The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 303

able. The ve.lley of the son of lliJlnom. The a Semitic origin, and in spite of the faot word here for valley ("rl) signifies properly that the LXX. suspects no such allusion e deep cleft in the rock, through which no there. St. Ja.mes alone, beside the writers water flows. The valley of Hinnom bas of the Gospels,'mentions it (oh. iii. 6), "set on been generally taken to be the deep valley jil-e of hell," or· Ge henna.. running from west to east, and lying to the Vet. 8.-The south side of the JebUBlte. west and south of Jerusalem, described by Literally, the slumlder of the Jebusite fmni Tobler as forked at its north-western end, (or on) tlw south (see 1 Kings vi. 8; vii. 39, bending to the southward about its middle, margin). Thus Jerusalem lay to the north of and joining the ,alley of Jehoshaphat at the border, in the tribe of Benjamin. The its eastern extremity. In the Quarterly same ls Jerusalem. Formerly co.lied Jebus, Paper of the Palestine Exploration Fund f~om the Jebusites w~o dwelt there (Judg. for October, 1878, however, it is contended nx. 11 ; 1 Chron. n. 4). The city Jay that the now partially filled up Tyropceon on the borders of Judah and Ben- Yalley, running through the city, is the jamin (see note on eh. x. 1). The valley '\"alley or ranne of Hinnom. The manner of the giants. Hebrew, Rephaiin (see in which this is demonstrated reminds the eh. xii. 4). The word here translated reader somewhat of a proposition in Euclid, valley is P~P.- In the former pa.rt it is •~ encl the question arises whether Euclid's (see note on last verse). The word here method be exactly applicable to a point of used signifies originally dipth, and is ap- this kiu,l The arguments used are not plied to wide valleys embosomed among without force, but no notice is taken of the lofty hills. Such were the valley of Elah peculiar position of the valley of Rephaim (1 Sam. xvii. 2, 19) ; the King's Dale (Gen. (see next note but one), which, we learn xiv. 17 ; 2 Sam. xviii. 18) ; the valley of from the sacred historian, was so placed Siddim (Gen. xiv. 3), of Jezreel (Judg. vi. that its extremity coincided with the 33). "The word Emek shows that this mountain which closed the ravine of Hin- was neither a winter torrent nor e. narrow, nom at its westeru side. If the Tyropceon dry ravine, and it is best identified with V e.lley answers to this description, it may its traditional site, the shallow basin be accepted as the true ,alley of Hinnom, west of the watershed south of Jerusalem, but not otherwise. Mr. Birch incorrectly now ce.lled el Bu.kei'e." (Conder). We read cites Gesenius in fa,our of his theory; of this valley in 2 Samuel v. 18, 22. From and the most recent discoveries appear these passages we may gather a confirma- to have thrown discredit upon it. The tion of the view above expressed, that the most weighty argument in favour of his valley here meant is an open valley, since theory is that a comparison of Josh. xv. only in such a valley could the Philistine 63 with Judg. i. 3-8, leads to the suppo- army take up a position. It gradually sition that Jerusalem was partly in Ben- narrows towards the south-west. On the jamin and partly in Judah (see, however, sonth it extends as far as Bethlehem, The Neh. xi. 30). Thi., valley, called some- range of mountains which lie to the west of times Topbet, and sometimes, by a corrnp- the valley of Hinnom from the northern tion of the Ilebrew, Gehenna, whatever its boundary of the plain or valley of Rephe.im. situation may have been, is conspicuous in Ver. 9.-Wae drawn. Or, extended. the after history ol Israel. This deep and The fountain of the waters of Nephtoah. If re~red spot was the seat of all the worst these be identified with En Etam, as is done abominations of the idol-worship to which by the Rabbis (whom Conder follows), and the Jews afternards became addicted. Here if we suppose it to have supplied Jerusalem Solomon reared high places for Maloch with water by the aqueduct which ran from (1 Kings xi. 7). Here children were sacri- a point south-west of Betlehem to Jerusalem, ficed at the hideous rites of that demon- we must place it south of Bethlehem, and god (2 Kings xvi. 3 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 3 ; imagine that the border ran directly south Jer. vii. 31, 32; xix. 2, 4). It was cl..:cilsJ here. Far more probable is the notion of by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 10, 13, 14), and was Vandevelde, which places it north-west of looked upon in later times as an a~omina- Jerusalem, at Ain Lilta. Conder's view is tion (see Jer. xix. 13). There the carcases dominated by the situation he has assigned ol animals were cast to be burned, and to Kirjath-jearim (see note on eh. ix. 17). hence it is used by our Lord (Matt. v. 22) If the view there given in these notes is as the type of the utmost wrath of God. sound, the border now ran in a north- It is hardly possible to suppose that there is westerly direction from Jerusalem to within !lo allusion to Tophet and its fiery sacrifices five miles of Gibeon (see also note on eh. 111 Isa. xxx. 33, in spite of the different xviii. 14). X1rJath-Jear1m, See eh. ix. 17. form of the word, to which some scholars, To the authorities mentioned there in 1.g., GeseniuB, assign an Arya.n rather than favour of Kuriet el Enab we may add CR. XV, 1-68.J THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 249