The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 343

writtrn R..n occurrence pr0ci~ely sin1il&r, gregatlon. Tht1t is, until he ha,l had I\ folr saYe in its termin!ltion, was reported in the trial. It was no object of the Jewish law to rliuly journ!l!s to lut,·c taken place in that make a man a victim to passion. Untll the island. The only way in which the feud death or the high priest. The further to eould be terminated w!ls by summoning the protect the unwitting homici,le from the representah'<'es of the two families before consequences of au unjust revenge, he WM, the nnt.horities aud exacting an oath from if innocent, to return to the city of refuge, them tlrnt they would cease their strife. and to dwell there until there was reo.sonl\hle It is no smitl! cotTobomtion of the Di'l'ill(" ground to suppose that the anger of the ori,6n of the Mosaic law that we find here a relatives of the slain man shoui<l have prm·ision for mitigating the evils of this abate,l. This is clear from Num. xxxv, rude code. and for at least delh-ering the 24, 25. Why the period of the death of the accidental homicide from the penalty of this high priest should have been fixed upon is law of rct:.liation. Yet for the offence of not easy to explain. Keil thinks it is be- "ilfnl murder the penalties enjoined by the cause the death of the high priest was .Tcwish law were terribly severe. A deliberate typical ol the death of Christ, and refers .-ioln!ion of the sanctity ol human life was to Heb. ix. 14, 15. But the reference is not au offence for which no palliation could be to the point. The high priest's death we.a pleaded. No right of sanctuary was to be in no sense typical of the death of Christ. granted to him who had wantonly slain a His yearly entrance into the holy place fel!o"'-creature. "No satisfaction" was to once a year, on the Day of Atonement, was be taken for his liie (Nnm. xxxv. 31). "The so typical. It might have been supposed land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is that this yearly atonement would have been shed therein, save by the blood of him that regarded as a propitiation for all the sins shed it" ('<'er. 33). Such provisions might committed during the year. Certainly the be expected of a lawgiver who had laid fact that the high priest died the common down as the fundamental principle of death of all men, and the inauguration of hnmanit, that man was created "in the his successor to fill his place could in no image oi"O,od," after His likeness; that God way be regarded as an atonement for sin, had " breathed the breath of life " into him, There is more force in Babr's sngg~stion in 11nd man hau tbns "become a living sonl" his ' Symbolik' (ii. 52). The high priest, (Gen. i. 27 ; ii. 7). Such inward harmony on thiB view, is the head of the theocracy, is there between Moses' inspired revelations the representative of the covenant. He concerning God's purpose in creation, and concentrates in his person (so Bahr puts ii the precepts he was commanded to deli'l'er in another place-see vol. it. 13) the whole to the children ol Israel. people of Israel in their religious aspect. ,er. 4.-And when he that doth flee nnto His death, therefore, stands in a connection one of those cities. This passage is in with the life of Israel which that of no other accordance with the instructions given in man could do. "It is," says Maimonides :i\'um. x=.-., but is not a quotation from it. (' Moreb Nevochim,' 3. 40)," the death of the The passage maybe tmnslated, '' and he shall most honoured and beloved man in all flee • . . and shall stand." Shall declare Israel. His death plunges the whole com- his ea.use. Literally, shall speak. ThiB munity into such distress that private was to be done at the" gate o!the city,'' the sorrow is lost in the general affliction." place "here all leg:i.l business was transacted Thus the covenant in a way recommences (see Rnth iv. 1; 2 Se.m. xv. 2). with the . inauguration of the new high Ver. 5.-And if. Or, "and when." priest. Bahr complains that Philo has car- Deliver. Literally, came to shut up ('1vy- ried this view to an extravagant and fanci- ,;.,iuouu,, LXX.), implying the completeness ful extent. Hengsteaberg (' Geschichte des of the deliverance, from which no escape was Reiches Gottes,' vol. ii. sec. 3, p, 258) takes possible. And hated him not beforettme. the same view as ll:laimonides, that the Dann. cited in Keil's Commentary here, high priest's death was "a great calamity," rewarks on the iWiereoce between the affecting the whole nation. Jewish Jaw of sanctuary and that of the Ver. 7. -And they appointed. The Grc,cks and Romans. The former was not original, which, strange to say, the LXX. desig11cd to save the criminal from the and Vulgate, as well as our version, ha'<'e pen"lty he had deserved, but only the neglected to render, is sanctified (heitigtm, .-ictim of an accident from consequences Luther). The selection is itself a proof that far e::ceeding the offence. The Greeks and our author knew well what he was writing Homans, on the contrary, provided the real about. It is not likely that in the later criminal with a mode of escape from a pun- times of Jewish history, when the law had ishment which he had justly merited. been forgotten (2 Kings xxii. B) and its Yer. 6.-trntll he stand before the con- precepts had Jong been in abeyance, tha~ or. xx. 1-9.] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 291