For Moses had given the inheritance of the two other tribes and the other half tribe on the other side of the Jordan; and to the Levites he did not give an inheritance in their midst (Joshua 14:1-3).

And now here Jehovah has preserved me alive, just as he promised, these 45 years since Jehovah made this promise to Moses when Israel walked in the wilderness, and now here I am today 85 years old (Joshua 14:9,10).

This promise was made just after the 40 days of spying.

40 years old I was when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me out of Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I came bringing him back word just as it was in my heart (Joshua 14:7).

The spies were sent out from Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran.

So they walked and came to Moses and Aaron and all the assembly of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. And they came bringing back word to them and all the assembly and showing them the fruitage of the land (Numbers 13:25,26)

This was in the second year in the wilderness, 1512, after the inauguration of the tabernacle because, when the assembly talked of stoning Moses and Aaron, Jehovah’s glory appeared on the tent:

However, all the assembly talked of pelting them with stones. And Jehovah's glory appeared on the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel (Numbers 14:10).

And the days that we walked from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the torrent valley of Zered were 38 years, until all the generation of the men of war had come to their end from the midst of the camp, just as Jehovah had sworn to them (Deuteronomy 2:14).

Get up, pull away and cross the torrent valley of Arnon. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the king of Heshbon, the Amorite. So start to take possession of his land, and engage in war with him (Deuteronomy 2:24).

So this was 38 years after 1512 or 1474, the last year in the wilderness. Also Sihon was killed in Numbers 21 after Aaron died in Numbers 20 and Aaron died in 1474Ab1:

And Aaron the priest proceeded to go up into Mount Hor at the order of Jehovah and to die there in the 40th year of the going out of the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, in the 5th month, on the first of the month (Numbers 33:38).

Joshua was 40 years old in 1512 so he was 85 years old in 1467. The sixth year in the promised land was from 1468Tishri to 1467Tishri. And then came the first sabbath about which the scriptures say:

And you must cross the Jordan and dwell in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you as a possession, and he will certainly give you rest from all your enemies round about, and you will indeed dwell in security (Deuteronomy 12:10).

Rest happens in the 7^th year, the first sabbath year in the promised land, just after the land had been distributed by lot:

Furthermore, Jehovah gave them rest all around, according to everything that he had sworn to their forefathers, and not one of all their enemies stood before them. All their enemies Jehovah gave into their hand (Joshua 21:44).

The pattern of Judges

And it occurred that when the judge died they would turn around and act more ruinously than their fathers by walking after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not refrain from their practices and their stubborn behavior (Judges 2:18,19).

Picking up the story, this is how Judges is written, although it is not all in Chronological order:

So the sons of Israel did what was bad in Jehovah's eyes, and they were forgetful of Jehovah their God and went serving the Baals and the sacred poles (Judges 3:7).

Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of 110 years (Judges 2:8).

He was 85 in 1467 so he was 110 in 1442 (the Hebrew year).

Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of 110 years (Judges 2:7,8).

Then from 1442 until 1438 the older men were still around - see [93].

1437 to 1430 inclusive. Started serving in 1438.

After that the land had no disturbance for 40 years. Eventually Othniel the son of Kenaz died (Judges 3:8-11).

1429 to 1390 inclusive. Started judging in 1435, this being the end of the 450 years of Acts 13 - see [93].

Furthermore, he gathered against them the sons of Ammon and Amalek. Then they went and struck Israel and took possession of the city of palm trees (Judges 3:12,13).

The city of palm trees was Jericho - 2 Chronicles 28:15.

And the sons of Israel continued to serve Eglon the king of Moab 18 years (Judges 3:14).

1389 to 1372 inclusive. Started serving in 1390.

And the sons of Israel began to call to Jehovah for aid. So Jehovah raised up for them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a left-handed man. In time the sons of Israel sent tribute by his hand to Eglon the king of Moab (Judges 3:15).

And Moab came to be subdued on that day under Israel's hand; and the land had no further disturbance for 80 years (Judges 3:30).

1371 to 1292 inclusive. Started having no disturbance in 1372.

And after him there proved to be Shamgar the son of Anath, and he went striking down the Philistines, 600 men, with a cattle goad; and he too got to save Israel (Judges 3:31). Another Judge.

And the sons of Israel began to cry out to Jehovah, because he had 900 war chariots with iron scythes, and he himself oppressed the sons of Israel with harshness 20 years (Judges 4:1-3).

