Ver. 6.-S!iihboleth. l. lF A MAN'S PROFESSION IS FALSE TO HIS ClIARACTER, THIS WILL BE MADE MANIFEST BY THE HABITS OF HIS LIFE. The Ephraimite who denied his tribal relation was betrayed by his dialectic pronunciation. Thus Peter was con- victed of falsehood (Matt. :x:xvi. 73). It matters little what we say if our conduct belies our words. No man can ultimately conceal his character; it will come out in his countenance, it will colour his speech, it will shape his action. If a man would completely suppress his character, he must destroy it, because while it exists it must obey its nature, which is to be the source of all conduct. You cannot quenoh a vol- cano by building over its crater, nor stay the flow of a stream by walling it in. Our true nature, whether it be good or bad, must reveal itself (1) in great critical epochs, when it can endure no restraint; or (2) in casual accidents, when we are o:ff our guard and do not consider the occasion sufficiently import.ant to demand much con- cern; or (3) in the general course and colour of our life (Matt. vii. 16). II. SMALL SUPERFICIAL SIGNS MAY INDICATE GREAT FUNDAMENTAL DISTINCTIONS. The test of the "Shibboleth" has been much misunderstood, as though it were an instance of the importance which is sometimes unduly given to mere trivial distinc- tions. The test was simply a means of discovering the tribal relations of men. The Gileadites cared nothing for the difference of pronunciation in itself. They simply used it as a means for determining a really important point-the truth or falsehood of the profession of those who said they were not men of Ephraim. The same mistake was involved in Gibbon's famous sneer about the great division of Christen- dom on the question of a diphthong. It was not a diphthong, but the fundamental truth of the perfect Divinity of Christ that Athanasius and his friends were contend- ing with the Arians about, and the use of the diphthong was simply a convenient form in which to bring the question to a definite point. So the recent controversies about vestments have been ridiculed as though they were questions of "ecclesiastical millinery," while both parties know quite well that these outside and apparently trivial differences are the signs of fundamental questions concerning priestly authority and sacramental grace. 1. We must beware of judging of the magnitude of a question by the comparative insignificance of its external indications. 2. We must, nevertheless, be careful not to assume that trivial external distinctions are signs of deep and important differences until we have proved the fact. We may erect the test of a " Shibboleth " to separate people who have no such fundamental distinctions as those of the men who bad been true to Jephtbah and the men who had enviously opposed him. The danger, is that we should thus magnify the importance of the "Shibboleth" itself, and so become narrow and sectarian.-A.
EXPOSITION. Ver. 8.-Ibzan of Bethlehem. It is un- '" Yer. 10.-Then died, &c. Render, And certain whether Bethlehem of Judah is Ibzan died. meaut, or Bethlehem in the tribe of Zebu• Yer. 12.-In Aije.lon. Not Aijalon in-the Jun, ment:oned in Josh. xi.x. 15. Josephus tribe of Dan, mentioned Josh. x. 12; xix. says that Ibzan was of the tribe of Judah, 42, but another city, only spoken of here, and of the city of Bethlehem, and some have whose name ie probably preserved in the supposed a connection between the names of ruins of Jal'O,n, four hours east of Akka. It Boaz and Ibzan. ~But as Bethlehem of the ie remarkable that the two names Elem e.nd tribe of Judah is generally called Bethlehem Aijakm are identical in Hebrew as far ae of Judah, or Bethlehem-Ephratah, and as the consonants a.re concerned. It looks os Elon and Abdou were judges in North-East if Aije.lon, which is not mentioned among Israel, it ie perhaps more probable that the Zebulonite cities in Josh. xix. 10-16, Bethlehem of Zebulun is meant. Dr. Robin- was named from Elon, its poesessor. son has identified it with a village-a " very Yer. 13.-A Pirathonite, i. e. e.n inhabit- misera hie one "-called Beit Lahm, six miles ant of Pirathon in the tribe of Ephraim, in west of Nazareth. • the mount of the Amalekites (ver. 15), after- Ver. 9.-He had thirty sons, &c. From wards famous as the birthplace of Bene.iah, no record of Ibzan's judgeship being prc- one of David's mighty men (2 Sam. xxiii, Rerved, except this domestic incident, we 30). The Pharallwn, which is mentioned in ma.1· iufer, as in the case of Jair, that no 1 Mace. ix. 60, e.nd by Josephus, following importaut events took place in bis time. its authority, 11s fortified by Jonathan tbo en. x11. 8-15.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 137
brother of Judas may have been the same, Ver. 15.-The mount of the Amalekitee. though its collocation between Tirana and This name points to some incident of which Tekoah rather suggests a more southern the memory is lost, though, with the usual position; and the Feral,a found by Robinson tenacity of names, the name which once re- between two and three hours from Samaria, corded it survives. It may have been some south-south-west, on the way to Jernsalem, ancient settlement of the Amalekites, who seems certainly to represent Piratlwn. were a very wandering, wide-spread race, Ver. 14.-Nephews. Rather, gramdsons, which gave the name; or it may have been Hebrew, son's sons. Thenumberofhisfamily, some great defeat and slaughter which they and their being all mounted on asses, are suffered from the Israelites, whose land they indications of his wealth and state (see invaded (eh, vi 3, 33), just as the rock Oreb above, eh. viii. 30 ; x, 4), and perhaps also and the wine-press of Zeeb (eh. vii. 25) corn· of peaceful and prosperous times. memorated the victory over those princes,