ANARCHY. This is a Greek word1, and signifies properly an Interregnum, or the condition of a City, Commonwealth, or State without a Head, King, or Sovereign: For example, it is said in some places of the Scripture, In those days there was no King in Israel, but every Man did that which was 1 Judg. xvii. 6. xviii. 1. 31. xxi. 24.right in his own eyes. This is the true description of an Anarchy. The first Anarchy that we know of in the Hebrew Commonwealth is that which ensued upon the death of Joshua. This great Man dying without appointing his Successor, and the People having chosen no Leader in his place, the Government devolved to the Elders of the Tribes, who govern’d each according to his own mind2.
After the death of these Elders the Anarchy was still greater; and it is generally believed, that during this interval the several Stories happen’d which are related at the end of the book of Judges, viz. the Story of Micah and the Idol, which he set up in his house, Judg. xvii. that of the Danites, who left their Country to settle at Laish, Judg. xviii. and lastly, the history of the Levite, whose Wife was dishonoured at Gibeah, which accident produced a war between all the other Tribes against that of Benjamin, Judg. xix, xx, xxi. We reckon with Usher that this Anarchy was of about two and twenty years continuance, from the death of Joshua, in the year 2561, to the first servitude of the Hebrews under Chushan Rishathaim, in the year of the World 2591. We allow about fifteen years for the Government of the Elders after the death of Joshua, and seven for the Anarchy from that time to the dominion of Chushan Rhishathaim, King of Mesopotamia, Judg. iii. begun in 2591, and terminated in 2599, by the valour of Othniel.
It is worth observing, that no point of Chronology is more perplexed than the Anarchies which happened, particularly under the Judges. Every one computes them after his own way: We have followed Usher, who may be consulted as well as the Chronological Table belonging to this Dictionary. There is said to have been an Interregnum of eleven or twelve years under the Kings between Jeroboam II. and Zechariah; but we think we have shewn the contrary in our Supplement. Some maintain that there was another Anarchy after the Reign of Pekah, but we see no proof of it. The captivity of Babylon is not properly an Anarchy, but a dispersion and total captivity of the whole Jewish nation.
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