The cutting off of Jordan. Power. . . . . { The wo.lls of Jericho. The destruction of Sennacherib's army. The forgiveness of Do.vid. Mercy. . . . . The respite granted to Ahab. { The sparing of Nineveh. lviii INTRODUCTlON TO THE lUSTORICAL BOOKS.
The punishment of Da,vid's sins,
Ju.slice ••• ·1 ( The miserable ends of the disobedient prophet, of Jezebel, and of every dyna,sty in the kingdom of Isrnel. The different fates of the kingdom of Ismel nod the king- dom of Judeh. 'l'he whole period of the Judges. . . J L ongsuffering ,. The many opportunities granted to Saul. • • granted to the kmgdoms Tue many opportunities • of I erae1 l and Judah. f The covenant kept with David. th Tru • • • • • t The fulfihnent of prophetical warnings and blessings, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, First. Elijah and the prophets of Baa,l. Second. Jeroboam and the worship of the calves. ( Saul's sacrifice. Third -lSaul's ill-advised adjuration. Saul's inquiring of the Lord by a witch. Fourth. Nehemiah and the sabbath-breakers. Fifth. Ruth's filial piety. Absalom'e rebellion. Sixth. The cruel vengeance of J oab and of J ehu. Seventh. Bathsheba. Eighth. Micah robbing his mother,_and robbed by the Danites.. Ninth. Ziba and Mephibosheth. Jezebel and Naboth. Tenth. Achan. Gehazi. THE THREE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES, Faith. The widow of Zarephath. Hope. Hannah. Charity. Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. THE FouR CARDINAL Vrn:ruEs. Justice. Solomon's ee.rly administration. Prudence. Dand at the court of Saul. Temperance. Josiah. The Rechabites. Fortituiie. • Deborah. Esther. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS. Pride. Nebuchadnezzar. Haman. Covetousnea~. Ahab and Naboth's vineyard. Lust. The men of Gibeah. Samson. Amnon. - Envy. Saul and David. Haman and Mordecai. Gluttony. Hophni and Phinehas. Anger. Saul and the priests. Sloth. Eli. Joash and the arrows. It would not be difficult, especially if the Pentateuch and New Testament we1"f added, to illustrate in this way the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Sermon OD the Mount. THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. - INTRODUCTION.
§ 1. ORIGIN AND DATE OF THE BooK OF JosauA. ExcEPT, perhaps, the Book of Daniel, there are no parts of Holy Scripture concerning the date and authorship of which so lively a controversy has raged as the first six books of the Old Testament. To mention all the various theories that have been adv_anced would be impossible. We will give a brief sketch of some of the most noticeable, and then proceed to examine more in detail the arguments which have been advanced to support them. 1. There is the view that the book is a contemporary document. This is the early Jewish tradition. The Talm11d states that it was written by Joshua himself; that Eleazar wrote the account of Joshua's death, and that Phinehas added the verses containing the narrative of the death of Eleazar/'. This view has been maintained, among later authors, by the lenrned Hiivernick, at least in its main features; for he holds that the first part of the book, up to eh. iii., and the last chapters, were written by Joshua, the passage relnting to the deaths of Joshun and Elenzar having, of course, been ndded by a later hand. 2. Keil and others regard it as a treatise of somewhat later dnte thnn the time of Joshua, composed about twenty-five or thirty years nfter his death. 3. Ewald's theory is a very elabornte one. He regads the book as a composition of the Deuteronomist in the time of Manasseh. This con- clusion he bases on the very slight foundation that there is an allusion in Dunt. xxviii. 68 to the condition of Judma in the time of Manasseh, or even later. This argument, again, rests upon the assumption that prophecy is • We rend in the Bo.bylonian T.ilmud (Nedndm, fol. 22 n), tho.t ho.d the Israelites not tro.nsgresscd the Jaw they would have needecl no-other canonical books than the Pentateuch, to wLich the !look of Joshua. must be o.dded, beco.use it contains the account of the settle- ment of the tribes in the Lnnd of Promise. In the same Talmud (Bnba Bo.Ihm, 15 .,), we are told thnt Joshuo. wrote the b.iok which goes by his W\llle, RB well ns tho last eight verses of Deuteronomy (see note on eh. i. 1). ii INTltObUCTION