The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 399

darro. but as he fearr,~ to employ temporal seek. Joshua was quoting the )\l-ophecies W<>epons lw easay<>cl to try spiritual ones in of Moses mentioned above. The two k1np th<>ir stead. Bnt even these were turned of the Amorites. Sihon and Og, 1vho were against him. The curse of God's prophet driven out, beside the tribes 011 the other was mimrulousl~- turned into a blessing. side Jordan \\·ho have just been mentioned. Y<>r. W.-But I would not. The Hebrew Ver. 13.-Labour. The word here used sl10ws tlHt( this is not simply the conditional is expressive of _the fatigue of labour, and is form of the verb. but tbnt it means J 1ri/led more equivalent to our word toil. Tho not. It Waf:. God's " determinate pu11)o~e 1 ' whole passage is suggested by Dent. vi. 10. that Israel should not be accursed. Blessed Yer. 14. - Sincerity and truth. These you still Rather, perhaps, blessed you words, rendered by the LXX. iv ,MlvTl/rt ~a1 ,·mpharical/y. Alld I delivered you out of ,,, li,~"'°""''!I, are not the precise equivalent b1B ha.nd Both here and in the narratfre of those so translated in other passages in in Numbers xxii.-ux. it is implied that the Bible, nor is St. Paul, in l Cor. v. 8, Bnlaam·s curse had power if he were per- quoting this passage. The word translated mitted by God to pronounce it. Wicked sincerity is rather to be rendered pe1fection, es be was. be we.s regarded as a prophet of or perfectness. The Hebrew word signifying the Lord. There is not the slightest shadow trutil is derived from the idea of stability, of difference between the view of Balaam as that which can stand the rude shocks of presented to us in this short paragraph and inquiry. that in which he appears to us iri the more Ver. 15.-0r the gods of the Amorites; in expanded narrative of Moses. whose land ye dwell. There is a reductio Ver.11.-A.nd ye went over Jorda.n. This ad absu,·dun, here. " Had ye served those epitome of Joshua's des.ls with his own nar- gods ye would never- have been here, nor rative just as it does with the.t of Moses. would the A.morites have been driven out The miraculous portions of the history are before yon." The reference to tho gods of passed over, or lightly touched, but there is their fathers seems to be intended to suggest not the slightest discrepancy between the the idea of an era long since lost in the past, speech and the history, and the miraculous and thrown into the background by the element is presupposed throughout the splendid deliverances and wonders which former. The men of Jericho. Literelly, the Jehovah had wrought among them. But lord.s or possessors of Jericho. The seven as for me and my house, we w1ll serve the Cane.anitish tribes that follow are not iden- Lord Or, Jehovah. Here speaks the sturdy tical with, but supplementary to, the lords old warrior, who had led them to victory in of Jericho. Fought a.ga.il1st yon. The word many a battle. He invites them, as Elijah is the same 11s that translated •· warred " in did on another ev n more memorable occa- ver. H. The people of Jericho did not fight sion, to lllake their choice between the false actively. They con.fined themselves to de- worship and the true, between the present fensiYc operations. But these, of course, and the future, between the indulgence of constitute war. their lusts and the approval of their con- ,er. 12. -The homet. Commentators science. But as for lumself, his choice is are divided as to wilether this statement is already made. No desire to stand well with to be taken litere.llyorfiguratively. The men- the children of Israel obscures the clearness tion of hornets in the prophecies in Exod. of his vision. No temptations of this lower =iii. 28. Deut. vii. 20 is not conclusive. world pervert his sense of truth. The ex- Iu the former passage the hornet seems to perience of a ljfe spent in His· service has be connected with the fear that was to be convinced him that Jehovah is the true folt at tileir advance. The latter passage God. And from that conviction he does is not conclusive on either side. The prob- not intend to swerve. In days when faith 0.bi!itv is - since we have no mention of is weak and compromise has become general, hon,ets in the hietory-that what ie meant when the sense of duty is slight or the is that kind of unreasonable and panic !ear definitions of dnty vague, it is well that which seems, to persons too far off to discern the spirit of Joshua should be displayed the assailants, to be displaJed by persons among the leaders in Israel, and that there attacked by these apparently insignificant should be those who will take their stand insects. The image is a lively and natural boldly upon the declaration, " But as for me one, and it well expre•ses the dismay which, and my house, we will serve the Lord." as we read, seized the inhabitants of the Ver. 16.-A.nd the people answered and land when their foes, formidable rather ea.id, God forbid that we should forsake the from Divine protection than from their Lord. There could be no doubt of the sin- number or warlike equipments, h_ad crossed cerity of the people at that moment. The the Jordan (see Josh. ii. 9-11; v. 1 ; vi. 1). only doubt is that afterwards expressed by '.\\'here the figure came from iii not fa.- to Joshua, whether the feeling were likely to OH. XXIV, 1-28.] THE BOOK OF JOSI!UA. 361