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CHAP. 1.

[World 2571] [Othniel 1] ISrael being assured by Joshua before his death, that the Canaanites that were [Othniel 2] yet left in the land should and must be subdued, Josh. 23. 5. they inquire by [Othniel 3] Urim and Thummini who should first begin that expedition; the success of [Othniel 4] which beginning would have much influence to daunt or encourage the enemy [Othniel 5] according as it should prove. Judah the royal Tribe is chosen for that purpose, [Othniel 6] and Caleb the son of Jephunneh is general for that Tribe, till his age and Othniels [Othniel 7] prowess caused the command to devolve upon Othniel. Simeon joineth with [Othniel 8] Judah in the expedition, who was mingled with him in possession; as Josh. 19. 1. [Othniel 9] Civil wars among the Canaanites have made the way the easier for Israel's victories: [Othniel 10] for Judah conquereth seventy Kings in the conquest of Adonibesek; they bring this Tyrant before Jerusalem for the greater terror of the Jebusites, and there kill him, and then they sack and burn that City. This story of the taking of Jerusalem lieth in its proper place here, for though the King of it had been slain in the field, Josh. 10. yet was not the City taken, nor it nor any other City fired in Joshua's time, but only Jericho, Ai, and Hazor, Josh. 6. 24. & 8. 26. & 11. 3. and therefore the eight Verse should be read, And the children of Judah warred against Jerusalem, and took it, and smote it, &c. and not as if it had been done before, Now the children of Israel had warred.

Hebron and Debir taken by Caleb, and by Othniel Caleb's uncle, but younger then he, and so are those words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to be understood, And Othniel the son of Kenaz, a kinsman of Caleb's, younger then he took it. For Othniel and Jephunneh Caleb's father, were brethren, both sons of Kenaz, see Numb. 32. 12. and 1 Chron. 4. 13, 14.

Hebron and Debir had been taken by Joshua in the first or second year of his wars, Josh. 10. 36, 37, 38, 39. and about the seventh year of his wars, he sweeps those places again of the Canaanites and Anakims that had swarmed thither again in the space between, Josh. 11. 20. And when the land begins to be divided, he allotteth Hebron unto Caleb: as Josh. 14. Now ten or twelve years passed since that allotment, and the public service had been acting all this while for the dividing of the land, and bringing every Tribe into its possession; so that Caleb hitherto had had little leisure because of the public, or if he had leisure, yet left to his own strength and forces, which he can make a part and distinct from the public; he is too weak to work his own settlement, and the Canaanites are still growing upon him, till now that the whole Tribe of Judah and Simeon engage for him, and he their General, and then he takes Hebron and Debir, and destroys the Anakims and Canaanites clear out, that they grow no more there.

Othniel marrieth his nephews daughtet, or his own great niece, and hath an inheritance of land with her, though she had three brethren, 1 Chron. 4. 15.

Jethro's family [called Kenites, because they dwelt in the Country called Kain, Numb. 24. 22.] had come up with Joshua and Israel into the land of Canaan, and resided about Jericho, the City of Palm-trees, among the Tribe of Judah till now; and now that Judah hath cleared his portion and begins to spread into plantations they go along and plant with them in the South, upon the coasts of the Amalekites: and so in Saul's time are mingled among them, 1 Sam. 15. 6. These Kenites were the root of the Rechabites, Jerem. 35. 1 Chron. 3. 55.

Judah conquereth Horma for Simeon, and Azza, Askelon, Ekron for himself; but the Philistines soon recover these three last Towns again, Chap. 3. 1, 2. The several Tribes are working themselves into settlement in their several possessions, but are not careful to root out the Canaanites, but suffer them to live amongst them, and so hazard themselves to be corrupted by them; and forget the command of God which had engaged them utterly to destroy and not to spare them.

CHAP. II. to Ver. 11.

[Othniel 11] FOR this, Christ himself cometh up from Judah's camp at Gilgal to the people [Othniel 12] assembled at some solemnity at Shiloh or Bethel, and telleth them [Othniel 13] plainly that he will no more conquer for them; he had offered himself to [Othniel 14] Joshua to lead the field in all the wars, and so had done, Josh. 5. 14. He had [Othniel 15] been with Judah and made him victorious till he also spares the Canaanites, and [Othniel 16] either for fear or neglect, lets the inhabitants of the vale inhabit there still [Othniel 17] [ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : ver. 19. it is left to construe indifferently, either he would not, or [Othniel 18] could not, or durst not drive them out. And then the Captain of the Lord's [Othniel 19] host, the Angel of the Covenant, that had brought them from Egypt thitherto, [Othniel 20] departs from them, for which all the people have good cause to weep; and [Othniel 21] they call the place Bochim; the dimission of the people by Joshua, and his age, [Othniel 22] and death, and the death of that generation are mentioned here, that the [Othniel 23] foundation of the future story may be the better laid, and the time of the people's [Othniel 24] beginning to degenerate may be marked out.

CHAP. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI.

[Othniel 25] AFter the tenth Verse of the second Chapter, is the proper place and order of these Chapters, for though they be laid at the end of the Book, yet were the things mentioned in them acted even in the beginning of their wickedness, after Joshua's and the Elders death; for the better evidencing of which it will be pertinent to consider, first the connection of the passages there mentioned one to another, and then the reason of the dislocation of them all.

CHAP. XVII.

IDolatry is begun in Israel by a woman, and in Ephraim, where afterwards Jeroboam established it by Law: Micah's mother devoteth eleven hundred shekels to the making of an Idol, and nine hundred of them go for materials, and two hundred for workmanship: Micah setteth it up in his own house for his own use, and the use of the neighbor-hood round about him. The Text in the Original calleth him Micaiahu, with a part of the name Jehovah affixed to his name, till he have set up his image, and from thence forward, viz. from ver. 5. it calleth him Micah.

CHAP. XVIII.

[Othniel 26] THE Danites take Micah's Idol from him, and set it up publicly in their own Tribe; there Jeroboam setteth up one of his calves afterward also. For this first public Idolatry begun in the Tribe of Dan, that Tribe is not named among the sealed of the Lord, Rev. 7. A great grandchild of Moses is the first Idolatrous Priest, but Moses his name is written 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Manasseh with the letter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 above the word; partly for the honor of Moses in the dust, and partly because this his grandchilds actions were like Manasseh his actions the King of Judah.

CHAP. XIX.

[Othniel 27] ISrael tolerateth this Idolatry, and never stirreth either against Micah or the Danites; which toleration breedeth all iniquity, so that Gibeah a City of Israel becometh as abominable as Sodom. A whorish woman is killed with whoredom.

CHAP. XX.

ALL Israel goeth against Gibeah, and that by God's express commission and command, and yet 40000 of them are slain by that wicked and wretched Town, and by the Tribe that took part with it. Thus did God avenge his own cause against Israel, because Israel would not avenge God's cause against Idolatry; they were so sensible of an injury done to a whore in Gibeah, but were not at all sensible of an injury done to God by Dan's Idolatry; when God hath thus used Benjamin to execute his justice against Israel for not punishing Idolatry, he then useth Israel to punish Benjamin for not delivering Gibeah up to justice; Othniel it is like was chief commander in this service, and Phineas was zealous in this case, as he had been in one of a not much different nature, Numb. 25. Benjamin is now Benoni, a son of sorrow, and Rachel hath cause to weep for her children.

CHAP. XXI.

HAdad Rimmon, Zech. 12. 11. or the sad shout of Rimmon, the Prophet alludeth to the two great and general Lamentations of Israel, the one about the rock Rimmon, where a whole Tribe was now come to 400 men, and whereupon even the very conquerors become mourners. The other in the valley of Megiddo, for the death of Josiah. The one in the beginning of their estate, the other in the latter end. Jabesh Gilead is destroyed for affection to Benjamin, they were both of Joseph, and both had pitched under one standard. Benjamin raveneth like a wolf for wives, Josephs daughters 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gen. 49. 22. go to the enemy and repair the decayed Tribe, when the daughters of Shiloh in Ephraim, and of Jabesh in Manasseh, supply Benjamin an hostile Tribe with wives, or else it had perished; and thus is the story of these Chapters knit to itself.

Now that the beginning of the Book of Judges is the proper time and place of these stories, may be concluded upon these reasons.

• 1. The Danites were unsettled when the stories of the seventeenth and eighteenth Chapters came to pass, and therefore this could not be long after Joshua's death.
• 2. Phinehas was alive at the battle at Gibeah, Chap. 20. 28.
• 3. The wickedness of Gibeah is reckoned for their first villainy, Hos. 10 9.
• 4. Deborah speaketh of the 40000 of Israel that perished by Benjamin, as if neither sword nor spear had been among them, Chap. 5. 8.
• 5. Mahaneh Dan which was so named upon the march of the Danites, when they set up their Idolatry, Chap. 18. 12. is mentioned in the story of Samson, though that story be set before the story of their march, Chap. 15. 25.
• 6. Dan is omitted among the sealed of the Lord, Rev. 7. because idolatry first began in his Tribe, as is said before.
• 7. Ehud may very well be supposed to have been one of the left-handed Benjamites, and one of them that escaped at the rock Rimmon, Chap. 20. 16. & 21.

Now the reason why the Holy Ghost hath laid these stories which came to pass so soon, in so late a place, may be supposed to be this.

• 1. That the Reader observing how their state-policy failed in the death of Samson, which was a Danite, might presently be shown God's justice in it, because their Religion had first failed among the Danites.
• 2. That when he observes that eleven hundred pieces of silver were given by every Philistim Prince for the ruin of Samson, Chap. 16. 5. he might presently observe the eleven hundred pieces of silver that were given by Micah's mother for the making of an Idol, which ruined Religion in Samsons Tribe.
• 3. That the story of Micah of the hill Country of Ephraim, the first destroyer of Religion; and the story of Saemuel of the hill Country of Ephraim, the first reformer of Religion, might be laid together somewhat near.

CHAP. II. Ver. 11. to the end. And CHAP. III. to Ver. 11.

[Othniel 28] WHEN these stories are read, the story returns to Chap. 2. 11. and relateth [Othniel 29] the spreading of Idolatry over all the Tribes, as it had done over [Othniel 30] that of Dan, and how mixed marriages with cursed Canaanites undo Israel; their [Othniel 31] first afflicter is Cushan Rishathaim a Mesopotamian: he oppressed them eight [Othniel 32] years: it is like he broke in upon the Tribes that lay on the other side Jordan, [Othniel 33] as those that lay nearest to his own Country, and there got possession for so [Othniel 34] many years together, and encroached upon them within Jordan by degrees, as [Othniel 35] he found strength and opportunity: but Othniel of Judah maketh good the [Othniel 36] Prophecy of Judah's being a Lions whelp, &c. and so the tents of Cushan come into [Othniel 37] affliction, &c. Hab. 3. 7. The consideration and observing that the first foreign [Othniel 38] oppressor of all others that troubled Israel in their own land, was a man of [Othniel 39] Aram Naharaim, or a Mesopotamian; it cannot but call to mind the dealing of Laban with Jacob in that place: and it is a matter of question and some strangeness, how and why a man of that Country of all others should thus oppress theirs.

CHAP. III. Vers. 11.

[World 2610] [Othniel 40] OThniel dieth.

CHAP. III. Verse 12. to the end.

[World 2611] [Ehud 1] [Ehud 2] [Ehud 3] EHuds eighty years begin; not that he ruled so long without intermission, [Ehud 4] [Ehud 5] or so long in any sense at all, for eighty years was even a man's [Ehud 6] [Ehud 7] whole life: but that there were fourscore years from the death of Othniel, [Ehud 8] and that after Ehud delivered them from Eglon, he was Judge and a Ruler [Ehud 9] [Ehud 10] over them whilst he lived; not as a Monarch, for the Sanhedrin bare the [Ehud 11] sway, but as a chief commander, and one ready to undertake for them if [Ehud 12] [Ehud 13] any enemies should arise, and one ready to teach and lead them in the ways [Ehud 14] of God, as was said before of Othniel. It is said of Othniels time, that the [Ehud 15] [Ehud 16] land had rest [Ehud 17] forty years, and Othniel died, by which it is apparent that the forty years are reckoned till Othniels death: so in Chap. 22. Ibsan judged [Ehud 18] [Ehud 19] seven years and died: Elon judged ten years and died: Abdon judged eight [Ehud 20] years and died, &c. Samson judged twenty years, and these twenty years [Ehud 21] ended in his death, and so are we to conceive of these fourscore of Ehud, [Ehud 22] [Ehud 23] that they ended with his death also; and therefore it is improper to conceive [Ehud 24] that the eight years of Cushans afflicting, were the last eight years of [Ehud 25] [Ehud 26] Othniels forty, or the eighteen years of Eglons afflicting were the last eighteen [Ehud 27] years of Ehud’s eighty: for by this means Othniel and Ehud are made [Ehud 28] to start up in the very end of these sums of years, and get a victory and no [Ehud 29] [Ehud 30] more news of them; whereas it is apparent, not only by the years of the [Ehud 31] men lately cited, and by Chap. 2. 19. but also by other passages, that the [Ehud 32] [Ehud 33] Judge was not only their deliverer in one fought battle or the like, but [Ehud 34] that he was their instructer, and helped and strove to keep them to the fear [Ehud 35] [Ehud 36] of the Lord, Chap. 2. 17. and when any of the Judges did not so, they are [Ehud 37] noted for it, as Gideon about his Ephod, Abimelech about his brethren, [Ehud 38] [Ehud 39] and Samson about his women: so that in what time of these fourscore years [Ehud 40] of Ehud, to place the eighteen of Eglons afflicting, it is not certain, nor is it [Ehud 41] very much material, seeing it is certain that they fell out sometime within [Ehud 42] [Ehud 43] those fourscore years. A good space of time may we allot for Israel's falling [Ehud 44] to Idolatry after Othniels death, and for God's giving them up to their enemies [Ehud 45] [Ehud 46] power, upon their Idolatry; but whensoever that affliction comes, it [Ehud 47] comes so home that a King of Moab is King of Israel, and hath his very [Ehud 48] [Ehud 49] Court and Palace in the Land of Canaan, in the City of Jericho. That City [Ehud 50] was inhabited by Israelites before Eglon, and his Moabites, Ammonites, and [Ehud 51] [Ehud 52] Amalekites, drove them out, and yet had not Joshua's curse seized on them; [Ehud 53] for that had reference only to Rahab's kindred and family, to prohibit [Ehud 54] [Ehud 55] them forever going about to fortify and build it for a Canaanitish Town [Ehud 56] again: and Hiel that went about that work in Ahab's time, was of that [Ehud 57] [Ehud 58] stock, and that light upon him accordingly, as will be touched there. The [Ehud 59] oppressors of Israel at this time, were the very same Nation that came [Ehud 60] against Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 20. Namely, Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunims, [Ehud 61] [Ehud 62] or Amalekites, and Edomites that dwelt promiscuously among Ammon, as see [Ehud 63] the Notes when we came there: and those that are here spoken of, are generally [Ehud 64] [Ehud 65] fat men, ver. 29. as was Eglon himself extraordinarily. Ehud was a [Ehud 66] man of Benjamin, and probably of Gibeah, for he was of the same family in [Ehud 67] Benjamin, that King Saul was of afterwards; and thus the honor of Benjamin [Ehud 68] [Ehud 69] was somewhat restored in him, and as Judah in Othniel hath the first [Ehud 70] honor of Judge-ship, so Benjamin in Ehud had the second. Eglon is destroyed [Ehud 71] [Ehud 72] with a two edged sword, compare Rev. 1. 16. About the latter end [Ehud 73] of Ehud’s life, we may indeed suppose some of the passages of the Book of [Ehud 74] Ruth to have come to pass, for that Book containeth the story of a very [Ehud 75] [Ehud 76] long time, but the exact place in the Book of Judges, where, and the exact [Ehud 77] time in Chronicle when to lay any particular of those occurrences, is not [Ehud 78] [Ehud 79] to be found nor determined.

[World 2690] [Ehud 80] EHUD dieth.

JUDGES. CHAP. IV. V.

[World 2691] [Deborah 1] [Deborah 2] DEBORAH and BARAKS forty years begin: Israel after the death [Deborah 3] of Ehud fall to their old Idolatry again, and for that ere long, fall under [Deborah 4] [Deborah 5] oppression. Shamgar got one wonderful victory for them, but wrought [Deborah 6] not a perfect deliverance: Deborab a woman of Ephraim ariseth after him, and [Deborah 7] [Deborah 8] judgeth the people she being a Prophetess, and by the spirit of Prophecy stirreth [Deborah 9] up Barak of Naphtali to fight with Sisera whom he overcometh by an army [Deborah 10] of Galileans: but Sisera himself falleth by the hand of a Proselytess woman; [Deborah 11] [Deborah 12] Then Deborah and Barak sang: Here the man of Naphtali giveth goodly [Deborah 13] words: They tell the sad case of Israel in Shamgars and Jaels times, before the [Deborah 14] [Deborah 15] victory was gotten over Sisera; that men durst not go in the common ways, nor [Deborah 16] dwell in villages and unwalled Towns for fear of the enemy. The rich and [Deborah 17] [Deborah 18] gallant men that used to ride on white Asses, durst not ride in those times, and [Deborah 19] the rulers durst not sit in Judgment for fear of being surprised; and people [Deborah 20] [Deborah 21] durst not go to the Town wells to draw water for fear of the enemies archers; [Deborah 22] but now all these may speak of the actings of God towards the forsaken villages, [Deborah 23] [Deborah 24] and towards the forlorn places of Judicature in the gates, for they are [Deborah 25] all restored to their proper use again; That now the Lord had given the remnant [Deborah 26] of his people dominion over the great ones that ruled them before; Joshua [Deborah 27] [Deborah 28] of Ephraim had been a root of such victories against Amalek, Exod. 17. and [Deborah 29] Ehud lately against Amalek, Moab, and Ammon, and now the Lord had so stirred [Deborah 30] [Deborah 31] up the hearts of the people to sight the Lord's battles, that even the men of the [Deborah 32] best rank, and of the most unmartial profession were yet very ready to jeopard [Deborah 33] themselves in such a quarrel; that the Lawyers of Machir or half Gilead came, [Deborah 34] [Deborah 35] though they lay beyond Jordan, and the Scribes of Zebulon and Princes of Issachar. [Deborah 36] But Reuben and the other half of Gilead on the other side Jordan, and [Deborah 37] [Deborah 38] Dan, not very far from the place of the battle, staid at home, and preferred [Deborah 39] their private employments before the public. That the Lord was seen in the [Deborah 40] battle, and by storms and tempests from Heaven, as if the Stars themselves fought against them; he forwardeth their destruction, as he had done for Joshua and Israel in the valley of Gibeon: that Kishon a river of their antiquities 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a water of much Idolatry among them in ancient time, had now proved their destroyer, and swept away them that vainly, impiously, and foolishly had adored it, &c. Meroz a Town of Galilee that lay very near the place of the battle, yet came not in to help, but played the base neuter, is bitterly cursed, but Jael blessed exceedingly: they of Meroz did Israel no good, though they were of Israel; she a Kenite did Israel so much good, though she were of another Nation.

CHAP. VI. VII. VIII.

[World 2731] [Gideon 1] GEDEONS forty years begin; they are mentioned Chap. 8. 28. Israel are [Gideon 2] [Gideon 3] again spoiled by peace, and after the death of Deborah become Idolatrous; [Gideon 4] whereupon the Lord in time selleth them into the hands of the Midianites for [Gideon 5] [Gideon 6] a woeful apprenticeship of seven years: these deal more bitterly and cruelly with [Gideon 7] them, then any enemies they had felt before; old revenge that had lain boiling [Gideon 8] [Gideon 9] in the breast of that Nation against Israel for the great slaughter that had been [Gideon 10] made among them in Moses times, Num. 31. now breaks out; and having [Gideon 11] [Gideon 12] power to execute it, grows merciless. Israel addressing themselves to God, have [Gideon 13] a bitter message from him by a Prophet, yet the Lord forsakes them not; Gideon [Gideon 14] [Gideon 15] as he is threshing wheat, is appointed to thresh Midian; he seeth an Angel [Gideon 16] and a miracle, and thereby is encouraged to destroy his fathers Idolatry: so [Gideon 17] [Gideon 18] un-reformed is Israel under their affliction, that they retain their Idols still. A [Gideon 19] bullock of seven years fatting for Baal is mentioned, to show that even through [Gideon 20] their seven years calamity under Midian, yet their mind and preparations were [Gideon 21] [Gideon 22] still upon, and for their Idols. Gideon sacrificeth this bullock to God, a sacrifice [Gideon 23] of strange and various dispensations: it was offered by night, in a common [Gideon 24] place, by a private person, with the wood of an Idolatrous grove, and intended [Gideon 25] [Gideon 26] for an Idol itself; yet an offering of faith, and so accepted. Gideon by [Gideon 27] the destruction of Baal, obtaineth the name of Jerubbaal; he hath another sign [Gideon 28] [Gideon 29] shown him by the wet and dry fleece, a proper representation of Israel, wet [Gideon 30] with the dews of divine doctrine, when all the world besides was dry, and [Gideon 31] [Gideon 32] now dry, when all the world besides is wet: by three hundred men that drank [Gideon 33] of the brook by the way, lifting up their head; as Psal. 110. and carrying lights in [Gideon 34] earthen vessels, he conquers Midian, as Jericho was conquered, only by a noise [Gideon 35] [Gideon 36] and by an amazement. They carried candles in jug-pots, or such kind of [Gideon 37] earthen vessels, so that no light was to be seen till they had set themselves on all [Gideon 38] [Gideon 39] sides of the army, and then they suddenly shout, break their pitchers, and [Gideon 40] make their candles appear; so that what with their sudden noise, and what with the sudden lights, the heart of Midian trembles, as the curtains of their tents had done in the man's dream of the barley cake: see Hab. 3. 7. Oreb and Zeb taken and slain, and 120000 men; and Zebah and Zalmunna pursued, taken, and their body of 15000 scattered. Gideon of the jewels of the spoil maketh an Ephod, and setteth it in his own City, which causeth Idolatry in Israel; and the name of Jerubbosheth to himself, 2 Sam. 11. 21.

CHAP. IX.

[World 2771] [Abimelech 1] ABIMELECH usurpeth the Kingdom, having slain his seventy [Abimelech 2] brethren: Jotham on the hill Gerizim, the hill of blessing, denounceth a curse upon him, and Shechem, which accordingly came to pass; for [Abimelech 3] Abimelech destroyeth Shechem, and is himself slain with a sword and a stone, as he had slain his seventy brethren with a sword upon a stone. Shechem is again a miserable stage of blood-shed as it had been before, Gen. 34.

CHAP. X. Vers. 1, 2.

[World 2774] [Abimelech 1] TOLA of Issachar judgeth twenty three years; he beareth the name [Abimelech 2] [Abimelech 3] of the first-born of Issachar, Gen. 46. 13. He is said to dwell in Shamir, [Abimelech 4] in the hill Country of Ephraim, which may very well be supposed to be Samaria; [Abimelech 5] [Abimelech 6] and so he lived near the place where the late strages and destruction [Abimelech 7] had been made by Abimelech: Shechem from the time of Joshua was designed [Abimelech 8] for the head Town of Israel, till Jerusalem in David's time obtained [Abimelech 9] [Abimelech 10] that privilege: For Joseph being reputed the first-born, and this the chief [Abimelech 11] Town of Joseph, it came into that dignity and preeminence; but here it is laid in the dust by Abimelech. Observe in 1 King. 12. that the Tribes come to Shechem to make Rhehoboam King, for now they begin to stand upon Josephs [Jair 12] privilege and birth-right again, which Judah had carried all the time of David [Jair 13] [Jair 14] and Solomon; when Shechem was thus destroyed by Abimelech, Samaria ariseth [Jair 15] by Tola, a man of Issachar, but now a sojourner here. It is probable that [Jair 16] the distracted and low estate of Shechem and Ephraim through the late civil [Jair 17] [Jair 18] wars, did give him the better rise; he himself either taking now advantage for [Jair 19] his own promotion from their helplesness, or the Lord raising him a neighbor [Jair 20] [Jair 21] of another Tribe for their relief when they could not relieve themselves: Issachar [Jair 22] is sluggish and unactive at home, as Gen. 49. 14. yet thus active abroad; in [Jair 23] Tola now; and in Baasha in after times, 1 King. 15. 27. and both in and about the same place Shechem and Samaria.

CHAP. X. Ver. 3, 4, 5.

