The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 275

boundary of the children of Reuben was southernmost point of the sea of Galilee. Jordan and the natural bound&.1-y thus Many of these places e.lso are mentioned in formed.·, As Dean Stanley reminds us in Isa. xv. and Jer. xlviii. (see noto 11bove, his 'Lectures on the Jewish Church,' Reu- ver, 16). ben. 11s predicted by Jacob (Gen. :tlix. 4), Ver. 26.-Aroer that is before Re.bbah. sank at ones into insignificance. No ruler, A different Ai:oet· to that mentioned in ver. no judge arose from this tribe and its terri- 9. This was near (Hebrew, opposite to, the tory. VUlages. Hebrew 'J'l/lJ, LXX. hav- expression being equivalent to the French ~"~- ,ulgate viculi. The original meaning en face) Rabbah, or the great city of the is n piece of ground enclosed by a hedge or children of Ammon. Keil supposes that ,ml!. HeTe it would mean,eitherwith Gesenius this territory he.d been taken from the Am- and Keil, farm hamlets, or perhaps clearings monites by Sihon, since the Israelites were of cultirnted ground, which in Palestine not permitted to possess tliemselves of the would naturally be enclosed in some way, land of the Ammonites (Dent. ii. 19). For to preYent the ravages of wild beasts. In Ra.b bah, see 2 Sa.m. xi. 1 ; xii. 26. It is the primitive villages of Serna, where wild called Re.bba.th in Dent. iii. 11. beasts are not entirely extirpated, not only Ver. 26.-Re.math-Mizpeh. This is iden- are all the homesteads enclosed, but a fence tified with Ro.moth-Gilee.d by Vandevelde, is placed across the road, and removed when and must have been the Mizpeh of Gilead a vehicle has to pass through. Or perhaps mentioned in Judg. xi. 29. It is supposed the primitiYe Jewish oommunity was similar to be identical with the place called Mizpah, to the primitive Teutonic community as de- Ga.Ieed, e.nd Jegar-sahadutho. by Ja.cob and scribed by Marshall in his • Elementary and Laban respectively (Gen. xxxi. 47-49). If Practical Treatise on Landed Property,' it be the same as Ra.moth-Gilead, it is the published in 1804, who described the early scene of the celebrated battle against the distribution of land in this country as fol- Syrians, in which Ahab lost his life (1 lows : " Round the village lay e. few small Kings xxii.), and where the fall of the enclosures for rearing young stock. Further dynasty of Omri was brought a.bout by the afield the best le.nd for arable purposes revolt of Jehu (2 Kings ix.). Conder, how- was chosen, e.nd divided into three parts, ever, thinks the two a.re distinct places, for the necessary rotation of fe.!low, wheat and fixes Ra.moth-Mizpeh on the north or rye, e.nd spring crops. The meadows border of Ga.d, about 25 miles west of near the water-eonrses were set aside for the Bozra.h. growth of fodder for the cattle or for pas- Ver. 26.-Ma.ha.na.im. The dual of 1'.!)!lQ turage for milch cows, &c. The irreclaim- able lands were left for what we now call two hosts or camps. It received its no.me 'common' uses-for fuel, e.nd the inferior from Ja.cob, who with his own company pasturage." These arrangements are found met the angels of God, and who co1p.' to exist in India. (see Sir H. Maine, • Vil- memorated the meeting by this name (see lage Communities,' sec. iv.). But there, as Gen. xxxii. 2). Here Ishbosheth we.a in Palestine, the necessity for water was the crowned (2 Sam. ii. 8). Here David took cause of important modifications. Since refuge when he crossed the Jordan, to a.void the word is used, to denote the court (1) of a. fe.lling into the hands of Absalom (2 Sa.m, prison, J er. xxxii. 2 ; (2) of e. palace, 1 xvii. 24). Deblr. Not the Debir men- Kings vii. 8; (3) of a private house, 2 Sa.m. tioned in eh. x., but another Debir in the xvii. 18; (4) of the temple in numberless land of Gilead, whose site is unknown. places, and a.s it is used of the enclosure of Ver. 27.-The valley. The Emek (see a nomadic camp (Gen. xxv. 16, where our eh. viii. 13). Beth-Nl.mrah (see Num. xxxtl, version ha.s towns ; perhaps Dent. ii. 23, 36) .. Afterwards Nimrim (Isa. xv. 6; Jer, where our version ha.a Hazerim, following xlviii. 34). Now Nimrln. Succoth. I.e., the LXX.-which, however, e.lters the word booths. Here Ja.cob rested after his meet- to the more usual Hazeroth-and the Vul- ing with Esau (Gen. xxxiii. 17). Here gate ; Isa. xlii. 11, with which compare the Gideon "taught the men of Succoth," who expression tents of Kedar, Psa. cx.x. 5), the had declined to provide food for his army translation villages Call hardly be the cor- (Judg. viii. 5, 7, 16). It is mentioned in rect one here or elsewhere (see also ver. 28). connection with Zarthan, or Zarete.n (cf, Ver. 24.-trnto the tribe of Gad. The eh. iii. 16) as being in the tract or "I~:) Larder of Gad extended further eastward of the Jordan, where the mete.I-work of the than that of Reuben. Westward, of course, temple we.a ea.et (1 Kings vii. 46 ; 2 Chron, its border was the Jordan. Its northern iv. 17). Ze.phon. Perhaps, and the North; Larder was nearly coincident with that of what remained of the kingdom of Sihon, the land of Gilead, and passed by Me.he.- i.e., e.e is implied above, the pa.rt which wa.s Wl.im and Jabesh Gilead, unto the extreme not aSBigned to Beuben. Jordan and hia llH. XIII. 1-88.] THE BOOK OF josHuA. 219