Endnote 11. (1) "With few exceptions." (2) One of these exceptions is found
in 2 Kings xviii:20, where we read, "Thou sayest (but they are but vain
words)," the second person being used. (3) In Isaiah xxxvi:5, we read "I
say (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war," and
in the twenty-second verse of the chapter in Kings it is written, "But if ye
say," the plural number being used, whereas Isaiah gives the singular. (4)
The text in Isaiah does not contain the words found in 2 Kings xxxii:32. (5)
Thus there are several cases of various readings where it is impossible to
distinguish the best.
Endnote 12. (1) "The expressions in the two passages are so varied." (2) For
instance we read in 2 Sam. vii:6, "But I have walked in a tent and in a
tabernacle." (3) Whereas in 1 Chron. xvii:5, "but have gone from tent to
tent and from one tabernacle to another." (4) In 2 Sam. vii:10, we read, "to
afflict them," whereas in 1 Chron. vii:9, we find a different expression. (5)
I could point out other differences still greater, but a single reading of
the chapters in question will suffice to make them manifest to all who are
neither blind nor devoid of sense.
Endnote 13. (1) "This time cannot refer to what immediately precedes." (2)
It is plain from the context that this passage must allude to the time when
Joseph was sold by his brethren. (3) But this is not all. (4) We may draw
the same conclusion from the age of Judah, who was than twenty-two years old
at most, taking as basis of calculation his own history just narrated. (5)
It follows, indeed, from the last verse of Gen. xxx., that Judah was born in
the tenth of the years of Jacob's servitude to Laban, and Joseph in the
fourteenth. (6) Now, as we know that Joseph was seventeen years old when
sold by his brethren, Judah was then not more than twenty-one. (7) Hence,
those writers who assert that Judah's long absence from his father's
house took place before Joseph was sold, only seek to delude themselves and
to call in question the Scriptural authority which they are anxious to
protect.
Endnote 14. (1) "Dinah was scarcely seven years old when she was violated by
Schechem." (2) The opinion held by some that Jacob wandered about eight or
ten years between Mesopotamia and Bethel, savours of the ridiculous; if
respect for Aben Ezra, allows me to say so. (3) For it is clear that Jacob
had two reasons for haste: first, the desire to see his old parents;
secondly, and chiefly to perform, the vow made when he fled from his brother
(Gen. xxviii:10 and xxxi:13, and xxxv:1). (4) We read (Gen. xxxi:3), that
God had commanded him to fulfill his vow, and promised him help for
returning to his country. (5) If these considerations seem conjectures
rather than reasons, I will waive the point and admit that Jacob, more
unfortunate than Ulysses, spent eight or ten years or even longer, in this
short journey. (6) At any rate it cannot be denied that Benjamin was born in
the last year of this wandering, that is by the reckoning of the objectors,
when Joseph was sixteen or seventeen years old, for Jacob left Laban seven
years after Joseph's birth. (7) Now from the seventeenth year of Joseph's
age till the patriarch went into Egypt, not more than twenty-two years
elapsed, as we have shown in this chapter. (8) Consequently Benjamin, at the
time of the journey to Egypt, was twenty-three or twenty- four at the most.
(9) He would therefore have been a grandfather in the flower of his age
(Gen. xlvi:21, cf. Numb. xxvi:38, 40, and 1 Chron. viii:1), for it is
certain that Bela, Benjamin's eldest son, had at that time, two sons, Addai
and Naa-man. (10) This is just as absurd as the statement that Dinah was
violated at the age of seven, not to mention other impossibilities
which would result from the truth of the narrative. (11) Thus we see that
unskillful endeavours to solve difficulties, only raise fresh ones, and make
confusion worse confounded.
Endnote 15. (1) "Othniel, son of Kenag, was judge for forty years." (2)
Rabbi Levi Ben Gerson and others believe that these forty years which the
Bible says were passed in freedom, should be counted from the death of
Joshua, and consequently include the eight years during which the people
were subject to Kushan Rishathaim, while the following eighteen years
must be added on to the eighty years of Ehud's and Shamgar's judgeships. (3)
In this case it would be necessary to reckon the other years of subjection
among those said by the Bible to have been passed in freedom. (4) But the
Bible expressly notes the number of years of subjection, and the number of
years of freedom, and further declares (Judges ii:18) that the
Hebrew state was prosperous during the whole time of the judges. (5)
Therefore it is evident that Levi Ben Gerson (certainly a very learned man),
and those who follow him, correct rather than interpret the Scriptures.
(6) The same fault is committed by those who assert, that Scripture, by this
general calculation of years, only intended to mark the period of the
regular administration of the Hebrew state, leaving out the years of anarchy
and subjection as periods of misfortune and interregnum. (7) Scripture
certainly passes over in silence periods of anarchy, but does not, as they
dream, refuse to reckon them or wipe them out of the country's annals. (8)
It is clear that Ezra, in 1 Kings vi., wished to reckon absolutely all the
years since the flight from Egypt. (9) This is so plain, that no one versed
in the Scriptures can doubt it. (10) For, without going back to the
precise words of the text, we may see that the genealogy of David given at
the end of the book of Ruth, and I Chron. ii., scarcely accounts for so
great a number of years. (11) For Nahshon, who was prince of the tribe of
Judah (Numb. vii:11), two years after the Exodus, died in the desert, and
his son Salmon passed the Jordan with Joshua. (12) Now this Salmon,
according to the genealogy, was David's great-grandfather. (13) Deducting,
then, from the total of 480 years, four years for Solomon's reign, seventy
for David's life, and forty for the time passed in the desert, we find that
David was born 366 years after the passage of the Jordan. (14) Hence we
must believe that David's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and
great-great-grandfather begat children when they were ninety years old.
Endnote 16. (1) "Samson was judge for twenty years." (2) Samson was born
after the Hebrews had fallen under the dominion of the Philistines.
Endnote 17. (1) Otherwise, they rather correct than explain Scripture.
Endnote 18. (1) "Kirjath-jearim." Kirjath-jearim is also called Baale of
Judah. (2) Hence Kimchi and others think that the words Baale Judah, which I
have translated "the people of Judah," are the name of a town. (3) But this
is not so, for the word Baale is in the plural. (4) Moreover, comparing this
text in Samuel with I Chron. Xiii:5, we find that David did not rise up
and go forth out of Baale, but that he went thither. (5) If the author of
the book of Samuel had meant to name the place whence David took the ark, he
would, if he spoke Hebrew correctly, have said, "David rose up, and set
forth from Baale Judah, and took the ark from thence."