PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua
Alfred Plummer [1841-1926] · 388,731 words · 426 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 181
them. Ye! Achan disregarded the understood agreement. Nor must it be forgotten tlrnt Isrnel stood in e. peculiar relationship to the Abnighty, who promised to bless them 1f they adhered to the terms of the covenant, which required them to be very obedient unto every commandment which the Lord should give by the mouU1 o…
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I. NOTE THE INFLUENCE THE SIN OF ONE MAN MAY HAVE ON THE LIFE AND DESTINY OF MANY OTHERS. Nothing is saicl about the effect of Achan's trespass on his family, except that it involved them with himself in the same miserable encl. We are not tolcl whether h_e hacl any associates in crime. Probably he hacl. Men are se…
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Yer. 1.-The accui·sed thing. Immediately after the iaking of Jericho, Israel found itself suddenly a1Tested in its career of conquest. Its advanced guard re- ceiYed a humiliating repulse from the inhabitants of the small town of Ai. Joshua was drh-en almost to despair by this defeat, because it seemed to doom the army …
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EXPOSITION. CH.APTER VII. 6-15. sin to lurk within the sonl, the Christian is overcome and brought to sha.me by his JOSHUA'S PnAYER AND Gon's ANSWER.- spiritna.l enemies, how much more seldom Ver. 6.-And Joshua rent hie clothes. A it is that he has the courage to gird up the token of grief usual among the Jews (see …
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<'overed. The sin or en·or one() found out Ver. 14.-Ta.ketb, i.e., by lot, as iu 1 So.m, and put awRy, the combat may be renewed xiv. 42 (IS•1piJ make it fall; cf. 1 Sam. x. 20) and brought to R sucoessfnl issue. (cf. Jonah i. 7 ; also Prov. xviii. 18). Accord- ing to the famllles. 'l'he gmdu11l centering \"er. 11.-I…
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HOMILETICS. Vera. 6-15.-The humiliation. I.-TJII!: BITTERNESS OF REPENTANCE. 1. The sting of sin is shMper than its pleasure. The uneasiness which followed on Achan's transgression far outweighed any pleasure he could have derived from it. For, first, the possession of his treasure was itself a trouble. He had to …
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 14.-Sin discovered, This leads us to remark that- I. En:1tY SIN IS KNOWN TO Gem. Joshua was ignorant that Achan had secreted spoil, but the searching glances of God reached further than the most watchful o,·ersight of the leader. As afterwards, when the disciples did not suspect the …
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CHAPTER VII. 16-26. very small portion of the whole counsel of God. Give glory to the Lord God of THE DISCOVERY oF AcaAN's srn.-Ver. Israel, and make confession unto mm. 16.-':\'he family of Judah. The expression Literally, offer (or impute) glory to the Lord T\JJ~WO is remarkable. Many commentators God of Israel, an…
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HOMILETICS. Vers. 16-26.-The detection. Objections have been raiseil to the morality of the whole narrative. We will ileal first with this subject, a.nil then turn to the religious and moral questions involved. I. ,VHY DID Goo NOT REVEAL THE OFFENDER WHEN HE REVEALED THE OFFENCE? Tl.ie answer is, tl.iat He miglit …
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to ncqniesce in the rest.ol'ation of what he had stolen. And those who, in our days, hope tlrnt they may he held blameless because they confess to God, which means to themsch·es, sins the shame o_f which ~hey ought to endure, and the profit of which they are hound to _restore, will ~ertan~ly undergo the punishment whic…
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o.ccompnnied at 6:rst by an ende~vour to screen it from the gaze of our fellows, yet very soon the desll'e for secrecy IS overcome by the more potent wish to speak of the deed which lies so heavily upon the conscience, Otherwise, as with the Spnrtnn boy who, in hiding a fox under his tunic, allowed it to devour his …
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its ,leslruct.ion-threw the walls down fiat. , The capture, God's work; the spoil ,ms, in a special sense, God's spoil. The fil:st-fruits of their booty; He required the <:>n(ir<:> consecration of all the gold and silver to His service. In all their subsequeut opern(ions of war the spoil they take will be their own. …
