The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 11

most rem11ined 11loof. But the isolation of Reuben was far less honourable than that of Jud11h. Reuben, the first-born, sinks down into an obscurity from which it never emerges. Out of Reuben 11rises no judge, no hero, no prophet. Deborah singles it out for scornful reproach, 11nd this is almost the 111st mention of the tribe. While Gad and Mnn11sseh produce(l valiant men, and sometimes gave a refuge to their suffering brethren from the western bank, Reuben remained apart in w,1ll-to- do repose, absolutely cut off from Judah by the Dead Sea, and not having much intercourse even with Gilead. Thus, then, the nation which had entered Canaan in the strength of internal purity and union under one leader, had fallen apart into at least four unequal and irregular groups, two on each side of the Jordan. On the west bank (1) Judah and Simeon, probably far the best representatives of the old purity and discipline, and for this reason, as well as from the character of their territory, the strongest of the groups. (2) The remainder of the tribes on this bank, not really united, but all more or less acquiescing in the precedence claimed by Ephraim. On the east bank (3) half Manasseh and Gad, on fairly good terms with the western tribes, but prevented by the Jordan from being very intimate. (4) Reuben, in comfortable and ignoble solitude. It would have gone very hard with the Israelites during this period of serious dismemberment if something of the s'ame kind had not prevailed among the Canaanites also. We have seen the ill-success of the hastily formed leagues, first in the south and then in the north, against Joshua. A successor, and possibly a descendant of the JaLin, king of Razor, who formed the northern league on that occasion, was the author of the twenty years of oppression from which Deborah and Barak delivered Israel. Only so long as his general Sisera kept the key of the position with his 900 chariots at Harosheth of the Gentiles, could the domination of Jabin be maintained. If the various Canaanite cities (which still remained scattered about like so many dark islands, in the midst of the tribes) had combined with Jabin, the Israelites would have been enclosed in a network of hostile fortresses, from which it might have required another miraculous campaign, like that of Joshua, to free them. Gezer in Ephraim, Jebus in Benjamin, Bethshean, Ibleam, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dorin Manasseh, Kitron and Nahalol in Zebulon; while in the ease of Asher and Naphtali the proportion of Canaanites was so brge that, whereas of other tribes it was said that "the Canaanites dwelt among them,'' of them it was said that" they dwelt among the Canaanites" (Judg. i. 32, 33). The map will show how these facts illustrate the statement made !1bove, that the Israelites could not gain possession of the plains. Gazer and Dor are in the plain of Sharon ; Bethshean, Megiddo, and Taanacb in the plain of Esdraelon. N ahalol was probably in the plain of Esdra.elon also, but neither the name nor the situation of the city can be determined with certainty. Dui·ing Jabin's domination the northern tribes were practically prisoners in their own land ; and bad these constellations of Canaanite cities joined vigorously with him bis success would have been still greater, and might have been indefinitely prolonged. But Jebov~b had willed it otherwise. Even as it was, these Canaanites cities worke(l disaster enough : they were permanent centres of religious and moral con-uption. Thus far, then, we have arrived at these characteristics of the period under considera.tion. (1) It we.s a time of great freedom tending to anarchy. The pn,ternal rule of Moses and Joshua was removed, and the tribes resorted to democratic government before they were in the least degree ripe for it. !he result was that there was very little government e.t all. (2) A large proport10n of the  INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL BOOKS: