The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 209

ever. There a.re many who do not improve the LXX., Theodotion, and Luther. Thie 11,s they might, whom we should yet hesit11te gives a better sense and more according to to pronounce 11ltogether reprob11te from the derivation than the interpretation crumbs God. But surely the entire 11bsence of 1111 of bread, given by Gesenius and Keil, after improvement is a manifest sign of reproba- Aquila, Symmachus, and the Vulgate, which tion. This passe.ge is one o~ many among has" infru.,tra comminuti." The cmckncls the voluminous works of Ongen m which (the same word in Hebrew 11s here) in 1 tliat hoh· and learned man has not suI- Kings xiv. S were probe.bly biscuits marked ficiently ;Yeighed what he was saying (see with points by a sharp-pointed instrument, below, ver. 23). Ma.de as If they had been in the same way as the Jewish p11ssover ambassadors. " Sent an embassy" (Luther), cakes a1·e at the present day. If we take this reading, we must suppose, Ver. 6.-To the camp at Gilge.l. Many with Grotius and others, the word to be the commentators, among whom we may number Hithpahel of ,,¥ to go, to revolve. But the VandeYelde and the recent P11lestine Explo- form is rare, and the word is elsewhere un- ration Expedition, suppose that the Gilgal known. at least in Hebrew, though an Arabic mentioned here is another Gilgal, and cer- form of it is found. It is therefore better to tainly the supposition derives great force read ii•t:ii.• "tliey prepared themselves pro- from the fact that there is a place the ,isionsF 'i'his is the reading of the LXX., modern name of whicli is Jiljilia, situated the Vulgate, the Chaldee, the Syria.c, and of near the oaks of Moreh, whose situation most modem editors. It is rendered still would be far more central, and would fall in more probable by the occurrence of the sa.me better with the rest of the history (see notes word in ver. 12. Old sacks. Rather, worn on eh. viii. 30), than the original Gilgal. out and so throughout the passage. The That such a secondGilgalis known to Jewish usu'a1 mode of conveyance still in the East history would appear from Dent. xi. 30, is in sackcloth bags on the backs of horses, where its situation is clearly pointed out mules, camels, and asses. Such_ bags are as that of the modem Jiljilia, near the apt to meet with rough usage 1-? a l~ng oaks of Moreb, and near the Arabah (cham- journey. Wine bottles. Ra~her, !"ine ski":', paign, Authorised Version), which runs the wine then being kept m skins, not m in that direction. Jiljulieh, in the plain vessels of glass. This explains how they of Sharon, is supposed by Vandevelde and could be bnrst open (0'?,li?:;17?) and tied up. the Palestine explorers (see • Quarterly Statement,' Jan., 1879) to be a third Gil- These skins were hung up frequently in the gal, and Jerome, in his •Onomastico_1;1,' has smoke (Psa. cxi..x. 83), which gave them a identified it (see note on eh. xn. 23). shrivelled appearance. The first bottles The Gilgal in 1 Sam. xiii. 4-12 seems were made of snch skins, as Herodotus tells to require II central position like that of us. The Egyptian monuments confir_m his Jiljilia, rather than a place near the fords_ of statements, displaying a.s they do skins of Jordan. As Ewald reminds us, the earlier animals so used with the legs or the neck Gilgal lay out of the road from Jericho to forming what ,,;e still term the "neck" of Bethel (see also 2 Kings ii. 1-6). The on~y the bottle (cf. Homer, Iliad, iv. 247, titntqi argument against such a second G1lgal 1s i,, aiy,i'f')- Similar bottles are depicted on the the improbability of a removal of the camp walls of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the withont ,my mention of such remov9:l by like may be seen still in Itali.e.n villages. the historian (see Hengstenberg, • Geschic!1te They were pitched over a~. the seams _to des Reiches Gottes,' p. 207), and the im- prevent leakage (cf. Job =· 19; Matt. u. probability of there having been a second 17; Me.rk ii. 22 ; Luke v. 37, 38. See also Gilgal as the place of encampment of the Kitto's • Cyclopa,dia of Biblical Literature'). Israelites. It is possible, however, that the BoUild up. The usual mode of mending in second great place of encampment received the East, except when a patch is inserLed, the memorable us.me of the first, from the is to tie or sew up the hole. keen sense that the Israelitish encampment Ver. 5.-Sboes. Literally, things tied on; was the abode of a people from which the i.e., sandals, attached with straps to the sole " reproach of Egypt " was for ever rolled of the foot. Clouted, i.e., patched. The inten- away. Another explanation is sugges~~ by sive Pua.J suggests that they we~e very much a comparison of eh. xv. 7 with eh. xvm. 17 patched. The pa1ticiple Kai 1s translated (see note on the former p~ssage). The •· spotted "in Gen. xxx. 32, 33, _35. ~ould!· second GilgeJ, if it really existed, w~s well 0'7r~ literally, marked with points, ,.e., mil- suited for its purpose. "It was m the dewed. ProviJ!ion o,•1.. "Proprie vena.- centre of the country, situated upon a steep tionem" (Vatablus). ;, Panis enim mucidus hill with a good table land at the top, and punctis respereus est albis viridibus et co~manded a moat extensi'l'.e prospect of pigrie" (Rabbi David, in libro Bcidicum). Bo the larg!l pie.in in the west, and aleo ~o. ciit. IX, 1-27.) THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 149