And since the Pentateuch was received as the book of the Law, both by the two Tribes and by the ten Tribes, it follows that they received it before they became divided into two Kingdoms.  For after the division, they received not laws from one another, but continued at variance. Judah could not reclaim Israel from the sin of Jeroboam, and Israel could not bring Judah to it.  The Pentateuch therefore was the book of the Law in the days of David and Solomon.  The affairs of the Tabernacle and Temple were ordered by David and Solomon, according to the Law of this book; and David in the 78th Psalm, admonishing the people to give ear to the Law of God, means the Law of this book.  For in describing how their forefathers kept it not, he quotes many historical things out of the books of Exodus and Numbers.

The race of the Kings of Edom, before there reigned any King over Israel, is set down in the book of [8] Genesis; and therefore that book was not written entirely in the form now extant, before the reign of Saul.  The writer set down the race of those Kings till his own time, and therefore wrote before David conquered Edom.  The Pentateuch is composed of the Law and the history of God’s people together; and the history hath been collected from several books, such as were the history of the Creation composed by Moses, Gen. ii. 4. the book of the generations of Adam, Gen. v. i. and the book of the wars of the Lord, Num. xxi. 14.  This book of wars contained what was done at the Red-sea, and in the journeying of Israel thro’ the Wilderness, and therefore was begun by Moses.  And Joshua might carry it on to the conquest of Canaan.  For Joshua wrote some things in the book of the Law of God, Josh. xxiv. 26 and therefore might write his own wars in the book of wars, those being the principal wars of God.  These were publick books, and therefore not written without the authority of Moses and Joshua.  And Samuel had leisure in the reign of Saul, to put them into the form of the books of Moses and Joshua now extant, inserting into the book of Genesis, the race of the Kings of Edom, until there reigned a King in Israel.

The book of the Judges is a continued history of the Judges down to the death of Sampson, and therefore was compiled after his death, out of the Acts of the Judges.  Several things in this book are said to be done when there was no King in Israel__, Judg. xvii. 6. xviii. 1. xix. 1. xxi. 25. and therefore this book was written after the beginning of the reign of Saul.  When it was written, the Jebusites dwelt in Jerusalem, Jud. i. 21 and therefore it was written before the eighth year of David,