of David; and consequently, that
the book of Joshua, and of Judges, were not written till after the
commencement of the reign of David, which was 370 years after the death
of Joshua.

The name of the city that was afterward called Jerusalem was originally
Jebus, or Jebusi, and was the capital of the Jebusites. The account of
David's taking this city is given in 2 Samuel, v. 4, etc.; also in 1
Chron. xiv. 4, etc. There is no mention in any part of the Bible that it
was ever taken before, nor any account that favours such an opinion.
It is not said, either in Samuel or in Chronicles, that they "utterly
destroyed men, women and children, that they left not a soul to
breathe," as is said of their other conquests; and the silence here
observed implies that it was taken by capitulation; and that the
Jebusites, the native inhabitants, continued to live in the place
after it was taken. The account therefore, given in Joshua, that "the
Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah" at Jerusalem at this day,
corresponds to no other time than after taking the city by David.

Having now shown that every book in the Bible, from Genesis to Judges,
is without authenticity, I come to the book of Ruth, an idle, bungling
story, foolishly told, nobody knows by whom, about a strolling
country-girl creeping slily to bed to her cousin Boaz. [The text of
Ruth does not imply the unpleasant sense Paine's words are likely to
convey.--Editor.] Pretty stuff indeed to be called the word of God. It
is, however, one of the best books in the Bible, for it is free from
murder and rapine.

I come next to the two books of Samuel, and to shew that those books
were not written by Samuel, nor till a great length of time after
the death of Samuel; and that they are, like all the former books,
anonymous, and without authority.

To be convinced that these books have been written much later than the
time of Samuel, and consequently not by him, it is only necessary
to read the account which the writer gives of Saul going to seek his
father's asses, and of his interview with Samuel, of whom Saul went
to enquire about those lost asses, as foolish people now-a-days go to a
conjuror to enquire after lost things.

The writer, in relating this story of Saul, Samuel, and the asses, does
not tell it as a thing that had just then happened, but as an ancient
story in the time this writer lived; for he tells it in the language or
terms used at the time that Samuel live