the law into one whole; then, when the law is mentioned, whether in Deuteronomy or in the later books, we are to understand the whole law, unless there be something in the context to limit its meaning, as there is, for example, in Joshua 8:32 compared with Deut. 27:1-8.  The command to “read this law before all Israel in their hearing,” “at the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,” was understood in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah of the whole law, and not of Deuteronomy alone (Ch. 9, No. 4); and so Josephus plainly understood it:  “But when the multitude is assembled in the holy city at the septennial sacrifices on the occasion of the feast of tabernacles, let the high priest, standing on a lofty stage whence he can be plainly heard, read the laws to all.”  Antiq. 4.8, 12.  “The laws,” in the usage of Josephus, naturally mean the whole collection of laws.

II.  THE HISTORICAL BOOKS.

4.  The history of these is involved in obscurity.  In respect to most of them we know not the authors, nor the exact date of their composition.  There are, however, two notices that shed much light on the general history of the earlier historical books.  In the last chapter of the book of Joshua, after an account of the renewal of the covenant at Shechem, it is added:  “And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.”  Josh. 24:26.  Again, upon the occasion of the establishment of the kingdom under Saul, we are told that “Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord.” 1 Sam. 10:25.  From the first of these passages we learn that a theocratic man after Moses, who had the spirit of prophecy, connected his writings (or at least one portion of them) with the law.  This addition by Joshua, though never formally regarded as a part of the law, virtually belonged to it, since it contained a renewal of the covenant between God and his people.  From the second passage we learn that the place for other important documents pertaining to the theocracy was “before the Lord,” where the law was deposited.  Hence we infer with much probability that, besides the addition made to “the book of the law of God,” important historical writings, proceeding from prophetical men, like Joshua and Samuel, were in process of collection at the sanctuary all the time from Moses to Samuel.

5.  If now we examine the books of Joshua and Judges, we must be satisfied that the men who compiled them made use of such materials.  In the book of Joshua is recorded, with much detail, the allotment of the land of Canaan among the several tribes.  A document of this nature must have been written at the time, and by Joshua himself, or under his immediate direction.  The same may be reasonably supposed of other portions of the book.  If then it was put into its present form after the death of Joshua, as some suppose, the materials must still have been furnished by him to a great extent.  The book of Judges covers a period of more than three centuries.  Who composed it we do not know, but the materials employed by him must have existed, in part at least, in a written form.  The book of Ruth may be regarded as an appendix to that of the Judges.