1291 to 1272 inclusive. Sale occurred in 1292.

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that particular time (Judges 4:4).

The existence of a judge did not mean there was no oppression.

And the hand of the sons of Israel went on getting harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin the king of Canaan (Judges 4:24, last verse).

And the land had no further disturbance for 40 years (Judges 5:1-31).

That day was the day of cutting of Jabin. 1271 to 1232 inclusive. Jabin killed in 1272.

Then the sons of Israel began to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah. So Jehovah gave them into the hand of Midian for 7 years (Judges 6:1).

1231 to 1225 inclusive. God gave them into the hand of Midian in 1232.

Thus Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift up their head anymore; and the land had no further disturbance for 40 years in the days of Gideon (Judges 8:28).

1224 to 1185 inclusive. Midian was subdued in 1225.

And the sons of Israel did not remember Jehovah their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies round about; and they did not exercise loving-kindness toward the household of Jerubbaal, Gideon, in return for all the goodness that he had exercised toward Israel (Judges 8:33-35, last verse).

Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to the brothers of his mother and began speaking to them and to all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying … And Abimelech kept playing the prince over Israel 3 years (Judges 9:1-22).

Gideon was also called Jerubbaal. 1184 to 1182 inclusive. Gideon died in 1185

When the men of Israel got to see that Abimelech had died, they now went each one to his place (Judges 9:55).

Abimelech died in 1182.

Tola rose up to save Israel in or after 1182, but when he started judging we do not know (Deborah judged for many years before she saved Israel as did Samson and Samuel).

Jair rose up after Tola died, but when Jair started judging we do not know from the literal meaning. The symbolic meaning is that there are 60 years (inclusive) after the year of the death of Jair to the first regnal year of the first King of Israel whose kingship is depicted by the asses (kings rode on asses to be crowned, and Saul lost his asses in 1 Samuel 9). Saul’s first regnal year was 1115. So Jair’s last was 1175, using the Numerical Principle of the code.

Hence they shattered and heavily oppressed the sons of Israel in that year -- for 18 years all the sons of Israel that were on the side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites that was in Gilead (Judges 10:1-8).

In the pattern for Judges Israel would start to misbehave as soon as the judge dies. ‘That year’ might have been Jair’s last year, therefore from the literal sense of the account. But certainly in ‘that year’ the Ammonites started their oppression which lasted 18 years. Whereas the Philistines did not start their oppression in that year. Their oppression lasted 40 years as we shall see later.

And the people and the princes of Gilead began to say to one another: Who is the man that will take the lead in fighting against the sons of Ammon? Let him become the head of all the inhabitants of Gilead (Judges 10:18).

Consequently Jephthah went with the older men of Gilead and the people set him over them as head and commander (Judges 11:11).

Jephthah was made head not over Israel, but only over Gilead, the region east of the Jordan, which had fallen to the sons of Ammon. He then said to the king of the sons of Ammon.

And now Jehovah the God of Israel it was that dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and you, for your part, would dispossess them (Judges 11:21-23).

While Israel was dwelling in Heshbon and its dependent towns and in Aroer and its dependent towns and in all the cities that are by the banks of Arnon for 300 years, why, then, did you never snatch them away during that time? (Judges 11:26).

Israel defeated Sihon in the last year in the wilderness 1474. Three hundred years later inclusively is 1175. So the 18 years of Ammonite oppression started either in 1175 or in 1174 depending on how you count the 300 years. But Jair died in 1175, so we can take ‘that year’ in Judges 10:8 as being the year in which Jair died, 1175. So the 18 years of Ammonite oppression would be 1174 to 1157 inclusive.

So Jephthah passed along to the sons of Ammon to fight against them, and Jehovah proceeded to give them into his hand (Judges 11:32).

And Jephthah continued to judge Israel for six years, after which Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead (Judges 12:7).

One can reasonably presume that Jehpthath, since he was appointed head of the Gileadites for the express purpose of warring with the sons of Ammon, did not waste any time and conquered them in his accession year as judge, i.e. in 1157. This may be wrong (it doesn’t effect the overall chronology of Judges). If so then he judged from 1156 to 1151 inclusive (judging years). If not, then he might have judged from 1157 to 1152 inclusive.

Meanwhile as the regards the hand of the Philistines:

And the sons of Israel engaged again in doing what was bad in Jehovah's eyes, so that Jehovah gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years (Judges 13:1).

This period must start in the 18 years of the inhabitants of Gilead being given into the hand of the sons of Ammon. So that the sons of Israel satisfy the verse:

At this Jehovah's anger blazed against Israel, so that he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the sons of Ammon (Judges 10:7).

Now that Ammonite oppression started in 1174, as we discovered above, but the double oppression did not start for 10 years, this being the symbolic meaning of into the hand of the philistines and into the hand of the sons of Ammon. Two hands are ten times (and each counts as 10x by a counting argument). So the 40 years of Philistine oppression were from 1164 to 1125 inclusive.

As regards Samson, he judged Israel for 20 years during the 40 year Philistine oppression.

And he continued to judge Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years (Judges 15:20).

Later his brothers and all the household of his father came on down and lifted him up and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial place of Manoah his father. As for him, he had judged Israel 20 years (Judges 16:30,31).

And it came about that at the moment that he mentioned the ark of the [true] God, he began to fall from the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck got broken so that he died, because the man was old and heavy; and he himself had judged Israel 40 years (1 Samuel 4:17,18). This was Eli

And the ark of Jehovah proved to be in the field of the Philistines 7 months (1 Samuel 6:1).

And it came about that from the day of the Ark's dwelling in Kiriath-jearim the days kept multiplying, so that they amounted to 20 years, and all the house of Israel went lamenting after Jehovah (1 Samuel 6:21 - 7:2).

And there came to be peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel kept on judging Israel all the days of his life (1 Samuel 7:13-15).

So Samuel judges whilst Saul was King and Judge. The delivery from the hand of the Philistines ends the 40 year period of oppression by them. The Amorites (whose land, Gilead, was taken by the sons of Ammon for 18 years and re-conquered) are again mentioned.

So the ark spent the last 20 years of the 40 year Philistine oppression period in Kiriath-jearim. This was from 1144 to 1125. So the ark was lost in 1145. So Eli died then and so he judged Israel from 1184 to 1145.

In time all the older men of Israel collected themselves together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him: Look! You yourself have grown old, but your own sons have not walked in your ways. Now do appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations (1 Samuel 8:4,5).

Saul became king in 1116.

The 30 sons and 30 daughters are 60 years until Israel got dominion over the Philistines when David beat Goliath. Wives from outside symbolises dominion over outsiders. David beat Goliath in the year when he was anointed by Samuel which began in 1083Nisan. David beat Goliath 430 years after the sons of Israel left Egypt because:

And it came about at the end of the 430 years, it even came about on this very day that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:40,41).

The 430 years is mentioned twice so there is a greater period of 430 years, relating to those who had dwelt in Egypt.

If he is able to fight with me and he does strike me down, we must then become servants to you. But if I myself am a match for him and I do strike him down, you must also become servants to us, and you must serve us (1 Samuel 17:9).

David did strike him down, so, the armies of Jehovah, whose battle lines Goliath had taunted, came out of Egypt (Canaan other than Israel was an Egyptian dependency at the time of Goliath, and the Philistines were ruled by the Egyptians), when they finally conquered the Philistines:

So judge Ibzan died 60 years earlier in 1143, so he judged from 1149 to 1143 inclusive. This fits nicely behind Jephthath whose last year of judging was 1152/1.

Possibly from 1142 to 1133 inclusive (or later).

And he came to have 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 full-grown asses. And he continued to judge Israel 8 years (Judges 12:8-14).

Possibly from 1132 to 1125 inclusive (or later). The coded period of 70 years (not 140 years because the asses were not said to belong to all these sons as in the case of Judge Jair!). looks like it applies to Solomon (the first king to be a son of another king). Now Solomon was young when he became king:

And now, Jehovah my God, you yourself have made your servant king in the place of David my father, and I am but a little boy. I do not know how to go out and how to come in (1 Kings 3:7).

So perhaps he was born 70 years after the last year of Abdon in 1155. So that he was 7 years old when God commissioned him to build the temple in 1148 and he was 18 in 1036 when he acceded in coregency with his father.

So the final Chronology is:

8 years serving Cushan, 18 years serving Eglon, 20 years serving Jabin (King of Moab), 7 years serving Midian, 40 years serving the Philistines = 93 years of servitude.