the instHution of the city of refuge remained Soo is invari&bly the Arabah ; wide plains in full force. But we find three cities shnt in between ranges of hills or situe.ted selected on ea.eh side ol Jordan. Those on on their slopes are distinguished by the title the west were in the tribe of Napbtali on of Emek ; while narrow waterless ravines the north, of Ephro.im in the centre, and of are known by the name of Ge. We may Judah in the south. The a,me is the co.se quote here the emphatic words with with those on the other side Jordan. Thus which Canon Tristram concludes his 'Land every little detail of the ne.rre.tive, when of Israel.' "While on matters of science closely scrutinised, does but show more the inspired writers speak in the ordinary entirely how free this ne.rrative is from the language of their times (the only language reproach so hastily co.et upon it of being a which could have been understood), I can loose and inaccurate compila.tion, attempted bear testimony to the minute truth of by e. me.n who he.d not the slightest litere.ry innumerable incidental allusions in Holy Ii tness for the task he had undertaken. A Writ to the facts of natare, of climate, of corrobore.tion of this view me.y be found in geogre.phical position - corroborations of the fact that e.11 these cities were Levitica.l Scripture which, though trifling in them- cities. Tims, as the crime of homicide was selves, reach to minute details that prove looked upon nnder the Mosaic law a.s a. the writers to have lived when and where crime e.part from a.II other crimes, inasm°uch they are asserted to have lived; which attest as it was e.n offence against the life which their scrupulous accuracy in recording what was God's gift, and man, who was God's they saw and observed around them ; and image, so the offender who pleaded extenu- which, therefore, must increase our confi- ating circumstances for his offence was dence in their veracity, where we. cannot placed, until his trial could he held, under have the like means of testing it. I can the special protection of the Divine lo.w. find no discrepancies between their geo- For " the priest's lips should keep know- graphical or physical statements and the ledge, and men should seek the law at his evidence of present facts. I can find no mouth." It was the special privilege of the standpoint here for the keenest ad ,ocate tribe of Levi to possess the " key of know- against the full inspiration of the scriptural ledge." It was to them tho.t the duty of record. The Holy Land not only elucidates ascertaining the will of God by Urim and bnt beo.rs witness to the tmth of the Holy Thummim was o.ssigned (Num. xxvii. 21). Book." Ramoth 1n • Gilead. See eh. xiii. Thus a special acquaintance with the law 26, where it is called Ramoth Mizpeh; also (Dent. xxxiii. 8), and a special fitness for eh. xxi. 38. All these cities of refuge were deciding the difficult q uestious sometimes Levitical cities. It is famous as the head- arising out of it, would naturally be found quarters of Jehu"s rebellion, in which he in the elders of those cities which had been clearly had the support of the priestly party set apart as cities of refuge. In Galllee. (2 Kings ix.). The key to his subsequent Hebrew, Hag-Gali!, the circle. Here we conduct is found in this fact. His "zeal for have the masculine, as in xiii. 2; xvii. 17; the Lord," displayed so ostenta.tionsly to xxii. 10, 11, the feminine form. This is Jouadab, who we may suppose, as being of the first place in Scripture in which the the "family of the scribes," to have become word Go.Iii, or Galilee, is applied to this identified with the Levites (cf. 1 Chron. ii. 55 region. Gesenins regards it as having been with Judg. i. 16, o.nd 1 Chron. nvii. 32 -.-,.ith originally a district of twenty towns round Ezra vii.12, Jer. viii. 8), was simply a stroke Kedesh in N aphtali. Such o. region of of policy, to bind to his interest the sucer- twenty towns is mentioned in 1 Kings ix. dote.l po.rty, to whom, with the army, he owed 11 (see also Isa. viii. 23; or, ix. 1 in our his throne. Just such a policy co=endc,l version). Kedesh has already been noticed itself to the worldly wisdom of our own (see also eh. xxi. 32). Lo.ncastrio.n princes, and led to the enact- Ver. 8.-By Jericho eastward. Or, east- ment of the infamous statute de heretico ward of Jericho. This, of course, only comburendo in the fifteenth century. Jehu, refers to Bazer. The pi.a.In. The Mishor, we find, wo.s contented with the one nst or to.hie-land (see eh. iii. 16, ix. 1, and notes). sacrifice of idolaters, for whom he cared Our version, by its renderings, obscures the nothing, and gave himself _nofurth_ertrouble beautiful precision with which our historian to secure purity of worship for his people. never foils to hit off the physical geography The one great va.lne of the geographical of the country. Thus, the pie.in of Basho.n, and political details in the. book of J oshuit Gilead, and Reuben is always tho Mishor; is that when carefully studied they supply the strip of lo.nd between the mountains ns with the key to many a mystery in the and the Mediterranean is alwo.ys the She- after history of Israel, which, bnt for their phelah; the depression of the Jordun aid, we should scarcely have unra,·el!ecl. Valley and the country south of the Dead Ver. 9,-Appolllted. Or, of rejuge or THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cu. xx. 1-9.
re,sn.-1. Onr 'l'ersiou has followed the cation, reminding us of God our stronghold LXX. nnd Yulgnte here. Greek, 11na1cares; (later criticism, however, gives ctnother Hebrew, in c1Tm' or inadt'crteutly, as above. cterivation to this unusual word, which in l\latthew Henrv's note on the cities of Job xxii. 24, 25, means the ore of a precious refuge is worth~- of remark. He says, "I metal). Ramoth is height or ex1tlt1ttion, delight not in quibbling ou names, yet am and to such exaltation we are called in willm~ to take notice of these." Thus Jesus Christ. Lastly, Golan is exultaLion, liedesh, he reminds us, is ho/.y. Shechem, n shou/da, reminding us of Him upon so says Matthew Henry, deriving it from ~1~ whose shoulder the go'l'ernmeut was to be. or ~-U. But Gesenius derives it with equel Hebron is fellowship, recalling the fellow- probability from ;'T~J •' to make bare," hence ship we ha,e in Christ. Bezer is a fortifi- to lead into captivity.