The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 386

will be their portion. He emphasize• !,is book at this early periocl, end that it was worcls by reminding tbom how amply God known "" the Book of the Law of ;\Joses. hi1<l fulfillecl his promise, and conclude• with It seems incredible that such a book shord,I 11 picture of the evil wbich will befo.11 them have been invented at a. time when the pre- if they rebel 11g11in•t Goel. cepts it contained were lightly regarded, ~ud Ver. 2.-All Israel By their representa- should have been represented as the proper tives, as subsequently mentioned. For their stand_ard of conduct when every one knew officers (see eh. i. 10). In the original the that 1t could never have been anythin~ of pronoun is in the singular throughout (see the kind. ~ note on eh. vi. 25). And said unto them. Ver. 7.-That ye come not among these This speech is not, as Calvin, Maurer, ancl nations (see note on ver. 4). We can h,·re others have suggested, the same as that in perceive that the Israelites, though living eh. xxiv. (see notes there). Maurer believed among these nations, held no intercourse that he was the first to entertain this idea, with them. Neither make mention of the but he has been anticipated by Calvin. It name of their gods. Cf. Psa. xvi. •1, which consists largely of quotations from Deuter- however is not a verbal quotation of this onomy. passage. The LXX. here has, Ka, ra ovoµarn Ver. 3. -Because of you. Literally, before TWv 0eWv al,TWv ob,c Ovoµaa07JuE,m Ev Uµl.v ; you. the Vulgate simply, " ne juretis in nomine Ver. 4.-Divided unto you by lot. Liter- deorum earum." The Hebrew has the signi- ally, ca11secl to f«ll, the lot being of necessity fication (1) to bring to remembrance, (2) to understood. These nations that remain. praise or celebrate. The former is the better Israel hacl therefore not driven them out. idea here, " let them not be named among '.l.'his, however, need not of necessity be im- you, as becometh saints," let them be quite puted to them as a sin. For, as we have seen, forgotten, as though they hacl never been the conquest was to be gradual. No doubt heard of; and this not with a purely theo- there wus enough to be done in consolidat- logical, but with an ethical purpose, since ing the conquests already made, in settling '' fornication a.nd all uncleanness and greedi- the tribes in their possessions, to occupy all ness" (1r>.eov,!;ia; see Ephes. v. 3) were the days of Joshua, and even possibly a the first principles of their rites (see Intro- longer period. At least we may be sure that, duction). Nor cause to ewea.r by them. as long as Joshua lived, the heathen settle- These words are found in connection with ments were kept distinct from the Israelitish what follows in Deut. :,:. 20. So "ith community, that intermarriages were not "serve'' and "bow down" (see Exod. xx. allowecl, nor rights of citizenship granted to 5; Dent. iv. 19; v. 9; viii. 19, &c.). Here any but the Gibeonites. Cut off. Joshua's again we have Joshua quoting Deuteronomy speech here exactly agrees with the state- as the book of the Law of Moses. According ments in eh. vi. 21; viii. 26; x. 28-41; xi. to the" Denteronornist" theory, the quota- 11, 14, 21. Here at least, if Joshua's speech tion is an audacious fiction, manufactured and the history were taken from two dif- by the person who was at that moment ferent sources, neither of them precisely forging the book from "hich he pretended e.ccurate, the first postulate of the destruc- to quote. tive criticism, we might have expected some Ver. 8.-But cleave unto the Lord your slight discrepancy. But Joshue. uses a word God. Or, ye shall cleave 11nto Jehornh your which implies total extermination, a feature, Goel. The phrase denotes the intiuw.te be it observed, of the campaigns of Moses union between God and the soul (see above, and J oshu11 only, and not of the later Is- and Gen. ii. 24). raelitish history. -westward. Literally, the Ver. 9.-For the Lord your God hath going down of the sun. driven out. So the Masora and the LXX. Ver. 5.-A.nd the Lord your God, he shall The Vulgate and the margin of our version expel them. - Or, Jehovah yo11r God, He translate by the future. So Luther also. shall thrust them 011t. Joshua here uses the The next verse is undeniably future. An unusual word found in Deut. vi. 19; ix. 4, appeal to their experience, which d.icl not another instance of quotation from Deuter- fail (see eh. x.xiv. 31) to be effective as long onomy. The word occurs in the sense of as the memory of these things was fresh in thrust in Num. xxxv. 20, 22. From out of their minds. So in the Prayer Book of the your sight. Rather, from before you. Church of England we find the e.ppeo.1, '· 0 Ver. 6. -Be ye therefore very courageous. God, we have heard with our ears, and our The original is stronger, Be ye e.,ceedingly fathers have declared unto us, the noble courageous (see note on eh. i. 6). That le works that thou didst in their clays, ancl in WTltten Ill the book of the law of Mosee. the old time before them." An,l the pas- A yet more distinct intimation that the sage (Psa. xliv. 1-3). from which the idea. words of Moses had been collected into a of this petition is takeu, is OJl allusion to 33(\ THE DOOK OF JOSHUA. Iun. xxm. 1-10.