The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 227

is the precise meaning of this pe.eeo.ge it is Ver. 19.-And eta.y ye not. The original difficult to eay. The language ie very ob- is stronger, and as frrr yrrn, stand not still. scure. It baa been ueuo.lly interpreted to The active general was not to be diverted mean that the eun remo.ined in the heavens from hie purpose of annihilating the enemy twelve hours longer than usul\l. But this, by the important news that the heads of though the most natural, is by no meo.ns the the confederacy were in his hands. He only interpretation of the passage. The takes immediate measures to secure their words, " did not ho.sten to go down "" a persons, but for the present throws his perfect day," cannot be proved to have this whole strength, as well as that of his army, meaning. In fa.et, it is difficult to fix a. into the task of following np the ad vantage precise meaning on them. They belong he has gained. And emlte the hindmost rather to the domain of poetry tho.n history, of them. Literally, "and tail them," a and their language ie that of hyperbole verb denominative from JJ!, tail. The rather than of exact narration of facts. LXX. renders Kara'ha/3,.,., r~v oi,payiav. The Consequently, we are not entitled to build word is of rare occurrence in the Hebrew, conclusions upon them, or draw arguments but its obvious meaning is e.s the text. from them. It seems tolerably clear that Comp. also the Vnlgate, extremos quosque twelve additional hours could hardly have fugientiu1n, cadite. been required by the Israelites for the com- Ver. 20.-trntll they were consumed. An plete extermination of their enemies. expression not necessarily inrnlving the Ver. 14.-There wa.e no day like that destruction of every individual, but the before lt or after lt. Cf. for this expression entire annihilation of them as an army. A 2 Kings x.viii. 5; xxiii. 22, 25. few scattered fugitives only remained, who Ver. 15.-And Joshua. returned. The sought the protection of the fortified towns. historian had at first intended to complete " Si ea qum per Moysen de tabernaculo vel his narrative of these transactions here. sacrificiis, et omni illo cultn adumbrabantur, But he seems to have altered his intention, typus et umbra dicnntnr esse crelestium, and o.dded the execution of the five kings sine dubio et belle. qnm per Jesum geruntur, and the subjugation of the remaining cities et regnm et hostium strages, crelestinm of southern Palestine which bad adhered to rerum umbra et typus esse dicenda sunt, the league, as well as their immediate neigh- eorum duntaxat bellorum qua, Dominus bours. He then (ver. 43) repeats what he noster Jeans cum sno exercitu et magistm- had subjoined here. It is not contended tibus id est credentium populis atqne (see Introduction) that the Book of Joshua eorum ducibns contra. diabolum et ejus could not have been compiled from accounts angelos prmliatur" (Orig., Hom. 12 on previously existing, though a different view Joshua). Fenced cities. These were (1) has been ta.ken in this commentary. But walled, (2) crowned with battlements (T1D;)), what is denied is (1) that this was an unin- and (3) defended by towers. See for further telligent or perfunctory compilation, and (2) information the article in Smith's 'Diction- that we can at this distance of time, by the ary of the Bible.' simple evidence of style, disintegrate nnd Ver. 21.-Ma.kkedah. Because Joshua, separate into contradictory fragments the in his resolute pursuit of the enemy, had various portions of earlier histories, which we not forgotten the important intelligence re- find here digested into a whole. Some-copies ported to him concerning the kings. Most of the LXX. leave the verse out altogether. likely the pursuit lasted one or two days. Ver. 16.-In a cave. "In the cave" ac- After the return to Makkedah the execution cording to the Masoretic pointing. So the of the kings WI\S carried out with much cere- LXX., ro a1rh'hawv. Dr. Maclear remarks mony (ver. 24), eml their bodies hung up on the number of caves in Palostine (see before e.11 Israel, not so much ns a memorial Gen. xix. 30; Judg. xx. 47), as well as the of the victory, as to impress upon the Ismel- well-known caves of Adullam and Engecli ites the duty of exterminating their enemies, (1 Sam. xxii. 1, xxiv. 3), and the cave in a. duty which the after history of the twelve which a hundred prophets were concealed tribes shows them to have been very prone to by Obadiah (1 Kings xviii. 