The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 23

EXPOSITION. Ver. 7.-A.nd the people served, &::c. This Gibeon at the word of Joshua (Josh. x. 12, verso is the epi\ 1mo of tho religious history 13). The neighbourhood of Timnath-heres uf Isro.el from the time of the expostulation to Ajalon (eh. i. 85) may give some counten- of tho nngcl till tho dying olT of all those ance to this. The hill Go.ash is only elS"· who hnd been elders in the time of Joshua. where mentioned as the birthplace of Hiddai It probably includes some forty or fifty or Hurai (2 Sam. xxiii. 30 ; 1 Chron. xi. 32), years from the entrance into Canaan, viz., but the exact site is unknown. about thirty years of Joshua's lifetime, and Ver. 10.-Which knew not the Lord, &c. ten, fifteen, or twenty years after Joshua's The memory of God's great works gradually death. The record of the people's continu- faded away, and with this memory their ance in the service of the Lord connects influence upon the hearts of the people. itself with the promise made by them in The seductions of idolatry and the influence Josh. xxiv. 21, 24. All the great works, of heathen example were ever fresh and &c. Scarcely those prior to the crossing of powerful. Had the people obeyed the voice the Jordan, though some might remember of the Lord, the idolatry and the idolate,rs some of the events in the wilderness when would have been out of the way. We may they were mere children (Numb, xiv. 31), notice by the way the value to the Church of but the victories in Canaan. the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in keep- Vers. 7-9.-These three verses are identi- ing alive a perpetual memory of Christ's cal with Josh. xxiv. 29-31, except that the precious death until his coming again. order is slightly varied. Ver. 12.-They forsook the Lord, &c. Yer. 8.-An hundred and ten years old. Here again there is a. manifest allusion to Caleb was eighty-five years old, he tells us Josh. xxiv. 16, 17. (Josh. xiv. 10), when he WeIJ.t to take pos- Ver. 13.-Bae.l and Ashte.roth. .A.shtaroth session of Hebron, forty-five years after the is the plural of Ashtoreth, the goddess of spies had searched Canaan from Kadesh- the Zidonians (1 Kings xi. 5, 33), just as Barnea, and consequently some time in the Baalim (ver. 11) is the plural of Baal. The seventh year of the entrance into Canaan. many images of Baal and Ashtoreth are, in Joshua was probably within a year or two the opinion of some, indicated by the plural; his contemporary. but others think that different modifications Ver. 9.-Timnath-heres. Probably, though or impersonations of the god and goddess not certainly, the modern Tibneh, six miles are indicated. Thus we read of Baal-berith, from Jifno. It is called in Josh. xix. 50 the god who presides over covenants; Baal- and xxiv. 30 Timnath-serah, the letters of zebul, or Zebub, the god who presides over which are identical, but the order is in- flies, who could either send or remove a. verted.· Timnath-heres is probably the plague of flies, and so on. "Baal (lord or right form. It means "The portion of master) was the supreme male divinity of the Sun." We have Mount Heres in eh. the Phamician and Canaanitish nations, as i. 35, near Ajalon. Ir-shemesh (city of Ashtoreth (perhaps the star, the planet the sun) and Beth-shemesh (house of the Venus) was their snpreme female divinity. sun) are other instances of places called Baal and Ashtoreth are frequently coupled from the sun. · Some have supposed some together. Many Phrenician names-Hanni- connection between the name Ti1nnath- bal, Asdrubal, Adherbal, Belus, &c.-are heres, as Joshua's inheritance, and the derived from Baal." miracle of tho sun standing still upon