The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 245

36 (60 in some editions); o.nd 'Epist.' 50, 10, Mizpeh to be equivalent to Belle Vue in S6, The o.llusions to it by Horace, Virgil, modem days. But the meaning " watch- Jnveno.l, and other clo.esico.l a.uthors are too tower " suggests ideas more in keeping with numerous for qnoto.tion. We may take o.e those rode times, in which our modem instances Virgil, Georg. iii. 17 : " Illi appreciation of scenery was a rare quality. victor ego, et Tyrio conspectus in ostro " It was not the beauty of the view which was (cf. lEn. iv. 262): o.nd Juveno.l, So.t. vii. 134; valued, but its extent, 0,s giving timely " Spondet enim Tyrio stle.taria purpura notice of the approach of an enemy. filo." The ruins of the o.ncient city still Mount Hermon has already been mentioned crown the steeps of its site (see Vo.nde- in the note on eh. i. 4. Some further velde's Memoir, and Conder's He.ndbook. particulars may here be added. We find in Aleo Keil in loc. ). On the west. The LXX. Deut. iii. 9 that the Amorites call the moun- renders, "And to the Amorites on the sea tain Shenir, and the Sidonians Sirion. It coast" (see la.et note), leaving ont all men- is very remarkable, and bears on the author- tion of the Canae.nites. ship of the Song of Solomon, that the Ver. 3.-To the Canaa.nlte (see note on Amorite name Shenir is given to Hermon eh. iii. 10). Thie confederacy we.a yet more in Cant. iv. 8. Was the song addressed to formidable than the other (ver. 5), but was a Hittite wife, or had Solomon an Amorite as signally defeated by Joshua's promptitude one? In Dent.iv. 48Hermoniscalled Sion. (see ver. 7). We are reminded of the swift With the former of these passages we may march of our own Harold, and its results at compare Psa. xxix. 6. But we must not con- Stamford Bridge; with this difference, how- found (as even a writer so well informed as ever, that the enemy, instead of being Ritter does) the Zion, or Tzion (sunny engaged in triumphant festivity, was prepar- mount), of Psa. cxxxiii., where Hennon is ing for an expedition against a much-dreaded mentioned, with the Sion, or " lofty moun- enemy, who was believed to be far off. tain" (spelt with Sin, not Tzade), in Dent. Napoleon had nearly achieved a similar iv. 48. Vandevelde asks why the mountain surprise at Quatre Bras and Ligny. The is called by so many names, and replies that Jebusite in the mounta.ine. Jerusalem was it is because "it is e. cluster of mounts.ins not yet taken. From the neighbourhood of many days' journey in circumference." A that as yet unconquered city, and probably much better reason is suggested by the fact from itself, Ja.bin drew his auxiliaries, mentioned in our former note-that, as the while Joshuo. was as yet fully occupied in highest ground in Palestine, it was nsible the south. Hermon in the land or Mizpeh. from every part of it. The no.me Sirion, or the Mizpeh, or Ham-mizpah, as it is usually coat of mail, was no doubt given from its called (save in ver. 8; Judg. xi. 29; 1 Sam. glittering snrface. It is to be feared that the xxii. 3; Hos. v. 1), i.e., the watch-tower, reason given above for the Sidonian name was a common no.me among the Israelites. diminishes the probability of the remarkable There was one in Judah (eh. xv. 38), in argument in Blunt's 'Coincidences,' part ii. Benjamin (eh. xviii. 26), in Gilead (Judg. xi. 2, derived from the Sidonian settlement 29; cl. Gen. xxxi. 49; Josh. xiii. 26), and in (Judg. xviii.) at the foot of Hermon. Moab (1 Sam. xxii. 3). Ritter (ii. 353) men- Ver. 4. -And they went out. Deo.n tions the large number of watch-towers, of Stanley (Lectures, i. 259) compares this which the ruins may still be traced, a.long "last struggle" of the Cana.11nites with the the line of the great watershed of Judma. conflict between the Saxons 11nd the British This one was probably far to the north, on chiefs "driven to the Lo.nd's Encl." The the north-western side of Hermon, com- comparison is more picturesque than ac- miinding a view of the plain of Ccele Syria, cur11te. In the first pince, it wns by no which extende,l from south-west to north- meo.ns a " last struggle " (see ver. 21 ; eh. east between Lebo.non and Anti-Lebanon. xviii. 3; xix. 47; Judg. iv. throughout). In This vast plain is still known o.s the the next, the Britons were never driven to Bukei'a (see note on eh. v. 8), though the Land's End, but Dorsetshire, which Robinson denies that this Bukei'a is meant, retained its independence for 200 years, was becnuse the Bukei'o. properly so-called was treated by Ina e.s Gezer (eh. xvi. 10), wo.s not under Hermon. This mo.kes it possible treated by the Ephraimites, while Devon- tho.t l\Iizpeh might have been on the south- shire and Cornwall came very gro.du111ly and eastern si,le of Hermon, where o.lso nn ex- 11lmost peacefully under the hands of the tensive view might be had. Ritter, however, conquerors. And thirdly, even had it been snys it can be no other tho.n "the great plain otherwise, there is a vast difference Letween which extends north of Lake Huleh, from 11 lrnndful of desperate men driven to bay ite na1Tow western margin to Banias, thnt on a tongue of land surround~d nearly on is, the plain sontll 11nd south-west of. Her- every side by the sea, nnd II powerful, mon. ,Some have supposed the meanmg of though defeated, nation with II vast con- 188 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cu. x1. 1-28,'