juico, however? w11s. tho.t f~om which win_e danger and trouble to the settler~ ; but w11s clicitod, tirosh 1s somet11nes used trop1- ultimately they shoulrl be utterly destroyed, clllly for wi:ne (bo.. !xii. 8; Hos. i~: 11), just ns corn 1s user! for bl'C(l(l (Ln.m. 11. 12; and with them all the objects and imple- Hos, vii. H). 'fhe oil here montioned, ments of their idolo.trons worship. nnrl clsewhoro joined with dagan o.nd tirosh, Ver. 16.-And thou aha.It OOil8llDle; literally, is the pure fresh olive oil (i;;it, from ,;:,JI,. lo eat, de'l!ou:r (1'17:IN)). Unless they consumer! ahino), obto.ined by pressure from the berries them BS one'· ~~nsumes food, they would. of the olive, o.n d used for food o.s well as for be a snare to them, by tempting them to otlior purposo3 by the J ewe ( see notes on join in their idolatry. eh. viii. 8). Flocks of thy sheep. The Hebrew is very peculiar hero; the same ex- Vere. 17, 18.-If thou aha.It aa.y in thine pression occurs only in this hook (eh. xxviii. heart, The thought might rise in their 4 18 51). Literally rendered, it is the minds, How can we ever compete with ) 8tarteB (Ashto.roth) of thy sheep. Kimchi nations so much more powerful than we? so.ys it means "the females of the sheep'' But such thoughts they must repress, re- (]NJ:n rn:ipi), and this Gesenius adopts, ren- membering what God had done for them to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and resti11g dering the phrase by" ewes." Asta.rte ('Ash- assured that the same would he do to the torcth, plu. 'Ashto.roth) was the Phc:enician Canaanites. Venus, and it is supposed that the females of the flock were called Astartes or Venuses, Ver. 19.-Temptations, etc. (cf. eh. iv. 3-!; o.s propagating the flock. There is, how. vi. 22). ever another way of explaining the word as Ver. 20.-B:ornet (cf. Exod. xxiii. 28). here' used, by referring it to a root 'ashar Instances are on record of armies being (11ii.l/), signifying to be multiplied, to be rich; obliged to give way before swarms of insect; by which they were attacked (as in the whence the name given to the females as the case of Julian, who was compelled by a host multipliers of the flock, without any refer- of flies and gnats to change his route in ence to Astarte. retreating from Parthia ; Amm. Marcell., Ver. 15.-The mercy of God should be 24, 8); but it may be doubted if the state- showed to them also in preserving them ment here is to be understood literally, and from sickness, especially of a virulent and not rather figuratively, as expressive of many daugerous kind, such as they had seen in and varied evils with which the fugitive Egypt, where disease has in all ages readily Canaanites were to be visited until they assumed a malignant character (' Encyc. were extirpated (cf. Josh. x.xiv: 12, com- llrit.,' art. • Egypt'), and where especially pared with x. 22-27). cutaneous diseases of the worst kind pre- Ver. 22.-(Cf. ExocL =iii. 30.) vail (comp. eh. xxxviii. 27). Such diseases the Lol'd would rather cause to fall on their Ver. 24.-The kings also of these nations enemies. should they utterly destroy, so that their memory should perish from the earth. Vers. 16-26.-The heathen they were Vers. 25, 26.-The idols of the Canaanites· utterly to extirpate from the land which they were utterly. to destroy by. fire, l:lot God was about to give them; mighty as savin"' even the silver or gold with which these nations were, they were not to be tho ~ao-es were overlaid, lest., if that were afraid of them, for God would be with his coveted ~nd retained, it might bring them people, and would deliver these no.lions, with under the bo.n which fell on all things their kings, into their bands. Not all at connected with idolatry; as happened in the case of Achan (Josh. vii.). once, boweve1·, should the former occupants Ver. 26.-CUl'Sed thing ; a thing deuoted of the country be driven out; this should be (C".)QI, either, as in this case, to dest~uction clone by degrees, lest, the land being sud- ( comp. also 1 Kin_gs xx. !2; Z,·ch. x1 v. 11 ; denly depopulated, the wild o.nimals would l\lnl. iii. 24; [iv. 6]) or, o.s e~?_ewhere, to increase too m ucb, so o.s to be 11 source of God (Lev. xxvii. 21; Numb. xv1u. H).
HOMILETICS. Vcrs. 1-11.-A holy people's policy of self-preservation. We hav~ in this para- l(raph a glance onward to the time when Israel's march through the wilderness would be completed, and when the people to whom God h~d given the land. shonld_ be con- fronted with those who had it previously in possession. In our Homily on it let us observe- I. WE HAVE HERE POINTED OUT THE CONDITIONS UNDER WWOll ISRAEL WOULD TAKE 138 'l'HE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [en. vn. 1-20,