des'truction, even though they might be con- ployed for ever in servile work. Hewing of demned permR.llen tly to occupy a se1'Vile wood and drawing of water was a tnsk fre. condition. They appear to have assisted at quently imposed on the strangers (probably the ta beruacle worship, since they were captives) dwelling among the Israelites, a, condemned to serve, not individual Israel- we learn from Deut. xxix. 11. We a.re not ites. but the congregation. Such was the directly told that, as Keil and others have office of the Cl'?N (Scthinim, i.e., the given stated, the " lowest of the people" had to or de'l'oted) in the later history of Judah perform this office. It is, however, implied (see 1 Chron. ix. 1; Ezra ii. 43-54, 58, 70; that the stranger who performed it occupied and ,iii. 20. See also Drusius and Me.sins the lowest social station in the community. in loc.). The latter discusses the question '' Si qui tales sunt in nobis, quorum fidet whether the Nethinim were really the tantwnmodo habet ut ad Ecclesiam veniaut, Gibeonites, or whethe1· David, as st.&ted in et inclinent caput suum sacerdotibus, officia Ezra ,i.ii. 20, instituted a new order of exhibeant, servos Dei honorent, ad oma- persons to take their place. If the latter tum quoque altaris vel Ecclesiie aliquid were the case, then we ha'l'e a proof that the conferant, non tamen adhibeant studium ut Book of Joshua was written anterior to the etiam mores snos excolant, actus emendent, time of Dand. It seems quite possible that vitia deponant, castitatem colant, iracun. Saul (2 Sam. xri. 6) had all but exterminated diam mitigent, avaritiam reprimant, rapaci- the Gibeonites, and that David was com- tatem refrenant, maleloquia et stultiloquia, pelled to institute a new order in their vel sourrilitatem et obtrectationum venene. stead. If this suggestion be correct, and it is ex ore suo non adimant, sciant sibi, qui far from improbable, we have here an unde- tales sunt, qui emendare se nolunt, sed in signed coincidence strongly supporting the his nsqne in senectutem ultimam perseve- credit of the narrative, in the place of Knobel 's rant, partem sortemqne at Jesu Domino insinuation, contained in the words, that cum Gabaonitis esse tribuendam" (Orig., "the Elohist in Saul's time gives no hint of Hom. l0"on Joshua). this, although be took the greatest interest Ver. 24.-The Lord thy God commanlled in the persons engaged in God's service." (see Exod. xxiii. 32; Dent. vii. 1, 2). The As the princes had promised them. These prophecies of Moses during their sojourn in words as they stand are unintelligible. No " the plains of Jordan by J ericbo" (see such promise had been given. The literal Num. xxii. sqq.). We were sore a.fra.id. rendering is " as the- princes " (see note on Prophesied in Exod. xv. 14. ver. 15) •· said to them," by the month of Joshua, as recorded in ver. 23. The Syriac Ver. 26.-That they slew them not. See ver. 18, 'fhioh attributes the preservation of Version supplies some words here to make the Gibeonites to the action of the heads of up for a supposed deficieney in the text. tribes. Perhaps this should be rendered, But this is not necessary. The repetition and they slew them not. in rnrs. 2il and 27 is quite in the manner of the historian. Kor are the words " as the Ver. 27.-And for the alta.r (see note princes said to them " explicable on the on ver. 21). In the place which he should supposition that the words after, "let them choose. This phrase, and especially the live," are the words of the princes (see nee of the imperfect tense, implies that note aLo'l'e). Solomon's temple was not yet built. The ark of God, and the tabernacle which con- Ver. 23.-There shall none of you be tained it, had several resting-places befpre freed from being bondmen. Literally, as its final deposition in the temple (see note margin, there shall not be cut off from you a on eh. xxiv. 1). And the grammatical con- servant, as in 2 Sam. iii. 29, and 1 Kings ii. 4. struction just referred to also implies that The sense is, "yon shall not cease to- be ser- there was more than one place. It is also vants.'' The term " bond.men " ie some~ clear, from the language of 2 Sam. xxi. 1-6, what too strong. The i:;:i),! was usually a that this narrative was already in existence bond.man among the Hebrews, but not when that chapter was penned. It is equally always (see 1 Sam. nix. 3; 1 Kings xi. 26, clear that the author of this passage knew &c.). But the GiLeonitee were to be em- nothing of that (see Introduction).
HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-27.-God'a people off their guard. Thie chapter contains the record of a venial sin ; an act, that is, which was rather one of thoughtlessness than of delibe- rate ~tention to offend. It is one thing to forget for a moment Go"d's superintending providence, and to act without consulting Him, It is quite another to act system• CIJ. IX. 1-27,] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 158