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u10nt, doo.th. Mark specifically its mischiefs. 1. Isrnel was damaged. In the Lwo nttaclrn on Ai rendered necessary by this sin, many lives were lost needlessly. The heart of the people was discouraged, and the eaccess of their enterprise imperilled. 2. 'l'hen there is the probable corruption of the man's family, the d…
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EXPOSITION, CHAPTER VIII. 1-29. we.s therefore (ver. 12) on the opposite, or west side of the city. The question which THE CAl'TURE OF A1.-Ver. 1.-Fear not. has been raised whether God could rightly Joshua was downcast at his former failure, command a strata.gem seems scarcely to re- and well he might. "Treacherou…
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36,000 men remaining undetected (and rites tmd LXX. prefer the reading Ai (i.,,, they were specially instructed-see next 'll for i'J!), in the margin of our Bibles, to verse-not to station themselves far from that in the text, which is followed by the the city), we have the plain statement in Vulgate and Luther. ve…
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1\fu:;oritPs ClllTert here agnin into "Ai."'' 37, e.nd especially the dual, ns here, in Gen. But the LXX. and Vnlgntc render as the xxxiv. 21; Isa. xxxi;i. 21. Eni!Yish translation. Ver. 22.-So that they let none of them Yer. 17.-0r Bethel These words are remain or escape. Literally, until thae nol in the LXX .. and t…
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HOMILETICS. Vera. 1:--2~-:--Renewed effort after disaster. The Christian warfare, whether from a,n mdivtdual or from a general point of view, is _no record of invariable success. The career of each Christian, as of the Christian Church, is a cheque1·ed course. It has its periods of triumph and its moments of disaster.…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1, 2.-God's people victorious. Frequently does Scripture describe the Christian life as a warfare. We are to war against the evil in ourselves and around us. In the management of our forces for the conflict we may derive comfort and rules of action from the narrative before us. It wa…
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Napoleon at once blamed ancl praised the English for never knowing when they were beaten. ~ere J os)ma exhibits the same kind of quality. He gathers from !us <lefen.t hunnhty, punty, prudence, but never thinks of gathering from it despair, !f they have been defeated be'.ore this_ once, they must try again with purer…
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Vers. 30-35.-The fruits of victory. "Then Jcshua built an altar unto the Lord. , .. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses . . . . Ancl he read all the words of the law." There is always danger in the moment after ,vic- tory. We remember how Hannibal lost, amid the enervating luxuries of Capua, t…
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could not ha'<'e ventured to trnst himself eo interring the bones of Joseph (Gen. I. 25, far in the he1trt of a hostile country. But 26) in the piece of ground which Jacob wh, not' Gerizim was not more than bought of the sons of Hamor (Gen. xxxiii. twenty miles from Ai. The Canaanites, 19). (See Exod. xiii. 19). we arc…
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not o.ppo.rent) ; o.nd Keil o.nd Biibr (' Sym. curses and blessings mentioned in Deut- bolik,' i. pp. 487,488),whothink tbo.t the altar xxvii. and xxviii. The formal setting up of ought (Exod. xx. 24) properly to be of ea.rib, this memorial was intended to remind the since eo.crifice is rendered necessary by Israelites…
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HOMILETICS. Yers. 30-35.-The Betting up the law. The provision for the due observance of God's law was one of the most remarkable features of the invasion of Canaan by Joshua. Twice was the command given in Deuteronomy by Moses (Deut. xi. 29, 36, and xXlii. 2-13), and the spot fixed on beforehand, no doubt because of …
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plainly shows the children of Israel that the formal renewal of the covenant which wa,s made as soon as Jordan was crossed was of no avail in God's sight, unless the fow were set up as the necessary consequence of that covenant. So we learn that it is of no use for us to be God's covenant people unless we have the l…