4). Also see forget. None moved his tongue against note on eh. ii. 22. But Lieut. Conder any of the cllildren of Israel. Literally, believes that in this particular neighbour- He did not sharpen against the children of hood there were few caves. See note on Israel, against a man, his tongue. The Me.kked11h above, ver. 10. For "these five· Hebrew construction here is somewhat Ull- kings" the original has simply "five kings." usual. Houbigant and Maurer suppose that The order of the narrative is somewhat interrupted by the introduotion of Joshua's ? is a mistake of the copyist, and that 0•:::t adjuration, 11nd the aocount of the flight of is the subject of the sentence. They would the five kings. Compare ver.11 with ver. 20. translate as the LXX., "no man muttered 168 TlIE BOOK OF JOSHUA. ton. x. 1--4:J; --------------------------------- with bis tongue age.inst the children of it was but tho well-known and perfeotly Isrnel." But Keil and Rosenmiiller prefer understoo,l symbol of their undemal.Jle con- n rendering ngreeing with that of the Autho- dition of subjection at that moment. But, rised Version, 11011c moved (or sharpened) his of course, ,ve are not to look for that gentle- tongue again.,r the children of Ismel, ,wt ness and humanity in so far distant an age, agai»st a sing/, man of then,. And this is a which would at the present day be shown by far more forcible way of expressing the awe a Christian general, or even for the modera- in which they were held. A still stronger tion and clemency displayed in the hour of expression is to be found in Exod. xi. 7; victory by au Alexander, a Scipio, a Croear, cf ..Judith xi. 19. trained nuder the maxims of Latin and Ver. 23.-The king of Jerusalem. The Greek philosophy. See a fuller discussion ne.mes of the kings are mentioned to em- of the subject in the Introduction. Origen phasise the significance of the action re- remarks here, " Atque utinam Dominus corded in the next "l'erse. The LXX. has meus Jesus filius Dei mihi istnd conce<lat, 'O<'oX>..ciµ again here. et jubeat me pedibus meis conculcare Yer. 24.-Which wentwithhl.m. There is spiritum fornicationis, et calcare super n yery unusualHebre,..phrase here. Not only cervices spiritus iracundim et furorie, cal- is the article used instead of the relative care avaritim dromonem, calcare jactantiam, conterere pedibus superbiro spiritum." pronoun ;;,;i~ which occasionally occurs, as in Ver. 25. - Fea.r not, nor be dismayed. l Chron. X:x1x. 17, but the form of the verb As Keil remarks, these are the very words is Arabic. None of the co=entators give which God used to Joshua when He bade a satisfactory explanation of this fact, and him enter upon hie great task. See eh. i. 9. perh ..ps the suggestion of Houbigant is to So now may the experience of one Christian be adopted, that the ~ which follows i::,~;, in the warfare against the powers of evil be imparted as encouragement to another. Ye has been accidentally doubled by the tr~n'- tight. The word " ye " is emphatic. Perhaps scriber. Kennicott thinks that some Arabic Joshua would convey the idea that the transcriber has inadvertently given tl..1e verb Israelites were not to attribute their success an Arabic form, which is very improbable. to their leader, or to any Divine favour Keil thinks that it is a sort of intermediate resting upon him as an individual, but to step between the more ancient termination believe that, as long as they served God jl and the more modern one in 1. But if faithfully, His presence would be as much so, it is strange that we should only meet with them as it was at that particular time with it t"ice in Holy Scripture. Havernick and under that particular leader. (Introduction, § 22 B) regards it as an Ver. 26.-And hanged them. This was archaic form. Pnt your feet on the necks also a symbolical act, intended to_encoura.ge of these kings. This wa~ a most co=on Israel in their warfare. All that day, until Oriental practice, as the Assy1ian and its close, were the bodies of the five kings Egyptian monuments prove. Calvin ex- visible to the whole host, to remind them plains the otherwise " bo11Ddless arrogance " of the signal victory God had vouchsafed of the act b~· the Divine co=and. But, as them. The same thing had been dono at Keil remarks, it was e. " symbolical act, Ai. See eh. viii. 29. intended to inspirit the people." See also Ver. 27.-At the time of the going down Psa. c:,;:. 1 ; 1 Cor. xv. 25. The fact that this of the Sllll. See Dent. xxi. 23. Joshua set was done, not by Joshua, but by the captains the example to the Israelites of a strict (1'~8 from ;,~8 to cut off), i.e., the inferior observance of the law. And we may observe officers of the Israelitish army, makes a that this law is only to be found in Deu- wide distinction between this and the usual teronomy. On the" Deuteronomist" theory arrogance of Oriental conquerors, and marks we have to suppose that the Deuteronomist, the very great moral superiority of Joshua with a lynx eye to the chance of recom- over any other leader known to history mending the provisions which 1..te had in- either in hie own time or in subsequent ages. vented, and to the importance of represent- For whereas the act was usually an act of ing Joshua as a strict observer of them, arrogant triuruph on the part of the leader inserted this piece of detail with an obvious himself, here the leader modestly disclaims purpose. It is a wonder that this should be any such superiority, and calls upon his almost the only " Deuteronomlst " precept subordinates to assume it, as a sign that thus emphasised. We find it noticed above the Israeli tish people, whose representatives (eh. viii. 29), and in both cases the obvious they were, should triumph over all their explanation is that this sign of triumph enemjes. The next verse explains the made a great impression on those who reason of the injunction. To the kings witnesRCd it, and that it was carried out in themselves no insolence was displayed, for strict fulfilment of enactments already exist- <in. x. 1-48.) THE BOOK OF ,JOSHUA. lf.i()