[World 2797] [Jair 1] [Jair 2] JAIR, or Jairus a Gileadite judgeth two and twenty years; he was a man [Jair 3] of great honor, having thirty sons that were lords of thirty Cities, and [Jair 4] that rode upon thirty Asses of state, like Judges or men of honor, as Chap. [Jair 5] 5. 10. This is not that Jair that is mentioned by Moses, [as if he had spoken [Jair 6] of this man and these Towns prophetically,] but this is one of the same family, [Jair 7] and of the same name, as Tola that went before him is of the same name with [Jair 8] the first-born of Issachar, Gen. 46. 13. And whereas it is said by Moses, that [Jair 9] Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small Towns of Gilead, and called them [Jair 10] [Jair 11] Havoth Jair, Numb. 32. 41. Deut. 3. And whereas it is said here that Jairs [Jair 12] thirty sons had thirty Cities which were called Havoth Jair; it is to be understood, [Jair 13] that thirty of those threescore Villages that old Jair had conquered and possessed [Jair 14] in the time of the first plantation of the land; these sons of this Jair being [Jair 15] of this line, had repaired and brought [Jair 16] ELY born in the sixteenth of Jair. ] into the form of Cities and dwelt in [Jair 17] [Jair 18] them; and yet they retained their old [Jair 19] name of Havoth Jair for the honor of him that first wan and planted them. [Jair 20] That old Jair was the son of Segub, the son of Prince Hesron by Machirs daughter, [Jair 21] 1 Chron. 2. 22. and so by his father side of Judah, and by his mothers of [Jair 22] Manasseh.

CHAP. X. from Vers. 6. to the end.

JEphtah a Gileadite ariseth a Judge after Jair; but there is some scruple first to be resolved and removed concerning his time, and the oppression that he was raised to remove. It is said, verse. 6, 7, 8. that Jair died and the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and that year they oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years. Now the question is when these eighteen years began, and whether they are to be taken for a sum of years apart from the years of the Judges, or to be reckoned with them; and what is meant by that expression, and that year they vexed Israel. Answer, These eighteen years are to be reckoned together with the last eighteen years of Jair; and they began with his fifth year: for though he be said to have judged two and twenty years, yet it is not to be so understood, as if no enemy peeped up in all that time, for we shall see the contrary cleared by the Judgeship of Samson: but the meaning is, that the Lord at the first stirred him up for a deliverer, and wrought some great deliverance by him in the beginning of his time; and afterward he continued a Judge, and one that sought the reformation of his people, but he could neither work that to keep them from Idolatry, nor work their total deliverance to keep their enemies under: but in his fifth year Idolatry broke out in Israel, and continued to a horrid increase; so in that very year that this Idolatry broke out, their oppressors broke in upon them, and kept them under for eighteen years, and Jair could not help it, but it continued so till his death: so that the beginning of Vers. 6. is thus to be rendered in Chronical construction. Now the children of Israel had done evil again, &c. This long oppression at last forceth Israel to seek the Lord, and to forsake their Idolatry, and the Lord findeth out Jephthah for a deliverer.

CHAP. XI. & XII. to Ver. 8.

[World 2819] [Iephtach 1] JEPHTAH judgeth six years; subdueth the Ammonites, sacrificeth his own [Iephtach 2] daughter; and destroyeth 42000 Ephraimites. He was the son of Gilead [Iephtach 3] by a concubine; this was not that Gilead that was Machirs immediate son but [Iephtach 4] one that bare the name of that old Gilead, and so we observed of Tola and [Iephtach 5] Jair before: Jair was the chief man in one half of Gilead, and Gilead in another. [Iephtach 6]

Jephthah being expelled out of his fathers family for bastardy, betaketh him to arms in the land of Tob in Syria, and prospereth, and thereupon his prowess being heard of, he is called home again and made commander in chief in Gilead. In his transactions with the King of Ammon, he mentioneth three hundred years of Israel's dwelling in Heshbon and Aroer, &c. in which sum, five and thirty of the forty years in the wilderness are included; in which they were hovering upon those parts, although they dwelt not in them: it was now three hundred and five years since their coming out of Egypt.

His vow concerning his daughter may be scanned in these particulars: 1. That his vow in general was of persons, for 1. he voweth that whatsoever should come forth of the doors of his house. 2. Whatsoever should come to meet him; now it is not likely nor proper to understand this of Sheep and Bullock; for who can think of their coming out of his house, much less of their coming to meet him. 3. How poor a business was it to vow to sacrifice a Bullock or Sheep for such a victory? Therefore his vow relateth to persons, and so might it be translated, Whosoever cometh forth. 2. What would he do with his vowed person? Make him a Nazarite? He might vow the thing, but the performance lay upon the persons own hand. Dedicate him to the Sanctuary? Why he might not serve there as not being a Levite. Sequester him from the world? He might indeed imprison him, but otherwise the sequestering from the world lay upon the persons own hand still. Suppose one of his married maid servants or man-servants or his own wife had met him first, what would he have done with any of them? Therefore I am enforced by the weighing of these and other circumstances in the Text, to hold with them, that hold he sacrificed his daughter indeed, though I have been once of another mind. And it seemeth that this was a part of the corruption of those times, and was but mutato nomine, a sacrifice to Molech, the God of the Ammonites, against whom he was now to go to sight when he maketh this vow. The Sanhedrin undoubtedly was now sitting, and there was the Priest-hood attending upon the Ark at Shiloh, and yet is Israel now so little acquainted with the Law, that neither the Sanhedrin, nor the Priests can resolve Jephthah that his vow might have been redeemed, Levite. 27. But they suffer her thus to be massacred, and only salve it with making a statute for her yearly lamentation. In some time of the Judges, the High-priesthood is translated from the line of Eleazar to the line of Ithamar, as appeareth in Eli in the beginning of the Book of Samuel. Now in all the story of the Judges, we find not any one thing so likely to be the cause of rooting out of that house from the Priest-hood, as about this matter of Jephthah, they not instructing him better, but suffering such a butchery for a sacrifice.

Jephthah hath a new quarrel with the Ephraimites, and slayeth 42000 of them, discovering them by the mis-pronouncing of a letter: he might have offered many words that had Sh double in them; as Shemesh, the Sun; Shelosha, three; Shalsheleh, a chain; but the word proposed is Shiboleh, because of the present occasion: It signifieth a stream; and the Ephraimites are put to call the stream that they desired to pass over, by the right name, and they could not name it.

CHAP. XII. Vers. 8, 9, 10.

[World 2825] [Iephtach 1] [Iephtach 2] IBSAN judgeth seven years: He was a man of Bethlehem, and thereupon [Iephtach 3] imagined by the Jews to be Boaz without any ground or reason: for since [Iephtach 4] [Iephtach 5] Rahab the mother of Boaz was taken into the Congregation of Israel were 270 [Iephtach 6] years; and then guess whether Boaz be likely to be active now? Ibsan is renowned [Iephtach 7] for the number and equality of the number of his sons and daughters.

CHAP. XIII. And CHAP. XII. Vers. 11, 12.

[World 2832] [Elon 1] ELON judgeth ten years: He was a Galilean of Zebulon. In the tenth [Elon 2] year of Ibsan, the Philistines forty years of oppressing begin mentioned [Elon 3] Chap. 13. verse 1. Samson is born about this year if not in it, for when the [Elon 4] Angel telleth of his conception, the Philistines were lords over Israel; see [Elon 5] verse 5. The story of his birth is joined to the story of his life, that there [Elon 6] might be no interruption in the story of the Judges before him, and that the [Elon 7] whole history of his life and birth might lie together; but in Chronical Series [Elon 8] it lieth about the beginning of the rule of Elon.

[Elon 9] [Elon 10] JESSE the father of DAVID born by this time, if not before.

CHAP. XII. Vers. 13, 14, 15.

[World 2842] [Elon 1] ABDON judgeth eight years: He is exceedingly renowned for his [Elon 2] children, having as many young Nobles and Gallants to his sons and [Elon 3] granchildren, as would make a whole Sanhedrin; namely seventy, and himself [Elon 4] the Head. He was an Ephraimite of Pirathon; and so Josephs glory [Elon 5] shineth again in Ephraim, as it had done in Joshua before the time of the [Elon 6] Judges; and had done in Manasseh in the Judges times, in Gideon, Jair, [Elon 7] and Jephthah. Ephraim's low estate in the matter of Abimelech and Shechem, is [Elon 8] now somewhat recovered in Abdon.

CHAP. XIV. XV. XVI.

[World 2850] [Elon 1] SAMSON judgeth twenty years: A man of Dan, [and so as Ephraim [Elon 2] and Dan had bred the first Idolatry, they yield the last Judges;] he [Elon 3] was born supernaturally of a barren woman, and becomes the first Nazarite [Elon 4] we have upon record. He killeth a lion without any weapons, findeth honey [Elon 5] in the carcass, proposeth a parable to thirty Philistim gallants, which [Elon 6] in three days they cannot unriddle: and on the seventh day, saith the Text, [Elon 7] they said unto his wife, Perswade thy husband, Chap. 14. verse. 15. That is, [Elon 8] on the Sabbath day; their irreligiousness not minding that day, and now [Elon 9] finding the fittest opportunity of talking with his wife alone, Samson being [Elon 10] employed about the Sabbath duties. He pays them with their own Countrymens [Elon 11] spoil: Fires the Philistines corn with three hundred Foxes; is destroying [Elon 12] them all his life, but destroys more at his death: A type of Christ.

[Elon 13] It is observable that the Philistines are said to bear rule and oppress Israel [Elon 14] all Samsons days, Chap. 13. 1. The Lord delivered Israel into the hands of the [Elon 15] Philistines forty year, and Chap. 15. 20. And Samson judged Israel in the days [Elon 16] of the Philistines twenty years. This helpeth clearly to understand that the [Elon 17] years of the oppressors are included in the years of the Judge; and so [Elon 18] endeth the Chronicle of the Book of Judges in the death of Samson, though [Elon 19] the posture of the Book itself do end in another story. No Judge of all [Elon 20] the twelve had fallen into the enemies hand, and under their abuse but only Samson; but he slayeth more at his death then while he was living.

JUDGES. CHAP. IV. V.

[World 2691] [Deborah 1] [Deborah 2] DEBORAH and BARAKS forty years begin: Israel after the death [Deborah 3] of Ehud fall to their old Idolatry again, and for that ere long, fall under [Deborah 4] [Deborah 5] oppression. Shamgar got one wonderful victory for them, but wrought [Deborah 6] not a perfect deliverance: Deborab a woman of Ephraim ariseth after him, and [Deborah 7] [Deborah 8] judgeth the people she being a Prophetess, and by the spirit of Prophecy stirreth [Deborah 9] up Barak of Naphtali to fight with Sisera whom he overcometh by an army [Deborah 10] of Galileans: but Sisera himself falleth by the hand of a Proselytess woman; [Deborah 11] [Deborah 12] Then Deborah and Barak sang: Here the man of Naphtali giveth goodly [Deborah 13] words: They tell the sad case of Israel in Shamgars and Jaels times, before the [Deborah 14] [Deborah 15] victory was gotten over Sisera; that men durst not go in the common ways, nor [Deborah 16] dwell in villages and unwalled Towns for fear of the enemy. The rich and [Deborah 17] [Deborah 18] gallant men that used to ride on white Asses, durst not ride in those times, and [Deborah 19] the rulers durst not sit in Judgment for fear of being surprised; and people [Deborah 20] [Deborah 21] durst not go to the Town wells to draw water for fear of the enemies archers; [Deborah 22] but now all these may speak of the actings of God towards the forsaken villages, [Deborah 23] [Deborah 24] and towards the forlorn places of Judicature in the gates, for they are [Deborah 25] all restored to their proper use again; That now the Lord had given the remnant [Deborah 26] of his people dominion over the great ones that ruled them before; Joshua [Deborah 27] [Deborah 28] of Ephraim had been a root of such victories against Amalek, Exod. 17. and [Deborah 29] Ehud lately against Amalek, Moab, and Ammon, and now the Lord had so stirred [Deborah 30] [Deborah 31] up the hearts of the people to sight the Lord's battles, that even the men of the [Deborah 32] best rank, and of the most unmartial profession were yet very ready to jeopard [Deborah 33] themselves in such a quarrel; that the Lawyers of Machir or half Gilead came, [Deborah 34] [Deborah 35] though they lay beyond Jordan, and the Scribes of Zebulon and Princes of Issachar. [Deborah 36] But Reuben and the other half of Gilead on the other side Jordan, and [Deborah 37] [Deborah 38] Dan, not very far from the place of the battle, staid at home, and preferred [Deborah 39] their private employments before the public. That the Lord was seen in the [Deborah 40] battle, and by storms and tempests from Heaven, as if the Stars themselves fought against them; he forwardeth their destruction, as he had done for Joshua and Israel in the valley of Gibeon: that Kishon a river of their antiquities 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a water of much Idolatry among them in ancient time, had now proved their destroyer, and swept away them that vainly, impiously, and foolishly had adored it, &c. Meroz a Town of Galilee that lay very near the place of the battle, yet came not in to help, but played the base neuter, is bitterly cursed, but Jael blessed exceedingly: they of Meroz did Israel no good, though they were of Israel; she a Kenite did Israel so much good, though she were of another Nation.