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HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Yers. 30-35.-Tht altar on Ebal, and the reading and recording of the law .. ·we come on this scene unexpectedly. War, with its stratagems, its carnage its im·ersion of ancient order, was filling our mind. But suddenly, instead of 'the camp, there is the religious assembly ; sacrifice in…
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some_ spot like _Shech~m ai:id distinctly realised their duty in connection with it-the blessmgs of diach11rgmg it, the curses of neglecting it ; and then low at God's altn:r had hallowe~ 1111. Our own is n_ot ours to do with as we please. Property has duties 11a well as ng!it_s; i:ind all mercies should be hallowed…
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clearly defined. But we at least discern in them a double element, (1) eucharistic, (i'i propit.iatory. 1. Eucharhitic. There was thanksgiving for victories and deliverances thus fal' n,uchsafed. 'Well might the hearts of the people rise to God with the smoke of their sacrifices, after such proofs as He had given them…
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EXPOSITION. CHAPTER IX. 1-27. signifies bill-city, like the termination ,iunum in Latin, as Lugdunum, or Lyons; THE GIBEONITEB.-Ver. 1.-And it came dune in Anglo-Saxon, as Et!tandune. Com- to pass, when all the kings. According to pare also Dnnkirk. Robinson, in his' Biblical the explanation given above (eh. vi. 5, …
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ever. There a.re many who do not improve the LXX., Theodotion, and Luther. Thie 11,s they might, whom we should yet hesit11te gives a better sense and more according to to pronounce 11ltogether reprob11te from the derivation than the interpretation crumbs God. But surely the entire 11bsence of 1111 of bread, given by …
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words the north 11nd east" (Keil)-precieely perhe.pe with Ewe.Id we may regard it the ploce which 11n able generol would be simply as implying that their mission was likely to select. Though " in a high posi- still in progrese. tion" (Ve.ndevelde), it was "lower than Ver. 9.-And they ea.id unto him. "I Gibeon," and was…
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Bat t hnngh Asherah ana Ashte.1·oth, or Ash- acting thus, The passage in which Joshua toreth. are undoubtedly distinct, yet both is instructed to " stitnd up before Elee.ze.r worships may have been impure, e.s the the priest, who she.II nsk counsol for him nt ~orship of Artemis of the Ephesians (the the judgment of …
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He identifiea l{uriet-cl-Eno.b with Kirjath of such perfidy, we may adduce the haU!c of in cb. xviii. 2B, and rego.rds this aa one Varna, in 1444, in which Ladislans, king of of tl.tc cities of Benjamin within tho Hungary, was induced hy the exhortations border. But this Kirjath may be Kirjath- of Carclinal Julian t…
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des'truction, even though they might be con- ployed for ever in servile work. Hewing of demned permR.llen tly to occupy a se1'Vile wood and drawing of water was a tnsk fre. condition. They appear to have assisted at quently imposed on the strangers (probably the ta beruacle worship, since they were captives) dwelling a…
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atioally _as. if there were no Go~. Thus we read of no very serious results flowing from thIB madvertence. God 1s "not extreme to mark what is done amiss " and distinguishes between human infirmity and human depravity. ' l. "THE CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD ARE WISER IN THEIR GENERATION THAN THE CHILD.REN OF LIGHT." T~e Can…
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Yer. 14.-The Israelites outwitted. A story that bears on its face the evidences of authenticity. A wiliness displayed quite in keeping with our notions of Oriental duplicity. Has lessons appropriate to modern days. Whilst some incidents of this book enjoin courage, this induces discretion, and thus are we preserved fro…
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l'eligion of the Ismelites, about renouncing idolatry and serving the true God ; they only wanted the advantages which would accrue from making a league with the lsraelites. If we would share the advanta"es 0 we must become God's people in heart and life. 4. The success of craft. Mental is sometimes more powerful …
