The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 108

when the necessity for the injunction ar. their own unaided po~ers could guide them, rived. Nor, we may add, is it necessary to !/1,P,n they most repair to the ark of God. Ruppose that every intimation given by God There they must seek counsel, this they to Joshua is necessarily recorcleJ in chrono- must set befor~ them to guide their ways. logical order (see note on eh. ii 1.) Weare But to regard it as a charm which could only to understand by tho order followed by possibly atone for their want of faith and the sacred historian, that he desirea to im- their lack of obedience, was to profane it. press fully upon hi• readers how entirely Such temptations as these Jesus Christ re- every step taken by Joshua was taken at the sisteci in the wilderness ; such temptations express command of God. The idea of Christians must resist now. \Ve have no Paulus, Eichhorn, Ewald, Knobel, an(l others, right to seek for supernatural aids where that this account is compiled from two or natural onP.s will suffice us-no right to in- more different documents, would not only Tuke the special intervention of God till we require us to suppose great clumsiness in the have exhausted all the means He has placed compiler, if their view of his work he true, at our disp~sal. Above all, we have no right but is wholly unnecessary. The text in- to expect Him to save us from the conse- volves no contradictions ; only an amount quences of our own sin and disobedience of repetition, which is an essential feature except on His own condition, that we shall of all the early Hebrew historical narratives, truly repent. \Ve may further remark that as is evident to the most casual observer, the Pillar of the Cloud and the fire, like the and is a proof, not of compilation, but or-the manna, hacl ceased, and even the ark of the antiquity of the document, and the sim- covenant only preceded the Israeli tea on plicity and absence of art of the writer. special occasions. The priests the Levites_ Ewald ha,e remarked that it is characteristic This phrase has given rise to some discus- of the Hebrew historians to mention the ter- sion. Some editions of the LXX., as well mination of the event as soon as possible, as some Hebrew MSS., read, "the priests and then to fill in their outline by the nar- and the Levites." The Chai dee and Syriac ration of intermediate circumstances (see versions have the same reading. The Vul- chs. i., iii., vi., vii. of the Book of Joshua). gate-more correctly, asit would seem-ren- As a specimen of the way in which contra- ders "sacerdotes stirpis Leviticre," i.e.," the dictions are manufactlll'ed~ we may take priests who are of the tribe of Levi " (see Knobel's assertion that the two statements eh. viii. 33, Num. iv. 18, and Deut. xxri. 9). that the people came to Jordan, and that· Keil's explanation that this expression must there was a space of 2,000 cubits between be taken in opposition to non-Levitical and, them and the priests, are irreconcilable. As therefore, unlawful priests, seems hardly though it were not possible that the 2,000 satisfactory. It is not till much later-in cubits were to be measured along the river, fact, till the time of Jeroboam-that .,,-e hear and that the priests were ordered to walk of unlailul priests. It is more probable along the bank until it was signifiecl to them that it is intended to emphasise the position that they had arrived at the place of crossing. of Levi as the sacerdotal tribe, the one tribe For we are plainly told that this distance which had no share in the operations of the was to be p1·eserved that the people might war. So Rabbi Solomon Jarchi explains it, "know the way which they must go" citing the B'reshith Rabbah, 'll"hich states (ver. 4). that the phrase is found in forty-five places Ver. 3.-And they comma.nded the people, in the Bible, with the meaning that the saying. These ·words are interesting as priests are of the tribe of Levi. ~!)owing that alf wns orderly in the Israel- Ver. 4.-Tbere shall be a space between 1tish camp. Everything was carried on ac- you and it. Perhaps in order that they cording to the strictest rules of military might keep it in view. This agrees best discipline. The removal of the ark was to with the remainder of the verse, " that ye 1,e the signal for the advance of the whole may know the way by which ye must go." h~st. The ark of the covena.nt. We may Keil remarks that, had the Israelites pressccl with advantage compare the religio11s use of close on the heels of the priests who bore the _ark here and in eh. vi., with its .rnpa- the o.rk, this would ho.ve cldcatecl the very st,t,ous use in 1 Sam. iv. 3, 4. We do not object with which the ark wus cru.Tied before read that when the Israelites were defeated the people, namely, to point them out the nt Ai, Joshun. took the ark with him ia wny thnt they should go. But Cornelius ,\ a _march to repair the clisaster. Such n Lapicle among the eylicr conunento.tors and mrnuse ol tho symbol of God's Presence Knobel among the modems hole! that it was WaR only possible in clays when faith hnd the sacreclness of the ark which renclerccl it grown cold. \Vhcn the Israelites ho.cl need necessary that (here should be a space of of supernatural guidance, when they were more than half a mile between it an(l the placed in circumstances where no use of Israelites. Jarchi says tile space was •· in  44 THE BOOR OF JOSHUA. [cH. nt. 1-0.