the nsne.l language of the Hebrew prophets. seems to be aware that the extermination of Fe.lnt. Literally, melt; cf. Exod. xv. rn, 16, these nations was in fulfilment of a Divine which is thus shown to be not poetic license, sentence. hut sober fa.et. For we may take the future Ver.11.-Melt. The word in the Hebrew in the passage just cited as a preaent, and is a different one to that used in ver. !) hut translate, " All the inhabitants of Canaan it bas a precisely similar meaninrs. There melt aw11y; fear and dread nre falling upon seems no reason why the destruction of them " (cf. Dent. ii. 25; xi. 25). Sihon and Og should have inspired such Ver. 10.-For we have heard how the terror into the hearts of the powerful Phre- Lord drted up the water of tl).e Red Sea for nician tribes. But the miracle of the d.ry:ing yotL Re.bah uses the word i1)i1'. Whether up of the Red Sea was an event of quite another order, ancl eminently calculated to this name were known to her 'or not, she produce such feelings. Nothing but such knew what was signified by it, the one only an occurrence could have explained Re.hab's self-existent God (since i11i1' is clearly de- language, or the anxiety whicb the near rived from i1~y or i1)y to be), the Author of approach of the armies of Israel :inspired all things, visible and invisible (see ver. 11). in those " cities, great and we.lied up to The Red See.. Brugsch, in his 'llistory of heaven," with their inhabitants of f(iant-like Egypt, denies that i:iio·o~ should be rendered stature and strength. Courage. Literally, ' Red Sea,' and a.flirms that this error of spirit. The word 1]11 seems to have been the LXX. interpreters has been the source of used in the Hebrew in just the same senses endless misapprehensions. i'\lD is an Egyp- as our word spirit, and it signified 1cind also tia.n word signifying flags or rushes, which (see 1 Kings x. 5). For the Lord your God, abound not only in the Red Sea, but in the he 1s God. Literally, Joi· Jehovah yo11r God. marshes on the shores of the Mediterranean, This declaration, bearing in mind the cir- as, in fact, in all low-lying lands. It is here, cumstances of the person who uttered it, is according to Brugsch, in a treacherous and as remarkable as St. Peter's, " Thou art the well-nigh impassable country, near that Christ, the Son of the Ii ving God." How Serbonian bc-g, "where armies whole have Rahab attained to this knowledge of God's sunk" (Milton, 'Paradise Lost,' Book II., name and attributes we do not know. It is line 594), that we are to look for the vic- certain, however, tho.t under the circum- torious passage of Moses, and the destruction stances her knowledge and spiritual insight of Pharaoh and his host. The i'\lD or rushes o.re as surprising as any recorcled in Scrip- were to be found in the Nile, as Exod. ii. ture, and are sufficient to explain the honour 3, 5 shows (cf. Isa. xix. 6). So that i'\lD"O'. in which her name has been held, both at by no means necessarily implies the Red Sea. the time and ever since. " I see heere," Yet on the other hand we may remember, says Bp. He.II, "not only a disciple of God, with the Edinburgh Reviewer (July, 1879), but a propbetesse." Keil argues that Rahab that the coast-line of Po.Jestine and of the regards God only as one of the gods, and delto. of the Nile !;,.as undergone considerable supposes that she had not entirely escaped changes during the historic period, and that from polytheism. But this view does not the land he.a, during that period, largely en- appear to be borne out by the form of her croached on the sea. Slhon a.nd Og. As we expressions. We should rather, in that case, read in Num. xxi. and Dent. ii., iii. Whom have expected to find "be 1s among the ye utterly destroyed. Rather, devoted to gods," than, He is God, which is the only utter destruction (see eh. vi. 21). Rahab possible rendering of the Hebrew.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-12.-Rahab and the spies. Three points clen111nJ om 1iUcnti0n in this narrative. First, the conduct of J oshuo.; secondly, of the spies; aucl thircUy, of Rahab. I. JOSHUA s CONDUCT. Here we may observe tho.t- ·1. He does not despise the use of means. He was under Gocl's special prntection. God had promised (eh. i. 5) tha,t "he would not fail him nor forsake him." He had seen miracles wrought in o.bunda,nce, a,nd was destined to receive other proofs of God's extraorclino.ry presence with him. Yet he does not rely on. these, where his own prl.l(lence and diligence are sufficient. We must learn a snmlar lesson for ourselves-(a) in our external undertakings, (b) in our internal warfare. In both "Goel helps those that help themselves." We must" work out our own salvation," l>ecauae it is " God th0,t worketh in us," by ordinary as well as by exti·uonlm11ry 30 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cH. II, 1-1\l,