city; wherefore ten years after having levied forces, Ægialeus the son of Adrastus, Diomedes of Tydeus, Promachus of Parthenopaus, Sthenelus of Capaneus, Thersander of Polynices, and Euripylus of Mecisteus, marched thither under the conduct of Alcmæon the son of Amphiaraus; with whom also went his brother Amphiloctus. Apollo promised victory if Alcmæon were their captain, whom afterward by another oracle he commanded to kill his own mother.

When they came to the city, they were encountered by Laodamas the son of Eteocles, then king of the Thebans, (for Creon was only tutor to Laodamas,) who though he did valiantly in the battle, and slew Ægialeus, yet was he put to the worst, and driven to fly, or (according to Apollodorus) slain by Alcmaon. After this disaster the citizens began to desire composition; but in the mean time they conveyed themselves with their wives and children away from thence by night, and so began to wander up and down, till at length they built the town called Estiæa. The Argives, when they perceived that their enemies had quitted the town, entering into it, sacked it, threw down the walls, and laid it waste; howbeit it is reported by some, that the town was saved by Thersander, the son of Polynices, who, causing the citizens to return, did there reign over them. That he saved the city from utter destruction, it is very likely, for he reigned there, and led the Thebans to the war of Troy, which very shortly after ensued.

SECT. IX.

Of Jephta, and how the three hundred years which he speaketh of, Judg. xi. 28, are to be reconciled with the places, Acts xiii. 20. I Kings vi. 1; together with some other things touching chronology about these times.

AFTER the death of Jair, (near about whose times these things happened in Greece, and during whose government, and that of Thola, Israel lived in peace and in order,) they revolted again from the law and service of God, and became more wicked and idolatrous than ever. For where

as in the former times they worshipped P Baal and Asteroth, they now became followers of all the heathen nations adjoining, and embraced the idols of the Aramites, of the Zidonians, Moabites, and Ammonites; with those of the Philistines. And as before it pleased God to correct them by the Aramites, by the Amalekites, and Midianites; so now he scourged them by the 9 Ammonites, and afterward by the Philistines.

Now among the Israelites, those of Gilead being most oppressed, because they bordered upon the Ammonites, they were enforced to seek Jephta, whom they had formerly despised and cast from them, because he was base born; but he (notwithstanding those former injuries) participating more of godly compassion than of devilish hatred and revenge, was content to lead the Gileadites to the war, upon condition that they should establish him their governor after victory. And when he had disputed with Ammon for the land, disproved Ammon's right, and fortified the title of Israel by many arguments, the same prevailing nothing, he began the war; and being strengthened by God, overthrew them; and did not only beat them out of the plains, but forced them over the mountains of Arabia, even to Minnith, and Abel of the vineyards, cities expressed heretofore in the description of the Holy Land. After which victory, it is said that he performed the vain vow which he made, to sacrifice the first living creature he encountered coming out of his house to meet him; which happened to be his own daughter, and only child, who with all patience submitted herself, and only desired two months time to bewail her virginity on the mountains of Gilead, because in her the issues of her father ended; but the other opinion, that she was not offered, is more probable, which s Borræus and others prove sufficiently.

After these things the children of Israel, of the tribe of Ephraim, either envious of Jephta's victory, or otherwise

making way to their future calamity, and to the most grievous slavery that ever Israel suffered, quarrelled with Jephta, that they were not called to the war, as beforetime they had contested with Gideon. Jephta hereupon enforced to defend himself against their fury, in the encounter slew of them t 42,000, which so weakened the body of the land, as the Philistines had an easy conquest of them all not long after: Jephta, after he had judged Israel six years, died; to whom succeeded Ibzan, who ruled seven years; after him Elon was their judge ten years; in all which time Israel had peace. Eusebius finds not Elon, whom he calleth Adon; for in the Septuagint, approved in his time, this judge was omitted.

