The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 211

Bat t hnngh Asherah ana Ashte.1·oth, or Ash- acting thus, The passage in which Joshua toreth. are undoubtedly distinct, yet both is instructed to " stitnd up before Elee.ze.r worships may have been impure, e.s the the priest, who she.II nsk counsol for him nt ~orship of Artemis of the Ephesians (the the judgment of Urim before the Lord Diana Jlul.timamma, or the image of fecun- (Num. uvii. 18-23), docs not require him dity) unquestionably was. "It is probable," to do so in all cases. But it we.s clenrly san l\lr. G. Smith, •· that the first inten- "e.n act of gross carelessness" (Co.lvin). tion in the mythology we.s only to represent And the inference may s11fely be drawn that lo,e e.s heaycn-born, but in time a more in no case whatever is it wise to trust to sensual ,iew r reyailed, a.ad the worship of ourselves. However obvious our course may Ishtar beca.me one of the darkest features be, we shall do well to tnke counsel with in Babylonian mythology." The Babylonie.n God by prayer. llfylitta. or Yenus, was worshipped under a crescent form, as Bs.bylonie.n sculptures Ver. 15.-The princes of the cong:rega- pro,e. A Syrian altar with the crescent on tion. Literally, the exalted ones, 'I('?') of it is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cam- the congregation, "Die obersten der ge- bridge. It bas a female figure on one side, meine" (Lutber) ; that is, the heads of the mth the crescent, e.nd e. male figure-of Baal, various tribes (see Num. i. 44 ; and note no doubt-on the other. Another is men- on eh. vii. 14). tioned in a late able article in the Times, Ver. 17.-0n the third day. After the e.s he.nag been found in Carchemish, the trick was discovered. Keil remarks that we Hittite capita.I. The Chaldme.n astronomers need not suppose that the three days were had, no doubt, discovered the nse of tele- consumed on the march. Not only did scopes (though in the translucent sky of Joshua., when celerity was necessary, per- Chaldma perhaps the crescent Venus might form the journey in a single night, but the he seen without them), for we find Saturn whole distance we.s not more than eighteen represented on their monuments with a ring or twenty miles, if we accept the hypothesis (see Proctor,• Se.turn and his System,' p.197). of a second Gilgal. Now their cities were. Consequently the worship of the crescent Ve- Beeroth still exists, we a.re told, as el-Bireh nusin,olvesno anachronism. Asherah,often (Robinson ii. 132. So also Vandevelde '\\"Tongly translated grove " in our version O e.nd Conder).. Jerome identified it with a (see Judg. ,i. 25), is probably the goddess ple.ce only seven miles from J erus11lem, Fortune,derived from i~~. happiness. Ash- which· is e.n obvious error. It contains taroth is spelt, not with Afeph, bnt with Ain. nearly 700 inhabitants, e.nd is only about twenty minutes' walk from el-Jib, or Gibeon. Ver. 11.--0ur elders. Gibeon e.nd its .Kirjath-jee.rim (the no.me means the city of allied cities did not possess a regal govern- forests) is well known in the history of ment (see note on ver. 3). Israel (e.g., Judg. xviii. 12). But it is ,er. 14.-And the men took of their chiefly remarkable for the twenty years' victuals. Most commentators prefer this sojourn of the e.rk there (1 Se.m. vii. 2). It rendering to that of the margin, "and they was also known by the name of Bae.le.h, received the men because of their victuals." .Kirje.th-Baal (eh.· xv. 9, 60; 2 Sam. vi. 2). The natural exple.ne.tion-though several The Hivites seem to have been removed others are given, for which eee Keil in loc.- thence (probably to Gibeon), for there is no would seem to be that the Israelites relied trace of e.ny non-Jewish element in the on the endence of their senses, instead of population in the account of the reception upon the counsel of God. They could see of the ark among them (see 1 Sam. vi.). It the condition of the garments, se.cks, e.nd is ea.lied Be.a.le of J ude.h in 2 Sam. vi. 2 wine-skins of the Gibeonites. Th~y tasted (cf. eh. xv iii. 15). The Jewish population of their victnals to convince themselves of seems to be due to one of the posterity of the truth of those statements of which the Caleb (see 1 Chron. ii. 50-53). Modern sight was insufficient to take cognisance. explorers, with the exception of Lieut. And asked not COUllSel at the mouth of the Conder, have identified Kirjath-jearim with Lord. Even in the most obvious matter it Kuriet-el-Ene.b, "the city of the grape," is well not to trust too implicitly to our own about four miles from el-Jib, 01· Oibeou, judgment. Nothing could seem more clear This is the opinion of Robinson e.nd Van- or satisfactory than the account given of develde. Supposing it to be near Beth- themselves by the Gibeonites-nothing more she nesh, on the authority of Josephus, easy for the unassisted intellect to decide. Lieo1t. Conder places it e.t 'Arma, west of And yet Joshua e.nd the congregation were B~thlehem, e.nd identifies tho waters of deceived. Itis perhaps too much to say, with Nephtoe.h with a fountain nearly due south some commentators-Maurer, for insta.nce- of the valley of giants or Reph11im (see ih&t Joshua, disobeyed a. pl&in ~IllIIWld in eh, x.v. 9), Butthis is too fe.r from Gibeon. en. IX, 1-27.] TIIE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 151