and Levites to lay in the side of the ark ( Deut. 31:26); and the same which having been lost, was long time after found again by Hilkiah, and sent to king Josias (2 Kings 22:8), who causing it to be read to the people (2 Kings 23:1–3), renewed the covenant between God and them.
That the Book of Joshua was also written long after the time of Joshua, may be gathered out of many places of the book itself. Joshua had set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, for a monument of their passage; of which the writer saith thus: “They are there unto this day” ( Josh. 4:9); for “unto this day” is a phrase that signifieth a time past, beyond the memory of man. In like manner, upon the saying of the Lord that He had rolled off from the people the reproach of Egypt, the writer saith, “The place is called Gilgal unto this day” ( Josh. 5:9); which to have said in the time of Joshua had been improper. So also the name of the valley of Achor, from the trouble that Achan raised in the camp, the writer saith, “remaineth unto this day” ( Josh. 7:26); which must needs be therefore long after the time of Joshua. Arguments of this kind there be many other, as Josh. 8:29; 13:13; 14:14; 15:63.
The same is manifest by like arguments of the Book of Judges (1:21, 26; 6:24; 10:4; 15:19; 17:6), and Ruth (1:1); but especially Judges (18:30), where it is said that “Jonathan and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan, until the day of the captivity of the land.”
That the Books of Samuel were also written after his own time there are the like arguments (1 Sam. 5:5; 7:13, 15; 27:6; and 30:25), where, after David had adjudged equal part of the spoils to them that guarded the ammunition with them that fought, the writer saith, “He made it a statute and an ordinance to Israel to this day.” Again, when David, displeased that the Lord had slain Uzzah, for putting out his hand to sustain the ark, called the place Perez-Uzzah, the writer saith (2 Sam. 6:8), it is called so “to this day”: the time therefore of the writing of that book must be long after the time of the fact; that is, long after the time of David.