6. The chronology is elicited.
With respect to the reckoning of the time, from the quiet given to the land by the help of Othniel, the first Judge, to the death of Samson, two hundred and eighty-eight years passed. For, from the quiet restored to the land through Othniel to the quiet recovered by Ehud, eighty years passed, Judge 3:30; thence unto the quiet restored through Deborah and Barak, forty years, Judges 5:31; thence unto the quiet restored through Gideon, forty years, Judges 8:28; thence unto the beginning of the Judgeship of Abimelech, the son of Gideon, nine years and two months (as it is gathered by subtraction of the sum of all the remaining numbers from the whole of four hundred and seventy-nine years, which are mentioned to have passed between the Exodus and the beginning of Solomon’s Temple, 1 Kings 6:1); thence under the Judges Abimelech, Tola, and Jair, forty-eight years, Judges 9:22, 23; 10:2, 3, under Jephthah, six years, Judges 12:7; thence under Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, forty years, Judges 12:9, 11, 14; thence under Samson, forty years, Judges 13:1: and so in all two hundred and eighty-eight years. But, how many years came between the death of Joshua and the quiet of the land restored by Othniel, the Scripture does not exhibit. Except that from the first quiet of the land procured by Joshua, after which Joshua is said to have lived many years, unto the quiet restored by Othniel, Judges 3:11, forty years are mentioned as having passed, under which are also contained the eight year that the people were oppressed by Chushan.[1]
[1] Judges 3:8.