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    hundred escaped in - the battle , it was certainly a Woody engagement : and it shocks imagination , as . well as rea * ton , to conceive that no more should escape out of twenty ^ six thousand and seven , hundred . If we divide in

    the same proportion the four hundred thousand men of the other tribes , there will remain forty thousand which may still be thought a number exceeding probability ; and thougjittwelve thousand are said : to be- , detached to

    surprise and destroy the small defenceless town of Jabesh Gilead , twelve hundred would- certainly * have been sufficient for ^ the pu rpo se * When Rehoboanv is said to raise an armyrof one hundred and eighty- * thousand chosen men , out of the two tribes -of

    Judahiand Benjamin 9 ( Kings xii . 21 ) , if we reduce them by ten * the remaining eighteen thousand seems to be a ^ nuch more . probable n umber . In the second book of Chronicles , ch * xvi « there i& « . far ^ more extravagant accounts which i ^ , that , Abijah ^ son and successor to Rehoboam ^ raided an

    army consisting of < four- hundred thousand chosen men , out of the same two tribes ; and Jeroboam ^ King of Israel ^ aa << arm y of : eig ^ ht hundred thousand ehoseumen , outof therother ten tribes $ and-i that . fivrecJmndred tho . ttsand ; o £ the < latter army swere slain i n the engagement ** This * account is

    * The . following . note was » faund in , the MS . by another haniL Ed . The proportion of men from each tribe , " who , according - to the same author , attertded David at Hebron , to support his election to the whole kingdom , and were with him three days ^ ating * and drinking-, is as follow * ? 1 Chron . xii . Mkn of Jutiah 6800

    " Siteeon 7 I 0 O Levi , 4600 Benjamin 3000 IMftrfb * Eph ^ iai .. . 20800 J ManasseH 18000 Issachar , , 200 chiefs , the rest unnumbered . Zebulon , perfectly

    aimed and trained .... 50000 Napthali 37000 Ban 2860 O Asher 40000 On the r Reuben " } other side ? Gad % 120000 of Jordan (^ Manaseeh repeated j 335900

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    added cmly to convince the reader that the transcribers of copies set no bounds to their vanity ia magnifying the number , and consequently power and grandeur , of their nation . To add ai * instance or two more in which the numbers appear to he ex * - ceed 4 ngly magaifiei * It is saidv iw our Version , 1 Sana vi . ig . that " Fiffey thousand awdthreescoreand ten men "

    were punished with deathtfor the crime of" looking into the ark of the Lord *" But beside the improbability of the country supply ing so great a multitude to visit the ark , or of a tenth' part of such a number getting near enough to look into it r the authors of the Ara ^ bicandSyrtee Version seem to have ^

    read in their Hebrew manuscripts no more than five thousand . Josephu ©^ reduces them to seventy only ; and 1 the learned Dr . Kennicott h ^ s lately * informed thie public that he fdundth ^ number to be no more than seventy , in < two ancient manuscripts which he collated- In Ex . xxxii ^ 2 ^ . it is

    related that the armed Levkes byth ^ command of Moses * ' slew < aboutthre « thousand men" of those who worshipped the golden calf , and who were celebrating a religiousi festival on the occasion . The number here cited

    frbm our English Version fis-agreeable to Hebrew ^ manus criptsy i and sereml ^ antient versions ; yet in somecopises * of the Septuagint and the Vulgate , w « * fihd twenty-three thousand , and' in * some tMrty + thweeth&usand . These ar ^' instances of an aptnes * in translators < or transcribers to make ^ arithmetical

    mistakes , which are always foiiwd to be of a magnifying kind . It is a very < probable conjecture , thottgh ^« ver s <*< destitute of support either from ntt ^ nuscripts or versions , thattthe nambef

    also , of •* thirty-two thousand < youiig- ^ female captives , of six hwndred seventy-five thousand sheep ,- seventy-trtvo thousand heads of cattle , and sixty-oi ^ * thousand asses , " said to betaken from ? ; the Midianites , ( Num . xxxi . ) are

    greftt-Lel the reader compare thi $ list of humhers , and the sum total , with those mentioaed above . Let him also consider that these three hundred thousand men in aims , ( not to mention the odd thousands ) are all said to hii-v ^ e feasted with David at Hebron

    for threee days successively , and then let him judge what credit i $ due to the accounts of numbers which we meet in sereral passages of the Hebrew history .

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    On $ he numhtr ofthtH&rcv * PeopUxtt different periods . 4 f

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/47/