The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 93

then on those of the north. The political entered any other. Even there it did no, condition of Palestine at that time (see escape the notice of the liing, who harl heen Introduction) did not permit of a resist- thoroughly alarmed (ver. j) hy tlie successes ance by the whole force of the country of Israel ea.stwa.rd of Jordan. Origen, in under a single leader. A hasty confederation his third homily on Joshu", remarks that, of the kinge of the eouth, after the treaty "As the first Jesus sent his sptes hefore him with Gibeon, wae overthrown by the rapid and they were received into the harlot's advance of Joshuo. and the battle of Beth- house, so the second ,Jcsas sem His fore- horon. By this success he was free to nmners, whom the publicans a,.d harlots march with his whole army northward, gladly received." Named Rabab. Origen against the confederation of tribes under (Hom. 3) sees in tbis name, which ignifics the leadership of the king of Hazor, whom room (see Rehoboth, Gen. xxvi. 22), ,be type be overcame in the decisive battle of Merom. of the Church of Christ which extends There ie no hint given in the Scripture that throughout the world, ancl receives sin;12rs. in thie strategy Joshua acted .under the And lodged there. Literally, and lay there, special guidance of the Most High. The perhaps with the idea of. lying hid, for probability is; that in this, as in all other of they did not (ver. 15) spend the night God's purposes effected through the agency there. of man, there is a mixture of the Divine Ver. 4.-And the woman took the two and human elements, and that man's in- men. The majority of commentators are of dividuality is selected aud guided as an opinion that here, as in ,er. 1, we must instrument of God's purpose, which, in this render by the pluperfect. For, as Calvin instance, was the chastisement of the • remarks, Rahab would hardly have dared to Canaanitish people, and the gift of the Holy lie so coolly had she not pre,iously taken Land as a possession to the descendants of precautions to conceal her guests. And Abraham. That Joshua was not indifferent therefore she must have to!tl a twofold false- to human means is shown . by this very hood. She must have clisco,·ered, or been verse. Into a harlot's house. Many com- made acquainted with, their errand, and mentators have striven to show that this therefore have" known whence they were," word simply means an innkeeper, an office - in addition to her assertion that she did not which, as Dr. Adam Clarke proves at length, know where they were now. And hid them. was often filled by a woman. It baa The original is remarkable and Yery .-i,id. been derived from m to nourish, a root also And hid him, i.e., each one in a separate found in the Syriac. The Chaldee para- place. No doubt the detail comes from an phast ahd many Jewish and Christian in- eye-witness, so that if the Book of Joshua terpreters have adopted this interpretation, be not a contemporary work, the writer must in order, as Rosenmiiller remarks, " to have had Recess to some contemporary absolve her from whom Christ had His origin document. from the crime of prostitution."• But St. Ver. 5.-1 wot not. Much has been said Matthew seems to imply the very opposite. about Rahab's falsehood which is little to The genealogy there contained nientions, as the point. The sacred historian simply nar- though of set purpose, all the blots on the rates the fact, and makes no comment what- lineage of Christ ae was fitting in setting ever upon it. But the fact that Rahab forth the origin of Him who came to forgive afterwards became the wife of Salmon, n sin. Only three women are there mentioned: prince of the tribe of Judah, as the genealogy Tamar, who was guilty of incest; Rahab, the in St. Matthew informs us (though Knobd ho.riot ; and Ruth, the Moabitess. And denies this, asserting thnt between Joshua the LXX. render by 1rupv11. Calvin calls and David there were more thnn three gene- the interpretation "innkeeper" a " pre- rations, forgetting that Boaz, when he mar- sumptuous wresting of Scripture." Heng- ried Ruth, was 1m old man, see Ruth iii. stenberg (' Geschichte des lleiches Gottcs,' 10), shows that neither her falsehood nor p. 197) also rejects the interpretation "inn- her mode of life excited much disappro- keeper," and maintains the right of the spies, bation among the Jews. Nor need this sur- who, he eays, were no doubt chosen by prise us. There is no need, with Keil, to Joshua for their good character, to enter a repudinte energetically the assertion of Hauff wicked woman's house for a good purpose. that the authorof this Book regarded Rahub 's It does not appear that the spies entered deception ns not only allowable, but pro.ise- the house of Rahab with any evil intent, worthy, any more than we ueetl scruple to but simply because to enter the house of a confess thnt Jael's base treachery met with woman of that kind-and women of that the approvnl of Deborah nncl Barak. The ~ind i:nust have been very numerous in the tone of feeling in Jewish society in Rahab's llcent1ous Phamician cities-would have at- day must hnvc differed enormously in many tracted far Ieee attention than if they.had respects from what obtains in our own time, 28 THE BOOK OF .tOSHUA. [ou. u. 1-1~.