The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 371

scribe. m•h "nd savage by nature? And ingratitude and rlesertion of God was even the "circumspect and mild Elohist," equiV1tlent to rebellion, the term used iln- or a member of the Peitee Society itsel!, , mediately afterwards. The embassy clearly might venture to describe it gittbering which, ' assumed that the fault had been committed, though itt first it assumed a w1trlike form, and that it would be necessary to proceed enrled in mutual e.:p\anations and it perfect to extremities. Yet, deeply moved as they understanding. Of I\ wry different stitmp were, they did not refuse to listen to reason, is Bp. Hall's apostrophe, "0 noble and and rejoiced that it was not necessary to reli,-'.ious zeitlc of Israel! "\\110 would think inflict the fearful vengeance which other- t.lwsc men the sonnes of them that danoed wise would bitve been their duty. How arouncl the molten calf?" great ~ contrast is this to the ree.diness, Yer. 13.-Phineha.s the son of Elea.za.r nay, even the eagerness, whlch many own- the priest. Their messenger was well . ipg the Christian 119me have displayed to chosen. He was the representative of the destroy the body, and the soul e.lso, if that high priest, whose duty it was to caJl were possible, of their brethren in Christ, a tt<>ntion to itll infringements of the law. who have been overte.ken, or have been sup- He had proved his own fiery zeal for the posed to be overtaken, in a similar fault I pnrit~· of Israelitish faith e.nd life by his Ver. 17.-Is the Iniquity of Peor too conduct e.t a critics.! moment of his country- little for us ? How natural the illustration men's history, when Be.le.a.m's miserable in the mouth of the speaker I It was intrigues he.d • brought the lsraelit.es to the Phinehas who had e.venged the iniquity of brink of destruction (Num. xxv. 7). Such Pear, and arrested the judgment for that ac. envoy, if the tre.ns-Jordanic tribes he.d offence as it was about to fa.II. How natural inrleed disobeyed God's command, was well that the occurrence should be, as it were, qualified to bring them to it sense of their branded upon his memory with a hot iron, sin. Once age.in we find him in his proper and that the mention of it shonld spring at position. at the head of the children of once to his lips when he saw hie brethren, Israel (Judg. u. 28), and that was when as he thought, upon the verge of a similar they were once more assembled to avenge offence I Peor is, of course, a contraction the atrocious crime of the men of Gibeah. for Baal-Peor (Num. xxv. 3). This god ,er. 14.-A.nd. with him ten princes. derives his no.me probe.bly from Mount Ph.inehas represented the tribe of Levi, the Peor, or "the cloven mounts.in" (Num. high priest being too great to permit of his xxiii. 28). From which we are not cleansed fonning po.rt of such a depute.tion. The until this day. Here we have the expression actual bce.d of each tribe aooompanied him; of the feeling which was never removed that is, the head of the family, as we should until Christ co.me. It was not possible that call it. in each tribe. This seems pre- the blood of bnlls and of goats could take ferable to Keil's idea, that some tribes were away sin. No ceremonial lustrations could represented by a prince, and some by heads of "cleanse us from its guilt and power." No families. which seems inadmissible from the destruction of the prime mover of the fact that the Hebrew ste.tes that each tribe offence, though it me.y avert the wrath of was represented in the same manner, N't?' of God, can remove the moral reproach ,nr:-: r:-:•t:•.1 ,nN. What is doubtless in~ which lies upon the sinner. Not even the destruction of twenty-four thousand persons te~ded h~re i; ··to emphasize tbe weight and (Num. xxv. 9) can purify Israel from the importance of the deputation sent with taint of pollution. In the eyes of a sincere Phinehas, a weight and importance be- servant like Phinehas, the stigmarests upon fitting an embassy which might have to Israel still, nor could 11nything avail to take announce the determination to exterminate it away. Truly, the law was, indeed, "our the two and a half tribes as completely as schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ." What Jericho had been erlerminated. The men- Keil says of Calvin's explanation, that " the tion of ten princes shows that the cis- remembrance was not yet quite buried, J ordanic half tribE! of Manasseh was repre- nor the anger of God extinct," is unsatis- sented. Tribes. The word here, after factory. His own explanation, that " the " father's house," is the genealogical i"lt;;lr;l heart of Israel still delighted in their sin," not the political OJ~- The thoUBa.ILds. is even more so, since we have no evidence Or familiell (,.s in judg. ,•i. 15; 1 Sam. whatever that this was the case at the time x. 19). See however Introduction, p. xxix. of which we are speaking. We have here Ver. 16.-Trespaas. The Hebrew word again to remark that the history in Numbers eigm.fi.es LO act deceitfully or faithlessly. It is here presupposed, and an allusion to an was an act of ingratitude towards the God incident in Numbers is here placed in the who had este.bliehed them in the good land mouth of one of the chief actors in it. How i11 which they now found themselves, Such natural, if the history be a. veracious one I CH, XXII, 1-34.) THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 319