of the high priest with it, having received a charge from
their father, that if they pretended to survive the taking of the ark,
they should come no more into his presence, for Phineas officiated
already as high priest, his father having resigned his office to him, by
reason of his great age. So the Hebrews were full of courage, as
supposing that, by the coming of the ark, they should be too hard for
their enemies: their enemies also were greatly concerned, and were
afraid of the ark's coming to the Israelites: however, the upshot did
not prove agreeable to the expectation of both sides, but when the
battle was joined, that victory which the Hebrews expected was gained by
the Philistines, and that defeat the Philistines were afraid of fell to
the lot of the Israelites, and thereby they found that they had put
their trust in the ark in vain, for they were presently beaten as soon
as they came to a close fight with their enemies, and lost about thirty
thousand men, among whom were the sons of the high priest; but the ark
was carried away by the enemies.
3. When the news of this defeat came to Shiloh, with that of the
captivity of the ark, [for a certain young man, a Benjamite, who was in
the action, came as a messenger thither,] the whole city was full of
lamentations. And Eli, the high priest, who sat upon a high throne at
one of the gates, heard their mournful cries, and supposed that some
strange thing had befallen his family. So he sent for the young man; and
when he understood what had happened in the battle, he was not much
uneasy as to his sons, or what was told him withal about the army, as
having beforehand known by Divine revelation that those things would
happen, and having himself declared them beforehand,—for what sad things
come unexpectedly they distress men the most; but as soon as [he heard]
the ark was carried captive by their enemies, he was very much grieved
at it, because it fell out quite differently from what he expected; so
he fell down from his throne and died, having in all lived ninety-eight
years, and of them retained the government forty.
4. On the same day his son Phineas's wife died also, as not able to
survive the misfortune of her husband; for they told her of her
husband's death as she was in labor. However, she bare a son at seven
months, who lived, and to whom they gave the name of Icabod, which name
signifies disgrace,—and this because the army received a disgrace at
this time.
5. Now Eli was the first of the family of Ithamar, the other son of
Aaron, that had the government; for the family of Eleazar officiated as
high priest at first, the son still receiving that honor from the father
which Eleazar bequeathed to his son Phineas; after whom Abiezer his son
took the honor, and delivered it to his son, whose name was Bukki, from
whom his son Ozi received it; after whom Eli, of whom we have been
speaking, had the priesthood, and so he and his posterity until the time
of Solomon's reign; but then the posterity of Eleazar reassumed it.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ The Amorites were one of the seven nations of Canaan. Hence
Reland is willing to suppose that Josephus did not here mean that their
land beyond Jordan was a seventh part of the whole land of Canaan, but
meant the Arnorites as a seventh nation. His reason is, that Josephus,
as well as our Bible, generally distinguish the land beyond Jordan from
the land of Canaan; nor can it be denied, that in strictness they were
all forgot: yet after two tribes and a half of the twelve tribes came to
inherit it, it might in a general way altogether be well included under
the land of Canaan, or Palestine, or Judea, of which we have a clear
example here before us in Josephus, whose words evidently imply, that
taking the whole land of Canaan, or that inhabited by all the twelve
tribes together, and parting it into seven parts, the part beyond Jordan
was in quantity of ground one seventh part of the whole. And this well
enough agrees to Reland's own map of that country, although this land
beyond Jordan was so peculiarly fruitful, and good for pasturage, as the
two tribes and a half took notice, Numbers 32:1, 4, 16, that it
maintained about a fifth part of the whole people.]
2 (return) [ It plainly appears by the history of these spies, and the
innkeeper Rahab's deception of the king of Jericho's messengers, by
telling them what was false in order to save the lives of the spies, and
yet the great commendation of her faith and good works in the New
Testament, Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, as well as by many other parallel
examples, both in the Old Testament and in Josephus, that the best men
did not then scruple to deceive those public enemies who might justly be
destroyed; as also might deceive ill men in order to save life, and
deliver themselves from the tyranny of their unjust oppressors, and this
by telling direct falsehoods; I mean, all this where no oath was
demanded of them, otherwise they never durst venture on such a
procedure. Nor was Josephus himself of any other opinion or practice, as
I shall remark in the note on Antiq. B. IX. ch. 4. sect. 3. And observe,
that I still call this woman Rahab, an innkeeper, not a harlot, the
whole history, both in our copies, and especially in Josephus, implying
no more. It was indeed so frequent a thing, that women who were
innkeepers were also harlots, or maintainers of harlots, that the word
commonly used for real harlots was usually given them. See Dr. Bernard's
note here, and Judges 11:1, and Antiq. B. V. ch. 7. sect. 8.]