CHAP. VI. VII. VIII.

[World 2731] [Gideon 1] GEDEONS forty years begin; they are mentioned Chap. 8. 28. Israel are [Gideon 2] [Gideon 3] again spoiled by peace, and after the death of Deborah become Idolatrous; [Gideon 4] whereupon the Lord in time selleth them into the hands of the Midianites for [Gideon 5] [Gideon 6] a woeful apprenticeship of seven years: these deal more bitterly and cruelly with [Gideon 7] them, then any enemies they had felt before; old revenge that had lain boiling [Gideon 8] [Gideon 9] in the breast of that Nation against Israel for the great slaughter that had been [Gideon 10] made among them in Moses times, Num. 31. now breaks out; and having [Gideon 11] [Gideon 12] power to execute it, grows merciless. Israel addressing themselves to God, have [Gideon 13] a bitter message from him by a Prophet, yet the Lord forsakes them not; Gideon [Gideon 14] [Gideon 15] as he is threshing wheat, is appointed to thresh Midian; he seeth an Angel [Gideon 16] and a miracle, and thereby is encouraged to destroy his fathers Idolatry: so [Gideon 17] [Gideon 18] un-reformed is Israel under their affliction, that they retain their Idols still. A [Gideon 19] bullock of seven years fatting for Baal is mentioned, to show that even through [Gideon 20] their seven years calamity under Midian, yet their mind and preparations were [Gideon 21] [Gideon 22] still upon, and for their Idols. Gideon sacrificeth this bullock to God, a sacrifice [Gideon 23] of strange and various dispensations: it was offered by night, in a common [Gideon 24] place, by a private person, with the wood of an Idolatrous grove, and intended [Gideon 25] [Gideon 26] for an Idol itself; yet an offering of faith, and so accepted. Gideon by [Gideon 27] the destruction of Baal, obtaineth the name of Jerubbaal; he hath another sign [Gideon 28] [Gideon 29] shown him by the wet and dry fleece, a proper representation of Israel, wet [Gideon 30] with the dews of divine doctrine, when all the world besides was dry, and [Gideon 31] [Gideon 32] now dry, when all the world besides is wet: by three hundred men that drank [Gideon 33] of the brook by the way, lifting up their head; as Psal. 110. and carrying lights in [Gideon 34] earthen vessels, he conquers Midian, as Jericho was conquered, only by a noise [Gideon 35] [Gideon 36] and by an amazement. They carried candles in jug-pots, or such kind of [Gideon 37] earthen vessels, so that no light was to be seen till they had set themselves on all [Gideon 38] [Gideon 39] sides of the army, and then they suddenly shout, break their pitchers, and [Gideon 40] make their candles appear; so that what with their sudden noise, and what with the sudden lights, the heart of Midian trembles, as the curtains of their tents had done in the man's dream of the barley cake: see Hab. 3. 7. Oreb and Zeb taken and slain, and 120000 men; and Zebah and Zalmunna pursued, taken, and their body of 15000 scattered. Gideon of the jewels of the spoil maketh an Ephod, and setteth it in his own City, which causeth Idolatry in Israel; and the name of Jerubbosheth to himself, 2 Sam. 11. 21.

CHAP. IX.

[World 2771] [Abimelech 1] ABIMELECH usurpeth the Kingdom, having slain his seventy [Abimelech 2] brethren: Jotham on the hill Gerizim, the hill of blessing, denounceth a curse upon him, and Shechem, which accordingly came to pass; for [Abimelech 3] Abimelech destroyeth Shechem, and is himself slain with a sword and a stone, as he had slain his seventy brethren with a sword upon a stone. Shechem is again a miserable stage of blood-shed as it had been before, Gen. 34.

CHAP. X. Vers. 1, 2.

[World 2774] [Abimelech 1] TOLA of Issachar judgeth twenty three years; he beareth the name [Abimelech 2] [Abimelech 3] of the first-born of Issachar, Gen. 46. 13. He is said to dwell in Shamir, [Abimelech 4] in the hill Country of Ephraim, which may very well be supposed to be Samaria; [Abimelech 5] [Abimelech 6] and so he lived near the place where the late strages and destruction [Abimelech 7] had been made by Abimelech: Shechem from the time of Joshua was designed [Abimelech 8] for the head Town of Israel, till Jerusalem in David's time obtained [Abimelech 9] [Abimelech 10] that privilege: For Joseph being reputed the first-born, and this the chief [Abimelech 11] Town of Joseph, it came into that dignity and preeminence; but here it is laid in the dust by Abimelech. Observe in 1 King. 12. that the Tribes come to Shechem to make Rhehoboam King, for now they begin to stand upon Josephs [Jair 12] privilege and birth-right again, which Judah had carried all the time of David [Jair 13] [Jair 14] and Solomon; when Shechem was thus destroyed by Abimelech, Samaria ariseth [Jair 15] by Tola, a man of Issachar, but now a sojourner here. It is probable that [Jair 16] the distracted and low estate of Shechem and Ephraim through the late civil [Jair 17] [Jair 18] wars, did give him the better rise; he himself either taking now advantage for [Jair 19] his own promotion from their helplesness, or the Lord raising him a neighbor [Jair 20] [Jair 21] of another Tribe for their relief when they could not relieve themselves: Issachar [Jair 22] is sluggish and unactive at home, as Gen. 49. 14. yet thus active abroad; in [Jair 23] Tola now; and in Baasha in after times, 1 King. 15. 27. and both in and about the same place Shechem and Samaria.

CHAP. X. Ver. 3, 4, 5.

[World 2797] [Jair 1] [Jair 2] JAIR, or Jairus a Gileadite judgeth two and twenty years; he was a man [Jair 3] of great honor, having thirty sons that were lords of thirty Cities, and [Jair 4] that rode upon thirty Asses of state, like Judges or men of honor, as Chap. [Jair 5] 5. 10. This is not that Jair that is mentioned by Moses, [as if he had spoken [Jair 6] of this man and these Towns prophetically,] but this is one of the same family, [Jair 7] and of the same name, as Tola that went before him is of the same name with [Jair 8] the first-born of Issachar, Gen. 46. 13. And whereas it is said by Moses, that [Jair 9] Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small Towns of Gilead, and called them [Jair 10] [Jair 11] Havoth Jair, Numb. 32. 41. Deut. 3. And whereas it is said here that Jairs [Jair 12] thirty sons had thirty Cities which were called Havoth Jair; it is to be understood, [Jair 13] that thirty of those threescore Villages that old Jair had conquered and possessed [Jair 14] in the time of the first plantation of the land; these sons of this Jair being [Jair 15] of this line, had repaired and brought [Jair 16] ELY born in the sixteenth of Jair. ] into the form of Cities and dwelt in [Jair 17] [Jair 18] them; and yet they retained their old [Jair 19] name of Havoth Jair for the honor of him that first wan and planted them. [Jair 20] That old Jair was the son of Segub, the son of Prince Hesron by Machirs daughter, [Jair 21] 1 Chron. 2. 22. and so by his father side of Judah, and by his mothers of [Jair 22] Manasseh.

CHAP. X. from Vers. 6. to the end.

JEphtah a Gileadite ariseth a Judge after Jair; but there is some scruple first to be resolved and removed concerning his time, and the oppression that he was raised to remove. It is said, verse. 6, 7, 8. that Jair died and the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and that year they oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years. Now the question is when these eighteen years began, and whether they are to be taken for a sum of years apart from the years of the Judges, or to be reckoned with them; and what is meant by that expression, and that year they vexed Israel. Answer, These eighteen years are to be reckoned together with the last eighteen years of Jair; and they began with his fifth year: for though he be said to have judged two and twenty years, yet it is not to be so understood, as if no enemy peeped up in all that time, for we shall see the contrary cleared by the Judgeship of Samson: but the meaning is, that the Lord at the first stirred him up for a deliverer, and wrought some great deliverance by him in the beginning of his time; and afterward he continued a Judge, and one that sought the reformation of his people, but he could neither work that to keep them from Idolatry, nor work their total deliverance to keep their enemies under: but in his fifth year Idolatry broke out in Israel, and continued to a horrid increase; so in that very year that this Idolatry broke out, their oppressors broke in upon them, and kept them under for eighteen years, and Jair could not help it, but it continued so till his death: so that the beginning of Vers. 6. is thus to be rendered in Chronical construction. Now the children of Israel had done evil again, &c. This long oppression at last forceth Israel to seek the Lord, and to forsake their Idolatry, and the Lord findeth out Jephthah for a deliverer.

CHAP. XI. & XII. to Ver. 8.

[World 2819] [Iephtach 1] JEPHTAH judgeth six years; subdueth the Ammonites, sacrificeth his own [Iephtach 2] daughter; and destroyeth 42000 Ephraimites. He was the son of Gilead [Iephtach 3] by a concubine; this was not that Gilead that was Machirs immediate son but [Iephtach 4] one that bare the name of that old Gilead, and so we observed of Tola and [Iephtach 5] Jair before: Jair was the chief man in one half of Gilead, and Gilead in another. [Iephtach 6]

Jephthah being expelled out of his fathers family for bastardy, betaketh him to arms in the land of Tob in Syria, and prospereth, and thereupon his prowess being heard of, he is called home again and made commander in chief in Gilead. In his transactions with the King of Ammon, he mentioneth three hundred years of Israel's dwelling in Heshbon and Aroer, &c. in which sum, five and thirty of the forty years in the wilderness are included; in which they were hovering upon those parts, although they dwelt not in them: it was now three hundred and five years since their coming out of Egypt.

His vow concerning his daughter may be scanned in these particulars: 1. That his vow in general was of persons, for 1. he voweth that whatsoever should come forth of the doors of his house. 2. Whatsoever should come to meet him; now it is not likely nor proper to understand this of Sheep and Bullock; for who can think of their coming out of his house, much less of their coming to meet him. 3. How poor a business was it to vow to sacrifice a Bullock or Sheep for such a victory? Therefore his vow relateth to persons, and so might it be translated, Whosoever cometh forth. 2. What would he do with his vowed person? Make him a Nazarite? He might vow the thing, but the performance lay upon the persons own hand. Dedicate him to the Sanctuary? Why he might not serve there as not being a Levite. Sequester him from the world? He might indeed imprison him, but otherwise the sequestering from the world lay upon the persons own hand still. Suppose one of his married maid servants or man-servants or his own wife had met him first, what would he have done with any of them? Therefore I am enforced by the weighing of these and other circumstances in the Text, to hold with them, that hold he sacrificed his daughter indeed, though I have been once of another mind. And it seemeth that this was a part of the corruption of those times, and was but mutato nomine, a sacrifice to Molech, the God of the Ammonites, against whom he was now to go to sight when he maketh this vow. The Sanhedrin undoubtedly was now sitting, and there was the Priest-hood attending upon the Ark at Shiloh, and yet is Israel now so little acquainted with the Law, that neither the Sanhedrin, nor the Priests can resolve Jephthah that his vow might have been redeemed, Levite. 27. But they suffer her thus to be massacred, and only salve it with making a statute for her yearly lamentation. In some time of the Judges, the High-priesthood is translated from the line of Eleazar to the line of Ithamar, as appeareth in Eli in the beginning of the Book of Samuel. Now in all the story of the Judges, we find not any one thing so likely to be the cause of rooting out of that house from the Priest-hood, as about this matter of Jephthah, they not instructing him better, but suffering such a butchery for a sacrifice.

Jephthah hath a new quarrel with the Ephraimites, and slayeth 42000 of them, discovering them by the mis-pronouncing of a letter: he might have offered many words that had Sh double in them; as Shemesh, the Sun; Shelosha, three; Shalsheleh, a chain; but the word proposed is Shiboleh, because of the present occasion: It signifieth a stream; and the Ephraimites are put to call the stream that they desired to pass over, by the right name, and they could not name it.

CHAP. XII. Vers. 8, 9, 10.

[World 2825] [Iephtach 1] [Iephtach 2] IBSAN judgeth seven years: He was a man of Bethlehem, and thereupon [Iephtach 3] imagined by the Jews to be Boaz without any ground or reason: for since [Iephtach 4] [Iephtach 5] Rahab the mother of Boaz was taken into the Congregation of Israel were 270 [Iephtach 6] years; and then guess whether Boaz be likely to be active now? Ibsan is renowned [Iephtach 7] for the number and equality of the number of his sons and daughters.

CHAP. XIII. And CHAP. XII. Vers. 11, 12.

[World 2832] [Elon 1] ELON judgeth ten years: He was a Galilean of Zebulon. In the tenth [Elon 2] year of Ibsan, the Philistines forty years of oppressing begin mentioned [Elon 3] Chap. 13. verse 1. Samson is born about this year if not in it, for when the [Elon 4] Angel telleth of his conception, the Philistines were lords over Israel; see [Elon 5] verse 5. The story of his birth is joined to the story of his life, that there [Elon 6] might be no interruption in the story of the Judges before him, and that the [Elon 7] whole history of his life and birth might lie together; but in Chronical Series [Elon 8] it lieth about the beginning of the rule of Elon.

[Elon 9] [Elon 10] JESSE the father of DAVID born by this time, if not before.

CHAP. XII. Vers. 13, 14, 15.

[World 2842] [Elon 1] ABDON judgeth eight years: He is exceedingly renowned for his [Elon 2] children, having as many young Nobles and Gallants to his sons and [Elon 3] granchildren, as would make a whole Sanhedrin; namely seventy, and himself [Elon 4] the Head. He was an Ephraimite of Pirathon; and so Josephs glory [Elon 5] shineth again in Ephraim, as it had done in Joshua before the time of the [Elon 6] Judges; and had done in Manasseh in the Judges times, in Gideon, Jair, [Elon 7] and Jephthah. Ephraim's low estate in the matter of Abimelech and Shechem, is [Elon 8] now somewhat recovered in Abdon.

CHAP. XIV. XV. XVI.

[World 2850] [Elon 1] SAMSON judgeth twenty years: A man of Dan, [and so as Ephraim [Elon 2] and Dan had bred the first Idolatry, they yield the last Judges;] he [Elon 3] was born supernaturally of a barren woman, and becomes the first Nazarite [Elon 4] we have upon record. He killeth a lion without any weapons, findeth honey [Elon 5] in the carcass, proposeth a parable to thirty Philistim gallants, which [Elon 6] in three days they cannot unriddle: and on the seventh day, saith the Text, [Elon 7] they said unto his wife, Perswade thy husband, Chap. 14. verse. 15. That is, [Elon 8] on the Sabbath day; their irreligiousness not minding that day, and now [Elon 9] finding the fittest opportunity of talking with his wife alone, Samson being [Elon 10] employed about the Sabbath duties. He pays them with their own Countrymens [Elon 11] spoil: Fires the Philistines corn with three hundred Foxes; is destroying [Elon 12] them all his life, but destroys more at his death: A type of Christ.

[Elon 13] It is observable that the Philistines are said to bear rule and oppress Israel [Elon 14] all Samsons days, Chap. 13. 1. The Lord delivered Israel into the hands of the [Elon 15] Philistines forty year, and Chap. 15. 20. And Samson judged Israel in the days [Elon 16] of the Philistines twenty years. This helpeth clearly to understand that the [Elon 17] years of the oppressors are included in the years of the Judge; and so [Elon 18] endeth the Chronicle of the Book of Judges in the death of Samson, though [Elon 19] the posture of the Book itself do end in another story. No Judge of all [Elon 20] the twelve had fallen into the enemies hand, and under their abuse but only Samson; but he slayeth more at his death then while he was living.

CHAP. I. II. III.

[World 2870] [Eli 1] ELI judgeth 40 years: He was of Ithamar; For Eleazers line had lost the [Eli 2] High Priest-hood in the times of the Judges. It had been in that family [Eli 3] seven generations; viz. Eleazar, Phineas, Abishua, Bukki, Uzzi, Zerahiah, Meraioth, [Eli 4] [Eli 5] 1 Chron. 6. 4, 5, 6. and there it failed, till the seventh generation after; [Eli 6] namely, through the times of Amaziah, Ahitub, Zadok, Ahimaaz, Azaria, Johanan; [Eli 7] and then comes Azariah, and he executes this Office in the Temple [Eli 8] that Solomon built, 1 Chron. 6. 7, 8, 9, 10. observe these six that failed of the [Eli 9] high Priest-hood left out of the Genealogy, Ezra 7. 3, 4. Eli was the first of [Eli 10] the other line that obtained it, and it run through these descents, Eli, Phineas, [Eli 11] Ahitub, Ahimelech, Abiathar, 1 Sam. 14. 3. & 22. 20. & 1 King. 2. 26. SAMUEL [Eli 12] [Eli 13] the son of his mothers prayers, tears, and vows, was born in Aramathea, the [Eli 14] twentieth from Levi, of the offspring of Korah, who was swallowed up of [Eli 15] the ground, 1 Chron. 6. and Numb. 26. 11. He had murmured at the Priesthood [Eli 16] and Magistracy, and now one of his line is raised up to repair both when [Eli 17] they are decayed. Samuel was a vowed Nazarite, and dedicated at the Sanctuary [Eli 18] with a Sacrifice and a Song. The year of his birth is not determinable, [Eli 19] [Eli 20] no not so much as whether it were in the Judgeship of Eli, though it be undoubted [Eli 21] that it was in his Priest-hood. Eli's sons commit theft and adultery in [Eli 22] the very Sanctuary; they ravin from the men that came to sacrifice, and they [Eli 23] ravish the women that waited on the Sanctuary, and so they cause the Ordinances [Eli 24] of the Lord to be abhorred. Under such example is Samuel educated, [Eli 25] [Eli 26] yet falleth not under that taint. A Prophet sharply reproveth Eli, for not reproving [Eli 27] his sons. This Prophet the Jews held to be Elkanah himself, and say [Eli 28] that he was one of the eight and forty Prophets that prophesied to Israel. In Chap. [Eli 29] 2. Vers. 11. it is said, that Elkanah returned to Ramoth to his own house: and yet [Eli 30] verse 20. it is said, that Eli blessed Elkanah; which is to be understood, that [Eli 31] he had done so from Samuel's first dedication, and so did as oft as he came to [Eli 32] Shiloh. Samuel himself becomes a Prophet, first against Eli's house, and then [Eli 33] afterward to all Israel, Chap. 3. 1. Impiety had exceedingly banished Prophesy [Eli 34] [Eli 35] in these times amongst them, but now the Lord begins to restore it for prediction [Eli 36] of ruin, and then for direction of reformation. Urim and Thummim [Eli 37] were ere long to be lost from the Priests, with the loss of the Ark; [Eli 38] and God pours the Spirit of Prophesy upon a Levite to supply that [Eli 39] want.

CHAP. IV.

[World 2909] [Eli 40] THE Ark first touched and taken with the hands of uncircumcised ones. The two sons of Eli come to fatal ends at this last service of the Ark, as the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu did at the first: Eli himself dieth the very death of an unredeemed Ass, Exod. 13. 13. Shiloh laid waste, Jer. 7. 14. and the birthright lost from Joseph and Ephraim, Psal. 78. 60. &c. The Tabernacle had been at Shiloh 340 years, and somewhat more. The Idol of Dan hath now out-lived it, Judge. 18. 31. Ah poor Israel!

[World 2910] [Eli 1] Here begin the forty years of Samuel and Saul, mentioned Act. 13. 20, 21. He gave them Judges after a manner, four hundred and fifty years [that is, the years of the oppressors also reckoned in: the Judges, 299. the oppressors 111. and Eli 40.] until Samuel the Prophet. And afterward they desired a King, and God gave them Saul by the space of forty years: that is, to the expiration of forty years from Eli's death, the last of the Judges.

CHAP. V. VI.

THE Ark is all the spring and summer of this year in the land of the Philistines. For its sake the Lord smiteth Dagon the god of their Corn, and destroyeth the harvest of their Corn as it grew on the ground with an army of Mice: He striketh the people with Emerods in their hinder parts, Psal. 78. 66. and bringeth a shameful soreness on them in a contrary part, and in a contrary nature, to the honorable soreness of Circumcision: They restore the Ark again with strange presents, with abundance of golden Mice, Et cum quinque anis vel podicibus aureis quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Two Kine knew their owner, as Esa. 1. 3. Hophni and Phineas knew him not. The Bethshemites though Priests, yet slain by the Lord for too much boldness with the Ark.

CHAP. VII. Vers. 1. And the first half of the second.

[Samuel 2] THE Ark settled in Kirjath-jearim, the City of the woods: to this the [Samuel 3] Psalmist speaketh, Psal. 132. 6. We heard of it at Ephratah, or at Shiloh [Samuel 4] in Ephraim: we found it in the fields of the wood; or at Kirjath-jearim: there an [Samuel 5] Eleazar looketh to it, when both the line of Eleazar and Ithamar are out of [Samuel 6] that service: And it came to pass while the Ark abode in Kirjath-jearim the time [Samuel 7] [Samuel 8] was long, for it was twenty years: This is not to be understood for the whole [Samuel 9] time that it was there, for it was above six and forty years there before David [Samuel 10] fetched it up, 2 Sam. 6. namely, thirty nine years of Samuel and Saul, and [Samuel 11] seven years of David's reign in Hebron; but it is to be thus understood and construed, [Samuel 12] that the Ark was twenty years in Kirjath-jearim, before the people of Israel [Samuel 13] minded it or looked after it, but they followed and adhered to their former [Samuel 14] Idolatries and corruptions, and therefore it is said by Samuel afterward, verse. 3. [Samuel 15] [Samuel 16] If you do return unto the Lord, put away the strange gods Ashteroth from among [Samuel 17] you, &c. Their Idolatry and profaneness was so deep rooted, having been so [Samuel 18] long and so customary with them, that neither the loss of the Ark, nor the [Samuel 19] slaughter of Israel had wrought upon them; but that twenty years together [Samuel 20] they are lost to the Ark, though the Ark were not then lost to them.

CHAP. VII. Vers. 2. The latter half of it: Then all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord: and so to the end of the 7 Chapter, and Chapter 8. all.

[World 2930] [Samuel 21] A Spirit of repentance and conversion cometh generally upon all the people; a matter and a time as remarkable as almost any we read of in Scripture: one only parallel to it, and that is in Acts 2. and 3. at the great conversion there. There were to that time these sums of years, four hundred ninety years from hence to the beginning of the Captivity, seventy years of the Captivity, and four hundred ninety years from the end of the Captivity thither: The seventy of the Captivity are the midst of years, Hab. 3. 2. And Samuel according to this chain is the first of the Prophets, Acts 4. 24.

[Samuel 22] Israel is baptized from their Idols: Samuel, though no Priest, yet by special [Samuel 23] warrant sacrificeth; by Prayer destroyeth the Philistines with thunder, Chap. 2. [Samuel 24] 20. Psal. 99. 6. they were subdued in that very place where they had subdued [Samuel 25] Israel, and taken the Ark, one and twenty years before. Samuel rideth in circuit [Samuel 26] and judgeth Israel. Judah recovereth Gath and Ekron; which they once [Samuel 27] had, Josh. 15. 45, 46. but lost Judge. 3. 3. Peace made with Amorites; for the [Samuel 28] third and fourth Generation of those haters of the Lord had had the sins of their [Samuel 29] fathers visited upon them. Samuel's two Sons cause the people to abhor the [Samuel 30] Government, as Eli's two Sons had caused them to abhor Religion. Then degeneration [Samuel 31] is still coming on.

CHAP. IX. X. XI. XII.

[World 2941] [Sam. 32] SAUL seeking Asses, findeth a Kingdom: He is anointed at Ramah, which was not far from his own Town of Gibeah. Gibeah, once so abominable and abominably destroyed, Judge. 20. affordeth their first King: He prophecieth at Kirjath-jearim among a company of Prophets that attended the Ark 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chap. 10. 12. And he becomes one that is their Father, or chief Prophet amongst them. At Mizpah, where the Sanhedrin sat, he is proclaimed King by Lot and by the people. He befriendeth Jabesh against Ammon; for Jabesh had been a friend to Gibeah, and suffered for it, Judge. 21. At Gilgal he is anointed again, and God in thunder and lightning telleth the people of his displeasure, for their asking a King. Their occasion of so doing was Nahash the Ammonite, his coming against Jabesh at first to besiege it Chap. 12. 12. The siege was long, and when it begun to capitulate for surrender▪ Nahash demands every right eye in the Town, &c.

CHAP. XIII. XIV. XV.

[Sam. 33] [Saul 2] SAUL reigned one year: And he reigned two years over Israel: That is, [Sam. 34] [Saul 3] he had now been King one year from his first anointing by Samuel at Ramah, to his second anointing by him at Gibeah: And he reigned after this, two years more, before the Lord cast him off, and anointed David: And the time he ruled after that, was not a Rule, but a Tyranny and Persecution. In these two years he beateth the Philistines, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, that invade the Land; and invadeth Amalek, and destroyeth it; but undoes himself by sparing Agag. Here the Lord casts him off.

