The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 223

of David. It is possible that the name may there of the primeval races of Palestine, are ho.ve been given by the Jebusitea themselves, still to be found in the neighbourhood. in consequence of their secure possession of Hebron atands in "the hill country of it, notwithsto.nding the subjugation of the Juda,a." Its situation has been much ad- surrounding country by the Israelites. And mired, standing as it does nearly 3,000 feet when Do.vid he.d seized upon it and made it above the level of the l>Iediterranean, and his capital, he would not be likely to change commanding the most extensive views of so suitable a name. For the Jebusites, the Holy Land. This is one of the most in- evidently by their invariable position last teresting in its reminiscences of all the among the nations of Canaan, the most cities in Palestine. Here Abraham pitcher! insignificant among them, were enabled to his tent, near the " oak of Mam re." Here defy the Israelite power long after their was the burying-place of Abraham and more powerful neighbours had succumbed. Sarah, which has been kept in memory by e.nd David no doubt chose the situation of an unwavering tradition even to this very Jerusalem for his capital not only because, day ; and, ae.cred ground though it be to unlike Hebron, it enabled him to dwell the Mohammedans, was opened to tho among his own people without cutting him- Prince of Wales and his companions in 1862. self off from intercourse with the other This was the inheritance of Caleb, and here, tribes of Israel; but because, e.s e. mountain where the affections of every Israelite woulcl fastness remote from the plains of Esdraelon most closely centre, David fixed his capital and the Orontes, which were the great high- until compelled to change it by reasons to ways of the Egyptie.n and Assyrian kings which we have already referred. Hebron on their military expeditions, it would enable seems to have been successively occupied by him to consolidate his power, and to secure various members of the Phren.ician confede- that empire which became his from the force ration. It was first founded, we learn, 0f his genius and the .favour of God. We seven years before Zoan in Egypt {Num. may remark upon the antecedent probability xiii. 22). When we first hear of it, it is in of the fact that the king of a place situated the possession of Mamre the Amorite (Gen. as Jerusalem is should stand at the head of xiii. 18; xiv. 13). In Gen. xxiii. it has clearly this league. passed into the possession of the Hittites, Ver. 2. -That they feared greatly. and the mention of the children of Heth is Joshua hnd certainly obtained an excellent too express for us to suppose that the term strategic position in the heart of the Hittite is used generally for the inhabitants country; but it was not this which appa- of the land. At a much later period the rently most alarmed the kings who consti- Canaanites, or lowlanders, had, strangely tuted the confederacy, though they did not enough, obtained possession (Judges i. 10), fail to observe that, as the words " and were and here again the accurate acquaintance of nmong them" show. It was the weight the historian with the names of the tribes ancl importance of Gibeon itself, and the {see Judg. i. 4, 21, 26, 35) forbids us to sup- fact tho.t its inhabitants were now enlisted, pose that he is spealcing loosely. Piram not on the side of the Canaanites, but against klng of Jarmuth. Jarmuth is mentionecl them. As one of the roya.l cltles. Observe in eh. xv. 35, and in Neh. xi. 29. It has the minute accuracy of the historian. No been identified ,vith Yarmuk (see Robinson, king is mentioned in the narrntive in eh. ix. II. sec. 11, with whom Vande,elde and We now earn indirectly that they had none. Conder agree), where there are the remains '.l'he Vulgate misses the point of the his- of very ancient walls and cisterns. Of its torian by leaving out "as" altogether. size and importance in the time of Joshua Ver. 3.-I!oham king of Hebron. It was we know nothing. Japhla king of Lachish. a powerfu1 confederacy which the Phceni- Like Jarmuth, Lachish was in the ~hephe- cio.n tribes in their desperation formed lah, or lowlands, of Judah, and we frequently against Joshua. At its hend stood the king hear of it in the later history of the Jews, of Jerusalem, which, from its central situa- as in 2 Kings xiv. 19 ; xviii. 14, 17 ; xix. 8; tion and its almost impregnable position also 2 Chron. xi. 9. It has been iclentified (see notes on oh. xv. 63), might naturally by Von Raumer o.ncl Vandevelde, whom ste.nd at the heacl of such a league. Next Keil follows, "ith Um Lakis, though Robin- came Hebron, which, from its importance son (' Biblical Researches ' II. 388) denies from an early period (Gen. xxiii. 2 ; xxxv. this on the authority of Eusebius and 2'1), and the gigantic stature ~f its in?nbit- Jerome ; "but not on e.ny reasonable nnts (Num. xiii. 33; D_eut. 1. 28; u .. ~0, grouncls" (Vandevelde). This is the more 11; ix. 2), as well as its daughter 01~1es clear in that Robinson rejects the authority (ver. 37), would prove n formidable add1t10n of the Onomnsticon in the case of Eglon. to the strength of the confederates. Colos- Um Lakis is only nn hour nnd a quarter'3 snl blocks of stone, testifying to the presence journey from Ajhtn, or Eglon, and this nar- 164 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cH. X, 1-48.