The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 163

rule 0f the justice and holiness of our actions " enim scriptum est), fac tibi tribas dnctilea (Dp. Ha,11). ex Scripturis SIIUQtis" (Orig., Hom. 7 0n Yer. 4.-And eeven prteste shall bea.r Joshua). befo,e the a.rk. The Yulga,te puts " on the Ver. 5.-When they make a long blast seYenth da,y" in connection with Lhis pa.rt With the ram's horn. Literally, as they of the sentence; Luther also transla.tes thus. dra,o out with the horn of,iubilee, i.e., blow The LXX., which Cah-in andourtra.ns!A.tors a prolonged blast (cf. Exod. xix. 13). Here and the majority of commentators follow, the word used is horn o.f jubilee, but not regard this part of the sentence as stating necessai·ily of ram's horn, as our version, o.ny what was to be dm,e on the six days, aud more than the modern horn, though it takes rightly s0. as vers. 8-14 clearly show. That the place of the more primitive instrument the hist,1ri1tn, as has been before remarked, made of that material, must itself be a ram's did not alwa~·s give the lull instructions horn. So Rosenmiiller. The word !Ji?. Joshua received is cndent from this passage. in Hebrew is used in different senses, ail: The priests are not said to have been in- however, growing out of the one original structed to sound the trumpet on the six sense. Thus it is used for a musical instru- das-s ; wt we learn from v. 13 that they 111.ent, for rays of light, for the projections did so. • It is rather implied than expressed e:ctending front the comers of the altar, and that the ark was also to be borne in pro- in Isa. v. 1, for a mountain pea le (like the cession; but that this was done is evident German Schreckhorn, Gabelhorn, Weiss- from "<"er. 8. Seven trumpete of rams' lwrn). Origen compares the bla.st of the horns. There is no mention of rams' trumpet at which the we.Us of Jericho fell, horns in the origins.I, which is n'f"l!:l'W to the sound of the last trumpet, which o•~:;i1•r, trumpets of jubilee, r.e., of tri- shall finally destroy the kingdoms of sin. umph (hard.Jy a.s Gesenius, "alarm trum- When ye hear. The Keri substitute here, pets," though not necessarily, with Dr. as in many other places, :;>for .;l but unneces- \"anghan in his • Heroes of Faith,' "the sarily. The Keri means at the very moment emblems of festival, not of warfare"). The when, the Chethibh simply and Iese emphati- cally," when" (see ver. 15). Flat. Literally, word ~;;11' is derived from the same root as uniurneatli it, i.e., the walls were to give the Latin is in the phrase lo Triumphe way from their very foundations. Every (cf. Greek iw), and according to Gesenius our man straight before him. There was no word "yu_le" is also derived from this root. need to surround the city, nor to endeavour The i;)'r.:i as the next verse shows, was a to enter it through a "practicable breach." curved instrument, in shape like a ram's '.l'he walls were to give way entirely, and horn, thongh not neces~arily of that ma- the warriors might advance at once, in the terial; whereas the ;il~~i'.1 was a straight order of battle, and from the place in which trumpet. Seven times. • The importance of they were at the moment when they raised the number seven as iudicative of complete- the about of tritimph ( ~17•:,:J for the in- ness is here strongly indicated. Seven habitants of Jericho alone were evidently priests were to carry seven trumpets for no match for them in numbers (cf. chap. x. seven days. The word for to swear, :V~t?, 3; xi. 1-3), though they might have hoped literally to be sevened, means to ha.ve one's to hold out some time under the protection "<"OW consecrated and confirmed by seven of their walls. sacrifices or seven witnesses (see Gen. xxi. Ver. 7.-Alld he eald. The text has they 28, 30). The number seven, says Bahr in said. Our translators follow the Masciretic his' Symbolil< des Alten Testament,' i., 187, emendation. If we follow the original we 188, is the sign of the reJa.tion, union, com- mnst suppose that the priests, 9r, as with munion between God and the world, as Keil and Knobel, the Shoterim (eh. i. 10), represented by the number three and four conveyed Joshua's command to the troops. respectively, just as twelve is in another Ver. 8.-Be that le armed, or rather dis- relation (see note on eh. xxi. 3). Its encumbered, i.e., prepared for battle (see eh, meauing, according to BiiLr, among the iv. 13). Similarly, in the next verse, "the· heathen is somewhat different. There it armed men,'' i.e., the host in ma~ching means the harmony of the universe, and is order, as we say. Kimchi and ?archi refer siguilied by the seven stars, to which, and this to the Reubenites and their brethren, neither more nor less, was the power of but without sufficient authority. Keil thinks iufluencing man's destiny ascribed. And that it was impossible that the unarmed the priests shall blow with the trumpets. people would have gone with the procession "Fae tibi tribas ductiles, si saeerdos es, as "the rcreward" (see note on v. 13), be- immo, q11ia sacerdos cs (gens enim rage.lie cause no command to that effect is given in eflectus ea et saeerdotium sanctum, de te ver. 3. But as he has told us in eh. iii.,  OH, VI. 1-21.] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA.