amuel 8:1-22; although, if such kings are set up as own
him for their supreme King, and aim to govern according to his laws,
he hath admitted of them, and protected them and their subjects in all
generations.

[12] Josephus's early date of this history before the beginning of the
Judges, or when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19;1, is strongly
confirmed by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days of Asa and
Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 14:8, and 16:17, who yet were here reduced to
six hundred men; nor can those numbers be at all supposed genuine, if
they were reduced so late as the end of the Judges, where our other
copies place this reduction.

[13] Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, when he took the
Hebrew word Bethel, which denotes the house of God, or the tabernacle,
Judges 20:18, for the proper name of a place, Bethel, it no way
appearing that the tabernacle was ever at Bethel; only so far it is
true, that Shiloh, the place of the tabernacle in the days of the
Judges, was not far from Bethel.

[14] It appears by the sacred history, Judges 1:16; 3:13, that Eglon's
pavilion or palace was at the City of Palm-Trees, as the place where
Jericho had stood is called after its destruction by Joshua, that is,
at or near the demolished city. Accordingly, Josephus says it was at
Jericho, or rather in that fine country of palm-trees, upon, or near
to, the same spot of ground on which Jericho had formerly stood, and on
which it was rebuilt by Hiel, 1 Kings 16:31. Our other copies that avoid
its proper name Jericho, and call it the City of Palm-Trees only, speak
here more accurately than Josephus.

[15] These eighty years for the government of Ehud are necessary to
Josephus's usual large numbers between the exodus and the building of
the temple, of five hundred and ninety-two or six hundred and twelve
years, but not to the smallest number of four hundred and eighty years,
1 Kings 6:1; which lesser number Josephus seems sometimes to have
followed. And since in the beginning of the next chapter it is said
by Josephus, that there was hardly a breathing time for the Israelites
before Jabin came and enslaved them, it is highly probable that some of
the copies in his time had here only eight years instead of eighty; as
had that of Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolye. 1. iii., and this most
probably from his copy of Josephus.

[16] Our present copies of Josephus all omit Tola among the judges,
though the oth