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I. THE ANGER AND WISH OF THE PEOPLE arose from-1. Thefr mortification at being_ ontwi.tted. ~ride had bee_n honoured by the arrival of such an appa- rently drntant deputation. The endences were incontestable. All the stronger w?uld b~ the conse<[nent r~vuls~on when the trickery was discovered. Each man ~hinks hllllself…
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was fulfilled; those men were II cursed" (ver. 23), and became a II servant of Rerv11nts" unto the Israelites. • 'l'his incident reminds us of- THE SAFETY OF RELIANCE UPO!f THE WORD OF GoD. "He is not a man that he should lie." He cannot contradict Himself. If He does seem to "repent," it is because His promise w11B …
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Yers. 3. 4.-.A stolen treaty. The CanMnite kings are at last roused to united 11etion agamst J oshna antl the host of Israel But their confederation is not complet.e. The inhabitants of Gibeon, on the principle th1tt "discretion is the better part of valour," entleavour, in something like selfish treachery to the commo…
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clrnngeth not 11 (Ps11.. xv. 4). He who "reverences h_is conscience as his king" will nev~r trea,t hi:;htly an;r verbal ple?~es he may have gi"'.en, or endeavour sophistically to rul himself of their responsibihty. His "word will be as good as his bond." H_owever false othe_rs ma:y be, let him ~t least be true. (2) The…
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II. PROMPT ACCEPTANCE OF THE INEVITABLE IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST PARTS OF wrsooM. The_ other cities of Canaan were not more brave, they were only more foolish than G1beon. They lacked the imagination of faith which could realise the fate awaiting them. They dreamed of safety without taking measm-es to secure it. They beli…
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Pr11y for light, and in some way it will reach you. There 1s a living oracle for all who wish to walk according to the will of God. II. TRUE WISDOM COMMITS SMALL 'LHINGS AS WELL AS GREAT TO Gon's CARE. A child tells all to the parent that it trusts ; the least discomfiture-the gTeatest distress. And when we have th…
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of David. It is possible that the name may there of the primeval races of Palestine, are ho.ve been given by the Jebusitea themselves, still to be found in the neighbourhood. in consequence of their secure possession of Hebron atands in "the hill country of it, notwithsto.nding the subjugation of the Juda,a." Its si…
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rative (,·ers. 31-36) shows that Eglon his old Partners with eoorne and obloquie" was on 1-he wn.y from L1tchish to Hebron. (Bp. Hall). Conder, in his 'Handbook' and in • Pal. Ver. 6.-To Gilgal, See note on eh. ix. 6. Explorntion Fund Quart. Paper,' Jan., 1878, That dwell in the mountains. AnoU1or p. 20, suggests Tell …
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eye could reo.ch. Upon the side of the no infreciuent occurrence. E,ery treatise long hill that ekirLs the valley on the south, on physical geography teems with instances. we could perceive a small village on the Masi us refers to the well-known story of the W.S.W. called Yalo." To Azeka.11. Sec eh. relief 1tfforded by…
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consciousness of God's immediate presence in (or upon) Gibeon." In the valley or AJa- and help. For a full discussion of this re- lon. The valley of the dee,·, according to the markable p1Lsse.ge the ree.der is 1·eferred to Hebrew. The word for valley is Emek bore the Introduction. In the eight of Israel (LXX. \t)a,…
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is the precise meaning of this pe.eeo.ge it is Ver. 19.-And eta.y ye not. The original difficult to eay. The language ie very ob- is stronger, and as frrr yrrn, stand not still. scure. It baa been ueuo.lly interpreted to The active general was not to be diverted mean that the eun remo.ined in the heavens from hie purpo…
1,874 wordsSECTION 228The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 228
ing. On the other hnnd, as we ho.ve seen, of Israel by Shalmaneser, while, on the thc1·0 is no attempt in eh. viii. 30-35 to other hand, it undergoes a siege among the emphasise thus the obedience to the com- fenced cities of Judah (2 Kings xviii. rn; m1md in Dent. xxvii, 2-8. It is from xix. 8). The cause (see Blunt '…
