The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 354

being sure to increaHe, it is not surprising to the Levites. Most of the cities in the tho.L in the courHe of time o.dclitional cities following list have been noticed already. ahould be assigned to them. And since Nob Ver. 16.-Aln with her suburbs. We is not mentioned here, we ho.ve good have "Ashan" in l Chron. vi. C'./. If the grounds !or concluding tho.t the IJook of view taken above of Ain (see note on eh. Joshua wo.s not o. compilation put together xv. 32, and eh. xix. 7) be correct, ,\shan ia after the reign of Saul. Calvin does not the true reading here. fa.ii to remo.rl1 on the prescience of God here Ver. 18.-Anathoth. The birthplace of demonstrated. He ho.d fixed upon Jeru- Jeremiah, where we find that Anathoth was salem as the plo.ce where he would " put still a priestly city (eh. i. 1). No doubt it His Ne.me." He therefore directed tho.t the was for this reason that it was chosen lot of the priests should fall within the (1 Kings ii. 26) as the place of Abiathar's limits of the tribes of Judah and Benjo.min, banishment. Here again we see to how on whose borders Jerusalem stood. Simeon close an examination the writers of the Old is also mentioned, but the territory of that Testament may be submitted without in tribe (eh. xix. 1, 9), was contained within the least degree shaking their testimony. the borders of Judah. For theirs was the Observe, too, the geographical accuracy of first lot. Not because Kohath was the first- Isaiah's mention of Gebo. and Anathoth in born, for this Gershon appears to have his description of an Assyrian invasion been, but because to Aaron and his sons through the passes at Ai or Aiath and had the priesthood been reserved. Michmash (Isa. x. 29, 30). Ver. hl.-In the hill country of Juda.h. Ver. 21.-To be a refuge for the slayer The word in the original is io, monntain, (see above ver. 13). This order is obsen-ed in every case but one, which is exploinecl in the title which is consistently applied to the the note on v~r. 36. highlands of Palestine in the Bible, while Ver. 25.-Ta.na.ch. The same as the Taa- our version translates indiscriminately by nach before mentiuned, eh. xii. 21. In "mounta.in '' and "hill" 1 Chron. vi. 70 (56 Heb. text) we have Ver. 12.-The fields. The original is Eth-aner, an obvious blunder, as the Hebrew in the singular. We are not necessarily, shows, Resh having been read for Bheth, therefore, to suppose that the laud was and Aleph having been inserted to form the mapped out into divisions analogous to our Eth of the accusative case. This reading fields. Our word " land " would more accu- existed, however, as far back as the LXX. rately represent the meaning of the original, version. Gath-rimmon. There is a blunder which refers to the arable and pasture land also here, where Gath-rimmon has crept in in the neighbourhood of the city, with the by the mistake of a cornist from the last agricultural villages or homesteads dotted verse. The true reading is preserved in about it. Keil contends that the Levites 1 Chron. vi. 70, where we findibleam (see eh. only received as .many houses within the xvii. 11), or as it is there written Bileam; city as they needed, and that the r,ist be- no doubt by mistake ; the Hebrew letters longed to Caleb. Bahr, moreover (' S;i:m- (omitting the Jod, which has droned out), bolik,' ii. 49), supposed that the Lev,tes being those that compose the familiar na.me dwelt with·the other inhabitants of the city, of Balaam the prophet. The LXX. reads and that the pastur,i land within the dis- J ebath here. tance of 2,000 paces from the city was Ver. 27.-To be a city of refuge (see reserved for them, the rest of the land above, ver. 13). Be-eshtera.ll- Thus printed belonging to the inhabitants of the tribe by the Mflsorites, and thus transi11ted by the (see note on Gezer, eh. x. 33). This seems LXX., but no doubt the same as Og's city the most probable explanation. The land Ashtaroth (see eh. xii. 4, and l Chron. vi. 71). in general was owned by the descendants of Ver. 30.-Abdon (see note on eh. xix. 28). Caleb. But the Levites had certain pns- Ver. 32.-Ga.lilee (see abo'l'e, eh. n. ,). tures reserved for them, whither they d.rorn Ver. 36.-And out of the tribe of Reuben. lheir cattle (see note on suburbs, eh. xiv. ,1). This verse and the suceee,ling have the "The special information about Hebron here Masoretic note appended that they are _not again is worthy of notice. It is c<>pied by found in the M11sora or tme tra,lit10n. the author of 1 Chron. in eh. vi. Kimchi therefore rejects them. But they Ver. 13.-Hebron with her suburbs to be are found in the LXJC and the rest of the a city of refuge for the slayer. Rather, ancient versions and they are nec~s•ary to the city of ,·efuge for the slayer, Ii ebron and make up the n~mber of fo~y-ei\:ht cities. her cattle-d,·ives (see note above on ver. 2). Dr. Kennicott, as well as Michaelis, Rosen• The translation in our version obscures the miiller, ~nd Mamer delended their genuine- meaning, which is cleal'iy that the oit!e• of ness. So does Knobel, who complains that refuge were first fixed on, and then BS&gned Rabbi Jacob Ben Chajim, in his Rabbinical 802 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [oH, XXI, 1-46,