The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 373

pe.nding, end suggesting the m&nifold ways God. To man, " spare us " would have in whioh El the mighty one displayed His been said. greatness, es the source of e.ll power, mental, Ver. 23.-Let the Lord himself require lt. moral, nnd phYsical, in heaven and in earth. 0 Or, the Lo,·d, He shall e.~act, i.r., the Then come t he name by which He had penalty. rewa led Himself to Moses, J ehonth, the Ver. 24.-From fea.r of this thlng. This Self-ex.istent One, the author of all being, translation ettnnot be correct. Had the He- He whose supreme prerogative it was to brew original intended to convey this mean- ha-cc existed from all eternity, e.nd from ii1 g, we should have had 1'TiiJ i:ni'J n~t$"1~ whose "ill nll things were de1ived. It was The literal rcndc1ing is, ·., from anxiety, impossible for nny Israelite to have devised from a word." The word here translated a more awfnl formula by which to clear "anxiety" (LXX. ,bXci6na) is applied to the tbemse!"Ces from the charge of rebellion sea, and is translcited " sorrow " in J er. xlix. against God. The same striking phrase is 23. It is translated "heaviness" in Prov. adoptc>,l by Asnph in the fifLieth Psalm, xii. 25. In Ezek. iv. 16 ; xii. 18, 19, it is whPn he desires to give especial emphasis translated "care, 11 11 carefulness," and is to the words of God which follow. Some of applied to eating food. It obviously re- the Rabbis interpret Elohim here of angels, fers to agitation or anxiety of mind, and and explain, "the God of angels." Dr. the proper translation here is, " we did Perowne, on Psa. I. i., prefers the LXX. 9,or it out of anxiety, for a cause." So Masius 9,.;,,,. Lange, on this passage, translates and Rosenmiiller, who render, the word feebly, "God, God Jehova.b," but he n~~j here by sollicitudo. abandons this in his commentary on Psa. I. Ver. 24, 25.-What have you to do with for the interpretation given above. Ewald prefers the LXX. rendering. Vaihi11ger the Lord God of Israel ? For the Lord suggests." the mighty God Jehova.b." But ha.th made Jorda.11 a border. Literally, the majority of recent commentators _pr~- IVhat to you and to Jehovah the God of fer tLe rendering given above, and it 1s Israel, since He hath 9iven a border between supported by Jewish authorities of credit us and between you, sons of Reuben and s°"" (cf. Jcr. xuii. 14 ; Neh. ix. 32). Be of Gad, even the Jordan. Thus the reason for the erection of the altar was the very Jmoweth. These words are in the strictest converse of what it had been supposed to be. Hebrew form of the present tense. It is So far from considering themselves as shut nol merely implied that " God kno~s " as_ a out from the communion of Israel by the general fact, but He is called to witn~ss m natural boundary formed by Jordan, the the most emphatic manner. " He 1s at two and a half tribes were resolved that no this moment aware that we are ~e.lting one else should ever think so. If the descend- the tmth. ·• Save ns not this day. Theae ants of the remainder of the Israelites words arc not parenthetical, e.s in our version, should ever ventnre to assert anything of but in their eagerness to clear themselves the kind, there was the altar, erected in a (another fact of vivid narration not to be conspicuous position on the west side of lost sight of, as indicating that the ~orma- Jordan, left as a perpetual memorial of the tion came originally from an eye-witness) great struggle in which Reuben, Gad, and they change the constrnction. " El ~loW?' the half tribe of Manasseh had taken pnrt, Jehovah El Elohi.m Jehovah, He 1s wit- and which had resulted in the fine.I occupa- ness and Israel shall know-if in rebellion, tion of the land of Ca.no.an. Keil and and 'if in transgression against the Lord, Delitzsch remark that there was some reason mayest Thon not save us this day-to bnild for this anxiety. The promises made to an altar to us, to turn from after tLe Lord." Abraham and his posterity related only to The whole aentence betokens the strong the land of Canaan. For their own advan- aITitation of those who uttered it-" ex vehe- tage these tribes had chosen to remain in the ~entissima ani.mi perturbatione effundunt trans-Jordanicterritoryconquered by Moses. illi potinsqua.m pronunciant" (Masius)-and It was quite possible that in futu~e ages to whatever period we may attribute the they might be . r_egarded as outs,_de the composition of the Book of Joshua, there blessings and prmleges of the Mosaic cove- cun be little donLt that be had access to nant. For the present, at least, they authentic documents, written by eye-wit- valued those blessings and privileges, and nesses of the scenes that are described. desired to have some permanent memorial Rosenmiiller discusses another interpreta- of the fact that they had a right to share tion, which regards these words as an ad- them. From fearing. It mny be worth dress to Phinehas; but while admittini:: that while to notice, as a sign of later, or at least it is a possible one, rejects it as less swtable of different authorship, that the Pentateuch to the context. Besides, it may be remarked employs a different (the feminine) form o( 1hat '· sp;ce ns " can only be 11,ddressed to the infi!litive for the fonn found here, cm. XXII, 1-84.] THE BOOK OP ,JOSHUA.