this speech of Joshua. Aud we often, iu Vulgatc. In your aldea. Rather, 011 your times of fRintheRitedncss or sloth, need to sides. 'l'be words here are very similar to be thus reminded of the moral and spiritual tho~c in Num. xxxiii. 65. Moses, however, ,ictories of t,he true Israel, under the true does but use two of the similes of which Joshua the SaYiour, over the enemies with here we have lour. He bl\B, moreover, a whom we are forbidden to me,ke a com- different word (0 1:;i~) for thorns, and the promise. Ver. 10.-0ne ma.n or you shall chase a word here translated thorns is there sub- thouea.nd. A quotation from \be song of stituted for scourges; " thorns in your Moses '(Dent. xxxii. 30). sides." Joshua crowds together bis similes •' to describe the shame, and trouble, and Yer. 11.-Take good heed t~ yourselves. oppression whicb they would bring upon This is quoted from Dent. fr. 15, word for themseh-cs by joining in the idolatry of the word. The Hebrew is, ta i·e heed e.Tceedingly Canaanites" (Keil). The Lord your God. to 11011r souls: but the meaning is either Here, as elsewhere in this and many other " a~ :on va.Jue your lives,, (Gesenius), or passages, we have in the original, Jehovah "with all your soul" (Keil). The former your God. It is important ~ remember appears preferable. A third interpretation, that the sacred wri tcr is calling the God of bowe'l'er, •· guard your souls diligently," is Israel by His own proper name, that by suggested by a comparison of Dent. i'I'. 9, 15. which He was distinguished from the gods Yer. 12.-Go back. Literully, retU?'11. of the nations round a.bout. Cleave. A word (see ver. 8) signifying Ver. 14.-And not one thing bath failed close and intimate rele.tionship. And the thereof. This is a good instance of the intimacy of the relationship is indicated, as habit of repetition eo common to Hebrew in ver. 8, by the use of the preposition :;i. writers. It is to be remembered that they llla.ke ma.rria.ges with them_ No closer or bad no italics, no stops, and, owing to the more intimate relationship is possible the.n want of copiousness in their language, B . this. Nothing, tLerefore, would be more great want generally of ~be means pos"':s:ied certain to draw the Israelites e.way from in more modem languages of empbas1zmg their e.llegie.nce to God, and to seduce tLem their words. They, therefore, bad recourse and their children into the false and corrupt to what is still a favourite rhetorical artifice, worship of the nations around them. "U nde the practice of repetition. deprecor vos qni fidelis estis, ut ite. 'l'itam Ver. 15.-All good things. Literally, alt Yestram et conversa.tionem servetis, ne in the good u:ord. That is to say, the pro- aliquo vel ipsi scandaJum patiamini vel aliis pbeciea of good bad been fulfilled. J_oshua scandalum f&ciatis ; sit in vobis summi uses this as an argument that the ev,l also l!tu<lii, summmqne cautelm, ne quis in bane will not fail to follow, if Israel provoke God s!l.llctam congrege.tionem vestram pollutus to inflict it. But the memory of these introeat" (Orig., Hom. 21 on Josbna). Go words, and of the great deeds of J ebovah, in unw them. Rather, go among them. faded quickly from their minds. And then, Spoken of the f&milia.r intercourse of friend- like the people of the earth before th~ flood, ship. It is equivalent to onr words "as- like the men of Sodom before 1t was sociate with them." destroyed, and like many other people ~ince, Yer. 13.-Snares and tra.pe. Perhaps, they turned a deaf ear to the prophecies of rather, nets and snares. The LXX., where e'l'il which faithful souls foresaw and fore- our translation be,; snare, bas n-ayir, and told. The warnings of the prophets are but for traps bas incorrectly ar.:avoaAa. The a variation upon the predictions.~! Moses in snare or pach was evidently (~os iii ~) Levit. xxvi. 14--33, Dent. XXVlll. 15-68, laid upon the earth ; but there 1s no evi- xxix. 14--28, and of J osbua, here addressed dence for Gesenius' idea that the mokesh to a generation who bad brought some of which follows, there as here, means the the predicted evil upon themselves, and stick of the trap, which when displaced in- would not see that by refusing to listen, volved the bird in the net. As the primary they would bring upon themselves yet more. signification of this latter word, which is How terribly have these predictions been akin to nrpP, a bow, seems to mean some- fulfilled ! First, the Babylonisb captivity; thing curved, it is probably .a noose or then the disorders and anarchy in a territory springe. And the word o.nd its cognates which the Jewish people inhabited, but a.re used of invc,l'l'ing, or catching, people by which they were not strong enough to rule; its use. Fiirst's Lexicon confirms this then the siege of and destruction of J e_ru- view which has been independently ar- salem under Titus with its accompanymg rived at. Scourges. The Hebrew word is horrors. Tben the dispersion of the Jews in the singular. It is translated ,jXovr, among all the na~ion•, the barba_rou~ and nails, in the LXX., e.nd ojfendiculum in the inhuman persecutions they met with Ill the CJI, XXIII, 1-16. THE BOOK OF ,JOSHUA. 837
Middle Agee from priest a.nd monarch a.like: Litere,lly, all the evil word; or thing; every the Inquisition in Bpoin, the contempt o.nd evil thing, that is, which had been foretold, hatred which continued to be felt for them Ver. 16.-Transgressed. The English is omong more enlightened notions, ae evi- the precise equivalent of the Hebrew, which denced in Ma.rlowe'e ' Jew of Me.It!\,' and signifies to "pass over," with the icleB of Bha.kcspea.re's 'Mercho.nt of Venice,' in the going beyond bounds which had previously da,ys of our own Queen Elizabeth. Only in been prescribed in the covenant hetwe,·n our own age has a brighter day begun to God and His people. Other gods. s.,o dawn on them, and three thousand yea.re of ver. 7. Here again we ha.ve the usual oppression, relieved only by the brief glories repetition for the sake of emphasis. Ye of David and his dynasty, are beginning to shall perish quickly. A verbally accurate be compensated by e. she.re in the world's quotation of Deut. xi. 17. The original is rewards and honours. All evil th1nge. even more emphatic-with haste,