appointed by Moses. No doubt Joshua continued to appoint them during his lifetime. But we hear of no provision for their appointment after his death. Possibly they were appointed by the general assembly of the tribe, but in the rapid disintegration of Jewish institutions which followed, we find their office usurped by the military leader who had for a time retrieved the fallen fortunes of Israel. II. The land system of Israel differed much from the Aryan land systems. There, originally, land appears to have been held in common by the in- habitants of the mark, and to have been divided into three parts, for wheat, spring crops, and fallow, beside the pasture grounds; and originally to have been shifted from time to time, when exhausted. * The Semitic and Turanian tribes seem to have differed from the Aryans in having grasped much earlier the idea of private property in land. The Egyptians, by Joseph's adnce, had converted the vast bulk of Egyptian proprietors then existing into the tenants of the crown. In Palestine, as early as the time of Abraham, the Hittites appear also to have recognized the rights of private proprietors. It is impossible to read the narrative of Gen. xxiii., t and fancy that we are reading of an account of the permanent acquisition by Abraham of a portion of the ager publicus.J The ground was evidently the property of Ephron, and the other children of Heth were but the witnesses and guarantors of the legality of the transaction. A similar purchase is recorded in Gen. xxxiii. 19. § But the land system of Palestine received a remarkable modification when it fell into the hands of the Jews. Jehovah Himself became the actual owner of the land; each head of a household received his inheritance in fief and in perpetuity from Him. The institution of the year of release secured that no property should be permanently alienated from its owner. Thus every Israelite was a landed proprietor; and not only so, but a landed proprietor in perpetuity. Each had, therefore, an equal stake in the community. No system could be better adapted to the stability of the commonwealth. But there is reason to suppose that it • " Keque quisquam agri modum certum ant fines habet proprios." Cmsar, 'De Bello Gallico,' vi. 22; Tacit. 'Germ.,' 26; Stubbs, • Constitutional History,' vol. ·i., eh. ii; Freeman, 'Norman Conquest,' eh. i. pp. 89, 90. The Germans seem to have acquired some notions of private property in !<inn between the time of Cmsar and that of Tacitus. It appears clear that they brought the id.e .. with them to this country. But much of the la.nd was still hc<ld in common at that time (see Stubbs, 'Constitutional History,' vol. i., eh. v.). t Especially vv. 8, 10, 14, and 17. ! '.I'his view is taken in an article on the land tenure of Palestine in the Ckurch Quarterly Review, October, 1880. § Here a.gain I am una!Jle to follow the reviewer. Jacob, we are told in the Hebrew, obtained the allotment of the field where he had pitched his tent. There is no hint tho.t the sadeh here was the ager puhlicUB. If so, how could it be alienated, and how WBB it that if private property in le.nd were unknown amoDg the Hivites, Jacob so eo.eilf obtained it !or himself? (Bee also Josh. xxiv, 82,) TO THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. xxxi
was not long maintained. First, the repeated invasions of Israel, and next the usurpations of kings (1 Kings xxi. 3), destroyed it, and in the lator days of the Jewish history we find that even the person of the Israelite was no longer sacred from slavery (Jer. xxxiv. 8-11). One feature of the Jewish land system seems to have approximated to the Aryan custom. A certain amount of pasturage (see note on ~~Q "suburbs," eh. xxi. 2) was reserved for the Levites in the neighbourhood of the cities assigned to them. It seems to have been used in common by them, and not to have been accompanied by any assignment of arable land. Ae the Levites, we are frequently told, had no inheritance with the rest of their brethren, the view taken in the notes seems the most probable one, that they dwelt in the cities with their brethren of each tribe, the right of pasturage for their cattle being the only right reserved to them. The rest of their subsistence they derived from the offerings of the people (see eh. xiii. 14). § V. CONTENTS OF THE BooK. As has been already said, and ae will be found in the notes on eh. i 1, the Book of J oehua is clearly a continuation of the Book of Deuteronomy. It commences (eh. i. 1-9) with God's charge to Joshua, embracing (1) the extent of the dominion to be given to the children of Israel, and (2) instruc- tions to himseli as to the grounds of his confidence, and the way in which he is to seek it. He is to be successful, if he studies and keeps the law of God. In eh. i. 10-15 we have Joshua's instructions to the people, (1) to the officers to see that the necessary preparations were made, and (2) to the tribes who had already received their inheritance, concerning the part they were to talce in the impending struggle. Vere. 16-18 contain the people's acceptance of Joshua ae leader in the place of Moses, and their promise of a most implicit obedience. Ch. ii. (see notes) ie parenthetical. It contains the preparations Joshua had already made for the invasion of Canaan, by sending spies to reconnoitre the first city he intended to attack. 'J'.hey excited the suspicion of the king, and had to take refuge in the house of Rahab. There they learn the terror which the news of their approach had inspired in the hearts of the Canaanites, as a people believed to be under the protection of a mighty deity. They were hidden by Rahab under the stalks of flax (it being the time of the earlier harvest), were then let down the city wall, after having promised to save Rahab and her family in the sack of the city. Certain tokens were agreed upon for the performance of this promise, and then the spies departed, hid themselves in the mountains, thus escaping pursuit, and finally returned in safety to Joshua. Ch. iii. contains the narrative of the crossing of the Jordan. The people followed the ark at a fixed distance, until they had reached the pie.co 'li:XXii INTRODUCTION