[23] Arphaxad was born “two years after the flood” [Gen. xi., 10]; at the age of 35 he had a son, Salah [v., 12], in thirty more years Salah had his son Eber, and before Pelez was born, which was 34 years later, the Dispersion had taken place.
[24] It may be safely asserted that population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical progression of such a nature as to double itself every 25 years.—Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xviii., p. 3, col. Practically, such an instance is rare, if not wholly uninstanced. Take the increase of England and Wales as an example. In 1377 it was 2,092,978, in 1483 it was 4,689,000; in the 100 years, ending with 1800, the population had increased from 5,475,000 to 8,675,000; and in the century ending with 1860 it increased nearly threefold, the largest increase we have experienced. [In 1760 it was 6,736,000, in 1861 it was 20,062,725.]
[26a] The average size of an ox in the herd is 60 stone (of 8 lbs.), and of a sheep six stone. When the Armistice of 28 days was lately proposed, the supply of Paris for the time was estimated at 34,000 oxen, 8,000 sheep, 8,000 swine, 5,000 calves, 100,000 cwt. of salt meat, eight million cwt. of hay and straw, 200,000 cwt. of meal, and 30,000 cwt. of dried vegetables. For the cooking of food, the estimate was 100,000 tons of coals, and 14 million square feet of wood.
[26b] The absurdity of such an increase as even the “small” supposition of doubling every twenty years will be obvious to any one who will take the trouble of working out the figures for 440 years, which would bring us to the reign of David. At the Exodus the number was three millions; if they doubled every twenty years the people in the little kingdom of David would have been twelve and a half trillion!! And if the increase of the book of Exodus is taken as the standard the numbers must be increased a hundred-fold. Now the whole population of the world is somewhat more than 1,000 millions, so that in a space not so large as Yorkshire, and three-fourths wilderness, would be gathered together more than all the inmates of all the world twelve thousand times over.
[27a] The nominal limits of “the promised land” were the Euphrates and Mediterranean Sea on the east and west, the “entrance of Hamath” and “river of Egypt” on the north and south, giving a surface of 60,000 square miles; but Sidonia and Philistia on the west, the land of the Moabites and Ammonites on the east never belonged to the kingdom of David, the real extent of which was about 45 miles broad and 100 miles long. Yorkshire is 90 by 130, the principality of Wales 65 by 150; so that the entire kingdom of David in its greatest extent was considerably smaller than Yorkshire or Wales, and only one quarter of it was inhabited, the rest being desert or wilderness.
[27b] Take Prussia. Every Prussian is liable to be called into military service as soon as he attains his 20th year, and after he has completed his 27th year he enters the Landwehr. Suppose war is proclaimed, then every layman in Prussia between 20 and 27 is liable to be called into the ranks, and would constitute a standing army of 200,000 strong; by adding the Landwehr of the first call, 100,000 more would be supplied; and by enrolling all who have not rendered their full service to the state, the entire amount would be increased to 600,000. How absurd, therefore, to speak of double the number of soldiers in such a petty nation as Judah or Israel! The entire population of Yorkshire is less than two millions, of Wales not equal to “David’s army;” yet the entire kingdom of David was smaller than either, and more than three-fourths of it was uninhabited!!
[31] Our national debt is not half a quarter of this sum, being somewhat less than 800 millions sterling. Suppose an English historian had told us that a king of wealthy England had laid by money enough to pay off the national debt eight times, what would be thought of the statement? But suppose we had been told that one of the kings of Wales or of Northumbria had saved all this money for a church, would the most credulous believe it? France finds it no easy matter to raise 200 millions, and all Europe would be puzzled to find the money instanter, but the king of a little territory considerably smaller than Belgium managed to raise that sum thirty-five times over.
[36] Ahaziah was also called Jehoahaz and Azariah.
[44] See Virgil, Geor. i., 184, 185; Æneid, iv., 402–406; Horace, Satires, bk. i., s. i., 33 &c.
[53] See No. IX. of this Series.