The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 247

secondary influences of individual cbe.re.cter, (see eh. x. 42). The issue of every battle we must not forget th11t the Israelites were is in God's hands. The natural man also Rust11ined at this moment by the assur- attributes it to human skill. The spiri- ances of Divine protection given e.t Jericho, tual man, whether under the law or at Ai, at Beth-boron, which bad not been under the gospel, acknowledges the truth vouchsafed to them while under MoRes's that " there is no restraint to the Lord, leadership in the wilderness. Will I deliver to save by many or by few" (1 Sam. xiv. up. The " I " in the original is emphatic. 6). But if victory should ever side with And the use of tho present participle in the numbers, if God appears not to " defend Hebrew adds vividness to the promise. the right," it is that anxiety and sorrcw SlaJn. LXX. and Vulg., wounded. Thou may chasten the hearts of its upholders, shalt hough their horses. To hough (or lead them to "crucify the flesh with its hoxe, Wiclif) is to hamstring, vrnpo~o,,.,;.,, affections and lusts," and so conduct them to LXX., to out the sinews behind the hoofs, a final victory when they are fitted to resist the hocks, as they are ea.lied. This rendered the intoxication of prosperity. i\fany a the horse useless, for the sinew could not lesson in history has taught us that im- reunite. The effects of the horses and mediate success ie by no means a blessing, chariots upon the mind of Joshua and even to those who are in the main fighting bis host, who had neither, is here trace- for a good cause. Great Zidon. So called, able. " Those very horses and chariots, not to distinguish it from any other city, which seem to you so formidable, will but to mark (so also eh. xix. 28) its import- I, the Lord of hosts, be to - morrow at ance as the capital of Phcenicia. This ex- this time delivering into your hand. pression, "great Zidon," marks the early The horses she.II be for ever useless to date of the Book of Joshua. In Homer's your enemies, and the dreaded chariots Iliad, Sidon is represented a.s the great shall cease to be." Why should Joshua home of the arts, thongh the historian J us- have destroyed the horses? Perhaps (as tin tells us that, even when Homer wwte, Keil, following Calvin, suggests) in order her superiority had passed to Tyre (see II. that the Israelites should not put their vi. 290, xxiii. 743; Odyssey iv. 618, xiii. 285, trust in chariots or in horses (Pea. xx. 7 ; xv. 425. Homer speaks of it as " well cx.lvii. 10), but in God alone (cl. Deut. peopled," famous for 1 ' mnch brass" and xvii. 16). But more obvious considerations the like (see Kenrick's 'Phccnicia '). In of policy may have dictated the measure. later years, Tyre, known only to the Book of God never (see Matt. iv. 1-7) makes use of Joshua. e.s "the strong (literally, 'fortified') supernatural means when nature.I ones are city." Tyre (eh. xix. 2D) outstripped her sufficient. Now the Israelites were unac- rival, and from the time of David till that quainted with the use of horses in warfare, of Alexander the Great, in spite of her while their enemies were not. To retain destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, retained her the horses while the country was as yet pre-eminence (see the vi,id description of unsubdued would have been a double bur- Tyre in Ezek. xxvi., xxvii.). Si<lon, now den to them, for they would have had not called Se.ida, is still a commercial city of only to keep them themselves, but to prevent some importance, whereas Tyre is, or wa.s, the enemy from regaining them. On the e. few years ago, little better than a collec- same principle in modern warfare do we tion of buts. This is not difficult to explain. spike guns we cannot carry off, and destroy The pre-eminence of Tyre was clue to her provisions we cannot convert to our own military strength in a time of warlike enter- use. prise, that of Sidon to natural position. Ver. 7.-Suddenly (see remarks in In- "This ancient city of Phcenicie., 'the eldest troduction on Joshua's characteristics as a born of Canaan'" (see Gen. x. 15), "stood general. Also eh. x. 9). And they fell upon on the north-west slope of a small pro- them. This phrase denotes the rapidity of montory which runs into the sea, an,l its the onset. While they deemed him to be origine.l harbour was formed by three low leagues away, he suddenly nppee.re,l nt the ridges of rocks, with narrow openings be- head of his army, no dcubt debouching from tween them parallel to the shore in front of one of the mountain passes of Upper Galilee; the cit,·. On these islands there are re- and before they could set themsel vcs in mains ol massive substructions, the work of battle array, his troops, without giving the the ancient Phcenicians. There is a sp11.- enemy time to rally, or themselves a cious but unprotected bay on the south of moment's breaU1ing-time, commenced the the promontory. . . . No traces of the attack. The LXX. adds "in the hill coun- ancient city ce.n be seen on the mainlau,1, try" here, 11n obvious blunder. The tmnB- but at a short distance to the north are Jator must h11ve carelessly read ii1:l !or tli1:l. sepuicnre.i grottoes, whi-::b probably mark Ver. 8,-A,nd the Lord dellv~red them the necropolis." The piliiu of Sicl.on ia 190 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cH, XI. 1--28,