The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 335

which is not mentioned, l,eoanse it would victorious expedition (so Alexnnder tells us) seem to he sufficiently defined by the men- was driven Lack from the island foi-trees o! tion of Rnmah and Tyre. Between Hosah Tyre. Sennacherib, in bis vainglorious and Achzib there wouid seem to ha"<"e been boast of the cities be !ms conquered (Isa. a greater paucity of cities, and therefore xxxvi., xxxvii.), makes no mention of Tyre. the ~C'n is 1nentioned. Even Nebuchaduez,ar, though he took o.nd Y,•r. 2~.-Tlie strong city Tyre. Rather, destroyed Paire-Tyrus, appears to have the _lort(ried city. The general impression been baffled in his attempt to reduce the among commentators appears to be that island city. Shorn of much of its ancient the island city of Tyre, afterwards so glory, Tyre still remained powerful, and famous. had not as vet come into exist- only succumbed, after a resistance of seven ence. And the word here used, ·w::i~ months, to the splendid military genius of seems to be more in accordance with the Alexander the Great. But Alexander re- idea of a land fortress than of one so founded Tyre, and its position and its com- exceptiona.lly protected as au island fortress mercial reputation secured for it a large would be. This expression, like "great part of its former importance. The city Zidon" nbo"<"e. implies the comparative continued to flourish, even though Phrnnicia antiquity of the Book of Joshua. The was for a long period the battle- ground island city of Tyre, so famous in 111.ter between the Syrian and the Egyptian history, was not yet founded. The monarchies. To Christian readers, the de- city on the mainland (ea.lied Ancient Tyre scription by Eusebins of the splendid church by the historians) was '' the chief seat erected at Tyre by its Bishop Panlinns will of the population till the wars of the have an interest. He describes it as by As~:'Tie.n monarchs against Phcenicia ' far the finest in all Phcenicia, o.nd appends (Kenrick, 'Phrenicia,' p. 344). He adds, the sermon he preached on the occasion. " The situation of Palm-Tyrus was one of Even in the fourth century after Christ, St. the most fertile spots on the coast of Jerome(' Comm. ad Ezek.,' 26. 7.) wonders Phrnnicia. The plain is here about five why the prophecy concerning Tyre has miles wide; the soil is dark, and the "<"ariety never been fulfilled. " Qnod sequitur, 'nee of its productions e>:cited the wonder of the mdificaberis ultra,' videtur facere qnres- Crusaders." William of Tyre, the historian tionem qnomodo non sit redificata, qnam of the Crusades, tells us that, although the hodie cernimus nobilissimam et pnlcherri- territory was scanty in extent, '' exignitatem mam civitatem." But the present state of suam multa redimit ubertate." The position Tyre warns us not to be too hasty in pro- <>f Tyre, as a city of vast commercial im- nouncing any Seripture. prophecy to have portance and artistic skill in the time of failed. Even Sidon is not the wretched Da,id and Solomon, is clear enough from collection of huts and ruined columns which the sacred records. It appears still (2 Sam. is all that remains of the once proud city xxi,. 6, 7) to have been on the mainland, Tyre. And the outgoings thereof are at for the successors of Rameses IL, up to the the sea from the coast to Achzib. Rather, time of Sheshonk, or Shishe.k, were unwar- and the western ext,·emity is from Hebel to li.ke monarchs, and the Assyria.n power had Achzib. Hebel signifies a region or posses- not yet attained its subsequent formidable sion, as in ver. 9. Here, however, it seems dimensions. We meet-,ith Eth-baa!, or to be a proper na.me. Achzib. " A city of ItLo-baal, in later Scripture history, re, Asher, not conquered by that tribe (Jndg. markable as the murderer of tLe last of i. 31), now the village of Zib, two-and-a-half Hiram's descendants, and the father of the hours north of Akka," or Acre (Vandevelde). infamous Jezebel, from which we may Keil and Delitzsch make the journey a three c:01.iclnde that a great moral and therefore hours' one. But Manndrell, who also cor- political declension had ta.ken place since the roborates St. Jerome in the distance (nine days of Hiram. The later history of Tyre Roman miles), states that he performed the may Le inferred from the prophetic denuncia- journey hence to Acre in two hours. tions. intermingled with descriptive passages, Ver. 30.-Aphek (see eh. xiii. 4). Twenty found in Isa. xxiii. and Ezek. xxvi., xxvii.; and two cities with their villages. The Joel (iii. 8-8) and Amos (i. 9) had previously difficulty of tracing the boundary of Asher complained of the way in which the children seems to be that it was tro.ced, not by a of Israel had become the merchandise of line plainly marking out the territory, but Tyre, and had threatened the vengeance of Iese accurately, by a reference to the relntive G-od. But the minut.e and powerful de- position of its principal cities. scription in Ezek. xxvii. shows that Tyre Ver. 31.-Thls Is the inheritance of the was still great and prosperous. She was tribe of A&b.er. Asher appears to ho.ve et<ong enough to resist the attacks of suc- been . allotted a long but narrow strip of eessi ve Assyrian monucbs. Bha.lmanese1·'s territory between No.phtali and the sea. (lit, XIX, 1-61.] TltE1 BOOK OF Jo8HDA. 28}3