CHAP. XVI.

[World 2944] [Sam. 35] DAVID anointed in Bethlehem: And from henceforward the Spirit of the Lord resteth upon him; by the power of which he killeth a Lion and Bear; And by the direction of which he becometh musical, and penneth Psalms. This is that that makes music by David's hand, able to hush and master Saul's Devil.

CHAP. XVII.

[Sam. 36] DAVID killeth Goliath. A type of Christ's victory over Satan, the chief Captain of the uncircumcised. He bringeth the Giants head to Saul, and Saul questioned, Whose Son art thou? Not that either Saul or Abner were ignorant who David was; for he went but from harping to Saul, when Saul went to this War, ver. 15. but they wonder what kind of man it was that had such Sons, as Jesse had now in the Army: And his question is not so much Filius cujus, as Filius qualis viri; or not of David's Person, but of his Parentage. The 55 and 56 verses in their proper order should lie after verse 40. but they are put off to the place where they lie, that Saul's question which was before the Battle, and the resolution of it, which was not till after, might be laid together: and so the Story of verse 54. of David's laying up the Giants head at Jerusalem, is laid before its time, as they were laid after; for he laid not that there till some space of time after, and what time, uncertain: But the relation of it is mentioned in this place, because he would dispatch the Story of Goliath at once.

PSALM IX.

UPON this Victory over Goliath, David penned the ninth Psalm, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 upon the death of the Champion; for Goliath is called Ish Benajim, 1 Sam. 17. 4. And so the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : upon the death of the man that came out between the two Armies. That Psalm is to be taken in at this place.

CHAP. XVIII.

UPON David's discourse with Saul, and upon former acquaintance with David's behavior, Jonathan affects him; Saul that day retains him for a Courtier; and Jonathan puts him into a Soldiers and Courtiers garb: And so they march from the Camp to Gibeah, where Saul dwelt. By the way the women came out, and sing so as they displease Saul; and from thenceforward he spites David, casts Spears at him to kill him; but seeing him escape, he puts him into command in the Army, that he may fall there. Thus lieth the Story to verse. 16. and therefore the fifth verse, which speaks of his going in and out before the people, is set there as a general head, which was to be explained afterward: when David is thus set at large from Saul, to go in and out at his pleasure, then it is like he bringeth Goliath's Armor to Bethlehem, and his head to Jerusalem, laying up these trophies of his valor, victory, and success among his own Tribe, that when occasion should be, and he should need men to stand to him, he being already anointed King, these very things might have made a good party for him against that time.

CHAP. XIX.

[Sam. & Saul. 37] ANother war with the Philistines. Another Spear thrown at David: His house watched that he might be slain.

PSAL. LIX.

HERE cometh in the fifty ninth Psalm, made upon this watching of his house, as the title telleth: and it is to be laid between the 12 and 13 verses of this 19 Chapter.

Samuel, and Saul, and David are met altogether, Chap. 19. 22. 24. and Saul Prophecying naked for 24 hours, whereas it is said in Chap. 15. 35. that Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: It is to be understood as by way of homage, for he seeth him now at Ramah by Saul's coming to him, but he never after Saul's transgression in sparing Amalek, went to him to present himself or service to him, for then did the Lord cast him off, and he would own him no more as King.

CHAP. XX.

SAuls coming to Ramah putteth David to fly to Gibeah to confer with Jonathan: Saul's bloody intention being discovered, David is now forced to a perpetual exile: It beginneth now.

CHAP. XXI.

DAvid cometh to Nob to Ahimelech, or Ahijah, 1 Sam. 14. 3. In the days of Abiathar, Mar. 2. 26. our Savior nameth him rather then Ahimelech, because he was not only one of the Priests there now, Chap. 22. 20. but he alone escaped of all Ahimelechs house from Saul's fury: and he was of special note afterward.

From Nob, David is forced to flee to Gath, the very Town of Goliath, and Goliath's sword now about him: There is he discovered who he is, and hears the very Song repeated that was sung to him when he returned from the slaughter of Goliath; being now in the midst of the Giants friends, and so in an unevitable danger, he findeth no other shift but to fain himself a natural fool, and mope, and keepeth himself speechless and dumb.

PSAL. LVI.

UPON this occurrence and occasion he composeth the fifty sixth Psalm, and titles it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gnal, Jonath, Elem, Rechokim, concerning the oppression of the dumb one among men far off, when the Philistines took him in Gath: and seemeth in verse. 10. to refer to his present speechlesness, when he saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Through the Lord I shall praise with speech, or words: so verse. 4. he professeth, Through the Lord I will praise his Word; of promise which he had made to him: so that the order of this Psalm falleth in about the twelfth verse of this one and twentieth Chapter.

PSAL. XXXIV.

AT the end of that Chapter is the proper place and order of the 34 Psalm, made by David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech: And it is appliable to both the stories contained in this Chapter, both to David's dissembling behavior before Ahimelech [for some time Ahimelech and Abimelech was but one and the same name, as compare 2 Sam. 8. 17. with 1 Chron. 18. 16.] and to David's changing his behavior before Achish the Philistines King, for those Kings were commonly called by the name Abimelech, Gen. 20. and 26.

This Psalm is a most accurate Acrostick, of a most choice and exact composure, after his pretended mopishness and distraction.

CHAP. XXII. Vers. 1. first part.

DAvid departeth from Gath, and escaped to the Cave of Adullam.

PSAL. CXLII.

THERE he maketh the 142 Psalm, as appeareth by the title: And in his Prayer in it, he complains how low he was now brought: that there was none that would know him, nor any one to take care for him, that he was in this Cave as in a Prison: And if the Lord would deliver him out of this case, then would the righteous resort unto him.

CHAP. XXII. The latter part of the first verse, and verse. 2. and 1 CHRON. XII. from ver. 8. to ver. 19.

THE Lord hears his prayer, and sends his friends and kindred about him to be his Comfort, and divers others to be his Guard: Among the rest were some Gadites that came from beyond Jordan, and the Prophet Gad among them: And so hath David a Regiment of six hundred men, and a Prophet their Chaplain.

Here falls in that Story in 2 Sam. 23. verse. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. and 1 Chron. 11. verse. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. of David's longing for the water of Bethlehem, &c. but reserved to its place in the reckoning up of David's Worthies, for here is more especially intended to relate David's acts, and not his Worthies.

CHAP. XXII. from Verse 3. to the end of the Chapter.

[Sam. & Saul. 83] DAvids Father and Mother are yet alive, and seated by him in Moab. He removeth into the Forest of Hareth, Saul slayeth 85. Priests, and destroyeth Nob: and thus is Eli's house quite cut off within one man. That was Abiathar, who escapes and comes to David, and now he hath a High Priest in his Army as well as a Prophet.

PSAL. LII.

AT the end of this Chapter is the proper order and place of the fifty second Psalm, made as the title telleth, When Doeg came and told Saul, and said, David came to the house of Ahimelech.

CHAP. XXXIII.

DAvid beateth the Philistines, and saveth Keilab. The beginning of the first verse is to be read thus; Now they had told David, saying, &c. For Abiathar's coming to David, which is related in the conclusion of the former Chapter, was not till David was at Keilah already, as appeareth by the sixth verse of this. The Ziphites discover David to Saul.

PSAL. LIV.

THereupon he maketh the fifty fourth Psalm, as the title telleth the occasion, and the occasion in that title readily refers it to this place, to be taken in after the three and twentieth verse of this Chapter.

PSAL. LXIII.

AT the end of this three and twentieth Chapter, with the Story of David's remaining in the strong holds of En-gedi, the sixty third Psalm falleth in, being made as the title telleth, in the wilderness of Judah, which about En-gedi was most desert of all other places, that being upon the borders of the dead Sea.

CHAP. XXIV.

DAvid and Saul are together in a Cave.

PSAL. LVII.

THERE David poureth out his Prayer of Psal. 57. and titles it, Al tashchith, Destroy not; for though he were moved by his Soldiers to destroy Saul, yet he would not.

CHAP. XXV.

[Sam. & Saul. 39] SAMUEL dieth some two years before Saul's death: He lived to see the time that Saul confessed David to be King, as Chap. 24. 20. according to his Prediction: Nabal a drunkard, a fool, and clown dieth wretchedly.

PSAL. LVIII.

AFTER the 35 Verse of this Chapter, seemeth to be the proper place and order of Psal. 58. titled, Al tashchith, Destroy not: as referring to David's not destroying Nabal when he had so threatened, and yet at last rejoiced that he destroyed him not. He blameth in this Psalm the venemousness of Nabal's Tongue, that had reviled him, and the deafness of his ears, that would not hearken to the voice of his Messengers, say they their errand never so wisely. He prophesieth that God would suddenly take him away as with a storm, before the Pots, set on the fire for his Feasts, should feel any warmness from the thorns put under them to boil them, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 According as he was lively and jovial, so should the wrath be proportioned to him when it came, ver. 9. for so might the latter end of that verse be most properly rendered. As he lively, so the wrath, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chai, is the Epithet that David gives him when he sends his Messengers to him: Thus shall you say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Lechai to him that is lively: which our English hath well expressed, To him that liveth in prosperity: So David saith to Saul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Or what is my livelihood in the family of my Father, 1 Sam. 18. 18.

CHAP. XXVI.

DAVID hath Saul in his power again, and destroys him not: Saul again confesseth David's Kingdom. David and he never see one another more.

In some time of the days of Saul, but the year uncertain; Reuben and Gad destroy the Hagarites, and dwell in their stead, for this read 1 Chron. 5. ver. 9, 10. and from ver. 18. to ver. 23.

CHAP. XXVII.

DAvid betaketh himself again to Gath, where not very long ago he was put to fain himself mad. Achish then his fear is now his friend: he was then a sole single man, and now he hath 600 men with him, a Guard to himself, and an help to Achish against Saul.

David dwelleth at Ziklag, and invades the Countries thereabouts, &c.

I CHRON. XII. from beginning to Verse 8.

[World 2959] [Sam. & Saul. 40] THither divers of Saul's own Tribe and kindred resort unto him; and these are named in this Chapter before, the men of Gad that had fallen to him before, because these men's coming to him was most remarkable, as being of Saul's own kindred.

CHAP. XXVIII.

SAULS end is now approaching: He consulteth a witch: He had neither Priest nor Prophet to inquire after; he had despised and persecuted both: He seeth a Devil in Samuel's likeness, and heareth of his own ruin.

CHAP. XXIX.

THE Philistines dare not trust David in battle. And thus the Lord provideth for him that he might neither prove perfidious to Achish, nor fight against his own people.

I CHRON. XII. Vers. 19, 20, 21, 22.

AS he went forth with the Philistines towards the battle, and as he came back again from them, divers fell to him of Manasseh.

CHAP. XXX. XXXI. & I CHRON. X.

DAVID returning home, findeth no home at all: Ziklag fired; A Band of Amalekites slain; and as it were sacrificed to Saul's Funeral. Saul himself slain by his own hand and by an Amalekite. He had never prospered since he had spared that Generation.

CHAP. I. II. III.

