EXPOSITION. CHAPTER IY. 1-24. ingenuity has been wasted over this passage. THE "E"oarAI,.-Ver. 2.-Twelve stones. Kennicott wouhl read "j>'om the midst,'' The commemoration of eve:its by the sett.ing instead of "in the midst ;" but this purely up of huge stones was by no means peculiar conjectural emendation is contrary to the to the Jews, though it was often used by fact that these stones were to be set up where t.hem, as. for instance, Gen. xx,;ii. 18., xxxv. the priests bearing the ark stood, while the 14. 1 Sam. ,ii. 12. Almost every nation has others were to be set up where the Israelites rested for the night. Again : it has been adopted it. The Egyptian obelisks, the askecl why stones should be placed as a sr.ones at Hamath, supposed to be of Hittite memorial in the Jordan itself, where no man origin, the dolmens and other megalithic could see them. The answer is a simple monuments of the Celts, the Logan or rock- one. They were not placed in the Jordan, but ing-stones, are cases in; point. The Scan- at some distance from its banks. They were dina,ians filled their country with them. placed where the priests stood, i.e., at the Our ovm Stonehenge and the Avebury brink of the Jordan (" juxta ripam," Jarchi), stones are supposed by some to be, not which at that time had overflowed its banks temples nor burial-places, but memorials of .(eh. iii. 15). It is no reply to this to ob- some battle. The co=and here given to serve with the translator of Keil that the J Q.Shua was regarding what was to be done stones would by this interpretation be left - by the twelve men, who (v. 4; cf. eh. iii. 12) high and dry for the greater part of the year, were already chosen. The form of the for this would be the very reason why that command is merely another instance of the precise spot was fixed upon for a memorial. common Hebrew practice of repetition. Nor does the word ';)11'1:;i_ in the miclst, con- Ver. 3.-Stood firm. Much discussion has taken place about the proper rendering of stitute any valid objection to this interpreta- the word i':;i;:, which the LXX. translates tion, for the same word is used in eh. iii. 17, although two verses previously we are told iToiµovr, and the Vulgate durissimos. It that the priests stood ,at the brink of the seems best to take it, as our version does, swollen river with the soles of their feet just as the infiniti,e absolute, e.nd to translate as dipped in the water (see note there). Thus in eh. iii. 17. But the punctuation of the while the Vulgate translates" in medio Jor- Masorites separates it from J~~r;:,. They danis alveo," the LXX. renders more accu- would apparently render "to set up." rately by iv avnp r,;; 'Iopoavy. Thus Rosen- "\"er. 4.-Prepared. Literally, appointed. miiller's objection to the two monuments, Yer. 6.-Tba.t tbiB may be a sign unto namely, that suoh monuments would never yolL There was for many years a visible be placed in a rapidly flowing stream like ibe memorial of the miracle. When your chil- Jordan, vanishes; while, as Poole suggests, dren ask their fa.there In time to come these stones might be heavier, and form (cf. Exod. xii. 26; xiii. 14; Deut. vi. 20). The even a more enduring memorial than that of passover, the law itself, as well as certain the first resting-place of the Israelites, con- outward and visible memorials, were to be structed as it were of stones which were not the guarantees to future ages of the truth of beyond the power of one man to carry. the history related in the Books of Moses and After all, it may be asked wbether it is Joshua. ~The monument has disappeared, more probable that this passage is an in- but the obsen·ance of the passover and the sertion from another, and an irreconcilable whole law bv the Jews now, more than account (Meyer, Knobel), or that it is a later 3,000 years after the events related in these gloss (Rosenmiiller, Maurer, &c.), or that books, is a perpetual standing witness of the two monuments of so mighty and memorable truth of the record. In like manner the a miracle should have been set up, one nt Christian passover, the sacrament of the the place where the priests stood, and Lue Lord's Supper, is appealed to by ChriaLians other where the Israelites rested after Lliis of every denomination as a proof of the wonderful interposition of Goel on their substantial truth of the narrative of the behalf. Bo Hengstenberg ' Geschichte <les Gospels. Reiches Gottes,' p. 203. The Syriac version Ver. 9.-And Joshua set up twelve stones only supports Rosenmiiller's view. 'l'he Ill the mid.et of Jordan. A great d, 111 of LXX, 11nd Vulsate render "twelve other CII. IV. 1-24.] THE BOOK OF .JOSHUA. r,3
stones." The supposition the.t the sacred 11 "low-lying plain about four hours' journey historian gives all the commands ol God to in breadth," at that time largely coverecl Joshua, and that therefore such parts ol with palm trees and thorny acacias, but the narrative as are not contained in these apparently not cultivated. Since that time commands are to he rejected, is refuted by a the palms having disappeared, the plain ha~ comparison, for instance, ol eh. iii. 7, 8, become ' a very picture of fertilitv 1 11