up to that point, to the books of the Pentateuch, laying up the whole in the sanctuary, leaving it in the keeping of the priests and elders, where, like the previous books, it has been preserved to us.

With respect to the authorship of the closing paragraph of five verses, relating the death of Joshua and Eleazar and the burial of Joseph's bones, the most natural conclusion is that the lines were added by the officiating high-priest, that is, by Phinehas the son of Eleazar.

XIV.-The Book of Judges.

The Hebrew word for Fudges is Shophetim. The time the book covers, from Joshua to Eli and Samuel, is variously estimated as being from three hundred to four hundred years. Perhaps the former number is nearest the truth, but the study of chronology has not yet proceeded so far as to settle this question definitely.

We find in this Book the Divine Word continued. It opens with the declaration, "Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked Jehovah, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up: behold I have delivered the land into his hand." Thus the Divine presence,

accompanied by personal communications, is maintained. The second chapter commences with a similar averment. "And an Angel of Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers ;" the Divine message continues to the end of the third verse. We then read, verse 4, "And it came to pass, when an Angel of Jehovah spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice and wept." This open intercourse of the Lord with His people, and hence the deliverance of His Word, is repeated some twenty times in the course of the book.

The central sanctuary was maintained in Shiloh all the time from Joshua down to the days of Samuel. From the references to it, sometimes as a "temple," and at others as a 66 tabernacle," it seems to have been a tabernacle, like that in the desert, covered with skins, so far as its roof was concerned, but protected at the sides by being walled up with stones. This continuance of the sanctuary thus in one place, we can see was of the Divine Providence; for so the ark, the sacred books, and all the holy things could be preserved with comparative ease, in safety, during a long, troublous, and semi-barbarous period.

The book naturally divides into two

general portions. The first sixteen chapters contain a continuous account of the rule of the Judges to the death of Samson. The last five contain what has been called the Appendix of the book, consisting of the story of Micah (xvii., xviii.), and the account of the Levite of Mt. Ephraim (xix., xx., xxi.). While the first sixteen chapters exhibit a unity of design, the materials indicate a certain diversity of origin. After the leadership of Joshua had ended, and the several tribes had departed to their widely separated inheritances, the national unity was not so well preserved. The three great divisions (a) the tribes east of Jordan, (b) those in the north, and (c) those in the south, seem to have moved on in a good degree of independence of each other. No one of the Judges ruled over the whole people, but mainly over his own tribe, and also over those closely associated with it. There were thirteen of these Judges. Accounts of six of them are given at considerable length, Othniel, Ehud, Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. To these longer accounts are appended brief notices of the other seven, Shamgar, Abimelech Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. It is a history of successive servitudes and deliverances. On account of their evils of disobedience and idolatry, the people were brought under the nations their neighbors, Mesopotamians, Moabites, Canaanites, Mi

dianites, Ammonites, and Philistines, one after another. In each case the Lord raised up a judge who acted as leader, deliverer, and ruler. We read, "Nevertheless, Jehovah raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of them that spoiled them.

And when Jehovah raised them up judges, then Jehovah was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge." (ii. 16, 18.) It is this Divine presence and supervision which gives unity to these several parts. One idea runs throughout, that of Redemption, deliverance by the Lord from sin and spiritual enemies. No complete history of the times is attempted or intended, but only such incidents are related as were needed to convey the spiritual lesson and form a continuous basis for the Divine Word.

Much speculation has been indulged in, in all ages, as to who was the human author or editor of this book. Some have supposed Samuel to be; others ascribe that office to Ezra. Either view perhaps is allowable, as either of those persons would be amply authorized to put the accounts together and edit them. These suppositions, however, seem to us to overlook the continuous manner in which the letter of the Word all along was produced, and the function of each successive officiating high priest as the Divinely authorized keeper of the sacred

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books, and receiver of new Divine communications. The sanctuary afforded central point for receiving such communications, as well as for storing and preserving a record of those which might be received by prophets elsewhere. This idea receives confirmation from what is said concerning Caiaphas, in JOHN xi. 51. "And this he spake not of himself; but being the high-priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation," etc. Here we see that there was present with the officiating highpriest a certain influx of the Spirit leading him to do and say whatsoever was necessary for the contents of the Divine Word.

In our search for an author or editor of the Book of Judges, therefore, we need not go beyond the high-priest who was in office in the latter portion of the period. The special portions or accounts would naturally be brought from time to time and deposited in the central sanctuary. These bear marks of belonging to those early times. It would then be the duty of the high-priest to determine their value, preserving all inspired documents, and adding them to the Book of the Law and Prophets. Hence there it is that we find the Book of Judges preserved in its place and order among the other books.