e land, but was only
sectional. Just the lines for a right chronology are uncertain.

#49. Comparison of Periods of Oppression and Deliverance.#--Now if we
desire in a general way to judge as to the proportion of godliness as
compared with idolatry, that prevailed in these times, we can do so by
adding up the years of "oppression" and those of deliverance. This
will afford us a rough criterion as to the way in which Israel obeyed
and disobeyed their God. For remember that the "oppressions" were the
result of disobedience, while the "deliverances" were the result of
true repentance. Worked out in this way, we have the following
statement, in which the name stands for the country to which the
people were in temporary bondage:

Mesopotamia, bondage 8 years,--rest 32 years.
Moab, bondage 18 years,--rest 22 years.
Canaan, bondage 20 years,--rest 20 years.
Midian, bondage 7 years,--rest 32 years.
Philistia and Ammon, bondage 18 years,--rest 7, 10, and 8 years.
Philistia, bondage 40 years,--rest 20 years.

Adding all these up, we find that the people were in bondage in whole
or in part for 111 years, while they had "rest" as the result of their
repentance for 151 years. Without pressing this mathematical
calculation too far, we must nevertheless conclude that for more than
half the time the nation at large obeyed God fairly well.

#50. Great Leaders among the Judges.#--Deborah and Barak, who, by
their combined forces drove out the oppressors of Canaan, under Jabin
their king. This man had mightily oppressed the people, he having nine
hundred chariots of iron, against which poor Israel could bring no
corresponding force. Yet when the Lord's time came, he was able to
overthrow the armies of Jabin, through the courage and combination of
the two persons named. Then the land had rest for forty years. (For a
wonderful setting of the song of triumph that Deborah and Barak sang,
let the student turn to Professor Moulton's "Literary Study of the
Bible," pp. 133-142.)

#51.# After this came the terrible oppression of the Midianites, who,
with their camels, their flocks, and herds came on the land like
grasshoppers, and ate up everything. Fortunately this oppression
lasted only for seven years, otherwise there would have been nothing
left. The deliverance from the hosts of Midian came through Gideon,
whose three hundred men with torches and trumpets wrought havoc among
the Midianite army. What the three hundred at Ther