Now before I go on with the rest, it shall be necessary upon the occasion of Jephta's account of the times, Judg. xi. 28. (where he says that Israel had then possessed the east side of Jordan 300 years,) to speak somewhat of the times of the judges, and of the differing opinions among the divines and chronologers; there being found three places of scripture, touching this point, seeming repugnant, or disagreeing: the first is in this dispute between Jephta and Ammon, for the right and possession of Gilead; *the second is that of St. Paul, Acts xiii; the third that which is in the first of Kings. Jephta here challengeth the possession of Gilead for 300 years: St. Paul giveth to the judges, as it seems, from the end of Joshua to the last of Heli, 450 years. In the first of Kings it is taught that, from the departing of Israel out of Egypt to the foundation of Solomon's temple, there were consumed 480 years. To the first, Beroaldus findeth Jephta's 300 years to be but 266 years, to wit, eighteen of Joshua, forty of Othoniel, eighty of Aod and Samgar, forty of Deborah, forty of Gideon, three of Abimelech, twenty-three of Thola, and twenty-two of Jair; but Jephta (saith Beroaldus) "putteth or proposeth a certain number for an uncertain: Sic ut dicat annum agi prope trecentesimum, ex quo nullus litem ea de re moverit Israeli; “So he * Judg. xii.

u Id facit numero certo pro incerto proposito.

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speaketh," saith he, " as meaning, that then it was about "or well nigh the three hundredth year since Israel pos"sessed those countries, no man making question of their "right." Codoman, on the contrary, finds more years than Jephta named by sixty-five, to wit, 365, whereof seventyone were spent in Israel's captivity, at several times, of which (as Codoman thinketh) Jephta forbare to repeat the whole sum, or any great part, lest the Ammonite should have justly objected that seventy-one of those years the Israelites were in captivity and vassals to their neighbour princes, and therefore, knowing that to name 300 years it was enough for prescription, he omitted the rest.

To justify this account of 365 years, besides the seventyone years of captivity or affliction to be added to Beroaldus's 266, he addeth also twenty-eight years more, and so maketh up the sum of 365. These twenty-eight years he findeth out thus; twenty years he gives to the seniors between Joshua and Othoniel; and where Beroaldus alloweth but eighteen years to Joshua's government, Codoman accounts that his rule lasted twenty-six according to Josephus; whereas St. Augustine and Eusebius give him twenty-seven, Melanchton thirty-two. The truth is, that this addition of twenty-eight years is far more doubtful than the other of seventy-one. But though we admit not of this addition, yet by accounting of some part of the years of affliction, (to wit, thirty-four years of the seventy-one,) if we add them to the 266 years of Beroaldus, which reckoneth none of these, we have the just number of 300 years. Neither is it strange that Jephta should leave out more than half of these years of affliction; seeing, as it is already said, the Ammonites might except against these seventy-one years, and say, that during these years, or at least a good part of them, the Israelites had no quiet possession of the countries in question. Martin Luther is the author of a third opinion, making those 300 years remembered by Jephta, to be 306, which odd years, saith he, Jephta omitteth. But because the years of every judge, as they reigned, cannot make up this number of 306, but do only compound

266, therefore doth Luther add to this number the whole time which Moses spent in the deserts of Arabia Petræa; which forty years of Moses, added to the number which Beroaldus findeth of 266, make indeed 306.

But I see nothing in the text to warrant Luther's judgment herein; for, in the dispute between Jephta and Ammon for the land of Gilead, it is written in the person of Ammon in these words; Because Israel took my land, when they came up from Egypt, from Arnon unto Jaboc, &c. now therefore restore those lands quietly, or in peace. So by this place it is plain, that the time is not to be accounted from Moses's departure out of Egypt, but from the time that the land was possessed. For it is said, Quia cepit Israel terram meam; "Because Israel took my land;" and therefore the beginning of this account is to be referred to the time of the taking, which Jephta's answer also confirmeth in these words; When Israel dwelt in Heshbon and in her towns, and in Aroer and in her towns, and in all the cities that are by the coast of Arnon 300 years: why did ye not then recover them in that space ? So as this place speaks it directly, that Israel had inhabited and dwelt in the cities of Gilead 300 years; and therefore to account the times from the hopes or intents, that Israel had to possess it, it seemeth somewhat strained to me; for we do not use to reckon the time of our conquests in France, from our princes' intents or purposes, but from their victories and possessions.

Junius nevertheless likes the opinion of Luther, and says, that this time of 300 years hath reference, and is to take beginning from the first of Jephta's narration; when he makes a brief repetition of Moses's whole journey, to wit, at the 16th verse of the eleventh chapter of Judges in our translation, in these words; y But when Israel came up from Egypt, &c. And therefore Moses's forty years (as he thinks) are to be accounted, which make the number of 305 years; and not only the time in which Israel possessed Gilead, according to the text, and Jephta's own words, of Judg. xi. 13. * Judg. xi. 26. y Junius in the 11th of Judg. note.

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