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in Greek 1tnd Hebrew, signifying the limit of the complete extermination of the Canaanite (,ezer (11) o.in). Since the inscription is re.ea from Palestine. Thus Joshua returned Greek nud Talmudice.1 in its che.re.cter (the from the north and found a large part of word 01.in has not the signification of the country he h…
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home of the Caniumifah religious traditions. it as "one of a series of fortresses designed Debir nppeo.rs o.s Dapur in the list of forti- to protect the southern frontier of ,Judaaa" fied cities in Co.nno.n captured by Seti I. and (iii. 19~, 288). It beca1;lle a. Levitical city RameHes II. of Egypt. They o.re depicted …
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by the selfish aims of those who carried selfishness of his associates, his fe.ith, cou- them on. Selfishness inspires distrnst, 1tnd rage, e.nd perseverance carried e. struggle distrust produces disunion. But where hopeless e.t the ontset to a triumphant con- "the Lord God fights for Israel," where clusion. Men may…
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the Goel of the Old Testament and of the N~w, e.nd makes void the gospel of Jesus Ch,;si.. Surely superstition itself is better the.n this denial of the loving Fatherhood of Goel. The lesson here concerns spiritual re.ther than temporal blessings, but it n0ne the less contains a pro~est _e.gainst the sceptical spirit w…
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all should remember that the ruler of men is really an usurper unless the title, Lord of Righteousness, suit him. Let us look at this name, and observe- r. We ho.ve here A GRAND TITLE FOR A RULER. Perhaps tbe people had degene- rated since the days of Abraham. Then tbis ruler was that Melchi-zedek, who was a "Pries…
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Yer. 4.-Connection with the Church a source of worldly frouble. The trouble which came upon Giheon tln·ough her connection with Israel affords an illustration of the experience of all -who associate themselves with the career and destinies of the Church. I. THE EXISTENCE OF THIS TROUBLE. Though the true Church is an a…
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dwell on it. Dean Stanley treats this battle as the Marathon of the religions history of the world. It was the crisis in which the hosts who were uncon- sciousl:)' to some ext~nt, fighting for truth, right~otisness, progress, and' liberty, met with those fightmg, to some extent unconsc10usly, for a depraved religion…
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moonlit march over the fifteen or eighteen miles of valley intervening between tbem and _Gilgal. And, before the five kings ha".e any thought of his ap11roaoh, he nrnhes "like a ton-ent' on the foe. And such 1s the energy, the surprise of that charge, that, martial as are the habits of the enemy, they are obliged to yi…
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is the most remarkable episode in the conquest of the Canaanitee. Israel might well huve had cause to tremble in presence of such allied enemies. But Divine aid gives it a signal victory. That aid comes under t,wo forms: 1. It consists first in a miraculous intervention of the Divine power, which sends down a fierce ~t…
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Yers. 14.-A day of wonders. The Canaanite kings were slow in gathering their forces together to repel the advance of Joshua, but they were ready enough to come down in vengeance upon the Gibeonites for having made peace with hi.in. The men of Gibeon found the advantage of having a strong and generous protector, one -w…
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the fo1·ms in which the Creator might, if He pleased, array the powers of nature ~gainst sinful men I His long-suffering beneficence is their only safeguard. " It 18 of the Lord's merc10s that we are not consumed " (Lam. iii. 22). (3) The crea,ted universe a,tta,ins its consummation only in the final spiritual triumph …
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tremble l Let not the wicked exa,lt themselves ; there is a power that ce.n easily lay them low. III. THE VICTORY THAT REWARDS FAITHFUL AND PATIENT MORAL CONFLICT, The captains are ca,lled, in the presence of all the men of Israel, to "put their feet upon the necks,. of these doomed kings. So sha,ll it be the honour a…
852 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.