I Kings xiv, 15. For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger.

II Kings viii, 22. Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day.

The Family Bible adds this note :

unto this day] Unto the time when this book was written, which was not long after this revolt.

Yet the editors of the Family admit that the books were written probably by Ezra; and by the date in the margin attached to the revolt of Edom, B. C. 892, it appears that nearly 400 years intervened between the revolt and this relation of it.

II Kings x, 27. And they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day. xiii, 23. And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compossion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.

xiv, 7. He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.

xvii, 29. Howbeit every nation inade gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places, which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt... (v. 34) Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.

xxv, 27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison.

The event here recorded happened about the year B. C. 562, or 26 years before the date usually assigned for the return of the Jews from the Captivity of Babylon. The

Books of Kings, in which this date occurs, could not have been written before, but after the events which are recorded in them.

CHAPTER 20.

ERRORS, DISCREPANCIES, ANACHRONISMS &C. IN THE HISTORICAL GENERALLY, SHEWING THAT THEY ARE NOT CONTEMPORARY

BOOKS

RECORDS.

In the preceding chapters I have attempted to shew from internal evidence, discoverable in the several books of the Old Testament, that they are not the productions of Moses, Joshua and Samuel, to whom they are commonly attributed, but are rather to be taken collectively as a compilation from original records, made at a time when the Israelitish people began to shew a disposition, common to all nations, to scrutinize the history of their remote ancestors. That this view of the matter is well founded seems fairly to result from the examination to

which the books of the Old Testament have been severally submitted. The same inference will follow from other instances of internal evidence gathered from the same books taken collectively, differing somewhat in character from those already brought forward, but equally valuable for the purpose of establishing my present argument.

Under this head will fall all those historical narratives, involving errors, discrepancies, anachronisms, and other inconsistencies, which Moses, Joshua and Samuel, as far as possibility is concerned, may undoubtedly have written, but which it is extremely improbable that teachers and prophets as they were, should have written. The collective weight of these passages will be almost as great as is furnished by those which have been produced in the last six chapters, and which certainly could not have been written by the authors to whom they are ascribed.

1. Two versions of the Ten Commandments.

A formidable objection to the originality of the Hebrew Bible arises from the discrepancies between one part of it and another, not of a nature to invalidate its historical truth, but shewing, merely, that the writer of one part of it had not seen other parts in which the same events had been differently described.

Such a discrepancy is found between the Ten Commandments, as they are noticed in the 20th chapter of Exodus, and again in the 5th chapter of Deuteronomy. The two copies of the commandments are here subjoined in parallel columns :

These two copies of the same document must have been handed down in two different and separate works, and the compiler, whoever he was, that drew up the existing collection which forms the canon of Old Testament, inserted both of the copies, because they appear to be of equal authority, without being deterred by the somewhat inconsistent reasons which the two copies give for the observance of the Fourth Commandment.

2. Inconsistencies concerning Abraham and Sarah.

Two extraordinary inconsistencies are found in the history of Abraham and Sarah, which, as far as I can discover, have not been noticed by any of the commentators. Abraham is said to have been 100 years old, and Sarah 90, at the birth of Isaac, as appears by Genesis, xvii, 17:

Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old, and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

At the distance of three chapters we find that Sarah passes for Abraham's sister, and is carried away to the court of Abimelech, no doubt on account of her beauty.

GEN. XX, 2. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife "She is my sister: " and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

This surely could not have happened after she was ninety years old. The events have probably been misplaced by a compiler; as has also been the case with the second discrepancy which occurs in the same part of the history. Sarah was ninety years old, as just stated, when Isaac was born-in fact she was already an old woman: and this is repeated in Genesis, xxi, 2:

Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

She lived thirty-seven years longer: