All tliat part of the book of Joshua which relates his personal history seems to be written with the uncon- scious, vivid power of an eye-witness. We are not mere- ly taught to look with a distant reverence upon the first man who bears the name which is above every name. We stand by the side of one who is admitted to hear the words of (icxl, and see the vision of the Almighty. The image of the armed warrior is before us as when in tiie sight of two armies he lifted up his spear over un- guarded Ai. We see the majestic presence which in- si.ired all Israel (iv, 14) with awe; the mild father who remdustrated with Achan; the calm, dignified judge who pronounced his sentence; the devoted' worshijiper pros- tratmg hnnself before the captain of the Lord's host. He see the lonely man in the height of his power, sep- arate from those about him, the last survivor, save one of a famous generation; the honored ohl man of many deeds and many sufferings, gathering his dying energy Jor an attempt to bind his people more closely to the service of (;„d whom he had so long served and wor-
shipped, and whom he was ever learning to know more and more.
The great work of Joshua's life was more exciting but less hopeful than that of Moses. He gathered the first fruits of the autumn liarvest where his predecessor had sown the seed in spring. It was a high and inspir- ing task to watch beside the cradle of a mighty nation, and to train its early footsteps in laws which shoidd last for centuries ; and it was a fit end to a life of expecta- tion to gaze with longing eyes from Pisgah upon the Land of Promise. But no such brightness gleamed upon the calm close of Joshua's life. Solemn words, and dark with foreboding, fell from him as he sat " under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord in Shechem." The excitement of his battles was past ; and there had grown up in the mind of the pious leader a conscious- ness that it is tlie tendency of prosperity and success to make a people wanton and workUy-rainded, idolaters in spirit if not in act, and to alienate them from God.
Holy Scripture itself suggests (Heb. iv, 8) the consid- eration of Joshua as a type of Christ. Many of the Christian fathers have enlarged upon this view; and Bishop Pearson, who has collected their o]iinions (^On the Creed, art. ii, p. 87-90, and 94-96, ed. 1843), points out the following and many other typical resemblances: (1.) the name common to both ; (2.) Joshua brings the peo- ple of God into the land of promise, and divides the land among the tribes ; Jesus brings his people into the pres- ence of God, and assigns to them their mansions ; (3.) as Joshua succeeded Moses and completed his work, so the Gospel of Christ succeeding the law, annomiced One by whom all that believe are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses (Acts xiii, 39) ; (4.) as Joshua, the minister of Moses, renewed the rite of circumcision, so Jesus, the minister of the circumcision, brought in the circumcis- ion of the heart (Rom. xv, 8 ; ii, 29).
3. Difficulties in his Narrative. — It has been question- ed whether the captain of the Lord's host (ch. v, 13-15) was a created being or not. Dr. W. H. MiU discusses this point at full length and with great learning, and decides in favor of the former alternative {On the Histor- ical Character of St. Luke's First Chapter. Camb. 1841, p. 92). But J. G. Abicht (De Duce Exercitus, etc., ap. Nov. Thes. Theologico-philolof). i, 503) is of opinion tliat he was the uncreated angel, the Son of God. Compare also Pfeiffer, Dijf. Script. Loc. p. 173, See Angel.
The treatment of the Canaanites by their Jewish con- querors is fully discussed by Dean Graves, On the Penta- teuch, pt. iii, lect, i. He concludes that the extermina- tion of the Canaanites was justified by their crimes, and that the employment of the Jews in such extermination was quite consistent with God's method of governing the world. Professor Fairbaim {Typology of Scripture, bk. iii, ch. 4, § 1, ed. 1854) argues with great force and candor in favor of the complete agreement of the princi- ples on wdiich the war was carried on by Joshua with the principles of the Christian dispensation. See Ca-
NA.VNITES.
Among the supernatural occurrences in the life of Joshua, none has led to so much discussion as the pro- longation of the day of the battle of Makkedah (x, 12- 14). No great difficidty is found, in deciding as Pfeiffer has done {Diffi. Script.)oc.\x 17 h) between the lengths of this day and that of Hezekiah (2 Kings xx, 11), and in connecting both days with the Egyptian tradition mentioned by Herodotus, ii, 142. But since modern sci- ence revealed the stupendous character of this miracle, modern criticism has made several attempts to explain it away. It is regarded by Le Clerc, Dathe, and others as no miracle, but an optical illusion ; by Eosenmiiller, following Ilgen, as a mistake of the time of day; by Winer and many recent German critics, with whom Dr. Davidson (Introcl. to O. T. p. 644) seems to agree, as a mistake of the meaning or the authority of a poetical contributor to the book of Jasher. So Ewald (Gesch. Isr. ii, 326) traces in the latter part of verse 13 an in-