The goddess Ashtoreth was, according to Naville, the patroness of war-chariots, and although the chariots taken by Joshua were drawn by horses, Josh. 11:6, we find them on some of the monuments represented as drawn by oxen, and it is said that oxen have been trained to run fast.
It should be remembered that the use of scythes or swords attached to the wheels or sides of chariots does not appear to have been in vogue until after this period.[79]
=9. The Israelites= had no war chariots until the time of David, 2 Sam. 8:4, and it is highly improbable that at that time they were used for war purposes, but only as baggage or forage wagons, and the remaining number taken in battle were disjointed, crippled, or destroyed, as the Hebrew text is translated in the Septuagint, and not that the horses were “houghed,”[80] as in our English version.
=10.= Solomon, B. C. 992, gathered chariots from Egypt and horses, although he was a man of peace, and it does not appear for what purpose the chariots were used except for display; but the act was certainly in direct violation of the law, Deut. 17:14‒20, and marked the beginning of that king’s departure from the service of Jehovah.
=11. The chronology of the times= of the Judges is not clearly made out. It cannot be determined that the Judges all reigned consecutively or that any one Judge had authority over any larger district than that of a few tribes. The Scriptural order seems to be as follows:
───────────────────┬───────────┬─────────────┬────────────┬─────────── │ Duration │ │ Duration │ Began to Conquerors. │ of │ The Judge. │ in office,│ rule B. C. │ servitude.│ │ or “Rest.” │ (Ussher). ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Chushan-rishathaim │ 8 years. | │ │ 1402 │ │ Othniel │ 40 years. │ 1394 ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Eglon │ 18 years. │ │ │ 1354 │ │ Ehud │ 80 years. │ 1336 ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Philistines │ ? │ Shamgar │ ? │ ? ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Jabin, a Canaanite │ │ │ │ king at Hazor │ 20 years. │ │ │ 1316 │ │ Deborah and │ │ │ │ Barak │ 40 years. │ 1296 ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Midianites and │ │ │ │ Amalekites, etc. │ 7 years. │ │ │ 1256 │ │ Gideon │ 40 years. │ 1249 ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Civil war │ │ Abimelech │ 3 years. │ 1209 │ │ Tola │ 23 years. │ 1206 │ │ Jair │ 22 years. │ 1183 ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Philistines and │ │ │ │ Ammon │ 18 years. │ │ │ 1161 │ │ Jephthah │ 6 years. │ 1143 │ │ Ibzan │ 7 years. │ 1137 │ │ Elon │ 10 years. │ 1130 │ │ Abdon │ 8 years. │ 1120 ───────────────────┼───────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────── Philistines │ 40 years. │ │ │ 1112 │ │ Samson │ 20 years. │ │ │ Eli │ 40 years. │ │ │ Samuel │ All the │ │ │ │ days of │ │ │ │ his life, │ │ │ │1 Sam. 7:15.│ dies 1060 │ │ SAUL │ │ 1095 │ │ │ │ FIRST YEAR │ │ │ │ OF REIGN. ───────────────────┴───────────┴─────────────┴────────────┴───────────