mentioned bece.use the territory he.d be- banks. The Sept-uagini for Arnon reacls longed to the Moabites, but Chemosh had J01'dan, which was the western boundary, as not been able to snvo it from the Amorites. Amon was the southern (ver. 22). The cor- The Lord our God. Jehovah was the God responding description in Deut. ii. 36 is, of Israel ns truly as Chemoah was the god Fr/J'171, Aroer, which is by the lnink of the river of Moab, in one sense. Possihly Jephthah of Amon, and fr/J'171, the r:ity that is by the had not risen to the conception of Jehovah rwer, even wnto Giuad, there was not one r:ity as tho God of the whole earth. Ver. 25.-Art thou anything better, &c. too strong f01' us : the Lord = God delivered, all wnto us. Three hundred years. These Jephthah now advances another argument words seem quite unintelligible and out of to prove the justice of his cause a.nu the un- place. They are also chronologically im- reasonableness of the Ammonite claim. If practicable. One expects the number of the the territory in 9-uestion was Moabite pro- cities, as in ver. 33, rather than the number perty, how came 1t that Balak laid no claim of years; and it is remarkable that the to it 1 He was an enemy of the Israelites, whole number of cities taken by the Israel- e.nd yet when Israel took possession of the ites on the east of Jordan must have been land, and dwelt in Heshbon, its capital, and just about 300, since the half - tribe of the daughter cities or villages thereof, and Manasseh had sixty. If Gad and Reuben in Aroer and her daughter cities or villages, had the same proportion, it would be exactly and in all the cities on the banks of the 300 (5 x 60). Within that time. The Amon, Balak never strove about them with Hebrew phrase, which occurs about seventy Israel, or went to war to recover them-a times, invariably means at that time, and plain proof that he did not look upon them here can only refer to the time of the first as his property. If they were his, that was settlement in the days of Balak, of which he the time to claim and recover them, but be had been speaking-another proof that the had not done so. enumeration three hundred, years is out of Yer. 26.-The occupation of the cities place here. If the reading years is not, as and villages referred to is related in Numb. above suggested, an error for cities, the whole xxi. 23 and following verses, and in Deut. sentence, three hundred years, may very pro- ii. 36 ; see too Josh. xii. 2. Aroer is not bably be an interpolation by a professed mentioned among the cities of Moab taken chronologist. The adding up of all the by the Amorites in the ancient book quoted numbers of the servitudes and rests given in in Numb. xxi. 27-30, and it has been con- the book gives 301 years from the com- jectured that it may have been built by the mencement of the oppression by Chushan- Amorites to secure their new frontier. It is rishathaim to the death of J air. But this described by Eusebius and Jerome in the method of reckoning gives the impossible 'Onomo.sticon' as built on a hill overhanging periou of 600 years from the exodus to the the bank of the Amon, and a ruin called building of the temple. Arai'r has been found on the very spot so Ver. 27.-Jephthah now asserts his own described. The Aroer mentioned in ver. 33 entire blnmelessness, and appeals to the (where see note) is probably a different justice of God to decide between him and place. Jly the coasts of Arnon, i. e. on the the Ammonites.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-28.-The controversy. The first element of peace, whether in private or in national controversies, whether in civil or religious disputes, is the genuine desire to be fair. When men have that spirit of justice that they do not desire to claim anything which is not really theirs, or to withhold from their opponents anything that is their due; when their aim is to ascertain what is true, and not to overbear truth by force; when they strive for truth, and not merely for victory-there is II fair chance of both sides arriving at the same result, and so being at peace. The first step in any dispute, therefore, should be a calm and careful examination of the facts of the case. It should not be taken for granted that the views which self-interest, or personal predilection, or party prejudice, incline us to are the right ones, but we should remember that our opponents have equal rights with ourselves, and that it is at least possible that their predilections and prejudices may rest upon as good grounds e.s our own. A fair and impartial examination of the facts of the case is therefore the first step in every controversy; and that the examination may be fair, we should patiently allow our opponent to state hie own case in his own way. 'l'he same fact may wear n different aspect according to the mode of stating it, and according to 1.n~ side of it which is brought prominently into view. Thus Jephthah acted faiily 122 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [err. xr. 1-28.