The object of Usher in determining the Hebrew computation of this period, as given above, was evidently to square or fashion the intervals so that their sum should not exceed the _interpolated period_ of 480 years! This he has effected by the omission of the intervals of all the SERVITUDES, which are expressly recorded in Scripture, the interpolation of 9⅙ years between the critarchates of Gideon and Abimelech, and the addition of _nine_ years to the critarchate of Samuel. The remark, therefore, of Mr. Cuninghame, in treating of the distinguishing marks of the true and false systems of chronology, “Fulness of the Times,” p. 141, is no less just than severe:—“it is plain that had Usher given to this part of his chronology the title of _An attempt to pervert the testimony of the Book of Judges_, it would have been a just description of it!” Moreover, Paul, when he addressed the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, with the book of the Law and the Prophets in his hand, must have been perfectly well acquainted with the period in question, and his summary of the intervals completely confirms the reckoning of the Septuagint, which was followed by all the ancient chronographers, notwithstanding the interpolated passage, which is manifestly the work of a later age. In this summary, he marks out the intervals of “_forty_ years in the wilderness,” of the judges “about 450 years” from the division of the land, “until Samuel _the prophet_,” and of the reign of Saul “_forty_ years,”—the amount of which is 530 years. If to this be added the intervals of the _five_ years’ war (Joshua xiv. 10), of the _two_ years for the completion of the conquest of Canaan and the division of the land, of the _twenty_ years’ abode of the ark at Kirjathjearim, of _twelve_ years for the critarchate of Samuel, of the _forty_ years’ reign of David, and of the first _three_ years of Solomon’s reign, making in all _eighty-two_ years,—the whole amount is exactly 612 years. The only _one_ of these intervals not now mentioned in Scripture, is the critarchate of Samuel at Mizpeh, which has fortunately been preserved by Josephus and Theophilus, both of whom, without doubt, had more perfect copies of the Hebrew and Septuagint texts, and who state its length at _twelve_ years. Independently, however, of this interval, the Book of Judges clearly establishes the _true_ period as far as 600 years, and completely overthrows the _forged_ period of 480 years. It is worthy also of remark, that Origen cites the immediate context of the interpolated passage, giving the sentences both _before_ and _after_ it, but making no mention whatever of the number itself;[23] which clearly shows that it was not in the Hebrew text in his time. The following table exhibits, according to the two systems, the extent of the first four ages of the world:—