The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 117

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER III. 7-17. the pillars were not likely (1) to represent themselves as fugitives, and (2) to speak of TrrE PASSAGE OF THE JoRDAN.-Ver. 7.- Joshua as the" son·of Nun." He further re- Thts day will I begin to magnUy thee. marks that, while the oldest genuine Phooni- •• Ncqne rnim nntc myste1ium baptismi exal- cian inscription is not more than four tatnr .Jesns. Fc,l cx:tltat.io ejus, et exaltatio hundred years before Christ, thia, if genuine, in con~p0dn popnli, indc sun1it exordium 11 must have been erectecl nearly a thousand (Orig .. Hom. 4 on Joshua. Cf. Matt. iii. 17; years earlier still; and he further observes Luke iii. 22). on the impossibility of its having been deci- ,er. 8.-And thou shalt command the phered by the scholars of Justinian's day. priests. ·we have not here the whole com- The story, no doubt, had its origin in the mand. That is to be found in ver. 13. To Rabbinical tradition, mentioned by Jarchi the brtnk. ;'l~j?·ip. Literally, to the end, in his Commentary, as well as by Kimchi, ;,e., the end or.brink of the waters at the that Joshua wrote three letters to the eastern side. There they halted, and as . Ca.naanites before invading Palestine: the long as the ark remained there, the waters first inviting them to make peace; the ol Jordan ceased to flow. second, on their refusal, proclaiming war; Yer. 10.-That the livtng God. Rather, the third, to those who feared the wrath Jlerhaps, that a lidng God, ;,,., that you of Jehovah, warning them to depart to have not with you some idol of wood or Africa - advice which, Ja.rchi adds, was stone, or some deified hero, long since actually taken by a great many. Concern- passed out of your reach, but a linng, work- ing these seven nations more will be found ing, ever-present God, who shows by His in the Introduction (see also Gen. x. 15-18 ; acts that your faith in Him is not vain. xv. 19-21; Exod. iii. 8, 17, &c.). That a The phrase is a very common one as ap- Hebrew signification is found for Phooni- plied to God in the Old Testament. In the cia.n words need not surprise us. The New, Christ is frequently referred to as the descendants of Ham, when " dwelling in the source of life. Is among you. The original tents of Shem," might have formed for is stronger, ;,, Ihe midst of you. The Ca.na.a.n- themselves a similar language. But that the ites. The descendants of Canaan, the son Aramaic, which was spoken throughout of Ham (Gen. ix. _18). The word which Syria and Palestine, was closely similar to signifies "low" 1s by some supposed to sig- the Hebrew, we have overwhelming evidence. nify the same as lowlanders, because the Not only is there clear proof that Abraham Ca.naanites inhabited the less mountainous and the Ca.naa.nites spolce the same language, portions of Palestine, by the sea (Num. not only are all the ancient names of places :xiii. 29; Josh. '"· 1), and by the side of Jor- • and persons of Hebrew origin, but even the dan (Kum. xiii. 2~)- According to Ewald, Carthaginian language is pronounced by their territor:v extended a.long the west Jerome, a competent judge, to be cognate bank of the Jordan as far as the Mediter- to the Hebrew (see Hiivernick, Introduction, ranean Sea. Canaan has also been held to sec. 21). The Bittltee. • The Hittites signify bowed doun, dl'prrssed (see Gen. ix. 25), (Hebrew, Chittim) were out of all proportion But St. Augustine, in his exposition of the the principal tribe in Palestine at this time, Epistle to the Romans (sec. 13), says that as we have already seen (eh. i. 4). They the country folk of the neighbourhood of were the descendants of Heth or Chet (Gen. Carthage, a Phcenician colony, as the name x. 15), who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Punic implies, called themselves Canani, Hebron in the days of Abraltam (Gen. xxiii. which they would hardly have done were 19 ; xxv. 9). At that time they do not the name a badge ol aervi tude. Whether we appear to have attained the importance are to attach much importance to this state- which they afterwards reached (Gen. xii. 6 ; ment or not, it 1s certainly a remarl,able xiii. 7; xxxiv. 30), though this is perhaps not comcidence. The story told by Procopius altogether a safe inference (cf. Judges i. 4, (' De Bello Vandalico,' ii.10; see also Suidas, 5). For the mention of the Canaanites in ,. L X''"""'') of two 1,illars of white stone Gen. xii. 6 without the Perizzite might lead near Tangier, with the inscription in Phwni- to a similar inference with rego.rd to the re- cian, "We are those who fled from the face lative importance of these two tribes, whereas of the robber Joshua, the son of Nun," is in the other two passages they appear on a oi.,v;c,ual_y not lo be depended upon. Even level. Be this aa it may, we find the Hit- ii the inscription existed it was not likely to tites occupying a prominent position in Ca- l,e of ancitnl date. And as Kemick re- naan at this time, not only in the Dool, of marks(' Pho.nicia,' p. G7), those who erected Joshua, bt1t on the Egyptian monuments, VII, Ill. 7-17,] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA,