EXPOSITION. Vers. 14, 15.-The anger of the Lord, &c. tim) is, as is well known, identical with the These verses contain an awful view of the Carthagenian sujfetes. Mark the riches of wrath of God excited by wilful sin, and are God's mercy. a practical illustration of Exocl xx. 5 : "I Ver. 22.-To we.lk therein. The Hebrew am a ;'ealous God." Compare Ps. lxxix. 5, has in them. Probably for way we should which shows how closely allied the notions read ways, as Deut. viii. 6; x. 12, &c. This of anger and J°ea'lousy are in Hebrew. He verse does not seem to be part of what the sold them. A forcible expression, implying Lord said, but to be the comment of the the handing over of the people into the writer. The A. V.-the.t through them I hands of their enemies, as if God had no may prove-inserts an I which is not in the more any property in them or concern about original. Ver. 22 depends upon ver. 23.. them ; as if he said, "Ye are not my people, The literal rendering is, For the sake of and I am not your God ; " as if he said to proving Israel, &c., . . . the Lord left those the heathen, " Take them, and do as you nations. The writer, after rnhearsing the will with them; they are yours, not mine" Lord's reason for not completing the extir- (see Levit. xxvi. and Deut. x:xvi.i.i..), All the pation of the nations after the death of Lord he.d swom, &c., showing that God Joshua, adds the further information why fulfilled his threatenings as well as his they had not been delivered into Joshua's promises. hand in his lifetime (cf. eh. iii. 1, 4). In Ver. 16.-Re.ised up judges. Hence the Exod. xxiii. 29, 30 ; Deut. vii. 22, an ad- name of this book, which recites the name~ ditional reason is given for the gradual and exploits of those whom God raised U_P extirpation of the Canaanites-" lest the to deliver them out of the hand of thell' beasts of the field increase upon thee." enemies. The title Ju<lges (Hebrew, alwphe-
HOMILETICS. Vere. 14-23.-The goodness and aevmty of God. To know God ae he is relativel_y to man-not ae the absolute, which is impossible to be known, but such as he 1s relatively to man-is the highest of all knowledge which man can attain, an? t~e most important for hiw to possess. Accordingly, one me.in purpose of revelat10n IS ctt. II. 14-23.] 'l'IlE BOOK OF JUDGES. 25