[World 2870] [Eli 1] ELI judgeth 40 years: He was of Ithamar; For Eleazers line had lost the [Eli 2] High Priest-hood in the times of the Judges. It had been in that family [Eli 3] seven generations; viz. Eleazar, Phineas, Abishua, Bukki, Uzzi, Zerahiah, Meraioth, [Eli 4] [Eli 5] 1 Chron. 6. 4, 5, 6. and there it failed, till the seventh generation after; [Eli 6] namely, through the times of Amaziah, Ahitub, Zadok, Ahimaaz, Azaria, Johanan; [Eli 7] and then comes Azariah, and he executes this Office in the Temple [Eli 8] that Solomon built, 1 Chron. 6. 7, 8, 9, 10. observe these six that failed of the [Eli 9] high Priest-hood left out of the Genealogy, Ezra 7. 3, 4. Eli was the first of [Eli 10] the other line that obtained it, and it run through these descents, Eli, Phineas, [Eli 11] Ahitub, Ahimelech, Abiathar, 1 Sam. 14. 3. & 22. 20. & 1 King. 2. 26. SAMUEL [Eli 12] [Eli 13] the son of his mothers prayers, tears, and vows, was born in Aramathea, the [Eli 14] twentieth from Levi, of the offspring of Korah, who was swallowed up of [Eli 15] the ground, 1 Chron. 6. and Numb. 26. 11. He had murmured at the Priesthood [Eli 16] and Magistracy, and now one of his line is raised up to repair both when [Eli 17] they are decayed. Samuel was a vowed Nazarite, and dedicated at the Sanctuary [Eli 18] with a Sacrifice and a Song. The year of his birth is not determinable, [Eli 19] [Eli 20] no not so much as whether it were in the Judgeship of Eli, though it be undoubted [Eli 21] that it was in his Priest-hood. Eli's sons commit theft and adultery in [Eli 22] the very Sanctuary; they ravin from the men that came to sacrifice, and they [Eli 23] ravish the women that waited on the Sanctuary, and so they cause the Ordinances [Eli 24] of the Lord to be abhorred. Under such example is Samuel educated, [Eli 25] [Eli 26] yet falleth not under that taint. A Prophet sharply reproveth Eli, for not reproving [Eli 27] his sons. This Prophet the Jews held to be Elkanah himself, and say [Eli 28] that he was one of the eight and forty Prophets that prophesied to Israel. In Chap. [Eli 29] 2. Vers. 11. it is said, that Elkanah returned to Ramoth to his own house: and yet [Eli 30] verse 20. it is said, that Eli blessed Elkanah; which is to be understood, that [Eli 31] he had done so from Samuel's first dedication, and so did as oft as he came to [Eli 32] Shiloh. Samuel himself becomes a Prophet, first against Eli's house, and then [Eli 33] afterward to all Israel, Chap. 3. 1. Impiety had exceedingly banished Prophesy [Eli 34] [Eli 35] in these times amongst them, but now the Lord begins to restore it for prediction [Eli 36] of ruin, and then for direction of reformation. Urim and Thummim [Eli 37] were ere long to be lost from the Priests, with the loss of the Ark; [Eli 38] and God pours the Spirit of Prophesy upon a Levite to supply that [Eli 39] want.

CHAP. IV.

[World 2909] [Eli 40] THE Ark first touched and taken with the hands of uncircumcised ones. The two sons of Eli come to fatal ends at this last service of the Ark, as the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu did at the first: Eli himself dieth the very death of an unredeemed Ass, Exod. 13. 13. Shiloh laid waste, Jer. 7. 14. and the birthright lost from Joseph and Ephraim, Psal. 78. 60. &c. The Tabernacle had been at Shiloh 340 years, and somewhat more. The Idol of Dan hath now out-lived it, Judge. 18. 31. Ah poor Israel!

[World 2910] [Eli 1] Here begin the forty years of Samuel and Saul, mentioned Act. 13. 20, 21. He gave them Judges after a manner, four hundred and fifty years [that is, the years of the oppressors also reckoned in: the Judges, 299. the oppressors 111. and Eli 40.] until Samuel the Prophet. And afterward they desired a King, and God gave them Saul by the space of forty years: that is, to the expiration of forty years from Eli's death, the last of the Judges.

CHAP. V. VI.

THE Ark is all the spring and summer of this year in the land of the Philistines. For its sake the Lord smiteth Dagon the god of their Corn, and destroyeth the harvest of their Corn as it grew on the ground with an army of Mice: He striketh the people with Emerods in their hinder parts, Psal. 78. 66. and bringeth a shameful soreness on them in a contrary part, and in a contrary nature, to the honorable soreness of Circumcision: They restore the Ark again with strange presents, with abundance of golden Mice, Et cum quinque anis vel podicibus aureis quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Two Kine knew their owner, as Esa. 1. 3. Hophni and Phineas knew him not. The Bethshemites though Priests, yet slain by the Lord for too much boldness with the Ark.

CHAP. VII. Vers. 1. And the first half of the second.

[Samuel 2] THE Ark settled in Kirjath-jearim, the City of the woods: to this the [Samuel 3] Psalmist speaketh, Psal. 132. 6. We heard of it at Ephratah, or at Shiloh [Samuel 4] in Ephraim: we found it in the fields of the wood; or at Kirjath-jearim: there an [Samuel 5] Eleazar looketh to it, when both the line of Eleazar and Ithamar are out of [Samuel 6] that service: And it came to pass while the Ark abode in Kirjath-jearim the time [Samuel 7] [Samuel 8] was long, for it was twenty years: This is not to be understood for the whole [Samuel 9] time that it was there, for it was above six and forty years there before David [Samuel 10] fetched it up, 2 Sam. 6. namely, thirty nine years of Samuel and Saul, and [Samuel 11] seven years of David's reign in Hebron; but it is to be thus understood and construed, [Samuel 12] that the Ark was twenty years in Kirjath-jearim, before the people of Israel [Samuel 13] minded it or looked after it, but they followed and adhered to their former [Samuel 14] Idolatries and corruptions, and therefore it is said by Samuel afterward, verse. 3. [Samuel 15] [Samuel 16] If you do return unto the Lord, put away the strange gods Ashteroth from among [Samuel 17] you, &c. Their Idolatry and profaneness was so deep rooted, having been so [Samuel 18] long and so customary with them, that neither the loss of the Ark, nor the [Samuel 19] slaughter of Israel had wrought upon them; but that twenty years together [Samuel 20] they are lost to the Ark, though the Ark were not then lost to them.

CHAP. VII. Vers. 2. The latter half of it: Then all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord: and so to the end of the 7 Chapter, and Chapter 8. all.

[World 2930] [Samuel 21] A Spirit of repentance and conversion cometh generally upon all the people; a matter and a time as remarkable as almost any we read of in Scripture: one only parallel to it, and that is in Acts 2. and 3. at the great conversion there. There were to that time these sums of years, four hundred ninety years from hence to the beginning of the Captivity, seventy years of the Captivity, and four hundred ninety years from the end of the Captivity thither: The seventy of the Captivity are the midst of years, Hab. 3. 2. And Samuel according to this chain is the first of the Prophets, Acts 4. 24.

[Samuel 22] Israel is baptized from their Idols: Samuel, though no Priest, yet by special [Samuel 23] warrant sacrificeth; by Prayer destroyeth the Philistines with thunder, Chap. 2. [Samuel 24] 20. Psal. 99. 6. they were subdued in that very place where they had subdued [Samuel 25] Israel, and taken the Ark, one and twenty years before. Samuel rideth in circuit [Samuel 26] and judgeth Israel. Judah recovereth Gath and Ekron; which they once [Samuel 27] had, Josh. 15. 45, 46. but lost Judge. 3. 3. Peace made with Amorites; for the [Samuel 28] third and fourth Generation of those haters of the Lord had had the sins of their [Samuel 29] fathers visited upon them. Samuel's two Sons cause the people to abhor the [Samuel 30] Government, as Eli's two Sons had caused them to abhor Religion. Then degeneration [Samuel 31] is still coming on.

CHAP. IX. X. XI. XII.

[World 2941] [Sam. 32] SAUL seeking Asses, findeth a Kingdom: He is anointed at Ramah, which was not far from his own Town of Gibeah. Gibeah, once so abominable and abominably destroyed, Judge. 20. affordeth their first King: He prophecieth at Kirjath-jearim among a company of Prophets that attended the Ark 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chap. 10. 12. And he becomes one that is their Father, or chief Prophet amongst them. At Mizpah, where the Sanhedrin sat, he is proclaimed King by Lot and by the people. He befriendeth Jabesh against Ammon; for Jabesh had been a friend to Gibeah, and suffered for it, Judge. 21. At Gilgal he is anointed again, and God in thunder and lightning telleth the people of his displeasure, for their asking a King. Their occasion of so doing was Nahash the Ammonite, his coming against Jabesh at first to besiege it Chap. 12. 12. The siege was long, and when it begun to capitulate for surrender▪ Nahash demands every right eye in the Town, &c.

CHAP. XIII. XIV. XV.

[Sam. 33] [Saul 2] SAUL reigned one year: And he reigned two years over Israel: That is, [Sam. 34] [Saul 3] he had now been King one year from his first anointing by Samuel at Ramah, to his second anointing by him at Gibeah: And he reigned after this, two years more, before the Lord cast him off, and anointed David: And the time he ruled after that, was not a Rule, but a Tyranny and Persecution. In these two years he beateth the Philistines, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, that invade the Land; and invadeth Amalek, and destroyeth it; but undoes himself by sparing Agag. Here the Lord casts him off.

CHAP. XVI.

[World 2944] [Sam. 35] DAVID anointed in Bethlehem: And from henceforward the Spirit of the Lord resteth upon him; by the power of which he killeth a Lion and Bear; And by the direction of which he becometh musical, and penneth Psalms. This is that that makes music by David's hand, able to hush and master Saul's Devil.

CHAP. XVII.

[Sam. 36] DAVID killeth Goliath. A type of Christ's victory over Satan, the chief Captain of the uncircumcised. He bringeth the Giants head to Saul, and Saul questioned, Whose Son art thou? Not that either Saul or Abner were ignorant who David was; for he went but from harping to Saul, when Saul went to this War, ver. 15. but they wonder what kind of man it was that had such Sons, as Jesse had now in the Army: And his question is not so much Filius cujus, as Filius qualis viri; or not of David's Person, but of his Parentage. The 55 and 56 verses in their proper order should lie after verse 40. but they are put off to the place where they lie, that Saul's question which was before the Battle, and the resolution of it, which was not till after, might be laid together: and so the Story of verse 54. of David's laying up the Giants head at Jerusalem, is laid before its time, as they were laid after; for he laid not that there till some space of time after, and what time, uncertain: But the relation of it is mentioned in this place, because he would dispatch the Story of Goliath at once.

PSALM IX.

UPON this Victory over Goliath, David penned the ninth Psalm, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 upon the death of the Champion; for Goliath is called Ish Benajim, 1 Sam. 17. 4. And so the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : upon the death of the man that came out between the two Armies. That Psalm is to be taken in at this place.

CHAP. XVIII.

UPON David's discourse with Saul, and upon former acquaintance with David's behavior, Jonathan affects him; Saul that day retains him for a Courtier; and Jonathan puts him into a Soldiers and Courtiers garb: And so they march from the Camp to Gibeah, where Saul dwelt. By the way the women came out, and sing so as they displease Saul; and from thenceforward he spites David, casts Spears at him to kill him; but seeing him escape, he puts him into command in the Army, that he may fall there. Thus lieth the Story to verse. 16. and therefore the fifth verse, which speaks of his going in and out before the people, is set there as a general head, which was to be explained afterward: when David is thus set at large from Saul, to go in and out at his pleasure, then it is like he bringeth Goliath's Armor to Bethlehem, and his head to Jerusalem, laying up these trophies of his valor, victory, and success among his own Tribe, that when occasion should be, and he should need men to stand to him, he being already anointed King, these very things might have made a good party for him against that time.

CHAP. XIX.

[Sam. & Saul. 37] ANother war with the Philistines. Another Spear thrown at David: His house watched that he might be slain.

PSAL. LIX.

HERE cometh in the fifty ninth Psalm, made upon this watching of his house, as the title telleth: and it is to be laid between the 12 and 13 verses of this 19 Chapter.

Samuel, and Saul, and David are met altogether, Chap. 19. 22. 24. and Saul Prophecying naked for 24 hours, whereas it is said in Chap. 15. 35. that Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: It is to be understood as by way of homage, for he seeth him now at Ramah by Saul's coming to him, but he never after Saul's transgression in sparing Amalek, went to him to present himself or service to him, for then did the Lord cast him off, and he would own him no more as King.

CHAP. XX.

SAuls coming to Ramah putteth David to fly to Gibeah to confer with Jonathan: Saul's bloody intention being discovered, David is now forced to a perpetual exile: It beginneth now.

CHAP. XXI.

DAvid cometh to Nob to Ahimelech, or Ahijah, 1 Sam. 14. 3. In the days of Abiathar, Mar. 2. 26. our Savior nameth him rather then Ahimelech, because he was not only one of the Priests there now, Chap. 22. 20. but he alone escaped of all Ahimelechs house from Saul's fury: and he was of special note afterward.

From Nob, David is forced to flee to Gath, the very Town of Goliath, and Goliath's sword now about him: There is he discovered who he is, and hears the very Song repeated that was sung to him when he returned from the slaughter of Goliath; being now in the midst of the Giants friends, and so in an unevitable danger, he findeth no other shift but to fain himself a natural fool, and mope, and keepeth himself speechless and dumb.

PSAL. LVI.

UPON this occurrence and occasion he composeth the fifty sixth Psalm, and titles it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gnal, Jonath, Elem, Rechokim, concerning the oppression of the dumb one among men far off, when the Philistines took him in Gath: and seemeth in verse. 10. to refer to his present speechlesness, when he saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Through the Lord I shall praise with speech, or words: so verse. 4. he professeth, Through the Lord I will praise his Word; of promise which he had made to him: so that the order of this Psalm falleth in about the twelfth verse of this one and twentieth Chapter.

PSAL. XXXIV.

AT the end of that Chapter is the proper place and order of the 34 Psalm, made by David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech: And it is appliable to both the stories contained in this Chapter, both to David's dissembling behavior before Ahimelech [for some time Ahimelech and Abimelech was but one and the same name, as compare 2 Sam. 8. 17. with 1 Chron. 18. 16.] and to David's changing his behavior before Achish the Philistines King, for those Kings were commonly called by the name Abimelech, Gen. 20. and 26.

This Psalm is a most accurate Acrostick, of a most choice and exact composure, after his pretended mopishness and distraction.

CHAP. XXII. Vers. 1. first part.

DAvid departeth from Gath, and escaped to the Cave of Adullam.

PSAL. CXLII.

THERE he maketh the 142 Psalm, as appeareth by the title: And in his Prayer in it, he complains how low he was now brought: that there was none that would know him, nor any one to take care for him, that he was in this Cave as in a Prison: And if the Lord would deliver him out of this case, then would the righteous resort unto him.

CHAP. XXII. The latter part of the first verse, and verse. 2. and 1 CHRON. XII. from ver. 8. to ver. 19.

THE Lord hears his prayer, and sends his friends and kindred about him to be his Comfort, and divers others to be his Guard: Among the rest were some Gadites that came from beyond Jordan, and the Prophet Gad among them: And so hath David a Regiment of six hundred men, and a Prophet their Chaplain.

Here falls in that Story in 2 Sam. 23. verse. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. and 1 Chron. 11. verse. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. of David's longing for the water of Bethlehem, &c. but reserved to its place in the reckoning up of David's Worthies, for here is more especially intended to relate David's acts, and not his Worthies.

CHAP. XXII. from Verse 3. to the end of the Chapter.

[Sam. & Saul. 83] DAvids Father and Mother are yet alive, and seated by him in Moab. He removeth into the Forest of Hareth, Saul slayeth 85. Priests, and destroyeth Nob: and thus is Eli's house quite cut off within one man. That was Abiathar, who escapes and comes to David, and now he hath a High Priest in his Army as well as a Prophet.

PSAL. LII.

AT the end of this Chapter is the proper order and place of the fifty second Psalm, made as the title telleth, When Doeg came and told Saul, and said, David came to the house of Ahimelech.

CHAP. XXXIII.

DAvid beateth the Philistines, and saveth Keilab. The beginning of the first verse is to be read thus; Now they had told David, saying, &c. For Abiathar's coming to David, which is related in the conclusion of the former Chapter, was not till David was at Keilah already, as appeareth by the sixth verse of this. The Ziphites discover David to Saul.

PSAL. LIV.

THereupon he maketh the fifty fourth Psalm, as the title telleth the occasion, and the occasion in that title readily refers it to this place, to be taken in after the three and twentieth verse of this Chapter.

PSAL. LXIII.

AT the end of this three and twentieth Chapter, with the Story of David's remaining in the strong holds of En-gedi, the sixty third Psalm falleth in, being made as the title telleth, in the wilderness of Judah, which about En-gedi was most desert of all other places, that being upon the borders of the dead Sea.

CHAP. XXIV.

DAvid and Saul are together in a Cave.

PSAL. LVII.

THERE David poureth out his Prayer of Psal. 57. and titles it, Al tashchith, Destroy not; for though he were moved by his Soldiers to destroy Saul, yet he would not.

CHAP. XXV.

[Sam. & Saul. 39] SAMUEL dieth some two years before Saul's death: He lived to see the time that Saul confessed David to be King, as Chap. 24. 20. according to his Prediction: Nabal a drunkard, a fool, and clown dieth wretchedly.

PSAL. LVIII.

AFTER the 35 Verse of this Chapter, seemeth to be the proper place and order of Psal. 58. titled, Al tashchith, Destroy not: as referring to David's not destroying Nabal when he had so threatened, and yet at last rejoiced that he destroyed him not. He blameth in this Psalm the venemousness of Nabal's Tongue, that had reviled him, and the deafness of his ears, that would not hearken to the voice of his Messengers, say they their errand never so wisely. He prophesieth that God would suddenly take him away as with a storm, before the Pots, set on the fire for his Feasts, should feel any warmness from the thorns put under them to boil them, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 According as he was lively and jovial, so should the wrath be proportioned to him when it came, ver. 9. for so might the latter end of that verse be most properly rendered. As he lively, so the wrath, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chai, is the Epithet that David gives him when he sends his Messengers to him: Thus shall you say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Lechai to him that is lively: which our English hath well expressed, To him that liveth in prosperity: So David saith to Saul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Or what is my livelihood in the family of my Father, 1 Sam. 18. 18.

CHAP. XXVI.

DAVID hath Saul in his power again, and destroys him not: Saul again confesseth David's Kingdom. David and he never see one another more.

In some time of the days of Saul, but the year uncertain; Reuben and Gad destroy the Hagarites, and dwell in their stead, for this read 1 Chron. 5. ver. 9, 10. and from ver. 18. to ver. 23.

CHAP. XXVII.

DAvid betaketh himself again to Gath, where not very long ago he was put to fain himself mad. Achish then his fear is now his friend: he was then a sole single man, and now he hath 600 men with him, a Guard to himself, and an help to Achish against Saul.

David dwelleth at Ziklag, and invades the Countries thereabouts, &c.

I CHRON. XII. from beginning to Verse 8.

[World 2959] [Sam. & Saul. 40] THither divers of Saul's own Tribe and kindred resort unto him; and these are named in this Chapter before, the men of Gad that had fallen to him before, because these men's coming to him was most remarkable, as being of Saul's own kindred.

CHAP. XXVIII.

SAULS end is now approaching: He consulteth a witch: He had neither Priest nor Prophet to inquire after; he had despised and persecuted both: He seeth a Devil in Samuel's likeness, and heareth of his own ruin.

CHAP. XXIX.

THE Philistines dare not trust David in battle. And thus the Lord provideth for him that he might neither prove perfidious to Achish, nor fight against his own people.

I CHRON. XII. Vers. 19, 20, 21, 22.

AS he went forth with the Philistines towards the battle, and as he came back again from them, divers fell to him of Manasseh.

CHAP. XXX. XXXI. & I CHRON. X.

DAVID returning home, findeth no home at all: Ziklag fired; A Band of Amalekites slain; and as it were sacrificed to Saul's Funeral. Saul himself slain by his own hand and by an Amalekite. He had never prospered since he had spared that Generation.

CHAP. I.

DAVID heareth of the death of Saul, and lamenteth him: And chargeth the young men of Judah to learn the use of the Bow, that they might match the Philistines in Archery, and so be avenged on them for Saul's death; for by Archery they had slain him. The Story of the Amalekite to David, was not a lie to curry favor, or to obtain a reward, but it was a very and a real truth: Saul had fallen upon his own sword indeed [as was related in the preceding Chapter] but his Coat of mail had hindered that he had not given himself a wound so speedily deadly, but that the Philistines might come and catch him alive, and abuse him; and so he stands bleeding at that and at his other wounds leaning on his Spear, till this Amalekite came by: His Armor Bearer was dead already; and these words, When his Armor Bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell on his sword, and died also, are to be understood in this sense, That when he saw Saul had given himself so deadly a wound, he did the like, and died indeed. But Saul's wound was not so quick of dispatch, therefore he desireth the Amalekite to kill him out; For says he 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 My Coat of Mail hath withheld me so that my life is all this while in me. And thus Saul that had been so cruel to David, is now cruel to himself; and he that had spared the Amalekites, is now slain by one of that Nation.

CHAP. II.

[World 2950] [David 1] DAVID anointed King of Judah in Hebron, being 30 years old. Compair [David 2] Gen. 41. 46. Numb. 4. 3. Luke 3. 23. In Hebran, Abraham had had his [David 3] first Land and much residence: Here lay the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, [David 4] and their wives buried; and here was John the Baptist born, and our Savior [David 5] conceived. There is long busling between the House of David and the house of [David 6] Saul; Abner still striving to make a party strong enough to settle one of Saul's [David 7] Sons in the Kingdom. Thereupon is Ishbosheth anointed in Saul's stead: He is called Ishbaal, 1 Chron. 8. 33. for Baal was commonly called Bosheth or Shame, as Jerubbaal is called Jerubbosheth, 2 Sam. 11. 21. and Mephibosheth, 2 Sam. 9. 12. called Meribaal, 1 Chron. 8. 34. see also Jer. 11. 13.

Abner's vapouring causeth a desperate duel of twelve and twelve men; and so layeth the foundation of a continual War in an equal bloodshed. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 verse. 27. If thou hadst not said (saith Joab ) what thou didst say in the morning, let the young men rise and play before us, surely the people had gone away every man from his brother, even in the morning, and there had been never a blow struck; but thou didst provoke it.

CHAP. III.

DAVIDS six Sons born to him in Hebron, in his seven years and six Months reign there, are here reckoned together, that that Story and matter may be dispatched at once.

Abner upon discontent at Ishbosheth turneth to David, and confesseth that Kingdom, which hitherto he had willingly and wittingly opposed. But God will not suffer such a man, and upon such grounds, to be a promoter of David's throne; he is slain by Joab, even in a place of Judicature, and with a wound parallel to that that he had given Asahel.

CHAP. IV.

ISHBOSHETH slain by two Benjamites, brethren in evil: They came into the midst of the house, as if they would setch wheat, verse. 6. that is, with a sack in their hands, to put his head in, &c. Instantly before the Text falls upon the Story of Ishbosheth, it relateth the Story of Mephibosheth, because he was now all the stock left of Saul's house, but only Rizpahs children a Concubine, and Morahs a daughter.

CHAP. V. from beginning to Ver. 11. And I CHRON. XI. all.

[World 2957] [David 8] DAVID anointed King over all Israel at Hebron, and from thence brought by all Israel to Jerusalem, to settle him there, and to make that the Royal City. He reigned in all 40 years; in Hebron seven years and an half, and at Jerusalem 32 years and an half: And this latter was exactly the time of our Savior's life upon earth.

Joab after David's curse upon him for Abner's murder, is yet made Commander in chief for his taking of Jerusalem.

The prosperity of David at Jerusalem, and his building of it, is presently set down after the Story of the taking of the City; as beginning from that time, and continuing, and going along with the times of the following Stories, and so to be carried in mind.

Then doth the Book of Chronicles give account of David's Worthies: Which Catalogue is also mentioned by this Book of Samuel, but with this difference of place, that in the Chronicles it is set in the beginning of David's Reign, and in Samuel in the latter end: And both very properly and much like to the placing of our Savior's Genealogy in Matthew and Luke, the one giving it at his Birth, and the other at his Baptism, and both upon singular reason. And so here the Book of Chronicles reckons up these men as those that helped David to his settlement in the Kingdom, and therefore it mentions them in the beginning of his reign, and the Book of Samuel reckons them up at the latter end of his reign, as those that had stuck to him all the time of his reign, and helped to keep him in that settlement.

In both the Books there is first reckoned a Triumvirate, or three gallant men that were of a rank by themselves, and none were equal with them, or like unto them: And these were

• 1. Joab, whose chief Captain-ship is related presently before, upon the sacking of Jerusalem.
• 2. Adino the Eznite by name, called also Jashobeam by Office, that is, one that sat on the seat among the people as Judge: the immediate Son of Zabdiel, 1 Chron. 27. 2. but called a Hachmonite or the Son of Hachmoni for his former ancestry. He lift up his spear against eight hundred men at one time, and slew three hundred of them. His name differs but one letter from Jeroboams, the one promoted David's Kingdom, and the other opposed it.
• 3. Eliazar the Son of Dodo the Ahohite, 1 Chron. 27. 4. of Bethlehem.

After these first three brave men, both the Books reckon a second Triumvirate or three gallant men more, of an inferior rank to the former three, but of a superior to all others. These were

• 1. Abishai the brother of Joab, and nephew of David: he was the chief of this Triumvirate, but his story is handled in the second place, because of the likeness of the stories of Eleazar and Shamma, the one defending a field of Barley, and the other a field of Lentiles; and for this likeness their stories are laid together.
• 2. Shammah, The Book of Chronicles neither uttereth his name, nor mentioneth his defending a field of Lentiles against the Philistines: but it includeth that story in the story of the three men's breaking through the quarters of the Philistines to the Well of Bethlehem: for he was one of the three, and this act of his in defending the Lentiles was in that expedition, and therefore the Book of