The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 355

Bible of 1526, hM very improperly omitted tribes addicted themselves to the oommercio.1 thC'se towns on the authority of the Mttsora, and maritime life for which the Phronioians &ml that many editors ha'l"e fooli•hly were so fa.moue. imitnt!'d him. They ha'l"e no doubt bron · Ver. 44.-And the Lord gave them rest, 0ruitted by the mistake of a copyist, who LXX. 1<ari1ravrr,v. The student of Scripturo passed on from the v::r,~ (four) of ,·er. 35 will not fail to reco.11 the paasnge in the tn that ol "l"er. 37, omitLing all t.lutt l1ty be- Epistle to the Hebrews (eh. iv, 8) in which twe!'n. The LXX. adds here " the city of re- reference is made to this passage, and fuf!c for the slRyer," words which may have especially to the LXX. version of it. The possibly fom1ed part of the original text, as word sig11ifies rather rest from wandering the'I" do in c,·erv other instance. Ja.h&za.h. than rest from toi I, though in eome po.ssagcs It i~ "·orthy of ~emark that this city, with (e.g. Exod. xxiii. 12 ; Dent. v. 14) it has the Heshbon and Jazcr and Mephaatb, fell into latter signification (cf. Deut. xii. 10). Round the lumds of the Moabit,es in later times, about. Or, from round about, i.e., from a sad indicntion of religions declension (sro the assaults of the surrounding nations. Isa. xv .. xn.; Jer. :d'l"iii. 21, 34). According to all that he aware (Exod. Yer. 3S. - To be a city of refuge (see xxxiii. 14). There stood not a man of all above. ,-er. 13). Ma.hanaim (see eh. xiii. 26). their ene.m1es before them. This was truP, Perhaps the unquestionable entente cordia.lc as far as the present history is concerned. between David and the sacerdotal party We read that the Ephraimites did not, or may ha'l"e determined him to fix on this as " could not," drive out their enemies, and bis refuge when fleeing from Abse.lom, in that the other tribes also failed to obtain addition to its situation beyond Jordan, and complete possession of the land. But (1) near the fords (2 Sam. X'l"ii. 22, 24). we a.re not told that this was in tlie time of , er. 42.-Tbese cities. Rather, per_he.ps, Joshua, and (2) it is intimated that this was thrse cities u·n·e (i.e., '' ha.'°e been enu• 1 their own fault. How could it be other- mera.ted," or" were given"), city by city, wise? Had the same faith been theirs and their cattle-drives surrounding them, which caused the Jordan to dry up, and the tlm., ,cas it u·it/1 all tlte.e citus. towers of Jericho to fall down at their march, which discomfited one vast con- ,er. 43.-Alld the Lord gave. The LXX. federacy at Beth-boron, and annihilated ad<ls before this passage : "And Joshua another vast confederacy, even better sup- completed the dinsion of the !a.nd in its plied with munitions of war at Lake Merom, boundaries, and the children gave a portion they could not have failed to root out the to Joshua, by the comme.ndment of the scanty remnant of their humiliated and Lord. They ga"l"e to him the city for which clishee.rtened foes. As has already been re- he asked, Thamnatb Saro.eh gave they him marked (see eh. xi. 23, note), it was from no in Mount Ephraim, and Joshua built the neglect on Joshua's pa.rt that this was not city, and dwelt in it. And Joshua took the done at once, for it had been God's own stone knives. with which he had circum- command that it should not be done, lest cised the children of Israel, which were in the country should become a desert (Dent. the way in the wilderness, and he placed vii 22). Calvin conclndes e. similar argu- them in Tamne.th Se.re.eh.'' The repetition ment with the words, " nothing but their is veTT much in the me.uner of the sacred own cowardice prevented them from en- historian, and it is possible that we have joying the blessings of God in all their here an authentic passage, which some fulness." copyist ho.s omitted in the Hebrew text. Ver, 45. - OUght of any good thing. All the land. As bas been before re- Literally, a word from all the good word. m.e.rked, the Hebrew ~::i must not be pressed This Keil regards as the " sum of all the to mean literally "all." Yet, in a sense, gracious· promises that God had made." the word is true here. The land had been But he should have added that ,:ii, beside put in their power. They had only to exert signifying, ae it does, "word," i; Talso the themselves to complete its conquest. This word for " thing " in Hebrew (see, for tbey failed to do, and not only so, but instance, Gen. xv. 1 ; xx. 10), and in- violated the conditions under which the land numerable other passages, as well as the was granted them. Th us they soon fell under the dominion of those who had been use of i:;1 II("', for "nothing." The trans- their own vassals. Ritter thinks (vol. iii. lation " thing" makes the best sense, and 187-189) that the Asherites and Danites is more agreeable to the Hebrew idiom. submitted to the inhabitants of the land in All came to pa.as. The Hebrew is singular, consequence of being allowed equal citizen the ,c/tole came, the word translated "c:unc rights with them. He draws this i.nierence to pass" in our version being a different from Judges v. 17, supposing that these one from that usually so translated. OH, XXI 1--45.] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA 303