The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 130

" when," as in Dcmt. xi. 6; 1 Kings viii. 9. first month." Thus the elate of the cross- Gcsenius would translate "if that," and Keil ing, which is accurately fixccl by a variety of wonlcl render by quod. circumstances, is clearly provecl to corre- Ver. 23.-For. The original here age.in spond with the time of Jordan's overflow. is ,~~, with the meaning because. We next come to the measures ta.ken to se- cure the crossing. There is likewise no Ver. 24.-The ha.nd of the Lord, that lt Is mistake here. Not one single intimation iii mighty. " Thus the river, though dumb, given of an endeavour to break in any we.y was the best of heralds, proclaiming with a the force of the current, or to preserve the loud voice that heaven and earth are subject Israelites, either men, women, or chilclren, to the Lord God of Israel" (Calvin). That from the imminent risk they ran of cleath ye might fear. The construction here is br drowning. Not only are no other expe- unusual. Instead of the imperfect or in- chents resortecl to, but no animals seem to finitive with )P!;)? we have the perfect. have been prepared to transport them over. Therefore Ewald, Maurer, and Knobel (who Nor, again, were any means used to elude says that the second member of the sentence the vigilance of the inhabitants of Canaan. ought to correspond with the first) have Reaclers of Xenophon 's ' Anabasis ' will not altered the pointing in order to bring this f~il to notice how often the passage of the passage into conformity with the supposed nvers was a matter of the utmost clifficulty necessities of g1:ammar. In so doing they to that expeclition, ancl how fiercely attempts have robbed it of its picturesqueness and its at crossing were clisputed by the half-savage meaning. For the object is clearly to show tribes of Asia Minor. How are we to ac- the lasting nature of the fear, " that ye count for the fact that no opposition was might recognise now the band of the Lord, o_ff~r~d to J'?shua's passage by the highly- that ye might have a thorough and lasting c1v1hsed nat10ns of Palestine? Accorcling fear of his name." We may here remark to the narrative before us it was effectecl in on the necessarily miraculous character of the most leisurely and peaceful manner. the whole narrative of the crossing the What other explanation is possible than that Jordan. It admi~s of no explaining away. offered in the text, that when the feet of The account must either be accepted or the priests bearing the ark touched the rejected en bloc. First we have the specific waters, those waters were cut off by super- declaration of Rahab in chap. ii. 10, that natural power, and a way was miraculously Jehovah dried up the Red Sea, and that this made for the people of God through the proof of the peculiar protection of Israel by midst of Jordan ? The crossing was remark- the Most High had struck terror into the able enough, we are told, to have been com- hearts of the inhabitants of Canaan. Next memorated by a double memorial (vers. 8, 9). we have the fact that Jordan had overflowed If it had taken place through an unusually its banks. The dangerous nature of the easy ford there would have been nothing crossing, even at ordinary times, has been remarkable about it. Therefore it is clear mentioned already. Lives are frequently that the whole narrative of the crossing is lost in the attempt, as recent travellers with either absolute fable or strictly and historic: one voice declare. At the time when the ally accurate. Let us conclude by summing waters were out such a crossing was prac- up the several reasons which make the tically impossible to a host like the host of former alternative illadmissible. The first Israel. Nor can there be any mistake about is the precision with which the do.te is fixed, its being the period of the overflowing of and the fact that the correctness of this date J_ordan, for the time of the crossing is men- "is confirmed, as we have seen, by a. variety t10ned. It was the time of harvest-that is, of corroborative evidence. The next is the of the barley harvest. This is confirmed by simplicity o.nd artlessness of the narrative, the fact that the recently cut flax was now ancl its appeal to still-existing monuments lying on the roof of Rahab's house, and by as confirmatory of the fo.cts recorded. The the fact that the barley and flax ripened third is that no account of o. battle at Jordan together, a coincidence which we have is even hinted at by the Hebrew or any other nlre11,dy mentioned in the note on chap. ii. 6. historian, a battle which must infallibly The time is yet further defined. It was the ho.ve taken place ho.d the Israelites nt- "tenth day of the first month." We learn, tempted to enter Palestine in any ordinary moreover, from Levit. xxiii. 9-15 andDeut. manner; for the supposilion that the waters xvi. G that this wo.s the time when the first- of the ford at Jericho were nnusue,lly low at fruits were offered, from which seven weeks this time is quite inadmissible for the rea- were reckoned to the beginning of whe11t sons given above ; nor can it be supposed harvest (Exod. xxxiv. 2). Moreover, the that the Israelites crossed the rive.. by any passover was kept immediately afterwards other ford without rejecting the whole his- (chap. v. 10), on "the fourteenth day of the tory of the conquest. The last re11,son is JOSHUA. F (l4 THE BOOK OF JOSI-lt::A. [CH. IV, 1-24,