age; an age in which military tactics and fortification were improved, and large armies formed. From this period, until the Hebrews became subject to the Assyrians and Chaldeans, but little progress was made in the arts of war.

The Maccabees, after the captivity, gave new vigour to the military art and discipline of the Hebrews; though not sufficient to enable their descendants to withstand the superior power and skill of the Romans.

§. 266. GENERAL MILITARY ENROLMENT.

In the second year after the Exodus from Egypt, there was a general enrolment of all who were able to bear arms, yi

; viz. of all who were between the ages of twenty and fifty; the Levites (whose duty it was to guard the tabernacle, which was understood to be the palace of God, as the political head of the community) being enrolled separately, and not included in the great body of the people, Numb, i. 1-54.

A second enrolment was made in the fortieth year after the Exodus, Numb. xxvi. 2, by the genealogists, under the direction of the princes. In case of war, those who were to be called into actual service, were taken from such as were thus enrolled; the whole body not being expected to take the field, except on extraordinary occasions, Jud. xx.; 1 Sam. xi, 7; comp. Exod. xvii.; Numb. xxxi.; Josh. vii. 7, 11, 12.

In respect to the enrolment which was made in the reign of David, and which was displeasing to Joab himself, the design of it seems to have been to reduce the whole people to perpetual military servitude. It was accordingly done, not by the genea

and it ; שָׂרֵי הָחַיִל,but by military prefects , שׁוֹטְרִים,logists

is further worthy of remark, that in this instance, instead of the usual word, the word was employed, 2 Sam. xxiv.

An universal enrolment of the people in this manner was at this time prevented; but it seems to have taken place under the subsequent kings; otherwise, how can we account for the large armies which are mentioned in the Books of Kings, even setting aside the passages which labour under the suspicion of having been altered by copyists?

§. 267. OF LEVIES FOR ACTUAL SERVICE.

Whenever there was an immediate prospect of war, a levy of

this kind was made by the genealogists, Deut. xx. 5-9. In the time of the kings, there was a head or ruler of the persons that made the levy, denominated ; who kept an account of the number of the soldiers, but who must be distinguished from the generalissimo, 7, 2 Chron. xxvi. 11; comp. 2 Sam. viii. 17; xx. 25; 1 Chron. xviii. 16.

After the levy was completed, the genealogists gave public notice that the following persons might be excused from military service, Deut. xx. 5-8.

it.

(1.) Those who had built a house, and had not yet inhabited

(2.) Those who had planted a ??, i. e. an olive or vine garden, and had not as yet tasted the fruit of it; (an exemption, consequently, which extended through the first five years after such planting.)

(3.) Those who had bargained for a spouse, but had not celebrated the nuptials; also those who had not as yet lived with their wife for a year.

(4.) The faint-hearted, who would be likely to discourage others; and who, if they had gone into battle, where, in those early times, every thing depended on personal prowess, would only have fallen victims.

§. 268. DIVISIONS, ETC. INTRODUCED INTO THE HEBREW

ARMIES.

The division of the army into three bands, as mentioned in Gen. xiv. 14, 15; Judg. vii. 16, 20; 1 Sam. xi. 11; 2 Sam. xviii. 2; Job, i. 17; was probably no other than the division into the centre, and left and right wing. The commanders of these divisions appear to have been called, Exod. xiv. 7; xv. 4; 2 Kings, ix. 25; xv. 25; Ezek. xxiii. 13, 23.

The Hebrews, when they departed from Egypt, marched in military order, by, by their armies or hosts, Exod. xii. 51; expressions which, in Exod. xiii. 18, are interchanged with the word, probably better pointed . We infer from these expressions, that they followed each other in ranks of fifty deep; and that, at the head of each rank or file of fifty, was the captain of fifty, 1 Sam. viii. 12; 2 Kings, i. 9-14; comp. Josh. i. 14; Judges, vii. 11. The other divisions consisted of an hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand men; each

of which had its appropriate commander, Numb. xxxi. 48; Deut. i. 15; Judg. xx. 10; 1 Sam. viii. 12; xviii. 13; xxix. 2; 1 Macc. iii. 55. These divisions ranked, in respect to each other, according to their families; and were subject to the authority of the heads of those families, 2 Chron. xxv. 5; xxvi. 12, 13. The centurions, and CHILIARCHS or captains of thousands, were admitted into the councils of war, 1 Sam. xviii. 13; 1 Chron. xiii. 1-3; and make their appearance, as it would seem, in Joshua, x. 24, and Judges, xi. 6, 11, under the name of ?.

שָׂר עַל הַצְבָא The leader of the whole army was denominated

the captain of the host.

An

Another principal officer was the one called, [who is said in the original German edition to have had the care of the muster-roll, musterrollen-meister.] officer different from both of these was the one called b, the numberer of the towers, who appears to have been a sort of engineer, Is. xxxiii. 18; 1 Chron. xviii. 15, 16; xxvii. 33; 1 Kings, iv. 4; 2 Chron. xvii. 14; xxvi. 11.

The army of David consisted of two hundred and eighty thousand men. Every twenty-four thousand of them had a separate commander. The divisions of twenty-four thousand performed military duty alternately, viz. a month at a time in succession, 1 Chron. xxvii. 1-15.

The army in the reign of Jehoshaphat was divided into five unequal divisions, each of which had its separate commander, 2 Chron. xvii. 14-17.

The GENEALOGISTS, [in the English version officers,] according to a law in Deut. xx. 9, had the right of appointing the officers in the army; and they, undoubtedly, made it a rule in their selections, to choose those who are called heads of families. This method of selecting military officers gave way to a new system under the kings, when some of the officers were chosen by the monarch, while others became permanent and hereditary in the heads of families.

,נֹשֵׂא כֵלִים,Both kings and generals had armour bearers

chosen from the bravest of the soldiery, who not only bore the arms of their masters, but were employed to convey his commands to the subordinate captains; and were present at his side in the hour of peril, 1 Sam. xiv. 6; xvii. 7; comp. Polybius, X. 1.

The infantry, the cavalry, and the chariots of war, were so

arranged, as to make separate divisions of an army, Exod. xiv. 6, 7. The infantry were divided into light-armed troops,

, and spearmen, Gen. xlix. 19; 1 Sam. xxx. 8, 15, 23; 2 Sam. iii. 22; iv. 2; xxii. 30; 2 Kings, v. 2; Ps. xviii. 30; Hos. vii. 1. The light infantry were furnished with a sling and javelin; with a bow, arrows, and quiver; and also, at least in later times with a buckler. They attacked the enemy at a distance; while the spearmen who were armed with spears, swords, and shields, fought hand to hand, 1 Chron. xii. 24, 34; 2 Chron. xiv. 8; xvii. 17. The light-armed troops were commonly taken from the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, 2 Chron. xiv. 8; xvii. 17; comp. Gen. xlix. 27; Ps. lxxviii. 9.

The Roman soldiers were divided into legions; each legion was divided into ten cohorts, σеipa; each cohort into three bands, and each band into two centuries or hundreds. So that a LEGION consisted of thirty bands of six thousand men, and a cohort of six hundred, though the number was not always the same.

In Palestine, in the days of Josephus, (Jewish War, Lib. III. c. 4. §. 2,) there was a number of cohorts, some of which consisted of a thousand foot, and others of only six hundred foot, and an hundred and twenty horse. Comp. Matt. xxvii. 27, 28; Mark, xv. 16, and Acts, x. 1; xxi. 31; xxvii. 1. In addition to the cavalry, there were certain light troops in the Palestine cohorts called defioλáßo, armed with a javelin and spear, Acts, xxiii. 23. It is necessary to distinguish the Roman soldiers, mentioned in the New Testament, not only from the soldiers of Herod Agrippa, (Acts, xii. 4,) who kept guard after the Roman manner by quaternions, i. e. four at a time; but also from the bands of Levites that watched the temple, who had a priest of high standing for their captain, Luke, xxii. 4, 52; Acts, iv. 1; v. 24. It is no objection at all, as I conceive, to this statement, that the word nepa, (the Greek for a cohort,) is applied to the Levites here mentioned in John, xviii. 3, 12.

§. 269. MILITARY REVIEWS AND INSPECTIONS.

That the ceremonies of a military review or muster, consisted chiefly in the division of a body of soldiers into different corps, according to the nature of the arms with which they were furnished, and in a minute inspection of those corps, may be

X

inferred from the verb, which is applied to such review or muster; but which, nevertheless, properly means to inspect or to examine narrowly.

The arms in which the soldiers presented themselves for inspection, were either defensive, T, 1 Sam. xvii. 38, as the buckler, helmet, breastplate, and greaves: or offensive, as the sword and spear, with which they fought the enemy hand to hand, and the sling, arrows, javelins, catapults, and ballistæ, with which they attacked them from a distance.

Of these, we shall treat separately, adding something upon fortifications, trenches, circumvallation, machines used in war, cavalry, and chariots.

§. 270. OF SHIELDS.

A shield, 1, is first mentioned in Gen. xv. 1. The word frequently occurs afterwards, by a figure of speech, for defence or protection, 2 Sam. xxii. 31, 36; Ps. xlvii. 9; cxliv. 2; Prov. xxx. 5. There is another sort of shield, called ; and a third called. This last occurs for the first time in Ps. xci. 4,

. מָגֵן in connection with

The difference of the shields and 12 consisted in this; the latter was smaller in size than the former, which was so large as to cover the whole body, 1 Kings, x. 16, 17; comp. 2 Chron. ix. 16; hence is always joined with a spear, but 12 with swords and arrows, 1 Chron. v. 18; xii. 8, 24, 34; 2 Chron. xiv. 7; xxvi. 14. The word, if we may form an opinion from its etymology, signifies a round shield, or buckler. [Gesenius has collated the corresponding Syriac word, and is of opinion that the form of this shield cannot satisfactorily be inferred from the etymology of its name.] The form of a fourth sort of shields, called and, is not well known ; but that these words are rightly rendered shields will be sufficiently clear by comparing 2 Kings, xi. 10, with 2 Chron. xxiii. 9; 2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Chron. xviii. 7, 8. Shields were manufactured sometimes of a light sort of wood, sometimes of osiers woven together and covered with bull's hide, and sometimes of a bull's hide merely, twice or three times folded over. The hide was anointed to render it smooth and slippery, and to prevent its being injured by the wet, 2 Sam. i. 21, 22; Is. xxi. 5. Shields made wholly of brass were very uncommon; yet it was some