3 (return) [ Upon occasion of this devoting of Jericho to destruction,
and the exemplary punishment of Achar, who broke that duerein or
anathema, and of the punishment of the future breaker of it, Hiel, 1
Kings 16:34, as also of the punishment of Saul, for breaking the like
chefera or anathema, against the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15., we may
observe what was the true meaning of that law, Leviticus 27:28: "None
devoted which shall be devoted of shall be redeemed; but shall be put to
death;" i.e. whenever any of the Jews' public enemies had been, for
their wickedness, solemnly devoted to destruction, according to the
Divine command, as were generally the seven wicked nations of Canaan,
and those sinners the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15:18, it was utterly
unlawful to permit those enemies to be redeemed; but they were to be all
utterly destroyed. See also Numbers 23:2, 3.]
4 (return) [ That the name of this chief was not Achan, as in the common
copies, but Achar, as here in Josephus, and in the Apostolical Constit.
B. VII. ch. 2., and elsewhere, is evident by the allusion to that name
in the curse of Joshua, "Why hast thou troubled us?—the Lord shall
trouble thee;" where the Hebrew word alludes only to the name Achar, but
not to Achan. Accordingly, this Valley of Achar, or Achor, was and is a
known place, a little north of Gilgal, so called from the days of Joshua
till this day. See Joshua 7:26; Isaiah 65:10; Hosea 2:15; and Dr.
Bernard's notes here.]
5 (return) [ Here Dr. Bernard very justly observes, that a few words are
dropped out of Josephus's copies, on account of the repetition of the
word shekels, and that it ought to be read thus:—"A piece of gold that
weighed fifty shekels, and one of silver that weighed two hundred
shekels," as in our other copies, Joshua 7:21.]
6 (return) [ I agree here with Dr. Bernard, and approve of Josephus's
interpretation of Gilgal for liberty. See Joshua 5:9.]
7 (return) [ Whether this lengthening of the day, by the standing still
of the sun and moon, were physical and real, by the miraculous stoppage
of the diurnal motion of the earth for about half a revolution, or
whether only apparent, by aerial phosphori imitating the sun and moon as
stationary so long, while clouds and the night hid the real ones, and
this parhelion or mock sun affording sufficient light for Joshua's
pursuit and complete victory, [which aerial phosphori in other shapes
have been more than ordinarily common of late years,] cannot now be
determined: philosophers and astronomers will naturally incline to this
latter hypothesis. In the mean time, the fact itself was mentioned in
the book of Jasher, now lost, Joshua 10:13, and is confirmed by Isaiah,
28:21, Habakkuk, 3:11, and by the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 46:4. In the
18th Psalm of Solomon, yet it is also said of the luminaries, with
relation, no doubt, to this and the other miraculous standing still and
going back, in the days of Joshua and Hezekiah, "They have not wandered,
from the day that he created them; they have not forsaken their way,
from ancient generations, unless it were when God enjoined them [so to
do] by the command of his servants." See Authent. Rec. part i. p. 154.
[8: Of the books laid up in the temple, see the note on Antiq. B. III.
ch. 1. sect. 7.]
9 (return) [ Since not only Procopius and Suidas, but an earlier author,
Moses Chorenensis, p. 52, 53, and perhaps from his original author
Mariba Carina, one as old as Alexander the Great, sets down the famous
inscription at Tangier concerning the old Canaanites driven out of
Palestine by Joshua, take it here in that author's own words: "We are
those exiles that were governors of the Canaanites, but have been driven
away by Joshua the robber, and are come to inhabit here." See the note
there. Nor is it unworthy of our notice what Moses Chorenensis adds, p.
53, and this upon a diligent examination, viz. that "one of those
eminent men among the Canaanites came at the same time into Armenia, and
founded the Genthuniaa family, or tribe; and that this was confirmed by
the manners of the same family or tribe, as being like those of the
Canaanites."]
10 (return) [ By prophesying, when spoken of a high priest, Josephus,
both here and frequently elsewhere, means no more than consulting God by
Urim, which the reader is still to bear in mind upon all occasions. And
if St. John, who was contemporary with Josephus, and of the same
country, made use of this style, when he says that "Caiaphas being high
priest that year, prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and
not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one
the children of God that were scattered abroad," chap. 11;51, 52, he may
possibly mean, that this was revealed to the high priest by an
extraordinary voice from between the cherubims, when he had his
breastplate, or Urim and Thummim, on before; or the most holy place of
the temple, which was no other than the oracle of Urim and Thummim. Of
which above, in the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9.]
11 (return) [ This great number of seventy-two reguli, or small kings,
over whom Adonibezek had tyrannized, and for which he was punished
according to the lex talionis, as well as the thirty-one kings of Canaan
subdued by Joshua, and named in one chapter, Joshua 12., and thirty-two
kings, or royal auxiliaries to Benhadad king of Syria, 1 Kings 20:1;
Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 14. sect. 1, intimate to us what was the ancient
form of government among several nations before the monarchies began,
viz. that every city or large town, with its neighboring villages, was a
distinct government by itself; which is the more remarkable, because
this was certainly the form of ecclesiastical government that was
settled by the apostles, and preserved throughout the Christian church
in the first ages of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion, that "it
would certainly be for the good of mankind to have all the mighty
empires and monarchies of the world cantoned out into petty states and
principalities, which, like so many large families, might lie under the
observation of their proper governors, so that the care of the prince
might extend itself to every individual person under his protection;
though he despairs of such a scheme being brought about, and thinks that
if it were, it would quickly be destroyed." Remarks on Italy, 4to, p.
151. Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Armenian records,
though they give us the history of thirty-nine of their ancientest
heroes or governors after the Flood, before the days of Sardanapalus,
had no proper king till the fortieth, Parerus. See Moses Chorehensis, p.
55. And that Almighty God does not approve of such absolute and
tyrannical monarchies, any one may learn that reads Deuteronomy 17:14-
20, and 1 Samuel 8:1-22; although, if such kings are set up as own him
for their supreme King, and aim to govern according to his laws, he hath
admitted of them, and protected them and their subjects in all
generations.]
12 (return) [ Josephus's early date of this history before the beginning
of the Judges, or when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19;1, is
strongly confirmed by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days
of Asa and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 14:8, and 16:17, who yet were here
reduced to six hundred men; nor can those numbers be at all supposed
genuine, if they were reduced so late as the end of the Judges, where
our other copies place this reduction.]
13 (return) [ Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, when he
took the Hebrew word Bethel, which denotes the house of God, or the
tabernacle, Judges 20:18, for the proper name of a place, Bethel, it no
way appearing that the tabernacle was ever at Bethel; only so far it is
true, that Shiloh, the place of the tabernacle in the days of the
Judges, was not far from Bethel.]
14 (return) [ It appears by the sacred history, Judges 1:16; 3:13, that
Eglon's pavilion or palace was at the City of Palm-Trees, as the place
where Jericho had stood is called after its destruction by Joshua, that
is, at or near the demolished city. Accordingly, Josephus says it was at
Jericho, or rather in that fine country of palm-trees, upon, or near to,
the same spot of ground on which Jericho had formerly stood, and on
which it was rebuilt by Hiel, 1 Kings 16:31. Our other copies that avoid
its proper name Jericho, and call it the City of Palm-Trees only, speak
here more accurately than Josephus.]
15 (return) [ These eighty years for the government of Ehud are
necessary to Josephus's usual large numbers between the exodus and the
building of the temple, of five hundred and ninety-two or six hundred
and twelve years, but not to the smallest number of four hundred and
eighty years, 1 Kings 6:1; which lesser number Josephus seems sometimes
to have followed. And since in the beginning of the next chapter it is
said by Josephus, that there was hardly a breathing time for the
Israelites before Jabin came and enslaved them, it is highly probable
that some of the copies in his time had here only eight years instead of
eighty; as had that of Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolye. 1. iii., and
this most probably from his copy of Josephus.]
16 (return) [ Our present copies of Josephus all omit Tola among the
judges, though the other copies have him next after Abimelech, and allot
twenty-three years to his administration, Judges 10:1, 2; yet do all
Josephus's commentators conclude, that in Josephus's sum of the years of
the judges, his twenty-three years are included; hence we are to
confess, that somewhat has been here lost out of his copies.]
17 (return) [ Josephus justly condemns Jephtha, as do the Apostolical
Constitutions, B. VII. ch. 37., for his rash vow, whether it were for
sacrificing his daughter, as Josephus thought, or for dedicating her,
who was his only child, to perpetual virginity, at the tabernacle or
elsewhere, which I rather suppose. If he had vowed her for a sacrifice,
she ought to have been redeemed, Leviticus 27:1-8; but of the sense of
ver. 28, 29, as relating not to things vowed to. God, but devoted to
destruction, see the note on Antiq. B. V. ch. 1. sect. 8.]
18 (return) [ I can discover no reason why Manoah and his wife came so
constantly into these suburbs to pray for children, but because there
was a synagogue or place of devotion in those suburbs.]
19 (return) [ Here, by a prophet, Josephus seems only to mean one that
was born by a particular providence, lived after the manner of a
Nazarite devoted to God, and was to have an extraordinary commission and
strength from God for the judging and avenging his people Israel,
without any proper prophetic revelations at all.]
20 (return) [ This fountain, called Lehi, or the Jaw-bone, is still in
being, as travelers assure us, and was known by this very name in the
days of Josephus, and has been known by the same name in all those past
ages. See Antiq. B. VII. ch. 12. sect. 4.]
21 (return) [ See this justly observed in the Apostolical Constitutions,
B. VII. ch. 37., that Samson's prayer was heard, but that it was before
this his transgression.]
22 (return) [ Although there had been a few occasional prophets before,
yet was this Samuel the first of a constant succession of prophets in
the Jewish nation, as is implied in St. Peter's words, Acts 3:24 "Yea,
and all the prophets, from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many
as have spoken, have likewise foretold of those days." See also Acts
13:20. The others were rather sometime called righteous men, Matthew
10:41; 13:17.]