The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 72

on ver. 4), &c. The name Jordan signifies be complete. Not a foot's hrca,lth was lo "Descender," from the verb 11; to de- rest in the ho.nds of its former owners. But ,ccnd. The word fitly describes the head- here, a.s elsew~ere in Holy Writ, we may long cnrrent of the river, which, according mark the way m which man's sin and want to Mr. Mo.cgregor ('Rob Roy on the Jordan,' of faith has marred the purposes of God. In p. 282), ho.so. fall of fifteen feet per mile, the Book of .Judges we read that the Canaan- and if we subtro.ct the Lo.ke of Gennesareth ites w~re not only not driven out, but that and the lo.kc and o.ttendant marshes of the children of Israel made marriages with Huleh, of thirty feet. Between the Seo. of them, worshipped their gods, and practisecl Galilee and the Dead Sea, however, the ave- their abominations. .Jerusalem remained in rage fall is much less. Just after leaving the hands of the Jebnsites until the time of the Sea of Galilee its fall is over forty David, while the Philistines remained in feet. (Conder, 'Handbook,' p. 216). It possession of their portion of Palestine until may be interesting to compare with this it was redaced under the power of the king the average inclination of some of our own of Bo.bylon. W~ may observe that, according English rivers. The swiftest is the Dee, in to all the ordmary laws of criticism this Aberdeenshire, which has a fall of 16·5 ft. per citation of Denteronomy is a proof that that mile. The Tweed and Clyde have a fall of Book existed when the Book of Joshua was 16 ft. and 14 ft. respectively, while the written. For the cumbrous scheme of Severn has but 26/i in., the Thames 18 in., Elohlsts, Jehoviets, Deuteronomists, and and the Shannon 9 in. per mile. This the like, by which this natural conclusion comparative table will give the best idea of is overruled, see Introduction. Have I given the rapidity of the Jordan. The various it. The preterite here denotes God's pur- explorers bear testimony to the swiftness of pose (cf. Gen. i. 29). its current. Tilus Robinson, in his • Bib- Ver. 4.-From the wilderness a.nd this lical Researches,' says, " The current was so Lebanon. The words suppose a line to be strong that even Komeh, a stout swimmer drawn from the desert of Arabia on the south of the Nile, was carried down several yards and t~e range of Lebo.non on the north, to in crossing." 11 It was so swift,'' says Dr. the River Enphrates on the one ho.nd and Bartlett (' Egypt and Palestine,' p. 452), the Mediterranean Seo. on the other. includ- " that a gentlemo.n of another comp1my, ing the land of the Hittites (see 1 Kings iv. who went to bathe, was not suffered by his 24; 2 Chron. ix. 26). Tiphsah, the le1ter friends to do so without a rope most llil- Thapsacus, was fo.r north of the utmost romantically attached to his perso!i." This limits of Palestine, e1nd almost in the lati- was in March, at the time of the overflowing tude of Antioch. Azzah is generally termed (see cho.p. iii.), and he o.dds, "the turbid Go.ZC1 in our version. See note on cho.p. xi. stream rushed e.long like a mill-race." 22. The le1nd of the Hittites here (Keil) seems Canon Tristram, visiting it in April, de- to be te1ken for the land of Canaan in general scribes it as "rushing with tremendous (see 1 Kings x. 29; 2 Kings vii. 6; Ezek. xvi. force." It rises among the snows of Her- 3), but extending far beyond their border, mon, dashes down headlong into the lake o.nd including Syrio., llfoab,Ammon, the land Huleh, the Merom of the Book of Joshua, and of Basban,and po.rt of Arabio.. This was never thence, with a descent of 60 ft. per mile, into actuo.lly in the hand of the Israelites s11Ve tile Sea of Galilee. Thence it shapes its during the reigns of Do.vicl and Solomon, when ~ourse, as we have seen, with g1:eatly dimin- these regions were either tributary to them, ished velocity into that strange depression or ho.d been o.ctually reduced under their im- where the Dead Sea lies, at a level of 1,290 ft. mediate sway. "The promise," says Tbeo- beneath the level of the Mediterranean. I doret, "was not undefined, but ' if ye slrnll do give, literally, I am giving; i.e., at this keep my commandments o.ncl ordiuonces' moment, when yon are preparing to enter (Dent. xi. 22, 23). But they, inasmuch ns 1t. they immediately transgressed the le.w, di.cl Ver. 3.-Every place that the sole or your not obtain the perfect promises. The Divine root doth tread upon. These words a.re a Apostles, on the contrD.I·y, not only conquered quotation, almost word for word, from Dent. those places on which they set their foot, ~i. 2•!, but the origino.l promise is to be found but even those in which their fill-wise writ- m Gen. xii. 1-7, with which we may com- ings were read ; and the land that was before po.re Gen. xiii. 14-17; xv. 18; xvii. 8. a desert they displayed as a Divine P,1.111.. Comp. o.lso Josh. xiv. 9; Exod. xxiii. 30,31, dise." This Lebanon. This expression is no &c. It was God's pu,.pose that the whole doubt used bemtnse Lebanon was visible land ehould belong to the children of Isrncl; from the spot where Joshua wo.s stuncling. o. purpose which, as nsunl in Hebrew pro- There is nothing surprising in this. We phecy, is signified by the nse of the perfect leo.rn from travellers that its re1nge, which tense here. The conquest wne intended to • there is no doubt includecl that of Anti- 4 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [en. 1. 1-4.